Authors: Al Lacy
Dr. Dane looked at Eric. “What’s your opinion?”
“I agree with Nelda. There shouldn’t be anything to worry about since we’re already on the east side of the Mountains, and we’re heading farther east. I’m not worried.”
Dr. Dane nodded. “All right, but I’ll bring along a couple repeater rifles just in case.”
“That’ll be good enough,” said Eric. “Say, how about that shooting incident on Main Street this morning? Our neighbors just to the south were there when it happened and stopped to tell us about it when they came home this afternoon. They said they never saw such raw courage as you displayed.”
Nelda smiled up at him. “So you are now Central City’s beloved physician, Dr. Logan. I like that.”
Eric chuckled. “Me, too.”
A proud smile played on Tharyn’s features as she ran her gaze from Nelda to the man she adored.
Once again embarrassed by Betty Anderson’s new title for him, Dr. Dane’s face flushed. “I’m not some shining hero. I only did what any doctor would have done. Mayor Anderson’s life was in danger, and by the blood coming from his midsection, he would have bled to death shortly. Every minute would count. I had to get him to the office in a hurry.”
“But Dr. Logan,” said Nelda, “you
are
a shining hero. Since that gunman—what was his name?”
“Vincent Orcutt.”
“That Vincent Orcutt warned you not to help Mayor Anderson, but you did it anyway. It was a very brave thing to do. And he’s alive because you dared take care of him in spite of that gunman’s warning. I sure am glad Mayor Anderson is still alive.”
“For sure,” put in Eric.
A serious look came over Dr. Dane’s countenance. He ran his gaze to Eric, then to Nelda. “Well, I can tell you one thing, if Vincent Orcutt had killed me and Mike Anderson would have died from loss of blood, Mike and I would be in heaven together right now.”
Tharyn noticed the faces of both Eric and Nelda pinch.
Dr. Dane ran his gaze between them again. “Remember the last time I came here to examine Nelda’s hip? I talked to both of you about salvation, but you weren’t interested.”
The Coxes looked at each other, then looked another direction, avoiding the eyes of the doctor and his wife.
Dane and Tharyn exchanged glances; then he said, “Eric, Nelda, when I talked to you about opening your hearts to Jesus, you told me that Pastor Mark Shane had visited you on two occasions
prior to that and had tried to get you to do the same thing, but you hadn’t responded to him, either. Right?”
Eric cleared his throat nervously. “Th-that is correct, Dr. Logan. Nelda and. I have discussed the subject several times since the day you talked to us about our need to be saved. We even talked about going to your church, but with Nelda’s hip so bad, she didn’t think she could do it. We … ah … we both have a problem with what both you and Pastor Shane told us.”
“A problem?”
“Yes.”
“And that is …?”
“Well, we just can’t believe that people can know for sure they are going to heaven. What if they just don’t measure up to what God expects in their lives after they have asked Jesus to save them? How would they know this? How would they know they were pleasing God enough in their church life and in their daily deeds?”
Dr. Dane smiled. “Many people have this problem, Eric. You and Nelda still have not clearly seen that salvation does not come from your doing good works and religious deeds, but from repentance of sin and simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you. Salvation is by grace, not by works. When you get that clear in your minds, you will understand that people who receive Jesus as their personal Saviour can
know
they are going to heaven and not just hope so.”
Tears filled Nelda’s eyes. “Dr. Logan, would you mind going over how to be saved again? I really do want to
know
I’m going to heaven when my life comes to an end.”
Eric nodded, and choking on the words said, “I—I do too, Doctor.”
“My Bible is out in the buggy. I’ll be right back.”
Dr. Dane hurried out the front door to his buggy. He took his Bible out of the medical bag, and as he hurried back into the
house, he whispered, “Lord, give me wisdom and power to deal with them and to lead them to You.”
When Dr. Dane entered the bedroom, Tharyn was encouraging the Coxes to listen closely to what her husband was going to show them and to feel free to ask him any questions they might have.
