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Joe Kennedy and Andrew Cuomo...

Illustration
Second Sunday after Christmas - A
John 1:(1-9) 10-18
Joe Kennedy and Andrew Cuomo followed fathers into big league politics. Martin Luther King III has followed his father into leadership of the SCLC. Jakob Dylan is making is mark in contemporary music as lead singer of The Wallflowers, following his father Bob. Ken Griffey, Jr., is proving to be even more impressive on the ballfield than Ken, Sr. A number of present-day television and movie personalities are sons and daughters of acting families. Perhaps a new generation who did not know their parents as public figures will see something of their parents in the public lives of the children.
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New & Featured This Week

The Immediate Word

Mary Austin
Christopher Keating
Dean Feldmeyer
Thomas Willadsen
George Reed
Katy Stenta
Nazish Naseem
For November 16, 2025:

Emphasis Preaching Journal

David Coffin
Another natural disaster has flattened a number of coastal communities. Despite the weather and major television station warnings, and government disaster preparations, the dystopian destruction nightmare of Luke 21 has decimated another community. Also, it is reasonable to believe that this is not the last year for hurricanes, Tsunami’s, wildfires, mudslides and tornados. They will occur again. However, as weary citizens are interviewed in one group of people with the background of homes in rubble and streets still draining flood waters, they will not leave. This is their home.
Mark Ellingsen
Bill Thomas
Frank Ramirez

Isaiah 65:17-25 and Isaiah 12

StoryShare

John E. Sumwalt
“The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the LORD. (v. 25)

A week after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, country singer Toby Keith — who died Feb. 5, 2024 — wrote a patriotic ballad titled “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.” It was filled with populist fighting rhetoric that matched the mood of a nation shaken by the shocking death and destruction of that day.

CSSPlus

John Jamison
Object: A blood pressure monitor. It is actually called a sphygmomanometer, and is pronounced “sfig·mow·muh·naa’·muh·tr”.

* * *

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
Prayers usually include these concerns and may follow this sequence:

The Church of Christ

Creation, human society, the Sovereign and those in authority

The local community

Those who suffer

The communion of saints


These responses may be used:


Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer
Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.

SermonStudio

Stephen P. McCutchan
With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
-- Isaiah 12:3

John W. Clarke
No reading of Luke is complete without coming to realize that Luke is concerned that the world understands that Jesus is the hope of the world and that any teaching that leads away from that fact is a false teaching. No matter what, no matter when, Jesus will be there to give us life.

Scott Suskovic
Whoever does not work should not eat!
-- 2 Thessalonians 3:10 (NLT)

Wow! Kind of takes your breath away, doesn't it? Not a lot of ambiguity in that rule. "You don't work, you don't eat." For a religion based on grace, it seems a bit unyielding.

Mark Ellingson
Freedom is such a lovely word, a compelling image. What is freedom? How would you define it? What does it mean to you? Webster's New World Dictionary defines freedom as being exempt from control or from arbitrary restrictions. Freedom is said to be the ability to choose or determine one's own actions.

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