WWC Good Word Broadcasts

Trusting God’s Goodness (Habakkuk)

Jon Dybdahl, Dave Thomas — Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Theme: Trusting God's Goodness Leading Question: Does Habakkuk teach us how to ask questions, find answers or simply to trust? The opening paragraph of J. P. Hyatt's commentary on Habakkuk in Peake's Commentary on the Bible (1962) is a good one to launch the study of the book: "Habakkuk is the sceptic among the prophets. He raises the question of theodicy: how can a just God allow the wicked to oppress the righteous? His answer, given in 2:4 ["the righteous shall live by his faith"], has... Read More

God’s Special People (Micah)

Jon Dybdahl, Dave Thomas — Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Theme: God's Special People Leading Question: What kind of messiah would one expect if one only had the book of Micah? Introductory note: Micah's ministry spanned some four eventful decades, years that witnessed the end of the Samaria and the northern kingdom of Israel and Sennacherib's failed attack against Jerusalem. Micah and Isaiah were contemporaries, ministering in the southern kingdom of Judah. But Micah addressed some of his messages to Samaria and the people of the north:... Read More

Eager to Forgive (Jonah)

Jon Dybdahl, Dave Thomas — Sun, 05 May 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Leading Question: When Jonah threatened Ninevah with destruction in 40 days, did he do that on his own nickel or at the direction of the Lord? Note: Three of the minor prophets are especially important for exploring the meaning and application of prophetic predictions. Joel. In the book of Joel, we saw how a local event (a grasshopper plague) could foreshadow later ones. Peter, for example, in Acts 2 actually quotes Joel as applying to the events surrounding Jesus' death and... Read More

Seek the Lord and Live! (Amos)

Jon Dybdahl, Dave Thomas — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Discussion issues: 1. Is the Day of the Lord good news or bad? Both in biblical times and in our day, "judgment" is a very ambiguous words . Psalm 96 and 98, for example, represent the positive side of the word. Both psalms climax in an exuberant exclamation that the Lord is coming to judge the earth. Psalm 98:7-9 in the NRSV puts it this way: "Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the LORD, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge... Read More

Lord of all Nations (Amos)

Paul Dybdahl, Dave Thomas — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Leading Question: What happens when God's people hear that they are no better in God's eyes than the more obvious "sinners" in the world? Discussion Issues: 1. Startling Comparisons: Israel and her neighbors. The book of Amos opens with a string of judgments against Israel's neighbors, a subtle introduction to the prophet's primary message: warnings and judgments against the northern kingdom of Israel. The prophet Amos was actually a farmer from the southern kingdom of Judah who responded... Read More

A Holy and Just God (Joel)

Jon Dybdahl, Dave Thomas — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Leading Question: What do natural disasters tell us about the God we serve? Note on the book of Joel: The book of Joel offers several "special" themes that are worth pursuing in a Sabbath School study: Theology: What is God's role in the appearance of natural disasters? Note: Three basic positions are possible: A) They are simply "natural" with no direct intervention by God; B) they are demonic with God choosing not to intervene; C) they are punishments from God on those who disobey... Read More

Love and Judgment: God’s Dilemma (Hosea)

Jon Dybdahl, Dave Thomas — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Theme: Love and Judgment: God's dilemma (second of two lessons on Hosea) Leading Question: How do we know when to use the heavy hand instead of the gentle hand with dealing with God's people? The sharp contrasts between the threat of judgment and the promise of undeserving grace are everywhere present in the prophets. Does the text of Scripture give us any help on knowing when to use one or the other? What are the most vivid examples and metaphors of judgment in Hosea? What... Read More

Spiritual Adultery (Hosea)

Jon Dybdahl, Dave Thomas — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Theme: Spiritual Adultery Leading Question: "Why should modern Christians read the "minor" prophets? All of our lessons this quarter focus on the so-called "minor" prophets, the last 12 books of the Hebrew Bible. The official study guide takes us through 10 of the books, leaving out only Obadiah and Nahum, and we study them in the order in which they appear in our English Bibles. In the Hebrew Bible, they are considered one book, "The Twelve," and extend from the last few decades of the... Read More

