Chapel of the Resurrection
Welcome to the family!
Service Timings
Saturday Praise Service
Every Saturday, 4.30pm
with concurrent Children’s program
Sunday Worship Service
Every Sunday, 10am
Mustard Seed Service (Youth)
Every Sunday , 12pm
Kingdom's Children Church
Every Saturday, 4.30pm (from 28 Nov 2020)
Every Sunday, 10am (from Jan 2021)
Musings
BLESSED PARENTS’ DAY
Chapel of the Resurrection celebrates Parents' Day this weekend! We want to express our love and appreciation to all our parents, and thank you for all your love and care all these years. Of course, as we celebrate Parents’ Day, we remember our heavenly Father, who has adopted us into His family through our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Of the different metaphors in the Bible, the description of God as “father” features prominently. Through Moses, God claimed Israel as His firstborn, demanding that Pharaoh let them go (Exodus 4:22-23). Indeed, the purpose of all of God's dealings with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was to take Israel as His own and multiply them into a great nation. God gave birth to Israel. He looked after His firstborn, providing daily sustenance and protecting Israel from their enemies. Through the challenges in the wilderness, God was training and disciplining His son to fulfil the destiny that awaited him (Deuteronomy 8:5-9). Yet, in all His dealings with His children, God was always tender and compassionate. Like a father who carries his son, so the Lord carried Israel in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 1: 31). Even in their rebellious ways, God continued to reach out to them like a kind and patient father. "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. 2 As I called them, so they went from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals and burned incense to idols. 3 I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them up in My arms, but they did not know that I healed them. 4 I drew them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them as those who ease the yoke on their neck, and I bent down and fed them (Hosea 11:1-4)." Our Father God, bringing us into existence and giving us an inheritance; caring and tending to our needs; training and disciplining us in the way we should go; patiently leading us back to himself when we insist on our own ways.
But lest we think that Scripture portrays God only in the masculine, there are several passages that describe God in the feminine too. In Isaiah 49, God professed His love over Israel as stronger than that of a mother’s care for her nursing child. "Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget (Isaiah 49:15)." Or consider how God assured His people of His faithfulness to fulfil His promise of restoration in Isaiah 66. "As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem (Isaiah 66:13)." Jesus Himself described His protective love over Israel like a hen gathering her brood under her wings (Mathew 23:27). Indeed, the Psalmist describes himself as a weaned child in the arms of its mother, secured and satisfied in God (Psalm 131:2).
So as we celebrate Parents' Day, let us contemplate the love of God. Let us learn to respond to His love and honour Him as our Father. And as our Father loves us, may we learn to extend that same love to our children. With tenderness, let us attend to their needs. With patience, let us guide them on this path of love. And together, may we demonstrate to the world the love of our Father God.
Rev. David Lee