Why Magufuli administration misses the point on Government splurge

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Amen!
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Miaka 5 jela baada ya kushindwa kulipa faini ya Tshs 11 mill kwa kutiwa hatiani kwa ushoga sijui ushahidi wameutoa wapi na timing ni kumbeza Tundu Lissu aliyewaahidi kulinda haki zao...politics at the wrong hour baada ya uchaguzi watatolewa tu kwani hawana hatia.

Huku mafisadi wanatia hasara ya mabilioni hupewa chaguo kifungo cha mwaka mmoja au faini ya laki saba hapo ndiyo unajua mahakimu Kisutu ni mlungula kwenda mbele
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Bounce it Back Up

It was one of the most moving and powerful testimonies I have ever encountered. A former sex worker, drug addict and dealer described how she had reached a point at which, in her own words, she was ‘dead’. She said her ‘blood was black’ and her ‘heart was black’. She described how she came on Alpha and heard that Jesus loved her so much that he died for her. She described how this had broken ‘the concrete’ of her heart. She experienced God’s love for her for the first time. She is now filled with love for everyone, forgiving those who abused her, and radiating the love of Christ.
After she had given her testimony to a stunned congregation, I went up to thank her and said how extraordinarily powerful it had been. She replied, ‘I need to bounce it back up!’ I didn’t understand what she meant. I asked her to explain. She said, ‘It’s all his grace. I need to bounce the glory back to him.’ She has a profound understanding of grace, glory and what it means to be Christ-like.
The theme of ‘glory’ runs through each of today’s readings (Psalm 115:1; Philippians 2:11; Jeremiah 2:11). We see why, how and when to bounce the glory back up to God.


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Psalm 115:1-11

Why glorify God?

When people praised John Wimber because of a talk he had given or a healing that had happened through his ministry, he used to say, ‘I’ll take the encouragement, but I’ll pass the glory on.’
The psalmist gives us a great example of passing the glory on – bouncing it back up to God. He starts: ‘Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness’ (v.1). He goes on to give two reasons why you should glorify and worship God.
First, because of our experience of God’s ‘love and faithfulness’ (v.1b). Worship is a response to what God has done for you. Give him all the glory.
Second, because you become like that which you worship: ‘Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them’ (v.8). So, if we worship idols, we become totally lifeless, unable to do anything of any value.
Put your trust in the Lord who is your ‘help and shield’ (vv.9–11). Put your faith in the Lord and worship him, and you will become like him – you will be changed into his likeness and obtain fullness of life.

Lord, my help and shield, help me to experience more of your love and faithfulness, to ‘bounce it back up’ and to give you all the glory.



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Philippians 1:27-2:11

How to glorify God

Paul explains how you can glorify God by becoming like Jesus: ‘Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself’ (2:5, MSG). Become Christ-like in attitude because of concern for the ‘name of Jesus’ (v.10) and the ‘glory of God’ (v.11).
Live a life ‘worthy of the gospel of Christ’ (1:27). It is a privilege, not only to believe in Jesus, but also to suffer and struggle for him (vv.29–30).
When people or events come against you, ‘stand firm’ (v.27) in unity against all the opposition and attacks that you are bound to encounter. The language Paul uses is that of a phalanx – the most formidable military device of antiquity. With shields together and spears out front, the soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder in files eight men deep. As long as they did not break rank, they were virtually invincible.
‘Stand united, singular in vision, contending for people’s trust in the Message, the good news, not flinching or dodging in the slightest before the opposition. Your courage and unity will show them what they’re up against: defeat for them, victory for you – and both because of God’ (vv.27–28, MSG).
A Christ-like attitude is the key to this unity. Any disunity in the church would have detracted from Paul’s ‘joy’ (2:2). Disunity so often comes from ‘selfish ambition and vain conceit’ (v.3a). The key is to consider others better than yourself (v.3b), to look not only to your own interests ‘but also to the interests of others’ (v.4).
‘Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand’ (vv.3–4, MSG).
In other words, you are to have the same attitude as Jesus, who let go of his natural, legal and social status, and made himself ‘nothing’. He took ‘the very nature of a servant… he humbled himself’ and ‘became obedient to death – even death on a cross!’ (vv.7–8). He took the path of downward mobility, humble service and unselfish love. If you are ever anxious about your relative status, remember that Jesus made himself lower than we could ever imagine.
And as a result, ‘God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (vv.9–11).
This is how you can glorify God: by following Christ in his humble service and selfless love.

Lord, help me to have the same attitude as Jesus. Help me to take the path that brings glory to God the Father. Help me always to bounce the glory back to you.



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Jeremiah 1:1-2:30

When to glorify God

What happens when troubles, difficulties and disruption come into your life and the lives of those around you?
Jeremiah lived in one of the troubled periods in Israel’s history – the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC and the exile in Babylon. He was given a difficult message to give to the people. He did it with great courage in the face of hostility and persecution.
The opening chapters of Jeremiah show two more ways that you can glorify God and when you can do so.
First, you glorify God when you respond to God’s call. Age is no barrier to leadership. Jeremiah was probably a teenager when God called him, around the year 627 BC. He could be described as both a ‘born leader’ and a ‘born prophet’. Before his birth he was set apart to be a prophet. God said, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you... and before you were born I separated and set you apart... I appointed you as a prophet to the nations’ (1:5, AMP).
God knows all about you – the good and the bad. His knowing leaves nothing out. He loves you. He does not necessarily approve of everything you do, but he wants you to live, like Jeremiah, with the freedom of knowing his love and approval.
The Lord tells you, as he told Jeremiah, to go wherever he tells you to go and say whatever he tells you to say (v.7). This takes the ultimate responsibility off your shoulders. Glorifying God does not mean having to try to save the whole world (that is God’s responsibility), but rather doing what God asks you to do. This will not be easy. God warns that there will be opposition (vv.17–19).
Second, you glorify God when you respond to God’s correction. God asked Jeremiah to warn the people against worshipping worthless idols and to call them back to worshipping him.
Jeremiah said, ‘My people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols’ (2:11b). Not only does this deny God the glory he deserves, it is actually self-destructive. When we turn away from God we lose the blessings of relationship with him, and replace it with something useless. God laments how ‘my people have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water’ (v.13).
In particular, they were ‘on the hunt for sex, sex, and more sex – insatiable, indiscriminate, promiscuous’ (v.24, MSG). They were ‘addicted’ and could not ‘quit’ (v.25, MSG).
Again, we see that you become like whatever you worship. Those who follow ‘worthless idols’ become ‘worthless themselves’ (v.5). If you follow Jesus, you become like him. If we try to find satisfaction, meaning and purpose through our own ambitions and self-centred appetites, our lives become of no value.
Jeremiah despaired that God’s people had not responded to his correction (v.30). They had forsaken his blessings, and failed to give him glory. Thank God that the remedy for all this came in the person of Jesus, who laid aside his glory in order to rescue us. To Him be all the glory!

Lord, help me to fix my eyes on Jesus, the spring of living water, and to turn my face towards him. May I become Christ-like and give you all the glory.



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Pippa Adds

Jeremiah 1:11–12
‘The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “I see the branch of an almond tree,” I replied. The Lord came to me, “You have seen correctly, for I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.”’
God uses pictures to speak through us and to us. They can be so comforting, encouraging and memorable. I find it a little daunting if I think I have a picture. It is easy to discount it, thinking someone else will probably have a better one and that maybe I’d made it up anyway.
But if I do speak up, God might use it to transform someone's day or even their life.


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How to Be a Blessing Machine

Do you ever wonder whether you can make a difference to the lives of those around you?
I once watched an episode of the reality TV Show, The Secret Millionaire. Kevin Green – a covert multi-millionaire – searched for people and causes that would benefit from his financial support. He gave about $100,000 to a range of people working with the homeless, teenage addicts and disabled children. The response of all these people was deeply moving. They were so grateful, and the causes that they work for benefited greatly. They were blessed and enabled to bring greater blessing to others.
However, the most interesting aspect of the programme was the change in Kevin Green. He had experienced in a new way the joy of blessing others. His life was changed as a result. The words of Jesus are true: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (Acts 20:35).
Archie Coates, vicar of St Peter’s Brighton, speaks of the church as a ‘blessing machine’. That is exactly what we as Christians are called to be, as the church and as individuals. You really can be a blessing machine.


