Once, there were a fleet of superheroes that roamed a city and kept it safer than it would be. All of the bad guys learned about God and were pursued and loved on until they broke down and realized that there was more to life than religion or immoral attitudes. That God had a purpose for them and that Satan was just using them. That while Satan hated them, yet filled their heads with any lie he could get them to believe, God loved them and wanted to have a personal relationship with them. He was truth, through and through, and would comfort and love and desire them forever.
We join two such superheroes on a random sunny day in the city.
“Hey,” a menacing-looking bad guy said as he turned toward the two normal-looking young ladies and eyed their purses.
“Hello,” said one of the two in a cheerful tone, smiling.
All of a sudden the bad guy saw their protector and realized who they were. He slowly backed away and ducked in between two buildings.
When the girls got back to HQ, they related the incident. One of the guys started pulling out his armor. “Aw, he’s arming up faster than me,” he said, referring to another of the guys in the back room.
In the back room, another of the guys was indeed arming up faster. He fastened the belt of truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness. The shoes on his feet made him ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. He took the shield of faith, with which he would be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. He took the helmet of salvation. As he came into the front room again, the armor was not visible to the human eye. He grabbed the Bible, which was his sword, and nodded to the other guys in the room.
“Go tell him about Jesus!” waved the girls as the guys left the building.
Superheroes. Many of us. Our powers? Christ-supplied. Our mission? To live out the gospel and advance it. Whatever the cost. Our weapons? We gear up with the whole armor of God daily. Because the devil is lurking everywhere. The Bible is our sword and our source of energy. Prayer is one of the most powerful weapons we have. We pray as if it all depends on God and we can do nothing on our own. The absolute, most powerful weapon? We have Christ living through us. And he is the biggest superhero our world has ever known.
Walking down the street, gang-members and muggers back away because we have something different. We don’t look like superheroes, but we have a power and a presence among us that one needs to experience to understand. And in our time of crisis, Jesus is our protector.
It is the power of the devil verses the power of Christ. And Christ always wins. The devil can only draw out the battle a little longer.
We bring Jesus to save girls from trafficking and boys from the pressures of gang involvement. The love that we share lures people away from suicide leaps and out of the deadly isolation that Satan takes hold of. We find darkness so that we may shine light and bring the hope of Christ into it, making it dark no more. We need not be identified by fame or names—we need only our identity in Christ.
Our relationship with God is the most important thing in the world to us. We are suspended by it when we have nothing else. We are radical for God. Together, Christ radiates through this army, drawing more and more souls to himself. We don’t care what others think of us—we do a kingdom dance whenever another spiritually orphaned child returns to the Father, no matter how terrible of dancers we are. We sing and shout at the top of our lungs with praises. Because God is just that miraculous!
To become one of us isn’t that hard. The number one thing is to ask Christ to transform you like we did. You have to be willing; you have to let Christ live through you and learn to not fight it, even if you want to. And even after you have joined our team, you have to be careful. The devil will fight you, testing your commitment to Christ and seeing if he can get in, anyway. He will do anything to get in. You must be on the lookout at all times.
We still struggle, too. But to us, to live is Christ and to die is gain!
Anna E. Meyer 