I’d like to share some verses that I’ve found about God’s promises about our dreams/desires.. Actually I’ve found these verses long time ago when I was jobless for months long time ago… These sweet promises really encouraged me and made me strong.
But even now sometimes I still like to meditate on those when I feel discourage and weary.
God has a great and wonderful plan for us ahead..  but sometimes we need to be patient and not giving up… His promises say so.

I believe as we delight ourselves in The Lord (His desires, will, and plans), He will bring our dreams to come true! Maybe you will find out that the dreams that are already in your heart are actually the seeds that God have planted!

The verses are taken from Amplified version.. May these becomes inspirations and blessings to you as well!

(II Sam 23:5)
“Truly does not my house stand so with God? For He has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. For will He not cause to prosper all my help and my desire?”

(Psalm 37:4)
“Delight yourself also in the Lord and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.”

(Psalm 20:4-5)
“May He grant you according to your heart’s desires and fulfill all your plans.
We will [shout in] triumph at your salvation and victory, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.”

(Job 22:28)
“You shall also decide and decree a thing, and it shall be established for you; and the light [of God’s favor] shall shine upon your ways.”

(Psalm 103:5)
“Who satisfies your mouth [your necessity and desire at your personal age and situation] with good so that your youth, renewed, is like the eagle’s [strong, overcoming, soaring]!”

(Psalm 145:19)
“He will fulfill the desires of those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them.”

(Psalm 12:5b)
“I Will set Him in safety and in the salvation for which he pants.”

(Proverbs 23:18)
“For surely there is a latter end [a future and a reward], and your hope and expectation shall not be cut off.”

(Proverbs 24:14)
“So shall you know skillful and godly Wisdom to be thus to your life; if you find it, then shall there be a future and a reward, and your hope and expectation shall not be cut off.”

(Ps 21:2)
“You have given him his heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of his lips.”

For the highlighted version that I have, you can see here.

-Rical-

The first few weeks I was in Wollongong, I didn’t like it as it’s a very small city, not fun, hence I “ran away”. Every weekend, I would go to Sydney to stay with brother and attended the church there. Although I knew that God has placed me in Wollongong and I should be planted where I am placed but you know the prayer “if it is possible, let this cup pass from me” . So, I asked God again and again, you know what? No answer.

After about 1-2 months, I surrendered. God win, me lost! Not as I will but as You will. So, I decided, BOCMC Wollongong(*)!!

Well, let me continued with this: I really enjoyed my time in Wollongong especially with BOCMC Wollongong. Not exaggerating but truly it was one of the happiest moments in my life. I enjoyed the friendship, fellowship, ministry, discipleship, fun, walking out in the middle of the night (especially during winter) to Ahmed’s kebab for supper, Wollongong fish n chip (I would be bias but it is the best fish n chip), fishing at the North beach, BBQ, fetching people for church service and cell group. It was just so much fun.

Even during certain period where I worked part time in Sydney, I would come back by late Saturday nite so that I could attend church service at BOCMC Wollongong. It’s a place where I called home. Although I wanted to stay in Australia after graduated but God has another plan. Here I am now in Singapore, met my wife, happily married with 1 boy and working at one of the world’s largest bank.

One thing I know for sure is that our lives are never an accident / mistake. God is in control in every situation and all the time. He knows what’s best for us and wants the best for our lives. Rom 8:28.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ko Jang Kwee and Ci Jiau Jiau for opening up your house for me during my first 2-3 weeks while looking for place to stay. Thank you for have taken a good care of me during my days in Wollongong. I really appreciate and grateful of your kindness and good life example. God bless!

Henry & family are now settled in Singapore, attend and involve in ministry at City Harvest Church, Singapore.

(*)Life Centre Wollogong is previously called BOC or BOCMC Wollongong

I came to Wollongong so on fire…knowing that it was only by the grace of God that I could be there.
On my first few days on campus I met Indonesians; Christians who were so excited to invite me to the fellowship at Uni…

The first time I went to the fellowship, I just felt clicked…with the atmosphere, the praise and worship, the group of people…who soon became my extended family also with the electric drum; my companion for most saturdays and sundays at Church!

BOC Wollongong  is the place where I found the joy of ministry:
Tante Elizabeth’s ‘miring2 warning’
The Cheekyness of fellow CollegePlace residents
The Challenge of spreading tracts to Jehovah Witnesses around the Mall
The nerve from arguing with Moslem scholar
The joy of interpreting for Paul,and the african Emanuel
The silence during Opa Chris’ sermon
The excitement of singing Om Jack’s ‘Bangkit! Serukan Nama Yesus!!!’ (translate: “Arise! Shout the name of Jesus”)
The joy of feasting at Kings,Jasmine Rice,Vietnamese, also home delivery of seafarer pizza,wedges,and ribs

Yet its also the place where I experienced series of bad relationships, escaping from fellowships and God…

Nonetheless…It’s the place where I get to know Jesus as the lover of my soul…the lifter of my countenance!

