Studies in Psalm 16:-05 — James K. Boswell

I pass all who read Sybil Baxter's Wake My Heart this morning. Only one. Well, well, well. That's probably because I read it too. There it is. But you know, I'd like you to get that book. I think it's about $4 .95 or something, probably.

Casting Every Burden Upon the Lord

The $5 .00 video was spent on A Wake My Heart by Sybil Baxter. And this morning his text is Psalm 55, 22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. And you don't think or have a thought that Sybil is right here with us in this particular meeting.

Things are just turning in so beautifully, you know. One thing he said that really got me was this. As you commit, as you yield yourself to him, you unload your burden upon him. Now isn't that lovely?

In other words, you unload the burden apart from your yielding yourself. As you yield yourself, commit yourself to him, so you unload the burden upon him. He's not only the sin bearer, he's the burden bearer too.

A dear daddy got home from his work one day. He's carrying a great big parcel. And so his little daughter met him at the door and said, Daddy, please pick me up. Oh, he said, Daddy, I can't pick you up.

See, I got this parcel. Oh, Daddy, just please pick me up. I want you to carry. I can't carry you, Daddy, because I got this parcel. Nonetheless, he said, it's for your mother. Well, as they said, Daddy, I'll tell you what, Daddy, just you let me hold the parcel, then you can carry me too.

Have you got that? Just let me hold the parcel, then you can carry me too. Now that's the thought, of coming and as we yield our lives entirely to him, so then we find he carries the burden. I love that, you know.

That meant a lot to me. But now as we go back to verse number five, where it says, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance. He maintains my cause. It says here, let me read it. The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup.

Thou maintainest my lot. The lines are for them to be in pleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage. Now you will remember the children of Israel, and the land of promise is theirs by inheritance.

Now get that, it was theirs by inheritance. But now they must realize they had to enter in and possess this inheritance. And every place they put the sole of their feet, that belonged to them. Now please get it, it was theirs by inheritance.

But they had to enter in and possess that inheritance. Now all that God has for you and has for me, has been given to us in his own beloved Son. The darling of his own heart. I want you to get that. Now beloved, we must appropriate by faith, all that God has provided for us in his beloved Son.

God will never give us anything apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. All that God has for us, all we can ever expect to be, is all because of the Lord Jesus Christ. His work upon the cross, and his work now at God's right hand.

Please let that sink in for one moment, because it fits in so beautifully with what we had a little earlier today. We come to recognize the glorious fact, that the Lord Jesus, God finds all his delight, all his satisfaction, all his pleasure in him.

And just the thing that God has given to us, the very delight of his own heart, and with him, he's given us all that we need, both for time and for all eternity. Oh, what a privileged people, what a wealthy people we really are, because of his matchless grace.

Receiving the Inheritance by Faith

Way yonder at the model castle, the queen, the Scottish residence of the queen, on the estate there was a dear lady. She had one son whose name was Charles. And he said to his mother, she was a dear widow, says, I'm going across to Australia, and I'll try and make good, I'll try and be as kind as I possibly can, mother.

She wasn't too keen about his going away, but he went. Some days afterward, another some months afterward, about eleven months afterward, the factor of the estate, I went down and just paid her a little visit.

Says, how are you getting on, Mrs. Brown? Oh, says, very well. Says, you know, I miss Charles. I miss him very much. No, she said, he was my breadwinner. Well, but do you ever hear from him? Oh, yes, faithfully right, and faithfully, once a month, he sends me a pretty picture.

A pretty picture. And so, she says, but doesn't he send you any money? Says, no, he always sends me a pretty picture, but pretty picture is pretty dry eating, isn't it? Says, it can't buy very much. So, the fact is, may I see those pretty pictures?

And so, she got all the eleven letters, all tied up with lovely pink ribbon, typical mother, you see, coming from her son. And so, he got them done. Now, I don't want to read the letters, Mrs. Brown. I only want to see those pretty pictures.

And there they were. He put them all up on the table. He said, Mrs. Brown, I knew Charles was an honest boy, a straightforward boy. His integrity far above par. And he said, you know, he has not let you down.

Mrs. Brown, these pretty pictures are all the Stroganbank knows. They're all the Stroganbank knows. To her, they were just pretty pictures. And then, my friend, you see what I'm getting at? And there are so many people that see this wonderful life in Christ Jesus, they stand back and admire it, and all the time, they are going round like spiritual paupers.

