Quotes from Janette Oke

I beg you to stop your arguing and listen. The prophets speak of this time, when the Chosen One of God will cleave us apart, separating the believers from those who will be cast into the outer darkness. Have you ever in all your days seen a time when the division has been clearer? Have you ever known a time when miracles rained down from an empty sky, when the prophets' words were so clearly being fulfilled?

Sometimes the way God chooses to lead us is through our own disquieted Spirit. pg. 241

But the teacher they follow is dead." "Is he? Are you so certain of that?" Gamaliel's eyes carried a piercing quality. "Have you bothered to hear what they are saying? They spoke their news again yesterday, standing before the group that had threatened them with death. They follow a messiah who departed so that the Spirit of God could breathe upon them all, a messiah who lives within.

Stephen could not have been more different than they. When he once more turned back, Ezra took the opportunity to ask, "Are you perhaps a member of the Sadducees?" The younger man gave Ezra his full attention. "Not now, not ever," he answered with a slight shake of his head. "I believe in the afterlife and the union with the risen Lord. As do all followers of the Way.

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.

Which was why the Sadducees in particular were so infuriated with this sect, Ezra realized. The Sadducees were convinced the afterlife did not exist at all. Man lived, man died. The candle was snuffed out. Finished. A very Greek philosophy, it was one that found favor only with the highly educated, the rich, the well traveled. The average Judean despised the Sadducees for this and for how they had allied themselves with the Romans.

It is vital for these new believers to understand that this is not a cult following any man. We seek the risen Lord. Our allegiance is to him alone. All power derives from Jesus and resides in him.

Alban finally realized why Pilate was so concerned about revolution. The man ruled this province with one irregular legion, mostly mercenaries, few fully trained. Against him stood a people who were united only by prayer. But united with a mysterious bond totally foreign to any Roman Alban knew. Roman

but the truth is this. Peter opened his heart and mind to the Spirit's movement and acted as he was directed. Nothing more. We are merely hands and feet for the Spirit's use.

Despite their poverty, their tragic pasts, their own sorrows, they stood before her in strength and spoke with a wisdom that defied their circumstances.

He called out to his father. Since that moment, night after night I hear the man's cry echoing in my soul. He speaks like no man I have ever heard before. He invites one of the thieves to join him that very night in the heavens. He asks his father to forgive us. He asks his father why he is forsaken. And then he says three final words: It is finished. And he leaves.

His gaze lingered upon Abigail

They met each morning with a group of the followers for a time of thanksgiving and supplication, a practice maintained by members of their group throughout Jerusalem.

It's not that somehow we may discover something in how we view ourselves or our enviroment that we'll find suitably fillling, that will help us rise above the daily struggle for existence. I'm saying that everything in the natural world proclaims there's something infinetly more-some wisdom and reason behing everything we see. Just look around. It doesn't take a college degree to see it.

So that is what we pray for. That God will give you the wisdom and the faith to look beyond this moment. To know that whatever lies ahead, he has prepared the way. And he will have you ready for it as long as you are faithfully following him.

Oh, a heart's a poor choice to follow. It's so easily hoodwinked.

Barnabas?" "Yes, that's the one. He sold a property, and this very evening he set the money at the apostles' feet." "What—all of it?" "Everything. We have enough for months to come." His voice held a quiet triumph. "Another wondrous sign that God is taking care of us.

girl thet I've ever felt this way about." Lou was probably thinkin' right then about Tillie White-comb, who'd

He was too bold," said Abigail with a shake of her head. "It was not proper. And he is Roman." Leah

Memories were not always pleasant, she decided. Memories could bring pain, too. She

She had a hard time to keep from running.

about Mother, though she tried hard not to let it affect the rest of us.

All I know for certain is this: Caiaphas—and probably Annas also—is still extremely worried about a man who was most definitely crucified and buried.

Our task is to carry the Lord's peace into every situation, into every duty.