Getting God's Word Into the Hands, Hearts, and Homes of Disciples and Disciple-makers Around the World
The following poem was written under these circumstances: Our seminary field term was ending. Our crusade teams from the school had been out in villages in the Allahabad district. On the last night before we came in, just two nights before Christmas, we were in a Hindu village and taking the big Hindi Bible, I opened it to the Christmas story. After I had read the story from Luke's Gospel, as the villagers were seated upon the ground in front of me, one old man, evidently the spokesman for the villages, looked at me and asked, "How long ago was that great day when God's Son was born?” I asked him if he knew what number was put on the envelopes that they got at the post office. The villagers talked back and forth among themselves and agreed upon the answer and then he said to me, “1946.” I said it is just approximately that many years ago that God's great son was born in the world. He paused in a few moments of silence and then looking up at me and pointing with his finger in my direction, he said, “Then why has the news been so long in reaching us?” “Who has been hiding this book all this time?” I tried to explain to him that I did not think that anybody was deliberately hiding the book, but I told him that the world was large and that we had been going from place to place and now finally we had reached his village. He seemed fairly satisfied with my reply, but my own heart could not rest. The villagers went to their homes and we lay down on the ground to sleep. Far into the night I could not go to sleep. Twelve o’clock came; one o’clock; two o’clock, finally I took my torch from beneath my pillow and on a piece of paper. I wrote the following poem:
Are You Hiding the Word of God?
By Wesley Duewel
You have the book which millions crave,
You have the words which the Savior gave,
You have the Truth which alone can save --
Are you hiding the Word of God?
Millions are groping in sin’s dark night
Searching the pathway to truth and to right,
You in your hands have the only Light --
Are you hiding the Light of God?
Millions engage in a deadly strife;
Foes of the soul and of God are rife;
Millions are losing the fight of life --
Are you hiding the Sword of God?
Still exists need though seasons roll --
Millions are fainting far short their goal,
Millions tonight have a hungry soul --
Are you hiding the Bread of God?
Millions haste on to a Christless tomb
Treading the pathways of sin and gloom,
You, if you will, can avert their doom --
Will you give them the Word of God?
I leave the question to you – Who has been hiding the Bible? Why have they not heard before?
