After retiring as a veterinarian, the author had much more time to spend with others, so he related stories of many of the experiences in his life. He was asked by family, friends, and others with whom he had shared if he had recorded these stories. Ernest never wanted to write his life story, but God revealed to him that he should record his experiences and title the book An Ordinary Man, An Extraordinary God.

His procrastination to write ended when he had a back fusion with two rods and ten screws which required him to lay on a bone stimulator for four hours a day for six months; and during that time, he was not able to do any physical work. The book would show how God could take a country boy raised on a farm and use him to bring glory to God. Explaining how God used him could encourage others who also thought they were "nobodies" to realize that God could use any person that believed in God and spent time in His Word to walk in the Spirit and be led by the Spirit.

The book begins just before Ernest received Jesus as his Lord and Savior and continues showing how, through His Word, the author received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, learned to walk in the Spirit, witnessed about God to others, prayed the prayer of faith for healing, cast out demons, and did other works of God. His walk with God and how he grew in faith is shared chronologically in the book. Now he could understand the groaning of the spirit within a Christian for the day of redemption when he would enter God's presence and be with Jesus for eternity.