Covenant Of Hope Ministries: August 2019

Sunday, August 25, 2019

The Gift of Believing in a World Filled with Doubt

Welcome to Covenant of Hope Ministries and our sermon or midweek study. You will normally see us posted on Sunday and Wednesday. I am Rev. Laura A. Neff. Our ministry was built on the truth of God’s love. It doesn’t conform to society’s wishes. This ministry shares the Word of God, the Spirit of Christ Jesus. Those who know me well will recognize that there are definitive differences in the creation of every sermon from this point forward. It is God’s will that has brought this to be. We wish only that God’s truth will be shared within His words as brought to us by the Spirit as it fills my heart, mind, and soul to be shared with my hands, but with His words alone.

You will find us in the following location: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com

Rev. Laura’s other sites: Facebook & Blogspot & Twitter

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 grows or changes every week. This is our current list.

- Please pray for Elder Cal Jennings who has been suffering greatly with his health. At this time, he is in the hospital once more. May the Lord bring his spirits up and help heal him.

- Please pray for friends of friends that have requested prayers for illnesses, hospitalization, and loss.

- Please pray for relief in the trials and tribulations for Sister Theresa due to continued pain from a terrible hit and run accident late last year.

- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what tomorrow brings.

- Pray for our nations that the voice of God be heard through the Spirit.

- Pray for our friends and families that their tomorrows bring blessings and pray our own be the same.

- Pray for those suffering as a result of the terrors that have occurred just this past week around this world.

- Pray for those in suffering in the Midwest due to the severe flooding after their recent storms and the disaster left in the wake of it.

- Pray for our sick and wounded that they may heal.

Prayer: Father in heaven, our prayer this day is to have the Spirit bring healing and solace to each of our bodies, minds, spirits, and souls. We pray for enlightenment and understanding while studying Your Word. We thank You for these gifts and the many more You have brought us. May our fears be drawn out of us. Help us to see the many gifts which Your love brings and the unknown locations it might be found. May our pain and sorrow be eased. May peace be brought from our hearts and shared with others. May Your gifts of love shine through us toward others. We pray for the poor, the sick, the sorrowful, the wounded, and the frightened. We pray for the soldiers, the Samaritans, the children, and the rest. We pray in thanksgiving for every gift brought us. We pray that every tomorrow would bring good things. For each of these we pray in Your Holy Name, through our Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.

Opening Song: Why I Believe ~ Nichole Sheahan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVzdE6GLreo

Sermon: This morning’s sermon has been brewing in my head and heart for at least a week. It wasn’t until today that I found where His Word was leading me in the actual writing of this sermon. It has been a tumultuous life for far too many in this world. Jesus asks only that we believe, in Him, His teaching, and His unconditional love. He wanted to show the Apostles and disciples who followed His teachings while He lived that what they believe did not consist of only what they saw before their very eyes, but that God’s mission for Jesus was far grander, far more complicated, than those things seen and done while the Savior walked this earth we live on. We’ll start where we left off in the last sermon.

John 14:1 KJV – Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

I have known others in this world who have asked me if I truly believed that God had a reason for everything in our lives, no matter what it was to be. Unequivocally, I have no doubt God has touched my heart and, over the years, proved His love in a million ways. Certainly, I have suffered trauma and tragedy, illness without guidance as to where it was coming from, loss, misunderstanding, and more. Yet, there is always some way that God proves the Spirit is with me, sometimes in the strangest ways possible. This is yet another verse where Jesus asks His disciples and Apostles to believe.

John 14:11 KJV – Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

Jesus worked miracles of every shape and size, some of them dramatic, including bringing Lazarus from the grave alive and well. That is some amazing work for a single man to accomplish during His short life here on earth. Jesus warned everyone who believed in Him at that time, and still does even now, believe in Him as the Truth of God, and Proof of God’s Word. Yet, He still had days where unbelief filled those around Him.

