Matt W Cook

I don’t usually do this, but…

Okay guys, here’s the deal. Way back in the day I was involved in a contest in which there was a free iPod at stake. I didn’t win. I’ve always thought the iPods were one of the neatest things out, but I wouldn’t dream of spending the money to get one. Even at half price, these beauts are just way too expensive. I searched arounf trying to find a way to get an iPod and I heard about this service called frreipods.com. I’ve heard nothing but good things about them and I even know a few people for whom it has worked! Sadly, the service is only available in the US…until now!

I found out today that freeipods.com has now spread to Canada and the UK. I signed up and completed the requirements. Now all I need to do is get five other people to do the same. I wonder if you folks out in bloggerdom would be willing, not only to help me get an iPod, but to get started on getting your very own! Click the banner below and check it out for yourself.

I understand this is a bit shallow and maybe even a little shady, but I think it’s gonna work.

Give it a shot.

Just a quick note

My bro Shawn Cuthill has had a pretty nice web forum up and running for a few months now. I recommend that you all go and check it out. There’s a good number of people there now and a nice community is forming.

There should be another post tonight, if I can squeeze it in.

Matthew

A month and a day…
Yesterday Ruth and I had our tour of the maternity ward at St. Catharines General. It struck me today that in a month and a day I will be able to hold my child. In a month and a day I will see this child that I helped bring into the world. After that my life will likely never be the same. I’ll be bound to that child and have to sacrifice many comforts in order to care for it. I imagine there will be many sleepless nights and early mornings, dirty diapers, and scores of other things that I could never prepare for. Will it be worth it? Oh yeah. If I could go back in time and change anything, would I? No. In fact, not ‘no’, but ‘absolutely not’.

I really can’t wait. The day is drawing closer and closer. Did you know that the baby could be born today without any medical problems? That’s right, if there was an emergency and Ruth had to give birth today, the kid would likely be fine. Incredible!

A month and a day. Not a long time.

Please pray for us, things are happening now. Those who know us know what’s going down over these next two months. So much that has been planned for so long is now finally happening. Isn’t it wonderful how God is in the real world? How He really does real things in our real lives? The way He’s guided our choices and the way He’s taken care of every need we’ve ever had. What a great God.

Matthew

PS – I realize this blog doesn’t have much of a subject. That’s okay though.

PPS – I say a month and a day for sentimental reasons, I know the child can come earlier or later. I’m still gonna say a month and a day.

The love of Christ controls us…

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. – 2 Corinthians 5:14-15

Why does the love of Christ control the Christian? He died for me so that I would die. He rose so that I would be reborn and live for Him, so that He could present me holy and blameless before His Father. The love of Christ must control the Christian. The word here for control means to guide, constrain or press together. Think of a ship entering a narrow canal. The ship has only one way to go, it cannot turn to the right or left, it must go straight on. In the same way our love to Christ must control us. It should guide our actions, words and thoughts. If my love for Christ doesn’t affect the way I think or act, then my love for Christ is weak and quite useless.

What does it mean for the Love of Christ to control us?
To be under the influence of Christ. To account everything as loss for the sake of knowing Him. To have a total worldview change and separate ourselves from the world.

How does that manifest itself? What does it look like?
I think I can give three or four answers from this chapter:

• Looking for a future home
• That is, being enthralled with the glory of our future reward and knowing that eternal life is to know God.
• Living, but not for myself
• That is, being convinced that the things of this life are dung and useless compared to Christ.
• Walking by faith, not sight
• That is, being focused on the things that are unseen yet eternal, instead of the things that are seen, yet temporary.
• Begging others
• That is, being gripped with the truth that those who are outside of Christ have not died to themselves, are not new creations and will perish eternally without the benefit of the work of Christ in their life.

For some reason, us Christian folk tend to equate worldliness with some sort of outward appearance. People say that certain musical genres are worldly, certain clothes are worldly. I’ve had people call my dear wife worldly because of her nose-ring. I beg you all to understand one very simple and important thing. Worldliness is a mindset, worldview and heart condition. Worldiness has NOTHING to do with fashion, certain musical instruments or nose-rings. Worldliness is demonstrated in the things that I hold dear. If I love this world I am worldly. Being separate from the world does not mean to abandon the culture you grew up in or are associated with. It means valuing Christ above the things of this world. When the church does not understand this, she misses out on the big picture and ceases to walk by faith.

Focus on what’s real. Focus on the important things.

That’s all.

Who wants free stuff?

Real post coming soon, I promise.

A King and a Kingdom

Who’s your brother, who’s your sister
You’ll just walk past him, think you missed her
As we’re all migrating to a place where our Father lives
Cause we married into a family of immigrants

(chorus)
So my first allegiance is not to a flag, a country or a man
My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
It’s to a King and a Kingdom

There are two great lies that I’ve heard
The day you eat of the fruit of that tree you will not surely die
And that Jesus Christ was white, upper class, republican
And if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like him

Repeat chorus

And nothing unifies like a common enemy
And we’ve got one sure as hell
He may be living in your house
He may be raising up your kids
He may be sleeping with your wife
Or he may not look like you think

Good words from Derek.

Actually, it seems to have nothing to do with snakes.

St. Patrick’s day interests me this year. I found myself wondering what it was all about. I was really hoping that it was more than green beer and shamrocks. As it turns out, it is!

