Why Magufuli administration misses the point on Government splurge

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The Answer to Loneliness

I remember reading an article in The Big Issue (the magazine sold by, and in aid of, the homeless) called ‘Single Lives’. It pointed out that most people’s image of loneliness in London is of a frail old lady stuck on the twenty-fourth floor of a block of flats. In reality, it could equally be a young, fashionably dressed guy trying desperately to make conversation with a girl standing next to him in a crowded bar. Being surrounded by so many people only compounds the feeling of isolation.
Mother Teresa said, ‘Loneliness and the feeling of being uncared for and unwanted are the greatest poverty.’ Loneliness is one of the greatest problems facing humanity today.
‘The solitary human being is a contradiction in terms,’ writes Desmond Tutu. He continues, ‘We are made for complementarity. We are created for a delicate network of relationships, of interdependence with our fellow human beings... We belong in one family – God’s family, the human family... the greatest good is communal harmony.’
God does not intend for you to be lonely and isolated. Loneliness has been described as ‘a homesickness for God’. God created you for community – calling you into a loving relationship with him and with other human beings.


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Psalm 120:1-7

A peaceful community

We live in a world full of aggression, division and broken relationships.
One of the main reasons for loneliness is ‘quarrelling’ (v.6, MSG), which leads to the breakdown of relationships. We see this wherever we look – broken marriages, family bust-ups, fall-outs between friends, work colleagues and neighbours.
Adam and Eve’s friendship with God was broken. This led to a separation between Adam and Eve themselves. Cain and Abel quarrelled, and the rest is history.
The psalmist is feeling isolated as though living in a foreign land (v.5). Do you ever feel like him? He is surrounded by lying lips and deceitful tongues (v.2). The people he lives among hate peace (v.6) and are for war (v.7). Do you ever feel doomed to live your life among ‘quarrelling neighbours’? (v.6, MSG).
In your distress, call out to the Lord to save you and the Lord will answer you (v.1). In contrast to those around you, be a person of peace (v.7). This is the characteristic of the people of God: Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God’ (Matthew 5:9).

Lord, help me to avoid unnecessary quarrelling and to be a peacemaker in my family, workplace and community.



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Hebrews 8:1-13

A ‘new’ community

The local church is ‘the world’s hope’. The church in the New Testament is described as ‘the people of God’. The people of God gather in local churches all over the world. The writer of Hebrews quotes the book of Jeremiah saying, ‘I will be their God, and they will be my people’ (v.10). No longer isolated and alone, you are part of the most amazing community.
In the Old Testament, God made a covenant with his people. However, the people did not ‘keep their part of the bargain’ (v.9, MSG). God promised that one day he would make a new covenant whereby he would have a new relationship with his people: ‘I will be their God, and they will be my people’ (v.10).
You are far better off now than they were under the old covenant. The writer goes on to say, ‘The ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises’ (v.6).
There was a problem with the old covenant, for ‘if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another’ (v.7). The problem with the old covenant was that the people were unable to keep the law. They ‘did not remain faithful’ (v.9).
God promised a new covenant that would be superior to the old one and founded on better promises. The writer quotes the promises from the book of Jeremiah (Hebrews 31:31–34).
What were these promises? They are fourfold:

New thinking
God promises to implant his laws in your heart. This does not mean simply committing the law to memory (as per Deuteronomy 6:6–9). It means having a renewed heart, ‘I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts’ (Hebrews 8:10b).

Firsthand knowledge
He promises that the knowledge of God will be a matter of personal experience. ‘No longer will they teach their neighbours, or say to one another, “Know the Lord,” because they will all know me’ (v.11). It is possible for you to know God in the way that Jeremiah knew God: ‘They’ll all get to know me firsthand’ (v.11, MSG).

Universal scope
‘They will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest’ (v.11b). This was a fulfilment of the promise in the Old Testament that the promise would no longer be confined to Israel and Judah but would extend to all nations (Isaiah 42:6; 49:6; 19:24).

Total forgiveness
‘For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more’ (Hebrews 8:12). For the Hebrews, the word ‘remembering’ meant more than mental effort; it carried with it the sense of doing something to the advantage or disadvantage of the person who remembered. If your sins are not remembered, it means that God is determined to forgive and that the ‘slate’ of your sins is ‘forever wiped clean’ (v.12, MSG). All this is possible because Jesus offered his life for you (v.13).

This new covenant is far superior and ‘has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and ageing will soon disappear’ (v.13).
The new covenant is the basis of the new community into which God calls you. This new covenant is the answer to loneliness. The covenant is with God’s people together and not solely with each individual person. The promises are all in the plural. You have the immense privilege of belonging to the new community of God’s people. You know God personally. Your sins are forgiven. The Holy Spirit has come to live within you and given you a renewed heart. You are never alone.

