by Deanna Burris | Sep 30, 2015 | Blog
I have been thinking a lot lately about my grave clothes: the ones the LORD has already removed and the ones that remain. These are the grave clothes that are removed layer by layer after Jesus called me forth, just as He did Lazarus, from the tomb of bondage and disordered eating into the bright light of His healing grace. There are other analogies about this removing process. Most of us have heard about peeling the onion. Both pictures are wonderful for giving us a visual of what happens as we surrender our pasts, our presents and our futures to the LORD for His healing. Each layer is removed to reveal another. Each layer removed takes us into deeper and deeper relationship with our Sovereign and Loving Father. I don’t know if anyone else has thought about what removing grave clothes or peeling onions have in common along with leading us into freedom? I have. They both stink. They smell. They can even lead to tears. This isn’t a bad thing. It is a needed thing for healing from our damaged emotions and our disordered eating patterns. But what I want to share today doesn’t stink. In fact it smells pretty good!
In Sunday school this week I was given a new picture about what we are doing in Hunger Within concerning the same surrender that leads to grave clothes being removed. We were asked to read a short paragraph from “Restoring Broken Things” by Scotty Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman. This paragraph talked about God’s perfect creation that became affected with the illness of sin after the fall of man in Genesis. Then it pointed to healing for those who are redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. So in looking at the story of our lives, we were asked to picture a spectacular rose bud. I love roses so this wasn’t a difficult thing to do. The next step was the difficult one. We were to decide if we see ourselves as a diseased rose bud that is now being healed or one where the petals have been torn off and thrown onto the ground. I couldn’t help at this point to think of what God has been doing in my life through Hunger Within.
At one point of my life, I was like the rose bud that was diseased and the petals were being removed, and I was the one removing them! This is great picture of my life when I was filled with discontent and striving and struggling to make things happen on my own. This was back when I thought I could control things and the more out of control my life became, the more I ran to my false comforts of food and other mind numbing substances and activities. God wanted to heal me, but instead, I was tearing myself apart like the diseased rose bud with its petals being torn off and thrown to the ground.
Now in my heart that is surrendered to the Lord, I can see myself as the once diseased rose bud that is being healed. I can picture my dried out bud being renewed and refreshed 
with daily living water through Jesus and the Word of God. I can picture the Holy Spirit breathing life giving oxygen to my healing rose bud. I can feel the life that was once discontented and un-surrendered being given new and abundant life through the healing work being done by my Loving Father.
Here is the exciting part! This healing process isn’t just about what we are letting go, but also about what we are gaining. Just as each grave cloth removed represents letting go of a part of my damaged emotions, feelings and behaviors, I can see what is represented by picturing that rose bud that is healing and is blooming into new life. Many of us know what our grave clothes are, and if you don’t, I suggest reading and working through the book Hunger Within. But, what about the rose bud and its petals? I see each petal opening as a gift that God is giving me as my grave clothes are being removed. These gifts are evidence of a heart that is changed. What do these petals represent in my life? I have the peace that passes all understanding. I have joy that is unspeakable. I experience contentment and abundant life no matter what the circumstances or trials I face. I believe without a doubt in the healing power of the Holy Spirit working in my life. I am no longer self-focused, but God focused. I no longer obsess about my weight, what I eat or don’t eat, or if I should go on or off of a diet. When I feel frustrations come up (after all we won’t be perfect till we go home to be with the Lord!) I write them out in my Truth Journal, work through them in the Word, and then release them to God in prayer.
Years ago I thought I wanted this healing, but for whatever reasons or excuses, I never really surrendered. I still wanted to sing as Frank Sinatra did, “I did it my way!!” Dear friends, doing it our way never works. Doing it our way equates to what is said in Colossians 2:8: “Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.” Surrendering on the other hand is lived out in Colossians 2:6-7 which states, “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
What about you? What type of rose bud do you see as yourself? Will you surrender to being rooted in Him and will you join with me in praying Ephesians 3:16-19 for us all? “I pray that He may grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His 
Spirit in the inner man, and that the Messiah may dwell in our hearts through faith. I pray that we, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so we may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
by Deanna Burris | May 22, 2015 | Blog
I have been up and down the same 60 pounds for years. I can’t say that I ever believed that I would find a way to eat the foods I like without gaining weight, and I have never really believed that I would find a way to lose weight and keep it off for any period of time. This lack of belief comes from my history. I have belonged to the “popular” weight loss club more times than I can count. I have done high protein low carb, low fat high carb, 5 day juice fasts, and 5 day miracle plans. I have been an exercise bulimic and have followed a Biblical plan that just led me to more legalism and condemnation.
