This blog isn’t at all what I envisioned. I just returned from a weeklong trip to northern Minnesota, a nineteen-hour journey from the Nashville area. I had a lot of time to plot and strategize on the drive there and back. My main goal when I returned home was to “hit it hard”, meaning that I intended to let loose with both barrels on this site, to expose darkness.
That is how it often works, me planning and God laughing as He totally alters my course. Instead of the both barrels being unloaded, I instead offer a message of peace and surrender, not of battle. Don’t get me wrong. We’re in a battle alright and unable to let down our guard. Still, while we celebrate the season and focus on the fact that God came in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us, we also need to seek His peace in our lives. It takes a concerted effort to allow Peace to reign supreme when the world is pulling us a dozen different directions, even good, family-focused directions.
Besides the busyness of the season, it’s easy to keep our minds trained on the darkness surrounding us to the extent that we fail to narrow in on the soon-coming Light. That’s something I address in Daybreak, the fact that we must fix our eyes on Jesus more than the rising darkness. Christmas allows us to do just that, an opportunity to stand in awe that Jesus came as a baby to save those who would accept His offer of forgiveness. It’s also the perfect time to remind one another that He’s coming again to rescue those who are His. Love comes for the beloved.
Right now, in this season when many are usually open to hearing the name of Jesus, those who most of the year aren’t, let them find you as His ambassador of peace rather than one of hostility. My both barrels in this season will never show unbelievers the peace I know in my walk with Jesus.
Do I shy away from telling the truth? Absolutely not. I was able to speak truth to someone while on my trip. It didn’t seem to do much good, but there’s no way I can know the outcome or how the Spirit might work in the hardened heart beating in that unsaved soul. What I do know is this: That person saw me as someone who came in peace, someone who came in love. I know those two things were more faithful witnesses and landed a more solid impact than two barrels would have.
The holiday will soon pass, and I will cock my gun and begin to fire, reload, and fire again. When I do, I need to ensure others see Him in me even when I do hit them with the impact of the hard truth of where we are on the kingdom calendar. Will you pray that for me and for you? We are of no use to the kingdom if we present ourselves as ambassadors of this world. While speaking to a Christian group in Minnesota last week, I told them something I’ve found as a sad truth these past years. Christians often give Christians a bad name. I know I have. I’m sure you have. May we no longer be any witness but one who bears witness to the real Jesus, the One who loves enough to come, to die, and to rescue.
Blessings to you this Christmas. Fix your eyes on Jesus, knowing His eyes are fixed on you.
Lisa
The free Daybreak ebook download page is now available. Click here to check it out.
Daybreak print books are available on Amazon, and signed copies will soon be available at LisaHeatonBooks.com.
I got your book yesterday on Kindle and couldn’t put it down. I have read some of your other books, and enjoyed them as well, but this one I could tell was probably very hard for you to write. As someone in charge of the airways for a 68 bed Covid unit in NYC at the beginning of the pandemic for a month (we now live in Israel) , God gave me a big old “both barrels” dose of the truth early on when one inconsistency after another began unraveling the narrative. I spent much of 2020 doing my own research through my medical specialty (anesthesia and working a clinic for the homeless) including about CO2 toxicity and masks, vitamin D and it’s relation to morbidity in our Covid patients, and of course the adverse outcomes from the gene therapy being promoted as a vax. I now know of 5 people (mostly coworkers) who have been diagnosed with Lymphoma since taking the vax, all but one of them are still fairly young.
Needless to say, your book for me wasn’t just validation, but it also opened my eyes to new ways the word can get out to people who otherwise might never hear and understand just how short the time is. Thank you, Lisa. I know our Savior is returning soon and that indeed brings me a great deal of comfort in all this craziness. I could fill up your page with comments, so feel free to just email me if you ever want to hear my story. Blessings!