ORGANISATIONAL TOOLS THAT BECOME INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE 2: EXCOMMUNICATION

   

Excommunication for any reason is bad enough, and BEING excommunicated particularly through an unjust or ill-conceived disciplinary order when you have not sinned is worse. It is dehumanising and torture! Most people in the church generally in Zambia seem to turn a blind eye to this or they are uncomfortable, or fearful or indifferent to talk about the wrongful excommunication done by their church leaders.

IN THIS LIFE

...There are times:

°When we've to take risks that we are not akin to; when loss is 100% eminent!

°When we have to fight bitter battles & stand alone as individuals or families;

°When we've to count the cost disregarding our status & benefits

°We've got to celebrate victory over evil; when we decisively resist & overcome it with good & it feels good!👌

°When we've to conquer our fear(s) with what we never anticipated;

°When we've to partner with others for worthy causes, perhaps bigger than ourselves

°When we've to humble ourselves in recognition of our weaknesses, sins & limitations & simply mourn;😭

°When we've to be still & silent & consider our action or decisions in light of the consequences

°When we've to simply look at issues or the bigger picture without being in the equation;

°When we've to put aside our ego, & go low to get lifted higher;

°When we've to be alone, & learn in quietness & loneliness;

°There are times when Love is not an option but we've got to love anyway;💖

°When love is not reciprocated or appreciated & shouldn't be, in order to be worth it or valued;

°When we've got to let time reveal all or matter less;

°When minutes seem to be hours; times when only fewer days seem to fill a whole week;

°When matter matters not; when sense is questioned & order is ordered;

°When we've got to stand in order to progress.

===ONLY IN THIS LIFE!===

 ©Mwango Lupupa 17032017

SNEAKY VENDING IN HOSPITALS: A REAL THREAT TO PUBLIC HEALTH

Would you, or anyone, in their right mind and enjoying good health want to get sick at the hospital or clinic because of buying food or something from someone who sneaked them into the ward or medical facility grounds? Well, this is a subtle threat to public health that I have witnessed which even some or most workers at health facilities are letting to take root  or leaving unchecked. Vendors go as far as into the wards, carrying and conducting their business of selling airtime, foodstuffs, toiletries, sanitary ware and the like in buskets, backpacks and handbags.

THE NONSENSE OF CHANGING CHRONOLOGICAL AGE

The desperation of getting what they want is as shocking and appalling as it is evidently folly in some people. People have, and they can keep, their different reasons that compel them to want to change their or someone else’s chronological age. The pressures they have which they even exert on others might be real, but is that necessary? What is amazing in and for some is the sheer ignorance that it is actually a crime! If you ask me to quote you a Statute off the cuff I will not because my interest and goal is to bring the issue to the glaring arena of community awareness and refrain. The Penal Code Cap 87 of the Laws of Zambia, for example, forbids giving false information or obtaining anything by false pretenses. Even God’s Law, from which Statute is derived, forbids it. I thought this should be a community concern which a Community Radio station could facilitate discussion of, with participants from different walks of life.

PROUD TO BE ZAMBIAN A Poetic Tribute to Professor Mwizenge S Tembo, Virginia, USA

Thank you for that first and lasting impression during your presentation at PEN Zambia.

I am Proud to be pure African

Pleased and ecstatic indeed to be Black and a natural Zambian!

Pampered in a country replete with stunning diversity and amazing beauty

Happy and free in this sweet haven of abiding potentials, peace, and unity

Hopeful, skilful, courageous, progressive, humane and traditional

Enjoying the essence of expressive song and dance, and tales truly national

Proud and thankful for delicious food, exquisite nature, family and co-existence!

I am Proud to be Zambian.

THE DARK HOLE OF WORRY/ANXIETY Part 2

We must accept that there are some things outside our power and responsibility that are God’s. What are you fretting or worrying about at the moment? What is it that’s teasing or troubling or harassing you with such insistence or demand that you fear or hate facing another day? Or such that you cannot focus on anything or concentrate in school, deliver well in your work or relate with others, even God?  Do you need rescuing or are you on the brink of despair? Do your very tiny part (not worrying); do what you can do as expected and leave the rest to God. That is not escapism or wishing away problems. Those should drive you to him; to seek, ask, and receive from him, not only peace but actual relief and ample supply befitting your needs. Faith/trust in the Lord our God is the only ray of comfortable light which shines through the darkness of any situation. He assures his children that he will never to leave or forsake them Deuteronomy 31v6; 1Samuel 12v22; Nehemiah 9v17; Hebrews13v5.