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Psalm 115:12-18

God is the ultimate blessing machine

It is God’s blessing on your life that enables you to make a difference to the lives of others. God is the source of all blessing. He loves to bless you. The psalmist repeats this over and over again. Five times in quick succession he talks about how the Lord will bless us (vv.13–15).
God is not just some multi-millionaire. He is ‘the Maker of heaven and earth… The highest heavens belong to the Lord’ (vv.15b–16a). In his extraordinary generosity, ‘the earth he has given to [us]’ (v.16b).
God loves to bless. The appropriate response to blessing is gratitude: ‘we bless God, oh yes – we bless him now, we bless him always!’ (v.18, MSG).

‘Praise the Lord’ (v.18c). Lord, I can never praise you enough – you have blessed me in Christ with every spiritual blessing (see Ephesians 1:3).



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Philippians 2:12-30

Be a blessing machine to others

How, in practice, can you make a difference to the lives of those around you?
We are ‘children of God’ (v.15). You are called to be like your Father in heaven, who loves to bless. You have a responsibility to work out your own salvation (to see God’s grace impact every area of your life), but it is he who ‘works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose’ (v.13).
Many people are reluctant to trust God with their future because they fear that God will make them do something that they have no desire to do, or will make a mess of their life. Of course, both of these fears are without foundation.
If your will is surrendered to him, God will give you the desire to do whatever he is calling you to do. If he is calling you to a ministry with the poor, that is where your heart will be. If he is calling you to teach, he will give you a desire to teach. If you surrender to his will, he will bring about ‘his good purpose’ (v.13).
What he wants for your life is good. It will not necessarily be easy, but you will not be able to improve on his plan. He will also give you the energy you need: ‘That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure’ (v.13, MSG).
Paul knows the joy of being a ‘blessing machine’. He writes, ‘Do everything readily and cheerfully – no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night’ (vv.14–16a, MSG).
You have the immense privilege of being able to give people not just money, but ‘the word of life’ (v.16a). There is no greater joy than seeing people who are spiritually dead come to life through Jesus.
Paul is willing to give his life with joy for this privilege: ‘But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me’ (vv.17–18).
Paul then gives two examples of friends of his who both demonstrated how to be a ‘blessing machine’:

Take a genuine interest in others
Timothy was one of Paul’s closest friends, and is often mentioned in his letters. His loyalty and help were so great that Paul describes it as being ‘like a son with his father’ (v.22).

Paul pays tribute to his friend, ‘He is loyal, and genuinely concerned for you’ (v.20, MSG). Paul compares this to the blight of self-interest, saying, ‘Most people around here are looking out for themselves’ (v.21, MSG).

Timothy was a ‘blessing machine’ because he took a ‘genuine interest’ in the welfare of God’s children (v.20). Timothy’s interest was totally authentic: ‘the real thing’ (v.22, MSG). Paul says that he ‘served with me in the work of the gospel’ (v.22).

Show courage on behalf of others
Epaphroditus was also a loyal friend to both Paul and the Philippians. His true character comes across in both the big and little things, and often it is the little things that are most telling. Having become seriously ill, almost to the point of death, Epaphroditus is troubled, not because he is ill and close to death, but because they might have been upset by it. He was like those who, when ill, are not so much worried by the illness as by the fact that they might be a burden to their family or friends.

Paul describes Epaphroditus as a ‘brother, fellow-worker and fellow-soldier’ (v.25). Epaphroditus had been prepared to ‘risk his life’ for the sake of his friend Paul (v.30). This expression is actually more literally translated as ‘gambling his life’.

In the early church, there were societies of men and women who called themselves ‘the gamblers’, who ministered to the sick and those in prison. For example, Cyprian, a bishop of Carthage, showed remarkable courage during the plague, which began in AD 250. Where everyone else fled from the sick and the dead, Cyprian and other Christians buried the dead, nursed the sick and saved the city at the risk of their own lives.

Epaphroditus gambled his life by associating himself with Paul, who was in prison on a capital charge, thereby risking the same charge as Paul. Epaphroditus showed reckless courage on behalf of Paul. He too was a ‘blessing machine’.

Lord, help me to do everything without complaining or arguing and to hold out the word of life to someone today.



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