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Higher Things
12 e 20 sid gs In in fo th In er ce gh ren hi nfe Co
Inside This Issue!
• The Gift of God’s Dos and Don’ts • Being a Perfect Lutheran • The Morning Rush • Sheep Don’t Keep Track www
. h i g h e r t h i n g s . o r g / FA L L / 2011
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Contents t a b l e o F
Volume 11/Number 3 • Fall 2011
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I’m Adopted
by rev. Joel Fritsche Nowadays adoption is often in the spotlight because one celebrity or another has decided to adopt a child. Well, it’s always been big news for God! Rev. Fritsche gives you a window into his own rewarding experiences with adoption and shows how precious your adoption in Christ truly is.
Sheep Don’t Keep Track
by rev. todd Wilken Sheep are not known for being the smartest animals in the world, but they have a special place in God’s Word. Our Shepherd, Jesus, who cares for us, uses them many times in His parables and illustrations. Rev. Wilken expounds on one such instance, and in doing so, will make you revel in your sheephood.
The Gift of God’s Dos and Don’ts
by rev. George borghardt Someone just gave you a lovely, beautifully wrapped gift. You tear open the paper with enthusiasm and look at it, stunned...it’s God’s Law? How can it be that the very thing that St. Paul calls a ministry of death, is a gift from God? Learn why this is a reality as you read this article crafted in true Rev. Borghardt fashion.
10 Genetic Engineering: Blessing or Curse?
by rev. dr. John I. lamb “Hi, I’d like one baby boy with blue eyes, blond hair, and athletic ability on the side.” Going through the drive-through to order your baby? That may seem far-fetched, but as Christians, we need to tread lightly when it comes to the topic of genetic engineering. Dr. Lamb carefully navigates through the final part in his series and grapples with the question: How far is too far when it comes to genetic engineering?
12 The Morning Rush
by Christina harman Whether it’s Starbucks or a 3-mile jog, a protein shake or Good Morning America, nearly everyone has something in their morning routine that they find it very hard to manage without. Christina presents a Christ-centered, compelling case for making time with God an essential start to your day.
20 Christ on Campus Have You Apologized Lately? The Law and Gospel of Christian Apologetics
by rev. Ian Pacey Whether you’re in college or not, at some point your faith in Christ will be challenged. Scripture calls us to be able to give a reason for the hope that we have, so where do we start? Rev. Pacey gets the ball rolling for you as he provides some basics.
22 Put Me in, Coach! I’m Ready to Live the Christian Life
by rev. Chad hoover For nearly as long as there has been American football, there have been Christians attempting to use it as a picture of the Christian life. Rev. Hoover has a unique twist on this analogy and shows us that perhaps it has a place after all, which gives us a real reason to celebrate!
24 Green Without the Black
by rev. alan Kornacki As Christians, where do we find that middle ground between apathy toward the environment and screaming obscenities at folks who wear fur, neither of which are acceptable? Rev. Kornacki lays out an approach to being the wise stewards God calls us to be and to care for this groaning creation that awaits the glorious coming of Jesus Christ!
28 Being a Perfect Lutheran
by Scott Johnson Overachiever. Task-oriented. Hard on yourself. Do these sound familiar? If you find yourself constantly trying to see if you measure up, then Scott’s words will gently remind you where your value lies and how that can bring you peace.
Column
30 Catechism Thy Will Be Done
by rev. William Cwirla These words in the Lord’s Prayer are not some sort of complacent surrender...they are a battle cry, but also a source of great comfort. Rev. Cwirla sweeps away some of our misconceptions about these four words we often tack onto the end of our prayers.
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Volume 11/Number 3/Fall 2011
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Higher Things® Magazine ISSN 1539-8455 is published quarterly by Higher Things, Inc., PO Box 156, Sheridan, WY 82801. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the executive editor of Higher Things Magazine. Copyright 2011. Higher Things® and Christ on Campus® are registered trademarks of Higher Things Inc.; All Rights Reserved. Printed in the United States. Postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri. For subscription information and questions, call 1-888-448-2359 or e-mail subscriptions@higherthings. org. (This phone number is only used for subscription queries.) For letters to the editor, write letters@higher things.org. Writers may submit manuscripts to: submissions@higherthings.org. Please check higherthings.org/ magazine/writers.html for writers’ guidelines and theme lists.
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I’m Adopted By Rev. Joel Fritsche
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y older brother always refers to me as the “chosen one.” He and my two other older siblings were adopted before I came into the picture. I was my mother’s case of “the flu” four years after their third and last adoption. Hmm. If I was the “chosen one” simply because I was the biological child of my parents and the baby, why are there fewer baby pictures of me? In fact, I would argue the opposite of my dear brother. I am not the chosen one. By virtue of their adoptions, they are the chosen ones. And I’m fine with that.
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My parents made sacrifices for all four of their children, whom they love equally, by the way. Parenting, like other vocations, involves the giving of oneself for another. Adoption absolutely includes sacrifice. Birth parents make sacrifices when giving up a child for adoption, despite the different circumstances of each child’s birth. Adoptive parents make huge sacrifices, especially with all of the legal and financial challenges that adoption can bring nowadays.
