The words and Word of God

   The Bible is probably the most widely idolized thing in the Christian world.  It has been set up as a thing to be worshipped by far too many Believers.  There are some who treat the Bible, the word of God, as they would treat God himself.  I would argue that many Christians don't have a relationship with God, they have a relationship with the Bible.
   Knowledge of the word of God and knowing God are not the same thing.  The Bible, the word of God, is also not the same thing as the Word of God.  I would describe the Bible as the words of God.  There is only one Word of God, as John tells us in John 1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1, 14 ESV)

   Here is the thing about the Word of God and the words of God: Jesus (the Word) is the embodiment and realization and manifestation of the intentions, thoughts, and admonitions (the words) of God.  Jesus is the mind of God made physical.  Jesus is the Bible in sandals.
   Obviously the Bible is the words of God.  If you don't believe this, the argument I'm making here won't much matter to you anyway, so I'm operating on the assumption that you agree with me on this point.  So the Bible is a great place to find out what God says about everything.  But there are two points I'd like to make.  The first is that, if the Bible is your only source for the words of God, you're going to have a tough time getting to know Him.  In fact, you will only get so far in knowing Him, which is a sad thing.  The second point is that the Word of God - Jesus - resides inside of us Believers.  This is an important accompaniment to my first point.
   You see, not only is the word of God written for us to read, but it is also, in the personhood and Spirit of Jesus, within each Believer.  The very God who wrote (or rather, inspired the writing of) all of that mysterious, dense, poetic, exciting, dull, confusing, difficult, and shocking stuff in the Bible is the same God who resides inside of us ready to make sense of it all.  The words of God only make sense by way of the Word of God.  The words of God are just words unless we walk in the truth that they are more than words.  They are the very essence of God, and they are within each of us who believes.
   Once you understand that the Word of God resides in your heart, you realize that you have access to the words of God that you didn't think you had.  And also this: you are never without the Word of God.  You can leave the Bible behind, or lose it, or it can be destroyed, but you can't lose the Word of God.  You can preach the words of God to the Lost, but they are powerless to save without the Word of God.  You can read about who God is and what He has done (and still does) in the words of God, or you can receive it and live it out by walking in the Word of God.
   I am not discounting or dismissing the Bible, but neither will I make much of the written words of God at the expense of the living Word of God.  You see, the words of God are alive, but only because the Word of God is alive.  That is what we mean when we talk about how the words of God are living.  If we don't tap into the Holy Spirit for instruction and inspiration and interpretation, we only read words on a page.  We only receive knowledge, not wisdom; information and not inspiration.  A Bible on a table is just another Book.  But in the hands of a Believer and in the tutelage of the Spirit, it is a conversation with the Father.
   For many Christians the Bible has become the reason they know nothing much of the Father.  They have read all about him, but have avoided talking to Him (or listening to Him) about what's written.  Reading the Bible without walking intimately with God is not entirely fruitless, and not entirely dangerous.  It's a little of both.