God’s Medicine Is Laughter and Rejoicing

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 & Google+ & 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. May the Lord bring his spirits up and help heal him. He is now in managed care and needs more prayers than ever.

- Please pray for Sister Theresa Bogard in her pursuit of a place she can call home and for her sister who suffers from cancer.

- Please pray that a friend of mine, Teresa Travis finds peace after the loss of her husband and home.

- Please pray for a colleague of mine who has spinal cord stenosis and several other issues with her back.

- Please pray for a tenant who lives in a rental house my colleague manages. She is in end stage cancer. Her name is Ms. Mincey.

- Please keep saying glory to God as He answers prayers. Another colleague and my son’s father-in-law, also a minister, is finally cancer free.

- Help us to 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 because of the terrors that have occurred just this past week around this world.

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

Prayer: Father in heaven, our prayer today is to have the Spirit bring clarity and peace to each of our decisions. We thank You for that gift 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 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.

Letter to All: My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, after a long road toward healing I have at last become more able to function and let the Spirit guide me. God has answered my many prayers and has now told me to return and resume my work here with you at Covenant of Hope Ministries. Though I am still not quite to the point where live sermons may be managed, I will do my best to at least try to get a sermon twice a month, and hopefully every Sunday in the future. One thing I have been taught and experienced a great deal of in life would be the subject of today’s sermon. That would be the healing balm of laughter. When we can laugh at our mistakes, we can make this world a better place, so then we are heading toward Jesus and Our Heavenly Father.

Opening Song: Don’t Worry, Be Happy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU

Sermon: Today’s sermon is all about laughter. The best way to view laughter is as God and Jesus shared it through Scripture, and through our toughest times in the here and now. Why is laughter to be viewed in both good and bad pictures? There is something many of us wonder about. There is a difference in laughter, laughing with others or at others. The first is good. The second is bad. That is seen here in two scripture verses from the Scripture Scroll of Job.

Job 5:22 (KJV) – At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh: neither shalt though be afraid of the beast of the earth.

Job 8:21 (KJV) – Till he fills my mouth with laughing, and my lips with rejoicing.

Most people associate the Scroll of Job to be one filled with sadness and depression, but there are times when Job shows that even in the worst times there is the opportunity to laugh, play, and praise God with happy voices filled with joy at His everlasting gift of Unconditional Love. Here is one view from the Scroll of Psalms.

Psalm 126:2 (KJV) – Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: Then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.

Laughter and singing are often featured together when it comes to the good view of both. When we share laughter and music our world can often be a brighter place, and our sorrows fade to the background as we find those happy parts of our lives. There is a time and place for everything as we reflect on just that in one verse of Scripture we are quite familiar with, as it is both Scripture and song.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 (KJV) – a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.

There are many songs and verses relative to laughter and giving our hearts the ability to show so much of our love for family, friends, and all of mankind, even with the terrors, the sorrows, and the mistakes everyone might make in their lives. That is something God and Jesus have shared again and again through Scripture, and through life in general. Here is one from our Savior as shared here.

Luke 6:21 (KJV) – Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh.

There are times and places to laugh, to sing, to smile, just as there are for tears, prayers, and so forth. God wants us to remember that it is just as important to reflect on His love for us, that unconditional, no holds barred view of love, even in the time of adversity, that gives us a reason to laugh, a reason to sing praises, and so much more. 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: Turn, Turn, Turn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKP4cfU28vM

~ 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

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 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.