This week I started re-reading Power Through Prayer by E. M. Bounds.  The opening chapter alone is worth having a copy of his work in your library!  He heralds such statements as: “The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men.” and “The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men.”  and “(The preacher) makes or mars the message from God to man.”

It is as though he looked forward through time more than a hundred years to give us insight on where we are today.  And still, one of his strongest observations is summed up with the first two sentences of the eighth paragraph of his book.  He challenges you and I with these words, “The preacher’s sharpest and strongest preaching should be to himself.  His most difficult, delicate, laborious, and thorough work must be with himself.”

At whatever stage of life or ministry you may be, there is one aspect that will speak louder to those around you than anything else; your life – (who you are)!

Allow me to be more straightforward today.  If you want to win the lost, if you want to grow the church, if you want God’s love to be evident, then examine your spiritual character.  As E. M. Bounds says, “Everything depends on the spiritual character of the preacher.”

Since God is looking throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong through those whose hearts are devoted to Him, you and I must daily walk upright and blameless before both God and men.  As R. M. McCheyne said, “Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two; your life preaches all the week.”

Bounds also exhorts, “The true sermon is a thing of life.  The sermon grows because the man grows.”

Be challenged today to grow!  I want to challenge you to carry yourself as God’s representative.  Consider this description.  “Go forth as a man among men, clothed with humility, abiding in meekness, wise as a serpent, harmless as a dove; the bonds of a servant with the spirit of a king, a king in high, royal, independent bearing, with the simplicity and sweetness of a child.”

Rev. Gary R. Linn