South Featherstone Gospel Hall

  Right after Adam and Eve were ejected from the garden of Eden, in fact even before that exile, an animal was sacrificed to provide a physical covering/clothing for Adam and Eve. It was significant, in that the sacrifice of an animal then became a spiritual covering for sin and this custom must have been passed on to Cain and Abel and the patriarchs until the Law was given when formal provisions were laid down by God for physical sacrifices to be made. The principle of a sacrifice is that it should cost the person who makes it or offers it, something. Like many ordinances, the offering of a sacrifice gradually lost its meaning to most of the Jews. It became a meaningless act and the heart repentance that was supposed to accompany it, disappeared. But whether the person who offered it recognised its significance or not, it still only acted as a covering for sin, a temporary solution until Jesus Christ, God’s Son made the one final sacrifice of His own life to provide forgiveness an...

  Everything that we have considered over the past few days has been very practical as far as sound Christian doctrine is concerned. As we have seen, it does demand discipline and an increased focus on what pleases God. So having explained all that Paul has learned about Christian growth whilst pleasing God is essential in our lives and making that our first ambition above all else, is that the only blessing and benefit we receive? So, Paul gives us the full benefit of serving God faithfully, “And the God of peace will be with you”. This is a blessing that can come from no other source, Peace. This peace is not just an absence of conflict, the peace of God is a very positive blessing, to know abundant contentment in every aspect of our lives. Even the troubles and cares we experience we have put into His hands, and also the verse uses the word ‘will’. This is a promise that can never be annulled. If we don’t experience that type of peace which overflows all other feelings, then we...

  Paul closes his exhortation in Philippians 4 by a personal recommendation which perhaps is a challenge to each one of us who know the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. Having considered many aspects that our Christian walk should show, and which would improve our testimony, Paul says, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put into practice”. That is a challenge that none of us could issue, however long we have served the Lord and however close we think we are to Him. As a senior believer in our church, if I went round our congregation and asked each person, even what they have learned or received from me that has moved them onwards in their Christian life, I would be surprised if I got more than 1 or 2 flattering answers. And I couldn’t with a clear conscience, even ask about what others think about hearing or seeing my testimony for the Lord. But that should never be the case. All of the letters to the churches that we have read many times in the New Te...

  In our consideration of Philippians 4, Paul comes to the last cluster of exhortations for practical Christian life, and this concerns our thoughts, so Paul concludes this section with the words we must remember as we look at each of the exhortations, “Think about these things”.  When Paul says ‘think about these things’, he really means, to the exclusion of anything that would be the opposite of the positive exhortations! So, our minds must not dwell on the negative but exactly on the things Paul goes on to mention. So, picking up faults and mistakes, within the church at Philippi particularly, is not what Paul wants. A negative critical attitude is one which should be avoided. Following the first 3 moral qualities that we should emphasise in our Christian walk, Paul now lists three more qualities which refer which are almost artistic, mindful or sensual qualities which we should look for, those which please the senses, “Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatsoever is ad...

  This article is based on “5 Tips for Effective 1-on-1 Discipleship” by George Moore, published by Logos on 3 September 2026. George Moore is a graduate of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received his Master of Divinity. He serves as an elder at Avenue Community Church in Memphis, Tennessee, and has written for the Jude 3 Project, Our Daily Bread, and the North American Mission Board. Scripture quotations in the original article are taken from the CSB. Moore’s purpose is to show why one-on-one discipleship matters and then to offer practical help for doing it well. Before the five tips, he lays the biblical foundation. Jesus’ leadership plan At the age of thirty, Jesus of Nazareth began a mission that would change not only the world but the entire cosmos. He did not do it alone. He began by discipling twelve men. In The Master Plan of Evangelism, Robert Coleman argues that Jesus gives us the greatest leadership-development plan in history. He spent the majority ...

  In the Morning I Pray – Psalm 5 Dear Friends, Psalm 5 is a morning psalm. David does not wait until the day has already run away with him. “O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.” Prayer is not an afterthought here. It is the first movement of the day — a cry, a preparing, and then a watching to see what God will do. He comes as a man who knows both the kindness and the holiness of God. The Lord is his King. He will hear. Yet this is not a God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with Him. The boastful shall not stand before His eyes. He hates evildoing, destroys those who speak lies, and abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful. David is not vague about evil. He names it, and he will not pretend that God is indifferent to it. Then comes the turning point of the psalm. “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house.” David does not enter because he is better than the wicked. He enters b...

  In our consideration of Philippians 4, Paul comes to the last cluster of exhortations for practical Christian life, and this concerns our thoughts, so Paul concludes this section with the words we must remember as we look at each of the exhortations, “Think about these things.”  When Paul says ‘think about these things’, he really means, to the exclusion of anything that would be the opposite of the positive exhortations! So, our minds must not dwell on the negative but exactly on the things Paul goes on to mention. So, picking up faults and mistakes, within the church at Philippi particularly, is not what Paul wants. A negative critical attitude is one which should be avoided. So, Paul first lists three qualities, 3 areas of positivity which refer, if you like, to the moral part of our walk, “Whatsoever is true, whatsoever is noble, whatsoever is right….”. In all our Christian walk, interests, and life, as a whole, these 3 qualities should be where our minds are focused. Go...

  Stretch Out Your Hand – Luke 6:6–11 Dear Friends, on another Sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and was teaching. A man was there whose right hand was withered. That detail matters. For a working man the right hand was livelihood, dignity and usefulness. He had come to hear the Word, and he sat there with a need no one in the room could hide. The scribes and Pharisees were not looking at the man. They were watching Jesus, to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse Him. Religion without mercy always watches for a mistake. It is more interested in a charge sheet than in a restored life. Jesus knew their thoughts. He did not slip the healing into a corner. He said to the man, “Come and stand here.” The need was brought into the light. Then He put the real question to His accusers: “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” The Sabbath was God’s gift for rest and life. They were using it as a we...

