"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."~from ISAIAH 61 Bible verse for this Blog

APOLOGY to READERS who followed a SEARCH to HERE & didn't find it

On July 18, 2017, I drafted almost 3000 blog posts that I had published since 2008 when I began blogging, rather than edit each one. So if you clicked here from somewhere else and ended up with the post unavailable or error, I am sorry but this is why. It'd be too much work for me to go back and fix them. There's an explanation on 7/19/17 as I'm still learning.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

DOT ~ LUCKY and CHISPITA

I have not joined Dogs On Thursday (DOT) since I first began and wrote on Bravo, Chiminito, Toby & Chiquitita, although I have mentioned all of them throughout my posts... I never wrote specifically on Lucky or Chispita. They were also from the litter of Chiminito (Chimi) and Toby. All of them are located on my right sidebar way down near the end if you'd like to see their individual photos... but they are ALL here with me that way and really help me with God's aMazing Grace and realizing constantly grace in  each day



The reason I have not shared on them is because they were not living with me. Chispita was given away to a family here but had been living on their rooftop, so she was brought back here because they say the neighbors did not like her coming to their homes or rooftops. Personally, I wanted her back when I found out that she was left on the roof. I really don't like that, especially with small dogs and moreso with mine. Look how precious she is and loved when I gave her a bed the Christmas she came back to live with her family and me. She looks so lonely here.




Recently, my sweet friend Amanda's Secret Garden chose to read the Camera Critter posts and this made me aware that I never finished writing on my family of dogs ... oops, excuse me, Chimi never finished telling his TALES of his tail ... snips and snails and puppy dog tails ... so he told me ... he was ready ... to bark it, tell about these two, because he misses them (yeah, right). 



When we went home this past spring/summer, I left both Chispita and Lucky there in Minnesota. Trust me traveling with 6 dogs almost 3,000 miles is not easy, returning with the 4 suited me fine. Lucky had lived in MN since her first summer of life so it was only right for her to stay.


You see Lucky often, she's in the photo with my profile photo. She is one of my favorites, and she's very special the way she sits up...



"I taught her that"... Chimi woofs to me.... "No, Chimi, you didn't, she does this all on her own." I let him know.

"You know why she was named 'Lucky' don't 'cha?" Chimi inquires. "because she was so lucky to be born from me and have the colors of my dad, opposite of mine."


"No Chimi," I reply, "that's not right at all, though it does have to do with her coloring in part. The black shape on her back looks like a shamrock of luck of the Irish. That's from my grandmother."


"And also because she was able to stay in Minnesota the first summer she was born. 3 of us went home that year, Chiqui, Lucky and me... usually I would stay, or Bravo would stay and we'd take turns. But this year, you decided one of my daughters would be left behind. Since Chiqui snipped at Blake and ran after the heels of Sam, biting them... you decided to make Lucky, the lucky one..."

"Yeah, now that's a little closer to the truth. It was also because she was so well liked and got along with everyone including Tano, the other dog that was living there already. Since Tano was male, it was best to leave him a friend that he could take care of... you had your paws full."




"Ohhh, yeah, I just don't get as much attention or treats as I use to get." Chimi complains. "You played ball and threw toys with me more before these 6 showed up here."




"She's so lucky, she even got winter Christmas stuff like the sweater and my winter jacket and this silly looking hat. It's a reindeer hat. Plus she has that nice fuzzy blanket and gets to sleep on the bed. She really is spoiled, ya' know. I remember how much she cried whenever you left home so you started bringing her with you." 




"Oh, Chimi, there was a time when you did also. And you have made sure that you get to be up on my chairs, my couch and even sneak up on my bed when I'm gone and you know better."




"Oh and by the way, the 6 extra little dogs showing up here was yours and Toby's fault. But you remember we took care of that for both of you...so there should be no more surprises from you two, so you can stop fooling around, besides you're getting kinda old."


 I let Chimi think that and that he's a BIG boy ... shhh, don't let him know that he's not. 



I just wanted to remind you of this from a previous post

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.
Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.
Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.


Take naps.
Stretch before rising.
Run, romp and play daily.
Thrive on attention and let people touch you.


Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.
On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.
On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.
When you're happy, dance around and 'wag' your entire body.
Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.


Be loyal.
Never pretend to be something you're not.
If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.
When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.



