Tools

Tools

Our mouth is a tool. You can do very much, even an unlimited amount, of good and beneficial things with it for edification and salvation, both for yourself and for others.

When what you speak is also being recorded on a tape recorder, and what you write is also being printed, and then published in several other languages, the effects are innumerable.

Having something good and effective to say, and write, and not doing it—who is able to express the eternal loss this is, first of all for yourself. What a shame! I wonder what the Judge will have to say about that.

Unfortunately, this excellent tool can just as well be entirely misused, causing both harm and destruction for yourself and many others.

Oh, that every person would and could be afraid of misusing this effective tongue of his! Not only evil and harmful words cause damage, but also and especially those empty and useless words. The Bible has various and strong words concerning profane (unholy) and empty babblings, for example, 2 Timothy 2:16 and 17.

Our thoughts are also tools that can be used for good or for evil. You can think of very many good and useful things in order to say, do, and write them. It is completely different from being empty and thoughtless.

But oh, the ulterior motives and suspicions, the critical and judging thoughts!

Long live pen and pencil! These are excellent and useful tools! But you must not neglect to use them! Don’t just let them lie there without making any use of them, or only use them a little bit. What a shame!

And what shall we say about money? By using it diligently, you can accomplish unspeakably much good with this tool. The less you use it for yourself, the more is left for other people and for the furtherance of God’s kingdom.

However, you can also fritter it away on many vain things in many different ways, and by unnecessarily acquiring or keeping several properties. Of course you can invest it in order to keep it safe and for making your heirs happy, which often results in disunity and enmity among them.

I wonder what God—the Judge of all—thinks of that???

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body . . . .” 2 Cor. 5:10. In other words, we will be rewarded according to how we have used the tools we have had at our disposal.