The deepening awareness that we have been wrong more than we have been right—that we are only now approaching the starting point of faith—creates a gentle tolerance for those now camped where we once stopped, or mired in the stuff from which Christ freed us. We learn to smile at vehemence and vitriol, remembering how frequently we used them for bad causes or when we were still unsure.

Grace makes us gracious to the ungraceful, for we see ourselves in them. We remember that their faults are just as pardonable as ours, and no more dangerous.

The fellowship of the forgiven is as vast as the grace that makes it possible.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Does all of this not matter when it comes to final reckonings? Is God not suitably impressed with upright choices we’ve made—with gifts we’ve given to the poor, with candles lit, with self-denying sacrifice? Surely, righteous deeds must tip the scales in our favor.

Such thinking is both fully natural and painfully mistaken—not because God fails to notice, but because He has provided a better and more perfect way to bring us to His heart. The Bible is emphatic: “Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:23-25). The Father has appointed a Saviour whose perfect life and sacrificial death isn’t sullied by our habits of accounting or self-congratulation. “He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with His truth” (Psa 96:13).

We’ll never earn God’s gift of grace. But in His name—and for His fame—we’ll move the world with kindness.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Hard-edged, hard-hearted people flourish in a world chilled by greed. Deceit—in all its printed, spoken, filmed and digitized dimensions—settles like a toxic fog over what was once a landscape formed by trust. Unforgiveness grasps our culture by the throat, insisting that no war can ever truly end; no feud can ever fully finish.

And still the Word of God insists that grace personified in Jesus will sweep the world’s stage “by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil 3:21).

In the face of graceless, human-caused catastrophes, the Bible is emphatic: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11).

Grace will win because God’s love is so much greater than our hate. Every soul will have the chance to choose that grace for themselves—and thrive in it.

Choose now—and stay in grace. -Bill Knott

When God’s mercy and affection are much-welcomed and deep-trusted, lasting impacts start to flow to all within the circle.

Grudges soften at the edges; ancient bitterness begins to fade. Forgiveness flourishes in crevices, even between those who never thought they could be anything but enemies. Gentle, subtle acts of kindness replicate themselves like wavelets traveling outwards, touching lives far distant. Other souls are softened, watered, warmed, enriched. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Rom 5:5).

The grace “that saved a wretch like me” is so much more than God’s plan to bring me safe and sound to heaven, lovely as that is. Yes, it starts in one responsive heart, but never ends just there. As the old hymn constantly reminds us, “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea.” “The grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people” (Titus 2:11).

Grace ripples through our families, our friendships, our communities—unlimited; inclusive, and unstoppable. “Let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift” (Rev 22:17).

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Gary Krause, Director of Adventist Mission at the General Conference, sat down with Shawn Boonstra to explain what's actually being done, where it's working, and the 4-word principle that changed how both of them think about mission.

Shawn Boonstra and Justin Kim talk screens, dopamine, the anxious generation, the "bubble" trap, and why every parent they know has "gone nuclear" and regretted it — plus the stranger's words that changed Shawn's life at 16.

Shawn Boonstra opens the mission reports that reach the General Conference building — the ones most members never get to see. A district in the Scottish  Highlands that filled a Gospel Fest with people who'd never set foot in an Adventist church. A youth ministry in wartime Ukraine that sorts every person  they meet into five levels — starting with "haters." And a congregation in Seoul's professional district that stopped waiting for growth to happen organically.

The pattern connecting all three isn't budget, location, or talent. Listen to the end.

An arrogant, entitled son demands his inheritance from his father, but wastes it in riotous living. When the money and the morals are lost, he remembers his father’s house, and begins the awkward journey home, offering to be a servant, not a son. But the father runs to meet him, sweeps him up in his arms, and completely reinstates him in the family. Scroll the closing credits on “The Prodigal Son.”

But that’s not the end of the story Jesus told, even though we prefer to stop there. An older brother, the “good son” who stayed home and worked the farm, refuses to accept his brother’s re-inclusion. He will not dance; he will not join the party. Unforgiveness runs deep in him—deeper than any furrow he has plowed.

Jesus’ story is unfinished. One brother isn’t reconciled.

If you are eager for the Father’s welcome but will not welcome other prodigals, you may not find your home within the Father’s house. The Father has one rule for all: “You must be both forgiven and forgiving.”

The grace shown you is meant for others too.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

The teacher whose volcanic mood made one day bright and hopeful while the next we hardly dared to draw a breath . . . The parent who turned what should have been our safest space into a house of vigilance, where anger flashed erratically . . . The colleague whom we tiptoed past, just praying we didn’t trouble him . . .

From all such stories, we deduced that God was just as changeable—a deity who one day welcomed us to Him and next day chased us far away.

The truth—at last—is healing to our bodies and safety for our souls: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isa 55:8-9).

The Father doesn’t ask us in only to suddenly reject us, nor does He act toward us with cold, unfeeling judgment: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them” (2 Cor 5:19).

Grace is God’s vigilance to bring us safely to Himself where we will thrive and find His deep, persistent joy.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

We would always be unsure of what God wants us to be most certain of: “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far He removes our transgressions from us” (Psa 103:11-12).  

Our fears and doubts about the durability of grace don’t begin to change the ways God loves us. Our anxieties that the great Lover of our souls will be as fickle and unsteady as we are merely deprive us more time in His grip, more joy in His presence, and more certainty in His promise: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17).

Trust the arms that grip us at our worst, and the Love that will not let us go.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Understanding—really understanding—grace rarely happens through a flash of intellectual enlightenment: Paul’s own Damascus Road was just the first of many miles spent learning grace.

Each week we find how weak and meager is our faith, how little we actually trust the great bold verities announced by Jesus and His gospel, how much we fear that what He promises to give is too good to be true.

“Increase our faith” is the most honest prayer we ever murmur—and the one He most delights to answer.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

A popular illusion of new Christians is that the rescue wrought for them by Jesus is supposed to save them from any sorrow about their past. In the shallow mythology we clutch, everything about our new life as believers ought to be “peace, light, and joy.”

Yet God’s Word poignantly asks, “Do you not know that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?” (Rom 2:4). Assured at last of God’s continuing affection for us, we look more honestly at how often we ignored His love, mistreated others, and damaged our own happiness. That new-found honesty naturally disturbs us, for we see clearly what we previously refused to see.

