A New Spin on an Old Christmas Favorite

The Night Before Christmas

                                      by Dave Hilt 1984

 

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all thru the jungles,

A gentle rain falling, the bush lizards calling.

 

The dense jungle sang with a soft lullaby,

No hope for the lost, they’re left here to die.

 

The young and the old, the brave and the frail,

With no life before them and destined for hell.

 

And I with my family, my riches, estate,

Do never consider the heathen, their fate.

 

When out in the darkness rings death’s bitter wail,

Another one dies, no more to travail.

 

Away to the grave not having a chance

To hear of the Savior, not even a glance.

 

The scriptures so clearly, they tell and they show,

The fate of the heathen and where they will go.

 

Awake to the call, O Christian please heed,

The lost and the dying, the Savior they need.

 

The nations are many, He tells us to go,

The light of the gospel, to bear and to sow.

 

To Papua New Guinea and Africa too,

And lands far beyond to mention a few.

 

There’s Mexico, Thailand, and even Japan,

Who still need to hear of salvation’s great plan.

 

There’s Paraguay, Panama, Ivory Coast,

In naming them all, we’d have a great host.

 

To the places about us, to the ends of the earth,

Bear the news to all nations, giving life thru new birth.

 

As I heard of far places the gospels’ not found,

I thought of the heathen and how they are bound.

 

Their faces all painted with ashes and mud,

And souls that are darkened by sins awful flood.

 

They’re hungry and cold, with nothing to wear,

The future before them, tis only despair.

 

Their eyes how they gaze with terrible fright,

With no one to tell them that Jesus is Light.

 

And there in the stillness I read from the Word,

The heathen are dying, have you heard, Have you heard?

 

We’re quick to fulfill our dreams and our plans,

No thought to His Word and all He commands.

 

We’re busied with life, concerned with our wealth,

No time left for others, enslaved to ourselves.

 

He’s enabled, commissioned, and told us to spread,

The light of the gospel, but we pass them instead.

 

What keeps us from going, Good News to proclaim,

Do we lack in our faith, distrust in His Name?

 

O Christians take thought to the heathen in strife,

Take the message to all, give them hope, give them Life.