 It's the end of March 2023. Welcome to the Teen's Cornerstone Connection lesson. This is the fourth lesson in our series, lesson number 12, struggle by stream. So let's go with the flow with graceful music from our orchestra featuring Hiki on the trumpet, Asher on the tuba, Grace, oh not yet, Kate's on the piano and George on the saxophone. And now Grace will give us all inspiring mission stories from the Eastern Central African Division. Of course, our panelists, Sibira, Brenda, Ashley and our wonderful Teen teachers. So enjoy. Happy Sabbath everyone. I'm very glad you could make it to this final lesson for this quarter. And that means also the final mission story for this quarter. Well today I'm not going to give any facts but I'm going to give something else but that's going to be at the end of the story. So let's get right into it. So this story is called No Debt and it's about a lady called Liddy. So Liddy grew up in a poor family and her greatest desire was to graduate from university so that she can get a good job and then support her parents. But how? I mean she didn't have any funds. Even though she'd gotten good grades in high school and also had been accepted into the University of Rwanda, which is like the biggest university in Rwanda, she hadn't won one of the few government scholarships. So she knew that she couldn't go there because of lack of funds. Her parents didn't have that much either. But fortunately for her, Liddy's parents were set on having their daughter study. So they helped her to gain admission into the School of Nursing in the Adventist University of Central Africa. Liddy was elated. This was her dream come true. She'd always wanted to be a nurse so that she could help other people to feel better when they catch an illness. Now she joined a class of 35 students and she found that she was quite at home in this Adventist University. For one thing, there are only 70 people in the entire campus since it was new and the campus was quite small itself. And she found that everyone was kind and loving and it just felt like one huge family as compared to if she had gone to the University of Rwanda where she would have been lost in a crowd, in a huge crowd of students in a very huge campus. The teachers were very friendly too. Other than spending time with them in class, they would also spend extra time with them during morning devotions and midweek service and also on the Sabbaths that worship with them. Lydia was really excited about attending church on Sabbath. She hadn't grown in an Adventist family but she had had Adventist friends when growing up. So she knew what the Sabbath was about even though it was just a few details about it. So she started going to church on campus since it was a requirement but to her this didn't feel like a chore at all. She loved the Sabbath and she wanted to learn more about the Sabbath and other biblical truth. So she signed up for Bible lessons to learn more about it and as she continued studying, she got convinced that Saturday is indeed the seventh day Sabbath which the Lord has made holy but she kept putting off her baptism. So she told herself, if I pass my first year, I'm going to get baptized. She did pass her first year but she put off her baptism again. Then she got into second year and she really struggled to pay for her tuition but now she made a deal with God that if you help me to pass my second year, I will get baptized and at the end of the second year she had passed so and she was really grateful for it considering how much she had struggled to pay for school. So she decided that the least thing she can do to show her gratitude towards God is by giving her heart to him. So she did get baptized but even though everything was looking good right now, she still had a huge debt but because you know she had no money and her parents didn't have any either but her the bright spot during all this time was her seventh day Adventist classmates. They'd pray with her and encourage her to not give up and sure enough she finished her third year but now when she was about to start her fourth year, it became very clear that she'd have to drop out. Why? Her debt had become really huge. She owed the university more than one million Rwandese francs which if you convert into dollars would be $1,500 so she couldn't register for her fourth year. So she had to drop out and look for a job which she could work full-time so that she could pay off her debt. She got a construction job at the new School of Medicine which has been constructed still on that same campus but everything was just breaking her heart because she saw her classmates continuing with their studies and enjoying other campus activities while she wasn't the construction site just slaving away and she felt really discouraged which she hadn't gone to college at all and just wanted to quit and go home. So one day she went and talked to her teachers about it and when the teachers heard her story they felt really sorry for her but they encouraged her and told her to pray for a week and wait for God to answer. She prayed every single day for that coming week but apparently God didn't seem to be answering but the teachers encouraged her keep praying don't give up and God just pulled off a miracle for her. At the end