pamelasonnenmoser.com Blog

One door and only one:
 

I have a weekly meeting that attend in the same location each Monday. Recently I arrived to find that the location had been changed due to a scheduling mix up. The new occupants of our meeting room pointed me in the general direction of my meeting and I went to find my crew. I walked the halls of the building trying every door with no success. After searching for about 40 minutes I was about to give up, I decided to try one more time. As I walked the first floor, a security guard walking in front of me abrubtly stopped and faced the wall. The wall slid open and he went in. I hurried to where he had been standing and there it was. An elevator, painted in such a way that it was completely camouflaged with the wall. I pushed the button and waited for the car to arrive. In minutes I was with my group, who had been wondering where I could be. I still have know idea where the stairway to that floor was hidden.
 

Some people go around trying every spiritual door, finding them locked or finding the wrong group occupying the room. Jesus said knock and the door will be opened unto you. Seek and you will find. The door is right there but so often people walk right past it. I might have never found my group if someone else would not have used the elevator, but because he led me there by example, without even knowing I was watching, I was able to find the way. Who are you being an example to without knowing? Who is going to follow your path out of desperation, hoping it might be the way? ©Pamela Sonnenmoser Ministries

Fall; a celebration of what Christ did on the Cross:
I love the Fall. The weather begins to cool down. Fall color tinges the trees and brush. Grass slows its growth and pumpkins ripen. As the world around me changes from green to gold I am reminded that the change before us will usher in a new thing in God’s plan. But that new thing; the new growth, cannot happen until the old has fallen away and been purified through the cold of winter. Fall is the first reminder of God’s Promise to renew and bring life from the earth.
 

And I love fall decorations, gourds and pumpkins and bales of straw. Perhaps a happy scarecrow sitting nearby. I have enjoyed decorating the front yard this month. I changed my flower pots from pansies and petunias to bright orange and deep red mums. I cut my own corn stalks from our fields and tied them with a beautiful fall bow. It is so much fun to go and pick the perfect pumpkins for display. It is like preparing for a celebration.
But what are we celebrating? Is it a celebration of change? Yes, but more than that, fall is easily the celebration of Christ’s work on the Cross. You see, at that moment things changed, defeat fell like dead leaves and in His resurrection we were given the opportunity to have new life that pushes past the death in the world around us. What an awesome thing it is to be a most loved Child of the King. ©Pamela Sonnenmoser Ministries
 

Cross Pollination:
 

I always plant a garden in the summer. It is so much fun to watch the plants grow and begin to produce vegetables and fruit. Cucumbers are my favorite. The first year I put all of the vining plants on one end of my garden plot. They grew beautifully and I was excited to pick my first crisp cucumber of the year. As I looked to see which might be ripe I noticed that all of the cucumbers had a strange color. They were sort of an orange/green mix. I picked them anyway and went into the house to add some to a salad I was making. But when I cut them open I noticed they were a bit dryer than they should be and didn’t have the crisp crunch that a cucumber should have. It didn’t take long to realize what had happened to my cucumbers. They had cross-pollinated with the yellow squash and zucchini they were planted close to.
 

This reminded me of being in the world, but not of the world. Sometimes we get so close to things of the world that we end up cross-pollinated with the lifestyle of ungodliness. We allow the tiny particles, unseen by onlookers, to permeate our spirit, leaving us a bit dry and not as spiritually sharp as we should be. The next time I planted a garden I separated the vining plants so that each would stay true to its intended harvest; in the same garden, but not of the same pollen. ©Pamela Sonnenmoser Ministries

Baked potatoes:
 

I love baked potatoes. Not nuked potatoes, but baked in the oven at 350 for an hour BAKED potatoes. If you only bake them for 10 minutes they will still be hard. The potato cannot yield to the heat of the oven in just a few minutes. It needs the full baking time to be perfectly done. Crispy skin, fluffy on the inside.
 

Sometimes as Christians we don’t want to stay in the heat very long. We want God to perfect our faith with a microwave instead of the fire. But there is something different about a Christian that tries to take a short cut around the fire. Just like those micro waved potatoes just aren’t the same as a REAL baked potato.
 

Or how about a great twice-baked potato?  To be twice baked the potato spends an hour in the heat, then it is taken out, cut open, its insides are scraped out and crushed, things are added to it and finally everything is put back into the shell and put back into the heat. Finally perfected. I want to be like a twice baked potato, perfected by the process God requires, having all of myself removed and having the extra things that come from the Holy Spirit added. Yielded by His refining fire again and finally ready to serve to the glory of God. ©Pamela Sonnenmoser Ministries

Hey there! I am so excited to introduce the Pamela’s Paraphrase Blog. Each day we will post the previous day’s program so that you can access the information. Feel free to leave your questions or comments, even programing ideas. Who knows, you might hear your idea on Pamela’s Paraphrase.   We will also post news about the program for our bloggers.  I can hardly wait to get to know you!  Blessings in Jesus Name!  Pamela