Matt W Cook

I saw an interesting advertisement while driving home from work the other day. It was for a Camero. It looked lovely. The car was all nice and shiny; exactly how a car ought to look, right. The slogan seemed fitting:

The power of Lust.

So, what comes to your mind when you think of Cameros? Anything? Whenever I hear about or see a Camero my mind always pulls me back to a time when our family was living in Grimsby.

I didn’t really understand what was going on at the time. My mother suddenly wanted us to come home straight after school every day. We couldn’t play outside alone or after dark any more. And the police were pulling over and interviewing anyone with a cream-colored Camero. Do you remember that?

If you do then you probably remember names like Paul Bernardo, Karla Homolka, Kristen French and the Leslie Mahaffy. Do you remember? Google their names if you don’t.

The power of Lust.

Lust is a scary thing. It convinces people to do scary things. It turns people into … what? I don’t want to say animals, because animals don’t do the sorts of things that lust suggests. But we are certainly less than people when we obey it. Lust destroys. Lust kills. Lust desecrates.

Be wary of the sheer power of Lust.

But Lust is nothing more than a destructive power. A strong one, but only destructive. It can’t hold a candle to Love,

for love is strong as death.

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This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com

I was digging around in my hard drive again and I found a neat little document I was creating while I was in KLBC. I had been writing down any quotes that I came across from sermons and books and such things. It was about fourteen pages long by the end of the year. Here’s an excerpt from the section called ‘Motivational’

• “My longings, my hopes, my dreams, and my every effort has been made to live for Him who rescued me. To study for Him who gave me this mind, to serve Him who fashioned my will and to speak for Him who gave me a voice. The passion for learning, the recognition of the value of study, and the need to understand great thinkers and their thoughts-all were gradually put into their legitimate place. Our intellect is not intended to be an end in itself, but only a means to the very mind of God. Books which were once a curse become a gold mine.” – Ravi Zacharias
• “My Jesus, my king, my life, my all. I again commit my life to you. I will place no value in anything I posses or in anything I do except in relation to thy kingdom and to thy service.” – David Livingstone kneeling on his wife’s grave at her burial
• “The shortest route isn’t always the best route because it bypasses some of life’s most important lessons.” – Ravi Zacharias
• “I love to hear my Lord spoken well of and where I see His footprint I’ve coveted to put mine there as well.” – John Bunyan
• “John Welsey preached more then 10,000 sermons in his lifetime. When he was he 83 records in his journal that he was angry at his doctor who would no longer allow him to preach 14 times a week. Also in his journal at the age of 86 he writes “laziness is slowly creeping in, there is a tendency to stay in bed past 5:30 am.”
• “The center beam proclaims God’s holiness, the cross beam declares his love. And oh how wide his love reaches. It is nice to be included. You aren’t always. Universities exclude you if you aren’t smart enough, Business exclude you if you aren’t qualified enough, and sadly some churches exclude you if you aren’t good enough. But though they may exclude you Christ includes you. When asked to describe the width of His love, He stretched out one hand to the right and the other to the left and then nailed then there in that position so you would know He died loving and thinking of you.” – Max Lucado
• “Is it a small thing in your eyes to be loved by God – to be the son, the spouse, the love the delight of the King of glory? Christian, believe this, and think about it: you will be eternally embraced in the arms of the love which was from everlasting, and will extend to everlasting – of the love which brought the Son of God’s love from heaven to earth, from earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, from the grave to glory – that love which was weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spat upon, crucified, pierced – which fasted, prayed, taught healed, wept, sweated, bled, died. That love will eternally embrace you.” – Richard Baxter
• “Remember your ultimate purpose, and when you set yourself to your day’s work or approach any activity in the world, let HOLINESS TO THE LORD be written upon your hearts in all that you do.” – Richard Baxter

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This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com

Have you ever read the Wheel of Time? You should. It’s a great fantasy series that is liked even by people who don’t like fantasy. Go get it.