  A River from the Temple – Ezekiel 47:1–12 Dear Friends, Ezekiel is shown a river. It does not begin in a mountain spring or a distant lake. It begins at the house of God. Water issues from below the threshold of the temple, runs past the altar, and flows east. At first it is only a trickle. Then the man with the measuring line takes Ezekiel a thousand cubits at a time. Ankle-deep. Knee-deep. Waist-deep. Then a river that cannot be crossed — waters to swim in. This is not a travel report. It is a vision of what happens when the life of God goes out from His presence. The further the river travels, the deeper it becomes. That is the opposite of many human schemes. Our strength often starts well and then runs thin. The life that comes from God grows as it goes. Then Ezekiel is brought back to the bank. There are very many trees on both sides. The man explains the meaning: wherever the river goes, everything will live. Even the Dead Sea, that great basin of salt and barrenness, will ...

  We come now to Paul’s final words of exhortation in Philippians 4 and he begins with the word ‘finally my brothers and sisters……’ Whatever the words of rebuke or encouragement Paul wrote in his letters to the young churches he had helped to found, he still regarded the members of that church as family in the Lord Jesus Christ. Like the other apostolic letters in the Bible, who sometimes refer to their fellow believers as ‘children’, we are all part of God’s family. Brought into a true relationship with God as our Heavenly Father through the work of His Son. That family relationship exists worldwide with every true believer in Jesus Christ, which is why we unite with members of other churches to stand for the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for those people in whatever church or country who have been brought to our attention as having a need because true prayer to the true God does not regard manmade or traditional establishments as barriers. We believe in prayer and we...

  All Things Are Yours – 1 Corinthians 3:18–23 Dear Friends, Paul closes this chapter by striking at the root of the Corinthians’ division. They were lining up behind favoured teachers and treating human wisdom as something to be proud of. His first word is a warning: “Let no one deceive himself.” Self-deception is easy in the church. We can mistake cleverness for spirituality and party loyalty for faithfulness. If anyone thinks he is wise in this age, Paul says, let him become a fool that he may become wise. That sounds backwards to the world, and it is meant to. “The wisdom of this world is folly with God.” God catches the wise in their craftiness. He knows that their thoughts are futile. The cross has already exposed how empty human brilliance is when it will not bow to Christ. Then comes the practical command: “So let no one boast in men.” The Corinthians were boasting in Paul, Apollos and Cephas as if belonging to one servant made them richer than the rest. Paul turns the whol...

  How much do we understand about the blessings of our salvation? Yesterday we commenced looking at the ‘peace of God’ which God gives when we pass on to Him, with prayer and thanksgiving, our concerns. We don’t understand how it comes to us and Paul goes on in the passage in Philippians 4 to express his agreement to our lack of understanding, because he says, “which transcends all understanding”! If Paul, with all his great spirituality could not explain the wondrous change, we have little chance of explaining it either.  To be blessed with an on-going state of peace in our hearts was not something we imagined when we first came to know our Saviour, most of us just wanted peace with God, to get rid of the sin burden that was tormenting us. But God has plans for us and with that peace in our hearts, we are better equipped to serve him and to fulfil His will and tomorrow we will look at what that peace also does for us. Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church ...

  God Gives the Growth – 1 Corinthians 3:1–9 Dear Friends, Paul writes to a church that had received the gospel, yet was still behaving like infants. He could not address them as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh. The evidence was not hidden. There was jealousy and strife. Some said, “I follow Paul,” and others, “I follow Apollos.” The problem was not that they remembered who had first spoken to them. The problem was that they had turned servants into banners and divided the family of God around personalities. Paul is painfully clear. He fed them with milk because they were not ready for solid food, and even now they were not ready. Immaturity is not mainly a lack of information. It is a way of living that is still “merely human.” When the church splits into camps, when loyalty to a preacher outweighs loyalty to Christ, we are behaving like the world, not like people who have the Spirit. Then Paul asks the searching questions: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul?” The an...

Two or 3 days ago Paul told us in the final chapter of Philippians that we should not be anxious about anything. Yesterday, we thought about how that feeling of anxiousness could be removed, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.  To be in a state where we have no fears is a good state to be in, but Paul then tells us what also happens when we pass on our cares to our Heavenly Father... "And the peace of God……" will fill our hearts.  God brings us peace in two ways, as He is always thinking about our welfare. When we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, the sin barrier which separated us from God and made us at enmity with Him was removed and we then have that state of enmity reversed and we have peace with God. That is a state that can never be reversed because it is based on God’s promise that the Lord Jesus Christ made peace by the blood of His cross. But the peace of God, which is a state of mind, can only be achieved by a faithful following of our Saviour ...

  Today we link back to yesterday’s thought, that we should be anxious about nothing because the Lord is near. But just as we would speak to someone who we knew who was near to us, then the exhortation for today, and indeed every day, comes next and builds on the last two exhortations, “But in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”. The exhortation to pray, occurs many times in the New Testament, and Jesus also encouraged us to pray. We sometimes look on prayer as a shopping list that we give to God, but it really should be communication involving confession, adoration, supplication and thanksgiving, supplication being only one of the 4 pillars of prayer. And ideally, we should allow time for God to speak to us also, not run into and then out of His presence without so much as an ‘Amen’ sometimes. There are times when prayer such as that is needed but our (hopefully) regular prayer time that we set aside each day, should allow for a...