This discussion page is for Chapter 1 of THE STORY (pages 1-12 or Genesis 1-9). This includes the story's of:

• The Creation
• The Fall (the Sin of Adam and Eve)
• Cain Murders Abel
• The Flood

Along the way, we see these foundational themes:

• God's "Big Idea" was to have community with us.
• Sin entered the human race through Adam and Eve. This brought about 1) death and decay, and 2) fractured relationships with God, each other, and creation itself.
• The sin nature was transmitted to the descendents of Adam and Eve.
• The first plan to get us back (The Flood) didn't work because it did not deal with our sin nature.
• The rest of the Bible is about how God goes about getting us back.

As you read and reflect upon this chapter, what are your insights and questions? Make your contribution below to the following questions. The questions below will link you to a page where you can add your own comments, insights, and questions.

1. When God looked at creation and delcared it both "good" and "very good," what do you think he was trying to express?
2. Genesis 1:26-27 says that we are made in the image of God. How do we as people, actually relfect the image of God?
3. The Genesis account of creation seems to indicate that human beings are the "magnum opus" of God's work. Given what we now know about the vastness of creation, is this reasonable? Or is it another example of human hubris?
4. How is our relationship with Creation impacted by Adam and Eve's sin today?
5. God's original "Big Idea" seems to have been to take a walk each day in the garden with the people he had made, and to extend the community within God himself (the Trinity) to human beings. If you could take a walk with God in the perfect garden of paradise, just like you would with a friend, what would you ask him and why?
6. In a normal day, what gets in the way of you taking a walk with God and talking about what is on your heart?
7. Even though Adam and Eve began walking in perfect fellowship with their Maker, God still gave them freedom to reject this perfect life. What does this spiritual reality say about the power of the choices we make each day?
8. God wanted to have daily community with the people, the creatures, he had created. But they were not content with their role as creatures, and they desired to be gods that could run their own universe. And so they rejected God's vision for their lives. How do you see that same sinful desire and behavior in our lives today? How does this influence our daily walk with God?
9. Because of Adam and Eve's act, sin has infected the human race. Jesus has now come — the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, once and for all. Yet, we still live in this time between Jesus' death on the cross and his victorious return. As followers of Christ, in what ways are we free of our sin nature? In what ways are we not yet free?