Covenant of Hope Ministries
Good
afternoon, and welcome to this Midweek Study for Covenant of Hope Ministries. I
am Elder Cal Jennings. I work with Rev. Laura A. Neff to bring the truth of God
for others. Find us posted on Sundays and studies on Wednesday. Our locations are
online only:
Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope
We have
email (instant messenger if you need me) through Facebook every day. Look for
my name minus the title. These are now extremely variable. Our Elder Cal
Jennings is just as variable and can be found on several sites as noted by his
sermons. We’re still working this out between the two of us as to what will happen,
our Elder, Cal Jennings and I. I will inform you further regarding changes.
These changes were made due to health reasons. The sermon length has shortened
dramatically. We are unsure as to when there might be video presentations.
Prayer List: We have many on our prayer list. Some wish to remain anonymous, and others only wish to have their first names mentioned. Our prayer list has grown from last week. This is our current prayer list for this week.
- Continue your prayers for Phoebe Fair’s family as they
continue to grieve her loss.
- Please keep Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as his health still
doesn’t know where it wants to be. He is due to go to the heart doctor. Pray
that answers can be found. Help us to be able to fight for his faith, his
peace, and his love.
- Pray for my friend Kerry, who has had major surgery for her
cancer. She has been a fighter, and we wish to keep helping her fight.
- Please pray for my friend Teresa’s sister who is in stage four
cancer. Keep Teresa and her daughter in prayer for many other things that have
been weighing down on their hearts, minds, and spirits.
- Please keep others known by any of us up in prayer for whatever
they might need.
- Please keep my friend Heather in prayer for patience and safe
haven.
- Please keep my whole family in prayer for the pain, suffering,
and chaos we are going through. Pray that I will be able to find and manage to
get to an opthalmologist and a primary care physician who will manage helping
me.
- Pray that the adversity and the pain we have seen around the world
would be relieved, and swept away. May we find common ground in many ways, even
if we start with just one step.
- Remember those who have been lost either violently or
peacefully this week.
- Keep the ministry in your thoughts, each member, no matter
their location, their circumstances, because a group of friends, a ministry,
should support one another.
- There are many in our ministry who are searching for more in
regard to our presence with my health, and with the health of others. We pray
that there would be health found once more, and that we have answers to all and
for all.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we
thank You for this day and for these who are here to share it with us. We bring
many of our friends and family up in prayer this day. We thank You for the gift
of hope for their safety, their healing, and more. We pray for Your grace that
it may shine down on us, in Your Holy Name, through the Savior Jesus Christ,
and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening Song: Hope Now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDXEvkS0iPA
Sermon: We all know that Satan tempts us just as he
tempted Jesus. In many instances though, we are too quick to blame God or the
devil for our failures in temptation. Often times, the responsibility lies with
us.
James
1:13-18
New King James Version
(NKJV)
13 Let no one say
when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil,
nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is
drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has
conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth
death.
16 Do not be
deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift
is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no
variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the
word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
We have a
responsibility to try to control our lusts and desires. This isn't because God
doesn't want us to have fun. It's because God wants to keep us safe. How much
trouble has come because of our carnal desires, lust for money, and lust for
power? Most wars in the world are caused by at least one of these three things.
If we can learn to control ourselves better, the world would be a better place.
----
Rev. Laura’s
Thoughts: Elder Cal has a great point here. We often forget that
keeping our cool is much more important than exploding into an argument, no
matter what it would be about. Safety is always important. This is why watching
what we say and do is something we must work toward and on.
----
James
4:1-4
King James Version
(KJV)
4 From
whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your
lusts that war in your members?
2 Ye
lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight
and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
4 Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy
of God.
We all have times when
we slip and fail. Anyone who claims to have lived a perfect life is lying. None
of us are completely guiltless. Even if we have been up to now, there is always
a chance that we will eventually give in to temptation. Still, we are to do our
best to resist.
One weapon we have in
resisting temptation is prayer.
----
Rev. Laura’s Thoughts: Again Elder Cal brings up a good point. Resisting temptation,
any type of temptation, is something we sometimes forget takes work to manage.
Doing our best isn’t something we can be lacking toward. We must work toward
doing our best. The best weapons we have is prayer, which is driven by faith
and hope and the power of love.
