Testimony from a Reader - to God Be the Glory

Dear Marie,

Your book is so great and God is using it in a mighty way in my life. Although it has been 25 years since I used/practiced/was trapped by bulemia, (I am 45 now) I have still never had freedom with food. For me, the battle of what to eat, what not to eat, how much to eat was swirling around in my head daily....all day. God started to show me several years ago how this is bondage and He intends freedom. This was no doubt blocking the freedom and also stifling fruit from mu life that could be glorifying Him.

Through this last summer (2011) this trouble with food and my self image reached an all time breaking point. I felt hopeless and frustrated - failures more and more frequent and more extreme, "success" in this area less and less frequent and less "successful". I have been using food as an emotional "security blanket" for as long as I can remember. As life goes on, I have used it more and more and can see this noose was getting tighter and tighter. I started attending and following the program of Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (FA) in September. I've learned a great deal about myself and my issues with food from these few months and even many logistical things about planning and volume, etc. about food. But, from the start several things about this approach that I could not feel settled with. I kept feeling like God was definitely with me and helping me, I continued to feel called to freedom with Him - not with a program.

So, in November I googled something like "freedom beyond Food Addiction" and up popped your book - I ordered it right away and have had it ether in hand or close by ever since. There are more words underlined than not, there are pages turned down and notes covering the back cover and blank last page and in many margins. Thank you for writing it....thank you for all the time and research you have done to share all of this. Today I'll be calling the dear woman who has been voluntarily sponsoring me in this program to let her know I feel called to face this daily, hourly, by minute with God and am not going to continue "in program".

I live in ______ . (zip code xxxxx). I wish you lived here - I would love to meet you and ask you a million questions about your life and story. It is amazing the fire God set ablaze in you to learn about Him and his word. Thank you for sharing so much. Through you, God has given me much hope and direction.

700 Club Interview up

The 700 Club has finished production on my testimony/interview, and has included the broadcast on their website (Eventually there should be a link to my book there, as well, once the text transcript is up):

Permalink to Broadcast



A few thoughts on the broadcast.

First, it's important that the viewer understand that this was a very brief, summarized paraphrase of both my testimony (see page on this blog), and the interview itself. I actually was interviewed for over an hour, and I understand the limitations of shaving it down into four minutes. However, besides a few errors in the "summarization" they made of my testimony (it was 17 years, not 10; the bulimia was at it's worst in high school not college; but these details don't really change the overall intent), I was less than thrilled with a few other things.

First, they completely left out my discussion of how I became a Christian, and eliminated all discussion of my relationship with Christ. It almost sounded as if I had been brought up in a Christian home; married a Christian right out of college; and continued (or immediately started) attending church. Nothing could be further from the truth. While they mis-pronounced my husband's name, a much more significant Name was omitted entirely -- that of Jesus Christ!! The whole POINT of a testimony is to glorify HIM, and I discussed the Person and work of Christ at length in this interview. Unfortunately, none of that made it in.

Nowhere was the Gospel presented, although we talked at length about justification and sanctification during the taping.

I specifically asked that the Healing Room Ministries (a doctrinally-aberrational group) not be used. They mentioned it anyway.

As a biblical counselor, I was extremely disappointed that my entire explanation of renewing the mind, repentance and how to overcome life-dominating sin was left out. Roughly three quarters of the piece focused on my childhood and youth, but little time was given to the answer to addiction. Also disappointing is the fact that NO MENTION was made of my book, "Redeemed from the Pit."

Well, you win some and you lose some; but I do pray that God somehow uses it anyway.