South Featherstone Gospel Hall

  Good morning, dear friends... “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” ... Hebrews 10:24–25 (NIV) Sunday worship isn’t just a nice tradition or a habit we keep because we always have. It’s oxygen for the soul. When we gather as God’s people, something happens that can’t happen anywhere else: - We stand shoulder to shoulder and declare together that Jesus is Lord – and the world hears a louder voice than any one of us could make alone. - We open the same Bible, hear the same living Word, and the Holy Spirit takes it and drives it deep into hearts that might have grown cold or weary during the week. - We sing truths we sometimes struggle to believe on our own, and the faith of the person next to us carries us when ours feels thin. - We pray together and remind each other that the throne of grace is stil...

To conclude our thoughts on Romans12, I want to return to the first verse of the chapter, “Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters, in the light of God’s mercy, that you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.” There is so much in this verse that it would take many hours to fully evaluate the themes. But all the exhortations we have been considering over the last few days, we can only achieve IF we fulfil the requirements of this verse, offering ourselves in total to God! The KJV version concludes the verse with the words, “…. which is your reasonable service”. We can get from that phrase that this is a logical conclusion to our salvation. God has done so much for us, that it is a fully logical and in keeping response, to offer ourselves to God. But I like the NIV revision which talks about ‘true and proper worship’. Remember that the source of the word ‘worship’ is literally ‘worth-ship’. A true evaluation of who God...

  There is a song of which one of the repeated lines is “What have you done today to make you feel proud?” I understand the sentiment and for the sake of a word it could possibly be valid for us as Christians. The word that does not fit with our Christian life is the word ‘proud’. Pride is an emotion that comes from our pre-Christian past, it is listed as one of the 7 deadly sins and seriously what do we, intrinsically, have to feel proud about? Paul could make the statement elsewhere, “God forbid that I should glory…. Save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”. Our life should be hid in Christ, we can as it were bask in His glory but even the most sacrificial service that we can offer to Him is less that we should offer, because he gave His all for us, as Philippians 2 fully details. In Romans 12 we have the words, “Do not be conceited”, ( conceited is another word for proud). In Hebrews, the writer says that we should offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God and that is our ...

 “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone”. Bearing in mind our individual personalities, this is probably the hardest exhortation to achieve! We have a tendency to see the dark side of someone’s comments or actions. But if we are to live at peace with everyone, that human tendency has to be suppressed. How do we achieve that? Well, it is only with the help of the Holy Spirit, as with all of these exhortations. One of the prayers we need to pray at the beginning of each day is to try to see the best in everyone we interact with during the day. And how about trying to see the positive in someone’s words or actions? If we can’t do that, then, we need to walk away from the situation, preferably without comment. Everyone has a light and dark side to their character, let try to see the light side. Peace is not the absence of war, it is a positive quality, and it needs to have a positive attitude to achieve it. Jesus made peace by the blood of His cro...

  How do you feel about the opinions of others? Personally, provided I know in my heart that I have performed with the most utmost integrity and done my best, what other people think is very much out of my control, and if it is outside of my control, then I cannot influence their thoughts. However doing right, and being seen to be doing right, are 2 different issues and the Bible says that we are to be as wise as serpents, yet as harmless as doves. So part of actually doing what is right or the best option in a dilemma is to be seen as doing right by others. Sometimes that may require an explanation of our actions. However, it is so true that we can never please everyone all the time, but we must try, within the scope of our actions and words being right in a situation, to ensure we cause minimum offence. Something I am less good at! Paul’s exhortation in Romans 12 puts this dilemma in a nutshell. “Be careful to do what is right in the sight of everyone”. And the best way of ensuri...

Paul has many more exhortations in the next part of Romans 12, which have a strong connection with Jesus’ words on the Sermon on the Mount, “Bless those who persecute you; Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn and do not be conceited”. These are all characteristics that we should develop with the help of the Holy Spirit. But I want to move on to another ‘do not’. In the Old Testament, the general rule within the Mosaic Law was ‘an eye for an eye’, in other words ensure you get proper payment for a wrong done to you. Yes, this could be described as justice, but essentially it is raw justice. But in Romans 12, Paul reiterates the teaching that Jesus had introduced which tempered justice with mercy. If God did not temper His justice on our sinful nature with His mercy shown when He allowed His Son to take that just punishment in our place, then we would have no hope of eternal life. So Paul improves on the Old Testament model by these words, “Do not repay evil with ev...

