Category: Uncategorized

We’re continuing to talk about working it out and living fruitfully.
Here’s a recap in a poem I wrote called Fruitful Living.
Actualized potential
Happens only when
We believe the seed of greatness
Is God’s amazing plan

Seeds start out insignificant
But when planted in the soil
Fulfill their great design
Through water, sun and toil

Potential that’s fulfilled
Is fruitful to the core
God’s DNA is in you
He’s all you need —plus more!

It’s a great reminder to hear again and again. God’s plan for greatness really is amazing. When you think about the insignificance of an individual small seed planted in some dirt, then becoming a fruitful vine, or even a great big oak tree, the evidence of greatness is undeniable. Every bit of beauty and strength that became evident as the seed grew, was wrapped in the seed’s DNA. What an encouraging thought to think about! God’s DNA is in you! All of who He is, He has placed on the inside of us. So if ever you feel insignificant, or like you have no purpose in life, think about the potential of the seed. Think about the seed of God’s Word in your life. Think about the fruit you have already produced. Think about what God has for you in the next season of your life. If we’re going to be fruitful for the long term, let’s get ready for greatness at every step. It’s not time for winding down, or turning back. Let’s see the full potential of the seed by living fruitfully from our first breath in our new life in Christ, until our first glimpse of Him in heaven.

Wrong thinking leads to wrong believing, which leads to wrong actions. Amazingly, the converse is true! Right thinking leads to right believing, and right believing leads to right actions. My prayer is that we will all think right, believe right and act right! Getting Spiritually Fit demonstrates a fruitful life. Fruitfulness is a demonstration that a vine or tree is alive and productive. Just like a tree without fruit is unproductive, faith without actions is unproductive too. Let’s use our faith to become more fruitful for the kingdom of God.

The word fruitful is derived from the Greek word for seed. We were born again of incorruptible seed, and that seed has the potential for us to become like Christ. When we believe the seed will produce, we begin to see all of the seed’s potential actualized in our lives.

First John 3:2 says that when Jesus appears, we shall be like him. Most of the time, that verse is interpreted to mean when Christ reappears at the second coming, we shall be like Him. Ultimately that is a reality! But the word appear means to manifest or be revealed. Jesus has already appeared and been made manifest, and NOW is the time for us to be like Him! The seed has actualizing it’s potential, and spiritual fitness can be made manifest in us. Even though it may not be perfected in us yet, the seed of great potential is on the inside of us. Even if it is not revealed on the outside yet, it does not mean that the truth won’t be manifested shortly! That’s encouraging! We are growing stronger, and becoming more and more buff in God!

Yesterday we talked about how a little bit of effort on a regular basis save time later, especially when it comes to keeping weeds out of our garden. A way to apply that to our spiritual life would be to make sure we are saturating the garden of our heart with the water of the Word. If it needs a little fertilizer, why not do a word study in that certain area, so you are armed and ready with the Word of God to overcome the weed that is trying to take over your garden? We can pull up the weeds that are obstacles in our life by using our faith muscles and by speaking to mountains and watching them be removed. We can stay alert and awake, and remove the weed before it goes to seed. We can catch the little weeds early if we nip them in the bud when they are tiny. You probably have found, like I have, that if you let the weeds reproduce, the result from scattered weed seed is only multiplied problems.

As I try to daily maintain my garden during the growing season, I also try to daily nourish and replenish my spirit, every season. God wants us to read his love letter to us everyday. Why not make a date to read the Word of God daily? He loves to communicate with us on a regular basis. Why not tell Him of your love for Him through prayer? He loves meeting us at church, but He likes us enough to want to be around us daily. Why not make time for Him to be your priority each day? We can get our spiritual life into shape! Let’s Work It Out, grow up in God, and live weed free.

I’m looking forward to spring, because I love to spend time in the garden. Often, much to my dismay, I find many of my flower and vegetable gardens get infested with weeds. Just looking at the uninvited greenery that wriggled it’s way into my normally lovely gardens makes me think about how daily care in the garden makes for much less work in the long run.

Isn’t that true about most things in life? I have tried to teach my kids that if you take care of things right away, you won’t have piles of work to do later on. One of my biggest pet peeves is coming home or waking up to a kitchen sink full of dishes. With a busy schedule and lots of activities with church, schooling, recreation, chores, animals to care for, and sports activities, there are many times when dinner happens quickly and then we have to be out the door. The messy pile of dishes meets us when we get back home.

A pile of mess can happen in other areas of life if we don’t take care of things on a daily or regular basis. Little things can creep into our life when we don’t daily maintain our walk with God. Bad attitudes, anger, bitterness, corrupt communication or many other things can slip in if we don’t attend to the garden of our soul. If everyday I’ll weed my garden, I can catch the weeds when they are small and can easily be removed. If I let them grow, and the earth gets hard and dry around them, it may take a shovel and a lot of effort to remove them. Make the effort now is a good motto for life! Work it out! Be diligent and disciplined, You can do this!

