Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Getting Familiar With God's Word...

Blaze... my pillar of fire...

Beautiful isn't he??!!! I can't share with you in a short time all the lessons God has taught me through this horse!!! He has truly shown me the way, just like the pillar of fire showed the Israelites the way in Exodus. It amazes me the way God can use creatures like Him to touch our lives. I don't regret buying this horse for a second! Even if someone took him from me tomorrow... I would be HORRIFIED... but I would rather have had him for the little time that I have... than not at all. He has taught me to be courageous, gentle, patient and firm... and today he taught me something else...


I truly believe God is calling me to start a horse camp for abused children... this I already know. There are so many out there for emotionally and physically impaired children... and they bless those kids like crazy...but I feel abused kids are in need of the same thing. In order to start digesting the fact that I will basically be building an ark in my front yard (meaning... this all just seems impossible) God has prompted me to pray over my horse and to also read my Bible in his pasture. Well, just yesterday I sat in a chair in the pasture reading my Bible and it caught Blaze's interest. He was very cautious of those big white noisy pages and wasn't quite sure he liked them at all. As I turned the pages his eyes got bigger and bigger and his ears flattened back, CLEARLY God's word was intimidating to Blaze... that Big book... SO many pages, it seemed like way too much to take in... and so confusing... he would rather just stay away than try to understand it. Then God revealed to me how many people there are in the world that feel the same way Blaze does about His word. It seems way too intimidating or overwhelming and it's just easier to stay away... but then...

Blaze surprised me... he started to graze nervously as he inched closer and closer to my feet. Once he got close enough he picked up his head slowly, eyes still bulging he reached his neck way forward and sniffed my Bible... the wind caught one of the pages suddenly, catching and already tense Blaze off guard, this set Blaze to quickly hop backwards about 2 feet. He just stood there, with his front legs as straight as toothpicks and a little bit farther apart from each other than usual. His head was held high, as was his tail and now his eyes were SO big it looked like he was crossing them. Much to my surprise, he stretched his neck out again and cautiously sniffed the Bible. In time, He started to understand that it wouldn't hurt him and he started to slowly accept it. Eventually I stood up to pray and I left my Bible on the chair and he just COULDN'T ignore it any longer... he walked up to it and wiggling his top lip back and forth in a Mr. Ed manner, he started turning the pages... then, yes, he got comfortable enough he tried to eat the pages... that's where I stepped in...


But honestly... if the Word of God, the Bible, seems intimidating to you... just give it time... don't ignore it, and with the help of God... it will start to make more and more sense... then you will get a point just like Blaze did... where you just can't ignore it, then you will love it so much... you will want to take it all in (preferably not by literally eating it). So I hope you learned something from Blaze today. And if you already KNEW this... I hope you will be able to use this story to touch a life! God bless you as we all get more familiar each day, with God's Word!

6 comments:

Kristina said...

I am sitting here in awe at how God used your horse to say all that! thank you for sharing that. I needed to hear that and understand it in a way that only your horse could have explained!

Michelle said...

Wow, Hope, that is awesome!! Thank you so much for sharing! It is so true, too. God's Word can be intimidating, but there does come a time where even when we think it might hurt we can't leave it alone. Praise God for His Word and how it brings life to us!

Sarah and Tim said...

Great story!

angela said...

i love this story and i love that you saw what you did in it. only a heart seeking after Christ sees Him in everything! well done, hope!

Elisabeth said...

That is awesome!!! Casleb & Isabel have a very special horse!!!

Angela said...

Wow, thanks for sharing this incredible story. I love learning from horses!!!