In Zechariah 11:7 the prophet says that he fed the flock with two staffs in his hand. The one he called Beauty, and the other he called Bonds. These two “staffs” were clearly in evidence during the New Year’s Conference at Brunstad. The entire conference was characterized by beauty as well as by the bonds that bind us together. What follows is the gist of this beautiful message that binds us together, which was proclaimed at the meetings. Quite early, even during the time of the apostles, the spirit of the Antichrist was already working to distort and explain away God’s grace. Therefore the apostle Peter had to exhort as well as testify about “the true grace of God.” 1 Pet. 5:12. The true grace of God is the grace that can lead us to perfect victory over sin and make us partakers of the divine nature. Jude exhorts the readers to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Jude 3. For there were some who had begun to turn the grace of God into licentiousness—those who refused to have Jesus Christ as ruler and Lord in their lives. V. 4. Yes, let us be on guard so that no one can rob us of this precious faith. There is a tremendous pressure in the religious world, not to deny Jesus Christ as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, but to deny Him as Lord and ruler in our lives—to explain away the grace that gives us victory over all conscious sin. Then people continue to be sin­ners, albeit saved sinners, as they say, but nevertheless they continue to live as sinners. Let us contend earnestly for our faith! The fact that a person has been converted to God and has received forgiveness for his sins does not mean that he has victory over sin. We have to fight for our faith to gain the victory. People usually say that everything is under grace, that we are under grace; yet they continue to sin. That is not the true grace. Abraham and Sarah experienced that their human strength was com­pletely broken down. When they received their son Isaac, they could truly say: Everything is by grace! Abraham became strong in his faith by giving glory to God. What was impossible (humanly speaking) be­came possible. Paul also testified that the Lord’s grace toward him was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love, which are in Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. 1:14. This grace is so abundant that it can lead us to be conformed to the image of Jesus. In Titus 2:12 we read that the grace of God teaches (chastens) us to deny ungodliness and to live godly in this present age. Yes, this is the true grace of God. Paul considered himself to be the greatest of all sinners; yet he received mercy and became an example for all of us. Paul humbled himself deeply and received grace and mercy. Here we can see the way to receiving grace, the true grace of God. Acknowledg­ment opens the door to this well of grace. “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” 2 Cor. 12:10. This is how the zeal­ous Paul, through experience, had learned how he could be preserved in the power of grace. A person can be young and zeal­ous, and perhaps there isn’t much anointing that follows along in his life and in his ministry. If a person is older and has partaken of the break­ing-down process, he can rejoice over such young, zealous people, because they will also come to see their own infirmities in their time. And then they will receive more anointing over their life and their activities. Paul could testify that God’s grace toward him had not been in vain. 1 Cor. 15:10. May we also have the same testimony. Grace has been in vain in a person’s life if he is bitter, offended, angry, etc. By God’s grace Paul was set free from making any demands. He had no demands or ex­pectations of being honored by peo­ple. What sort of demands should we have a right to make if everything is by grace? Then the older generation, for example, has no demands to make on the younger ones. We shall not lose courage when we get to see our infirmities. Ab­raham, the father of the believers, believed in hope against hope, and he was not put to shame. Continue with prayer and supplication and faith toward God. Believe in grace! “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more . . . .” Rom. 5:20. There are no limits to what God can do. We ourselves set limits if we do not believe the Word. Lay hold of faith in what God can do for you and in you! There was a youth meeting held on the first day of the New Year’s Conference for the purpose of en­couraging the young people to be­come servants of the Lord. A film was shown of an evangelistic cam­paign held by the German youth earlier in the fall, which recorded the blessed effects of this campaign—first and foremost for the young people themselves, and then on several peo­ple who had heard the Gospel. In Romans 6:22 we read of the clear conditions for being in God’s service: To be set free from sin, which means to be set free from living in conscious sin—i.e., the works of the flesh that are mentioned in Galatians 5:19-21, which everyone knows to be sin. Those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Rom. 8:14 flg. Those who walk in the Spirit do not fulfill the works of the flesh; they have crucified the flesh with its pas­sions and desires. Gal. 5:16, 24. May there be many such servants! God is faithful who has given us the promises, and since it can take some time before the promises are fulfilled, we need to hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. Heb. 10:23. We shall not make it seem as if we have come to more in our life than what is the truth. However, everyone can confess his hope and speak prophetically in faith! During our sojourn we are sure to discover that we do what we hate, as Paul mentions in Romans 7. Nevertheless, this is precisely where we develop as servants of the Lord—by putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. It is evident that our body manifests much of our nature by deed and word. But if we know how to cleanse ourselves, we will have a glorious development in the service of the Lord. Those who serve the Lord in truth don’t go around waiting to be thanked and acknowledged. Not at all! They become thankful. “For no other foundation can any­one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 3:11. Not so many people have had this founda­tion laid in their lives. Paul was so apprehended of the knowledge of Jesus Christ that he considered everything else as dung in order to gain Christ. A person does not have a foundation in his life if he does not possess the knowledge concerning Jesus, that as the Son of Man He was tempted and overcame. However, when we receive light over the work that transpired in Jesus in the days of His flesh, then we can receive faith that we can also be saved from every­thing that entered mankind through the Fall. In Romans 5:10 we read that we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, and now we shall be saved much more by His life after we have been reconciled. When the apostle Peter writes about following in Jesus’ steps who committed no sin, how can we believe that without having Jesus as a foundation for our faith? This implies that we see Him as He is described in Romans 8:3. There we can clearly see that God condemned sin in His flesh, so that Peter could write: “Who committed no sin.” This becomes a firm foundation for our faith. Then Jesus becomes our Lord in truth, and by the obedience of faith our life will be to His praise. Rom. 1:5. It will not be to the praise of His name if we continue to sin. Because He, our High Priest, was tempted in all points as we are, we can now receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Heb. 4:15-16. In time of need! So that we will not fall! Yes, great is this mystery of god­liness: Christ manifested in the flesh. We read further in Romans 8:4 that the requirement of the law can now be fulfilled in us. This means that the desires are being put to death, because the requirement of the law was: you shall not covet! Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice to God. The Old Testament sacrifices could not take away sin. However, when we offer ourselves as a sacrifice, we will be conquerors—even more than conquerors! Then the Spirit can lead us to all truth, and we will receive more and more light over the things in us that need to be surren­dered into the death of Christ. Let us not despise this great salva­tion! Paul could testify that he always bore in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus. 2 Cor. 4:10. Always! He was so apprehended of Jesus Christ that he always found something to surrender into the death of Christ. Thus he could manifest the life of Christ. V. 11. God has a glorious plan with our life after we have been saved by grace through faith. We are His workman­ship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before or­dained that we should walk in them. Eph. 2:8-10. He has to mold us to do these good works, and now we live in our time of training and shall learn to enter into the works that He prepares for us. Then we must learn to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand, as Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:6. God’s mighty hand is everything that meets us in life, including things that cause us sufferings. It is not the intention that we should be oppressed by many burdens. There are many things that we can’t do anything about, and we have permission to cast all these things on the Lord. Then we can bear those burdens which we are meant to bear according to the Lords will freely and easily. On this way we also partake of chastisement, for the Lord chastens everyone whom He loves. Then we must not be amazed. It is God’s mighty hand that wants to mold us and save us so that we shall be to the praise of the glory of His name. That is more than just being able to testify, “I was saved by grace.” Eph. 1:5-6. Then we learn to walk in the good works that God has prepared for us. We will also experience the truth of Romans 8:28, that all things work together for our good, for being conformed to the image of His Son is for our good. V. 29. This is where we find the works that have been prepared for us—in the very situa­tion in which we find ourselves—at home, at our place of employment, and in the local church. It is precisely in the local church that we shall learn to be “kneaded” into fellowship with our brothers and sisters. Perhaps it is difficult for you to listen to your brother’s “preaching.” However, it is more important for you to remain in love and be saved from making demands than to make an end of your brother’s talkativeness. Humble yourself, and then you will have fel­lowship with your brother. If heavy burdens are to be borne, then we must do what is done in the natural when something heavy has to be borne: seek to go under the burden. The burdens will be easy to bear in the lowly places, under your fellow brothers and sisters. If we say we have no sin, we de­ceive ourselves. 1 John 1:8. The apos­tle John writes further in Chapter 2:1 that he was writing to the believers that they might not sin. These words are a clear indication that there is a difference between having sin and committing sin. Having sin means that we have a flesh with passions and desires. Rom. 7:18. This causes us to be tempted. Being born again and having received a new heart does not mean that we do not have sin; neither does it mean that we are not tempted. Yet we do not need to do what we are tempted to do; we do not need to let anything impure into our heart. We can keep a pure heart. Through death Jesus destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. Heb. 2:14. He was the first one to go this way. Now we can (as Paul writes in Philippians 3:10) be conformed to His death by faithfully suffering in the flesh. Death, in this context, means that we will no longer be tempted in an area where we were previously tempted. This is the help He can give us since He Himself has suffered and was tempted. Heb. 2:18. The majority of people who consider themselves believers have, in fact, “another Jesus,” a Jesus who cannot help us out of sin. Nevertheless, let us follow our Master on the way of suffering. Then we will enter into rest. It is not the intention that we are always tempted to the same things. It is not sin to be tempted, but we abso­lutely do not need to do what we are tempted to do. But if it should hap­pen that a person sins, then we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, who is the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 2:1-2. Let us fight for our faith! Our calling is to be blameless in holiness before the face of our God and Father. 1 Thess. 3:13. Yes, the New Year’s Conference was one with the prophetic word. We read about it in 1 Corinthians 14:3 that it is edification and exhortation and comfort. “Beauty” and “Bonds” were also clearly evident during the feast meeting that was held on New Year’s Eve. At this feast we were shown a film about the work that goes on with the children and the young people in the church. For example, we heard testimonies of young people who expressed their deep thankfulness that they had grown up in a church where they experienced a blessed and good work, with interesting activities for children and young people, and where there were many younger faithful brothers and sisters who of­fered themselves in this work. Yes, may this contribute to an increased understanding of this work, and may our thankfulness increase for all those who offer themselves. The children thrive in our midst. Some people say that the outer court has become large. Yes, but we believe in the creative power of the Word.Arild Tombre