DAILY VIDEO DEVOTIONAL
As we’ve had an opportunity to get acquainted, I’ve shared that “surprised by God” describes my testimony. One of God’s great surprises came in East Berlin in the early 1970s. I was visiting an elderly East German pastor when he began to tell me that 100,000 hardcore atheist, communist youth would be gathering in East Germany the following year.
He said, “They will come from all over the world and be trained to reach the world for communism and atheism.” He looked me straight in the eyes and said, “I want you to pray about coming to the meeting and preaching the gospel to these young people.”
I was shocked. “They wouldn’t let me do that,” I said.
The old man wouldn’t let me off the hook. “This will be a pseudo-freedom affair,” he said. “They will try to impress the world with a false sense of freedom. You pray about it.”
I made the mistake. I prayed about it. God spoke deeply to my heart one word: “Go.”
With two friends, Fred Bishop and Fred Starkweather, we returned to Germany and infiltrated the Communist Youth World Festival. We couldn’t believe our eyes. As far as we could see, there was one solid mass of communist youth. I don’t have time to tell you in detail how we reached those young people. It’s sufficient to say we saw 200 of these hardcore communist youth place their faith in Jesus Christ. Ninety-five percent of these young people followed through with their commitments to Christ and became involved in local churches throughout Eastern Europe.
I was invited to speak in many of those churches. Consequently, the Holy Spirit birthed an evangelistic ministry that now spans the globe. If I have learned any lesson through that experience, it’s simply this: If we will be faithful to God’s call on our lives, He will surprise us by His sovereignty. We’ll come to understand what the Scripture means when it says that He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think.
Have you been faithful in the little things of the Christian life? If so, one day God may surprise you with things beyond your imagination. For Jesus said, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with very much” (Luke 16:10).
Luke : Chapter 16
1) Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2) So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’ 3) “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4) I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’ 5) “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6) “‘Nine hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’ 7) “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ “‘A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’ 8) “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9) I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. 10) “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
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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