https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260215dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Matthew 17:1-2 Jesus Alone is Your Savior It was late summer, a little more than half a year until Jesus’ crucifixion. We don’t know exactly what mountain this was, but since Jesus and his disciples had just been near Caesarea Philippi on the slopes of Mount Hermon, it is likely that this was the Mountain of the Transfiguration. Jesus took three of his disciples up the mountain with him. These three were his inner circle of friends who were privileged to witness an amazing scene—Jesus was transfigured before them. The appearance of his face and clothing changed. For a brief time, those three disciples saw the unveiled divine glory of Jesus, the bright glory that is his from eternity as the Son of God. In a few short months, these same disciples would witness the deepest point of Jesus’ humiliation on earth—his bitter suffering and death on a cross. The vision of Jesus’ divine glory on that mountain helped prepare the disciples for what they would see their friend go through at the hands of his enemies. The transfiguration of Jesus assured them that he is the Son of God whom God the Father appointed and sent to earth to be the world’s Savior from sin. With that firm conviction, Peter later preached, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus alone is the world’s Savior—your Savior! Prayer: Jesus, glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration as the eternal Son of God, you went on to deeply humble yourself as my Savior on Calvary’s mountain and die to take away the punishment for my sins. Lead me to always honor you as my Lord God and love you as my only Savior. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260214dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9 Our Enviable Worth The apostle Peter says some remarkable things in our Bible reading for today. He calls followers of Jesus “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession.” Spend a few seconds thinking about yourself as these things. You are chosen, handpicked by God himself. You are royal, a one-time pauper before God adopted you into the royal family of the King of kings. You are holy, a person set aside by God’s grace and for God’s use. You belong to God because he purchased you with the blood of his Son. You are a person of enviable worth because of the grace of God. However, notice that God didn’t create us as precious people just to transfer us from earth to heaven someday. God has made us priests, not to serve ourselves but to serve others. Our job description as redeemed children of God is to “declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” The Holy Spirit has called you out of the darkness of sin into the light of forgiveness and eternal life. Now you have the privilege of praising the God who gave you this enviable worth. Praise him loudly and clearly to the world. Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for choosing me to be yours. Help me to praise you in all that I do and say this day. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/daily-devotions/20260213dev.mp3 Listen to Devotion [Jesus said] “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20 Do You Measure Up? “You must be this tall to go on this ride.” Those were terrible and frustrating words for a young boy to read, especially if his friends and/or cousins were tall enough to get on the roller coaster. It generally did not matter how tall I was. I can remember one summer being just an inch shy of the line, and the ride operator would not make an exception. I would have to wait until I measured up. Getting into heaven is like that. In fact, it is even worse. Jesus himself said that to enter heaven, we would have to be more righteous than the Pharisees of his day. To help understand his point, realize that the Pharisees had added hundreds of their own commands to be obeyed on top of the commands that God gave, and they shunned anyone who couldn’t measure up to their rules. It is disheartening, then, to hear Jesus say that not even those self-righteous Pharisees could measure up. Truthfully, no one can. God demands perfection as the entrance requirement for heaven, and nobody can measure up to that. Jesus doesn’t say this because he wants to keep you out of heaven. Rather, he wants you to realize that there is only one way to gain entrance into heaven, and it isn’t through our own efforts. He wants us to see that the only way to heaven is through him. Jesus is the only one who measured up to God’s standard of perfection. He lived a perfect life in our place and achieved righteousness on our behalf. He died in our place on the cross to earn salvation for us. Through faith in Jesus, the standard has been met. He now gives us the ticket to heaven. We don’t need to worry about whether we measure up, because he measured up for us. Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for meeting the standard of perfection for me. Grant me confidence that heaven is open to me because of all you did for me. Amen.   Daily Devotions is brought to you by WELS. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.