God's grace made manifest through the family (Part 2)

Car Rides.

One of the things I have come to love most about being home is riding in the car with the family. For the most part it's pretty normal. For the most part we do what normal families do while riding in the van (or as normal as we can get anyways...). We sing along with the songs that play on the radio. We take naps. We take ugly pictures of each other while taking naps...you know those ones where the person is all passed out with their mouth open. We play "I spy..." (that is a lie. we haven't done that since i was in high school...). We do normal things.

But car rides have never been normal in that my parents have always tried to use that time to teach us about God. For as long as I can remember we've always had at least one Johnny Mac sermon in the car and if the radio or some other CD wasn't playing it was a sermon. We even listened and still listen to sermons on the way to church!

When I was younger I really didn't appreciate this as much as I should have. Once the sermon went on my earphones went in or I would try and sleep (I was such a pagan child!). For some reason (aka God's grace) the headphones eventually came out and I started paying attention and so did my sisters. I've learned a lot from those car ride sermons. I remember listening to JMac's "Prodigal Son" over and over again in the car because our whole family was so amazed that it wasn't just a story of a father forgiving a son, but it was a parable of sin and shame that clearly presented the Gospel.

I think that's when my other favorite part about our car rides came about. Well, that's a lie. My parents tried to get us to talk about "deeper" things when we were younger by asking what we learned in Sunday school or by trying to teach us life lessons. For instance, I clearly remember one time we went to Burger King drive thru and it was when the Pocahontas cups were out. We were going to get 2 of them and Kaity and I were staking claim on them before we got to the last pick up window. Neither of us wanted the Governor Ratcliffe cup. It was ugly and he was the bad guy. So we were bickering in the backseat. I remember my mom turning around, telling us to stop and then saying that they "didn't belong to us." We knew what that meant. We didn't pay for them. They belonged to Mom or Dad. But then Mom told us they didn't belong to them either. I was so confused. What the heck? Who did they belong to then? Mom said they belonged to God as did everything else in the entire world.

Looking back that was a pretty crazy illustration....but hilarious.  

Anyways back to what I like about car rides with my family. Singing is fun. Listening to sermons is encouraging. But what is the best part for me is the conversations that we have. They get pretty deep and theological. It's weird. I don't know how it started. But it's fun, everyone in the family discusses. It gets pretty crazy too, since we're all pretty passionate debaters slash we can get hot headed. Except Dad, he is the only one who is gracious in his responses.

The last time I was home we were in the car talking about where Jesus was on Saturday or rather where His soul was. I don't know if we came up with a definitive answer yet. Mom thinks Jesus was in Hell because He had to endure the full wrath of God. Kaity thinks that the cross was sufficient or Christ would not have been able to say "It is finished." I think I side more with Kaity...but regardless, these are the kinds of things we talk about in the car and at home.

Dad likes to play Devil's advocate and throw these crazy questions at us that really challenge our notions of God and make us really think about what we believe instead of blindly believing. When we were going through Job he asked us if Job would have still seen God as sovereign and good if God had not restored all his possessions to him at the end of the book? Would we see God as sovereign had he not? Or when we were studying 1 John and looking at the creation of Creation--namely man, he asked us, "If Creation was just a manifestation of the Father's love for the Son and the Son's love for the Father, doesn't that just make it seem like humans were just created for fun?"

I think I've learned and grown more from those few conversations I've had with my family than from the many I've had with friends I see everyday. 

Car rides are the best.

God's grace made manifest through the family.

After almost a month away from home and my beloved CCAC, I finally returned this weekend. I missed being home. Sleeping in my own bed. Having infinite amounts of ice cream at my disposal. The comfort of my own backyard to tan my pale self. Mostly, I like being home and spending time with the family (I know...I'm a homebody...and I am ok with that.) Messing with my parents and annoying my sisters brings me so much joy.

But all joking aside, being able to go home after a stressful month made me so thankful for my family. I was really able to see how gracious God has been to me in allowing me to be part of my family, as crazy and wild they might be. And so that has prompted me to do a short series. Primarily for myself, it will give me a chance to really examine and appreciate God's faithful, sovereign grace in my life made manifest through my family.

And so to kick it off, I will begin with the most recent manifestation--Allison's baptism.

One of my 3 younger sisters, Allison, "the third Harada", is four years younger than me. A sophomore in high school, she just went to her first prom and is just finishing up her 2nd season of swim on the varsity team. She's a super gifted artist with a "spunky" personality that few can handle and fully appreciate. And today she got baptized.

