“Truth - What is the Truth?”  Pontious Pilate asked this  of Jesus just before he had him crucified.  It’s a question that we all ask at times and one I ‘ve asked myself often.
 
When I was a boy, I went to church, attended Sunday School and sung hymns in the choir.  Yet much of what I heard seemed at odds with what was being said elsewhere: Life’s real answers were to be found in science, not in the bible, we were told.  We had all evolved, rather than been created, as the Bible taught. Death either meant we’d become nothing or everything, depending on your point of view, but a harmless transition either way that nobody could predict, it was said. 
 
Yet I did believe in God and wanted to believe everything the Bible said, but didn’t understand it....  We had a bible at home, but is was the OKJ (Old King James) version and difficult to read, consequently it spent most of the time unread on the shelf.
 
At 14, some people came to my school, giving out bibles.  They were the Gideons, and they gave everyone a copy of the New Testament.   It was in TEV (Today’s English Version) and I could understand it!  I was pleased to get one and started to read it.  Unfortunately, some of my classmates laughed at it - They weren’t pleased to get one at all and even threw it straight in the bin, saying it was a load of rubbish. One lad really took it on board though, and a couple of days later announced that he was a “Christian”.  Most of the class laughed and took the mickey out of him.
 
Still I believed in God and wanted to believe everything the Bible said, but daren’t.
 
This continued for decade:  I had one foot in the church and one outside, I tried to straggle both sides.  As a married man I took another look at God’s Word:

 
The word 'truth' is in the Bible 223 times.  It is truly a book of truth - God’s true word, written for us to navigate this world and secure our place in the next.

I tried to read it again and really understand it:  The lynch-pin became the first book in the Bible, Genesis. 

Did God truly create the world (and everything in it) in 6 days? 
How was this possible? 
Why did it so contradict everything the evolutionists said?

To me, if I couldn’t trust the first book in the Bible, then I couldn’t trust the rest.
 
So I did something unique (for me, anyway):  I asked God to reveal it to me personally. I prayed, “Lord, please show me the truth  -   help me understand your Word”.  And he did.  He answered my prayer by sending a Christian to me who understood Genesis and revealed its truth.  My eyes were opened for the first time and I could see the truth. 

I was amazed that it wasn’t   that difficult but also amazed I couldn’t  see this truth before.  At that point I was ready to fully accept God‘s word as true, become a Christian and live a Christian life.  I did this by acknowledging that God‘s Son Jesus Christ had died for me, I asked Him to forgive my sins and to send his Holy Spirit to reside within me.
 
My life changedfor the better.  The only regret I now have is that I waited so many years to accept God‘s word as true and fully believe in Jesus Christ.    
 
Jesus himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. “   (John 14:6)  And, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
 
It’s a New Year and there is an open invitation for you to come this way, believe the truth and receive life as God intended it to be.  Don’t wait around:  The sooner you act, the better.

by Andy Burns.