Last night and this morning I had the pleasure of serving on a panel. We discussed big ideas like God, Jesus, what He meant when He said He was the way, what truth is, and what it means to have eternal life. You know--the easy stuff! I've been thinking a lot on these topics of late and exploring some of our misconceptions.

For example, when Jesus said "I am the way," he was talking about going to the Father. So often we think of Jesus as the way to heaven (a place), but our focus should be on the One who fills that place. And we tend to think of eternal life as "eternity in heaven" (a place, again) when Jesus presents eternal life as starting at the moment we receive the Holy Spirit and continuing forever: "I will be with you." Eternal life is about a person and a presence, not so much a place.

The cool women I got to hang out and discuss these topics with were Jonalyn Grace Fincher, author of Ruby Slippers: How the Soul of a Woman Brings Her Home; Carolyn Custis James, author of The Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules, Lost Women of the Bible, and When Life and Beliefs Collide (required reading in the Role of Women class I teach); and Jackie Roese, teaching pastor to women at Irving Bible Church (IBC).

IBC will post a podcast of our discussion in English and Spanish, and I'll post a link when they appear. So stay tuned for more.

I'm off to do my homework...reading The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius. I'm taking six credit hours in translation toward my PhD requirements this semester. And as part of that, this book is providing some background for me on first-century culture. The PhD work is not of a religious nature, but I'm including some texts on my reading list that explore the religious environment at the time. And though the book is a big, fat door stopper, I'm also loving the background info it's giving me about the seven churches in the Book of Revelation. I'm thinking once I wrap Kona with Jonah, I might have to consider penning Sumatra with the Seven Churches.