Summer Conferences—2013

Summer Conferences—2013

Again we received grace to meet for two summer conferences at Brunstad. Friends—mainly young people—from all the continents met in order to hear such words that are “good for necessary edification,” as it is written in Ephesians 4:29. May this also continue in our local fellow­ships with words that are good and for necessary edification.

What follows is the gist of the guiding theme at the meetings, namely excerpts of Brother Kåre J. Smith’s messages.

Our Conduct in the House of God

At the opening meeting during the July conference, Brother Kåre J. Smith emphasized what Paul (in 2 Corinthians 3) calls the ministry of the Spirit and the ministry of righ­teousness. It is through just such a ministry that the church has been and continues to be edified. Min­isters of the Spirit have a spirit that has been made alive, and through their ministry they contribute to oth­ers being made alive by putting the flesh with its passions and desires on the cross. You can either praise or blame such faithful servants of the Spirit, but they are what they are in Christ. Praise does not add anything to them, nor does blame detract anything from them. They can, as it is written in Chapter 4 verse 2, commend themselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

Paul writes exhortations to Timo­thy about how one ought to conduct oneself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. 1 Tim. 3:14-15. Every one of us ought to feel responsibility for the church and learn the laws of the house. In the church we learn to submit to one another (among other things) in the love and wisdom of Christ. It becomes easy to accept exhorta­tion and admonition from the other members in such a good and blessed spirit and atmosphere.

In Ephesians Chapter 4, which deals in particular with the laws that God has given in the church, we are exhorted to walk worthy of our calling, not the least in God’s house, which is the church. Every­thing must transpire for the edifica­tion of the body of Christ. Long, knowledge-based sermons are not edifying; they break down. Together with all the saints, we shall be fully equipped to serve each other. Cer­tain individuals can develop into “lone wolves” who have a reputa­tion for godliness, but if you were to examine them more closely, you would discover that there is no fel­lowship around them.

God-fearing servants of the Lord in the church have spoken the gos­pel into our hearts. Through a life-giving preaching of the Word—the full gospel—we have come to faith in victory over sin and total transfor­mation. If we were to use one word to describe the full gospel, it would have to be: Transformation!

With this understanding of the gospel what we read in Philippians 1:27 takes on a deeper and more meaningful quality: “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ . . . .” Then it will be very good in the church. “Stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” For example, being suspicious is not the gospel of Christ. Suspicion is a weapon of the devil that causes division. People are deceived by their soul-life, not knowing how to discern one thing from another in their feelings. Deuteronomy 29:29 is a powerful weapon against this deadly poison: “The secret things be­long to the Lord our God . . . .” How peaceful it is for the person who has learned to commit everything to Him who judges righteously. Then there will be no backbiting either. Then we say only those things that are for the benefit of our neighbor and to God’s pleasure. And we also purify our soul from all restless thoughts of human reasoning. What we say will be for necessary edifica­tion, and we are bound together by bonds of love.

Purify Yourself Just as He Is Pure

In 1 John 3:1-3 we read about the blessed hope of Jesus Christ’s follow­ers: Becoming like Him and seeing Him as He is. “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” This encourage­ment to cleanse oneself pertains to Jesus’ true followers and not those who are in bondage to conscious sins. For the second group, the exhortation in Colossians 3:8, ff., about putting off wrath, malice, lying etc. is more fitting.

Indeed, lying is something that everyone has to be careful about, for through the Fall we were permeated by the nature of lying. In Romans 3:4 we read that everyman is a liar. There is lying in the way we think, in our body language, in the way we dress. All selfish thoughts, all egotism is lying—all of it. First of all we must put off lying as conscious disobedience. Then we must walk in the light just as He is in the light. By walking in the light, we get to see more of what we need to be cleansed from. Then Jesus’ blood cleanses us to a deeper degree; not from commit­ted sins—transgressions—but from the sin we get to see in a continually increasing light. In this manner we can advance on the way of life.

We cannot keep anything in the dark when we walk in the light. Light—the Spirit of truth—is to lead us into all truth (John 16:13), to the light that is in Him. In this develop­ment, love increases more and more with all discernment; we learn to discern between good and evil to a deeper degree, “so you can be pure and without offense till the day of Christ.” Phil. 1:10. This is quite dif­ferent than doing something as well as we understand it on a human level. This is a development on the way of sanctification to becoming spiritual and mature.

