Memories from the Past ... !!

I have to confess it's been a real struggle to write anything over the past few days of worth here. Writers block? Call it what you will! That being said, I am ghost-writing for a bit of fun. We're dog-sitting for a month for one of my best friends while she is away in Australia so I've set up a blog for her dog to keep her updated with how he is. Here it is; "My Month with Uncle Dan and Uncle Scott and Uncle Barry!!" I've found that a good way to keep my mind busy is to look back to the past and see the goodness of God and what God did and how He moved in times past. It's why I'm so grateful I was able to preserve a massive collection of "Restoration" and "New Wine Magazines" from Dunstable.

Without them a huge amount of material that was Spirit-inspired would have been lost. Here's a selection of interesting articles. The first two pages were a review of the "New International Version" by my former senior pastor Dr Stanley Jebb. It was taken from the "Restoration Magazine - July/August 1979".

Dr Jebb's conclusions on the New International Version were;

"In the reviewer's judgement, the New International Version is a winner. Perhaps the GNB may be preferred by some for evangelism and for new converts, the NASB may be preferred for accuracy and for close study, but for all round usefulness, anyone looking for a new Bible can hardly do better than choose the NIV".

The second page was from the same edition - it was a list of tapes from previous Bible Weeks and you can see that Ern Baxter was part of it with his famous series; "The King and His Army" from the Lakes Bible Week 1975 along with Peter Parris and David Mansell.

The final page was another update page for the regular Celebration evenings that used to take place across the country. My own church - New Covenant Church in Dunstable - featured regularly with it's "All Saints Nights" that many of us still remember as children. Also Terry Virgo in Brighton had regular meetings with visitors such as Peter Parris and Bryn Jones. Awesome days ... but the best is yet to come!

Two of Ern Baxter's Friends Found!

I wanted to take this Easter Day to draw attention to some exciting discoveries I have made. I have found two of Ern Baxter's old friends on the web and some material about them! Before I post the details of my discoveries, I wanted to highlight that I have posted some links to some AWESOME sermons of Rob Rufus on my "Spirit of God!" blog. It is appropriate that they are there - and they are ESSENTIAL listening! Rob was speaking in Los Angeles, USA on "How to Sustain a Move of the Spirit". In light of the longed for coming of the tidal wave of the Spirit of God - they must be heard.

George Warnock was Ern Baxter's secretary for some years and was particularly influential in the move of the Spirit around the Latter Rain outpouring. I have one of his books, "The Feast of Tabernacles" and it makes for extremely stirring reading. Ern spoke very highly of George Warnock in his interviews with Dewey Friedel that I transcribed here. There is some biography on this official website as well as some of his writings. Furthermore I found some actual audio messages of his on a "Revival" site thanks to a link through Julie. They are here. Here's a quote from George Warnock that finds an echo in many of our hearts:

"Oh how great and majestic and powerful the Church appears to be in our day. But in actuality…how weak, how poor, how miserable, how blind, how wretched she really is. And our Lord stands at the door, and begs for admittance, that He might come to us with the "white raiment" of His righteousness, with the "anointing oil" for our eyes…with the "gold, tried in the fire"…that we might be rich".

The other brother that I found was Peter Parris. We had more contact with Peter Parris as he came to our church in Dunstable and spoke a number of times - once actually accompanying Ern Baxter. Peter was actually counted as one of Ern's spiritual sons along with my former pastor Dr Stanley Jebb and of course George Kouri. He is now based in Georgia at Life Gate Church. I have got one audio tape of his when he spoke at the Dales Bible Week 1977. My parents remember him fondly as well preaching a sermon called, "It's Friday ... but Sunday is coming!". There are some excellent audio messages on his site.

I am so stirred and excited to find these two great men of God! Go visit and enjoy!