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

Selected Notes
Volume 3 Number 44 “That is What Really Matters!”

November 18, 2020

It is amazing as well as a great blessing to hear from people after they’ve read “Karen’s Notes.” Sometimes I hear from folks as far back as fifty years who have known and loved her. Dear friends from the several churches where she was a pastor’s wife frequently tell me that they can almost hear her voice when they read what she wrote that day. JOY Club leaders through her ministry with Baptist Church Planters still write to me and tell me of her encouragement.

It was on a Monday which was the fifth of July when Karen entered the following in her Bible study journal. Let me share the text she was thinking about and then what she wrote.

“Thou therefore, may son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who has chosen him to be a soldier” (2 Timothy 2:1, 3-4).

Karen wrote: “The good soldier.” Paul’s use of the word “good” has the idea of being “Excellent or choice.” The idea of “soldier” is “That of being a warrior.” Think of it! The Lord wants me to be a good soldier, or in other words, an excellent warrior.

I do believe that Christians are involved in major battles in this world. Therefore, I need to remember what really matters.

1. My Pursuit. “ENDURE HARDNESS (2:3). That is what a good soldier does.
2. My Purpose. “PLEASE HIM (2:4).

How amazing that we believers are chosen by Him to be good soldiers who know that our pursuit of enduring hardness and our purpose of pleasing Him are those things that really matter.

Michael’s observation: You might want to know that she wrote that over nine years ago. In typical Karen style, short and to the point, she wrote of our pursuit and purpose. Enduring hardness and pleasing Him are such a vital part of being the excellent warrior. I get to see and hold her handwritten notes, and I’m thrilled to share just a little with you.