Closing: Jack McFarquar.
From "Coffee Break Devotions" by ML Kimbrough, "Continuous Praise - Psalm 113.
"From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised". Psalm 113.3

I often teach comparative religion classes. I discuss Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaim, Islam and Christianity. When ever we discuss praising and praying to God, I like to look particularly at the practices of the three great monotheistic religions - Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. These three religions agree that there is one God in heaven and earth who is omnipotent, omnicient, and omnipresent.

Orthodox Jews pray three times a day: "Hear O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might". (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). And they keep the words of the Shema posted on their doorposts, reminding them of their devotion to God every time they enter and exit.

Muslims pray five times a day, beginning ech prayer with "Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds, the compassionate, the merciful, King on the day of reckoning. Thee only do we worship, and to thee do we cry for help" (The Opening of the Koran). At least five times a day they are reminded of the one they worship.

Christians, however, have neither a specific number of times to pray nor a special way to open their prayers. When they experience distress, they may pray hundreds of times a day, and in better times, they may not pray at all.

i always encourage my students to develop a habit of daily prayer. I tell them to start the day with prayer and meditation and to send up balloons of prayer all day so that one will always be floating above them. I believe the psalmist had just such a habit in ind when h wrote that the Lord is to be praised from the rising of the sun until its setting We ought to praise God continuously.

Lord, today I'll keep sending up balloons of praise. Amen