A heart made clean and new by God will also experience real sorrow for the past. As the psalmist tearfully admitted, “Against you—you above all—I have sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight” (Psalmist 51:4).

The grace that saves us also changes us, for real love would never leave us where we were. Embrace the new and better life to which God’s kindness has now led you, even through some honest tears.

Now stay in grace. -Bill Knott

All these—and more—as reasons that we can’t—or won’t—forgive. We acidly rehearse the story of our injury, deepening divides and festering in feuds. Soon we come to like the bitter taste of bile, for anger feels powerful, and power is what we want.

But Jesus offers us another way—a path of grace that doesn’t measure wounds and grievances. “Love your enemies,“ He urges. “Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you” (Luke 6:27-28).

Such kindness seems impossible until—unless—we grasp how greatly we have been forgiven. Our graciousness is still the greatest sign that we have understood our real state, for “a person who is forgiven little shows only little love” (Luke 7:47).

If you never need forgiveness, then stay as hot and angry as you dare. But if your story calls for grace, accept the Father’s timely gift.

And stay in it. -Bill Knott

And so it often is with grace: we can’t believe in something so miraculous—so unexpected, undeserved—even though God’s Word repeatedly declares it: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2;8).

Until we see grace in the flesh—in someone near enough to care—we wonder if such kindness is just rich, warm-hearted myth. The one we thought an enemy who doesn’t reach for his revenge; the friend who quietly forgives our rudeness or our thoughtlessness; the colleague who works overnight to make up for our lack—each gives us just a glimpse of that unbounded and eternal grace that always seeks our flourishing. God sifts His goodness into every day through those who love has changed.

We learn grace from gracious people. In unsung, unexpected ways, they live the kindness in the heart of God.

Live warmly, joyfully yourself. You’ll be the grace some other seeker needs.

And stay in it. -Bill Knott

It’s not the sometime good we do—

forgiving unrepentant foes;

feeding hungry kids afar;

warming pews and saying prayers;

performing unpaid mission work.

Not one of these, nor all of them, can make us dearer to the One who chooses from His unforced, unrequired love to cherish every soul He made. “I have loved you with an everlasting love,” He says. “I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jer 31:3).

This grace confounds the wisdom of the world:

no ledgers; no accounts;

no keeping track of charities;

no earning credit with a boss;

no bank of kindnesses to set against our debts and deficits.

We fall back in amazed relief: “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love” (Rom 8:38).

Grace leads us, in the end, to praise—the joy we were created for.

Now stay in it. -Bill Knott

The answers range from comic to cautionary: “I’d be better-looking.” “I’d have a smaller nose.” “I’d make a lot of money.” “I’d marry a different person.” For each of us, there’s one thing we would change to give ourselves a better story.

“I’d understand God’s love much sooner in my life,” say the truly wise among us. For them, it’s not a classic story of regret: there’s no self-loathing, guilt, or fear. What they would change is a misperception built on what the culture tells us about God instead of what the Scriptures say: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:19).

They only wish they could have known the Father’s love more deeply, for a longer time. How much the world of everyday would have been colored differently if they had known all along that “underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deut 33:27).

Give me more joy. Let me be always washed in grace. Give me more years of knowing what is really true: “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).

Now stay in grace. -Bill Knott

“By this we shall know that we are of the truth,

and reassure our hearts before Him whenever our hearts condemn us;

for God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything” (1 John 3:19-20).

It’s not the voice of God that drives you on to fear, or rush, or labor past your strength.

We dare not make the Spirit own our anxiousness or lack of peace.

God is always on the side of what gives life, builds hope,

and moves us even one small step toward balance.

His grace is meant to keep us breathing, as well as for our saving.

The day that Jesus wants to bring us healing is the day that we are living,

not only when our destinies are weighed.

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

His grace is for today and always.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

You're not alone. Many Christians — especially in the Seventh-day Adventist community — are wrestling with that very question as their churches shift in directions they never expected.

But what if leaving is exactly the wrong move?

In Protesting the Church, the case is made that true Protestants don't walk out — they stay, speak up, and work for renewal from within. From Martin Luther to the apostle Paul, history's greatest reformers chose presence over protest.

Your voice matters. Your vote matters. Your influence matters.

Before you go — listen to this first.

Millions of believers candidly describe both deep faith in Jesus as their Saviour and an inability to recall just when it happened—a “sunrise experience” as one author calls it.

This is the way that grace unfolds, for “Damascus Road” conversions are far fewer than we claim. That road, it should be noted, was 150 miles long, requiring six days of travel. Grace had been working every mile to soften the heart of the angry man who would become its chief apostle.

So grace also walks with the prodigal as he leaves home; in his disturbing revelries; when he finally “comes to himself”; and when he ultimately is encircled by the father’s arms, and once again wears ring and robe. “For 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).

Grace is the long arc of the Father’s kind intentions—and it may take months or years before that seeking love brings us to clarity and gratitude.

You have always been loved. You have always been sought. And your faith is an equally long arc of learning just how deeply Jesus values you.

Now stay in grace. -Bill Knott

In this heartfelt episode, Shawn Boonstra sits down with General Conference Secretary Rick McEdward. From culture shock in a military compound, to a powerful call into ministry, to serving in the Middle East and now helping steer global mission, Rick’s journey reveals how God turns ordinary lives into extraordinary witnesses.

Hear inspiring stories of faithfulness, the vision for One Voice 2027, and practical ways every member can join the work of reaching eight billion people.

You won’t want to miss this encouraging conversation—tune in now and let it stir your own calling!

For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

The soprano’s voice soars above the swell of the orchestra, her eyes caught up to heaven. Every heart in the concert hall leans forward, drawn by an ache, a longing.

Why do such moments move us so deeply—in seasons of faith, or in our midnight struggles? Why does our hope cling more tightly to the lyrics of an old hymn than to a hundred bright and restless tunes?

Because we bear reminding—every day—that the God who flung the stars in their courses still sees us; still chooses to see us—in all our tired, ordinary uniqueness. In heaven’s chosen language, there is no “same as that” or “same as them.” Even our unvoiced whispers are heard, fully understood, gently answered.

This is the grace that watches over us, that’s never weary, never indifferent. Jesus made it very clear: “Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to Him than they are?” (Matt 6:26).

Grace sees our tears, knows our stress, and comforts our distresses. And grace gives us a song that carries us through every hour to come.

Hope is your sign of grace.

