His Essence

03/05/2026

03/02/2026

08/15/2025

05/19/2025

08/06/2020

Karen Renae Lechner Tosterud is victorious! Rest in peace my love.
Bob

08/05/2020

Karen, the heart and soul of His Essence, is in Hospice and days if not hours from her eternal HOME. Please join me, her husband, in thanking God for this very special and loving talent.
Bob Tosterud

07/14/2020

Today I learned the cancer I had last summer, returned. It's not something that can be cut out but they will try to treat it with immunotherapy rather than chemo. It boosts my immune system which will fight off the cancer. I know I'm in God's hands as He is the Great Physician. Pray for His healing and my dealing with this.

07/08/2020

Genesis 35:16-28 Jacob and his family moved on from Bethel when his wife Rachel began to give birth with great difficulty. She died as her son Benjamin was born. She was buried on the way to Ephrath (Bethlehem). Isn't it strange that she died near the town that the Messiah would be born through the line of her sister Leah? David and Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.
Jacob had 12 sons and came home to his father Isaac in Mamre (Hebron). Then Isaac breathed his last and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Family is so important. It is the way God planned for mankind to live on this earth. But there is another important family we should be a member of and that's the family of God. By believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are forgiven and reconciled to God to receive eternal life. And we become His child!

07/04/2020

"Blessed is the nation who's God is the LORD." Psalm 33:12

Happy Birthday America!

07/02/2020

Genesis 35:1-15 After all the fear Jacob had of seeing his brother after all these years was met quite differently. Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him. They embraced and kissed and wept. But Jacob did not trust his brother's invitation to travel south with him to Seir or Edom. Later he moved to Shechem where his daughter Dinah was r***d. Jacob unwisely allowed his sons to agree to compensation; Dinah in exchange for intermarriage with the pagan families. If those marriages had taken place, the ancestral line of Jesus would have been jeopardized with introduction of pagan beliefs and practices. So God told Jacob to go back to Bethel where he had met God earlier. Jacob told his household to get rid of foreign gods they had and to purify themselves. Then they would go to Bethel where he would build an altar to God. They were returning to God because Jacob placed his trust in Him. God promised they would settle in the land and confirmed the promise He made to Abraham and the Messiah would come from the family line chosen and set apart by God.
Sometimes we want to do things differently than what God has planned for us but He always knows what is best and has a plan for our lives. We should trust His guidance.

07/01/2020

Today is the first time I haven't felt up to writing my devotional. Some days it's more difficult than others as I'm having health issues again. I am having a biopsy on Tuesday to see if what I have is cancer again. I pray it isn't but know God will be with me through whatever happens. But be patient with me as I don't always feel up to writing. I do ask for your prayers.

06/30/2020

Genesis 32:22-31 After 20 years of working for Laban, Jacob and his family and flocks left. God had blessed him greatly. But he was also fearful of seeing his brother Esau again. Hopefully he was not still angry, wanting to kill him. He sent messengers ahead of him to his brother. The messengers returned saying Esau is coming to meet you and 400 men are with him. He divided his people and herds into 2 groups. Jacob prayed to God that He would save him from the hand of his brother. He selected gifts of his herds to hopefully pacify his brother before he got there.
"So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man." Jacob would not let go of the man until he blessed him as this was not a usual man, but was God. Then the man said "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome." Jacob called the place Peniel, saying "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
Jacob's new name implied a new relationship with God. He may not change our names when we have an encounter with Him but there is always change. When we put our trust in Jesus, He changes us to be a new creation. "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17) Have you been changed by God?