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.