the holiest idol of all

A couple of months ago I thumbed through a book by J. C. Ryle about the infallibility and inspiration of Scripture. He summed it up by calling believers to determine to love the Bible more, to cherish it as the very Word of God that it is. Good call. What else makes sense? Do we believe Him, or not? Do we or do we not want - need - objective truth, a standard by which to measure everything we do, say, think and feel? How the hell does anyone expect to live by faith without knowing what transcends experience and human frailty? If we've got everything so sussed that we don't need it, why aren't we running the universe instead of reacting to it?
Ryle made a very unambiguous point in his concluding exhortation. He claimed that man cannot make an idol out of the Bible. Dunno if I buy that one. I think I've seen it done; worst of all, I think I did it at least once. More to the point, and more to the end of evaluating experience via Scripture instead of vice versa, I think at least one verse in John's gospel seems to hint that it can happen.
The Bible is without a doubt God's word, but it isn't the only way He speaks to us, and it's not the same as Him any more than these writings are the same as me. You can't have a relationship with the Bible, only with the God Who wrote it through the humans who penned and compiled it. Make no mistake, if you live in a culture that has the Bible you will find it indispensable to any real relationship with Him, but He is not summed up or contained in it. He will never do or be anything contradictory to it, but that is not the same as saying that it's all we need. The Bible means nothing apart from relationship with Him. It has been used to justify the vilest of satanic atrocities. People have studied it enough to shame any Christian scholar only to mock and deride it and those who believe it. In John 5:39-40 Jesus chides the Jewish religious authorities - the only people on Earth at the time entrusted by God Himself with His written word - for searching the Scriptures trying to find eternal life in them, all the while using them to justify their rejection of God Himself in the person of Jesus. Sounds like an idol to me.
I don't know how else to explain the myriad of conflicting, often mutually exclusive, stances which those who call themselves followers of Christ embrace and propagate while claiming the authority of the same Scripture. Whatever God may be, I am certain He is not schizophrenic, bipolar, or afflicted with MPD. That seems to be the point of Deuteronomy 6:4. Except that differences and imbalances are bound to occur when divine revelation of any sort falls into the hands of fallen humanity. Oddly enough, God seems content to let many of these divisions lie, at least up to a point. I have found in my own life that if I am steeped in any such thing beyond a certain level, He will divert me out of it and bring me back to balance if I am willing to cooperate with Him.
That would seem to be a critical factor - a believer's willingness to listen to and obey God. Again, the Bible is indispensable to that in any life with access to it, but it does not stand alone. It helps us to discern the voice of God, but that is not the same as being His voice in its totality. I have stood firmly and rock-solid on all manner of errors in interpreting Scripture, and I am afraid God would have let me continue doing so had I chose to ignore His voice telling me where I (or whoever had been leading me) went wrong. To quote Johnny Cash, "I believe what I say, but that don't necessarily make me right."
I am in no way willing to compromise or dilute the authority or infallibility of God's written Word, but I am equally unwilling to tell Him that it's the only way He will get to me. He has spoken loudly and clearly through all manner of writings, music, relationships, and circumstances. I need to evaluate all such things in light of His Word, but only His Spirit can assure me that my evaluation is accurate, or correct me if it isn't.