CHAPTER 46: NOTE TAKING 2024

Done correctly notes are great. Opens up your mind, adventures in the past, a time capsule unleashed – events, adventures, emotions, magical moments, the code, a key — to re-awaken information forgotten, a diary of events in the layers of history. Notes, inspired as if they are happening again.., in living color. Yea, right, all that could happen, if anybody actually did it. But all of us are much to busy doing things that are marginally disobedient, marginally sinful and marginally helpful to others, right. What if I could change, reprioritize?

2 Timothy 2:21-26
New American Standard Bible
21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be an implement for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

The bible may be the most extensive note taking book in the world. There is love, war, monsters, horrible kings, romance, evil spirits, lost people, found people, hope for the future, direction for the present, secret messages from the most high, plots to avenge, talking animals, angels, demons, burning chariots, fire from heaven, heroes of all sorts and a powerful God presiding over it all, a frighteningly powerful Almighty who tells the future precisely, tens of hundreds of thousands of years before it happens.

This is His story, the story of “God.” Written in His notes for you to hear.., not read, hear and see, experience and feel, over and over, each word an adventure, each time “read” there are new adventures, revealed in words that never change on the page and yet they do, each time you see them, as if they’ve been added to, each chapter, yet another dimension of the story — not only to the page, but to the person who dare cast their eyes upon it.
The Bible, a living, breathing set of notes, written especially for you, as if your story is inside the words, secretly placed in time, waiting for you to engage, revealing your destiny, hidden there since the beginning of time, waiting, waiting for you, put there by Him, a map to exactly follow into the magnificence of God and of those things to come…

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

 

Romans 15:4 ESV
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Sounds great. Why don’t we take notes so our kids can read our story? So we can remind ourselves of what has already been discovered! You’re listening to my notes, thankfully I wrote them down at least once and look what happened. Testimony, words your children could find, notes of where you’ve been, what has been done for you, moments, crossroads, valuable, priceless seconds and minutes written by you, found by who? Notes could change everything, depending on who reads them, what God might use them to do.

I’ve learned four ways of note taking. Pick one, or use them all.

1. Listen and don’t write anything down. Enjoy the listener like an entertainer. Maybe you remember some of it, or not. What benefit could this be as your memory fades? Who will share in your experience as time disappears. #1 is a slippery slope if you need to actually remember the information for any length of time.
2. Writing too many things down. I can’t listen entirely, I can’t write entirely. Writing and listening is impossible at the same time. One or the other will suffer, especially if the information is new to me. I get frustrated, stop writing, or give up entirely. Again, not good for remembering.
3. Writing quickly and rewriting an expanded version later. Depending on your level of skill in shorthand, this can be pretty effective. Grab the information as quickly as possible, pay attention to the details with determination. And then take the time to sit down and fill in the color of it all and your personal thoughts at the time. Does anybody do that? Nope. Why? I don’t know. We just don’t feel like it. Who suffers? Here’s the worst part; we don’t know who would’ve read it had we written it down. It’s just not there, not lost, not there, or worse we wrote it down and lost the paper. Familiar story?
4. Listen with a recorder and write notes later. Awesome! You can hear intention, voice intonation, facts you didn’t hear the first time, a specific order of information, and best of all, listening over and over again to embrace the moment and discover true meaning. Sounds so beautiful doesn’t it? If any of us would actually do it. Again, nobody will, nobody does, and in the end nobody cares if it’s lost. Serious problem.

The best advice? Is there a number five? Yes, I generally don’t list it. What is it? If there was a number five, it would sound like this. “You want it, really, really want the information, desperately knowing how badly you need it, desperately.”

How could I do that? Not so easy, it seems it either is or it isn’t. Like the Lord, Jesus Christ, people either want him or they don’t, either they want scripture or they don’t. Life without Christ, is just that — you’re on your own. Life with Christ requires a lifetime of study and service to the King. Upgrade your mind, make everything important. If God put you in a teaching, take notes, honor Him. Get the notes, get the recording, most pastors have the actual teaching on line, notes and audio — how does that help your children in the future? Not only do they read your notes, they’ve learned by your example how important information is to go after the notes, go after the notes with a passion for life!

You decide that your experience with God in this life is so incredibly important that what has been learned needs to be written, remembered, sought after — so that you and others may have hope in the struggle.

Don’t pretend it’s an unnecessary task. It is necessary, even if you decide not to do it, doesn’t mean it’s not necessary. Your story of life with God and those days before you knew Him, after you realized Him, and from then on. He was there, with you, all of it in your notes. God and your life that He’s given you. Deploy information from these learnings over and over again from the direction of notes.

YOUR NOTES ARE A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WORKING IN YOUR LIFE. WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO LOSE SUCH A MOMENT?

Habakkuk 2:2
English Standard Version (ESV)
2 And the Lord answered me:
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so he may run who reads it.

“So he may run who reads it.” Oh, wow.., that means God could use your notes to inspire another runner, another contestant of the good — to run the race of righteousness and win. Notes, ah, the importance of the photograph of the Holy Spirit delivering wisdom to you, dated and waiting for God’s next adventure, on the hunt for Destiny!

Revelation 21:5
New International Version (NIV)
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

I love the following verse. Isaiah wrote down, by order of the Lord, that in the near future, the Assyrian army would destroy Damascus and Samaria. Nobody believed him. It happened. Written down, the prophecy foretold, by God, captured in the writing of a man, notes inspired by the breath of God, it happened exactly as Isaiah wrote it.

Isaiah 8:1
New King James Version (NKJV)
1  Moreover the Lord said to me, “Take a large scroll, and write on it with a man’s pen concerning [a]Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.
Maher-shalal-hash-baz—Make speed to the spoil, hasten to the prey.

And then it happened, his wife brought forth a son and in his lifetime Damascus and Samaria fell. Mind blow — prophecy revealed.

John 14:29
New International Version (NIV)
29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.

Proverbs 8:9
New Living Translation
My words are plain to anyone with understanding,
    clear to those with knowledge.

Can you imagine what happens when grown kids find notes. It’s an amazing time capsule, loved by them, remembered, stored in a careful place, held precious. Why would you not write notes? I don’t know, will this lesson make a difference? Well, it did for me, not all the time, but you’re listening to my notes right now. Is it making a difference? You tell me.

1 Corinthians 14:19
New International Version (NIV)
19 But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

This scripture outlines Paul, his notes stating he’d rather say a few words that mean something than babble about. Good words for all of us to remember, right? When I am frustrated past my limits, and I don’t know what all of it means to me anymore, is there a scripture that helps. Could I look through my notes and find where God’s word moved me along? I do, and this is the scripture I find.

John 1:10-13
New International Version
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Did it help. A little bit. And sometimes a little bit, is good. Was it in my notes? Clearly, it’s in my notes, I’m reading it to you from my notes. When did I write them? That I don’t know, and I wish I did. So many of my notes don’t have a date, I wish they did. I’d love to know what else was happening that caused me to write this scripture. You’ll feel the same way someday, if you’re forever changed by chapter 46.

Proverbs 19:20
Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

Remember this, when the opportunity drops by, when the Holy Spirit rolls up, when it’s time to do what needs to be done, I envision the Angel of God, the gate keeper to the next level of life, asking of me the following question: “What is your name, and are you responsible?” Responsible for what many would ask. That is the wrong answer. The correct answer? “My name is Patrick, and I am responsible, for all of it, the good, the bad and the ugly, no excuses. May God help me.”

I believe in that instance, when I accept all things needing to be done or undone, when I accept my errors and bring them before the Lord, when I accept my shortcomings, all of them, no excuses, when I accept responsibility in all areas .. I am moved forward — and am allowed passage into “a vast sea of opportunity.”

Best I refer to my notes, right, to be sure and know where I have been, what I have experienced, and most of all — what He has forgiven in my stupid decisions, the dangers He has saved me from, the hope I found in Him the day He opened my eyes. I remember those days, because of my notes. I pray that my notes and my note taking become more helpful to God as my life continues.
Some years ago, Brenda, who is on this call right now, gave me her father’s bible study book, Brenda’s father was a preacher. His notes are written in the book. I read them occasionally. They were written over 90 years ago. The hardback cover reads “Minister’s Manual”, first printing 1919. I happened to turn to page 140, it’s titled “forms for ministers.” There is a crinkled paper, yellowing and gray, on it her father’s notes, written in his own hand. At the bottom he says; “a boy and his kite, I feel the pull. Heaven is real, I feel the pull.” A holy man, sharing thoughts with you this morning over the constant of time, He has long ago went to join Jesus, yet his notes remain. This morning, I say to you, we are different, blessed because of this note.

“a boy and his kite, I feel the pull. Heaven is real, I feel the pull.”

Ah, but there’s another, as I read a barely legible scribbling.

“To those who live longer, the race is longer, more responsibility — the competition is not with others, it is with self.”

Thank you, Brenda’s father, Pastor of a church somewhere in America’s history, forgotten in the past, notes still remain — continuing God’s work. Thank you, God, for the pen in this man’s hand on a day a single piece paper became oh, so relevant. Because Reverend Fred Eugene Berkley took the time to write it down…

Chapter 46 Note Taking 2024 — It is very important.
Amen.