Joe Marlin

“The gifts of the Spirit are adornments to our Christian life, adornments of a loving God to His bride. They are important and precious, but peripheral. That is, they are not the main means of Christian living. Too many Christians today focus on a cosmetic view of Christianity in which they see themselves in self-improvement programs. Come to Jesus and get your marriage fixed. Come to Jesus and become prosperous. Come to Jesus and get this or that blessing or whatever thing they are looking for. We emphasize strongly to come to Jesus because He is worthy to be worshipped, whether or not He fixes our marriages or heals our bodies or gives us new cars. We may go through life with a marriage partner who for one reason or another is never going to come to Christ or relate in a proper way, but Jesus is still worthy of our loyalty. The commitment call to Christ is also to the community of Christ, the Church. This means we must learn to love the people we wouldn’t necessary even like.”
― John Wimber, Everyone Gets to Play

“Do not forget to rejoice, for hope is always just around the corner. Hold up through the hard times that are coming, and devote yourselves to prayer.”
― Anonymous, The Voice Bible: Step Into the Story of Scripture

“The gifts of the Spirit are adornments to our Christian life, adornments of a loving God to His bride. They are important and precious, but peripheral. That is, they are not the main means of Christian living. Too many Christians today focus on a cosmetic view of Christianity in which they see themselves in self-improvement programs. Come to Jesus and get your marriage fixed. Come to Jesus and become prosperous. Come to Jesus and get this or that blessing or whatever thing they are looking for. We emphasize strongly to come to Jesus because He is worthy to be worshipped, whether or not He fixes our marriages or heals our bodies or gives us new cars. We may go through life with a marriage partner who for one reason or another is never going to come to Christ or relate in a proper way, but Jesus is still worthy of our loyalty. The commitment call to Christ is also to the community of Christ, the Church. This means we must learn to love the people we wouldn’t necessary even like. This means learning to relate in community with people in a variety of settings: everything from living together in small groups to living independent of one another but interacting as community once, twice or three times a week in meetings and personal relationships. Acts 2:42 reads, “They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the Apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and giving to anyone as he had need.”
― John Wimber, Everyone Gets to Play

“Leaving the self out of Christian spirituality results in a spirituality that is not well grounded in experience. It is, therefore, not well grounded in reality. Focusing on God while failing to know ourselves deeply may produce an external form of piety, but it will always leave a gap between appearance and reality. This is dangerous to the soul of anyone—and in spiritual leaders it can also be disastrous for those they lead.”
― David G. Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery