Month: March 2021

Musings on Truth

Posted on by Michael Wine

Truth is an interesting thing to think about. What is it? By ‘truth’ do we mean facts, reality, relative truth, some combination of everything?

We know it is a real thing. We instruct children to ‘tell the truth’ and not to lie. When we say this to them I think we mean for them to tell what really happened. We want their words to match their actions, the actions of others, describe the sequence of events in the correct order, and leave nothing out.

That is a lot of meaning to bundle up into one single word – truth.

Then we can complicate it further by throwing in relative truth. For example, it is true for me that it is 9:04am. But for someone else on the East Coast it is 12:04pm. One fun thing about this is that the big, upper-level, non-relative truth is still the same for both of us. It is true that Michael Wine’s clock says 9:04am while person x’s clock says 12:04pm.

The relative truths fit together, in other words. They are consisent with each other, and fit inside of a larger truth.

I think perhaps some confusion with the idea of truth today is that people think they can have their own relative truths, even while those seperate truths do not fit together with the truths of another person. They think everyone can believe what they want, and each person can have their own ‘truth’ and not be wrong.

Unfortunately, truth doesn’t work like that. There has to be some larger framework that allows each different relative truth to come together and fit inside of the whole – like pieces of a puzzle coming together.

What happens, then, when one person’s so called relative truth conflicts and contradicts that of another? What if someone who is a man says that he is a woman? His truth is contradicting mine. There is no way both of our truths can fit together inside of a larger truth system. So who gets to be “right?”

Well, normally, we would say that whichever claim departs from the large, upper-level truth (the entire picture of the puzzle if you wil) is the one that is wrong. So in this case, the man would be wrong that he is a woman, because his claim departs from the reality of the situation.

But, today, it seems like people give priority to relative truth, to individuals, in deciding which puzzle pieces are correct. Each person can decide which relative truths they want for themselves, and everyone else is expected to honor that and affirm that, even if those relative truths have no way of fitting together with everyone else’s relative truths in a consistent way.

In other words, we’ve thrown away the whole idea of an upper level truth. Because you can’t have one if everyone gets their own truth, even if those truths condradict everyone else’s.

Is it any wonder we see so many struggling today to find a bigger meaning in life beyond one’s own passing pleasures? Is it any wonder why people are depressed, lonely, and afraid?

We have promoted ourselves as individuals to the rank of gods, capable of deciding what is true. But in so doing, we have lost our ability to exist together in the world as it really is. We have lost our humanity.

Our faith is in God.

Posted on by Michael Wine

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 24-25

There is one who is able to keep sinners from stumbling. There is one who can clear them of all charges and wrong. He is our Savior and He alone.

I see so many people today leaving their faith in God in broken shards on the floor. If it could happen to them, I think, could it happen to me? It makes me sad, and a little scared.

I know myself. I know the potential for sin that exists in my own heart. I know that, if everything depended on me, I would fail in the end. I would join the ranks of the ‘deconstructing.’

But God is able to save. My faith lies not in myself but in Him. He is able to hold my hand and He does. For He is my loving Father. He is stronger than me, and anything else in this world.

Let us not put faith in mere evidence for creationism, in mere proofs that the Bible is consistent and true, in mere facts from archeology, or in mere scientific and philosophical arguments. There is a flaw with all of these. It is this – we have sinful, God-hating hearts. All sound evidence collapses under the weight of our own sinful desires.

Instead, we must look up and see God. When he gives us eyes of faith to see Him, we must look up! He is there like the sun, blazing and burning and shining in glory. He and He alone keeps us from stumbling. Our faith must be in Him alone.

Do not love the world.

Posted on by Michael Wine

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1John 2:15

This verse has been on my mind recently.

It says that there is a realm, or container of things that one cannot love, while at the same time loving God. The world is the container that we are not to love, and ‘the things in the world’ are the contents of the container.

So what is that?

Am I not to love the earth? Am I not to love my children, who exist on the earth? What does it mean?

