What are the wings of the morning?
Heaven and Hell are invisible realms. Places we have heard about in scripture. Places we go in our minds and imagine but the sea is here on Earth. It has two 'uttermosts' also... the foreign land where life is new and different and the people are unknown to us and we to them. That uttermost is filled with new possibilities and in our imagination the things that limit us here don't exist there. We are Sinbad (the pirate not the comedian) or Robinson Crusoe, heroes and adventures... successes. In the other uttermost we sink down, down, down into the quiet depth of the seas.... in our imagination at least... it is quiet there and darkness. We are alone and numb.
The wings don't take us into God's realms... they take us into our own because the pressure is too great and the problems too real. We feel powerless and so we create a place of power and relief and go there in our minds.
God's right hand does two things in His realms and in ours. It leads us and it holds us. God's approval because of Christ's substitutionary death, His work on and now off the cross, make us a provision of approval. That approval guides us in spiritual things and out of fictional things.
"And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, 'He is out of his mind.' And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, 'He is possessed by Beelzebul,' and 'by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.' " - Mark 3:14-22 ESV
Notice the demonic labeling came after Jesus appointed the twelve. Once Jesus said 'These have special authority' that in when the pressure increased.
'Fly away little disciples' you didn't ask for this. 'Fly away Jesus'... but they didn't fly away. God's right hand was with them and all is bright to the Lord. They could live in delegated authority on Earth and not fly away to some fantasy or get to far ahead of God's plan. God's right hand let them live in the now with purpose and dignity.
God has given each of us authority in the Earth and visible authority to be accountable under in the Earth. If we can't be accountable to what we see how can we say we are accountable to the invisible.
The twelve were not perfect... one of them was a betrayer. Chew on that one. In that accountability our fantasies are put aside. The right hand of God is personal. It does not come because of our accountability. Jesus won it for us as individuals.
"Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness." - Psalms 51:12-14 ESV
God has His way of dealing with leaders. His right hand leads us and it holds us.
Let's look up at God and around at people today. Let's speak of God's righteousness and the approval available in the Gospel of Grace. Not up and away but in the now as sent ones.
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