of that second week a family friend called her and told her that she that he had paid the exact amount of money that she owed the school and she was so happy. So he sent her the money she was able to pay her debt so she resumed her learning and due to constant studying and studying hard she was finally able to catch up with her classmates and at the end of the year she graduated from the university with a bachelor degree in nursing. What do you say to that? And now we're going to get to our final thing which is telling you where our 13 Sabbath offering is going to be going to this quarter. It's going to be coming right here to the East Central Africa Division and the specific places it's going to be going to is in the construction of a dorm in Mugunero nursing school which is in Rwanda, a faculty nursing, a faculty housing sorry at the medical school at the Adventist University of Central Africa which is still in Rwanda, an agricultural training center in Njuanga which is in Uganda, a multi-purpose hall in Ethiopia 7th day Adventist College which is an extension campus which is located in Nekenta, Ethiopia, a dorm and multi-purpose hall which is going to be built right here in our own country Kenya at Muata Adventist School for the Deaf which is in Muata Kenya and the final project is the multi-purpose hall in the University of Arusha and I hope and I hope with that you're blessed and right now let's listen to some lovely music from our orchestra. Happy Sabbath. Happy day. Welcome to today's lesson discussion which happens to be the last lesson of this quarter entitled Struggle by a Stream. Thank you before we continue with our lesson I would like to ask our Brenda to pray for us. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Our Father in Heaven thank you for this beautiful Sabbath that we're here to do this discussion about struggling by a stream as we're about to discuss thoroughly about what we're about to learn help us gain insight from it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. A struggle by a stream a very interesting lesson discussion we have but before we jump into our lesson of the day I would like us to introduce ourselves. Right okay hello guys my name is Sabir Okundi and I'll be taking you through Sunday and Monday of this week's lesson. I'm Brenda Maywa and I'll be taking you through Sabbath and Wednesday. Good morning, good evening or good night everyone. My name is Ashley Hazel and I'll be taking you through Tuesday and Thursday the patriarchs and prophets parts. Happy Sabbath. Happy day. I am Jonan Magana. I will be guiding the discussion. And I'm Senate, Senate Moshe, one of the panelists. All right so it's a sad thing the quarter is over. It's been a very interesting quarter and our theme for this whole quarter has been before and after. Now we started with the fall of man where the devil came from, then it's what I mean. They've been chased. We ran all the way through Noah, Enoch and now here we are all the last patriarchs of the Israelites that is Jacob. Now the story of Jacob is a very intriguing story. This guy had a lot of highs and lows in his life. You know he was a fighter from the beginning. The first time we see him fighting is when he's being born. As you remember he came out clutching his brother's heel. The girls are fighting from the beginning. Grows up later on, deceives his brother of his birthright. Stills it for plate of food. We've seen that in the previous lesson identity theft. Later on Jacob goes ahead and steals the blessings from his brother then runs off, goes to Laban. Then that's what we're going to see today. You know what goes around comes around. We all know what happened to Jacob when he was there. He got deceived also. But why do we learn about Jacob so much? Let me tell you why. As we've seen in the previous lessons, you always have a fundamental belief of the seventh day Adventist church and our fundamental belief for today is belief number 25. That is the second coming of Christ. Now how are we going to connect this to the second coming of Christ is that Jacob had lost his way. He was a deceiver. His name actually means a deceiver. But he reconnected back to God and this calls to us. We need to reconnect back to God before the second coming of Christ. Before we jump into the lesson, there's a story that we're given here about a man called Todd Huston. Todd Huston was an American. I think he's an American. He was one of the most renowned people because he set a record in the Guinness World Book and all that. He climbed 50 of the highest peaks in the United States within 66 days. So that is basically translates to almost one peak every day. You're climbing a mountain every day, every day, every day. The previous record was 100 days, so he slashed the record by almost half. Now, there was one time he was climbing the highest mountain. It's in Alaska. It's always snow and ice covered and he met a group of hikers coming down as he was climbing. He asked him, how is it up there? They gave him some discouraging comments. It's very cold. I don't think he'll make it. But Todd was just like, should I continue? Should I not? Now, what I didn't tell you is Todd climbed all those mountains with one leg. So this guy, at 14 years old, he had a water skiing accident and he lost one of his legs. So he was climbing with a prosthetic leg and he climbed all those 50 mountains and broke the record. When asked how he did it, how he managed to do it without listening to all the discouragement, these are the words he said. He says that, I quit focusing on my handicap. If you're going to look at your affliction, your injury, your fear, or how others treat you and focus on that, you are going to live around it. But if you focus on the Lord and his promises, he will get you through it. And we see a parallel of that in Jacob's life when he trusted God in all that he did. Now, to prepare us for the lesson, Brenda. Let's read the book of Romans 5, Romans 5, 3-5, and I'll read it. