1. Adult Bible Study Guide Apr May Jun 2013 Adult Bible Study Guide Apr May Jun 2013 powerpoint presentation designed by claro ruiz vicente http://clarovicente.weebly.com

2. Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide An Appeal Dear User…. This PowerPoint Show is freely shared to all who may find it beneficial. While intended primarily for personal use, some find it useful for teaching the lesson in church. There are those, however, who add illustrations, change background, change fonts, etc. While their intention may be good, this is not right. Slide #1 says “designed by claro ruiz vicente.” For honest Christians, it is not necessary for another’s creation to be copyrighted in order to be respected. P LEASE U SE A S I S.

3. Zdravko Stefanovic Principal Contributor “Seek the Lord and Live!” Major Lessons From Minor Prophets

4. Seek the Lord and Live Unnatural Act {168} SIN LEADS TO death. Humans sin— therefore, humans die. We’re so used to death that we take it for granted; we just accept is as “part of life.” The great theme of the Bible is “the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself” —The Faith I Live By 109.

5. Seek the Lord and Live Unnatural Act {169} And what is it that God does for us that we don’t have the power to do for ourselves? Of course, it’s to save us from the most unnatural of acts, death; the eternal death that would be ours were it not for God’s grace as revealed in the plan of salvation.

6. Seek the Lord and Live Unnatural Act {169} That’s the theme we are going to study, and we are going to explore it in the “Minor Prophets.” Their message to us is that God wants to save us from our sins, to save us from the devastation that sin, rebellion, and disobedience bring.

7. Seek the Lord and Live Contents 1 Spiritual Adultery Hosea 2 Love and Judgment: God’s Dilemma Hosea 3 A Holy and Just GodJoel 4 Lord of All Nations Amos 5 Seek the Lord and Live! Amos 6 Eager to ForgiveJonah 7 God’s Special People Micah 8 Trusting God’s Goodness Habakkuk 9 The Day of the Lord Zephaniah 10 First Things First! Haggai 11 Vision of Hope Zechariah 12 Heaven’s Best Gift Zechariah 13 Lest We Forget! Malachi

8. Seek the Lord and Live Our Goal {169} IT’S PRESENT TRUTH — God’s message to us today just as it was a message to those who lived in the time of these twelve writers who, though long gone, still speak. The question is, will we listen?

9. Seek the Lord and Live Lesson 1, April 6 Seek the Lord and Live Lesson 1, April 6 Spiritual Adultery (Hosea)

10. Key Text Hosea 2:23 NIV “ ‘I WILL PLANT her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one.” I will say to those called “Not my people,” “You are my people”; and they will say, “You are my God.” ’ ”

11. Spiritual Adultery (Hosea) Initial Words {171} H OSEA’S BOOK ADDRESSES the central question of the prophetic proclamation during this time of apostasy: Does God still love Israel, despite the spiritual harlotry? Does He still have a purpose for them despite their sins and the coming judgment?

12. Spiritual Adultery (Hosea) Quick Look 1. An Adulterous Wife (Hosea 1:2, 3) 2. An Adulterous Israel (Ezekiel 16:31, 32) 3. The Adulterer Restored (Hosea 3:1, 2)

13. Spiritual Adultery (Hosea) 1. An Adulterous Wife Hosea 1:2, 3 NKJV “WHEN THE LORD began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: ‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry…for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.’ So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim and she conceived and bore him a son.”

14. 1. An Adulterous Wife A Strange Command {172} THERE ARE IMPORTANT parallels between Hosea’s story and God’s experience with Israel. On a human level, Gomer was adulterous against Hosea; on the spiritual level, Israel was unfaithful to God.

15. 1. An Adulterous Wife A Strange Command {172} Hosea was called to endure a broken heart and a broken marriage. He must have suffered public indignation and disgrace. Yet, the more he experienced Gomer’s unfaithfulness, the deeper was his understanding of God’s pain and frustration with Israel.

16. Spiritual Adultery (Hosea) 2. An Adulterous Israel Ezekiel 16:31, 32 NKJV “ ‘YOU ERECTED YOUR shrine at the head of every road, and built your high place in every street. Yet you were not a harlot, because you scorned payment. You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband.’ ”

17. 2. An Adulterous Israel Spiritual Adultery {173} THE EXPRESSION “GRAIN, new wine and oil” also is used in the book of Deuteronomy (Deut. 7:12–14, NIV) to describe Israel’s staple produce that people enjoyed in abundance in accordance with God’s promises as given through Moses.

18. 2. An Adulterous Israel Spiritual Adultery {173} In Hosea’s time, the people were so ungrateful to God, so wrapped up in the world around them, that they were presenting these gifts, originally given them by God, to their false idols.

19. 2. An Adulterous Israel Spiritual Adultery {173} What a warning this should be to all of us that the gifts we have been given should be used in the service of the Lord and not in ways that never were intended for them (Matt. 6:24).

20. 2. An Adulterous Israel Spiritual Adultery {175} Due to the dry climate, rains were a matter of life and death. The Israelites came to believe that life- giving rain, were coming from Baal. Thus they built shrines to gods. Idol worship was considered to be the most serious sin because it denied the role of the Lord God in the lives of the nation.

21. Spiritual Adultery (Hosea) 3. The Adulterer Restored Hosea 3:1, 2 NKJV “THEN THE LORD said to me, ‘Go again, love a woman who is…committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who took to others gods….’ So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.”

22. 3. The Adulterer Restored A Promise {174} HOSEA “BOUGHT” HER back. God, in a sense, did the same thing for the human race, but the cost was the death of Jesus on the cross. Only by looking at the Cross, then, can we get a much clearer picture of what it cost God to buy us back from the ruin that sin has caused.

23. 3. The Adulterer Restored A Call to Repentance {176} The prophet urges the nation, which was perishing in sin “ ‘for lack of knowledge’ ” (Hos. 4:6, NKJV), to press on to know God fully and live in harmony with His eternal principles. It was the people’s lack of knowledge, the knowledge of God, that led them to rebellion and eventually resulted in judgment.

24. 3. The Adulterer Restored A Call to Repentance {176} In contrast, through faith and obedience the people could come to know the Lord for themselves. This knowledge can be close and intimate too. That is precisely why, time and again, marriage is a symbol of the kind of relationship that the Lord wants with us.

25. Spiritual Adultery (Hosea) Final Words {176} WHAT IS THE difference between our knowing about God versus our knowing God? How is this difference reflected in our everyday living? If someone were to ask you, How can I come to know God, what would you answer?