The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

My son and I had a great time at the San Francisco Giants games yesterday.  And even though traffic on the highway getting to the city was terrible and we didn’t actually get to our seats until the fourth inning, we still enjoyed ourselves tremendously!  It was a winning situation for all – including the Giants who came from behind to beat the San Diego Padres 4-2.

As I continued to study from Colossians 1:6 this morning the thought that the Good News that had been shared with the people in this city began to take immediate effect “from the first day you heard it” (God’s Word ©) caught my attention.  It made me think about Mark’s multiple use of the word “suddenly” throughout his Gospel.  God’s Word fits right in with our modern society in its immediate gratification to those who hear and receive it!

I once shared a sermon where I likened today’s society to a stop at a Jack In The Box restaurant.  Jack In The Box (which happens to be one of my favorite fast food purveyors of lunch or dinner) along with all its companion operations like MacDonald’s and other well-known restaurants are popular today because you don’t have to wait very long for a tasty, satisfying meal (I won’t talk about nutrition here…).  We live in a world where we want instant gratification.  We want it, and we want it now!  Almost everything nowadays goes at a faster pace than it did twenty years ago.  And we’ve come to expect it and tend to get annoyed when it doesn’t!

My son and I were talking about some old movies that we had each recently viewed.  I mentioned that his Mom and I recorded an old “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” movie on TCM the other night and how bored I was with it when we watched it.  In the late sixties when we were in elementary school, that show was one of my wife’s and my favorite shows.  In fact, I had a “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” gun and my wife had an official “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” attaché case!  (See we had lots in common even back then!)

It was the hottest show on TV at the time and it totally captivated my attention for an hour each week.  But the other night I was amazed at how SLOW it was!  If it hadn’t been that it seemed to have caught my wife’s attention, I would have turned it off!  Modern action movies tend to have none stop action that keeps us at the edge of our seats!  Once again, we have become accustomed to things happening at a lot faster pace than in the past.

But God’s Word is one thing that has kept pace through the ages!  Even though Colossians was written thousands of years ago, we can readily see from what Paul said, that it works at a very fast pace!  He said, “This Good News is present with (or “in”) you now.  It is producing results and spreading all over the world as it did among you from the first day you heard it…” (God’s Word ©)

Now I’d call that instant gratification!  Most Christian testimonies will tell of the change that the individual immediately felt when they took the step to accept Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord.  The dead spirit inside us is immediately born-again at our receiving of the Lord!  And I am so thankful that it is an instantaneous action and not something that has to takes days or even hours!  God’s loving mercy is immediate!

So with that in mind, why not help spread the Good News and the immediate results of God’s nature to a hurting, needful world!  Today may be the day that someone’s life is changed in an instant!  Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”