Creation, Again

Bob Cushman, Alden Thompson — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Major texts: Rev 21:1-5, Gen 3:19,1 Cor 15:52-58, Gen 6:11-13, Isa 11:6-9, John 14:1-3 The final lesson for this quarter invites us to think of creation once again. In this case, it is not about creation as it once happened however long ago, but about the creation of a new world as depicted in the first few verses of Revelation 21. Thinking about this may run on the following lines: Read over Revelation 21:1-5,6 and delineate what differences you see between what is promised and what... Read More

Creation and the Gospel

Bob Cushman, Alden Thompson — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 00:00:00 PDT

Major texts: Gen 3:21; Ps 104:29,30; John 1:4; Rom 5:6-11; Gal 3:13, Matt 27:46 This week, the lesson invites us to look at the connections between creation and the gospel. If this is to happen, several connections of thought need to be made between the two. Discussion may be had along the lines below: In order for there to be any discussion or any need for salvation, there first must be some adverse condition or circumstance in which someone is caught and from which they need to be... Read More

Sabbath: A Gift from Eden

Bob Cushman, Alden Thompson — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 00:00:00 PST

Major texts: Gen 2:1-3; Heb 4:3,4; Deut 5:12-15; Ezek 20:12; Mark 2:27,28; 2 Pet 3:3-7 One can hardly complete a reading of the creation account in Genesis without noticing the last act of the drama, namely the establishment of the Sabbath as a memorial within time. There are several things to notice about this: Notice that the Sabbath shows up as the capstone of creation. It completes the creation event. It is established in order to rest man from his/her labors, and also to commemorate... Read More

Stewardship and the Environment

Bob Cushman, Alden Thompson — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:00:00 PST

Major Texts: Ps 8, Gen 2:15, Rev 4:11, Ex 20:8-11,1 Cor 3:16 One of the eventualities that emerge from the story of creation is that all living creatures on earth, indeed all living things on earth, share a common origin and a common journey through life. In other words, all life on earth had the same Originator, and all life is inter-linked in that it is lived out in a common biosphere. This interconnectedness is unavoidable and, to a very large sense, unalterable at least to the extent... Read More

A Gift From Eden

Bob Cushman, Alden Thompson — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:00:00 PST

Major Texts: Gen 2:18-25, Mark 10:7-9, Eph 5:22-25, Matt 5:27-30, 2 Cor 3:18 One of the notable things that emerges from the creation account in Genesis, something that is and has been ubiquitous in human experience, is marriage. It is to this that we turn our attention this week. The biblical account of the first marriage is very well-known, how, after creation was all but over, and after everything had been pronounced "good," a single and very obvious exception was noted - "It is not good... Read More

Jesus, Provider and Sustainer

Bob Cushman, Alden Thompson — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:00:00 PST

Major Texts: Heb 1:3; Col 1:16,17; Job 42; Matt 5:45, 6:25-34,10:28 The lesson this week seeks to make the point that the Creator, whom it identifies as Jesus, was not just involved with creation at the beginning. He is also involved in the continuing care and sustaining of it. We will explore this assertion in the following way: At the point of creation, God was not enmeshed with His work as in He did not share His essence with creation. In other words, God and creation are not of the... Read More

Through a Glass Darkly

Bob Cushman, Alden Thompson — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:00:00 PST

Major Texts: Job 12:10; 1 Cor 6:19,20; Gen 3:17; John 12:31; 1 Cor 1:18-21 The lesson this week delves into some very interesting and important territory. If its essence were to be distilled into a single, primary question, it would be, subsequent to the fall, how well does the natural world reflect God? Or, put another way. Just how much can we learn about God from the natural world subsequent to the effects of the fall? We will proceed here along two lines of thought. First, we will look... Read More