Reformation & Revival

"At times men think of the two words, reformation and revival, as standing in contrast one to the other, but this is a mistake. Both words are related to the word restore.

Reformation refers to a restoration to pure doctrine; revival refers to a restoration in the Christian's life. Reformation speaks of a return to the teachings of Scripture; revival speaks of a life brought into its proper relationship to the Holy Spirit.

The great moments of church history have come when these two restorations have simultaneously come into action so that the church has returned to pure doctrine and the lives of the Christians in the church have known the power of the Holy Spirit. There cannot be true revival unless there has been reformation; and reformation is not complete without revival.

Such a combination of reformation and revival would be revolutionary in our day - revolutionary in our individual lives as Christians, revolutionary not only in reference to the liberal church but constructively revolutionary in the evangelical, orthodox church as well."

-- Francis Schaeffer, Death in the City, 12

Francis Schaeffer on What Matters

"Here is what really matters - to love the Lord our God, to love His Son, and to know Him personally as our Savior. And if we love Him, to do the things that please Him; to simultaneously show forth his character of love and holiness in our lives; to be faithful to His truth; to walk day by day with the living Christ; to live a life of prayer...

"But it does not stop here... We must acknowledge and then act upon the fact that if Christ is our Savior, He is also our Lord in all of life. He is our Lord not just in religious things and not just in cultural things such as the arts and music, but in our intellectual lives, and in business, and in our relation to society, and in our attitude toward the moral breakdown of our culture."

-- Francis Schaeffer, in his final book, as quoted by Lane Dennis in the introduction to Reflections on Francis Schaeffer.