The Heart Remembers (21 page)

“Carlene, please get a grip on yourself,” said Tharyn. “We’re doing all we can for you. We both feel quite confident that you’re going to be all right.”

Dr. Dane drew up on the opposite side of the table from where Tharyn was standing. He told Tharyn of the five people in the waiting room, and named those who had appointments. He told her that he had explained to all five that he had an emergency on his hands, but would get to them as soon as possible … and that they were all willing to wait.

Tharyn said, “Good. We’ve got to help Carlene right now.”

“Yes,” said the doctor with concern evident in his voice. “I feel that helping Carlene with her fear of death is an emergency.”

Tharyn nodded. “I do, too.”

Dr. Dane then laid a gentle hand on the frightened patient’s arm and spoke softly. “Carlene, a little while ago, you told me that you’re afraid to die, and asked me to help you.”

“Y-yes.”

“As I was coming here into the back room, I heard you say again that you are afraid you are going to die, and I heard you begging Tharyn not to let you die.”

“Yes! I’m very much afraid of dying, Doctor!”

“Let me tell you something. Even when I was a teenager, I used to have a horrid fear of dying. None of us wants to die, of course. But when I got born again, the fear of dying went away. I know now that if I should die, I would be in heaven with the Lord.” He paused, glanced at Tharyn, then looked back down at Carlene. “Do you have that assurance?”

Carlene licked her lips. “I certainly
hope
I will go to heaven when I die.”

Dr. Dane leaned down closer to her. “But if you only
hope
you will go to heaven when you die, you really don’t have assurance, do you?”

She stared at him for a brief moment, then said, “Well, how can anyone do any more than hope? We all do wrong, so I guess it depends on how much wrong we do whether we’ll be allowed into heaven when we die. I try to live as good as I can. I’m a moral person, and I do my best to treat other people right. But—”

“This is why you’re fearful about dying, Carlene,” spoke up Tharyn. “You think you might still come up short on your good deeds outnumbering your bad deeds when you go into eternity to face the almighty God.”

“Well, I—I—”

“You
do
believe what the Bible says about there being a real burning hell, like there is a real wonderful heaven, don’t you?”

“I do. And I certainly don’t want to go to hell. But, Doctor, you said you
know
that if you should die, you would be in heaven with the Lord. How can you say you
know
? Are you perfect and without sin?”

“No, I’m not. But my going to heaven doesn’t depend on my good works. God’s Word says in Romans 3:12, speaking of the entire human race, ‘They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.’ Did you catch the word ‘all’? They are
all
gone out of the way. There is none that doeth good.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“You see, Carlene, in the eyes of almighty God, there isn’t one human being who does good. In ourselves, we can never deserve to enter heaven. We must be born again by receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour. When we take Him into our
hearts, He takes us into Him in a beautiful spiritual way, and places us in the family of God.

“When the heavenly Father looks at the born-again person, He sees him in Christ, and He sees us righteous
in Christ
, not in ourselves. There’s another verse in Romans chapter three that says, ‘There is none righteous, no, not one.’ Trying to miss hell and go to heaven by our own good works and our own righteousness will only land us in hell. We must come to the Father through His only begotten Son. There is no other way.”

Carlene batted her eyelids and licked her lips again. “Dr. Logan, I have never heard this before. You did say that when you got born again, you lost your fear of dying. I’ve heard of this being ‘born again,’ but I know nothing about it. Will you help me?”

Dr. Dane looked at Tharyn, who had tears in her eyes, then looked down at Carlene again. “I sure will. Be right back.”

With that, the doctor rushed to the medicine cabinet, took a Bible out of a drawer, and rushed back.

Tharyn said, “I want to be in here while you show Carlene what the Bible says, honey. But I should go out to the office and see if anyone else has come in. You go ahead and begin. I’ll be back shortly.”

“All right.”

Dr. Dane opened the Bible as Tharyn hurried toward the door.

Carlene’s eyes were glued on the tall, handsome physician as he flipped pages, then looked at her and said, “First, I want to read you a portion of Psalm 119:160. Listen to what the psalmist said to God. ‘Thy word is true from the beginning.’ Do you believe that, Carlene?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Good. Then whatever I show you in this Book, you will accept as truth, right?”

“I sure will.”

They heard the office door open and close, and rapid footsteps coming their way. Tharyn moved into the curtained section. “Still just the five. And they are being very cooperative.”

“That’s good to hear,” said Dr. Dane. “I just read to her what the psalmist said about God’s Word being true. And Carlene said she believes that.”

“And I’m eager to hear it!” Carlene said with a lilt in her voice.

FIFTEEN
 

T
haryn Logan was praying under her breath as her husband flipped the pages of his Bible and said, “Carlene, a few moments ago I quoted Romans 3:12 to you, emphasizing the word
all
. ‘They are
all
gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.’ Now I want you to read another verse in that same chapter to me.” He lowered the open Bible so she could see the page. “Read me verse 23.”

Carlene focused on the verse. ‘ “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.’ ”

“Did you catch the word
all
?”

“Yes.”

“That means me, you, Tharyn, and all the rest of humanity, right?”

“Yes.”

