I’ve been reading quite a lot during lockdown. A little while ago I read a book by Paul Bradbury, called “Stepping into Grace”. It’s a look at the prophet Jonah from the Old Testament.

This brief book (it’s only 4 chapters) is a bit different to the other Bible books that make up the section we call the Prophets…rather than being full of Prophecy, it’s the story of the prophet. I discovered that once the story is freed from its dumbed-down children’s version that it has quite a lot to say to us today…its message is very contemporary.

So I wondered if the other minor prophets may also hold some valuable lessons for today. The minor prophets, so called, I think, because their books are much shorter than the major prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, are a group of 12 prophets who gave God’s message to Israel from about the 8th century to the 4th century BC. They mostly prophesied to either the Kingdoms of Israel or Judah, although some, like Jonah, prophesied to other nations (Assyria in Jonah’s case).

Although I’m very happy studying for study’s sake, I like to have an end product in mind…too much study, without passing it on, just makes your head big.

Jonah was originally turned into a short series of sermons with my church, but I was looking for a way to share the prophets in an accessible way to a wider audience. One of the things I enjoy doing is listening to podcasts, so I decided I’d have a go at one of those. Having chosen a podcast platform to use (Anchor, owned by Spotify) I had to decide on a format.

After a bit of thought I decided to turn my study into a series of weekly reflections. I’ve been enjoying 24/7 Prayer’s “Lectio365” app, so, to get going, I chose a similar format (why reinvent the wheel?). Each episode is split up into sections – Pause, Read, Think, Pray and Live. The ‘Live’ section is important…I wanted people to think about practical ways of living the lessons learned from the Ancient Prophets.

You can find the podcast on a whole range of Podcasting platforms, online or via an App.The podcast is on iTunes, Spotify, Google podcasts, Breaker, PocketCasts and RadioPublic. You’ll find it online at https://anchor.fm/david-ward08, or search for “Ancient Prophets-Modern Message – a podcast by Dave Ward” in your podcast App.

Please give it a try.