John 14:29 KJV – And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

Believing in anything takes faith, hope, and love. Those who had true faith in Jesus were willing to believe everything He said. Yet, even some of the most devoted followers had their days when doubt would creep in. Doubt is a sneaky little trouble that takes us away from the truth and the real belief that Jesus lives, even today, in the Spirit. Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit in this next verse, promising that with the revelation of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit would transform hearts in millions of ways.
John 16:8-9 KJV – And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me;
Jesus wanted to warn His apostles and disciples that there would come a time when He physically would no longer be there with them. Yet, though His body wouldn’t be present, His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, would be with them always. That is something that Scripture offers people for many years, yet, not as a near physical manifestation as Jesus promised. When we are filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we feel it through every inch of our bodies. God wants us to know this, and that’s why Jesus taught as He did for the short time that He lived on this earth as a man. It took a while, but the Apostles and disciples finally figured out what He was sharing with them.
John 16:30-31 KJV – Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.
Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?
Jesus wants us to be sure we believe, even if we cannot physically see Him here on earth. In truth, He is always with us. God wants us to know that He brought Jesus to us for many reasons, teaching being only one of those. Jesus was brought here to unleash the single best gift God could ever give us here on earth, everlasting life. Sure, it may be a while before this earth becomes brand new again, but that time is coming. Scripture promises us that.
John 17:20-21 KJV – Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

Jesus is speaking directly with the Heavenly Father here. He wants to find a way for His teaching to prove to the Disciples and Apostles exactly what it means for Him to be crucified, die on the cross, and then be buried, only to be reborn into the Spirit view of our Savior. It is a tough lesson for those who followed Jesus back in the days when Scripture was born. Yet, even today the powerful impact of Jesus and His life is felt and there are believers who transform others into believers because His Word is breathed through the body, mind, heart, soul, and spirit of each and every believer, no matter the strength of their belief.

John 19:35 KJV – And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.

John shares here that those who were present for Jesus in life, and in spirit, had to share that fact, as proof that the Word of God is more than just written on paper, or taught in the temples, memorized, or any of that. The Truth of the Word of God is that we don’t have to see it in action. It doesn’t take sight to believe. It takes a heart and mind that work together in the Spirit toward understanding wisdom in His Word.

John 20:25 KJV – The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

Even today there are those who doubt the glory of God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit. There are those who do not wish to understand, just like Thomas, the doubter of all the disciples and Apostles. He had to see it, in order to believe it, regardless that Jesus Himself said, believe no matter what happens, that He is the Savior, the Beloved Son of God the Father of all.

John 20:31 KJV – But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

Life, eternal life, not just earthly life, that’s the promise of God’s gift of Jesus through the Holy Spirit after the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Understanding comes with recognizing the wonder of God’s unconditional love. It is more than anything we will ever realize here on earth. Believing is a gift of the heart, mind, spirit, and soul of every human being who chooses that belief. Now that’s something to think about as we pray in the prayer that Jesus taught us saying:

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: This I Believe ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRzI_FbWTkg

~ Shalom ~

Rev. Laura A. Neff

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Elder Calvin Jennings

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Covenant of Hope Ministries Main Site: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com

Our mission for Covenant of Hope Ministries is not to exploit fear, but to conquer it, and overcome all that is created through fear together as the bringers of the light of Jesus found in the midst of darkness.

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Believe and You Will See Him in Everything and Everyone

You will find us in the following location: https://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com

Rev. Laura’s other sites: Facebook & Blogspot & Twitter

- Please pray for Elder Cal Jennings who has been suffering greatly with his health. At this time, he is just out of the hospital once more. May the Lord bring his spirits up and help heal him.

- Please pray that the blessings received by our member Joel Deji Ogar, continue in his life with his new wife.

- Please pray that my daughter’s pregnancy continues to go well, this is her first child and our first grandchild.

- Please pray for relief in the trials and tribulations for Sister Theresa due to pain from a terrible hit and run accident late last year and surgeries and other procedures in the past month or two.

- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what tomorrow brings.
- Pray for our nations that the voice of God be heard through the Spirit.
- Pray for our friends and families that their tomorrows bring blessings and pray our own be the same.

- Pray for those suffering as a result of the terrors that have occurred just this past few weeks around this world.

- Pray for our sick and wounded that they may heal.

- Pray for me as I start a new job in two weeks. It is a serious change of pace for me after what I have been doing for three years.

- Pray for my husband, Ron, as he learns more and more with his new job, started two weeks ago.

Prayer: Father in heaven, our prayer today is to have the Holy Spirit bring healing to each of our bodies, minds, spirits, and souls. We pray for enlightenment and understanding while studying Your Word. We thank You for these gifts and the many more You have brought us. May our fears be drawn out of us. Help us to see the many gifts Your love brings and the unknown locations it might be found. May our pain and sorrow be eased. May peace be brought from our hearts and shared with others. May Your gifts of love shine through us toward others. We pray for the poor, the sick, the sorrowful, the wounded, and the frightened. We pray for the soldiers, the Samaritans, the children, and the rest. We pray in thanksgiving for every gift brought us. We pray that every tomorrow would bring good things. For each of these we pray in Your Holy Name, through our Savior Jesus Christ, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.