I woke up one day and found myself back at the weight I had set as my “I will not go above this weight” weight. Once I hit this high mark, and of course because I felt so uncomfortable at this weight, I always stopped myself from gaining more weight by going on yet another diet. Dieting always worked to take off the weight, but I lost weight in the past to get small enough to go back to eating the way I always had. Sadly, because I didn’t have a change of heart, the weight would come back on and the vicious cycle would start all over again. But, this time, I couldn’t stand the thought of another diet. My heart could not take it again! I had been dieting on and off since I was 9 years old!! I said, “No more!! God surely has something else for me.” I did a search on Pinterest for Biblical Weight Loss. I have tried programs like this in the past, but didn’t have any lasting weight loss. But, I was desperate for something new that I hadn’t done before. That search led me to a Facebook group doing a study of Taste for Truth by Barb Raveling. I had high hopes!! I journaled, learned to renew my mind and scripture prayed, but I didn’t have any luck setting boundaries around my food that gave me any freedom and I did not let go of any weight. Because of all the dieting had done, I still wanted rules. I couldn’t get any boundaries set that weren’t legalistic.
As our time through this study was coming to an end, a gal in that group shared that she had joined a Hunger Within Facebook group. She helped me to get into the group by sharing who I needed to friend. The group had just started, and I was in.
I was introduced to the boundaries of 0 to 5 and my life has changed forever!! I was introduced to other gals that were experiencing victory and so I prayed that I would never go back to the way I was before!! My eyes were opened to a way of eating that allowed me the freedom of choice I was looking for. There are no longer any good or bad foods for me. I can eat what I am craving, within my boundaries, and with thanksgiving. I eat within 0 to 5 most of the time. When I eat beyond 5, or when I eat when I am not at 0, I no longer condemn myself. I have found the freedom to not beat myself up as I did in the past while dieting and then cheating. I repent, and then wait till the next time to eat. God heard my cry for help and saw that I was finally ready to surrender my food, my weight and all of my life to Him. I believe He led me to Hunger Within and He is leading me in every step of this journey. He helped me find boundaries around food that I can follow for the rest of my life. He has filled my heart with so much gratitude!! He has healed me from being constantly obsessed about my weight and food. I don’t think about what I should weigh, how much I should or shouldn’t eat, what types of food I should eat and what types I should never eat. I eat what I want within 0 to 5 with God’s grace and strength. I look at what He has done in my life as a miracle.
I have released enough pounds of pain to be down one size. Don’t ask me how much weight I have released in pounds, because God has also given me the peace to not need to know what I weigh, but to grasp my progress by how my clothes fit.
Other blessings of being a part of this Facebook class are that I have been given the opportunity to write blog posts about my struggles and victories and have had the fabulous joy of being on the class webinars. God gave me a heart a long time ago that wants to teach women what joy and peace is found in Christ Jesus and that no matter the circumstances, we as daughters of the King, can have abundant life through surrendering to His leading and direction. I am so grateful for being a part of this class and the ability to share my heart and my journey.
Along with the miracle of being down a size and heading down another, God has also worked in my heart and mind to release most of the frustration and anger I have been carrying around for the past several years. When I quit stuffing these feelings down with food, I was finally open to hearing His voice. He and I worked to get at the bottom of the reasons of those negative feelings, and He led me to healing in these areas of my heart and life. He even gave me the strength to apologize to my family members for the anger I felt and for being critical. God helped me see my part of our issues using the tools I have learned in Hunger Within. If I was still overeating and binging, this miracle would never have happened. If I was still obsessing about what I weigh, how to lose weight, what to eat, if I should eat, my heart would never have been open to God’s voice and I would not be living the life of victory that I am right now. With God’s leading and strength, I am committed to the Hunger Within boundaries of 0 to 5. I have finally found how to drop weight and keep it off without ever having to diet again!!
