Good
afternoon, welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries. My name is Rev. Laura A.
Neff, the Rainbow Minister. The choice for Rainbow has to do with the fact that
the rainbow symbolizes a promise made and one that can and will be kept. I
made, long ago, a promise to God that I would do all I could to keep that faith
within me. We are normally posted on Sundays for sermons and Wednesdays for
studies. You can find these posted in the following locations.
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.
- Please pray that the good tidings
which have occurred for my family far away from me would continue for as long
as it can be.
- Please pray for a friend Susie
Bartholow as she is in hospice. She is in very grave condition with cancer.
Hospice care is in her home with her family. Keep them all in your thoughts and
prayers.
- Please pray for my nearby family
members as we are going through some tough times here.
- Please pray for Elder Cal Jennings
as he is going through a whole lot health wise and emotionally as well. Please
pray that he will be able to find and follow inspiration still.
- Please
pray for a friend of ours, Lucy, whose liver is failing. She is going to be on
medication but may need a transplant. Pray that the first option works and she
returns to health.
- Pray for
a friend of my brother’s, who is far from home right now. There have been many
problems for her right now. It is our hope that she will return and be here to
complete her healing and more.
- Pray for
our members Theresa and Wayne who had a very rough year last year. May some of
their trials and tribulations end in time for our celebration of the birth of
Jesus.
- Pray for
those near and far who have been suffering in battles that do not have to be.
Pray that peace can be found amidst the fear and anger, frustration and more.
May hope blossom and bring that peace once more.
- Pray for
our friends and our enemies, may they all find that the gift of God’s Son,
Jesus, holds the hope and faith everyone seeks.
- Keep hope
alive in your prayers no matter the pain or strife we might suffer.
- May God
bless every one of us as we continue on.
Prayer: Father in heaven, we
thank You for this day and for these who are here to share it with us. We thank
You for the blessings brought and for those yet to come. We pray that You can
remind us always what we should be looking forward to. We pray that You bring
us the wisdom to choose our words wisely, when to speak them, where, how, and
why. We bring prayers for those who have been seriously ill. Help those who are
working to fight serious illnesses the ability to find solutions. We pray for
those lost and those who mourn. We pray for all those who are victims of
violence. We pray for patience and courage for those we love and care about,
and ourselves as well. We pray for peace to reach out from the heart and be
heard, felt, and understood. We pray that Your grace and love would fill the
hearts of the many in this world. We pray all this in Your Holy Name through
the Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall
be.
Opening Song: Speak Life ~ TobyMac https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeBv9r92VQ0
Sermon: Good afternoon. Today’s inspiration actually was
building up for quite a while this week. Most of it due to lies that were being
spread in a vicious series of rumors for someone I know. Yesterday or so I
posted on my status in that regard. When I did I remembered that we had spoken
about rumors and rumor mongering while studying the Epistle of James. Today we
are revisiting that segment and adding others with it. We’ll start here.
James 3:3
KJV – Behold, we put bits in the horses’
mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
James 3:10
KJV – Out of the same mouth proceedeth
blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be.
James equates our speech
and speaking and the care within to putting a bit in a horses’ mouth and our
guiding it. Notice this. Bite your tongue fits that in a lot of ways. He adds
that when we both spout blessings and then spew curses and more from the same
place we’re not doing anyone any good, including ourselves. Let’s see where
there would be more to be found here in Scripture.
Proverbs
21:23 KJV – Whoso keepeth his mouth and
tongue keepeth his soul from troubles.
Notice, in this case we’re
talking Old Testament, yet the same can be reflected from it back to James.
Keep your mouth shut and tongue quiet and you’ll be a whole lot better off.
Sure, we can be angry. We can feel like screaming in every direction. But, we
can also take that anger, that fury, and channel it into something constructive.
Those spreading rumors and such, blasphemy, libel, slander, all of those can be
stopped if we stop them from going through us and into others. Now, I didn’t
say we were the beginning. I said we shouldn’t allow ourselves to continue the
chain. Stop, bite your tongue, and keep your mouths closed and thoughts to
yourself. Like our elders often would say ‘if you haven’t anything nice to say,
say nothing at all.’
Now, let’s go see more in
the New Testament, beginning here.
Matthew
15:11 KJV – Not that which goeth in the mouth
defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
Well, Jesus says it all.
Food and drink don’t defile us. The things that defile us are those things we
tend to say. What does it mean to defile? It means get us dirty, basically
dirty words. We all know what those are, most of us anyway. Those dirty words,
in this case, would be aimed at each other. More often than we realize, they
could also be aimed toward ourselves. Someone came up with the ideal of ‘sticks
and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me’. Unfortunately,
words can and do hurt even if we don’t express that fact. Once you’ve said it,
you can’t take it back. Once you’ve done it, it can’t be undone. This is just
the beginning. In future sermons and studies we’ll go further into this ideal.
Obviously the Spirit has chosen now to bring this particular part of Scripture
back into the forefront of our thoughts and minds. Still yet, there are many
things to discuss when it comes to holding our tongues. Now, that’s worth
thinking about as we pray in the prayer that Jesus brought us.
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)
Closing Song: LALEH – Speaking of Truth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y63NTCn8fjo
~Shalom~
Rev.
Laura A. Neff ~ The Rainbow Minister
Covenant of Hope Ministries
Main Site:
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 © 2015
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.
This mission statement speaks of the rainbow in the darkness.
Every time I would have a seriously traumatic thing happen in my life I would
wake in the middle of the night. When I do I see a rainbow at the end of my
bed, or even through the window behind my head. I’ll see that rainbow in a dark
room even during the day. It will hover in the shadows and reassure me that God
is with me.
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