Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Stations of the Cross: Jesus is laid in the tomb

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

All: Dear Heavenly Father, this is the perfect love that casts out fear. I look upon Your Son as he lies in the tomb and I see a love that drives the darkness of doubt away. Oh, I may yet fear, but when I do I will trust in the One who has gone before me to deliver me.

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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