As I survey the contemporary church, one of my gravest concerns is the power and prevalence of mysticism. It appears in pulpits, books, and conversation. It is at the heart of Sarah Young’s bestselling Jesus Calling, it is in all the much-loved books by John Eldredge, it fills the pages of so many books on spiritual disciplines or spiritual formation, it is almost everywhere you look. Language that was once considered the distinguishing language of mysticism is now commonly used by Evangelicals.

Mysticism was once regarded as an alternative to Evangelical Christianity. You were Evangelical or you were a mystic, you heeded the doctrine of the Reformation and understood it to faithfully describe the doctrine laid out in Scripture or you heeded the doctrine of mysticism. Today, though, mysticism has wormed its way inside Evangelicalism so that the two have become integrated and almost inseparable. In an age of syncretism we fail to spot the contradiction and opposition.

Several years ago Donald Whitney attempted to define the boundaries of Evangelical spirituality--the boundaries of how we may rightly live out our Christian faith. His paper has been very helpful to me as I’ve thought this through.

Before we proceed, we need some definitions, and I will turn to Whitney: Evangelical theology is “the theology and practice considered orthodox by a consensus of the heirs of the Reformation.” These are the five solas of the Reformation, the divinity of Jesus Christ, the necessity of his atoning work, and so on--the core doctrines of historic Protestantism. Mysticism refers “those forms of Christian spirituality which attempt direct or unmediated access to God.” Mystics are those who expect to experience “a direct inner realization of the Divine” and an “unmediated link to an absolute.”

I want to track with Whitney as he expresses his concerns and challenges us to think carefully.

The Big Boundary

The first thing Whitney does is tell us where we can and must go to find the boundaries that must surround Evangelicalism. He says that they will and must be found in “the written self-revelation of God.” Whatever the boundaries are, they are God’s own boundaries and have been revealed to us. We cannot depend upon ourselves, our own wisdom or our own desires, to teach us about how we may experience God. The Bible points us to two forms of revelation: natural revelation and special revelation.

In natural revelation God reveals himself through creation, but this is incomplete and insufficient revelation. “It reveals Him to us only as Creator. It does little, if anything, to reveal Him to us as holy, as Judge, as Son, as Savior, or as Spirit.” For us to know God as he is and for us to obey him, we must have more than the revelation God gives us through what he has created.

As is the case with so many Christians I speak to, my theology of prayer is much stronger than my practice of prayer. I know so much of what the Bible says about the privilege, priority and practice of prayer, yet struggle mightily to pray fervently and consistently. Putting that theology into practice remains a daily battle.

For this reason I make books on prayer a regular part of my reading diet. While I have read enough books on the subject that I do not always find new ground, I always benefit from an author's excitement and always learn from his experiences. Reading a book on prayer renews my confidence in prayer and sparks a renewed desire to do the hard work of praying.

I first encountered H.B. Charles Jr. through his blog and quickly became a regular reader. I have since benefited from many of his articles and especially those that deal with preaching. In a recent post he mentioned the publication of a new book, his first book, and I quickly grabbed a copy. It Happens After Prayer is (obviously) a book on prayer. Another book on prayer. It is one I enjoyed. In fact, I sat down on my day off to read a chapter or two and a few hours later had read to the end, pausing only to throw together a quick lunch.

The book's great strength is in drawing upon the passages in Scripture that show God's people praying. Charles throws down a major challenge right from the earliest pages:

Prayer is our Christian duty. It is an expression of submission to God and dependence upon Him. For that matter, prayer is arguably the most objective measurement of our dependence upon God. Think of it this way. The things you pray about are the things you trust God to handle. The things you neglect to pray about are the things you trust you can handle on your own.

If this is true, and I believe it is, he has just exposed a lot of self-dependence in me. Not only that, but where I continually slip into the mode of viewing prayer as a duty, a necessity, Charles allowed me to see it again as a privilege and an honor.