  I hesitate before I comment on Paul’s next exhortation in his practical Christian living guide in Romans 12, because it is an area of my life that I am not strong on. It consists of 2 words, “Practice hospitality”. Certainly as we look through the Old Testament, there is much written about hospitality and perhaps in the Middle East, it is more customary to offer meals, accommodation and refreshment to perhaps strangers but as reserved Westerners, it is not a custom. We exercise hospitality to our friends on occasions, but rarely to strangers but the key word is ‘practice’. This implies an intention followed by discipline to undertake a task and Paul’s exhortation includes those motivations. As a church we are better at hospitality because it should be part of providing a welcoming environment to those who come in and our coffee morning and even the drinks during the service on Sunday are part of the hospitality we show. It is a very valid extension to the last exhortation we look...

  Most chairs have 4 legs, so do most tables. Chairs and tables are designed to stand alone and yet, to be stable with minimum likelihood of falling over. I suppose as soon as a human being developed the idea of not sitting or eating or lying on the floor, the necessity to produce some sort of furniture that didn’t actually tip him back on to the floor, became a priority and 4 legs, preferably at four corners of the unit, soon became a standard way of developing stability. It is recorded in Acts 2 v 42, that the early disciples, those converted and saved to form the fledgling church, “continued in the Apostle’s Doctrine; in breaking of bread; in fellowship and in prayer”. In that way, just as the 4 legs provided stability to a piece of furniture, these four essential pillars provided stability for the growth and communion of the early church and still provided the platform for our service for the Lord today. Should any one of the 4 be left out then the church could become unstable ...

  In Romana 12 as we move on through Paul’s many exhortations, we come to one which is exceedingly practical. As a local church, we used to allocate a percentage of the quarterly offerings to what we knew as ‘the Lord’s Servant’s account’. Essentially, these gifts went to either organisations or individuals who were serving the Lord in full-time ministry. Why did we do this? Well, it wasn’t like a gift to charity that we keep being asked to donate, particularly at this time of year. The example in the early church was frequently referred to by Paul as the new churches donated money for the Christians in Jerusalem who were struggling against persecution. In Romans 12 Paul refers in general to this act of love in the following way, “Share with the Lord’s people who are in need”. This is both an individual and a church exhortation. God has blessed us with many blessings, including financial blessings and as responsible servant of our Lord and Saviour, we can use these funds to help o...

This Prayerline has now been running for over 3 years, and there is no intention to cease ‘publishing’. As individuals, each of us have always known of people who have needed prayer, but the sharing of this knowledge was intermittent and incomplete and Prayerline was commenced to make known to the wider fellowship the needs of many, to bring some more consistency and direction to our prayer lives. And in the Bible Study on Tuesday night we discussed the possibility that a lack of prayer delays or even hinders the working of our God. Right from the early days of His ministry, Jesus exhorted His Disciples to pray and in Acts 2 v 42, the 4 activities which were critical in the growth of the early church were listed as ‘ the Apostles doctrine; Breaking of Bread; Fellowship and finally, Prayer.’ Paul, in all his letters without exception both asks for prayer for the work he was doing but also says frequently that he was also praying for each of the churches and as active contributors to our...

  The next exhortation that we find in Romans 12 will take strength and grace from God to achieve. My mother used to say, “Patience is a virtue. Find it if you can. Seldom in a woman. Never in a man!”. I quote that because the next exhortation says this “Be Patient in affliction”. Affliction can come from many sources and of many types, but I don’t think Paul was at this point thinking about a cut finger. Affliction in this case I firmly believe is a type of persecution because of our faith and belief in Jesus Christ. Jesus warned, or promised, His Disciples that they could expect the same level of persecution or affliction that He suffered and indeed all of the Disciples except John suffered martyr’s deaths. We carry forward the torch of discipleship from them and, in a perverse way, if we are not being persecuted or mocked (afflicted) because of our faith, we could ask whether we are really standing up and witnessing for our Lord and Saviour. But Paul tells us to be patient and t...

