Constant Praise

And these are the singers.......they were employed in that work day and night. (1 Chronicles 9:33)

Here is an evening devotional by Charles Spurgeon about praise that never ceases. Let's do our best to make sure that we make our life a never-ending song of praise and worship to our Lord!

Well was it so ordered in the temple that the sacred chant never ceased: for evermore did the singers praise the Lord, whose mercy endureth for ever. As mercy did not cease to rule either by day or by night, so neither did music hush its holy ministry. My heart, there is a lesson sweetly taught to thee in the ceaseless song of Zion's temple, thou too art a constant debtor, and see thou to it that thy gratitude, like charity, never faileth. God's praise is constant in heaven, which is to be thy final dwelling place, learn thou to practice the eternal hallelujah. Around the earth as the sun scatters his light, his beams awaken grateful believers to tune their morning hymn, so that by the priesthood of the saints perpetual praise is kept up at all hours, they swathe our globe in a mantle of thanksgiving, and girdle it with a golden belt of song.


The Lord always deserves to be praised for what He is in Himself, for His works of creation and providence, for His goodness towards His creatures, and especially for the transcendent act of redemption, and all the marvelous blessing flowing therefrom. It is always beneficial to praise the Lord; it cheers the day and brightens the night; it lightens toil and softens sorrow; and over earthly gladness it sheds a sanctifying radiance which makes it less liable to blind us with its glare. Have we not something to sing about at this moment? Can we not weave a song out of our present joys, or our past deliverances, or our future hopes? Earth yields her summer fruits: the hay is housed, the golden grain invites the sickle, and the sun tarrying long to shine upon a fruitful earth, shortens the interval of shade that we may lengthen the hours of devout worship. By the love of Jesus, let us be stirred up to close the day with a psalm of sanctified gladness.

Quick Praise (Ps. 108:3)

I will praise You, LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to You among the nations. (Psalm 108:3)(HCSB)

Who can you tell about God's goodness today?

How to Obtain Fellowship with Jesus

As it began to dawn, came Mary Magdalene, to see the sepulchre.--Matthew 28:1

Here is a devotional by Charles Spurgeon about obtaining a closeness of fellowship with our Lord by following the example of Mary Magdalene.

Let us learn from Mary Magdalene how to obtain fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Notice how she sought. She sought the Savior very early in the morning. If thou canst wait for Christ, and be patient in the hope of having fellowship with him at some distant season, thou wilt never have fellowship at all; for the heart that is fitted for communion is a humgering and a thirsting heart.

She sought him also with very great boldness. Other disciples fled from the sepulchre, for they trembled and were amazed; but Mary, it is said, "stood" at the sepulchre. If you would have Christ with you, seek him boldly. Let nothing hold you back. Defy the world. Press on where others flee.

She sought Christ faithfully--she stood at the sepulchre. Some find it hard to stand by a living Savior, but she stood by a dead one. Let us seek Christ after this mode, cleaving to the very least thing that has to do with him, remaining faithful though all others should forsake him.

Note further, she sought Jesus earnestly--she stood "weeping". Those tear-droppings were as spells that led the Savior captive, and made him come forth and show himself to her. If you desire Jesus' presence, weep after it! If you cannot be happy unless he come and say to you, "Thou art my beloved," you will soon hear his voice.

Lastly, she sought the Savior only. What cared she for angels, she turned herself back from them; her search was only for her Lord. If Christ be your one and only love, if your heart has cast out all rivals, you will not long lack the comfort of his presence. Mary Magdalene sought thus because she loved much. Let us arouse ourselves to the same intensity of affection; let our heart, like Mary's, be full of Christ, and our love, like hers, will be satisfied with nothing short of himself. O Lord, reveal thyself to us this evening!

Singing His Praises,
Joey Culpepper

Atheists file Lawsuit to stop Public Prayer

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16)(KJV)

The other day I received an email from AFA (American Family Association) about a recent lawsuit. Here is an excerpt from that email:

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a self-procalimed atheist group, has filed a lawsuit against Texas Governor Rick Perry for initiating The Response: a call for prayer for a nation in crisis.


Gov. Perry has proclaimed Saturday, Aug. 6th, as a Day of Prayer and Fasting to "seek God's guidance and wisdom" for America. The Response is a non-denominational, apolitical, Christian prayer meeting hosted by the American Family Association at the 62,000-seat Reliant Stadium in Houston.


The basic goal of the FFRF lawsuit is to stop and silence Christians from praying in public places, such as Reliant Stadium. If they win here, they'll take their anti-Christian lawsuits to other places.


Will you help us stand up to those who would try to completely silence Christianity in America?

The same day I received this email I had been reading through the Book of Daniel chapter 9. This chapter records a prayer by Daniel for his nation which was in exile in Babylon for their disobedience to God by turning away from His commandments and worshiping foreign gods. Read his prayer which is recorded in Daniel 9:1-19. This is from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

In the first year of Darius, who was the son of Ahasuerus, was a Mede by birth, and was ruler over the kingdom of the Chaldeans--in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet that the number of years for the desolation of Jerusalem would be 70. So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.


I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed:

Ah, Lord--the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commandments--we have sinned, done wrong, acted wickedly, rebelled, and turned away from Your commandments and ordinances. We have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, leaders, fathers, and all the people of the land.


Lord, righteousness belongs to You, but this day public shame belongs to us: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel--those who are near and those who are far, in all the countries where You have dispersed them because of the disloyalty they have shown toward You. LORD, public shame belongs to us, our kings, our leaders, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. Compassion and forgiveness belong to the Lord our God, though we have rebelled against Him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by following His instructions that He set before us through His servants the prophets.


All Israel has broken Your law and turned away, refusing to obey You. The promised curse written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, has been poured out on us because we have sinned against Him. He has carried out His words that He spoke against us and against our rulers by bringing on us so great a disaster that nothing like what has been done to Jerusalem has ever been done under all of heaven. Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not appeased the LORD our God by turning from our injustice and paying attention to Your truth. So the LORD kept the disaster in mind and brought it on us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all He has done. But we have not obeyed Him.


Now, Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and made Your name [renowned] as it is this day, we have sinned, we have acted wickedly. Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, may Your anger and wrath turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the injustices of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become an object of ridicule to all those around us.


Therefore, our God, hear the prayer and the petitions of Your servant. Show Your favor to Your desolate sanctuary for the Lord's sake. Listen, my God, and hear. Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city called by Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You based on our righteous acts, but based on Your abundant compassion. Lord, hear! Lord, forgive! Lord, listen and act! My God, for Your own sake, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.


We need some prayer warriors like Daniel! We need some leaders in our country that will stand up and pray for our nation. We need governors like Rick Perry who will make an effort to "seek God's guidance and wisdom" for America. Our nation needs prayer. There are a lot of things we could do without in our country, but prayer is not one of them! I encourage you to pray. Pray often, pray deliberately and pray hard! Pray for our country. Pray for our leaders, especially ones like Rick Perry who are trying to turn to God for guidance. Pray that God will send more leaders that will stand up for public prayer. Pray for this event in Houston, and if possible try to go to Reliant Stadium on August 6th! Let's not be silenced by these radical atheist groups like FFRF! If anything, let's take this as a wake-up call and pray more than ever before! 


Remember that God's Word tells us---The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful (James 5:16)
All humanity will come to You, the One who hears prayer. (Psalm 65:2)
The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight. 
(Proverbs 15:8)
Pray constantly. (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Singing His Praises,
Joey Culpepper

Quick Praise (Ps. 63:3)

My lips will glorify You because Your faithful love is better than life. (Psalm 63:3)(HCSB)


Because I've experienced God's love, I will watch the words that come from my lips. May they always glorify Him.

Quick Praise (Ps. 63:1)

God, You are my God; I eagerly seek You. I thirst for You; my body faints for You in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water. (Psalm 63:1)(HCSB)

When you're dry and thirsty, eagerly seek the fountain of living water!

Forget not all His Benefits

Forget not all His benefits...(Psalm 103:2)

Think about the benefits of our loving God as you read this devotional by Charles Spurgeon.

It is a delightful and profitable occupation to mark the hand of God in the lives of the ancient saints, and to observe his goodness in delivering them, his mercy in pardoning them, and his faithfulness in keeping his covenant with them. But would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to remark the hand of God in our own lives? Ought we not to look upon our own history as being at least as full of God, as full of his goodness and of his truth, as much a proof of his faithfulness and veracity, as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before? We do our Lord an injustice when we suppose that he wrought all his mighty acts, and showed himself strong for those in the early time, but doth not perform wonders or lay bare his arm for the saints who are now upon the earth. Let us review our own lives. Surely in these we may discover some happy incidents, refreshing to ourselves and glorifying to our God. 

Have you had no deliverances? Have you passed through no rivers, supported by the divine presence? Have you walked through no fires unharmed? Have you had no manifestations? Have you had no choice favors? The God who gave Solomon the desire of his heart, hath he never listened to you and answered your requests? That God  of lavish bounty of whom David sang, "Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things," hath he never satiated you with fatness? Have you never been made to lie down in green pastures? Have you never been led by the still waters? Surely the goodness of God has been the same to us as to the saints of old. Let us, then, weave his mercies into a song. Let us take the pure gold of thankfulness, and the jewels of praise and make them into another crown for the head of Jesus. Let our souls give forth music as sweet and as exhilarating as came from David's harp, while we praise the Lord whose mercy endureth for ever.