Which lesson do you need to learn?
(maybe you should consider rescuing a dog from a nearby shelter to teach you)


The Animal Rescue Site
YOU CAN LEARN SO MUCH!



Thursday, August 26, 2010

END of THIS STORY

SO VERY THANKFUL

that
"I CAN BEGIN AGAIN"

with 
Larnelle Harris

(hit start and continue to read, no video to see, just a great song to hear)


Yes, as the words of this song say:

"I can begin again..."
and
I am so thankful
that
in
JESUS CHRIST
I am
BORN AGAIN
and
through
HIS HOLY SPIRIT
I can
LIVE
again

BE
FREE
and
TESTIFY

"THIS IS MY STORY"
(the personal testimony of my steps of faith)
is really not complete
because
the greatest part
has
just begun
...

So the
END of THIS STORY
is actually the
beginning
of more
yet
to
BE

of course, the real end, I believe
will be when I am at the feet of my
Precious Lord Jesus
and even then
it will be the BEST & REAL END of this story
I cannot wait until the
Author & Finisher
completes this
Never-Ending
STORY

<>

It is in these last 15 years that my life and passions have really come to be and I know that God willing, if He tarries much longer, the best is yet to be! My journey from so many MAZES and MESSES; bondage to freedom, brokenness to wholeness; failures to true success did not just happen overnight or in one conversion experience. I am still on the path to becoming more and more complete and free in Him; because it's a lifelong process. Wrong habits, unhealthy choices and hang-ups, feelings, thinking and acting take time to change and be transformed. And it all happens because of Jesus Christ & the Holy Spirit in me, step by step... these are STEPS of FAITH!



ooohhh 
And the end of this story...well, we'll all see how that turns out...

ONE DAY
AT
A
TIME
UNTIL
THAT
FINAL
DAY
OF

JUDGEMENT

It's a never ending story... I'm hopeful in that!


[THESE POSTS are in the 
REVERSE ORDER]
so the start is at the end of this list as


Still awake in the early hours, in prayer for so many on my heart over at The Lighthouse of Prayer and throughout blog land, when I was ready to shut down my laptop, this song just rose up from within me so, of course, I had to have accompaniment and I quickly rushed over to YouTube, not getting the right song and finally... well, it's posted over at a different blog:  THE POWER of YOUR LOVE!!! {when I recently tried to follow link I did not arrive there, so perhaps it's best not to follow} 

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

THIS IS MY STORY... Part VII.

STEPS of FAITH...
a LETTER from CHRIST


... a REFLECTION

(The Message) says:
...Peggy,
your very life is a letter...
that anyone should be able to read by just looking at you.
Christ Himself wrote it ...
...with God's Living Spirit...

and we publish it
right here

This next part of my life is very endearing to me. Once more I cannot share as much as I would like to about this because it involves our precious daughter. However, God used this time of a critical health situation for her, to bring us together in a bonded relationship like a real mother and daughter. His touch upon her life was a profound MIRACLE! Because of her undiagnosed situation for one year, after an emergency hospital near death situation; because her hemoglobin levels had dropped so low, followed by weekly doctor after doctor to specialists and frequent hospital visits, blood draws and infusions, much trial medicines, her body took a toil. It was at this time, an angel of the Lord in the form of a person, and a special family from our church, took us into their home to be closer to the hospital, but frankly, we needed the family support and love. I was homeschooling our daughter and this beautiful woman friend was homeschooling her two kids. This was a real growing time for both of us and seeing God in this family as well as how a family centered in God works. I truly could never say enough about how this dear saint, her husband and children encompassed us with God's love and made us family that moved me beyond gratitude and indebtedness.


After a year of healing, both our daughter and I moved on: our daughter back home for that summer to be with her brother, who she missed more than he missed her, AND I moved out on my own.(Yep you heard me right. My husband and I had agreed, had a talk, that this was best for now. Me coming home now was not good for either of us)(as of recent summer visit after 15+yrs., that is still the response).

