Steve Harper > Quotes

“The most self-serving thing one can do is live their life selflessly. Selflessly give your experience. Selflessly give your knowledge. Selflessly give your time. Selflessly give whatever it is you have to give. And the world will rise to meet you.”
― Steve Harper

“The desire of the Holy Spirit to produce the life of love in us and our failure to allow the Spirit to do so has created the basis for the world’s rejection of Christianity. ”
― Steve Harper, For the Sake of the Bride: Restoring the Church to Her Intended Beauty

“To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Love is my true character. Love is my name.”28 This is the message the creator sends to us through the creation.”
― Steve Harper, Holy Love: A Biblical Theology for Human Sexuality

“the love of God the Father” can either mean God’s love to us or our love to God. John Wesley wanted the early Methodists to read it both ways, first receiving God’s love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and then responding to that love by enacting the two great commandments.”
― Steve Harper, Five Marks of a Methodist: The Fruit of a Living Faith

“There is no greater day in the Christian life than when we discover that salvation means wholeness. It doesn’t merely mean going to heaven when we die; it means living abundantly while we are here. But for this to happen, says Jesus—says Wesley—we must love God.”
― Steve Harper, Five Marks of a Methodist: The Fruit of a Living Faith

“Judging is not your job; it is God’s job. God is the only one who can judge another person correctly. Your job is to pay mind to your own life and to your relationship with God.”
― Steve Harper, For the Sake of the Bride: Restoring the Church to Her Intended Beauty

“Humility is the leveling agent, the eliminator of all hierarchies. It is the factor that makes us confessional on the one hand, and non-judgmental on the other. No exceptions.”
― Steve Harper, For the Sake of the Bride: Restoring the Church to Her Intended Beauty

“There is no greater expression of love than the cross.”
― Steve Harper, For the Sake of the Bride: Restoring the Church to Her Intended Beauty

“A conversation about grace in Wesleyan terms entails at least four different elements: the grace revealed in Jesus Christ, the free and unbounded character of God’s grace, grace in both creation and redemption, and the implications for living in and through grace.”
― Steve Harper, Upward!: Wesleyan Formation in Three Movements

“When we make love our pursuit, it is the motive for every moment of our life.”
― Steve Harper, For the Sake of the Bride: Restoring the Church to Her Intended Beauty

“There is only one way to get rid of your enemies, and that is turn them into your friends, and the only way possible to turn them into friends is to love them.”
― Steve Harper, For the Sake of the Bride: Restoring the Church to Her Intended Beauty

“The way through controversy is not through superficiality, clichés, caricatures, and sound bites. It is through the time-consuming, energy-draining work of putting together the best thoughts that I possibly can.”
― Steve Harper, For the Sake of the Bride: Restoring the Church to Her Intended Beauty

“It is only in Christ that we will find the spirit, the substance, the strength, the stamina, and the skill to engage each other in ways that will enable us to move forward as God intends.”
― Steve Harper, For the Sake of the Bride: Restoring the Church to Her Intended Beauty