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Glory to God in the highest, in the name of our precious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Sundie Morning Sistas Magazine

Standing on the Foundation of Jesus Christ Copyright ©2023. All rights reserved. No part or portion of this publication may be reproduced without the express, written permission of Sundie Morning Sistas. Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from The Authorized Version or King James Version (KJV), 1611, 1769. Outside of the United Kingdom, the KJV is in the public domain. Within the United Kingdom, the rights to the KJV are vested in the Crown. Scripture quotations marked "NKJV™" are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Sundie Morning Sistas Magazine, Copyright © 2023 Web sites: www.sundiemorningsistas.org www.smsmemberservices.com www.sundiemorningsistas.com

CONTENTS Encouragement and Inspiration for Today's Christian Woman Letter from the Editor

For Your Spirit FEATURE: Stability in Christ

Sow into God’s Kingdom

Understanding the Blueprint

Jesus Christ, the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever

For Your Soul Building A Solid Foundation

Prayer: I Desire One of Your Treasures

For Your Heart Marriage Built on the Foundation of Jesus Christ

All I Need is You

About SMS Membership

Rev. Fran Mack, Editor in Chief Kim Times, PM Brown, k Editors The publisher does not assume responsibility for errors, omissions, and changes in advertising or editorial material. Entire contents are copyrighted and no portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without specific written permission of the publisher. Sundie Morning Sistas Copyright ©2023 All rights reserved.

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ears ago, I had what some would call a bad reaction to anesthesia after surgery, and it was one of the worst experiences of my life. For what seemed like an eternity, although probably only minutes, I felt as though I was in a perpetual state of both panicking and falling down a black hole. Caught between reality and a dream state, my cries for help were desperate, and in my mind, they felt very real. Puzzled that no one who loved and supported me was coming to my rescue, I panicked even more. During those minutes of perpetual descent, I frantically tried to hold on to anything I could grab, but everything was out of reach, including the stability of my own thoughts. My mind felt fragmented into little pieces, and it seemed that the sanity that had helped to hold me together all my life was slipping away. To this day, I distinctly remember desperately and repeatedly calling out for my husband and mother. When I was more myself, the nurses recounted this, but they didn't need to. I remembered what happened to me with crystal clarity, and I couldn't help but praise God for bringing me through it. I had worked at a mental health facility for some years, and this experience gave me such compassion for those struggling with mental health issues. It helped me to better understand the state of desperation and hopelessness a person experiences when the mind and consciousness has no foundation. For those who do not know our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, not having his solid foundation might not feel as drastic as my bad reaction to anesthesia, but in the spiritual sense, it's much worse. Life is empty and tragic without a sure foundation, and many would prefer to cling to it in its deprived state than to have faith in the victorious life that God offers us through Jesus Christ. Our Heavenly Father has made us master builders of our own lives, as the Apostle Paul stated in 1Corinthians 3:10, and we must build them upon Jesus Christ, our strong foundation and the Rock of Our Salvation. Jesus Christ said in Luke 6:49(NLT), “But anyone who hears and doesn't obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.” This issue of the Sundie Morning Sistas Magazine, entitled “Standing on the Foundation of Jesus Christ” is a reminder that obedience to God causes us to be strong and not weak. These teachings encourage and inspire us to use only the building materials of His matchless Word and the example of Christ, because this is how we construct a meaningful life of joy and abundance. We pray that “Standing on the Foundation of Jesus Christ” will encourage you to grow in faith. We believe it will help to strengthen your mind and heart so that, come what may, you will reap the rewards of continually standing on the foundation of our powerful Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lovingly In Christ,

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Reverend Fran Mack, President and Founder, SMS

PS: Thank you for your continued prayers and support!

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." Romans 8:37(NKJV)

“24 Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock."

Matthew 7:24-25(NLT)

ouisa Campbell is fondly

referred to by all who know and love her as the strongest woman they know. By most accounts that rings true. She’s generous, capable, and has persevered through many challenges in her life. Unselfishly, her prayers to the Father are mostly about the needs and conditions of others, but there’s one personal request that’s been on her list for a very long time. It’s for the Lord to bless her with a husband that is as kind, loving, and stable as her deceased husband, Mason. Louisa met him at chapel in college one Sunday morning, and they were together every day after. That was over fifteen years ago. Even though he was only in his twenties, Mason, a social worker, was a pillar in their small community. Everyone wanted the kind of relationship he and Louisa had. They celebrated when he triumphed over cancer, and they were devastated when he lost his final bout with it at 28 years old. Mason and Louisa had wanted so desperately to have children, and now she’s anxious that the opportunity to be a wife and mother might be slipping away. 7

“Stability in Christ” Continued

Mason set a high bar. He was the caliber of man that God describes in 1Timothy 3:2. Like his father, he was stable, honorable, and kind, and Louisa could count on him no matter what. After they married, he helped her raise her younger brother and sister. Their mother died when they were in their early teens, and it was very challenging for the young couple at first, but with the help of extended family and friends, they made it work. When Mason passed away, Louisa continued to care for her siblings, and helped them through college. She’s always been a mother in their eyes, but the dream in her heart is to give birth and raise a child of her own. She wants a new life with a fresh start, but something seems to be holding her back, and she’s never taken the time to find out what that is. Considering the way that Louisa supports and cares for so many people, how she unselfishly gives of her time to help those in need, it’s difficult to imagine that she’s spent the last several years being without the thing she desires most. She doesn’t complain about the loneliness, and her life is very busy, but in her heart she’s still grieving. In her heart, she wonders why she had to endure first the loss of her mother, and then the loss of her anchor and great love, Mason. Secretly, she fears that the next blessing will be taken just like the first ones were. She wants a husband and child so very much but fears the loss of them even more.

