Subject: It Is No Secret
Back in the 50's there was a well known radio
host/comedian/song writer in
Hollywood named Stuart Hamblen who was noted for his drinking,
womanizing
partying, etc.One of his bigger hits at the time was"I won't go
hunting with
you Jake, but I'll go chasing women".One day, along came a young
preacher
holdinga tent revival. Hamblen had him on his radio show presumably to
poke
fun at him. In order to gather more material for his show,Hamblin showed
up
at one of the revival meetings. Early in the service the preacher
announced,"There is one man in this audience who is a big
fake."There were
probably others who thought the same thing,but Hamblen was convinced
that he
was the one the preacher was talking about (some would call that
conviction), but he was having none of that. Still the words continued
to
haunt him until a couple of nights later he showed up drunk at the
preacher's hotel door around 2 am demanding that the preacher pray for
him!But the preacher refused, saying, "This is between you and God
and I'm
not going to get in the middle of it."But he did invite Stuart in
and they
talked until about 5am at which point Stuart dropped to his knees and
with
tears, cried out to God. But that is not the end of the story. Stuart
quit
drinking, quit chasing women,quit everything that was "fun".
Soon he began
to lose favor with the Hollywood crowd.He was ultimately fired by the
radio
station when he refused to accept a beer company as a sponsor. Hard
times
were upon him. He tried writing a coupleof "Christian" songs
but the only
one that had much success was "This Old House",written for his
friend
Rosemary Clooney. As he continued to struggle, a long time friendnamed
John
took him aside and told him, "all your troubles started when you
'got
religion',was it worth it all?"Stuart answered simply, "Yes".Then
his friend
asked, "You liked your booze so much, don't you ever miss it?"
And his answer
was,"No". John then said, "I don't understand how you
could give it up so
easily." And Stuart's response was, "It's no big secret. All
things are
possible with God."To this John said "That's a catchy
phrase.You should
write a song about it." And as they say, the rest is history.The
song Stuart
wrote was "It Is No Secret" It is no secret what God can
do.What He's done
for others, He'll do for you. With arms wide open, He'll welcome you.It
is
no secret, what God can do....
By the way......... the friend was John Wayne. And the
young preacher who
refused to pray for Stuart Hamblen ? That was Billy Graham.