Yesterday when looking into a shop window here in KAITAIA, I discovered two small decorative objects which said:
“COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS”.
And how glad I am that I did see those ornaments.
Today I opened the hymn book called REDEMPTION HYMNS (“Changeless Truth for Changing Times”), and I did find the hymn “When upon life’s journey you are tempest tossed, …” in that book with the refrain which begins with the words:
“COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS NAME THEM ONE BY ONE.”
(The hymn is by Johnson Outman Jr.)
I want to do that. I started doing that. I intend to really concentrate on doing that.
The finishing line of the chorus says:
“AND IT WILL SURPRISE YOU WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE.”
I am surprised already and counting my blessings REALLY WORKS.
When I read the quote by Albert Einstein, “Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person,” the following Bible verse came to my mind:
“And thou shalt love
the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind and
with all thy strength:
this is the first commandment.” – Mark 12:30 (King James Version)
Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.” – Nelson Mandela
“Change the government,” I am reading on the front page in big letters of the first edition of MANA News. (Issue 1, April 2014)
I found the paper in our letter box yesterday.
That is not the first call for change I have read.
In Matthew 18:3 in the Bible we are reading the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and he says, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
The King James Version says, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of God.”
But in the first issue of MANA News it says also on the same page: “But it won’t be enough just to change the government. We need a government which will seriously tackle …”
What we really need is to change our minds, we need to change our ways. Our hearts need to be changed within us.