If you were to have met her last year you probably wouldn't have ever thought this day would have come unless some crazy divine intervention occurred. It was tough times for her and the family, but like I said, God is faithful and gracious. Today, my sister is not only alive physically by the grace of God but by that same grace she also has life eternal.

I asked her if I could post her testimony, so here it is. It's also here at the church website.

Hi, I’m Allison, for those that don’t know me, I been at CCAC for about 6 years, but I’ve been exposed to the Bible and church my whole life.  I didn’t really understand it all, and I surely didn’t see what a blessing it was, when I was younger. I called myself a Christian, but I merely believed whatever I was taught.  God loved me and I should love Him too.  I didn’t understand the significance of the Cross or the unfathomable measures of God’s grace, and it showed in the way I lived.  I didn’t live like Christ died for me, but instead like He owed me something.

 

Up until Jr. High, I had never questioned whether or not I was a Christian; I did good things.  Or rather, I never did anything too bad, and figured that that would be enough for God, that He should be happy that I wasn’t super bad.  However, as I first started to pave the way for the nickname “the rebel Harada” by mixing in with the wrong group, I asked myself if I really loved God.  I would hear sermons about how we should “be amazed at the glory of God”.  I wasn’t amazed, I wasn’t awestruck; but I didn’t want to believe I wasn’t a Christian.  So, I stopped questioning and kept on living my life with a hardened heart and a false, selfish Gospel that could never save me.  Though, I suppressed the doubt in my mind, God kept reminding me of His importance, though I tried to ignore it, as I struggled the next year.

 

At the start of high school, I immediately faced difficulty.  Everything seemed so much harder and I was inadequate and overwhelmed.  I felt lonely, tired and angry; I never trusted God enough with my life to not worry.  I began inflicting pain upon myself and it got to a point where I thought that suicide was the only answer.  I was in trouble, but my pride told me that I could get through it. So I wore a smile everywhere I went, pretending to be what I thought people wanted to me to be.  Sitting through classes, church, and Branching Out like nothing was wrong, all the while being truly miserable.  I blamed everyone around me for not being there for me, for not loving me, for me wanting to die.

So, I kept asking God why He was doing this to me.  Hadn’t I done enough for Him?  Wasn’t I good enough?  I loved Him, why didn’t He love me?  Somewhere in my head, I knew I didn’t love God.  I only loved myself.  I wasn’t thankful for the work He had done on the Cross, and the fact that He died for my sins meant nothing to me other than, as Allen says, a “Get out of Jail Free card”.  I was so selfish and prideful; I was living Ephesians 2:1 and truly “dead in my trespasses and sins” and it hit me like a train.  I didn’t know what to do, so I prayed a familiar prayer that I had once said with empty words and a shallow heart, this time with an understanding of my disgusting sin against God and a longing for His forgiveness and a life of following Him.  Purely by His grace, God broke me so that I could finally realize that He alone could heal me.  That to lose myself was to gain an infinitely greater Christ.

As my friend Katherine and I were preparing our testimonies to share with you today, we took a look back at our journals from when we were unsaved.  We both concluded that they were filled with “stupid stuff” like “blah blah whiny me me me”.  Oh, how I’d like to slap my unsaved-self.  Thankfully, God allowed me to recognize that I was selfish and I wasn’t good enough, no one is good enough, but GOD.  The words that Ps. Danny repeated over and over at Reality Retreat I had clicked at last. Everything that all the pastors had been trying to drill in my head finally clicked!  I comprehended the reality of the urgency they spoke with every Sunday and Friday, and I’m so thankful that they did.  I’m so grateful that God chose these men to lead me and continue to teach me, especially in youth group.  I don’t know what kinds of shenanigans I would have gotten into, or if I’d even be alive right now if it weren’t for that “but God”.  I’m now grateful for the trials that God put me through during that year and the pain I went through because He humbled me and brought me to Him.  CS Lewis said “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”  He is absolutely right, and I have found peace and joy in Christ, my Savior.

True Forgiveness.

From my favorite puritan, Thomas Watson. I love this man.

Question: When do we forgive others?

Answer: When we strive against all thoughts of revenge (Romans 12:19); when we will nor do our enemies mischief (1 Thessalonians 5:15), but wish well to them (Luke 6:28), grieve at their calamities (Proverbs 24:17), pray for them (Matthew 5:44), seek reconciliation with them (Romans 12:18), and show ourselves ready on all occasions to relieve them (Exodus 23:4).