Michael Reeves QUOTES

61 " Henry’s younger daughter Elizabeth was very much a chip off the old block. Imperious and relentlessly energetic, she had a quicksilver mind capable of lightning-fast repartee, and enough political cunning to survive Mary’s reign without slipping up. And, being who she was, everyone knew she would reintroduce Protestantism. "

― Michael Reeves , The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

62 " The things he had understood to be sin (murder, adultery, etc.) he now understood to be mere symptoms of the real problem: unbelief. "

― Michael Reeves , The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

63 " The wrath of the triune God is exactly the opposite of a character blip or a nasty side in him. It is the proof of the sincerity of his love, that he truly cares. His love is not mild-mannered and limp; it is livid, potent and committed. And therein lies our hope: through his wrath the living God shows that he is truly loving, and through his wrath he will destroy all devilry that we might enjoy him in a purified world, the home of righteousness. "

― Michael Reeves , Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith

64 " We breathe in Scripture, and we breathe out prayer. Breathe in, breathe out: that’s the Christian life. Prayer is the breath of heavenly life: where that life is, there must be some prayer; where that life flourishes, there will be much prayer, and much pleasure in prayer. And friends, let us be clear: the life-breath of Christianity, of healthy churches, is not our talent, or even our hard work. It is prayer: active dependence upon God. "

― Michael Reeves , Authentic Ministry: Serving from the Heart

65 " And for those getting ordained, there was a new expectation: now it was clear that becoming a minister was not about being a priest who offers sacrifices (in the Mass), but primarily about preaching. To that end, those being ordained, instead of being invested with priestly clothes, were given a Bible. "

― Michael Reeves , The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

66 " When your culture is hedonistic, your religion therapeutic, and your goal a feeling of personal well-being, fear will be the ever-present headache. "

― Michael Reeves , Rejoice and Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord

67 " A justificação, portanto, não trata de Deus nos fazer justos, mas de nos declarar justos. Essa é a linguagem de um tribunal de justiça, e não de um hospital. A justificação não é um processo de cura, mas uma declaração de que temos uma posição justa e positiva diante de Deus. "

― Michael Reeves , Why the Reformation Still Matters

68 " There is a fascinating tension at just this point in Islam. Traditionally, Allah is said to have ninety-nine names, titles which describe him as he is in himself in eternity. One of them is ‘The Loving’. But how could Allah be loving in eternity? Before he created there was nothing else in existence that he could love (and the title does not refer to self-centred love but love for others). The only option is that Allah eternally loves his creation. But that in itself raises an enormous problem: if Allah needs his creation to be who he is in himself (‘loving’), then Allah is dependent on his own creation, and one of the cardinal beliefs of Islam is that Allah is dependent on nothing. "

― Michael Reeves , Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith

69 " And false prophets—wolves in sheeps’ clothing that Jesus warned us would come—may still be with us. There are liberals who deny the Bible, and legalists and moralists who ignore its message, and prosperity teachers who twist it, but there are countless millions who’ve read the Word and understood and believed the gospel. "

― Michael Reeves , The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

70 " If God is like Jesus, then, though I am sinful like the dying thief, I can dare to cry, “Remember me” (see Lk 23:42). I know how he will respond. Though I am so spiritually lame and leprous, I can call out to him. For I know just what he is like toward the weak and sick. In "

― Michael Reeves , Rejoicing in Christ

71 " There are those like Peter James Lee, Episcopal Bishop of Virginia, who said in 2004, ‘If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always choose heresy. "

― Michael Reeves , The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

72 " it is especially the love of God shown in the cross that turns and transforms the hearts of sinners. In the horrifying torture and crucifixion of Jesus we see the highest proof of the highest love.41 His bleeding makes our hearts bleed, and his shame makes us ashamed. In the cross we see a divine disgust at sin that makes sin appalling in our eyes too.42 But further, through the cross we see a love so livid that it pierces our apathy and overwhelms our desire for other things. Sinners, Spurgeon said, are naturally held back from God by lack of desire for him; “but the cross will breed desire. They are held back by love of sin; but the cross will make them hate the sin that crucified the Saviour.”43 The cross is the quintessence of that love which makes us love (1 John 4:19). "

― Michael Reeves , Spurgeon on the Christian Life: Alive in Christ (Theologians on the Christian Life)

73 " The first main work, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, was Luther’s trumpet blast of reformation against the defensive walls Rome had built around herself. There were three such walls, he said: Rome’s first defence was the claim that the pope was the supreme power on earth; the second, that only the pope may interpret the Scriptures; the third, that no one but the pope may summon a council and thus reform the church. "

― Michael Reeves , The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

74 " Luther came out of hiding, returned to Wittenberg, and, instead of using force to reform, sought to persuade people with the Scriptures through simple, clear preaching. He believed that the word of God must first convince people, and then the rotten old structures would collapse. It was exactly what he had stood for before the emperor, that it is the Scriptures that must drive and dictate thought and practice. As a result, Luther never believed that he should devise any great programme for spreading the Reformation. He simply wanted to unleash the word of God, and let that do all the work. "

― Michael Reeves , The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

75 " Bursting through death, out of the grave, the Son overturned the old order—or disorder, we should say—of Adam. The reign of death and corruption was undone, and a human being now stood, body and soul, wholly beyond the reach of the curse. "

― Michael Reeves , Rejoicing in Christ

76 " Our delight in God is so essential because it 1) distinguishes us from demons, 2) is the heartbeat of the saints, 3) is part of entering the true life of God, and 4) is what we were made for. "

― Michael Reeves , Authentic Ministry: Serving from the Heart

77 " Sibbes seems to suggest that, even in reforming the Reformation, the real spirit of reformation could be lost, and all the doubts and anxieties of medieval Catholicism come streaming back in through the back door of a zealous Christian moralism that had lost sight of the grace of God. It was to maintain this essence of the Reformation that Sibbes and Puritans like him sought to teach and proclaim ‘the gracious nature and office of Christ; the right conceit of which is the spring of all service to Christ, and comfort from him’. "

― Michael Reeves , The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

78 " Sermons up to seven hours long were not unheard-of. Laurence Chaderton, the extraordinarily long-lived Master of that nursery of Puritanism, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, once apologized to his congregation for preaching to them for two straight hours. Their response was to cry, ‘For God’s sake, Sir, go on, go on! "

― Michael Reeves , The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

79 " I will constrain no man by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything. "

― Michael Reeves , The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

80 " Jesus Christ, God’s perfect Son, is the Beloved of the Father, the Song of the angels, the Logic of creation, the great Mystery of godliness, the bottomless Spring of life, comfort and joy. We were made to find our satisfaction, our heart’s rest, in him. "

― Michael Reeves , Rejoicing in Christ