He smiled and said, “Yes, please feel free to ask any questions you want.”
Both nodded.
Tharyn was praying in her heart as her husband opened his Bible.
Dr. Dane said, “I’m going to show you first of all that Scripture says you can
know
that you are saved, and that you have eternal life, which is to go to heaven when you die. I’m going to read a statement that the Apostle Paul made about his own assurance on this matter. It’s in the second half of 2 Timothy 1:12. ‘I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.’ ”
“Paul had committed his soul to Jesus, not only to save him, but to keep him saved.” He flipped a few pages. “Listen to what Scripture says about it in 1 Peter 4:19. ‘Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.’ See that? The keeping of their
souls
. It’s talking about salvation.”
He turned a few more pages. “Listen to this in Ephesians 2:8 and 9. ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.’ That’s plain enough, isn’t it? You can’t earn salvation by good works. You must accept it as God’s
gift
. Romans 6:23 says, ‘For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’
“Think about that. Eternal life, which is to have salvation, is a
gift
. You can’t earn it, then, by your good works or doing religious
deeds. Just through Jesus Christ, the one who died for sinners on Calvary’s cross, was buried, and three days later arose from the dead. He is the living Saviour. He does all the saving all by Himself from start to finish. Just before He died on the cross, with His precious blood flowing from His wounds, he cried, ‘It is finished!’
“His finished work on the cross is all that had to be done to make salvation open to all who will come to Jesus by faith. It is the person who turns from their sin, which includes their religion or humanistic philosophy, that is given eternal life. Jesus said in Luke 13:3, ‘Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.’
“Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of direction. We change our mind about our religion or philosophy, and our sin, and turn a hundred and eighty degrees from the road that leads to hell and put our faith in Jesus. According to Romans 10:13, we call on Him to save us. It says, ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ And as I Just read to you, the Lord will have mercy on that repentant sinner and abundantly pardon him.
“Ephesians 3:17 says, ‘That Christ may dwell in your
hearts
by faith.’ So when we call on Him to save us, we receive Him into our
hearts
. When a lost sinner has repented and received Jesus into his or her heart by faith, trusting only Him to save them and keep the saved, they have eternal life. And this brings me back to where we started. We can absolutely
know
without a shadow of a doubt that we have eternal life, which means we are going to heaven when we die.
“First John 5:13.” He flipped to it and said, “Listen to this. In this passage, the Apostle John writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, ‘These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.’ Did you hear that? ‘That ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life.’ Not hope so, think so, guess so, or maybe so. God says you can KNOW it. And that’s by believing the Scriptures—these things
that are written right here on the pages of Gods Word.”
Eric smiled. “I understand it now, Dr. Logan. This wicked sinner wants to be saved.”
In spite of her pain, Nelda’s face lit up. “Yes! This wicked sinner wants to be saved, too!”
Tharyn blinked at the tears that had welled up in her eyes.
Dr. Dane asked, “Do either of you have any questions?”
Eric and Nelda looked at each other and shook their heads. “Guess not,” said Eric. “All we need is your help in knowing what to say to the Lord as we call on Him.”
“Just admit that you are a lost sinner and tell Him you are coming to Him in repentance of your sin, and invite Him to come into your heart, save your soul, and wash your sins away in His blood.”
Tharyn wiped tears as her husband led Eric and Nelda to Jesus. When they finished, she hugged both of them, telling them how happy she was to see them come to the Lord.
Dr. Dane then showed them in the Bible that their first step of obedience to the Lord after being saved was to be baptized.
“I realize,” he said, “that it will be a while before Nelda can do this, since she is going to have the hip replacement surgery, but, Eric, you can take care of it at church on Sunday. We’ll stop at the parsonage on our way to the office and let Pastor Shane know that you both have received Jesus into your hearts. He will come and see you right away.”
“Good,” said Eric. “He will be most welcome.”
Nelda looked up at the doctor with a smile on her lips. “Dr. Logan, I’m not expecting anything to go wrong during my surgery, since I know you are the best, but it is a blessing to know that if something did go wrong and I left this world, I would be in heaven.”
