BEHOLD I WILL DO SOMETHING NEW!
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Dear friend of All the Kings Horses Ministry,
One month ago today (5/16/20) Bryson’s beloved Support Dog Dakota passed from this world into Heaven. This Dog had been my son’s faithful companion through 13 years of loneliness, illness, injuries (broken ribs, broken leg, broken teeth, broken clavicle etc. etc. etc.). Throughout the last 5 years Dakota has given hope to my son as he has battled against blindness (praise God – a battle we are currently winning). It is truly amazing how the unconditional love and acceptance of a Dog can provide such comfort. God certainly knew what He was doing when He created “Man’s Best Friend.”
Bryson was so incredibly distraught when Dakota passed. This past month my son has shed countless tears, sometimes shaking violently in my arms. He said he felt as if someone ripped his heart out, threw it on the ground and stomped on it. I doubt I could’ve articulated my own feelings as well as my impaired son. How about you? Isn’t that how your own grievous losses in this world have made you feel? Do you remember a time when you heart was ripped out? Of course you do.
This Ministry is dedicated to those who feel as if their hearts have been ripped out and stomped upon. From the founding of this Ministry in 2014, my goal has been to bring hope to those who neither see nor feel any reason for hope. Day by day during this Pandemic season, we continue to bring hope to many who have been crushed, not only by current events, but also by the events of their past circumstances. We interact with many who are so deeply wounded, they believe they will never again emerge from the desert wasteland they find themselves stuck in.
Let me tell you something that may surprise you about what we do for these dear, broken ones. All we do for these deeply wounded people is point. Yes, you heard that right. We point … but only to Jesus, the One who said:
Once Jesus draws them in, we know all will be well for them. Jesus created the world and the Universe, and rules every inch of it (Colossians 1:16-17). Jesus created us for the purpose of loving us forever. Jesus is so very compassionate, loving and beautiful. Yet we must never forget that Jesus is immensely powerful beyond our imagination. The fact that He humbly submitted to torture and death can deceive us in this regard. We need to remember that Jesus is the ultimate dread Champion who has vanquished every ruler and power (Jeremiah 20:11). When Jesus makes a promise to us, He can be fully counted upon to fulfill His Word, every time.
Have your dreams been decimated? Does all hope seem gone forever? Have you concluded there is no longer anything worth believing or trusting in, ever again? Pay attention to the following promise, which my children Janelle and Tim gave me one Father’s day decades ago on a plaque which I have affixed to Bryson’s bedroom door at every home we have lived in throughout our difficult, gut-wrenching, riches to rags journey:
‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
As a broken person who has been called to minister to other broken people, I’ve learned something about the wilderness. While there is most often nothing we can do to shorten our wilderness excursions, there is something we can do to prolong them. Sadly many of us add unnecessary months and years to our desert stay by refusing to look forward in faith, and by holding on to the broken dreams of our past with a vice grip.
The chains of despondency can be harder to break than an addiction to Crack Cocaine if we keep looking backward with our eyes fixed on all that has happened in our past. Jesus can break any chain that could ever hold us back in life, no matter how painfully we have been broken. You are not the first exception to Jesus’ ability to move you forward for your welfare, to give you a future and a hope. But your gaze must come off of your past, and all that has been done to you, and your eyes must behold Him.
Please hear me if you feel hopelessly stuck right now. Even Jesus is powerless to help you unless you turn the key into the ignition switch He has already placed into your hands. Faith is the key that turns on the immensely powerful engine of Jesus’ power on your behalf, and your faith is up to you. Jesus will never force you to believe. Consider the following if you are stuck right now.
Or ponder things of the past.
“Behold, I will do something new,
Now it will spring forth;
Will you not be aware of it?
I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,
Rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19
Have you learned that in order to access the hope Jesus is holding out to you for your future, you must decide that you will no longer “ponder,” or wallow in the events of your past? I find it no less than intriguing that the Lord promises that something new will “spring forth” for us (Is. 43:19) and then asks us a very peculiar question: “Will you not be aware of it?” How does that even make sense?
If something is “springing forth” in our lives, wouldn’t the abruptness of that new event that is “springing forth” startle us to the point of making us “aware” of it?
Jesus is indeed making a roadway for you, and He will provide rivers of refreshment to make sure you do not faint along the way. However, Jesus could be constructing an Eight Lane Freeway for you to travel on toward your Highway of Hope, and you’d miss it by a country mile unless you possess the eyes of faith.
Does this mean you need a huge amount of faith? Actually, no. All you need is a mustard seed of faith IF your faith is directed toward Jesus alone, and I mean ONLY toward Jesus. Forget all your “self-help” books. Forget what you think you see in the mirror even on your best day as you pump yourself up. You DON’T have what it takes. Jesus has what it takes. If you truly believe in Him enough to trust Him and obey Him, He will lead you forward to new dreams, and to the purpose He has devised specifically for you.
If you asked Bryson one month ago if he felt or saw any reason for hope, he’d simply have cried more tears. Consistently I asked him to believe that something good was coming, because Jesus can always be trusted to provide us with His best. When he met his new Support Dog Molly on Monday June 15th, he lit up like a light bulb. He was in love again, and an exciting new journey has begun in his life.
I don’t know the specifics of what Jesus will do for you, dear reader of this Newsletter. Perhaps the roadway He is building for you doesn’t appear to be good enough, given the losses and pain of your past. But wouldn’t you rather be walking step by step toward the future Jesus has personally devised for you, rather than to remain stuck trying to regain a past that no longer exists? Can you accept the reality that God’s ways are higher and better, and that Heaven defines success and victory far differently than this dark, temporal world defines it? I pray that each one of you finds this question to be rhetorical.
God bless you, and thank you to those who so generously reached out to defray the cost of Molly, Bryson’s knew Support Dog. Please know I am grateful for all you do to keep me moving forward here as I provide for Bryson, and as I minister to severely broken individuals in this world, including many who would never think to darken the doors of our churches.
Your brother in the battle for Christ,
Barry Milazzo
But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24
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