Hello, my friend Dr. Brad Miller here with the Daily Bible Refresh.

This is your daily reading of the Bible from a progressive point of view.

In a bit I will read the New Testament lessons selected from the Revised Common Lectionary for this very day.

The reading is understandable.

I use the message version relatable.

Please listen to the points to ponder and applicable with action steps you can take.

We pray and are done in less than 10 minutes.

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Here's today's reading and we're reading today from the Gospel of Matthew 17:1 9 From the message sunlight poured from his face.

Six days later, three of them saw that glory.

Jesus took Peter and the brothers James and John and led them up a high mountain.

His appearance changed from the inside out.

Right before their eyes, sunlight poured from his face.

His clothes were filled with light.

And they realized that Moses and Elijah were also there.

In deep conversation with him, Peter broke in, master, this is a great moment.

What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain?

One for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.

And while he was going on like this, babbling, a light radiant cloud enveloped him.

And sounding from deep in the cloud, a voice.

This is my son, marked by my love, focus of my delight.

Listen to him.

When the disciples heard it, they fell flat on their faces, scared to death.

But Jesus came over and touched them.

Don't be afraid, he said.

When they opened their eyes and looked around, they saw was Jesus, only Jesus, coming down the mountain.

Jesus swore to them in secrecy, don't breathe a word about what you've seen.

After the Son of Man is raised from the dead, you are free to talk.

What an incredible passage of scripture, sometimes called the Transfiguration.

And so let me go with you and thank you for joining me for a few minutes here today.

So let's go a little deeper.

Three points to ponder about this incredible passage here.

Here's point number one.

The holy moment isn't meant to be managed.

It's meant to be experienced.

Peter's instinct is very human.

It almost makes me laugh, you know, he witnessed the most extraordinary thing he'll ever see.

Jesus glowing with a divine light.

Imagine that.

And Standing there with Moses and Elijah, and his first move is to start a building project, build tabernacles.

They're kind of like altars or sheds, if you will.

Three memorials is what it says.

And he wants to organize it, institutionalize it, pin it down, get it, make it very tangible and concrete, if you will.

And I think the church been doing exactly that for 2000 years.

We encounter something holy in Our immediate response is to build a structure around it that, you know, a doctrine, a denomination, a set of rules to manage the experience so it doesn't get too wild.

The God interrupts Peter mid sentence, literally cuts him off while he's still babbling on.

And the instruction isn't build, it's listen.

So from a progressive faith standpoint, this is a powerful reminder that God cannot be contained by structures.

The moment we think we've captured the divine in a building, or theology or tradition or certainty, we probably have stopped listening.

And the holy doesn't need a monument.

The holy needs our attention.

Point to ponder number two.

Marked by my love redefines everything we think about God's identity and ours.

The voice from the cloud says, this is my son, marked by my love, focus of my delight.

Let's linger on that phrase for a minute.

Marked by my love.

Not marked by power, not marked by doctrinal correctness, not marked by moral perfection, but marked by love.

That's God's primary identification of Jesus.

You know, I've shared here quite a bit that I have a great family, great wife, three adult children, two granddaughters.

And if somebody asked me to describe any of them, you know, I'm not going to start with their resume, you know, their achievements, their athletic or their music or their academic achievements.

I'd really start with the loving relationship that I have with them about my granddaughter, my daughter, or my two sons.

You know, they are the light of my life.

And my granddaughters make me laugh hard and bring joy to my face and bring delight to me.

All my kids and grandkids do.

And that's how God introduces Jesus in this moment.

Not with a title, but with affection.

And here's where it gets personal for all of us.

If love is the defining mark of God's own son, what does it say about how God sees you and me?

It's not about your productivity or how many weeks in a row you went to church, or your theological precision or your biblical knowledge, not whether you showed up in church last Sunday.

You are marked by love.

That's the identity that matters.

On the top of that mountain and on your mountain as well.

Point to ponder number three.

They came down the mountain and that's when the real work begins.

So this story is called the transfiguration and meaning, the transformation or transfiguration of these characters of Jesus.

And the story really doesn't do justice.

It's not like some stained glass window in a church somewhere after the glory, after the light, after the voice from heaven, they walk back down off the mountain and that's.

And what's waiting at the bottom, if you read ahead in the book of Matthew, it's a crowd of people, it's a suffering child, it's confused disciples, people who, who all have a lot of need.

See, the mountaintop experience is momentary.

It doesn't last.

It's not supposed to do that.

That's why they call it the mountaintop experience.

You have to get into real life, real world, real gritty stuff, if you will.

Think about it in terms of working with cancer people with cancer.

My cancer podcast, we have some, you know, conversations with people that have they.

That's genuinely transcendent.

That is when their moment is changed by deep connection, sometimes precipitated by the cancer diagnosis, sometimes by a relationship that comes out of that.

And sometimes when you see real laughter that comes through the tears, sometimes you see something sacred happen between people and then you get into the ordinary, ordinary life stuff you gotta do emails and errands and those things.

The mountaintop doesn't last.

But you know what the mountaintop does?

It fuels you for the valley.

From a progressive perspective, faith isn't about chasing these peak experiences.

We need to enjoy them when they come.

Or building monuments on the mountain so we never have to leave the mountain.

It's about letting the mountain transform us, transfigure us, if you will.

And how we show up then in the valley, so you go up to listen and you come down to serve.

The glory isn't meant to be hoarded.

It's meant to be carried into the places that need it most.

So here's your action step.

At some point in the next day or two, practice being in a moment without managing it, that is maybe it's a conversation with somebody that you love and you just.

Maybe you'd have that conversation without checking your phone, without looking at the tv, without being distracted by something else, and just focus.

Maybe it's a walk outside in nature where you don't take a single picture.

Or maybe you leave your phone in the car.

Maybe it's five minutes of silence where you don't fill the space with words or plans of worry.

Just listen.

That's what a voice says to you.

That's all it says is in this scripture.

Listen to me.

So before you build anything, before you plan anything, before you get distracted, before you fix anything, listen and see what you hear.

We're going to come back and pray here in just a minute.

Before we do, I want you to have a chance to listen and to learn.

And one of the ways you might be able to do that is through the resource that we provide for you called the ABC 123 Bible study method.

And it's free for you.

You go to our website, voiceofgoddaily.com that's where you get it.

A moment of quiet for you to listen.

Then we'll pray.

God, we confess we're a lot like Peter.

We see something beautiful and sometimes our first instinct is to capture it, to manage it, take a picture of it, build a structure, do something so we can kind of control it or manage it.

And forgive us for the ways we've tried to shrink you down to fit inside our buildings, our categories, or our picture file on our phone.

So today, God, just help us to listen.

Quiet.

The babbling, the anxious planning and the need to be productive.

The urge to have all the answers.

And let us hear your voice saying what you said on the mountain.

This is my beloved.

Listen, God, remind us that we too are marked by your love.

Not by our performance, not by our failures, but by and not by the opinions of others, but by your love.

That's our identity.

Help us believe it today.

And we come down from our mountaintop experiences that we've been on.

When the ordinary life rushes back in, when the needs pile up, when life feels tough, feels more like a valley than a peak.

Let the glory that we've glimpsed fuel how we show up.

Give us eyes to carry the light into the places that need us most.

We trust you with this day.

Amen.

My friend, I am delighted you chose to join me for the today's reading.

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My name is Dr. Brad Miller and I'll be right here tomorrow with your Daily Bible Refresh.

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Remember, God's loyal love doesn't run out.

His merciful love hasn't dried up.

It's created new every morning.