A Year with an Antheist...Would you do it?!!!

Sometimes God calls us completely out of our comfort zone.  We all know that Jesus commanded us to Go ye into all the world....What if that meant witnessing to an Atheist for a year?  What if that meant you didn't have to leave the comfort of your home?  Would you do it?!!!  Honestly, I know most people would say a resounding NO.  How would you go about it?  What would happen?  How would they respond?  Well, that would all be left up to the Holy Spirit. 

Well guess what???  I've been called out of my comfort zone.  I've been witinessing to an Atheist for about 6 months.  What has happened?  God is softening the heart of the person.  There's a long way to go.  However, in 2013 God has called me to do something even more with this person.  He's called me to love them.  I will love them with GOd's love.  I will show mercy, extend some grace, and let the Holy Spirit of God lead. 

One year witnessing and being the hands and feet of Jesus to an Atheist...Would you do it?!!!  Well, this chick is.  I will blog about what God does.  Come along and let's watch God do what only HE does best! 

In His unfailing love,
Alicia

Merry Christmas from Alicia!



MERRY CHRISTMAS

Dear Friends:
Merry Christmas!  Christmas is one of my favorite times of year!  It's a time of celebrating the birthday of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  It's also a time of reminiscing on the year and enjoying some fun, food, and fellowship with friends and family!

On Sunday, my Pastor preached about the birth of Jesus.  Now, if you want to get blown away by the specialness of the place where Jesus was born and how God revealed His plan even in the old testament please visit www.yorkriver.org and click on sermons.  It is titled His Special Birth.  My pastor got all choked up preaching it.  I had chills and was just blown away!  I'd heard it before but it never gets old! 

Sean and I celebrated 13 beautiful years of marriage this year!  We are still on our honeymoon!  When God put us together it was just a beautiful thing!  I love him so much and I would marry that man all over again today!  He's such a sweet guy who truly loves Jesus with all of his heart!  He is also very funny!  He keeps me in stitches around the house!  Every week we still have date night!  It's our way of slowing down to enjoy some "us time" together!  It's normally the high light of our week.   Th question usually like this:  "Alicia, will it be a chick flick, a rom-com, or a chick flick?!!!"  It's kind of funny! We've made a deal that for every chick flick he watches with me he gets to watch a "man movie."  I watch some of his man movies with him while others I let him be alone in the man cave with all of that testosterone in one place!  Recently, Sean got promoted to Customer Service Manager at Steinmart in Williamsburg!  He is also still in the Financial services business. When he's not doing those things, he teaches Sunday School and he LOVES to cook!  Did I mention how much I love him?!!!  He still makes my heart go pitter patter!  Yep, I"m a smitten kitten for that man!  Ok...moving on!

I"m still at Best Buy in Newport News.  I like the people I work with and hopefully in 2013 will make supervisor! We will see.  Also, in 2013 if God sees fit, my first book "The Dixie Street Miracle" will be coming out!  It's my personal testimony!  In the pages you'll find Jesus.  The goal of the book is to glorify, uplift, and point folks to Jesus.  Please keep me in your prayers as we reach the home stretch of the book publishing process! 

A huge  triumph for me this year is that with God's help I've lost 30 lbs!  Yes!!!!  It's been interesting but I feel AMAZING!  My self-esteem has gone up quite a bit!  All glory goes to Jesus Christ!  I have 9 more lbs to loose and then I'm done!  After that point I'll simply maintain! 

This year has been a year of tears, trials, and triumphs. It's the last of all of the "firsts" without mom. It's my first Christmas without her. I'm sad but not grief-stricken like I was earlier in the year. God has been the God of all comfort to me. He's been my rock and strong tower through the valley of the shadow of death. Christmas in heaven must be awfully nice! I really wonder what it's like.

As you all know, this time of year can be REALLY BUSY.  I would like to challenge you to take the time to slow down and celebrate the real meaning of Christmas!  Take the time to call somebody and tell them you love them and were thinking about them.  Enjoy a hot cup of cocoa, coffee, or tea, have a date night!   Listen to beautiful Christmas songs!  Most importantly make time for King Jesus!  It's His Birthday and He's so worthy to be worshipped, praised, and adored!

