GraceNotes Podcast

What's GraceNotes Podcast about?

GraceNotes is a weekly publication of Bill Knott, former Editor/Executive Publisher of Adventist Review/Adventist World magazines. Take the opportunity to share a favorite GraceNote from this page with someone you’re praying for, or someone who simply needs to hear the good news of God’s unfailing love.

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GraceNotes Podcast episodes:

05.31.2024
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,...
05.31.2024
UNEXPECTED KINDNESS (May 31, 2024)
UNEXPECTED KINDNESS 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...
05.23.2024
ANSWERING THE QUESTION (May 24, 2024)
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...
05.16.2024
SINGING OUR SONG (May 17, 2024)
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....
05.09.2024
RAGS TO RICHES (May 10, 2024)
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...
05.02.2024
NOWHERE ELSE (May 03, 2024)
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...
04.25.2024
BETTER NEWS (April 26, 2024)
“That’s old news.” In an information-obsessed world, that may be the ultimate put-down. Round-the clock—and endlessly repetitive—reporting crackles from hundreds of cable television channels. All-news radio stations compete for our ears when screens can’t have our eyes. Newspapers, which for...
04.18.2024
THE GREATEST MYSTERY (April 19, 2024)
A mother’s deep affection for her newborn child is completely understandable. The nine months they’ve spent journeying together—and a surge of maternal hormones—create an instant, fierce attraction to that red and wrinkled infant gazing solemnly into her eyes. A young couple’s...
04.11.2024
ANOTHER KIND OF PRODIGAL (April 12, 2024)
What kind of person gets angry when a wretched, broken sinner is restored by the grace of God? Are there really people that selfish? The answer, according to Jesus, is sadly “Yes”—and they sometimes congregate in churches. In Jesus’ famous story,...
04.04.2024
UNMERITED (April 05, 2024)
It’s usually said with a cynical smile and an eye roll: “My good deed did not go unpunished.” And it nicely sums up the exasperation we feel when life doesn’t seem fair, when hard work isn’t rewarded, when doing the...
03.28.2024
MORNING HAS BROKEN (March 29, 2024)
These hours between midnight and dawn test the patience of the world. We stumble through the hallways of dark houses. We seek companionship in all-night TV channels and books that used to put us to sleep. We hide from pain...
03.21.2024
ALWAYS AMAZING March 22, 2024)
Fast-forward, if you can, to scenes our hearts are aching to be in. Redeemed at last from all the brokenness, the pettiness, the pain of earthly life, we stand before the throne with those from every nation, tribe, and people,...
03.14.2024
NEVER WALK ALONE March 15, 2024)
It’s a pandemic for the ages. Even though we’re more “connected” than ever, a tidal wave of loneliness has washed around the world. Eight billion cell phones aren’t enough if people talk to fewer friends, never share a walk or meal, or...
03.07.2024
ALL ARE GIFTED (March 08, 2024)
We are wary for good reasons. We’ve had too much of hurt, of wounds, of promises that didn’t deliver. Nothing “too good to be true” should ever be believed. But grace presents us with impossibly good things—all backed up by the...
02.29.2024
BEYOND BELIEF (March 01, 2024)
It takes a lot to surprise the authors of the Bible. In the pages of Scripture, we find unflinchingly honest stories about every kind of failing—adultery, murder, cruelty, abuse. Nothing human is foreign to them. But they were startled—even shocked—at the undeserved...
02.22.2024
DOES GOD HEAR ME? (February 23, 2024)
When warm light floods the living room and laughter visits along with friends, we bless the grace of God for making all our good days better. But when the rain slants heavily across our midnight loneliness, is grace still real?...
02.15.2024
AND THERE WAS HOPE (February 16, 2024)
A century ago, the poet wept: “Things fall apart. The centre cannot hold.” And after greater blood and anarchy, who dares to argue with him? Pollyannas need not apply. And yet, sweet children are still softly kissed before they dream each night. Young...
02.08.2024
HE ALWAYS WAS HUMBLE AND KIND (February 09, 2024)
Name any virtue dear to you, and there’s one grace behind it. Even the Bible’s best-known virtues— “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:22-23)—grow from one even more remarkable quality: humility. Love means putting others before ourselves;...
02.01.2024
