That God can speak is consistent with the truth that God exists. The creator of the mouth is capable of speech (so take that, Joy Behar).

God has a variety of ways to get his message across. First on his list is nature. Creation is God’s calling card. But then God does us one better, by seeing that his thoughts got put down on paper.

It’s great that the Egyptians left behind pyramids, but the greatest gift the ancients left to their progeny came from a smallish Semitic tribe called the Jews who left us with a book, whose final form we now call the Bible.

The Bible is God’s Word, Christians say. Scholars tell us that this is God’s special revelation to the human race. Because whereas looking at nature, God’s general revelation, only gets us so far in knowing God, the Bible writes it out for us in the greatest detail, through history, and poems and letters and biographies and prophecies.

How did the Bible come into being? Here’s what the Bible says about itself. 2 Peter 1:20-21 – “You must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 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.”

The Bible is your compass. It is bread from heaven. A lamp to your feet. It is honey for your lips. It is truth to guide you. Counsel to protect you. Commands to prosper you. Medicine to heal you.

Christians say that the Bible’s writing was “inspired by God.” God used the personality, and the writing style, and the grammar of the individual authors of Scripture (and there were 40 of them who wrote over a period of 1,500 years) and through them, God spoke to us the words he wanted us to hear about himself. (There’s also ample evidence for why we believe the words these 40 wrote down were supernatural in origin, but that’s for another article.)

It’s from the Bible then that we learn that there is only one God, and that God is good, loving and relational.

It’s from the Bible that we learn the will of God – the behaviors he approves of (because they honor his loving character and help us become more like him), and behaviors he warns us against (because they dishonor him and drive us into idolatry and self-destruction.)

It’s from the Bible we learn how to approach God, and seek him, and please him, and know him.

And most mind-boggling of all, from the Bible we learn that God came to earth clothed in human skin, in the person of Jesus Christ.

If you want to know and experience God, then the Bible is your roadmap. It is a rock on which to plant your feet. It is your compass. It is bread from heaven. A lamp to your feet. Honey for your lips. Truth to guide you. Counsel to protect you. Commands to prosper you. Medicine to heal you. Water to cleanse you. Fire to warm you. A summons to inspire you.

Next to Jesus Christ himself, there is no greater gift that the human race has been given than this book. Don’t you think it’s time to get this in your hands, open up its pages and begin to explore the riches of this life-changing treasure-house of wisdom?