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas,
Alicia Roark

Happy Thanksgiving From Alicia!

Happy Thanksgiving

It's the day before Thanksgiving and my heart is full to overflowing with the blessings God has given me.  I've got so much to be thankful for!  The biggest thing or actually person I'm thankful for is Jesus Christ!  He's been my everything this year and in years previous, but especially this year now that mama lives in Heaven with Him.

He's been my comforter, provider, and my shelter from life's raging sea.  He's carried me on days when I've not been able to put one foot in front of the other.  He has caught each tear I've shed this year over loosing mom, life's disappointments, and just everyday struggles.  Thank you Lord!

I'm also thankful for my amazing husband, my married family, and my co-workers!  They see lots of me! Especially my co-workers! We are in the season of living in each others back pockets.  Truth be told I care for each and every one of them.  There aren't always good days at work, but with God's help we all get through.  Pray for us this week as we survive Black Friday!  If you didn't know, I work at Best Buy.

I'm thankful for my precious friends and acquaintances!  Whether you've known me a long time or just for a very short time please know that I'm truly grateful that God saw fit to place you in my life!  I am thankful for each of you and I thank my precious God each time I remember you!

Another thing I"m truly grateful for is the 27 pounds I've managed to loose over the past 7 months!  I feel great and people say I look great.  It's a God thing trust me!  I might start a weight loss blog in the new year!  We will see.


As we all sit around tables filled with turkey, dressings, and all the fixings tomoroow, please take time to pause and truly give thanks for all you've been blessed with!  I would like to cordially wish you a very Happy and blessed Thanksgiving!  Make sure to bless somebody else tomorrow too!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Alicia

Modern Day Outcasts

Yesterday morning I arrived at church in time to grab a small cup of coffee then get settled into my chair for Sunday School.  There was nothing unusual about this morning.  Since I am the secretary/treasurer for our Sunday School class, I got busy taking care of the administrative side of things.  Once that was done, Sunday School began!  Yes!  Time to learn more about Jesus and His Word!  Time to strengthen my relationship with Him!  All of a sudden there was a knock on the door followed by, "We need somebody to teach the youth class this morning their teacher isn't here."  Silence filled the room.  Nobody wanted to teach those young kids.  I said, "I'll do it."  I have very little experience working with youth but I knew they needed somebody.

I walked in and head their little sighs of disappointment that they weren't going to be left to themselves!  We began to take praises and prayer requests.  I asked them what they were studying and they gave me the book.  I started flipping through the pages looking for the lesson.  It was about their relationship with God via The Woman at the Well.  We dove into the lesson and got down to the fact that the woman was an outcast.  Jews and Samaritan's didn't associate with each other.  We discovered the woman had to go draw water in the heat of the day and that she had a long walk.  After we got through the details of the woman, the location of the well, and the distance she had to walk I asked them, "Who is your modern day outcast?"  "Who is the person that people stay away from, shun, and talk about because they don't dress like you, look like you, or have the clothes you do?" 

As Sunday School finished up I challenged them all to do two things this week:

1.  Read a bible verse each day.
2.  Go out of their way to say something nice to their modern day outcast or to do something nice for them.

It's easy to sit in our church pews and be comfortable with people who agree with us and who are like us.  What about you Christian?!!!  Who is your modern day outcast?!!!  I dare you this week to the very same challenge I gave those young teenagers.  Read one Bible Verse this week and do something nice for your modern day outcast.   We were the outcast all caught up in our sin.  Jesus visited us at the well and told us to go and sin no more.  So, get out there beyond your church pew and do something nice for somebody who is considered an outcast.

Blessings,
Alicia

How we treat others!

Every day God gives us opportunities to love others and show them His love.  Easy from the church pew isn't it?!!! Well, what about those who aren't so lovely and easy to get along with?  What about those brothers and sisters in Christ we sit in the pew with?!!