REHEARSING THE GOSPEL (February 02, 2024)
When we were children, practicing was frequently the bane of our existence. Endless loops of cursive handwriting; sticky valves on rented clarinets; stubborn keyboard ivories that mocked our stubby fingers. Practicing brought little joy as we outlasted clocks. But then, perhaps, we...
01.25.2024
THE HONEST TRUTH (January 26, 2024)
When all our boasts are at an end; when no one’s left we might impress; when all our tales of make believe have not made anyone believe—we stare into the mirror that reveals our brokenness and pain. Hard as it is,...
01.18.2024
THE SONG OF THE REDEEMED (January 19, 2024)
I sing the solo grace “that saved a wretch like me,”—and so I should. Without it, I would be forever lost and never found. But grace is more than what God does for me, though there may never be a hymn...
01.11.2024
UNWEARIED LOVE (January 12, 2024)
The finest things that we can say are sometimes framed as negatives. Here’s one: “Love never gives up, never loses faith” (1 Cor 13:8). That’s why we celebrate what the Bible so often calls God’s “steadfast love”—His unchanging, unyielding, untiring affection...
01.04.2024
A COVENANT FOR WANDERERS (January 05, 2024)
Make covenants, not resolutions, as you walk into the year, for covenants give us company in keeping what we pledge. A resolution with no witness is too often just a wish, a good intention with nothing but our declining willpower...
12.27.2023
GRACE TO FORGET (December 29, 2023)
Each year, as New Year’s Day arrives, believers wrestle quietly with one of the Apostle Paul’s most puzzling assertions: “One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal”...
12.21.2023
INFANT LOWLY (December 22, 2023)
It’s the most frequently portrayed scene in all of human history. Four-year olds sketch out the wise men, sheep, and cattle. Sculptors craft three human figures beneath a simple roof, and we fill in the rest. Churches erect elaborate crèches, some with...
12.14.2023
THE NIGHT WILL BE LIGHT (December 15, 2023)
Our fascination with the stars is as old as . . . one gorgeous night in Eden. As darkness first descended on God’s rich, untrammeled world, there was no fear, no threat, no shying from the shadows. A dazzling panoply...
12.08.2023
NEVER WAS A WAR (December 08, 2023)
It’s a tough time to be selling “Peace on Earth.” In the Christmas Shoppe at the megastore, elves and reindeer move briskly out the door. Nativity scenes in warm pastels are inner-lit with bulbs and cheer. Miles and miles of twinkling...
11.30.2023
WATCHING OVER US (December 01, 2023)
It’s a story filled with angels, and so a story filled with grace. An angel reveals to an aged priest that his wife will bear a son named John. The angel Gabriel announces to a virgin that she will be the...
11.22.2023
FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH (November 24, 2023)
“If you would tell me, tell me true,” a wise old man once said. “There isn’t time enough for lies.” And when we’ve polished all our trophies, and sung again our victory songs, we come at last to stories too painful...
11.16.2023
ALL ARE GIFTED (November 17, 2023)
We are wary for good reasons. We’ve had too much of hurt, of wounds, of promises that didn’t deliver. Nothing “too good to be true” should ever be believed. But grace presents us with impossibly good things—all backed up by the...
11.09.2023
BEYOND BIOLOGY (November 10, 2023)
Where does kindness come from? Nothing in the narrative of evolutionary biology can tell us why one human would act with compassion or thoughtfulness toward another. In a world where survival alone is supposed to be the highest goal, nothing disinterested...
11.02.2023
PEACE AMID THE CHAOS (November 03, 2023)
How do you find a quiet heart? You won’t find it in a deep evergreen forest, though walking in the fragrant woods may give you time to think. You won’t find it beside a thundering waterfall, though the welcome sound may block...
10.26.2023
GRACE HAS A FACE (October 27, 2023)
I bless them all—the friends who didn’t back away when I said clumsy, foolish things, or added insult to an injury. I bless the ones who held me in the grip of grace before I had an inkling they were...
10.19.2023
UNEXPECTED (October 20, 2023)
“I don’t deserve this.” It’s a sentiment uttered—muttered—millions of times a day around the world. Our deep, unyielding sense of justice is aroused each time we aren’t treated fairly by a spouse or colleague, when we get unexpected charges from the...
10.12.2023
SAYING WHAT’S TRUE (October 13, 2023)
