Adventist Review Podcasts

It started with a nervous breakfast: a Seventh-day Adventist pastor across the table from an ordained Buddhist minister, both unsure what to expect. Then she explained what she does before eating—a silent thanks to everyone who made the meal possible, from the farmers to the bacteria in the soil—and the awkwardness melted away. There are 500 million Buddhists in the world. How much do we really know about them? This piece walks through what Buddhists believe, the surprising values they share with Adventists, and how one Buddhist landlady slowly came to faith—not through argument, but experience. What builds a real bridge between two faiths? Listen.

“If God is good and grace is real, why do I still feel badly about my mistakes?”

A popular illusion of new Christians is that the rescue wrought for them by Jesus is supposed to save them from any sorrow about their past. In the shallow mythology we clutch, everything about our new life as believers ought to be “peace, light, and joy.”

Yet God’s Word poignantly asks, “Do you not know that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?” (Rom 2:4). Assured at last of God’s continuing affection for us, we look more honestly at how often we ignored His love, mistreated others, and damaged our own happiness. That new-found honesty naturally disturbs us, for we see clearly what we previously refused to see.

A heart made clean and new by God will also experience real sorrow for the past. As the psalmist tearfully admitted, “Against you—you above all—I have sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight” (Psalmist 51:4).

The grace that saves us also changes us, for real love would never leave us where we were. Embrace the new and better life to which God’s kindness has now led you, even through some honest tears.

Now stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Picture a World Cup final with no referee — both teams disqualifying each other's players, every goal disputed, chaos taking over. Someone has to make the final call. But who decides the meaning of Scripture? It's a question that cuts to the heart of one of Protestantism's oldest principles: sola scriptura. And the objections are sharper than you might expect. If Scripture never actually says "Scripture alone," doesn't the whole idea collapse on itself? And didn't the church decide which books made the Bible — meaning the church came first? This article takes those challenges seriously. Listen in for some surprising answers.

“Because he’s never said he’s sorry”. . . “She kept the ring my grandma wanted me to have” . . . “He laughed at how I cringed at his cheap insult.”

All these—and more—as reasons that we can’t—or won’t—forgive. We acidly rehearse the story of our injury, deepening divides and festering in feuds. Soon we come to like the bitter taste of bile, for anger feels powerful, and power is what we want.

But Jesus offers us another way—a path of grace that doesn’t measure wounds and grievances. “Love your enemies,“ He urges. “Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you” (Luke 6:27-28).

Such kindness seems impossible until—unless—we grasp how greatly we have been forgiven. Our graciousness is still the greatest sign that we have understood our real state, for “a person who is forgiven little shows only little love” (Luke 7:47).

If you never need forgiveness, then stay as hot and angry as you dare. But if your story calls for grace, accept the Father’s timely gift.

And stay in it. -Bill Knott

The old proverb reminds us, “Some things must be seen to be believed.”

And so it often is with grace: we can’t believe in something so miraculous—so unexpected, undeserved—even though God’s Word repeatedly declares it: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2;8).

Until we see grace in the flesh—in someone near enough to care—we wonder if such kindness is just rich, warm-hearted myth. The one we thought an enemy who doesn’t reach for his revenge; the friend who quietly forgives our rudeness or our thoughtlessness; the colleague who works overnight to make up for our lack—each gives us just a glimpse of that unbounded and eternal grace that always seeks our flourishing. God sifts His goodness into every day through those who love has changed.

We learn grace from gracious people. In unsung, unexpected ways, they live the kindness in the heart of God.

Live warmly, joyfully yourself. You’ll be the grace some other seeker needs.

And stay in it. -Bill Knott

When you picture someone who changes the world, who comes to mind? A CEO? An influencer with millions of followers? But what if the most lasting impact rarely happens on center stage at all? Meet Andrew—a fisherman so ordinary his name simply meant "man." No famous sermons. No epistles. No miracles bearing his name. He didn't even make Jesus' inner circle. Yet today five nations claim him, and the gospel spread because of him. How? Through one quiet, extraordinary gift. Discover the shape of an Andrew heart—and why you might have one too. Listen now.

What makes us valuable to God—all stubborn, broken, wayward as we are?

It’s not the sometime good we do—

forgiving unrepentant foes;

feeding hungry kids afar;

warming pews and saying prayers;

performing unpaid mission work.

Not one of these, nor all of them, can make us dearer to the One who chooses from His unforced, unrequired love to cherish every soul He made. “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” He says. “I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jer 31:3).

This grace confounds the wisdom of the world:

no ledgers; no accounts;

no keeping track of charities;

no earning credit with a boss;

no bank of kindnesses to set against our debts and deficits.

We fall back in amazed relief: “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love” (Rom 8:38).

Grace leads us, in the end, to praise—the joy we were created for.

Now stay in it. -Bill Knott

“If you could go back in time to change one thing about your life, what would it be?”

The answers range from comic to cautionary: “I’d be better-looking.” “I’d have a smaller nose.” “I’d make a lot of money.” “I’d marry a different person.” For each of us, there’s one thing we would change to give ourselves a better story.

“I’d understand God’s love much sooner in my life,” say the truly wise among us. For them, it’s not a classic story of regret: there’s no self-loathing, guilt, or fear. What they would change is a misperception built on what the culture tells us about God instead of what the Scriptures say: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:19).

They only wish they could have known the Father’s love more deeply, for a longer time. How much the world of everyday would have been colored differently if they had known all along that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut 33:27).

Give me more joy. Let me be always washed in grace. Give me more years of knowing what is really true: “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).

Now stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Breathe deeply now, and let your heart grow quiet as you turn from sins forgiven.

“By this we shall know that we are of the truth,

and reassure our hearts before Him whenever our hearts condemn us;

for God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20).

It’s not the voice of God that drives you on to fear, or rush, or labor past your strength.

We dare not make the Spirit own our anxiousness or lack of peace.

God is always on the side of what gives life, builds hope,

and moves us even one small step toward balance.

His grace is meant to keep us breathing, as well as for our saving.

The day that Jesus wants to bring us healing is the day that we are living,

not only when our destinies are weighed.

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

His grace is for today and always.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

“We must hear the gospel every day because we forget the gospel every day.”

Attributed to many pens, the proverb is profoundly true, regardless of who wrote it. Even though it undermines our vanity of recall, it underlines that we frequently ignore the most important things. Our default thinking is unarguably a fault: we trust ourselves to do what is impossible.

For millennia, humans have sought connection and reconciliation with the gods through sacrifice, through costly gifts, through candles lit and pilgrimages made. With fear and trembling, we have offered up our best to appease the anger we assumed was gathering in heaven.

But the good news brought in Christ and wrought by Christ declares a new paradigm: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8-9).

The gospel contradicts—and counteracts—the wisdom of the ages. Yes, we can be made right with God—because He loves; because He gave; because Jesus made a pilgrimage from heaven to earth; because He sacrificed His life to bridge the chasm chiseled by our pride.

Don’t apologize for your weak, inconsistent memory. Every human shares it. Surround yourself with what is true—with words of grace.

And stay in it. -Bill Knott