We are doing well; I hope you are too. We are still having good meetings where the power of God is mightily present. On Sunday all of us who usually meet together are going to take a trip out to the countryside. We have been offered the use of two large rooms in the middle of town for meetings, free of charge, whenever they are not rented to somebody else, and it is very unlikely they will be rented since the whole building is in a state of disrepair. However, we don’t have benches, so we will have to get some long planks and lay them across some chairs.

I have read through the little book about speaking in tongues; it wasn’t bad. The author seems to have had a great deal of negative experiences with people misusing the gift of tongues, because his whole reasoning centers around limiting its use to such an extent that one could almost be tempted to say “Stop,” before there is nothing left of it at all. If speaking in tongues is a gift—which it is—then we should give opportunity for it to be used as such, and not utterly reject it just because certain individuals misuse it.

Toward the end, the author also writes that love is the greatest gift of the Spirit. Almost everyone makes this mistake. 1 Cor. 12:31 shows us the most excellent way to the gifts—and that way is love. The gifts will cease, but love will never cease. Think if one person were to receive the gift of “tongues” and the other person the gift of “love.” The tongues would cease, and love would remain. If the person who spoke in tongues didn’t have love, he’d be in a bad way.

Here are some proverbs for you, which I’ve come up with myself.

Be silent when someone contends with you until you have overcome yourself. Your silence will amaze him, and afterwards your words will destroy what remains of his lofty designs.

Be silent in an assembly, and pay close attention to the Spirit. When it compels you, then speak, because you only see as far as the present moment, whereas the Lord perceives the meeting from beginning to end and will prompt you to contribute at an opportune time.

Be silent when you are not sure about a matter, because silence hides your ignorance and causes others to entertain the hope that your silence denotes something profound.

Think better of a person than he deserves, because it is better that he senses your confidence in him than your distrust. You can never get it just right anyway.

Don’t be quick to chasten your brother, but if you do chasten him, examine yourself and be sure that your chastisement always contains hope and a way of escape, so that afterwards he can be reunited with you; for chastening leads to life, but he who kills is a murderer.

If you are righteous, keep it to yourself, for no one but God can reward you anyway.

The fear of God is an abomination to the ungodly, but wisdom will destroy him.

That’s enough proverbs. Let’s move on to knowledge and insight through the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus our Lord, who is also the Lord and Master of insight, who for the glory that was set before Him, patiently endured. Tribulations are pressure exerted on the body of sin, and perseverance is the firstfruit of the Spirit in the sufferings, which in turn produces proven character, the glorious result of which is hope. But hope is the fruit of tribulation, which is why proven character and hope can’t be lost unless a person removes the pressure (tribulations) from the body of sin. Christ is the way through the destruction of the body of sin. We have access with Him, through His flesh, which is the veil. In the old covenant they were able to behold this flesh through the Spirit of Christ that was in them. They could also behold the suffering and death of this flesh and the glory that would follow. They were able to do this by faith—in hope contrary to hope—because the Spirit of Christ testified beforehand. When Christ was on earth, He bore the kingdom of heaven within Him to such an extent that the body of sin was conquered. By this we understand that Christ crucified the body of sin throughout His entire life, and He conquered it through God’s Spirit. So God is Christ’s head, but now we conquer it by the same Spirit which Christ made His own. Therefore Christ is the head of every person. Christ was made alive in the Spirit as He suffered death according to the flesh, and we do the same. This is the fellowship of His sufferings and the fellowship of His glory.

Well, it’s getting late, so I’ll close for now with loving greetings to you and everyone at home.

Your brother,

Selma wrote that she will visit us this month.

I am returning The Gift of Tongues; thanks for lending it to me. If you come across another book in English, I would be happy to borrow it because that way I can learn more of the language.