Biblical Words & Their Meaning... ἄτοπος (atopos) – “Out of Place or Wicked" This week’s Greek word comes straight out of our recent study in 2 Thessalonians 3:6 – ἄτοπος (atopos). At first glance, many English translations give us “wicked" or "evil” but dig into the original Koine Greek and it’s richer than that. ἄτοπος literally means “out of place” – from **a** (not) + **topos** (place). It’s the idea of something (or someone) behaving in a way that is wrong, improper, or even evil because it’s completely out of line with where it should be. Think of a chess piece suddenly playing by football rules – that’s atopos. Behaviourally off the rails. Paul uses it for believers who are walking in a way that doesn’t fit the gospel pattern they’ve received. It’s not just laziness; it’s living in a way that’s improper for a child of God. Next time we’re tempted to shrug off a habit or attitude with “it’s not that bad,” remember ἄτοπος. Ask yourself: is this in its proper pla...

  I have just finished watching the News and if I was perhaps more sensitive in my emotions, I would be at this point, depressed. The only good news, at least as far as one particular section of the UK population is concerned, is that Scotland have qualified for the World Cup next year. The rest of the News could be described as either stressful or bad. Maybe conditions today and world events are no different than in years past, but now, due to the boom in world-wide communications, we know much more about what is actually happening and none of it is good news. So when we read Paul’s exhortation In Romans 12 to “Be joyful in hope”, we have to look way beyond world events to something far more positive and personal. That hope that Paul refers to, is outside of all control of man and consists of at least 2 elements. One is that the Holy Spirit living and working in each one of those who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, that He will do His work now to reproduce...

Led by Brian Preston , Elder  @SFGH Church  Pray For Us That the Word May Run Swiftly (Transcribed from Tuesday's Bible Study Group) The evening kicked off with Brian announcing we’re almost at the end of 2 Thessalonians – just two or three weeks left. That sparked the big “What next?” conversation.   Brian’s open to anything New Testament (or even a topic on our hearts) for the new year – but Old Testament prophets are off the table for now (“a bit heavy!”). Timothy/Titus got a mention, but the floor’s wide open. If something’s on your heart, speak up soon – let Brian or Shaun know!  There was some light banter about Ezekiel – Brian joked he’s happy for us to read it, but Shaun quipped, “I don’t think there are many who’d tackle Ezekiel!” We all chuckled – no one’s volunteering for that one just yet. Then we dived into chapter 3:1–6, with Brian reading from his faithful KJV-variation: “Finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and...

(A Thought from Psalm 139:1-4) I’ve been chewing on a verse that always stops me in my tracks—Psalm 139:1-4: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar… Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.” David’s not writing this from a palace balcony on a sunny day. He’s pouring out his heart, amazed that the God of the universe bothers with the tiny details of one man’s life. He knows when you flop on the sofa after a long shift. He knows the worry that wakes you at 3 a.m. He even knows the half-formed grumble before you’ve said it out loud. And here’s what hits me hardest—He’s not keeping a file to use against us. He’s searching us because He loves us. Completely. Intimately. Relentlessly. In a world where we curate our Instagram lives and hide the messy bits, it’s both terrifying and comforting to be fully known. Terrifying because nothing’s hidden. Comforting because nothing’s hidden from a God wh...

  Back in the Old Testament, Nehemiah was a Jew who was living in exile in Persia. He was quite fortunate in that he had obtained a job as the cupbearer to the king, so he was moving in exalted circles, even though he was still a servant. He was normally cheerful and keen as he served the king but then he had some bad news from his home country and his demeanour changed so much that the king asked him what had gone wrong in his life. It all led to Nehemiah being freed to return to Israel and rebuild, particularly the city of Jerusalem and the Temple. In Romans 12, the next exhortation that Paul writes goes like this “ but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord”. As human beings, we are susceptible to mood swings usually determined by outside stresses. Nehemiah was under stress, the king could have had him executed for exhibiting a bad attitude. But he had a plan, he prayed to God urgently and silently and God answered his prayer and gave him favour with the king. And that is...

