Go: A 40-Day Journey To The Never ReachedSample

Holding Bloody Ridge—Together

By: Bryan Webb

The disciples had experienced a roller-coaster ride of emotions. Palm Sunday, expectations skyrocketed. Friday, the crucifixion brought confusion, hopelessness, and despair. Sunday morning the resurrection changed grief to delirious joy. 

Then—blank spots, like pages missing from a book. Eight days passed between Jesus’ first appearance till the second. More days passed. Peter, suffering from emotional whiplash, gave up.  

Have you faced the blank pages? Those days when God seems silent. Those days, we need each other most. 

“I am going fishing.” Peter said, throwing in the towel by announcing his intention to return to the family business. Rather than criticizing Peter, the disciple’s response set the tone for generations of Christians: “We will go with you.” 

In World War II, the Japanese rolled across the Pacific. Sweeping aside every force they faced—until the US marines landed on the island of Guadalcanal on August 7th, 1942. They captured Henderson Field and took the high ground above the airport. 

The battle of Bloody Ridge followed. Outnumbered ten to one, short on food and ammunition, the marines were ordered to hold the ridge. 

Going inland, Bloody Ridge narrows to a sharp point, slopes into a low saddle before rising toward the mountains. This saddle presented the best opportunity for the Japanese force. Two men manned that last foxhole. Their assignment? Create an impenetrable wall of lead across the saddle.

Early in the fight, a Japanese soldier lobbed a grenade into the foxhole. It exploded, blinding one marine and severing the thumb of the second. For five hours, unrelieved, those two marines held their position, the blinded man firing the machine gun the maimed man directing his fire. Alone, neither man was capable of completing the mission, but together, they changed the course of the battle, turned the tide of war, and changed the history of nations.

None of us can fulfill Christ’s mission alone, but together we can change the destiny of nations. 

Go Together

Prayerfully, make a plan to maximize the gifts, resources, and opportunities God has given you to use for him. How can you improve the effectiveness of your praying, giving, and going?

Pray for Never reached People Group: The Magindano of the Philippines

Ask God to prepare the hearts of the Magindano for the coming of the gospel and the hearts of workers to go and tell them.