The soloist soars high above the massive, harmonizing choir: “O holy night, the stars are brightly shining.” But on that night, no soul on earth expected anything but normal. We drape the story of His birth with yards of gauze and billowy bright angels. We estimate a gentleness His weary parents never knew. We decorate the landscape of our Christmas with smiling sheep and camels trudging from the East. And we forget how hard it is to live beside—among—farm animals in fields or in stables. We ring a halo ‘round a birth that felt—that hurt—like any other birth, for there was nothing to relieve His mother’s pain except, perhaps, the wise words of a midwife and the prayers of worried Joseph. Truth is, the grace of God, the Word made Flesh, took pains to enter all our commonness, our struggle and our dirt, so all who live below the line would see Him as their Saviour, too. Grace never was afraid of dirt—not then, not now, not ever—whether in a musty stable or in a haggard heart. Our pain, our sin, our guilt, our shame—these are the things He gladly wore as surely as those swaddling clothes. He was, He is, Immanuel—God with us; God one of us; God for us. So come, let us adore Him. And stay in grace. -Bill Knott
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UNSTOPPABLE (October 01, 2021)
ALWAYS ON MY MIND (September 24, 2021)
REGIFTING GRACE (September 17, 2021)
THE ORIGIN OF FORGIVENESS (September 10, 2021)
THE HOPE OF CHANGE (September03, 2021)
UNFAILING LOVE (August 27, 2021)
SWEET SONG OF GRACE (August 20,2021)
AGAINST THE TIDE (August 13, 2021)
GRACE AND TRUTH (August 06, 2021)
WALKING WITH THE GRACIOUS (July 30, 2021)
GRACE AT RISK (July 23, 2021)
WHEN GRACE WINS (July 16, 2021)
FULL, RICH, AND FREE (July 09, 2021)
THE GRACE WE GIVE (July 02, 2021)
BETTER THAN WE REMEMBER (June 25, 2021)
THE POWER TO CHANGE (June 18, 2021)
GETTING IT RIGHT (June 11, 2021)
FINDING COMMUNITY (June 04, 2021)
NO OTHER GOSPEL (May 28, 2021)
PROOF OF LIFE (May 21, 2021)
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