Choosing to Change (Paperback)

Chapter One

Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Luke 2:52

The core of the First Place program is living a life of balance in all areas-mental, physical, spiritual and emotional. Balance is only possible in a life that has Jesus Christ at its center. After we become children of God, He continues to instill balance in our lives. Jesus Christ is our role model. He is the most balanced person who ever lived on this earth. I love the fact that He was as human as I am, yet without sin.

Let's look at the four areas of balance represented in the life of Christ, as illustrated in the passage of Scripture found in Luke 2:40-52:

And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.

Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."

"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Mental

When I think about Jesus having to grow mentally, I am filled with hope. Although Jesus was only 12 years old, the Temple scholars and teachers were astonished at what He had to say. Imagine what God could do with our minds if we obediently allowed Him to fill them with those things that are of true importance. In First Place, you are going to learn how to let God be the Lord of your mind, as well as your heart. You are going to learn how to fill your mind with Scripture as you listen to the Scripture memory audiocassettes/CDs in the car and while you exercise. As you recite a verse from memory each week when you get on the scale to weigh in, you will begin to form a lifelong habit that will literally change every part of your life.

You will also learn that the term "garbage in, garbage out" has great significance in the life of a Christian. For many years, I didn't realize that I was filling my mind with things that were of no eternal significance. In the early 1980s, my mom took my sister and me on a church-sponsored trip to Austria. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, for us, and I was so excited about getting to go. In the airport, our minister of music was reading a book called The Thornbirds, and he encouraged me to buy a copy to read on the trip. I purchased a copy in the airport and began to read. During the bus tours through the beautiful Austrian countryside, my mom would urge me to look at something out the window of the bus. I would look up for a minute and then go right back to the book. When The Thornbirds was made into a miniseries on television a short time later, I had to laugh. I didn't even remember the story line. And I had missed a trip to Austria to read that book!

God doesn't pry our fingers open and take away from us those things that we think are so important. He gently begins to replace those things with ones of greater significance. Through this process we begin to see that He has a better plan for our lives.

In Houston we have a lot of "dead time" in freeway traffic. In 1985, I realized the need to fill the dead time. I decided this would be a wonderful time to fill my mind with the things of God. Audiocassettes would be the perfect solution. I felt the need not only for Scripture cassettes but also for motivational cassettes; however, they were a luxury I felt I could not afford. I mentioned this need in my First Place meeting. The very next week, a lady in my class arrived with a grocery sack full of cassettes. She said, "I want you to have these. My husband and I have been to every seminar that has ever come to town. These cassettes are all by motivational speakers. I don't need them back. Listen to them and then give them to others." I followed her advice and have loaned those cassettes to many people over the years.

As you identify your own dead time and allow God to fill it with thoughts that will enable you to grow, you will find yourself changing mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. God will begin to impress upon you the importance of filling your mind with what you need in order to be used to enrich the lives of other people. This process will be gradual, but mentally you will begin to find balance in your life that you've never had before.

Today, First Place has its own Scripture memory audiocassettes and CDs to help members memorize Scripture. The memory verses for each of the eight studies are on separate CDs and are included in the inside back cover of each Bible study. As you memorize Scripture, you will notice how God will begin to change you, through knowing His Word and applying it to your life.

Physical

Jesus grew not only in wisdom but also in stature. The pictures of Jesus that I remember from my childhood showed Him to be rather frail. However, the Jesus of the Scriptures is quite a different person. We know that Jesus was a carpenter by trade. Until He began his public ministry at age 30, He earned His living as a carpenter. He had to carry large pieces of wood and stone to build structures. His trade would have required great physical strength. We also know from Scripture that Jesus walked from Sidon to Tyre, which would have been a 40-mile trip, in one day (see Matt. 15:21-29). Instead of comfortable tennis shoes, He wore handmade sandals as He walked over rough and rugged terrain. Imagine some of the disciples following along, griping all the way. I would have complained also, had I been there.

We know also that Jesus carried His cross. It must have been very heavy and Jesus must have been strong and fit. When we say that we want to be like Jesus, do we really mean that? Do we want to take the best possible care of these bodies that God has given us so that we can live as long as possible to serve Him every day? Jesus, who was not lazy in any respect, calls us to follow His example.

One of the changes that you will encounter as you begin the First Place program will be learning to eat in a different way. When I started First Place, I wondered when I could quit doing the program and start eating what I wanted. That was my mind-set with each weight-loss program I tried. That's why I was always destined to gain back the weight I lost. I never thought of it as a lifestyle change.

Like me, many of you have never considered changing your lifestyle. Only with a lifestyle change was I able to quit the constant yo-yoing back and forth. With the First Place Live-It food program, you will be able to stabilize your weight.

