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The Reason We Stay Stuck in Vertigo and How to Get Free

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you. 

Jesus, We belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Romans 7:21–25 (NIV)

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

CONSIDER THIS

Previously, in Vertigo, we talked about primitive Christianity which I define as the consecrated life. There is a tripartite movement I see in Scripture. It begins with the downward move of consecration. It moves inward to transformation. It then leads outward to impartation. And if consecration does not move toward transformation we will find ourselves signing up for another tour of duty in the country of Vertigo. 

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

While I will grant Paul may well be talking to Jewish converts who are still trying to navigate their faith by means of the Law, I think the scenario he outlines is much larger and more common than this isolated case. Show me a real Christian who doesn’t understand this . . .

For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.

And I’ll show you a liar. ;0) 

The struggle is real and there is a very real reason so many good-hearted Christians can’t seem to escape it. There is a clear reason many if not most Christians can’t quite close the loop on transformation. It is because we lack the kinds of relationships it takes to catalyze and sustain real transformation. Yes, we are mostly stuck in our sins because we are mostly isolated by and in our sin patterns.

While this point I am making is not featured in the text, it is assumed by the entire New Testament: the Christian faith and life is a team sport. It utterly depends on a highly relational context. It takes a church to make a real Christian. Transformation requires community. 

And I know so many of you feel quite stuck at this point because your church is also stuck. Most churches have developed well-meaning formational programming that is long on information and study and short on transformation. We have plenty of small groups but very few places where people can show up in a way where their life becomes the curriculum (and not the next great book or study). 

In my judgment (and now significant experience in making disciples who sow for awakening) the greatest impediment we face is the lack of the kind of relationships it takes to sustain real transformation. In my work with Seedbed, we have pioneered a lost practice in the Christian faith and life. We call it banding. Eight years ago, two friends and I started Band #1, and through the process we developed a biblically based, historically informed approach that is now bearing the fruit of transformation all over the world.

This August as we launch into the Acts series on the Wake-Up Call, I am going to be telling the story of Band #1 and doing some teaching and training to help you start a band. In the meantime, I would love to hear from many of you who have started one of these discipleship bands. I want to hear your banding story. Take five minutes and respond to this one-question survey. 

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Who is ready to put this place permanently in the rearview mirror? 

And lest we forget the best word from Romans 7, this tortured territory of Vertigo:

Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

THE PRAYER

Father, thank you for Jesus and for the way he banded twelve people together from the very start of his work. Thank you for the transformation we see in a person like Peter as a result of being in a band with you. Thank you that Jesus didn’t give us a self-help program. I confess I have come to the conclusion that self can’t help. I need Jesus and the working of the Holy Spirit through a few people around me who will go the distance. I am tired of Vertigo. I know I am hopeless alone, and I know that “Jesus and me” only gets me so far. I need “Jesus and we.” Come Holy Spirit and open up this way before me. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen. 

THE QUESTION

So do you have a band? Are you interested in starting one? At least intrigued? 

THE HYMN

Today we will close Romans 7 with a hymn of holy desperation, “I Need Thee Every Hour” is hymn  340 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Let’s sing it in quiet, humble confidence and joy.  

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt

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WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Comments and Discussion

5 Responses

  1. JD, again I thank you for your efforts to refocus us to see the need for true koinonia, life together. It seems to be hidden in plain view right there at the inauguration of the New Testament Church (Acts 2:42-46). I believe that the key in restoring this vital element in the normal life of the Church will require unlearning some bad theology. So much of our cultural can-do thinking that we can accomplish anything that we set our minds to, has infiltrated our American churches. That’s why we can see one endless Bible study or church growth program after another with no discernible results. The class/bands are a valid attempt to return to scripture based basics. I pray that the anticipated Great Awakening will restore this forgotten element of the normal Christian life. I’m currently involved with what might qualify as embryonic classes. I also have a couple of men who might eventually be open to banding, but that’s going to require a bit more time to develop that level of trust.

  2. Transformation comes out of doing from a place of being. We see those who are lost as anyone whose back is turned to Christ. It matter’s not their sin but that they are a slave to it instead of Christ. Does our heart ach for the lost souls of the mass murders as for the drunk drivers? Do we feel compassion for the transgender whose search for an identity leads to a sex change? Empathy for the person stuck in bitterness whose heart has hardened towards life, as well as the one who relies on self-help to help themselves.
    I believe transformation happens when we serve people through Christ, or better yet, Christ serves people through us. Going out into the trenches, where the spiritual war is fought, getting personally involved in spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ is transforming.
    If we claim to be a child of God and are not actively involved in the recruiting process for others to join our family, it’s like saying you’re looking for a job but never applying for employment.
    Doing is the source of being.
    We either do live for ourselves or for Christ.
    Sin or righteousness.
    No middle ground.
    Though at times, I am stuck in the middle.

    Staying 💪’n Christ

    1. Doc,

      The link from your profile is broken. It wants to go to http://thewordsays.nent/

      I was checking because it seems like the people who comment regularly to WUC are worth meeting. We’d certainly have a lot of discussion since I doubt if any of you are afraid of expressing your opinion. 🙂

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