Samoa Worship Centre Christian Church Manukau

30/01/2026

Being prepared

‘The Lord, who delivered…will deliver me.’ 1 Samuel 17:37 NKJV

Every experience in our past prepares us for a future opportunity. God doesn’t redeem only our souls; he also redeems our experiences, both good and bad. He does it by refining our character, developing our gifts and teaching lessons we can’t learn any other way. We learn the most important lessons in the classroom of life through first-hand experience. The tests are challenging, but no curriculum is more effective. And how you pass the test is by growing in character, developing the gift or learning the lesson God is trying to teach you through that experience.

God is at work in your life. He is helping you get ready for your date with destiny. And he is doing it in ways that are practically imperceptible. David realised that slaying the lion and the bear prepared him to bring down Goliath (see 1 Samuel 17:37). And it’s not until you face your biggest challenge that God identifies how, when and where he prepared you. That’s when you realise that the battle was won long before you stood on the battlefield.

It was necessary for Moses to tend sheep for forty years before he could lead the flock of Israel. The disciples had to fish for fish before they could fish for men. A time of preparation precedes every divine appointment. And if we surrender to the preparation, God will execute his promise. If we don’t, he won’t. This is because God never sets us up to fail. The time you spend in the shadows is preparing you for the time when you will be in the limelight. The time you spend on the sidelines is preparing you to be on the front lines – and win.

30/01/2026

27/01/2026

Keep a good attitude

‘Do not despise…small beginnings.’ Zechariah 4:10 NLT

Juan grew up in Puerto Rico, the son of a sugarcane plantation foreman. One of a family of eight, he lived in a three-room shack with a dirt floor and no toilet. His first job, at age six, was driving oxen to plough the cane fields. He worked eight hours a day and earned one dollar. Juan said it was in the cane fields that he learnt important lessons like being on time, working hard and being loyal and respectful to your employers. His job and small income were a great source of self-esteem. At age seven he got a job at a golf course spotting balls for golfers, and he began to dream of playing golf and earning enough money to buy a bicycle. The more he dreamed, the more he thought, ‘Why not?’ He made a golf club out of a guava limb and a piece of pipe, then hammered an empty tin can into a ball. Next, he dug two small holes in the ground and hit the ball back and forth between them. He practised his ‘golf’ with the same intensity he put into his job in the cane field, and he got good – very good.

In his thirty-one years as a pro golfer, Juan ‘Chi Chi’ Rodríguez won eight PGA tour events and twenty-four major tournaments, and he was the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

What can we learn from him? Two things: (1) Be willing to start small. The Bible says, ‘Do not despise…small beginnings’ (Zechariah 4:10 NLT). (2) Be willing to think big because you serve a big God (see Ephesians 3:20).

10/01/2026

God’s breakthrough

‘God broke through them like a mighty flood.’ 1 Chronicles 14:11 CEV

The Bible says: ‘The Philistines went and made a raid on the Valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of God, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand?” The Lord said to him, “Go up, for I will deliver them into your hand.” So they went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. Then David said, “God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water”’ (1 Chronicles 14:9-11 NKJV). Notice how David likened God’s power to the ‘breakthrough of water’. He is saying that when God shows up and releases his power, it will be like a flood of his goodness, power, favour, healing, wisdom, resources, and whatever else you need.

Think about how powerful water is: only a few feet of water can lift a huge vehicle and push it all around. On the news we’ve seen entire houses and buildings carried downstream in torrents of water. Nothing can stop it. Nothing is allowed to stand in its way. That’s what happens when God gives you a breakthrough and releases a flood of his power on your behalf.

And God has not changed. His power has not diminished. ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you’ (Jeremiah 32:17 NKJV). God is able to move on your behalf. And he is willing – so ask him for a breakthrough.

07/01/2026

Each day is a gift

‘Teach us to number our days.’ Psalm 90:12 NKJV

Motivational speaker Denis Waitley describes an experience that marked his life forever. He was trying to catch a flight for a speaking commitment and was running through the airport terminal. He reached the gate just as the agent closed the door. Denis explained his dilemma, but the agent didn’t reopen the door. That’s when his annoyance turned into anger. He stomped out of the boarding area and returned to the ticket counter to lodge a complaint and reschedule his flight. His anger increased as he waited for over twenty minutes in a line that hardly moved. Right before his turn at the ticket counter, an announcement over the intercom changed his life, because he realised that by missing that flight, his life had been saved. The flight he missed, Flight 191 from Chicago to Los Angeles, had crashed on take-off with no survivors. Denis never lodged his complaint. He also never returned his invalidated ticket for Flight 191. He brought it home and tacked it on a notice board in his office. In the aftermath of that experience, anytime he felt irritated or upset, all he had to do was look at that ticket from Flight 191. It was an unforgettable reminder that life is a gift that should not be undervalued.

The psalmist wrote: ‘The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years…it is soon cut off, and we fly away…So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom’ (Psalm 90:10, 12 NKJV).

05/01/2026

The great exchange

‘The just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.’ 1 Peter 3:18 NKJV

A saleswoman passed a particular corner each day on her way to work. For more than a week, she observed a little girl trying to sell a floppy-eared puppy. The saleswoman finally said to the little girl, ‘If you want to sell this dog, I suggest you clean him up, brush his coat, raise your price and make people think they’re getting something of value.’ At noon, the saleswoman noticed the little girl had taken her advice. The puppy was groomed and sitting under a big sign that read, ‘Tremendous Puppy for Sale – $5,000.’ The saleswoman smiled and gulped, determined to tell the little girl later that she may have overpriced the puppy. To her surprise, on the way home she saw the puppy was gone! Flabbergasted, the woman sought out the little girl to ask if she had really sold the dog for $5,000. The little girl said, ‘I sure did, and I want to thank you for all your help.’ The saleswoman spluttered, ‘How in the world did you do it?’ She said, ‘It was easy. I just took two $2,500 cats in exchange!’

Seriously, two thousand years ago the greatest exchange of all time took place. On a cross outside Jerusalem, Jesus Christ gave his life in exchange for ours; ‘the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God’ (1 Peter 3:18 NKJV). At the cross God took all your sin and placed it upon Jesus. And when you place your trust in Jesus, God takes all of his righteousness and wraps you up in it. That’s the great exchange!