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Services for Max E Smith
A visitation for Max will be held Sunday, October 24, 2021 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM at Lester Road Christian Church, 3900 Newton Rd., Fairburn, Georgia 30213, followed by a funeral service at 3:00 PM.
Burial will be at Greenland Cemetery in Jacksonville, FL at a date and time still to be determined.
The family would be honored if you can come share Max’s life with us at the service on Oct. 24th.
Max’s LAST SPEAKING Devotional
My dad, passed away this morning at about 9:15am, 10-15-2021. He passed peacefully and painlessly. God was so good to answer our prayers not only for a peaceful passing but saw to it that Dad did not lose much quality of life before He went Home. I find it providential that his last devotional that he posted before the one below was “What Is Dying? I know for many of you these devotionals were appreciated. Please know that Dad loved doing them for the Lord and you.
This will be the last one that is posted but you can come to this web site anytime and see over 13 years worth of his devotionals. Enoy his l
YOU ARE SOMEBODY!
Years ago, a sick woman lying on a crude bed, with but a few days to live, called her only son, a lean, lanky lad, to her bedside. She gazed into his deep dark eyes with her own dim sight, and communicated to him her hope for his life. Her own years had been few and unfavored. Her life had been occupied by the limitations of a pioneer existence. Her castle was a log cabin. She had dreamed and hoped in vain. Life offered little rewards, and her days had brought few actual joys. It was not to be so with her son. In him, her dreams would be realized and her hopes would be fulfilled. Drawing the boy close to her bed, she noted the imprint of the woodland life and the crudities of their pioneer existence stamped upon his face and form. She despaired for a moment. Touching his brown, course cheeks with her soft, white fingers, she caught his gaze and held it with her deep meaningful eyes. Drawing his face close to her own, she whispered the magic words, words that held her hopes and dreams; “My boy, be somebody.”
Thus, Nancy Hanks planted a golden dream in the soul of Abraham Lincoln. The result is known to the world.
If there is such a thing as a self made man, Abraham Lincoln would be that man. With great disappointments and defeats in his life, Lincoln struggled through them to become the President of the United States. It took hard work, perseverance and persistence, to make of himself the man that he became. He became ‘somebody’.
So, can we. God made us into His own image. He breathed into us the ‘breath of life.’ He put the spark of the divine within every one of us. But, how we messed up, disfiguring the very likeness of God in us. We all have sinned (missed the mark) which is His Son, Jesus. He is the example of Somebody. We are suppose to be like Him. How is it possible? God has made a way. “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God–children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12-13
We can’t be born again physically but we can be born anew spiritually. God will help us. He calls us by His love. God loved you and me so much that He died for us in His Son. God was in Jesus reconciling the world unto Himself. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
“We were therefore buried with him throuigh baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Romans 6:4
God wants you to be, not just His creation, but His child. He wants you to be one of His dear children. As a Christian, you are somebody special.
WHAT IS DYING?
NOTE: This devotion is a rerun from years past. The reason for this is because Max (my Dad) is in the hospital. He fell on Tuesday and suffered two hairline pelvic fractures and has a sizable hematoma in the same pelvic area. He hopes to be transferred to a Rehab facility the first of next week. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated. If you’d like to leave a message for Max you can do so via the comments or on facebook or by emailing him at maxesmith1927@outlook.com., Thank-you.
Tim Smith
“WHAT IS DYING?”
“I am standing upon the seashore, a ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her, until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud, just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then, someone at my side says, “There, she’s gone.”
Gone? Where? Gone from my sight, that is all. She is just as large in mast and sail as she was when she left my side, and just as able to bear her load of fright to the place of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There she’s gone.”
There are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “There she comes.”
And that is dying.”
I do not know who wrote that beautiful description about dying, but I do know that it blesses my soul. I use it in most of the funeral services that I conduct. People are comforted by it.
Can we talk? Death is not some morbid subject. It is an inevitable. The grim reaper will cut us down sooner or later. Our bodies go back to the dust from where they came. Some people wonder about cremation as to whether it is right or not. Cremation just hurries up the process of the body returning to the dust. I find nothing in the Bible that speaks against it. It is a matter of choice. But, understand, we are talking about the body, not the soul. Tender memories are connected with the body, so it makes it difficult to give it up. Our hearts still cling to this flesh, because we cannot disassociate it from the beloved one who dwelt in it. But, it is only the worn out garment, which our loved one has laid aside.
