As we celebrate our nation’s 250th year of existence, and as we continue to hear stories of how turning people loose to use their giftedness, to take risks, to create and to build, in an environment of freedom, has resulted in some amazing things, I thought you might be encouraged to hear a sort of “close to home” story of just how good God has made it for all of us in this free society in which we live. Here is just one from our family. 

If the book of Psalms is the “heart” of the Scriptures, it is fairly evident to me that the book of Proverbs is the “brain”. My brother-in-law, Reese Kauffman, once told me of some tremendous wisdom that his dad, my father-in-law (Russ Kauffman), gave him when he was starting out in business over sixty years ago. Reese was lamenting the fact that his life circumstances did not afford him the opportunity to go to college, that all he had was a high school degree and, here he was, now starting out trying to launch his own business, Kauffman Metal Products, Inc. Reese said that his dad simply told him, “Reese, I know you are sorry about not being able to have a college degree.  But, there is actually a better thing you can obtain. Why don’t you make it your goal to obtain an ‘advanced degree’ in the book of Proverbs?” 

Reese said that he took that advice to heart, and it changed his life. He started his company, Kauffman Metal Products, and he determined that his company would be run by God, and that every business decision he made would be based upon the principles set forth in the book of Proverbs.  Reese started out with one metal stamping press and one part-time employee, in 500 square feet of rental space in a small building towards the back end of a lumber yard. He had no clients and no money, but a heart determined to make every business decision in accordance with the book of Proverbs.

40 years later, that company, Kauffman Metal Products, Inc., operated out of 5 buildings situated on 15 acres of land, which it owned completely debt free, in an industrial park in Carmel, Indiana. Every bucket seat in a car or truck that you sat in made by Ford; every RCA television set sold anywhere in the world; every bomb dropped from a fighter jet in Vietnam and other venues around the world, from the 1960s through the 1990s, contained an integral metal part stamped by one of the 56 presses which operated 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, under the guidance of the 146 full-time employees of Kauffman Metal Products. Reese sold the business, the land, buildings, and the presses, in the late 1990s in order to spend the next 30 years of his life in full-time ministry as the president of Child Evangelism Fellowship. Just in case you are wondering what the business sold for, Reese said he sold the business ... “for a lot.” When asked at a Rotary luncheon the “secret” to his success in business, Reese looked out at an audience full of businessmen, picked up his Bible, and answered simply: “The book of Proverbs.”

That true story about Terri’s brother is a perfect introduction for chapter 51 of Robert J. Morgan’s book, One Hundred Bible Verses Everyone Should Know by Heart.  In this particular chapter Morgan discusses Proverbs 1:7 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Here is Morgan’s account.

In memorizing 100 key texts of the Bible, notice that 4 of them come from the book of Proverbs (Proverbs 3:5-6; 1:7; 15:1). We could just as easily have selected all 100 verses from this book because it’s the most practical, every day, common sense book in Scripture.

Think of the book of Proverbs as God’s Twitter feed to the human race. With Twitter, you have 140 characters for your message or to sum up what’s going on in your life. These little messages are short bursts of communication. When you read a Tweet – a Twitter message – you are reading a burst of truth about a person’s life, activities, observations, or philosophy, summed up in 140 characters or less.

That’s just what we have in the book of Proverbs: God’s giving advice to us in short bursts of communication, usually 140 characters or less per verse.

Proverbs is God’s divinely-designed self-improvement course, His textbook for learning how to wise up and live. The 915 verses in Proverbs represent God’s wisdom for the hundreds of situations we step into each day.

Think of Proverbs as portable wisdom – heavenly rules for earthly living.

God’s wisdom has little to do with grades on a report card but everything to do with getting high marks in life. It isn’t just data accumulation or brain power. It is putting our knowledge to work in everyday life. Thumb through the 31 chapters of Proverbs, and you’ll find them packed with advice about working hard, eating wisely, watching how much we drink, guarding how much we speak, avoiding unhealthy friendships and immoral sexuality, treating people kindly, handling money well, and making good decisions in matters great and small.

The whole theme of Proverbs is summed up in today’s memory verse, Proverbs 1:7. This verse is the key that unlocks the whole book, and that’s why it’s worth memorizing. There is one common denominator to all the Proverbs, a single thread that runs through each verse: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Each of the Proverbs either tells us: (1) How we will respond to life if we have a healthy fear of the Lord, or (2) How we will mess up if we don’t.

The fear of the Lord is not unhealthy, dysfunctional, or debilitating fear. It means an appropriate respect, reverence, awe, and wonder. A.W. Tozer wrote: “The fear of God is ... astonished reverence. I believe that the reverential fear of God mixed with love and fascination and astonishment and admiration and devotion is the most enjoyable state and the most satisfying emotion the human soul can know.”

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

And then, Morgan ends his chapter with the following great quote from Vance Havner:

It is one of life’s strange turns that scholars ransack libraries looking for wisdom, while, perhaps, the janitor has found it long ago.

Morgan’s account ends there, but not the powerful impact of God’s word, especially truths from the book of Proverbs, have in our life. Perhaps it’s time some of us went back to college. Perhaps it’s time that some of us obtained some “higher education”, perhaps for the first time. Perhaps it’s time for all of us to get our “advanced degree” in the Book of Proverbs. As it says in Psalm 119:99: “I have more understanding than all my teachers; for Thy testimonies are my meditation.”

We hope to see you “on campus” very soon! Soli Deo Gloria.

Love,

John & Terri
Prov. 1:7