Charlie Lewis Blog

We are experiencing the most amazing time ever. Never before have we had the opportunity to have more impact. Our God has chosen us, You and I, to usher in His Kingdom in a way it has never been experienced before by humanity. The Lewis Family and the Team at Kingdom School and Ministry, KSAM, are excited. We are looking forward to and anticipating a great and a mighty move by the Holy Spirit God that will change our world forever. We will not be the same after this year and our awareness of our God’s generous provision and abundant supply for all of Humanity.

During the last quarter of each year, we spend time asking our God what His plans are for us the upcoming year, 2021. We ask what His top three priorities are for us individually and collectively as a Family and as the Leadership Team for KSAM. We record what He says to us, and those become priority for us. We are celebrating this Christmas season with more than usual excitement and anticipation. The need for a living, breathing relationship with our Creator is more evident than normal for everyone. Humanity is searching and many if not most are desperate. We are excited that we have the opportunity to share the reality and the Good News of the overwhelming love of our Father and His individual good plans for all and for each of Humanity.

We are excited about this year and the upcoming year. The table is set. Great and Mighty things are in store for us. The BEST is yet to come.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours. May His goodness and His favor overtake you today and forever. Blessings beyond measure forever.

This time of year, many people are making decisions on end-of-year charitable donations. Beyond this, many are assessing their finances and budget for the upcoming year. It is important to have a God-inspired plan of giving, and not just arbitrarily decide how to give based on what’s left over in your budget.

The connection between giving and receiving is clear. Yet it seems strange that when we speak about our earning or our revenue development plans, that we do not begin our plan from the vantage point of our giving commitment. If giving stimulates and activates receiving, then why would we not consider giving as an integral part and the necessary beginning for our earnings plan? I am convinced we will never reach our earning potential without first beginning with our giving plan and our giving commitment.

To determine a giving plan from God you must first hear from God. God is good and His plans for you are for good. The Holy Spirit God is constantly speaking to you through your spirit. To be in relationship with God so that you can hear from Him and recognize His voice, you must fellowship with God by spending time together with Him. There are no shortcuts. You must spend time fellowshipping with God.

Recommendations:

1. Designate a set time every day that you set aside to fellowship with our God.
2. Honor that time and stick to it. If you miss it, do not make it legalization and condemning; just be sure you make it at least 70% of the time – five out of seven days per week.
3. Determine a set amount of time. I suggest you begin with fifteen minutes. Spend ten minutes praising and worshipping God and talking to God about what is important to you. For five minutes listen, do not say anything just concentrate on fellowshipping, worshipping and praising our God with the ears of your spirit attuned to His words about your requests. Do this for thirty days and then every thirty days increase your time by five minutes.
4. Have with you during these times a notepad or notebook and pen. Have written down what you want to cover and write down what you hear through your spirit when spending time with our God.
5. Ask very specific and direct questions. Expect very specific and direct answers.
6. Write down what you hear and record how it plays out in your life. Keep good records. Thank God for specific direction and the resulting outcomes.
7. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Read one chapter per day.
8. Read Romans 12:1-3 daily. KJV/NLT
9. Read Hebrews 4:12 daily. KJV/NLT
10. Reprogram your mind by reading and or listening to the Word and thank God for steps 7, 8 and 9 becoming real in your life.

Developing a Giving Plan for 2021

1. Begin with a Declaration statement and praise. There are many Declarations to choose from in my free ebook Kingdom Activating Declarations.
2. Declare out loud what you are believing God for:
   1. God places within us the desires that are in our heart/spirit.
   2. As we fellowship with Him, as we read His Word, as we participate in anointed teaching and preaching, He causes our thoughts to become agreeable with His will and are our plans established.
3. Divide the areas of your life into sections that you pray specifically for and ask God for direction in each:
   • Family
   • Health
   • Wealth/Money
   • Friends
   • Faith
   • Giving
   • Missions – Local, Globally
   • Ministries
   • Church
   • Pastor/Leader
   • Relationships
   • Employment
   • Deployment
   • Property
   • Thoughts/Attitude
   • Confession/Words
   • Possessions
   • Business
   • Calling / Anointing
   • Personal – spirit, mind, body
   • Greater Influence
   • A right spirit
   • Where you live
   • What you drive
   • What you wear
   • Where and when you vacation
4. Commit to spending the time necessary to hear from God. Believe what He says to your spirit and do what He directs.
5. Continue the process everyday and add/delete/change/review and correct whatever is appropriate.
6. Experience the goodness and blessings of hearing and obeying our God.