More than 50 years ago, a wildly popular book and movie gave us a proverb worth forgetting: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Despite its commercial success, the line ignores the undeniable reality that broken human beings are always...
10.05.2023
BETTER THAN PLATINUM (Octotber 06, 2023)
So, what’s the most valuable commodity in the world? If you picked silver, gold, or platinum, 10,000 brokers might seek your business. If you chose palladium or rhodium, you know your precious metals well. But none of these—nor all of them—can light a...
09.28.2023
THE ONLY HERO STORY (september 29, 2023)
When we tell our peers the stories of our lives, how do we shape the narratives? Do we tell tales of high achievement, dogged persistence, and clever strategy? Are we the heroes of our stories? Or do we speak of the...
09.21.2023
ACCORDING TO OUR NEED (September 22, 2023)
If there’s one thing that heaven hates, why surely, it must be—adultery? Pride? Hypocrisy? Murder? Greed? Would you believe “unforgiveness”? Consistent with the grace He both lived and taught, Jesus saved His hardest words for those who refused to forgive the brokenness...
09.14.2023
GIFTED AND GRACED (September 15, 2023)
“Lucky you!” we mumble when our rival’s putt drops in the cup from 50 feet away. “Wish I was you,” we grumble when our colleague lands the big promotion and the corner office with a view. “It must be nice,” we mutter...
09.07.2023
BETTER THAN WE DREAMED (September 08, 2023)
Any faith worth putting at the center of your life must do at least three things. It must accurately describe the dark reality of our brokenness and pain. It must fully tell how we are rescued from our anger, pride and violence. It...
08.31.2023
FREELY RECEIVED AND GLADLY GIVEN (September 01.2023)
Until we grasp how much we’ve been forgiven, it will always seem unwise and difficult to forgive those who sin against us. When we forgive another person, we abandon our leverage over them; release the debt they owe us; throw open...
08.24.2023
NEW AND BETTER STORIES (August 25, 2023)
Imagine—only for a moment—your life without the grace of God. Every foolish act of adolescence; every spiteful, angry word you’ve said; every broken relationship would trail after you like dragging cannonballs uphill. There could be no forgiveness, but only possibly forgetfulness. ...
08.17.2023
WHEN THERE’S NO FIX (August 18, 2023)
A husband slipping in the door with a bouquet of red roses trailing behind him. A six year-old artfully arranging the remaining cookies in the jar to make it seem none have been taken. A believer creeping quietly to church to sit...
08.10.2023
NOTHING TO OFFER (August 11, 2023)
Taking the stairs instead of the elevator. Giving money to a homeless man at the corner. Choosing fruit instead of ice cream for dessert. All good things—but none will change your standing with God. Rising at 4:00 a.m. to pray and meditate....
08.03.2023
WORDWISE (August 04, 2023)
Hot words, cold words. Red words, blue words. My words, your words. Old words, new words. Every day we arrange the 25,000 words we know in unique and highly personalized combinations. With words, we express deep sorrow and loss, as well as shining...
07.27.2023
BELOW THE SURFACE (July 28, 2023)
When we add all our compliments to all the things we wish were true, there’s still so much we’re glad the world doesn’t know. Deep within, we know the truth about the real lives we live—the tempers that we can’t control; the...
07.20.2023
BEYOND SELF-HELP (July 21, 2023)
When we reduce our belief in God to moral tasks we should accomplish, we merely add another tedious volume to our unread self-help library. Praying for the sick; giving to the poor; exercising patience with exasperating colleagues; forgiving those who badly...
07.13.2023
GRACE AMONG THE HOURS (July 14, 2023)
When hard rain rattles the window panes three hours before unwelcome dawn; when the first thought of the day is no brighter than the last thought hours before; when the staleness of unchangeable routine offers only more of the same,...
07.06.2023
HEALED—AND HEALED AGAIN (July 07, 2023)
So let’s admit it: we are afraid because bad things have happened in our past, and everything in us shudders at ever being hurt again. Life’s all about negotiating risk, we say, and so we bravely sanctify our fears with...
06.29.2023
GATHERED BY GRACE (June 30, 2023)
Whenever broken lives start mending; wherever someone is set free; when the barriers get lifted and the desperate hear good news, hope for new community is born. Frightened people long for holding. Lonely people seek for friends. Those whose story was...

