Ready For
YJK?
Whew!
Here it is, mid-January, 2000 and the lights are still
on,
there’s groceries in the store, and martial law has not
been
imposed. As everyone knows by now, the disaster
scenarios
for Y2K fortunately never came to pass. Why?
Because
the Y2K scenario was a hypothesis, an educated
guess
to be sure. And since the cause had its origin in the
folly
of man, man could rely upon his own ingenuity and
cleverness
to solve the problem. What’s more, where
self-interest,
and preservation are at stake, God’s highest
creation
always will avail himself of every resource available
to
assure his continued comfortable life style. Millions of
dollars, and untold millions of man-hours were expended to correct
the cause, a computer
“glitch”.
But
just as tentative as the Y2K scenario was, there are
cataclysmic
events that will take place just as surely as day
follows
night. These events make the Y2K disasters look like
a
stroll in the park. Since these events are of divine origin
and
design, man will be powerless to stop them. Of course I
am
speaking of the events leading up to the “great and
terrible day of the Lord” [Joel 2:31], that day “when the Lord
Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with His mighty
angels
in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do
not
know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our
Lord
Jesus.” [2 Thessalonians. 1:7-8]
The
good news is that there is an escape clause for God’s
people.
In Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians, he writes
that
it is Jesus who will deliver us from the wrath to come
[1:10],
and that God has not destined us for wrath but for
obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. [5:9] Jesus Himself
told us to pray
that we might have the strength to
escape
these things and stand before the Son of Man.
[Luke
21:36]
And
so there was a lot of talk over the last several years,
and
especially in 1999, about Y2K as the calendar
relentlessly
rolled on. I, like many other Christians, often
discussed
these things with others over coffee. And I, like
most
other folks, had my own opinions. But today I would like
to
appeal to all Christians that we replace the Y2K paradigm
with a new one – YJK. That we look forward in earnest to the Year
of Jesus Christ
the King when He comes to establish
His
government on the earth, a government that will last a
full
millenium before the creation of the new heaven and
earth.
And that now our discussion and witness be a reflection
of
our obedience to the Lord Jesus who commanded us to
“Take
heed, keep on the alert;” [Mark 13:33] and who
taught
that to say He is not coming for a long time is evil
{Matthew
24:48]. Christians, the time for sleeping is over.
“We
are not of night nor of darkness; so then let us not
sleep
as others do, but let us be alert and sober.”
[1
Thessalonians. 55-6]
Want
to hear more? Want to be prepared for YJK? A
thorough
discussion of YJK, and complete instructions for
preparation,
are given in God’s Holy Word – the Bible.
Pastor
Richard Lohry
First
Congregational Church
Cook,
Minnesota
Published in the Cook News Herald