Come on Alicia, cut me some slack right?  After all Monday is the toughest day of the week right?!  Well, that was yesterday if you've forgotten and today is Tuesday!  Well, you don't know that a certain person I work with gets on my nerves, or  they act different.  Oh, and little sister seat-saver that sits on the second row piano side every week is always complaining about the music.  She just gets on my nerves. 

Luke 6:31-35 says: "If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount.  But love your enemies, and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.  Be merciful, just as your father is merciful." 

It isn't easy to always follow the Golden rule.  Satan is right there waiting each and every day to attack us where we are weak.  I too experience those same issues, trust me.

This week I want you to challenge you to ask the Lord to help you be mindful of His still small voice and to help you to treat others the same way you want to be treated!  It's a command!  It's in red letters which means it came straight from Jesus himself! 

Have a great day and God bless you!

In His unfailing love,
Alicia

Stay and away and there's a price to pay!

Have you ever said to yourself on a Sunday morning, "I'm just too tired to get up and go to church.  I'll just stay home and watch a sermon at home?!"  I"m sure we all are guilty of it.  I am.  I have done that before.  It's easy to stay away.  The devil is more than glad to help you find an excuse to stay away from God's house.  Satan hates Sundays.  As we all know, the longer you stay away the easier it becomes and sometimes the harder it is to go back to church. 

Well, I have a very modern day scenario for you.  Some of you know I've been loosing weight.  To date, I've lost 20.5 lbs.  Two weeks ago I was under the weather and didn't exercise all week.  Well, the following week didn't look much different.  I didn't exercise then either.  This morning I woke up at 5:45 and got on my exercise clothes and started exercising.  It felt like I'd just started.  You see, I  didn't have any excuse as to why I didn't exercise last week except pure laziness.  Yep, you heard me.  I was lazy for a solid week in my exercising.  Now, this week and next I'll really be paying the price for it. 

During the week you will pay some kind of price if you get lazy and don't read your Bible, don't pray, don't spend time with God, and don't attend corporate worship.  The devil will come in and have a hay day with you.  It will be for the entire week and you will feel MISERABLE.  1 Peter 5:8 says: "Be sober; be vigilant: because your adversary the devil, as a roarking lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."KJV
You will find yourself on Friday saying "What a horrible week."

So, this week I'd like to challenge you to:

1.  Have a quiet time.  Spend time with God
2.  Go to church! YES..go to church and worship God
3.  Spend time in prayer with God...AND spend time listening...Yes, that means you have to be quiet and wait on Him!

Whatever you do, don't stay away from God and His Word so long that the devil has his way with you.

Because He lives,
Alicia Roark

Are you REAL beyond the church pew?!!!!

At 4:00 a.m. (Yes, I was awake unfortunately at that hour) I grabbed my tablet and started looking throught my currents Christian blogs app.  I came across a Women's Ministry page that said R.E.A.L.  It stands for REACHING Encouraging And Loving life together.  It caught my attention.  The Spirit spoke to my heart about how real am I beyond the church pew? 

Recently, I've made some new friends and acquaintances.  Some of them are Christians.  Sure, I love the fact that we have Jesus in common.  It's what drew/draws them to me.  However, what I"m really interested in is, are they REAL beyond the church pew?  Are they the real deal.  Can you truly see Jesus in them beyond those brick walls where we put on facades on Sunday mornings?  

It's not always easy to be REAL and be ourselves because the world is always stereotyping, judging, and paints a totally different picture than what the Bible says we should be.  The bible says that "We are the light of the world, a city on a hill can not be hidden."  Matthew 5:14.  If we are the light, then we need to be a true light for Christ beyond our church pews, and Sunday morning facades.  We need to let others see Jesus in our actions.

Being real means letting other believers know you have the same every day struggles they do.  I have my own struggles in this life.  The biggest one is wanting everybody to like me.  NEWS FLASH..I've learned that not everybody is going to like me and I'm just now learning to be somewhat o.k. by that!  I've struggled my whole life with self-esteem issues, but guess what?!!! JESUS THINKS/THOUGHT I was to die for!  HE took on an old rugged cross and the sin of the world and every sin I would commit..  That's the real Alicia Roark.  Also, the real Alicia Roark sometimes can go overboard with letting her friends know how much she cares for them....Yep, I'm working on that too....I"m not perfect, but I'm a Christian girl who believes in being REAL with others.

