The light bulbs glowed above, giving the busy food area on the 12th floor of the office building where I work a clean look.
As usual, I found myself at the small Japanese restaurant tucked away in the corner.
Seeing the same people here every day wasn’t odd. And for the past few weeks, I’d noticed a man who came here for lunch every day.
This was likely the third or fourth time that our paths had crossed.
While we were both waiting for our food, we started to talk easily. The news of the day, the weather, and the hottest rumors in town flowed between us.
Eventually, the conversation drifted to more personal things, and we discovered a shared faith.
“So, you’re a Christian too?” I asked, surprised by what he said.
He smiled and said, “Yes, born-again.”
A twinkle sparked in my eyes. “Born again, huh? Could you tell me where you were born?” I asked, with a playful smile.
He stopped for a moment, looked at me as if he were thinking about my question.
“My place of birth?” he clarified, a hesitant smile returning. “That would be ….”
“Ah, yes, of course,” I said with a grin, nodding. “But I was really interested in where your spiritual birth took place.” That place where you were, uh, born again?”
He laughed quietly, finally catching on to my teasing. “Ah, I see what you did there!” he exclaimed, shaking his head with a laugh.
“Actually,” I began, “the Bible tells us that our citizenship is in heaven,” Philippians 3:20 talks about that.
“You might be surprised to know that we are spirit-beings residing in a physical body. And when we are born again, it’s our spirit that experiences a rebirth, a birth from heaven.”
“Think about it,” I continued, 1 John 4:4 says “You are from God, little children.” The familiar line of this verse goes “You are of God little children,” which many think means You belong to God.
But, if you’d look at the original Greek word used here, it is ‘ek,’ which means ‘from,’ denoting origin.”
“When we are born again, we are essentially translated into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, Jesus,”
Colossians 1:13 says translated meaning transferred. It has been done! The word is in the past tense.
“And where is Jesus’ kingdom? Jesus himself tells us in John 18:36, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’”
Jesus even made it clear when He said in John 8:23 “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.”
A pause fell between us, words hanging in the air.
“So, in essence,” I concluded, “when you are born again, you undergo a change of residence. You become a citizen of heaven.” Philippians 3:20.
“The apostle Peter strengthens this concept,” I added. “If you’d read 1 Peter 2:11, the apostle even calls us foreigners and exiles.”
I think he was quite intrigued by this perspective because he suddenly spoke up: “So, if we are born from heaven, a citizen from heaven, then that ties up with what I read somewhere in 2 Corinthians 5:20 that says we are ambassadors for Christ here on Earth?”
“Exactly,” I replied, “We are Christ’s ambassadors, ambassadors to represent Him on earth.”
“Wow, that really opened my eyes!” he said, while looking quickly at his watch.
Just then, a server arrived with our steaming lunches. “Ah, perfect timing,” I said, “This conversation has made me hungry.”
We continued our conversation while enjoying each of our meals.
When we were done eating, we exchanged business cards. He said he’ll call me later during the week coz he still has a lot of questions.