The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom...

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Prov. 9:10

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who practice it have a good understanding. Ps. 111:10

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Prov 1:7

I read an interview with Carl Trueman, professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, that reminded me of some things I had been meaning to post about for some time. Here is a relevant excerpt:

What signs of potential doctrinal drift and danger do you need to keep an eye out for in ministerial students?
I am increasingly convinced that pride is the root of problems among students. I was convicted recently by a minister friend quoting to me 1 Tim. 1:5-7 (ESV):
The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
My friend made two observations about this passage. First, the drift into dubious theological discussion is here described as moral in origin: these characters have swerved from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith; that is why their theology is so dreadful. Second, their desire is not to teach but to be teachers. There is an important difference here: their focus is on their own status, not on the words they proclaim. At most, the latter are merely instrumental to getting them status and boosting their careers.

A while back I was involved in a discussion with some people I knew from Texas A & M concerning the rightness of the Roman Catholic church and the doctrines She holds. My friends were attempting to persuade me of the correctness thereof while I was attempting to dissuade. The article on which everything turned for my now-Roman and/or "Anglo-Catholic", formerly reformed, acquaintances was the relationship of tradition to Scripture.

I noted that the reformed Sola Scriptura argument was circular as is the Roman Catholic argument. The basic Reformational argument was simply that God's Word has precedence simply because it is the God-breathed Word. The Roman argument was more complex and had a greater number of proofs, but was still circular. Circularity does not necessarily imply error (as I believe the basic Reformational argument is accurate and well-founded in its circularity). Both arguments were also consistent, as far as I could prove. So as far as philosophy could take us, I felt as if we were at an impasse.

This may seem like a long rabbit-trail, but the the important thing is that the Reformed argument had at its root the fear of the Lord. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One insight." Now there is a number of ways this scripture can be applied, a number of which rebuke even to those whose faith is orthodox. Several are applicable here, to the question of those who are unorthodox. Here are 3 of them.

• First of all, despite the prior possession of right doctrine, these acquaintances did not hold onto it because they did not value it. Fear of the Lord creates an internal measuring system that rightly weights truth. Conversely, fools despise wisdom and instruction. They do not think to themselves, "True wisdom is worthless." The problem is that when they are confronted with true wisdom, they think it is foolishness. Our minds have motives, and when those motives are impure, even the truth currency we already hold suffers self-imposed inflation.
• Secondly, the fear of the Lord is the root of the tree of truth. Do we fear the Lord? Do we hate to offend a holy and good God? Not only is this good wisdom, it is for us the root which sinks deep into the ground of God's natural and Scriptural revelation, giving to us the sap of life and wisdom. Mere longing for knowledge is not sufficient as a root. In fact, Scripture is pessimistic about this kind of beginning, as "knowledge puffs up." However, the knowledge gained humbly and in trembling will be rightly understood and will be transformed to wisdom.
• Thirdly, true doctrine always has at its heart the fear of the Lord. To clarify, the truth of a statement can be judged by whether the statement in question is directed to the glory of God. Psalm 111:10 not only says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that all who practice it have good understanding, it finishes by saying, "His praise endures forever." Scripture over and over shows that one of the errors of sinful man is not recognizing the foolishness of setting one's mind against God's. God is good, and he has created this world for his own glory, and to not expect that all truths point to God's glory is a foolish presupposition. Certainly the psalmist expects that all truth to be discovered will point to God's glory and never to the glory of man. The rich young ruler asks, "'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?' And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.'" (Mark 10:18) All the man was asking for was truth, yet Jesus pointed him to his inadequate epistemology by a moral question.

Like father, like daughter

I've been going through some of Rich's baby pictures, and it's amazing to see how much Anna Ruth looks like him. Obviously, we know she favors him and has his coloring, but their baby pictures side-by-side are a lot of fun to look at. I found a couple where they have similar poses, and you can see what I mean.

How much is this worth?

China's One-Child policy is no all bark-no bite policy. News has leaked of some recent cases of brutal enforcement of that policy. As the article describes, Chinese officials are currently worried about their public image. They probably don't have reason to worry, because they still make the cheapest products. If you really want something, you can get it for half the price by buying Chinese.

Though we are too materialistic to let news like this bother us for more than a day, perhaps we should. Considering the communist Chinese government's role in and benefit from their industry (which, unlike the U.S. gov't, is direct, rather than indirect), we ought to realize that our purchases do impact that government greatly, which is why their government cares about how their image will be affected by this.