----
Luke
22:40
King James Version
(KJV)
We also know this from
the Lord's Prayer where he says, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us
from evil.” God does not desire for us to fall into temptation. He knows that
temptation exists both from Satan and from our own actions. Men tempt women.
Women tempt men. Men tempt each other, especially for issues of power and
advancement. We have become so bad as a people that Satan doesn't have to do
anything but sit back and watch as we create our own problems. We fight amongst
ourselves over who's better than whom, we fight over someone else's sins of the
past, we fight over difference in political views, we fight over almost
everything. We're all guilty of it to some degree or another. Of course, it's
better to state your honest opinion than to lie but we should try to remember
to keep our statements as non-combative as possible and try not to make
personal attacks. That's hard for some of us to learn. I've certainly had my
difficulties and still struggle with it today.
----
Rev. Laura’s Thoughts:
This goes for EVERYTHING in our lives, beliefs, and
thoughts we manage to give voice. Like Elder Cal, I have voiced things I
shouldn’t have. Yet, there are things I have brought up that truly and
truthfully need to be addressed. This is one thing that has often become a
point of contention, with everyone, not just a select few. Free will is
important, but so is restraint in the use of it. That is the struggle we all
face, sometimes every moment of every day.
----
God promises not to
tempt us beyond what we are able to withstand, but sometimes we wish God didn't
trust us so much. Sometimes it seems that God has pushed us far beyond what we
are able to handle, especially when it seems like everything hits at once.
Still, everyone goes through this experience.
1 Corinthians 10:13
King James Version
(KJV)
13 There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Temptation is always
with us, always around us, and always inside us. That's why Paul said, “I die
daily.”
----
Rev. Laura’s Thoughts:
How often have we ever realized or even thought of the
ideal that we “die daily” because we don’t think first and act afterwards?
Temptation often takes over when we least expect it to do so.
----
1
Corinthians 15:31-33
Douay-Rheims 1899
American Edition (DRA)
32 If
(according to man) I fought with beasts at Ephesus
Now, it's easy to be
seduced, especially if you were raised or had to spend a lot of time in an
environment where evil communication was the norm. You didn't even know it was
evil, at least by the time you got away from that place. I fight with that
every day. Sometimes I forget that in some circles certain things are
inappropriate. Still, I try to correct myself more and more each day. Some days
are worse than others, especially with my failing memory and my up and down
health. Whenever I catch myself though, I do my best to move forward with something
more godly. It's easy to forget our manners sometimes, even when we've been
trained from birth, especially if we get into a heated discussion. Sometimes we
just have to step back for a minute and gain some perspective on the situation
before we can get a handle on our emotions.
Things aren't always as
they appear and people aren't always who they say they are. It's better to
trust someone who's honest and faulted than someone who deceives you into
believing that they are what they are not. Sometimes a person is there just to
agitate you. We need to learn to walk away from those situations and avoid
those people when possible.
----
Rev. Laura’s Thoughts:
Like Elder Cal
----
Let’s
think about it as we pray in the prayer Jesus gave us. After
this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy
name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine
is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13 KJV)
Closing Song: I Feel Heaven Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8IQgwMzHCM
Love, Hope, Peace,
& Christ Be With You, Shalom,
Cal-el
http://www.spaceeagleproductions.org
http://www.pureheartvideo.net
http://spaceeagle.multiply.com
http://www.myspace.com/music_man1701
http://www.myspace.com/woodstock40th2008
Cal-el
http://www.spaceeagleproductions.org
http://www.pureheartvideo.net
http://spaceeagle.multiply.com
http://www.myspace.com/music_man1701
http://www.myspace.com/woodstock40th2008
Covenant
of Hope Ministries
Scripture
Excerpts: The New Open Bible Study Edition:Copyright © 1990: Thomas Nelson
Publishers, Inc.
Scripture
Excerpts: Holy Bible: Copyright © 1982: E. E. Gaddy and Associates, Inc.
Scripture
Excerpts: Holy Bible: Copyright © circa 1890-1910: International Bible
Press,The John C. Winston Co.; Philadelphia, PA., USA
Sermon or
Study Copyright © 2012 http://covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com/
Our mission for Covenant of Hope Ministries and
Poetic-Expressions is not to exploit fear, but to conquer it, and overcome all
that is created through fear together as the rainbow in the darkness.
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