How does God speak to me?

If faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17), where do we hear from God?

There is a certain speech of God in all of nature and history, and that is wonderful and very useful, but there is another speech that is propositional that has now been recorded as the standard for us in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

The Bible is self-authenticating, since the eternal purpose of God realized in Christ Jesus our Lord (Ephesians 3:11) is so amply prepared for in the Old Testament and certified as delivered to us in Christ through the New Testament.

Three examples from the Hebrew Scriptures commonly called the Old Testament:
Genesis 3:15 is an announcement that through a descendant of the woman, the power of evil will be destroyed at great cost to the one who brings about the victory.
Psalm 22 describes the sufferings of the Messiah through the death of the cross, and the glory of His eternal reign, and is quoted from the cross by Christ.
Isaiah 53 tells the same story of the suffering servant of God who willingly faces death to atone for our sins, satisfying the just demands of God, and yet lives on somehow to see the many that He has justified through His obedience and blood.

These are not isolated instances. Through so many rituals, songs, metaphors, and characters we are prepared for the one eternal purpose of God in such a way that we must say that this book stands alone as the unique Word of God by which every other message of faith must be judged.

Yet isn't the Bible open to such varied interpretations as to be of little practical use to us as the Voice of God?

Tomorrow...