DAILY VIDEO DEVOTIONAL
In 1972, an elderly German pastor challenged me to attend a gathering of 100,000 atheist youth in East Berlin. It was a mission that looked impossible. Two friends traveled with me to the East German capital. We didn’t know how we would accomplish our mission, but we had the assurance that we would be able to preach to those young people.
When we arrived in East Berlin, we went to Alexanderplatz where the youth would be gathering. The sight was almost unbelievable. I had never seen so many people. I quietly prayed, “O God, there are so many of them and so few of us. How can we ever reach them with your love?” Just at that moment, a young person walked up to me and asked, “Can I have your autograph?” We didn’t realize how important it was for them to get the autograph of a foreigner. But we would soon find out.
We had memorized a gospel presentation in the German language, and we began writing the gospel on their neckerchiefs and signing our names. Hundreds of young people gathered around, and I became more bold. I began preaching. The crowd became so large that one of the youth asked everybody to sit down so more people could hear me. My two friends went to the edge of the crowd and began preaching there.
After speaking to hundreds of youth for a couple of hours, I was exhausted. I made my way out of the crowd of listeners and began walking through the masses of youth. God broke my heart as I walked. These masses of young people represented nearly every nation in the world. Suddenly I no longer saw them as Germans, Russians, Asians, Africans, or Americans. I was like the blind man that Jesus touched and healed. At first he saw people as trees, inanimate objects. Then Jesus touched him another time, and he saw people as people.
God touched me in a fresh way that night. I began seeing these people as people created in the image of God. I saw them in their sin and in need of a Savior. God had to let me see with a new set of eyes before I would be able to reach the peoples of the world with the message of Christ. That moment with those young people opened my eyes to a world that desperately needed Jesus.
Likewise, there may be people you need to reach with the gospel. Do you need a fresh touch from God? Only He can enable you to see people as they really are.
Isaiah : Chapter 58
1) “Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. 2) For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 3) ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. 4) Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. 5) Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? 6) “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7) Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? 8) Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness[a] will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. 9) Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
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
All Rights Reserved