Spiritual Adultery (Hosea)

Can one's actions actually hurt God or is God above and beyond pain?

A Strange Command

1. Why does God depict unfaithfulness to Him through an unfaithful wife rather than an unfaithful husband?  Who is more often unfaithful, husband or wife?
2. Why did Hosea have to act out his message?  Wouldn't a sermon on the theme have been sufficient?  How successful was the sermon? 
3. Does the last verse of the book (14:9) suggest that the book is to be understood as a parable, and not as real incidents?

Spiritual Adultery

1. In what ways are we committing spiritual adultery today?  Is letting our minds wander during a sermon or prayer a type of adultery?
2. Can putting ourselves before God be a kind of adultery?  Can one commit adultery alone?

A Promise of Restoration

1. In what way can condemnation, discipline and threat be seen as hope?
2. What does it cost God to forgive us?  What does it cost us to forgive others?
3. Do we look up to or look down on a person who forgives and takes back an unfaithful spouse repeatedly?

The Case Against Israel

1. Why would Israel keep turning to other gods?  Could it be that the priests and Levites had failed to make Yahwism interesting enough?  
2. The rich people often leave God first:  Why is this?

A Call to Repentance

1. How do names and characteristics match so often? Are names prophetic, or do people become what their names mean?
2. Do we teach our children about God, or to know God? What comes first? What methods can I use to teach others to love God?

Creation, Again

A New Beginning

1. Why do we have to wait till the new earth for there to be “no more death and no more sorrow?”Why can’t that be at the second coming?
2. What if there were to be no new earth, just this life: How would that influence our behaviour?

From Dust to Life

1. Does the same dust that we returned to at death become the resurrected us or will God use new dust?
2. Is it ok for Adventists to be cremated?  And have their ashes scattered?
3.  What is the meaning of “dust to dust, ashes to ashes?”

Restoration of Human Dominion

1. After the fall did Satan get control of this world from Adam or from God?
2. What, if anything, did Jesus win back from Satan at the cross in terms of control of this world?

More Restoration

1. Will carnivorous animals become herbivores in the new earth or will they cease to exist?
2. When the lion lies down with the lamb, would you rather be the lion or the lamb? Why?

The Restoration of Relationship with God

1. Who severed the relationship between God and humans?  Why could Adam and Even not remain in the same relationship with God as before?
2. Would it be easier to live in harmony with God’s will if we could live with Him in the same house, walk with Him, and talk with Him like the disciples did?  Why or why not? 

Creation and the Gospel

Can a captive fall in love with a captor or is free will necessary for love?

Grace in the Garden

1. Does the provision of "grace" indicate an acceptance that the requirements were too tough? Why do you think God offered grace?
2. Were Adam and Eve justified in passing the buck?  What was wrong in their responses to God when He confronted them in the garden? Why did God not question the devil?

Sin and Death

1. What will scientists have to accomplish in order to claim that they have brought matter to life? If scientists create a living cell, will that prove there is no God?
2. Why did God give humans the ability to take life but not make it?

While We Were Yet Sinners . . .

1. Were Adam and Eve less guilty because they were tricked by the devil?  If Satan had not disguised himself, might Adam have not been fooled?
2. How important is an apology for forgiveness?
3. Is it possible for God to keep Himself from knowing the outcome of a test like the one He gave Adam and Eve, so that the choice is really open?

The Sin-bearing Substitute

1. To what extent can God take human sin upon Himself? How much like a sinner could Jesus have felt on the cross?  At what point did Jesus assume our sin? On the cross or some time before that?
2. How much of a risk was it for Jesus to take our sins upon Himself?  If Satan knew that Jesus was going to rise again, would he have given up? How much satisfaction could he have had from seeing Jesus abused?

A New Creation

1. What does it mean to have a new heart?
2. Does God have to be involved in a change of heart?  Why or why not?
3. Is God ready to give us a new heart that is impervious to sin now itself or must we wait for heaven?  Is it possible on this earth to reach a point where the same sin that hooked us so many times becomes not tempting any more, or even repulsive?

Sabbath, a Gift From God

Creation and the Seventh-day Sabbath

1. Why do you think God preferred as a commemoration of creation an invisible memorial in time rather than a concrete monument?
2. What does it matter if the Sabbath is in the beginning, middle, or end of the week?

The Rich Meaning of Sabbath Rest

1. Does the reason for Sabbath observance in Dt 5 (deliverance from slavery), imply that the Sabbath is only for Jews?
2. Is creation in seven days the only reason for Sabbath observance?

Jesus and the Sabbath

1. Is cooking food on the Sabbath the same as picking grain? What do you think Jesus would say about that?
2. What are some examples of "doing good on the Sabbath?"
3. What would you advise for a church that wrote to me recently? A member had been assigned by the government for election duty on Sabbath and given no option to withdraw. He complied and resigned as church elder. What should they do next? Is it all right to vote on Sabbath?

Sabbath and the Last Days

1. Is it possible for an evolutionist to believe In the the first advent or the second advent of Jesus?
2. Why do scoffers reject events in the past and future that they have not experienced in the present?

A Psalm for the Sabbath

1. Ps 92 is labelled a psalm for the Sabbath: Do you think the occurrence of Yahweh seven times in the psalm is deliberate or coincidental?
2. Why do you think psalm omits any reference to the Sabbath? If you had to compose a psalm on the Sabbath what would it contain?
3. The psalm has fifteen verses: two sets of seven separated by a center that proclaims "But you O Lord reign forever."  Each verse has two lines except the middle one which has only a single line, and the ones immediately before and after which have three lines. Do you think this is intentional or not? Why do you think so?

Stewardship and the Environment

Dominion Given at Creation

1. What comes first in "dominion" which God gave humans, rulership or nurture?
2. Was dominion over creation given only to men or to women also?
3. Has man been given dominion over women too?

Caring for Other Creatures

1. Whom can we expect to take best care of nature and why-- an atheist, a Christian evolutionist, a Creationist? 
2. Which is worse and why, to catch fish for sport or to catch fish to eat?

The Sabbath and the Environment

1. Were animals created for man's use like the Sabbath was?
2. How is proper observance of the Sabbath incompatible with evolution?

Stewards of Our Health

1. Is it a sin to eat unhealthful foods?  Is care of a bodies a sacred responsibility? 
2. Are we responsible to find out ways to preserve health or are we accountable only for what we know?

Stewardship Principles

1. If we don't develop our talents and skills to the fullest possible, have we failed and can we be held accountable?
2. If we fail to earn as much money as we are capable of are we as guilty as the servant who didn't use the talent given to him?