A New Day

By: Pastor Johnie Akers 

2 Timothy 4:18, “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” During the Second World War the U.S. Army was forced to retreat from the Philippines. Some of their soldiers were left behind, and became prisoners of the Japanese. The men called themselves “ghosts,” souls unseen by their nation, and were forced on the infamous Bataan Death March, forced to walk over 70 miles, knowing that those who were slow or weak would be bayoneted by their captors or die from dysentery and lack of water. Those who made it through the march spent the next three years in a hellish prisoner-of-war camp. By early 1945, 513 men were still alive at the prison camp, but they were giving up hope. The U.S. Army was on its way back, but the POW’s had heard the frightening news that prisoners were being executed as the Japanese retreated from the advancing U.S. Army. Their wavering hope was however met by one of the most magnificent rescues of wartime history. In an astonishing feat, 120 U.S. Army soldiers and 200 Filipino guerrillas outflanked 8,000 Japanese soldiers to rescue the POW’s. Alvie Robbins was one of the rescuers. He describes how he found a prisoner muttering in a darkened corner of his barracks, tears coursing down his face. “I thought we’d been forgotten,” the prisoner said. “No, you’re not forgotten. You’re heroes. We’ve come for you.” Often in life we can start to give up hope; to feel that God has forgotten us, and abandoned us to dark and hurtful experiences. The journey may seem like a long “death march” through painful adversity. But we can never loose hope. In spite of enduring prison, beatings, abandonment, ship wrecks and a myriad of other challenges, the Apostle Paul, in our text today, reminds us of the ever faithful promise of the Lord, that ultimately, in His time, God will deliver His children. Today, friend, keep hope and faith alive. Soon, the door of your prison barracks will burst open, and freedom will be yours, from whatever difficulty has you captive; thus, bringing you out of the darkness of those dire circumstances, into the liberty of this new day.

Source: Scott Higgins. The story of the Death March and Alvie Robbins is found in Hampton Sides, Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission