Adventist Review Podcasts

THREE MISSING WORDS (August 02, 2024)

Social media memes and reels solemnly declare that the hardest three words to say are the words “I love you.” Acknowledging our affection and commitment to another person—spouse, parent, child, or friend—is a moment of great vulnerability, and for some, even difficulty. And yet, the phrase is emblazoned on millions of T-shirts, shouted on billions of greeting cards, and declared in hundreds of TV shows and movies.

But if you asked, “Which three words are heard least frequently?” they would undoubtedly be, “I was wrong.” We can all imagine at least some advantages in saying “I love you.” There’s almost never an advantage in admitting our mistakes, our faults, our brokenness.

So God has wonderfully prepared the way for us to “come clean” with Him by assuring us ahead of time of His unending love and affection for us. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jer 31:3), He says. And He teaches us that we may safely, confidently, bring to Him all our sins and foolish pride: “If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9).

It will never be easy to say, “I was wrong.” But because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, grace gives us words that heal our broken relationships—with God and with each other.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

NOTHING BETTER (July 26, 2024)

When the last kind word has vanished from our lips;

When the last rich gift has left our bank account;

When the last abandoned child has finally found a home—we still need grace.

 

When the hymns we sing are clear and sweet;

When we serve with fervor in the job we’re given;

When we’ve prayed for every relative we know—we still need grace.

 

The good things grace inspires us to do will not reduce our need for grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:8-10).

 

The gift of God, made freely through His Son, is never made unnecessary by how we live beyond. In Jesus’ famous parable, the ones who work from dawn, and those who start near dusk, all get the same reward.

 

So we confess—if we are young in faith or long upon our knees—that only Christ’s redeeming act ensures our destiny. There is no better gift than grace—to give or to receive.

 

So stay in it. -Bill Knott

MORNING HAS BROKEN (July 19, 2024)

When we’ve been wounded by the spitefulness of others, it’s grace that quiets our reactive hearts and calms our angry tongues.

We remember being forgiven, and so we can imagine offering forgiveness. The grace that reconciled us to God becomes the opening that makes new reconciliations thinkable.  

The foolish cycle of retaliation need not take another turn, for Jesus has absorbed the weight of all our anger, sin and pain.

A new day dawns in which forgiveness warms and brightens all we know. Grateful for love that changed our lives, we pray that others also change, find peace, experience forgiveness.

So forgiving comes to be our way of living, and grace leads on to grace.  

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

OUTSIDE AND ABOVE (July 12, 2024)

The great illusion at the heart of our unhappiness is the fantasy that we can solve our brokenness and foolishness. A hundred self-help manuals urge us to discover new, untapped potential; find our core of optimism, rise above the litter of past choices.

If even one of these vain remedies really worked, the bookstores would be empty, and people everywhere would be living warm, productive, joyful lives. But we continue fumbling in the bargain bin of last year’s over-hyped, self-centered strategies, while Jesus offers just one word. “Come,” He says. “Come away and rest awhile.” “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow.” “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.” There are no better promises than these. There is no answer for our pain that heals us like God’s word of grace. Our rescue always comes from outside and above.

So stay in grace. -Bill Kknott

DEEP CLEANING (July 05, 2024)

Sometimes it seems all humanity is obsessed with removing stains from clothing, teeth, and even furniture.

Ten thousand products invoke our shame if teeth are not their “whitest white,” if clothes are not their “brightest bright,” or guests discover “unsightly carpet stains.”

Some thoughtful souls have wondered if our fascination with removing dirt that can be seen reflects our gnawing fear that we will never be free from stains no one can see—the soiled conscience, the unwashed heart, the muddied choices of a lifetime. 

Only one remedy has proved effective in cleansing what only God can see: “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord: “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isa 1:18). “And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting Him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water” (Heb 10:21-22).

The historic quest for inner purification, for purging the memory of foolish choices and polluted deeds, isn’t a task within our grasp. We can never “clean up our act.” Only God’s act of grace will do.

An old gospel song still says it best:

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Let Jesus do what only He can do.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

A NEW AND BETTER LIFE (June 28, 2024)

If you believe your life has been rescued and redirected by a power greater than yourself, you live differently. 

