Life on Wings - A Tribute to Dr Ern Baxter

Newfrontiers Magazine - October - December 2006!

It was thrilling as usual to receive the latest edition of the Newfrontiers Magazine through the post (which I am sure will be available online here soon). It is typically of an extremely high standard with an amazing new look to it. But most importantly each article is incredibly stirring.

There is a review of Together on a Mission 2006 written as usual by Wendy Virgo. Interestingly enough she opened the review by mentioning some of the key prophecies that I have transcribed here, and quite rightly speaks of the predominant theme of Word and Spirit that Wayne Grudem and Rob Rufus brought unconciously to the conference.

Simon Virgo reviews Mobilise held at the Clarendon Centre. He too noted; "What marked Mobilise ... is an unashamed and confident commitment to being a people of both the Word and the Spirit. Being unashamed of both emphases enables us to be truly unafraid as we present the gospel to our culture". That is the best apologetic for holding 100% to being truly Reformed and truly charismatic that I have yet to find. We don't attempt to hold the tension between Word and Spirit just for it's own sake - but because we truly believe that it is the most effective way to spear-head the Gospel into a lost and hurting world.

That all being said, Terry Virgo mentioned something in his 'Firstline' that reminds me of the utter importance of "Foundations". There have been two discussions about "Big Churches" on two blogs I read - Mark Heath's (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) and Gavin's - and the vitality of right foundations for a church was a theme common in both. Terry said;

"It could be argued, of course, that everything changed on the great resurrection morning when Jesus conquered death for ever, or perhaps on the triumphant day of Pentecost when the powerful Presence of God was poured out on the waiting disciples. New creation began! The long awaited eschatological kingdom was inaugurated!".

This of course thrills an "avid resurrectionist" like myself! Kate Simmond's awesome hymn sums this truth up; "on this my hope now rests - that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead!". My next transcript of Ern Baxter is to be a New Wine article he wrote on "Repentance". Ern wrote this;

"We first need to stress the importance of good foundations in the Christian life. Most of the problems we encounter as Christians and many impediments to our personal growth derive from our failure to have laid sound foundations at the very beginning".

I hope that this transcript will follow hard on the heels of my next post - a review of our time on Sunday evening at Christchurch, London!