When the Lord wanted the cash in, my friend, this morning, and appropriately always provided for us in the dying of his own beloved son. This illustration, alas, it is borrowed. I got it from the late Harold Harper, a man whom I'm greatly indebted to.

To me, one of the fondest Bible teachers or expositors you had on this continent. I miss him very much. But anyway, dear Mr. Harper, told this illustration about a man going away in a Mediterranean cruise.

And he took with him on this cruise packages of crackers and some cream cheese. He didn't want to be hungry as he went on this particular cruise, so he took these things along with him. Out sailing two days, and because the flight was, some of the folks said to him, how are you getting on in the cruise?

Oh, he said, wonderful sailing, beautiful weather. But he said, those crackers and cream cheese are getting rather stale. Aren't you going down and enjoying the meals we're having in the dining room while we're having four courses for breakfast?

Just about as good, beloved, as Luke's mountain. And he said, we're having as many at seven for lunch and as many as eight and nine we're having for dinner. Oh, he said, yes, I know. Every time I pass by that dining room, that smell comes up, makes me ever so hungry.

But he said, I can't afford it. He said, you can't afford it? No, he said, I can't afford it, so I can't go down. He said, man, haven't you got your ticket? He said, yes, I got my ticket, all right. But he said, still I can't afford to go down and have my meals.

And the man looks at him, man, don't you realize all your meals are included in your ticket? He said, pardon? He said, don't you know all your meals are included in your ticket? You know what happens to crackers and cream cheese, don't you?

He just went overboard and he went down to the next meal and, my, didn't he have a wonderful ticket. May I pause here one moment? You may say, oh, the stupidity of that man. May I just pause? What about you?

Now, let's be honest. What about you? Are we just like that man? All that God has for us is treasure docks and a diving resort, and, speaking reverently, when we receive Christ, we receive the ticket and everything God has with us.

Isn't it just amazing? He is my peace. He is my love. He is my life. He is my life. He is my liberty. He is my purity. He is my victory. All that God has for me is treasure docks in the Lord Jesus Christ, but He wants me to enter in and to appropriate by simple faith all that wonderful provision He has made for us.

No one little boy says, the Lord is my shepherd. That's enough. Now, isn't that true? The Lord is my shepherd. That's quite enough. And we can truthfully say, my God shall supply all your needs according to, not out of the abundance of, but according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.

Oh, let some of you wonder that commode of spirit life again as we go back to this text. Why? The Lord is a portion, my neighbors, out of my cup. This wonderful cup of salvation, this wonderful cup of deliverance, I trust we've all known the joy of drinking from the cup of salvation.

Remember, beloved, for the Lord Jesus, He was a cup of the wrath of God. And He drank that cup right up to its biggest bit of dread. And now nothing but blessing is left for us. Nothing but love. Oh, come today and receive the cup of His salvation.

Drink, my friend, at that cup of salvation and know the joy of this wonderful deliverance and enter in to your wonderful inheritance. The Lord maintains my love. Isn't this lovely? Then you can truthfully say, the lines are falling onto me in pleasant places.

I know a couple with us here who live in the Park of the Palms. And you know, it's a wonderful place. One of the best places in this side of heaven I know. I go there quite a bit and appreciate it every time.

But you know... Pardon? Halfway to heaven. Halfway. It's halfway to heaven. Very good. But you know, they go into the swimming pool fairly early in the morning and last thing at night. And you know, He said to us the other night, the moon was shining, that little breeze was going through the trees, the birds were turning in a lovely little song, the stars all twinkled up there in heaven, and everything just lent itself to romance, everything just so confused.

He said, you know Vera, He said, you know, you know, the Lord has placed those lines in pleasant places. Isn't it wonderful? Right there in the swimming pool. Oh! Oh well, I think that is just wonderful, eh?

Right here, look up, again the lines have fallen down to those pleasant places. And the thought, here is the boundary line there in the promised land. Cut off by a frame, severed here. Oh, the Lord could say, the Lord, He said, the lines have fallen down to the unpleasant places.

You have drunk the cup of salvation. You have done a job that is wonderful, delivered, and all the wonderful inherits you because you are complete in Christ. You are made full in Christ. And our dear brother said to me, earlier this morning, he said, when the Christians realize, when they realize there are two words, commitment and submission.

And when there is commitment and submission, then, you know what he said, Mr. Finger, you know what he said to me? He said, you know, the Lord gave me such joy and such peace that I don't think the human body can take any more.

Now, isn't that just wonderful? There is a man getting on in years, dear lady, too. I have known the joy of this ministry for years and years. But he said, you know, the Lord is so real and so precious that I don't think the human body can take any more.

