Hi! Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, you host for the daily challenges. These daily challenges are meant to help people explore what it means to follow Jesus even during our busy commuting lifestyle. If you’ve never looked into what that means in the first place, I’d really encourage you, check out our Christianity 101 course first. You can take it live in-person or through our mobile app; great introduction to the basic concepts of what it means to follow Jesus that we try to build on in the Daily Challenges.

Every day and week, we follow a rhythm to help us, as one community, learn what it means to follow Jesus even when we’re not physically together. Every Monday,we introduce the idea for the week. Every Tuesday, we see what the Bible has to say. Every Wednesday, we allow ourselves to be challenged in our thoughts. Every Thursday, we try to apply it and live it out in our lives. Every Friday, we take time to pray and reflect on the topic. Saturday is a day for rest and then Sunday is a day for community. We’re going to start gathering together as one community soon. We just recently had a great baptism service and celebration where a number of our members came together in one place to worship God. We’re going to do that more and more often over this year. So, stay tuned for some of our upcoming gatherings.

We’re in a series right now called, “Reset.” We’re looking at how deciding to follow Jesus resets everything in our lives. We’ve looked at a number of areas that it impacts. This week we’re going to look at how following Jesus impacts our views of food and the body. That’s why I’m here in a Chinese buffet, a place where people indulge, enjoy a huge selection of food and can have as much as they like.

This kind of a topic about food and the body might surprise you. You might expect Redeem the Commute to be focused more on spiritual things, not having much to do with what we eat and what we do with our bodies, but the two are very closely connected. Tomorrow we’re going to see how the Bible says that these two are connected, but it’s probably something that you know from experience as well. Think of those times in life when somebody’s struck with a serious illness. You almost immediately turn to prayer. We have this sense that spirituality and our physical bodies are both connected.

Just look at people’s interest in yoga today. It’s amazing to see how people are longing for a way to connect spirituality and physicality in a way that Christianity has maybe neglected. Christianity does connect body and faith in a lot of different ways through things like the Lord’s Supper, breaking bread and wine, connecting Jesus’ death on the cross with actual bread and wine. There’s a physical sign of something amazing that happened a long time ago. Or, baptism where somebody’s washed cleaned spiritually, symbolized with water washing them clean on the outside. There’s a huge connection between the two. Maybe you can think of some others. That’s what I want you to think about today.

Question: I hope you’ll join with some other friends from the train or bus, or from the neighborhood, somebody else you can discuss our Daily Challenges with. Discuss with them today’s question, “How else do you think the spiritual and physical are connected for Christians?” What examples have you seen?”

Well, have a great discussion. Don’t forget, we’re reading the Bible in sync as a community. So, check our website or app to see what today’s Bible reading is. Have a great one. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Read the Bible in Sync Today

Ryan Sim - May 22, 2013

Wednesday - Change It - Priorities

Jesus’ second illustration about priorities in life. Said it with a confusing saying that needs to be explained for people in our day: “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23 ESV) When we ask what’s in someone’s heart, is the answer blood? No, the heart stands for something else – the core of their being. In Jesus’ culture, the eye was often used in the same way. Someone with a good eye was someone generous. Someone with a bad eye = miserly. Jesus is saying those who are generous are like those who can see where they are going, and those who are selfish are like the blind. That’s why he says the eye is a lamp, or window, into the body. It’s a small thing, but its functionality changes everything. For sighted people, eyes are the guide for just about every task. We don't do much by touch unless we have to. But blind people learn to do everything differently. I’m always fascinated by how blind people get around – it takes an entirely different skillset from the way I move. And the difference all comes down to that little eye. In this illustration, our “eye” or “heart” represents our priorities, ambitions, hopes and dreams. And like an eye, they affect everything. If our priorities are right, they affect how we handle everything else. If our priorities are wrong, then everything is in disarray, with competing priorities constantly battling each other. Sailing - aim the bow where you want to go. Aim it at Christ’s character – the one who was generous, sacrificial because he was resolute in his priorities, God’s kingdom breaking into our world. He was heavenly minded – but did a tremendous amount of worldly good. Investing in developing a Christlike character as our priority is the one safe investment, because is something we can take with us. As we accept him as saviour and submit to him as Lord, he transforms us through his Holy Spirit, into his likeness. Makes us acceptable to the Father. So we can join him, in his presence, heaven. Question: When you see someone who has what you desire how to do feel personally? What do you think of them? How does greed blind us to our true state? How does generosity free us from the grip of materialism and self-centeredness?

Discuss the Daily Challenge

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