The soul (spirit) is a whole different matter. That which is really us goes to God. We believe in God, who is the Judge of all the earth, that He will do that which is right. Our God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble.
We must leave judgment entirely up to God. God alone, decides the fate and destiny of man, in His infinite wisdom and mercy.
Man cannot judge the state of another human being in his relationship with God because man looks on the outward appearance of man, while God looks on the heart. None of us, no matter how hard we try, can really know the inner struggles and battles that go on in an individual’s heart.
God is love and it is out of love that God judges man. God judges the soul of man out of motives, desires, intents, and inner struggles of the being. You can rest assured that God will do that which is right. Be sure to leave this matter of eternal judgment entirely up to God.
Jesus speaks to the heart of His followers: “Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am.” John14: 1-3
LISTENING
“Listen to me for a day, an hour, a moment.
Lest I expire in my terrible wilderness, my lonely silence.
O God, is there no one to listen.”
I want to share with you some material that I have used in teaching on the subject of “Listening.”
God gave us two ears and one tongue which indicates that we should listen more than we talk. We are taught to talk but little is said about the ‘art of listening.’ We need to learn to listen to each other.
“Silence is hard for a listener, its’ practice is at war with the tendency to ‘set things right’ which makes busy bodies of us all.”
Listening is involvement.- Empathy, entering in to their situation.
Listening is loving – caring, understanding.
Listening is the giving of undivided attention to another human being.
Listening indicates to the person – you matter, you are important.
The Bible speaks of this in James 1:19: “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.”
Be careful what you hear? Your salvation depends on it.
“Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)
Be careful whom you hear? On the mountain of transfiguration, God told the disciples, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” (Matthew 17:5)
“But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.” (Hebrews 1:2)
Be careful to hear Jesus.
“For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God,” (John 3:34)
Listen without giving advice.
To listen correctly, we must find out what the individual thinks and feels Ask: “What do you think you should do?” We are anxious to impress the person with our answers until we don’t really hear the questions.
Listen without judging. Each person must accept personal responsibility for their life.
Listen actively. Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6: 53-54)
We must take Jesus and His teachings into our minds and hearts. Jesus is talking about internalizing Him in us.
“We tear walls down by listening. There is no understanding of each other without listening.
Carl Rogers says that “Listening, rightly done, is the most significant thing you can do for a person.”
“A wise old owl lived in an oak.
The more he saw, the less he spoke,
and the less he spoke, the more he heard.
Why can’t we be like that wise old bird?”
GOD’S WILL THROUGH PRAYER
Prayer is an intimate, personal responsibility. Bishop Fulton J. Sheen has said that there are three things a person ought to do for himself. They are: blow your own nose, do your own loving and do your own praying. There are those who say, “I cannot pray.” Not true. If you can think, you can pray. The first thing a baby does when he or she is born physically is to cry. That is the natural thing to bring about breathing, for the continuance of life. So it is with the child of God, it is natural to cry out to God, for prayer is the breath of the Christian. We must pray or die spiritually.
What is prayer? Prayer is talking with God, holding conversation with Him. Now, who do we talk to the most? Our friends. So, prayer becomes a matter of friendship with God.
What is the purpose of prayer? Prayer is at its highest and noblest when it’s purpose is not to get something, but to get close to someone, even God. Too often prayer is a matter of trying to use God rather than asking God to use us. The purpose of prayer is not to tell God what we want Him to do. Prayer is asking Him to do something with us – asking Him to make us ready and willing and worthy to do what He wants us to do.
There are definite limitations to prayer.
1. Our prayers are limited by God’s world. If our prayers were answered to change external laws, we would govern the world and not God. And, do you think, for one moment, that we could govern it better?
2.Our prayers are limited by our human bodies. We grow older, our bodies decay and we die. This is the fixed order of things. Prayer cannot overcome broken rules for good health.
3.Our prayers are limited by wrong doing. No matter how hard we pray – God will not bless our indifference, neglectful, selfish ways. James wrote, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” James 4:3
Christ’s teachings on prayer are conditional. We must pray in accordance with His will. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” I John 5:14 We must be living for Christ, for Jesus said, “If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” John 15:7 Prayer seeks not to force our will on the Eternal One, but to seek to do the will of God.
