This morning on YouTube, I found an old recording of Stuart Hamblen.  He was testifying and singing at a Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles, California in 1963, 14 years before Billy Graham was there.

 

Fourteen years before, when Billy  Graham was in the early days of his ministry in a tent in Los Angeles, Stuart Hamblen was converted and turned his life completely around.  He had always been a songwriter but now he began to write hymns, and one of his first was “It Is No Secret”.

 

The way he tells it was that it was near midnight and his wife, Susie, was doing her hair.  Earlier that day, he had met his old friend John Wayne on the street.  John Wayne said, “Is this true what I hear about you?”  Stuart said, “Yes, it is, and John Wayne replied, “It is no secret what God can do”.

 

Later that night, sitting at the kitchen table and thinking about what John Wayne had said, he thought that would be a great title for a song and so he wrote the words, he tells us, in 18 minutes.  Just then, as the clock struck 12 o’clock, ringing out one day and bringing in the new, he wrote:

 

“The chimes of time ring out the news, another day is through,

Someone slipped and fell, was that someone you?

You may have longed for added strength, your courage to renew,

Do not be disheartened, for I have news for you.

 

Chorus:

 

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 pardon you.

It is no secret, what God can do.

 

There is no night, for in His light you’ll never walk alone,

Always feel at home wherever you may roam.

There is no power can conquer you, while God is on your side,

Just take Him at His promise, don’t run away and hide.”

 

This devotional was written by Rev. Leslie Jobb