THY KINGDOM COME, a devotional by Ludvig Hope (1939)

 

JANUARY 3
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yea and forever.
Hebrews 13:8


As a great rock stands in the middle of a waterfall, so Jesus stands in the midst of humanity, mighty to save. As the sun rises over the earth every day, with no demand except to be permitted to give light, warmth, and life, so the grace of Jesus Christ is new upon us each day. Outside of Him everything is night and death; in Him is light and life; in Him we find the meaning and goal of life—and only in Him! No one can understand the divine miracle that we were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Nevertheless it is this fact that makes salvation so unshakable, and so entirely of grace.


That which was ruined by Adam is created again in Christ. He is the Spirit that gives life, the eternal life, and He gives it to all those of the race of Adam who can be gathered out and who believe on His name. Where Adam planted the seed of death, there Christ plants the seed of life; and he who with full confidence surrenders to Him shall never die.


Let everything else fail and be destroyed. This is a solid Rock to stand on, this is light in darkness, this is life in the land of death. This is the only safe point of departure for the journey to the kingdom where life never ceases and where the sun never sets. By Him the Lord makes us entirely capable of doing that which is good, and by Him the Lord accomplishes in us what is well pleasing to Him.


“Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades” (Rev. 1:17-18).


In Jesus’ name
We praise our God on high,
He blesses them who spread abroad His fame,
And we do His will thereby.
E’er hath the Lord done great things by His Word,
And still doth bare His arm His wonders to perform;
Hence we should in every clime
Magnify His name sublime,
Who doth shield us from all harm.

 

THY KINGDOM COME, a devotional by Ludvig Hope (1939)

 

JANUARY 2


And when eight days were fulfilled for circumcising Him, His name was called JESUS, which was so called by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. Luke 2:21


NO one of us knows what the year we have just entered will bring us. We know only that the inheritance we received was sin and sorrow and sickness and death, and we know also that to this inheritance much cleaves that is against us. It is therefore easy to predict that this year too we will often be helpless and discouraged both in temporal and in spiritual matters. We surely do the right thing in taking these facts into consideration. Nevertheless the greatest and best thing of all is that God considers these facts both in your case and in mine.


God has given us the right to count on something else also: We may use the name of Jesus. God has bound all His promises to this Name: there He has put our entire future filled with light and hope. In this Name there is forgiveness for all our sin, and the right to go to God boldly to get all that we need. It was this Name that Jesus left here below. He gave us the right to use this Name when we appear before God, needy and helpless, so that we may receive everything that we ask of the Father in this Name. Yea, in His Name we may go out into all the world and proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins for all people.


Considering this, can we not look into the future with confidence and hope?
“Go!” says Jesus. “Go! Go through this year too at my expense and on my responsibility!” Go through everything that meets you! Go through life and death! Jesus will go with you.


Blessed Name of Jesus!

Jesus, only name that’s given
Under all the mighty heaven,
Whereby man, to sin enslaved,
Bursts his fetters, and is saved.

Jesus, name of wondrous love,
Human name of God above:
Pleading only this we flee,
Helpless, 0 our God, to Thee.

Starting on January 1, I am going to post a daily devotional from "Thy Kingdom Come" by Ludvig Hope.


"No Lutheran Lay preacher gained as much national attention as Ludvig Hope (1871-1954), a former construction worker who received his formal training in Bergen at a school which that city's domestic missionary society conducted for training evangelists.
The fact that Hope, almost certainly unlike most other lay-preachers, carefully drafted and read his sermons did not seem to... reduce his effectiveness. Like many other unordained evangelists in the Church of Norway , his attitude toward the church was at best lukewarm. Some of his opponents considered his distinguishing the state church from the genuine communion of the saints a departure from Article VII of the Augsburg Confession, which defined the church as “the assembly of all believers among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity and the holy sacraments are administered according to the Gospel. Hope was frequently alleged to regard the state church as "a scaffold on which we stand while building the Church of Christ ," a folk-pedagogical institution whose task was to prepare people for revivals. This position, of course, hardly ingratiated Hope and like minded evangelists with the clergy, but his attitude was nevertheless popular. Like many other Norwegian and Scandinavian Lutheran revivalists, Hope cared little for what he regarded as confessional minutiae, preferring instead to find his theological guidelines in the Scriptures."
 
(From Modern Christian Revivals, by Edith Waldvogel, Randall Balmer, Univ. of Illinois Press, 1993) Go to

 

 

THY KINGDOM COME, a devotional by Ludvig Hope (1939)

 JANUARY 1

8 But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it.  9 And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.'" Luke 13:8-9

 

TODAY we are at the sunrise of another year. We ask ourselves, What will this year bring us? When a humble Christian looks back over years that are past he sees God’s love and grace woven into his life; and from the depths of his soul comes the confession: “Lord, Thou hast done all things well!” But even as you thus give thanks you heave an anxious sigh. Through the corridors of time cold winds blow that seem to warn us of storms, punishment, and hard days. It is as though we heard the flapping
of the wings of the angel with the vials of wrath that are to be poured out on us.

And yet—in the midst of all that causes us to fear difficult times, there stands a Man who until this day has always prevented the worst from happening. When the righteous hand lifted the axe for a stroke, and when the vials were to be poured out on us, then He interposed and prayed for a time of respite: “Lord, let it alone this year also. True, I have offered the same prayer before; but oh, grant this year too, Lord! Let me dig about it and dung it one year more!” In this way the Vinedresser has not only prevented the worst from happening, but He has also given years of grace in which many have been saved.

This year too He prays the same prayer for people and country, and because of this Savior-love, God will again give us a year of grace for grace. If this shall prove to be the last year here in time for some of us, then He will take such believing sinner and carry him through death into eternal day.

A few more years shall roll,
A few more seasons come,
And we shall be with those that rest,
Asleep within the tomb.
A few more suns shall set
O’er these dark hills of time,
And we shall be where suns are not,
A far serener clime.