How to Keep Fresh
We preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord.
II Corinthians 4:5
Make Jesus Christ your theme! I have seen preachers espouse causes and champion movements, and when the cause died and the movement collapsed, the preacher vanished too. But the man who glories in Christ never grows stale. Jesus Christ is perennial and he who makes his boast in Him stays forever fresh. He shall bring forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
How long it takes us to learn that the issue is simply Jesus! We read books and feel that the magic word is sure to appear on the next page, but it doesn’t. We read biography, but we cannot live on second-hand experience. We try to work up visions and ecstasies of our own, but even if we succeed the glory fades. At last we arrive where we should have started, to learn that
once it was the blessing;
Now it is the Lord.
It is all Jesus. Why not start at center and work out instead of starting on the circumference and working in? “By him all things consist.” Stand at the Hub and all the spokes are yours!”