It's A New Railway ...

 ... And All About The World Cup.

fbb might be 81 in 2026; but who knows when the call to a Glorious Eternity might come. If he has not "passed" (really silly euphemism); if he has not been "taken" (almost as silly); of he is not dead (much better as it is the truth!) fbb is unlikely to be too interested in the World Cup.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international men's soccer championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will take place from a yet to be determined date in June to July 19, 2026. It will be jointly hosted by 16 cities in three North American countries: Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

One of those cities will be Monterrey in Mexico.

Monterrey is BIG with a population in the city alone of well over 1 million souls.

The Unity Bridge is spectacular.

Historically, it was a small Spanish colony ...

... but grew in the 18th and 19th centuries. Examples of its history remain e.g. The Cathedral.

But in 2023 the city is, indeed, big, bold and maybe even brash!

The video shows the best bits; but some areas are, how shall we put it tactfully, less appealing!

Currently, Monterrey has THREE metro lines ...

... with THREE more on the way.

Of significance World-Cup-wise is Line 6.

This new line will be an important link for footy fans.

 M exico's

 M agnificent

 M onterrey

 M onorail

Yep it is a monorail and will be driverless and fully automatic as well.

Monterrey's existing metro lines (1, 2 and 3) are conventional rail, but mostly built on stilts with undergroind sections in the city centre. Here, a shot of Line 3 ...

... with a train in its station by way of practical example. 

The new line is not built yet, but we can experience a video of one of the existing routes - line 2.

Line 6 will appear on massive "T" shaped piers ...

... installed in the centre of wide city roads.

The recent news is that the first monorail cars have been completed and will soon be ready for delivery.. There is an artist's impression ...

... and some carriages for real.

So, if you are going to a World Cup match in Monterrey, make sure you use the Monorail line 6.

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For many readers - even some very committed Christians - the books of the Prophets can be challenging. Some of the shorter writings (Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah) are almost lost in their own time! And the biggies (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) are collections of assorted pronouncements that can sometimes be difficult to place accurately in History.

It would be a bit like trying to make sense of fbb's blog in two and a half thousand years' time. It's hard enough to make sense of last weeks postings!

In general the prophets say what you would expect them to say, namely that the only way forward is God's way and failure to take God's route through life will lead to disaster.

Which is why the people were in exile and Jerusalem was utterly destroyed.

 M entions Of

 M essiah

Ezekiel has a scary vision (most of Ezekiel is scary visions!) of the Light of God leaving His Temple ...

... which was horribly true as that building, central to the peoples' faith, was flattened by the Babylonians.

But, later in his book Zeke has a vision that God would return to His Temple when the people repented of the sins that had caused Him to leave.

Same old, same old.

Jeremiah prophesied a New Covenant where God's Love, God's Laws and God's Protection would be written in the hearts of his people - very different from the complex rituals of The Tabernacle and subsequently The Temple.

Isaiah is very much the big cheese prophet of the Messiah. "Messiah" is not an easy word for the modern reader. We will have a "thumbnail" of its meaning later. But the Messiah would be ...

Chapter 7 : born of a virgin : Immanuel - God with us

Chapter 9 : Wonderful counsellor, Prince of Peace

Chapter 11 : "shoot from Jesse" - i.e from David's line. (David's dad was Jesse.)

Chapter 28 : the cornerstone of faith but rejected

Chapter 53 : bear our grief and sorrow

            : die for the sins of the World

            : be buried in a rich man's tomb

           :  have a glorious future

There are over 40 prophecies which can be applied specifically and directly to Jesus, starting with CHRISTmas. Any one of them could have been a "lucky guess" but all 40 ....

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 Next N ABC Blog : Thursday 14th December