These suggestions and thoughts are not all-inclusive, they are not exclusive, nor are they unchangeable. Modify and add to them as the Holy Spirit God inspires and directs. He alone is the Master Teacher. Everyone else works under Him. This and these suggestions are what He, the Holy Spirit God has shared with and provided to me personally. They change for me quite regularly. May He inspire you to greater and better things than these, Humanity needs them. Please share them. If the Holy Spirit God inspires you to add something to this giving plan, please leave a comment below.

This week we bring to a close the Keys to Understanding blog series. Be sure to read Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4. I hope you have been encouraged by this series. If so, please feel free to leave a comment and share.

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We boldly and confidently declare that we are what He says we are, we have what He says we have, and we can and will do what He says we can do. Understanding is power. Lesser authority always yields to greater authority. Rise and be healed in the name of Jesus. Pick up your bed and walk. Declare now the Words of our Creator God are stronger and more powerful than anything that has declared itself to be superior to our God in your life. Sickness, disease, drugs, alcohol, lying spirits, sexual immorality, homosexuality, lust, pride, all principalities, all evil powers, every one of the rulers of darkness, all named and unnamed spiritual wickedness in high places, every force of the Kingdom of darkness.

Our Creator came to destroy the works of Satan, the works of darkness. He has stripped them of their power and placed them under the feet of the believer. They cannot and we will not allow them to stand against the Words of our God.

I declare to you this is not emotion or any other product of our mind, this is the belief, the acceptance and the faith that is the product of our renewed, reborn spirits. That faith has been planted in our spirits to provide the abundant, extravagant, lavish life of liberty promised by the Words of our Creator/God. Receive it.

We are believers and not doubters. We are free from frustration. We recognize the strategies and deceits of the defeated Satan and we put a stop to them by speaking the Words of our Creator/God out of our mouths in faith.

Greater are You in us than he that is in the world. We tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. We take our shield of faith and we quench his every fiery dart.

The Creator, our Creator says, “I will keep the person whose mind stays on me (my words) in perfect peace, because they trust me.”

Our Creator says the peace He gives is different from the peace the world provides. The peace He provides goes beyond human understanding (our minds).

We are told, “Do not lean toward your own reasoning or perceptions (our minds), but in everything you do, acknowledge, seek my way, and I will provide direction.”

Jesus said not to worry about things (temporal, temporary pursuits) but to seek our Creator’s plan, government, rule, order and His way of doing and being right/correct. Things will follow. It is a dynamic of the Kingdom Christ delivered to the earth. It will not fail. It is without variance.

This is the principle, the dynamic of the Kingdom, God’s way of doing and being right. How do we walk out this dynamic in our lives? How do we apply it practically?

1. What is the need? Identify the need and describe in detail.
2. What does God tell us about this struggle? How do we apply His Word to the challenge? Write this out in detail as well.
3. Read #2 over and over until it becomes what you instantly think and constantly believe.
4. Reprogram you mind, your thinking, until it automatically agrees with what God said and discount the situations, circumstances and relationships that say otherwise.
5. Thank and praise God for victory in every battle until the war is won.
6. Share your faith with others. Everyone struggles and wants to know how to have power over circumstances, situations, and relationships. God has provided an excellent plan. Share it.

This week’s blog is a guest post from my friend Charles Carrin. There are people who carry a special anointing that will stir your spirit to greater heights than you can imagine. Charles is such a person. He is a Giant in the Kingdom of our God.  I am always very blessed to spend time with him. His energy and his depth of spirit are off the chart. His insight and his experience are uniquely displayed through his humble power. While his body is approaching ninety years in time, and gives him challenge at times, his spirit is forever young and he is a very young man in power and in demonstration.
 
