–Isaiah 1:18 (TLB)
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“Impurities fill our world and even our own heart, but God blankets us with His grace, covering us with a blanket of white wool donated by the Lamb of God.” (William Petersen)  I love to look at a field covered with fresh fallen snow.  What beauty, untouched by the tracks of man.  But eventually, the impurities come and the field is no longer pristine.  Snow is beautiful, but I also remember the days after snow, with the exhaust from vehicles blackening it.  
     I’ve been to streams that were once clear, but now have a sludge of pollution in them.  I can remember making snow ice cream, but that is no longer safe, or hiking on a high mountain trail and drinking from the cold water that comes directly from a snowbank, but they tell us that it is no longer safe.  Why–impurities.  Read the second portion of Psalm 147 and think of how God purifies our soul with the blood of the Lamb.  Think of the day in the near future when He will remove the curse and purify the land.

          12 — Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem!  Praise your God, O Zion!
          13 — For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children within you.
          14 — He makes peace in your borders, and fills you with the finest wheat.
          15 — He sends out His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly.
          16 — He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes;
          17 — He casts out His hail like morsels; who can stand before His cold?
          18 — He sends out His world and melts them; He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow.
          19 — He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel.
          20 — He has not dealt thus with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them.  Praise the LORD!  (NKJV)

     Notice how many times the personal pronoun of “He” or “His” is used in this psalm.  One of its purposes is to garner our praise.  He gives us protection, He gives prosperity.  He gives peace.  He blesses us with many types of gifts.  God grants peace within your borders–yes, this was referring to Israel, but also to the borders of your soul.  In the midst of calamity and terror He gives His peace.
     God is with us; He is the God who is there!  “He’s with you in both the cold/difficult and warm/pleasurable seasons of life.” (George Wood)  He was with us when we were young and now as we enter the winter of our lives, and all the years in between.  “All the world is at God’s command.  He directs and ordains everything in His created order.  His spoken word orders the affairs of providence.” (Steven Lawson)
     We do not have to try to figure out who God is.  We know Him through His Word and how He deals with it in our hearts.  We know Him as the Holy Spirit works on the word to guide us along in this life.  Lawson states an important truth, “Knowing God’s Word is the greatest blessing to come to a nation or a people (or an individual), but obeying it is the greatest duty.”  
     One does not have to delve deep into theology to worship God.  Try, as the psalmist writes, to worship Him in the simple blessings He gives.  “All worship is centered in God–who He is and what He has done.” (Lawson)  Take time to refresh yourself knowing who God is and what He has done for you.  Take a few moments just to look back over the last week.  What has He done for you, provided for you?  Besides the things we take for granted–the laws of physics, the breath we take throughout the day, the beating of our heart–but look at other blessings.  Did you have enough to eat?  I assume, if you’re reading this, that you woke up every morning.  If nothing else from this psalm know this–God is good!  More than we can ever imagine–He is good, therefore praise the Lord!

               “Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat,
               I wait, blessed Lord, at thy crucified feet;
               By faith, for my cleansing, I see thy blood flow,
               Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
                       –James Nicholson

                    –David Fitz-Gerald  (First Drive) 

                    –B.N. Rundell  (Last Chance Gulch)

       “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”
                    –Revelation 17:14(NKJV)
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It is one of the most important verses in Scripture, yet we hear little about it.  It is degrading and shameful, to say the least for it speaks of the plight of man without God.  It is the last verse of Judges.

          “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” –Judges 21:25, NKJV
          “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever he wanted.”  –Judges 21:25, HCSB

Look closely at this verse.  In it we see the danger of ethical relativism; it is degrading and dehumanizing.  Read through Judges and look at the condition of mankind.  Read the Scriptures concerning the time before the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Whenever man decides what is right or wrong, especially without moral absolutes there is the rampant growth of evil.  When you “do your own thing,” there is nothing left but moral chaos and confusion.  “Humans can no more decide what is moral than they can decide whether the earth will rotate on its axis,” so writes Gary Inrig.  
     Currently we can look at the news reports and see the appalling results when man decides what is right or wrong.  Moral relativism denies the validity of absolute moral, spiritual, or philosophical truth.  It celebrates diversity and the validity of “lifestyle choices.”  It is absolutely absurd that man can say a woman is a man, and vice versa, or that right is wrong.  The question that must be asked, “whose truth is valid?”  The answer given by those who are truly indoctrinated by their particular type of humanistic belief (Secular Humanism, Cosmic Humanism, Postmodernism) is that all views of truth are valid.  This ends up with a world that is lawless, confused, and full of chaos.  In other words, a world that is ripe for the man of lawlessness to appear.  
     Just to add to this idea, take a look at just a few of the major thoughts that pervade our society today.  Besides relativism, we have the idea of pluralism.  This goes along with relativism because it states that we should respect and accept all views, especially religious claims as equally valid.  Then we see the idea of syncretism, the blending of views.  This is compromise in its fullness; it is an attempt to unify forms of belief and practice.  This has so deftly slipped into the church.  We are all brothers, therefore we should treat each other as one big family; tolerance is the key.  I will mention one more, but the list could go on, and that is the idea of consumerism.  This is the concept that the individual is the center of the universe.  It involves materialism and is selfish for it brings man to the center.  He has the right to see that his needs are met.
     But, more often than not, we tend to focus on the second phrase in this verse and sort of put the first one aside, yet it is as important because it relates directly to the idea of autonomous man.  “No king,” but in reality there was a “king”; if nothing else the king of individualism.  Man, himself, was king for he thought he was sovereign and could do whatever he wanted.  Listen my friend, there is a king for everyone.  In fact, some may serve more than one king.  Who/What is it that sits upon the throne of your heart?  Are you boisterously shouting the idea of freedom?  But, whose freedom, and what is freedom?  Is freedom doing what you want, or is there a higher factor involved in true freedom.?  The words of Luke come to mind, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” (19:14)  Then who will reign?
     “No king, but King Jesus,” was one of the battle cries of the American Revolution.  The idea that a man could govern at will, going against the laws of society was anathema to these founding Americans.  Gone was the idea, “Rex Lex,” (king is law) and now in its place came, “Lex Rex,” (law is king)  so wrote Samuel Rutherford.  Without a “king” there will be anarchy, apathy, and apostasy; and depending upon what king you choose there could be dangerous consequences.  Compromise and complacency become the norm without the proper authority ruling upon one’s heart.  What was it the leaders of the Sanhedrin cried, “Give us Barabbas!”  There is no king on this earth, “people are rebelling against God and doing whatever pleases them; and it will be that way until the King returns and takes His throne on earth.” (Warren Wiersbe)
     Those in the book of Judges, and all of us living today should hearken back to the words of Joshua, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”  Choose wisely–choose carefully–choose with eternity in view.
               “King of my life, I crown Thee now
               Thine shall the glory be…”
                    –Jennie Evelyn Hussey