Jim Adams story

Please read yesterday’s post for the beginning of the Jim Adams’ story. Jim and my husband work together in prison ministry, and we are honored to call him friend. Jim is known as “Jesus Jim” among the incarcerated. Jim’s story is truly one of the relentless pursuit of God’s love and His amazing ability to totally redeem a life.

The next morning I told the people who worked for me to find another job. When the bar property owner found out that I was quitting, he said that I didn’t deserve anything and cheated me out of money. I didn’t care about money anymore. Jesus took the want of ill-gain out of me. The sinful hustler I was for 47 years died.

I got out my old Bible from 1950 and started reading and Jesus transformed me. I read my Bible almost three days straight. My wife believed I had lost my mind.

Immediately my four-pack-a-day cigarette habit was broken. God supernaturally delivered me. I haven’t had a cigarette since. “Praise God!”

The next day I went to one of my warehouses and destroyed thousands of dollars worth of drugs, happily singing Amazing Grace. I was amazed because I wanted to obey God. “Praise God!”

The money I earned from the bar business I gave to the churches who, without my knowledge, had been praying for my salvation. I started telling everybody I met about how Jesus had changed a vile, disgusting, sorry person such as I into a Child of God, full of the joy of Jesus. “Praise God!”

Ten years later, the pastor of my local church resigned. I was asked to be the interim pastor until another pastor was hired. I thought my “preaching” would only last a few weeks at the most, but after eight months the church members called me to be their full-time pastor. Eight months turned into thirteen years. “Praise God!”

As a convicted felon, I have been incarcerated in jail 58 times and in prison two times. Disqualified for ministry? One of our church’s deacons was a Houston Police Department office for 18 years. He voted for me to be his pastor! That is God doing the impossible. “Praise God!”

My education is my GED I earned at federal prison in 1964. One of my deacons is the principal of a local Christian school, and he voted for me to be his pastor! That is God doing the impossible!

I used to have a sign on my house which read, “Jesus Can Change Your Life.” My neighborhood association became so upset they threatened to sue me to remove it. So I prayed about it, and the Lord inspired me to mount a sign on my truck where everyone could see it. Every truck I have owned has had the sign for 17 years. I’ve traveled all over the greater Houston, Texas, area. Imagine: my trucks used to haul whisky and drugs, but now carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “Praise God!”

I’m not a Bible thumper, but someone who loves Jesus Christ and is publicly proud of His love and saving power. My priority in life is to get the name of Jesus in front of people’s eyes and in their ears.

God called me to preach about SIN, and how to become free from the bondage of sin. Christians and the Lost do not want to deal with SIN and REPENTANCE OF SIN. Our sin separates us from the perfect, holy God who created us and loves us. God the Father made the way for any man, woman, boy or girl — no matter how messed up — to be cleaned and forgiven of his or her sin, made 100 percent God’s child.

Perfect God did it by sending His Perfect Son, Jesus Christ, to be the substitutional sacrifice for mankind’s sin. The penalty of sin is eternal death. That debt was paid on the cross 2,000 years ago by Jesus Christ’s virgin birth, life, death, buried three days, and bodily resurrection. Believers in Jesus Christ stand sinless before God, guiltless in the coming judgment and penalty of eternal Hell and separation from God. A life who was spiritually dead is now spiritually alive. The Holy Spirit lives inside a Christian believer. The old life is dead. The new life is alive and eternally secure.

I can never claim anything of my own. My only credentials are Jesus Christ and His precious Holy Spirit who lives in me.

Once I was BLIND, but now I SEE. Once I was LOST, but now I am FOUND.

Reprinted with permission from Jim Adams, Rebirth Prison Ministry, P.O. Box 587, Huffman, Texas 77336. Email: praisethelord42@hotmail.com. Phone: 713.851.7371

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

The following is the remarkable, true story of Jim Adams, in his own words:

Growing up, I remember my mother telling me about Jesus and urging me to surrender my life to Him. Though I joined the church and was baptized at age nine, I never met the Living Savior, Jesus Christ. The moment I grew big enough that my mother couldn’t make me go to church anymore, I chose to go the other way, and my life became filled with drugs, alcohol, and crime.

In 1964 I was discharged from the Navy due to bad conduct. I traveled back and forth across the country and stayed in one place only long enough to get into trouble and move on again. I couldn’t stop. I didn’t really want to stop the bad life I was living.

In my mid 30s, I learned how to operate drug labs, after which I had all the speed, cocaine and heroine I thought I would ever need. But God had other plans. When one of my labs blew up in my face, I was almost killed and had critical wounds all over. My throat was cut, my leg mangled, and I had to be Life-flighted to a hospital where I was sewed back up with many stitches. All this was done without pain medications because they could see my track from drug needles.

The explosion landed me in a seven to ten-year jail sentence as well. But as soon as I got out of jail, I went straight back to manufacturing drugs. For years I daily used 20 to 30 shots of speed and cocaine laced with heroine. I was on a runaway train heading to a crash, and I couldn’t get off.

Though sinning like crazy, all the time God had His hand on me. I should have died many times. Lucky? No, God was working His plan!

I lived in a severe state of paranoia. It is only by the grace of God that I didn’t kill anyone, including myself. Many times during a state of depression, I have put a gun against my head.

I entered the bar business with a partner and thought I was set for life when we co-owned three clubs in Houston. But God took all the fun out of owning the bar. I didn’t want to go to the bar anymore. I was tired of drugs and lying, stealing, and cheating. I had nowhere to go since I already “tried God”… or so I thought.

At this point I decided to commit suicide. I even made all the arrangements, told my wife and brother what I was going to do and how they should handle it. I did not want to live.

That morning I got up, I drove to my bar to leave some money bags. I was confused. I couldn’t even open my safe or remember the code for the alarm system. So I drove home.

There, God was waiting for me. I could not get into my house either. Instead, I ended up next door at my neighbor’s house, a retired preacher. When he opened the door and saw me crying, he immediately asked, “What’s wrong?” I didn’t know. He told me, “Get on your knees, Jim, you need Jesus!”

I told him I had already done all of that, and it didn’t work.

His response was, “You’ve tried religion. This time try Jesus, and He will help you.”

I thank God that the preacher didn’t try to “comfort me.” He just kept telling me to get on my knees and to ask Jesus for help. It was on that very glorious day, May 1, 1989, Jesus saved my soul and life!!! I AM SAVED!!!

The rest of Jim’s story tomorrow…