Who We Are In Christ: Christian Soldiers

Randell Hixson - PFC served C Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division. His tour in Vietnam began on December 15, 1966. Less than two weeks later, on December 27, 1966, PFC Hixson

In the early morning hours of December 27, 1966, three North Vietnamese Army battalions of the 22nd Regiment used a two-day Christmas truce to move into position for a surprise attack on LZ Bird, an U.S. Army artillery base adjacent to the Kim Son River. It was defended by only part of C Company, 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, which was providing security for 1st Cavalry howitzers of B Battery, 2nd Battalion, 19th Artillery (105mm guns) and C Battery, 6th Battalion, 16th Artillery (155mm guns).

On that day, as December 1966 was about to become January 1967, they'd come to tell Slater and his wife, Jane, that her brother, Randall Hixson, had been killed in Vietnam.

Moments before, the men had been at Jane Slater's parents' house 100 yards down the street, breaking the news about their 20-year-old son to them. They'd also been to the home of his widow, Connie, to inform her.

Pfc. Hixson had been in Vietnam 10 days and had been married about two months.

"Train 'em and send 'em," said Slater. That, he said, was how it went back then.

Hixson had grown up in Soddy-Daisy, moved with his family to Norfolk, Va., where his dad got a job, and eventually moved back with them. He completed his senior year of high school at Soddy-Daisy, where he played in the annual Tennessee-Georgia all-star football game, won the sportsmanship trophy and was remembered as the team's best defensive back. He also was captain of the track team and could "hit [a golf] ball a mile."

Off the field, the middle of five children was a student leader, a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and active in the youth group at Mile Straight Baptist Church.

"He was a good kid, very well respected," said Slater, who'd known his brother-in-law since he was 8 or 10. "He had high morals, went to church regularly. He was an A-No. 1 kid."

Hixson's younger -- by three years -- brother, Gary, looked up to him as a "role model and best friend."

"We spent lots of time together," said Gary, the youngest of the siblings. "Both of us loved sports. He was easygoing, athletic, mild-mannered, kind and respectful to everyone he came across. I don't remember that he ever said a cross word to anybody, except maybe me, and I probably deserved it."

After high school and before being drafted, Hixson worked at DuPont.

His likely plan, Slater said, was to "fulfill his duty and be a good solider" and probably have a job waiting for him at DuPont when he returned.

Then came the evening of Dec. 27, 1966, when the young radioman's unit got overrun by North Vietnamese forces. In a foxhole in the midst of a mortar attack, he was killed instantly when a shell landed "right in there with them."

"They try to take out communications first," Slater said.

An Army buddy from Coalmont, Tenn., who was there when Hixson perished came by some months later and provided the family more details than they knew up to then.

He was buried at the Hixson-Foster Cemetery in Middle Valley after what his brother-in-law said was a "rather impressive military ceremony."

His widow, Slater said, never remarried.

Ephesians 6:10–12 ESV

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

eph 6 10-12

Ephesians 6:10–12 ESV

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Word Pictures in the New Testament Ephesians 6:12

“To us the wrestling is not.” Παλη [Palē] is an old word from παλλω [pallō], to throw, to swing (from Homer to the papyri, though here only in N. T.), a contest between two till one hurls the other down and holds him down (κατεχω [katechō]).

Word Pictures in the New Testament Ephesians 6:12

“To us the wrestling is not.” Παλη [Palē] is an old word from παλλω [pallō], to throw, to swing (from Homer to the papyri, though here only in N. T.), a contest between two till one hurls the other down and holds him down (κατεχω [katechō]).

I was reflecting recently on that extraordinary moment, September 30, 1938, when Neville Chamberlain stepped from the airplane after a visit to Germany with a piece of paper in his hand that he held aloft for the crowd to see. On it were his signature and the signature of Adolf Hitler promising that despite Nazi aggression that was threatening to shatter the peace of Europe, Britain and Germany would never go to war with one another ever again. It reassured the populace. The newspapers lauded Chamberlain without hesitation. The king declared him heroic in pursuit of peace. But not everybody saw it that way. Winston Churchill believed that though Chamberlain’s agreement with Hitler provided the electorate with what they wanted, the appearance of a guarantee of peace, that nevertheless failed to adequately prepare the populace for what Churchill believed was an inevitable conflict.

The story of the bible is the story of war!

Kenny Rodgers - The Coward of the County!

Sometimes you got to fight when your a man.

Matthew 10:34 ESV

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Ma

Dr. Ligon Duncan said about the spiritual battlefield that,

It is being fought ought in your dens and living rooms and bedrooms, in your schoolrooms, in your church, in your neighborhoods, in your businesses, and there are casualties every day.

We are at war. And the failure to realize that has a crippling impact upon us.

I was reflecting recently on that extraordinary moment, September 30, 1938, when Neville Chamberlain stepped from the airplane after a visit to Germany with a piece of paper in his hand that he held aloft for the crowd to see. On it were his signature and the signature of Adolf Hitler promising that despite Nazi aggression that was threatening to shatter the peace of Europe, Britain and Germany would never go to war with one another ever again. It reassured the populace. The newspapers lauded Chamberlain without hesitation. The king declared him heroic in pursuit of peace. But not everybody saw it that way. Winston Churchill believed that though Chamberlain’s agreement with Hitler provided the electorate with what they wanted, the appearance of a guarantee of peace, that nevertheless failed to adequately prepare the populace for what Churchill believed was an inevitable conflict.

eph 6

Ephesians 6:11–12 ESV

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Progress in the Christian life is not made by the strength of our arm or for that matter the sharpness of our tongue. Our warfare is neither military nor economic nor political.

Guns and bombs and knives and the weapons of this world cannot prevail in an otherworldly conflict.

Cosmic powers, spiritual forces, heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:11 ESV

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Schemes “μεθοδεία” The well-thought-out, methodical art of leading people astray.

The well-thought-out, methodical art of leading people astray.

Satan has a procedure, a process, or a method a well laid out strategy.

He wants to take you down.

The devil is mathodical.

You must utilize God’s strength.

So if you are to stand - it will not be in your power or your strength.

In the Lord.

Tony Merida

Our strength is not in our resources and ability, in how long we have been Christians, in how much we know about the Bible, or in how long we have been in ministry.

Ephesians 6:10 ESV

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Eph

Merida, Tony. Exalting Jesus in Ephesians (Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary) . B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Who We Are In Christ: Christian Soldiers

You must fight for your spiritual lives.

Following Christ means fighting.

Christianity = Conflict

You must identify your enemy.

You are in a spiritual battle.

You have a supernatural enemy.

You must understand his strategy.