Date: July 23, 1948Place: Kuling
The main thing a worker of the Lord has to do is to speak. For this reason he has to pay much attention to his voice. Some people have a good voice by birth. Others are just the opposite. The voice we have by birth is not the main factor; the main thing we need is training. There are two basic things to remember about our voice during our speaking. First, we have to relax our tongue. Second, we should try not to shout with the throat very much, but instead we should try to push our words out from the deeper part of our abdomen.
Ordinarily, when we relax our tongue, we cannot raise our voice at the same time. Under such circumstances, it becomes hard to speak effectively. In order to relax the tongue, we have to relax the muscles of our entire body as well. Before we speak, we have to remind ourselves that we should relax all our muscles. Our tongue should be properly situated in between the teeth. We can only relax our tongue if our whole body is relaxed, and only then can we speak properly. Next, when we speak, our body has to act like an accordion; we have to press the air out from our abdomen, not just speak from the throat. If our abdominal muscles ache after we speak, we are doing the right thing. But if we find that our throat hurts after we speak, we are doing the wrong thing. After we speak, we should rinse our throat with disinfectant. This will prevent inflammation in the throat.
A worker of the Lord has to pay attention to his outward attire. He should not dishonor his status as a worker of the Lord. He should neither be too fashionable nor too shabby in his attire, but he should pay much attention to cleanliness. Our dress should not speak of anything beyond our status. We also must pay attention to our manners. If we are invited to a meal, try to make as little noise as possible at the table. Before we travel to any place, we should wash and groom ourselves properly, presenting ourselves to others with a good appearance. The most important thing to remember is to avoid putting on anything that will strike others' eyes. A worker of the Lord should strike others only with his words; everything else should remain plain, common, and unnoticeable. If a worker does not take care of this, others will be attracted to the striking things and will ignore his speaking. Anything special will attract attention and distract others from the content of our speaking.
The first thing we should do when we go to a place is to dress the same way as the local people. Never be special in any way; always be as plain as possible. For example, when working in the villages, do not dress too formally or be too clean. Of course, we should not purposely wear dirty clothes. We should always be sensitive to others' feelings when we are among them. Our outward attire should not be too different from theirs.
A worker of the Lord must be polite. We should not be loose among familiar brothers and sisters. As a worker of the Lord, our walk must be proper. We have to behave civilly among the saints. Never be uncouth in any way. Even the way we walk should be proper; we should not be rash in doing anything. We have to learn to be inconspicuous and to be common and plain in our walk and move. Paul was right when he was known to be weak in bodily presence (2 Cor. 10:10). Learn not to be loose. We should sanctify ourselves among the brothers and sisters. Others can laugh at some matters, but we cannot laugh at them. Others can say some things, but we cannot say the same things. We have to learn the proper lessons in our daily walk and habit. We should let others feel our sobriety and weightiness.