One of the most frequent criticisms of the Bible’s teaching about how we are saved is the charge that because grace saves us “just as we are,” we stay “just as we were.” 

To some, grace looks easy, unremarkable, even cheap—a gift for those who don’t deserve it. Where is the historic space for human striving, effort, and obedience?  

But grace is not a freeze-frame moment that eliminates the potential—or need—for change. As we grow in gratitude for what Jesus has done for us, we discover that our primary attitudes and behaviors are changing as well.  “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor 3.18). 

Getting what we don’t deserve really does produce a better life—one ultimately filled with “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).

Nothing will change you more thoroughly than grace. 

So stay in it. -Bill Knott

WITHOUT A CAUSE (June 21, 2024)

In every place; in every time; among all cultures; with every clan; in youth or age; through wealth or poverty—human beings will underline how what they do unites their lives with God.

“It is my prayers,” the homeless woman says. “God saves me because I am persistent.”

“It is my giving,” the multi-billionaire asserts. “God saves me because I build good homes for those who can’t afford them.”

“It is my art,” the passionate young sculptor says. “God saves me because my art stirs thoughtful souls to pray and give.”

And yet, there was, there is, there will be no “because.” “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).

Grace is the sweet announcement that we are reconciled to God out of the richness of His kindness. We pray, we give, we honor Him in art to share our thanks, not earn our way.

God loves from love: He doesn’t need persuading.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

GRACE BECOMES US (June 14, 2024)

The mind in which grace lights a flame becomes, in time, a different mind. By nature and by nurture, we’re self-absorbed and focused on what brings us gain, what brings us fame. The path of least resistance leads us to our touted rights, and often—yes—our touted righteousness. We are the measure of all things: we sort and filter for what gives us points, what gives us power, what adds to our advantage. But when the grace of a supremely other-centered God breathes through the “heats of our desire,” the self-absorption starts to wane, and we begin to be the kinder, wiser souls we’ve sometimes ached to be. We hear the broken, and remember we were broken, too. We see the wounded, and we search for bandages of love. We touch the hurting with a gentleness learned from the Healer who never, ever hurries. Grace turns us from unhelpful fools into new humans, wise and warm. The grace that saves us also makes us gracious.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

NEVER WITHOUT IT (June 07. 2024)

Could we ever live a day without the grace of God? 

That first breath you took this morning—perhaps the first one when you awoke—that breath had its beginning in the gracious act of God to fill your lungs and give you life. 

That first thought, in which you noted the beauty of the early sunlight bathing the yard with golden rays—that thought was the result of a marvelous biochemical chain of neurons lighting up your sleepy brain—all created by a gracious God. 

And even if all the distractions were removed—if all the contentious, stressful things could magically disappear from your today—your own thoughts would make you far from perfect. Jesus said, “For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you” (Matthew 5:19-20).

Grace is not a temporary fix when we need restoration and forgiveness. No less of it will be required when we leave off the greatest sins. 

Grace is God’s choice to hold broken, straying people like us in His arms—on our best days, and our worst. Grace is our constant need, and God’s forever gift. 

So stay in it. -Bill Knott

UNEXPECTED KINDNESS (May 31, 2024)

There’s no accounting for love.

Nothing in our calculations of expected human outcomes would lead us to predict the presence—or persistence—of kindness. We’ve learned through thousands of years of history to grimly rely on the awful realities of hate, of vengeance, of unrelenting cruelty—between clans, against other races, pitting nation against nation. These are our signature achievements as a species.

But what is it that motivates a billion daily acts of caring, of forgiveness, of refusing that dreadful narrative of blood and violence? Kindness seems unnatural because it isn’t in our nature as broken, wary, self-protecting people.

The Bible couldn’t be clearer about the origin of love. “In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10). “We love because He first loved us”(1 John 4:19).

The grace that has always filled the heart of God is daily seen wherever people practice tenderness, protect the weak, and serve the good of others. It is rich evidence that the Father of all love will not abandon us.

Receive the love from which all kindness springs.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott