Everything You Need...

Just can't get away from the prophets...  I'm reading in the New Testament now-the Epistles of Peter1 & 2 since I'm following a series of expository teachings on this.  But before I go back to the beginning of the New Testament and into the Book of Matthew my Message fell open to the last chapter of Hosea which I read before I thought of journalling some of my gleanings.

Hosea is a most unusual Book, a remarkable Book, since the prophet was asked to do such an unusual thing in order to show how God was feeling about His people with their total disdain and disregard for Him and His teachings.  (Check it out and see- BibleGateway.com has tons of stuff).  The last four chapters are worth rereading again and again.  This morning, however, my eyes fell on the last chapter of the Hosea from verses 4-9, a message of hope and confidence, indeed the ticket to success:

"'Everthing you need is to be found in me'.

If you want to live well,

make sure you understand all of this.  

If you know what's good for you, you'll learn this inside and out.  

GOD's paths get you where you want to go.

Right-living people walk them easily; 

wrong-living people are always tripping and stumbling."  

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 To finish off with the "Church Buildings" theme I'm including postcard pictures of two beautiful cathedrals we have visited in the past:

- Smolny Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia and 

-St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, Austria

 

Smolny Cathedral- a stunning blue-and-white building, a masterpiece of the Italian architect Rastrelli, was built between 1748-64.  It was the main church of a convent built adjacent to it for Peter the Great's daughter. 

Today Smolny Cathedral is used as a concert hall and the surrounding convent buildings houses government offices.

St. Stephen's Cathedral or Stephen's Dome

This is the oldest church we have ever visited.  The original section was begun  back in 1147 and progressed in stages.  It began though as a fairly large basilica-type structure with designs in place for the towers.  The cathedral, then already looking much like the present edifice, was severely damaged through fire in 1945 near the end of World War 2.

Restored remarkably quickly to its present state, this cathedral is a most impressive building, dominating the entire central area of Vienna. Its grandeur really took me by surprise.  As we entered the cathedral, which seems to be mostly a tourist attraction with souvenirs to buy, a service to a small group of parishioners, cordoned off from the masses, huddled near the front. Although we weren't allowed to go past a certain marker I listened intently from the distance to catch what the priest might be saying.  I did hear a few phrases spoken in German-my mother tongue -which I recognized but unfortunately can't recall.