So stay in it. -Bill Knott

In this raw, unfiltered episode of unScripted, Shawn Boonstra sits down with assistant editor Hannah Drewieck to talk about staying connected to your world church — and why the quiet, everyday faith might actually be the most powerful kind.

Hannah shares her surprising journey from Hope Channel International to Adventist Review, how she shepherds powerful “experiences” stories (heritage, mission, testimonies), and the devotional that stopped the whole team in their tracks: Daniel’s secret to lion’s den courage wasn’t one big miracle — it was something he did three times every day.

Plus: • The vulnerable adoption story that will make you rethink what “God’s plan” really looks like • The 19th-century missionary who risked everything with no salary, no backup, and started something that’s still growing in India today • Why fear of rejection or “messing up” shouldn’t stop you from sharing your faith (and what to do instead) If you’ve ever wondered whether your steady, non-dramatic walk with God counts… this one’s for you. Subscribe to the FREE Friday email newsletter (it drops the new unScripted episode the second it goes live):

→ AdventistReview.org/connect

Timestamps: 00:00 – Intro & Hannah’s journey 06:00 – What she actually does at Adventist Review (Experiences category) 12:30 – The Friday newsletter explained 18:45 – Hannah’s devotional: Amazing Race dreams vs. steady faith 25:10 – Daniel 6:10 and the faith that endures 32:00 – “Four Foot Home Expansion” adoption story 40:15 – “She Opened the Way” – Georgia Burris in India 50:20 – “Fear and Faith at the Doorstep” – facing evangelism fears 58:00 – How to submit your own story

Raw. Real. Off the record. This is unScripted. Hit subscribe, turn on notifications, and never miss what’s really happening in your world church. Drop a comment: What’s one “ordinary” thing God uses in your daily faith?

Jesus once asked it of a paralyzed man who for 38 years had lingered beside a legendary pool.

The answer feels self-evident: who wouldn’t instantly reach out for healing, for wholeness, for a mended body and the restoration of fractured relationships?

But Jesus knows how tenderly we caress our wounds; how suffering weaves itself into our core; how grief and bitterness pulse with dark, compelling energy. So He lingers before He heals, honoring the sacred freedom He gave to every soul: “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6). “Do you want to live beyond your pain? Do you want to live without rehearsing narratives of those who injured you, or why your bitterness is justified?”

It was not an easy question then; it never is an easy question now. Yet Jesus asks again, for His grace is neither hurried nor forced. Will we be remade, renewed, restored? Or will we settle again onto familiar broken ground, grimly content to recount the ancient wounds that now define us?

Grace passes by your mat today. The question stirs your waiting place, echoing around your pool.

Take the hand that reaches for you. Respond with faith—yes, even trembling faith—and grace will lift you to your feet.

Then stay in it. -Bill Knott

In this engaging episode, Shawn Boonstra and Siku Dako explore the powerful April issue of Adventist Review, centered on the theme of adoption. Discover how one family’s real-life adoption story reveals breathtaking truths about God’s costly, inconvenient love for us—while we were still sinners.

They also unpack President Erton Kohler’s timely call for right motives and Christlike methods (especially online), plus a vivid retelling of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet that challenges pride and invites humility.

Rich in theology, testimony, and practical faith—this conversation will stir your heart. Don’t miss it—tune in now and let adoption reshape how you see yourself and God!

You’ll feel encouraged by stories of stewardship, clean audits, and leaders challenging each other to do even more. Don’t miss this uplifting 28-minute deep dive—tune in now and see how your giving is making a worldwide difference!

Join the crowd—the great, blood-washed crowd of those who say they follow Jesus. Unlike the spiritually intimidating stories we often tell each other, there are no sturdy souls who never know a moment’s doubt—who always sing the sun up in the morning and bless the coolness of the night. We invent such myths in hope that we might yet grow into them, more righteous than our peers.

But real life has real tests—when our money, strength, or patience come up short; when secretly we envy the ultra-rich, the ultra-smooth; the carefree media influencer. With the psalmist we complain: “Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence” (Psa 73:13).

The same gracious Word that voices our human frustration also gives us words to say to our Creator when faith is thin or weak: “Yet I still belong to You; You hold my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny” (Psa 73:23-24). Grace plucked us from our foolishness: “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6).

Trust the Lord who called you on to life eternal. And stay in grace.

-Bill Knott

We explore how superstition can quietly creep into Christian (and Adventist) life—morning devotion guilt, fear-based rituals, not putting anything on the Bible, and more. Seth Pierce’s powerful article challenges us: Is our faith rooted in Scripture or mixed with magical thinking?

Then we tackle one of the most shocking stats: One-third of Seventh-day Adventists worldwide still believe it’s possible to communicate with the dead. Hear real stories, the cruelty of this deception, and why soul-winning requires more than facts—it requires walking through grief with people. Plus, don’t miss Kids View—the incredible children’s resource in every North American Adventist Review (and free online elsewhere). Perfect for families, Pathfinders, Adventurers, and anyone who wants fresh stories for kids!

Subscribe now so you never miss an episode—and drop a comment: Which superstition have YOU caught yourself believing? 👇

Read the full March issue: https://adventistreview.org Kids View online: https://www.kidsview.com Adventist Review website: https://adventistreview.org

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‘Of course,’ you say. Why not believe? It’s the noun that always follows “Amazing,” the tune the bagpipers skirl at dawn; the soaring hymn a tenor lifts into a vast cathedral.

For some, it may be what the sermon is about, or what we learned in Bible class.

But is grace believable at the baseline of our fears—in those tough places in the soul where shame and memory combust to make us cringe again, again? Does grace reach down below the intellect, the wonderful idea, and heal those wounds we so much never want to show the world?

At its heart—and in our hearts—grace offers us what no one else is giving. Redemption is for real—for all those moments and those years we’ve blown it big and ruined all our future. “All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned every one to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him”—on Jesus, the only righteous one who ever lived—"the iniquity of us all” (Isa 53:6).

It seems too good—too kind; too merciful—to be true. And so we linger in the half-light of our fears, humming a tune we dream might yet be ours.

The hymn has outlived every copyright. God’s grace is clearly in the public domain.

Make this song yours. And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

“What if?” the wise ones wondered, with a nagging, dull unease. “Could disciples come in the dead of night and spirit His body away?”

