How God Calls and Uses People for His Glory

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 Hamblen had a young preacher on his radio show as part of a media push to raise interest in a revival that was coming to town. Hamblen told his listeners to go on down to the tent and hear the preaching and remarkably he showed up himself at one of the 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 at the preacher’s hotel door around 4 a.m. demanding that the preacher pray for him. But the preacher told him, “We’ve been praying for you for weeks.” After talking for awhile, finally 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, and 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 do a commercial promoting alcohol.

A long time friend named John took him aside and asked him, “What’s this I hear – you ‘got religion?’ Stuart answered, “It’s no secret what God can do in a man’s life.” To this John drawled, “Well that sounds like a song.”

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 pardon you. It is no secret, what God can do.” 

By the way…the friend was John Wayne.

And the young preacher who prayed for Stuart Hamblen?

That was Billy Graham.