Spirit Notes

A long time ago, when I was fifteen, I entered a contest in my home church. The pastor challenged the young people to take notes on the sermons for about a month. We then had to submit our notes to him and the winner got a large gift certificate to Christian Supply.
I took the challenge and won! The pastor was very impressed with my notes and I was hooked. (I respond well to challenges because I want to prove that I can do it.)
I remember well that I used that gift certificate to purchase my first study Bible. I went to my pastor, Rev. Rudy Gray, to ask his recommendation.  He recommended a Ryrie Study Bible in the New American Standard translation.
Here is more information about this particular Bible:
Ryrie Study Bibles
I still have that Ryrie Study Bible. In fact I have two. I also still have all my sermon notebooks. It is 
wonderful to look over all the lessons and the wisdom concerning applying His word that I have been exposed to over the years.

Here are my sermon notebooks including the most current one.

In about 1995, while I was attending Word of Life Fellowship in Roebuck, I began adding a feature to my note taking. I began drawing a small marginal column on the right hand side of the page that I called my Spirit Notes. This area is where, while I am taking notes, I jot down ideas and feelings of spiritual urgency. It is what I feel the Holy Spirit is stirring inside me to do or say in response to the sermon.

This was the first time I used the Spirit Notes column.

"God's Provision for our Vision", Rev. Manning Strickland, January 14, 1996

So on my blog, any entry that is titled "Spirit Notes" comes from the conviction, inspiration or empowerment of the Holy Spirit as it acts in me. It's a spiritual connection and spiritual To-Do list at the same time.