Behaveing before the bible

Actual words are not the things for which they stand.  Yet they convey the reality of which they speak.  God sanctified human language to convey his reality and the reality of his promises, warnings, and gospel etc.

In breathing out his will (and all the other things he wanted his people to know), through words through the prophets and apostles he made known to us his will in words. So what his word says he says; and this should affect how we behave toward the bible.  We behave this way:  we let his word judge, encourage, redeem, and direct our obedience as God himself judges, encourages, redeems, and directs our obedience.  For indeed, through his breathed-out word he is doing these things even as these very words take us to Jesus Christ.  In his The Revelation of God, Peter Jensen wrote this poignant paragraph about how God uses the bible in our lives.

"We must note that the role of language in the divine-human relationship brought into being through the gospel is far more integral than is allowed for in modern accounts of revelation.  It simply is not possible to call the gospel, as many wish to call the Bible, a witness to revelation.  The gospel is revelation, both in that it communicates truths about God, his actions and intentions, and also in that it communicates his person.  For instance, it tells us that he has fixed a day on which he will judge the living and the dead.  This assertion is intensely personal and self-involving. It constitutes both information and promise, and is received only by faith.  It demands that we align our lives with its message.  It is not in itself the day of judgment; language is not the thing for which it stands.  But language can, and in this case does, convey the reality of which it speaks, so that we behave exactly as we should towards that reality (Heb 4:12-13).  To this extent we are judged by the very words themselves.  Likewise, we behave towards these words as we behave towards God himself.  They convey his person to us, since they are to be treated as we would treat him.  When we obey his word, we obey him; when we trust his word, we trust him; when we study his word, we study him; and yet he is, for his word is the appointed place of our relationship, and he is supremely faithful to it.  His word communicates his self to us:  'If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you' (John 15:7)."  Pg. 88