How about you? What is the one big thing that is keeping you from joining me on this journey of miracles and freedom? Are you ready to surrender and believe that God can and will change your heart?
by Cathie Rosemann | Feb 4, 2015 | Blog
One of my favorite facets of Thin Within is its ability to integrate the practical application of God’s word with the spiritual component of His truth. In other words, the foundation of this program is balanced. Throughout the pages of Thin Within are countless opportunities to learn and grow spiritually coupled with the reality that we have a responsibility to do our part of the program for it to have its complete work in us. God can be nothing but faithful to us. He will lead us in all truth. He will change us from the inside out as we let him renew our minds with truth.
For many of us, however, we’re spiritually growing leaps and bounds through this program, and yet our weight still remains an issue. Tell me I’m not the only one!
In a blog post that Heidi Bylsma posted in January of 2007 she said the following: “In my case, when I don’t release weight, first I have to ask the Lord, honestly, if I am submitting to his will. This goes beyond this notion of 0-5 eating for me. I can *fake* 0-5 eating pretty well. You know what I mean? I can rationalize things…I have found that a subtle “dieting mentality” comes in and “helps” me with this…it will casually do an estimation of calories and whatever and say “See? I have ‘suffered’ and so I should release weight.” But the reality God is trying to bring home to me is, the Lord wants me to love HIM more than I love food. No, it doesn’t mean He doesn’t find joy in my enjoying food, but delighting in food more than Him…well, that is a problem. He has laid on my heart that He has given me parameters within which eating food is to be enjoyed. It is like sexual intimacy…there are certain parameters. Within those parameters, it gives God joy for me to enjoy intimacy, which He created. I believe He delights in my enjoyment of food within godly parameters as well. Outside of the parameters of marriage, “sex” is indulging my fleshly lusts and is sin…Outside the parameters of my body calling for food, eating is indulging a fleshly lust and is sin. Or that is how He has broken it down for me. I need it made really simple! LOL! It helps me to ask WHY am I eating right now? Am I eating because I am hungry and my body needs nourishment? Am I eating because I simply want to enjoy the taste (which is so fleeting!)? God has laid it on my heart to enjoy the taste of food (YES!), but only when my body needs nourishment. How perfect is that? I can oooh and aaah about the incredible flavor of cheese enchiladas all I want when I am hungry! YIPPEEE! I get hungry pretty routinely! There will be loads of opportunities in my life to enjoy enchiladas with a totally pure conscience, eating them because my body needs sustenance! Why do I want to mess with that? When I don’t release weight, I have to honestly evaluate if I have been truly loving eating beyond the parameters God has for me. Am I living like my body is my own to do with as I please?”
This is the very issue many are dealing with, we still want what we want, when we want it, and thinking we can have it both ways, fail to realize that when we let our flesh (our old carnal man) have the final say, we hinder the mighty work God is wanting to accomplish in us. This is a sobering realization when it comes right down to it. Why, when God has gone to such great lengths to extend a covenant relationship to me would I want to violate that by not living today like I belong to God? I’m praying for you and me today that we’ll “just say no” when our old carnal man rears his ugly head and tells us to do as we please. I pray we remember just what God has provided for us each time we let him have the final say.
What about you? Are you walking in your new life or your old life today? Are you letting your old carnal man rule your food-related choices? Let’s choose to “live today like we belong to God,” remembering what happens when He has the final say in our choices.
by Cathie Rosemann | Jan 28, 2015 | Blog
Romans 6:1-6 – Sin’s Power Is Broken – “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.”
Hallelujah and amen!
What a wonderful truth to renew our minds with. We are no longer slaves to sin, regardless of how we behave! The truth is that for those of us who have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior we have entered into a new covenant (a solemn and binding agreement). In other words, we are now wearing the robe of Christ Jesus so we need to act like Him. I read just this morning to “Live today like you belong to God.” Isn’t that beautiful? This reminds us that we can choose to live our new life today instead of walking as a slave to our sin (our old life).
And, even better, we will never be alone. He will walk today out right beside us. In Barb Raveling’s book, I Deserve a Donut, she echoes this truth when she says, “Transformation is messy. It feels like too much work, too much time – and too much failure. We’re bombarded by ‘I’ll never change, anyway, so why bother?’ sorts of thoughts. We want to give up. That’s why we so desperately need to go to God for help – because we can’t do it by ourselves.”
