Take Note, or Heed Words

 

File:Taking Learning Seriously by Lee Shulman

Thursday, October 4, 2012, I published my blog "I Love Our Members." Neither of the men mentioned in the first two paragraphs are with us today, but I am firm in my belief I will see both of them again. They, among many others, kept notes, as I do. 

I keep notes from Sunday sermons in notebooks which fit into back pockets of blue jeans. They were designed by a constructor worker who needed them, adopted by the company who hired him, were used for decades as a tool by all employees for decades, and called "Homer Books" after the man who cut down stenographer notebooks to fit into his jean's pocket. What do you use to take notes?

Some might use a digital device. I have one of those and can type almost as fast on one as I can a keyboard. However, I keep a Homer Book in my church bag for sermon notes, and have several in my work area here, filled with notes. Many have shown up in blogs over the years. None of them are expected to last as long as notes written that became scripture.

We don't know who took notes as King David spoke to his son, but we do know the advice given:

That the LORD may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel. (1 Kings 2:4)

The "if-then" statement is the basic decision-maker in programming. It tells the computer to check a defined condition. If that condition is true, then the computer perform a specified action. If the condition is false, then the computer skips that action and performs a different action.

God often spoke to prophets and people with "if-then" statements.  In this particular story, David is passing along the promise God made David about his children. If you are familiar with I Kings, you know David had a rather disfunctional family, with a couple of adult children working to make themselves his replacement.

I've given all that background just to be certain it is important to know when to heed the words in the Bible, and to take notes when they are being explained. David was carefully explaining to Solomon that it was necessary for his own children to note, to take heed of what was written generations before:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

It is of that very verse, the oneness of God, that Jesus said:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. (Matthew 22:37-38)

Just in case you didn't get it when Matthew wrote his note, Mark wrote his:

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. (Mark 12:29-30)

Solomon did not do what Israel was told to do:

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

Just in case you haven't take note, nor heeded the words, scripture repeats important information:

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 11:18-19)

There were Israelites then, and today, who physically wore scripture. However, we serves a spiritual being and we need to have these in the center of our being, in the center of our heart, our very soul, the essence of who and what we are. We need to have the love we hold for God so evident that people who know us also know our love of God is the reason we take note and pay heed.

I've made "notes"  here on this blog for literal decades. People I will never meet in my lifetime here have read some. I pray for my readers to understand God's good news for all mankind. For those who do read and understand, we will have time in eternity to meet, and rejoice. Looking forward to seeing you there, too, because you noted and heeded God's message.