May 31st, 2010 → 11:16 am @ admin // No Comments
Secret Confessions of a Super Nerd
EPISODE 1
“From Geek to Freak”
By Torry Martin
In high school I was known as the nerdy red-headed chubby guy who always read comic books on the school bus. Needless to say, I was never in the “it-must-be- so- cool-to-be-you” clique. In fact I wasn’t in any clique at all. Most of my peers didn’t even know my name much less what my face looked like as I usually had it hidden behind the latest issue of “Superman,” “Batman,” or “The New Teen Titans”.
I can still remember an incident on the bus when one of the football players called me a “comic book-geek,” then grabbed my brand new copy of the 200th issue of “The Amazing Spider-Man” and engaged the other kids in a big game of “Keep Away from Fatso”. My prized comic book got tossed back and forth from one seat to another until it was eventually nothing more than a torn, crumpled mess on the floorboard of the bus. (By the way, the highest grade of the same issue of that particular comic just sold for $120.00 on Ebay. Can you hear me groaning audibly?) I recall secretly wishing at the time that I could just yell “Flame on!” and activate a full-body flambe’ effect that would transform me into Johnny Storm AKA The Human Torch from The Fantastic Four. There was nothing I would have enjoyed more than to teach my teenage tormentor a lesson in humiliation by roasting him like an acne-covered marshmallow in front of his peers.
Yep, high school was a complete bust for me. Not one day would go by that I wasn’t taunted about my weight, my clumsiness, my social ineptitude or my low I.Q. At times I actually felt like I was attending a school for super villains where retreating into my mental fortress of comic book solitude became my only means of escape. I honestly couldn’t wait for the whole “higher learning” thing to be over so I could be out on my own in the world. I was hoping that receiving my diploma would be like getting the key to another universe– a mirror planet where comic books were on the required reading list, being chubby was “in,” social clumsiness was encouraged and high I.Q.’s were “so last year.”
Little did I know that after graduation I would become a citizen of an even stranger society, where the mocking I’d received earlier was nothing compared to the evil ridicule I’d be subjected to after being transformed from a mild-mannered klutz from a non-metropolitan area into a…(Shazam!)…new creation in Jesus Christ! That’s right. I became a Christian! I was now- “Fatter and growing a mullet! Seeking God with a pure motive! Able to carry a NAS bible that was leather bound! Look, check out that guy! It’s the Word! He’s been changed! It’s…it’s…just a man?
Yup.
Just a man, BUT now I was a man who was serving the God of the universe and trying to love Him with all of his heart, mind and strength. I went from comic geek to Jesus freak and it’s a journey I wouldn’t change for all the super-abilities in the world.
Sure, people still make fun of me. In fact, as believers we get ridiculed and taunted more than ever because Christian bashing is now the “in” thing to do among many in the political or Hollywood elite. It kind of reminds me of high school in a way, except instead of a comic book- it’s the Word of God that the world wants to knock out of our hands and trample underfoot in a big game of “Keep It Out of Public Schools”. But we press on towards the goal because the high price He paid was WAY more costly than anything on eBay. We endure the persecutions for our faith because we don’t want to see anyone go into eternity on full-body flambe’ as a human torch. We love those who hurt us because we are partakers of a heavenly calling and that is how we are to respond. The world is in spiritual darkness but we are to be the light of the world so in the name of Jesus I say “Flame On!”
John 15:19-20 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘ A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”
(The following information is taken from the Super Hero Manual AKA The Bible.)
MY NOT- SO -SECRET IDENTITY
I am reconciled to God – 2 Cor 5:18
I’m a child of God – He is my Father – 1 Jn 3:1,2
I am a saint – Eph 1:1; 1 Cor 1:2; Phil 1:1
I am Christ’s friend – Jn 15:15
I am a fellow citizen in God’s kingdom – Eph 2:19
I am born of God – 1 Jn 4:7
I have been brought near to Christ – Eph 2:13
I have been adopted by God – Rom 8:15
I’m to be righteous and holy like God – Eph 4:24
I have direct access to God – Eph 2:18
MY INHERITANCE
I am a citizen of heaven – Phil 3:20
I am an heir of God – Rom 8:17
I’ve been rescued from Satan’s domain – Col 1:13
I am a joint heir with Christ – Rom 8:17; Gal 4:7
I am hidden with Christ in God – Col 3:3
I am blessed with every spiritual blessing – Eph 1:3
I am chosen of God – holy, beloved – Col 3:12
I am a child of promise – Rom 9:8; Gal 3:14
I am a child of light, not darkness – 1 Thess 5:5
I’ve been given great promises – 2 Pet 1:4
I am a partaker of Christ – Heb 3:14
I’m one of God’s living stones – 1 Pet 2:5
TRANSFORMATION
I’m a member of a royal priesthood – 1 Pet 2:9
I’m redeemed and forgiven – Eph 1:6-8
I’m to be a stranger to this world – 1 Pet 2:11
I’ve been justified – made righteous – Rom 5:1
I’m an enemy of the devil – 1 Pet 5:8
I have eternal life – Jn 5:24
I died w/Christ to the power of sin – Rom 6:1-6
MY CALLING
I am free from condemnation – Rom 8:1
I am to be salt on the earth – Mt 5:13
I have received the Spirit of God -1 Cor 2:12
I am to be light in the world – Mt 5:14
I have been given the mind of Christ – 1 Cor 2:16
I’m chosen and appointed to bear fruit – Jn 15:16
I have been crucified with Christ – Gal 2:20
I am called to do the works of Christ – Jn 14:12
I am a new creation – 2 Cor 5:17
I am to do what Christ commanded His disciples – Mt 28:20
I have been made alive with Christ – Eph 2:5
I have been given spiritual authority – Lk 10:19
I am God’s workmanship – Eph 2:10
Signs should accompany my work – Mk 16:17-20
I have received fullness in Christ – Col 2:10
I am a minister of a new covenant – 2 Cor 3:6
I am a minister of reconciliation – 2 Cor 5:18,19
MY POSITION
I am to be an expression of life in Christ – Col 3:4
I am connected to the true vine – Jn 15:1,5
I am a partaker of a heavenly calling – Heb 3:1
I’m a willing slave of righeousness – Rom 6:18,22
I am a temple of God – 1 Cor 3:16; 6:19
I am one spirit with the Lord – 1 Cor 6:17