“What if?” the governor worried, as he doubled the guarding troops. “Is there truly a power in heaven or hell that would dare to break my seal?”

But the doubts that rang in their hollow souls had begun to lose their grip. This Man had life—gave life—gives life. No sword, or spear, or stone, or seal could keep the dawn from rising.

What if the night is over? What if He won’t stay dead? What if the dying Lamb of God becomes our living Head?

When we begin to doubt our doubts, the life of faith begins. We pull the morning toward us, certain only of one thing: we’ve had enough of night and fear and death and loss. There’s joy beyond the cross.

Resurrection—His and ours—begins to change the world. So pick some lilies. Sing His song. Plant some kindness. Practice risen life each day.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

The palm fronds we waved wildly on Sunday were woven into simple brooms that swept up 30 tarnished silver pieces; in ropes that tied Messiah to the blood-stained lashing post on Friday. All things trudge slowly toward His end, as if no other fate could be.

Of Himself, the Saviour said: “The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death . . . They will mock Him, and spit upon Him, and flog Him, and kill Him” (Mk 10:32-33).  

But never miss the finish of His prophecy: the future of the world hangs on it, or actually, on Him. “And after three days He will rise again” (vs 33).

There is no darkness, long or dull, that Light can never penetrate. It’s not a story that must end with grief on Friday afternoon. “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him” (Rom 6.8).

Keep walking through His Passion, then, for it will end as you will end—with hope, with light, with joy, with life. The morning dawns, and so will you.

Now stay in grace. -Bill Knott

We tire of grace when we’re tempted by the easy arrogance of effort. “If I just say another prayer; read another Bible verse; light another candle—then I can pull the love of God toward me and close up any distance.” We think to work our way back toward His will with scrupulous self-discipline—with vegetables, and fasting, and money given to the homeless. We want connection, but without the cross.

As satisfying as it can feel to deliberately make the life of faith more painful and intense, the gospel shines with clarifying grace: “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:24).

The self-denial for which Christ calls isn’t made of beets or gruel or things we naturally dislike. It’s the denying of our own efforts, of the value of our “good deeds,” and yes, of our own homemade theology to which the Saviour calls us. “Christ made us right with God; He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin. Therefore, as the Scriptures say, ‘If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord’” (I Cor 1:30-31).

“Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent’” (John 6:29).

Now stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Left versus right; rich opposed to poor; theists against atheists; the educated despising the illiterate. Trillions of dollars, euros, yen and rubles have been invested to sustain this pernicious illusion, for much money can be made by channeling hatred and distrust. 

So it is that grace, which teaches us that “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5)—grace will always seem so strange and otherworldly to people who believe that they have been fated to hate those different from themselves. The gospel declares of Jesus, “For He is our peace; in His flesh He has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us” (Eph 2:14).

Grace is the promise that we can learn to love without divisions, without malice, without hate.

And when it comes to you, you’ll stay in grace. -Bill Knott

New March 2026 Adventist Review spotlight: Superstition cover story + Justin's editorial "etcetera" on Daniel 3—why the Bible's repetitive lists poetically shout God's total supremacy over every power and ritual. The One Voice global initiative: Coordinated revival and evangelism in 2026, studying Daniel chapter-by-chapter (March on Daniel 3). Fresh insights, reading tips, and why prophecy matters. Inspiring testimony: "From Iran to God's Ultimate Freedom"—Raha flees oppression in Iran, finds a loving God through providential SDA connections in Polish refugee centers. Exclusive PNG follow-up: After PNG for Christ’s massive baptisms (250,000+ reported), Shawn and Kyle went on-site. Hear Philip's transformation—from rebel/prisoner to baptizing 50 and leading a home for abused kids. Lay-led revival in action.

No fluff, just honest encouragement on faith, prophecy, and God's leading. Your thoughts? Comment below—we read and respond! Suggest next topics? 🔔 Subscribe for weekly unfiltered SDA updates, testimonies, and Bible dives. 👍 Like if these stories fire up your mission spirit! 💬 Share your "God was working all along" story. #unScripted #SDAChurch #AdventistReview #Daniel3 #OneVoice #PNGBaptisms #PNGforChrist #MissionStories #IranToChrist #SeventhdayAdventist #BibleProphecy #Revival2026 #AdventistNews Timestamps (approx. ~32 min total runtime): 0:00 - Intro banter, jacket crest fun, new Adventist Review tease 2:30 - Why subscribe to AdventistReview.org + flagship global voice 4:45 - Justin's "etcetera" editorial: Daniel 3 lists & God's supremacy 9:30 - One Voice / Daniel study push + deeper Bible reading tips 14:00 - Daniel criticisms, prophecy accuracy, personal impact 18:15 - "From Iran to God's Ultimate Freedom" refugee testimony 24:00 - PNG baptisms exclusive: Philip's full story & lay-led impact 29:00 - Wrap-up: future mission push + amen! Subscribe at AdventistReview.org for the full March issue and global church pulse!

He can look upon the rubble of his past with clarity but without shame—for he has found the liberating power of forgiveness. She can candidly assess the threats and stress the future may portend without the customary fear: her “life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).

They do not take themselves too seriously, for they are quick to tell that all they have and all they are is given them in mercy.

You watch them pour themselves into the broken, fear-filled lives of those around them, for grace never was for them alone. Their peace shines like a steady and unblinking light in all the aching darkness.

Mark them well, for this is who you want to be—who you can be—by saying “Yes” to grace.

“Since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us” (Rom 5:1).

And when your life is also glad and free, you’ll stay in grace. -Bill Knott

We dive into:

Audrey Anderson's powerful GC article: "Could the Church Be Wrong?" – Yes, mistakes happen, but God still uses a broken people (home for sinners being mended). Shawn's deep-dive article: "Was Hitler a Christian?" – Unpacking the occult, theosophy roots (Ellen White warned about this!), pagan influences, and why it's not biblical Christianity that fueled the horror. Wes Peppers' "Pizza or Providence?" – Don't over-spiritualize everything! Discern real providence from bad digestion, gut feelings, or random crows flying over. 

Plus: Jonathan shares his journey from Austria to the Review, the vital role of Adventist artists in mission (submit your work to art@adventistreview.org!), why the Review focuses on positive mission (not stone-throwing), and how slow change can be a blessing. Real questions. Honest answers. No scripts. Just unScripted truth for today's SDA world.

