Father's Day and the Apostle's Creed, Article I

From Luther's Small Catechism. The Apostle's Creed is the second part of Luther's Small Catechism, so you will notice the roman numeral II begins this section.

II. The Creed

As the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household.

The First Article.

Of Creation.

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.


Praise to the Lord the Almighty
Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König
Setting by JS Bach

~~~~~

What does this mean?

I believe that God has made
me and all creatures;
that He has given me my body and soul,
eyes, ears, and all my limbs,
my reason, and all my senses,
and still preserves them;


Praise to the Lord the Almighty
Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König
Setting by Hugo Distler

~~~~~

in addition thereto,
clothing and shoes,
meat and drink,
house and homestead,
wife and children,
fields, cattle, and all my goods;


Great is Thy Faithfulness
Sung by a mens chorus

~~~~~

that He provides me
richly and daily
with all that I need
to support this body and life,
protects me from all danger,
and guards me and preserves me
from all evil;


Children of the Heavenly Father
Sung in Swedish and English

~~~~~

and all this
out of pure, fatherly,
divine goodness and mercy,
without any merit or worthiness in me;


Children of the Heavenly Father
Setting by Wilbur Held

~~~~~

for all which I owe it to Him
to thank, praise, serve, and obey Him.
This is most certainly true.


Praise to the Lord the Almighty
Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König
German Gospel Choir

Adventures in Country Music: Father's Day

About a month ago I picked up a temp project in Los Angeles.  This is not one of my favorite towns, but I had rent to pay so I jumped on the plane and away I went.

For being a major market, there was surprisingly little variety on the radio. I started on classical. That station held three spots on the dial, so if you lost one you had to find the other. There was, of course, a ton of Spanish language stations, but no habla Espanol.

I finally settled on the country music station. There is the stereotype out there that when you play country music backwards you get your girl back, your dog comes home and your truck is fixed.

The truth is, country music covers the whole range of topics: break-ups and love songs, happy songs and sad songs, fluff songs and songs with substance, non-offensive songs and songs that push the envelope, religious songs and secular songs.

Note to those who write contemporary worship songs: country music isn't afraid to mention Jesus and stations still play those songs.

One of the top five songs in country music right now is "The Man I Want to Be" by Chris Young. While this particular song does not mention Jesus, it is a prayer and religous in nature. I wouldn't use this in the Divine Service, but it is fine for personal use.

Here's rlc1231 covering the song, followed by the video as seen on CMT.

God I'm down here on my knees
Cause it's the last place left to fall
Beggin' for another chance
If there's any chance at all
That you might still be listenin'
Lovin' and forgivin' guys like me

I've spent my whole life gettin' it all wrong
And I sure could use your help just from now on
I wanna be a good man
A do like I should man
I wanna be the kind of man the mirror likes to see
I wanna be a strong man
And admit that I was wrong man
God I'm askin’ you to come change me
Into the man I wanna be

If there's any way for her and me to make another start
Could you see what you could do
To put some love back in her heart
Cause it gonna to take a miracle
After all I've done to really make her see

That I wanna be a stay man
I wanna be a brave man
I wanna be the kind of man she sees in her dreams
God I wanna be your man
And I wanna be her man
God I only hope she still believes
In the man I wanna be

Well I know this late at night that talk is cheap
But Lord don't give up on me yeah

I wanna be a givin' man
I wanna really start livin' man
God I'm askin’ you to come change me
Into the man I wanna be