Reformation Report

Putting reformation to work in real life.

I just came back from the only two clinics in the city of Harare that are open for the treatment of Cholera. I cant tell you how desperate the situation is for our underpaid and overworked medical staff. This is a time and a place for the message of reformation to take hold. It is one of those situations where it is evident to anyone that the problem is larger than government or any one body can handle. It is time for all Zimbabweans to rise to the challenge that we face. I blogged that reformation leaves and inheritance for its future generations. Our hospitals are closing and our medical facilities are collapsing under the weight of mismanagement and failure to act on behalf of those who are in the highest positions in the medical world. Our health professionals are working in horrific conditions and are underpaid for the service that they are rendering to the nation. They are heroes who are trying to maintain a once proud medical legacy that Zimbabwe carried. It is now time for the people of Zimbabwe to take our own health care into our own hands. We can help each other, we dont need to wait for those who will not lead. We hold a high value for life and are not willing to see any more of our precious family or friends die. We must have transparency in the way that the health care is being dispensed in the country and we must now have a say in our own delivery system.

We can educate ourselves, I am asking Pastors to begin to educate their congregations on the prevention and treatment of Cholera. I am asking congregation members to learn the symptoms and cures and go into our schools and educate our children.

No one needs to die of Cholera, yet hundreds have died and thousands are infected and more are being infected and dying everyday. 

I have mobilized all of the doctors and nurses in the Celebration Family of Churches to begin to assist in the treatment of this epidemic. I am asking you to get the information you need by going  to their blog site : celebrationhealth.blog.com  I have asked our doctors to put helpful information on this site and to answer questions that you might have.

I am also asking for any person who would like to help with a feeding outreach on a daily basis to our doctors and nurses to make contact with the Celebration Health Command Center either by phone or email.  

Phone: 263 4 746572

           263 4 746576

Email: medical@celebrationmin.org

There are also a number of ways that each and every Zimbabwean can help in a very practical way. Because of the lack of basic commodities like soap, bandages, food stuffs etc. Every Zimbabwean can as we go about our daily routines pick up one item per week to give to a hospital worker or patient. If you contact our command center by phone or email or in person we will tell you where our collection centers are located and will be willing to give honest and transparent reporting of how your gifts in kind or finance have been distributed. We will also be posting reports on the actual conditions on the ground to keep all Zimbabweans informed.

It is time to reform our health care system, and it begins with one person at a time. It starts with you and me. 

Reformation from the inside out.

God has given you dominion over your sphere of influence. That means you have power and authority. You are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. But most people pray asking God to intervene in the economic situation, to rescue them from the escalating prices or to rescue them from corruption and then they wait to see if God will do it. But I believe God is waiting for you and I to take up our dominion, to be the agent of change in situations. God wants us to be the reformers. Proverbs says, “Evil prevails when good men do nothing.” 

 

God has called us to be a voice of reformation, to change the way things are done. However you cannot reform something else unless you yourself are reformed. You cannot expect inflation to go down when you are engaging in corruption. You cannot expect the potholes in the streets to be fixed when you have potholes in your driveway. Reformation begins from the inside out. If every Christian would do his or her part, clean up the road in front of his or her house, if we saw someone doing something wrong and say, “Hey we don’t do that here!”

 

But most people choose to live by preference and not by conviction. Begin to take up responsibility, stand up for what you believe in when you see someone doing something wrong and say, “Excuse me. Not on my watch!”

 

My concern is we scream the loudest about the very things that we have in our own hearts. If you really want to be a reformer, I challenge you this week to look at yourself, to look at the condition of your heart.

 

Reformation needs those who are willing to think deeply.

As I have watched the blog, I want to thank all of the supporters of the blog site for their contributions. I have a concern however that we don't turn this site into a "cheer the message on site" only. We are all contributors and should as such be thinking deeply about how reformation and the principles of reformation affect our own lives and the lives of those we touch. I would love to hear how application of the principles of reformation are impacting or challenging your thoughts or the thoughts and lives of those you are talking to or working with in the marketplace. Reformation demands change, and our world is  in dire need of positive changes, what are you doing to bring about reformational change in the sphere or domain you find yourself laboring in.

I plan to spend more time in dialogue with those of you who are exploring the meaning of reformation in your lives, primarily what you are doing to initiate change and transformation where you are.

The Kingdom of God teaches a proper relationship to authority

Principle 5: The Kingdom of God teaches a proper relationship to authority.

We are constantly moving between in authority and under authority in our relationships with people whether they be friendships, work relationships, public or private office. The degree to which we manage these relationships is the degree to which we have success in life.

God himself is involved with various institutions of authority around the world. The first institution of authority is the individual. Individuals who take responsibility for governing themselves under the ruler-ship of God (self control) can change (or reform) the second institution of authority - families. Families who in turn operate under righteous authority influence their churches, and churches impact nations, which must also be under righteous authority.

When authority drifts toward a dictator and away from the rule of law people learn to adapt themselves to the arbitrary whims of those in power. This wreaks devastation both in the psyche and the structure of society and gives way to corruption. When the pendulum swings back to the rule of law, however the law abiding citizens willingly uphold that law. When a nation or a people allow their laws to rule them, rather than the personality of the chiefs, kings or other rulers, it's for the betterment of society. Self-government is always better than institutional government. Both are necessary but nations advance more rapidly according to the degree of self-governance. Believers who studiously attempt to walk according to God's law understand how to be in authority and under authority in any given situation in life. These believers become great citizens, in fact, they become what the Bible describes as salt and light to a tasteless and dark world.   

The Kingdom of God leaves an Inheritance for the future generations.

Principle 4:The Kingdom of God leaves an Inheritance for future generations.

The psalmist said that God’s people "store up wealth for their children.” (Psalm 17:14 NIV) King Solomon said, "A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children." (Proverbs 13:22 NIV)

As citizens of Gods Kingdom our goal should be to leave an inheritance for our children's children - to pass on wealth to the next generation so that they can build on what the previous generation has accomplished. Traditional African culture, on the other hand emphasizes the present and meeting the immediate needs of those alive now. In part this is a response to poverty and urgent needs, but it is also a result of practices that surround ancestral worship, which always takes from the younger to give to the older. Many of these practices have a financial element that benefits not a future generation but the older generation.

This is contrary to biblical principles, which admonish one generation to leave an inheritance for the next (except for widows and orphans who are to be cared for). Basic to the principle of leaving an inheritance for the future generations is the principle of sowing and reaping, which God demonstrates through his word. Seedtime and harvest will never fail as long as the earth remains. To have a harvest we must sow seed into the ground. To expect a harvest with no seed is an attempt to operate God’s principle illegally. We cannot leave a harvest for future generations if we do not plant seeds for it in this generation.

Everything we do at Celebration Ministries International is according to a pattern that others can follow. We record everything in order to leave inheritances for the future. All our messages are taped and all our business meetings are in writing so that our sons and daughters can see our mistakes and our victories.

They can look back and say, “Yes they erred but this is what they were thinking.” This becomes a learning process for the next generation.

Sadly so many visions die with current generation. I may be founder and senior pastor of the church and leader of the ministry but I do not believe in building a vision around myself, it has to be a generational vision, for my children's children and my spiritual children.We will not know if we are successful, until our great grandchildren's generation. If what we have built last's until then, it will be successful.