Joy in Christ Above Circumstances

Now, have you got salvation like this? There is a joy you have got, my friend. See, happiness depends upon happenings. If my circumstances are favorable and continue, then I am happy. But should a north wind of adversity blow in upon my circumstances, as it did last night with Ray Harper, Ray Harper, remember, in the picture, as a north wind blow in, then I lose all my happiness.

But, beloved, joy does not depend upon circumstances. Joy does not depend upon surrounding or environment. Joy depends upon a relationship to a person. And that person is Jesus Christ. And no circumstance can alter that.

There was Paul, we were in that Roman dungeon, we were in that Roman dungeon a few months ago, right there in Rome. We saw the very chains that mangled the wrist of that dear man. And we saw the very stocks with which his feet had been played, his back had been lashed, and his eyesight had failed him.

And yet that man writes in the Pledge to the Philistines, 19 times, rejoicing, rejoicing, rejoicing, or joy, he knew the joy love letter, Paul had a happy night of turning adversity into advantage. He turned opposition into opportunity.

He turned the prison into pulpit. He turned persecution into praise. Why? Because he was in right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want you to get that. And when we are in a right relationship with Jesus Christ, He is the unspeakable gift.

And with Him He gives us unspeakable joy, a joy unspeakable. And He gives us a foretaste of the unspeakable glory. And you can't but see with my heart here during these days, if this glimpse of love is so divinely sweet, what is it going to be about?

His gladdening smile to me. Yes, about His tranquility. All the wonder, all the joy, all the ecstasy in anticipation of that moment when we are going to see Him. And we are going to be alive. And the last verse that stands is that fullness of joy and that pleasure forevermore.

But we know something about that right here now, don't we? All the sweet, as our brother said this morning, He is giving us now the earnest, the earnest. We got the earnest of the inheritance and the earnest is so precious.

What's the full realization going to be? No wonder Paul said, I have not seen the ear heard, near the end and in the heart of man all that God prepared for them to love Him but He revealed to us by His Spirit.

All the wonder. And when the Queen of Sheba came, I've seen all the glory and the majesty and all the loveliness and all the wealth of that dear man Solomon. She said there was no small strength left in her and she cried, why the half has never yet been told.

And when we get home to glory and receive in all its glory all will be just lost in one love and praise. Say, why Jimmy you never told me half? Why Sven you never told me half of the glory in that coming day?

Aren't you glad you're a Christian? Aren't you glad you're a child of God? Are you in the good of, are you just enduring it? Are you just enduring your salvation? Are you enjoying Christ? Is there reality to you every moment of every day?

I love that don't you? A little farther shall we? I'm still in the same verse, verse number six now. The lines have fallen on the unpleasant places. Yea, I have a goodly heritage. Some years ago, quite a number of years ago now, way back in Britain we were doing some visitation work from door to door with one of the elders in the assembly.

We were inviting people into the crusade and a man over a few guys came up and he said to me, he said, excuse me, but is your name Boswell? I said, yes, that's my name. He said, are you any relation to the Boswells?

Have you lived in this area forty-five years ago? I scratched my head and said, I'm afraid I can't remember back as far as forty-five years. And then, I mean the circus people. Now that put me in a dilemma.

I said, I certainly don't know. Well, he said, we've been watching you and you resemble Esther Boswell very much. And he said, if you belong to that tribe you're coming into a wonderful inheritance before long.

All I could think were these words, I have a goodly heritage. The Lord is a portion of my inheritance. By the way, I never tried to find out whether I belonged to the circus tribe or not. But sometimes when Peter, our son, was much younger than he is today, and I used to watch him go through his acrobatics, I began to wonder, did I really go through?

Christ Living Within the Believer

But here it is, and please go down to the next verse. Here's number seven. Now notice this, will you please. The Lord now is the life of your life. He's the life of my life. Now, again, we are complete in Him, and He, by His Spirit, lives in us.

Now let me ask you lovingly, have you realized this truth? I don't mean theoretically. I don't mean doctrinally. I don't mean even scripturally. I mean as a definite spiritual reality, the Spirit, witness with your Spirit that He lives in you.

Please notice, one of the first evidences of the filling of the Holy Spirit, He gives the noble awareness sense of the presence of the indwelling Christ. I was speaking some time ago at a conference at Hackensack in New Jersey.

John Smarth and the late Richard Hill were the other two speakers. Mr. Hill said he wanted to speak first. I never heard that dear man speak before. I heard him many times after that, but not until then.