The article below is from his newsletter, Gentle Conquest. I encourage you to read it in detail and let the Spirit of God that is in Charles encourage you. His discourse on creationism is top shelf. We all have questions at times, and this is a good reference to keep close.
 
If you would like to contribute to Charles’ ministry, the information is included at the end of the article.

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If two tuning-forks are in the same room, one is struck to produce a musical note, the other, without being struck, will begin duplicating the same sound as the first. The second intercepts the vibration of the other and responds sympathetically to it. This happens because the tuning forks share a musical compatibility. There is a parallel to this in the spirit-realm. After we are born-again, we are made “like Christ,” and in a way similar to the tuning-fork, are able to respond to Him. Prayer is not a recitation, formality, or religious ritual! It is a response to the call of God. The hymn writer said, “O the pure delight of a single hour / That before thy Throne I spend / When I kneel in prayer and with thee my God / I commune as friend with friend! / Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord…” This drawing is vital to authentic prayer.

When Jesus approached the grave of Lazarus, anticipating his resurrection, “He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said to his sisters, Where have you laid him?” John 11:33,34. Paul, in anticipating his future resurrection, said, “For in this (body) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven … in this tent we groan,
being burdened …” II Corinthians 5:2-5.

Soon after my baptism in the Spirit in 1977, I began experiencing radical changes in my prayer life. One, which I did not understand, and for which I had received no teaching, came in a surprising way. I was in a congregation worshipping when I suddenly felt a drawing in my mid-section that bent me into a birthing-position. As I dropped into a chair; a deep, deep groan came from somewhere inside me.

It was not something I did;
It was something done to me.

The experience was physically intense and lasted for several minutes. During that time I felt completely separated from my surroundings and joined to God in a unique and different way. But the connection was not to God only; I felt joined to His purpose in the Universe. I had never experienced anything like it before. Later, in reading Scripture and meditation, I realized the Holy Spirit had allowed me to participate in the Great Prayer rising from Creation. That prayer involves every galaxy, asteroid, planet, down to the smallest particle of meteorite dust. Paul explains:

“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God … because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”

Romans 8:19,21,22

Jesus revealed that the elements, including inanimate matter, have sensitivity to their Creator and possess the capacity of worship; this was disclosed when he spoke of the stones “crying out.” Luke 19:40. That includes everything from the smallest pebble in the brook to the greatest galaxy in outer space. No asteroid, nebula, planet, or meteorite dust is omitted. God confirmed this to Job when he spoke of the time “When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:7. Some physicists believe that at the absolute bottom of the atom is “sound.” While we usually identify this experience as “intercession,” because of the groaning that accompanies it, we fail to connect it to the Scripture’s more vital message. Paul then identifies our role in that universal prayer:

“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

Romans 8:26 (cf. II Corinthians 5:1-5.)

This groaning-prayer (which is not to be mistaken with the gift of tongues) originates with Jesus’ High Priestly intercession in Heaven. Scripture explains:

“Christ … who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

Romans 8:34

Let me warn you: Do not try to “fake” this prayer. That approaches mockery. Instead, offer yourself to Christ as an intercessor; let Him have total control. It may be that you will experience the Cosmos’ Universal Prayer when “All nature sings and ’round you rings, the music of the spheres.” Someday, as a
result of that Universal Intercession, the farthest galaxy in space “will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.” Romans 8:19-21. Hallelujah!

The prayer Jesus now speaks from the Throne is permeating the Universe with the assurance of success. In response to this prayer, Creation is echoing back its holy longing for redemption to deliver it also from the “bondage of corruption;” it knows that cannot happen until the “manifestation of the sons of God” is complete. Romans 8:19-23. Some individuals who are drawn into this intimacy with the Spirit find themselves so far removed from all human language and so deep into the things of God that it leaves them as wearied as if they had been on a long journey. Paul explains:

“What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.”

1 Corinthians 14:15.

Scripture identifies prayer in three basic forms:

1. Praying according to human understanding; that is, praying about information our 5 senses tell us. Paul calls this praying “with the understanding.” I Corinthians 14:15. This prayer is dependent upon knowledge gained by the mind (correctly or incorrectly) and while it is all some people have, such information is not always reliable. James 4:3.