Will you be obedient to God’s command not to worry? There’s no reason why should not. “The obedient”, someone has observed, are always “self-forgetful, and are touched with a certain sweet serenity” as they place their trust in God! He is the only one in whom even the very deadly elements in nature are harmless. Jesus safeguards us so that nothing can harm us. It is in him that God is specially, providentially, savingly good! Personally, it is no fancy or shame to wrap all my troubles in the rags of my life, and lay them at the feet of the Lord Jesus. He lovingly cares! 1Pet 5v7 Throw all your worry on him, because he cares for you. He is the master of the universe, the miraculous provider, and the lover of my soul. It is his desire that we would be lifted up above the present cares and difficulties of life through faith. Circumstances may be bleak, and things may be very bad; the economy of your life may be teetering on collapse, and situations may seem all but hopeless — but God is still in control – the wheels of providence are still turning. The dreams and hopes of our childhood or early adulthood or mid-life may vanish, and we may appear to be confounded and/or left under a cheerless sky. But Christ Jesus always is with us to inspire and strengthen and keep us. “Better than any song of angels is His fellowship. It is the true secret of a happy life” reiterates an encouraging saint.

Bellow, I have inserted one of Spurgeon’s devotionals. He quotes Psalm 55v22 Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

‘Care, even though exercised upon legitimate objects, if carried to excess, has in it the nature of sin. The precept to avoid anxious care is earnestly inculcated by our Saviour, again and again; it is reiterated by the apostles; and it is one which cannot be neglected without involving transgression: for the very essence of anxious care is the imagining that we are wiser than God, and the thrusting ourselves into his place to do for him that which he has undertaken to do for us. We attempt to think of that which we fancy he will forget; we labour to take upon ourselves our weary burden, as if he were unable or unwilling to take it for us. Now this disobedience to his plain precept, this unbelief in his Word, this presumption in intruding upon his province (domain/authority), is all sinful.

Yet more than this, anxious care often leads to acts of sin. He who cannot calmly leave his affairs in God’s hand, but will carry his own burden, is very likely to be tempted to use wrong means to help himself. This sin leads to a forsaking of God as our counsellor, and resorting instead to human wisdom. This is going to the “broken cistern” instead of to the “fountain;” a sin which was laid against Israel of old. Transgression destroys peace of mind, obscures fellowship with Jesus, hinders prayer, brings darkness over the soul.

Anxiety makes us doubt God’s loving-kindness, and thus our love to him grows cold; we feel mistrust, and thus grieve the Spirit of God, so that our prayers become hindered, our consistent example marred, and our life one of self-seeking. Thus lack of confidence in God leads us to wander far from him; but if through simple faith in his promise, we cast each burden as it comes upon him, and are “careful for nothing” because he undertakes to care for us, it will keep us close to him, and strengthen us against much temptation. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.”’

Elsewhere Spurgeon writes that we should (instead of worrying) “cry to God never to leave us”; leave us not to ourselves. “Lord, keep us everywhere. Keep us when in the valley, that we murmur not against thy humbling hand; keep us when on the mountain, that we wax not giddy through being lifted up; keep us in youth, when our passions are strong; keep us in old age, when becoming conceited of our wisdom, we may therefore prove greater fools than the young and giddy; keep us when we come to die, lest, at the very last, we should deny thee! Keep us living, keep us dying, keep us labouring, keep us suffering, keep us fighting, keep us resting, keep us everywhere, for everywhere we need thee, O our God!”

So never give up hope and do not take refuge in worry and despair. Resolve with wise boldness. You may enter in but don’t settle down in that “luxury of woe.” It is no glorious adventure! Be of good cheer instead, worry not and enjoy the poem below.

WORRY NOT

  ©Mwango Lupupa 05/06/2016

Stumble not into another day of hopeless worrying

Humble yourself not with crying

Work not with anxiety

Reward is God’s providential surety

Though now in pain

It won’t be in vain

If in Jesus Christ you trust

Upon Him yourself thrust

Kept you will be by faithfulness eternal

Untouched by malicious infernal

Floods of today’s problems

Winds of current needs but emblems

God’s timely lure

Prove His wisdom sure

Seek His kingdom and righteousness first

For Him hunger and thirst

Daily necessities will be added to you

                                                     Let nothing worry you

THE DARK HOLE OF WORRY/ANXIETY Part 1

Matthew 6v25,34 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Therefore do not worry about tomorrow…”

We may all well know what it is like to feel uneasy and sometimes (almost) lose hope. Times when we perceive we are in dire need or our lives are threatened. Then there are times when we enjoy the ecstasy of our spirits soaring high like eagles. There is no pretence when we are faced with life realities that cause these emotional and practical situations. However, when we are experiencing need and life is threatened, there is no need of, and I think no excuse for, worrying in the present or the future. But how often and unawares do we slip or fall into that dark hole of worry! I say this with much reserve and respect.

