Y2k has come and gone but it has left its affect of being absorbed will be felt for some time to come.

It is first time in history since the building of the tower of Babel that all of mankind did something together without a hitch. It will be remembered in history as the day the world was united. What we witnessed was a paradigm shift, where everyone sees all the people in the world as a global community. Y2k transitioned with barely a hitch.

Another company had all 48,000 customers lose use of their email and their home pages disappeared. Only one US spy satellite had problems for a few hours. they were unable to process any data and lost pictures because of an uncorrected Y2K date problem for a few hours. This was the single biggest Y2K problem revealed since the year 2000 rollover in the US . Needless to say these were problems but it was nothing like the huge devastation that was expected despite the preparation.

We all have heard how people hate the government but in this case we all seem to have trusted in them to fix y2k. So government trust is up. We have held a lot of confidence in what they are saying was true and in fact it was. All the conspirators that warned us were wrong. There was no martial law before new years, no military on our corners no foreign military on our soil. No nothing they said. It didn't come to pass which shows these people did not do their homework they are driven on emotion and panic. We should no longer pay attention to anything they have to say unless they openly apologize and admit they were wrong. (and refund some of the money the elicited from the naïve who trusted them)

This does not mean this was not much ado about nothing but certainly it was something. There were real problems to be fixed and 2 years of hard work, industries and governments spent up to $600 billion to make the transition safely. Cases of overspending on Y2K problems will probably be investigated for fraud since any time hundreds of billions is spent  some is wasted by people making bad decisions or just bad advice. Some may have been spent when it did not need to be.

Some are not sure in how to rejoice or are just disappointed in how they prepared. they are not alone... One such example a 41-year-old electrical engineer and computer consultant, who has a wife and two teen-age sons, feared the Y2K computer bug might bring power shortages or water-system failures or even government-imposed martial law. He said he logged more than 1,000 hours on the Internet chatting with like-minded survivalists. He spent $20,000 on food, drinking water, medical supplies and a generator to prepare for Y2K-related chaos that never happened on New Year’s Day. By the way I heard Sears is not giving any refunds on generators

So everyone hiding in the hills in their y2k bunkers can put their guns down and come out and join civilization again. Not even the terrorists struck for if they did the whole world would have condemned it in unison. But who will be the first terrorist to attack in the 21st century the new millennium will go down in history.

The truth seems to come out after the fact. Bill Wattenburg who designed software to detect and fix y2k computer problems tells MSNBC he had a simpler solution to the complex Y2K problems. "More than a year ago, we discovered a way to solve the problem automatically for most computer programs, he told the White House, told corporate America. None of them spent an hour or one hundred dollars taking a look at it...(now) it’s on a web site, free to all...Most of the leaders and most of the analysts who...created the crisis don’t themselves understand how the computers work." there are others that are saying the same, it didn't have to go down this way.

Instead of y2k being the day all became chaos and shut down, y2k will go down in history as the day that the whole earth acted as one. The day that everything was not suppose to work did, a matter of fact there was never such a celebration so extensive that went as smooth. The least obstructive day in all of our modern history. All the things that people threatened to do, did not come to pass. What are we to make out of all this since all these predictions did not come true?

It all adds to the deception that we are OK and we are our own saviors, society is being lulled into sleep that everything will go on as usual. That nothing may ever come to intervene in the affairs of man, that we can resolve our own problems and issues without God.

But what Christ said he would come at an hour we least expect is still true. An hour when we think not, so this adds it another brick to the rest of the building. That mankind will continue on as we always have

2 Pet 3:3-5 "knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,   and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."  For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, like wise we are reserved for judgment and it will be by fire." We are headed for the cry of "peace and safety."

World Action for the Millennium stated ,"Imagine…On January 1^st of the year 2000 all inhabitants of the planet Earth accessible through all communication means will be linked to receive and share for one minute a message, that…can be universally understood as a way to empower the individual and express its belonging to the global community…A moment of union with a single thought for all the people, which will erase all borders that presently separate us, and will inaugurate all together a new epoch in human relations."

When one looks at the interviews on TV they were all speaking about our global citizenship how small a world we now live in, and how we have become interconnected by technology. We were able to see the various people and cultures celebrate in each time zone as they passed into the new century. We literally became one world entering the 21^st century. Now we hear about us going into the 21^st century and it is a new era and age, a new world. So there has been a paradigm shift overnight in the way we think about ourselves. We have grown smaller and drawn together in leaps and bounds. New goals, new opportunities for technology. More tolerance will be on the agenda as the world shrinks and unites itself in various aspects.

The Church in the new millennium

The church is praying for revival but to do so can give us some unexpected results. The fire of persecution became the biblical model in the book of Acts as the impetus for the masses coming into the church

The church growth solutions where any and every method is taught but the most important element that Jesus asked is missing, commitment, surrender, follow and live. Maybe we should be living In Acts 2:42-47 And "they continued in the Apostles’ doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread and prayers." Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.   Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,   and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.  So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,   praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

Where are we headed as a church in this next century? Where are you headed in your service for the Lord?

Have we learned from our past mistakes? Have we become bolder for Christ or have shrunk back in our contending for the faith? Its time to renew ourselves in devotion to Jesus and his word.

Oftentimes people use illustrations to describe the church. If the church was a boat what kind would it be? Some would like it to be a luxury liner to attract the people to come aboard and sail off with us. But his brings up a vision of relaxation and pleasure, hardly beneficial for us in the state we are in. Others see the church as a battleship able to take over the waters and capture the enemy. But the church is not called to be a battleship a destroyer or even a PT boat.

The way I see it, the Church is a huge rowboat. A boat where we all participate in the work along the journey. The unity is expressed when we all share in the effort to accomplish the rowing each doing there own part with the gifts and talents from God. When some get tired there are others there to continue to row. We should all be going for the same goal as individuals and as a whole church. On the way we pick up drowning people and bring them to safety. All this work takes time and there is no quick solutions or methodologies to bring the desired results. It is of God or in the long run it will fail.

Its been said the church marches forward on its knees. Without dependence on God we as a church will accomplish nothing. We will have probably the greatest challenges to the faith in this new century it would demand from us greater faith and wisdom to meet them. We all need to be in a healthy, well balanced, Bible-teaching church, where doctrine is preached, there is consistent prayer. Worship, fellowship are practiced. Then we will see revival in our communities and see God affect the lives of the people that surround us.