2. Praying “in the spirit”. I Corinthians 14:15. Jude 20. This prayer originates from the specific direction of the all-knowing Holy Spirit. In this prayer, through the gift of tongues, we speak “mysteries” far beyond human comprehension or human language. I Corinthians 14:2,14.

3. Praying as “the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with ‘groanings which cannot be uttered.’” Romans 8:26.

In examining these three types of prayer, we must realize that the mind, by itself, has only five natural sources of information. It receives knowledge from what the body tells it through seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, and smelling.

These are all marvelous senses with which God has equipped mind and body to function together. We thank God for them– though none of these senses are spiritual. Consequently, the mind, by itself, is a vastly insufficient tool for the spiritual work of prayer. Christians whose prayer-life is limited to mental-knowledge are depending on human abilities inferior to those of the neighbor’s dog. That is a rash statement, I know, but before you disregard me, please hear what I have to say. 

Animals have senses vastly superior to man’s. A Polar Bear can smell food at a distance of 24 miles. The common housefly can detect and respond to danger in one-two hundredths of a second. The peregrine falcon can see a pigeon 5 miles away and dive at speeds of 217 miles an hour. Also, he has “fast” vision. His eyes could actually read print on a whirling airplane blade. An owl can hear the movement of a mouse from two football fields away. Bats fly unaided through a pitch-black cave, sharks can smell a single drop of blood in millions of gallons of water. Your own dog or cat has hearing perception better than you. At a burned-out arson site, a dog can smell 1/500,000 of a drum of flammable fuel; his sense of smell is 100 times greater than a human’s. The common shrimp can see more colors than we do. The Monarch butterfly can discern tastes 12,000 times more subtle than a human’s, and with perfect precision, fly 2,000 miles unaided to a tiny spot in Mexico. What about endurance? Eggs of the tadpole shrimp can survive dormant for centuries at temperatures more than 150 degrees below zero.

Unlike the limited mental capacities of our human body, the regenerate human spirit is neither confined nor limited. It has potentials greater than all the combined animal abilities I mentioned. Our spirit has access to the gifts of “wisdom and revelation” which equip it to receive and use knowledge directly from the Holy Spirit. This special equipping is the precise function of the “word of knowledge,” “word of wisdom,” “discerning of spirits,” and other gifts of the Holy Spirit. I Corinthians 12:8-10.

As an example of what I mean, a “word of knowledge” came to me one time during a prayer meeting, instructing us to pray for a Jewish lady named Mildred. Though we knew absolutely nothing about this stranger, we stopped everything else and prayed for her. At the end of the service a visitor came forward, took the microphone, and in a very shaken voice said, “I have never spoken before a congregation in my entire life, but tonight I must. I came this evening to ask you to pray for a friend of mine in the North — but I arrived too late to make the request — However, I did not have to — The Lord told you for me — Her name is Mildred and she is Jewish. She is the one you have prayed for.” Several wonderful things resulted from that “word of knowledge.” The Jewish lady was not only healed, but when she learned what had happened at our meeting, a thousand miles from her, she went to a Baptist church in her community, believed the gospel and accepted Jesus as her Messiah. Such are the wonderful ways of God.

Another time during prayer I received a word that someone in the
congregation was suffering from severe pain in their wrist. Another had pain in the stomach. A moment later, two women, strangers, stood before me, one carefully holding up her hurting wrist and exclaiming, “But how did you know?!” “I didn’t,” I explained, “The Holy Spirit told me.” The wrist and stomach pain were both healed and the two women became long-time
members of the congregation.

A dramatic healing occurred when a word of knowledge revealed that a “spirit of rebellion” was working against several in the congregation. Four people came forward acknowledging the problem and wanting deliverance. The Holy Spirit visibly touched three of them. The fourth, to whom nothing discernibly occurred, was a woman named Ellen, who suffered from constant spinal pain and wore a chin-to-hip back brace. The next night she was awakened from her sleep by the glory of the Holy Spirit surging like electricity through her body. She was not only filled with the power of God and delivered from the rebellious spirit, but was instantly healed. The brace was discarded.

