Underground Exiles

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.

Since we’ve finished up the short series on prayer, I’ve posted one prayer request, and now I’ve got a new one for you.

The African nation of Chad his been in a downward spiral of violence that has recently calmed down, but is apparently not over. Chad has had a large spill over of refugees from the ongoing conflict in Darfur, and much of this violence has been spawned by Sudanese backed rebels.

Chad, a part of France’s African holdings until 1960, has endured three decades of civil warfare as well as invasions by Libya before a semblance of peace was finally restored in 1990. The government eventually drafted a democratic constitution and held flawed presidential elections in 1996 and 2001.

Here’s the challenge:

Spend one week praying for the nation of Chad. Here’s what you can pray about:

1. Infant mortality is high: 91.45 deaths out of 1,000 live births.
2. Many Chadian Muslims have been recruited as mercenaries to attack and kill Christians in Nigeria.
3. The country is almost equally divided between Muslim northerners, who are politically more powerful, and increasingly more marginalized Christian/ethnic religion southerners. Pray for continued peace and freedom in all ethnic and religious communities.
4. There are more unreached peoples in Chad than anywhere else in Africa. Pray for ongoing support and protection for missionaries already working here. Pray also that God would call many to dedicate years to learning the languages and building the Kingdom in Chad.

So here we go:

I’m reading through a load of New and Old Testament passages on prayer, while simultaneously trying to pick apart Calvin’s comments on prayer in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, and I’ve been very convicted by one recurring theme.

Prayer is intimately connected to passion. And passion, ladies and gents, is one of a number of things that is severely lacking in my own prayer life.

The single, unifying passion of all prayer is Jesus. As the image says,

“obsesssively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus…”

All prayer is about Jesus and His kingdom, and is directed towards Jesus for the triumph of His kingdom. If Jesus isn’t at the center, it just isn’t really prayer.

So why this obsession with Jesus?

Read more…

Some recommended reading for all of the fellow exiles for this week:

Institutes Of The Christian Religion, by John Calvin (particularly Book 3, chapter 20 on the subject of prayer.)

Unfortunately, Calvin has gotten a bad reputation as a dry, harsh theologian, and it’s been forgotten that in addition to being a first-rank theologian, the man was a pastor who had a burning heart for Christ and His people.

As I’ve re-opened up the prayer account, I’m going to use Calvin’s thoughts on prayer as a jumping off point for a series on the subject of prayer.

Stick around, and we’ll jump in next time!

So, in keeping with the original series on the old blog, I’m re-opening the prayer account here at undergroundexiles.com.

If you’ve got a prayer request that you would like for someone to partner in prayer with you about, then send me some mail!

If this goes as nuts as it did last time around, I’ll be getting some other folks to join with me in prayer for you. (The last time I did this I was averaging 600 emails a day.)

If you have a confidential request, just add the word CONFIDENTIAL to your subject header, and I’ll be the only one reading that email, and praying about it.

Thank all of you so much for allowing me the high honor and privilege of praying with and for you, and I greatly look forward to reading your email!

Oh, and as a note, when you email me, include your name, location, and the state of your faith (i.e. believer, not sure, new believer).  The more information I have, the better I feel like I pray.  So be as specific as you can!