Since I am unable to be there, Br. Ellefsen will convey my warmest greetings to the conference in Drøbak, with prayers and best wishes for blessed meetings.

Some of the dear friends from Western Norway will meet the friends from Eastern Norway for the first time. My prayer is that during the time together in Drøbak, the fellowship which we by God’s grace have already established before the conference may be strengthened even more and be found to be genuine.

During the past few years, God has worked in many ways, far beyond even what we could have imagined. Many have desired to crush the church in its infancy in the Lord, in order to destroy the knowledge of God. But God was with us, even when things were at their worst, and today we can praise the Lord because the power of our opposers has been broken so that we can meditate on the law of the Lord in peace.

If we are to hold onto the land we have won, then each one must be a pillar in the temple of God where they are, so that, together with the others, they form an impenetrable wall in the fellowship of the Spirit in peace—because this is our fellowship, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God.

We belong to Christ, and we are no longer our own. Just as Christ was given as the head and as a gift to the church, we are given as gifts to one another. Therefore, each one of us has an obligation to serve others in a way that maintains and furthers the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. If anyone breaks this law, he reveals himself to be a transgressor in the church.

God has given us light in His word and revealed to us the mysteries of Christ, to the extent that He has been able to lead us. Therefore, it is our duty to defend what He has given to us, just as nations today defend the land of their forefathers. The apostles and a great number of the saints have given their lives for this glorious word of God, so we cannot expect to pass through this world victoriously without having to fight.

Therefore, do not fear those who can kill the body; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Right from the time the number of friends began to grow, there have always been people who have compared what we preach to what they preach inside the camp. They have had a certain longing for the camp and have been drawn to it, there where people serve the tabernacle. This is because they don’t have victory. Again and again they need to have their bodies washed, and because of this, less can be said about walking on the new and living way, where the third witness—the testimony of the blood—finds its rightful place.

It’s not the doctrine’s fault that some people are like this; it’s because of their own slothfulness and unwillingness to lay down their lives.

“We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.” When a person’s entire service for God consists solely of an outward cleansing of the body, this is called “serving the tabernacle.” Such people have no right to eat of the altar which is behind the veil—indeed they cannot.

Just as some turned back to the weak and beggarly principles, there are those among us who have shown a tendency to go back to serving the tabernacle.

Thank God that, nevertheless, there are faithful souls who esteem the reproach of Christ as the greatest riches of all, and who are quite content with their lot outside the camp—where He is, and where we are nourished from the altar of His flesh and His blood, which Jesus Himself says is food and drink indeed.

As long as the first tabernacle is still standing, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the sanctuary has not yet been made manifest. But beyond the veil, the Spirit testifies, together with the water and the blood, of deep rest—the rest of God.

My greetings to the friends at the conference with John 9:7, including verses 35-39, as well as Heb. 13:13-14.

Warm greetings in the love of Christ.

Yours,