Quotes from Janette Oke

We must share his truth—to change our world. To make it a place filled with love rather than hate. With peace, rather than war. With mercy, rather than revenge. With holiness, rather than evil.

How I looked forward to having my house neat and orderly again.

If we are to fight evil in our world—as we are called to do—we cannot harbor deceitfulness in our hearts. May God give us the courage and the strength and the wisdom to live as he wants us to live. He is a holy God. And he is also a God of love. He desires only our good. He will show us what we each must learn from this experience today.

God had promised He would never leave me nor forsake me. That held true on a city street, in a rural teacherage, or in a remote part of the North.

Stephen raised his hands and shouted, "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you!" Ezra saw lances of genuine pain stab each of the men seated at the Council table. He felt again the power of his own guilt and regret and distress. Stephen finished with, "You now have become the betrayers and murderers, you who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it!

The Sadducees are Hellenized Judeans and dominate the Council. The Pharisees are a minority on the Council, and consider the Sadducees to be their, well—" "Their enemy.

In the book of Isaiah, one of our holy texts written by a prophet of old, there are these words: 'Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord almighty will accomplish this.

Stephen remained untouched. Instead, the illumination surrounding him strengthened further, as though all light in the chamber was drawn to this one man. Stephen lifted his face toward the chamber's ceiling and cried, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" These words unleashed both the Council and the mob. The chamber was filled with shrill cries demanding he be condemned to death.

You are not the only one who has spent the night in reflection. The final festival of the spring season is this coming Sabbath, fifty days after Passover. In Hebrew it is called Shavuot, though many now call it by its Greek name, Pentecost. It marks the end of the spring harvest, and the day carries a divine purpose. We are called to draw near to the throne of God, to receive an earthly foretaste of the splendor to come.

From now on, I determined, I'm going to pay more attention to my husband and be less concerned with my silly little doings.

Everywhere the woman went she drew her little rainbow of happiness along with her.

His eyes fixed on mine for an instant, then he turned back to the fire.