📖 Read the articles:

Could the Church Be Wrong?  Was Hitler a Christian?  Pizza or Providence? 

Subscribe to the Adventist Review print + digital:  Make AdventistReview.org your browser homepage for daily positive, mission-focused content! Follow us: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, TikTok, WhatsApp channels (multiple languages coming soon). Drop your thoughts below: Have you ever over-spiritualized something? What's one "small stuff" church battle you let go? 👇 #unScripted #SDAChurch #AdventistReview #SeventhdayAdventist #Discernment #ChurchMistakes #Mission

Adventist Review – the official voice of the Seventh-day Adventist Church since 1849. Grounded in the Bible. Focused on mission.

“Say less about the grace of God, and more of human duty.”

Afraid that others may secure by gift what they haven’t won by long, intensive effort, persistent voices challenge those who speak and preach of grace. 

“You make it all too easy,” they complain. “Where’s the struggle, pain, and sacrifice? Where are the nights of deep uncertainty when you despair of ever being right with God?” 

There’s just one answer for such fears, and it originated in the mind of God: “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God” (Eph 2:8). 

Only the Word that comes from God can overcome the human pride that needs its efforts recognized. The apostle Paul, filled with the truth that rests in God, emphatically declared: “For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law” (Rom 3:28).

Those who truly grasp God’s grace are never slow to live His love. The life of holiness begins when we receive what we can never earn. 

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

They dive deep into:

Emily Gibbs' raw testimony: diagnosed with a brain tumor while pregnant — "Not One Miracle" explores why God sometimes works beyond physical healing.

Dr. John Shin (Loma Linda oncologist): "Dying to Live" — what if the SDA health message isn't primarily about living longer on earth?

James & Ellen White's real marriage: poverty, arguments, ministry strain, wayward kids, and deep mutual respect.

Whether you're wrestling with health challenges, supporting someone who is, questioning the health message, or navigating family/marriage pressures — this conversation brings honest hope grounded in Scripture and Adventist experience.

Timestamps: 0:00 – Fun intro & guest intro 2:30 – Sikhu's journey from Zimbabwe to Adventist Review 8:00 – February issue overview & why get the physical magazine 12:00 – "Not One Miracle" – Emily Gibbs brain tumor story 18:00 – Shawn's personal health crisis testimony 25:00 – Dr. John Shin "Dying to Live" – health message purpose 35:00 – Stewardship, science discernment & compassion for the suffering 45:00 – James & Ellen White marriage: real struggles & respect 55:00 – Closing thoughts & call to subscribe Subscribe to Adventist Review for more real talk on faith, mission, and church life. Get your February issue → https://adventistreview.org (or search "Adventist Review subscribe") #SeventhdayAdventist #SDAHealthMessage #AdventistReview #Unscripted #EllenWhite #FaithAndHealing #ChristianMarriage #BrainTumorTestimony #LomaLinda #EndTimes

Hard hearts chill with chosen hate. Clenched hands will not open to the gift. Death and dryness multiply. 

But grace is never limited by how it is received. Like some deep-hidden spring whose source cannot be found, grace flows to sinners and to saints, without regard to worthiness. Some are only temporarily dampened by the flow, but remain defiantly unchanged. Others are made soft and pliable by the same unending grace—new clay from which the Lord will fashion recreated men and women. 

So grace is neither a reward for good behavior nor a prompt to honor good intentions. Grace is the decision of our God—who cannot fail—to offer all of us what we have not deserved, have often not desired, and certainly could never earn. It flows from God’s unending heart of love. 

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift” (Rev 22:17).

Now stay in it. -Bill Knott

Highlights with timestamps:

1:29 Astrology apps, NASA data + AI, and the spiritual vacuum it reveals 

 3:13 Postmodern search for meaning – prophecy answers what horoscopes can't

4:40 Ancient zodiac echoes in Israel's tribes? Connecting Daniel to today 

6:50 Adventist Review origin: Ellen White's 1848 vision of streams of light going global – now digital! 

9:38 No AI in our writing – authentic human voices only 

10:38 Shane Anderson at Annual Council: humility, service, education networks, and sleeping leaders (travel is brutal!) 

17:05 Prexad meeting insights & Erton Kohler's mission focus 

19:48 Dr. Shin (Loma Linda oncologist) on anointing, miracles that fade, and health for service – not escape from death 

26:03 Eternal life as quality now, not just quantity later 

Visit AdventistReview.org or scan the QR for full articles. Share your story: Have you seen healing prayers answered – or not? Let's discuss below.

Subscribe for weekly real talk on Adventism, prophecy, health, and church life.

#SeventhdayAdventistChurch #UnscriptedAdventistReview #Daniel2Astrology #SDAHealthMessage #AnnualCouncil2025 #EllenWhiteVision #BibleAndAstrology #MedicalMinistry #AdventistFaith #JesusIsComing

In this episode:

Justin Kim shares his journey from wanting to be a doctor to becoming Editor of the Adventist Review. Explore the January 2026 Adventist Review issue: "Have We Reached the World Yet?" – featuring a stunning global church growth map (1 Adventist per 341 people worldwide). Discussion on One Voice 27 – the 2027 initiative to proclaim the gospel worldwide, marking 2,000 years since Jesus' baptism. Justin's editorial on the "Three Natans" of Daniel chapter 1 (God gives victory, favor, and knowledge). Balance between faithfulness and numbers in evangelism – stories from Jesus' ministry to modern challenges. Powerful insights on reading Ellen White in context (avoiding misapplication). Plus, why art and visuals matter in sharing the gospel!

Whether you're a longtime Adventist or exploring faith, this episode will inspire you to engage with the world church's mission. Subscribe for more episodes! Watch on Adventist Review TV: https://adventistreview.tv Read the full January issue: https://adventistreview.org Learn about One Voice 27: https://onevoice27.org #AdventistReview #Unscripted #SeventhDayAdventist #OneVoice27 #DanielAndRevelation #ChurchGrowth #EllenWhite #FaithJourney

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro & Welcome 1:11 Justin Kim's Background & Journey 3:35 Global Adventism: Surprises & Similarities 5:40 The January Issue & Church Growth Map 7:13 Have We Reached the World Yet? 11:56 The Three Natans of Daniel 16:50 Numbers vs. Faithfulness in Evangelism 26:31 Reading Ellen White in Context 28:26 Wrap-up & QR Code

Adventist Review Spanish Whatsapp—  https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb34ag4CXC3FajyBo00x

Certainly not by retreating to our separate corners and hurling brickbats at each other.  Of all the “stuff” we absorb from our angry culture, the habits of accusing and deriding are undoubtedly the worst.

