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my grandfather's footsteps, for becoming an archeologist. But then he took me
aside and he warned me
gently, but firmly that there was more to life than hunting for ancient
artifacts like my grand-father or for oil like Dmitri and Miriam. He said he'd
just had the same conversation with you, about finding real buried treasure,
and that it had totally changed you. But he never said how."
Bennett sat down in a chair. He could suddenly picture himself back on
Gibraltar, having dinner with Mordechai and Erin and Dmitri and the
conversation they'd had burning in his ears and heart.
"Well," he said, "I remember Mordechai saying how moved he had been by reading
the prophecies in the Hebrew Scriptures about who the Messiah would be. That
Micah said He would be born in Bethlehem. That Isaiah said He would be born of
a virgin and live in Galilee. I remember him saying how Daniel said after the
Messiah was `cut off,'
Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple would be destroyed by an occupying power. And
he talked about how David had written in the Psalms about how a band of `evil
men' would curse the Messiah, and mock Him, and gamble for His clothing, and
then kill Him. And he said how moved he was reading Isaiah 53, that the
Messiah would be `pierced for our transgressions' and `crushed for our
iniquities' and that `the punishment that brought us peace' peace with God,
our salvation 'was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.' And I
distinctly remember Mordechai saying, `Look, I'm no rocket scientist. I
just looked at the picture the prophets were painting and I said, who does
that look like?'
"Jesus," Natasha said.
"Exactly."
"And the part about buried treasure?"
Bennett sighed. He could feel the emotions of that night forcing their way
back to the surface, and he had to discipline himself to hold them back, at
least for now.
"Right, well, he said he was reading the New Testament one day Matthew 12 or
13, I think and he was reading a parable that Jesus told His disciples. Jesus
said the kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found
it, he hid it again and then in his joy went and sold everything he had and
bought that field. Mordechai said
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it struck him that he was that man. He had finally discovered the truth that
Jesus really is the Messiah. He had found buried treasure. The question, he
said, was what was he going to do about it? Walk away? Forget about it? Act
like it didn't matter? Or was he going to choose to follow Jesus Christ
whatever the cost?"
Bennett got up, walked over to the window, and looked back out over the Old
City, imagining the Temple where it would soon be standing.
"I remember going to bed that night thinking, that's me, too. I'd been brought
up a skeptic, the son of two atheists, but now, somehow, I had no doubt that
Jesus was who
He said He was. And right in front of me, in Mordechai and Erin, I had two
amazing examples of how God can totally transform the lives of people who
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choose to believe.
They obviously had found buried treasure. They had a joy and a peace and a
quiet confidence about the future that I didn't have. I wanted that. I knew
Mordechai was right, and I knew it was time for me to choose."
"So what did you do?" Natasha asked.
"Mordechai made it pretty clear. Romans 10 says `if you confess with your
mouth
Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved.' So that night, I got down on my knees next to my bed and
did it."
"That's it? That's all?"
"The Bible says salvation is a free gift," Bennett explained. "We don't
deserve it. We can't earn it. We can't buy it. We just have to accept it. The
hard part isn't what you say.
The hard part is getting to the point where you're ready to say it."
"So what did you say, Jon?" asked Natasha.
"Well, it wasn't anything fancy," Jon conceded. "I think I just basically
said, `God, I
really want what Erin and Eli have. I know I haven't lived a perfect life. I
know I really need to clean up my act. But I'm ready to cut a deal, God."
"A deal?"
asked Natasha. "You really said that?"
"
Hey, it was new to me. I was doing the best I could."
Natasha laughed. "Is that all you said?"
"No, there was a little more."
"What was it?"
"You really want to know?"
"I really do."
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