I agree with you. With all of what you wrote, except I am putting a lot more weight on the Spirit Himself. As I said, and as you said, the Bible is God-breathed.
I agree (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
You said:
And the Spirit is His breath through which He breathed His words to us.
I agree (2 Peter 1:21).
You said:
The Father created the Heavens and the Earth by His Word
I agree.
1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:1-3).
You said:
The Father created the Heavens and the Earth...by the Holy Spirit.
I agree.
"By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth." (Psalms 33:6).
"By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens;..." (Job 26:13).
You said:
And He gave us His written Word so we can get to know Him,
I agree.
"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (John 14:23).
"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." (John 15:10).
"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." (1 John 2:3).
You said:
...because our entire existence is about Him.
I agree.
"For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." (Acts of the Apostles 17:28).
"that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us," (Acts of the Apostles 17:27) (ESV).
You said:
But we have to remember not to but the Bible above God Himself, which many do.
This is where we
may disagree, my dear sister.
It is not possible to put God's Word above God because God's Word (the Bible) are the very thoughts of God (and or the very heart felt words of love of God towards us). Every word (and even every number) in our Bible is for the express purpose of instructing us in His salvation and His good ways. Every word of it leads us to GOD. His love. The Bible is like a love letter.
Now, it is possible for a person to wrongfully put the Bible (contrary to what His Word says) above God in a way that He did not intend like turning the Bible into a magical object to be worshiped as if it has power of it's own outside of God. A person can bow down and or kiss the Bible as if it deserves glory separate from God. This would be wrong. They can treat the Bible as an entity and yet ignore the existence of God. That would be weird. This would be like a woman who received a love letter from her
fiancé and all of a sudden she snaps (mentally) and she starts to treat the love letter as if it was a person. She could take the letter out on dinner dates, kiss it, and talk to the letter as if it was her fiancé (While ignoring her fiancé). That would be weird. There are some people who are close to doing this. I have seen pics of those who kissed the Bible before. I don't think they fully understand the Word on a spiritual level if they were to do this. So in a way I guess that is a person putting the Bible above God (But they are doing so at the expense of what the Bible actually says, though). If a person were to truly surrender to what their Bible says, they will never treat the Bible as an idol object to be worshiped by kissing it or bowing down before it.
On the other hand, we have to be careful here in talking about the importance of the Bible because it can make people think God's Word (the Bible) is not important for our lives at all (or should play second fiddle in our lives). However, nothing could be further from the truth because we have to apply God's Word to our life. It is how we get our faith. The Bible is essential to our knowing God and in our knowing how to please Him. There are some I am even arguing with now that says that we should not regard God's Word as important as following what they claim to be God. They attack God's Word by de-emphasizing it's importance in favor of their version of God (who moves in their life) that is contrary (in some way) to the GOD described in the Bible.
I'm thinking about Jesus in the wilderness, as He was tempted. The devil took verses out of context, but Jesus countered it by saying "it is written..." and then He spoke verses that were not taken out of context, but had a lot more understanding about God's nature, and about sin and righteousness,
I believe sin is what gets in the way of the soul's understanding (Whether you be a human or an angel). Sin is like a disease that clouds a person's mind when reading the Bible. God seals up the book of it's understanding fully for certain specific souls who read the Bible (like evil spirits, or those who have committed an unforgivable sin); Otherwise, God is calling by His Word all men to repentance, when they read His Word. He is there in His Word trying to tug at their hearts by His spiritual and divine message (the Bible). They may try to suppress it in some instances because of their sin, and or sinful doctrines, but God is there with His Word (the Bible) who is trying to call out to their hearts. Knocking on the door of their heart with His Holy words (the Bible).
That is why we must seek understanding and wisdom, and diligently study the Scriptures. We have to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God, and not just some of them. Led by the Spirit, so we can sure that we are listening to Him and not to our own minds or to the devil. That is the point I am making, and trust me, I'm not telling anyone not to read the Bible, in fact I am trying to tell everyone to read the Bible a lot more. I'm just saying that there is a lot more to it than just quoting a few verses which a lot of people do.
I am glad to hear it. I have run into folks who seem like they are attacking the Bible. This is happening to me in another thread. They are placing more of an importance on their version of God over what the Bible actually says. I am glad you are saying you are not doing that.
However, my deep concern was with your statement that said "There is no life in the Bible." That statement deeply troubles me because it is untrue. It is speaking against the faith by saying that. That statement to me is an oxymoron because God always abides with His Word. He may seal up it's understanding to those entities who are evil or to those souls who have corrupted themselves beyond forgiveness, but God is always abides by His Word. For some it is a closed book because of their sin. For others, who seek the truth with a pure heart, it is an open book. But I do not feel it is right to say there is no life in the Bible. It is a spiritual book that God always abides by.
I believe there is life in the Bible because God always abides by His Word.