Hope College Devotions

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge — even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you — so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:3–9

Today’s passage describes how God had greatly blessed the church in Corinth with an abundance of spiritual gifts to help them wait for the day of the Lord. The Corinthians had a variety of spiritual gifts: the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, the working of miracles, the gift of prophecy, the ability to distinguish between spirits, the gift of speaking in tongues, and the gift of interpreting tongues (1 Corinthians 12:4–11). Everything in today’s passage only highlights the beautiful things God had given them and was about to do for them. The Corinthians were not lacking in any gifts.

However, today’s passage is also a foreword to the many problems Paul needed to address in the Corinthian church. God’s gifts were meant to sustain the saints to “the end” so that they may be guiltless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet despite the many spiritual gifts within the church, the Corinthians were nevertheless problematic in multiple ways. They struggled to maintain unity (1 Corinthians 1–4), they failed to uphold sexual purity (1 Corinthians 5–7), they argued over food laws (1 Corinthians 8–10), they misused their spiritual gifts in ways that distracted people from true worship (1 Corinthians 11–14), and some even embraced heretical teachings that denied the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15).

As we count the many blessings God has showered upon Hope College, upon Holland, upon the country we live in, let us reflect on the purposes of His abundant gifts upon us. His gifts are to help us wait for the Lord’s return as we flourish and bear His image wherever He sends us. Let us uphold unity and purity and use our God-given blessings to build faith, hope, and love as we learn to worship our Lord Jesus Christ.

Mr. Samuel Pang is an assistant professor of music instruction and director of orchestras at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might
and come to save us!

Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!

O LORD God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
You have fed them with the bread of tears
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
and our enemies laugh among themselves.

Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!

But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
Then we shall not turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call upon your name!

Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!
Let your face shine, that we may be saved!
Psalm 80:1–7, 17–19

I recently learned about the concept of “Yes, and” from my Hope College students who’ve been part of Vanderprov, Hope’s improv comedy troupe.

In improv comedy, one of the rules is to take a given idea, context, or scenario and expand on it instead of shutting it down. For example, if one improviser on stage says, “I have so much grading to do before the Christmas holidays,” the second improviser could say, “Yes, and don’t forget about working on your syllabus for next semester.” Through collaboration and creativity, this “Yes, and” rule acknowledges the present reality, and adds to it, moving the scene forward.

When I think about Advent and today’s passage, this “Yes, and” concept comes to mind.

Psalm 80 is a psalm of lament and speaks to the longing of God’s people for restoration and redemption.

The psalmist begins with a cry for God to “give ear” and save His people. In what follows, the psalmist questions God, and even expresses anger towards God. God seems to be silent, hiding in the darkess, unaware of what is happening to His people.

Advent is a time of “Yes” to this earnest longing for God to save His people and to these honest cries for restoration and redemption. In our own difficult life situations and unanswered prayers, we connect with the psalmist’s words. We also lament the darkness around us and have times when we doubt God and question His work in our lives.

But Advent is also a time for the “And.”

The psalmist expresses doubt and anger within a context of trust and hope.

Psalm 80 does not end with lament and agony. Rather, the psalmist calls on God to “let your face shine, that we may be saved!” In this, lament and agony are placed within a larger context of trust and hope. The doubt and anger toward God isn’t resolved or explained away but it is expressed to a loving God who hears us, walks alongside side of us in the darkness, and who is able to provide restoration and redemption.

Yes, and.

In Christ we find our hope and salvation. Whatever longing, disappointment, confusion, or worry we are experiencing, may Advent remind us of what we know and believe to be true. In Christ we find our hope and salvation.

In Advent, we can be honest with God about whatever longing, disappointments, confusion or worries we have. And, we can also celebrate what we believe to be true — that in Christ we will find our hope and salvation. The light is coming.

Dr. Deborah Van Duinen is the Arnold and Esther Sonneveldt Professor of Education at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.

But now, O LORD, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Be not so terribly angry, O LORD,
and remember not iniquity forever.
Behold, please look, we are all your people.
Isaiah 64:1–9

In the vexed election cycle of 2016 there was a Twitter handle that began touting itself, satirically, as a candidate for the 2016 election. It still exists, and it’s called @votegiantmeteor. The original idea was that the two dominant parties and their candidates left something to be desired. Indeed, a giant meteor squashing the earth was thought to be preferable to the then-current state of political discourse.

One of the memorable posts from this handle reads as follows: “My opponents want to keep taxes complicated. I think it’s time for a flat tax. It’s time to flatten everything.” The somewhat morbid impulse to chuckle at this post also makes me resonate with the first verse of the reading selected for today (Isaiah 64:1). Out of confidence in the Lord’s promise to return and dissatisfaction with the current state of our world, my wife and I sometimes look at each other out of frustration and sigh “Come, Lord Jesus!” “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, / that the mountains might quake at your presence,” I can say with Isaiah here.

Come he will, and we should not expect his second coming to be like his first. Yet, Isaiah here also implicitly acknowledges his coming among us every day. For he is the potter and we are the clay. God in Christ is working within us and before us and all around us. Without him we can do nothing. In the famous words of St. Patrick, “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left.” I do long for the Kingdom, but that should not prevent me from being aware of (and cultivating) the Kingdom within and among us.

Dr. Jack Mulder is a professor of philosophy at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Welcome to Hope College’s third annual Advent devotional!

The theme for this year’s devotional is Come & Cheer, taken from a line in one of the best-known Advent hymns, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”:

“O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spir­its by Thine ad­vent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark sha­dows put to flight.”

On one level, this is an Advent prayer from us to God: Just as the Israelites prayed for the Messiah to come and cheer their spirits (a prayer that was fulfilled on that first Christmas morning) we now pray for Jesus Christ to come and cheer our spirits with his second coming. During the next few weeks, we’ll wait for Christmas Day as a small, seasonal way of rehearsing the church’s greater anticipation of Jesus’ second advent.

On another level, though, “come and cheer” is an invitation from God to us: During this season of preparation and celebration, when Christmas sloshes over the edges and spills into the entire month of December, we are invited to come and cheer our spirits in the presence of Emmanuel, God With Us.

It’s December, and, at Hope College, it’s December in Michigan — which means we’re in for sunless days and long nights. The “gloomy clouds” and “dark shadows” mentioned in the hymn will be all too real for us. But even here, in the bleak midwinter, God is meeting us with his invitation into Christmas joy: Come, and cheer!

If you follow along with us, every day of Advent — beginning tomorrow, December 3 — you will find a new devotional reflection by a member of the Hope College faculty and staff. (If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe.) Each scripture passage will be adapted from the Revised Common Lectionary readings for Advent.

Please join us for this Advent journey toward Christmas Day.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 1:8

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During the fourth century, A.D., orthodox theology was fighting for its life against attacks by heretical perspectives. 

One of the most prominent heresies was propagated by Arius (c. 250–336), who claimed that God the Father and the Son did not co-exist throughout eternity. The heresy stated that before His incarnation, Jesus was created by God and therefore Jesus did not exist throughout all time. Arius believed that Jesus was a created being that, though divine, was not equal to the Father.

Even back in the 4th century A.D., poetry and music reflected and voiced current issues of society. “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” is a poem written by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348–c. 413), intended to contradict the heretical thought that Arius had begun. Christian hymns like his have been used for polemical purposes throughout history.

From the first line of stanza one, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” (“Corde natus ex parentis ante mundi exordium” — literally “Born from the parent’s heart before the beginning of worlds [time]”) Prudentius sets forth the argument that the Son has always been, is always and will always be with God and us. 

Of the Father’s love begotten,
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending he
Of the things that are, that have been
And that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore.

This is perhaps the oldest hymn that congregations sing. By the time it arrived in a  hymnal, it had traveled an amazing journey through 17 centuries and at least four countries: a Latin poem from a Catholic Spanish poet in the fourth century, a tune from Italy in the 11th century, a translation from an Anglican in 19th-century England and a harmonization in the 20th century by an American Episcopal musician.

The stanzas that give this poem a decidedly Advent/Christmas character are from stanza 3:

O that birth for ever blessed
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving
Bore the Savior of our race,
And the babe, the world’s redeemer,
First revealed his sacred face,
Evermore and evermore.

In our text from Revelation 1:8,  Jesus refers to Himself as the “Alpha and Omega, who is to come,” the One who promises to return to make all things new. “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” is a testimony to what Christmas is really all about: the Creator loves His creation so much that He came to rescue and redeem it and to make all things new. He promises to come again and restore His creation.

This is no small promise. It is a promise from the Lord and Savior of all, who promises that we will live with him forever in the new heaven and earth.

So even though our world may have seemed broken back in the 4th century A.D., and seems just as broken today, we have hope.

Wherever you are, whatever you are experiencing on this Christmas Eve, the hope of Jesus’ coming is for you. Ours is the world Jesus came to heal and restore. 

