Growth in the spiritual life

People are supposed to grow no matter if it is visible or invisible. Even when we seem not growing, we are growing, or getting mature, internally by ups and downs of life. .. . What about your spiritual life? It has to grow. Don't put it in the shady corner of your busy everyday living and let it wither. We need to water and trim for our spiritual growth, which means that we should read the Bible and pray. Even for a person who likes reading, it is not easy to open and read the Bible because we think that we already know it.  Even for a person who likes thinking about God, it is not easy to pray to God because we think that God already knows. However, how many times did we learn from our experience in which we thought we knew but actually didn't know or misunderstood about something very familiar? I think God and His words in the bible are one of them. The Uniting Church of Australia follows the Revised Common Lectionary (1992) as many Protestant churches do. The Sunday cycle. is divided into three liturgical years, labelled A, B, and C. Each Sunday: usually has a reading from the Old Testament, a reading from one of the epistles and a Gospel reading. Year A mostly features the Gospel according to Matthew; Year B reads through the Gospel According to Mark; and Year C arranges the Gospel according to Luke. The Gospel according to John is read during the Easter season in all three years. After three years the cycle starts over again. In other words, many church people read the same passages from the Bible at every Sunday. Bexley Uniting Church respects this direction and the readings for each Sunday are included in the second page of this Newsletter. Kaye, our Newsletter Editor has done great work in relation to this matter. I haven't met her face to face yet but would like to express our gratitude for her wonderful job for the church. This year is Year C and we read the book of Luke according to the Lectionary Readings. Where are you in the book of Luke? Are you in the story of Jesus' birth, a parable of the Prodigal Son, God's kingdom or Jesus' death?

May God bless your faithful journey of reading His Word. Cheers!