The next verse defines the world for us: For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 1 John 2:16

  1. Desires – the first things that is in the world is wrong desires.
  2. Flesh – our flesh is our fallen nature. It is self serving and self seeking by definition. So, anything the flesh desires is not of God.
  3. Eyes – our eyes are part of our sinful flesh. They are our instruments of perception, attention, and judgement. They are the tools we use to observe what we perceive as glorious. The desires of our fallen eyes are not of God.
  4. Pride – It’s all about me. I’m the most important person in my life. No matter what I am doing, I am always thinking about myself, comparing myself to others (or even to myself). This kind of attitude is connected to our wrong desires and is even a source of them.

If one cannot love these things and love God at the same time, what does it mean to love these things? The word for ‘love’ is is agapao (agape) in Greek. This is the same word used to describe how God loves. This is the kind of love that God has for us.

With this love, Jesus came to earth, sacrificing Himself for the real good of those he loved. This kind of love is passionate, self-sacrificing, and focused on what is really and truly good for the object of love.

It’s possible to love the world like that. And that is scary. We can have a passion for the desires of our flesh, eyes and our pride. We can sacrifice ourselves for them. We can sacrifice our families to be successful at work. We can sacrifice our marriages to feel happy. We can and do, sacrifice meaningful relationships for the sake of our own pride.

At least, we can if we are not born of God. This is such a temptation in our day. America is full of the love of the world, and it is so easy to be lulled into the trance of ‘following your dreams’ and ‘being all that you can be.’ We must keep our eyes fixed on Christ by faith, and not allow our love to drift.

P.S. Here is a sermon by one of my favorite preachers John Piper on this verse that I just listened to. You should listen to it. HE has a lot more to say about this idea and says it much better.

Regaining wonder

Posted on by Michael Wine

I love the season of Spring. The air is cool in the morning. The sun is shining and the birds are singing. It is a beautiful day that God has made.

Each day is the same, but each day it different. The sun rises again, in a way it has never quite done before.

Our memories of the past allow us to feel the progression of time. They give us continuity from day to day.

Memories also allow our brains to filter out, to not pay attention to, what is expected – what has happened before. Can you imagine waking up in the morning with no memories of anything?

You would be so overwhelmed by the sheer amazingness, wonder, even terror, of this world.

Try it sometime. Pretend you have lost all your memories, and notice the world around you as if for the first time. Maybe just for five minutes.

Allow yourself to wonder at the artistry of God.

Shadows are magical

Posted on by Michael Wine

Have you ever been around a child when they first realize what a shadow is? It is a wonderful thing to witness.

Their eyes go wide, and they stare for a while. They laugh and try to catch shadows. When my kids learned about them, for a month straight they would randomly point out shadows when they saw them.

“Dad, there is that trees shadow.”

“Dad! My shadow is inside your shadow!”

Shadows are amazing. And kids know it. And then they get older and forget about it. They turn into us. We don’t even look at shadows anymore.

But we should.

Outside my window is the pale blue wall of my neighbor’s apartment. And on the wall is displayed a glorious shadow. It is the outline of my own roof, and that of the palm tree that is standing right in front of my window. The palm tree’s shadow looks like it’s coming right out of my roof!

The shadow leaves of the tree are moving in the wind just like the real one, in an amazing level of detail.

To think that a big ball of fire ninety-three million miles away could paint a perfect palm tree that moves with the wind!

This world is incredible. Shadows are magical.

Evil and the Sky are Alike

Posted on by Michael Wine

In an earlier post I said, “…if God is all-merciful, how can evil not exist? For if there was no evil in the world, God would not be able to show mercy, and therefore not be Himself. He would not be God at all.”

Is this actually true? Someone responded and told me that the above could be clarified to be more accurate in the following way: God would not be able to show Himself to be merciful without the existence of evil. He would still be God, still be Himself. But His mercy would not be on display.

After thinking about this I believe it is correct and a good clarification to make. After all, God has existed for all eternity past. It is hard to imagine God existing in some sense ‘before’ time itself. This is because the very word ‘before’ cannot be used in the normal temporal sense.