Is there an electronic or plastic item that would be a wonderful addition to our home? Perhaps we should consider a more expensive version made in another country. Can we not afford it? Then perhaps we can do without. Especially when we consider the alternative. Is this wonderful improvement to the life of my family worth funding the forced murder of unborn children?

Our Virginia Tech Narrative and Jarrett Lane

At work on Monday morning, one of my bosses came out of his office to ask me, “Didn’t you go to Virginia Tech? There’s been a shooting there.” On CNN’s website, I found that there had been two people shot in the dorms. I was wondering why the story was getting so much attention. I didn’t think of the story in terms of a gunman on the loose, but instead in terms of the two students who were killed. I continued to check the website for names of the people involved. Not too long after, someone in the office said that a lot more people had been shot. Someone said that I might know some of the people who were there, seeing as it was an engineering building. My answer was that there were a whole lot of engineering buildings on campus. Liv called soon afterward after getting a phone call from my mother, and she told me that the shooting had happened at Norris Hall, and she also told me that there were 20 dead. I couldn’t place in my mind which hall was Norris, but I knew that I had had some classes there.

At my first opportunity, I took my lunch break to come home. One of our close friends is a PhD student in Electrical Engineering, so we called his house to check on him. His wife said that he was ok, and that he was in Whitemore Hall at the time. We breathed a sigh of relief, and felt confident that no one we knew was hurt. We turned on the television, and looking at a map of campus, we remembered that I had had several classes in Norris Hall, and had taught class in that building 4 days a week my last semester at VT. The landscape for these events was utterly familiar to us, but the events of that day still felt far off. I returned to work relieved, but yet feeling very awkward. I wanted to understand what had happened and why. One of my co-workers was asking me about things, and I tried to answer him, but I didn’t feel like I was making any sense. I wanted to systematize the situation, but I didn’t have the tools to do so.

After work, my dad (a VT alum) called. He asked if everyone at our church was safe. I said that I was pretty sure, and that I had contacted the person most likely to have been there. My dad encouraged me to make sure, so I called our pastor in Blacksburg, David Vance. David answered the phone somberly and told us that everyone was ok. In fact, he had a story of God’s goodness in that one of our friends, Will Johnson, would have been in Norris Hall, but had overslept that morning. David encouraged us to pray that the church would be able to have a good witness during this time when many people would question the goodness of God. We retired early that night, praying that God would do this very thing, and thanking him for his clear protection of Will.

First thing the next morning, I checked the victims list on www.foxnews.com. I saw one name that stood out: “Jarrett Lane.” This was merely a common-sounding name, I thought. In the car on my way to work, it struck me—Jarrett had been a student of mine. His lanky frame and short red hair had appeared clearly in my mental vision. Jarrett had come to lab just after the first quiz, and I did not have a choice but to give him a zero for that quiz, as I had been instructed to do. Instead of the confrontation that I expected, he understood why I had done what I had done, and did not complain. I was impressed. In fact, he became my favorite student, one with whom I shared many non-academic conversations after class. During class, I always found opportunities to speak against the philosophical relativism prevalent on campus. With Jarrett, I had had the opportunity after class to pursue this conversation further, actually going through a proof of the existence of God, though I tried to use subtlety in doing so. He always appeared to be tracking with my logic, and he agreed with my conclusions. I had considered going further, to share the gospel with Jarrett, but did not because I did not want to lose my job.

This recognition of Jarrett took moments to occur, but as soon as the realization completed, I had been pierced. My work at VT had appeared to me before to be faithful, but I realized my unfaithfulness. And this unfaithfulness may have hurt someone, and may have hurt him deeply. Sadness on behalf of Jarrett and his family overwhelmed me, with my guilt before God cutting me and deepening my pain. In sorrow, I called out to God, confessing my unfaithfulness and thanking him for showing me my sin. I knew that my God had heard my prayer, but my unrest did not subside. Throughout the day, God skillfully drove his healing nails into my heart, as Jesus with Peter. He did not want me to quickly forget this heinous sin, nor did I want to. At lunch, Liv encouraged me to respond by doing what the Lord was doing in me, that is, to value God’s forgiveness more, and never again to put fear of man before fear of the Lord, but to be bold in the proclamation of the gospel. Yet my prayers did not cease. Not only was I praying that God would work these things in me, I also struggled with God. “Lord, I know that you are good, and that you will make all things new, but how can this be set right? Please tell me that you have already done so, that Jarrett was a Christian all along! May I see him on the last day.” I pleaded with God to give me this comfort.

