James T Pollard III
June 21, 1971 – February 26, 2023

Jim Pollard, beloved son, brother, chiropractor, friend, and brother in Christ, died Sunday, February 26th, 2023 in Round Rock, Texas. He was 51 years old.

Order of Service
Welcome – Pastor Way
Hymn – How Great Thou Art
Reading the Obituary – Pastor Breeden
Testimonial and Scripture Reading – Psalm 73:23-28 – Pastor Breeden
Family Testimonials
Eulogy – Pastor Way
Prayer – Pastor Way
Hymn – Amazing Grace
Benediction and Dismissal to Reception – Pastor Way

Obituary

Jim was a longtime student of natural healing. He was born James Thomas Pollard III in 1971 in La Mesa, California to his parents Billie Jean and James Pollard Jr. His earliest memories were his love for people and his desire to help whenever he could.

Jim received an associate degree in biology in 1994. After working in the field of Pharmaceutical and DNA technology, Jim decided to enroll in a chiropractic college in the Bay Area of California. Jim had seen firsthand, the incredible benefits of chiropractic procedures in his father and many other friends as well as himself. In 1999, he began his studies at Life Chiropractic College West. In 2002, Jim graduated and moved back to San Diego County in hopes of setting up his own practice. Due to the enormous expense of setting up a practice in California, Jim decided to move to Round Rock, Texas in 2004. In September of the same year, Jim opened his practice and named it “Hill Country Chiropractic”. He spent over 20 years in the community with his healing ministry.

Jim loved the area in which he worked. He was involved in camping and outdoor sports. Jim’s greatest love was The Lord. He gave his life to the Lord in 1996 at a Sunrise Service in Oceanside, California. Jim was a member of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Marble Falls, Texas, and also attended during his cancer treatment Southern Hills Baptist Church in Round Rock, Texas, and Grace Community Fellowship in Georgetown, Texas.

Jim died as a result of his year and a half battle with cancer surrounded by his loving family.

Jim was always ready to share The Good News of Jesus to all who would hear.

Celebration of Life service will be held 2:00 p.m., Saturday, March 25, 2023 at Cook-Walden/Capital Parks Funeral Home, 14501 North Interstate 35 Pflugerville, Texas.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.cookwaldencapitalparks.com for the Pollard family.

Eulogy – This was the Lord’s Doing – Psa. 118:23

Psalm 118:22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. 23 This was the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Dr. Jim knew (knows) Jesus. He knew he was a sinner and needed a Savior. He loved (loves) Jesus and His Word. He had repented of his sin, trusted Christ to save him, confessed Him as his risen Lord, and wanted to share Him with everyone!

When the angels met him to escort him to heaven, I am sure one of them said, “Do not be afraid.” I can also hear his reply, “I’m not afraid. What are we waiting for? Let’s go see Jesus!” He has seen Him now face to face. His doubts have been settled. His fears have been erased. His suffering in the body has ended. His struggles with sin have been swallowed up in victory. His faith has become sight. He trusted Jesus and now and forevermore is with Him. This is His promise to all who would call on Him for salvation. Rom. 10:13 “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

As we gather today to celebrate the life of Dr. Jim, those who knew him know full well that celebrating his life means celebrating his Savior! Jim’s life was about Jesus. Walking with Him. Talking with Him. Serving Him. Telling others about Him.

The Lord Directed Jim’s Steps – Proverbs 16:9

A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

We rejoice today because we know that the Lord directed Jim’s steps. Jim had plans. He always had plans, didn’t he? He had plans for his plans. In all those plans, the ones that worked out and the ones that never did, we take comfort in the truth of this Scripture – Jesus directed Jim’s steps. This means He prepared Jim, and led him. He steered the course of his life through the Word, through others, through circumstances.

Psalm 119:105 tells us, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Jim spent time in the Word and in prayer. He was a man of prayer. Because of his prayer life, every time he and I talked over these last few years he always started by saying, “You know, my faith is strong. Spiritually I am doing ok.” And I knew he meant it.

The Lord was with Jim – Psalm 139:7-16

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; 12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. 13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.

Jim’s life had been written before he was ever born. The Lord knew the days Jim would live and the day he would die. We must confess that even a long life is short. If Jim had lived to be 100, his life, like ours is, would still be “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14).

