Why Magufuli administration misses the point on Government splurge

Why Magufuli administration misses the point on Government splurge

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Trusting in a man which is a house of clay is accursed
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Human rights activists are too naive to think CCM will ever change course that will never happen because they will be committing political suicide.
Hapakazitu Jr is on record boasting "Hata msipotuchagua tutaunda serikali...."

And, her Magogoni top right hand also on record "tutatumia dola kukamata dola...."

Such attitude of retaining power illegally unlikely to be swayed by external pressure unless the economy tanks then everybody is affected then everyone will embrace internal reforms


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Love from the Inside Out

Celine, a young woman who came on Alpha because of what she described as her ‘spiritual search’, wrote, ‘I am not entirely sure what happened! Over the course I have grown more and more thirsty for God’s presence like when on a hot, dry summer’s day one gets a sip of cold fresh water, just the right temperature, one wants to drink and drink, and one can never get enough.
‘I am now constantly skipping and laughing and wanting to tell everyone how amazing God is… plus I seem to love everybody! I was seeking to forgive someone, but just seemed to grow more and more bitter and resentful, until I came on Alpha… It’s gone, I have totally forgiven that person and love them too!’
She says that she is now ‘passionately in love with Christ!’ Her inner thirst is being satisfied. She has a new inner light and a new inner love.
 
Psalm 42:1-6a

Inner thirst

Are there times when you have a nebulous feeling and you don’t know quite what it is that is causing you to be ‘downcast’? You are not alone. The psalmist knew this feeling: ‘Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?’ (v.5a). God does not want you to stay in this place – he loves you and he wants to encourage you.
The psalmist speaks of an inner thirst: ‘As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you’ (v.1). He continues, ‘My inner self thirsts for God’ (v.2, AMP).
Only God himself can satisfy this thirst. Knowledge about God will not satisfy your inner thirst. Cry out for God’s presence. Meet with God (v.2) and pour out your soul (v.4).
Worship is key: ‘I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd, right out in front, leading them all, eager to arrive and worship, shouting praises, singing thanksgiving – celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!’ (v.4, MSG). Remember past experiences of God’s favour and his blessings. This will inspire you to keep trusting in God and gives you strength to worship him again (v.5b-6a).

Lord, my soul thirsts for you. Only your presence can satisfy my deep inner thirst. I hope in you and praise you, my Saviour and my God.
 
Luke 11:33-54

Inner light

A clean heart and conscience is far more important than clean hands. What goes on in your heart and thoughts really matters. Your eyes are key – they are the gate to the inner life. That is why what you look at matters so much. You let things into your inner life through your eyes. Your eyes also reflect what is going on in your heart.
Jesus calls you to fill your inner being with light: ‘Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room’ (vv.34–36, MSG).
Jesus calls you to an intimate and loving relationship with God – to that secret place, the heart, where true contact with God takes place. He calls you to be clean on the inside, not just on the outside (v.39). It is no good appearing clean outwardly if inside you are full of ‘greed and wickedness’ (v.39).
The focus of the inner life, according to Jesus, is the poor: ‘Give as donations to the poor… and behold, everything is purified and clean for you’ (v.41, AMP). Giving cleanses the heart.
Jesus goes on to say that outward giving in itself is not enough if you neglect ‘justice and the love of God’ (v.42).
As Father Raniero Cantalamessa writes, ‘It would be a mistake to think that insistence on the inner life could harm our energetic commitment to the kingdom and to justice. Far from diminishing the importance of acting for God, interior life lays its foundation and keeps it going.’
Jesus warns these religious leaders about wrong attitudes of the heart into which we can so easily fall. These words are a challenge to those of us in any kind of leadership. Jesus warns against:

Self-importance
‘You love the most important seats’ (v.43).

Love of recognition
‘Greetings in the market-place’ (v.43).

Hypocrisy
There is a danger of teaching a standard that we ourselves fail to live up to: ‘You load people down with burdens they can hardly carry and you will not lift one finger to help them’ (v.46).

Jesus was not afraid to confront people about their inner lives. He was not afraid of confrontation nor was he afraid of making enemies. It is not surprising that the object of his attack, the religious leaders, began to oppose him fiercely (v.54).

Lord, may my eyes only look at things that light up the inside. Fill me today with your Holy Spirit. May my heart be filled with generosity, justice and the love of God.
 