I’ll admit that I continue to work through succumbing to the lies that make me want to eat. But slowly and surely I am learning what it means to “put on” or “lay aside” my old ways and “put on” the armor of light. Romans 13:11-14 – “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”
“Thin Within is not about doing everything right or perfect but about having a teachable heart – one that is yielded to God and seeks to follow his ways. In this journey, we will trip and fall, get back up, and press forward once again – a process that will repeat itself over and over while we are learning and being guided by the Spirit rather than rules.” We are shifting our focus from expecting ourselves to “fix” a problem to trusting the Spirit to show us God’s way of living. Every time our mind and heart are attentive to the Spirit, we are making progress. When we focus on God, refresh ourselves in his Word, and surrender to the Spirit’s leading, we will be better equipped to resist temptation and move forward, one small step at a time.” (Hunger Within, pp. 92-93)
So today let’s put off the old and put on the new! Let’s rejoice in knowing we are in covenant relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who longs to walk beside us in our Thin Within journey.
What about you? Are you walking in your new life or your old life today? Are you expecting perfection? More importantly, is your heart teachable and one that is yielded to God and seeks to follows his ways? Let’s choose to “live today like we belong to God.”
by Cathie Rosemann | Jan 7, 2015 | Blog
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:16-18)
Perhaps my awareness is heightened this year because I’m getting older and my pursuit of freedom is more intense. However, it seems the media is inundating us with messages to lose weight, get fit, etc. While this is always the case come January first, we must be militant in our resolve to let this be the year we get uncomfortable with slavery to any other master than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. For us, this is a spiritual battle and thus is fought with spiritual weapons.
At the same time, the practical must be addressed since we live in the world. And so let’s revisit the physiological component of Thin Within.
It is wonderful to want to feel better. God wants us to feel our best. He longs for us to experience the abundant life to which we are called. Submit your desire to feel more joy, more up, more energy to Him, and wait for His answer. His solutions will not have negative consequences and will not cause any ill effects.
Some obvious suggestions are: Spend time in His Word and in prayer; be willing to face the truth; get adequate rest; consider increasing your activity level; and, continue to carefully consider the food choices you make. Let’s remember, He supplies everything we need for life and godliness. We also have a responsibility to treat our bodies with great respect.
As I read the scripture above earlier this morning I was reminded of the inner work that God is after in each one of us. That work, if submitted to the Lord will produce eternal dividends and not temporary success. One of my current struggles is that I’m only hungry for one meal a day. Otherwise, just a little snack will sustain me for hours. This can be frustrating because I eat lunch with a co-worker every day and sit down to dinner with my husband every night. And so this feels like an “affliction” (to my flesh) though I know it’s a blessing indeed (to my spirit). Because each and every time I surrender the temptation to eat when not hungry I collaborate with the Lord and that work He is doing comes a step closer to completion. When I stop to consider this I realize I’m in the process of walking in my new nature. My old nature ate what I wanted, when I wanted, with little regard for respect or dignity. My new nature eats when He says I’m a 0, and takes into account my schedule and other commitments including family meal time. Therefore, I recognize that if I eat to a 5 at lunchtime I won’t be hungry at dinner. The choice is mine, and I choose to surrender to the inner work the Lord is after in me.
What about you? Are you looking for success this year or an eternal work of the Lord? Can you see how important the practical process is or do you look only to the spiritual? Let’s remember that the Lord longs for us to experience the joy and abundance that comes with living free from any dependencies other than on Him alone.
At one point of my life, I was like the rose bud that was diseased and the petals were being removed, and I was the one removing them! This is great picture of my life when I was filled with discontent and striving and struggling to make things happen on my own. This was back when I thought I could control things and the more out of control my life became, the more I ran to my false comforts of food and other mind numbing substances and activities. God wanted to heal me, but instead, I was tearing myself apart like the diseased rose bud with its petals being torn off and thrown to the ground.
with daily living water through Jesus and the Word of God. I can picture the Holy Spirit breathing life giving oxygen to my healing rose bud. I can feel the life that was once discontented and un-surrendered being given new and abundant life through the healing work being done by my Loving Father.
Spirit in the inner man, and that the Messiah may dwell in our hearts through faith. I pray that we, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so we may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
