I’ll not boast in man but in what the Lord has done. The desire of my heart is for His glory.

People ask me how I lost so much weight. Most, at first, wanted to known if I was sick. When they ask I stall, unsure of what to say, then I go into how I eat right and work out. That’s all true but it’s the Lord first and foremost, I just didn’t know how to explain it. I’ve worked out most of my life to some degree or another, but in the last 15 to 20 years of my life I just kept gaining weight. But no matter how heavy I got though, in my mind’s eye or in my spirit, I looked thin just like I do now. It’s funny - all those years I worked hard to lose but gained instead, but always saw myself as I am now unless I looked into a mirror .

Then two years ago Sande said again to stop eating so much bread . It was the Lord’s time for it to happen: I had no resistance to it. In fact, I stopped eating all starchy foods and fats. I also upped my workouts to eight hours a week. You can see the results.

I asked the Lord recently why it took so long and why now . All I heard was, "In the fullness of time." I prayed about it, and He revealed to me the slow progress of my conversion to Him into the man I am today. The inexpressible joy of those first weeks after giving myself to Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. All the weight of my sin being gone . Then the process started the weeding out of my anger, selfishness, sins of thought, word, and deed.. As I worked to live for him, studying His word and reaching out to others, He delivered me from the things that held me back: Smoking when I volunteered for the Jungle Jump Off trip with the youth, at a camp that did not allow smoking, My heavy drinking. Fear of being rejected and embarrassed - that’s an ongoing one, but I’ve come a long way. The most recent one has been my weight. I used to eat a 1/4 of a ½ gallon of ice cream at one sitting. Slowly I have been giving up the things of this world for Him and His will in my life. Like a drug addict I was hooked on the taste and satisfaction of things. The desire for foods and excesses fell away and my determination grew. One of the last things to go in my quest to lose weight was my drinking of beer and wine. I didn’t see it as a problem before because I had cut back to only a glass or two of wine in the evening. This was small, but I came to see it wasn’t the size or amount but that I had to have it or I felt cheated. I came to see more and more how much things were controlling my time - TV, food, drink, fun stuff, hobbies.

Sure I heard this from Pastor John and many other teachers, but I always felt that was about other people. I didn’t see it in me. Jesus started cutting the distractions all away and replacing them with more of Him. I don’t know were God is taking me - just that it can’t be soon enough and that there’s nothing I need to take along...well, Sande can go with me.

We’ve heard many say that the Lord’s been telling them to clean their houses and lighten their loads. Exciting times are coming - I am sure of that - and I am not stuck in the mud any longer. All the glory goes to Jesus, the Lord of Glory! AMEN !

It took six months to lose the weight and it’s been two years now and it’s still off. Sande says that’s the most amazing part of all. If anything I now guard against being consumed by my workouts. I’m stronger and run faster and farther than ever before in my life. All I can advise is if you want the same, ask the Lord to show you how you look as He sees you, and to make you into that person.

My goal is to live more and more as that spirit person not as the one of flesh. I was a sickly child and my father and grandfather, who were thin and strong were my heroes, and John Wayne, too, so I always pushed myself to be fit and strong and in my middle age when it seemed very unlikely to happen God moved and did a miracle in me. He gave me the desire of my heart and made me like my grandfather and will also make me like my True Father in heaven.

Thank you, Father, in your image we are made.