God tells us in James 1:8(KJV), “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” This is not a person that can remain committed a lifetime, so it behooves us to know just what double mindedness is. It’s a mind with divided loyalty. Children of God can’t have this condition if pleasing our Heavenly Father is our aim. Our loyalty must be in God and God alone. This is not something we can negotiate, or half do. We must be fully persuaded in the absolute sovereignty, omnipotence, and omniscience of God. We must have a sold-out faith in our Heavenly Father, and we must have faith in His Word and His love for us all. This level of commitment to Him can only be expressed in one way, and that way is through Jesus Christ. Our Redeemer tells us in John 14:6(NLT), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” There are no words in the human language to convey how serious our commitment and loyalty to God must be. Our diligence to change our thoughts, attitudes, and actions so that they mirror Christ is the thing that tells Him our commitment is stable and strong. 8

“Stability in Christ” Conclusion

Our thoughts, attitudes, and actions are all external expressions of our internal reality. Our thoughts, attitudes, and actions all have their roots in our hearts. Our hearts are at all times spearheading what we do, think, and say. God tells us in Proverbs 23:7 that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. The heart is the innermost part of our being, and whatever we put in our hearts and whatever we let out of them makes the greatest statement about who we are. In other words, people can know who we truly are on the inside by the things we do on the outside. Jesus Christ said in Luke 12:34(NLT), “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” Our Heavenly Father looks at our hearts to judge what we’re treasuring, and in our hearts, He can very clearly see whether we are truly treasuring Him or tightly holding to something else. In 1Samuel 16:7(NLT), when His prophet, Samuel, was mistaken about the individual God had chosen to the be next king of Israel, our Heavenly Father told him, “Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” Our hearts tell the story about our faith, our commitment to God, and our willingness to follow what He says. Our hearts reflect if we are stable and firmly standing on the foundation of Jesus Christ, or if there’s instability because we are not yet firmly planted in our faith in God. When we hold on to fear and then try to stretch in faith, one of them, faith or fear, will fall to the ground, and we determine which one that will be. Sometimes we let our fears fall, but when things are not happening according to the timetable we’ve set, many of us will release faith to pick up the fear we should have allowed to remain on the ground. Getting us to do this is a trick of the evil one, and it keeps us stagnant and living beneath our privilege.

Louisa’s heart was filled with grief and fear, and for the last fifteen years, that had not changed. Joy had not moved in and taken over, and her faith had not matured beyond the level of her doubt. We need to be clear that fear will always and forever be shaky ground. It’s unstable, and if we hold on to fear, we can’t firmly stand on the foundation that Jesus Christ laid for us. Jesus Christ is the living Word of God. The Apostle Paul said in 1Corinthians 3:10-11(NKJV), “10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Our Master Jesus is our firm foundation, and he has given us himself on which to build our lives. We do this by faith—by trusting in God and following the example of love, light, and obedience that Jesus Christ has left for us. Every dream, desire, aspiration, and blessing that any human being could ever have is manifested through our faith in God. Things don’t move, situations and conditions don’t change, and minds and hearts are not transformed without faith in Him. We must be clear that there are no acceptable excuses for a lack of faith, not grief, not loss, and not fear. We must believe that standing on the solid foundation of Christ causes us to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and to live abundantly. Our Master Jesus teaches us in Luke 6:49 that it makes no sense to try to build a house on an unstable foundation, because that house will fall. Our desires and dreams will manifest when our faith in God is stable, and when our commitment to live powerfully through Christ is firmly planted on the solid foundation of truth and love that he has given us.■ 9

tremely hard. Farming was how he made his living, and it seemed as though this was what he was born to do. He loved it because although it was hard work, the principle of sowing and reaping was very simple, and it always worked beautifully for him. His farm was a thriving one because he sowed the seeds of hard work, patience, and diligence. He

y grandfather was a chicken farmer in rural Georgia. He’d get up as early as 3am in the morning to take delivery of thousands of little baby chicks. He was out of the house most mornings before the sun was up, and from sunup to sundown, he worked ex10

“Sow into God’s Kingdom” Continued

we plant. It doesn’t matter how technologically advanced and sophisticated human beings become; we will never outgrow the laws that God has set forth in His Word. Some people obsess over nature and call it worship. Others idolize human beings and think that God is okay with it. Our Heavenly Father leaves nothing to chance when it comes to what He will and will not accept. The wisdom of Galatians 6:7-8 reminds us that we should never think that God will reward anything and everything with the goodness of His blessings. Our Heavenly Father is a God of order and this is how He’s set things up. Through His infinite grace and mercy, He’s given us the free-will choice to decide our level of obedience to His Word, but we can’t go against His Word without consequence. If we put the wrong thing out there, the wrong thing is coming back to us. If we sin against God and His Word, Galatians 6:8(NLT) says, “will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature.” Some aspect of life will deteriorate when we fail to follow what God says. This is the way life works. Sowing seeds of resentment, bitterness, jealousy, anger, and disobedience towards God and His Word will not help us to be elevated in God’s blessings. These will not yield rewards, and therefore, we shouldn’t put them out into the universe. Our Heavenly Father requires us to understand that every action, word, thought, feeling, and deed has a reaction. This is law! If we put it out there, it’s coming back to us, and this works for both good and bad alike. So, we need to be very real about where we are and what we’re receiving in life, because if we don’t like our harvest, or it’s a harvest of decay, we need to change the seeds we’re sowing.

