Communication

Just a Sinner but Still Active

by Terry Barlow
04/26/19
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If you or I say as believers, “I am just a sinner” we might be saying something the greatest theologians have said; namely that we are still sinners by nature, but that we are also at the same time among the just and numbered with the just, because we have been justified through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ the Just. Therefore we are “just” sinners. We won’t always be sinners, but as God’s redeemed people we will always be just.

  Similarly, the righteous who are planted in the house of the Lord and who flourish in the courts of the Lord shall still bear fruit in old age, we are told in the 92nd Psalm. These ones will be still active in healthy ways even in old age. What a wonderful promise this is! The ones who are referenced here in these verses will be "still active." Their youth goes on being renewed like the eagles' youth. They know how to stretch out their wings or spread their sails and wait quietly for the updrafts that are sure to come. (See Isaiah 40v29-31)  It is thus wind-driven, Spirit-borne activity. It not only means they will continue to be active, but also that they will thrive in having discovered and mastered a God given rhythm and balance between prayerful,worshipful stillness and meaningful, productive activity. Thus they will be "still" active, alternating between stillness and activity the way Jesus did, and the way he taught his disciples to do.
   We are learning to play the course of life, and to play it par-for-the-course.  What do I mean by that?  I mean P for prayer.  Then I mean A for activity bathed in prayer.  But then I also mean R for report.  We are not to forget to report on our activity to those who send us, help to support the work, and who pray with us for the success of those activities. So there we have PAR for the course. But then I add another element under R, and that is to reflect.  By reflecting on what we have done we might even slip quietly under par by the gentle chirping of a birdie here and there.  At all costs this will help us avoid the bogey man!