Later in the fall, our daughter came to live with me so I could continue her schooling besides working 2-3 jobs to make ends meet. At this time, my husband, resigned to me being away and began to help me out financially to support our daughter being there. He also had retired at the end of the last school year & was now home full time but planning a trip to Mexico, where we had talked about moving to upon his retirement, so that I could begin working on a mission field I felt I had waited for since 6th grade to make real my calling in life. He knew of this and at one time had considered living part time elsewhere, but that he would travel to see which part was best so that we could go there and he would come & go from there. But all this would not happen until after both kids graduated.

It was while he was gone that our daughter hit the biggest crisis in her health due to the effects of her medicine... her back broke in 3 places and she needed to be put in a body cast, needing to have constant therapy and relearn many basic skills all over again. It was in this time, that she needed to come to rely on me, like a newborn child. So we grew closer together. A bond that deepened both of us in our FAITH. I became a constant prayer warrior. I became dependent on God. She became dependent on me believing in God and her faith like a child touched Him (and me). It was when my church family rose up once again and came together to not just help us by serving, being there but once again, another family took us in with a hospital bed & all the inconveniences of having two people live in their walk in basement. Our home had too many stairs. But when we were able to do so, we made our living room at home into our daughter's bedroom for her hospital bed. During this time, I learned all that I could about her medical needs and how to care for someone around the clock 24/7. My husband was not there, but my church family and God Almighty, the greatest Healer and Divine Great Physician came to live with us.

When my husband returned, with the news that he would never move or go back to Mexico, I told him that I had taken care of our daughter for 6 months alone without him and now it was time for me to go. So I left for a special Holy Week in Mexico... and not only was it the best price ever for a week away, but God met me right here and spoke to me, confirming that urgency, that desire to "go and teach others" about Him. I met a wonderful messenger of God, 108 year old Susana, who had a Word from the Lord she said for me... which was John 14:6 (I shared about SUSANA a long time ago on this blog). It was clearly God speaking...

This trip, just like one I had made before, with a short term mission group to Monterrey, Mexico, was too short for me... and I needed to come back and determined after my encounter with Susana that I would for an entire month to see if I could live in Mexico alone. I came home, ready to return that fall. That summer, my husband and I came to a new agreement. We would separate but remain married unless... so we drew up separation papers but they would not be filed unless... to this day they have not been filed. Yet we have definitely parted our ways.

I know that this is not God's plan for marriage, but I have stepped away, freed him and myself, by removing me from being his obstacle. Yes, I took myself out of being his problem, decreased our stress filled relationship, but left many conflicts unresolved, probably never to be resolved ...YET I believe that God is at work. Yes, I should be under my husband's headship, yes, I do know what God's Word says and Yes, some even believe until this is resolved there will be no fruit in what I do... but God is still working on me...on him and yes, even in the lives around me.

AND I BELIEVE that SALVATION is more than a prayer... and God's Spirit is at work." It is not by Power, nor by Might but by His Spirit... " and He is gentle, never forces, but beckons us to DRAW CLOSE and COME, HUMBLY, Just as we are and that message still needs to hit home and SO, I PRAY and I STAY until HE MOVES ME... and I have HOPE that as He refines me, HE is at work at home... I go home each year with an open heart and mind, ready & willing but it takes two and Jesus being in their midst, actually right in the center, as it should have been at the very beginning, if it is not God's will or God's plan, it will not be done, if it is... IT WILL BE DONE but salvation is for everyone... and it is our CHOICE because of our FREE WILL and Jesus offers this to each one of us with the same love; an eternal love; a forgiving love; a perfect love; just where we are... I have that kind of love for those that have crossed my life's journey.

...end of Part VII...
Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior and have you made Him Lord?
Do you have loved ones that you are praying for their salvation?
Have you witnessed to them,
opened the door
to Jesus
sharing
His love
for them?
I do

KEEP PRAYING then BELIEVE
and
SEE them as SAVED

RECEIVE by FAITH

THANK HIM
claiming them for God's Kingdom.

NOW LIVE LIFE like JESUS
filled by HIS SPIRIT

BE HIS WITNESS
LIVE IT
TESTIFY
KEEP IT REAL
LIVE FOR JESUS



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yydqnfYqT0E

How I would like these words to be
REFLECTED
in me
&
from me
through my life
actions
words


from one ugly duckling
to
one godly swan
reflecting
HIS LOVE
made in His image
to
be
JESUS
to
U

Can I pray with you? or for you? or for your family to know Jesus? I'd love to have the honor. Let me know right in the comments.


