Underground Exiles

So as I continue reading The Mortification of Sin by John Owen, I find my self struck by this statement:

You cannoy mortify a specific sin that is troubling you, unless you are seeking to obey the Lord from the heart in all areas!

Let me be frank; that statement hurts.  When I first read it, it was like a hard punch to the stomach.

In reality all John Owen is doing is being plain about what is apparent all throughout the Gospels.  Jesus is absolutely ruthless about going after the heart, and anything less just isn’t on His radar.

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The Prophet Zechariah

This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the LORD and seek the LORD Almighty. I myself am going.’  And many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the LORD Almighty and to entreat him.” –Zechariah 8.20-22

In the book I’m reading by Jonathan Edwards, he takes his text from Zechariah 8.20-22, which he interprets as a prophecy of a future glorious advancement of God’s Church.  From what I’ve gathered so far, Edwards’ eschatology is decidedly postmillenial, which was fairly common for his era.

In his exegesis of the text, Edwards sees an account of how this future glorious advancement of God’s Church is to come about; he sees this happening as people gather in from different towns and countries and taking up a joint resolution and coming into visible agreement that they will seek God by united and extraordinary prayer, that he would manifest Himself to His Church and grant them the fruits of His presence.

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The Tombstone of the great Jonathan Edwards

Right now I’m reading the Complete Works of Jonathan Edwards, published by the Banner of Truth Trust in 2 volumes.

Volume 2 contains an interesting work of Rev. Edwards called An Humble Attempt To Promote Explicit Agreement And Visible Union Of God’s People In Extraordinary Prayer For the Revival of Religion And The Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom On Earth.  I just love titles from the eighteenth century; they certainly don’t leave you guessing on what the author intends to say.  I think the words of Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones are significant and bear reading on the subject of Jonathan Edwards:

“In my early days in the ministry there were no books which helped me more, both personally and in respect of my preaching, than this two-volume edition of The Works of Jonathan Edwards…I devoured these volumes and literally just read and read them. It is certainly true that they helped me more than anything else. If I had the power I would make these two volumes compulsory reading for all ministers! Edwards seems to satisfy all round; he really was an amazing man.”

So for the next posts on undergroundexiles.com, I’m going to blog my way through Edward’s call to extraordinary prayer and post my thoughts as I read this amazing work.

Edward McKendree Bounds

What do SBC Churches in the 21st Century Need Most in Order to Fulfill the Great Commission? [Part One] With Insights from E. M. Bounds’ Classic, Power Through Prayer «.

This link has nothing to do with my ongoing doses of weirdness from the world wide web.  Instead, it is a subject a little closer to home for me.

I was raised in a Southern Baptist church, and have seeen the fruits of the Conservative Resurgence.  It’s an amazing thing; nonetheless, the world is moving forward, and my Southern Baptist brethren are going to have to move forward with it.

Several years ago I bought a one volume compilation of all of E.M. Bounds work on prayer, and thought it was amazing!  It really help jump start my prayer life, and I’ve recommended it widely.  I think the author of the above article is right on track - the Baptists in the 21st Century would do well to head what Rev. Bounds had to say about prayer and power in the church.

Many of the regular readers of the blog know that I’m adopted; it’s a fact I’ve never hidden. As I’ve grown as a Christian, I’ve discovered that the area I need the most growth in, and the doctrine I have the hardest time grasping, is adoption.

I’m incredibly fortunate - the family that adopted me at the tender age of 3 weeks is incredible. They’ve been an amazing gift of God in my life and I’m more thankful for them than I can possibly express. Nevertheless, the idea of adoption is one that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

The reason for the horribly bitter aftertaste left by adoption isn’t easy to explain; as a matter of fact, even posting anything on the subject puts me at risk of becoming a caricature - the stereotypical angry adoptee, of which there are plenty, especially in the blogosphere. To be frank, there’s a part of me that completely identifies with them. I understand their anger, while I believe it in some cases to be misplaced. God knows I’ve gone through several years of my life in an absolute rage over the system of closed adoption, and the secrecy and lies that surround much of the closed adoption system in the United States (particularly my home state of South Carolina).

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