“A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not in the branch but in its own wings,” I am reading at the bottom of the back cover of a little book advertising courses for people who want to learn more.

I take it that it is a message for future students.

I don’t know what comes to your mind when reading that, but I am thinking of the verses at the beginning of the Bible that say that God created not only man, male and female, but also the birds. You can read that in Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 1:20.

Furthermore the Bible has a lot to say about people who trust in themselves and in others.

Psalm 49 tells us about he fate of those people who trust in themselves (Psalm 49:13). And Proverbs 28:26 says that “He who trusts in himself is a fool, …”

“Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils,” commands Isaiah 2:22 and Jeremiah 17:5 says “‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, …” Psalm 118:8 says, “It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.”

I said that I am thinking of the verses at the beginning of the Bible, when reading about the message to the future students. Why?

Because I know about the selfexistence of God (Exodus 3:13-15). God is the first cause of everything, but he himself is uncaused. God is the only independent being in the universe. Men are dependent beings.

We are willing to share ourselves, to sacrifice ourselves, but we are not willing to dethrone ourselves.

“DO AS WE SAY …

… NOT AS WE DO,” is the article in our local paper called.

That certainly reminds readers of the Bible of what the Lord Jesus Christ said the the crowds and his disciples about the teachers of the law and the Pharisees in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 23 at the beginning. He said to them, “… do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what the preach.”

Long ago I heard the saying that those who expect obedience from others, must first learn to be obedient themselves. It is so easy for all of us to tell others what to do and and not doing it ourselves.

In his letter to the Romans in Chapter two from verse 17 the Apostle Paul asks a number of questions. Here are some of them:

“You who preach against stealing, do you steal?”

” You who say people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?”

“You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?”

In Matthew 7:14-27 the Lord Jesus Christ teaches about the Wise builder and the Foolish builder. The wise man hears and puts into practice what he hears, the foolish man hears and does not put into practice what he hears.

What are we, foolish or wise?

Is there anything we have heard or read or taught and have not practiced yet?

“Work as if everything depended upon work and pray as if everything depended on prayer.” – William Booth

“Our discipleship to Jesus Christ costs nothing less than everything.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” – Albert Einstein

“The mainspring of Paul’s service is not love for men, but love for Jesus Christ.” – Oswald Chambers