Always be joyful.Never stop praying.Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies,but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.
Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. 24 God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.
1Thessalonians 5:16-24 NLT
I had two affecting experiences in this last week. One was the death and funeral services for my sister, Marvel Johnson, and the other was reading Ron Chernow’s massive biography of Mark Twain.
Marvel was 95 years old, the widow of a Methodist pastor, serving with him for more than 40 years. The tributes given to her were unanimous: she was always cheerful and positive, often with a song, on her lips. She prayed constantly, with long prayer lists in her Bible, attending small group prayer meetings, and leading the prayer ministry in the church she attended for the last several years of her life. Her children remarked, with some wonder, that they never heard her complain. Yet she was not some pious, unreal person. She was just a good woman, who loved Jesus.
According to Twain’s friend William Dean Howells, Twain’s humor rose from a deep well of rage. That rage became ever more clear as he grew older and suffered the loss of his beloved wife and two of his three daughters. He not only rejected Christ but considered his birth and the religion that grew up around him to be one of the great tragedies. Trying to live without God, he sought perfection from human beings, and when they inevitably failed him, heaped vilification upon them. He thought humanity was a terrible blot on the earth and that if there was a heaven, humans would be kept out, while dogs would be invited in. As he came to the end of this life, he was increasingly bitter and vengeful.
Here are two lives. Marvel knew about human failure and hypocrisy, but she also knew a Jesus who cares and redeems, and her life was a benediction to all who knew her. Twain refused to know Jesus and ended his life alone and in darkness. I know which way I choose. What about you?
Called To Be Transformed 