And he listened to me speaking many times, but I never heard him speak. I was so glad he said he wanted to speak first. And, you know, I was so taken with his lovely flow of the English language. His words were so choice, so rare, so present, not a word out of place.

And I was so enthralled with this. Had you asked me what he was talking about, I wouldn't have been able to have told you. And when it came near the end of his message, and he said these words, I thought it in every context in the world.

I've done it theologically, doctrinally, and scripturally, but never until three weeks ago did it dawn in upon my spirit life that Christ literally lived in me. Now, did you get that? Never did it dawn in my life until three weeks ago that Christ literally lived in me.

I changed my message and spoke in Galatians 2 .20. No longer I but Christ that lives in me, and I finished up with the spirit filled life, and John Smart cut what he was going to speak on, and he gave a beautiful doctrinal outline of the filling of the spirit of God.

Now, let me ask you, have you had that revelation? Because we heard in this class salvation is a revelation, and so is this new life in Christ. It's a revelation. You can't work yourself into this, because you can't be God in salvation.

You're appropriate by faith. What does Paul say in Galatians 1 .16? And it pleased the Father to reveal, where? His Son in heaven? No, His Son in me. Now this translation, And it pleased the Father to unveil His Son in me.

The Spirit of God takes aside the veil and reveals Christ in the believer. Oh, the wonder of this glorious truth. Then you can sing, For the salvation is this, that Christ lives in me. I love that, don't you?

Now you come down to the verse here and it says, I love that He, I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. He now is my counselor. He is my counselor. Isn't that lovely? We're living in a day, you know, when there's a great need for spiritual men among us.

Scripture as the Source of Spiritual Counsel

A great need for spiritual men among us. Our young people in high school and college have problems that we never had. And those young people want someone they can go to with complete confidence and unburden their heart to them and know that what they're telling them is not going to be told to anybody else.

If you break the confidence of a teenager, you'll never gain that teenager again. And when they come to you with complete confidence and they unburden their heart to you, oh my friend, take them to the Word of God.

Take them to the Word of God. And on bended knees, show them from the Word of God the solution to their problem, the answer to their question. You'll find it right here through the Holy Scripture. Why am I stressing this?

I'll tell you why. A young lady, a charming young lady, a strikingly good-looking girl, came up to me after service and says, you know, the TV is the devil in the box. We heard about radio didn't we some time ago, years ago.

TV, radio, and all these things, they're the devil's instruments. Now, wait a minute. We've got something else in our homes these days called the telephone. And that's far more devilish than all the other things put together.

You know that? Many a car has been torn to bits over the telephone wires. Isn't that true? Many a thing has been revealed over telephone wires. Now, you often think that telephone wires could speak. Brethren, brethren, please get this.

The Lord is the life of your life. He wants to think through your thoughts, will through your will, look through your eyes with compassion, to love through your heart, to speak through your lips, to work through your hands, and to walk out into whoever.

Not I, but Christ, in every look and in every action. That may be a practical note, but I want to become a reality in your life and my life. And remember, one of the greatest military leaders the world has ever known was a man called Joshua.

Yet Joshua failed here. Remember, when your neighbors came all disguised in old clothing, and old moldy bread, old white skin. Remember, it says, and Joshua did not take counsel at the word of the Lord.

The greatest tragedy of Joshua's life was right there. He did not take counsel at the word of the Lord. Oh, brethren, take time to get a little of God and the word of God and abandon me. And my friend, more often be the Lamb of your heart, I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel.

People run here, they run there, they're right here, they're right there, and it only takes time to recognize that the answer is within them. Christ himself is the answer to your every question. He's the solution to your every problem.

Christ is all around you. Do you believe that, my friend? Oh, we thank God for Godly counselors. We thank God for spiritually minded sisters, and there's a real need for them, but listen, if you're putting that counselor, that sister, that brother, before the Lord, more harm and good to you.

More harm and good. Friend, Christ alone must fill our vision. Christ alone must occupy our heart's affection. And I repeat with all sincerity that Godly brother, that spiritually minded sister, are taken with an open boot, and on bending knees, they go back to Him.

That's why we should have a working knowledge of the Word of God. As God's people, we should take time to get alone with God in the Word of God. Oh, how important this really is. And by doing so, we shall be transformed, changed in the glorious image.

