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| Sunday, June 07, 2009
Father and His Children Writer : Aaron LeeFather and His Children is an email dialogue after a sharing by Michael Yap at CreateLeVoyage.com's Writers Group on 13th April 2009. Michael and Sarah Yap shared their experience as parents to three girls as well as a powerful and personal perspective the joy of knowing that God is our Heavenly Father. Michael also shared a new way of understanding and appreciating Jesus' parable of the prodigal son. We praise God for the Yap family's testimony and ministry! Initials refer to members of the Writers' Group, which have been changed to retain privacy.  the Father loves His children!EB: I'm hoping someone can review what happened last night. Wah, I still feel very woozy afterwards! DR: Yes, please thank Michael for us. I was very ministered to. His message last night, especially on the prodigal son, brought to mind a quote from CS Lewis which I recently found plastered over the walls in the church I've been visiting, "God's love is not proud. He demonstrates that He loves us, even when we have shown Him that we prefer everything else in this world to Him." SV: [on that parable] here's a book recommended by my pastor from my old church... "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Henri Nouwen. When I read it two years ago, I was probably not spiritually at a place where I could understand a lot of what he writes about. But it's a really really really good book! DI: Like the prodigal son's father, God is always on the lookout for our turning back to home, when we have gone astray; he comes out to meet us before we even reach home (just as the father in the parable went out to both sons). He does not want us to be His servants but His children... He covers up our filthy rags with His gifts, which are also reminders of our inheritance...Last night's message was both dreadful and wonderful to listen to - dreadful because I find it so difficult to believe those things about God, and wonderful because they are TRUE, no matter where I am along the path of comprehension...and I have never, ever had a hug like that. Am still taking it in. BO: Honestly, a few years ago I could not even use the word "father" in relation to God, because of my own experience of what a father is like. Michael's relationship with his daughters is an alien thing as far as my experience is concerned. But as I have asked the Lord to show me more and more of Himself, He has revealed that part of Himself to me, and today I stand among those who boldly call Him my "Abba Father" and "Daddy"! SV: I too found it difficult to relate to Michael's passionate account of his relationship with his children, as that is not how I've related to my parents at all. To be honest, yesterday's meeting left me stone cold. Was I the only one? And then I prayed about it, and realised that God's love for me, for us, is a FACT that has been proven in history by Christ's sacrifice -and not just His death: His entire LIFE was a sacrifice for us. Our feelings at any particular time do not change the fact of His love. And, because God knows that we need to feel *personally*, individually cherished, and not just another member of the human race as a mass, He fashions individual encounters and experiences for each of us that show us His love in the most absolutely unmistakeable way. I'm sure all of us know this to be true, right? DR: Yes. A line in William P. Young's "The Shack" really spoke to me. This dude who has an abusive father could not relate to the fact that God has to be the Father. The First Person of the Godhead gave an unforgettable answer (that many damaged alienated children will hold on to for dear life): "We choose to take whatever form that best fills the need. We know that after the Fall, fathering will be marked by the enormity of its absence, as compared to mothering. That is why I have chosen to show Myself as the Father." Last night's message was not about Michael's love for his kids. It was about MY Father's love for ME. And that has made all the difference to ME! DI: Yeah! God's great secret is that - besides His omnipotence, His power, His majesty, His judgement, and all the things the man in the street would ascribe to a deity - He is tenderhearted. He loves us with a tender and gracious love! SV (with tongue-half-in-cheek): Actually, the father in the prodigal son story owned the pig farm (unbeknown to his sons, who never guessed how rich their daddy really was), and of course he had his servants keeping watch on his son. :-) DR: I recall what Michael said about the parallels between Isaac and Christ : Abraham had God to stop his hand before he could stab Issac. Who was there to stop the hand of God from sacrificing His Son for us? No one. Also, Isaac bore the wood and trudged up the hill of Moriah for his sacrifice. Years later, Christ too, would carry the wood (cross) up the hill of Calvary. Today, NT saints are called to be "living sacrifices". We can trace it all the way back to these two enacted parables... Let us truly understand what that means, for Christ and also for ourselves. EB: Hey I love how the Monday session has opened up vulnerability in a tender way within us. Actually I want to share my story too but I don't know how. Reading what you guys have shared really helps because I guess I'm private to the max in this aspect. "Father" is sometimes such a cold and cerebral word. It is something that I can add to a song, but not feel intensely for... SV: I guess all of us have had very different experiences in our families, with our parents, and I suspect quite a few of us here have parent issues that we are still working through. But I saw how all of you experienced Monday evening in that way - as a direct, extraordinarily powerful manifestation of God's fatherly love for us, His children. EB: Yes, we know that the experience of God the Father is readily available. Because "taste and see that the Lord is good" can be felt, testified by many people. We see his hand and we see His goodness... there is a realm where we can experience that. It's so intense and it takes a breaking of our defenses, crying to Jesus and falling into the arms of Abba Father. I am now absolutely convinced that if we see God through the aspect of a Father, our core values and beliefs will be aligned radically. DI: I can empathise with BO. Over the 16 years I've been a Christian, the hardest, hardest, hardest thing for me by far has been to understand the "Father heart" of God and receive that tender parental touch from Him, because of things that have happened to me. His Father love is undeniable, yet still a mystery to me. Of what I can currently grasp of it - probably 50% of that is because of Monday night. Yeah and Amen! EB: And I want to add, how wonderfully available God's love is everyday. I'm still woozy... and I so love the way we are growing, throwing questions out, sharpening in our answers, checking this way and that out, but ultimately submitting out of love to one another (Ephesian 4) out of reverence for Christ who freely forgave us. SV: Thanks everyone for taking the time to respond - I appreciate it! Yes, I have experienced God's fatherly protective indulgent and absolute love. So, even if I didn't respond to Monday night the same way as you guys did, it's ok, cos I've been so blessed beyond all measure in other ways and at other times. And I'm not gonna argue with how God chooses to work in my life, or in the lives of other people. :) I thank God for all of you. :) DI: Amen! Every time i think i couldn't be more ministered to by the writers group, God takes it to another level! it's amazing. It seems that when we 'let God be God' in our midst - let Him minister to us as He wants - we become more free to be ourselves. That's been my experience in the group. I am excited to see where He is taking us! edited on 12.40am, 31 May 2009
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