Through the Bible in 66 Days - Hosea

Hosea: The Deathbed Prophet of the Northern Kingdom

Hosea has often been called “the deathbed prophet” because he was the final voice God sent to the Northern Kingdom before its collapse to Assyria in 722 BC. His ministry followed a golden age—peace, prosperity, and expansion not seen since Solomon. But prosperity had bred spiritual decay. Israel enjoyed God’s gifts but forgot the Giver.

They worshipped idols, trusted political alliances, and lived as if God were irrelevant. Hosea’s message is God’s final plea to a people drifting toward judgment.

The Lord Jesus warned of the same danger—prosperity without repentance. “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). Hosea exposes the soul‑loss of a nation that had everything except God. This is so like much of western society today.

London Cabs

 

London is a wonderful city full of monuments, museums, parks and places of interest.  It is well served by the Underground system, generally known as the Tube, and also by taxis.  Taxis are in plentiful supply in the city and each taxi driver knows his way around just about every street in the capital.  The licensed taxi trade in London is said to be the oldest regulated public transport system in the world due to Oliver Cromwell. In 1654, he set up the Fellowship of Master Hackney Carriages by Act of Parliament. Obviously, the first Hackney Carriages were horse-drawn and the name ‘Hackney’ comes from the French word for a working horse. It is also interesting that the other name for taxis is ‘cab’ and is a shortened French word, ‘cabriolet’ which was a lighter, two-wheeled vehicle.

The size of taxis was laid down by the Public Carriages Office in 1906 and they had to be roomy enough to accommodate a man in a top hat and for two people to sit opposite each other without their knees touching. Taxi drivers must be well trained and have a responsibility to pick up a fare if they ‘standing in the street’ and cannot refuse a journey of up to six miles or that will take less than an hour.  This was designed, of course, to prevent the now non-existent horse from becoming fatigued or thirsty.  How times have changed, but the rules remain the same and seem to speak of a more leisurely age, slower, simpler, and less damaging to the environment.

6 things you cannot live without!

 

Somehow this coronavirus has changed nearly everything for us - working life, family contacts, church activities, shopping patterns and much more. We are really missing some of these, but we are learning to cope and are adapting remarkably well. When things get back to (more) normal, will we still benefit from the lessons we are learning just now?

 

We are learning that there are many things we can do without, and that many other things are more important than we thought, things that perhaps we have been taking for granted. For example:

Are you a Christian?

Can your parents make you a Christian?

Does the fact that you are born in a Christian country (so called) mean that you are a Christian?

Does going to Church or reading the bible make you a Christian?

Did I just make these questions up – no, I was once asked them by a girl in Liverpool when I was “street preaching’. She had been told that you became a Christian when you were christened and that if you are born in England you must be a Christian because it is a Christian country (that’s debatable!).