Levin Seventh-day Adventist Church

17/06/2026

17/06/2026

How Loving and gracious God is!

Meet Mrs. Strawbridge, one of our treasured church members. ❤️

She has a beautiful heart for service and a passion for singing. Whether she is leading the song service with joy or helping prepare and set up for our potluck meals, she is always willing to lend a helping hand wherever needed.

Her dedication, kindness, and servant spirit are a blessing to our church family. Levin Seventh-day Adventist Church is truly blessed to have her among us.

Be blessed with this beautiful testimony and reminder that God loves and cares for you.

A mother’s heart 💕🙏

17/06/2026

Who Sits on the Throne of Your Heart?

Scripture: “But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.”
-Amos 5:26 (KJV)

In Amos’ day, God’s people claimed to worship Him, yet their hearts were divided. They carried idols with them and gave their affection, trust, and devotion to things they had made for themselves. While they outwardly appeared religious, inwardly they had replaced God with other priorities.

Today, we may not carry physical idols, but we can still allow other things to take God’s place in our hearts. Success, money, comfort, popularity, possessions, relationships, or even our own plans can quietly become more important than our relationship with God.

The message of Amos is a loving reminder from God: He desires our whole heart. He is not looking for empty religious routines; He longs for a genuine relationship with us. When God sits on the throne of our hearts, He gives us peace in uncertainty, strength in weakness, and hope for the future.

Take a moment today to ask yourself: What am I carrying that God never asked me to carry? What is competing for first place in my heart? Whatever it is, surrender it to Him. God can do far more with a surrendered heart than we can do with our own efforts.

If you have been distracted, discouraged, or overwhelmed, remember that God has not given up on you. His invitation is still the same: “Come back to Me.” When we place Him first, He brings clarity to our confusion, peace to our worries, and purpose to our journey.

Don’t carry idols, fears, or burdens today carry Christ. Let Him be the center of your thoughts, decisions, and plans. The God who created the stars is far greater than anything that seeks to take His place in your life.

Prayer 🙏
Heavenly Father, search my heart today. Reveal anything that has taken Your place in my life. Help me to love You above all else and trust You completely. Be the center of my thoughts, my decisions, and my future. Thank You for Your patience, grace, and unfailing love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Thought for the Day:
“Anything we place before God will eventually disappoint us, but when God is first in our lives, everything else finds its proper place.” ❤️🙏🏻

17/06/2026

See you!!

15/06/2026

Be blessed and encouraged by this beautiful testimony shared by one of our cherished church members, Mrs Fleischer.

We thank God for her faithfulness, kindness, and willingness to serve. May the Lord continue to richly bless Mrs Fleischer and her family as they minister and serve alongside us in our Levin Church family.

May her testimony be a reminder of God’s goodness, faithfulness, and love in our lives. To God be all the glory! 🙏❤️

15/06/2026

What Does God Want?

“What is God’s will for my life?”
“What is my purpose and calling?”
“What can I do to please God?”

In the New Testament, Jesus provides the answer to those questions by telling His followers to love God and love people. In the Old Testament, the prophet Micah empowered by the Holy Spirit summarised God’s will for Israel by saying:

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
‭‭Micah‬ ‭6:8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

These words were penned during a time when God’s people were trying to please Him with sacrifices, offerings, and going through religious motions while living lives of deception, violence, and pride. But as the prophet Hosea writes, “I [God] desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.” (Hosea‬ ‭6:6‬ ‭NIV‬‬)

God is after our heart motives, not our outward religious activity or begrudging obedience.

Let’s break down what God desires of us:

- DO JUSTICE. Doing justice requires faith and actions working together: helping the hurting, defending the weak, dealing fairly with the people we encounter, and speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves. In other words, to do justice, we must love others as we love ourselves.

- LOVE KINDNESS. The mercy of God is an extreme kindness. And because we’ve been shown undeserved kindness by Him, we can show undeserved kindness to others. God desires these things more than endless “I’m sorry” speeches. God is kind to the grateful and the wicked (Luke 6:35), so we should be too.

- WALK HUMBLY. Be teachable. Be moldable. Remember: You’re not God. You have limitations. You need a Creator and Savior. You’re only here because God spoke you into existence. So confidently embrace who you are, and who you are not, because it’s when we live fully surrendered to God that He does incredible things through us.

Seeking justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly that is what God wants from us. So in a world that’s saturated with injustice, hatred, and arrogance, let’s be people marked by these three things.

