Appropiating the Lord — Ken Baird

And you forced me to think of you some time back when Bill wrote me, and my heart was turned toward Omaha, and I'm here to pay a little on my debt to you. Tonight I'd like to talk about a subject that I have enjoyed talking about, and I haven't worn my enthusiasm out for it, and the subject is our appropriation of the Lord.

Appropriating and Enjoying the Lord

Now if any of the smaller people here tonight don't know what that word means, our appropriation of the Lord, it means our claiming of the Lord, our taking the Lord, our enjoyment of the Lord. Of course, the most common use of the word appropriation today is in connection with Congress, who sets aside a certain amount of money for this charge or for that service.

Now we may appropriate the Lord, and we may claim Him, and He wants us to do so. He wants us to enjoy the Lord. We ought to be enjoying the Lord. Now before we get into our subject tonight, I'd like to say something about what's on my heart for tomorrow night and the night following.

In the will of the Lord, I'd like to speak tomorrow night on the New Tongues Movement. It's a big movement. I recently ministered in assemblies, one particular assembly, and I've heard of more assemblies where they have lost people from that assembly because of this movement.

You're going to face it. You're going to be faced with this thing sooner or later. It has not penetrated to the Middle West, I don't believe, to the extent that it has on the West Coast and up toward Canada and in the southwestern United States of America.

But sooner or later, it's bound to reach you. We need to be fortified with some truths from the scripture in regard to it, because these people that are taking up with this new movement this time are not the New Roddicks, are not the Pentecostals, are not the second-grade Christian denominations as some would refer to them.

It's really the intellectuals this time. The old-line denomination, by that I mean the Episcopalians and the Lutherans, one Lutheran synod in the state of Montana, every pastor in that state, with one exception, has received the baptism of the Spirit and is speaking in tongues.

This seems impossible, but the arrogancy of Satan himself, I think, is the explanation for all of this. Now, I think the thing to do is to be forewarned, and thus be forearmed against such a thing as this.

Tomorrow night, I want to talk about it. I don't like to talk about it. I'd much rather engage in enjoyment of the Lord, which I trust that by His good hand we shall enjoy Him tonight, but it's something that needs to be dealt with.

And then Thursday night, in the will of the Lord, I want to talk about our antidote against the tongues movement. The tongues movement has moved into a void in Christian circles, and there is a void. If there were no void, it wouldn't have moved in.

But there is a void, and I think there is an antidote to the tongues movement, and we want to talk, in the will of the Lord, on Thursday night about that antidote. Now, tonight, in the appropriation of the Lord, the cleaning of the Lord for our lives, you know, the Lord enjoys His people, and He wants His people to enjoy Him.

Rejoicing in the Lord Despite Sorrow

And I think the highest function of our souls is to enjoy the Lord. We ought to be a happy people. I know there is much in this world to make us sad. I know there are the ravages of old age which are brought before us, and we rather feel them at times in small twinges, tinges, if you know what I mean.

Perhaps you don't. If some of you young people don't, why wait a while? But we are living in a world where there is sadness. But you know, we can sing, too. It seems to me that James, in his epistle, takes care of this.

One time I was reading in the epistle of James, I'm just going to refer you to that in the last chapter of the fifth chapter. This is rather humorous, but it spoke to my heart. James 5 .13, Is any among you afflicted?

Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. I remember one day I felt very lighthearted, and I reproached myself, and I said, you shouldn't be feeling lighthearted, not with all the sorrow and the sin that's in this world today.

But you know, I couldn't find a thing to worry about on this particular occasion. And this verse came to me, you know, with a good deal of refreshment. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. So I sang. And you know, there are times when the merriment goes, well, then we can pray.

But thank God, down here in this earthly journey, there are times when God does give us real periods of enjoyment, periods of relaxation, and I think possibly it gives real meaning to those wonderful words of Paul in the Philippian epistle, Rejoice in the Lord.

And again I say rejoice, and certainly we can rejoice in the Lord. There are many things in this world which we cannot rejoice in, but there we can rejoice. Now, the Lord takes pleasure in his people, and he enjoys his people, and he wants us to enjoy him.

And I think the highest function of our souls is to enjoy the Lord. We ought to be enjoying him. We ought to be a happy people. Our hearts should be filled with our Lord. Now, I know there are many distractions in this day and age, especially about this time of year and up to perhaps and through the 15th of April.

I know that there are things that keep our minds occupied and keep us earthbound, and in spite of ourselves, as a matter of fact, sometimes I'm wondering who we're working for. I wonder sometimes if I'm working for the Lord, not that, of course, I have to use an adding machine or anything like that, but I do know this.

There are many things to distract us, many things that make us earthbound, but, you know, I think sometimes we can rise up on equal wings in our enjoyment of the Lord. And the Lord wants us to appropriate him.

He wants us to enjoy him. He enjoys us. Now, it doesn't seem that the Lord would find enjoyment in his people. So let's just look at a few scriptures, Proverbs chapter 8. You wouldn't think that the Lord would find anything in which he could rejoice in us, but he does.

Strangely enough, Proverbs chapter 8, verse 23, this is spoken of wisdom, but it's wisdom personified by our Lord Jesus. In the 8th chapter of Proverbs, and in verse 23 or 22, the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old.

I was set up from everlasting from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no foundations, fountains rather, abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before they found a foundation, before the hills was brought forth, while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the earth.

When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass upon the face of the depths, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass his commandment, when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him as one brought up with him.

And I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth. And my delights were with the sons of men. And our Lord Jesus came down into this earth, and he moved as a man among men.

And there were some that gave to the Lord that which his great heart desired. I'm thinking of John the Apostle. I'm thinking of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, who gave to the Lord that which his heart craved.

Oh, how much they did for our Lord Jesus Christ. And how much you and I can do for that great heart of love of his, if we only realized it. His delights were with the sons of men. Right back in the book of Psalms, the last of the Psalms, Psalm 149, verse 4 of Psalm 149.

The Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Verse 2 we read,. And let Israel rejoice in him that made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. And there's a reason why Israel should rejoice in him that made him.

Why? Because the Lord taketh pleasure in his people, and he is beautifying his people with salvation. And the Lord is pleased with his people. So now, I think probably one of the greatest verses of appropriation in the Bible is Psalm 23 .1, when David says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

That is a verse of appropriation. The Lord doesn't, or David doesn't say simply, the Lord is a shepherd, but that would have been true. The Lord is indeed a shepherd, a wonderful shepherd, a shepherd in the truest sense of the word.

And the fact that the Lord is a shepherd, of course, makes you and me the sheep. And the Scriptures tell us that we are the sheep, for all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.

And certainly we are the sheep. David didn't say the Lord is a shepherd, he said the Lord is my shepherd. David could have said the Lord is the shepherd, because the Lord himself said, I am the good shepherd.

The definite article, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But David goes farther than that. He says the Lord is my shepherd. That was appropriation. He claimed the Lord. You know, there are lots of people in the world today, they think of Christ as being a Savior, and they may even go so far as to think of him as being the Savior.

But do they talk about him as being my Savior? Have I appropriated him? I think probably the first appropriation that you and I made of the Lord was when God saved us, and indeed we must appropriate the Lord in order to be saved.

Christ as the Bread of Life

The Lord himself tells us that. Shall we turn to John chapter 6, that wonderful chapter on the bread of life? In John 6 and 48 we read, the words of the Lord, I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.

These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Now this was particularly poor taste, as far as the Jews were concerned, about the Lord mentioning the fact that we must drink his blood, because in Jewish law they were absolutely strictly forbidden to eat blood.

And on this occasion, the Lord speaks about drinking his blood and eating his flesh, and if they didn't eat his flesh and drink his blood, they had no life in them. What did the Lord mean? The Jews, of course, being the people they are, immediately took the literal thought, they took the literal aspect of his eating, of eating the flesh and drinking the blood.