Father, thank you that I am never alone. Thank you that I can experience a personal relationship with you and be part of the most wonderful community of the people of God.



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Ezekiel 13:1-15:8

A faithful community

The great idols of our age are money, sex and power. But an idol can be anything we worship by giving it more attention and treating it as more important than God in our lives. It could be your home, car or possessions but it could also be your work or ministry. When we make an idol out of any of these things, it takes us away from God (14:14).
God is looking for people who are faithful to him. The problem under the old covenant was that ‘they did not remain faithful’ (Hebrews 8:9). God spoke through Ezekiel about a country that ‘sins against me by being unfaithful… they have been unfaithful, declares the Sovereign Lord’ (Ezekiel 14:13; 15:8).
Ezekiel, the prophet, saw ahead to what we have read about in our New Testament passage for today. He foresaw a time when the people ‘will not defile themselves any more with all their sins. They will be my people, and I will be their God, declares the Sovereign Lord’ (14:11).
God’s people were ensnared by lies. As we read in the psalm about ‘lying lips’ (Psalm 120:2), so we read here about lying prophets ‘who prophesy out of their own imagination’ (Ezekiel 13:2). ‘Their visions are false and their divinations a lie’ (v.6). Using ‘magic charms’ they ‘ensnare people’ (v.18). They lie ‘to my people, who listen to lies’ (v.19). They dishearten the righteous with their lies (v.22).
How had they been unfaithful? The Lord said that they ‘set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling-blocks before their faces’ (14:3). Even in the Old Testament, the Lord was not concerned only about physical idols – but also about the idols in people’s hearts. God’s longing is for us to be a faithful vine bearing good fruit (chapter 15; see also Isaiah 5:1–7).
You are called to be part of a faithful community who know and love God. Welcome everyone ‘from the least of them to the greatest’ (Hebrews 8:11). We are called to be a community where many lonely, isolated people find love and forgiveness – a community of the people of God – a people of peace who know and love the Lord and are faithful to him in every way. This is the answer to loneliness.

Lord, help me to be faithful to you. Help us to be a loving, peaceful and faithful community where many isolated and lonely people come to know you and find, in the community of God’s people, the answer to loneliness.



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The wrath of My God Christ Jesus the only living God [emoji120] is upon election thieves and He has stricken them with incurable diseases and some will soon walk with oxygen tanks because their lungs cannot inhale oxygen anymore...repent you God haters...if you sin wilfully it's because you hate God who commanded us sin no more.

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Meet Your Blood Donor

Our god-daughter’s second child, Hazy, was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2015. Medically, her only hope was a matching donor. A young German man, who has to remain anonymous, sacrificially gave his bone marrow. Wonderfully, his donation saved Hazy’s life. Can you imagine what it would be like for Hazy to meet her donor?
(Read more of Hazy’s story here.)
In an even more remarkable way, you can meet your blood donor. Jesus came ‘to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45). At the last supper, when Jesus took the cup, he said: ‘This is my blood of the covenant’ (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24). The ‘precious blood of Christ’ (1 Peter 1:19) is stressed throughout the whole New Testament:

It makes forgiveness possible (Colossians 1:14)

It purifies you from every sin (1 John 1:7)

Through it, you draw near to God (Ephesians 2:13)

It brings peace and reconciliation (Colossians 1:20)

It gives life (John 6:53)

It enables you to overcome Satan (Revelation 12:11).

In today’s passages, we see different aspects of what all of this means.


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Proverbs 27:5-14

The ultimate act of friendship

It is such a privilege to have good friends. The greatest privilege of all is the friendship of Jesus. He calls you his friend and shed his blood as the ultimate act of friendship. Jesus said, ‘Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (John 15:13).
This section of Proverbs is all about the importance of friendship: ‘Better a nearby friend than a distant relative’ (Proverbs 27:10, MSG). The advice of a friend is a great blessing: ‘Just as lotions and fragrance give sensual delight, a sweet friendship refreshes the soul’ (v.9, MSG). Loyalty to your friends is very important: ‘Do not forsake your friend and the friend of your parent’ (v.10).
A good friend will not only say nice things: ‘Better is open rebuke than hidden love’ (v.5). The writer of Proverbs goes on to say, ‘Wounds from a friend can be trusted’ (v.6). True friendship involves more than unquestioning approval. I am so grateful to my good friends who have confronted me with painful truth from time to time – always out of love and with great sensitivity and grace.
‘Wounds’ is used here figuratively, in the sense of causing emotional pain or grief to a friend for their good, out of love. However, I cannot help thinking, in the light of today’s theme, of the fact that ‘wounding’, in the literal understanding of the word, means ‘shedding blood’. In the case of Jesus, he did not shed our blood, but his own. ‘He was wounded for our transgressions’ (Isaiah 53:5). His blood was shed for you in the ultimate act of friendship.