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. Knowing that tribulations produce perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope. Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So there's a small activity we're given here in the what do you think section. And we're asked to rate, again, okay, not really rating, but label some situations were given on how bad they were, or which one made you feel the worst, and which one made you feel not as bad. So we have arguing with your parents, breaking up with a boyfriend or a girlfriend, disobeying God, failing a class, being rejected by a sports team, not spending time with God, wasting the whole day watching TV, sleeping through church and compromising your standards. I'll say my worst and my not as bad. So my worst out of all of these is compromising my standards, compromising my standards. I think it feels everything in the whole list, because when you compromise your standards, you're disobeying God. And that might be also in your studies when you have high standards in what grades you want, and you compromise. That's also, that's still compromise. And I think it makes me feel the worst when I do that. And also, my least, most likely being rejected by a sports team. Yeah, because if I'm rejected, that means that's not what God wants me to do, or that's not where my talent lies. I just need to explore other areas where I could fit in better. Can you tell us your perspective on this? Thank you for that, Brenda. I would say my worst would be, oh well, a lot of these are pretty big. My worst would be disobeying God. Because that one, you live with a guilt almost forever. Like, you know, you've broken maybe a commandment, and you have to bear that burden. Even though you know God's forgiven you, you still feel guilty. My least would be arguing with a parent, because I rarely do so. I really think that my worst, I have two worsts. Number one, watching TV for a whole entire day. Why? I think I'll just be more unproductive. Me achieving some sort of productivity in the whole day is something I would strive to be. So things like the that girl morning routine, these really things that you can see in like Pinterest and stuff like that. I think a lot of girls strive to be like that, and it's hard if you don't reach that peak productivity in a day. Another thing I definitely think is academic failure. So this is like failing in a class, right? If I fail in school in academics, it hits me hard, because school comes with, you know, school fees, and then you have a whole lecture from your parents, and it's very sad. It just leaves you with a bad feeling. So definitely trying my very best in school is key, and academic failure is the worst. Like the least, I think I would agree. If I didn't get into a sports team, I don't think it really matters. I mean, it does matter to a lot of people, but it's it's something that I can get into another team. I can get into something that I'm more passionate about. So yeah, thank you. So yeah, that was for the what do you think section? All right, okay. Now that we have the thoughts, your thoughts on now what you think about it. Did you just send it probably? You could tell us what's your worst thing? What's what will make you feel the worst out of that list? For me, I will go with compromising my standards. Because here on earth, we were left with the with the Holy Spirit to walk in us, to show us the way, and to mold us to to become who God wants us to be. So that one act of trying to be someone you are not, it can change your world. People will start seeing you from a different angle that you are not. So for me, it's, it's good if I can focus on my life to be how God wants me to be, then trying to fit into the society, because society will go, but God will stand. So for me, my character stands out for me. You might like that. You know, society will change every single time. Yeah. But God is always the same since the beginning until now. I think it's time we get into a story. And you can open your Bibles with us, the book of Genesis chapter 28. So we'll just take some parts. So it's just a compilation of bits of it. So we have Genesis chapter 28, and then Genesis 29, and Genesis chapter 32. And I like superior to guide us through that. Okay, thank you. So Jacob left Bershiba and he set out for Heron. When he reached a certain point, you know, he stopped for the night because the sun had set, but he had a dream and this dream had this stairway that was resting on the earth and it reached out to heaven. But we had angels