And they were, they were abhorrent of such a thought. Well what did the Lord mean? You've got to eat my flesh, you've got to drink my blood, or you have no life in you. Well, he's referring to himself, of course, as under the figure of bread.

And he says, I am the bread of life. Now there are those in the world today, the one great system, the name of which I needn't mention, believes in the doctrine of transubstantiation. That as the priest takes the wafer and blesses it, that it's actually transformed into the body and blood of the Lord.

And that's very necessary. You will recall in the tragic death of our president that the priest was there and he administered the last rites and he assured Mrs. Kennedy that he felt that the life of the president was still in his body when that little wafer got pushed between his teeth and of course was the last rites.

My, I'm glad my salvation doesn't depend upon a man. Suppose that his life wasn't within his body. It was just the natural warmth of life left in his body. Suppose that the priest had gone there too late.

Oh, I'm so glad that my salvation depends upon the Lord Jesus. I had a friend, a friend who knew the Lord too, in another denomination. He was a fellow worker of mine when I was in the U .S. Department of Commerce.

And a Christian man, a man with whom I could have fellowship with. And the church where he went held a little different doctrine and I never was able to understand it. I've always thought of myself as being at least of average intelligence along spiritual lines and he tried to explain it to me and it was just double talk as far as I was concerned.

I never did figure out what the man meant and I wondered if he knew in his own mind what he was trying to say. Now what does the Lord mean? Does he mean the literal partaking of his flesh and of his blood?

Of course not. Now in verse 35 of the sixth chapter of John, we read,. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Now is he speaking literally? Of course not. He says, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. Now I came to Christ over 35 years ago, between 35 and 40 years ago. And I can get just as hungry now as I did in my unpaid days.

I do get hungry physically. The Lord doesn't let me go hungry very long, never more than about five hours. But believe me, I get hungry. Now what does he mean? Certainly nothing literal. It's the hunger of the soul.

Christ can satisfy the soul. He's the bread of life and if we believe on him, we'll never hunger in that respect. Or if we come to him, we'll never hunger. If we believe on him, we'll never thirst. He quenches the thirst of the soul.

He satisfies the soul. He is the bread of life. And we can have longings, hunger. It is a nice figure for describing longings, cravings. And the Lord satisfies the soul and he's the bread of life. But you know, I think the Lord refers to himself under the figure of bread.

So that we might appropriate what he's done. Now we've got to appropriate our food every time we eat. Our food is set before us, but at least at my house they don't feed me. I've got to eat myself. I have to appropriate that food and we have to appropriate the food ever since our smallest baby days.

We were fed when we were tiny babies. But after that we have to appropriate our food. We have to claim it. Now, it's just as simple as that. I appropriate the Lord's, the truth of the Lord's body. That his body was nailed to a cross.

And in that body he bore my sin. And I have to, I have to appropriate the fact. I have to understand the fact. I have to appreciate the fact that his precious blood was shed to take my sins away. And it's the only agent that can cleanse me from my sin.

That's what I must take in. That's what I must appropriate. Now, we can have the very finest dinner set before us and we can still go hungry. As a matter of fact, we frequently read of hunger strikes sometimes in penitentiaries where the inmates want to get some publicity of one kind or another.

They go on a hunger strike and nobody will eat. And everybody, of course, feels sorry for the poor prisoners because they're hungry, because they won't eat. And, of course, it makes headlines. And they're on a hunger strike.

Occasionally people to get publicity go on hunger strikes with food sitting right in front of them. They go hungry. Well, you and I don't need to go hungry as far as our soul needs are concerned because the bread of life is sent before us.

Salvation as a Prepared Meal

I think probably all of us that are more than a few years down the pathway of faith have heard the story about the preacher that was invited to the lady's house whom he was trying to win for the Lord.

