Ayr Baptist Church

Sunday 2nd October – Anne Martin

Sunday 1st May Am – Rosie Walker – House Group

(more…)

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there,

as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen.

Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

John 20: 1-9

Prayer Starter

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord…Jesus – you have risen, beaten death and sorted sin…all with victory…Hallelujah…and I have risen with you to new life….What a privilege….help me to live in the light of your victoriously strong name and in a manner worthy of it’s triumph….continue…

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. 

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6: 3-11

Prayer Starter

Lord, today we affirm our ancient faith, you robbed death of it’s ultimate sting and instead invigorated this sweet precious, precarious, once only life that is moment by moment slipped away. You have bought hope. As I breathe this evening’s air , help me see strong hints of a day that knows no ending, a light that will not yield to darkness, and a new life that will last for always that death and sin will not be able to frustrate or spoil….continue….

Good Friday

Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53: 1-5

Prayer Starter

As we read today we are at the heart of your mission, dear Lord. A mission to suffer appallingly and to die without faltering in your love for us. This is where the gospel begins and ends, Yet it is hard to contemplate. We so easily shy away from the pain and injustice of your passion, even wandering far from the cross and it’s intentions. Drew me back, Lord….continue….

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.

“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am.

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

John 13: 12-16

Prayer Starter

Lord, I have just read about you washing the feet of your friends; on his knees like a servent. There you turned human status upside down. Am I prepared to follow your example amoungst my friends and others? Help me……continue…

 Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests

and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver.

From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Matthew 26: 14-16

Prayer Starter

There were two disloyal characters, Judus went out to grab his money, betrayed Jesus, and then killed himself in despair. Peter, despite his protests, would deny his Lord, he faced his own appalling guilt, then wept bitterly. His failure was not the end of the mission, but the beginning…..Success is what I do with my failures. Teach me to trust in your love Lord, no matter what I have done, and to learn from my mistakes and even from disloyalty….continue…