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 - March 27, 2014

Thursday - Act On It - Reset Society

Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan your host of the Daily Challenges. Here we are in nature. And that's because this week we're studying how following Jesus resets our views of society’s divisions. We’ve seen from the Bible that followers of Jesus are meant to see ourselves as one with other Christians, regardless of the world’s usual boundaries. There are a number of reasons for this in the big story of God and his universe. First, look at God the Father, who was creator of all humans. Then look at Adam, the first human, from whom all others came. We’re all meant to be part of God’s family, with many brothers and sisters, even though humanity’s sin has distorted that plan. Then look at Christ. He gave his life for all of humanity. Finally we can look at God’s kingdom. One description in the Bible points out all nations will be gathered together there. Overall we get a big picture where diversity within the Christian church is rather important. But is that what church looks like today? Many church communities are very segregated – sometimes it’s just the reality of a place that only one culture dominates, but that can’t be the case in the GTA. We should look like our surrounding community, with a cross-section of ages, classes and genders. For Redeem the Commute, becoming Redeemer Church, we need to consider how we can become a church that brings every culture, gender and class into fellowship? It often starts with fellowship, simply enjoying a meal, talking, learning, becoming friends, based on a common heritage as Christ’s children, before it becomes more than that. Challenge: Have a cross-cultural experience today. Eat in a restaurant, drop into a store, meet a neighbour, whatever it takes. Ask some questions – what does that mean, what’s this called, etc.

From Series: "Reset"

When our computers get bogged down and unmanageable, we know to hit a reset button to simply start over. Wouldn't a reset button be great in life? We know it would be complicated, with all our responsibilities and routines to consider, but imagine the freedom and refreshment of a new start in life! What would you do differently? What would you pay more attention to, and what would you ignore? How would you avoid getting bogged down and broken again? The great news is, in coming to earth as Jesus Christ, God has begun to "reset" our universe, our world, and even us. We're invited to start over with him, in what he calls his kingdom. We're invited to start a new life with a clean slate. What gets wiped clean, and lived differently, when God resets our lives? We'll explore how God resets these key areas of our lives: Reset: Goals Reset: Time Reset: Money Reset: Work Reset: Body & Food Reset: Sex & Marriage Reset: Family Reset: Compassion Reset: Nature Reset: Society Reset: Death Join us for the next several weeks, and invite God to reset your life.

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