But as grace finds a home in us, we grow more willing to admit that we might be mistaken.  Receiving grace requires we confess we are wrong, and always have been.  We’ve misunderstood the love of God, imagining Him as only angry, always disappointed. We’ve wandered into deeds that brought us shame and guilt.  We’ve argued for ideas that were vanquished at the cross.  “All we like sheep have gone astray” (Is 53:6).

So grace prepares us for a new way of talking with each other, even when we disagree—especially when we disagree.  “You could be right”—"I might be wrong”: these are the tools of reconciliation and renewal.  Look carefully at grace before you look your opponent in the eye.

There is no greater joy than laughing with a former enemy. 

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

This is the crucible where what we understand of grace is seen and fully known. If grace has found a home in us, it pries our fingers off the iron mace of moral superiority, of glorying in punishments we can exact. Grace places us just where our enemy now stands. He has done wrong—just as we do. He has told lies—as we have done. He has betrayed a confidence—and which of us has not?

Grace always has a claim on justice, but chooses not to push that claim. The Bible says, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:19). If God, whom we supremely injured, sees us with such rich love that He accepts the death of Christ in place of what we fully earned, grace can be learned—by us, in us, through us, for others.

Grace lets us first unclench our fists so we may offer enemies our open hands.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

And in those fitful moments, the impulse to be grateful for our lives so easily departs—chased out by hot adrenaline. Should we—could we—offer thanks for grumpy children shepherded to school; for spouses facing drama at the office; for traffic ribbons of red taillights?

Yet waking up is still a grace, and drawing breath is still a gift. Everything we count as sameness and routine is proof that life still offers possibilities; that things don’t stay just as they were; that hope—and hopeful people—still endure.

Grace saves more than souls and minds—the planned, deliberate parts of us. Grace floods our zone with oxygen; with joys too small to write them down; with love as wordless as an infant’s fingers curled about our own. And gratitude—perhaps a prayer we’ve memorized; an easy sigh of heavenward contentment—gratitude equips us for the journey of these hours, this life, and on to life eternal.

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10), Jesus says to all who put their mornings in His care.

Awake to life and love and grace.

And stay in it. -Bill Knott

Above our highest joy and most euphoric moments, there is the sheer delight of God—applauding us, encouraging, enlarging celebration.

Through every stage of every journey—in trust, in fear; in faith, in doubt; in youth, in gray maturity—we’re never left alone or told to make it on our own.  Despite appearances, the road is never empty.

Around us each are Jesus’ everlasting arms—sustaining us, protecting us, embracing us. His hands are ever on us.

“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things” (Rom 11:36).

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom 8:39).

We are befriended by the One who rules all time and space. 

Receive the gift.  And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Returning war heroes, major politicians, and sometimes even aviators and athletes would be honored by a slow-motion ride in an open-topped limousine through the canyons of New York City’s financial district, showered by literally millions of paper fragments from stock ticker machines. It was the ultimate symbol of popular success. 

No wonder so many dreamed of that day when they would ride in the convertible, waving slowly to the thousands lining the way.

But when it comes to how our lives find meaning and renewal, we aren’t the hero in this parade. Though our egos, our music, and so much of our “faith talk” put us in the spotlight, reveling in the shower of ticker-tape, this celebration isn’t about us. This parade is for Jesus, “the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne” (Heb 12:2).

Grace isn’t just about making us feel special, celebrated or affirmed: those are fortunate results, not purposes. Grace truly understood is the grateful cheer going up from millions of rescued hearts to the One who made it happen through His sacrifice and love. 

There’s just one hero in this story. And it’s not me—or you.

Now stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Parents rejoiced when we first slept through the night; the first time we rolled over in the crib; when we finally tolerated the puréed squash; when we took our first tottering steps.

We were congratulated for learning our numbers; mastering the alphabet; riding a bicycle; reading a sentence. People cheered when we scored the soccer goal; sank the jump shot; hit the home run.

Accolades flowed if we exceeded our peers in history, algebra, languages, or physics.

Employers nodded appreciatively at résumés crammed with academic and professional excellence.

That’s why we find ourselves so unprepared for the unexpected gift of grace,

for which we didn’t work, and which we never earned.

t takes us days, months—often years—to quiet our over-trained and striving souls long enough to receive what God says only He can provide.

“God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece” (Eph 2:8-19).

Grace is the story of what Jesus has achieved for us. Accept His gift, and He will take you further than you’ve ever dreamed.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

That’s good counsel for those who seek to live in grace during 2026 as well. The secret of successful living is knowing what to throw away, what to forget, what to discard. In the desk of life from 2025 there are likely many things you’d do better to be without.

Throw away the slights and the insults you received in the old year. Hanging on to them this long has already caused you to be something less than the kind and gracious person you’ve wanted to be.

Throw away the grudges you’ve nourished during the last 12 months. Though they’ve probably provided you with many moments of bitter satisfaction, they haven’t deepened your faith or your kindness even a little.

In 2026, collect coins if you wish; collect stamps; collect postcards; collect tropical fish. But don’t collect grudges. They are part of what lies behind that ought to be forgotten.

And finally, throw away your sins when you’ve repented of them, for Jesus promises to do the same: “I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more” (Heb 8:12). “As far as the east is from the west, so far He removes our transgressions from us” (Psa 103:12).

Grace lets us lean into the future with joy and expectation.

So stay in it. -Bill Knott

He’s the reason why at every Christmas a song rises from millions of redeemed men and women to mingle with the anthem of those long-ago angels—a hymn of gratitude and grace.

We discover that life can be something better than a mean little existence between the cradle and the grave. We learn that our day-to-day experience can be full of joy and possibilities, of hope and healing. The glow that began in the midnight fields near Bethlehem has become a radiance none can extinguish: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:4).

The gift given us in Jesus is why we search each Christmas for the words of that angel hymn: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward all.”

Gratitude is just another way of saying “Thanks” for grace.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Had He been born in some rich villa spilling down the hillside to the sparkling Aegean, we might find passing mention of His name in annals of the empire.

Had He been birthed and raised among the scholars and the gifted, all that He said and all He taught might yield a footnote in the history of earth’s wisdom.