Patrick was born in 387 and died around 461, making him a contemporary of Augustine. He was born in Scotland to a Roman family. Although his father was a bishop, his family, for the most part, was only religious in an outward sense. When Patrick was about 14 or so, we was kidnapped by an Irish raiding party and taken back to Ireland as a slave. He seemed to have a religious awakening at this point in his life and devoted himself to prayer while working on a farm in Ireland. In his confessions, he wrote “The love of God and his fear grew in me more and more, as did the faith, and my soul was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night, nearly the same.” “I prayed in the woods and on the mountain, even before dawn. I felt no hurt from the snow or ice or rain.” Six years later he had a dream in which he heard a voice telling him to run away from the farm on which he worked. He ran to the coast and found a ship which took him back to his family. Patrick was eventually ordained as a bishop. Some time later he had another dream in which the people in Ireland called out to him saying “We beg you, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more.” He then returned to Ireland to preach the Gospel. He is credited as being the first person to bring Christianity to Ireland (the idea of him chasing the snakes out of Ireland is likely referring to him purging paganism from the island). For 40 years he traveled all around Ireland, preaching and planting churches as he went. He eventually died on March 17 in the city where he had planted his first church.

So, as you wear your green clothes or search for your four-leafed clover, remember Patrick, and the thousands of missionaries on the field today, doing what Patrick did so long ago. St. Patrick’s day is really a celebration of missions, in a way. Pray for the missionaries on St. Patrick’s day.

Sometimes a Light Surprises

1. Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord Who rises
With healing in His wings:
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after the rain

2. In holy contemplation
We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation,
And find it ever new;
Set free from present sorrow,
We cheerfully can say,
Let the unknown tomorrow
Bring with it what it may.

3. Tomorrow can bring us nothing,
But He will bear us through:
Who gives the lilies clothing
Will clothe His people, too:
Beneath the spreading heavens
No creature but is fed;
And He Who feeds the ravens
Will give His children bread.

4. Though vine nor fig tree neither
Their wonted fruit should bear,
Though all the fields should wither,
Nor flocks or herds be there
Yet, God the same abiding,
His praise shall tune my voice;
For, while in Him confiding,
I cannot but rejoice.
– William Cowper, 1731-1800

For while in Him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.

To you that have any hope through grace that you have a title to blessedness, let me say as the Levites did to the people, ‘Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever’ (Nehemiah 9:5). What infinite cause you have to be thankful that the lot of free grace is fallen upon you! Though you had forfeited all, yet God has provided a haven of happiness, and he is carrying you thither upon the sea of Christ’s blood, the gale of his Spirit blowing your sails. You are in a better condition through Christ, than when you had the robes of innocency upon you. God has raised you a step higher by your fall. How many has God passed by and looked upon you! Millions there are who shall lie under the bitter vials of God’s curses, whereas he will bring you into his banqueting-house and pour out the flagons of wine and feast you eternally with the delicacies of heaven. O adore free grace; triumph in this love of God. Spend and be spent for the Lord. Dedicate yourselves to him in a way of resignation, and lay out yourselves for him in a way of gratilation. Never think you can do enough for that God who will shortly set you ashore in the land of promise.
– Thomas Watson, 1620-1686

Praise God for those who have gone on before us. Go read an old book.

“You’re doing what!?”

When you plan on doing something really silly like moving to an Islamic Republic about a month after the birth of your first child, you seem to invite a lot of questions, concerns and criticisms from people. I suppose it should be expected. One of the most frequently asked questions has to do with our child. I plan on addressing the issue in this post.

Thesis:
It is not a bad idea to use air travel with a young infant. I intend to prove this by answering the different concerns people have addressed over the past few months (in no particular order).
Preliminary facts:
Our child is due May 20. Often the first child is upwards of a week to 10 days late, so let’s say the child will arrive May 30, for argument’s sake.
Our flight has been booked for June 30, we will assume that our child will be one month old.
We will assume that the child born will be healthy because if there are medical problems that will obviously change plans. This would be an unforseeable problem that no-one could really plan for.

Question 1: What if the airline you use doesn’t allow children of that age?
Answer: It does. This, of course, is a very important consideration. I have heard that airlines don’t allow infants to fly, but this either isn’t the case anymore, or is was never the case with the airlines we are using. In fact, we have reserved a special baby seat. When we asked our travel agent about this, she seemed to think it was a bit of a silly question and assured us that no airline would refuse an infant.

Question 2: I have heard that an infant will go deaf if on an airplane, aren’t you concerned about that?
Answer: Of course we are concerned about the health and safety of our baby. However, the pressure change in an airplane is rarely strong enough to actually cause damage, even to an infant. Most doctors seem to recommend that you feed the baby (or rub her cheek) while taking off / landing in order to stimulate swallowing. This clears the baby’s ears and takes away any discomfort there might be.

Question 3: Other parent’s have told me that it’s unsafe to do this!
Answer: I also have the testimony of parents in favor of it’s safety. One couple we know very well went on a trans-Atlantic flight with their 4-week-old. She didn’t cry, scream, have her ears fall off or anything like that. Five years later she is healthy, not deaf, and quite cheerful.

Other thoughts:

• At one month, an infant mainly does two or three things. She eats, sleeps, and poops. There is no need to worry about her getting bored or silly and unless the child has colic, she will be reasonably quiet.
• This is something that people do. There are special seats in airplanes for infants. If it were as dangerous as people make it out to be, there would be warnings from the airlines. They don’t want to get sued, do they?
• We believe that God has called us to this country this summer. I’m not saying that as if to say “God told me to, therefore I am above reproach in what I do,” but I am saying that I have confidence that God is going to undertake on our behalf and lead us through the difficulty of traveling with a newborn.

Anyway, Ruth and I do appreciate the concern that so many people have about our plans, and it’s good to know that people care enough to think about these things. We have looked into these issues and checked with people who have experienced it and who are informed. We believe that we are making the right choice. Boo ya!

In other news, I started reading Thomas Watson’s The Beatitudes. Beautiful.

Cook out.