A Hero That Outlasts the Halloween Suit
Halloween is here and soon our streets will be lined with little figures dressed out in the latest super hero costumes. Aww the wonder of childhood make-believe! The highest form our imagination takes is pretending to be the one who saves the day.
True heroes do not bully, rape, pillage, or take advantage of those weaker than themselves. They are kind, compassionate, generous, and protective. So how does someone go from being the one who needs protection to becoming the hero who protects? It is true that it is easier to build a healthy adult than it is to mend a broken one.
It would be so wonderful if trusting Jesus for salvation completed the godly transformation of the Christian. It is just the beginning. Every person with God living in them has the potential to be godly and will one day be godly because God promises to complete the work He begins in us. The process of sanctification is grace at work in an ungodly heart to transform it into the image God intended from the beginning. As we grow in knowing Jesus and letting Him live through us we become His agent to change the world.
Halloween is the perfect time to use costumes, which have become a part of our American culture, as a spring board to talk about heroes and villains. Let’s teach them the difference between just pretend heroes for one night’s fun and becoming heroes that last, that make a difference in this world. It starts with understanding that we serve a God who is the ultimate Hero, the Savior of His people. 
Putting on a suit doesn’t give us powers and even if it did, history has proven that humanpower only corrupts. No guarantee for a hero’s heart there. All that we can obtain by our own efforts is limited by time, space and matter. Heroes know their limitations but believe that the good of others sometimes compels them to stretch beyond their limits even to the point of no return. If we want to become more than we are then we must put our faith in someone outside of those limitations.
Jesus said, "No one has greater love than this—that one lays down his life for his friends.” John 15: 12&13 Net Bible The limit of the human heart is to give our lives for our friends.Becoming a hero that will change our world means growing in an understanding of Jesus the Hero who limited Himself so that we might be able to go beyond our limits. The Christian hero needs to trust the Hero who lives inside.
Christianity is better caught than taught. If we long for our children to grow up into godly heroes of the faith, then we must begin when they are saved helping them discover The Hero that lives within. Somewhere between the final word of the New Testament and the church as we know it today, Christianity has lost the art of teaching by example.
Jesus was all about being an example. In Jesus we find the true meaning of being a hero. He didn’t just give up His life for His friends. “At just the right time Christ died for ungodly people. He died for us when we had no power of our own. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?” Romans 5:10 Net Bible There is no greater super power than the love of Christ working in us, for us and through us.
Suzi Ciliberti
Suzi Ciliberti works for Christar, a Missions Agency that plants churches among least-reached Asians worldwide. She served in Japan for two years as a single missionary and another nine with her husband and two children, then the family returned to the states. She and her husband have been serving in the US Mobilization Center since 2000. As a part of the Member Care Department, Suzi is consultant to families with children. She has been working as a children’s teacher since she was 17 and began her training under Child Evangelism Fellowship. She has taught in the church, as a school teacher for two years in a Christian elementary school, and as a speaker for adults training to work with children. She has also trained children, who are a part of families that work overseas, in their identity in Christ. She brings 44 years of teaching experience to her work. She loves creative writing as well as teaching and has found great fulfillment in combining the two as she blogs for Heartprints. She finds it a great privilege and joy to serve the Lord and His people. One of her favorite verses is Deuteronomy 4:10b, "Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children."
