What does it mean to say the Bible is "real" to me?

This is the body of a response I wrote to a post on G+.  Enjoy!


"When I say the Bible is "real" to me, I mean that the original manuscripts were written by men inspired and directed by the Holy Spirit, and that the words were meant to be relevant from the time of writing down to the present, and beyond.  I mean that I trust that God preserved his word through the centuries, and that the modern-day translators were honest and diligent people who did everything in their power to bring that word into a form everyday people could understand.

"I mean that what's written in the pages of our Bibles is meant to instruct and guide us, and that we have the responsibility to study and prayerfully meditate upon it so that we can receive what God put there for us.  This means striving to understand the whole thing, rather than just picking out proof-texts to prove a point.  It also means taking the time and effort to understand, as best we can given our circumstances and God-given intellects, the cultural context in which it was written, so as to avoid "making it say what it never said".

"Finally, when I say the Bible is real to me, I mean that it is to be obeyed.  The Bible commands certain things from the people who call themselves Christ-followers, and to refuse to obey would reveal that it wasn't "real" to me after all."

Thoughts?