Under God

A few weeks ago, NBC aired a patriotic clip during the final round of the U.S. Open Golf Tournament. They played it a couple of times, and although I'm a patriotic guy, I didn't care too much for it. You see, the clip had a video of children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, but there was one problem. They left out the words, "under God" and "indivisible." When calls started coming in from concerned citizens about the error, NBC quickly apologized and stated that it was an editing error.

Editing error? Who could make that kind of error? Was it some illegal alien that didn't know the Pledge? Or was it some liberal media person who had an ulterior motive to delete any mention of God from our public broadcasts? Does NBC really not want our nation to be under God and indivisible? When I heard about it, I found it alarming and ironic. Alarming because here is one of our nation's largest television networks, trusted by millions, making an "editing error" of this magnitude. Ironic because I had been rehearsing our church choir in preparation for the July 3rd worship service, and the new piece we had been learning was entitled "Under God."

After I heard of this NBC incident, I thought back to some words spoken by two of our former U.S. Presidents. I would like to share these thoughts with you now.

As President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved the words "under God" to be added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954 he stated:


"In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war."

In August of 1984, President Ronald Reagan stated:


"Without God, there is no virtue, because there's no prompting of the conscience. Without God, we're mired in the material, that flat world that tells us only what the senses perceive. Without God, there is a coarsening of the society. And without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we're One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."

We need to remember that now, just as it's been throughout our history, our only hope and prayer is under God. Take a look at the lyrics to the song I spoke of earlier. The message is a timely one for our nation.

Under God

Half a century ago two simple words declared a truth that's planted in our hearts

And every time the flag is raised we've been honored to repeat the phrase

So the world will know we are

(chorus)Under God America's been blessed

under God brought through every trial and test

We are sheltered by the mercy He chose to give

In priv'lege and abundance this nation lives

Under God freedom has survived

Under God we need to recognize

We're dependent on His goodness, indebted to His care

Maybe more than any people any time or anywhere

Still our only hope and prayer is under God

When we pledge allegiance now it's under God

Those words have shaped the land that we hold dear

Some insist it's not allowed to acknowledge that we need Him now

But it's never been so clear

(repeat chorus)

Still our only hope and prayer

Still our only hope and prayer

is under God, under God, under God!

written by Sue C. Smith and Phil Johnson

copyright Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing

Quick Praise (Ps. 63:4)

So I will praise You as long as I live; at Your name, I will lift up my hands. (Psalm 63:4)(HCSB)

If you intend to praise God the rest of your life, lift up your hand(s).

Hezekiah and Josiah

Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the Lord with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. (2 Kings 23:25)(NLT)

The following worship profile is from the Praise and Worship Study Bible published by Tyndale House Publishers. I recommend this study bible to anyone interested in learning more about worship.

Hezekiah and Josiah

The lives of Hezekiah and Josiah, two righteous kings of Judah, will bring conviction to those who try to find an excuse for their lack of devotion to God. Hezekiah's  father was the idol-worshiping King Ahaz, and Josiah, a mere eight-year-old boy when he became king (2 Kings 22:1), had a wicked and idolatrous father and grandfather. Both Hezekiah and Josiah ruled over a land filled with idolatry, corruption, and decay. By Josiah's time, the nation had drifted so far from the Lord that the priests did not even know of any copies of the Book of the Law given to Moses! Given these unfavorable circumstances, we would normally expect Hezekiah and Josiah to have slipped into the sinful ways of their fathers. However, the Lord stirred the hearts of both kings and caused them to go against the flow and follow Him with great boldness.

Hezekiah and Josiah the Worshipers

Both kings committed themselves to restoring worship at the Temple (2 Chronicles 29:1-36; 2 Chronicles 34:1-33).

Both kings accepted the messages of prophets, who condemned their nation's sin and called them to return to God.

Both kings disregarded the empty benefits of popularity by tenaciously seeking out and eliminating all idols and cult practices in Judah (2 Chronicles 31:1; 2 Chronicles 34:3-7).

Learning from Hezekiah and Josiah

Hezekiah and Josiah demonstrated that an obedient person, led by the Holy Spirit, can help wake a community from spiritual depravity and bring about revival.

Hezekiah and Josiah understood that revival is a public matter; their efforts toward reform included public Scripture readings, confessions, and worship.

Following the Example

If you lack passion in your worship or struggle with other loyalties infringing on your commitments to God, you would do well to read the stories of Josiah and Hezekiah. Like the people of Judah, you may have idols in your life that keep you from worshiping God as you should. An idol could be possessions, a hobby, or even a relationship that keeps you from obeying God. If this is true, confess and repent of your sin, and recommit yourself to worshiping God.