God's Will for Us

Back to School (Eating Disorder Awareness Education)

This back to school season always strikes me with concern. Eating disorders are often triggered by the college experience. Statistics show some startling realities:

“As many as 10% of college women suffer from a clinical or nearly clinical eating disorder, including 5.1% who suffer from bulimia nervosa.
Studies indicate that by their first year of college, 4.5 to 18% of women and 0.4% of men have a history of bulimia…”
(The National Institute of Mental Health, National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders)


Indeed, it was my reality. As a child and a teenager who always struggled with her weight, I determined college to be my “reinvention.” If I could just be thin, I could be a new, better person. And so, oh, so slowly, I descended into eating disorders. I discuss it in my book, “Thin Enough: My Spiritual Journey Through the Living Death of an Eating Disorder.”

It started as a diet. However, it didn’t stop there. Eventually I was engulfed in anorexia, culminating in an unhealthy low weight of eighty pounds, not to mention, weakness and dizziness just to name a couple of health issues I encountered. Furthermore, that anorexic condition eventually morphed into another dangerous disorder, bulimia; I gained one hundred plus pounds within a number of months. And, with that rapid weight gain, I experienced heart fluttering, shortness of breath and suicidal thoughts. Simply stated-I was miserable, unhealthy and out of control.

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The 3 Dimensional Word! Feasting on the Scriptures

There is no more delightful fellowship than among empty, hungry, willing believers who seek one another out for no other purpose than to eat Jesus together. This Divine privilege belongs only to the Corporate Body of Christ!

They do not talk about themselves or commiserate in self-help programs or discuss what they want to do or build in corporate self-actualization, but they simply come to give themselves together to Him and to “seek first” His corporate expression!

Their passion is to exegete Jesus (to make the Son of God known), as “Word” made flesh, and the “Word-Son” lifted from the very pages of Scripture and applied by Holy Spirit to the believer’s heart! And then to take Him to the world!

Jesus is Father’s living, ingestible Word – your nutritious Life. The Spirit will feed you the Word-Son by revealing Him to you primarily through the Scriptures but also by many other creative means, which enable you to recognize and eat Jesus in your study of the Scriptures. Come with me as we are invited by Jesus himself to the ‘mysterious’ table of God; both, individually and corporately!

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Never Give Up! (Part 2)

(see: Part 1)

15 The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it. 16But the LORD God gave him this warning: “You may freely eat any fruit in the garden 17 except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely “die” (forfeit a living/intimate relationship with God). Genesis 2:15-17, NLT

Now, although Adam and his wife were both naked, neither of them felt any shame. Genesis 2:25, NLT

Shame was born in dis-obedience. And so was mankind’s propensity to lean upon flawed understanding and call it “wisdom or knowledge”. These are the result of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! Their/our eyes were opened to what they weren’t equipped to understand or process.

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Never Give Up! (Part 1)

15The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it. 16 But the LORD God gave him this warning: “You may freely eat any fruit in the garden 17 except fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat of its fruit, you will surely “die” (forfeit a living/intimate relationship with God).” (Genesis 2:15-17, NLT)

Now, although Adam and his wife were both naked, neither of them felt any shame.(Genesis 2:25, NLT)

Shame was born in dis-obedience. And so was mankind’s propensity to lean upon flawed understanding and call it “wisdom or knowledge”. This was the result of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! Their/our eyes were opened to what they weren’t equipped to understand or process.

Mankind was awakened to deception and blinded to the trickery of illusion!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths. 7 Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. (Proverbs 3:5-7, NLT)

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Alice in Wonderland Solutions vs. Biblical Solutions

Recently, I watched the Disney animated version of the classic story, “Alice In Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll. The story has gotten many years of pop culture attention and references. The rock band, Jefferson Airplane notoriously captured the drug aspect of it in their song, “White Rabbit.”

And, as I watched the film, yes, I was struck by the “drink me” and “eat me” scenes. Alice, bored with her current existence, encounters a utopia of Wonderland, but is faced with the obstacle of a locked door.

And her “solution” was to partake of these provided substances to alter her size. She believed she could, indeed, be “just the right size” and obtain her perfect life of this magical world.

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Learning to Live From Your New Heart

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:7, 12, 13, The Message


One thing is for sure for the follower of Jesus — God gives us a new heart! The significance of this gift is immeasurable. Our heart of birth had been broken, bruised, battered, used, diseased, rejected, hardened, and corrupted. In short; it is unfixable. That’s why we are candidates for nothing less than a ‘heart transplant’. Anything else would fall woefully short. Prior to the new birth our old heart is as the Prophet Jeremiah proclaimed: “sick, desperately wicked…Who can know it?”

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Self-image: The Bagel Forehead

I don’t know if you’ve heard about this recent beauty trend: the bagel forehead. That’s right. I said the bagel forehead. Apparently, according to “National Geographic Taboo,” people in Japan are getting injected with 400 cc of saline in their foreheads to create a bagel-like shape. It looks a little alien to me, but really, what have we done to ourselves, all on the name of beauty, appearance and trends? How much of that has been freakish?

For instance, let’s take a hobbled stroll down foot binding lane, shall we? In 19th century China, young girls believed the beauty standard to be the tiny feet, inspired by the female dancers of that era. It then, like most beauty standards, became a sign of social class structure. In the name of being a “lady,” a young girl’s feet were wrapped, early on, to reshape the appearance. The goal was to even have toes fall off, all to acquire this specific look. The tiny narrow feet of the “ladies” were considered beautiful and a goal was to make a woman’s movements more feminine and dainty. Hence, the hobbling. And that, of course, made it attractive to the men, taking on oppressive, sexist tones. The men could better control their wives if they could not literally run away, right?

Ah, yes, beauty is pain, huh?

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The Importance of Salvation

In comparison with salvation, all other subjects are trivial. To waste time in the pursuit of wealth, or in the chase of sensual pleasure, while our salvation is not secure, is more than folly — it is madness. What, would you agree to dwell in the dark dungeon of despair forever and ever, for the sake of living a few years upon earth in a sumptuous house? Would you consent to endure the sting of the never-dying worm, and the torment of unquenchable fire, to all eternity, for the sake of gratifying your appetites and senses for a moment? No man would deliberately make such a determination; yet such is the language which many speak by their conduct. The world is pursued daily, at the risk of eternal damnation.

The resolution of attending to the concerns of the soul at a later time, answers no other purpose than to lull the conscience asleep. Where have we known a person, by virtue of these flattering resolutions, change his conduct? The next day is like the one that preceded it. Every succeeding year passes by, like those that went before. No convenient time for repentance and

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What dynamic transforms us into the image of Christ?

I think not! God forbid! May it never be!

    “I suggest that there is no other conclusion which can be drawn from those who teach versions of legalism? They say if you can make sin look grotesque enough, believers will stop sinning. How is that working for you? I have a Greek word for that philosophy — baloney!” (Clark Whitten)


Either we choose to rest in the dynamic of Christ’s finished work, or we will foolishly seek ways to finish it ourselves and continue in a hopeless journey of defeat after defeat! The following passages from Galatians could not be clearer as to what Our Father in Christ is offering to us!

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What is Addiction?

What is Addiction?

A state of addiction is reached when people habitually or obsessively surrender themselves to a substance or behavior. A person with an addiction uses a substance or behavior to escape from pain or reality. Yet by the nature of addiction, they only hurt themselves or others, and continue to deepen their addiction.

There is much debate over whether addiction is a disease or a compulsive habit. The body can certainly become highly dependent on various substances like drugs and alcohol. It seems hard believe that someone can validly claim to be addicted to shopping or the internet.

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