Lord, thank you so much for friends and, most of all, for your great friendship. Thank you that you were willing to lay down your life and shed your blood for me.



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Hebrews 9:1-15

A clear conscience

‘Most people, most of the time, have something which hangs heavy on their hearts, something they have done or said which they wish they hadn’t, something which haunts them and makes them afraid of being found out,’ writes Bishop Tom Wright. ‘How wonderful to know that the sacrifice of Jesus and the sprinkled blood which results from it has the power as we accept it in faith and trust, to wash every stain from the conscience so that we can come to God without any shadow falling across our relationship.’
The book of Hebrews explains how under the old covenant, only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place ‘only once a year [on the day of atonement], and never without blood’ (v.7). The blood of a sacrifice represented the life of the animal that had been killed (‘the life is in the blood’, Leviticus 17:11). Their life was given in exchange for that of the person making the sacrifice.
The priests were not allowed to enter the Most Holy Place. Their work was done in the outer tent. Except on the annual occasion, the way into the throne room of God was barred to all, even to the high priest himself.
When the high priest did receive permission to enter, his entry was safeguarded by sacrificial blood. However, this sacrificial blood was not totally effective. Fresh blood had to be shed and fresh entry made into the Holy of Holies each year. Further, although they might have brought about outward cleansing (Hebrews 9:13), they were not able to cleanse ‘the conscience of the worshipper’ (v.9).
In reality, it was only an ‘illustration’ (v.9), ‘a visible parable... a temporary arrangement until the complete overhaul could be made’ (vv.8–10, MSG). It pointed beyond itself. It was fulfilled through the blood of Christ.
When Jesus came, he ‘bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all’ (vv.11–12, MSG). By doing this ‘he brought together God and his people in this new way’ (v.17, MSG).
What does this mean?

You are clean inside and out
Jesus makes it possible for your conscience to be cleansed: ‘The blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out... through the Spirit’ (v.14, MSG).

You have been set free
‘Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God’ (v.15, MSG).

The Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ go together. Joyce Meyer writes, ‘The Spirit could not be poured out on the Day of Pentecost until the blood was poured out on the cross of Calvary.’

Lord Jesus, thank you that you make it possible for me to have a clear conscience and to live all-out for God. Thank you that you paid the ransom price, setting me free by shedding your blood for me.



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Ezekiel 16:1-63

Restored fortunes

God loves you. Everything God does stems from his love for you. In this prophetic allegory, God’s love for his people is described as being like a husband’s for his wife: ‘I took care of you… and protected you. I promised you my love and entered the covenant of marriage with you’ (v.8, MSG).
The Lord’s blessing involves cleansing (v.9), clothing with fine linen (v.10), giving of beauty (vv.11–13), food to satisfy (v.13), fame (v.14) and splendour (v.14).
The tragic words that follow can apply to us as individuals or as a nation: ‘But you’ (v.15). In spite of all that God had done, they turned around and rejected him. Instead they trusted in their beauty and used their fame in an unfaithful way (v.15).
Sin often starts with unbelief, trusting in something other than the Lord. It leads to idolatry – worshipping something other than the Lord, and then to increasing sin (v.26), often from our weak wills (v.30).
The results of sin are dissatisfaction (vv.28–29) and God’s judgment (vv.30–34). Jerusalem has been like an unfaithful wife, serving idols and giving them ‘[their] children’s blood’ (v.36). Because she has shed blood, her own blood will be shed (v.38). The word ‘blood’ occurs seven times in this passage (vv.6,9,22,36,38).
He compares their sin to the sin of Sodom. What he speaks about are not the sexual sins normally associated with Sodom; rather, he writes, ‘She lived with her daughters in the lap of luxury – proud, gluttonous, and lazy. They ignored the oppressed and the poor. They put on airs and lived obscene lives’ (vv.49–50, MSG).
They are the common sins of any prosperous society – arrogance, overeating and a lack of concern for the poor and needy. When people do not have any needs they frequently turn away from God. Their worst sin was not to help the poor and needy.
Yet in spite of all of this, God promises to restore the fortunes of Sodom and the fortunes of his people (v.53). He promises an everlasting covenant (v.60) and that he will make atonement (v.63).
This word ‘atonement’ is also found in today’s passage from Hebrews – the ‘atonement cover’ on the Ark of the Covenant, a symbol of the mercy of God (Hebrews 9:5). Atonement points to the need for something to be done to wash away your sins. It speaks of two great realities.
First, the reality and seriousness of God’s reaction against sin. Second, the reality and greatness of his love, which provided the sacrifice through the blood of Jesus. St Paul wrote, ‘The Son of God… loved me and gave himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20). It is as personal as that. His blood was given for you. He bore your sins. He died your death. His blood atoned for your sin. He is your blood donor.

Thank you, Lord, that in your great love, you shed your blood. Thank you that today I can know that I am loved, forgiven and can live with a clear conscience.



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