Dr. Dane reached down and patted her hand. “Yes, Nelda, you sure would. And as for my being the best, in your eyes at least, any
ability that I have comes from the Great Physician. I’m so thankful that I can place my patient in His tender care, and that I can rely on Him to guide me when I perform surgery. He says in Isaiah 41:13, ‘For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.’ You and I couldn’t possibly be in better hands!”
A look of peace filled Nelda’s eyes. “I know I can depend on you, and more importantly, on Him.”
He patted her hand again. “Amen to that.” He turned to Tharyn. “Well, sweetie, we’d better be going. But before we do, I want to pray for these two new children of God.”
The four of them bowed their heads, and thankful tears were shed while Dr. Dane prayed for the new converts and praised the Lord for His abundant grace.
On Friday, July 15, Betty Anderson hurried up the front porch steps, opened the door, and held it open while Dr. Dane Logan carried her husband toward the house from his buggy. She smiled at them as they passed her. Then as they headed down the hall, she ran past them and guided the doctor into the master bedroom at the rear of the house.
When Dr. Dane placed the mayor on the bed, Betty bent over him and said, “Oh, darling, it’s so good to have you home!” She then turned to the doctor with tears misting her eyes. “Thank you so much for all you’ve done for Mike and me. I promise I’ll take good care of him.”
Dr. Dane grinned. “I have no doubt of that. I need to explain that Dr. and Mrs. Fraser left town early this morning to visit friends in Georgetown. You know that’s a two-hour drive.”
Betty nodded. “Yes.”
“They will be back tomorrow evening. If for some reason I should get called away for an emergency today or tomorrow, and
Mike should need medical attention, Tharyn can handle it.”
“I’m sure she can,” said Betty.
“I need to explain also, that Tharyn and I will be leaving Monday morning to take Nelda Cox to Denver so I can perform a hip replacement surgery on her at Mile High Hospital. If you should need any medical help for Mike while we’re gone, you can call on Dr. Fraser, who will be working in the office with Nadine Wahl.”
Dr. Logan had already shared the news with the Andersons at the office about Eric and Nelda Cox being saved. Mike said, “Dr. Logan, I’ve just been rejoicing in my heart over the Coxes’ salvation.”
“Me, too,” put in Betty. “Pastor had told us about visiting them before, and how they paid no heed when he preached them the gospel. Praise the Lord, they finally listened.”
“Yes. Well, I must get back to the office. I’ll look in on you once more, Mike, before we leave on Monday.”
At the office, Tharyn was taking care of a little girl who had cut her hand when Dr. Dane came into the examining room, leading an elderly man. He placed the man on a table in one of the curtained areas, then excused himself for a moment. He looked at the little girl’s cut, complimented Tharyn on how well she had stitched it, and told the child and her mother that she would be fine.
Tharyn bandaged the child’s hand while her husband was taking care of the elderly man. When she was done, she walked into the office with the mother and the little girl. The mother paid the bill, and they left after thanking Tharyn.
A few minutes later, Dr. Dane came into the office with the elderly man, who paid Tharyn for the treatment, and left.
Dane was about to return to the back room when suddenly they both saw a rider pull his horse to a halt in front of the office and leap from the saddle.
The doctor opened the door for the rider as he rushed up and said breathlessly, “You’re Dr. Logan?”
Dr. Dane nodded. “I am.”
“I’m Rex Wilson, Doctor. I have a ranch in the mountains twelve miles southwest of town. A band of Ute Indians were stealing some cattle on my neighbor Jack Bates’s place about an hour ago, just as Jack and his family were returning home from town in their wagon. The Indians shot Jack and his entire family before riding away with the cattle they had stolen.”
“Oh my,” gasped Tharyn, moving up beside her husband.
Wilson took a deep breath. “Everyone in the family was killed except Jack, and he is seriously wounded. My wife is with Jack right now, trying to take care of him till I can get back with you, Dr. Logan. Can you come with me right now?”