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When I was a kid I loved reading comic books and watching Saturday morning cartoons of people that were not mere people but had something special about them. They were Superheroes. I remember imitating them. After watching an episode of X-Men, my brothers and I would act like the heroes we just saw. I would run around with sunglasses and pretend to be Scott Summers or as most of us know him Cyclopes. My Brother G would run around throwing cards at all of us, speaking in a Cajun accent trying to be Gambit. My brother Stephen would jump off the couch trying to swing on the ceiling fan, the entire time growling pretending he was a big hairy blue mutant named Beast. It was really funny because my brother Stephen had a very high pitched, feminine voice as a child and he would pretend to be the hero with the deepest voice. I think he is making up for it today as he is an armed guard and training to be a police officer. He has a smoking hot wife, fast cars, lots of guns, and loves to go camping, he is now by all definitions of the term, a manly man. I loved watching episodes of Lois and Clark, I hated the entire love story that went along with it but I loved when Superman would come and save the day. I had all the action figures: Spiderman, Superman, The Flash, Captain America, Michelangelo, Dontello, Leonardo, and Raphael. In fact every other Friday I used to go to KB Toys and use the two weeks of allowance I had saved to buy a new action figure. I think I was nine when I realized that it would cost me about nine hundred dollars to get every Ninja Turtle action figure ever made. I figured on my allowance it would take me three hundred and sixty weeks to buy all of them. I remember really thinking that was a possibility and a wise investment plan for my future. I love Superheroes

My all time favorite Superhero has always been Batman. I loved watching the old cheesy TV show. When I was a kid and I would ride my bike I would play like it was the bat-bike, my room was the bat-room, I called my peanut butter and jelly sandwich the bat-lunch. I love Batman! He is a hero that I can really relate to. Unlike his Justice League friends Batman has nothing extra about him, he has no superpowers, he can't fly, he doesn't have x-ray vision, and lasers don't shoot out of his eyes. He's just a regular man, an everyday Joe Nobody. There is something about Bruce Wayne though that set him apart from all the regular people in the Gotham City. It wasn't just the piles of cash he had at hidden away at Wayne manor. Bruce saw his city being over ran with crime and injustice, he saw no one doing anything about it. He saw his city for what it was and decided he would do whatever he could to bring change, no matter what the cost. He could have ignored it, hide himself in his own problems, his own situations, but there was something inside of him that couldn’t allow him to just ignore it. In the movie Batman Begins there is a scene where Batman sees the reality of his city, he sees the greed and corruption that has tore his city down. And when everyone around him says it is hopeless and Gotham a lost cause he says "Gotham is not beyond saving".

Another thing I can relate with Batman is just as he looked at Gotham City, I have looked at our world and seen Horrible things. I see Hunger, Genocide, Terrorism, AIDS, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Sexual and Physical Abuse, Teen Pregnancy, Racism, Poverty, Crime, and so much more. In my natural view I see all this garbage and I wonder if there is any way to fix our world. I look at logic and see no way to make things better. I talk to people that have quit and say that it is a lost cause. But then something arises in me and says: This world is not beyond saving! It makes me think of Jesus when he was in the garden before his execution. As he prayed what was possibly the most intense prayer of his life, as he was literally sweating blood, he looked into the cup. He prayed, "Is there any other way?" When he looked into the cup he did not just see the pain of the crucifixion or the beatings and flogging he would soon receive. What he saw was what he would become to save us. He saw something way worse then I see when I look in the world or when Batman looks at Gotham City. He saw all the wrong and selfish things we do, he saw child molesters and murderers, thieves and rapist. He saw all the evil in the history of the world; past present and future. He saw Sin, the very thing he was not. He prayed Father if there is any other way, yet not my will but yours be done. He made a choice that he would do whatever it took to save us. He looked and said this world is not beyond saving.

So what can we do? This world is bad but what can I do to bring change? First of all we have been given the answer. When I was in Bible College, I would always answer any question asked with a simple reply: "Jesus!" Often my professors would correct me. "No God did not allow the martyr of Stephen to happen because- Jesus, wrong answer" I would reply very anxiously "Jesus is always the answer". The class would laugh and I would get a low grade. However aside from discussions on theological studies Jesus is the answer to every problem that you will ever face. And we have been called to be salt to this world; we have been called to be the light in the darkness, the city on the hill. Essentially we are called to BE Jesus in this world, in fact the name Christian means to be Christ like.

What can you do to bring change? Invest yourself into change. One way to do this is by actively sharing your faith and bringing prayer out of your closet and into your everyday life. Extend friendships to people that you normally wouldn't, maybe people that society has called an outcast because of their poor social skills, lack of showers and incredible knowledge of computer hardware and RPG games. You never know who the next world changer is.

Another idea is to do something; if you don’t know what to do, just do something. When Hurricane Katrina happened I sat in a hotel room watching New Orleans get destroyed. Inside of me I felt like I needed to do something. For the first few days of Katrina I let reason get the best of me. "What can I do they are on the other side of the country?" "They probably have enough help already" "I am probably too late to do anything to help". But God keep after me, driving me to do something. I decided to send supplies; before I knew it, I was sending two fifty three foot trucks full of supplies to aid misplaced victims. Through the trucks God opened the door for a chance to send a RV to a Pastor who was from the Gulf Coast so he could have a place to live while he helped the people of his community. Since we sent the RV two years ago, it has been used to house ten families as they have rebuilt their homes. I was able to raise $30,000 in a matter of 15 days to send to families that desperately needed help. I have also been able to send to teams of hardworking young people to help rebuild lives and a community.


I don't ever want to tell a student, "Go win your school for Christ. Tell everyone in your school about Jesus and see them all get saved." Not because I think this is an impossible feat, in fact I have seen it done, so I know it is very possible. When I tell a student to win their school, that school then becomes the ultimate goal, but if I tell a student Win the world, fight darkness in the world, let your light shine, see this world saved, then their school is not so big and not that hard of a accomplishment. Rather it is just a step in the ultimate goal of seeing the nations come to Christ. You never know when you apply yourself to something where God will meet you and what he will do. I did something and God took it way beyond were I could go with it. What can you do? It is easy for all of us to look at superheroes like Batman or Superman and think that we could never do anything that heroic, but it is our everyday decisions to love and serve the people around us, that make ripples that effect change in the world. Do not get discouraged. It would be so easy to just sit back and say the problems are too big and I am just one person, I cant do enough. But we will never know what God will do until we commit ourselves to him and serving others. We can look at this world and say it is not beyond saving. We can be heroes!!!


Dig Deeper: Exodus 14, 2 Corinthians 10:4-6, Ephesians 6:10-18

This article by Danny Eley was fetured in the July 2007 edition of Elevate Magazine-Orange County, California

Hey everyone,
Just wanted to give you a quick update about whats going on with Crossfire Masters Commission. We are currently in the last stretch of our annual fireworks fundraiser. So far this year has been successful, just please keep this fundraiser in your prayer.
We are also working on upgrading the whole site, so if things look different or strange please bear with us as we are trying to get it put back together correctly. We are hoping to transform our website from a information page to an interactive page with new things to read, hear, watch etc. each week. Please check back at least once a week to see the new stuff uploaded.

Well better get back to fireworks, thank you for all your support and prayers
Danny Eley
Asst. Director
Crossfire Masters Commission