  My mother used to say, ‘If a job needs doing, it needs doing well’. Nothing original there, you may say. Over the years, to ‘do a job well’, I have learned covers many issues, particularly where people and change is involved. Early in my working career I learned that you could invent the best system of working that could be found, but if it didn’t have the support of the people who were going to run it, it would fail. On the other hand, a less-than-perfect system would succeed IF it had the support of the staff. But to implement anything new, you yourself had to believe in it. The same principle applies to our Christian witness, walk and work. If we do not fully believe that following Jesus for life is the best thing for all people, then we will have a hard job to convince others. This is a major part of what the Bible calls ‘zeal’ and Romans 12 sums this up as Paul urges us to “Be never lacking in zeal”. Zeal involves commitment and enthusiasm. Remember when the Apostle Paul, or...

  In Psalm 92 we have some sound words, “It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises unto your name O most High”. This was the psalmist’s view of God, and the blessings God had given him. I can’t recall whether this psalm was written by David but if it was, David had endured some very difficult and stressful episodes in his life and made many mistakes for which God had righteously judged him. We too can look back on our lives and see difficult periods and sinful mistakes and yet we don’t have to bear the judgement of God because that judgement has been borne by Jesus. I have been thinking about that hymn, ‘Praise my soul the King of heaven’ and the lines in the verse which go something like this, “Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, who like thee His praise should sing.” And this is why we gather on a Sunday morning to combine our hearts and minds together in that act of remembering our Lord Jesus Christ. Because we have experienced all those blessings named...

Daily, we see selfishness demonstrated in many ways, acts, and even words. To me this characteristic has become the keyword of current life and maybe this current generation. Many people donate to charities and perhaps consider that this constitutes all they need to do to demonstrate unselfishness. As Christians, we must look much wider than this. Our example is Jesus and our Christian life characteristics should mirror His. As we read through the Gospels and the story of His life on earth, His absolute concern was care for others which culminated in Him giving His life upon the cross so that every human could benefit by obtaining salvation from sin by His sacrifice. We have recently been considering how that love for others should absolutely characterise us, and we have recently also remembered the sacrifice of so many of our soldiers and civilians who have been killed in wars, and as the words repeated every year say, “they gave their tomorrow for our today”. In Romans 12, the next e...

  As many of you will know and at the risk of boring you again, I have come to love words. Our English language is rich in words because we have collected, through history, words from a multitude of cultures and races. As we have been learning of late, the Greek language, possibly like many other languages, has very subtle nuances and shades of meaning built into it but largely with English, what you see is what you get! The Bible was translated by Greek and Hebrew scholars into English, originally in the King James Version, and now there are many more up-to-date versions which have been taken either from the KJV or from the original texts that were used to produce the KJV.  Yet the Bible retains its cohesiveness, and the newer versions only seek to bring it home to us in our times. As we are looking at Romans 12 and the instruction Paul gave there, having considered love as the key characteristic of the church he then uses some strong and vivid words for his next exhortation,...

  What should characterise a church? Essentially some people would regard a church as a type of club, i.e., a social enterprise. And it does have that as one characteristic. People attend because they like the interaction and what happens there, and it should get involved in the community in which it stands, but it should still stand out as something different from a club and certainly should never adopt the practices of the community in which it operates. It should be in the world but not of the world. The key characteristic that should characterise a church is that same characteristic which each member of that church should demonstrate both within and outside of the church and it is the characteristic that it should take from its Head and that is Jesus Himself who demonstrated this when He was on earth. The Apostle John said, “Herein is LOVE, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to die for us”. Jesus Himself gave His Disciples, and that includes each one wh...

