I am on board the Sleipner. I only have this paper to write on, which seems to have already been scribbled on by Johanne Lovise or Kristian.

God upholds me mightily, day by day. Life is very busy here, but I presume it has to be that way if I am to be molded into what God wants me to be. All things work together for our good. The clay cannot have an opinion about how it should be worked on. We must simply take everything as from God, whether it be good or bad. We can be sure that He causes all things to work together for our very best, even though that work may be beyond our field of vision and beyond the limits of our understanding. That is exactly how He proves that He is so much greater than we are—that He can work with us even when we cannot yet understand His purpose. So we see that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus (the body) for good works. We are being molded for these good works, and God Himself is the one who first does this good work in us. He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one (God), for which reason He is not ashamed to call us brethren. However, the fact that God equips a person for good works is in itself already a good work since God’s work is tested and completed when we carry it out. Every good work has been foreordained by God Himself, and we are to walk in them. All of this was first accomplished in Christ. It was first in Christ Jesus that the Spirit of God plowed through the whole body. In this way, the devil lost the battle at every point within the body and had to yield and give place to the Spirit of God that now dwells bodily in Christ. For the newly converted, He is the Bright and Morning Star; for the perfect, He is the noonday Sun; and for everyone, He is all in all. He is a cold planet for the one who is under the law, for He Himself lived under the law; for the one who is crucified with Him, He is a luminous fixed star; and for the one who is progressing, He increases in splendor—all this in one and the same person. Christ took everything that is changeable into His own person in order to restore everything to being unchangeable—to the One with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Therefore, the Mediator is not just for one, but God is One. But we who are on the way are subject to the law of transformation in Christ; we are transformed into the image of Christ, from glory to glory. However, the one who is to be transformed cannot comprehend or evaluate the One who transforms him; therefore we need to suffer patiently and commit our souls to God in doing good.

Since the recent outpouring of the Spirit, many enemies of the cross of Christ have arisen. If we want to share Christ’s joy, we must also be diligent not to draw back from sharing His sufferings. Take note of those who are content to live off their baptism of the Spirit and are not willing to suffer with Christ, because their end is corruption and their god is their belly. Don’t blindly accept everything they come up with, because their closest kinsmen have gone before them in this false liberty. Their rejoicing is nauseating, and their shouts of hallelujah grate on the ear. Everybody needs to form their own opinion about these things, but what we see, we must proclaim.

Little Johanne just can’t figure out why I am home sometimes, and other times I am gone again. She said to her mother: “Daddy’s cwazy.” And says to me: “You’re cwazy, Daddy.” She really loves me and throws her arms around me as soon as I come ashore for a while. Kristian is an exceptionally clever boy, but he is still suffering from constipation. Rakel laughs and smiles at us. Br. Berg is sailing as a civilian second mate on the SS Union to England. Br. Ellefsen is on leave and is currently working as a draftsman near Mjøsen. The meetings are going as usual. God is using a navy man (married man) to lead the meetings. He has received extraordinary wisdom from God, so much so that he never ceases to amaze me. Regarding insight, he is in a league of his own. The only thing is, he has only been on the way for one year.

Loving greetings from your son and brother with Num. 31:23.

Yours,