He flipped more pages. “Since we are all sinners in need of salvation and cleansing from our sin, God did a wonderful thing. He sent His only begotten Son so that we could be saved and cleansed.” Finding his page, he said, “Let me read you 1 John 4:9. ‘In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live
through him.’ Who is God’s only begotten Son, Carlene?”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Right. Scripture says here that God sent Jesus into the world that we might live through
Him
. Not our good works. Not our religion. Not through church membership nor church ordinances, but through Jesus Christ. I want you to read another verse for me.”

He flipped back to Romans chapter 6, lowered the Bible once again so she could see the page, and said, “Read me the last verse of chapter 6. Verse 23.”

“ ‘For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ ”

“Please note that eternal life is a gift. You can’t earn a gift, can you?”

“No. If you earned it, it would be a wage, not a gift.”

He smiled. “Right! And note also that this gift of eternal life comes to us
only
through Jesus. See that?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now … we’re sinners, aren’t we, Carlene?”

“Yes.”

“And what are the wages we get for our sin?”

“Death.”

“Yes. Physical death came upon the human race because of sin. But there is also
spiritual
death—separation from God. I told you when I got born again the fear of dying went away. Remember?”

“Yes.”

“Now I want to read to you where that phrase ‘born again’ came from.”

He turned back to John chapter 3 and explained to Carlene that the Lord Jesus was talking one night to a religious man named Nicodemus.

“Now listen to what Jesus said to him here in John 3:3. ‘Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ And
again, down in verse 7, He said, ‘Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.’ So since Jesus said it, it has to be true, doesn’t it?”

“It sure does.”

Tharyn was still praying under her breath.

As he turned back toward the front of the Bible, Dr. Dane said, “Now I’m going to show you why a person must be born again in order to go to heaven, the kingdom of God.” He stopped at Genesis chapter 2. “Here, Carlene. Read me verses 16 and 17. In this passage, God has taken His first human creation, Adam, into the Garden of Eden.”

Carlene nodded. “ ‘And the L
ORD
God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’ ”

“Do you remember the story, Carlene?”

“Yes. Satan came into the Garden of Eden and caused Adam and Eve to disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit. I’ve known that part of the story since I was a child.”

“Good. Now look there again in verse 17. When did God say they would die if they ate the forbidden fruit?”

She looked down at the verse and studied it briefly. “Why, that very day.”

“Do you remember the story well enough to tell me if God buried Adam and Eve that day?”

“Well, of course He didn’t. They hadn’t even had Cain and Abel yet.”

“But God had warned Adam that he would die the very day he ate of the forbidden fruit, didn’t He?”

“Yes.”

“So if they didn’t die physically that day, how
did
they die?”

“Oh, I see it. They died
spiritually.”

“That’s right. So Adam’s spirit died, and so did Eve’s. They
were dead spiritually and cut off from fellowship with God. You and I are descendants of Adam, and in 1 Corinthians 15 it says that in Adam, all humanity dies. Adam and Eve died spiritually that very day, and years later, they died physically—all because of their sin in the garden.

“So, since the wages of sin is death—both physically and spiritually—we all come into this world as descendants of Adam, facing physical death and already dead spiritually. We were dead spiritually when we were born into this world. This is why Jesus said we must be born again. If we don’t get born spiritually, we will go to hell when we die.”

Tharyn touched Carlene’s arm. “Do you understand so far?”

“I believe so.”

“If you have any questions as we go along,” said Dr. Dane, “feel free to ask.”

“Well, just let me say something here.”

“Of course.”

“I believe in God, and I believe in Jesus, so my sins must already be forgiven, and I must have been born again and didn’t realize it.”

“Not so,” the doctor said softly. “A person cannot be born again and not know it. You believe in God and His Son in your
mind
—your
intellect
—but in order to be born again you must believe in your
heart
. Let me show you.”

He took the Bible from her hands, and while turning to the Gospel of John, said, “We saw that Jesus said in John chapter 3 that we must be born again to go to heaven, right?”

“Yes.”

“You see, Carlene, this new birth also puts us in the family of God. As human beings born into this world in the image of Adam, we are God’s
creation
, but we are not God’s
child
until we have been born into His family. When we get born again, we not only become alive spiritually, but we also become God’s children. Let
me read it to you here in John chapter 1. Speaking of Jesus Christ, it says, ‘He came unto his own, and his own received him not.’ That is, He came to God’s chosen nation of Israel, but they rejected Him.”

“I see.”

“Next verse. ‘But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.’ His name is Jesus, which means Saviour. To believe on His name is to believe that Jesus, alone, does all the saving of the soul all by Himself with no help from man. It says that only those who have received Him have become God’s children. Do you see that?”

“Yes.”

“All right. Next verse. Speaking of those who believing on His name have received Him, it says, ‘Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ They got born again, but it wasn’t of blood. It doesn’t come through family … bloodline. Just because a person’s parents have been born again doesn’t mean
they
have.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“ ‘Nor of the will of the flesh.’ We can’t give ourselves the new birth. ‘Nor of the will of man.’ This eliminates all mankind. There is nothing another human being can do to give you the new birth. So churches, religions, ministers, priests and such have no power to give a person the new birth. It is
God
who gives it. And He does so only when a person repents of his or her sin and, believing that Jesus is the one and only Saviour who does all the saving all by Himself, receives Him.