Because his was a short life, and as we see things, over far too soon, we may be tempted to think that this is not fair, or that Jim was shortchanged. Yet Christ tells us that “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10). This does not refer to a life full of stuff. The word translated “abundantly” refers to a capacity for living. Through Christ, Jim had a greater capacity for living.

We see evidence of this in the way he lived! We see it in the way he served. Jim lived to serve. His life was about others. No doubt he had the spiritual gift of service. He never made it about him. Never. He was always others-focused. He would get quite uncomfortable if anything was made to be about him.

It wasn’t until the last few months that he started asking for things. Before that, no matter the trial or the treatment, he didn’t ask for anything. It crushed him to have to start asking others for help because his heart was so set on serving others without any thought of self.

He was a living fulfillment of the First and Second Greatest Commandments. He loved God with everything he had, and he loved his neighbors. The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 5:13-14, “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Through love, Jim served others. Whether that was at church or at work, wherever he was.

When he first started attending our church in Marble Falls, within about the first 2 or 3 weeks, he asked how he could help and he started assisting with serving weekly Communion at the end of our Sunday worship services. He volunteered to lead Scripture readings before the congregation. He was not technically a deacon, but he was a servant. He didn’t need a title – he was a servant.

Paul also wrote for us in Romans 12:9-13, “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.”

Here we see the secret to Jim’s servant’s heart – above all else, He served the Lord Jesus. He lived these verses in our midst. He lived these verses serving his clients in his chiropractic clinic. He served other wherever he found them.

The Lord’s Gifts are Perfect – James 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Remembering and celebrating a short life, but a full life, we must trust what God tells us in His Word. God only gives good gifts. From our perspective, we might wonder how what happened to Jim these last few years can be considered good. To understand, we have to look at the outcome. Everything that was given to Jim was given to him to prepare him to be with Jesus. How much better could it be than to be face to face with Christ his Savior?

Yes, we miss him. Yes, we grieve and we weep. It has been a month already – that’s hard to believe. It has been a draining, trying month for us working through all we have had to as we’ve lost Jim. But think of things from his perspective. He has been with Jesus for a month, going on forever! So yes, we grieve, but we also rejoice. We weep, but we have hope.

If you are having a hard time finding the good in any of this, take God at His Word. He tells us in Romans 8:28-30, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Listen here – Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is so sure of how things end for a believer that he uses the term “glorified” in the past tense. God says it will be so and it is so.

Jim has not been glorified yet. That happens when Jesus comes back. But for now, he is alive and well in the presence of the Lord, free of his body of sin and death. Jim knows all things work together for good, because the cancer that we curse took him to be with Jesus!

The Lord’s Will Has Been Done – Matthew 6:10

We also find hope knowing that God’s will was done. Jesus prayed that it would be and of course the Father answers the prayers of His only begotten Son. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). God’s will will be done! Psalm 135:6 tells us, “Whatever the Lord pleases He does, In heaven and in earth.”

That is why we are given this admonition in Scripture, in James 4:13-15, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

“If the Lord wills.”

Because of the Lord Jesus, Jim is not Dead, He is Alive – John 11:25-26

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

We celebrate Jim’s life because he is alive! Because of Jesus, Jim lives and will live forever. He cannot live in our presence at this moment, but he is alive in the presence of his Savior. 2 Corinthians 5:8 gives us this hope, “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”

This is Jim’s testimony. He had repented of his sin and placed his trust in the Lord Jesus. Jim knew that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). He understood that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23). He had experienced the saving love and grace of God as “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8). And in response to God’s grace, Jim knew “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Rom. 10:9-10). For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rom. 10:13).

Jim’s life was about serving Jesus and through Jesus serving others. His last act of service is happening here and now, when he asked me to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ if he was called home to heaven. His burden was for you – for each of you. That you would know Jesus and trust Him to save you from your sin, from yourself! Do you know Jesus? If not, feel free to visit with me, or Pastor Breeden, or Jim’s dad after this service. What a glorious thing if for you, in celebrating Jim’s life today, you find new life in Jesus!

Because “the gospel is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16), Jim is free from sin, sickness, and  sorrow. The truth has made him free and he is free indeed!

Let us pray.