At the national conference I met a young man we will call Steve who came to the Free Grace position from a strong Lordship Salvation (LS) background. He was in a strong LS church. Steve decided that if he were going to serve the Lord, he was going to do so with gusto. For him this meant learning the evangelistic message backwards and forwards. This led him to the book section at Amazon.com.
Steve looked up books on Lordship Salvation. He read the reviews so he could get an idea of what was in each of these books.
In one of the reviews of a LS book, the reviewer recommended a commentary on James by someone named Zane Hodges. Steve ended up buying the commentary on James by Hodges. That led him to become Free Grace and to grow in his understanding by reading many of the books we offer. It also led him to attend our national conference.
Think about it. Someone took a few minutes to mention in an Amazon review the commentary on James by Zane Hodges. That was a little thing to do. But it was used by the Lord to change the entire direction of a young man’s life.
That reminded me of three little incidents in my own life.
First, during the summer between my junior and senior years in college, a friend came to invite me to a Campus Crusade for Christ meeting at his college at the start of the school year. I wasn’t interested. But then John asked, “Bob, is it possible that your view of the gospel might be wrong?” That led me to attend the meeting, then to meet with a CCC staffer who led me to believe the promise of everlasting life weeks after that. A little question. An eternal impact in my life.
Second, when I was starting my second year at Dallas Seminary, I asked a doctoral student for any advice he might have regarding the master’s program. He said, “Don’t take professors in order to gain information. You can get information from books after you graduate. Take professors who can teach you method. It is very hard to pick up method just from books. Method is gained by watching someone else practice it.”
I asked if he could recommend any professors who teach method. Though he was an Old Testament doctoral student, he said that someone named Zane Hodges in the New Testament department had a unique way of interpreting the Scriptures, and he was well worth taking.
The whole conversation lasted a few minutes. I don’t think I ever told Chip how much his advice impacted my life. The very next semester I took a course on the Greek text of Hebrew from Hodges. From then on, I took a course from Hodges every semester. He was my advisor on my thesis and again on my dissertation.
While I was mildly Free Grace before I was discipled by Hodges, my whole life changed as a result of taking classes from him. And who knows if I would have taken those classes but for a passing suggestion.
Third, while I was on the Dallas Seminary campus a month or two before I received my doctorate, I noticed a flier for a conference on the gospel. The speakers were Zane Hodges and Craig Glickman, two leading Free Grace professors at DTS. I found out a few months later the conference was cancelled due to lack of interest. That bothered me. For months I thought about it. Less than one year later, I started GES as a direct result of seeing that flier. The conference did not even happen. Yet just the prospect of it changed the course of my life.
A brief conversation you have with someone may change that person’s life. Something you wrote in a review or an email may greatly help someone else. God can use the little things you do to have eternal impact in the lives of others.
We won’t know, of course, the impact we have had until we appear at the Bema, the Judgment Seat of Christ. We may know a small amount of what we have done, but surely many little things we did will be shown to have had major impact on others.
So, don’t think, “My life doesn’t make any difference. I’m not some big evangelist or pastor.” Maybe not. But the little things you do can and often do make a huge difference. Remember what the Lord told the faithful servant in Luke 19:17? He said, “Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.” Just be faithful in the opportunities God gives you, and one day you will hear, “Well done, good servant.”
Carl
I liked the portion of your blog that stated, “Take professors who can teach you method”. Before his passing, Stan Toussaint taught a Bible fellowship class at our church. I recall as he was teaching through the book of Matthew he would explain a passage and then he would take it a step further to teach how he came to that understanding such as studying the context and researching other passages throughout the Bible that were related. He had developed Bible study methods and he freely passed these methods to others who were willing to receive them and adapt them. That little extra that he did benefited me.
KEN TAMASHIRO
Hi Pastor Bob,
I must confess that there are things about Zane views about Christian rewards I like and dislike, but when it comes to Assurance of Salvation and the Gospel he is right on the money.
His efforts to bring sanity to my Christian walk has in many ways brought in many tiny adjustments that have brought me much more happiness.
Grace and Peace to You,
Ken Tamashiro
Mike
Bob, I often wonder one thing about GES. You guys preach the true gospel, free grace, but you don’t use the King James Bible. You use the NKJV. Why is that?
Here’s why I don’t use NKJV:
1 Corinthians 1
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. (KJV)
18 For the [g]message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (NKJV)
One verse is all it takes to prove NKJV is not the word of God. Are we saved or are we being saved?
God’s word has to be inerrant. The NKJV is not inerrant, therefore it is not God’s word.
That one little verse was enough to convince me to throw away my NKJV I used to have and use only the KJV.
Rod Norville
Hi Mike,
I share your appreciation for the KJV. It is the Bible I use for memorization. I have been reading the KJV for almost seventy years. My mother used the KJV in part to teach me to read. I find its language very beautiful. However, I have been preaching from the NKJV for the last fifteen years (since I was ordained), supplemented with the New English Translation (NET) because of its extensive footnotes. In my sermon preparation I also read the Greek Majority Text and the Critical Text of the New Testament, as well as the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. Using this methodology, I am comfortable that I am close to what the original inerrant texts might have been. Since Jesus and the authors of the scriptures did not write in English, the NKJV, the KJV and all other English translations are not inerrant. They are not the original Autographa. I do understand that some folks, including dear friends of mine, do consider the KJV inspired and thus inerrant. If that is your position I understand it and I am not trying to talk you out of it.. I simply do not agree with it, because translation errors can be found in the KJV just like any other translation. I just wanted to explain why I use the NKJV and translations other than the KJV. Presumably other GES pastors and teachers feel the same way.
Tim Amoroso
Thanks for this blog, Bob. It is a great encouragment for me. I want to go to a free grace church, but I’m struggling with it now. So, this was a very helpful blog for me. If the Lord is willing, He will guide me to move.
Janelle
Thanks for this encouraging article.
It’s so easy to think that God only counts the ‘big’ things we do for him, and not the everyday little things. The promise that even something as small as giving someone a cup of water will be rewarded (Mark 9:41, Matt. 10:42) is encouraging to know God cares about little things also, and that those little things still count for heavenly rewards.
Diane
I LOVED reading this~!!! 🙂