What do we pray for? We pray to co-operate with God. We need to cooperate with God in permitting Him to work out His will through us. Remember, that nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer, except that which lies outside of the will of God.
Daniel Poling’s son came to his father’s study before leaving for the service, during the time of war, to ask a very difficult thing. “Dad”, he said, “I don’t want you to pray for my return, that would’nt be fair. Many will not return and to ask God for special family favors just wouldn’t be fair. Pray, Dad, that I shall do my duty and something more, pray that I shall never be a coward. Pray that I shall have strength, courage, understanding of men, and especially that I shall be patient. Oh, Dad, just pray that I shall be adequate.”
Daniel Poling’s son was one of the four chaplains of three faiths, who were on the S.S. Dorchester which sank in iceberg waters within 27 minutes after being torpedoed at 1:15 a.m. February 3, 1943. With utter
disregard of self, having given away their life-jackets to four people without them, the chaplains stood hand in hand praying as the boat sank drowning them. (I believe his prayer was answered.)
PRAYER CHANGES US NOT GOD
Dr. Myron J. Taylor wrote this article in his church newsletter some years ago.
“One of my favorite stories on the subject of prayer concerns the veteran who had lost a leg in the war. One day shortly after the close of World War II, he traveled to a little town in France which housed a shrine celebrated for miracles of healing. As the soldier neared the shrine, a passer-by remarked, “The poor man. Does he think that God will give him back his leg?” The young veteran overheard the remark and, turning, said quietly, “No, I do not expect God to give me back my leg. I am going to pray to God to help me live without it.”
I’ve seen and heard the serenity prayer but never knew the full context. In fact, I have the shorter version here before me on my desk. Here is the whole prayer: Prayer For Serenity
“God, grant me the serenity to acccept the things I cannot change,
and the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is;
not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.”
Amen Reinhold Niebuhr
Prayer has its laws:
1. Prayer is not God doing things for us. Prayer is God helping us to do things for ourselves. God is not the easy way out.
2. Prayer does not change circumstances. It changes us, enabling us to have new courage, new strength and new ability to cope.
3. Prayer is not escape. it is conquest. It helps us face and overcome the situation.
4. Prayer is listening to see what God wants us to do.
Prayer changes us not God. We do not change God’s mind. We meet His conditions. As someone has said, “It is not so much what happens to us that matters, but it is the attitude we take toward what happens to us that counts.”
Prayer must become a natural part of our life.
Prayer is an acknowledgement of utter dependence upon the One to whom we address our words.
Prayer is a dialogue between two persons who love each other.
My favorite poem concerning prayer: “The Simplicity of Prayer”
“Prayer is so simple, It is like quietly opening the door
And slipping into the very presence of God;
There in the stillness to listen to His voice:
Perhaps to petition or only to listen.
It matters not; Just to be there in His presence
Is prayer.” Author Unknown
My favorite verse of Scripture on prayer: I John 5:14
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”
No Condition to Ask for Anything
Fulton Oursler tells of an experience when he was a small boy, dressed in his Sunday best and warned by his mother not to leave the front steps. “We’ll be walking over to see your aunt” she promised. He waited obediently until the baker’s son came by and called him a sissy. Then, little Fulton sprang from the steps and hit the baker’s son on the ear. The baker’s son pushed him into the mud puddle, splotching the white blouse with slime and leaving his stockings with a bloody hole in the knee. Hopelessly, he began to bawl. When the affair was over, forgetting his disobedience, young Fulton rushed into the house and asked his mother for a penny to buy ice cram from a peddler who was going by. He said that he could never forget his mother’s answer. “Look at you. You’re in no condition to ask for anything.”
Oursler said that many a year passed after that incident before it dawned on him, “that often, when we ask help from God, we need to look at ourselves; we may be in no condition to ask Him for anything.”
Many times God cannot answer our prayers because we are not ready for His answer or we are in no condition to be used by God in His answer.
Prayer is NOT asking God to change His world to suit our own selfish needs.
Prayer is NOT giving God His orders for the day.
Prayer is NOT a lifeboat to be launched only in emergencies.
Prayer is NOT magic to be used to get what we want.
Prayer is NOT in reality getting what we want.
PRAYER IS PLACING OURSELVES IN GOD’S HANDS SO THAT HE CAN DO WITH US AND IN US AND
THROUGH US WHAT HE WANTS.