However, the fact remains that for all eternity, God is. And for all eternity, God is merciful in His nature, even without a physically instantiated creation capable of doing evil and receiving mercy. Therefore, God would still be the merciful God that He is without the existence of evil in the world.

But here is the key: God did create the world. Why?

That question is far to large for me to fully answer. But by reading the Bible from a big picture perspective, and as argued by great Christian thinkers such as Jonathan Edwards, John Piper, and the writers of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, we see that the reason God created was to display His glory. In other words, it was to reveal Himself for who He really is, in all His glory.

Take, for example, Psalm 19:1 – “”The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands….” Creation declares His glory. That is why (albeit extremely oversimplified) He made the world.

So why does evil exist in the creation that God made? For the same reason as the sky. They both exist to magnify God, to display who He really is. Without evil, God could not display the wrath that he has toward sin. And, to get back to my original point from Romans 11:32, He could not display His mercy.

If God did not allow evil to exist in the world, it would go against His own purpose for creating anything! And that is something God cannot do.

Fear and God’s Providence

Posted on by Michael Wine

I’ve been thinking about the providence of God, mostly because of a book called Providence by John Piper.

Specifically, what has been on my mind is how every single thing is under God’s direct influence.

In Matthew 10:29 Jesus says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”

Not even a little insignificant sparrow is so insignificant that it escapes God’s attention and control.

Is Jesus saying that God really cares about sparrows specifically? He is saying that, but that is not all that He is saying. He is using sparrows as part of a logical argument.

The verse before verse 29 says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (10:28) This is all part of a larger discussion in which Jesus is instructing His disciples in how they are to act when they are persecuted and when they suffer for Him. They are to not be afraid or anxious in the face of physical pain and suffering at the hands of others.

Jesus says that His disciples must not fear other people. Instead, they should fear God. Why? This is where the sparrows come in. Because God controls event the smallest, most insignificant part of the world.

If I let that sink in, I realized that I am totally dependent on God for literally everything. The food I eat, the air I breath, the coffee I’m sipping right now… God’s hand is in all of that, causing and allowing it to happen.

What a terrible truth that is! The God of the universe, the one I have rebelled against, is the only reason I’m alive in this moment.

And what a wonderful truth it is at the same time. Because of God’s grace and mercy, He is not against me (Romans 8). He is actually on my side (or I am on His side)!

It is amazing that really fearing the God who is in total control, can lead to the removal of all fears. For God is also in control of all of the things that I could ever be afraid of in this life. And he promises to use His control to work only good in the lives of those who love Him, the ones He has chosen for Himself.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. Romans 8:28-30

God’s mercy toward evil doers.

Posted on by Michael Wine

For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. Romans 11:32

What an amazing sentence.

Disobedience is sin. It is disobeying God. It is, in fact, the essence of all human evil. God has consigned all, both His chosen people of Israel and everyone else, to disobedience.

‘Consigned’ means handing someone over into the custody of another. It means sold. It means God actively sold all humanity into the power of evil.

That. It is a word of purpose. There is a reason for this. God has a plan.

And His plan is mercy. How mind bending, and staggering this is. To realize that God designed for all this evil to exist in the world, so that He could have mercy toward the evil doers

The fool says, if God is all-powerful and all-good and all-knowing, then how can evil exist? Since evil exists, then God cannot.

They forget to add all-merciful to God’s list of attributes. For if God is all-merciful, how can evil not exist? For if there was no evil in the world, God would not be able to show mercy, and therefore not be Himself. He would not be God at all.

EDIT: The above paragraph is ambiguous and needs clarification, which I have provided in a new post here: https://wineinthevine.com/evil-and-the-sky-are-alike/

I have nothing else to say but to quote Paul’s own thoughts right after verse 32:

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:33-36

The Call of Salvation

Posted on by Michael Wine

For ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.’ Romans 10:13
And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved. Acts 2:21

Have you known the quiet echo of fear, in the moment of solitude, when you recall that you are mortal?
Life is temporary, fleeting. Then, it is gone.

