"What Do They Call a Whopper?"

"I don't know. I didn't go into Burger King."

A billion is a 1 followed by nine zeroes. A thousand million. The number you gave was a thousand billions or a trillion. Let's do a little comparison:

• 1,000 = thousand
• 1,000,000 = million
• 1,000,000,000 = billion

Are you saying that when you were growing up, the first two we had in common, but the third was different? I wonder why that would be?

* * *
Nice list of essentials, deep.thought. We have quite a bit of overlap. Here's my list:

1. Bible is God's revealed word, his Truth provided to us
2. God is perfect, Holy, all-knowing, all-powerful, present everywhere, boundless, timeless, completely sovereign.
   
3. Man is inherently sinful, and is incapable of his own effort to reconcile himself to God's Holiness. In other words, man needs a savior.
4. Jesus is that savior -- God incarnate, as a man on this earth he was completely without sin, and as a sacrifice on the cross he paid the complete cost of our sins. He literally and physically rose from the dead and is alive today.
5. "Faith in Jesus Christ" means trusting completely that Christ did all that's necessary to be reconciled with God, and that we are simply to accept the gift of Grace through faith and obedience.
   
6. The Christian life is to be lived in humble gratitude for Christ's saving work, and in daily submission to God's will. Jesus said: "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." (Matthew 12:50, NIV) God promises us a "helper" (His Spirit) in this quest. Were the whole world to do this, we would have a far, far better world.

I suppose more learned theologians might add or subtract from that list. And in time I might change the list slightly, though I doubt I'd ever drop items 1 - 5. They are, as I like to say, part of the structural foundation of the Christian faith. I suspect you would disagree with that for #1. But I'm not through with you on that score, brother! :-)

* * *
With regards to Romans 7:14 through 8:4 -- the stuff in Romans 7 can be a bit jumbled. What Paul is getting at there is the nature of our sinfulness and the purpose of the Mosaic Law, which was to show us how utterly incapable we are of abiding by it perfectly. In essence, what Paul is saying there is:

"You know, I've tried and tried to follow those rules. But darn it, every time I think I'm making progress I trip up. And the more I trip up, the more I realize how helpless I am. It makes me feel awful! Oh, man ... what am I going to do?" (End of Chapter 7)

(Beginning of Chapter 8) "Ah, but wait! There is an answer. And it's not 'work harder' or 'pull up your socks, man.' It's simpler than that. Look what Jesus did for us. That's it ... see what Christ has done, believe in that and trust in it, and I'll find peace and forgiveness! That's wonderful!"

* * *
I'm off to close on the sale of my house. Grace and peace, deep.thought ... in Christ's name.