It’s the place for the 1st time I know I’m beautiful because He said so…

It’s the place where I know that it doesn’t matter who I am where I’ve been, what the scar…there’s healing for me

Cut the story short, it’s the starting point of His love conquering the rebelious me…

Blessings,
Cindy Olivia
Wollongongians 1995-2000

Cindy and her husband, Ray, are  both faithfully serving God at GPdl Elohim church, East Java, Indonesia.

On recent years, social networking like facebook, myspace and twitter cause people to be more open on what do they think. It is okay to do this as Christian, because as Chrisitan we still can be fun (we need to!),  need to be relevant and in-touch in what is going on. And social networking is a good tool for us to keep in touch with friends, families and relatives. I personally find a lot of high school friends and nice to catch up with them.

The sad thing though is that I read several status or comments that do not reflect Christian values that from Christian people (of course not Life Centre member )

Our Senior Pastor has been preaching about what voice we are carrying in our lives. If I may relate this, what we write in social networking sites is also carrying the voice that we are carrying in our lives.

You can be fun but you need to be aware of calling to be come salt and light of the world – social networking world in this matter. In this virtual world ( e- world? ), we need to carry Christian values and principles.

Use social networking to relate to people, to show Christian values, your beliefs and principles that are based on the Bible. I am not talking that you should always write Bible verses on social networking.

For example, you can show that Christian love one another to the world (at least our social networking frieds) by putting nice comments and word of encouragement. So that when people see that we are one – they will glorify our Father in Heaven.

Jesus All About Life tweeted last week “What Would Jesus Tweet” which I thought was interesting. Remember this when we in social network world that we are God’s ambasaddor.

This time, I would like to testify, share about the power of sowing and reaping that has happened in my life recently. I’ve seen God’s faithfulness in fulfilling of what He has said in the Bible regarding sowing and reaping. I’m still thrilled of what I’ve received and I would like to share this to you so that you may be encouraged as well. I’m not boasting but I’ll be telling you of what God has done and I believe you’ll be blessed!

It’s started about a year ago, while I was still in courtship with my wife Merry. I know that we’re going to be married and we both wanted to have a wonderful wedding. Knowing about the principal of sowing and reaping, I started to sow little by little to the church, a number of ministries, and other people in needs. Each time I sowed, I wrote those down in my journal. I named each of them ‘seed for God’s guidance, favour, and blessings upon my wedding’ expecting that I would receive harvests for my wedding.

Closer to the date, I and Merry were busy and started preparing many things. And we began to see the harvests came forward one after another. Out of nowhere, Merry could find a gown seller that really gave favour on her. They said that they would give the gown with a very cheap price, about only one fifth of the original price because they had had a lot of profit already from other gowns that they had already sold. So we got a brand new Italian gown with the same price as if we were hiring one here.

We’ve also found a very nice reception place. This is the place that Merry always dreamt to have her wedding at as she usually passed and set her eyes on this place in the past. Previously, we were quite hesitant to see the place because it was over our budget. However, we decided just to try to come and see. We met the owner and surprisingly, he offered a lower price that we thought was obviously impossible. But God really worked; it’s actually much cheaper than of what we suppose to pay for that kind of reception venue. Moreover, closer to the date, we even got more discount for the kids menu price.

The same thing with my suit, my Mum has a close friend who owns a suit tailor shop. And his suits style and quality is one of the best in Indonesia. We’ve found out that his clients are government officials, actors, and celebrities. Because he is my Mum’s friend, he gave a good discount for the suit.

Furthermore, we also received a lot of favour from our wonderful friends to help us with the wedding. They were helping us in organising the event, making name cards and paper decorations, lending Merry jewellery to be wear, decorating, and so many other things…

One miracle that was really amazed us was happening with my Mum. My parent sells cosmetics products and one day my Mum happened to put her detail in a prize draw of a leading toothpaste brand in Indonesia. There were two kinds of draw; one has many motorcycles as the prizes, while the other one is a draw for one car prize only. She put in for the one car prize. Weeks later, a friend of my Mum came and told her that she had won the prize. My Mum thought that her friend was only joking because she never thought that she would win, but her friend insisted that it was true. Then my Mum tried to contact the company and she was really amazed to found out that it was true! We’re also shocked, this kind of thing never happened in our life.. the draw was actually from the whole Indonesia and my Mum was the only winner! We actually already have a car and we don’t need another one.. so finally we used this car to transport Merry’s family while they were in Jakarta for our engagement party. After that my parent sold the car and they could use the money to help paying for the engagement party in Jakarta. God is awesome!

In addition to those, God also helped us to with our honeymoon. Amazingly, we just paid half price only for our flights and cruises honeymoon tickets.

To be honest, we’re still stunned every time we try to remember of what God has done.. Friends, I would like to tell you, this is real. The law of sowing and reaping is real! God’s promise is real! And we are one of the witnesses.. My friends, if you haven’t started doing this lifestyle of sowing and reaping, I eagerly would like to invite you to start doing this and begin to experience God’s blessings being poured out to you overwhelmingly!

Author: Rical