Characteristics of Heroes: Beyond the ordinary

A Hero stands out at one time or another. Doing something extraordinary is
one thing that differentiates Hero from Normal.

Would you call God a Hero? If he's done the things the Bible says he's done,
he certainly is beyond a normal man's capabilities.

Think about God parting the waters of the Red Sea (Moses just held his hand
out – God did the real work). This was no petty act. The Bible says that the
waters formed a wall on either side of the people, and that when the waters
were released, EVERY Egyptian drowned, who followed the Israelites. Some of
those Egyptians must have known how to swim – they had the Nile nearby. So we
can surmise that the water was deep, turbulent, and maybe the shore far away
– whatever was going on with the water lasted longer than any swimmer could
bear. The water must have been gathering way off "in a heap" to have flowed
back in for so long.

Unbelievers try to take God out of the story – they paint a picture of shallow
regions of the Red Sea during a dry season, where the wind just happens to dry
the seabed so Israelites can cross. And the Egyptian swimmers followed them
and proceeded to drown in what? The story just doesn't work if we don't
believe it happened as stated. So either it happened, or not.

I think about Jesus – he didn't come with a box of Bandaids. Making lame
walk, curing leprosy, healing internal bleeding, raising the dead – these are
not normal acts. He really stood out.

And that's just the physical side of the story. Offering a solution for the
separation of Man from God due to the sinfulness of mankind is radical. Dying
for others who hate you is extremely abnormal. The intensity of love that
Jesus demonstrates towards us is deeper than anything we've ever experienced –
nobody has ever done it before.

Jesus is my hero. No other man or woman can come close to him.

But Jesus said that others who believe in him would do even greater works than
him (John 14:12) – so there are heroes yet to come. Who are they?