Adventist Review Podcasts

GraceNotes: Grace Kneels (June 7, 2019)

Ah, to be the wounded one—the one who gets to be the powerful forgiver.  We covet this rare role because we’re usually more sinning than we’re sinned against.  And when it comes our turn to show the grace once given us, we linger with the choice, as if it were a heavy thing to pardon what’s been done. We can’t, of course, refuse forgiveness outright:  Jesus tied our own forgiveness to the habit of forgiving.  But first, a little groveling, we say.  Some real contrition, perhaps a tear or ten.  Some promises to never—ever—injure us again. And so we fall far short of grace.  We strike a lender’s bargain with the sinner:  pardon only if the penitent submits to our superiority. But grace is always washinbg someone’s feet—abandoning all power in the goal to make the sinner whole.  We cannot—dare not—charge for what was freely offered us.  If it’s not free, then it’s not grace. Remind yourself of how forgiveness made you valuable to you.  And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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Stephen Chavez: For Such a Time as This (June 2019)

Stephen Chavez is an assistant editor of Adventist Review magazine. 

Pushing The Boundaries of Space (June 2019)

Stephen Chavez is an assistant editor of Adventist Review magazine. 

Enoch Was A Daddy, Too (June 2019)

Lael Caesar is the associate editor of Adventist Review magazine and covets the Enoch gifts. 

GraceNotes: Sweet Word of Grace (May 31, 2019)

My pride is stung. My spirit’s wounded. The untrue, unjust thing that someone said, that someone wrote, went viral with unheard-of speed, fanned on by evil angels. And rising with the bitter righteousness of bile, the fantasy of sweet revenge becomes more urgent every hour. “Strike back!” say Truth and Justice. “Set the twisted record straight. Unmask the gossiper for who he is, for what she wrote. Redeem your ruined reputation.” And then Grace whispers, “You have already been redeemed. Your reputation is the best that it could ever be because your life is hid with Christ in God. The pleasures of retaliation are nothing—meaningless—beside the joys of being both forgiven AND forgiving.” Grace dulls our taste for vengefulness, and makes us hungry for the fullness of God’s joy. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22). “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps 34:8). And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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GraceNotes: By Grace Through Faith (May 24, 2019)

We can’t make ourselves more loveable to God by years of good behavior. And yet, because of grace, we seek to do what pleases Him. We can’t earn even half an hour in heaven by acts of sympathy or kindness. And yet, because of grace, we spend unnumbered hours caring for the least of all His little ones. Those shining moments when we sometimes rise to our potential don’t make us even one bit more beloved by God. His love for us cannot be amplified, expanded, or improved. Grace cancels everything we think we’ve earned, and makes us utterly rely on everything God gives us. It is the end of all our goodness, and the place where faith begins. Abandon hope in all you’ve done, but deeply trust what God has done. And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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GraceNotes: Grace and Safety (May 17, 2019)

The gospel is only as good as the God who asks us to believe it. If He’s the disappointed, vengeful deity we have pictured in our frightened imaginations, then we do well to hide, to stay away: why would we risk ourselves with Him? But if Christ is, as His Word says, the Lord whose love for us survives even our worst choices and most defiant behaviors, then we may crawl out from beneath the bed and step out from the shadows. When I am loved at my lowest and embraced even at the height of my foolishness, then I can safely trust myself to grace. “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). I now believe in Him who has always—unequivocally—believed in me. So here I’ll stand—and stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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Jared Thurmon: Dear Ava (May 2019)

Jared Thurmon is the liaison for strategic partnerships with Adventist Review Ministries and is also a brand new father.  

GraceNotes: Practicing Grace (May 10, 2019)

It’s not called “practicing” for nothing. On some great future day, the liberating, life-affirming grace we each receive from Jesus will also be the grace we give as freely to those who wound us, irritate our peace, or call out for our love and care. Between the “now” and “then” there’s a lot of practicing to do—a daily repetition of kind words, forgiving acts, and chosen, holy silences. Like hours we spent as children with pianos, violins, or flutes, we learn the patterns of the Jesus life—not all at once, but with increasing Spirit-skill. On many days, we get the fingering all wrong: we point unrighteously at those who really need our grasp and our embrace. But just because the grace that saves us keeps on saving us from us, we build up skills in loving, holding, healing, helping. Great music—gracious music—is never perfect on day one. Keep practicing. And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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Wilona Karimabadi: For Tough Times (May 2019)

In Other Words is the opinion page of Adventist Review staff: wide ranging, as befits the thinking of a group spanning multiple generations and encompassing more than half a dozen nationalities; spiritually earnest, as reflecting the thinking of a team of mature Christian professionals in areas as varied as journalism and technology, education and business, biblical studies and theology; sometimes lighthearted, always relevant. Wilona Karimabadi is an associate editor of Adventist Review magazine. www.adventistreview.org