A Letter from Norman
Feb. 12. 1970
Brenda dearest,
Yes, it is just wonderful to look back to the fear and trembling days when you and Henry were first going to Union City, and the normal “formalism” you found there (not that folks all want that, but know no better)–and NOW–springtime has come, and you have proved and seen God mightily at work in your first church appointment. Glorious prospects–so long as you and Henry face and accept that there will always and must always be an offence of the Cross as well as an acceptance of it. There is no other way except Jesus’s way on earth. If you are kept ready to pay the same price over and over again, and not be frightened off by the fact that you will invariably offend some if the Spirit is going to get through to others, then OK for continuous movings of revival! Resurrection is only the product of the cross, and can come no other way. .The secret of life is through death to resurrection, and some will always kick violently when they smell death around. So that’s why I’m thrilled–so long as you see the permanent principle in this “law of harvest,” and expect to find the same wherever you go. I can only bear witness to that after 50 years in the “without the camp” way God has taken us (quite different from yours), I am only more thrilled to bits all the time, and wouldn’t change and by no means regret!
And the stirrings of the waters is giving you refreshing glimpses of the life that has been flowing into hearts often I expect unrecognized by you.
So this is just to say that it is great to be out on a limb with God. Not many can stand the cold winds blowing there and rush for shelter in some more secure position. I know those who started out gloriously free but without human backing, and after a bit couldn’t stick it (or the wife with the family cares couldn’t take it) and they slip back into a safe denominational burrow. So I say, you dear ones, as God, not you, has taken you this way, don’t rush back hastily to some human shelter. Wait for God. Wait on God, He has prepared door of wide-open ministry. I can only testify that after 55 years since I turned down episcopal ordination, with Pauline to the wide open spaces of a WEC worldwide ministry with that wild man C.T. Studd, we are only thankful still to be unfettered–and what open doors and hearts. So just keep going–ONLY where GOD TAKES YOU.
Ever lovingly to both of you, Norman
