Well, it's been a discouraging year if we just look at the temporal American political and cultural landscape. But I'll leave you with the last verse of our family Christmas poem that I wrote just after 9-11, another very discouraging time for our country. Click here to read the entire poem.

The poem is entitled "One Nation Under God." I love America, and I treasure my citizenship. But in the end, this world will pass away. The last verse stresses the eternal "One Kingdom under God" that will never pass away, even when our beloved America is no more. This is my eternal Hope. In NOTHING or NO ONE but in Jesus Christ, my Redeemer and Savior, the Son of God, indeed the King of Kings! This verse was inspired by the well-known lines from an old Christmas carol, "O Come all ye citizens of Heav'n above!"

While you and I are blessed indeed to claim this land we love,
There is a land that's richer still, a sweet homeland above.
What a privilege! What a blessing it will be when our hearts sing...
Now citizens of Heaven, as we praise our God and King!

My New Year's Resolutions: Yes, I'd like to lose my Thanksgiving-Cruise-and-Christmas pounds. But I so much want to know Christ better and be in His Word more. I want to show a lost world that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." If I could, by His grace, do these things, that 2013 will be a very good year. Fiscal cliff or not.