Prayer is simply God’s children communicating with Him. Prayer is not so much asking for something as it is a means of getting close to someone, even God. We do not believe in prayer, we believe in God who has given His children the privilege of prayer.
First John 5:14 “This is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
FIVE FINGERS OF PRAYER
1. Your thumb is nearest you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is, as C. S. Lewis once said, a ‘sweet duty.’
2. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers.
3. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president, leaders in business and industry, and administrators. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion. They need God’s guidance.
4. The fourth finger is our ring finger. Surprising to many is the fact that this is our weakest finger, as any piano teacher will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.
5. And lastly comes our little finger – the smallest finger of all which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the Bible says, ‘The least shall be the greatest among you.’ Your pinkie should remind you to pray for yourself. By the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively.
This is not original with me. I do not know the author but I believe it is worth our remembering.
Prayer is internal not external. Prayer seeks inner fulfillment, rather that outer manipulation. Prayer is standing at attention before God. If we really pray in His Name, we shall ask only for those things which are consistent with His Name (character). The goal of praying is not the fulfilling of our request, it is the glorification of God. In prayer we don’t tell God what to do, we find out what He want us to do. Think on these words by C. S. Lewis, “God could, if He chose, repair our bodies miraculously without food; or give us food without the aid of farmers, bakers and butchers; or knowlege without the aid of learned men; or convert the heathen without missionaries. Instead, He allows soils and weather and animals and muscles, minds and will of men to co-operate in the execution of His will.” We must learn to put feet to our prayers. Prayer is designed to involve us in God’s plan, not to involve God in our plans. Prayer is cooperation with God.
TEACH US TO PRAY
Jesus gave the disciples a model prayer to help them to know how prayer should be made. We can find help from this model prayer too. Read it in Matthew 6: 9-13
The prayer begins by giving God His own and proper place. The first three petitions of the prayer are for the hallowing of God’s name, the coming of God’s Kingdom and the doing of God’s will. Prayer is the attitude in which eyes and mind and heart are fixed on God.
The second part of the prayer brings the entirety of man’s life to God. We make three petitions which has to do with our present need (bread), our past sin (forgiveness), and our future welfare (help in temptation).
Let us study this prayer in the light of what it is intended to be, a pattern for all prayer.
“Our Father in heaven”–“Father” conveys the intimate, personal relationship of man to God. We become His children not by natural birth but by spiritual birth. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” John 1:12-13
Our relationship with God is not as an only child but as a family. It is “our” Father. No one is a Christian in isolation. No man has an exclusiveness on God.
His elevation above man “who is in heaven”. This is God’s world, but not His home.
“Hallowed be your name”–God is to receive the praise, honor, glory, reverence He deserves. His character is to be exalted.
“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We belong to God when He is king of our lives. The Kingdom of God is not a territory, it is the reign of God in the lives of obedient believers. To do God’s Will is to know and be obedient to the revelation of God’s truth, through Jesus and the Apostles, recorded in the New Testament of the Bible. We do not know God’s will outside of His divine revelation.
“Give us today our daily bread“–Our physical body, as well as our soul, is to be fed. “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4
We are to eat daily of the material and spiritual bread.
“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”–to pray this prayer, a sense of sin is a prior requirement. To ask for forgiveness of sin, is in itself, a confession of sin. It has been said, “to be conscious of no sin is the greatest sin of all.” God’s Word states: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:8-9
God’s forgiveness rests on a condition. We must forgive others of their wrongs, sins against us. We must forgive as God forgives us. One pays a terrible price for an unforgiving spirit. May we know that only the forgiving can be forgiven. As Paul wrote: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”–This cannot mean that God tempts us, for God tempts no man to sin. This is a cry for help, that we be not overwhelmed by the deceptiveness of Satan. A Christian knows that there are places he or she ought not to go, people they ought not to be with, and things they ought not to do. It could be translated, “Keep us from flirting with temptations.”
“Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever, Amen”–These words are not found in the latest and best Greek manuscripts, but certainly not wrong, as it speaks of God’s ultimate victory. We must end as we began–by praising God.
We mistakenly call this divine blueprint for prayer the “Lord’s Prayer”. It is not His prayer, it is ours to guide us in our prayer life. Christ did not give this prayer to be used in mere formal repetition but to become a standard, pattern, for our praying. Therefore, we are wise to seek to address Deity in the way that the Son of God, Jesus, taught us to pray.
Max Speaking 