Time waits for no man, so the saying goes, and time has passed again with the usual ups and downs in the world. Here are the prayer points that have come out for this week.
- Muhammad Ali
The man who proclaimed to be The Greatest this month celebrates the 37th anniversary of first winning the World Heavyweight Championship back in the day when there was only one World Champion and not as many world champions as you’ve had hot dinners.
I’ve started reading the acclaimed biography by Thomas Hauser about the guy and reading it even in the early days you get the feeling why he was such a magnet for attention. There was his looks, there was his famous ability to charm people with the gift of the gab and at the end of the day there was his ability in the ring to win boxing matches.
When I read Ali’s conversion story and how it is inextricably linked to the social, cultural and racial temperature of the time and the inherent failure of Christianity to present itself as anything other than a controlling drug preventing justice to be its clarion call as long as people were keeping quite on the issue. Of course there’s more to it than that – there were Christians who were a big part of the movement for social and civil justice.
There are people like Muhammad who are vulnerable to being influenced to believe something about the nature of Christianity that would turn them off it for life. That will always be the case. The prayer point in mind is to ask God for the light of the truth of Jesus Christ to break through the minds and hearts of those who would be so dissuaded. As well as remembering the man Muhammad Ali for life, health and strength. Please remember these in your prayers.
- Making Noise For The Gospel
Still on the Ali thing, there was a glorious quote in there that should have been something that belongs to followers of Jesus. It was after his stunning victory over Sonny Liston to gain the title and having kept his affiliation to the Nation of Islam under wraps, kinda, beforehand, the win allowed him to be open about it. What he said was that when a rooster sees the light, he starts to crow, so having seen the light himself he could not stay silent.
It made me wonder, why is it that those who claim to have seen the light and indeed walk in the light are rather reluctant and reticent to crow about it? Not only is there a reticence in this culture, there’s an invisible gag that suggests that we need to keep faith to ourselves. Following last week’s prayer point looking at the religion in this country, it becomes all the more apparent that the challenge remains to look for creative ways to crow. Not crow in a negative sense and not crow in an offensive sense, but as the study of Matthew is highlighting, people of God have a tendency of speaking out, even if it’s at the risk of their popularity or acceptability in the predominant culture of the day.
Believers don’t have a responsibility to have answers to all of the pressing issues of the day. They do have a responsibility to express the light they have seen that have taken them out of darkness. There is something to crow about – please remember that in your prayers.
- Enabling The Body To Grow
This week I had a very interesting conversation with two people involved in church leadership. As I heard what these gentlemen have to say about the nature of church life and such, it got me thinking about how far away we can be from God’s model of vibrant, dynamic Christian community.
The hierarchical model that pervades most Christian expressions just seems so anti-Church. It’s a bit like the Israel syndrome that lead to them picking Saul as their king. God told Samuel that they were rejecting Him. The push for the hierarchy in church seems to neglect the Lordship of Jesus Christ over His church and what suffers in all that is the genuine health, growth and development of the Body of Christ.
I’m not against leadership. I recognise people are gifted for such causes and assist development where it can be lacking. I acknowledge that some people genuinely look for direction on a human level and it is not a bad thing in itself to offer that direction. The deal of discipleship, however, is to promote people’s complete reliance on the true Lord – not on human figures who thrust themselves forward by strength of personality, charisma and gifts to assume a place of over-bearing influence on the life of the members. When people connect with that and then understand their own role in the Body and see their own significance and leadership responsibility it’s no longer about the man at the top, it is about glorifying the God over us all.
I continue to desire to be a part of a Christian community that reflects those intrinsically Christ-centred values. Please pray for the heart of Jesus in being Lord over His church and releasing His Body to function as it should in your prayers.
With the end of January and four prayer sessions worth of stuff to review, expect a Prayer-Points Extra to give some feedback on the prayers in an upcoming blog. In the meantime, please know that God is interested in the sincere prayers of our hearts and so however low you may feel never stop sharing with God in that medium. As the hymn says, don’t forget to pray.
Have a great weekend.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
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