10/06/2026

Like the Bereans

One of the first things bank tellers learn when training to identify counterfeit money is not how to spot a fake note, but how to recognise a genuine one. They spend hours handling real currency, studying its texture, examining its features, and becoming thoroughly familiar with it. They do not begin by studying counterfeit notes. Instead, they learn to recognise the real thing first, because once you know what is genuine, it becomes much easier to identify what is false.

The same principle applies to our spiritual lives.

Today we are surrounded by information about God. Sermons, podcasts, books, social media posts, videos, online discussions – you name it. It is all available in abundance. While this accessibility is a tremendous blessing, it also presents a challenge. Not everything that claims to be biblical is actually rooted in Scripture. Some teachings contain subtle errors, while others present only part of the truth. Many sound convincing because they resemble the truth, even when they depart from it.

In a world filled with competing voices, how do we know what is true? The answer can be found in the example of a group of believers known as the Bereans. The Bereans lived in the city of Berea, located in what is now northern Greece. When the apostle Paul preached to them, they did not simply accept his words because he was an influential teacher, nor did they reject his message outright. Instead, they approached his teaching with open minds and willing hearts while carefully examining the Scriptures for themselves.

Acts 17:11 describes them this way:
"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

What made the Bereans noble was their commitment to testing everything they heard against God's Word. They were eager to learn, yet careful to verify. They were teachable, yet discerning.

God has never intended for His people to rely solely on the opinions and interpretations of others. Through His Word, He reveals His character, His promises, and His plans for us. As we spend time in Scripture, we become familiar with His voice and better equipped to distinguish truth from error. Developing this habit can begin with something as simple as setting aside five or ten minutes to read a passage of Scripture. Before you read, ask the Holy Spirit to guide your understanding. Approach the Bible with humility, a willingness to learn, and a desire to know God more fully.

Like the Bereans, may we be people who eagerly receive truth and diligently search the Scriptures for ourselves. My prayer is that each of us will experience the freedom that comes from knowing and living God's truth. For as Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).

Mrs. Chichi Fontin
Chief Financial Officer
North New Zealand Conference

10/06/2026

Waiting Well

Waiting can be hard.

Most of us would prefer quick, efficient, and when possible, instant results and answers.

But waiting is a part of life.

We must wait for seeds to grow into food, for one season to fade into the next, for babies to mature into adults, and for trees to stand tall enough to finally offer shade.

Like it or not, waiting takes patience.

We can wait days, months, years, or even decades for a prayer to be answered, for an overdue apology, for the timing to be right, or for a dream to finally come to pass.

Waiting requires courage.

King David lived nearly 3,000 years ago, but he knew what it meant to wait for God’s timing, to wait to be king, to wait to be rescued from his enemies. He wrote:

“Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭27:14‬ ‭NLT‬‬

If David thought waiting on God was important enough to write it twice in one verse, we should probably pay attention. But waiting patiently for the Lord isn’t an excuse to do nothing.

We can proactively wait on God by staying in communication with Him, by looking for His fingerprints in ordinary moments, by reading about His story and His plans in His Word, by worshiping Him no matter what’s happening across the globe, by serving the people both inside and outside of our circles, and by thanking Him for the gifts He’s already given us.

Just because a specific door isn’t opening, or a particular opportunity isn’t available at this moment doesn’t mean that God isn’t moving.

Even when we are waiting God is working.

Noah spent decades building an ark as he waited for God to do what He’d said. Ruth journeyed with her mother-in-law and worked in the grain fields while trusting in God’s provision after her husband’s death. Joseph stayed faithful in prison for several years before his promotion to second-in-command of Egypt. John trusted God’s ultimate will for his life, and wrote several books of the New Testament while sentenced to exile on the island of Patmos.

So, no matter what you’re facing today, you can ask God for patience and trust that He is in control of your future. No matter what uncertainty lies before you, when you rely on the Lord, you can be someone who waits well. 🙏

09/06/2026

A few glimpses of the testimonies, photos, and memories shared by some of the women of Levin as we reflected on God’s goodness and faithfulness throughout our journeys.

Through every season, both joyful and challenging we have seen His hand leading, providing, and sustaining us. Each story is a reminder that God still calls ordinary people to simply say, “Hinneni, Here am I.”

May these precious memories encourage you to trust Him, follow His leading, and respond willingly whenever He calls.

Hinneni, Here am I, Lord. Send me.