Quotes from Janette Oke

We did not go right to sleep but talked until late into the night. There was so much to tell one another, so many questions on my mind.

How each of us comes for our own reasons." "Comes where?" "To be with them and listen to their message. What Stephen meant was that our motives are wrong. Our thinking is wrong. But if we come... with an open heart and mind, we will see the rightness of their declarations.

Governed the tides by the distant moon? Who put the "wonder" within my breast? Set off the "joy bells" within my soul? Who gave a reason to even exist? Made earth a "mission" and heaven a "goal"? Mere chance occurrence? Complete mystery? Of course there's a reason, if only we prod. Nature demands it—and so does my heart. There's only one Answer. Only one God!

Mankind cannot suffer anywhere without it bringing sorrow to other hearts.

Who knows what exciting things might be just over the next hill.

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.

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.