Due to time constraints and pressing deadlines, I am foregoing addressing the next point in the Monday series until next week. Today's post will be a short quote from some reading I was doing earlier this week.

For one class this semester, a good chunk of reading from Don Carson and Douglas Moo's book, An Introduction to the New Testament, has been assigned. It is not my favorite book in the world, not a book you can really just sit down and read, but it certainly is a helpful resource. And there are some noteworthy points that really stand out now and then, like this:

An easily overlooked theme in Acts is the power of the word of God. Again and again, Luke attributes the growth and strength of the church to the dynamic activity of God's word. Preaching the world of God is what the apostles do wherever they go. 'Received the word of God' is another way of saying 'became a Christian' (Acts 11:1). Especially striking are those places where Luke, usually in transitional summaries, claims that the word of God 'grew' or 'spread' or 'increased' (Acts 6:7; 12:24; 13:49; 19:20). For Luke the word of God is especially the message about God's gracious redemption through Jesus Christ. For all Luke's emphasis on the importance of apostolic preaching, therefore, he makes clear that it is only as they are faithful witnesses to the Word that spiritual transformation takes place. As C. K. Barrett notes, 'Luke's stress on the proclamation of the Word...shows that the Word itself was the decisive factor,' and that the church is an agency of salvation 'only in so far as it provides the framework within which the preaching of the Word takes place.'

This is a helpful corrective for our time, where sometimes it seems as if we have lost the conviction that the Word of God is living and active (Heb. 4:12). The Word of God must stand at the center.