If you’ve read it you probably know about one of the strange servants of the Dark One: Grey Men (Gray Men?) A Grey Man is someone who sells his soul to the Dark One in exchange for the power to go about unnoticed. It’s not that he becomes invisible. You just don’t notice him. Until he plunges a knife into your chest, of course.

Defeating a Grey Man is theoretically easy, actually. It’s just noticing that he’s there at all that is the problem.

It seems that it’s the same way with the Christian life. Satan does not always roar as he prowls around. The Shadow which sometimes looks like an angel of light, and sometimes it looks like a Grey Man. Which is to say it looks like nothing at all.
But you know what? Rand al’Thor, the hero of the Wheel of Time, was never beaten by a Grey Man. No Grey Man even came close, really. Why? Because Rand was paranoid. Rand thought there was a servant of the Dark One around every corner. And he was mostly right. Good thing he was paranoid, too. Otherwise he’d be dead.

I realize that I’m not paranoid. In the physical world that’s a good thing. But in the spiritual war I signed up for, it’s a stupid thing. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I am a servant of the light in a mortal battle against the shadow. How have I been able to survive so long without being paranoid?

We’re in a war. There are casualties in war. And I think most of the casualties are the ones who live out that very word: CASUALty. A casual soldier is a dead one. We need to watch more. Pray more. Fight more.

Beware the Grey Man.

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This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com

I was wandering around in the bowels of my hard drive and I found this neat little document I made when I was still living in Pakistan. It’s worth a few chuckles, at least.

Things I’ve learned from living in Pakistan:
• Traveler’s diarrhea is a temporary affliction.
• Urdu language books and Urdu speakers do not necessarily agree.
• Gvaar, tinday and bindi are not cities in Asia, but vegetables.
• Malaria is a perfect weight-loss system.
• America is a bad, bad place.
• ‘Original DVD Version’ means some guy with a video camera filmed the movie while sitting in front of his buddy’s TV.
• Ceiling fans are your best friend.
• Water filters are your best friend.
• Goat is one of the tastiest meats on the market.
• Buffalo milk is ten times better and ten times cheaper than cow.
• 25 people can easily fit in a 10-person van.
• The skim that comes to the top of milk when you boil it is actually rather tasty.
• The words ‘Only to be sold with a prescription’ is more like a guideline than an actual rule.
• Everyone in the world is exactly the same, they just do different things.

I also want to add something that may not have been obvious to me when I first wrote this. Pakistan is a good place. It really is a good, nice place.

“But wait, Matt, isn’t it full of dirt and crap and violence and Tatooine-level heat?” Yeah, it is.

“And doesn’t it have a slew of horrible problems like poverty, terrorism and rampant ignorance?” Yep, sure does.

“What about the high crime rate and social injustices and political corruption?” Yes, Pakistan has more than it’s fair share of all that.

But it’s a good place. And I love it. I love it so much that I get angry when I see the problems it is forced to endure. I love it so much that I’d be willing to rock the boat to see those problems solved. So I’m going to move back there and do my part, whatever that part may be. Because I love it.

Do you love anything so much that you’d be willing to hurt it to make it better?

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.

We’ve all heard this verse. I usually hear it when people are talking about relationships. The idea is that you should never let your anger settle overnight. That you ought to deal with whatever relational problem you have before you say goodnight. Good advice, eh?

But, wait. Read the verse again. Be angry.

Let’s pretend I’m a writer for a moment. And let’s say that I am writing a love letter or something and I say:

Let not the sun set on your love.

What will you take that to mean? Will you assume that I’m saying that you should make sure you deal with your feelings of love before the sun sets and not harbor any feelings of love overnight?

No. You’ll assume (rightly) that I mean you should never let your love fade away. That you should keep it high in the sky like the sun. That it should be an obvious thing to everyone and it should, at least in some measure, guide you.

Hold that thought.

This verse is in Ephesians 4. What does that chapter talk about? It talks about how the Gentiles are blinded by the shadow. How they are hard in their hearts and how the shadow darkens them and (possibly) us.

Be angry and do not sin.

