Stagnation

“Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” – 2 Corinthians 3:6

Have you ever wondered why goldfish ponds have waterfalls?  Or why fish can’t live in a bucket for more than a couple days?  Maybe you have, maybe not, the answer: stagnation.  Water gets oxygen from the air through a process called diffusion.  A disturbance in the water’s surface super charges the effect and allows the oxygen from the air to integrate into the water; without motion and movement in the water, the oxygen will eventually be consumed by the life in it and that life will die.  It doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen.  A fish living in a stagnant pond is a doomed fish.   

Not many invite turbulence into their life.  It is not human nature to volunteer for tough times, or be the first in line to change their: thinking, habits, or opinions.  The Pharisees (in Jesus’s day) were no different.  Among the Jews, they were the elite group of religious leaders.  They knew the law backwards and forwards, and worked to keep up an appearance of keeping it.  Jesus called them whited sepulchers, the outside looked clean but the inside was dead men’s bones.  They drew nigh to God with their lips, but their heart was far from him.  Inwardly, their relationship with God was cold and stagnant; as a result, the preaching of that day was about the same.  The Mosaic Law that was had dissolved into practice and formality.  People were just going through the motions; sacrificing what was required in order to appease the conscience.  It was so deluded and devoid of dedication that folks had actually set up shops in the temple so you could buy your sacrifice right there on sight before you atoned for your sin.  The message that they were sending to God was simple “I want salvation, at the cheapest price.”  The Jewish church culture was a stagnate culture, and the people in that pond were either dead or dying.  Then Jesus comes on the scene and he calls for righteous within that will produce righteousness without.  He talks of a life giving Spirit that will satisfy the thirsty soul.  Jesus brought turbulence and change to a stagnant and lukewarm religious climate.  In America, we as Christians are threatened everyday by the persecution of lukewarmness and stagnation.  As a Christian, you can get by for a little while under stagnate spiritual conditions, but eventually you are going to die unless there is change.  As a church, your members can swim in the pond of stagnation, but eventually, the oxygen will run out because the “letter” killeth.  It must be real inwardly or it will never be real outwardly.  A stagnate spiritual life is a result of a stagnate commitment.  Without the resolve to accept turbulence, adversity, or change in your life; without the resolve to accept the will of Jesus in your life over your own will for your life, the stagnation will continue.  The same is true in the church.  You can change your meeting times, your staff, and virtually everything else, but unless you change your commitment to Christ and His word the pond has no oxygen and members within will gradually die off.  The death is not them leaving the church, but leaving off obedience to the Word.  It is the Spirit that giveth life, and the Spirit doesn’t come without bringing some turbulence with it.

The oceans of our world are the most oxygen rich bodies of water we have on this planet.  When you stop and think about it, it is amazing how much life our oceans support.  It is abundant, alive, and…turbulent.  The effect of the Spirit on a person is going to bring turbulence.  It is going to bring obvious change, but it will also bring life!  The moment you get God, is only after you die to yourself.  Jesus said “if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”  That is the way you get salvation and keep salvation.  That is the life giving turbulence and the antidote for stagnation.