God gave me little rest, and instead by Fatherly discipline, caused godly grief to do its work. I looked for a description of Jarrett everywhere I could. I tried to contact guys that I thought might have known him. I did not find anything substantive until that evening.

In the personality profile from the A.P., Jarrett was described as humble and kind, just as I remembered him. His family said that they were leaning on the grace of God, which gave me hope. They declined to be further interviewed, needing instead time to grieve. However, the news from his hometown did not need his family to give the story. Jarrett’s life story was well-known there. He was known to be a Christian before he was anything else, and Jarrett was clear that here was his first identity. A day full of tears of sorrow turned into an evening of joyous celebration by Liv and I. We thanked God for his work on Jarrett’s behalf, and for comforting us by revealing this. We asked again for boldness on behalf of Christ, not only for us, but for our church body in Blacksburg, and for all of the Christians there.

The New York Times’ website had an opportunity for people who knew the victims to comment. The following is what I posted on the New York Times’ website:

I was a graduate student in civil engineering at VT. I taught Jarrett in a Mechanics of Materials lab. Jarrett was my favorite student during my entire time at VT. Many times, I hear people praising victims of atrocities, and I assume that people are merely trying to put glossy finishes on the lives of others. However, these descriptions of Jarrett as a very humble and hardworking and friendly guy are very apt, if not understated. I hope that people realize what Jarrett apparently always tried to get across, that his care for others was in the name of a faithful, kind, and merciful Savior, the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, b/c of whom he had received undeserved mercy. May Jarrett's memory encourage those of us who have tasted of God's mercy in Christ to love others as we have been loved, and to be unashamed of the message of the gospel, which is the power of God for salvation. The prayers of my family and of so many other believers are for Jarrett's family, that they would take comfort in the strong and wise love of the sovereign God. Not only this, but that they "may not grieve as those who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep." (1 Thess. 4:13-14). Also that they would be given words to speak, to be "prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you." (1 Peter 3:15).

Vocab 015

Anna Ruth's vocabulary changes so quickly, so I wanted to make a list of her current vocab at 15 months. So, while I was at it, I thought it might be a fun thing for all of y'all to see, too.

Words: Dadda, Mama, baby, bear, ball, all done, bye-bye, amen (at the end of prayers and hymns, as well as at the end of books, turning off the TV, vacuum cleaner, etc... (We're still trying to explain the appropriate times to say it)), hey, owl, duck, dah (dog), hair, shirt, shoe, box, off (whenever a light is turned off), ra-ra (cracker), juice

Phrases: What's that?, It's a baby.

Signs: juice, eat, more, please, all done, milk (working on thank you)


Other interesting happenings and hobbies: LOVES books, LOVES dogs, dances to music (doesn't quite get rhythm yet), fake laughs (whenever she hears anyone else laughing), gives kisses (and says "Mmwah" while doing it), gives hugs (pats or rubs shoulder, also), points to parts of body when asked where they are, makes animal noises (monkey, dog (barking and panting), lion, snake, bee)

In addition
to saying "shoe",
Anna Ruth has
also begun to
find my shoes
and try to walk
around in them.


It doesn't
usually turn out
very well, but she
is never daunted
by the idea of
trying again.

Spring has sprung!

The weather has been gorgeous the past few days here. We're enjoying the warm weather, and being outside more often. Anna Ruth absolutely loves romping around in the grass now that she has pretty much mastered the art of walking. She's discovering a whole new world of trees, flowers, dirt, and the neighbor's yappy little dog. We're enjoying spring, because I know once summer actually gets here, we'll be sweating it out and ready for something cooler. For now, though, it's fun watching Anna Ruth be able to explore all the things that she couldn't appreciate last spring. Of course, I have to post a picture of Anna Ruth, and this one is of her in a spring dress that Memaw got her, and I was excited to see her wear it for the first time. She's also holding a doll that Great-Gramma Hamlin sent her today. Immediately when we pulled it out of the package, she loved it and was walking around with it on her shoulder saying "Baby, mm-hmm" and patting its back.

Recent Pics of Anna Ruth and the Hamlin Fam