Adventist Review Podcasts

Zero Alcohol Consumption (November 2018)

Dr. Peter Landless, a board-certified nuclear cardiologist, is director of Adventist Health Ministries at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist discusses the dangers of consuming alcohol, even in small amounts. For more information on alcohol addiction and recovery go to adventistrecoveryglobal.org.

GraceNotes: Grace and Clarity (November 9, 2018)

Some suppose grace represents a certain casualness in God about what we’ve done—a blessed amnesia that ignores our waywardness.  “He moves the lines,” we tell ourselves, as though the One who authored the commandments wasn’t fully serious about them. But the Father sees our faults so clearly that it is only by looking at His Son that He can choose—yes, choose—to unremember what we’ve done.  It’s the love He has for Jesus—and for all who likewise love the Saviour—that moves unblinking vigilance to sweep away the record of our sins. The charity of the Father’s heart results from the clarity of the Father’s vision:  in grace, we are both fully known and deeply loved. So stay in grace.  -Bill Knott

Note: If you are blessed by GraceNotes, please subscribe.

 

Cliff's Edge: Adventism After Auschwitz (November 2018)

For about 25 years now, the Adventist Review has been publishing Clifford Goldstein’s column.  Called Cliff’s Edge, it deals with a host of issues regarding faith, theology, philosophy, science and just about anything else he can think of that he thinks is relevant and faith-affirming.

Jared Thurmon: Do Robots Need The Law? (November 2018)

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. Jared Thurmon is the strategic partnerships liaison for Adventist Review Ministries, www.adventistreview.org

Searching The Obvious: Not Done (November 2018)

"Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7, NRSV) “Searching the Obvious” focuses on how the Holy Spirit is ever active in our surroundings and in our lives, urging us to serve others. Personal stories challenge the reader to be mindful of our Christian Walk, recognize our own fallibility and slow down to ‘search the obvious’, the active presence of the Holy Spirit ever always around us.

GraceNotes: The Gate of Grace (November 2, 2018)

Those who most object to grace are those who think they need it least—who blithely trust that Jesus has a “higher” way of saving them. No deep repentance, wet with tears, will stain their history: they imagine righteousness will be an earned diploma on some future graduation day.But there’s only one way to the kingdom, and it passes through the gate of grace. No prior goodness lets us enter by some grander, private entrance; no record of abstaining lets us walk apart from those who’ve wallowed in the mud.The gate is narrow to exclude all largely self-congratulating selves: we’re either saved by Jesus’ blood, or we’re not saved at all. So join the line where all must meet: walk hand in hand with all in need. And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Note: If you are blessed by GraceNotes, we invite you to subscribe.

Digging Deeper: Babylon (November 2018)

Babylon: one of antiquity’s most famous cities, proud of their god Marduk, and ruled in the 2^nd millennium BC by the famed lawgiver Hammurabi. Later, Babylon is a world wonder with its hanging gardens, its Ishtar Gate and dominating ruler Nebuchadnezzar. But Babylon is something else too: it’s the inheritor of the Babel legacy, a place where God’s gifts and talents to His children become their weapons against Him. . . ; until the very name becomes synonymous with enmity against God, hostility against His people and the locus of cosmic confrontation between all the forces of good and the human and supernatural armies of spiritual rebellion. What must God do about Babylon now?

GraceNotes: Tenacious Grace (October 26, 2018)

Because we know our wretchedness so well, we think that Jesus is repulsed by us as we are by ourselves. If we could run away from us, we would: why wouldn’t Jesus do the same? Why would He willingly elect to stand by us and wrap us in His arms and bear our awful reputation? But grace defines tenacity—a fierce unwillingness to let us go or drift back into cynical aloneness. Grace holds us; calms us; heals us; stays. There is no hurrying the Lord. He will be there when we next rise: He’ll still be there when we next fall. The grace that holds us never lets us go. Allow yourself to be this loved. And stay in grace.  -Bill Knott

NOTE: If you are blessed by GraceNotes, we invite you to subscribe.

GraceNotes: Grace Without Desperation (October 19, 2018)

When we’ve tried every other way, we give ourselves—with sighs—to grace. We miss its beauty and its joy because we save it as our last resort, a life ring for the drowning. We strive as though the goal was to use as little of God’s grace as possible, like salt on vegetables, or gas when heating homes. But Jesus wants our joy “full-filled”: abundance is the sign of grace. The life that could be yours can now be yours—without delay, without the misery and thrashing. God saves the desperate, but not because He needs us to be drowning. Enjoy His joy—beginning now—and lasting till forever. And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

NOTE: If you are blessed by GraceNotes, we invite you to subscribe.

GraceNotes: Growing In Graciousness (October 12, 2018)

If grace were just for me, and not God’s gift to all in need, I might rejoice in my solo salvation and never be a different soul. But “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all” (Titus 2:11)—for every individual, yes—but also for the whole of us as Jesus’ faithful way to live with and forgive each other. Grace truly known always grows into graciousness: the living shows we’re starting to perceive how great the gift is. When I extend the grace of God, I take it deeper in my life. When I forgive, I learn how much there is in me that needs the Lord’s forgiveness. Grace grows on us, and grows in us, and grows through us. So stay in grace. -Bill Knott.

NOTE: If you are blessed by GraceNotes every week, we invite you to subscribe.