After they sinned, Adam and Eve made clothes out of fig leaves to hide their shame. That was the first religious attempt to cover up sin with human righteousness and merit. But, they could not truly hide their shame (sin) with these fig leaf garments. God took away their fig leaf garments and gave them tunics made from the skin of a sacrificed lamb. These tunics symbolize God's righteousness, which perfectly and forever hides human shame (sin). The offerings of Adam's sons, Cain and Abel, show the difference between human and God's righteousness. God accepted Abel's offering of the "firstborn of his flock and of their fat" (Genesis 4:4), but He did not receive Cain's gift of "the fruit of the ground" (Genesis 4:3). Religion is about trying to show off human righteousness, which Satan encourages. On the other hand, faith is about trusting in and following God's righteousness, which He has made perfect and gives us as a gift. From the start of Genesis, the Bible tells us that only those who trust and follow God's righteousness are born again by receiving the remission of their sins to enter the everlasting rest that God has prepared.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). God, who existed from eternity, created the entire universe and everything in it through His Word. And God proclaimed this fact in the very first verse of the Bible. To receive all the blessings in heaven, one must believe in the first verse of the Bible, which proclaims, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Believing that the Creator God is alive is the first step of faith. Abraham is a representative person of faith who appears in Genesis. However, Jesus said about Abraham: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Abraham, a man of faith who lived about 2,000 years before Jesus came to this earth, met Jesus. We also meet Jesus Christ in the Words of Genesis. Jesus is the Son of God, the only begotten of God the Father. Jesus, the Word of life which was from the beginning, is the true light that came among us in the flesh according to the will of God the Father. When the true light came to this earth and shone in the darkness, the darkness fled in an instant. Jesus, who came “by water and blood” (1 John 5:6), offered “one sacrifice for sins forever” (Hebrews 10:12) with His body and eliminated all the sins of this world. Through this collection of sermons, I hope readers will meet Jesus Christ, who has saved us entirely from all sins and made us children of light. And I pray that you will receive all the blessings in Heaven through Him.

The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.

The Bible is Gods love letter to us, providing many guiding principles for living life the way God intended. The book of Genesis is particularly important as it introduces God, the creator of everything. In Encountering God in Genesis, author Brenda Frost examines this special book in which we learn many things about God as He interacts with and reveals Himself to His creation. Presenting a Bible study organized into eleven weeks with five days of studies, Encountering God in Genesis provides deeper insight through: observation, asking questions based on the text being studied; correlation, looking at other texts in the Bible that cover similar topics; commentary, providing deep discussion of each idea; vocabulary, explaining the meaning of important words; and application, posing questions that apply whats been studied to our daily lives. Filled with rich lessons, the book of Genesis is quoted or referred to more than one hundred times in the New Testament and by Jesus Himself. Genesis is the foundation of the entire Bible and serves as the backbone to understanding the rest of Scripture. Encountering God in Genesis helps to enhance your knowledge of this important foundation and provides guidance for living your life according to Gods will.

This first volume in the Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament Bible study series guides women through a Christ-centered study of Genesis. The Promised One provides a fresh look at the book of Genesis, leading women in discovering how its stories, symbols, people, and promises point to Christ. Over ten weeks of study, participants will see Christ as the agent of creation, the offspring who will crush the head of the serpent, the ark of salvation, the source of the righteousness credited to Abraham, the substitutionary sacrifice provided by God, the Savior to whom the whole world must come for life, and much more. Each weekly lesson includes questions for personal study, a contemporary teaching chapter that emphasizes how the passage fits into the bigger story of redemptive history, a brief section on how the passage uniquely points to what is yet to come at the consummation of Christ's kingdom, and a leader's guide for group discussion. A ten-session DVD companion set is also available.

Everyone, Christians included, knows what it’s like to feel isolated and alone. We’ve all wondered if anyone really understands us or truly cares about our lives. The good news is that we aren’t alone, and the gospel tells us why: Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth to be forever united with his people—to be one of us. In fact, he has so united himself with us that the Bible says we are literally “in” him. Far from being alone and lost, the Incarnation changes everything for the Christian. Writing with everyday readers in mind, Elyse Fitzpatrick fleshes out the practical implications of our union with Christ and gives us confidence that we are not alone in this approachable and applicable devotional book.