Welcome to your dailyeword. This is Dorette Schaal, and I feel privileged to be able to encourage you each day to be the very best you, you can be. During the first part of this year, we are doing a series called Work It Out, about the disciplined path of grace in various areas of life. In an effort to grow deeper in love with Jesus, and deeper in our walk with God, we can get into better shape spiritually. I hope you are putting these ideas into practice, and are Working it Out in your daily life. Let’s get buff spiritually! Here is your dailyeword.

Have you heard this saying? I have plenty of will power, what I really need is won’t power! All of us have that same problem, and it is a result of sin in our world. We don’t want to sin, but the carnal flesh very often wants to say yes to sin, and overrides our spirit which is alive to God and is desperately telling us to take another path. Even Paul had the same issue. If anyone was a spiritual giant, he did write 2/3rd of the New Testament(!), it would be Paul. Clearly he knew sin was taken care of, but that doesn’t remove the will to sin. He showed us that sheer will power is not enough to overpower sin. That’s where grace comes in. A great way to understand that process is through the garden. Does the gardener get the credit for the harvest, or does God? That isn’t a trick question! They both do! It is a partnership. If the gardener didn’t put the seed in, God couldn’t do the miracle that takes place to make the seed produce. That is a great way to compare our part to God’s part when it comes to grace. We do our part, receive salvation and begin working out our salvation, and then God does his part by providing grace for each step of this path of grace we are walking on. It takes both, discipline and grace, and with His power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome!

There are more self help books available now than ever. You can buy a book on just about any area of your life that you want to improve. It you want more organization, better health, better decorating ideas, better anything, you can find a book on it. I have read a lot of them, and sometimes it can be information overload! The book I want to concentrate on most is the BIBLE! My most earnest desire is to know God better. Twenty four hours a day, 7 days a week, I want my heart to be set on knowing and loving God. There is a great scripture in Jeremiah chapter 24 verse 7 that says just that…..I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, they will be my people and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. Sounds like a great thing to be doing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! So let’s look at how we can grow in God.

Last week we talked about these topics:
Growing in faith
Continual Planting for continual harvest
Nurturing your soil
Be a part of a small group – Bible Study – accountability –
Having a prayer partner
Having a mentor – and being a mentor – Keeping one hand up to learn, and one hand out to teach.

Honestly we could spend a whole week on each topic, but we will briefly overview them each day this week. To keep growing we can never get stagnant. We always want our faith to be growing….let’s keep believing! That’s what believers do! Next it is important that we keep planting the Word in our life, by hearing it preached, by reading it, by studying it, by listening to it on CDs and podcasts, there are so many ways to hear the Word. If we want a continual harvest, we need to keep on planting! The Word goes into soil, and we determine what kind of soil we are. We definitely want to be good soil, free of weeds, free of thorns, and deep and rich. Good soil, hears the Word, accepts it and produces a healthy crop. That’s what we want t be. Another great tool for growing is to be a part of a small group, for accountability and Bible Study. One way I have personally grown tremendously is having a prayer partner…someone to learn from, to dialog together and to stay connected in prayer. Lastly, we will talk about continually being taught, and then teaching someone else what you are learning. Keeping the learning cycle alive. The teacher is the one who usually learns the most in the class, so after learning something, keep it fresh by teaching it to someone else. This is your year for spiritual growth……let’s commit be know God more intimately through the wonderful tools we have available. Make this year – your year to become your best self for God!

Yesterday I talked about having a prayer partner, and today’s idea is similar, but a little bit different. As a woman of God, I believe that there is someone I should be learning from, and someone I should be teaching. The world calls it having a mentor, and then being a mentor. I think God would call it being a Christian! It is a great way to keep one hand up to learn, and one hand out to teach. It is good to be teachable and open to learning, and continually being taught, and on the other hand, teaching someone else what you are learning. This is such a great way to keep the learning cycle alive. The teacher is the one who usually learns the most in the class, so after learning something, keep it fresh by teaching it to someone else. The great thing about the learning and then teaching is that it is such a God idea. In II Corinthians 1:3, the Bible says that the same comfort we have received we can give to someone else. Paul tells us to follow Him like he follows Christ. Each of these can be personalized in a Bible Study setting. Your life is a great example of the grace of God, and you can demonstrate His grace to someone else by sharing your story. God’s plan for your life is to be a vessel that makes a difference in this world. What a great opportunity to invest in someone else’s life. This is your year for spiritual growth……let’s commit to know God more intimately through the wonderful tools we have available. Make this year – your year to become your best self for God!

