Quotes from Janette Oke

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.

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?

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.

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.