Grace Evangelical Society

P.O. Box 1308, Denton, TX 76202
  • About
    • Home
    • Beliefs
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
  • Resources
    • Grace in Focus Blog
    • Grace in Focus International Blogs
    • Grace in Focus Radio
    • Grace in Focus Magazine
    • Free eBooks
    • Journal of the GES
    • Book Reviews
    • Partners in Grace Newsletter
    • Audio Messages
    • Videos
    • Email Subscription
    • Bookstore
    • Online Tracts
  • Store
    • Main Page
    • On Sale
    • Return Policy
    • Your Cart
    • Your Account
  • Events
  • Connect
    • Contact Us
    • Free Grace Church and Bible Study Tracker
    • Free Grace Jobs
    • Ministry Links
  • Donate
    • One Time Donation
    • Monthly Donation
    • Your Account
  • Search
Home
→
Blog
→
Pastor Tom Rodgers Taught on the Bema Days Before He Died

Pastor Tom Rodgers Taught on the Bema Days Before He Died

February 26, 2019 by Bob Wilkin in Blog - Eternal Rewards, Grace Church of Wichita Falls, Judgment Seat of Christ, Revelation 14:13, Tom Rodgers, TX

A reader sent me an email about the passing of Pastor Tom Rodgers last year. Here is what he wrote:

I believe you knew Tom Rodgers over in Wichita Falls, and I imagine you were aware of his passing recently. He and Reggie Coe were our pastors back in the early 1980s when we were stationed there in the Air Force. They were the first people in my life who preached verse-by-verse, and my wife and I really appreciated their ministry. 

Over the years I have communicated with Tom and Reggie on various issues and so have kept up a bit on Grace Church even though we live in Kansas.

Tom’s last message he taught (on the Wednesday before he passed on Saturday) was on the Bema Seat. I downloaded it and found it to be very helpful.

Tom had been Senior Pastor at Grace Church in Wichita Falls, Texas, for 42 years (1976-2018). He went to be with the Lord on Saturday, June 30, 2018. As the reader said, three days earlier he taught on the Bema, the Judgment Seat of Christ. You can hear the message here. It was called “Grounded in Grace.”

Tom was 70 years old. After more than four decades in the ministry, he still displayed a passion for pleasing the Lord Jesus Christ. He stressed that the key at the Bema is to be found by the Lord to have been a faithful steward to all that God has entrusted to us (time, talent, treasure).

Sharon and I moved back to Dallas in 1987 to head up this new organization which I had started the previous year, Grace Evangelical Society. We needed someone to handle our database, which now had several thousand names and addresses in it. A young man at Grace Church was on the mailing list and volunteered to handle the database. For several years he did so.

Tom and his associate pastor, Reggie Coe, were very encouraging to me and my ministry. Grace Church stood strongly for the Free Grace position from the first days when Tom (1976) and Reggie (1978) got there. I imagine it was a Free Grace church even before that, but I did not know the pastors before Tom and Reggie.

I would love to survive until the Rapture. However, if I die before that blessed hope, I would love to die while preaching, or soon after preaching, about the grace of God. I think there is something special about Tom Rodgers preaching about the Bema and being grounded in grace just days before he died.

As the email I received shows, Tom impacted many lives over the years. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, he will be rewarded for the work he did for Christ.

I remember once hearing Zane Hodges speak at the memorial service for Dick and Anne Caddock. Zane chose as his text an obscure verse, Rev 14:13. There the Holy Spirit says, “‘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’” (emphasis added). While that is talking about martyrs from the Tribulation, Zane applied it to believers today. He said that when Dick and Anne appear at the Bema, their works will follow them like a long wagon train filled with good works done over their lifetimes as believers.

I found it encouraging to remember that all the things we do for Christ with good motives will follow us to the Bema. I knew Dick and Anne to be godly people who indeed did much for the cause of Christ. The same is true of Tom Rodgers.

Subscribe by Email

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
Bob_W

by Bob Wilkin

Bob Wilkin (ThM, PhD, Dallas Theological Seminary) is the Founder and Executive Director of Grace Evangelical Society and co-host of Grace in Focus Radio. He lives in Highland Village, TX with his wife, Sharon. His latest books are Faith Alone in One Hundred Verses and Turn and Live: The Power of Repentance.

If you wish to ask a question about a given blog, email us your question at ges@faithalone.org.

Cart

Recently Added

January 27, 2023

Who Are the Elect in 1 Peter 1:1-2 and in Romans 8:28-30? Are We to Understand the “Elect” in 1 Peter the Same as the “Predestined” in Romans 8?

Welcome to Grace in Focus radio. Today, Bob Wilkin and Ken Yates take up a question about election and predestination. What does the Bible say...
January 27, 2023

A Novel Argument Against Inerrancy 

Kathryn Wright shared with me an interesting argument against inerrancy: I heard something today and thought it might make a good blog topic for you....
January 26, 2023

Will There Be Poor People in Heaven?

Welcome to Grace in Focus radio. Today, Ken Yates and Bob Wilkin answer an interesting question about our status in Heaven or the quality of...

Grace in Focus Radio

All Episodes

Listen to Stitcher

Listen on Spotify

Grace In Focus Magazine

Grace In Focus is sent to subscribers in the United States free of charge.

Subscribe for Free

The primary source of Grace Evangelical Society's funding is through charitable contributions. GES uses all contributions and proceeds from the sales of our resources to further the gospel of grace in the United States and abroad.

Donate

Bookstore Specials

  • Inerrancy for Dummies $7.95 $5.00
  • Here Walks My Enemy: The Story of Luis (Paperback) $6.95 $3.00
  • Confident in Christ, 2nd Edition $22.00 $5.00
  • Here Walks My Enemy: The Story of Luis (Hardcover) $13.95 $5.00
  • Grace in Eclipse: A Study in Eternal Rewards (Second Edition) $15.00 $8.00
Grace Evangelical Society

(940) 270-8827 / ges@faithalone.org

4851 S I-35E Suite 203, Corinth, TX 76210
P.O. Box 1308, Denton, TX 76202

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube