DAILY VIDEO DEVOTIONAL
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1 kjv)
It was a moment I never imagined I’d see. I’d call it one of the great moves of God’s Spirit in the twentieth century. An entire nation was awakened to the realization that there is a God who rules and reigns in the affairs of human history. In an instant the spirit of atheism was blown out of a nation.
That moment was the close of the Romanian revolution. On January 1, 1990, I entered Romania. One week earlier, Nicolae Ceaucescu, the God-hating dictator of Romania, had been assassinated. Ceaucescu had persecuted Christians severely. From preschool to post-graduate university, everyone had been taught that God didn’t exist. Yet as I walked the streets of Romania in those closing days of the revolution, people would gather around me and begin to shout, “Existe Dumnezeu! Existe Dumnezeu!” (There is a God! There is a God!)
While faith had erupted in the hearts of an entire nation, the country had not yet come to Christ. (That’s the task of the church today.) But in one divine moment, an entire nation was awakened to the fact that there is a God, and He is our Creator and Ruler. And that’s the first step in coming to know God through faith in Christ. It’s the first step to finding victory in our personal lives, our families, and our nations.
The first name used in the Scripture for God is Elohim. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth.” If a person doesn’t know God as Elohim, he’ll never experience victory. A nation that doesn’t know Elohim will never know the blessings He has in store.
The name Elohim occurs more than thirty times in the first chapter of Genesis and well over 2,000 times in the Old Testament. It basically means that there is one God who has created us, and He reigns over all creation. This knowledge of Him as Creator and Ruler is fundamental for our victory. It’s from this basic knowledge that praise and worship flow. That knowledge enables us to understand our purpose and meaning in life.
The name Elohim contains the mystery of the Trinity. Many people have asked me where the Trinity is found in the Bible. It’s found in the very first verse. Elohim is a plural noun that is continually accompanied by singular adjectives and verbs. In Genesis 1:1, Elohim (God) is a plural noun, but the verb “created” is a singular verb used with singular nouns. Also in Isaiah 45:5, the Bible says, “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me” (kjv). Notice the singular pronoun used for God. Yet, the Scriptures say, “There is no God (Elohim) beside me.”
We discover the fullness of God in the first chapter of the Bible as God is called Elohim. There we find the great mystery of “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” — the One Creator of the universe, the One who reigns on high. It’s this knowledge of God, the great “Three in One,” that causes us to live with great confidence. When we know Elohim, we know the One who reigns in the affairs of human history. Even more personally, we find our purpose and meaning in life.
Even as Romanians cried out in 1990, “Existe Dumnezeu! Existe Dumnezeu!” our hearts must be raised in worship to proclaim, “There is one Creator and Ruler of the universe! There is one Creator of the universe!” And His name is Elohim.
1) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2) Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3) And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4) God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5) God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. 6) And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7) So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8) God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. 9) And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10) God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. 11) Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12) The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13) And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. 14) And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15) and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16) God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17) God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18) to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19) And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. 20) And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21) So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22) God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23) And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. 24) And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so.
Book of the Month
Sammy Tippit told his fiancée, “I can’t promise we’ll be rich, but life won’t be boring.”
Sammy had no idea what an understatement that would become. Beginning in the bars of Baton Rouge and the nightclubs of Chicago, Tippit has shared the news of life-changing faith in Christ all over the world – including in the middle of a revolution in Romania, the aftermath of genocide in Rwanda, and war in Burundi and the Congo.
Sammy’s lifelong adventure has come at a great price. He’s been cursed, threatened, arrested, deported, and blacklisted. He’s also been personally broken, ravaged with illness, and devastated by grief.
Yet he continues to preach to in stadiums, in open fields, and via satellite technology to hundreds of thousands around the globe. For all other books…
About Sammy Tippit Ministries
STM has been providing inspiration and help around the world for nearly 50 years. Sammy Tippit, founder and president, is a world renowned counselor, teacher and evangelist with experience serving and helping people in over 80 countries. Sammy provides materials that help people tackle a broad array of social, societal, psychological and spiritual issues. He is particularly passionate about making materials accessible to other countries around the world. Sammy is married to Debara “Tex” Tippit, and they have two children and five grandchildren.
Sammy Tippit Ministries is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization.
Contact: info@sammytippit.org
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