Meet the Writers of Azusa Stories

40 YEARS AGO GOD CHOSE DR. MORRIS TO BE A PART OF HIS PLAN TO RELEASE HIS STORIES

1966 was his first year of college at Oklahoma Baptist University, studying for the ministry. Jim had his plans, and God has His. In 1976 he went through a divorce and was virtually treated as a second-class citizen and a cast away as he resigned his position as pastor from a flourishing church in Northern Illinois. As far as most of his denomination was concerned God had no use for someone like Dr. Morris.

But God wasn't through with him. By 1994 God was using him to travel across the country as one of just a few successful church conflict consultants. Although the door had been shut to the pastoral ministry, God was using him as a pastor of pastors as he worked with troubled churches, helping to restore them to a viable loving ministry. He also spent over 10 years as a pastoral counselor working with Christian couples to work through their troubled marriages. In 2004 He got away from the consulting and counseling and even the church as his life took a horrible turn. In 2004 he again was sure God was truly through with him.

But in 2006, God showed Jim that His gifts and calling were irreversible. In 2006 Dr. Morris started a publishing company, only to learn that God, through him had started His publishing company! God took all his struggles, failures, and experiences, and through a miraculous intervention used him to write an awesome book that is changing the world. Taking Jim's 40 years of wilderness wanderings God led him to His Purpose for his life: to write They Told Me Their Stories.

Allow Him to share with you a summary of God's divine intervention by quoting from the Azusa book:

"In the summer of 2006, I made it a point to arrive early. I had no idea where I was going, and I had an important appointment with potential authors. As I drove into the Faith Family Church parking lot in El Reno, Oklahoma, 45 minutes prior to my appointment, Pastor Samantha Roach, who was about to leave, greeted me. Remember, I was 45 minutes early and just seconds before she was to leave the church, I “just happened” to run into the very person I was to meet with. She had forgotten about our appointment, and if I had not arrived exactly when I did, she would have been gone for the afternoon. Samantha apologized that she had double-booked her time and suggested we meet for lunch in an hour at a restaurant in Yukon.

"Since there was another person in the parking lot of the church, and having time to kill, I greeted a man who introduced himself as Tom. We exchanged a few friendly words and then spent the next several minutes talking about the 357 magnum he had holstered on his side. Within minutes, I had met both the pastor and the man who, by divine appointment, “just happened” to be in the parking lot at that exact moment.

"As I left the church parking lot, I could see Tom walk over to talk with his pastor. Little did I know that their brief meeting would turn out to be the fulfillment of a 40 year old prophesy.

Divine appointments! Forty years ago? Let me explain.

"Four weeks earlier, I was driving up and down the streets of Oklahoma City calling on pastors and introducing our publishing ministry. I was having little to no success. Even though it was Wednesday, I could not find a pastor in his study anywhere. I called on Baptist Churches, Churches of God, Assemblies of God and Nazarene Churches. Each time, the results were the same: Nobody was in. After about 90 minutes of this frustrating process, I had a clear message from God. I was told to go back to my office and call pastors in my hometown and in the neighboring town. With a huge sigh of resignation, I got on Interstate 40 and headed for Mustang.

"I went right to my office, opened the phone book to the church listings and began to call. My very first call was to Faith Family Church. Pastor Paul Roach answered and when I told him I was looking for pastors with a desire to publish, he asked me to hold while he got his wife, Samantha, on the phone. In response to my introduction, I discovered that they were interested in publishing and that they had been in the process of trying to find a publisher. We set a time to meet four weeks into the future, and I hung up certain that this truly was a divine appointment—I just didn’t know the magnitude of God’s plan.

"Four weeks later, I found myself at a restaurant with Paul and Samantha Roach and the man I had met in the parking lot—remember Tom, the man with the 357 magnum. My assumption was that Tom must have been the other appointment and Samantha wisely combined the two meetings. My assumption was wrong. An hour earlier, God continued His intervention. Samantha had invited Tom to join us because she believed that he was a vital part of why we were meeting.

"After brief introductions and a brief overview of my publishing company, Samantha explained why Tom had been invited to join us. Tom also had a message that needed to put into print.

"Tom began to tell his story. It took me a few seconds to sort out what was happening. I discovered during the conversation that he was a private investigator—hence the cannon on his hip. I wasn’t sure what his story was, but I was a captive audience—a man with a 357 magnum has my undivided attention. As Tom began to tell his story, I forgot about the gun. I knew immediately that his stories had to be told.

"Now remember, my agenda was to meet with Paul and Samantha and set up the process to publish their books. But, on this day it wasn’t about my agenda! It wasn’t about Paul and Samantha’s books. It was about a divine appointment between Tom, Paul and Samantha, myself, and God that had been written into God’s day-timer forty years prior."