She invited him over for the meal. And she had prepared a sumptuous meal for the preacher, something that she shouldn't do, but she did anyway. But she prepared this meal and the time came when she called him to the meal.

She said, come sir, now the dinner is ready. And he fell down upon his knees and he started crying out to the Lord. Oh Lord, send me something to eat, I'm starving. I'm starving. Lord, send me something to eat.

And this woman looked aghast at this man. She says, what have I got on my hands here? And he kept crying to the Lord. Lord, send me something to eat, I'm starving. Well, pretty soon her amazement turned to anger.

She went over and tapped the man on the shoulder and she said, Sir, I said the food is on the table. Come and eat it. Now, he rose to his full height and he said to her, Now, I suppose you think I'm crazy.

But he says, you're doing with God exactly what I've done with you. God has provided salvation for you. For the taking, for the appropriation of it. And you're crying to God and trying to be saved and longing to be saved when all you have to do is appropriate it.

Take it. Take it in. And that's exactly how we get saved. Take it in. God has provided it for us. And that was probably our first act of appropriation. And oh, when we appropriated our Lord in that sense as our Savior, what a blessing it brought to our souls.

Well, after the Lord saves us, after we have appropriated His body, being nailed to the cross in payment for our sins, His suffering as payment for our sins, when we appropriate His blood as God's cleansing to take my sins away, then, of course, there are other ways in which we find the Lord is truly the satisfying portion of our lives.

God wants us to appropriate. He wants every man and woman and boy and girl to appropriate, to take Him to claim what has been done for them on the cross. And it's so foolish to long to be saved. I don't know whether any of the young people in this meeting tonight are longing to be saved, but they don't have to.

It's a matter of simply appropriating, simply claiming what God is offering. Certainly we ought to believe that He's in earnest when He offers us these things. I think probably the next act of appropriation was the appropriation of a Father's care for our daily needs.

Appropriating the Father's Care Through Prayer

Let's turn to Matthew chapter 7, if you please. Matthew chapter 7 and verse 7. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth.

And he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. For what man is there of you whom, if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them than ask him? Now, Jane says she asks and receives not because you ask to consume it on your lusts.

You have not because you ask not. I repeated that in reverse order. James chapter 4. Let's turn to it, please. James chapter 4, verse 2. Ye lust, and have not. Ye kill, and desire to have. Of course, through your own efforts, and cannot obtain.

Ye fight and war, yet ye have not because ye ask not. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask mist, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. God wants us to ask him when we have our need. You know, there is so much accomplished by prayer.

Now, we couldn't attempt to give any kind of an exhaustive word on the subject of prayer tonight. But certainly, God wants us to pray. And certainly, so much is accomplished by prayer. And God wants to show himself strong on the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him.

He's looking for opportunity to answer our prayers. He loves to answer our prayers. He encourages us to pray for our needs. We go trying to satisfy our needs through our own efforts, and we fail. And James reminds us that we have not because we ask not.

The Lord is not mean. He's not nigger-day. He likes to bless his people. And though how he blesses me, there seems to be no end to his blessing. And he blesses you, I'm sure. I'm thankful for the next verse, the third verse of James 4, that sometimes I don't get what I ask for.

As a matter of fact, I think I can thank God for just as many things that I don't get as the things that I do get. Because if God gave me all I ask for, I might have a spiritual stomachache before I got through with it.

Thank God, he indeed deals with me in wisdom. But here's an encouragement. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Not, and it shall be opened. Even those three forms of petitions there form an acrostic.

A-S-K, ask, seek, not. God is just wanting us to appropriate his supply. And oftentimes we don't get it because we don't ask. He wants to prove himself. He wants to give us the spiritual thrill of asking and receiving.

We'll talk more about this, Lord willing, Thursday night. He wants us to have the thrill of having our prayers answered. And he wants us to watch, too, incidentally, and then thanking when we get the answer to our prayers.