The choice before modern Christians is whether we will conduct our prayer-lives by “soul” knowledge, i.e, the five senses, or believe that the gift of revelation knowledge is available to us today. Satan himself is a spirit and is light-years beyond our meager human senses. If he can keep our spiritual life confined to things we have to see, touch, smell, taste, and hear, he will continue to dominate us. Hell rocks with laughter every time ministers stand before congregations and preach against the miraculous Gifts. These men drill holes in the bottom of their own boats with that kind of preaching — and Satan gladly gives them the tools.

Why do we need to “pray in the Spirit?” Paul explains:

“Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” The Apostle further explains, “For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.” (My mind is by-passed.) “What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also.”

I Corinthians 14:14,15

Paul is declaring that he will use both mind and spirit as essential means of prayer. If the greatest writer of the New Testament needed both tools of prayer can you and I get by with less? Do not be afraid of the gift of tongues. Crucify your ego! Surrender your pride and allow the Holy Spirit to speak through you! Allow yourself to be the tuning fork that responds to the call of God. You will be glad you did!

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If you would like to help underwrite the newsletter and support the ministry of Charles Carrin, you may send checks to P.O. Box 800, Boynton Beach, FL 33425 or donate on Charles’ website at Charlescarrin.com.

This is a repost of a piece I wrote some years ago. I usually share it again each Thanksgiving. Blessings to you and your family during this wonderful holiday!

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It is a privilege to live in a country where there is a day set aside each year to give thanks. Early in our country and even recently, as a nation we have been called to fast and to pray and to engage Heaven in our life experiences on planet Earth. What does that mean? Why is that important?

Fasting, praying, being thankful and calling Heaven to the Earth are chosen Dynamics of our Conduct and our Behavior that have huge impact on the outcomes of our lives on Earth and forever. A Dynamic is defined as an interactive system involving competing or conflicting forces. This simply means that for our being thankful there is a corresponding reaction. We choose our outcomes by the actions that we freely and completely select to follow. These actions impact the Earth and our life experiences on this planet. Our present life experiences are entirely the result of the actions that we have chosen previously.

I have often asked myself how important is being thankful to our Creator and our God, and what does the Manufacturer’s Handbook say about thankfulness?

The words “thank,” “thanks,” and their variations are used 139 times in the King James Version of the Scriptures. In the New Living Translation they are used 168 times.  That amount of usage makes the word, its variations and their meanings and usages, important to the Author of the writings. If it is mentioned that many times by our Creator and our God, then we must determine why it is used, how that pertains to us as Humanity, and how this understanding impacts us as Humanity. I believe this is important, particularly in the understanding of our likeness to our Creator.

In a very large majority of the usages of the words thanks and/or thanksgiving, there is the pairing of the admonition or directive to combine thanksgiving with the presentation of our praise to our God and our King. I have often been intrigued by the record in the letter to the Romans identified as Chapter 1 verse 21. There is described here a very clear picture of how our God looks at thanksgiving and praise from Humanity.

The King James bersion of the Bible says –

“Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful…”

The New Living Translation says –

“Yes, they knew God, but they would not worship Him as God or even give Him thanks…”

There appears to be several things that are identified here as important.

• Recognition – our Creator wants to be recognized as God. Knowing does not appear to be enough.  There is an element of recognition.  Recognition is defined as the act of identifying someone or something because of previous knowledge, or to formally acknowledge someone. Our Creator God wants Humanity to formally acknowledge Him as our Creator and our God.
• Acknowledgement – to acknowledge means to accept or to admit the existence, the reality or the truth of someone or something, and to recognize as being valid and as having force or power.
• Worship – a feeling or expression of reverence and honor and adoration for Deity. To reverence is to show deep feelings of respect/regard and devotion. Devotion is a large expression of dedication and of loyalty.
• Glory – exaltation. The fame, admiration and honor that is given to someone who does something important. Praise of Deity. Praise and thanksgiving offered as an act of worship to Deity.
• Thankfulness – gratefulness. Warm, friendly feelings of gratitude.

