As the Roman calendar rolls forward another year, folks pause, if ever so briefly, to contemplate where they have been and where they are going. Uncertainty and unease about the future can be very unsettling. What will the new year bring? What can you expect in your life and on the world scene in the next 12 months?

The dying man's last request was to be prayed for and anointed with oil as the Bible commands for healing.

Old Mr. Brown (not his real name) had grown up on small farms. As an adult, he worked in the logging industry, sold stainless steel cookware, sold lawn and front porch furniture from the back of a pickup truck and worked in a factory in a nearby town. Through it all he studied his Bible. He lived by the rules laid down in this ancient book and was known and respected by his relatives and neighbors as a decent and honest man who loved his family and his church.

Recently, I watched a documentary entitled Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, which showed actual footage of Muslim extremists and their religious leaders using classic propaganda techniques to inflame their followers to hate Westerners, particularly Israelis, Americans and the British.

The weather that we have experienced so far this winter has me harkening back to our first Missouri snowfall, last winter. Being Texans, it was a big deal to us, and since it was a very mild winter last year, it was the only accumulating snowfall that we had as a family.

"Are you all ready for Christmas?" my dental hygienist cheerfully inquired as I headed for her chair, dreading the next half hour, as I dutifully went for my semi-annual dental cleaning.