You know, it's interesting to just ask God for something, and then step back out of the way real quickly, give him room for action, because sometimes he does answer very quickly, very specifically. I believe God wants us to be specific in our prayers.

And he says, ask. That's all, just ask. Just appropriate my fatherly care. I'm so glad that I do have a father. And I'm so glad that he encourages me to ask. He wants me to appropriate his fatherly care.

And we're told in Romans chapter 8, in verse 32 of that wonderful chapter, many of you could quote it without even looking. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

He's not withheld his son. He's certainly given us his best. Is he going to withhold the rest? Of course not. He loves to bless us, and he loves to have us ask. And thank God if we ask for too much, then he will say no.

But he will say yes to many, many of our requests. I'm so glad that I have a father. And I'm so thrilled sometimes when he proves to me that he indeed is my father. Now, I think he wants us to ask wisdom for our pathway.

Asking God for Wisdom

James chapter 1, another familiar verse. As a matter of fact, I doubt if you learned too many new things tonight from this little study, The Appropriation of the Lord. But maybe our approach will be new, and it will come in a measure of freshness.

But he wants us to appropriate wisdom for our pathway. His body and his blood for our salvation, the Father's care for our daily needs, and now wisdom for our pathway. James chapter 1, verse 5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not.

And it shall be given him, but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. God wants us to be sincere in our requests. Now, we do need wisdom in our daily needs. Wisdom, with our wisdom, the natural wisdom that God has given to us, we plot our future course.

But we can't always see everything. The Lord can see everything that's ahead of us. And he wants us to ask for wisdom. And there isn't any of us here that are exempt. We have decisions to make. This is a world of decisions, and we're making decisions all the time until we get sick and tired of making decisions.

We can ask the Lord to help us when we need wisdom. The boys and girls in this room tonight can ask the Lord for wisdom on one occasion. I saw a cartoon recently that struck me. One little fellow was talking to his schoolmate, and he said, It may be unconstitutional, but I asked the Lord to help me on my tests at school.

And so he knew something of the appropriation of the wisdom of the Lord in asking help in his tests at school. Let me ask you young people here that may know the Lord. Do you ask the Lord to help you in a test and give you wisdom?

Well, I have asked the Lord for help, and he has made up my mind for me. On many occasions he has given me thoughts that have occurred to me that I don't believe I recall or are brought into my own consciousness by my own power.

I'm sure the Lord did it. As a matter of fact, sometimes I lose something, or sometimes I forget somebody's name, and I just tell the Lord in childish simplicity,. Now, Lord, I suppose that it's hidden back in some recess in my brain by a certain configuration of cells or electronic arrangement.

Maybe it's there, but I can't recall it. And, Lord, I want to know. Will you please recall it to me? And after a while, it will come to me. Then I wonder why I recalled it. Then I will wonder why I ever recalled it in the first place.

But, you know, it's just the power of God. And I believe that God wants us to appropriate his wisdom for our pathway. I know that it pleases him. But, James says, let him ask in faith. You know, God honors, he likes to honor faith.

And he likes to give us wisdom. He who is the very treasure of wisdom and knowledge can dispense that wisdom to you and to me. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, it's the beginning of knowledge.

And I'm telling you, you and I have a real edge on the whirling around us if we will appropriate. And certainly he has made unto us wisdom. Not only wisdom, but righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

And the Lord is closer to us than our own memory. And he can recall things to our minds. I'm just amazed at what takes place inside of our heads sometimes. The Lord can get past the, well, the outside chafing.

He can get in there. He has access to our minds. He knows our thoughts. And it's amazing to me how that God can suggest things to our minds. Of course, the unfortunate part of it is, Satan has access to them, too.

And we're told to be on guard against that. That's another line of pain. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 4, we're to test our thoughts and see where they come from. Would you like to see this scripture? I hope I can find it.

