Right Angle Right Hand

Have you ever thought about the phrases, His right-hand man, seated at his right hand, and extend the right hand of fellowship as being anything more than just a clever way to say that someone is important? I never connected the three phrases until the other day when I was sent to the garage to get a right angle for some work my husband was doing at the house. As I stared at the pegboard looking for the needed tool, I began to think about that term and all the other ways we use the word, right. The dictionary defines the word right as conformity with standards or truth, just, set straight, vindicated, or in a vertical position. Then the light bulb went off. Jesus is our right angle, vindicating us, setting us straight with the Father and, when placed alongside our hearts, He connects us to our Heavenly Father. When we extend the right hand of fellowship to someone we are in essence saying, “I am symbolizing, by extending my right hand to you, that we are connected in spirit because Jesus is our right angle, vindicating and setting us right with God.”

Paul was beginning his ministry to the Gentiles when a conflict arose over circumcision. Paul wisely recognized that this was merely a surface argument. The real issue was Paul’s credibility and whether he had the authority from God to make such decisions. When the apostles saw evidence of the Spirit in Paul’s teachings, they gave him the right hand of fellowship, signifying that the Holy Spirit had made them right with God and each other.

PRAYER: I praise You for the miraculous way in which You justify me and make me right with You. Help me extend the grace that has been given to me by extending the right hand of fellowship to those around me today.

“…and when James, Cephas,  and John, who had a reputation as pillars, recognized the grace that had been given to me, they gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we would go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised,” Galatians 2:8-9  NET.

Cheri Cowell was chosen as one of six Christian journalists for an Israeli Ministry of Tourism sponsored tour of the Holy Land in November 2009. To learn more about Cheri’s ministry, visit her website www.CheriCowell.com