I was going through some pictures this morning and I came across these and thought I would share them with you as well as share with you my personal testimony. My goal here is to glorify Jesus and minister to anyone who might be facing some of the challenges I have faced in the past.
Before - 199lbs - October 2007
After - 159lbs - August 2008
Back in March I went
through the Setting Captives Free course on eating - The Lord's Table http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/lords_table/ and it has forever changed my life. The focus of the course
is to teach how to feast on Jesus and how to turn from anyone or anything in
your life that you may have placed in a position of glory other than Jesus.
Setting Captives Free offers free online courses in food addiction, gambling,
pornography, smoking, etc.
I did the course on
eating called the Lord's Table.
I went into the
course thinking I was "out of shape" and that I needed to lose some
weight....what an idiot I was :-) God quickly opened my eyes to show me that I
was falsely worshiping food instead of Jesus. I saw that when I was hungry I
would eat (naturally) when I was stressed I would eat, when I wanted to
celebrate I would eat, when I was bored I would eat, sad, lonely, and on and
on. It also showed me that food wasn't the issue where my love and affection
was placed was what was holding me back. For most of my life I have exercised
and focused on food in an effort either to stay fit, maintain weight, or to lose
weight with little or no success. Yet, since completing the Lord's Table study
this year for the first time in my life I have complete freedom in Jesus!!!! I
began the course at 199 and as of yesterday weigh 159. That's exciting in and
of itself but more important than the weight loss is how my relationship with
Jesus has grown and how I can now see other areas of my life that were similar
where I was not fully worshiping Him.
In addition to all
the personal blessings this has had a tremendous impact on my witness and
testimony! A couple of weeks ago I attended a family reunion and everyone kept
asking me how much weight I had lost and how I did it. At one point I was in
the kitchen when someone asked me, there were probably 10 or so people in the
room, when I began to answer the whole room got quiet and I got to share the
gospel and how Jesus saved me from my sins! As of this morning three of my
family members are going through this study and my prayer is that this will
begin a revival in my family. I have also been able to share my testimony with
two of my customers.
Setting Captive Free
is the name of the ministry and they have courses on purity, gambling, alcohol,
food, smoking, etc.
The online ministry
is comprised of several components as follows:
2. Daily
Accountability - each person who signs up online is assigned a mentor for the
duration of the course - the Lord's Table is a 60 day class
3. Daily
Eating Schedule - no food is off limits, ice cream, burgers, everything received
with thanksgiving is ok to eat as the focus isn't on the food but on Jesus.
There is an eating schedule for the 60 days in order to discipline the body to
turn from food and to turn to Jesus. Here is a
copy of the eating schedule with details http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/lords_table/Eating_Schedule.pdf
4. Weekly
Accountability - weekly weigh in
Blessings!