DAILY VIDEO DEVOTIONAL
1) Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. 2) “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel. 3) “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. 4) Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it. 5) “Simeon and Levi are brothers— their swords[a] are weapons of violence. 6) Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. 7) Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel! I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel. 8) “Judah,[b] your brothers will praise you; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. 9) You are a lion’s cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him? 10) The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,[c] until he to whom it belongs[d] shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. 11) He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12) His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.[e] 13) “Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships; his border will extend toward Sidon. 14) “Issachar is a rawboned[f] donkey lying down among the sheep pens.[g] 15) When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor. 16) “Dan[h] will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 17) Dan will be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward. 18) “I look for your deliverance, Lord. 19) “Gad[i] will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels. 20) “Asher’s food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king. 21) “Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns.[j] 22) “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall.[k] 23) With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. 24) But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed[l] limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, 25) because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty,[m] who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb. 26) Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than[n] the bounty of the age-old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among[o] his brothers. 27) “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.” 28) All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him. The Death of Jacob
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…
Sammy Tippit: We want to welcome you back to this session of talking about our family lives, our family relationships. We concluded our last session by saying the most important thing is to pray for your family. Well, we want to give you some ways do to that and talk about and discuss how to pray for your family. This is my wife, Tex. We’ve been married for 47 years now. It has been an adventure.
Tex Tippit: It has been an adventure.
Sammy: I said to you before we got married, “I can’t promise you we’ll ever be rich, but I promise you life with Jesus and me won’t be boring.”
Tex: And it has not been boring.
Sammy: It has been good.
Tex: It has been good.
Sammy: The Lord has been good to us. He has blessed us with two children, and we actually have five grandchildren.
Tex: Yes.
Sammy: We’re kind of down the road on this thing of raising children, and it has been such a blessing. There have been some tough times, but there have been great times. You mentioned in the last session that probably the most important thing is to pray for your children. That has helped more than anything else. I want us to talk about that. Where does that begin? I mean, when do you begin praying for your children, and what do you pray for your children?
Tex: In our lives personally, we prayed for our son… We did not know he was going to be a boy, but the Lord told you he was and that he was going to be a man who would share Jesus, and he has been. For me, that was such a blessing.
Sammy: That was before he was born.
Tex: It was before he was born.
Sammy: Right.
Tex: God told us, and it was a blessing. One thing is that just as a young couple, seeing how God told us that and shared with us showed us we could rely on what his Word said. The greatest truth is having his Word go into their lives.
Sammy: Yeah. Let’s start back… You were talking about how the Lord spoke to our hearts before he was born. We actually laid hands on you and your womb, prayed, and dedicated Dave and Renee to the Lord. They were both born in sort of wild situations. Dave was born in Chicago, and Renee was born in Switzerland. We dedicated them to the Lord. One of the things I would encourage… You might say, “Well, my children are 40 years old.”
Well, that’s okay. It’s never too late to give them to the Lord. As a matter of fact, all throughout life, you have to recommit them to the Lord, so I would encourage you to do that. We committed them to the Lord. Then praying the Word… You were talking about praying the Word and claiming the promises of God. Explain that to me.
Tex: There are promises God has given to me personally for both our children and our grandchildren. I can go back to God’s Word. Even when Renee and Dave weren’t walking with the Lord in the way they should have been, I would cry out to God. I said, “God, I know you’re real, and I know you’ve given me these promises for our children, so I’m going to trust you to do what you want to do in their lives.” We have seen promise after promise come through for them.
Sammy: I think that as you read the Scripture, as a person reads through the Bible, God will speak to your heart, and there will be a verse that’ll just jump out and say, “This is for this child. This one is for this child.” It’s not that you’re looking for that, but it’ll just happen as you read through the Scriptures. So a quiet time is really important.
Also, I want to ask you about one thing that is not necessarily praying for your children but that I think makes an impact on them. I remember that when we lived in Germany, you would have your quiet time and Renee would come down. There was a cuckoo clock. Tell us about what you did.
Tex: Yeah. We got a German cuckoo clock, and every half hour, it would come out. On the hour, it cuckooed the number of times that corresponded with the hour, and on the half hour, it would cuckoo. Renee would come in. She was… How old?
Sammy: Renee was four or five years old or something like that, I guess.