of God ascending and descending on it. There above it stood God. And he said, I am the God of your Father Abraham and the God of Isaac. And I will give you and your descendants the land in which you are lying. I am with you and I will watch over you wherever you go. And I will bring you back to this land. And I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you. So from this little story, what do you guys get that's truly important? Maybe if I can try to jump in for me, this story is very interesting. Now Jacob is alone in the desert with no friend, no family, but alone. But one thing it gives us one character of God we can see, but he will never, never, never walk away out of our lives. All this time, he was with Jacob because he knew like, I had a promise with Abraham, with Isaac, and it's through him that this promise has to stand. So he guided him, he showed him the way. Things were tough for him, but he never, never chose to walk out of him. And he tells us one thing, if God has a plan and a purpose in your life, he has to finish it. The only thing that we have to do is to be patient with him, give him time to mold us and show us the way. Because the moment we try like, I want to have it on my own way, then chances are that we're going to mess. And once you've messed, you will live with the guilt for the rest of your life. Right. So now Laban, he had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. Jacob absolutely loved Rachel. And he said, okay, I'll work for seven years to get your daughter, Rachel. So Laban said, in fact, yes. In fact, I want you to have my daughter. It's better than giving it to some other men. So stay here with me. So Jacob worked seven years to get Rachel. But when evening came, Laban brought his older daughter, Leah, to Jacob. And Jacob made love to her. When morning came, Jacob woke up and said, what is this that you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn't I? Why have you deceived me? Laban replied, it's not our custom here to let the younger daughter be married before the older one. So have this daughter's week of marriage and then I will send off the younger one as soon as you work for another seven years. And Jacob did so. So from this little story, what do you guys get? It's very intriguing, right? I'll probably give a bit of a brief on it. You know, in those days, the Israelites used to do their weddings at night. Do you know that? Contrary to what we do in our country right now, you can't run a wedding past six p.m. You know that? Yes, you cannot. Now in those days, Israelites used to do their weddings at night. The ceremony run for a whole week. So that is why Laban took advantage of Jacob, just give the sister. I think that's why even have the whole uncovering the bride in church, like, is it her? Like, yeah, it's okay, good. Now go ahead. Make sure. Yeah, you have to make sure again, you know. So the lesson I picked from this is what goes around comes around. Jacob had been lying so many times, his brother, his parents, his father. Well, it was a bad time. He got a taste of his own medicine and it seems he did not like it. Okay. What do you think, Brenda? I think I agree a lot with you, Jonan. When you lie, usually when you lie, you think that I can't be caught. This lies too good, but at some point it will catch up to you. There's no lie that has ever stayed in secret because there's a verse that says that the Lord sees what you do in secret. So everything that you do publicly or secretly, God does see and he will pay you back for whatever you did. Okay. So if I can add something to what you guys have said, for me, one lesson that I can learn from this story is that sometimes it's good to be committed because look at this guy. He was committed to his boss and Laban was his boss. So he had to commit himself like, this is what I want. I'm not going to settle for less until I get it. So he got it. And then it comes back to us as Christians. It's good sometimes to be committed in the house of the Lord. God happens to be our boss. Once I don't commit, then I will not get the promise. For him, he committed and he got the promise. Okay. And this commitment is seen in our next section. So Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he touched his hip and his hip was wrenched. So he continued to wrestle with the man. Now the man said, let me go for it is daybreak. But Jacob said, I will not let you go until you bless me. So Jacob called this specific place Peniel, which means it is because I saw God face to face. And yet my life was spared. Okay. From this last section, what do you guys get from it? If I might add. Right. This section, it reminds me a lot of a question that is paid at the end of the Sabbath section where he talks a lot about, have you ever wrestled with any of these problems? The questions that we did in the what do you think section? Have you ever wrestled with God about any of these things? And it just comes back to what Jacob did. And it just shows how you have to wrestle with God to get his blessing for everything that you do. In every mistake that you do, you have to go back and tell God, I messed up, but I need your blessing to move on. And I think this is what Jacob was trying to do because he acknowledged that he had messed up in