Jesus as Counselor and the Need for Biblical Knowledge

Remember that wonderful scripture in Isaiah chapter 9, verse number 6. Unto you, a son is given, proving his divinity. Unto you, a child is born, proving his humanity. And he shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

You may pause here. You drop the comma between wonderful and counselor, and what you read, he shall be a wonderful counselor. And what does Sam DeVries say? He says, I will guide you with my counsel, and afterward receive you to glory.

Isn't that just wonderful? And maybe this very day we shall notice that the sky is now down with a brightened voice saying, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away far above the clouds. Yes, I will guide you.

Now, notice the very next phrase here, because it is precious to me. My reign, or my thoughts also, instruct me in the night seasons. My thoughts instruct me in the night seasons. Now, remember, he is the light of our life.

Guarding the Mind in the Night Seasons

He now is our counselor, and it says, he instructs our thoughts in the night seasons. Beloved, watch your waking thoughts, watch your waking thoughts, but as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So is he.

Philippians 4 .8, what super things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, good reports, think on these things. Do you ever take time to think of your thought lines? Do you ever take time to weigh up the thoughts he weighs our thought, he weighs our actions, he weighs our notice.

A simple description here, a little practice, it's a little secret and I want to give it to you. As I switch the light out at night, I feel an awesome surge in humility, I whisper. If I'm alone, I say audibly, but wonderful Lord Jesus.

And I go to sleep with that in my mind. Wonderful Lord Jesus. Or precious Lord Jesus, how lovely thou art. Come and abide in me, rule in my heart. Break every special light, faith let me see. Then I shall be precious to me.

And as sure as I wake in the morning, my waking thoughts are wonderful Lord Jesus. Got that? You go to bed, my friend, with that in your mind. Go off to sleep. Oh, he's a wonderful Lord and as sure as you awake in the morning, he's your waking thoughts.

What a beautiful thought to write to, isn't he? He's Lord of all, blessed forever. Two evangels were sleeping together in the same room. One was disturbed as he thought of the other talking in his sleep.

The other did, and this is what he heard, and you'll hear a lot of secrets, but he heard, wonderful, wonderful Jesus, who can compare with thee. Wonderful, wonderful Jesus, dearer than all thou art to me.

Wonderful, wonderful Jesus, oh, how my soul loves thee. Fairer than all the fairest deeds of thou to me. He was communion with his Lord upon his bed, and the Lord was instructing his thoughts in the night.

Discerning the Source of Nighttime Thoughts

I speak at U .P. Camp, Compton. I used Compton for two weeks with a brother from down here in the Carolinas. What am I, Tennessee, in the Carolinas? Very fine brother. And we were listening together, and we were going down to Flint, Michigan.

We were going to be there for the weekend. He was going to be one assembly house and the other, and we came together for a United Meeting Sunday afternoon. So they both stayed in the same house, the same room, in fact, but in twin beds.

On the way down from U .P. Camp, I was rather struck, because two state policemen, troopers, had been kidnapped by four Jews. And they had taken the revolver from them, taken a car from them, and let them go in a forest.

Two of the Jews had been captured. The other two they were looking for. And every time they came to an intersection, they stopped, they got rifles and revolvers, and they were looking for the other two teenagers.

During the course of the evening, in the middle of the night, I hear my good colleague saying something that says, Take the girls, but don't shoot. Take the girls, but don't shoot. And there he was. So in the morning I said, John, what ever were you saying in the middle of the night?

He said, what do you mean? I don't know what I was saying when I was sleeping. He said, that's certainly true. You were saying something about, take the girl, but don't shoot. I said, you see, I never did.

I said, oh yes. I said, you're watching too much TV, John. You know what I'm saying? Take the girl, but don't shoot. Now what was this? He got us the subconscious, those men coming with the rifles, and he said, take the girl, but don't shoot.

I'm quite convinced the Lord was not instructing his thoughts in the night season, you see? There's the whole thing. But a message being given to us in the middle of the night. Isn't that true? W. W. Ferdinand knows Mr. Williams very well.

That dear man, he's got a notebook beside his bed, and even the darkness crippled down from the Lord's given him in the middle of the night. All the joy, the beauty, the Lord instructing us. See, he's now the life of our lives.

Do you see that? We are complete in Christ, and Christ lives in me. I trust that's true of all of us here this morning. Oh, I trust there's not one here who's outside of all this. Oh, I want you to get to know the Lord Jesus, and you'll come to know my reality in your life day by day.

The Call to Receive Christ

And Mrs. Markle's mother at Mid-South, some seven or eight years ago, I asked a question one day, what is a Christian? And we just explained her ABC language, what a Christian, who a Christian really is.