Opening Song: This I Believe – Hillsong - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRzI_FbWTkg

Sermon: Today I was drawn to a single chapter in the Scriptures, in the Gospel of John. Believing in anything takes work and practice. God knows this, as Jesus knew while He lived on this earth. Believing for many is seeing and experiencing things firsthand. In many instances, Jesus proved the power of God through the Holy Spirit. One of His most amazing and also one of his most dangerous, was in raising Lazarus from the dead. I have been led to write out this entire section of Scripture to help all understand just how dangerous it is to be Christian, even today, when it is one of the largest bodies of faith on the earth. Let’s get started.
John 11:17-19 KJV – Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.
Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off:
And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
Lazarus, one of those closest to Jesus in His circle of friends and believers, died believing fully in the power of Christ as the Son of God. Yet, his sisters, were not as certain as he had been. Nor were the Apostles and Disciples that followed Jesus throughout all of Jerusalem and Judea. That is one more reason Jesus performed so many miracles, more than were even described in Scripture. Here we see Martha and Mary as they learn that Jesus was coming to see Lazarus and his family.
John 11:20-30 KJV – Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.
As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him.
Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him.
See how hard it is for people then, even with in person views of the miracles of Christ, still yet they have so many difficulties understanding. This is something many even today wonder about and wish they could answer. Personally, I have seen many of His miracles and wondered on occasion if I was seeing things, or if it was real. I learned later in life that the miracles were right there, staring me in the eye. Since then, I have known miracles to exist in thousands of ways, in each new breath, and each new waking moment, Jesus is with us, and the more we know His Word, the better off we will be. That means learning from things He taught long ago, and bringing them forward into today’s learning, in order to apply the new knowledge into our own lives and live as Jesus lived, love as Jesus loved, and be like Jesus.
John 11:31-35 KJV – The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there.
Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.
And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
Jesus wept.
It was hard on Jesus, as it is often hard on all of us, when it came to others not believing in the power of God through Christ who proves salvation again and again is at hand. Jesus wanted them to understand that things happen in God’s time, not in that of mankind, for time is divine in itself. Jesus was constantly showing the men and women, and even children, that truth was right before them, and all they had to do was believe and they would see as He saw. But people tend to believe after they see it with their own eyes. Christians, those who truly believe, know that believing leads to sights as glorious as the Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews here show that view without realizing this as we continue with the Gospel of John the Beloved.

John 11:36-40 KJV – Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
Again you can see where Martha, a believer, cannot understand what Jesus is all about even as a devout follower. All of those around the pair of them at that time were the same. That’s why Jesus groaned and sighed in disappointment.
John 11:41-45 KJV – Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.

As you can see, it takes seeing for many to believe. Just as it took the Jews, Mary, Martha, and even the Apostles, seeing what miracles exist with their own eyes, as opposed to openly believing that anything is possible through Christ who loves us even this far into the future. Believe in the miracle of life as God created it. Once you do, the rest of the world will fall away, and you’ll be at peace in your own walk with Him. Now that’s something to think about as we pray in the prayer that Jesus taught us saying:

Closing Song: We Believe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjZ01FcK0yk

~ Shalom ~

Rev. Laura A. Neff

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Elder Calvin Jennings

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Covenant of Hope Ministries Main Site: http://www.covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com

About Us/

Welcome, we are Covenant of Hope Ministries. We celebrate the light in the darkness. There are those of us who need a connection, one to another, whether it is someone we want to learn about, or someone we know and wish to keep in touch with. Ministry is all about sharing faith, hope, and unconditional love. This all would offer peace from the heart. It doesn't matter who you are, where you live, if you are traveling a lot, or otherwise, we serve Christians and Others who are disabled, displaced, disadvantaged and disenchanted in today's world. Licensed Ordained Minister, Rev. Laura A. Neff, Evangelist, Cal Jennings, Outreach Ministers including Rev. Lisa, Pastor Stephen, Apostle Eric, and many others. I am licensed to perform wedding ceremonies in the state of Georgia, USA. I was ordained in 2007 by Rev. Teresa Piercey-Gates. We established this ministry in October of 2008.

MESSENGER

Sunday, August 25, 2019

The Gift of Believing in a World Filled with Doubt

Sunday, August 11, 2019

Believe and You Will See Him in Everything and Everyone