These terms are key indicators of the personality of our God.  To many it may be difficult to believe that our God has a personality.  In different places He refers to His mind.  As like-produced beings, we understand that we have a mind, and that is where our emotions, our feelings, and our personality are developed and where they are housed. Being created in His likeness and His image, for us to have a mind and a personality, He would have to have a personality first. Often people can only imagine God as some austere, non-concerned Being that has no interest in individuals, much less any interest at all in Humanity. I’m not sure where that perception comes from, but a casual observance of our God will dispel any such nonsense.  He is the God of great compassion and provision. Even before the foundations of the Earth, He had greatly detailed plans for each member of Humanity.

A summation of this passage would indicate that our God wants each of us to formally recognize Him as our Creator, to accept and to admit His existence, and to accept and to declare His power in our lives. We are to do this by our expression of reverence, honor and adoration. This expression is to be an exhibition of dedication and loyalty wrapped up in praises that are warm, friendly feelings of gratitude or thankfulness. This is what Jesus was telling the woman at the well in Samaria. This kind of relationship and this kind of praise and worship only comes from a thankful spirit and is received by a thankful God.

Why is a thankful spirit important?  In our World today, especially in the United States, we are a people who often find it easier to recognize what we do not have more than to recognize and to be thankful for what we do have. We are constantly being bombarded by all of the different media forms with things that appear very enticing, and they are presented as things we cannot live without. The reality is that when we get them, they do not look at all as they did in the marketing.  Passing through the Atlanta Airport recently, Fran and I stopped to get a quick sandwich.  As we sat at the table a gentleman came and sat at the table next to us. As he opened his sandwich, he looked at us and said, “Boy, I wish it looked like they show it in that photo on the wall.” It did not. Not only sandwiches, but most everything that is being marketed is shown as something that will change your life. Your life will be enormously enhanced by the experience of owning and enjoying this product.  We purchase them only to learn that the glitter is gone very quickly. My Brother once said to me, “do not buy any of those exercise products you see on television. I have them all in my closet.  They are unused and I will let you have them at half price.” I am sure that was not totally correct, but much too much of it really is.

What are we looking for?  What is it we want, and why do we want it?  Is it possible that we are unhappy with whom we are and what we have, and all of this feeds our discontentment? “If I could only lose ten pounds;” “If I could only get a new car, a new house, a new spouse, a new job, make more money, move to a new town;” and a whole array of “other things that I do not now have.” The displeasure appears to be with ourselves, but we are led to believe that obtaining something outside of ourselves will provide the answer.  Is that a reasonable conclusion?  Is that reality?

All of the marketing we see presents us with unreasonable expectations.  Everything we are shown is perfect, without fault, without blemish.  Our skin, our bodies, our relationships, our cars, our homes, our children, our teeth, our food, and on and on and on, and we are presented with examples that are supposed to be natural, but they are all without blemish.  That does not exist.  If we can understand that we are eternal spirits that live in a body, and that we are managed by our minds, we then can set priorities and reasonable objectives with acceptable time projections for accomplishment.  All of the marketing is very one-sided.  Very little information is offered about products that are available to enhance our spirit’s relationship with our Creator.  Very little is offered to develop correct thinking that is in agreement with our Creator’s plans and the way to look at things His way. Most marketing addresses the body and satisfying the senses. This is the most temporal of all of our being.

Just as the previous terms that describe the personality of our God, they are also a part our make-up and our personality and they are not wrong.  We want to be recognized, our influence for good to be honored, our contribution and participation to be revered by the expression of loyalty and appreciation.  This is important.  It is important to our Creator, and it is important to us as Humanity.  I believe it is false humility to act like this does not matter.  He has said that we are made like Him, and what matters to Him matters to us, and what matters to us matters or is important to Him.

A spirit of thankfulness is very important to our God.  He follows this presentation in Romans with very specific outcomes and actions that are the results for those who do not honor Him as God, who choose to not worship Him, and who are not thankful.

We are told to enter His gates with thanksgiving and to come into His courts with praise.  We cannot be unthankful and constantly complaining. Our God is good and His mercy endures forever.  Be thankful unto Him and bless His Holy name forever and continually.

As the old hymn says, “Count your many blessings, count them one by one.” Make a list of the good in your life and it will overwhelm the bad or challenging.

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.”

Philippians 4:8-9, The Message

Have a Happy and Thankful Thanksgiving, from the Lewis Family to Yours!