HERE are the other parts of "THIS IS MY STORY" (under the label testimony,too)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

THIS IS MY STORY... Part VI

STEPS of FAITH...
a LETTER from CHRIST
... a REFLECTION


2 Corinthians 3:3
(The Message) says:

...Peggy,
your very life is a letter...
that anyone should be able to read by just looking at you.
Christ Himself wrote it ...

...with God's Living Spirit...

and we publish it
right here

With these two heavy crisis my life began to unravel and spiral downward once again. Yet this time, I was surrounded with a new church family. I might not have had the support at home that I wanted to count on, but I had people who cared and were there. My pastor and his wife even came to my brother's funeral. I noticed them as I got up to do a selected reading from Kahil Gibran my brother had selected for communion time after the song "On Eagle's Wings". I did not think I had the strength, until I noticed them and immediately the heaviness lifted as I continued with my own reading from Isaiah 40:28-31. The downward spiral occurred the next day as the family was to gather at the cemetery to lay my brother's ashes to rest... and I headed out alone to go there, but never made it. I could not bring myself to go there and I tried to call "who"... I dialed my brother's phone number. For the next month, I did not go home but stayed at a motel (where I also got a job). It was a break away time that I prescribed myself to spend with God (except when I was working). Again, God provided just what I needed and time to heal. Then I returned home.

Our church was offering a training course for anyone, who wanted to be a part of a counseling team and pray with people who would call in for help. We would be trained and then a center would be opening right in our church. As I read through the variety of counseling topics that the people would be covering, I knew this was meant for me. I attended not with the motive of being a phone counselor, but with the deep need to be healed and know how to pray with others to meet their need would be the end result. Out of my weakness, God restored me and poured out over and over again during the training and then the two volunteer shifts of late night phone call counseling each week. I became co-director of our site, then began teaching other centers and staffs. I became a teacher on many of those given topics that at the beginning were the ones that I needed to make it through my depression and grief. His Holy Spirit counseled & comforted me than trained me as His vessel. I did not realize then that I was going to be needing that training again very soon in my own life again not for me but with someone very important to me. God's love, mercy, grace and full knowledge is so aMazing and awesome as it is revealed before your eyes over & over. His healing power is awesome to witness as a MIRACLE!

Having your FAITH increased, strengthened and reinforced time and time again proves how much He desires us to draw closer each day of our lives. We need to stay in touch and connected to our Power source! I remember when God confirmed that this new church was for me, now I knew why. The "talk" that evening was on 1 Corinthians 14 and I knew that I knew this was where I needed to be, where I would grow but mostly where the Holy Spirit would not only make God's Word alive for me, He would now live in me & through me because I would now be baptized with the Holy Spirit & receive His fresh anointing over me. Manifestations of His Spirit & being slain in His Spirit would now become part of my new growing experience... I could hardly wait for MORE & MORE! 

And then it happened!

I had prayed time and time again, went to every possible altar call, speaker, preacher, Holy Spirit Conference, seeking & expecting until finally, a prophetic speaker told me that I needed to be set free and break a spirit of religion over me to be filled, so I was delivered and then it happened...

God and I were able to now speak without words from me, but words from Him, a spiritual language, a heavenly language and at times signs when I was overwhelmed with tears, groanings & moanings that only He understood, He dried my tears, He restored my spirit, He refreshed all of Him within me and I knew that I was on my way to grow & bear more of the fruit of His Spirit (which we're still at work refining)... Jesus was now teaching me to disciple others for His Kingdom & He deepened my first longings to be a witness for Him and serve Him in this world. He gave me an urgency... my prayer life deepened with an earnest desire of salvation for everyone, a new boldness. A fire that was put on hold ... because a new crisis arose at home... so I really needed ALL of Him now, because this time, the crisis was not 'me', it was for this someone that God wanted to draw closer to me and HIM: our adopted daughter, now entering her teenage years...

...end of Part VI...
Part VII next Tuesday
but the parts in between now & then
may have some parts
woven
in
them


STAY TUNED




To my faithful visitors;
all of you who spend your valuable time here with me
I do appreciate you so much!

Thank you for taking your time to visit!

Love, Sweet blessings & Hugs!

DIOS TE BENDIGA
GOD BLESS YOU

always

Peggy