Moved the blog...

to Wordpress.com now....just fyi...

http://rikaclark.wordpress.com/

So Much Life Change...

May is the month, it seems, for many momentous changes in my family.

My parents have sold their home of 38 years. The home where I spent my high school years. They are at an age where downsizing and moving closer to me is the best thing--though a decidedly bittersweet thing.

My only child has finished her last final and will graduate from college in a few weeks. She will come home for a short time, to job hunt and gather her wits about her as we pray and seek the next steps in the Lord's plans for her.

My sister and her family will also move to a new house...in Tennessee. She will be ending the long distance commute from there to DC that she's had for nearly a year to trust the Lord for His provision...and end her four-day-a-week stay at our home.

So many transitions happening at the same time. I could be a train-wreck of emotions in the midst of it, if I let myself.

But today (a busy, short-staffed Sunday, with so much to do and more to care for) the Lord showed me in no uncertain terms that He is in charge...that He cares more than I ever could...that if I listen carefully and focus, He will lead me through anything...with a peace and calm that is astounding---especially for me. What a miracle of a day.

"You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock." (Isaiah 26:3-4)

A Happy Mother's Day

I am married to a man who loves and honors me in the most awesome ways. Now my child, trying to survive the last two weeks of her college career, didn't make it home this weekend-- though called to express her love and devotion to me, nonetheless!

But my sweet husband pampered me today with things that...well...pamper me! :) Gifts...acts of service.... and especially fun for me is the card--reflecting the pretty respectable collection of chucks in my closet!

The Lord brought me gifts as well. I always hope to have peonies blooming in the yard for Mother's Day and it doesn't always happen. But this year, I had the first blooms of the season to cut and add to some rhododendron (that I didn't even know was in my yard) starting yesterday!

I love flowers...simple ones that just grow on their own...without too much help from me--not being any kind of a gardener! I'm trying to read about how to care more for them, though, and hopefully, in my older age, will have a fantastical garden to show for it.

I pray it has been as beautiful a day for all moms I know...and that all their kids (and/or husbands!) remember to honor them...

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you." (Ex. 20:12)

Small Group...

Colossians 3:12-14 (Amplified Bible)

Clothe yourselves therefore, as God's own chosen ones (His own picked representatives), [who are] purified and holy and well-beloved [by God Himself, by putting on behavior marked by] tenderhearted pity and mercy, kind feeling, a lowly opinion of yourselves, gentle ways, [and] patience [which is tireless and long-suffering, and has the power to endure whatever comes, with good temper].

Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has [freely] forgiven you, so must you also [forgive].

And above all these [put on] love and enfold yourselves with the bond of perfectness [which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony].

I have had the privilege of leading a small group of women for the last 5 years. It's morphed from high school juniors to college women, to young professional women. Some of it's members have changed over the years--moves to other places and things. Still, the small group has continued.

The Lord has taught me so many things that I couldn't have learned or known without them. And each woman He brings to the group challenges me in ways I never could be otherwise. They have each brought me closer to Him, through learning more about Him, imitating His ways, seeking His wisdom and guidance, humbling me. They have taught me to expand my capacity to love and to have patience and listen more closely. They have taught me so much about grace and forgiveness.

How rich are the lives of the people He's created on this earth. How wonderful He is to let us experience that richness through godly fellowship. What a gift. And an absolute joy....

Awesome message...

For those of us that didn't attend the Passion 2010 Conference maybe because we were intimidated by the 20,000 YOUNGER men and women there that attended, we have the blessed Vimeo (and thanks Jacob Marlowe!).

And for those of you that didn't go, you should have, just to have heard THIS! May it bless you, challenge you, encourage you...and I pray He will use this to draw you to Himself....

Andy Stanley - Passion 2010 Main Session Talk- It is Always a Mistake To Decide What You Do Before You Decide Who You Want To Be from Jacob Marlowe on Vimeo.

A New Spirit...

I'm reading a bunch of great books while taking some time away from work. One of them is by a man named Andrew Wilson called God Stories.

In a very short chapter (they are all really short chapters!) entitled "A New Spirit" I am reminded once again of the truth that accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior transforms us.

"...God gives us a new DNA, a new heart and a new spirit, not a new rule book or a new method. It's because he makes us want different things, not just strive for them; he gives us new desires, not just new disciplines."

After the chapter, the author has a READ AND REFLECT segment:

"It's great to understand the theology of "a new spirit", but what about the practice? How does it actually work in my daily life? Well, this is something addressed by Paul in two particular places....."

Here's one of the two places that he exhorts us to "get the vision for what life in the Spirit looks like in reality." I read it out loud...and it is stunning:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:5-14)

Read and reflect....

Prayer....

The topic of Prayer seems to be everywhere in my little world these days--again. All the teaching pastors at McLean have preached sermons in the last few weeks on prayer and/or have referred to past recordings on the topic. Louie Giglio preached a series in December before the Passion 2010 Conference about it. John Piper also has a recent sermon on the subject.

I guess it makes sense that the start of a new year would prompt the people of God to fall on our faces before Him--to confess sin....to commit obedience to His plans for 2010...to ask for guidance and direction in those plans....to want to learn how to hear from Him.

And with the tragic earthquake in Haiti, I am prompted to cry out for others in a way I didn't expect to. A sobering and humbling thought as I take time away from home to read and think about what the Lord is trying to get across to me this time.

For today, some start-of-the-journey questions to ponder that I was confronted with:

• Are you willing to take time to pray about your prayer life?
• Do you begin each day talking to God?
• Do you end the day talking to God?
  
• When do you pray? When is your time with God?
• Where do you pray? Where is your solitary meeting place(s) with God?

and a quote:

Prayer is as vast as God because He is behind it. Prayer is as mighty as God because He has committed Himself to it." (Leonard Ravenhill)

and a scripture for people I am praying for:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and dept of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ---to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11)