“Of the Father’s love begotten” is a hymn for all times and all ages that will be sung “evermore and evermore.”

Come, Lord Jesus.

Jim DeBoer is an adjunct associate professor of music at Hope College and the director of the Awakening Institute.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith — to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
Romans 16:25–27

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Our Advent passage today is a grammarian’s delight. These final verses in the book of Romans make up one long, convoluted sentence packed full of subordinate clauses, just waiting for someone to unpack in a sentence diagram. 

For those who shudder at this thought, these verses can be summed up with a simple: To God be glory!

In these past weeks of Advent, we’ve waited with great anticipation for the birth of the Christ child and for the light that has already come. As we get ready to transition from Advent to the story of Christ’s birth and the Christmas season, this passage gives us a beautiful overview of the entire Biblical story and God’s plan for salvation. 

It’s like a book or movie review with spoilers.

As controversial as this might sound, I love spoilers. In fact, to the annoyance of my family members, I often look up what’s going to happen in a book or TV show or movie. Rather than taking away from my enjoyment, I argue that knowing the ending actually enriches my overall experience as a reader or viewer.

Our passage today reminds us that though we are still waiting and stumbling in the darkness, we know the end of the story. Everything we need for salvation and a righteous life has been given to us in Christ. What was once a mystery and previously hidden has now been revealed and made known to all nations. Christ has fulfilled the law through his life and death; faith in Him allows us to be righteous before God.

Paul’s words remind us of who we are and what we are called to do as participants in God’s redemption story. During this season of Advent and beyond, when the brokenness in our world and in my own life seems overwhelming, I need this simple reminder again and again.

To God be glory!

Dr. Deborah Van Duinen is the Arnold and Esther Sonneveldt Associate Professor of Education at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:18–24

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“Give thanks in all circumstances” 

Each fall I have the privilege of teaching more than 200 students in Health Dynamics. Many of them are freshmen who are experiencing the typical highs and lows that accompany the first semester of college. This fall was no different, with many of them expressing how “stressed” they were. I shared with my students the idea of actively practicing gratitude as a means of dealing with stress. We give thanks to the Lord each day, but what about the people in our lives? What about when we aren’t feeling especially grateful?

“Give thanks in all circumstances”

I’ve begun the practice of writing letters of gratitude. I write to those who have assisted in my professional development. The friends I’ve known for years. The family with whom I am closest. This practice has had a profound impact on me. I’ve discovered that when I’m feeling the least grateful is when it is most important to practice expressing gratitude. I shared this with my Health Dynamics students and encouraged them to find their own outlet for expressing gratitude. To develop this into a daily habit. 

“Give thanks in all circumstances… do not quench the Spirit… hold fast what is good.”

GK Chesterton writes: 

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”

During this season of Advent, may we focus on expressing gratitude in our hearts, focusing it in our minds, and expressing it in our actions.

Brian Rider is an associate professor of kinesiology and the director of the Health Dynamics program at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Oh sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
The LORD has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody!
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD!

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who dwell in it!
Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together
before the LORD, for he comes
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.
Psalm 98

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Today’s text reaches quite grandiose heights. God’s victory has been made known, not just to Israel, not just to the nations, but throughout all creation. “All the earth” is to make a joyful noise. Lest one think the psalmist simply means “all people” he goes on to speak of the sea, and all within it, and the world and all who dwell in it. The rivers should clap and the hills sing. The victory that God has accomplished has been made known to “all the ends of the earth.”

If we are honest, however, this victory does not always feel so present, so visible. The loved one still has cancer. The cloud of loneliness and depression has not dissipated. The important relationship is still broken. None of us need to look very far, but if we then allow ourselves to reflect on problems facing our communities, or humanity, or the creation itself, we might be justified in wondering what it is precisely that the ends of the earth have seen. The theme of this year’s Advent devotional, “light has come,” is a reference to the prologue of the gospel of John. As the theologian Nicholas Lash observes, “the prologue does not say, however, that we live in sunshine, but that darkness has not overcome the light.”

If we look again at Psalm 98, in the final stanza the psalmist makes an interesting shift. It is not simply that God’s victory has been made known. The rivers and hills rejoice because the Lord is coming to judge the earth with righteousness and equity. He is coming. In Advent we learn to wait. We learn to live in spaces where righteousness and equity have not been fully realized, spaces not of sunshine, but nevertheless, places where light has come, because he is coming.

Dr. Angela Carpenter is an assistant professor of religion at Hope College.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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