Author: David Ellis

Don: Over the course of several weeks, we have touched upon three passages that might help us understand a bit more about the concept underlying the seed parables. Today we will study them as a group, to try to put them in perspective and see if they help us better relate the three seed parables…

The third of three parables in Matthew 13 is the Parable of the Mustard Seed. As with the other parables, we will examine it to see if it can offer any insights, themes, or ideas into the truth about god. This is the one parable of the three which Jesus does not explain to the…

Don: The first principle of seed derives directly from a passage in Genesis 1, which I will take from the KJV because it contains a critical piece of information concerning seed as it is seen throughout the scriptures. Indeed, scripture is replete with the metaphor of seed as the Word of god, the Truth of…

Jay began the meeting by noting that the untimely death of our classmate Harry was bound to have us struggling a bit today. He noted that Harry taught us several spiritual lessons: First, was that an historical perspective on the bible could intensify its meanings; Second was his insistence that we sometimes conflate capital-T Truth…

Jay told us the tragic news that Harry had suffered a stroke and was in an induced coma at the University of Michigan Hospital. As of the time of this transcript, he was declared nearly brain-dead and was being taken off life support. May God’s grace speed a good man to the better place he…

Don: Today we will examine more closely the central part of the Parable of the Sower. It begins, you recall, with Jesus addressing “the multitude,” a crowd that had assembled on the beach hoping to hear him preach. He told them the parable, and then the scripture recounts a very important transition as Jesus, leaving…

Don: Jack Nicholson’s character Colonel Jessep had the following heated exchange with defense attorney Lt. Kaffee (Tom Cruise) in the movie “A Few Good Men.” It marked the climax, the denouement, of the entire move: Kaffee: *Colonel Jessep, did you order the Code Red?* Judge Randolph: You don’t have to answer that question! Col. Jessep:…

Don: Our discussion of the truth about god seems to have led us to conclude that it has elements both of knowledge (“data points”) and of faith. On the one hand, if the truth about god is to be a timeless truth, it cannot be bound by culture or by age; as we read in…

Don: Last week I said we would look at Romans 1:18-25, which gives an explicit definition of the truth about god: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for…