As most of you are probably aware, I am somewhat of a nerd and I really love words. The definition for stagnant is very interesting to me. In Merriam Webster's Dictionary, there are three:
1. not flowing in a current or stream
2. stale
3. not advancing or developing
From this definition, it would seem logical to deduce that if we are not advancing or developing, then we are equal to the nasty, filth-infested water that we sometimes see in an old cow pond or other similar source where there is no "current or stream".
James 4:17
"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
We all know the parable of the talents and the fate of the one talent man who buried his talent in the dirt to return to his master in the same condition he received it. This was not pleasing to the master. Now this servant didn't do anything BAD with the talent; he didn't steal it or use it for evil enterprises. He simply did nothing. And that was sin.
If I want to please God, therefore, I cannot simply be a "good girl" by the standards of the world. Keep myself away from the bad guys and live in my little bubble of goodness. James has some more wisdom for us in 1:27, when he says that yes, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this.....to keep himself unspotted from the world." Oh but BEFORE that phrase about being unspotted is "to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction". My job as a Christian is not simply to refrain from doing bad things. It is also, to DO GOOD THINGS, to be like that current that continues to advance and develop, so that God might be praised and the gospel might be furthered. Today the world tries to tell us that we need to do what feels good and natural, and not to push ourselves in ways that make us uncomfortable. This is not what God says!
Philippians 3:13-14
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