I don’t think Paul is telling us to be careful not to sin when we happen to get angry. I think he’s telling us to get angry! To get seriously angry about the shadow and the effects the shadow has over us and our fellow man! Be angry! And as you feed that anger, stay away from the sin that ought to be the object of the anger! And never let that anger go!

Now, you will point me to James 1:20 and say that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. And you’d be right to do that. Man’s anger is generally a pretty shallow, spiteful thing. Which is why the only anger we should be looking at here is godly anger. Spirit-led anger. Anger that has sin and its effects as its only object. Not anger directed toward people.

No revolution can be successful without anger. There is no such thing as a passive rebellion. No tyrant lost his crown to an indifferent crowd. And unless we are angry at the homicidal taint on our hearts we’ll never throw it off.

Are you angry at sin? Are you angry at how sin is poisoning your friends and neighbors? Are you angry at the scores of injustices in the world? Don’t let the sun set on that anger! Hold on to it! Stoke it! Made it burn and use its energy to watch out for the snares of the flesh and the devil. Use it to fight against sin in the world and in your heart. Be angry and stop sinning!

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This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com

A co-worker was asking me about Pakistan the other day. She was very excited as I talked about the country, which was nice because most people just get weirded out when I explain how much fun it is to ride on top of buses and drink questionable water. She visited us and Ruth and I showed her some of the wild videos of Pakistan that my buddy Cuthill has posted on the internet.

It was a little difficult to watch them.

I had no idea how much I missed that country. As I saw scenes of my old apartment and of travelling on the roofs of buses and drinking tea in dirty chai shops, I felt something reach out inside.

Have you ever longed for something without really knowing why you wanted it? I mean, seriously, what is so attractive about Pakistan? It’s dirty, insanely hot and full of all sorts of inconveniences. I could never get coffee, bacon or donuts. It was hard to find friends with similar interests. And it was so hot that I could have boiled a full goat in the sweat I produced in a day. Why do I miss Pakistan so much?

In Pakistan people would often ask me why I liked Pakistan so much. Urdu has a very nice phrase that captures how I feel: dil lagya. The heart has stuck.

My relationship with Pakistan smacks of a bollywood romance. I can give few reasons for my love, but it’s there anyway. My heart has stuck, and I doubt I’ll be able to instick it. Even as I sit here in my comfortable apartment, with my decent job, drinking a wonderful coffee while chatting with like-minded friends, there is still a pull. Like a call from a distant lover.

Am I bring melodramatic? Maybe.

Watch these videos and feel the melodrama with me:

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This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com

Among pokémon trainers there are really two kinds of pokémon that you can come across. Those you respect and those you mock. Those that trainers are are generally willing to work with and those that they are not.

Everyone is willing to sweat and pull for a Zapdos or Dragonair. Everyone is willing to put in the time to raise and nurture a young Charmander or Mew. Of course they’re willing to do that. I mean it’s a Mew for heaven’s sake! Do you have any idea how much potential a Mew has? Most would gladly trade a level 50 Grimer for a level 5 Mew. Because the Mew has potential. It qualifies itself. It pulls its own weight.

But there are few who would put serious effort into raising a Ratatta or Zubat or (shudder) Paras. Why not? Because it seems that these pokémon have very little potential. They are the products of poor lineage. They have nothing special about them. Just common, base, trash, really. A trained level 15 Mew could drop a level 20 Paras. Maybe even level 25.

Which is why I’m glad that God is not a pokémon trainer.

God isn’t searching the world for special people. He’s not trying to find the Mewtwo of the world and side with it. He’s looking for the base, lowly, stupid Ratatta to empower!

I’m a Ratatta. Small, unspecial and not welcome in many homes. But with a trainer like the one I have I could rock the world. I could stand before kings and rulers defiantly. I could take on all the legendary pokémon of the world. Bring on your Articuno and your Moltres! I may be a lowly Ratatta, but I am being trained by the greatest Master out there. Nay, I am trained by the one who made all other trainers and pokémon!

Yay for God and his team of ragamuffin pokémon!

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This is second-hand unless you’re reading it at http://www.theilliteratescribe.com