“And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard” (Colossians 1:21–23)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
I started reading a book titled “Come, Ye Children”: A Book for Parents and Teachers on the Christian Training of Children, by Charles Spurgeon. The title suggests that he’s addressing children, but Spurgeon looks further than the simple age-based definition.
The lambs are the young of the flock. So, then, we ought to look specially and carefully after those who are young in grace. They may be old in years, and yet they may be mere babes in grace as to the length of their spiritual life, and therefore they need to be under a good shepherd. (Spurgeon, Come Ye Children, 8)
I really like this definition. It expands the concept of children to perceive the needs of people based not on physical-age, but spiritual-age. Spurgeon goes on to challenge the shepherds, whether they be parents, or teachers:
Christian children mainly need to be taught the doctrine, precept, and life of the gospel: they require to have Divine truth put before them clearly and forcibly. Why should the higher doctrines, the doctrines of grace, be kept back from them? They are not as some say, bones; or if they be bones, they are full of marrow, and covered with fatness. If there be any doctrine too difficult for a child, it is rather the fault of the teacher’s conception of it than of the child’s power to receive it, provided that child be really converted to God. It is ours to make doctrine simple; this is to be a main part of our work. Teach the little ones the whole truth and nothing but the truth; for instruction is the great want of the child’s nature. (Spurgeon, Come Ye Children, 8)
This is one of the reasons it is so important for parents to understand the difficult doctrines and be able to explain them in simpler terms. We should strive to learn those doctrines which are difficult to grasp and master them in such a way that we can turn to those who are children, and patiently and lovingly feed the lambs. Which brings me to the verse of Scripture Spurgeon points out for this call to “feed the lambs”
“When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ” (John 21:15, ESV)
So both parents of children, or teachers of spiritually-younger Christians are called by our Lord Jesus Christ to provide spiritual food. By doing this, not only are we loving those who we care for, but we are also loving Jesus Christ, our Savior, Lord and King.
Family, Friday, November 13, 2009
I haven’t wrote many posts on what’s going on inside the Lombardi household, so I could go into details, but I’ll just give an overview.
Jenn and I are coming upon our 7 year anniversary (woohoo!). It’s been an amazing journey so far, and I’ll have to write more about that. Matthew is now 4 years old and Claire is 2 years old. It’s nice to hear Claire talk more and more; she’s such a bundle of joy (and spices). We have been endeavoring to provide a spiritual nurturing home environment. Jenn can probably write more about what she does during the day; during the evening we regularly have family devotion time which involves opening prayers, worship from the hymnal, bible stories, and closing prayers where everyone is required to pray.
We are now attending at two churches; West Hills is our home church, and Veritas is a church plant that we have recently began attending. I’ve also began leading a community group at our home with people who attend at Veritas. I love this group of people and I really do hope to see increased spiritual growth and vitality for everyone in the group~including me.
My parents (a.k.a grandparents), are coming over most Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings before dinner and watching the kids for a little over an hour while Jenn and I go to Gold’s Gym and work-out. They seem to enjoy the time, my mother commonly saying, “take your time”, as we head out the door. I know what she means although the Gym is not someplace that you should be taking-your-time.
Jenn and I have been fitting in some additional learning time with DVD’s from Puritan Picks. So far we’ve watched Christian conference videos and seminars; our community group is currently going through the “Battling Unbelief” series; I had chosen it for our group after having rented it from Puritan picks and watched it with Jenn.
I’m also becoming a bit of a self-proclaimed web-designer, pouring over articles online and learning all I can about this world-wide-web and the social conversation that’s going on on-line. I have a lot more respect for web-designers after trying to learn the trade myself; and of course, I’m still just a newbie at this. The reason I’m doing this is to both redesign the Veritas website, but also to redesign my website and also begin a new website focused on spiritual topics and discussions.
And lastly, what’s going on with Rob AND Jenn Lombardi? Well, we don’t share everything, but lets just say that we are greatly in-love with each other and I know I speak for the both of us when I say that it is an amazing grace from God, that the two of us, an engineer from California, and a country girl from Alabama, have come together and are now experiencing all that we are experiencing between each other: love, spiritual-unity, fidelity, integrity, joy, passion, transparency, and children. But of course, it’s all tempered by a fair share of fleshly struggles which we get through by the grace of God with the strength that He provides, which repairs our brokenness and increases our unity.
Christianity, Monday, November 02, 2009
I’ve been a long time supporter of Ligonier ministries and they now have an incredible new website redesign that they are letting people test-drive (Click Here). They also have an archive of past TableTalk articles; Jenn and I have been saving TableTalk magazines for years and I have often wondered when they’ll be available in electronic format. Now all the articles are available online (Click Here for Table Talk Archive)
Family, Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Will the next generation of children be characterized as undisciplined, selfish, unloving people as they grow into adults? There are many parents out there who have grasped hold of today’s popular methods of parenting which promote themselves as progressive intelligence, and evolutions in parenting. Some of these parents are only a short ways into their parenting journey and are already seeing the warning signs. Instead of a child growing in wisdom and good character qualities, they grow in foolishness and selfishness. The child is quickly learning how to manipulate their parents and become the rulers of their family. The parents are dumbfounded as to how they arrived in such a place, and as a result, they do not enjoy their children as they aught, and some, perhaps openly or secretly, begin to hate having children.
Jenn and I consider the Bible to be divine wisdom, the Words of God, perfect for teaching parents (2 Tim 3:16-17) to deal properly with their children. Consider the qualities of God: good qualities, perfect in every way (Ps 18:30). So it is natural to expect that His instruction for parents is going to be perfect in every way. Now consider the qualities of the average psychologist; they have a finite understanding of the subject and their authority on the subject is not tried and tested—it is common to discover that their methods were completely wrong and disastrous. So, who’s advice would you rather follow? The answer is obvious, trust God, not man. God instructs parents to take discipline seriously (Prov 29:15, Prov 22:15, Prov 23:13-14, Prov 13:24), and it is for the good of the child; but again, the important question is, who’s advice do you have your faith in: God or man?
The results of parenting gone bad seems to have made it’s way into cartoons and books. Parents are depicted as frazzled and with little control over the children; the children rule the household. Daniel Zalewski wrote an article in the New Yorker titled, “The Defiant Ones”, where he makes very astute observations of this very thing. Albert Mohler further discusses it in an article on his blog.
Parents would do well to buck the cultural trends in parenting; trends that tout themselves as evolutionary, advanced, and modern. Rather, parents should embrace methods that go deeper into our spiritual being; methods that are godly, holy, and divine; methods whos source is not from the mind of man, but from the mind of God.
Technology, Saturday, October 10, 2009
Google is aiming to totally redesign email and how we communicate on the Internet with Google Wave. Click here to check out the video and comment here to let me know what you think.
