My younger days were spent much like any normal well adjusted child. I made good grades in school and was active in sports, hunting, and fishing. At the age of sixteen I was a sophomore at Central High School. This was the same year that I started taking drugs. My friends and I discovered that we could get high taking a nose inhaler that could be purchased at a local drugstore for sixty-nine cents. This inhaler contained 250 milligrams of Methylamphetamine, one of the strongest of the amphetamines. At first we would take the amphetamine soaked cotton orally by cutting it into small pieces and washing it down with a drink of soda pop. Soon after we graduated to injecting it into our veins with a homemade syringe. This inhaler has since been removed from the market because of the potent amount of narcotic it contained.

'Me next twenty-one years of my life were filled with drugs. Drugs became my god. I lost interest in natural things. My life became devoted to fulfilling my passion for drugs. Taking drugs made me feel important. What I didn't realize was that I was using them as an escape from the responsibilities of life. During this time I was in prison four times for crimes ranging from possession of narcotics, possession of stolen property, burglary, and finally armed robbery. However, each time I went to prison I would vow that it would be my last. Upon being released I would work for a living usually for a year or two. Then I would become bored and begin taking drugs again. Usually breaking into a drugstore and stealing all the hard narcotics (Morphine, Dilaudid). This would soon lead me back to prison. At times I would pray and ask for God's help. When I did this with my whole heart, unusual circumstances would lead to my release. I had good intentions, but no lasting commitment. I did not realize I had to follow God's Holy Spirit and obey Him in all things. I wanted to strike a bargain with God and keep part of my old life. However, the Scripture says that the old life must die with Christ on the cross. ("Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" Romans 6:6.)

On the nineteenth day of December 1974, I rode in a car with two other men to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We stole a car, robbed a pharmacy, and a short time later were captured with the evidence in our car. I prayed for God to get me out of this situation. I was not ready for what happened next. ("For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord" Isaiah 55:8.) I was tried and convicted and sentenced to five hundred years in the state prison at McAlester, Oklahoma. I was in more trouble than I had ever been in my entire life.

I was committed to the state prison on June 10, 1975. I felt a pain that no drug could quench. I felt I had to be free or be killed trying. For the next ten months I was continually scheming a way to escape. Finally on a dark, rainy night in April along with two other men I went over the wall. A guard took us to the east gate shakedown area on a small tug with scaffolding on top. I was driving the tug under two guard towers. It had been their practice that if the tug needed gas, the guard would step off the tug and allow us to drive it to the gas pumps near the last fence and wait for us to return on foot. This time we did not return. We drove the tug up against the fence, climbed the scaffolding, and vaulted over the fence. Since I was driving the tug, I was the last one over. When I vaulted to the ground, my glove caught in the barbed-wire fence and I fell and broke my leg. I had to run into the night or be shot. I heard only one shot as I vanished behind a building. I later learned that in the excitement the tower guard dropped all of his shells except the one in the gun chamber. The broken leg slowed me down and I was recaptured the next day. I realized that God preserved my life, yet allowed me to be captured for His own plans.

After my leg was put in a cast I was placed in a maximum security cell. It was during this time that I knew that my best efforts to solve the problems of my life had failed miserably. I felt very guilty for the life that I had led. I realized that I was hopelessly lost and deserved to die. While on maximum security I received a memorandum from the administration that "a Reverend I. M. Judd called and requested permission to visit or to talk to you on the phone. Regulations, however, do not permit this, but if you care to write, you may." His address was on the memorandum. This man was a stranger to me. I learned that he met my brother on a plane flight to California and learned of my plight. I was very interested to meet this person. He claimed to be a minister of God. I could not understand why he would go to so much trouble to keep his word to a stranger unless he was sent from God.

After writing him for several months he came to visit me, and had me read John 3:8 from his Bible. ("The wind bloweth were it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.") I had never before heard words like these; they seemed to be alive. I was now willing to try anything. He visited me several times and each time something supernatural would happen. He told me that I should say grace over my food in the mess hall. I never heard of such a thing and thought he was crazy to think that anyone would have enough courage to pray amongst all those hardened criminals. I imagined that entire mess hall would stand up and scoff me for such an act. I realized that Jesus suffered much more shame than that for me. I prayed. No one laughed. I was at last moving toward salvation. I swore not to take any more drugs, but how could I prove it? Didn't I still smoke cigarettes? Were they a drug? I decided to quit smoking. My plan was not to tell anyone that I was trying to quit. Therefore if I failed, no one would know how weak I was. I did quit for approximately one night and part of the next day. However, at ten o'clock the next day, I was smoking again. It was my birthday, yet I received no mail.

At about eight o'clock that night, March 15, 1977, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to me in a still and peaceful voice in my lonely cell. It was the best birthday gift that I had ever received. I no longer wanted to live. I looked at the half-smoked cigarette in my hand and asked myself the question: "If my life depended upon it would I throw the cigarette away?" I could not answer the question. My heart broke as I realized what a weak, miserable being l was. I also realized that all the other men in that prison with me were in the same boat. No one cared if I quit smoking. Now no one even cared if I lived or died. No one but Jesus. I threw the half-smoked cigarette in the commode. I gave my life to Jesus.

I spent the next five years in prison witnessing for the Lord. I was not sure if I would ever be released. But I was. In spite of stiff opposition from doubtful prison officials, God raised up people to help secure my release. I was paroled in February 1982. After spending ten months at a community treatment center the Governor signed my parole and I was a free man on January 19, 1983. While I was in prison I learned the value of Christian fellowship. I knew that if I did not gain the trust of Christians on the outside I would sink back to the old crowd. Forrest Jones, a Christian brother that I did time with, was released about a year before I was. He introduced me to a good Bible-believing group of Christians who would be able to give me counseling. I shared this brother's burden to help other prisoners.

Since my release I have learned the trade of cabinet making and window building. I worked at these occupations for seven years. While employed I used my extra money to travel to prisons in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas, telling prisoners about the hope of a new life in Christ. In January 1989, 1 was given a pardon by the Governor of Oklahoma, on eleven felonies and state misdemeanors. In the fall of 1990 I began classes at Wheaton College. Only by an act of a merciful, and forgiving God could these things happen.

Let me close by telling you three things I have learned. These three things sum up the entire reason for my conversion. They are found in I Corinthians 15:1-4 and are the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins that you also might have a new life. If you are willing to be a partaker of His death and burial you can certainly share in His resurrection.

Won't you receive the Lord Jesus Christ now?