Dear ones in Christ,

My dear sister Patricia is feeling a bit under the weather. She was very distressed about not feeling up to writing you again this week. So I told her to go to bed and get some rest and I would write the letter to you all. I'm sure you will all keep her in your prayers.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Brenda and I'm the one who started these weekly Scripture reading messages 3 1/2 years ago. Two and a half years ago I passed them over to Tricia and I have watched and been amazed at how God has grown Tricia in this area of writing and listening to God. I have been her editor all through out this time and I have had the pleasure of reading these letters and going over them before you all get them.

Tricia started out writing in my own style. But then her style started to emerge. She hadn't written anything since she was out of school and so it was a challenge to her. But she tried hard and her writing skills greatly improved.

As Tricia grew in the Lord, so did her writing skills. The closer she got to God in obedience and submission of spirit and will, the more I sensed the Lord coming out through her letters. For those of you who don't know Tricia well, she has a very sweet, child like spirit that I deeply admire. The kind that Jesus talked about when He said that we need to have child like faith. It is simple and trusting, loving and wholly devoted to God. I strongly admire this in her and wish that we all could have such simple, loving trust in our Heavenly Father.

Well, this spirit of hers is what the Lord uses to teach and train her in following Jesus. She struggles as we all do; but she is learning to quickly take all her troubles to Jesus and ask Him what she should do in each situation. She has been learning to listen to the voice of God, test the spirits as the Scriptures teach, and then follow His leading. This is what the Scriptures say that all of us as believers in Jesus should do.

Over the last year, God has done some amazing things with these weekly letters. The voice of God has become so clear to Tricia that she writes out what she hears the Lord speak to her and that is what you all get to receive in the form of these letters. I was astonished as this started to develop. It was immediately evident what the Lord was doing. He was taking over these letters in a powerful way. He was speaking words of truth from His Scriptures that was way beyond Tricia's years in spiritual growth. As the Lord took over these letters, my editing needs dropped away drastically. If Tricia has allowed something to come up between her and the Lord I can sense it in her writings. I send it back to her and she goes to the Lord, searching for what has gone amis in her relationship with God. God shows her whatever it is, then she confesses it to Him and myself; and then she turns back to the Lord for His guidance again. She has learned so much from the Lord and it has been showing up strongly in her letters to you all.

I share these things with you all about Tricia because I want you to understand that God can and will take any ordinary person, with ordinary skills, and use them for extraordinary purposes when they submit themselves over to Him entirely, on a daily basis. These words about Tricia are in fact really words about what God will do with those who truly love and obey Him. You and I are no different than Tricia. We are just regular people, with regular jobs, regular lives, regular hopes and dreams and difficulties. But we have an extraordinary God who does unbelievably extraordinary things with His children who love and adore Him and are willing to give up their own lives, their own ways, and live to serve Him.

Isn't this what Jesus wants from all of us?? Doesn't He want us to turn to Him in every situation of life whether big or small? Don't the Scriptures say to trust in the Lord with ALL of our hearts and NOT to lean on our own understanding about anything? This is the thing that I teach my family. And this is the thing that Tricia encourages you all to do through the empowering and leading of the Holy Spirit in her letters.

Be encouraged dear ones. God is alive and loving and caring over all of His children. Submit your lives over to Him and let Him be in control of ALL that you do. Let His Will be the thing that makes the decisions in your own lives. He is God and we are not. He is God and we are His beloved children. Walk each day as "children of Light".

"For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart are completely His." II Chronicles 16:9 (HCSV)

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5,6 (Holman and NIV)

"love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind: and your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27 - JESUS.

Please continue reading as before. Stay in God. Walk closely to Him. And let your light shine before men.
Amen.