RISING ABOVE EXCUSES Part2

WHAT HELPS AND WHAT DOESN’T HELP IN RISING ABOVE EXCUSES

This is a fairly a short and mere mop-up installment on rising above excuses. I hope it is straightforward. It is true that some people are just so “full of excuses” and consequently they indeed give from what they have. So, whether they will even slightly be emptied of that toxin through the following prods or not, I don’t know but sorely trust by God himself they totally could.

Procrastination

Procrastination is indisputably a major obstacle in any endeavour that hinders meaningful progress. Putting off to do or not attending to something immediately that’s assigned or planned speaks neglect, cold-shoulder or contempt of the task/ activity and even the authority behind that task/activity. Don’t be ensnared by it, do not procrastinate. I know it’s not easy for most of us but I leave it at that but squeeze in the fact that this earthly life is time-bound; it expires!

Excellence

Do your very best in any situation, with all your heart! Aim to do excellently, not simply good or better. To be honest, often what is average or better does not outstandingly amaze others or you at all. This goal for excellence should be pursued in spite of pain, cost or inconvenience if you are to rise above excuses. Some people see it normal to give lame or frivolous excuses and we humans sometimes want what is easy, because it appeals to us. It is universally acknowledged that if a man would prosper in business, he must be diligent. It is the same in religion as it is in other things.

If you would prosper, in doing anything, let it be heart-work, and let it be done with ALL your heart! Christian, put as much force, energy, heartiness, and earnestness into religion as ever you do into business, for it deserves far more. God does not wink at idleness, simply receive excuses or just accept luke-warmness. He abhors and tracks it down! Who are the most useful and successful people around? It is people who do whatever they undertake with all their hearts; the most ardent and conscientious; people whose hearts are on fire for the best are the ones who prosper. C H Spurgeon calls this “the general rule of the moral universe”. Hezekiah is an incredibly good and challenging example humanly speaking: “he did with all his heart and prospered.”2Ch_31:20-21.   

Personal Principles and Convictions

These normally help us to stand, persevere, have stability, and chart our course and progress in life in general. The world around you has some principles; do you have and live by any? No need to guess that people without principles are more bound to give lame excuses and make more mistakes and less progress. It is apparent and no wonder that what seems to underpin achievement of goals and realisation of dreams are well adhered to good personal principles and convictions. What excuse do you have for the kind of life have you been living?

Accountability

Although this may not apply in and for every situation, one of the robbers of respect and an accomplice of excuses is lack of accountability. Where someone is struggling with being accountable or failing to do so, there is most likely an absence of respect for leadership or authority or any structural arrangement in which accountability should exist. To whom are you accountable?

As human beings we do not live or exist in a vacuum! In addition, we did not just evolve from nothingness, out of some ‘big bang’, so much as to even give some people guts to shamelessly declare, “It is my life…” Like they can do whatever they want! Thankfully the human society is organised, with laws and authorities for order and development at various levels and aspects of life. You might be one of those who has read up to this point and yet you have no real loving and accountable relationship with the holy Lord God almighty through Jesus Christ; what is your excuse? Friend, what excuse do you have for being wasteful, being unkind, abusive or negligent or for just doing the wicked things you do?

Finally, friends, brethren, let us not be careless the way we live and do things. How would you attend to issues or tasks in your last week or day of living, or in the very last moments of your life? Always think of this and that God is watching, which in case you didn’t know or refuse to accept, He actually ever does. This is not to scare you but awaken you to the uncompromising truth! Psalm 139:1-16.

  

RISE ABOVE EXCUSES

Excuse the excuser

To grapple or relax seems wiser

Rise out of and above self-pleasing

Even if in the eyes of others decreasing

Ready to give a reason for doing excellently

        Humbly knowing good and evil intelligently

A compass in life pointing to eternity

To advance God’s cause for humanity

Attaining happiness without excuse

Rising above I shall muse

Nothing ever to misuse

Shame any accuser

Pity the abuser

Of excuses

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