A TRIBUTE....Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Revelation 14:13 NJKV

 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, and their works follow them.”

The instructors in the Bible School I attended were a varied and as a whole were a poorly equipped group of men.  But there were a few exceptions and one in particular stood out.  He was a gifted preacher; he was an excellent Bible student and an able instructor; he was a truly spiritual man.  It was my great privilege to be taught, mentored, and befriended by Avery Rogers.

This man was a truly spiritually-minded person.  He was not so heavenly-minded that he was of no earthly good, but it is no exaggeration to commend him as a heavenly-minded person.

There is none that I have ever met who are his equal in spiritual dedication.  I have known Francis Schaeffer, Harvey Conn, and John Sanderson;  and Sanderson is the only person who impressed me in the same way Rogers did.  All the names mentioned were men of whom it can be said “this world’s loss is heaven’s gain”.  I would love to see and hear John Sanderson again.  I miss Avery Rogers.

As an instructor Rogers impressed three pastoral principles on me.

1.      The pastor of the church must be a man of principles.  He must be honest, pure in his friendship with women, free from greed and faithful in his responsibilities.

2.      He must be a worker in the Lord’s vineyard.  Rogers illustrated this by a personal practice.  He said in his first pastorate after completing Southwestern Seminary he was called to a country church.  The members were nearly all farmers.  The lights in their homes came on at 4:00 each morning as they arose early for their day.  Rogers determined that they would not see his home dark.  He arose each morning at the same hour as his parishioners so that they would know the man they paid was not sleeping while they worked to earn his salary.

3.      He was, from the beginning, determined that we should know the value of teaching the whole Bible.  He told us if he ever came to see us he did not want to see Bibles whose pages were only “dirty” in Paul’s Epistles, or even the New Testament only.  I must say that this alone was worth the price of admission.

My grandfather’s sister and my father’s sister both attended the church he pastored.  One didn’t like him.  “He preached too much about sin”.  The other was rather indifferent and would only say, “All I can remember was, he preached too loud.”  Both were true because Avery preached loud and he preached without exception about sin.

But ask my wife what is her favorite sermon she has ever heard and she will tell you “Brother Rogers preaching that great sermon, The Wounds of Christ.  Me too!