But heaven was both gracious and strategic. When God gave us His unique and irreplaceable Son, He gave Him to the ones without the power, wealth, or learning. From that first night, the hiddenness of grace that brought Him to the poor, the common, the forgotten has made the story of His birth the fulcrum of all history. He is the truly unforgettable Man.

This Child born to us is fully ours, however we are ranked by those who seem to rule the world. In Jesus, grace became embodied, changing lives, forgiving sins, renewing hope for all who trust the gift He is.

Be strong in grace; be rich in grace; be wise in grace this Christmas.

And stay in it. -Bill Knott

The old prophecy—fulfilled in the birth of Jesus—that “unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder” (Isa 9:6)—that prophecy rattles every regime built on force, and shakes the citadels of coercion. All the armies they sent and all the dynasties they built will ultimately surrender to a Child with no earthly authority, an infant born in a shed for animals: “Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:11).

His authority rests on compassion and restoration—the truth that we can be reconciled to God and to each other. The power of attractive love brings Him the loyalty of so many abused by force and greed. “The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory as of a Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Christmas is a powerful reminder that love will ultimately triumph. The grace we witness in Jesus’ birth is the grace with which He will reign forever.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

There is no waiting line, no jostling for position. There are no elbows, scornful faces, or murmured whispers of contempt. No one here will keep you from receiving what your withered spirit needs.

This is the fellowship of the redeemed. This is the company of those who gladly—daily—open their parched lives to the “washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

Grace isn’t some scarce resource, guarded by the worthy, requiring conservation or close rationing as though it might run out. This is the river of life—re-life; renewal; resurrection—flowing from the grace of Him whose great forgiving is “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4:4). 

Those who really “get” the grace of God keep pulling all those they love into the healing, rehydrating stream. The waterfall keeps getting wider. More and more will be revived.

Step out of dry and into drenched.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

That moment—sometimes in a crowd; more often alone—when we trust ourselves to grace—haltingly, even tentatively—becomes the pivot of our everafter. 

Our looming fear reminds us always of our brokenness and sin: the record of our foolishness tempts us to believe that only righteous deeds can ever change what we think is the Father’s frown. In reality, “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).  The Bible tells us we are deeply and unchangeably loved “while we were yet sinners” (Rom 5:7)—before we knew to tidy up our act, behave accordingly, or polish our veneers. 

Jesus is the Father’s standing—kneeling, dying, rising—invitation to trust the love that will not let us go.  Grace invites us to embrace the gift we never thought was meant for us, to revel in the long, essential kindness we will never deserve but may always enjoy. 

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Is there a better confidence than the one which every Sabbath reminds you that “the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein”?

Can there be a deeper security than when Christ’s word of certainty penetrates your fears and doubts with the assurance, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together”?

The answers to those questions, friends, are “no,” “no,” and “no”—nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Your hope will rise; your joy will find its wings. Trust is the dawn from which our daylight grows.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

An unexpected bill arrives. The car won’t start. A three-year old grows feverish. Layoff slips are piling up for even long-time workers.

The brooding circle of our fears goes rounding for an answer. In all those moments “in between,” we just can’t break their vast, erosive power. We want control—ours or anyone’s—to hold at bay dark outcomes that we dread.

And God’s Word doesn’t chide us when we worry in our helplessness, nor urge us to “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive.” We’re given there a clear-eyed glimpse of what is really true about our lives—of God’s deep, constant love for us, for now and for forever: “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with My victorious right hand” (Isa 41:10).

When we align our fraying hope with heaven’s lasting kindness, we give ourselves to what is truer than our worries: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who loved us and by His grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say” (2 Thes 2:16-17).

Grace teaches us to trust what Christ has done, is doing, and will do.

Let fear recede and slip away.

Then stay in grace. -Bill Knott

The websites and the bookstores are crowded with a million crafted plans for how to lose unwanted weight, get control of personal finances, or marry the person of our dreams. Millions of pounds of body fat have been shed; ten million family budgets have been strengthened and secured—and at least a handful of romances have been kindled by wise tips on what makes us more attractive.

These titles tap a human ache for personal improvement, for better health, for successful relationships. We each have somewhere deep within potential to make better choices—and find better outcomes.

But self-help strategies can’t address the even more persistent ache for redemption and recovery. We’re powerless to change the facts: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), the Bible tells us. “No one is righteous—not even one” (Rom 3:10).

So heaven has a strategy that changes both our here and our hereafter: “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them” (2 Cor 5:19).

When we couldn’t do a thing to change our lostness and our brokenness, the deep, unending grace of God offered us eternal life for all who trust in Jesus.

Self-help has its place: that place is not your forever destiny.

Only grace will do.

So stay in it. -Bill Knott

For more than 250 years, believers have cherished the clear simplicity of “Amazing Grace.” Celebrated recordings 50 years ago by bagpipe bands and pop artists catapulted the old song to international prominence as a kind of “hymn for the world.” Millions resonate with the ache it expresses for freedom, redemption and a future. 

But buried in its timeless lines is a simple summary of an equally timeless Bible truth: “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17). 

John Newton’s memorable lines capture our natural wretchedness, our lostness, our inability to truly understand our plight, and our resulting fear. Filled with light only the gospel can bring, his verses also celebrate recovery, relief, clear vision, and being found by the seeking love of the Father. 

The author of “Amazing Grace” knew what millions who blithely sing his hymn have never fully grasped: the grace that saves us doesn’t override our choice as moral beings. We must agree to let the redemption achieved by Jesus stand in place of all we’ve done. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9).

So let the old song lead you to new life, new hope, new joy. Embrace the grace that Jesus always offers. 

And stay in it. -Bill Knott

We were once toddlers: now we stride—and even race—through professions and relationships. Our minds have grown acute: we’ve mastered subtlety and sarcasm, posturing and self-promotion. We’ve learned the fine art of “faking it until we make it.”

But the growling in the basement grows insistent. We sense—and if we read God’s Word, we know—that He’s not deceived by the polished spiritual résumé that a dozen self-help books have taught us to prepare. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Rom 3:23) the Bible says.

Our finest spiritual achievements are illusions we’ve chosen to believe, because “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer 17:9). Candor—full, undistracted clarity about our lives—reveals the widening gap between our best efforts and God’s expectations.

