Introduction

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.  …  Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.” (Proverbs 1:7; 31:30)

                Since about 14 years ago, God has revealed more and more of my own foolishness through His words, and gave me the heart that I should not continue to live like this anymore.  So from that time on, I held on to the words of James 1:5, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” and started asking God for wisdom.  Also I decided to meditate on the “Books of Wisdom” in the Bible.  So, the first book I chose was “The Book of Psalms”.  After meditating on the Book of Psalms for about four years (Sept. 21, 2005 – Sept. 30, 2009), the next book I meditated on was “The Book of Ecclesiastes” (Oct. 7, 2009 – Dec. 22, 2010).  After that, I started preaching “The book of Proverbs” on January 5, 2011 at the Wednesday prayer meeting, and it was finally finished last week on October 9, 2019.  I thank God for giving me the grace to meditate on and preach on the words of Proverbs for over last 8 years.  Also, I am grateful to the church members who listened to the sermons of the same book, “Proverbs,” for so long.

                I believe that someday this book of Proverbs will be made into a book with the Lord's permission, and I have set the title of the book “God-fearing Life”.  The reason is because in the beginning of the Book of Proverbs the phrase “the fear of the Lord” appears (1:7) and in the end the phrase “a woman who fears the Lord” appears (31:30).  As I meditated on these two phrases, I came to think that “the fear of the Lord” is the theme of the whole book of Proverbs.  And I think that the fear of God is really wisdom (Prov. 1:7; 9:10; 15:33, Ref. Job 28:28; Ps. 111:10).  I hope and pray that the Lord will use this book of meditation on the words of the Proverbs as a tool and give the brothers and sisters in Christ who come into contact with this book to live a life of fearing God.

                “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Mt. 10:16).

Desire to live God-fearing life,

James Kim