Living Tools

by Dr. Skip Garmo

We generally think of “tools” as inanimate instruments, such as those made of wood or metal. That very normal perspective is thousands of years old. 1 Kings 6:7 (ESV),  for example, uses that word in describing the construction of Solomon’s temple in the city of Jerusalem:

When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the quarry, so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.

Another word that the Bible uses similarly is “instruments.” Genesis 4:22 says:

          Tubal-cain . . . was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron.

The New Testament shows us a new and broader perspective on “instruments.” God adds life to that term in Acts 9:15 as He describes Saul to Ananias just  after Saul’s blinding encounter with Jesus:

          Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel.

God then leads Saul, now the apostle Paul, to make that term come alive again when he writes in Romans 6:13:

Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members [your (mind and) body] to God as instruments for righteousness.

So what? So as you and I read this issue of Alert, let’s each reflect thankfully on God’s creative use of, and blessing on, various audio tools and training that GRN has used over the years and is continuing to develop.

But can you and I go deeper than that? Yes, we can. Let’s also reflect thankfully on God’s creative design of, and purpose for, ourselves  – individually and collectively – as His living tools: in His hands, enabled by His Spirit, and commissioned to serve for His honor and His pleasure. Alleluia!