counted on the reality that if he was diligent to sow, a harvest would come. This is what God tells us in His Word. His principle of sowing and reaping is a law that we must follow if we expect to see a harvest of His blessings and rewards in our lives. To sow is to plant, invest, offer or share a seed. As human beings, our seeds can have various qualities and forms. We can sow a seed of an attitude, feeling, or sentiment. So, a seed can be many things, but most commonly, when people think about sowing a seed, money comes to mind. God said in Malachi 3:10(NLT),“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!” A tithe is a tenth of our gross earnings. It’s the first fruits of our labor and God makes it clear that when we sow into His Kingdom through our tithe, He will greatly reward our obedience and diligence with His provision, protection, and care. God’s Word tells us that our financial seed is an important one, but the most valuable and precious seed is God’s Word. In the Gospels, Jesus Christ taught others and the disciples by using a parable about a farmer and seeds. He said in Mark 4:14 (NLT), “The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others.” To invest God’s Word into the life of another is the greatest and most rewarded seed that any of us can sow. With this in mind, it’s apparent from God’s Word that we all have a responsibility to sow into His Kingdom with seeds that are both financial and spiritual. However, many of us are not doing either of these, yet we expect God to reward us. Galatians 6:7 clarifies that His justice is absolute and unwavering, and we will harvest only the seeds 11

Continued on page 16

“Understanding the Blueprint”

express ourselves to our fullest capability, and we want to live more and more life each passing day. God created us this way, and He makes it plain in His Word that this abundant reality is achieved by living through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. When we give our lives to God through Christ, and accept His gift of salvation, we are empowered through God’s Holy Spirit to live powerfully through Christ. We can and should follow him, and we do this by living according to his example. Ephesians 3:20-21(NKJV) gloriously proclaims, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” We shouldn’t make the mistake of taking this extraordinary news out of context. Our glorious Heavenly Father is pointing us in the direction of His perfect and infallible Will. He’s reminding us that His Will is for us to be empowered by Christ through the Holy Spirit. When it comes to His plans, His thoughts, and His being, His Will is the vehicle that transports you and me to the place where we witness the exceedingly abundantly. Therefore, we must be in His Will, operating according to the example of Christ, in order to witness the exceedingly abundantly. When we operate outside God’s Will and plan for our lives, there are no seats for us on that train.

nderstanding God’s Word, receiving the gift of salvation, and committing ourselves to the live by the example of Jesus Christ gives us a solid foundation to live victoriously and abundantly in every wonderful way. This is all because of what God accomplished through our Blessed Lord. Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-25(ESV), “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” He is our Rock, our solid foundation, and from his example, we learn to build our lives on him, and we continue adding to the foundation he laid as we live by faith. Jesus Christ is the blueprint that God has given us to follow and doing so causes us to live an abundant reality where God’s promises are manifested in our lives continually. We must trust and believe that this is possible, and it’s all because of what God has accomplished for us through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Our Lord and Savior said in John 10:10(NKJV), “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Every human being, no matter who they are, wants to live life to the fullest. This is innate in all of us. We want to 13

“Understanding the Blueprint” Continued

2Corinthians 9:8(NIV) says, “And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” This is Good News indeed! God wants us to abound in every GOOD work, because this is what Jesus Christ did, and he is the blueprint of our design. Within the confines of pursuing every good work, God wants us to know that He is able and willing to bless us abundantly, so that we in no way have lack, but instead have all that we need to increase in good works. However, we must understand that the operative words in this equation are ‘pursuing every good work’. We must be actively engaged in the work of Christ because this is what we do when we’re following his example. Many of us have a lot of obligations and responsibilities in our everyday lives, and it is important to recognize that whether it involves family, friends, work, or recreation, we should have the heart and attitude of Christ in all that we do. We should be as kind, compassionate, generous, loving, devoted, honest, and patient as Christ, and we should go above and beyond to be of service and leave an

imprint of his love and light. We should witness the Good News whenever and however the Spirit leads us, and we must be attentive to all the opportunities God gives us each and every day to be a blessing to others. This is how Christ walked with the Father, and this is what we must do as well. Following him every moment of our existences means that we are building our lives on his solid foundation, and this allows us to increase and expand beyond our greatest imagination. When we don’t have a solid foundation that is built on God’s Word through Jesus Christ, and the things we’re doing don’t match his example, we miss out. We might desire to express ourselves in greater ways and to possess great and wonderful blessings, but our foundation isn’t strong enough to hold all that bounty because it’s not built on Christ. He tells us in Luke 12:48 that to whom much is given much is required. Many of us didn’t put on that truth and wear it like a second skin. Instead, we complained about things and blamed our dissatisfaction on everyone but ourselves.

