Edward Knippers
So Good Friday, the travesty of justice, ends with the greatest act of validation I know of, the resurrection.
Jesus, unjustly slandered and accused, is raised from the dead by God.
“Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know,” Peter says. (Acts 2:22).
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I mean, sometimes God showers the kind of grace and favour on people which a million dollars of advertising would not buy, as when a single mum read Rick Warren’s The Purpose-Driven Life to a desperate murderer, who dramatically escaped from jail, and then, sort of, allowed her to call the police on him.
Or think of the astonishing success of The Prayer of Jabez though there was clever marketing in its dramatic editing into a small, short book. Its message in essence is: Pray big, faith-filled prayers, and God is more inclined to answer. We’ve heard variants of this lovely and true message before. I think the run-away success of this book was God showing favour on Bruce Wilkinson, who had quietly done remarkable things for many years with his Walk Thru the Bible Ministries. (Incidentally, I frequently pray the prayer of Jabez, particularly when stymied, and this has contributed to changing my life.)
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Interestingly, the people God chooses to validate are often visibly flawed people, which maybe why God chooses to validate them, to show that, despite our scepticism, his favour rests on them.
“Oh yes!” they said.
“Can I pray?” he asked.