GraceNotes Podcast

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 the din of autos, trains, and planes.

You won’t even find that quiet heart in the sanctuary of a silent church, though everything around you points you to God’s presence.

Changing our location doesn’t bring the peace we crave. A quiet heart is the gift we receive through the grace of a loving God. “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).

“I have loved you with an everlasting love,” the Father says. “I have drawn you with unfailing kindness” (Jer 31:3). “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).

Receive the peace you were made for. Believe in the God who has always believed in you.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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 doing anything at all.

I call to mind the line of kind, consistent people who forgave before I knew how much I had offended, who didn’t hold my sins against me, or wait to even up the score. I thank the Lord who taught them grace so that when my life was stirred by grace, I had a living, breathing demonstration standing right beside me.

Grace has a face—or faces, actually—one, two or ten who make the gospel come to life by holding, healing, loving, serving. They are my church, my backstop, my community.

Because of them, I dare to do some gracious act that covers sin or heals pain. They’ve made a choice, and so have I.

We stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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 tax office, when we think that God or fate has given us more than we can bear. Deep in our souls, we desperately want life to be fair.

But it’s also a line heard millions of times each day by men and women marveling at the offer of the gospel. And whether we’re correct or not to sometimes protest our bad treatment or unlucky turns, we’re always accurate to say in the presence of God’s amazing grace, “I don’t deserve this.”

“God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Grace never ceases to amaze—just because it flows from a God of justice who ordained that Jesus would bear the penalty for our sins and die for us. That gift offers us a future we never could have earned—living with Him forever.

Say the line you know is true, with all the hope it holds for you: “I don’t deserve this.”

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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 needing to repair the relationships they care most about—and usually with the words, “I’m sorry.” For love to bloom, it must be watered by apology and forgiveness.

And so it is with God. By our foolish, selfish actions, we’ve failed His rightful expectations as our Creator. We’ve hurt His heart of love each time we’ve wounded others with our malice or indifference.

But the good news is still good: “If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9).

Our broken relationship with God can be healed by a simple phrase: “I’m sorry, and I need You.”

God’s rich embrace is all of grace. Restoration is one short prayer away. And this love story never ends.

So say—and stay—in grace. -Bill Knott

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 dream or spark a prayer when fear and pain fill all our night. There’s just one thing that billions want, including all who never own—or see—a precious metal.

That thing is hope, and it is found, not in the ground, but in the skies.

Hope is the trust that there is yet another truth about our lives—that we are loved and valued and worth holding. Hope rises high above our brokenness to affirm that God is not finished with us yet.

Whatever we own, whatever we cherish, we are precious to the God who gave us hope by giving us what is most precious to Him: “For this is the way 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).

Hope is our trust that God is good, that grace is ultimately what counts. All other value flows from trusting that our story need not end in dust.

Grace always points us to the skies.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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 persistent, generous grace of God that launched us with rich opportunities, forgave us when we repeatedly failed, and healed us—time and again—when we felt broken and discouraged?

God’s Word describes the inevitable trajectory of the hero-driven, self-directed life: “Sometimes there is a way that seems to be right, but in the end it is the way to death” (Prov 16:25). Jesus offers Himself as the living symbol of the grace that gives our stories deep meaning and lasting value: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

Grace tells a hero story, but it’s not about us. “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. . . . God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:6,8).

There’s only one hero in my tale, and it’s not me. Perhaps you know this story, too. “O Lord, give me the words. Then my mouth will praise You” (Psa 51: 15).

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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 of others.  He wept for those swept off their feet by lust or overcome by avarice, and even those who hurt or injure others. But He offered little hope for those who wouldn’t show the mercy shown to them. 

In a famous story, Jesus made His values clear: “Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?” (Matt 18:32-33).

We only forgive others as much as we imagine we need forgiveness.  “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1John 1:8-9). 

So be fully honest with yourself—and fully merciful with others. 

In doing this, you stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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 when the car we can’t afford is parked across the street each night.

But who is actually more fortunate—the one who wins a round of golf or office ladder-climbing—or the person who receives God’s offered gift of happiness forever? Add up the scorecard—tally all the perks—and there’s nothing that comes close in value to the new life we are given as believers.

“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. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us to this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand” (Rom 5:1-2).

It’s love, not luck, that makes us rich in grace. “To all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

Receive the gift that’s offered you.

And stay in grace. -Bill Knott

BETTER THAN WE DREAMED (September 08, 2023)

Any faith worth putting at the center of your life must do at least three things.

1. It must accurately describe the dark reality of our brokenness and pain.
2. It must fully tell how we are rescued from our anger, pride and violence.
3. It must show us a future we would want to live in.

And so the gospel of Jesus Christ declares, “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.”

That’s why the Father acted to rescue us from the rebellion we had chosen: “God is so rich in mercy, and He loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead.”

And finally, the Father offers us a future better than we ever imagined—or deserved: “For He raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms” (Eph 2:1; 2:4-5; 2:6).

Jesus says, “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:3).

Grace is God’s kindness fitted to the story of our lives. And this story never ends.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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 prison doors. This is a graciousness we can’t summon from within: until we’ve received God’s grace, we have none to give to others. You can’t wring kindness from a stone, or from a stony, unforgiven heart. 

But “the grace of God has appeared to all” (Titus 2:11), making possible our own redemption, and then the healing of our friendships, marriages, and communities. 

Grace truly received always becomes grace given. 

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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.  All things wounded would never heal.  The sun would never rise on faith or hope or possibilities. 

But we rejoice that grace has come to us in Jesus—that our stories are forever changed for better.  So grace always opens into gratitude.  We celebrate a rescue we could never accomplish because of what Christ accomplished for us. 

And He ever lives—it is His joy—to intercede for us, to turn our painful histories into stories that will bless and lift the world. 

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

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 in the back row and promise years of future faithfulness.

In our core, we hope to somehow appease those we have offended. We bring gifts; we rearrange the facts to diminish our responsibility; we promise to be better in the future. We assume that we won’t be welcome as we are.

But when we meet the God whose rightful expectations we have most offended, He is nothing like the angry deity we expected. “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. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:16-17).

This is the mystery of grace—that God doesn’t act on impulse or through vengeance, but plans to actively restore those whom sin and pride have separated from Him.  “God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins” (Rom 3:24).

We are amazed: we do not understand.  It’s not what we would have done to those who offended us. But then, God says of Himself: “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts” (Isa 55:9).

Grace restores what we can’t fix, and renews our lifeline to the God who deeply loves us.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott