Tools

I love tools. I love all different kinds of tools, those for the office and those for the house. I could spend hours just looking in office supply stores and hardware stores. I was in Lowes today to get some tile, but I couldn't help but stop by the tools and look around. They were calling to me to come look. Hammers, saws, wrenches, tool bags, drill bits...you name it, I love looking at them. And of course the bigger excitement comes when it's time to actually use them. Getting out the saw horses, revving up the circular saw, putting the screwdriver bit in the drill, hearing the satisfying "thunk" when you shoot a nail from the nail gun into a piece of wood...words can hardly describe. It's cool to use tools. Tools are cool. (I think I've made my point.)

Did you ever think of yourself as a tool? The Bible uses the term "vessel" to refer to us sometimes. This is a type of tool that carries water. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul said, "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work." If we have willing hearts and ready lives, we can be used by God to do His work. In the next verse, he says how to make yourself ready: "Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."

Are you keeping your life right with God? Do you flee lust and pursue righteousness? Do you have a pure and willing heart? If so, you can have the honor of being one of God's tools.

Have a great week, and be a useful vessel for Him.

(From the Johnson Street Youth Group Trumpeter, 6/8/08)