Mystical Union

How can I even attempt to summarise a book in one post? Can't. So I'll try at least to explain the title. Mystical Union by John Crowder is one of those very few books I'd tell you is a must read. It is also quite controversial in the Christian world (at least, the author is) but I've met him and he is not the kook some would make him. Only a kook in the same way the apostle Paul was a kook for Jesus. Read the book and you only hear a man who is passionate about Jesus and about people believing the right thing about salvation.
That He uses the word 'mystical' is just to provoke the unlearned masses - mystical was a word used by early Christians to describe our union with Christ, and the word 'mystery' was used all through the new testament. We owned the mystical realm way before the occultic factions nabbed it as a phrase.

Why do I like this book? Because it helped set me free from a whole lot of entanglement that can insidiously take over your Christian life. I was seeking 'nothing but the truth' because I had a feeling deep down that life was meant to be so much simpler than what it had become. By the time you have been involved with a number of different ministries over the decades, all well intentioned, passionate, but tunnel visioned and sub-effective, you may come to this point too. Why so some people never get free? Why do they slip and struggle and turn back to the worlds pleasures? Why is it not fun? How can you have joy when the job is so serious? How was I ever going to convince someone who is obviously oppressed and weighed down that they need to take these seven steps to freedom? Or three steps to salvation. Or 10 steps to improve your prayer life. Or say these scriptures over and over until your faith increases. How come as an intercessor it was suddenly my job to stand in the gap for people, to be responsible for healing or success? To 'step up' and lead folks who were unashamedly leaning on whoever would let them? Why do people come back to the altar for prayer time after time with minimal progress? Am I some warrior who gets movie kudos for bringing in a lost soul? Why does that seem so lame?

Because none of these things has anything to do with the original gospel. And mankind is really good at defaulting to making it complicated and hard work. 'Religion' sucks, and has wormed her way even into good Pentecostal churches - those churches who proclaim they are most free of it! There is a form of 'Galatian Bewitchment' (advocating that we 'work' for our holiness) that has crept into the Body and created a fog over the minds of many. I too, had been sucked in, and now I was tired. But Holy Spirit had never stopped whispering hope into my ear and as I turned to find the Truth again, He lead me back into the green pastures alongside quiet waters, where I could listen and hear.

Now, before you think I'm playing the Hallelujah chorus in the background at this point, I must warn you. John Crowder barbecues a lot of sacred theological cows (his own confession, page 10) and messes with some things you might not ready to be messed with. I loved it. And I was ready. As he also says "It takes a brave person to allow their world to be flipped on its head."

Here are a few quotes from the book that may help set the scene. By the way, for those of you who need scripture references, this book is fat with them; I just haven't put any here for now:

"There is a reason that the gospel was first called "good news." It is a gloriously happy message of effortless union with God. It comes as an utter shock and outrage to the depressive human willpower that is common to religion."
"There is a faulty assumption that union is something we progressively climb into, rather than a state we begin with at salvation."
"Modern Christianity is chock full of bite-sized, cliché words that refer to completely unbiblical concepts. There is a prevailing language of unbelief in the church. Most of the church is still in an Old Covenant, do-it-yourself perspective. When people today talk about "pressing in" they refer to somehow obtaining "more of God" or "getting into God's glory". It is sacrilege to believe God could give you anything more than the fullness of Himself on the cross. It is also sacrilege to think there's something you could do to "position" yourself to get into His Glory. Jesus positioned Himself to get you into the Glory."
"Most of our worship songs are begging God to do things He has already done."

I hope you don't think I am meaning to be devisive. Churches are doing a fine job of that without Crowder adding to it. So instead, we just so much want Christians to be free, to be energised by the One who works so powerfully from within, and for unbelievers to realise they have been saved all along.
My Shelfari/Mystical-Union