MESSENGER

Sunday, October 26, 2014

An Update and Verse For All

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 for sermons and studies. You can find these posted here. Main Site: http://covenantofhopeministries.blogspot.com/
Rev. Laura’s Other Sites: Facebook & Twitter &Google+ & Blogspot
This Week's 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 for a friend Susie Bartholow as she is in hospice. She is in very grave condition and currently in hospice for cancer in the last stages. Hospice care is at her home with her family. They all need as much support in spirit as we can bring.

- Pray also for a colleague of my husband’s. He was hit head on by a drunk driver on Saturday, yesterday. He is not expected to live after multiple injuries. Please keep his family, friends, and colleagues in prayer as you pray for him.

- Pray that the work my sister has done will be worthy so that her dreams may come true. Pray also that my parents would ease their guilt in all that has happened, as there is no fault to be guilty of.

- Pray for Elder Cal Jennings who is in ill health and a quandary regarding all that has been going on in this world.

- Please pray for another member, Theresa, who is having issues with all sorts of things, spiritual and physical, financial, and more.

- Keep other friends, families, and even those around us in society in our thoughts and prayers that they be safe, secure, and well.


- Keep the ministry in your thoughts as well as we suffer through good and bad.

- Keep praying for my nephew that he might heal fully as he has been doing well. Also pray for my sister and her family as they watch her brother-in-law praying for miracles.

- Brother Wayne is still trudging through the processes of settling his father’s estate. Keep praying for him and his family in your prayers.

- Our families and friends who have been in our hearts, keep them in your thoughts and prayers that they be safe, healthy, and let them know they are always loved.

Prayer: Father in heaven, we thank You for this day and for those who are here to share it with us. We thank you for the blessings brought and for those yet to come. We bring prayers for those who have been seriously ill. We bring up those lost and those who mourn. We wish You help with the patience and courage for those we love and care about, and ourselves as well. We ask 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.

Today's Verse: Again today I am bringing you a verse and the Our Father. This week and those both prior and yet to come have been a test for many of us. It is challenges like these that we need to bring peace toward and His love as well.
Isaiah 42:16 NASB – I will lead the blind by a way they do not know,
in paths they do not know I will guide them.

I will make darkness into light before them
And rugged places into plains.
These are the things I will do,
And I will not leave them undone.
With our current trials and tribulations, this brings hope to our hearts and souls. May our spirits hold them close. 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)

~Shalom~
Rev. Laura A. Neff ~ The Rainbow Minister Facebook & Twitter & Google+ & Blogspot
Calvin Jennings ~ Elder Facebook & Twitter &Blogster
Covenant of Hope Ministries
Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope
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 © 2012http://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.

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.


Sunday, October 5, 2014

God My Father, Jesus My Reward

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.
Rev. Laura’s Other Sites: Facebook Twitter &Google+ & Blogspot

Note: I will continue with the short number of verses for the time being due to health and other reasons.

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 keep Elder Cal Jennings in your prayers as he is very sick and spends most of his time in bed these days.
- Please also pray for a friend of his and for his financial situation.
- Pray for swift healing for my friend Deborah’s husband who had a very scary incident and needed surgery.
- Pray for my sister's son who just had surgery on his elbow so that he might heal swiftly. Please also pray for her brother-in-law who was in a horrific motorcycle accident. He has broken vertebrae, and the very good potential for paralysis. I haven’t heard any updates. I will keep you informed.
- Please pray that someone, somewhere can find out what is wrong with me. I have been very sick this week.
- Pray for another sister, that her traumatic situation, which has affected most of the family, would be resolved to the better for all of us.
- Pray for another friend, Thomas, as his father passed away a few weeks ago.
- Keep praying that Brother Wayne Bartosh manages to finish the trudge through the legal issues in the wake of his father's death.
- A friend of mine, Beth, is having many problems and is moving in with her mother for a while. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers.
- Please pray for my friend Theresa’s sister who is in stage four cancer and has taken a turn for the worse.
- 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 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 thank you for the blessings brought and for those yet to come. We pray for those lost and those who mourn. 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.

Sermon: Again today I am bringing you a verse and a poem. This week and those both prior and yet to come have been a test for many of us. It is challenges like these that we need to bring peace toward and His love as well. 

John 41:10 NASB – Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."


God My Father, Jesus My Reward

God my Father I will love, 
With all my heart and soul;
And with my Lord above, 
My mind and body whole.

God my Father is a gift, 
Given in so many ways; 
In the prayers that lift,
And the words He says.

God my father is here, 
Guiding my path today;
Happy speaking in my ear, 
Always comfort to say.

He gave the gift of Life, 
Through Jesus long ago;
And even in worldly strife,
This truth we would know. 

Jesus is the great reward,
Through his blood we win.
Held in God's high regard,
To wash us all from sin.



© Rev. Laura A. Neff ~2009

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)

~Shalom~
Rev. Laura A. Neff ~ The Rainbow Minister Facebook & Twitter & Google+ & Blogspot
Calvin Jennings ~ Elder Facebook & Twitter & Blogster
Covenant of Hope Ministries
Our Main Video Feed: Covenant_of_Hope
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.

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.