Back in the 50's there was a well known radio
Host/comedian/song
writer in Hollywood named
Carl 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 holding
A tent revival. Hamblen had him on his radio show
presumably
to poke fun at him.
In order to gather more material for his show,
Hamblen
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
2AM demanding that the preacher pray for him! But the
Preacher
refused, saying, "This is between you and God and
And I'm not going to get
in the middle of it." But he did invite
Stuart in and they talked until
about 5 AM 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 favour
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 couple
of "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 friend named
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?" His answer was, "No."John
. Then he 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 Carl
Stuart Hamblen 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.
And the young preacher who refused to pray for Stuart Hamblen? ...That was Billy Graham.
Share this with your friends
... I did
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