Station Nine
Jesus
is laid in the tomb
Luke 23:50-56
All:
Dear Heavenly Father, let Your goodness lead us to repentance. Let the heart of
a Father displayed for us on Calvary so overwhelm us that we can only turn to
you, laying aside every weight, and the sin that clings so closely, and run
with endurance the race set before us.
Leader: He was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgressions of my people he was stricken. And they made his grave with the wicked –
” (Isaiah 53:8b-9a NKJV)
What a strange conquering hero, He who rides
lifeless into the kingdom of death to rescue
all her captives. Not as it was with Lazarus, this time. Jesus doesn't stand on
the lively side of death and call us forth. This time He enters the prison that
we have built so that He might shatter its walls from the inside. As the tomb
opens its terrifying maw to consume Him, death itself is swallowed up by Life.
Silent
prayer
Leader:
"For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death
of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His
life." (Romans 5:10 NKJV)
It
would have been enough, Father, to save us from our sins by the Blood of Your
Son. We might have lived with less anxiety about death if that had been all You
wanted for us. But Jesus came to give us life in abundance. We are reconciled
to You by His Blood, but by His rising to life again we discover a whole new
way of being alive that we had never imagined possible! We are children of the
King!
All: Almighty God, in mercy look on this your
family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed and given up
into the hands of sinful humanity and to suffer death upon the cross, who now
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Silent
prayer
All: Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit
the whole Body of the Church is governed and sanctified, receive our prayers
which we offer to you for the many different members of your holy Church so
that every one in their vocation and ministry may truly and devoutly serve you
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Silent
prayer
All: Merciful Lord, you have made all people and
hate nothing that you have made, nor do you desire the death of sinners but
rather that they should be converted and live:
have mercy on all who do not know you or who deny the faith of Christ
crucified. We think especially of ......
(lift up the names of the persons and people groups the Lord now brings to
mind).
Take
from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt for your Word and
bring them home to your fold, blessed Lord, so that we may all become one flock
under one Shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Silent
prayer
All:
Dear Heavenly Father, I want to walk as the royal child that I am. Help me to
surrender to you every impoverished spirit that I still carry. Help me to live
the life that Jesus died to give me. Make me a beacon of the life You intended
to everyone around me!
Drew Conley has served as preaching pastor at Hampton Park Baptist Church since 2003, but enjoys oil painting and sculpture as another way to help people see the the glory of the Creator's handiwork. "To help people not just look, but actually see - that's what an artist does.
30 X 40 Oil on linen $2500
drewconley73@gmail.com (864) 363-8620
Kathy Bell
30 X 40 Calligraphy and Colored Pencil
Kbell@bju.edu
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