Covenant of Hope Ministries Wednesday Study_7_31_2014
Good
afternoon, and welcome to this Midweek Study for Covenant of Hope Ministries. I
am Rev. Laura A. Neff. I have often described myself as the Rainbow Minister.
My reasoning for that is this: The rainbow symbolizes faith, understanding, and God's strength to forgive, heal, and so on. You
can find sermons posted on Sundays and studies on Wednesday. Our locations are online
only:
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.
- Bring into prayer a dear friend, Kerry, as she is having
serious issues with scar tissue and it is threatening her life.
- Please keep Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as his health
has gone up and down far too often of late. Please also keep in prayer his
well-being, spirit, and faith. May the Good Lord Above shine His light around
you, through you, and within you.
- Please pray for my friend Theresa’s sister who is in stage
four cancer. Keep Theresa 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 pray for a friend Laura, as she has a great many test
results to go through.
- Continue with the prayers for Brother Wayne Bartosh as he
continues settling his father’s estate.
- Please keep my friend Heather in prayer for patience and safe
haven.
-Pray that things continue progressing for housing and more with
our family. We are thankful for all the prayers and good thoughts you have
brought for us.
- 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 are grateful to Your grace and wisdom that
brings us to where we see Your love in all we do, and who we see, and how we
share. We are thankful for the blessings You bring. We are blessed by the
mercies and graces You bring. With Your grace and love we know the pains and
sorrows will ease, the fear and anguish will end, and hope will be there with
love for ever after. We know these things in Your Holy Name, are gifts shared
in Jesus Christ our Savior, through the Holy Spirit, Amen and so it shall be.
Opening
Song: Great
Is Thy Faithfulness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YFlfM34m1A
Sermon:
Lately
I’ve been just letting go and having His faith reach toward whatever needs to
be discussed. So, that is what happened here today. The verses caught my
attention a day or two ago. I have contemplated them, meditated over them and
more. In doing so I realized something very interesting. Let’s start with the
verses primarily here in Lamentations 3:22-27 KJV – It is the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed,
because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in
him.
The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that
seeketh him.
It is good that a man should both hope, and quietly wait for the
salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
To
have the LORD as our portion, part of us, it is good. What is even better is if
we allow our soul to seek that portion which is HIS, and share not just that
part with Him but with all of the rest, ourselves included. The process might
sound strange, to share that portion of us with ourselves, and with God, and
with others as well, but it isn’t truthfully. In fact it is like opening our
psyche, heart, whatever to share with those who love us, who know us, and whom
we would like to know.
Psalm 57:10 KJV – For thy mercy is great unto
the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.
Mercy,
we have seen a lot of views of the gift. You see, it is a gift. His mercy is,
especially. Like His truth, it is eternal. A gift in His love, more than the earth, the
moon, and the sky. As constant as those three there is a pivot for that
consistency, it is yet another constant. His name is the LORD. Malachi 3:6 KJV – For
I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
It
is due to the fact that He is always here, doesn’t change, and gives us a
method to see this fact that we can realize, no matter how different we are,
even hour to hour because of what we learn, there is one constant. That one
constant is what makes each of us unique. We know him as Our Father. It is a
blessing to have His arm to hold us up, protect us, and more. This is shared
here in Isaiah 33:2 KJV – O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be
thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.
Some
say there are ways to see the most important things in our lives. There are. In
fact, Scripture shows us many things we don’t see with our eyes, our minds,
spirits, hearts, and souls as one. That’s where the challenges of life are
born. He brings a new point of view of the same person, body, mind, spirit, and
soul, every morning as we open our eyes once more. Psalm
130:6 KJV – My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they watch for the morning; I say, more than they watch for the
morning.
Wait
for the LORD more than the morning. So many of us are ‘tomorrow get here fast’,
and some of us want that faster. God already said time is as time will be,
past, present, and future. Waiting for Him is more important than watching for
morning. There are several views. First, if you think about it, watching the
horizon for sunrise can be seen as worry, even fear. Jesus told us not to worry
because things will work out one way or the other and we can’t make them do so,
only time can do the same. The faith we have cannot be built on worry. It
cannot be built on anxiety of any form. In fact, faith is built when you let
those anxieties, fears, and more, go. Let it go, and there He will be. That’s
the light at the end of the tunnel we always hope and pray for, the gift to
just let life go, and He’ll be there to catch. Now that’s something to think
about as we pray in the prayer Jesus taught us saying: 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: Great
is the Lord http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdqfAkHCZnA
~Shalom~
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
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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