God is now ready to mark Abram out as a unique family of God, his agents of transformation in a broken world. But the manner and means that he does that will strike many as bizarre, but when you understand the meaning of circumcision, the purpose of the church emerges.

As God makes big promises to Abram, the patriarch asks a perfectly natural question, "How can I know this is all going to work out." God's response to that simple question results in one of the most astounding passages in all of Scripture, and the key to what we mean by "grace."

Genesis 12 is the break-through point in the "story thus far." Suddenly, God calls a childless pagan to be the head of a new family that'll carry the mission of God through to completion. It's a commission that God's people still have even in our day, to remake the world for his glory.

We live in a world that totters on the brink of collapse, it seems, from a lack of certainty about the world. But God's covenant (contract) with Noah shows that God's people can have a radical foundation for our relationship with the world, with justice, and in our own hearts.

There is a very strange tidbit of a story in Genesis 6:1ff that is so odd that many are tempted to consign the Bible over to an absurd document of superstition. But if you dig into its meaning, you might find it opens us up to an unseen realm where God orders the world.

How do you embrace the effects of evil in life and the dire consequences of sin but look to forgiveness as God's only remedy. This is something in our culture that we don't do very well, but if we don't figure out how to love forgiveness, we'll splinter into oblivion.

There are few things like human sexuality to polarize our secular culture's opinions of Christians. But rooted in Genesis 2 is a profound confession by Adam as he looks at Eve about God, and how he's going to save the world that will likely shock you.

We live in a day when sex and gender have been torn apart in the culture's imagination, only to suggest that our sexual differences are merely skin deep. Genesis 2 says otherwise. Quite the contrary, our sexual differences are a window into the very love of God for his people.

For most adults, the singular formational activity in which we are engaged is our jobs. Which is probably why our work is so fraught with opportunities for difficulty in life. But Genesis 2 lays out a framework for how God intended for his image bearers to think about their work.

The opening book of the Bible reveals a God who speaks things into being with a majestic artistry that forms the foundation of humanity's search for what is good, true and beautiful.