Just want to share some aspects of the first 5 chapters I appreciated...

One: This chapter really helps to answer a question that haunts most of our minds daily: "Why was sin permitted?". The beauty of it, is that in the midst of pain, suffering and death, we find God's everlasting love. Because of that love, He created beings with a free, moral

will---one that is able to choose to love God, or to not love God. He did not create us as robots, programmed to obey His every command. It amazes me just how much Lucifer gave up, just to satisfy himself...yet how often do we do just the same? I am thankful for the promise at the end of this chapter that one day, all inhabitants of the earth, both loyal and disloyal, will understand this great conflict fully.

Two: The story of "The Creation" is one of my favorites. I find God revealed in nature daily, and I love to reflect on how it must have been in a perfect world. The creation also points us right to the Sabbath. We cannot believe that God was tired after 6 days of creating, yet He rested on the seventh, as an example for us!

Three: "The Temptation and Fall" was something that could have been avoided. Adam and Eve had been warned of the danger that threatened them. Yet these warnings were disregarded, a lesson to us all. They were SO close to God, yet they made the same mistakes as we do!! "In the judgement men will not be condemned because they conscientiously believed a lie, but because they did not believe the truth, because they neglected the opportunity of learning what truth is." Eve believed the words of Satan over the words of God. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like after the fall, witnessing the first signs of decay; a drooping flower and falling leaves. At this, Adam and Eve mourned even more deeply than we do today over the dead.

Four: Much hope is brought by "The Plan of Redemption"! The theme repeats itself that GOD IS LOVE. The angels themselves offered to become sacrifices for men, but that was not possible! "Only He who created man had power to redeem him." In a world of sadness there is hope!

Five: The two classes of mankind are revealed in "Cain and Abel Tested". There are those that accept Christ as our sacrifice for sin, and yet there are those that depend on their own merits and works to save themselves. Cain knew what was to be expected of his sacrifice, but still chose to do it his way. After being rejected, and having been reasoned with by God and Abel, he KNEW Abel was right, but received no sympathy in his rebellion and then killed his brother. God's mercy is again shown, as he spares the first murderer, AND gave him the opportunity to repent. To this, Cain hardened his heart. My prayer is that we do not do the same!