Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Leaving Summit was like leaving your new best friend right as you were about to show them your shell collection. I long for the day I can be reunited with those friends I made. Of all those friends though, none stands our quite as much as Peter Hammond.
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| Your Word is Life |
Every lunch that he was with us, I was sitting around his table soaking in his stories of life on the war-torn mission field of Africa. I developed a new kind of hunger as a result. My lasagna went cold and stale on my plate while the lettuce got soggy from too much dressing. I couldn't stomach normal food when all I craved were Dr. Hammond's words.
Have you ever felt so hungry for truth, so starved from eating the paltry feast that our culture stuffs down our throats, that to hear the truth spoken from a man of God takes away even your appetite for bread? This must be the way the Africans feel when the flock to Hammond's open-air services to hear the gospel for the first time.
If every day of my life were a year, then I was saved a awfully long time ago. I still feel like those fresh African converts, though. I'm still hungry for the gospel, still yearning for truth and salvation. I wonder, does Dr. Hammond realize that even though I look like a solid believer, I cherish the gospel even more now than I ever have? By any worldly measure, I'm reversing the typical growth process. Instead of growing out of the gospel, I'm growing into it!
I'm become more and more of a child, nurturing the hunger inside of me that only children have. I'm pursuing the relationships in my life that allow me to flourish--relationships with fathers and mothers in Jesus Christ.
I cannot emphasis enough the importance of spiritual mentorship. Those spiritual mentors besides my parents have shaped the woman I've become. I've been mentored by Christians from William Wilberforce to Jeff Myers; from Adam Young to Joshua Harris. Every book I read, every lecture I attend, ever hand I shake is like a seed planted in my Spirit that gives birth to a fruitful tree.
I'm sending out heartfelt thank-you and earnest prayer to Dr. Hammond for the hard work he has poured into kids like me. He has re-kindled a fire within me that has been smoldered ever since the Holy Spirit first inhabited me. I'm not entirely sure where all this will lead me, but God knows and that is good for me.
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| The Lord is my Shepherd |