The question I'd like to challenge you with is:  Are you REAL beyond the church pew?!!!

In His Love,
Alicia

Let's talk about personal Bible Study!

On Sunday mornings we carry our Bibles under our arms and open it up during the sermon.  Why?!!!  Is it because it's what we're supposed to do, or do you do it because you sincerly desire to learn more about our great and mighty God?!!! 

It's a tough question I know.  What about Monday through Saturday?!!!  Does your Bible collect as much dust as the furniture in your house during the week?!!  Personal Bible study, it's important. I start my day off that way.  If I don't have that time my day goes HAYWIRE...trust me!  Spending time memorizing God's Word is how we defeat Satan day after day week after week.  It's putting on the full armour of God day after day so the enemy's darts won't hit us.

Here's how the week looks without personal prayer and Bible Study:

MISERABLE MONDAY

TERRIBLE TUESDAY

WORN OUT WEDNESDAY

TUMULTUOUS THURSDAY

FRUSTRATION FRIDAY

SAD AND DEPRESSED SATURDAY

DO you want your week to look like that?!!!   I don't ...So I would like to encourage you to go dust off your Bible and start spending time with King Jesus everyday!  Your week will go much better when you involve Jesus and the Holy Spirit as your teacher and guide!

God bless you,
Alicia

Let's talk about Prayer!

Often times in my young life I've heard well-meaning people at church say, "I'll pray for you."  Prayer, it's a powerful thing and each of us needs prayer!  We need somebody to lift our name to the Father! Here's a real hard question to answer.  DO YOU REALLY PRAY FOR THE PERSON YOU SAID YOU WOULD PRAY FOR?????

Feeling a little convicted?!!!  Yep, me too.  I've been there got the T-shirt, the postcard and the hat for that catch all phrase.  It's easy to mingle with our brothers and sisters in Christ on Sunday and say to their face I'll pray for you, but if we  never pray for them then the truth is, we've lied.  Satan loves to watch God's people use catch phrases such as "I'll pray for you, or even better satan's all time favorite "I"ll pray about it."  More times than not, when we use the later of those two phrases, we're using it as an excuse to make the person or circumstance go away at the time.  I've done it too, so I can say that.  I am certainly not proud of it.

Here are a couple of  verses on prayer for you to look up and earnestly talk to God about:

1.  Ephesians 6:18
2.  2 Timothy 2:1

So this week, I'd like to challenge you to earnestly pray for the people you agreed to pray for!  Watch God show up and work!  Then truly you can sit in the church pew on Sunday and tell them that you prayed for them!

God bless you!
Alicia Roark

Let's talk about weight!

This morning I woke up late.  It messed up my routine, or at least that's what I thought until I was working out!  You see my new routine is to get up at 6 a.m. have quiet time for about an hour then work out followed by breakfast and wifely duties...all this depending on my work schedule of course!

I started out on the elliptical machine, then the treadmill then the leg and arm machine...(I don't know what it's called so I call it the leg and arm machine!).  It was on that machine that I was thinking about how heavy the weights were when the Holy Spirit spoke and said :"just like those weights, Christians who sit in the pew Sunday after Sunday weigh other people's sin."  WOW...How profound.  As my legs began to stretch and bend against the machine I got to thinking about the aches of my legs.  The Spirit said, "you think that's pain, Jesus walked up Calvary for you all the while carrying an old rugged cross." 

The weight of sin is heavy no matter how you slice it. The penalty to pay for sin is even more heavy.  The Bible says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  Romans  6:23.  We deserve to die because of our sin.  Jesus bore it all on a cross so that we could have eternal life.  I don't know about you but that blows me away.  Now that's some heavy weight with an eternal reward.