“Understanding the Blueprint” Conclusion

AVOID SPIRITUAL INEFFECTIVENESS

YOUR MOTIVATION Motivation comes from the heart, and it’s the thing that tells God whether we’re following the blueprint or trying to come up with one of our own. Trying to come up with a blueprint of our own isn’t going to work out. We do this when we’re on the run from the person God has called us to be. We do it when we’re living life according to our own plan rather than God’s plan. This causes us to go against the grain of His love, and it takes us further away from the blessings we desire most. Jesus Christ said in John 6:38(KJV), “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” This was his motivation, and it must be our motivation as well.

Spiritual ineffectiveness is the condition of living beneath our privilege as God’s sons and daughters. It’s a condition where we end up taking one step forward and two steps backward. It’s never having what we need when we need it because we lack faith in God. We don’t know enough about Him and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to live a more than abundant life. Because of this, life becomes a vicious cycle of dissatisfaction. To avoid spiritual ineffectiveness, we must humble ourselves and follow the leadership and guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit. It’s the only way.

YOUR DESIRES AND PASSION The question we must ask ourselves is whether we truly want to live for God. Answering a resounding ‘yes!’ is central to building the foundation of our lives on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our desires and passion drive us to get up every morning, and we must determine if they are inspired by our love for God or inspired by something else. If they are inspired by our love and honor for our Creator, we will greet each morning with gratitude that He’s given us another day to bring glory to His name. If our desires and passions are the things of this world like fame, money, materialism, or people, we will not meet God’s requirements, and that’s a problem.

FOLLOW THE BLUEPRINT God is not forgetful. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that He knows the plans He has for us, and these are good plans to give us a future and a hope. He's delivered on this plan. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. He has redeemed us from the curse of death, darkness, and destruction. Now we have a new life in Christ, and that life cannot be lived any old way that we choose. It must be lived with Christ as the Head of our lives in every way. God has made the blueprint very plain to us. It’s the life of Jesus Christ! He is the most perfect person to ever walk this earth. Everything he did was to please and bring glory to our Heavenly Father’s name. He said in John 5:19(NLT), “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” This is our blueprint, and we must change directions and make whatever shifts are necessary to get this done and follow Christ.

“Understanding the Blueprint” Conclusion

“Sow into God’s Kingdom” Conclusion FAITH IS RIGHT BELIEVING

Sowing and reaping is a principle that many of us, as single women, are dismissing, denying, or overlooking. We think that God should reward us even though we haven’t sown the proper seeds to produce the harvest we expect. My grandfather would say that this is the problem with people today, they don’t work hard but expect to receive the same rewards as those who do. Proverbs 13:4(NLT) says, “Lazy people want much but get little, but those who work hard will prosper.” Most of us aren’t lazy when it comes to being on our grind and doing what we gotta do to make our lives work, but often we are lazy when it comes to giving God what He deserves and meeting His requirements. We put our desires and agendas on the top tier and everything else is below. When it comes to our relationship with God, this simply won’t do. Jesus Christ said in Luke 13:24(NLT), “Work hard to enter the narrow door to God's Kingdom, for many will try to enter but will fail.” This isn’t talking about physical labor, but laboring in the things of God like prayer, thankfulness, worship, praise, meditating on God’s Word and spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s possible that when God takes a look at the lives of many of us, He sees that we’ve carved out only a little space for Kingdom business, and everything else revolves around what we want and expect to receive. If we keep this up, it’s not going to yield the rewards we expect. We must be clear that we have to sow into God’s Kingdom to receive Kingdom rewards, and if we have any doubts about this, we simply need to ask the Lord about it. Romans 12:11(NLT) says, “Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.” Our Heavenly Father deserves the best, and we wouldn’t want Him to see us give everyone else our best except Him. That just can’t happen. God tells us in Hosea 10:12 (NLT), “I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.’” Hard ground is ground that hasn’t been plowed, it hasn’t been turned over so that something wonderful can be planted in it. That’s no shape to be in when we’re expecting the Lord to do something great in our lives. As God’s single daughters that are continually asking Him to bless us with a good man, now is the time to plant the good seeds of righteousness. Jesus Christ said in Luke 10:2(NLT), “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” You will do yourself the greatest good if you focus on the work of God’s Kingdom more than any other thing. Pray that you will have a harvest that pleases God, and that as you follow where He leads, you will plant the kind of seeds that produce the blessings you desire most.■

We must be clear that our foundation is Jesus Christ, and he is the living Word of God. Our motivation, our desires and passion, and the way we live our lives must follow his example, but many of us are not quite there. So often we go to God with our prayer requests, and He hears them, but sometimes those prayers are not prayed in faith. James 2:26(NLT) plainly tells us, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." We’re asking the Father to move on our behalves, all the while we’ve neglected to meet the requirements of faith, and Hebrews 11:6 tells us that we can’t please Him without it. Faith is right believing, and right believing must be backed up with the kind of works that mirror those of Jesus Christ; they must follow the blueprint of love and good works that he left us. The Apostle Paul said in 1Corinthians 3:10-11(NKJV), “10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Let’s remember always that we are master builders as well. God has given us this great honor, and we must know that it is our greatest privilege, honor, and responsibility to build our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. When we are fully persuaded and have a sold-out commitment to living our lives through him, God will be pleased and the doors of the exceedingly abundantly will continually be open to us.■

The SMS Magazine is now offered as a digital e-zine. The e-zines will be available on our SMS Member Services website. Hard copies will be available by email request only. If you wish to remain on our mailing list for the hard copy issue of the SMS Magazine, please email us at sundiemorning@hotmail.com or complete the magazine request form on the sundiemorningsistas.org website.

