Quotes from Janette Oke

We must obey God rather than orders from men. Jehovah has raised Jesus from the dead and declared him the Messiah, to bring Israel to repentance. We are witnesses of all this, as is the Holy Spirit, the one God has given to those who obey.

I had been used to chatter. To sit quietly did not come easy. However, with time and patience, I was learning.

After some minutes, I went back to the Bible. Again my eyes skimmed the pages. My spirit was calm now. My trembling had ceased. I read passage after passage until I came to Psalm 27:14. I stopped and read it through again. "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.

She whispered, "What of love?" "Bah. Love is for poets and princes. For the likes of us, we must hope for a tomorrow without pain." Dorit must have seen the sorrow shadow Leah's eyes, for her voice gentled. "My little one, listen carefully to what I say. You must set such futile dreams of love and happiness aside. And you must plan.

People are more important than fussing over preparations. Why, I haven't even been good company for Wynn, I realized, looking back in humiliation over some of our last evenings spent together. Well, I would change that. After all, a marriage was of far more importance than a wedding.

I tried to drink a cup of tea, but my hands shook when I lifted the cup to my mouth. I was on the verge of tears, but I knew that tears would do no good. I fed the fire, I prayed, I walked the floor, I prayed, I read my Bible, I prayed; and somehow this even longer second day of storm passed by, hour by hour.

So, if there's a choice between the trimmings or you—then it's easy to leave out the trimmings.

I clung to my Bible and prayed until I felt utterly exhausted. Mid-morning, after reading, weeping, and praying for what seemed like hours, I fell asleep. The long days and sleepless nights had taken their toll, and my body demanded some rest even if my mind fought against it.

a divine emissary—a term so powerful that to another religious Judaean, it might as well be the same person wearing a different skin. An ambassador with divine implications.

But how did we respond to this gift? We crucified him. We all stand convicted, guilty of a crime so horrendous the very heavens shook. I was there that day, Roman. I witnessed an astonishing event. The curtain between the Temple's inner chambers and the Holy of Holies, where our Lord God is said to dwell, was split from the top to the bottom. Do you hear what I am saying? From top to bottom. This is impossible, for no man can reach that high. Yet it happened, without anyone touching it.

God says we are of worth. Satan tries to convince us we are mere trash. If he can accomplish that, then we give up. We do no even try to fullfill our God-given ministry to others.

there was no question but what he had just experienced came from beyond him—a sign of his transformation, and certainly the wonder of it all. Love so pure, so intense, burned away all he had been. No longer was he the second son, the princeling who would never make his rightful claim, the man of thwarted ambitions, the lonely officer trapped in a post and a land that hated him and all that he stood for. None of this mattered. Not in the face of this love.

Why is this important? Because it means the division between God and man has been abolished. Vanished. How? Because the great Jehovah, the One whose name may only be whispered once each year by the anointed high priest, had sent—yes, sent—his Son to be crucified. Why? How could the eternal Lord of all do such a thing?

Grandmother Withers nodded, looking bemused. No doubt she had wondered if the car horn was ever going to sound.

When tragedy happens a real family pulls together, mine ripped apart.

Servants, serve well your masters. For this is right. And in so doing, you do it as to the Lord.

Here we sit. Sinners bound together by the impossible command to love our enemies.

The other men came in and somehow Lou got the same order across to them. We all went to comply—like so many dumb sheep.

for the money that her outfit cost my grandpa.

She had been locked in a self-imposed shell, stiff and serious and afraid to feel. But that was in the past now. She was free, in many senses for the very first time, liberated to live and laugh – and love.

A heart that knows sorrow loses the ability to compare. I will just tell you that I have walked a road marked and rutted as your own. I too had every reason to grow bitter. I could have turned my back on the Lord above. But I chose to trust Him. I cannot say that I understand His ways, but this trust has served me well. It has comforted me through hard times, and blessed me with joy when there was goodness about – and with peace when there wasn't.

His kingdom is not one like we have understood. But he will reign from a throne. And when he does, it will be with the power of love." "Love? Not revolution?" "No. Jesus never taught revolution, the kind with swords and battles and bloodshed. He talked about a revolution of love. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy.

Lord, do not charge them with this sin.

his revolution is about—one that changes a person to be able to do something even that impossible." "Do the others . . . do they believe as you do?" "Oh yes. The new kingdom will be one of restoration. Of peace. We will no longer have need for instruments of war.