God's Love Letter for America

by Mike Spradlin

The Bible is full of love letters from God – letters we especially need when we are in times of tribulation. From the very first verse in Isaiah 40, we discover this love: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” This word comfort is not just a sense of being at ease, but to show us God’s great character of love towards His people.

Moving to verse 2 we discover the phrase, “speak ye comfortably [a message of love] to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished; that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

Mike Spradlin
Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary & Live by the Word Ministries

God is always interested in external and internal peace in His people. That’s why He provides a way to make a way for our rescue from conflict (see Isaiah 40:3-5). God said that He was going to prepare a highway out of the wilderness. We can’t do it. We have enough trouble just finding the highway! This great feat requires God ─ only He can level a mountain and raise a valley. And a hero stepped up to accomplish this monumental task. His name was Jesus.

The United States of America has always been blessed with people who are heroes. Whenever a crisis has come, someone has stepped up and said, “I will go.” Think back to one of the first conflicts ─ the French and Indian War. Who stepped up? None other than George Washington. In 1776, he once again stood in the gap ─ this time as a general.

In 1812 at Lundy’s Lane, a young officer named Winfield Scott stood against the greatest army in the world ─ the British who were veterans to the core. And they won. Three years later, Andrew Jackson stood tall against superior numbers and joined other heroes at the Battle of New Orleans.

In 1898, Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders went to war with Spain. Then came World War I and the front lines were filled with heroes who gave their lives for our freedom. Then World War II came along and many of my great uncles were there. I remember Uncle Ralph was in a Graves Registration Unit in the Pacific. He came home from the war, but he never really made it all the way back.

I had another uncle ─ Delmar Dodson who was a crew chief on the last B17. His plane just disappeared over the jungles of New Guinea in 1943. Then in 1996, a logging team came upon an American airplane with the serial number intact. The American military discovered it was Uncle Delmar’s airplane and all the crew members were still at their post. Uncle Delmar now rests in Arlington National Cemetery.

Then, in 1950 there was the Korean War. My father-in-law, Louis Satterwhite, fought in Korea. After Korea, America entered the cold war. And my dad fought during that time. He knew the price to pay. In fact, he carries the scars on his body which happened from a close call he still won’t talk about today.

Years passed, and in 1965 the United States sent in troops to South Vietnam to help prevent the government from collapse. Conditions worsened and it became the longest military conflict in U.S. history. One of the heroes of that war was a friend of mine ─ Brother Sonny Tucker. In 1965, “Big Tuck” as he was known to his friends, remembered a time when his company had been overrun on Hill 65. There were only 21 men left in the company. Big Tuck arranged the prisoners in a firing line until help could arrive. And he won the Silver Star. The history books don’t mention Hill 65 much, but the men of Charlie Company will never forget Big Tuck on that day.

We’re still at war. Though we live in a wonderful country blessed by God, there is a conflict beyond what is in the newspapers. It is within the human heart. Jesus Christ is the One, the Only Hero who can settle the conflict for every soul.

He is the hero who walked out of the throne room of heaven, through the singing angels, past the elders, to be born of a virgin – who when tempted and tried in this life, never sinned once. That hero was resolute in looking toward the cross where He held out His arms to be nailed to a cruel cross. And on that cross, He took the sins of every person in the world upon Himself. He paid the price and satisfied God’s wrath upon that tree.

Jesus is the only hero guaranteed to bring peace. He is the only hero who knows how to end the conflict. Why not declare a little treason against the world and declare freedom for the Lord? You can do that today. Just say, “I’m tired of living under the world’s tyranny. I want this to be a true Independence Day when I am set free from sin and the grinding weariness of this world. Yes God yes. I will trust You. I will follow You today.

I’ll tell you who my heroes are: men and women who stand for Jesus. Men and women who stick by their spouse and their family. Young people who pray for their parents and honor God. Men of the church who stand up and say, “Serving Jesus Christ is my top priority.” People who say, “I can put the world aside. I’ll live for Him.”