Why Magufuli administration misses the point on Government splurge

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Ephesians 2:1-22

Peace and reconciliation

‘Peace’ is a word that sums up all the blessings Jesus brings to our lives. Christ came and preached the possibility of ‘peace’ to everyone (v.17).
Jesus is seated, after his resurrection, at the right hand of God, as prophesied in the psalm for today (Psalm 110:1). Being seated implies rest and peace. You died with Christ, were buried with him and have been raised with him and are now seated with him in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6). You can enjoy his peace and rest as you go about your daily life.
Paul describes life without Christ in these terms. You were:

‘dead in your transgressions and sins’ (v.1)

following ‘the ways of the world’ (v.2)

‘gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts’ (v.3a)

‘objects of wrath’ (v.3b)

‘separate from Christ’ (v.12a)

‘outsiders to God’s ways’ (v.11, MSG)

‘foreigners to the covenants of the promise’ (v.12b)

‘without hope’ (v.12c)

‘without God in the world’ (v.12c)

‘far away’ (v.13)

separated by the ‘dividing wall of hostility’ (v.14b)

‘strangers or outsiders’ (v.19, MSG).

Paul describes the difference that Jesus makes in these contrasting terms. You are:

‘raised up with Christ’ (v.6)

‘seated with him in the heavenly realms’ (v.6)

‘God’s masterpiece’ (v.10, NLT)

‘created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do’ (v.10)

‘brought near through the blood of Christ’ (v.13)

‘reconciled to God through the cross’ (v.16)

‘fellow-citizens with God’s people’ (v.19)

‘members of God’s household’ (v.19)

‘a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit’ (v.22).

The contrast between the prior alienation – from yourself and from God – and the peace and reconciliation that Jesus brings, could not be greater. It is Jesus who makes the difference. You are made alive with Christ (v.5). You are raised up with Christ (v.6). You are saved through faith in Christ (v.8). It is in Christ Jesus that you are brought near (v.13). It is through Jesus that you have access to the Father by one Spirit (v.18). Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone of the new temple, the church.
The only command that Paul gives here is to ‘remember’ (vv.12–13). So often we can forget that being a Christian is all about what Jesus has done for us and get caught up in what we are doing. This passage helps you to stop, remember, and give thanks to your amazing saviour for all he has done for you.

Lord, thank you for your great love for me. Thank you for the utter transformation you bring to my life.



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Isaiah 55:1-57:13

Purpose and meaning

The Bible is one long invitation to come to God. It starts with God’s call to Adam, full of love and anguish, ‘Where are you?’ (Genesis 3:9). It ends with the invitation from the Spirit and the Bride who say, ‘Come!’ (Revelation 22:17).
Jesus often invited people: ‘Come to me’ (Matthew 11:28), ‘Come to the wedding banquet’ (22:4), ‘Come to me and drink’ (John 7:37). In this chapter, God once again issues an invitation to come.
‘Hey there! All who are thirsty,
come to the water!
Are you penniless?
Come anyway – buy and eat!
Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
Buy without money – everything’s free!’ (Isaiah 55:1, MSG).
The invitation is urgent and universal. The New Testament sees it as Jesus’ invitation to us (see Acts 13:34–35). Here are four reasons why you should come to him:

Jesus alone can satisfy the hunger in your heart
Without Jesus we are thirsty (Isaiah 55:1). We labour for what does not satisfy (v.2). The opening verses echo the cries of those selling their wares in Babylon, the centre of commerce in the ancient world. The message is this: material things do not satisfy. Without God we are always partly empty, experiencing a lack of fulfilment and a feeling of dissatisfaction.

The offer of Jesus is free. It is to ‘you who have no money’ (v.1). The promise is that as you come to Jesus ‘your soul will delight in the richest of fare… your soul will live’ (vv.2–3). Those who come to him are deeply satisfied. God does not offer you junk food, but a feast. His words are ‘life-giving’ and ‘life-nourishing’ (v.2, MSG).

Jesus’ love and mercy is great
Repentance is necessary in order to enjoy God’s presence fully (vv.6–9). Turn away from sin: ‘Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts’ (v.7a). I like the child’s definition of repentance: ‘being sorry enough to stop’.

Repentance also involves turning to God: ‘Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon’ (v.7b). No matter how far you have fallen, God will forgive you. He is ‘lavish with forgiveness’ (v.7, MSG).

Jesus is the life transformer
‘You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow’ (vv.12–13).

The immediate application of this passage was to the departure of the Jews from Babylon. Israel was to ‘go out’ from Babylon and go back to Jerusalem in ‘joy’ and ‘peace’.

However, the prophecy will not reach complete fulfilment until the return of Jesus Christ. Then, nature itself will be renewed and restored. You get a foretaste of this now, in this life, but the ultimate fulfilment of these verses will come when Jesus returns, in the new heaven and new earth.

The Bible is not only the story of the human race, but is the story of the whole of creation in which the human race plays a central and crucial role.

Jesus has a purpose for your life
God’s blessings were never intended to be enjoyed selfishly (vv.3b–5). They were to overflow to others. You can’t offer to others what you have not received yourself. But when you have enjoyed a blessing, pass it on.

As Paul puts it in today’s New Testament passage, you are ‘God’s masterpiece’. He created you anew in Christ Jesus so that you can do the good works he planned for you long ago (see Ephesians 2:10, NLT). Your life has a purpose. Your story is important. Your dreams count. Your voice matters. You were born to make an impact.

Lord, thank you that you invite me to come to you to drink the water of life. Thank you for the massive difference you make to my life, both now and into eternity.



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Pippa Adds

Ephesians 2:10
‘For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.’
One of the reasons we were created is to do good works. I wonder what God has 'prepared in advance' for me to do today.



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Election management bodies
Election management in Tanzania is under the mandate of two bodies, namely the
National Electoral Commission (NEC) for Union elections and the Zanzibar Electoral
Commission (ZEC) for Zanzibar elections. The two bodies manage elections through a
number of functions such as registration of voters, demarcation of electoral boundaries,
nomination of candidates, voter education, voting and vote counting, and declaration
of results.
The National Electoral Commission
The Independence Constitution created the first Electoral Commission of Tanganyika,
under the chairmanship of the Speaker of the National Assembly, assisted by three to
five appointed commissioners.599 The Electoral Commission had two phases during the
single-party era. The first worked from 1965 to 1990 and the second was established
in 1990 and worked until 1992 when multi-party politics was restored. The EMB esta-
blished by the Independence Constitution became the Electoral Commission of Tanza-
nia (ECT), and in the 1977 Union Constitution came to be referred to as the Electoral
Commission of the United Republic of Tanzania, albeit with unchanged powers. From
1965 to 1990, the ECT had five commissioners under the chairmanship of the Speaker
of the National Assembly. The legal and administrative framework of Tanzania’s elec-
tions was set out in the following documents:
• The Interim Constitution of 1965;
• The Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1977 (hereafter ‘the
Constitution’);
• The National Assembly (Elections) Act, 1964, and its Amendment Act of 1965;
and
• The Report of the Election Rules Committee.

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The Clerk of the National Assembly was the head of the secretariat, known as the Direc-
torate of Elections, while senior government officials in the regions and the districts
were appointed as returning officers.600
From 1990, amendments to the 1985 Elections Act No. 1 replaced the Speaker of
the National Assembly as head of the ECT with a judge of the High Court or Court
of Appeal. The number of commissioners rose from five to seven. The Clerk of the
National Assembly, however, remained Director of Elections. All members of the ECT
were appointed by the President at his discretion. One change introduced in 1990 was
to give the ECT some authority to deal with election complaints. Election petitions were
handled by a panel consisting of the commission chairman, who was from Tanzania
Mainland. He was assisted by a judge of the Zanzibar High Court and another mem-
ber of the commission appointed by the chairman.601 The 1990 amendments were an
attempt to make the commission more effective in dealing with more demanding elec-
toral contestations, but it lasted only a short while because of the return to multi-party
politics in 1992.
In 1993, the ECT was replaced by the NEC. The constitutional and legal framework
for the NEC today is found in Article 74 of the Constitution, as elaborated by the Elec-
tions Act No. 1 of 1985. Both instruments have been amended several times to allow
for a patchwork of reforms in electoral laws and regulations. The Constitution was last
amended on this mandate in 2005. Article 66 of the Constitution was amended to allo-
cate women special seats constituting 30% of the total in the National Assembly. Moreo-
ver, it provided for the appointment of up to ten MPs (five of whom must be women)
by the President. The Elections Act was amended in 1992, 2000, 2005 and 2010. At the
same time, the 1979 Local Government Elections Act was amended in 1994 to give the
NEC the mandate to manage local government (councillor) elections on the Mainland.
Since then, the law has been amended before every general election. The logic of the
amendments was to allow for reforms agreed to by the government, such as the count-
ing of votes at the polling stations (1995) or the introduction of the permanent national
voters’ register (2004). However, changes to legislation repeatedly recommended by the
NEC over the years, such as an independent act for the NEC or legislation to allow an
independent budget, have been ignored.602 The Electoral Laws (Miscellaneous Amend-
ments) Act No. 7 of 2010 was enacted to empower the NEC to make and publish in the
Government Gazette – after consultation with political parties – the Electoral Code of
Conduct in order to promote free and fair elections.603

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