Marks of a Hero

What are the marks of a hero?  Super Bowl champion?  Being strong and classy even in a Super Bowl loss?  Or perhaps someone who acted bravely in saving others lives?  A person who sacrificed much through bravery in war? 

How does the Bible mark a hero?  Someone who was very far away from God but came to a saving faith in Him through an encounter with Jesus Christ?  Someone who followed Christ even though it was a very costly thing for him to do?  Someone who grew strong spiritually very quickly and wrote to Christians words that moved and shaped a movement of God's people?  Someone who was arrested on trumped up charges but used his time in jail to share messages that strengthened others resolve to follow Christ?  Someone who was brutally beaten while in custody and nearly died? Someone who despite that and other injustices continued to preach that the love of God is the only answer to the hatred that men have in their hearts?

Yes, that would be a hero, even though the Bible never uses that term.  All those things describe the Apostle Paul.  If you are going to have a hero in the Bible, he would have to be at the top of list of choices.  All those things also describe Dr. John Perkins.  He is definitely a hero to me.

He overcame extreme poverty and the deepest most painful forms of discrimination.  Despite having just a third grade education he has written numerous books and served on the boards of major evangelical ministries and organizations.  He and some others founded the Christian Community Development Association as a way that the church could minister to the least of these.  This movement is nation wide and now is going world wide with a new work developing in China.

Dr. Perkins, though now in his eighties, still keeps a rigorous speaking schedule that takes him across the nation and all over the world.  Oh, and by the way, he will be preaching our 10:45 am service this Sunday.  Want to hear a hero?  Here's your chance.

for the journey...

Tim