Summary

SummaryI grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma during the Depression, dragged to church by my parents and growing to hate every Sunday. At 11 a fiery preacher scared me into walking an aisle and getting baptized, but no one ever followed up, and I had no idea what it meant to truly follow Jesus. Within weeks I was shoplifting cigarettes and an extension cord, discovering that sin could seem easy and even make me popular.

From there I slid downhill: a drunken high school party that destroyed my parents’ house, summers on a roughneck oil rig with ex-cons, heavy fraternity drinking in college, and studying psychology while mocking preachers and Christianity. My first marriage was a violent mess that ended the night my wife tried to kill me. Lonely and divorced, I wandered into a hippie house near WSU, got welcomed with marijuana and hard liquor, and soon plunged into deep alcohol and drug addiction.

On the outside I looked respectable as a high school counselor in Kansas. On the inside I was a drunk, stoned hypocrite. I became director of the school’s DopeStop drug program and sponsor of a Youth For Christ club while secretly coming to work high and partying at the Cotillion Ballroom. I hated God, church, and Christians, and when I met Tony and we eventually decided to marry, I made her promise never to talk to me about church.

Then my body started failing. My hip hurt so badly I could hardly walk. When I began a walking program, old Sunday school songs like “Amazing Grace” suddenly started looping in my mind day and night, driving me nearly crazy. My brother-in-law told me God was trying to tell me something. On a trip to Las Vegas I felt a heavy conviction while gambling on a Sunday, stopped playing, and broke down in tears in the bathroom, though I didn’t tell Tony what was happening.

Back home on November 3, 2002, flipping channels one Sunday morning, I landed on a TV evangelist who looked straight at the camera and said, "If you want to fix your sorry, pathetic, miserable life, come to Jesus." Alone in the living room, with the volume low so Tony wouldn’t hear, I fell to my knees, confessed decades of sin—hatred, theft, drunkenness, drugs, hypocrisy—and asked God to forgive me. I asked Jesus Christ to come into my life and fix what I had ruined, and in that moment He saved me.

After that, I quietly kept watching that program. Tony eventually walked in and joined me. We started visiting churches and chose Calvary in Wichita, where for the first time I felt truly cared for. We went forward during an invitation, publicly professed faith in Christ, and were baptized. At 70 years old I was finally a real follower of Jesus.

Later my pastor asked me to lead our church’s ministry at the Union Rescue Mission in Wichita, serving homeless men. I was terrified and tried to refuse in writing, but eventually agreed to a six-month trial. Those months turned into years of sharing my testimony and leading services. Every 90 days there’s a new group of men, and I tell them how Jesus rescued a lifelong thief, drunk, and drug user at 70 and gave me a new heart and purpose.

When I heard Charles Stanley say that only one person in a million ever comes to Christ at age 70, I realized I am that one in a million. God chased me through childhood songs, a dark casino, a blunt TV preacher, and a loving church, and He turned my wasted years into a testimony of grace. Now, almost 85, I know I’m living on borrowed time, but I’m not afraid. The God I mocked has become my Father, the Savior I ignored is my hope, and the Holy Spirit I resisted now uses my story to point other broken people to Him. All glory to God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit for not giving up on me.

Interview with Jim Warren.

As a young boy, Jim Warren grew a great disliking for church. These sentiments only continued to grow as his parents forced him to attend services. At the age of 11 years old, Jim went through the motions of a profession of faith and was thereafter baptized, but really had no idea what he was doing.

Jim became appalled, and then disgusted with the lack of outreach towards people like him soon after his baptism. As a result of seeing such apathy, he determined to never have anything to do with church or the things of God ever again. His life would soon take a turn in the complete opposite direction. Less than a month later, Jim Warren began shoplifting, a practice he would continue for decades.

It only got worse as life went on. As a senior in high school, Jim publicly humiliated his parents in church by hosting a drunken brawl while they were out of town. In college, he pursued a degree in psychology, which heavily criticized Christianity.

An abusive first marriage that ended in divorce, the beginning of a major drug addiction, and his continuity of heavy drinking — these major events all had Jim living a double life as a popular high school counselor. The hypocrisy became even more evident when he was appointed the leader of the “DopeStop” program at the high school where he worked and made the sponsor of the “Youth For Christ” club at the school.

It wasn’t until Jim was 70-years-old that God began entering his life through unique circumstances.

Today, Jim volunteers with the Union Rescue Mission, an outreach ministry located in Wichita, Kansas dedicated to providing homeless men with food, shelter, education, and a relationship with the Lord.

Join us as we listen to an amazing account of God not giving up on a hardened sinner, and how He is still using Jim Warren, even today!

Show notes: https://compelledpodcast.com/13-saved-at-70-jim-warren/

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Compelled is a weekly podcast with unique stories from the Kingdom of God, told by the people Compelled to live for Him.

These Christian testimonies are raw, true, and powerful. They feature guests from all across the world sharing true stories about how God has transformed their lives. Be encouraged and let your faith be strengthened.

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Time Chapters
 
01:32 Forced church and growing hatred
05:27 Fear-driven 'conversion' and first thefts
09:42 Teen rebellion, drunken party, and oil rigs
11:25 College years, hardening heart, and abusive first marriage
14:52 Divorce night, hippies, and deep drug use
17:03 Living a double life as counselor and 'DopeStop' leader
19:30 Meeting Tony and keeping God out of marriage
21:27 Hip pain and haunting childhood church songs
22:52 Las Vegas conviction and emotional breaking point
24:05 TV evangelist, true surrender to Christ, and baptism
27:41 Union Rescue Mission ministry and 'one in a million' grace