  When Plans Change: Fellowship & Prayer Over Bible Study... Sometimes, the best moments in church life aren’t the ones you planned — but the ones that happen when God nudges you in a new direction. This Tuesday, our usual Bible Study was swapped out for something a little different. With smaller numbers than expected, instead of following our planned study, we gathered for a fellowship and prayer evening. And honestly, it turned out to be just what we needed. Why Fellowship Matters: It’s easy to think of “church” as what happens on Sundays, or as Bible studies, worship, and organised activities. But the heart of the Christian life has always been about people: being present for each other, listening, laughing, sharing stories, and praying together through every twist and turn. That’s fellowship — and it’s every bit as important as any sermon or study. In Acts 2:42, we read that the early believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking...

I would like to spend some time looking at Romans 12. It is a chapter packed full of the practical outworking of our Christian faith. We sometimes look at the book of James as a very practical guide to living for our Saviour and in that respect, Romans 12 is Paul’s vision of what practical Christianity means. The two books are never in conflict with one another but rather complement one another. And one thing is clear in both books, without the Holy Spirit’s power coming from within as an intrinsic benefit of our salvation, what is contained in Romans 12 would be impossible to achieve. In some respects verse 1 of Romans chapter 12 summarises the rest of the chapter and all the practical outworking that is contained in it. The 10 Commandments said, ‘You shall, or, you shall not’ . It was an imperative to obey but Paul commences Romans chapter 12 by saying “I urge you or I beseech you”. This is a totally different tone, because Paul is not saying our salvation depends on what he has to s...

  In the Bible, back in the Old Testament, Joshua was landed with a huge project. His guide and mentor, Moses, had died; he had a migrant community that looked to him for leadership camped on the border of a hostile country and a massive, fortified city in front of him that needed to be conquered if this community was going to make any further progress in fulfilling a promise that had been given to him through Moses, that this migrant community was going to occupy this hostile territory. BUT, this promise had been given to Moses by God and to Joshua, that made all the difference! Joshua had seen God at work with the Israelite people during 40 years of desert wandering and he knew if God made a promise, there was no way it could be rescinded and in the very first chapter of Joshua, we find God speaking to Joshua as he prepared for the task ahead of him, “I will not fail you nor forsake you”. God is not a God who fails, we are the ones who fail Him. And if we do not see Him, as it we...

Today and on Tuesday 11th November, we will be remembering the very many British and Commonwealth men and women, particularly in the armed forces, who gave their lives in the wars and conflicts that have been fought in the 20th and 21st centuries particularly. Some of these conflicts have been world-wide, some fairly localised but families have been split and loved ones separated by death of those who have fought for their country. We owe them so much because in some conflicts, they have fought for our freedom. The words of Winston Churchill come back to us at this time: “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few” Yet the ‘so few’ has run into millions of lives, millions of families with so much grief. Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lays down his life for his friend”. These men and women that we remember today also gave their lives for people they didn’t know and we all owe them a debt of love which we remember today. Ye...

  Today, we pause to remember. We remember the courage of those who served, the cost they bore, the loved ones who waited, the many who never returned. We honour their sacrifice with silence, with gratitude,  and with a commitment to seek peace, in our own generation. As Christians, we remember not only the fallen of war, but also the One who laid down His life for us all. “Greater love has no one than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends.”  John 15:13 May the God of all comfort bring peace to troubled hearts, may Christ our Saviour heal the wounds of the past, and may the Holy Spirit guide us to walk in the way of peace. We will remember them. Amen.

  Yesterday we looked at a prayer for guidance from God and today we finish that same verse with a further connected prayer once that guidance has been received. The full content of the verse in Psalm 5 is as follows: “Lead me, O Lord... make Your Way straight before my face”. I live just a stone’s throw from an old Roman road. We are indebted to the Romans who built an infrastructure to enable them to move about in Britain as securely, safely and quickly as was possible in those far-off days. One of the key features of a Roman road was that it was constructed, as far as the landscape would allow, straight. They did not want to be ambushed by hostile natives, so they limited bends in their routes, because it wasn’t possible to see round bends. The prayer issued by the psalmist has that same thought in mind, to be able to see ahead where God is leading us and, as a result of that vision, to avoid obstructions and hindrances to our Christian walk. I realise that in some ways this mig...