His Boughs are Broken

Ezekiel 31:3

Behold, the Assyrian [was] a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.

yawn I sure am tired, so I don't know why I writing this now, but I haven't written for a while...

My hands hurt while I'm typing this- my hands and arms (and the back of my neck) are all scratched up (I don't think my sunburn is hurting very much right now.) After today's work I think I'm permanently thirsty :-)

I trimmed the five mulberry trees along our front hedge today. I thought it was so cool when I came in and read about the tree "with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs." Talk about thick branches, in my head I can still hear the saw going back and forth. Those things were really high, and I even found a nest in them. v6 "All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs..."

I sure liked the shadows I could hide from the sun in before I cut them down.

Ezekiel 31:12

And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land; and all the people of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him.

After I ran to throw a particularly large bunch of branches in the ditch, I slipped and fell. The corner of our old back retaining wall is still standing, and stumbling over the branches into the ditch, I saw the wall and the big solid capstones. Oh, great, this is going to hurt, I thought. Somehow I missed the wall and jumped right out fine.

After that I was moving my head back and forth as I sawed, and ran my eye into a twig sticking out. "I wonder if I'll be blind now?" I thought before I realized that it was just one eye. But my eye seems fine now. Praise the Lord!

A couple of guys across the street and a little way down came to mow the neighbor's lawn. As I worked I was singing stuff like "Call upon the name of the Lord, and you shall be saved." I saw one of the guys doing something at the truck, and suddenly felt like I should go over and preach the gospel to him. OK, I decided that's what I was going to do.

Walking across the street and down the sidewalk, I felt like an idiot. I shouldn't have, because I remember "whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed". Feeling this way upstairs earlier, I looked down and saw the book "A complete IDIOT's guide to MOSAIC" (A computer thing.) The book was complete with a picture of a complete idiot right on the front. I'm a complete idiot, I told myself.

What do I have, to tell him? Just what I know- about forgiveness of sins. The other guy was sitting at the truck when I came up and said good afternoon. The first guy was starting to mow the lawn. I said something like "My name is Isaac. Nice to meet you! Could I tell you about how the Lord Jesus forgives sins?"

The man's appearance was a bit distracting and I was thinking "This guy's not going to listen at all. He's really a sinner, the Lord must know he needs me to talk to him." You know piercings and rings hanging everywhere and everything. I shouldn't have thought that, judging him by the outward appearance and being a respecter of persons- after all, I had just read "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."

He actually seemed very nice and wanted to hear, and I said something like "It's just by calling on him! The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved."

As I got to the gospel verse. The other guy got near that part of the yard with the lawn mower and it became a little hard to hear (a coincidence?) He nodded, and I think he heard and understood, So I said good afternoon, and came back. When they drove away, I waved, and he called out "take it easy Isaac!" and I replied "You too, see you later!"

I wonder if I'll ever see him again...

Oh, by the way, preaching the gospel is not for the fainthearted- I've been assailed on with an incredible bombardment of many types of attacks from the enemy lately; pray for me. Oh, and open your mouths fellowsoldiers- "Woe be unto me if I preach not the gospel."