We realize that we have to cleanse ourselves in the light unto unfeigned brotherly love in which we melt to­gether to be one, loving each other sincerely from the heart. 1 Pet. 1:22; Col. 3:12. God’s Word, which is sharper than any two-edged sword must pierce through, for it has much to test and judge when it comes to the thoughts and intents in our soul. Heb. 4:12. We must always have a lively interest in this inner cleansing. The person who would rather be oc­cupied with cleansing the others than himself will never grow up to the full stature of manhood or experience fellowship. Those who are willing to be cleansed experience that they grow up to the full stature of man­hood in Christ in the midst of having fellowship with the others in the fire that is in the brotherhood.

Keep the Commandment Pure

The church is built up on the foun­dation of the apostles and prophets. The chief cornerstone is Christ Jesus Himself. Eph. 2:19-22. He has given us His commandments, the laws of the Spirit of life, but if we do not in our days keep faithfully to His Word, we will not fit into the building of which all the saints throughout all ages are a part. Therefore we must take Paul’s exhortation to Timothy seriously when he (in 1 Timothy 6:12, ff.), commands him to keep the commandment pure and blameless. The commandment is what molds us, so that we can fit together with the chief cornerstone according to which everything that is in this building is being built. In this building we are to fit together with the apostles and all the holy men and women, each of whom has been faithful to the Word in their days. Our children must grow up in the shelter of the Lord’s commandments. There they are safe.

Paul warned against false apostles whom he called wolves. They would not spare the flock. They are the ones who seek their own. By our life and example we must take care that such people do not gain entrance into the church. Even in Paul’s days there were some who perverted the com­mandments of the Lord for their own gain. And by how much greater is this evil in our days! Indeed, we see how Paul describes the last days, “. . . Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power,” namely, the power to overcome sin. 2 Tim. 3:1-5. If a person doesn’t gain the victory over sin, isn’t it precisely because he loves his lusts more than God?

In our days we, too, have had, and still have faithful servants of the Lord who keep the commandments pure. Many of them, who were formerly in the cloud of sojourners, are now in the cloud of witnesses at home with God. They are calling out to us to be faithful in our time as they have been faithful in their time. Can you hear them calling?

Divine Goodness

When we read about the election of grace to be holy and blameless be­fore God’s face, as we do in Ephesians 1:4-5, and really have a living faith in it, then we have no more unhappy days. We read that this election was made before the foundation of the world. And in Chapter 2:4 we read about the exceeding riches of His grace in goodness toward us. In verse 10 we read that we have been created unto good works which He has prepared for us. We have noth­ing to fear when we truly believe in this great love with which He has loved us. Let come what may! We are God’s elect, and He is our refuge and strength. We really get to taste and sense that God is good. The fact that we have a desire and a longing for this life in God and sense that we are being comforted by His word is because of His election of grace. Let us therefore subject our entire life to His good will. As natural human beings we are saturated by unrighteousness and lying, but by God’s grace we can be transformed to be righteous and good just as He is righteous and good. Indeed, if we are to be partakers of divine nature, we have to obtain a fullness of goodness, for God is utterly good.

“Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.” Rom. 12:17. “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” V. 21. This heavenly goodness is united with wisdom. If there is a lack of wisdom, then there is also a lack of goodness. With goodness we can overcome all the evil spirit powers. Romans 2:4 shows us that it is goodness that leads people to repentance, not hardness. In verse 5 we read about hardness that is reserved for judgment. We must acknowledge that there is much hardness in our human nature from which we need to be saved.

When Moses desired to see God’s glory, it was precisely God’s good­ness he saw. God dwells “in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit.” Isa. 57:15. “Contrite and humble” is the exact opposite of all hardness and stiffness. We can break many things with hardness. To be sure, the person who leaves the way of good­ness glides into Satan’s kingdom. Therefore the apostle Peter exhorts us in 1 Peter 2:1-3: “Therefore, laying aside all malice . . . if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

Godly Fear

“The word is near you . . . .” Rom. 10:8. The church was exhorted to this during the opening meeting of the August conference. This is the greatest thing with our conferences. The word is near. But it also must continue like this in our daily cir­cumstances.

“What manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godli­ness.” 2 Pet. 3:11. “Therefore . . . be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and wrinkle.” V. 14. You get spots and wrinkles if you do not pay attention to the voice of your conscience when it tells you about something from which you should cleanse yourself. If I have said some bad words about someone else, I have to regret it and repent of it. It has happened that someone has mocked and spoken derogatively about good brothers who have been a sacrifice for the church throughout their entire life. Then one should be quick to ask for forgiveness, to put matters right with God and with people.

In verse 17 we are exhorted not to be led away with the error of the ungodly and fall from our own stead­fastness. Godly fear is a firm state, a strong and immovable refuge. There one is not influenced by the error of the ungodly, for example, by the spir­it of the times, or by unchaste spirits. Then one doesn’t surf on the internet (for example) for immodest pictures and texts. Such shameful things are far, far removed from godly fear. It is by the fear of God—this strong and safe refuge—that we can grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! V. 18. Therefore we must always stir one another up unto holy conduct and godly fear. Jesus loved righteousness and hated iniquity. If we love Him, we love what He loved and hate what He hated.

Timothy, Paul’s faithful fellow laborer, God’s servant and apostle, is exhorted to exercise himself in the fear of God. Shouldn’t we then much more sense a need for taking this exhortation to heart? Exercising yourself in the fear of God means that you exercise yourself in standing before God’s face. As natural human beings we have plenty of experience in exercising ourselves to speak and act to please men. The fear of God teaches us to live faithful to the truth in love. If we live before God’s face, we will come to a thoroughly happy life. Then we have a good conscience before God and man.

We shall both fear and love God. The fear in question is not the fear of a slave. A slavish fear can compel a person to a certain degree of obedi­ence, but not to the obedience of the faith. Love is the motivating power in the obedience of faith—love of Him who loved us first. 1 John 4:18-19.

Concerning women who confess godliness, it is written that they shall dress in modest apparel, with propri­ety and moderation. Not immodestly and shamelessly. 1 Tim. 2:9-10. Every truth-loving sister should ask herself this question: what am I doing and what have I done with this word? Don’t get the idea that the fear of God is something “legalistic,” something from the old days that does not ap­ply in our days. On the contrary, the fear of God delivers us from sin and disobedience even in our days. Let us always weigh our words and actions on the scales of godly fear. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” Prov. 8:13.

The Cornerstone

We often call the church the “orderly building,” according to Ezekiel 28:12 [Norw. tr.]. Jesus won the church on the cross. He Himself is the chief cornerstone in this build­ing in which we are built up as living stones, and all of us must be aligned according to the cornerstone. We read about this in Matthew 21:42 and in Ephesians 2:20-22. Everyone who desires to be a living stone in this building must be humble, and be willing to be molded. Strong self-wills and stubbornness do not fit into this building. Everything goes according to laws. However, everyone who acknowledges his folly and humbles himself easily finds his place in this building. It is still the time of grace; we can still humble ourselves, be molded, and find our place in this blessed and orderly building.

We read in Luke 1:51-52 that God has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts and put down the mighty from their thrones, exalting the lowly. Great men rebel against the laws of this orderly build­ing. They do not align themselves according to the cornerstone. How­ever, the humble and the lowly easily find their place.

Therefore there must always be prophets in the church, those who are in touch with the cornerstone and who can bring the word that aligns everything according to this cornerstone. Jesus, the cornerstone, humbled Himself, and all the stones in the building walk on this way of humiliation, rejoicing with each other.

In 1 Peter 2:1 we read about the things that must be put off in order to be part of this “orderly building” at all: malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy, and backbiting. Brotherly love is in­compatible with all this, for example, with guile. In verse 2 we read that we shall grow by the pure milk of the word. Therefore prophetic words must be spoken in the church by prophets who give a clear tone as to which way we shall go—not dry, knowledge-based messages that are apt to break down more than they build up. Human reasoning rises up in protest against the prophetic word, but the fear of God guides us to wisdom.

The Truth Which Abides in Us

“Because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us for­ever.” 2 John 2. We are all liars by nature. However, in the fear of God and by loving the truth we lay hold of the truth in our spirit, and this truth will go with us into the eternal habitations. In Romans, chapter 3 we have an x-ray picture of ourselves in which we see how we are by nature. Looking at this picture, we realize that nothing of our old nature is of any value to God. The only impor­tant thing is a new creation which we take with us into eternity. In 1 John 9, we receive an exhortation about abiding in the doctrine of Christ. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Matt. 16:24. These are clear words; this is the doc­trine of Christ. If we end up outside of this doctrine, we end up outside of Christ. The message in 2 John 10 is just as plain; namely, that we shall not welcome anyone into our house who does not bring this doctrine but has gone astray.

David exclaims in Psalms 51:6, “Behold, You desire truth in the in­ward parts.” David grieved over his sin and longed for truth and purity in his innermost heart. V. 10. God does not give His purity into hearts that that are basically swelled with self-interest. Wisdom radiates purity. When you speak with someone who possesses the Spirit of wisdom and purity in his heart, it is as if radiance from the Lord Himself touched your heart. This is reminiscent of the woman’s word to the prophet Elisha, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.” 1 Kings 17:24. Therefore Elisha also said to Elijah on the day when he was taken up, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen.” 2 Kings 2:12. He considered Elijah to be a greater salvation for Israel than the entire army of Israel. This was precisely because he was a man of God and was in contact with the living God. Such people are valuable for all of mankind.

Everything we say and sing must be true. God hates lying and unfaith­fulness. For example, unfaithfulness in marriage is an abomination and destroys something in a person’s soul. Hypocrites do not have a hid­den life with Christ in God. But a God-fearing person’s life radiates invisible, effective rays as a blessing for mankind.

The Faith of Abraham

Abraham received the promise of a son, and descendants without number. We read in Romans 4:17-20 that, “contrary to hope, in hope he believed.” He even became strong in his faith by giving God the glory. He forsook everything in order to obtain the promise. We must do the same if we want to obtain the promises of the gospel. We must believe fully and without wavering in Him who calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Then we sigh for the fulfillment of the promises, even if we still haven’t advanced that far. Everything depends on our faith. In Hebrews 6:16 ff., we read that God wanted to show the heirs of promise how immutable His will was. The heirs of promise are “we . . . who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” This is the hope of being partakers of divine nature.

The reason for doubting these promises is that a person does not give God the glory. Then he believes that he is also capable of something and that God should, so to speak, help him by giving him a hand. On the contrary, God alone shall do the work. Therefore we must believe in Him alone. Let us not reckon with ourselves. Rightly understood, we have nothing to do in this matter. It takes time before most people come to an end of themselves, believing in themselves. The bodies of Abraham and Sarah were dead, but Abraham did not doubt God’s promise in unbe­lief. He gave the glory to God. This is a great comfort for all those who long for the fulfillment of the promise of the gospel in their life. As Abraham did, so they receive a tested faith, which is much more precious than gold that perishes.

By faith, and by faith alone, we have gained access into this grace, and we “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Rom. 5:2. God’s glory is di­vine nature—all the virtues of Christ. Many people believe in justification by faith, but they do not believe in the promises of the gospel. Such people do not have the faith of Abraham.

In Hebrews 7:25, we see that Jesus is “able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them.” By a living faith in Him we can glory in tribulations, as we read in Romans 5. It is not at all common to glory in one’s tribulations. Yet it is in tribulations that God opens our ears, so we can hear His voice. In 1 Samuel 3:9 ff., it says so significantly when “Samuel went and lay down in his place,” that he heard the Lord’s voice. The same applies to our lives. Through the Lord’s chastening we come to “our place.” Then the Lord comes, and we hear His voice.

Many people are sure to have be­gun their Christian life by believing in victory, but have since given up because they believed more in them­selves than in God. This is especially true of the times when God wanted to break down their strength, their strong “I.” The way to victory is to be poor in yourself and lose confidence in yourself, but at the same time cling to God’s promises. Let us, in the faith of Abraham, look to the future, and speak in faith about what will come. Those who have the faith of Abraham do not become discouraged even though it does not always succeed so well. They learn the lesson that they can do nothing of themselves. Lay hold of the faith of Abraham; then you are truly a child of Abraham!

Rest in God

People usually use their human reasoning in life’s many changing circumstances, being led by their feelings and thinking that they un­derstand things. They rely on their human reasoning and don’t seek guidance from God and in His Word. In Hebrews 4, we see the way into rest in life’s circumstances. God’s Word shall divide between soul and spirit, teaching us to understand what we cannot grasp with our senses. Rea­soning and feelings cannot compre­hend God’s way, whether it is His way with us or with the others. For example, we can take the exhortation about not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good. Rom. 12:21. If we are to obey this word, we must believe, for our feelings and our reasoning will gladly tell us something totally different. We must seek guidance in the Word, which di­vides between soul and spirit. Then we will obtain exercised senses to discern between good and evil; we will even grow up to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ Jesus. We will enter into rest in God. We learn to put aside our reasoning and our feelings, letting God’s word judge the thoughts and intents of our heart. If we don’t let God’s Word do this in us, we will remain immature children.

“All things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” Open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account! In life’s circumstances we must act with this understanding that we only have to do with the living God. Joshua and Caleb entered the Promised Land because they had to do only with Him. Life takes a com­pletely different turn when we cease to think, speak, and act according to our feelings and human reasoning, and begin to think, speak, and act according to His guidance to whom we must give account.