Deuteronomy 6:1-8:20

Inner love

At the heart of the Old Testament, as of the New Testament, is love. ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength’ (6:5). The Hebrew words here are much broader than any translation can fully capture, something that is probably reflected in the New Testament using a fourfold translation (heart, soul, strength, mind). The phrase is meant to sum up the whole of life, including both mind and will.
God always intended that the law of love should be internal – in the heart: ‘Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children’ (v.6, MSG).
Your love for God flows out of his love for you. His love for you is not dependent on any innate moral quality that you possess. It is the grace of God – loving us in spite of our sins, weaknesses and failures. ‘The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loves you’ (7:7–8a). He loves you because he loves you!
God showers his love upon you because of his loving character and his faithfulness: ‘The Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you… He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers’ (vv.12–13).
You are called to this intimate and loving relationship with God. However, there are three warnings given in chapter 6:

The danger of abandoning God because of the surrounding idolatry – ‘do not follow other gods’ (6:14)
There is the temptation to fit in with the surrounding culture and adopt the beliefs of the people around us. However, God wants you to remain faithful to him rather than merely seeking to fit in with those around you.

The danger of doubting God because of hardship – ‘do not test the Lord’ (6:16)
When hardship comes, the temptation is to think that God no longer cares about you, but you need to hold on to the faithfulness and word of God.

God allows you to go through tests and trials so you can learn by experience that doing things his way is the best way. If you will not serve and worship him in the hard times of life (the valleys), you may not consistently serve and worship him in the good times (the mountaintops). Remember that mountaintops encourage you, but valleys mature you.

The danger of forgetting God because of affluence – ‘do not forget the Lord’ (6:12)
In the enjoyment of the gift, you can sometimes forget the giver. ‘But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth’ (8:18).

Underlying these three warnings is the realisation that material things alone – whether personal possessions or ‘idols’ – do not satisfy: ‘human beings do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord’ (8:3).
Jesus quoted this verse when he was being tempted in the desert by the devil to satisfy his physical hunger in the wrong way. His response to the devil was that it is the inner life – the inner hunger – that is far more important than the material things. This inner hunger can only be satisfied by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Whether you are materially well-off or not, the focus of your life should be on the inner life which alone can satisfy the deep inner longing which God has put in every human heart.

Lord, thank you for your amazing love for me. Thank you that you promise to love me and bless me. Help me to love you with all my heart and soul and strength.
 
Pippa Adds

Deuteronomy 6:12; 8:11

‘… be careful that you do not forget the Lord…’
I must have said to my children, thousands of times over the years, ‘Do be careful,’ and I still do! It is mostly for their physical safety, but it’s their spiritual safety that is far more important to be careful about.
 
References

Raniero Cantalamessa, The Mystery of Easter, (The Liturgical Press, 1994) p.105.
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright [emoji2398] 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.
Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified[emoji2400] Bible, Copyright [emoji2398] 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture marked (MSG) taken from The Message. Copyright [emoji2398] 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
 
How to Stop Worrying

I can’t even remember his name and I didn’t think much of his talk. We were both eighteen years of age. He had just joined the army. As he stood up to give the talk he produced his army boots as a visual aid. He called one of the boots ‘trust’ and the other one ‘obey’. He described them as the left and right boot of the Christian life. He only spoke for seven minutes, but his illustration hit home and I have never forgotten it.
‘Trust’ and ‘obey’ are, as he said, a very good summary of the Christian life. We see in the passages for today that they are the answer to trials, temptation, worry, anxiety, fear, failure and all the other struggles of life. In particular, Jesus shows us how to stop worrying and start living.
 
Psalm 42:6b-11

Trials and temptation

It is often in times of difficulty that we put down deep roots. The psalmist uses the evocative expression ‘deep calls to deep’ (v.7). Anything that is not from the depth in us will not reach the depth in others.
The psalmist is ‘downcast’ (v.6b). He feels as if God has forgotten him (v.9). He is ‘mourning, oppressed by the enemy’ (v.9b). He is in ‘agony’ (v.10a). People are taunting him, saying, ‘Where is your God?’ (v.10b) – rather like the way some people taunt Christians today.
The trials and temptations of life have overcome him like a mighty waterfall (v.7). Yet he knows deep down that despite being submerged by the waves of life, he can trust in God: ‘God promises to love me all day’ (v.8, MSG).
Continuing with the image of a torrential river, he refers to God as ‘my Rock’ (v.9). Though he feels that God has forgotten him, he knows the reality that God is the greatest security on which he can stand.
In the middle of all this he speaks to himself: ‘Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God’ (v.11). Through all the struggles, trials and temptation, fix your eyes on God and keep trusting and obeying him.