I may not be adopted, but I am an adoptive father. In 2008, my wife, Clarion, and I adopted two boys: biological siblings from Russia, ages 3 and 5. We’re currently adopting their younger biological brother, age 2. I can’t begin to tell you what we’ve been through to bring these boys home—into our family. There are mountains of paperwork, done and re-done, notarized and processed, mailed to our agency and then “FedExed” to far eastern Russia. There are huge checks to write and mounds of cash to stuff in my luggage and other places I won’t mention. We have been poked and prodded, given blood, been fingerprinted more times than a convict and our backgrounds thoroughly checked. Why? We desire to have children! The Lord also desires to have children. In fact, when He breathed life into man, He created human beings in His image just as children are images of their parents. Even after the fall, out of pure grace, He redeemed us through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. The analogy of adoption is part of Holy Scripture’s treasure trove of redemption language. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5 ESV). It isn’t something God did on a whim. He deliberately chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:4-5), to be His holy people. The price was hefty: the precious blood, the innocent suffering and death of His perfect, onlybegotten Son. Adoption is all about sacrifice and it’s all about grace! We don’t even have to do the choosing. God chooses us! My wife and I retell our family story again and again to my sons. We look at the pictures and videos from our trips to Russia. We talk about where they came from, their orphanages and what little we know of their birth mother. They have the privilege to watch as we bring home their brother, to witness for themselves the sacrifice and to rejoice in what they’ve been given by grace. Their orphanages were not horrible places. The children are loved and cared for by some wonderful people. We took great comfort in that when we had to say goodbye and go home without them in order to wait for our court date. The survival rate of Russian orphans once released from the orphanage is terribly low. Many turn to drugs, prostitution, crime and die young and alone. Kyrie eleison! What a gift to be chosen—adopted! Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18). Through our adoption into Christ, God has given us a new birth “from above” by water and the Spirit (John 3:3, 5). The devil, the world and our sinful flesh tempt us to crave our former, sinful way of life. Fear not, dear child of God. You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15). We daily rejoice in our adoption as we return to our baptism through the Holy Spirit’s work of contrition and repentance. Daily “we groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23). For He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). Our Lord will come to us, just as He promised! So the reality is that my adopted siblings may truly be the “chosen ones” in my family. After all, I wasn’t adopted by my parents. They were stuck with me and still are! However, in Christ, I am adopted. I’m more than fine with that! Rev. Joel Fritsche is an adopted child of God, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church in Staunton, Illinois, and a member of the board of directors of Higher Things.
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The Gift of God’s Dos and Don’ts By Rev. George F. Borghardt
“Do this....Don’t do that.” And if you don’t do, you go to hell. If you do do, or you don’t do it well enough, completely enough, you still go to hell.
The Law is a mirror that shows only our sins, our selfish motives, our faults, our deepest secrets. No matter what we do, the DVR of life is always recording—and the Law doesn’t miss a thing— thought, word, deed. It catches it all. Not to mention that even if you do or don’t do all that you are supposed to do, you still go to hell because you were born going to hell on account of Adam’s dids and didn’ts. Yet the Law was given as a gift from God. He’s our God. He protects us from what would kill us and tells us how His people are to live. But the gift has become a burden in our not doing. Lex semper accusat. You learned that in catechism class. I did, too. It means, “The Law always accuses.” There’s never a time in which the Law isn’t accusing us, isn’t condemning us, isn’t damning us. The Law wrecks our style. It tells us not to do stuff we want to do and to do stuff we don’t want to do. And the worst thing about it is that the Law is always true! Its condemnation is right—always right all the time. Some gift, eh? Can we return it? If God would just stop with all His dos and don’ts, wouldn’t our lives be better? Adam and Eve sure thought so. That’s why they did what they did! They believed that their dos and don’t dos were way better than what God had said to do and don’t do. You can try to ignore the Law and act like it isn’t there or put it behind you. But it still speaks truth, still condemns, and still hunts you down. You can jump out of a window, acting as if there isn’t gravity, but you’ll still hit the ground—hard. In the same way, you still get cast out of the Garden when you fall short of God’s Law. You still die. Death. The Law kills. It slays. It’s worse than the Grim Reaper. In the Law, each day, each one of us, every cell in us, is dying. Adam died. Eve died. Do do, and you die. Don’t do, and you die. Jesus first. The Law condemned Jesus first. Christ suffered the punishment for all our dos and don’ts. Every sin, every accusation—He bore it all for you and me. What He has taken upon Himself, He has redeemed, bought back, and forgiven. We would like to hide the Law, ignore it, sweep it under the bed. But Christ has done one better! He has fulfilled the Law. He counts all His perfect doing and don’t doing as your perfect doing and don’t doing. Then He died the death that we deserve for our dos and don’ts. And we, even you and me, are
saved. If He had not fulfilled the Law, it might still be out there, poised to sting, ready to reach out from under the bed and grab your leg and kill you and me. That’s the gift of the Law: It kills us, it slays us, it buries us. The Law kills us so that we can live in Christ. Thank God for the Law! And when you can’t lift up your dos and don’ts before God any more; when you realize that the life that you live before God isn’t life at all but just the death of your dos and don’ts—then you’ll understand all the more that the only hope you have in this world, the only salvation you have, is Christ. Christ has saved you—by His taking on God’s dos and don’ts for you and paying the price for them. His Cross is the end of the Law for you, the end of death for you, and the end of hell for you. In His death and resurrection, you have life—life that the Law could never give you. Life that never ever ends. And since you died to the Law in the waters of Holy Baptism, you can now live to God—not for yourself any more, but for your neighbor. God doesn’t need you to do the Law to make Him happy, but your neighbor sure does. Do and don’t do for those around you like Christ did and didn’t do for you. Sure, the Law will still sting and accuse you. Just ignore it and cling all the more to Jesus’ forgiveness. Jesus for you and Jesus for your neighbor, too. That’s the gift of the Law! The Law is a gift because it kills you. The Law is a gift because after you are slain by it, the Gospel raises you to new life in Christ. Then, forgiven one, the Law is a gift because it guides you in how to live for those around you. Only in the Gospel are the Law’s dos and don’ts a gift! Pastor George F. Borghardt is the senior pastor at Zion Ev. Lutheran Church in McHenry, Illinois, and serves as the Deputy and Conference Executive of Higher Things. His email address is revborghardt@higherthings.org.
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