“We must hear the gospel every day because we forget the gospel every day.”

Attributed to many pens, the proverb is profoundly true, regardless of who wrote it. Even though it undermines our vanity of recall, it underlines that we frequently ignore the most important things. Our default thinking is unarguably a fault: we trust ourselves to do what is impossible.

For millennia, humans have sought connection and reconciliation with the gods through sacrifice, through costly gifts, through candles lit and pilgrimages made. With fear and trembling, we have offered up our best to appease the anger we assumed was gathering in heaven.

But the good news brought in Christ and wrought by Christ declares a new paradigm: “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).

The gospel contradicts—and counteracts—the wisdom of the ages. Yes, we can be made right with God—because He loves; because He gave; because Jesus made a pilgrimage from heaven to earth; because He sacrificed His life to bridge the chasm chiseled by our pride.

Don’t apologize for your weak, inconsistent memory. Every human shares it. Surround yourself with what is true—with words of grace.

And stay in it. -Bill Knott

A Light in the Pearl of the Indian Ocean: The Faith and Courage of Rosie Le Même

One night, a young woman in Mauritius prayed — and her room filled with light. A voice told her to go to Europe. She went. What she found there would change not just her life, but an entire region.

Rosie Le Même never set out to start a movement. She simply wanted to follow God with her whole heart. But her quiet courage sparked a faith that spread from a muddy riverbank baptism to churches across Mauritius, Madagascar, Rodrigues, and the Seychelles.

One woman. One prayer. A legacy that's still growing.

Hidden Wounds: How Sexual Trauma Shapes Intimacy and Faith

She sat alone in a dark church parking lot, desperate to speak but unsure where to begin. Her marriage was loving — so why did she feel frozen, broken, and afraid?

Sexual trauma doesn't stay in the past. It follows survivors into their most intimate moments, distorting the very things God designed to be beautiful. In Hidden Wounds, registered clinical counselor Jasmin Stankovic unpacks the hidden shame, misplaced guilt, and spiritual confusion that so many survivors carry silently.

If you've ever felt damaged, unworthy, or beyond healing — this conversation is for you. There is a path forward.

What stops our progress, pulls us backward, paralyzing us with shame?

The past—our past—the foolish, broken history that trails each of us. None can escape its power: all feel its painful weight. Even those the world calls saints are men and women who know their brokenness most fully. The great apostle Paul famously moaned, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24).

When there’s no one left to dazzle or impress, we cringe in the half-light of our memories. We’re stalked by all the things we’ve done, and increasingly, by the good we’ve left undone. What could we have been thinking?

But the grace of God shines as bright as the Son: “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). In kindness the Father offered us in Jesus the living, breathing, open-hearted embodiment of grace. Because He willingly embraced the weight of our mistakes while making none Himself, our lives can rise above the shadows and despair. He made His mission unmistakably clear: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10).

Embrace that rich, abundant life.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Faith to the Very End: Pastor Jack and His Final Witness

He was diagnosed with a rare cancer at 19. Doctors took the muscles from his leg, and he learned to walk — and live — all over again. But Pastor Jack wasn't done. For years he preached, pastored two congregations, and poured himself out for others. Then the cancer came back.

What happened in that emergency room on the last night of his life is something you won't soon forget. Dick Duerksen tells the story of his brother — a man whose faith didn't flicker, even at the very end.

This one will stay with you.

Selfless Love: How to Infuse Your Marriage With Divinity

Most of us enter marriage hoping to be loved well. But what if the real question isn't what can I get — it's what can I give?

In this thought-provoking article, Keala Thompson explores why so many marriages drift toward selfishness or cold transaction, and what it looks like when a relationship is anchored in something deeper. Drawing on Scripture, he makes a compelling case that the way we understand God's love directly shapes the way we love our spouse.

If your marriage feels more like a negotiation than a gift, this is worth your time.

Sit quietly with grace, and let it work its slow, substantial change.

Nothing is more common for those whose hearts have been divinely warmed than to pledge themselves to new, exacting duties. We’ll read our Bibles for an hour each day; pray for all our friends and even for some enemies; tell “unconverted” colleagues, neighbors—even strangers—of their task to do as we have done. We move at hyper-speed as if to make up for the months—the years—when we ourselves were unresponsive to the gospel.

But what we need—and what our friends and enemies much need—is that we answer the first call of grace: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10). Our rush to vow new righteous duties, work new holy deeds, and tell what we have only started to experience is often just another act of foolish self-atonement.

Heaven wisely urges us to quiet. “This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘Only in returning to Me and resting in Me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength’” (Isa 30:15-16).

Grace received always grows into grace well-lived. But beware of pledging your good deeds until you’ve more fully learned all that the Lord has kindly done for you.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

“This is not your own doing” (Eph. 2:8).

One author calls it “the most contrary line in human history”—six words that run against our culture, schooling, and experience.

We push ourselves from bed to answer the alarm we set just hours before. We wash and eat and ready clothes for work, conscious that one slip in our performance may unravel all the day. We move ourselves to work to push through hours built on grit and weary bodies. Then we cycle back again, preparing for the round that starts with that insistent first alarm. What, in all of this, is not of our own doing?

And yet the Scripture is insistent: none of this, for all its stress and sometime glory, can make us right with God—even if our work is feeding homeless people or lighting candles in a church.

But the phrase that cuts against the grain begins with something only God can do: “By grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8). In undeserved mercy, each of us is offered hope and light and daily joy if we will trust Christ’s hand to make us whole. Even the alarm sounds kinder; the labor of the day becomes our gift of gratitude.

“Salvation belongs to the Lord” (Ps. 3:8). Only He can turn grit into grace, our work dirge to a song, our inability into witness.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

What if a church leader you trusted made a serious mistake—how would you respond without causing division or gossip? In this timely, practical guide, veteran pastor Shane Anderson shares hard-won wisdom from decades of denominational service: the three common pitfalls to avoid (assumptions, social media, withholding tithe) and four Christlike steps that actually bring resolution. Learn how prayer, genuine love, private clarity-seeking, and Matthew 18 principles can turn conflict into redemption—without splitting churches or derailing mission. Whether you’re frustrated, confused, or simply want to respond like Jesus, this article offers courage and clarity for every thoughtful member. A must-hear roadmap for healthier leadership accountability. Listen now.

What makes your eyes light up with glee, or stirs you to an unforced smile?

Is it the 4-year old who stomps through puddles—without boots? Is it the lily blooming on some sun-drenched bank, so hidden no one else can find it? Is it the ballad from your youth that fills your thoughts with gentle love? 

So grace delights us when we learn that it is God’s first way of seeing us—that He is glad to see us dancing in the rain, and loving every growing thing, and finding hope in much-loved songs. It is His joy to know our joy: He made us for receiving love and sharing it with others. 

And when we chide the gleeful child, or calculate the price of flowers, or brush away the tenderness we knew, we turn our backs on His warm grace to find cold comfort in self-righteousness.

Only God is always right, and only God is always gracious. Jesus said of His Father, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt 5:45). 

Receive His gift. Enjoy His grace.

And stay in it. -Bill Knott