We have fleeting time to live. So, one would think that we might make the best of that time, but we do not. We waste it with selfishness, trivialities, addictions.

We addict ourselves to alcohol, food, sex, drugs, work, social media, entertainment, the recognition and praise of other people. We go to college to end it with debt. We get married and start families to end them with divorce. We set goals and meet them, if we are lucky. But the goals are never enough. We have to make more.

We are all in trouble. It is no wonder that when a global pandemic breaks out, fear goes up. We are afraid to die, of course. Maybe we are afraid to die because we know, deep down, that we haven’t really lived yet.

For the deeply depressed and those who are suffering greatly, the thought of death may bring some comfort. At least it is an end to the pain. Is it?

No one really knows do they? If you are thinking about it scientifically, no one has proven that those who die do not live on in some sense. All we know is that their bodies come to an end. And if a human being is only a body, that would be an end to the debate, wouldn’t it?

But are we really just bodies? Can the depth of our feelings, loves, hates, desires, dreams, and despairs be summed up in the interactions of colliding atoms on a microscopic level?

I think not. If that were so, the more our knowledge of the human body increased, the greater the decrease would be in so called ‘mental health’ problems. But that is not the case.

One study found that the rate of depression in teens in America increased “from 8.7 percent in 2005 to 12.7 percent in 2015.”

But, some might say, while the rate of depression is increasing, so is our ability to treat it. However, everyone knows that a problem is not fully understood until it can be prevented from happening again, that is cured. All we can do to combat depression, it seems, is to treat the symptoms, but not cure the disease.

There is much we do not understand about what humans really are. I believe that we do in fact live on even after our physical death. And I am not the only one who thinks that. NBC reported in 2016 that “80 percent of Americans said they believe in an afterlife in 2014, up from 73 percent in 1972-74.”

If that is true, why are we so afraid of death? I think it is because we know that we will be judged based on our lives on this earth. We are afraid to meet Christ – “Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead.” (2 Tim 4:1). He will look at us. His eyes will pierce our souls. He will see everything we’ve done, thought, said, and wished for. We are afraid the verdict will be damning.

So we scramble in this life. Some invent other ‘religions’ that they can follow to try and convince themselves that they will pass the test. Some of us pretend that God doesn’t exist, so that we can live as stress-free of a life that we can cobble together. We try to get our act together. We try to find meaning. And, for some reason, we resist approaching the Judge Himself. We resist asking Him for mercy.

But that is exactly what he promises.

Peter the Apostle and first preacher of the Church declares as the crescendo to his sermon at Pentecost, “And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” (Acts 2:21)

Paul the Apostle and great missionary of the Church quotes the very same thing in Romans, the greatest of all letters, “For ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.'” (Romans 10:13)

The one who sits on the throne, the judge of the living and of the dead, promises to save those who call on Him. His name is Jesus. The call of faith to the one who judges and offers grace, is a call of surrender to the Lord Jesus. And that Jesus promises to save those who ask Him. It is a call of salvation.

It is time to stop running from Him. Stop chasing every other thing in life that you possibly can. Go to Jesus. He is alive. He is good. He will save those who call on His name.

Listen to this message.

Posted on by Michael Wine

This is an old sermon my Tim Keller about self forgetfulness. At its core is the fundamental truth that because of Jesus, and in Him, God really does see us as righteous, as His children.

Tim Keller unfolds this idea in the context of escaping the soul crushing, ever present selfconsiousness we face every day.

When I begin to understand God as the one who loves me, and see me as His son, and an heir to his kingdom, I stop trying so hard to impress Him (and other people – and myself). My attempts to impress were never that impressive to begin with.

Knowing what He really thinks about me makes me want to know Him better, to understand Him. I can now live righteously because it is good, not because I’m trying to prove something.

Seriously, it’s only 40 minutes long, but it can change your life. Listen to it!