Tonight we���re going to begin our study of the book of Hosea. And I feel so much like I���m back at old times Monday night; because this morning I set out thinking we were going to cover Hosea chapter 1 all the way through chapter 3. And we���re going to cover Hosea 1, verse 1 through verse 2. So I thought it feels just like old times. But that���s the beauty of Monday nights. We just kind of go as far as the LORD would have us to go.

Hosea, the 28th book in the Canon of Scripture - it sits uniquely in the fourth and final section of the Old Testament Canon, the collection of the Old Testament Scriptures. And that last fourth and final section of the Old Testament is referred to as the Prophets. And if any of you were here during our Route 66 series that final major section of the Old Testament, it actually divides into subsets. And one of the subsets is called ���The Major Prophets���. And the other is called ���The Minor Prophets���.

A lot of people neglect these last 12 books of the Old Testament simply because they���ve been labelled as ���The Minor Prophets���. And you might want to do just a little investigation this week. You might ask some of your friends that are Christians, how many of them have actually read through the 12 ���Minor Prophets���? And then if they say, ���Oh yeah, I do that; I read through the Bible every year���, then ask them, how many of you study each of the books of the Old Testament ���Minor Prophets���? And they are probably the least frequented books in the whole Bible.

So here���s my desire, guys. We���re going to see that Hosea, just like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Hosea is the priceless and powerful inspired Word of God. Hosea contains the very words of God to man. And because of that every bit of this book of Hosea is worthy of our full attention, worthy of diligent and prayerful study. So would you please join me as we make this little journey through Hosea? Would you please join me in praying that as we study this Word that God would reveal Himself to us, that we would be receiving each week, week after week, we would be receiving the words of Hosea as the very words of God to us; and that we would see that the words that are recorded in this book, they���re worthy to be treasured in our hearts and applied to our lives.