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 a friend of mine, Kelly, will get
answers from medical tests. Lord heal her through Your grace in the answers of
the heart and spirit.
- Please continue praying for a friend Susie Bartholow as
she is, as far as I know, still in hospice. She has been in very grave
condition with cancer. She is home with her family while in hospice care.
- 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 members Theresa and Wayne that their
trials and tribulations would cease.
- 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.
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 blessings You bring to each of us. We pray that
You can remind us always what we should be looking forward to. 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 who suffer all
types of pain, that their pain be relieved. We pray for those lost, and those
who mourn. We pray for all those who are victims of violence. We pray for
patience. We pray for 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: Open the Eyes of My Heart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EszdZQr69Gg&index=138&list=PL614A115BF39E5936
Sermon:
Good
afternoon. Today we have a new inspiration brought by the Spirit of God. This
week it happened to be something uniquely special relative to writing. Now,
there are many who say that the disciples and apostles wrote everything in
Scripture. This is as opposed to God writing through their hands. Well, today
we’re going to show God’s letters in short verses as portrayed in those very
letters. We’ll start here.
II Corinthians 3:2-3 KJV – Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
II Corinthians 3:2-3 KJV – Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
Well then, here we see something very interesting. If you
recall the Ten Commandments as they were given to Moses, they were scribed on
stone tablets by God. In the case of the New Testament they no longer needed
visual proof as long as people looked into their hearts to find them.
This is something a lot of people will ask questions
about. ‘How can God write a letter in our hearts?’ Well, we have to give him
access to the mailbox. Now, that almost sounds crazy, but think about it this
way. In today’s world the most familiar view of writing letters is a form of
mail, whether it comes from the physical mailbox or the inbox in your email.
God doesn’t need a piece of paper, an envelope, or a stamp. He also doesn’t
need an email address. Though, it would be quite interesting to get that one
from either direction. Here we’ll see another view.
Habakkuk
2:2 KJV – And
the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon the
tables, that he may run that readeth it.
Here you see a physical view of God requesting something
to be written in full view. There are many letters written in Scripture. Paul
writes most of them. In a movie I watched yesterday, Letters to God, one person
mentioned the book of Hebrews. He described it as a letter to Christians. Well,
it wasn’t the first, and most likely hasn’t been the last. Most of those
letters are written in our hearts.
Romans
2:15 KJV – Which
shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing
witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one
another;
Note this one, it shows the law written in their hearts. Then it adds how the conscience would realize this. Now, what does the mean show us? Well, in mathematics the mean is the center of the extremes from least to most. In other words, it is the balance we need in our lives.
Note this one, it shows the law written in their hearts. Then it adds how the conscience would realize this. Now, what does the mean show us? Well, in mathematics the mean is the center of the extremes from least to most. In other words, it is the balance we need in our lives.
Now that’s something to think 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: Letter From God to Man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5e_vNNkbCI&index=167&list=PL614A115BF39E5936
~Shalom~
Rev.
Laura A. Neff ~ The Rainbow Minister
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.
