Answers

Q:

My neighbor keeps trying to get me to read the Bible, because she says it will answer my problems. I appreciate her concern, but how can something written thousands of years ago help us right now? We live in a different world, and we don't have the same problems they had back then.


A:

I’m glad you asked this question, because I suspect many people have the same feeling you do—the suspicion that the Bible is somehow out-of-date and irrelevant to our problems today. But this is not the case, as millions of people have discovered in their own lives.

Why does the Bible still speak to us? First, because of what it is: God’s Word to us. Yes, the Bible was written by various authors over many centuries—but behind them was another Author: the Spirit of God. As the apostle Peter wrote, “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). When we humbly and prayerfully read the Bible, another voice will be speaking to us through its pages—and that voice is God.

But the Bible also still speaks to us because of who we are. Yes, we live in a different world—but beneath the surface our hearts have not changed. We still struggle with right and wrong, and we still feel guilty. We still wonder where we came from and why we are here, and we still fear death. And these are the kind of questions you will find answered in the Bible.

I invite you to begin a new journey today—a journey of faith—by giving your life to Jesus Christ. Then make the Bible part of your life every day, and God will use it to change you.