The Man with no Name

I recently returned from our holiday to the tune of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and visualized myself as “the man with no name” returning out of the deserts to Bridgend on my horse ready to clean up a few things.
The man with no name is a stock character in Western films, but the term is usually applied to the character portrayed by Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western films: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The “Man with No Name” concept was invented by the American distributor United Artists, looking for a strong angle to sell the movies as a trilogy and in 2008, Empire magazine chose “The Man With No Name” as the 43rd greatest movie character of all time.

The image of the man with no name for me speaks of a man on a mission and as we all return from our holidays I want to remind you that we are not living in South Wales just to make up the numbers but we have been called here to extend the kingdom of God.

As the body of Christ, God has gifted and anointed us to go about doing good and to see all those oppressed by the devil come into healing and freedom. Visualizing the man with no name helps me to remember that I am called by God to make a difference where ever I go.

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6v12

I am not here to fight people; on the contrary, God calls me to love people and I do not need to carry a gun as the battle I am in belongs to the Lord. Instead I stand on the promises of God’s word until I see the word become flesh.

The final thought I would like to share is that the man with no name reminds me that none of this is about us. In fact the only name we want to see promoted is the Name of JESUS. The name of Jesus is high above any other name and it is this name that breaks every chain. Much better that after we have left our mark on the town that people would be pointed toward his Name and when they ask who was that masked man they can simply be told he is a servant of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

Alex