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Lessons From The Life Of Jacob: Part One - Jacob, The Plain Man Genesis 25:27 And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. For nineteen years, Rebekah was barren and had no children. Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife. In their twentieth year of marriage, God answered his prayers and Rebekah gave birth to twins. While these boys were struggling together in her womb, God made a promise to her - that the eldest son would serve the younger. The line of the younger son would be the one that God would bless and cause to prosper. Genesis 25:22-24 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered w...

Have You Been With Jesus? Someone once posed a great question, which I will ask here: If you were tried in a court of law for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Court is now in session... Acts 6:15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Stephen was a deacon of the church of Jerusalem. He was a man full of faith and wisdom (see Acts 6:3, 8). He was also a man full of the Holy Ghost. The word full  means "controlled by; influenced by." Stephen was a man who was led by the Holy Spirit. He was a Christian who had spent some time with the Lord Jesus Christ and let that time transform his life and daily walk. When he was faced with a false trial to persecute him, and confronted with the very real possibility of his own martyrdom, his faith shone forth. It was obvious to others that he had been with Jesus! His face was beaming with a spiritual glow, the glow of a soul on fire for t...

The Lord Sees Our Potential As a much younger believer I remember reading a book or commentary where the author points this passage out: Judges 6:12, 14   And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him,  The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour ... And the LORD looked upon him, and said,  Go in this thy might , and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? Then he mentioned that the Lord God saw Gideon's potential as a warrior BEFORE Gideon ever fought his first battle. The Lord opened the doors needed for Gideon to step into that role and equipped him fully for it - long before he ever fought that first battle. God already stated that Gideon had the might, the strength or power, that was needed to fight the upcoming battles God had planned for Gideon to set free the oppressed Israelites of his day. Our Heavenly Father is sovereign. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows everything about us, has a pla...

SINKING IN THE MIRE Jeremiah 38:6a  Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. The prophet Jeremiah’s enemies gathered together against him, seeking to put him to death. As a result, he was cast into the dungeon, where he began to sink in the mire. Jeremiah 38:6b  And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire. Adversities and afflictions will often seem to rise against us, much like Jeremiah’s enemies rose against him. Left with no firm footing, you may find yourself sinking in the mire of despair, overwhelmed and oppressed. In the midst of discouragement, your eyes fail you of tears, your voice chokes up and your cry to the gates of Heaven seems to come to no avail, and it becomes harder to look up to the Lord in hope. Psalms 69:1-3  Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where the...

Poems Presented In Church In 2021 to 2022, for about 10 months in the two main Sunday services, I presented poems in church as a ministry. Usually I shared an introduction to the poem (perhaps the story behind it if it was one of mine or if I knew of the events surrounding it), then I presented the verses behind it and a Biblical exhortation to draw closer to the Lord.  While we were recording the sermons preached each service, we did not think to actually record the poem presentations until about the last four months. The poems were a blessing to share and God's hand was definitely upon that ministry, as the poems and challenges I read often went with the theme of the sermons preached, the songs chosen, and many times both - yet the hymns chosen each day and the Pastor's themes or passages were not announced to me in advance. It was a ministry wholly dependent upon the Lord's guiding, and His hand was very evident for all those months. For various reasons, the Lord guided ...

I wanted to try something new, so I created two new blogs. One new blog, called The Substance Of Things Hoped For (Faith-based Stories and Illustration) , was created for a place for me to be able to quickly repost all the stories and illustrations that Angela Trenholm (my webpartner) had on her family site (Trenholms Of Kelowna). EarnestlyContending.com  (our domain and the central hub for all our personal sites) got repeatedly hacked a little over two years ago and we lost all the content and had to rebuild from scratch. It is a lot of work trying to repost articles, stories, songs, etc. that were posted from approximately 21 years ago onwards, but I am making a valiant effort. Doing it in a blog format also gives me the opportunity to easily add new content. The second blog is for posting Daily Devotionals once again - devotionals and poems. I had done that for several years back in 2004 onwards, but eventually it became too much work to keep doing that project and work full tim...

I thought it might be beneficial to list all studies/devotionals that I have put in this blog, for those who want to be able to quickly find one again, or for those who may be perusing this blog and are wondering what is in it. I have put an * beside the studies that were a tremendous blessing or encouragement to me when studying them out. Any messages that I preached at the Gospel Mission have @ beside them.  All links below will open in a separate window. If you read only one article on this website, please let this be it: God's Simple Plan of Salvation It concerns the most important decision you will ever make in your life! Don't let this opportunity to be saved pass you by. Note: My original Bible study site is  Eagle's Wings Ministries  (this link takes you to the Table Of Contents for it). In light of the repeated hacks on our main domain (ie. Earnestlycontending.com and the loss of all previous content, I am duplicating the studies here so as to avoid having to r...