For what am I thankful? Presently I am in Malaysia, the land of my birth, where my older brother and I will celebrate my mother’s 98th birthday this weekend! Thank God that her mind is still sharp and she is ambulatory. My homeland does not celebrate Thanksgiving Day. But here are a few random thanksgiving reflections:
- My three favorite words: grace, rest and freedom. With grace I have nothing to prove. With rest I am never tired. With freedom I can fly. It’s all possible for me only because of Jesus!
- My magical mystical marvelous mysterious conversion. It is nothing but the grace of God that God magically and mysteriously revealed himself to me in 1980. It might be akin to what Isaiah experienced when his own eyes saw the Lord (Isa 6:1, 5)!
- The happiest story of my life: getting married in 1981. Indeed, if not for UBF I would not be married! God led me half way around the world from Malaysia to Chicago to attend a church that took it upon herself to provide a wife for me. This was nothing but God’s marvelous providential grace because I could never have gotten married on my own, and I knew it. The last 34 years of our marriage have been the happiest years of my life. I’m thankful that our daughter appreciates that her parents are such an odd couple, and that’s probably putting it mildly.
- Starting West Loop UBF Church in 2008. Though it happened rather messily (as with most things I do!), thank God that God made it happen.
- Philippines UBF: an indigenous ministry. This is a thriving and flourishing church and ministry that God has allowed me to befriend and participate in, especially by visiting yearly over the past dozen years. This year I am blessed to officiate two weddings in Manila, most recently last week between Michael and Hershey.
- Preaching through less familiar books of the Bible. Currently I’m preaching through Isaiah. How truly blessed I am to have the time to devote myself to studying and meditating on Scripture day and night (Ps 1:2; 119:97; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20-21).
- Discovering extemporaneous preaching, or preaching by ear, or preaching without notes over the past few years after three decades of reading from a manuscript.
- So many genuinely wonderful H.O.T. friends in UBF and UBFriends!
- 27 years of weekly testimony writing from 1980 to 2007 and for finally being done with writing testimonies forever! For there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens (Eccl 3:1). In God’s providential grace, both are wonderful blessings.
- This UBFriends post having over 22,000 views and I have no idea why! SCARY Bible verse: Your sin will find you out.
What you are thankful for?
I’m thankful for your friendship, Ben, and all the ubfriends commenters. Without this friendship, I’m not sure how I would have made it through the last 4 years. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.