“Karen’s Notes!
Insights from a Glory-Bound Lady”

Selected Notes
Volume 7 Number 4
# 300 “A Big Edition on a Huge Topic”
January 24th, 2024

It is a big edition! # 300! Three hundred Wednesdays have brought us to this very special edition and celebration of “Karen’s Notes!” Family, friends, and folks that I have not personally met have taken a few minutes of time to read “Karen’s Notes,” and today we come to edition number 300. I think that is really big.

Speaking of really big! When a person places his or her trust in the Lord Jesus to be their Savior, a huge, really huge change takes place. To go from being lost in spiritual darkness to being rescued and saved by the grace of the Lord is what I call huge.

A peek back many years into her conference notes. Sometimes in her notes Karen made it clear where she would be speaking. I was reading through some of the notes she was preparing for a ladies’ conference somewhere in New York State in the early 1990s. She apparently was invited to speak several times over the course of the day as she prepared three sessions on particular people in the Bible who met the Lord Jesus. One of the Bible characters she selected was Zacchaeus.

I have enjoyed reading her notes on Zacchaeus as she took the conference attendees to Luke 19:1-10. In her notes, she emphasized several important things for us to note about this man. The one she emphasized was the transformation of Zacchaeus. She was concerned that we over-emphasize his shortness of stature.

Let me share the verses and then just a tiny bit of a paragraph she wrote. “And he came down, and received Him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be a guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto Him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham” (Luke 19:6-9).

Karen wrote: Even though we are not tax collectors in the time of the disciples, we can still relate to the characteristics found in Zacchaeus’ life. A great change was evidenced when He met the Savior. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new.”

I can’t help but think BIG! In her notes, Karen mentions that so many times we emphasize how short Zacchaeus was instead of how big his transformation was. I think she is absolutely right. What a change took place at his life! Even his wallet was converted! We who know the Lord Jesus need be consistently demonstrating the huge change that Christ makes. How good for us today.