This term across our various Chapel programs, students have been exploring a simple but important question:
What is God like?
In Secondary Chapel and Home Class Devotions, we have continued reading through the Gospel of Luke, focusing on the Kingdom of God. Because the Kingdom is central to Jesus’ teaching, we have been helping students understand not only what it means, but what it looks like in everyday life. We have discovered that Jesus’ Kingdom is where Jesus is King and that His Kingdom looks very different from the kingdoms of our world.
In our world, power, popularity and success often seem to matter most. But in Jesus’ Kingdom, things are turned upside down. We have been learning that God’s Kingdom looks like mercy, enemy-love, humility, prayer, trust, and small beginnings that grow into life.
Students have reflected on Jesus’ call to love our enemies, to be merciful as our Father is merciful, to seek God’s Kingdom rather than being ruled by worry, and to keep asking, seeking and knocking in prayer. Again and again, we have seen that Jesus is not simply giving us rules to follow. He is showing us what life looks like when God is King.
A key theme throughout the term has been the character of the Father. Jesus reveals a Father who is not distant, cold or reluctant. He knows what we need, delights to give us the Kingdom, gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask, and welcomes the lost with compassion.
In Intermediate Chapel, students have also been asking, “What is God like?” through the I AM statements of Jesus in John’s Gospel. Students have been discovering how Jesus reveals God’s character in vivid and memorable ways: the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Good Shepherd, the Gate, the Way, the Truth and the Life, and more. These stories and images help our students see that God is not an abstract idea. He is the God who feeds, guides, protects, saves, welcomes and draws near to His people.
In Foundation Chapel, students have been joining Professor Cronos on a time-travel adventure through the stories of the Bible. Each week, they travel to a different moment in Scripture to discover more about who God is and how He works in the world. Through story and plenty of imagination, students are learning that the God of the Bible is faithful, powerful, kind and near to His people.
Across our chapels and devotions, our prayer is that students would not simply learn information about God, but come to know His heart and character more deeply through Jesus.
Josiah Vaughan
Director of Faith