Enter a Saviour—“fully human in every way,” (Heb 2:17) but without sin. “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). He carries both the weight and the memory of our brokenness so far away that we can finally discover the joyful life we’ve always wanted.

Grace promises welcome relief for all who trust in Jesus. There’s healing redemption in no other.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Entering a room of jostling colleagues, sure you’ve spoken kindly of each one. Finishing your tax return with certainty you’ve paid each charge the law required. Walking by mouth-watering chocolates for six days straight without even opening the box.

This doesn’t sound like your story? You either?

The inner voice that calls to mind our secret crossings of the line is rarely ever silent. While waiting for much-needed sleep, we churn on memories we’d love to lose. We’ve whittled down our rivals; we gave ourselves deductions for “unspecified” expenses; we bought replacement boxes of those chocolate cremes we can’t resist. The list our consciences won’t leave alone is long—and growing longer.

Which makes grace even lovelier when we discover its power and its healing.

When God forgives us through the sacrifice of Jesus, He chooses—in His grace—to forget the very things we otherwise could not forget. “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

The final word about our lives is not a litany of pride or gluttony or lust. The word is love—the kind that will not let us go.

In grace, we may forget the things God chooses to forget.

So stay in it. -Bill Knott

Self-interest is the driving force in almost all our culture. Do I like it? Does it taste good? Did it make me laugh? Does it put money in my pocket? We measure almost everything by what we get and gain.

And so it’s natural to think of something as extravagant as God’s unprecedented kindness as a kind of fortunate transaction that wipes away our past and entitles us to heaven.

But God’s deep kindness in sending Jesus as the bearer of our sins was never only meant to “save a wretch like me.” Yes, grace redeems us first as individuals, but never leaves us spiraling in spiritual self-interest.

The purpose of the love of God is that we freely give what we’ve received. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). The stream of grace should always have an outlet, flowing from God’s heart through yours to water other barren soil. What you receive, you’re meant to share.

Grace always has a global span: it always was a global plan. “For 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).

The love that saves us makes us gracious, loving as we have been loved.

So stay in it. -Bill Knott

Then you know something of the grace of God, whatever else your story tells. 

Grace comes to us as unexpected joy when our performance, short or long—had lifted neither us nor anyone around us. We were muddling through the music, vocalizing rote notes and mangling the lyrics. We didn’t know a brighter, higher anthem lay hidden in the lines.

But God in kindness teaches us to sing of faith so rich and love so sweet we are amazed we never knew it sooner.  With one much-humbled, transformed saint named Paul, we happily exclaim, “Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things” (Eph 3:8-9).

Grace pulls us up—our bodies, minds, and especially our hopes—when we’ve been mumbling through the stanzas of our yesteryears. The God who lives and gives—and gives again—surprises us with freedom from our past and freedom for our future. 

Hear what your life sounds like when set in God’s new, saving key.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

And yet joy lingers, gentleness persists, and tens of millions of times a day, someone whispers “I love you” to a child, a spouse, a friend, a former enemy.   

This is true for both those who do not own the name of Jesus and for those who celebrate His power and love:  “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). 

The tenderness we witness, the patient words we find when stressed, the arms with which we wrap the hurting and the sinful—these are the remnants of the love once given at Creation and now given us preeminently in Jesus: “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:9-10).

Resist the anger amped by code. Love with the grace by which you are forever loved. 

And stay in it. -Bill Knott

“She’s a saint,” we say admiringly, assuming that the woman we can see is always just as good as we imagine.

We assign a top-notch grade to behaviors we observe, and make assumptions that the life consistency we can’t achieve is somehow available to others.

But grace reminds us of the brokenness we share—each one of us—regardless of the estimate of others.

Behind the fair façade of piety and cool, we each know just how far we fall below the expectations of our God—and how each well-lived life is only, always, saved by grace.

All ranks, all grades, all estimates are vanities and not realities. If you can find a soul not absolutely saved by grace, then you have found the rarest form of human life.

Give up your search: there is no other way.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Archaeologists have uncovered vast subterranean cities, carved out by those who believed that living in the light made them vulnerable. Victims of persecution, fugitives—even families fleeing natural disasters or climate shifts—all chose to dwell where only torches and flickering lamps could pierce the darkness.

But human beings weren’t made for life underground. Our bodies, our minds, and even our food sources depend on what’s green and growing and bathed in sunlight. Only fear—without and within—could cause us to live where we otherwise bury our dead.

And the darkness is never only physical. Living without sunlight distorts our grasp of reality, and even of God. If we never see the sun or the stars of the Milky Way, we think He is no bigger than what scares us.

Yet there is light for us—warm, welcoming, life-giving. God’s Word declares the good news of our liberation: “He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins” (Colossians 1:13–14).

You were made to live in the light. Be done with all that’s buried, fearful, and dark.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

“I’ve got plenty of luck,” she weeps over the crumpled fender of her old Toyota. “It’s just all bad.”

The weary chorus of this world is a dirge about how little control we truly have. Medical bills crush us. Friendships we cherish grow distant and cold. The machines on which our lives depend break down with unnerving frequency. Those we love get sick and die.

Is any of this seen by Someone—anyone—who can do something about it?

To doubting, disheartened people just like us, the apostle Paul wrote one of history’s most radiant lines: “God’s Son was before all else, and by Him everything is held together” (Col. 1:17). With all their seeming randomness and pain, our lives and our futures are held in the embrace of One whose arms stretched wide for us from a broken tree: “God was pleased for Him to make peace by sacrificing His blood on the cross, so that all beings in heaven and on earth could be brought back to God” (v. 20).

“I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End,” Jesus said of Himself. Nothing escapes His notice. Nothing lies outside His control. Our pain is real—but it is temporary.

Hope endures. The grace of God outlasts our brokenness.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

Like primitive believers everywhere, we read His displeasure in thunderstorms, bruised knees, and lost puppies—for was there anything for which we weren’t somehow to blame?

So it is that finding grace is the great unlearning of our past, the sweet and joyful discovery that in Jesus, our sins aren’t being counted against us. What we sang in innocence was actually, fundamentally true: “Jesus loves me”—genuinely loves me. He can’t imagine a greater happiness than enjoying my trust and affection.

How glorious to have been wrong about it all—to celebrate the truth that undermines our youthful foolishness and fear. His perfect love still casts out fear, and makes us wise unto salvation.

By grace, our thinking—and our living—is renewed. So stay in grace. -Bill KNott