2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians, even though it hasn't moved. Let's see. 2 Corinthians, chapter 10. 2 Corinthians, chapter 10. And verse 4. I knew there was a 4 in it someplace. 2 Corinthians 10 and 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

We ought to test the things that come into our minds. Because Satan can suggest things. He can. He put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray the Lord. But God has access to our minds, too. He wouldn't give Satan access to our minds, would he?

And not have access to our minds himself? We can ask for wisdom, and we can get it. And I'm sure that God is pleased when we appropriate his wisdom for our pathway. Then we can appropriate his strength with which we may combat our enemies.

Appropriating the Lord as Strength

I'd like to refer you to Exodus, chapter 15. In this respect, to the song of Moses. The first time I think that the word song, or the act of singing, is mentioned in the Scriptures. In Exodus, chapter 15, verse 1, we read,.

Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare him in habitation. My Father's God, and I will exalt him. Now, it's all right for him to say, my Father's God.

But he says, my strength, my God first. You know, I don't care how young we are in this room tonight, if we know the Lord. We've got to know God for ourselves. And we can't know God simply because mom and dad knows him.

It's a matter of appropriation. This message is for the youngest Christian in this meeting tonight. The matter of being able to say, my God, my strength, my salvation. You remember the occasion. The children of Israel came up to the Red Sea.

And they were trapped between Migdal, Pahiroth, the Red Sea, and the Egyptians behind them. And they had no place to go. And they were afraid that they were going to be annihilated. And they cried to Moses, to cry to the Lord.

And the Lord told Moses what to do. To scratch out his staff over the sea, his arm over the sea. And the Lord sent the waters back that night. All through the night by means of a strong east wind. And the waters congealed in the form of a wall.

And the children of Israel went through the Red Sea on dry land. The Egyptians said, in effect, if they can do it, we can do it. And they followed them into the sea to their own deaths. And when Moses and the children of Israel came out on the other side of the sea, the Lord told him to stretch out his arm over the sea.

And the water shall come together. And he stretched out his hand over the sea. He doesn't mention anything about the rod. He stretched his hand out over the sea. And the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared.

Now, God took care of the situation. He told the children of Israel, stand still, or Moses told them, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Now, God undertook for them. They had no strength against their enemies.

You and I have enemies. And we have no strength against them. Not even the flesh. We wouldn't presume to boast ourselves against the devil. And we realize that the world is bigger than we are. Sometimes we think we can take care of the flesh.

But only Amalek can be conquered as we hold our hands up in prayer. When Moses let his hands down, when they were fighting against Amalek, Amalek prevailed. And he had to hold, they held his hands up.

And as you and I hold up our hands in prayer, we may prevail over Amalek. But you know, we're no match for our foes and our own strength. We need the strength of God. But they, when they sang, spoke of the Lord as being their strength.

God wants us to appropriate our strength. The Lord said to Paul on one occasion, my strength is sufficient for thee. Do we appropriate the strength of the Lord? I have to. Believe me, I'm not equal to the occasion.

On many, many times, I, many times there in Boulder, I sit out and sometimes I'll sit out on my back step. I have a kind of a little patio at the back door. We live at the mouth of Boulder Canyon. And after a particularly warm day, the canyon breeze sweeps down Boulder Canyon at night in the evening.

And I sit out there in May, and that fragrant incense of pine, perhaps a little oak brush mixed in, comes right down out of the mouth of the canyon. And it makes me so nervous I can hardly sit still. You say, well, that would make you nervous?

Yes, it does. Because I always think of a summer of camp work ahead of me. And you follow boys and girls all summer, or a good major portion of the summer. And believe me, you'll find your strength taxed.

Two, I can wear out any group of any one children in any one week. But when I get a new group the next week, that's something else again. Now, I just can't enjoy sitting out on my own back porch because I smell those pines, and it makes me think of the mountains, and it makes me think of camp.

But now, in September, I can sit out and I can enjoy that canyon breeze. The summer is past. Then I can really enjoy myself, but I must tell you, I have faced many a summer, and I've told the Lord, Lord, I can't do it.