A TRIBUTE TO MY FRIEND ROY ROGERS

Roy Rogers   Billy Long   1967
It was September 1967, my freshman year at ORU. There was a prayer chapel on the ground floor of the men’s dorm. It was a small room with an altar and a few short benches. I would often enter it at night to pray. The only light I needed was coming from the lobby and shining through the stain glass windows of the door.


The first time I went in there to pray, I discovered there was another student, Roy Rogers, lying on the floor at the altar. He was wrestling with God much like Jacob in Genesis 32 and was in deep intercession and literally groaning before the Lord. I don’t think he realized I was there. He was passionate but not emotional. His spirit was in travail and crying out to the Lord regarding some serious issue. His intensity reminded me of the agony Jesus went through in the Garden of Gethsemane. His prayers were deeper than simple intellect or the shallowness of typical prayers we often hear. We became good friends. I found that it was not uncommon for Roy to be in intercession even as he carried on his daily activities. I remember more than once, while standing around talking with friends, I noticed Roy’s lips moving slightly and almost imperceptibly as He prayed in the Spirit under his breath. He was not aware that we noticed it. Even in the crowd he was in “the secret place” with the Lord.
I believe those prayers were the reason for the very obvious presence of the Lord that filled the room whenever Roy sang. I remember the holy hush that fell over the auditorium as he lifted his voice in praise and worship. His anointing did not manifest in some affected style or hype. He simply stood there calmly and sang, and Jesus walked through the auditorium.
I received a message today (August 2017) that Roy went on to be with the Lord this morning. My heart is sad for our loss, but rejoice that he is with the Lord and, I am sure, singing in heaven’s choir.  ----Billy Long

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mrs Parker's Electric Paddle

We Knew It Was For Our Good When I was a kid there was discipline and order in the classroom. Teachers could actually teach, and kids could actually learn. We had a healthy fear of punishment, and we knew it would certainly come if we deserved it.   A ll of us kids instinctively knew it was not abuse, but a justified response to misbehavior and rebellion, or an attempt to prevent us from doing things that were dangerous or harmful. We knew our parents and teachers (generally speaking) loved us and were trying to educate us and train us to be mature and responsible. Mrs. Parker's Electric Paddle In my third year of elementary school, we moved from the old, white, wooden schoolhouse into a new brick facility.   When I stepped off the bus onto the new school grounds, the word was going around that our principal, Mrs. Parker, had an electric paddle installed in her new modern office. None of us wanted to face that mysterious and unknown instrument. Whe...
Read more

"That Way I Can Kill the Whole Bird With One Stone."

Just as truth can be stranger than fiction, reality can sometimes be funnier than jokes. Therefore, I try to keep track of unusual things I hear people say. Below is a list of word-abuses that I have heard over the last few years. These friends and acquaintances did not realize they were corrupting a word or using the wrong word. The following sentences were spoken in earnest. A fellow told me he did not want to sound self-defecating . A second cousin told me her sister had an infection in her influfial tubes . One man said he suffered from sick-as-hell-anemia . The hospital had to place a lady’s husband in contentious care . Another man was in there with a brain hemorrhoid . A fellow told me a family member had immaculate degeneration . One man said he had problems with his heart rhythm, but the doctors had decided not to install a space-maker . A friend told me, “While I am in town, I’ll go by and pay the fine and also return Joel’s guitar. That way I can kill the whole bird with one...
Read more

Some Thoughts on the Manifested Presence of God

John 15: 19. “A little longer, and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me...” Rev. 1: 10-17. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet…And I turned to see the voice that spoke to me…and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength…” 1 Cor. 15: 3-8. “…He rose again on the third day…and was seen…by Cephas…by the twelve…by over five hundred brethren at once…and after that He was seen by me also….” To see or not to see? The natural man comprehends God in the same way as a blind and deaf man would view a brilliant sunrise or listen to beautiful music. He would be oblivious to the wonders around him no matter how brilliant the sight or how loud the sound. The revelation of God works on the same principle. The person who has a heart after God will see or hear Him in the smallest sign, while the one who has rejected God in his heart will see nothing or explain it away, no matter how powerful the Presence or how obvious th...
Read more