I hope you are putting some of the great tools for growing spiritually in place in your life. So far this week we’ve talked about growing in faith, continual planting the Word in our lives for continual harvest, the importance of nurturing your soil, and yesterday was about being a part of a small group where you get to study the Bible. Today we’re going to talk about having a prayer partner. My main prayer partner is my workout buddy too, so we get to not only get to exercise together, we get to grow together spiritually. It really “works out(!)” wonderfully! We meet regularly and know about each others stuff, and have prayed for it all! Because we have a similar bent – encouraging others – we often pray for each other in dealing with some of the situations we encounter. It is a great meeting of the minds, and two minds really do better than one. When you put the mind of Christ in the mix, it is even better! It is great to have someone to learn from, someone to dialog together with and then know that she will go to God on my behalf when she prays for me. If you don’t have a prayer partner, I would highly recommend it. Sometimes your spouse may be a great partner in prayer. Why not ask them? Sometimes in your group of friends you will feel a heart connection with one who will specifically pray for you and you for them. Some precautions: the only time a prayer partner should be of the opposite sex is when they are your spouse or in some cases your sibling. (I often ask my brother to pray for me, and he does the same with me) So in most cases, it is important to connect in prayer with someone of the same sex. It is a very good guideline to keep. I encourage you if you don’t have a prayer partner already, to ask God to help you find one. Prayer partners can help you grow up spiritually, and now is a great time to commit to find ways to develop our spiritual life.

We are continuing to talk about growing spiritually this week. One of the best ways I know of for systematic growth is to be a part of a small group. Bible Study or some kind of accountability group is a great dynamic for growth. Not only do you study together as a group, you get to help each other grow. Ladies Bible Study has been a great joy in my life. I love leading them and being a part of them. I always feel like I learn the most as the teacher, and I feel blessed to be able to lead others in a deeper walk with God. If you want a deeper walk with God, and have never been a part of a small group Bible Study, you will find this is a great tool for growth. I love it that we have so many great options for different Bible studies each semester at our church. The gamet runs from couples Bible Studies, to Parenting Bible Studies, Overcomers Studies, Men’s accountability groups, to the great ladies Bible Studies we have to offer. We have terrific leaders who are committed to teach Bible Principles to help people grow. Our goal is changed lives. We know there are people who are hurting, not only outside the walls of the church, but often within them. We want to minister healing and wholeness. Because everyone has some sort of baggage in life, we have the opportunity through Bible Study to learn to walk free from the past, and then be a vessel through which God can help minister to someone else today. Long term, we want our spiritual growth to make us better harvesters in growing the kingdom of God. The dynamics of Bible Study are three fold. There is Bible Study, which is getting the Word in your life. Secondly, there is fellowship, which helps us be compassionate, caring, and empathetic and lets us share how God has ministered to us, or share where we need to be ministered to. Thirdly, there is prayer. When we pray for one another in a small group setting, we know that we are cared for in a safe environment, and that those we are committed to, will commit to pray for you. What a wonderful feeling. I know there have been times in my life when I really needed prayer, and I knew because of the seed I had sown in prayer for others, and the fact that I had a group of ladies who loved me and were lifting me up in prayer, that I was covered. Whatever was so desperate at the moment would be taken care of because of the covering of prayer over my life. I encourage you, to get involved in Bible Study. Now is a great time to find one that helps you grow spiritually.

As we look at ways to grow spiritually, we know that our faith needs to be active and growing. Another thing we need to grow spiritually is to be planting continually for continual harvest. It is important that we keep planting the Word in our life, by hearing it preached, by reading it, by studying it, and by listening to it on CD’s and podcasts. There are so many ways to hear the Word. If we want a continual harvest, we need to keep on planting! I’m sure everyone has gone through a dry season in their spiritual walk before. One thing that I have found is instead of hearing less of the Word during dry times, it is actually a time that you need more. If we want to harvest year round, we need to keep planting year round. Your spirit is thirsty for the Word. God’s stamp in your life, your DNA, your spiritual makeup is a Faith Person. He made you in His image, and He is a faith God. The real you on the inside feeds on and is nourished by the Word. We know that Jesus was the Word made flesh, so more of Him in your life only does a body good! Not only do we need more of Him, we need to keep the cares of life, distractions and anything that keeps us from receiving the word out of our life. That is how we nurture our soil. The Word goes into soil, and we determine what kind of soil we are. We definitely want to be good soil, free of weeds, free of thorns, and deep and rich. Good soil (that’s who you are), hears the Word, accepts it and produces a healthy crop. That’s what we want to be. Jesus said this is the Secret of the Kingdom. The law of the Farm, or the principle of sowing and reaping, that is the secret. Keep planting to keep reaping. God’s secret has been given to us. Let’s fill our lives with the Word, and grow by leaps and bounds this year.