We don't like making mistakes, but it does happen from time to time. We're sorry for the inconvenience it causes. If you’ve spotted an error, it may be listed on our corrections page at: www.sundimeorningsistas.org/corrections.htm If not, please let us know with a quick email to: sundiemorning@hotmail.com Thank you for helping us strive for excellence for the Kingdom of God.

“27 And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. 28 "But don't begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? 29 Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. 30 They would say, 'There's the person who started that building and couldn't afford to finish it!'” Luke 14:27-30(NLT)

n the world of physical exercise, it’s a known fact that if your core muscles are strong, you can perform at your best. The core is the whole system of muscles that include the lower back, pelvic area, stomach, and hips, and when these are functioning the way they should, our bodies are strong and stable. When the core is weak and unstable, we have problems with things like walking, exercise, and keeping our balance. Pain in those areas can also persists as a result of a weak core. In the spiritual sense, a strong physical core paints a picture of what it looks like to have a strong relationship with God. A weak core demonstrates what happens when we don’t do what is necessary to strengthen and maintain our relationship with the Father. We have problems walking by faith. We don’t exercise it the way we should, and we lose the wonderful balance that helps us to live a life that is pleasing to God and fulfilling to us as well. 18

“Building A Solid Foundation” Conclusion

ble to describe the Jewish leaders and teachers that opposed him. To handle God’s truth rightly, we must study the scriptures, not just read them. We can also use aids like other scripture references, concordances, and commentaries that relate to the passage we might be studying. God calls us workers of the Word and using all these quality biblical aids demonstrate our intention to be approved before Him. The Holy Spirit will help us as we are motivated to know the truth and to understand the message that God is communicating through the scriptures. So, we must be committed to study God’s Word diligently for the rest of our lives because this is what pleases Him and increases our faith. You might think, “Studying the Word a lifetime, that’s a tall order.” Well, consider the world and its demands. When it comes to making money and getting a paycheck, we understand that studying is a requirement, and we get it done. As a modern society, we automatically connect studying with success, no matter the area of expertise. Many of us have careers and jobs that require us to study for years. In a general sense, most of us have already spent at least 12 years, fall through spring, studying for eight hours a day. After graduating from that, some of us then went on for even more studying for hours each day. We do this because the desire for success and all the goodies that come with it motivates us. So, as members of society and earth dwellers, we understand on a very fundamental level that in order to grow in knowledge about any subject, studying is necessary. We shouldn’t think that growing in spiritual authority, strength, and power in Christ requires any less.

To a person that is not destined to ever be born-again through Jesus Christ, explaining faith is useless. They won’t get it because they don’t have the Holy Spirit to teach and help them comprehend God’s truth. To the person who has accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, faith is everything because we know that we cannot please God without it. As believers, we know from God’s Word that faith is a potent and dynamic reality, and it requires the person exercising it to possess a solid foundation. The only way a solid foundation can be obtained is by reading, studying, knowing, and following God’s Word. As we move throughout life, going through both tribulations and triumphs, we need to be steady and stable, so that we are not rocked by anything the enemy throws our way. This level of steadiness and stability will require a continual diet of God’s Word so that our relationship with Him grows deeper, and we become increasingly anchored in the faith of Jesus Christ, who is our Rock of Salvation.

A WORKER OF GOD’S WORD 2Timothy 2:15(ESV) instructs us to “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” God would not tell us to do something we’re incapable of doing. He has equipped us through His indwelling Holy Spirit to present ourselves before Him, and to do so in a way that He stamps us “APPROVED!”. He grants this approval when we rightly handle His truth. What does it look like when we rightly handle God’s truth? Well, we can’t just read a verse or two and think we know all there is to know about what we’ve read. No, that’s not the way. The first thing to do before reading God’s Word is to pray. We should ask Heavenly Father for divine revelation and understanding about what we’re going to read. For instance, Mark 12:12(NLT) says, “The religious leaders wanted to arrest Jesus because they realized he was telling the story against them— they were the wicked farmers. But they were afraid of the crowd, so they left him and went away.” If we read this verse without knowing the context or the circumstances that would give us greater understanding, we might think Jesus is speaking to all religious leaders. We might also think that the religious leaders he is referring to in this verse are wicked farmers. If we read the preceding chapter and verses, we’d learn that Jesus Christ had given a parable about wicked farmers. He is using the para-

(Continued on page 27)

n many marriages, partners don’t find out until things have severely broken down that the foundation wasn’t strong from the very beginning. We need to understand that being positive and loving hard doesn’t make the marriage last. Heartbreak often teaches us this lesson. We pour ourselves into our significant relationships without having a strategy to replenish when we run out. We don’t think of ourselves as the architects of our lives,

and that we must build them from the very best materials and tools, but we should. The Apostle Paul said in 1Corinthians 3:10 that through God’s grace, we are master builders. We’ve been given the responsibility and privilege to lay a foundation strong enough that another can build upon it. Jesus Christ has taught us how to do this, and we need to have this lesson firmly under our belts for relationships that lead to marriage. 20

