The songs that we sing when we gather for worship are the products of talented and dedicated men and women who have chosen to use their time and skills to write words and compose melodies that help us worship God and edify one another. Many Christians are familiar with the beautiful hymn, “Our God – He Is Alive”’ by A.W. Dicus. How often we have sung together, “There is beyond the azure blue, a God, concealed from human sight. He tinted skies with heavenly hue, and framed the worlds with His great might.”
Although familiar with the song, many are unfamiliar with the man who wrote the words and the music to this stirring hymn. Aaron Wesley Dicus was born on May 30, 1888 in Festus, Missouri. When still a small child, his family moved to Swayzee, Indiana where he grew up and graduated from high school. In that small Indiana town, he met and married his wife, Bertha Jane, in 1908 – the same year he was baptized. Upon being baptized, he made a vow, “If the Lord will allow me to get an education,” he said, “I will use it in service to Him.” The Lord did indeed allow him to obtain an education, and A.W. Dicus spent the rest of his life remaining true to his vow.
Soon after being baptized, he began preparations to preach and obtain his education. He taught for a while in a one-room schoolhouse, but left that position to become an inventor. Shortly before the Great Depression, he invented the automobile turn signal.
He began preaching full time for the church in Bloomington, Indiana, and around 1925 accepted a student instructor scholarship at the University of Indiana which helped him pay for some of his school expenses. He continued to preach whenever possible to help pay his way through school. He would eventually earn B.S., M.A. and PhD. Degrees. In 1929, he accepted the position as chairman of the Physics Department at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, Tennessee. In the mid-1940’s, Dr. Dicus became heavily involved in training graduates for nuclear studies in connection with the Oak Ridge National Laboratories.
Even though he could have remained at Tennessee Tech many more years, he eventually chose to leave his prestigious position and move to Temple Terrace, Florida to become academic dean of Florida College, where he worked until he retired in 1954.
During his retirement, Dr. Dicus remained active in the Lord’s work, preaching full time and writing three books, Sermon Outlines, A Commentary on Hebrews and Romans, and Church Leadership. He also wrote more than thirty five songs, including “Our God – He Is Alive” which was published in 1966. Although in failing health and almost completely blind, Dr. Dicus continued to write songs until his death in 1978.
Dr. Dicus understood that just as an invention must have an inventor, so must creation have a Creator. Not only did he see the same world that we see every day as evidence of God’s existence, he also heard the sub-atomic world declaring that there must be a God. He was a man of science and a man of faith who saw no contradiction between the two. Although “he is dead, he still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4) to us today... and his message is loud and clear, “Science and faith join together in complete harmony to proclaim to the whole world…
“Our God – He Is Alive!”