He is Risen!

in my family growing up we would always wake each other up on Easter morning by entering the person's room and shouting "He is Risen!" to which the person you were talking to was supposed to reply "He is Risen Indeed!" (and this response would come quickly or not so quickly depending on how awake the person was ;) haha)
this back and forth has been a common greeting on Easter Morning throughout church history and i absolutely love it and hope to carry on the tradition in our little family.
Christ has Risen and the grave could not hold him. our hope for salvation is so tied to the Resurrection and the reality that it happened! Praise God that he has accepted the payment for our sins and showed it by raising His son on Easter Morning!
just like the Christmas holiday, Easter is not about bunnys and eggs and new dresses or suits. as fun as those things are. the true reality of Easter is that our Savior who died on the cross for our sins was raised to life to show that his payment was acceptable to the Father. now that is GREAT news! :)
have a blessed Easter Sunday!
love from the Mixon House!

Good Friday?!?!

growing up in a christian context, Good Friday is not a strange term to me. it has been a part of my life every year for as long as i can remember. but you might ask, "then why the question marks?" well, just because something is common and familiar doesn't mean that it shouldn't be evaluated and thought through deeply.
so the last few years i have sought to think through Easter and the events surrounding it through the eyes of the unbeliever. and Good Friday is such a strange term for what actually happened that day 2,000 years ago. what is possibly good about the death of an innocent man? what is good about the beatings and mocking he endured? what is good about his journey to Golgotha carrying his own beam that he would be nailed to once he arrived on that hill? there isn't much good to see when you just look at the events of Good Friday! it all seems dark and grim and hopeless.

Luke 23:44-49

^"44 It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour,⁴⁵ while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶ Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. ⁴⁷ Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent!” ⁴⁸ And all the crowds that had assembled for this spectacle, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. ⁴⁹ And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance watching these things."

BUT GOD...
i feel like that phrase should come next! whenever i see that phrase in scripture i hang on to my seat to see what God is going to do next! and what God does next here is just incredible!

Luke 24:1-12

"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. ² And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. ⁵ And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? ⁶ He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷ that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” ⁸ And they remembered his words, ⁹ and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰ Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, ¹¹ but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹² But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened."

God raised Jesus from the dead! now that just doesn't happen! but He did to show that the payment for the sin of the world was acceptable to God. and Jesus had to die on Good Friday so that he could be raised to life 3 days later! only in the light of Easter are the events of Good Friday truly GOOD! through our reliance and faith in Jesus Christ we can come near to God because Jesus took away our sins on that cross 2,000 years ago. now THAT is good news!
as you celebrate this Easter weekend, find hope in this Good Friday if you are a new creature in Christ Jesus. and if you are not, lay your life and desires down before the cross that you may truly know the hope that Easter morning brings!

Isaiah 53:4-6,11

 ^"4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

¹¹ Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities."

heritage...

as i sit musing over my pastor's sermon this morning i am so encouraged by the charge he gave to the older generation to spur on the generations coming after them in the gospel - in the truth of God's word. the text was Genesis 50, the death of Joseph. Joseph's last words and last instructions to his family were to cling to the covenant promise that God would deliver the people of Israel up out of Egypt and into the promised land. Joseph's final words were about God and reminding his people of God's covenant promises. it wasn't about Joseph or about his life or about his experiences. Joseph's last words were all about his God and what He is doing.
i have been thinking a lot about heritage lately. a senior saint in our church body went to be with the Lord this week and while she will be greatly missed, her family is so thankful that she gets to be with Jesus now. her legacy and her life speak volumes to those around her about what it means to leave a heritage. she communicated the truth of God's word through her life's work. she encouraged the younger generations with the gospel. what a blessing to know someone who, while not perfectly, lived in such a way that was a testimony to all those around her.
i am challenged myself to see where i might be able to encourage the generations after me with the truth of God, it's not simply a task for the senior saints. and while there are many opportunities i can think of to do this work, i am reminded of something the Lord has been hammering into me the last few months over and over again - my children ARE my mission field. my son (and his future brothers and sisters) is who God has given me to preach the gospel to day in and day out. they are the souls that i have been given to impact and to remind everyday of God's redeeming work. and like Joseph, who on his deathbed was speaking of God's covenant with his people and His coming salvation from slavery, my task is not to talk about myself or my experiences. but i am to preach God to my children and all that He has done and will do.
what a sweet reminder to me yet again that this life is NOT about me! God is so much bigger and His work is so much grander than i could ever imagine. but i am called to be faithful to point those who come after me back to God and what He has promised. and i pray that on my deathbed it would be all about God and not about me. what a high task we have!

And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Gen. 50:24 

What is Delight?

i have been thinking a lot about my first post on here the last few days, my desire to delight in the little things of life.  but then i started thinking about what it means to delight - what is delight? so i started doing some digging....

webster's dictionary defines delight as "a high degree of gratification, joy, something that give great pleasure." ok... gratification, joy, pleasure.  what do those words mean? webster's says that gratification is "a source of satisfaction or pleasure," there's pleasure again.  joy is defined as "to experience great pleasure or delight, rejoice" - now there is pleasure and delight! and pleasure is defined as "a source of delight or joy."  ok,, so now i have three words with very similar meanings.  but i keep digging because webster's dictionary is not my authority for life.  i went to the word of God and looked up delight. 

in my translation (ESV) delight is used 77 times.  places we're all probably familiar with -

psalm 1:1-2 - "blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night." 

and psalm 37:4 - "delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart." 

in these contexts the psalmist is calling the reader to find joy and delight in the Lord.  Strongs concordance defines delight as "rejoice, glad, joyful, joy."  JOY! we are to have joy when we delight.  joy means "rejoice, be exeeding glad, be glad, greatly rejoice." i am to be glad when i delight.  i am to be glad in all the small details of life.  and not because all of the small details of life make me glad but because as a believer i am told to! 

philippians 4:4 says, "rejoice in the Lord always, again i will say rejoice!" 

and 1 thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 

this is why i am told to rejoice always and to give thanks in all circumstances - because it is the will of God in Christ Jesus for ME!  this is amazing friends, my mind has been reeling for days over this... the will of God for me is to be thankful in all circumstances and to rejoice in everything!

i delight when i have joy, but i can only have joy when i am truly thankful...  i think this is one of the roots of what the Lord is teaching me about delight - i need to be more thankful! wow... what a sobering thought to realize i am not as thankful as i should be... not as thankful as God is calling me to be - in ALL things!  ok, but that's for another post. for now, though, i know what i need - i need thankfulness.  Lord, help me to be a thankful woman....

"and be thankful. let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. and whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." - colossians 3:15-17