“Marriage Built on the Foundation of Jesus Christ “ Conclusion

In Luke 14:28(NLT), Jesus Christ teaches us an extremely important lesson that helps us build strong and healthy significant relationships. He said, “But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?” Sadly, this is a piece of wisdom that many of us do not practice, especially when it comes to relationships. There are so many details that we don’t think about. We neglect our own mental and emotional readiness to care for the heart of another. We don’t pray nearly enough for the spiritual growth and well-being of our partners, and we haven’t spent enough time walking in the Spirit and building faith muscle, so that if the partner leaves, we’ll still be standing strong in the Lord. So, the reality is that in many of our relationships, we write checks that we haven’t built the faith to cash. Counting the cost requires us to know what it takes to build something strong, and Jesus Christ tells us that we shouldn’t begin until we’ve given this some serious thought. In the passage of 1Corinthians 13:4-5, God tells us that His unconditional and limitless love is patient and kind. God’s love isn’t jealous, boastful, proud, or rude, and it doesn’t demand its own way. We are commanded by Him to love others just as He does, and we certainly must love the significant person in our lives this way. We must make God’s love the standard in our relationships, because this is the way to keep them strong and pleasing to our Heavenly Father. This passage in 1Corinthians 13 is a favorite at weddings, and we hear it read at these ceremonies all the time, but so few take the time to understand the quality of love that He is conveying. So few couples have studied it to the point of actually living it. We must count the cost before we take that walk down the aisle, and this means that we know the standard of God’s love. It means that we’re continually analyzing and calculating to truthfully see how

we stack up, and then correcting ourselves when we don’t. 1John 4:10(NLT) says, “This is real love— not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” As God’s children of light, we must renew our minds to what real and genuine love is. We must recognize the transformation we must make in our hearts and minds to love through Jesus Christ. This is so important because in our significant relationships, many of us come to the table with only our own brand of love. We expect that this is enough for our partners to feast upon, but it’s not. Although it may be difficult to hear, our brand of love isn’t enough to build a strong foundation for marriage. Once we’re in a relationship, we bring jealousy, insecurity, anger, obsession, entitlement, and pettiness into the mix. We become easily offended, and this weighs down our unions. Without the heart of Christ, we place too many conditions on how we will love and who we will love, and we can miss out this way. The Apostle Paul said in 1Corinthians 3:11 (NLT), “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.” This tells us that we must use the building materials and tools that our Heavenly Father provides us through Jesus Christ, and we must build our lives on His love, peace, strength, and power. Love does not demand its own way; it causes us to humble ourselves before the Lord Jesus in every aspect of our existences. In truth, the solid foundation of the love of Jesus Christ is so profound that if every Christian built their marriage on it, divorce would be the furthest thing from their minds. We must see our spouses as our brothers and sisters in Christ first, and we must remember that we are commanded to love them according to the standard our Heavenly Father has set in His Word. ■

ou are holy, holy, holy, and there is none like You. Thank You for blessing me all the days of my life on this earth. I’m in awe of Your magnificence. You are brilliant beyond brilliance, and perfect beyond perfection. You are Yahweh, the Great I Am, the One who brings into existence whatever exists. Glory to

You in the highest! You are such a loving Father. You are a shield around me and the Lifter of my head. During my sleep at night and my rising in the morning, You sustain me. You keep my feet from falling, and You have set me apart for Your purpose. Thank You for making me righteous through Your Son, Jesus Christ, and for giving me the extraordinary gift of Your salvation. 22

“I Desire One of Your Treasures” Conclusion

I humbly ask You to please forgive me for my sins. I have said, thought, felt, and done things that were against Your Word and Will, and I greatly apologize. Thank You for forgiving my wrongdoing and casting my sins as far as the east is from the west. Dear Heavenly Father, I also forgive those that have done me wrong as well. My heart has been broken, and I have been hurt by those who didn’t love me as Jesus Christ does. I forgive them, but You are the only One who truly knows everything about me. If within my heart, there is still anger, bitterness, or resentment, please help me, Dear Father, to release it, so that I can be pleasing to You. You have commanded us in Your Word to pray for others everywhere. Please bless the children all over the world. For those that have left their homes for whatever reason, please take care of them, Dear Father, and let some compassionate person cross their paths and provide the care and support they need. Please provide for those that are without adequate food, water, and shelter. Thank You for blessing all those who desperately need Your help, guidance, and healing power, and for blessing missionaries all over the world that are teaching and sharing the Good News about Jesus Christ. I’m very thankful for all the many blessings that You have given me. You said in Your Word that You wait for us to come to You so that You can show us Your love and compassion, for You are faithful. You are a blessing to those who wait for Your help. Father, I have been praying and waiting to partner with the person that You have