This week, I'd like to challenge you to ask the Holy Spirit to remind you of the price Jesus paid for you  every time you're tempted to "weigh in" on the sins of others from beyond the church pew.  It's a humbling experience trust me.

Let's pray:
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the heavy price Jesus paid on the Cross.  Forgive me for weighing the sins of others when I have sin in my own life.  During this week, when I'm tempted to weigh in on the sins and shortcomings of others, remind me of my own sin and the fact that Jesus bore it all on  a cross so that I could have eternal life.  In Jesus' Name I pray-Amen

Freshly perculated Faith beyond the church pew!

Monday, it seems to be satan's second favorite day of the week!  He loves to fill our to do lists with all kinds of busyness that doesn't include God.  If you're anything like me, your to do list seems to never all get done, but it tends to grow.  Your to do list might include shopping for groceries, running your children around, errand running, checking facebook two or three times a day, twitter, scheduling meetings....and the list goes on and on.

Every morning I have a cup of coffee!  It helps me wake up and gets me going.  Now can I do without it?!! Sure, I"m not the kind of woman that if I don't have my coffee, I become a monster the rest of the day.  There's just something about that cup of coffee though!  Just like that cup of coffee, is my need for time to be with Jesus!  I know it's hard as women to put aside half an hour to an hour out of our already busy schedules.  It's necessary!  If not Satan will have a hay day with us!

I'm reading a book called "Trusting God".  The other night I was reading it and I read this quote and it spoke volumes to me.  "Every morning I walk straight to the coffeepot and push the On button.  I"m a total coffee girl.  I like a piping-hot, extra dark roast with half-and-half, and I struggle to function before my first cup of coffee.  I crave that first sip and relish the warmth of the mug in my hands.  I jokingly call it my  "warm, happy friend.  My mornings just wouldn't be the same without coffee!  We should have the same attitude about our faith.  We should wake up each morning bursting at the seams to be with God, to be in His presence, to listen for His still small voice, to savor Him.  A faith that is brewed fresh daily strengthens us, renews us, and enables us to mount up with wings like eagles, to experience the power of God in our lives, to run and not grow weary, to walk and not faint (See Isaiah 40:29-31)."  (Trusting God A girlfriends in God adventure, Multnomah Publishing).

That's the kind of faith we need beyond our church pews on Sunday morning!  We should wake up "bursting at the seams" to be with Jesus.  It grows our faith and it will send satan packing with his head tucked between his tail!

How about it?!! Spend some time with Jesus who can fill your cup to overflowing today!

God bless you!
Alicia

Do we serve God with Passion?

Lately, God has been speaking to me about my worship of Him.  There's one word that keeps coming up no matter where I am or what I'm doing.  Passion.  Miriam-Webster defines passion in the following way:  intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction " 

          When we come into His house for Sunday School, worship, prayer time, or participating in ministry of one kind or another do we do it with everything in us?  Yesterday was Easter! A day of celebrating our Risen Savior and His sacrifice for the sin of all man kind.  There came a point in our service where we sang Because He Lives.  Our song director stopped us before we sang the last verse and said, "If you really believe the words you are singing let the people in 7-11 next door hear you."  Well, when we started singing that last verse you could feel the passion people had as they lifted their voices to their Risen Savior!  You could feel the presence of Jesus in that place and it was so sweet.  I got a little choked up during my worship experience during that song.  Oh what a Savior!

Let's take this same concept and apply it to our everyday Monday-Saturday week.  What about your favorite hobby, place to go, thing to cook.  You normally do those activities with lots of passion because it's fun and enjoyable right?!!  What if we worshiped King Jesus in that same way as we did our favorite activities?  Oh, I'm sure the Master would be pleased.

Over in the book of Psalms David wrote:  "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good:  Blessed is the man that taketh refuge in Him."  Psalms 34:8.

When is the last time you worshiped Jesus with such complete abandon and fervor that you could feel His presence beyond your church pew?!!!!

This week I would like to challenge you to passionately worship, pray to, walk with, and commune with Jesus with everything in you!



Because He lives,
Alicia