Lord, thank you that you direct your love towards me. Help me to keep trusting and obeying you, ‘my Saviour and my God’ (v.11).
 
Luke 12:1-34

Worry and anxiety

Do you worry a lot? Are you ever ‘struck with fear’ or ‘seized with alarm’ (vv.7,32, AMP)? Are you ever ‘anxious and troubled’ (v.22, AMP)?
Jesus never said, ‘Don’t worry because there is nothing to worry about.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry in spite of the fact that there is so much to worry about.’ Many times Jesus says to his followers, ‘Do not be afraid’ (vv.4,7,32) and ‘Do not worry’ (vv.11,22,29). The answer to fear and worry is to trust and obey. Jesus gives us seven ways to deal with worry, anxiety and fear.

Fear God and nothing else
If you have a right and healthy fear of God, you need fear nothing else (v.5). ‘Don’t be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies... There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life – body and soul – in his hands’ (v.5, MSG).

Know your value to God
Jesus tells you not to worry or be afraid because you are of infinite value to God. He loves you; ‘You are worth more than many sparrows’ (v.7b). He knows you intimately: ‘The very hairs of your head are all numbered’ (v.7a).

Trust the Holy Spirit
He tells you not to worry because you can trust the Holy Spirit to help you. As you face opposition, difficult situations, meetings, and so on, Jesus says, ‘Do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say’ (vv.11–12).

Don’t miss the point of life
Jesus says that by worrying you miss the whole point of life: ‘Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot’ (v.15, MSG).

He tells the story of a businessman, who had built up a highly successful enterprise and made a considerable amount of money. The world probably admired him. However, Jesus describes him as a fool and a failure (v.20). He had made the false assumption that he had many years to live (vv.19–20). He had never seen beyond this life (v.20).

His life was focused on himself. The word ‘I’ or ‘my’ appears eleven times (vv.17–19). As has been pointed out, ‘A person wrapped up in themselves makes a very small package.’ He thought he was worth what his possessions were worth. He failed to understand the way to be truly rich. He was not ‘rich towards God’ (v.21). Who you are as a person is far more important than what you do for a living.

Realise that fussing is futile
Jesus encourages you to look beyond material possessions and physical needs, ‘don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion’ (v.22, MSG). There is nothing wrong with these things, but they should not be your focus – ‘life is more than food, and the body more than clothes’ (v.23).

Trust God’s care and provision
Jesus points out that worry is the opposite of faith (v.28). If you trust you will not worry. ‘If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!’ (v.28). Faith involves trust in God’s care and provision.

Seek God’s kingdom
Trust and obedience go hand in hand. Rather than storing up things for yourself you need to be ‘rich towards God’ (v.21). Rather than worrying about material things you should ‘seek his kingdom’ (v.31) – which God in his good pleasure has given to you (v.32). This should be the focus of your life. ‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’ (v.34).

Lord, thank you that you tell me over and over again not to worry and not to be afraid. Help me to seek your kingdom and trust that all ‘these things will be given to [me] as well’ (v.31).
 
Deuteronomy 9:1-10:22

Fear and failure

God’s blessing is pure grace: ‘It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity’ (9:5). Moses reminds the people of God of all the things that went wrong for them in the past. He tells them that the reason was, ‘You did not trust him or obey him’ (v.23).
Moses urges them that now they are to trust and obey God. ‘What does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?’ (10:12–13).
When we are tempted to disobey God, it is because we do not trust that he has our best interests at heart. We like to think that we know better than God as to what is best for us. However, the reality is that all God’s commands are ‘for your own good’. God loves you, cares for you and knows you, and that is why he wants you to obey him.
The truth is that you can trust God, even when you find his commands difficult or restrictive. The omnipotent God, to whom belong ‘the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it’ has ‘set his affection’ on you ‘and loved’ you, ‘and he chose you’ (vv.14–15).
This faith is inward, not just outward: ‘Circumcise your hearts’ (v.16). Yet, it is a faith that leads to action. You are called to follow God’s example and defend the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and love the alien, giving them food and clothing (v.18). There is to be no racial discrimination. We should have a special love and service for the poor and the marginalised.
God promises that if you trust and obey him you will see growth and multiplication. ‘Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky’ (v.22).

Lord, thank you that you have set your affection on me, loved me and chosen me. Help me today to fear you, to walk in all your ways, to love you and to serve you with all my heart and all my soul. I pray that you would make your church as numerous as the stars in the sky.
 
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