You are also going to be asked to start an exercise program that will last the rest of your life. Some who enter First Place can just barely walk. Well, dear Christian, if that's all you can do today, then we're asking you to just barely walk. God will bless your efforts and He'll help you. Before you know it, you'll be walking three miles a day-or whatever goal you set for yourself. If you will give what you have to God, He'll multiply it and give it back to you in a way that you would never have believed possible. So be prepared for the many physical changes that will take place in your life.

Spiritual

We know that Jesus grew not only in wisdom and in stature but also in favor with God. We know that Jesus was with God when God created the universe. He became God in flesh when He came to Earth to be born as a baby in Bethlehem. We know that He was sent here to be the Savior for our sin. During the brief time Jesus lived on Earth, why would He need to spend so much time with the Father? We are reminded throughout Scripture that Jesus got up early to pray. Apparently, Jesus felt time alone with His Father was a priority. That's why He had the confidence to say, "I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me" (John 8:28).

When I began First Place, I believed that God had given me common sense and He expected me to use it! I knew His Word and I knew what to do. I acted impulsively many times and made decisions based on my own way of thinking. God has made tremendous changes in that area of my life. He's taught me to wait on Him. Following His lead, I've been able to make decisions based on His will, not my own. But I've had to be patient. I've had to be willing to wait, because God works in His time.

I believe there are areas in which all of us have trust problems with God. He's taught me to trust Him. When I teach a Sunday School class, I've learned to go before God and wait for His guidance. I continue to read and study through the week, but I've learned to depend on Him for the final outline. He always comes through. He always does more than I could ever ask when I trust Him.

If you are strong willed like me, God has to begin to show you that His way is best. Only by waiting on Him will you receive His best. He's proved Himself to me in so many ways in these years that I never want to walk out ahead of Him. We need to allow Him to make these changes. We are not going to see them overnight. For God to make these changes, we have to make the right choices. We will have to choose to read His Word and to spend time in prayer. As we make those choices, He says that He'll manifest Himself to us-and He will. As I meet people at First Place conferences all over the country, I ask, "How much weight have you lost?" Many times I will hear a testimony such as this: "Well, I've lost 80 pounds in First Place. But that's not the most important benefit. I've had a life-changing spiritual experience." I know that will happen in your life, too. It's exciting to see what God's going to do as you begin to give Him first place in your life.

Emotional

Jesus not only grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God, but He also grew in favor with man. Just being around Jesus had a life-changing effect on people.

Jesus was walking through town and He spied Zacchaeus up in a tree. He said, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today" (Luke 19:5). Zacchaeus scampered down and took Jesus home with him. His whole life was changed that day. God wants each of us to be changed by our relationship with Jesus. He wants others to be able to see Jesus by the way we live. Witnessing through our lifestyle may require us to experience change in the way we deal with our emotions.

Jesus was balanced emotionally. He was able to express His emotions, whether anger at the money changers, sadness at the death of Lazarus or joy at the wedding feast at Cana. He always expressed His feelings appropriately. He was in control of His emotions, not controlled by them.

Many of us live totally out of our emotions. We eat because of our emotional state. Whether we're happy, sad, depressed or anxious, it's a cause to eat. We eat as a way to celebrate important occasions. Eating becomes a way to deal with our emotions. We've been told that at least 80 percent of obese men and women have suffered some form of abuse, whether physical, mental, emotional or sexual. In our First Place program, we have offered special First Place classes as an opportunity for participants to experience emotional healing. These classes last two hours, one hour for the regular First Place meeting and one hour for sharing.

God is committed to our emotional healing from the moment we accept Jesus. Those of us who suffer emotional pain must stay very close to the side of God through daily prayer and Bible study. Only by retraining our emotions are we going to find wholeness. Only through God's Word will that wholeness come to us. God promises to bless His Word. If you have suffered abuse of any kind, your only hope is found in God and in His Word. Trust Him to heal your life and make you a whole person by bringing emotional balance to your life.

As you memorize Scripture and also learn how to pray Scripture back to God, you will begin to experience emotional healing. Each of the First Place Bible studies will help you start your journey toward wholeness. We know that some of the most wonderful changes that will take place in your life are going to be the changes in the emotional area.

In March of 1991, God showed me a Scripture confirming how He sends emotional healing to His people. Isaiah 42:6,7 tells us:

I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

In June of 1992, I attended a MasterLife dinner, at which Avery Willis gave a testimony about how the Life Support courses had started: Claude King, T. W. Hunt and Avery were at a prayer retreat in the fall of 1990 when God gave them a Scripture. Avery began to quote the passage from Isaiah that talked about bringing the prisoners out of their prison and opening blind eyes. I was overcome with emotion. God had given me the same Scripture only a year before. God confirms to His people what He's going to do.

As you begin First Place, perhaps your life-as mine did-will mirror Paul's description in Romans 7:15: "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." But have hope. You can do all things in Christ Jesus.

It is my prayer that someday you will identify more with Romans 8:5,6:

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.

Continues...