Adventist Review Podcasts

Only a lingering belief in God’s persistent grace explains our optimism that our lives can be happier in the new year. If there were no such thing as grace—if we were force d to drag the chains of sin and brokenness behind us for all time—we’d see nothing in the first of January beyond another gray-grim calendar page. But 2019 offers light and hope because the gospel promises that Christ forgets what Christ forgives—that all our foolishness and spite is gently washed away when we believe in Him. Through grace, this new year can become that season of humility, deep peace, and reconciled relationships of which we’re always dreaming. There’s just one resolution worth making this—and every—New Year’s Eve: “By grace, I’ll stay in grace.”  -Bill Knott

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

How can opponents reconcile?  What does it take to get those with deeply-held opinions to actually listen to people who think differently? In a five-minute podcast that you’ll want to forward to your friends, Adventist Review editor Bill Knott tells a fascinating—and very relevant—story about a boy, a kite, a string, and a bridge.

We are not wise like magi, or powerful like Herod. And few can claim nobility by birth or social climbing. 
But God—this Child who sleeps in straw—has chosen us to worship at His cradle. 
So we rejoice in commonness; we gladly play the fool for Him. 
For we have glimpsed in Bethlehem the power that holds all things together—the love that seeks us out, surrounds us, will not let us go. 
We stand in warm, strong light that cannot be extinguished; “for the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). 
We revel in the victories grace has won, is winning, and will win. 
There is no doubt—nor can there be—about the final outcome. 
So come, now: bend the knee. Lean forward with a glowing heart. 
This is an hour for adoration. And stay in grace. -Bill Knott


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

This baby born in Bethlehem was both like and unlike every other child —a life so rare, so richly valuable, that still we grope at language edge for words to tell His story, and for names by which to worship Him. He chose fragility, this Lord who once threw stars and galaxies around like pebbles on a beach, so that the powerless would know how well He understands their lives. He entered our dry dustiness where weakness and reliance meet—because grace trusts, grace hopes, grace makes new covenants when all about us are breaking theirs. He chose dependence—releasing Himself, abandoning authority, the majesty, the throne. Christ placed Himself quite literally in our hands, so that—through grace—we might one day learn to place ourselves entirely in His. Stay in His hands. And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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

All our goodness flows from grace. One of our favorite illusions is that broken, self-consumed people like us can still spontaneously do noble things out of some “inner light” we claim to have. I have followed one too many Volvos bearing tattered bumper stickers urging “Random Acts of Kindness.” Unless the Holy Spirit has vanished from the universe, there are no such things as random acts of kindness.  Unrecognized among the myriad ways we interact with each other—some petty, some brutal—are those kindnesses that first formed in the mind of God and reached our world through common grace.  If ever we are good, it’s only because God’s goodness flows through us. Be available this day for promptings—Spirit-formed and Spirit-led—that testify we aren’t left to spin alone on this unhappy planet.  There is no kindness apart from the great grace shown to us in Christ, and known to us because His Spirit still moves among us. So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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

Dr. Delbert Baker is the Vice Chancellor of the Adventist University of Africa near Nairobi, Kenya.

Costin Jordache is the new editor and communication director for Adventist Review Ministries.

Bill Knott is the Executive Editor of Adventist Review Ministries, the publisher of Adventist Review and Adventist World magazines.  He shares his unique outlook on life, from a Christian's perspective in the editorial page of the Adventist Review magazine called ViewPoint.

"Journeys with Jesus" is an intimate, personal look at the walk we all have with our Savior. Inspirational, heart-tugging, thought-provoking vignettes of life's journey and life's decisions. Most of all, it points us to our Father, our Friend, as the Source of all wisdom, comfort, and peace. www.adventistreview.org

Is there a force in this wide universe more powerful or more patient than the grace of God? Name it if you can: I don’t know of it. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, what but our obstinate and persistent refusal could keep Him from clothing us, the objects of His everlasting love, with the spotless robe of Jesus’ perfect righteousness? Unless we refuse Him, and all He’s offering, He will bring us to the banquet hall of grace and plenty. There is a holy grip in grace that outlasts our worst sins and our best deeds. Nothing other than the exercise of our choice can keep Jesus from the exercise of His grace. So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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