the past. So he was like, he didn't know who this person was. But he was like, if it's someone that can make my mistakes be rubbed off, I would rather fight them until I get the blessing. But think of it, right? Thank you so much, Benda. Ashley, do you think you yourself would actually wrestle with God? Like go with like a wrestling match with him? I don't know. I don't know how that works because I don't think I would win. But what do you think, Ashley? First off, I have noodle arms. So I wouldn't be much of a challenge or competition. But if we're talking about in pairs, yes, I also wouldn't be much competition in that area. But I would be relentless as possible and not give up. Like, and you can also acknowledge Jacob's strength, like his physical strength, being able to wrestle at night till morning until God had to dislocate his hip just to get an advantage. So if I can say something for me, if you know your identity, and then you know your worth, and then you know the promise ahead of you, then for me, I will say like, I will just fight. So long as I know like, at the end, I'm going to get this promise. I will just do anything to get it, not to get in the wrong way, but get it in the right way. The right way, you have to spend time with God. Have a devotional life with him. That's the only way you can be able to wrestle and be a winner in this battle. So this is a fight. You're not going to fight by yourself, but let it. Amen. And claim those promises. Monday's section really tells us that you need to know that God is with you. God will watch over you. God will be with you wherever you go. He will bless you abundantly. So make sure you know all these I will watch you claim those promises every day in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Subeyra, for taking us through the lesson. And I agree with you, you know, from what you've learned, God's blessings not exactly come easy to us. You know, we have to struggle through to get them. Jacob fought until he was blessed. You know, God likes when we're persistent in our prayers. The previous two lessons ago, we talked about how we should be specific in our prayers. Jacob was just told God, I just need blessings. And the Lord blessed him, even changed his name to Israel, you know, a blessed nation. Okay. So, Ashley, would you like to just tell us what the spirit of prophecy says about Jacob? All right. And it says, up to the time of man's rebellion against the government of God, there had been free communication between God and man. But the sin of Adam and Eve separated earth from heaven, so that man could not have communion with his maker. Yet the world was not left in solitary hopelessness. The latter represents Jesus, the appointed medium of communication. Had he not with his own merit bridged the gulf that sin had made, the ministering angels could have held no communication with fallen man. Christ connects man in his weakness and helplessness with the source of infinite power. That is deep. That is deep. You know, also we can read from 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9, just to add on that. I'll read it. It says, What he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. You know, we see that the Lord took Jacob's weaknesses. You know, Jacob knew he had faults. That's why he was wrestling with God when he realized, no, this is not a man. This is God. And God used Jacob's weaknesses to exalt him into greater glory, allowing him to become the patriarch, you know, a great, great, great grandfather of his son, Jesus Christ. All right. So Jesus Christ is a bridge, as Ellen White says. Ashley was quoting patriarchs and prophets, page 184. And yeah. Sorry, if I may add to that, the words, things that happened to Jacob were repeated, like, several years down the line. And Jesus quoted, ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. That's in John 1 verse 51. That was in his conversation with Nathaniel. Nathaniel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Brenda, could you claim some more verses that we can get from this? Okay. So there are quite a lot of verses that we can really connect to Jacob's story. But I think the greatest one that hit me the most is Philippians 413. And it says, I can do all things through him who gives me strength. And I feel this is a challenge towards everyone to fight for what you are going to be or for that blessing you're going to have in life. Because everything that you get in life, it's because of the hard work that you put into it. So, and you can't do it by your own strength. You have to do it with God. That's why we're told we can do anything through Jesus Christ who gives us strength. And also maybe people can add something. Brenda said, sometimes in life it's so hard to believe like God is the one who's going to give me strength to soldier on. But it will only be easier if you believe in him and not within him. Because once you believe and you have faith in something, you have to keep on going. No matter the challenges you face, those challenges are there to make you strong and show you a different angle of life. Because once maybe I'm in this corner with let's say one of the biggest wrestlers in the world and you know like this guy is going to mess me up, he's going to destroy my life. Then I know that's the moment when you need to whisper something to God. And one thing I've learned, God always listens. At your weakest points in life, God is always there. So long as you have that faith in him like you are my father, no one else can get me out of this situation but you, God always has a way for each people. Definitely. And I think you challenged us with that verse from Philippians 4 verse 13. I would also like to encourage us with this first John chapter 3 verse 1. See what great love the father had lavished on us. That we should be called children of God and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. That specific last part talks about us knowing God and the only way we can know God is reading his word, right? So from this, from the story, we see that God says that he'll be with you wherever you go. He's always going to be with us regardless of our situation and even if we wrestle with him, he'll still bless us. So I pray and I encourage all of you today, those watching and you guys here on the panel with me, that we need to trust in God. That is how we'll be able to know him. And if I could add on that, what Subira just said in 2 Corinthians 12 9, it says that but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ's power may rest on me. Let me just go into this part that says power is made perfect in weakness. Jacob was a weak person by heart and he fell for temptation and for sin. But with God's strength, his weakness made him even more stronger in his day to day life. And that's why it says power is made perfect in your weakness. Amen. And also when you look at the character of Jacob, he was actually a devotional person. Someone always admired, wanted to be close to God, to have a communion with him. But it then again comes back to us Christians. I can be a Christian, yes, but the devil is outside there waiting for me to make me fall into temptations. The question that comes is that once you've been tempted and maybe you'll fall, what's the next day for you to do? This guy knew like I have messed, my brother's going to kill me. What about my dad? He's all alone in the desert wondering like what can I do in the next thing? But he again, God is there to guide him. It's another thing we're seeing. God is there to guide him because he knew like it's through him the promise I made to Abraham that it's going to be made to come into reality. God shows him the way, guides him even when he was wrestling with the angels. It's through that time he spent time with God that he had to win a victory. So it tells us like we are sinners. We have sinned against the will of God. What do we have to do? It tells us like spend time with me. Your burdens are here to carry them for you. You want to pass, you want to do this in school. The only way for you to pass how faith in me, believe in me, you have sinned. It doesn't matter what you did yesterday, but today is a new day. How faith in me and walk towards my glory. Amen. Amen. I could also reiterate that with Psalm 50 verse 51. Sorry, Psalm 50 verse 15 where David says, you call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. You know, God wants us to cling unto him. You know, just like Jacob clinged unto the angel until he was blessed, God wants us to do that in our lives right now. In times of trouble, just cling unto God is going to help you out. That's a good insight. Ashley probably can read for us. There's a very good quotation in the Thursday section from the book Patrex and Prophets. That's chapter 17 and 18. You can just read that quotation for us in the Thursday section of the lesson. Ellen writes, Jacob prevailed because he was preserving and determined. His experience testifies to the power of important prayer. It is now that we are to learn this lesson of prevailing prayer of unyielding faith. Yes. So God wants us to constantly be in communication with him. You know, like Jacob saw in his dream, the ladder from heaven. That ladder, Illinois says it represents Jesus. The connection, the only way we can reach to God is through Jesus Christ. And Jesus showed us the way to pray when you're teaching the disciples in the book of Matthew, right? When you pray to the Father, pray like this. Give us an example of how you're supposed to pray to God. That is the way we cling unto God and ask for blessings from him. Now, as we almost come to the close of the lesson, last teacher sent it to just read for us. Second Corinthians 12 was nine. Read it a lot, but we can read it again. Then can give us some insight into that. Second Corinthians 12, nine says, but he said to me, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ, Christ's power may rest on me. A very, very interesting verse. Let us look at the Jacob. When he was wrestling with the, with the angels, he was alone. At that point, he had told his wives and kids and all the, the workers he had to, to go away. That was the moment for him with God. He knew back of his mind like my brother is going to kill me, but the prayer he had was like God softened the heart of my brother because he knew like I did something wrong to him. I did not even see my mom, but here I am. I want to meet my brother so that we can talk one on one with him. He spent time with God and God, you know what? God answered his prayers and he tells us one thing. Sometimes as Christians, we can only win victories, not through the, the talents we have. I can be a good footballer. I can be a good writer. I can be a good actor, but I cannot win the victory unless I spend time in the private chambers with God. That's the only way I can be able to win all my battles. And then again, another lesson comes here. When God's time has arrived to change your life, he always opens ways for you. Jacob never knew like maybe he will see his brother, but he believed in God. Like God, you are the only one who can be able to talk to him and soften his heart. And God made everything to be possible for him to meet with his father. Look at the way he lived at Laban's place. He lived with fear like, what will he think? I'm leaving this place with all the wealth I have. It's going to kill me. But the day he was leaving, Laban was not there. And when Laban came back, he was like, oh, he has left. That's okay. He never bought that even to look for him because he had a choice of looking for him and telling me like, you know what, we're going, we're going back to my place. But everything just flowed because God's time has already reached for him to, to work in him, to make him a better person. And this is the point where you see his name was changed when he wrestled with the angels. We Christians, we face a lot of things in life. Once you wrestle maybe with the Holy Spirit at this particular point, there are two spirits talking. God's spirit and then we have the devil. Always the devil is always telling you like, no, your mom will not know. It's just a one-time thing. She will not know. Your brother will not know. But the Holy Spirit is telling you like, ah, Subira, my daughter, I love you. Do the right thing. You're in school. You want to pass these grades, then just read. And once you read, God gives you because he wants you to pass. And the Bible tells you like, my people will never be detailed by the head. If only we believe in him. And definitely, it talks about how really in the Friday section, right? It's so important, like you mentioned, how God really interacts with us to transform us, right? So there's a question that's there. How have you been transformed by this experience? I think that can be like a personal question to each of us, you know, because we've met God in very different aspects in our lives. You know, you're just looking back where you struggled with something in your life. You talked to God about it. Then God helped you through it. You know, it shapes experience from there. Because we see from Jacob's life physically. I mean, he started walking with a limp because his socket was, you know, right? That's one physical thing. How his life changed. And the second thing is he lived a life for your fear. Because he knew God has forgiven him. And his brother forgave him also, right? He actually has also some insights you can share with us. Yes. Around the end of the story in the LNG white coverage, it's mentioned that for a lot of the period that Jacob worked for him, Laban was deceptive, orderline abusive, gaslighting, telling half truths, half lies. And when, let's say, Jacob worked for him for like 14 years, right? Seven and seven for each wife. And then spent about like six more years in which he was a shepherd. And he tended to Laban's walks and all that. And over the time that he was there, everything flourished under his care, right? And Laban and his sons were jealous of him and his progress. So around the time that he was leaving Laban's house, Laban had left for about three days. And Jacob saw this as a convenient time. So he took his own cattle, his wives, his children, and they fled. But they were intercepted by Laban and his forces who had come to kind of like stop them and drag them back. And he was confident because his forces were much stronger. But God spoke to him the previous night and delivered a powerful message that kind of turned his anger down. And so it was in the place where they met that Jacob and Laban made a truce. And that was the place called Peniel. Yeah. Same place where we see that he wrestled the angel again. Oh yeah. And Jacob is high key, honestly, like from what you said, a bit all over the place, right? And it's super important for us to recognize that even if we have so many things going on in our lives, like we're not in the best place possible, which has happened to everyone I believe, it's important for us to get that point to wrestle with God. I feel like wrestling with God might seem, whoa, why are you trying to fight God and just let him lead and everything. But sometimes we have to fight. God gives us his opportunity, maybe puts us at a point of lacking, a point of want and need for him in these trying times so that we can wrestle back to get his blessing. True, true. And it's very interesting to see how Jacob just made a complete turnaround in his life. From the deceiver to the blessed one, from the guy who was bringing trouble all over the family to the guy who's now bringing all the blessings into the family and the name of the family, paradoxical. And we see later on, Jacob develops a Christ-like character. At times Jacob is compared to Jesus Christ, the love he showed for his family. He sent his family along, he had to go ahead so his family goes behind, protecting them from his brother Esau. And then also there's something that has not been mentioned in our lesson, but a way that God can use a weakness to exalt you. Remember Lea, right? She was the unloved wife, right? But God made her to have in those days, you know, children like a sign of success. So Lea had actually more children than Rachel. And it is said in the spirit of prophecy in Patrick's and Prophets that Lea became more loved than Rachel towards the end of Jacob's life. You know, Jacob grew to see that this is the Lord blessing this woman. I cannot fight this. So I have to show her the same love I am showing to my other wife, that is Rachel. And so it shows us that God wants to make our weaknesses strength for our own gain and for his glory. So we just need to allow him to transform, to shape our lives in the way that he wants us to go. And I'd like to connect it with a lesson we had like two weeks ago, the one we were discussing about Isaac and how he got his wife. Lea and Rachel were worked for seven years each, even though Lea was not planned for. She was, she still got married after seven years of Jacob working and toiling for it. And it shows how the difference between Jacob and his father. Isaac just had to sit and wait. Jacob had to work seven years for each of the wives. And that's a lot with a boss like Laban. I could see him just say, ah, I'm done with this. But he just kept doing it. And it shows the difference in character and how God blesses different people. Isaac was known as the obedient child and it was brought to him. But Jacob, because of the struggle he had to go through since he was so young, he was just a deceiver. That child that everyone sees and like that one is just danger. So it just shows how we should strive to be like Jesus. It will make things a lot easier for us when we're older. True. I like that. Maybe we can add something. Sometimes in life, God gives us the best. But because of our human nature as human beings, we always want things that look good in the eyes of people. In this case, I'll just speak about Jacob. Actually, he was given the best. But for him, you see like my eyes have chosen this one. So I just have to go for her. He had to work for 14 years and got both of them. But look at the blessings. The first one had the blessings of the soul and everything. So God speaks to us through unknown people, maybe even spirits. If we can learn to listen to our innermost spirits, that's the only way we can give a crust like life. But it will not be so easy unless we spend time with God. Spending time with God is reading the Bible. True. True. And yeah, I'd like to get some closing comments from Subira and Ashley. You started Subira? I just really appreciate you all for being with me on this panel. I think this story was quite inspiring. With a story like ranging from Jacob wrestling with God and with Laban and Jacob trying to get his wife. So definitely talking on this idea of marriage, we did a lesson two weeks ago, I believe, on this as well and finding a wife. I think it's important to fight for love. Fight for love and fight for blessings. Amen. Amen. Ashley, give us the last comments. First off, I'd like to correct one of my earlier statements. Okay. The place where Laban and Jacob made an agreement was called Mizpa. Mizpa, okay. Yeah, meaning Watchtower. And lastly, I'd encourage everyone who's watching this to read Patriots and Prophets, specifically for this part after 17 and 18, because it holds a lot more insight regarding this story. Amen. And also just to add on Ashley's, every lesson that we read in the cornerstone has a corresponding chapter in the Patriots and Prophets or in the spirit of prophecy. So once you get your lesson at the very front page of that day's study, you can see which chapter is supposed to read to get more insight into what the the street of prophecy says about these verses. So thank you so much. Yes, Brenda. I'd like to challenge you with a small challenge. I want you to go down and write or confess something that you're struggling with and burn it. I crouched on a paper, pray about it and then burn it in a way of giving an offering and a prayer to God to help you overcome that struggle. This is for everyone in your time. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you all so much, my panelists and our viewers who are staying with us for this lesson study discussion. We will see you all in the next quarter. We will be learning further stories about the Bible and the grace of God in our lives. Definitely. Thank you. I'll ask Subiria to offer closing prayer with us. Let's pray. Dear Father God, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for blessing us and protecting us, allowing us to come today on Sabbath to learn about these key lessons and now we've learned that we need to fight for our blessings and fight for love through this story of Jacob. I pray that we may continue to learn more important lessons in the Cornerstone Connection lesson. I pray that the viewers and the people sitting with me right now will continue to read and enjoy your word and get to know you. In Jesus' name I pray and believe. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.