ordained to walk with me through life in holy matrimony. I have spent many holidays without a significant person in my life, and I am humbly asking You to please change this for me. Heavenly Father, I desire one of Your treasures. I am committed to be guided by You through Your precious Holy Spirit as You help me spiritually prepare to steward the reward of marriage. Please position me to meet my spouse and help me to know that this person is indeed sent from You. I will be committed to encourage and uplift my spouse through Your Word, and I will do all that I can to help our marriage thrive in Godliness, always placing Jesus Christ as the head of our union. I will be ever so careful not to put my spouse or anyone else above my commitment and devotion to You, Dear Father. According to the standard of Your Word, I will pour into the life of my spouse with the love of Christ, showering our union with his compassion, patience, generosity, faith, and righteousness. Thank You for opening my eyes and ears so that I can see and hear the information that will position me to be in the right place at the right time. Thank You that even now, You are working this out for my good and for the good of the one that I will marry and treasure. I humbly claim this blessing, and I plead the blood of Jesus Christ over the marital union that I will soon share with the one You send. I pray this in the powerful and precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ■ 23

ur faith in the Lord Jesus Christ informs all the best decisions we make in life. One of the reasons for this is because following the example that Christ left for us always leads us down the right path. We can’t go wrong by following his example, not ever. Jesus Christ tells us in John 10:10 (NKJV), “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have [it] more abundantly.” This is why he came to the earth, to make a more than abundant life available to all God’s children. Without the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, we would be doomed. We’d be in a vicious cycle of sin, destruc-

tion, death, and darkness, but through His infinite mercy and grace, God has rescued us! Now we can walk in the liberty of Christ and live an existence that is pleasing to God and fulfilling to us as well. Many people are suffering through horrible situations and they feel hopeless and stuck. They might find themselves searching for meaning and wondering what all this is for. All of us have probably felt this way at one time in our lives, and it can be very discouraging, but we must remember that our hope is in Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:8 (NLT) tells us, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Our Master Jesus never changes and trusting this is so very important to our faith. 24

“Jesus Christ, the Same Yesterday, Today, and Forever” Conclusion

From a very young age, we learn about seasons and how nature is always changing. We also learn that we will change as we grow older and develop into people that look much like our parents. Maturity teaches us that we change and everything around us changes as well. This is the nature of life, because nothing in life stays the same. When we accept the Lord Jesus into our hearts and give our lives to him, we embark upon the greatest change in life that any human being can make. God transforms us in a way that nothing else can. We receive the spiritual new birth that our Heavenly Father has made available through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 2Corinthians 5:17(NLT) tells us, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” Jesus Christ is the head of our lives. He is Lord! Everything that our Creator sent him to earth to accomplish, he did so perfectly. He did it to the very best ability that is possible. This is very different from us and how we do things. Sometimes we walk according to God’s Will and Word, and sometimes we don’t. Our faithfulness and steadfastness aren’t consistent but sometimes dependent on factors like our feelings, conditions, or environment. This isn’t the case with our Lord and Savior. When he walked upon the earth, he was perfectly faithful and steadfast to our Heavenly Father and the mission he was sent to do. He said in John 6:38(NLT), “For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.” Through his example—his love, power, authority, and perfect, Jesus Christ teaches us what it means to be Lord, and only he is deserving of that title. The prophecy of Revelation 17:14(NLT) tells us, “Together they will go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them because he is Lord of all lords and King of all kings. And his called and chosen and faithful ones will be with him.” Our precious Lord and Savior is Lord of all lords, and King of all kings. He is powerful and strong, and he’s able to help us. 1John 2:1(NLT) tells us, “My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.” God’s desire is that we will not sin, and He has given us the unfailing resources of His Word, the example of Jesus Christ, and the Gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit to help us stay on the

right path, but even with His extraordinary resources, we make mistakes. We have free-will and decide of our own accord to sin against God even when we know it’s not what our Heavenly Father wants. We are being perfected day by day through Jesus Christ, but we’re not quite there yet. It is comforting to know that when we miss the mark, our Lord Jesus advocates for us before our Heavenly Father’s throne. Our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, are the Godhead bodily. They are One and they do not change. They are good all the time and all the time they are good. This is the solid foundation upon which our lives rest. When people don’t believe and trust in God’s goodness, their lives become unstable and disappointing. They’ve been tricked by the evil one into believing that He does things He doesn’t do. “An act of God.” Have you ever heard that term? This is what people who don’t know God call a terrible or tragic event. If a tree falls in your front yard and hits your house or car, the insurance company calls it an act of God. When there are devastating weather events, people say that God is angry and that He’s punishing people for their wrongdoing. When we, ourselves, go through hard times, some of us cry out “God, why are You doing this to me?” Often, we are blinded from the reality that we have an enemy, the devil, and he has so tricked the minds of people that we blame God for the things the devil does. Sometimes, we’re clueless to the ways that the enemy manipulates and tricks our minds, all in a plot to hinder our faith in God. Jesus Christ came to the earth to show us the heart of God, to show us that God desires us to be happy and to live abundantly. When Jesus began his ministry, what did he do? He told people to repent, to stop doing the things that were causing them to live in darkness. He wanted them to live in the light! In John 8:12(NLT) He said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He’s our solid foundation! He’s our peace, our stability, our salvation, our deliverance, and Philippians 4:13 tells us that we can do all things through him. He is Lord, and we must honor his holy name by following his example. When we do this, we will live abundantly through Jesus Christ, and live in his victory over sin, death, darkness, and despair every day of our lives.■ 25