What's GraceNotes Podcast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

GraceNotes Podcast episodes:

UNEXPECTED KINDNESS (May 31, 2024)

UNEXPECTED KINDNESS (May 31, 2024)

ANSWERING THE QUESTION (May 24, 2024)

SINGING OUR SONG (May 17, 2024)

RAGS TO RICHES (May 10, 2024)

NOWHERE ELSE (May 03, 2024)

BETTER NEWS (April 26, 2024)

THE GREATEST MYSTERY (April 19, 2024)

ANOTHER KIND OF PRODIGAL (April 12, 2024)

UNMERITED (April 05, 2024)

MORNING HAS BROKEN (March 29, 2024)

ALWAYS AMAZING March 22, 2024)

NEVER WALK ALONE March 15, 2024)

ALL ARE GIFTED (March 08, 2024)

BEYOND BELIEF (March 01, 2024)

DOES GOD HEAR ME? (February 23, 2024)

AND THERE WAS HOPE (February 16, 2024)

HE ALWAYS WAS HUMBLE AND KIND (February 09, 2024)

REHEARSING THE GOSPEL (February 02, 2024)

THE HONEST TRUTH (January 26, 2024)

THE SONG OF THE REDEEMED (January 19, 2024)

UNWEARIED LOVE (January 12, 2024)

A COVENANT FOR WANDERERS (January 05, 2024)

GRACE TO FORGET (December 29, 2023)

INFANT LOWLY (December 22, 2023)

THE NIGHT WILL BE LIGHT (December 15, 2023)

NEVER WAS A WAR (December 08, 2023)

WATCHING OVER US (December 01, 2023)

FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH (November 24, 2023)

ALL ARE GIFTED (November 17, 2023)

BEYOND BIOLOGY (November 10, 2023)

PEACE AMID THE CHAOS (November 03, 2023)

GRACE HAS A FACE (October 27, 2023)

UNEXPECTED (October 20, 2023)

SAYING WHAT’S TRUE (October 13, 2023)

BETTER THAN PLATINUM (Octotber 06, 2023)

THE ONLY HERO STORY (september 29, 2023)

ACCORDING TO OUR NEED (September 22, 2023)

GIFTED AND GRACED (September 15, 2023)

BETTER THAN WE DREAMED (September 08, 2023)

FREELY RECEIVED AND GLADLY GIVEN (September 01.2023)

NEW AND BETTER STORIES (August 25, 2023)

WHEN THERE’S NO FIX (August 18, 2023)

NOTHING TO OFFER (August 11, 2023)

WORDWISE (August 04, 2023)

BELOW THE SURFACE (July 28, 2023)

BEYOND SELF-HELP (July 21, 2023)

GRACE AMONG THE HOURS (July 14, 2023)

HEALED—AND HEALED AGAIN (July 07, 2023)

GATHERED BY GRACE (June 30, 2023)