And she being brought up Christian, confirmed, church member, good living woman, and you know, the Lord is open in her heart, I'm not a Christian at all. I've never been sick. And God, let him, God saved her right there.

Right there. Oh, there may be some mother right here this morning, maybe some dad here, some sister, some brother here, and you're not yet saved. You have not yet received the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

There's no better offer to you than now, to the joy of real life. Life with a kettle of ale, life with a kettle of ale, isn't it? It's life, and it's life in abundance, the wonder of it all. This can be used this morning.

Do you like or need a thing? They widened the allure of Jesus, I trust he will come into my heart. He will, you know. He really will. And there's no better offer to you than right now, for you to come to the joy of having received Christ, and know the joy he's received you.

And I repeat, this is an indissoluble union, you can never know, never be lost. Once you're in Christ, you're in Christ forever. Thus the eternal covenant stands. Her brother says, boy, we are sealed, sealed.

That seal can never be broken. It's a mark of ownership, a mark of security, it's a mark of identity, identification, that seal can never be broken. Jesus said in the Sunday school days, and on each he said it, he's on secret signs.

They that have my spirit, they said, dear mine, this can be your joy today. Now little father, shall we? I just want to have it closed at this point, because our beloved brother wrote this before us again this morning, verse number eight.

Keeping the Lord Always Before Us

I set the Lord on Sundays before me. Is that what it says in your version? Even your English version wouldn't say that, would it? No, no. I set the Lord always before me, because with my right hand I shall not be moved, I shall not be perturbed, I shall not be disturbed.

What does the Bible say? They that love thy Lord, nothing shall offend them. Isn't that precious? You see, a gentleman is one who never gives offense. A meek man is one who never takes offense. Now did you get that?

A gentleman is a man who never gives offense. A meek man is a man who will never take offense. He's gentle, he's meek. And that's the life you can say. That's the life I can say. A challenge? A challenge.

They that love thy Lord, nothing shall offend them. What does it say? I set the Lord always before me, because with my right hand I shall not be moved. I want to just close with this. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter fourteen, the Lord Jesus sent the disciples away.

He goes to the mountaintop and is there alone. Alone. A terrible storm breaks out. The waves are mounting apart. The Lord can pierce through the dark. We heard about penetrating eyes. The Lord can see in the dark.

I'm so glad about that, aren't you? Aren't you glad you've got a Lord who can see in the dark? I love this. He that knows the worst about me is the one who loves me best of all. There's only one who loves like this, and Jesus.

It is named. His wonderful name. But he can see in the dark. And piercing through the dark, he saw the light of his own in danger. And he goes walking over the heaving billows. I'm so glad I've got a Lord who can do that, aren't you?

And the heaving billows of usual life tossed all around. He beats, tossed, tossed, tossed in the dark. He comes walking over the heaving billows and he says, Stars, you! Only one word. Be of good cheer, and as I be not afraid.

There be thou, Lord, with me come to thee. He loves to come. He's doing something I would never have done. Peter got out of that boat, began walking, Lord, upon the water, and everything went oh, so wonderfully well, until Peter got one eye upon the wave, and one eye upon Christ.

He's almost raised a mountainous high, about to envelop him and take him down into a watery grave, and he calls out, Lord, save me! I'm so glad Peter didn't pray for twenty minutes. How do you pray until you've been drowned, wouldn't you?

He says, Lord, save me! And the Lord straightaway calls out, O thou of the fifth, wherefore didst thou doubt? Now that word doubt comes from the same word as the word squint, the same root as the word squint.

I know your word for squint means to come into a point, into a point. But the old Saxon word means cross-eyed, cross-eyed, looking two ways at once. And the Lord said, Wherefore didst thou think, Peter?

One eye upon the wave, one eye upon me, won't you, Peter? How could Peter speak with the Lord there? The Lord of nature must be the Lord of nature, and remember. Oh, beloved, I love this, those waves were under the feet of his Lord.

But those waves were Peter's circumstances, Peter's circumstances. And he saw the mountainous high, about to envelop him. Two evangelists met one day, the ones who said, How are you, my brother? Oh, I'm not so bad under the circumstances.

What on earth are you doing there? In them, but never under them. Got that? In them. And what happened now? Those circumstances. Peter, if you get one eye upon your circumstances, Peter, and one eye upon me, you are going to sing, Peter.

Now how many Christians are just like that? They get one eye upon the circumstances. If I could only get away from this locality, if I could only get away from this environment, if I could only get away from this job, if I could only get away from whores, I'd be a father to the Christians.