{"id":728,"date":"2015-11-26T08:11:39","date_gmt":"2015-11-26T12:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ubfriends.net\/?p=728"},"modified":"2016-09-22T08:28:48","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T13:28:48","slug":"happy-thanksgiving-2015-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/happy-thanksgiving-2015-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Thanksgiving 2015 Everyone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ubfriends.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/WaterfallsTaktakNov2015.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-727\" src=\"http:\/\/ubfriends.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/WaterfallsTaktakNov2015-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"WaterfallsTaktakNov2015\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/WaterfallsTaktakNov2015-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/WaterfallsTaktakNov2015.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>For what am I thankful<\/strong>?<\/em> Presently I am in Malaysia, the land of my birth, where my older brother and I will celebrate my mother\u2019s 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:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ben.toh.9\/posts\/10153790075409490?notif_t=like\">My three favorite words: grace, rest and freedom<\/a><\/strong><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. With grace I have nothing to prove. With rest I am never tired. With freedom I can fly. It\u2019s all possible for me only because of Jesus!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ubfriends.org\/2014\/03\/26\/how-i-met-god-my-mystical-conversion\/\">My magical mystical marvelous mysterious conversion<\/a><\/strong><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It is nothing but the grace of God that God magically and mysteriously revealed himself to me in 1980. It might be akin to <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/westloop-church.org\/index.php\/messages\/old-testament\/32-isaiah-messages\/406-the-call-woe-to-me-send-me-isaiah-6a\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what Isaiah experienced<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when his own eyes saw the Lord (Isa 6:1, 5)!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><strong>The happiest story of my life<\/strong>:<\/em> getting married in 1981. Indeed, <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ubfriends.org\/2013\/01\/23\/if-not-for-ubf-i-would-not-be-married\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">if not for UBF I would not be married<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">! 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\u2019s 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\u2019m thankful that our daughter appreciates that her parents are such an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTHerman\/posts\/10102158498613599?pnref=story\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">odd couple<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and that\u2019s probably putting it mildly.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ubfriends.org\/2013\/05\/03\/telling-the-truth-how-west-loop-ubf-began\/\">Starting West Loop UBF Church in 2008<\/a><\/strong><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Though it happened rather messily (as with most things I do!), thank God that God made it happen.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ubfriends.org\/2011\/03\/03\/philippines-ubf-an-indigenous-ministry\/\">Philippines UBF: an indigenous ministry<\/a><\/strong><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. 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.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><strong>Preaching through less familiar books of the Bible.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Currently I&#8217;m preaching through <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/westloop-church.org\/index.php\/messages\/old-testament\/32-isaiah-messages\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Isaiah<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. 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).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong>Discovering <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ubfriends.org\/2013\/09\/30\/extemporaneous-preaching\/\">extemporaneous preaching<\/a><\/strong><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/westloop-church.blogspot.my\/2014\/11\/preaching-by-ear\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">preaching by ear<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/westloop-church.blogspot.my\/2015\/02\/preaching-without-notes.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">preaching without notes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> over the past few years after three decades of reading from a manuscript.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><strong>So many genuinely wonderful H.O.T. friends<\/strong><\/em> in UBF and UBFriends!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><strong>27 years of weekly testimony writing<\/strong><\/em> from 1980 to 2007 and for finally <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ubfriends.org\/2013\/07\/09\/im-done-writing-testimonies\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">being done with writing testimonies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> forever! For there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens (Eccl 3:1). In God\u2019s providential grace, both are wonderful blessings.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em><strong>This UBFriends post<\/strong><\/em> having over 22,000 views and I have no idea why! <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ubfriends.org\/2012\/02\/07\/scary-bible-verse-your-sin-will-find-you-out\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SCARY Bible verse: Your sin will find you out<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What you are thankful for?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubfriends.org\/ubfriends2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}