Everyone I meet is entitled to see Christ in me.
These thoughts have been so much in my mind, that, although I know they will continue to give rise to ongoing thoughts, I wanted to get them down on paper so that I could share them with a few special people and perhaps encourage meditation on the big things of God. I know that I need my "alone time" for just such musing.
In his book, "Changing on the Inside," Dr. John White refers to things which rob people of that which they are entitled to receive.
ENTITLED! I can fool myself into believing that my private feelings of hatred, anger, resentment, envy, criticism, etc. toward some individual, hurt nobody but actually private/secret/unspoken feelings change me. They change me in all my relationships in some degree robbing everyone I meet of aspects of my person to which they are entitled. This really grabbed me!
Why are they entitled? Because I represent Christ.
They may not be DESERVING but they are ENTITLED and I need to remember that they are entitled.
Even if their behaviour towards me makes them most undeserving, everyone I meet is always entitled.
Salvation has brought me into identification with the Lord Jesus and made me a debtor. Although I have never been deserving, because of Calvary, God has declared me entitled to all the riches in Christ Jesus. Because I am "in Christ," everyone I meet is entitled to see Christ in me.
If they don't, then I have become a thief and a liar. A liar because I'm distorting the truth about God, in Whose image I was created to reveal the truth about Him. A thief because I'm robbing them of the opportunity to see Christ in me, to see the difference Christ can make in a life.
Their entitlement never depends on their deserving but always on my responsibility.
O, I really want and long to live this way, so that no one fails to receive what they are entitled to from me.
(From Oswald Chambers) -- Has it ever dawned on you that you are responsible for other souls spiritually before God? For instance, if I allow any private deflection from God in my life, everyone about me suffers.
We sit "together" in heavenly places.
When one member suffers, all members suffer with it.
When once you allow physical selfishness, mental slovenliness, moral obtuseness, spiritual density, everyone belonging to your crowd will suffer.
But, you say, who is sufficient for these things if you erect a standard like that? Our sufficiency is of God and of Him alone. --
Because my humanity clothes His Divinity, everyone in my world should be able to see (is entitled to see) that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh ... in my flesh!
They are entitled because ...GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD.
What a glorious privilege to be a Christian.
God chose us individually before the world was formed
'just because' He wanted to have a close, intimate relationship with us;
'just because' He wants to make us like Jesus;
'just because' He wants us to have a home in His eternal mansion;
'just because' He wants to have loving fellowship with us forever.
Just because!
And we worship the Lamb Who was slain from the foundation of the world. Everything has been all planned out; everything is all arranged; everything is under control. So, let's trust Him,
'Just because'!