Riven - Jerry B. Jenkins [178]
Brady had never read the Bible before. He’d pretended to follow along as a kid at Aunt Lois’s church now and then, but all the thees and thous and begats lost him along the way.
This New Testament, though, Chaplain Carey had described as easy to read. And the few verses he had looked up while reading the Romans Road pamphlet read simply enough. Brady turned to the very front and found an introductory paragraph that said the first four books were called the Gospels and contained the story of Jesus’ birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection.
Well, if that wouldn’t help him get to know who Jesus was, nothing would.
“Got a visual on Heiress Boy!” someone shouted. “He’s readin’ a Bible! Chaplain musta got to him!”
“Oh, glory! Here we go!”
“Come to Jesus, boy! You once was lost but now you found!”
61
Adamsville
Thomas tossed and turned until Grace asked what was the matter. He told her he couldn’t sleep and was going to read for a while.
The truth was, he could not get Brady Darby off his mind. This was clearly the most crucial time in the young man’s life, and if he was going to move from seeker to follower, it would likely happen soon. If he was to decide against Christ, that would happen soon too.
Thomas knelt by the couch in the living room. “God, as usual, I don’t know how to pray for Brady, such a sad, lost, desperate man. I know Your will is that he come to You, and so that is all I ask.”
Soon Thomas crept back to bed and slept soundly. In the morning he awoke with an idea. “Grace, would you record some hymns for me to share with Brady?”
“Oh, Thomas, I can barely draw enough breath to talk, let alone sing. And people his age don’t appreciate hymns, do they? Has he even heard them before?”
“Yes, as a child. But I don’t think he ever really listened. Maybe you could change some of the words, make them sound like plain English. I even have an idea which ones might best speak to him. I’ll leave a list.”
Death Row
For his station in life, Brady had always been a surprisingly fast and facile reader, and while he had no idea what to expect from the Bible—even a modern version—one thing he hadn’t anticipated was that it would keep him up all night. Whatever he had thought the person of Jesus would look like in this history of the first century, he now realized he hadn’t had a clue.
This man didn’t act like a religious leader, a missionary, or a preacher, although He certainly preached. He spoke in riddles only those with true spiritual insight seemed to be able to understand, performed all kinds of miracles, and wound up dying and rising again, just as He said he would.
Brady found himself flying through the four Gospels, finding similar stories told in slightly different ways, then moved right into the amazing stories of the early church. Why hadn’t someone told him about this before? Maybe they had. Surely his aunt Lois had. But back then he wouldn’t have been listening.
Well, he was listening now. Brady simply could not get enough of this. He broke for the morning count, for breakfast, and for lunch, but otherwise, he just kept reading and reading and reading. He kept wondering whether the things he had read in the Romans Road booklet might actually be true. Was it possible that he could come to know and trust this same Jesus for his own salvation? Coming across those salvation passages from Romans again as he read the New Testament through helped him put them into context, and they thrilled him all the more.
Brady recognized a verse or two from childhood, something that had stuck, or almost stuck, as it flew by in a Sunday school class or a vacation Bible school. One, he realized suddenly, he had once actually memorized and then never considered again until now. John 3:16—“For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
If Brady had ever heard what followed those familiar words, he didn’t recall it. Yet now, in light of everything else, it all seemed part of the