Daily Devotionals

I'll put up three shelters if you want—one for you, one for Moshe and one for Eliyahu (Matthew 17:4).

In what had to be the greatest spiritual experience of his life, Kefa (Peter), along with Ya'akov (James) and Yochanan (John), witnessed the transformation of Yeshua into all his glory. In a well-meaning but misguided gesture, Kefa volunteered to build dwellings for Yeshua, Moshe (Moses) and Eliyahu (Elijah).

It is, and has always been, human nature to memorialize divine events in the same way that Kefa offers to do here. Many churches, shrines, monasteries, mosques, statues, and monuments that now litter the Holy Land were erected with just such a purpose in mind.

The people who built those memorials meant for us to see them and remember what God had done. In itself, there is nothing wrong with this; it is important to remember the past. Unfortunately, history has also shown us that the greatest opponents of any new revival or move of God are those who were a part of the move of God which preceded it. Any time people choose to exalt a move of God above the Creator himself, they risk the danger of falling into mere religion and idolatry instead of a growing and changing relationship with God.

God didn't want Kefa to build memorials. Instead, God refocused his heart on the one deserving of worship, saying, "This is my beloved Son, whom I love,with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!" (Matthew 17:5)

This is the key to maintaining a true relationship with the Lord: continually seek to "listen to him." Whenever we hang on to what God did previously or the way he did it before, we miss the fresh thing he is doing today.

...lay aside the past and set my heart to hear Messiah in a fresh way and respond to him in the "now" of my life.

JB