The year was 1989. Navy boot camp was now a memory.
It was time to start enjoying some of the Spring sunshine in a place I had never been before; Virginia Beach, VA. “A” school was just about to start.
However, I was waiting to be “classed up,” so I had some extra, free time.
Cocktails and seafood sounded fine by me, so it was off to the Strip and gorgeous Virginia Beach coastline.
Not surprisingly, I found myself feeling very loose after several drinks. The weather was so beautiful, I was perfectly content just wandering down the beach-walk.
Although it was dark, there were spots of fluorescent light from the beach lamps, every so often.
With the warm, Spring breeze blowing through my neatly pressed, collared casual wear—as well as against my newly-baked-in Virginia Beach tan—up to the right side of me and as if out of nowhere … I heard a male voice.
He approached me, saying …
“Did you know Jesus said you must be born-again in order to see the Kingdom of God?”
“What?” I said. “Really?”
He said, “Yeah, it’s right here. Want to see it?”
As we began to sit down on a nearby bench, and as I said,
“Yeah, let me see …”
The beach lamp from above reflected off of these words in a large, black leather book — which he carried.
It read:
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” ~ John 3:3
That evening and for the first time in my life, God used a willing vessel to point me in the right direction.
Up and to the point, all I had known of was religion. Religion is sinful man’s attempt to reach a holy God by some work of his own.
Yet, when this verse was shared with me, I knew there was something more.
New birth. A relationship with God. Something spiritual. Something I knew nothing about, yet God was conveying I needed to seek it out.
It conveyed to me that God was capable of and authorized to speak on the subject of birth to me.
After all, He’s the Creator.
Needless to say, I was apprehended by God (through an evangelist) on that pleasant, Spring evening on the Virginia Beach walkway.
In our lives, God drops the seed of his Word along our pathway. Your heart is the soil. My heart is the soil.
The seed either finds an environment to grow, or an environment to die. It is God’s will you should have life … and have it to the full.
This is why He offers Jesus to you; the Bread of Life. If you will choose to receive Him today as Savior and Lord over your life, you too can be born anew.
Ironically, the verse of John 3:3 was not highlighted or underlined in this young man’s Bible.
Nevertheless and even though I never learned his name, I have not forgotten this person or experience.
It’s been one seed of many which has found a place to grow in my once, hardened heart.
Now, the heart is tender towards God because Jesus gives out new hearts.
Still, I’m confident I will see this person again. It will be in the new heaven and new earth.
It will be here, shortly.
Meantime, highlighting Bible verses only seemed reasonable as I reflected upon the impact one verse and a few moments along a breezy, Virginia Beach walkway made in my life.
What Bible verses might you highlight to capture someone’s attention about your Redeemer?
Here at BibleHighlighters.TV, we have selected a few which you might find edifying to both yourself — and to others.
As you think of some of your own, connect with us to keep yourself moving in the right direction.