Paralyzed!

Our dog Bailey is 10 years old but acts like he is 2 when it comes to his energy level.  If you leave for 10 minutes and put him in the basement, when you open the door he jumps on you, licks you as if he hasn't seen you in years!  Every single time!

Until the other day.  We were gone for 3 hours and opened the door to find a s-l-o-w movin' Bailey with his head kind of down and he didn't jump on me.   My very first millisecond reaction was, "He's finally learned not to jump!"  Then, "What's wrong with you?  Did we have a power outage and your dog fence collar shocked you?"  What in the world?  He was shaking too when we talked to him and so I googled "shaking dog".  Why was I googling that?  I was in shock obviously!


I had taken off the collar to see if it was hot or his neck felt hot.  Nothing.  Then I was googling and Alysse said "Mom what is this black stuff on under his neck?"  I said it was probably dirt and then she empatically said noooo come look at this.  So, I did and rolled him over to see under his chin was the biggest tick I have ever seen or googled in my life.  We were in total disbelief and disgust!  We all started itching immediately when we saw it moving.  Yuck!  Alysse ran upstairs to get the tweezers, Gigi got a napkin and I had to do the dirty work.  To pull it out!!!! Ahhh so sick when I didn't pull hard enough the first time.  I took him over to the vet for a shot and get antibiotics for possibly Lyme disease.  He has all the symptoms of very slow, almost arthritic and wouldn't eat.  He had been doing this for several days not coming all the way up the stairs at night but I thought he was getting eyesight problems all the sudden.  The doctor said it was probably there for 3-4 days already.   So, Alysse was the hero!  She cracked the case!


Vibrant, eager and all totally gone in a matter of days from a blood sucking parasite.  I used to have a few of those parasites in my day so to speak.  Those parasites were my bad friends of sin, justified sin, habitual sin, self destructive sin and secret sin.  Literally they crept up on me and sometimes I didn't know I was even being attacked.  I didn't even notice them at first until it nestled into an unprotected area of my life that I either felt I had control over or didn't give control to the Lord.  Either way I had some things that were sucking the life of the living God out of me.  You finally realize it when you are paralyzed with your head down and sick.  God was gracious and put people in my life who shared truth to me and over time I was healed of the destruction!


What is paralyzing you?  Pray to the Lord to reveal it through His Word the Bible or ask someone who honors God to pray for you and give you wise counsel.


1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 


All for Him!


P.S. Here are some great sermons from our church series about spiritual warfare and satanic attacks.  It will help you identify some of those parasites!  Click here: http://www.hbclz.org/Blog.aspx?site_id=10048&blog_id=23347