Non Nobis Domine

"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us; but unto Thy hame may all the glory be, for Thy mercy and Thy truth's sake." Ps. 115:1

"When Jesus heard [of Lazarus' illness], he said, 'This sickness is not for death, but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.'" John 11:4

"[The chief priests and Pharisees said,] 'If we let Him alone like this, all men will believe on Him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.'" John 11:48

Psalm 115 gives us a comparison of God with idols (vs. 2-9), with the conclusion being that while God is the Lord of Heaven (vs. 3), idols are nothing more than "the work of men's hands" (vs. 4), and "they that make them are like unto them, and so is everyone that trusteth in them" (vs. 8). There seemed to be an understanding amongst the Hebrews that the comparison of God to idols was not a comparison of God to other gods but rather a comparison of God to man, which is no comparison at all (hence the foolishness of idolatry). Idol worship is the glorification, not of lesser gods, but of man over God.
This is why the Pharisee's sentiment concerning Jesus is so dangerous. Whereas Jesus continually stressed the glory of the Father in all things, the Pharisees were more concerned with the maintenance and exaltation of themselves and their country, their very own "work of their hands."
It is very easy to glide over idolatry when we view it as simply the worship of false gods. We are civilized (so we say); we no longer have pagan totems or temples. If, however, idolatry is actually more basic, if it is simply to worship the work of your hands and therefore is subsequently self-worship, then we all have blood on our hands. It is easy to love ourselves, and it is easy to love the work of our hands: our humanity desires expression and commendation of that expression. The problem is when we glorify ourselves by glorifying the work, when all glory belongs to God, a glory sought not out of egotism, but out of love, for only when God is glorified are we wholly human.
This does not mean that we must never create (if so, then why are the Psalms scripture?). What it does mean is that every creation of our hands, and our understanding of ourselves as creatures, must keep in mind at all times the supremacy (and majesty) of the Creator. It is "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28), and thus every work of our hand is really a work of His hand. To claim otherwise is idolatry, which is pride, which is sin.
Nothing falls outside the grasp of the glory of God, not even evil (John 11:4). Why then should we think that the works of our hands are immune? Let all things be done for the glory of God, for all things are done to the glory of God. Any assertion to the contrary is a delusion on our part of the way things really are. How foolish will be the one who worships a creation that, on the day when "every knee" will bow, it itself will worship the Creator? If the works of our hands could speak, they would mimic the words of the angels, who said to any that worshipped them, "See that thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant.... Worship God" (Rev. 19:10; 22:8-9).

-Jon Vowell

Damnable Ignorance

"Know ye that the Lord, He is God; it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture." Ps. 100:3

"But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? For all things come of Thee, and of Thine own hand have we given Thee." I Chr. 29:14

Humility, joy, love, and every other aspect of Christ-likeness comes from a resolute focusing of our heart and mind on the fact of our necessary dependence. "The Son can do nothing of Himself," Jesus said to the Jews, "except what He seeth the Father do" (John 5:19). Such is the nature of true Christ-likeness: a state of utter acknowledgment and living in the reality of one's dependence on God.
What person can truly claim to have "arrived" by their own strengths? Many do make such a claim, but it is all noisome hubris. Their strengths are God's strengths, for He is their Creator and thus has given them those strengths. Likewise, which of His children can truly claim to be their own man/woman? Sadly, many do, and they boast of their strengths "as if [they] had not received it" (I Cor. 4:7). It is God, and not ourselves, who "makes" us in every way; we are His and not our own. To claim otherwise is nothing but pride and Sin, the parents of such damnable ignorance, for many are cast into Hell thinking that they can live and move and have their being apart from God.

-Jon Vowell

"What goes up..."

"I have said, 'Ye are gods,' and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes." Ps. 82:6, 7

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,...for thou hast said in thine heart, 'I will ascend into heaven'...yet thou shalt be brought down to hell...." Is. 14:12-15

"Thine heart was lifted up.... I will cast thee to the ground...." Ez. 28:17

"God resisteth the proud...." Js 4:6

Pride is quite literally a state of fighting against God, because it is (at bottom) a claim on His throne. Pride is when an individual claims the place of God in their life. Such an act can take various forms: it can be an overt and obvious malice, or it can hide itself under a veneer of innocence; it can consume the whole life or be sequestered to one besetting sin. Regardless of its form, it only has one result, for fighting against God can only have one result: to be cast down, i.e., humiliation.
Older Christianity was right when it labelled Pride (superbia) as the foundation of all sins, for sin always starts with some sort of attempted rebellion against God, both His character and His commands. When we aren't breaking His laws, we are making Him into something that He is not, whether it be a sentimental grandfather or a non-existent fantasy. All are attempts by prideful man to stand where God alone can stand (Ps. 82:1).

-Jon Vowell

Humor for the Angels

"The righteous also shall see [the judgment of God], and fear; but they shall laugh at [the judged]: 'Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness." Ps. 52:6, 7

Trusting in anything other than God (whether it be material possessions or our own finite wits and reason) is hysterical precisely because it is so ludicrous. We have often laughed at a child attempting to do something quite out of its league (such as moving a heavy object or handling a complex machine), and the more they refuse (as they often do) the help of an able grown-up, the funnier it gets. Their self-delusion is hilarious; they cannot see themselves for who they are: weak, unable, and in need of help. In the spiritual realm it is the same. Without God, we are all those weak, incapable children, and our every attempt to control things is a joke to those who know better.
It is a pathetic picture, but pride is pathetic. It will not embrace humility at the start, but rather puts itself higher and higher, so that their inevitable humiliation (for every knee shall bow; Phil. 2:9-11) will be far more painful than those who submitted from the start. The end of pride is humiliation, and to not trust God is to be the joke of all the angels.

-Jon Vowell

"I'm so sorry I've
Been so down, I
Started thinking things
Could never turn around,
And I begin to believe
That all we are is
Material.
It's non-sensical."
(Switchfoot)