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
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.
- My brother, Scott, has been released from the hospital,
as an answer to prayer. Please continue to have him in your thoughts and
prayers for a while longer as the doctors find all the answers and help him
adjust his life accordingly.
- Elder Cal Jennings has let me know, he is feeling a bit better than last we spoke. His pain has good days and bad days as always. May the Lord bring
his spirits up and help heal him and ease his pain.
- Please pray for job opportunities or offers to help
bless Sister Theresa Bogard.
- Please pray for a dear friend and colleague who has
just learned they might have very serious problems. She will receive verification as to what kind of issues that would be this week. Help me help this friend of mine with the strength of compassion and
more.
- Please pray for the families of those lost in a helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter along with seven others.
- Be thankful for each day we live as we do not know what
tomorrow brings.
- Pray for our nations that the voice of God is 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 our sick and wounded that they may heal.
Prayer: Father in heaven, this
is our prayer today for seriously needed relief of those in far-away places
suffering from the continued forest and brush fires in Australia, those suffering
the aftereffects of armed gunmen, bombings, and so forth, that their spirits be
lifted and calmed. We pray for those who suffered through the aftershocks in
Puerto Rico as the small island tries desperately to get back to what should be
normal. We pray for those who have been suffering illness or pain, that they
will be given comfort and healing. We pray for blessings in the midst of pain,
sorrow, terror, and more, so that this year is a better one for all around us. 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: Search My Heart ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mcjcMWkCdM
Sermon: This week I ran
across a series of verses that are “recommended” to be memorized. True
Christians work hard to learn and embrace the Word of God and can sometimes
bring specific verses to mind immediately, such as the prayer that completes the
sermons shared each week. Well, because of that, I thought about something.
There are only a select few verses specifically implicating that we should put
His Word in our hearts and reflect on them always. So, I will share those
verses here today. The first one is here.
Proverbs
3:3 KJV – Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write
them upon the table of thine heart:
While
exploring this thought of writing the Word of God on, or within, our hearts, I
found another here. Note, not just hearts, but your fingers too.
Proverbs
7:3 KJV – Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
This
takes that old method of tying a string in a bow around a finger as a reminder
to a whole different level. Faith is never easy to keep at a constant level. It
isn’t meant to be. When God asks us to write things upon our hearts, He wants
us to realize that the Word of God is more than words, more than stories of a
time long gone, but actually, something that we need in order to grow
spiritually, within our conscious and subconscious minds and spirits and souls.
Jeremiah
31:33 KJV – But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward
parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be
my people.
Notice
in this verse from Jeremiah, God points out that He will be the One writing His
Word on our hearts. He wants us to realize we are not alone, even if we feel
that way. We are together with God, with Jesus, thanks, in part, to the gift of
the Holy Spirit. That is the part of God’s Word that permeates our very soul,
our body, our mind, our heart, every bit. We see that here in these verses from
Hebrews.
Hebrews
8:10 KJV – For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write
them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a
people:
Hebrews
10:16 KJV – This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I
write them;
Note
how His Word would be found within us in more than one way. On the hearts, in
the minds, and through the Spirit. That’s very important to understand because
it proves everything Jesus taught us. Here we find exactly that, the proof of
what Jesus would do for us, and is still doing for us, even this far beyond His
resurrection.
Ephesians
3:17 KJV – That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted
and grounded in love,
His
Word is more than black and white. God’s truth is more than what you read or
hear. That fact has us working hard to embed the love in each syllable found in
Scripture into our hearts, our minds, our very souls, to prove to everyone in
the Spirit, that we are part of it as Jesus promised to always be part of us.
Colossians
3:16 KJV – Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching
and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Knowing Jesus suffered so much injustice. Knowing that he
willingly did so, so that we could be saved by His agonizing sacrifice. Then,
leaving His earthly self, dying on the cross with a promise to always be a part
of us, is amazing, awesome, and inspiring. Knowing that there is a way to bring
Him fully into our lives just by opening our heart, and letting our Spirit
bring Him close, is simply too much to express with words on paper, or on a
screen. Jesus is part of us, simply because we allow Him to be. Let’s remember
to write His love on our hearts, in our minds, and within our souls. 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)
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: Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord
~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHZ9iuo1kRs
~ Shalom ~
Rev. Laura A. Neff
Elder Calvin Jennings
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 © 2020 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.
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