Series Introduction: I live in a small house. I work in a small office in a small church. For those reasons and others I will never have a huge library. When I add a book I almost always remove a book, a practice that allows me to focus on quality over quantity. Over the past couple of years I have focused on building a collection of commentaries that will include only the best volumes on each book of the Bible. I know when I’m in way over my head, so before I began I collected every good resource I could find that rated and reviewed commentaries. I studied them and then began my collection on the basis of what the experts told me. Since I did all of that work, and since I continue to keep up with the project, I thought it might be helpful to share the recommendations.

My focus is on newer commentaries (at least in part because most of the classics are now freely or cheaply available) and I am offering approximately 5 recommendations for each book of the Bible, alternating between the Old Testament and the New. Today I have turned to the experts to find what they say about Judges.

Judges

Dale Ralph Davis - Judges: Such A Great Salvation (Focus on the Bible). I have said before that I am always glad to find a clear consensus on the best commentary on any book of the Bible. When it comes to Judges, the consensus is that there are two excellent volumes which perfectly complement one another. The first is Dale Ralph Davis’ volume in the Focus on the Bible series. Keith Mathison says it well: “If you can only have one commentary on the historical books, get the commentaries by Davis. There are other commentaries that go into more detail on technical issues (see below), but Davis provides what most Christian readers of these books need — a concise and readable explanation of the text that sets each book within the larger context of biblical redemptive history all without ever becoming boring or trite.” (Amazon, Westminster Books)

Daniel I. Block - Judges, Ruth (New American Commentary, 1999). Tremper Longman, who has not reviewed Dale Ralph Davis’ volume, gives Block’s commentary a 5-star rating and says, “This contribution is clearly the best thing available on the book of Judges. Block is thoroughly aware of all the literature that precedes his own, and he incorporates what is good and criticizes what is bad.” He also praises Block’s insights along with his literary and theological analysis. This commentary is slightly more advanced and in-depth than Davis’. (Amazon, Westminster Books)

K. Lawson Younger Jr. - Judges, Ruth (NIV Application Commentary). Younger’s commentary is considered one of the stronger volumes of the NIV Application Commentary series. The strength of the series tends to be application ahead of original meaning, but Longman points out that in Younger’s case this is reversed so that the section dealing with contemporary significance is not as strong as it might have been. (Amazon, Westminster Books)

The Stigma of Mental Illness - Brad Hambrick has written an important article for the Biblical Counseling Coalition. He looks at the role of language in our discussions of mental illness. “Consider the breadth of meaning that can be contained within the simple sentence, ‘I'm depressed.’ That's what we say after a bad math test, the end of romantic relationship, the death of a parent, after prolonged isolation, and when we're hung over from alcohol (a depressant). Then there is clinical depression which has some relation to these experiences, but may or may not be present in the down mood associated with the list of experiences above.”

Your Church Is Too Small - Hillsong is a growing movement and I found it helpful to read this ground-level perspective on their most recent conference. It draws attention to both the strengths and the weaknesses of the movement, its conferences, churches and music.

The Pro-Life Home - Rachel Jankovic: “The Gosnell situation shines light on the darkness of abortion in a way that nothing else has in a long time. Stories like this one (and the recent video sting of that clinic in the Bronx) make me realize that I am just far enough away from the reality of abortion to forget to fight it, and that I needed this kind of reminder. Let me try to explain myself.”

Kindle Fire HD - I share a lot of deals on Kindle books, so I guess it makes sense to also share deals when the Kindle itself goes on sale. The Kindle Fire HD is $20 off until Mother’s Day with the coupon code FIRE4MOM.

Cities Behind Walls - I enjoyed this gallery of cities that were built behind walls. It makes for an interesting contrast between the modern and the ancient.

What Is Hesed? - God’s hesed is his loyal love. “God loves His people genuinely, immutably, loyally. Both the love and the loyalty are, of course, tightly bound together. That is, just as one cannot love capriciously so one cannot be loyal without love. God is for His people, and will never cease to be for them.” Be sure to read down to the personal applications.

I have never won an inch of the way to heaven without fighting for it. —C.H. Spurgeon