Adventist Review Podcasts Adventist Review / Adventist World

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

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

What is God like?
It sounds like the question of a six-year old—honest; direct; no nuance. 
Simple as it sounds, it’s actually one of the most important questions in human history. From the dawn of recorded time, both peasants and philosophers have wrestled with the question.
Some cultures told themselves that He was angry and all-powerful. Others asserted that He was only one of many gods usually engaged in wrangling with each other. Still others claimed He is eternally inspecting our behavior, searching for any cause to deny us a forever home with Him.
Jesus answered the question for all time and for all people. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” He told His followers. “The words I speak are not my own, but My Father who lives in Me does His work through Me” (John 14:9-10).
The kindness, the graciousness, the sacrificial spirit seen in Jesus are identically those of the Father. So the Bible declares, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus was giving us the ultimate picture of God: “This is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
When you wonder if God is a friend or the ultimate enemy; when you doubt that He can forgive your brokenness and rebellion; when your heart aches to be loved and welcomed home—remember this: Jesus is the very image of the Father (Col 1:15).
And you will stay in grace. -Bill Knott

No one really wants to sing the blues. We only want to hear other people singing the blues.
It’s hard to believe that a homeless, hungry, abandoned soul would choose to write a song about it. Surviving takes all your energy. But listening to someone else lamenting their pretended sorrows somehow makes us feel better about our not-so-bad lives.
And yet of Jesus—our Redeemer—the Bible sings, “He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief” (Isa 53:3).
His suffering was no accident, no cruel twist of cosmic fate. “He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed” (Isa 53:5).
Grace was Christ’s choice to live our blues so that our destinies would be forever changed. Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
A new and hopeful song is yours. Grace still amazes.
So stay in it. -Bill Knott

We love our sugary success stories—the sweet and gripping fantasies we hope might someday happen to us.
“Mailroom clerk becomes company CEO.” “Out-of-luck waitress wins huge lottery.” “Overlooked teen becomes Hollywood megastar.” We quietly insert our names to secretly imagine the powerful, wealthy, famous life we wish was ours. We live vicariously their stories of success.
But when a loving God reached down to change our fates, He didn’t promise the penthouse office, a large portfolio, or millions of adoring fans. “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27).
The Lord of whom the Bible says, “He existed before anything else, and He holds all creation together” (Col 1:17), entered our story as the weakest of the weak—without status; without wealth; without popularity. And His success—stunning, cosmic, eternal—caused Him to die vicariously for us, in place of us, to heal our brokenness and pride.
“Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them” (2 Cor 5:14-15).
Grace revels in a victory we didn’t win, and celebrates a future only God could give us. And it’s no fantasy.
So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

An old gospel hymn plaintively asks the question in the last line of each verse: “Where could I go but to the Lord?”
The hymnwriter noted the deep challenges of everyday life in a broken world. He deplored the lack of things he needed to make life even minimally comfortable. He wrestled with the ever-present temptation to give up on God’s call to a new life in Christ. At the end of the day—and at the end of the song—the answer to his rhetorical question was and always is—"Nowhere else.”
His line reminds us of the words of one of Jesus’ closest followers. At a moment when many “sunshine disciples” were turning away from Him, Jesus asked His disciples, “Will you also go away?” Peter spoke for the small number who remained: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
No combination of material things, cherished friends, or promises of personal achievement and business success can ever approach the value of the promise Jesus makes to all who put their trust in Him: “I have loved you with an everlasting love. That is why I have continued to be faithful to you” (Jer 31:3). “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).
Grace is the refuge to which the wise always run. Be wise, and find the forever safety your heart craves.
And stay in grace. -Bill Knott