Tex: Yeah. I would sit on the couch, and I would have my time when I was reading the Word, praying, and singing. Renee would come in occasionally, and she would have her little book. It would be turned upside-down, but she would be having her quiet time. The cuckoo clock played a part in that. We still have that cuckoo clock. In fact, it’s in our daughter’s and her husband’s home right now. It’s a reminder to her about how God can work in your life and how just that time alone with Jesus is important.
Sammy: Yeah. I remember that what you would do is tell her, “You stay there. Just be quiet. Mommy is having her time alone with God. You just stay there, and when the cuckoo comes, we can talk.”
Tex: Yes. “Then we can play.”
Sammy: Yeah. She would do that. I know a lot young mothers have a hard time… “Well, how do I handle my children?” You kind of trained Renee in that. There was another thing about prayer with our kids that I think was important. We had devotions.
Tex: Yes.
Sammy: Both of our children prayed to receive Christ during devotional times, and it wasn’t like, “Okay, kids, do you want to know Christ?” Both of them came to us afterward and asked, “Can I talk to you?” Then we went back in and talked with them. Both Dave and Renee gave their hearts to Christ. There’s another thing I think is really important. I know you and I have done it. That is praying for their future spouses.
Tex: Yes.
Sammy: We started praying early on for their future spouses. Is that right?
Tex: Mm-hmm.
Sammy: How important it that?
Tex: Well, whoever you live with for the rest of your life is going to affect your life.
Sammy: Right.
Tex: If that person is not in a right relationship with Jesus, first of all, it’s hard for them to be in a right relationship with you. I think that’s one thing we prayed for. We prayed that their spouses would love Jesus, that their spouses would honor them and respect them… We have seen that. I mean, we all have our struggles, and they’ve had their struggles, but it has been a blessing for us to be able to see it firsthand because they live in the same city as us, which is a blessing. With our grandchildren too…
Sammy: Yeah. We’ve actually been praying for each one of our grandchildren in the last few years, praying that God would touch them and their spouses. What we pray is, “God, start molding those spouses right now, making them ready. Mold our grandchildren, making them ready for their spouses.”
That is absolutely important for you to be praying for those children and the grandchildren. That may be one of the biggest battles there is: praying for them. One other thing I want us to get through quickly… We’ll be very honest with you. There were times when both of our kids got away from the Lord. What did you do when they got away from the Lord?
Tex: Cried some. I had a lot of tears, but the Bible says God cherishes those tears in prayer. Also, I would shoot up arrow prayers when I would have contact with Dave and Renee and I knew they weren’t walking with the Lord. They would come to us and share, and I would just shoot up what I call arrow prayers.
“Lord, would you speak to their hearts right now? If they’re in a situation they shouldn’t be in, would you speak to their hearts right now?” There were situations when that happened. There are different types of prayer, but the main focus of my heart with our kids is that they know I pray for them.
They will now come to each one of us and say, “I want you to pray for me. Would you pray this for me?” That’s because we’ve built that foundation into their lives over the years. I would encourage you never to give up on your children no matter where they are, what stage they’re in, or whether they’re away from the Lord or not. God is faithful. He called them, and he is going to bring it to pass in their lives.
Sammy: We also prayed for the situations, the people they were going to meet. God brought people into their lives. In fact, Dave was starting a business, and it fell apart. That very day, Kelly (his wife now) called him and said, “I want you to come to this discipleship school.” That’s when God just changed him completely. So God brought circumstances. You can pray for circumstances to come into their lives, and God will take that and use it for his glory. So you pray for those circumstances. I remember that once when we prayed, Dave had gone to play basketball with some guys. They came in, and when they went to get coffee afterward, a waitress came up and started sharing Jesus with them.
So the Lord just wouldn’t let him go. You pray for those circumstances. I think the main thing is just to daily, consistently, bring them before the Lord, and God will take your prayers. The most powerful thing you can do for your children is pray for them. As you pray for your children… There are things that we haven’t mentioned. There are other things we know, but there are things you can be doing, and God will show you.
But you make a regular part of your prayer life praying for your children. Pray for protection. Ask God to draw a circle of protection around them, and he will do that. He will honor your prayers. You just join in and seek his face, and God will do great things. In our next session, I’m going to tell you about how important it is and what it can do in the future when you pray.
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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