Matt W Cook

Any day now…

Mel Bee’s coming down today anticipating the arrival of a baby (notice it’s ‘coming’, not ‘comeing’. Compare with ‘hoping’ as opposed to ‘hopeing’). It’s hard to believe that any day now I’ll become a full-fledged father. Creepy.

I was speaking at Greenwood Gospel Chapel this past Sunday. What a wonderful group of people. Very friendly and very open. I’ve never received an ‘amen’ during a sermon at a Brethren place, but I got about 20 of them here. I left quite early (too early) so I had plenty of time to stop, read, pray and drink coffee on the way.

Unrelated, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how we present ourselves lately. For example, when I preach I tell people that the most important thing that they could ever do is make Jesus the center of their lives ad give everything up to follow after Him. I encourage them to remove the distractions in their lives and run after Christ. Then I go home and sleep and play video games. I suppose a lot of preachers do this. I suppose this is normal, but normal is rarely good. So if you know me only by my preaching, you likely don’t know who I really am. I’m not saying that I shouldn’t preach the way I do. Preaching should be based on the Bible, not on my own life struggles. It’s hard to be genuine because it’s very dangerous. We all talk a certain way when we’re around certain people. We change our views and our words based on who if listening. I don’t think this is very good.

I’m not too sure what I’m saying, but I know that I need Jesus more. I’m pretty sure that’s the answer to every problem I’ve had over the past 23 years.

Ruth and I are trying to memorize Ps. 16. I’ve got about three verses done, but it’s so beautiful. It talks about those who run after other gods and how they’ll never be satisfied with that. I think that’s where I am, I’m running after crap that doesn’t satisfy while calling others to follow Jesus. What I say is good, but my actions…miss.

Get up and try again.

Mack’s right, don’t plan to write, just write

“Hello everyone and welcome to Popular Game Show! I’m your host, Guy Smiley”

*Applause*

“We have a very special episode for you today. We have two teams of our best contestants from previous episodes competing for the Ultimate grand prize, that rare and beautiful gem, that Pearl of Great Price, the Beatific Vision! This pearl weighs in at an amazing 250lbs pounds, making it the largest pearl in existence by far. There’s none like it! It has been sought after since time began.”

*Applause*

“Let’s meet our teams. In the blue shirts we have Team Terrarum returning from a winning streak of more than 2000 episodes, congratulations guys.”

TT: Thanks, Guy.

“And a relative new-comer in the red shirts we have The Company of Caelestis, also known simply as R.E.R.. These folks have had a bit of a rough go in past episodes, but they’ve never actually been eliminated, let’s see how they do today. How do you feel R.E.R.?”

CoC: Pretty good, Guy.

“Wonderful! Before I tell you what you’ll be doing today, I want to ask, if you win, what will you be doing with this incredibly large prize?”

TT: We decided to sell it to the highest bidder, I imagine that it’ll fetch a pretty good price, don’t ya think?

“I’m sure it will, what about you, Company of Caelestis?

CoC: In all honesty, we just want to look at it and probably show it to other people.

“Well to each his own, eh? Bobby, why don’t you tell our contestants what the task will be today?”

Bobby: Certainly Guy! Each team will be given one size-ten sewing needle donated by one of our values sponsors, Mom’s Sewing, located in Matt Cook’s mom’s sewing room. You rip it, she’ll sew it.

In addition to the needle, each team will also be given a rather large Dromedary Camel (watch out, they spit). The object of today’s episode is rather simple. Take your camel and make it go through the eye of your needle! Regardless of how the game turns out today, the teams will be allowed to keep their camels (the needles, however, need to be returned before Matt’s mom finds out they are missing). Back to you, Guy!

“Thanks Bobby! Alright teams, you have your assignments, now get to your bases and get those camels through those needles!”

*Applause*

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TT: Okay guys, I’ve got a plan. What we’ll do is pluck every single bit of hair off of this camel and put them all through the eye of the needle one at a time. I figure a bald camel is not much of a camel at all because the camel-ness of a camel is the camel hair, right? So once we get the hair of this camel through the eye of this needle, that pearl is as good as ours. What do ya say? Tony, start with the head and work down. Bill, you start with feet and work up. Me, I’ll watch and warn you if the camel looks like he’s going spit.

CoC: Hmm, this seems a little tough, but we have to get that pearl…Now, we all know that it’s impossible to get a camel through the eye of a needle. There is absolutely no way that a camel could possibly get himself through this needle. But, perhaps if the camel ceased to be a camel there would be a way. I have an idea. What we’ll do is get a vat of sulfuric acid (I happen to have one in my trunk) and we’ll melt the camel down to it most basic elements. When the camel is fully liquefied, we’ll squirt him through the eye of the needle. He’ll never be the same, but at least he’ll be through.

*Three days later*

“Alright, your time is up! Let’s see how our contestants did! Team Terrarum, how did you do?”

TT: Great! We got the whole camel through!

“You did? But what’s that standing behind you?”

TT: What? Where?

“Right behind you, that large naked camel.”

TT: ‘Tisn’t a camel.

“Well what is it then?”

TT: It’s a…horse. Yes, that’s it, a horse.

“…”

TT: You see, when we removed all the hair from the Camel (a rather difficult task) the animal ceased to be a camel. We figure it’s a horse now. And we wouldn’t want to break the rules by trying to put a horse through the eye of a needle now would we?

“But I think it’s still a camel.”

TT: No it isn’t.

“But it is! It still does the things that camels do. It spits, it has a hunt, I’d wager that it still has camel DNA in it’s blood. I really don’t think this mound of hair beside your needle counts. We’ll leave that to the judges for now. What about you, the team formerly known as R.E.R.? How did you do? Where’s your camel and what’s with that vat of goo beside your needle?”

CoC: That’s our camel.

“…”

CoC: You see, we realized that there was no way a camel could ever get himself through the eye of a needle in his present form. Only from changing the camel into something totally different could we get him through. You see, that puddle of goo can no longer rightly be called a camel, it doesn’t fit the requirements of a camel. It doesn’t do camel things, it doesn’t desire what camels desire. It’s something totally different now. Now it fulfills all the requirements of something that can easily fit through the eye of a needle.

“… You melted my camel?”

CoC: You said we could keep him!

“That’s true…I do hope no-one from the humane society is watching today.”

CoC: But we did do it, didn’t we? We got the camel through the eye of the needle, didn’t we?

“That you did, that you did. Congratulations, Company of Caelestis, you have won the Ultimate grand prize! I’m sorry Team Terrarum, but the judges have just finished a DNA test on your…horse. As it turns out it’s a camel, although it seems a little bit more irate than most of the camels I’ve met. Better luck next on Popular Game Show!”

*No camels were injured, plucked or liquefied in the posting of this blog.

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