Imitating God’s character and nature is the way to true love and to living a life that is guided by Him and His Word. This is the way that Christ lived. 1John 3:16 tells us that Jesus Christ lived the reality of real love when he walked upon this earth, and he is our example. He never made God’s love disappear, but freely shared it with everyone. His life is the blueprint that we should follow every moment of each day, but in our modern times, very few individuals are living this way. Single people express how lonely they are, and they dream about what their lives will look like with the right person in them. This is a priority for them, but the real love that God schools us about in 1John 3:16-17 is not on their minds. They’re consumed with the search of finding someone to shower them with love, but they don’t really understand what that means. There’s a saying that ‘game recognizes game’. This means that I can recognize the game you’re playing because I play the same way. In the context of love, we can derive a bit of wisdom from this. If I desire quality real love, I must first have the capacity to recognize it, and the only way that I can

s Christians, we are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we need to know that what the world teaches is very different from what God teaches us in His Word. The world teaches people to trust in their own truth, but God teaches us in Proverbs 3:5 to trust in Him with all our hearts, and He tells us not to lean on our own understanding. The world teaches people to let their hearts lead them and to do what their hearts tell them to do. God teaches us in Jeremiah 17:9 that the human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and it is desperately wicked. The world teaches people to be out for themselves and to turn a cold shoulder to others in need. God teaches us to let His love guide us into generosity, compassion, and kindness towards everyone. So, as we can see, we can set ourselves up for a life of disappointment and sadness if we refuse to listen to God and listen to what society says. God commands us in Ephesians 5:1-2(ESV), “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” 26

“All I Need Is You” Conclusion

truly recognize it is if I, myself, have given it. So, the truth of the matter is that many of us are praying to receive a kind of love that we haven’t lived, and that’s a problem. 1John 3:16 teaches us about the unconditional love that our Lord and Savior gave to us by giving his life on the cross to save us from the curse of sin. He saved us from an eternity of death, darkness, and destruction. He freely and generously gave so that we could live. This is the true example of what real love looks like; it’s how real love behaves, and through Christ, God has empowered us to love others this way. We can love others, not with our brand of love, but with His brand of love; and that’s a love that never fails. God’s love teaches us that love requires sacrifice, but some of us have never had this realization. We think that sacrificing our bodies and sacrificing our relationship with God will yield something real, when just the opposite is true. We must understand that the kind of sacrifice that love requires is putting God first. It’s helping someone to see and live through the light of Jesus Christ as they witness us living that light before them. Society teaches that telling a man, “All I need is you”, is very romantic, and it may be, but it is not the truth. It’s a lie and a trick if we fall for it. All we will ever need is our Heavenly Father. That’s the truth! Discovering His love transforms us. It’s the most transformative truth there is and will ever be. Love is about what we do and how we live for God. Every moment of our lives should be spent in gratitude for all that our Heavenly Father has done for us. We can bring glory and honor to His name by how we behave when we’re at work, the grocery store, and everywhere else. When we live this allencompassing love for our Heavenly Father, it means that we understand the price He paid for our freedom, and we are thankful for it in the deepest part of our hearts. Our faith must be expressed through that kind of love, and when it comes to increasing our faith towards marriage, nothing less will do.■ Kim Times, Minister, Writer, and Editor

BUILDING A SOLID FOUNDATION (Conclusion)

In Hosea 4:6(NLT), our Heavenly Father said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This is a piece of wisdom that applies to us today. People can be destroyed or severely harmed by what they don’t know. We have an enemy, the devil, and he counts on us to have a weak core, and have no solid foundation. Being ignorant of God’s Word is the condition that the enemy uses to steal from us and cause destruction in our lives. In fact, ignorance is the number one weapon that he uses against us, because he is a deceiver, and when we don’t know God’s Word and don’t rightly handle it, we can be easily deceived.

THE WAR

There’s a spiritual war going on right this very moment in the spiritual realm. There are also wars happening in our natural realm. War is conflict between kingdoms, entities, people, nations, or states, and it’s a reality that most of us know well. We understand that in war, someone wins, and someone loses. The one that loses is generally the weaker of the two. God wants us to understand that He won the spiritual war that was waged against us by satan, and He did this through the sacrifice and resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. We have the victory in Christ! Our issue is that we’re more than conquerors and don’t know it. We’re trying to fight a spiritual enemy with flesh and blood weapons because we haven’t learned how to use God’s fail proof weaponry. 1John 4:3-4(NLT) tells us, “3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. 4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.” Through Jesus Christ, we have nothing to fear, because the Holy Spirit lives in us, and there is no match for his power. Our hearts will believe greater in the reality of all that we have received in Christ when our minds become more and more saturated with the truth of God’s Word. Knowing the truth of God’s Word is how we build our lives upon the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Faith is found in the message of Christ. Spiritual power, profound wisdom, and extraordinary faith in God all rest on the foundation of His Word. As His children, we must be about the business of building our lives on this solid foundation by living according to the example of Jesus Christ. When this is our commitment, we will be anchored in Christ, who is the Rock of our Salvation, and we will walk through our lives with a fearless confidence in God, and a never-ending desire to please Him. ■

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