Thanksgiving has been my typical opening and I see no reason to stop now. I am ever grateful to the Lord for the opportunity to be a part of what God is doing in your lives. What a privilege it continues to be to serve the Lord in serving you. Yet, my service to you quite often seems to fall short of where I believe it ought to be. I so desire to be the kind of pastor who has, not only that precious time in prayer and in the Word of God, but I long to be with and among all of you; not only in visitations and phone calls, but in gatherings for fellowship throughout the week. Because my health is not always as energetic as I wish it could be, I am so grateful for your love and prayers for me. It is a comfort and encouragement upon every remembrance of you, especially knowing as I do how often you have bent the knee before our Sovereign to pray for me. What a gracious Lord we have to make you the blessings you are to me. Lisa, Rachel, Mama Virginia, and I are so grateful to the Lord for each and every one of you. Thank you.

MISSIONS & MISSIONARIES

As you all know by now, John and Kathy Hunter will not be returning as long-term missionaries to Guyana. They are, however, planning a short-term mission trip to Guyana with the Giddens. Please keep the plans and preparations for that trip in your prayers. Since Guyana has been withheld by the Lord's good providence, please continue to pray that wherever and whatever the Lord would have for the Hunters be made known to them. I am personally blessed to have as much time as I can with the Hunters while they are here because I have not had the blessed benefit of knowing them for as long as you all have had; so every moment I have with them is precious.

Meanwhile, we must also remember our other missionaries and continue to seek the Lord to reveal to us how we may more effectively love, support, encourage, and minister to them in increasingly practical and tangible ways. The Johnsons are still on furlough from Indonesia and we are scheduled for a visit from them on Thursday, January 14, 2010.

SOVEREIGN GRACE BAPTIST PASTORS' FELLOWSHIP

Although I could not attend the regional Sovereign Grace Baptist Pastors' Fellowship hosted in Fulton, Mississippi on June 18^th, we were able to make it to the one held last Thursday, August 20^th at Providence Baptist Church in Pulaski, Tennessee. John and Kathy Hunter and I drove up together from Anniston. As you all know, these gatherings are a tremendous time of fellowship and feasting upon the Word, which comes forth from excellent expositors of God's truth; and this last fellowship was no exception. To say that it was great, awesome, wonderful, &etc. would never begin to scratch the surface in describing the blessing it was to be there. God's Spirit came forth in such a powerful way that it even moved me, your pastor, to seek our Lord with a special need to repent before His merciful presence. You can read about it in a short article I wrote by CLICKING HERE.

Please continue to pray for the Lord's blessings to prepare our ways before Him as John and Kathy Hunter, and Lisa and I, attend the National Sovereign Grace Baptist Fellowship Annual Meeting on September 8^th in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Lisa and I will be gone for that whole week, from September 7^th, returning the evening of September 12^th. We will take advantage of visiting relatives in Fredericksburg while we are in that area. More details for that conference are available by CLICKING HERE.

ALS

What a comfort it is to know that our God is sovereign; that all things are in His control and that nothing happens apart from the counsel of His own will. While it looks like I've finally been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, my paperwork for disability may be held up for quite some time as a glitch in the VA system caused 1,200 letters to be sent to veterans from offices of certain states informing vets, who do not have ALS, that they have been diagnosed with the disease.

We know without a doubt that we are supposed to be here in Anniston, and serving the Lord in Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in particular. Lisa and I are tremendously blessed to know that you all feel the same way. This excerpt from one of the emails I received this week seemed to capture the exact sentiment every one of you have expressed: "We are still glad that the church called you, and believe that it is the Lord's will. We love you and the family and we will stand behind you whatever the outcome." Thank you all.

SOME VIDEOS & WEB REMINDER

On "The Renewed Mind" weblog, I've posted two short videos from Dr. David P. Murray. Dr. Murray is the professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The first of these is one you may have already viewed, as a link was provided for that video on the Sovereign Grace Baptist Church website in mid-July. This video was called, "The Clothing Commercial." It presents practical insights for appropriate Christian dress. You can access that video HERE.

The second of these has just been posted. This video is called, "Can I Preach Against My Own Sins?" You can access that video HERE.

Did you know that I have a website that has been up and running since 2005? We've used it as a missions website for our ministry to Alaska. After leaving Alaska, and especially since coming here, I've made some minor tweaks and adjustments to it and it is good to go. You'll want to check out the three links pages that will provide you with hours of informative Christian web surfing. That site address is www.vayahiy.com.

BOOKS, BOOKLETS & A BOOK REVIEW

BOOKS. In my last newsletter I mentioned that I've edited and compiled two books, Essential Spurgeon for Today's Reformed Pastor and Christian Behavior. These are not only freely available online in electronic format, but they are also available as printed paperbacks through I-Proclaim.com. You can click on the book titles in this paragraph to find out more about these resources. There's another book that's been compiled, edited, and available as a printed paperback through I-Proclaim.com. It's called A Puritan Family Devotional. In one printed book, it contains Robert Murray M'Cheyne's Daily Bread, Charles Haddon Spurgeon's A Puritan Catechism, and a modern English language edition of the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. You can access information for that book by CLICKING HERE.

BOOKLETS. Lisa mentioned that the print for our local booklet containing the Daily Bread and A Puritan Catechism is too small. She's right. Though it's fine for the younger folks, it doesn't due us over-40s to strain our eyes on print smaller than 10 pts. Therefore, I hope to have a large print edition available for the congregation before the end of September.

BOOK REVIEW. Because my previous years as a missionary has caused me to amass and distribute many, many, many books every time we've moved, I've discovered a very good way to replenish my library is to write reviews for books through certain publishers supporting such programs. They will send me a book to read and review, and all I have to do is write a review within a month or two of receiving the book and the book is mine. In mid-June I received Trusting God, written by Jerry Bridges. I finally got around to writing the review and you can read it by CLICKING HERE.

WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

Three months ago I ended our last newsletter with the same title shown above: "What Would You Choose?" Now, many a free-willer has quipped that sovereign-grace-people deny that man has a free will at all. You and I know that is not so. Man's will is free to choose to freely sin, apart from the sovereign grace of God to save such an one. The depravity of fallen man is so radically corrupt that every choice, and action based upon those choices, is tainted by sin because he is dead in his sins and trespasses. Yet, once God converts a sinner, and translates him into a state of grace, he frees him from his natural bondage under sin; and by God's grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet, because of his remaining corruptions, he does not only or perfectly will that which is good, but also wills that which is evil.

Therefore, we can legitimately ask the question, "What would you choose?" If you had every resource available to do so, what three places would you choose to visit with your family (or by yourself if you're single; that is, you alone with God)? These are my top three: