When God Calls You to Wait

May 20, 2015August 10, 2015 / Nathaniel Williams / Leave a comment

I used to hate waiting at red lights. As I approached each intersection on my hour-long commute, I would strategically examine the multiple lanes of traffic, identify which lanes had the highest ratio of slow cars or trucks, and pick the lane that I thought would move the fastest. I wanted to expedite my journey with as little waiting as possible.

I wonder if the disciples felt this way at the start of Acts. I mean, they had sat at Jesus’ feet for three years. They had experienced remarkable, life-changing things—miracles, healings, cast out demons, teaching about the Kingdom of God, and their Messiah being brutally crucified and rising from the grave. I would have been itching to share these things with the world. I would have been sizing up the different lanes to pick the quickest one in spreading the good news.

Yet Jesus gave them a most curious command: Continue reading →

Why Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s ‘Life Together’ Still Matters

April 9, 2015August 10, 2015 / Nathaniel Williams / 1 Comment

Today marks 70 years since Deitrich Bonhoeffer was killed in a Nazi concentration camp. In his honor, I’d like to reflect on his classic work on Christian community — and one of the most life-changing books I’ve ever read — Life Together.

Oddly enough, Life Together is more relevant today than when Bonhoeffer wrote it. Continue reading →

Paul’s Terrible but Wonderful Resume Advice

February 21, 2015August 10, 2015 / Nathaniel Williams / Leave a comment

As graduation approaches, I’m dusting off my resume, giving it some much-needed updates, and wrestling with the age-old questions of how to best present myself on paper.

Yet as I have been studying 2 Corinthians, I have determined one thing: Paul would give some terrible resume advice. Continue reading →

Daniel Akin’s ‘Engaging Exposition’: A Book Review and Summary

January 16, 2015August 10, 2015 / Nathaniel Williams / Leave a comment

I have preached a handful of times. And though I have far from mastered the craft, I do know this: it is a weighty task. I fear preaching something other than what is taught in God’s Word.

Others are less concerned. In the concise, practical preaching primer Engaging Exposition, Daniel Akin, Bill Curtis and Stephen Rummage identify this “crisis in twenty-first-century preaching”: many ministers neglect the preaching God’s Word in favor of lesser substitutes.

In response, the authors prescribe one powerful solution: expository preaching, which they define as “Christ centered, text driven, Spirit led preaching that transforms lives.”

To equip you to preach expositionally, the authors dive into the three steps of the expository preaching process: Continue reading →

‘Radical’ by David Platt: The 4 Most Important Challenges

January 15, 2015August 10, 2015 / Nathaniel Williams / Leave a comment

Years before David Platt became the President of the International Mission Board, he was an ordinary pastor. Then he wrote Radical (2010) — the short yet piercing book that took the evangelical world by storm.

Radical by David Platt In it, Platt reacts to an American church that has embraced unbiblical values, fallen prey to materialism, and valued comfort above all else. He calls Christians to believe and obey all of Jesus’ teachings — even the parts that are most difficult to stomach. He takes the reader on a journey to rediscover the truth and urgency of God’s gospel, learn how to fulfill God’s global purpose in his divine power, overcome significant blind spots, and live a life of radical abandonment to Jesus.

Radical by David Platt is a small and concise book, but each page pops with challenging issues. In light of his recent appointment to serve as President of the International Mission Board, I revisited this book to discover the top four issues that stood out to me: Continue reading →