4^th April 2017

The Cambridge Dictionary editors declared that the word for 2016 was ‘paranoid’, defined as  “Fears circling the brain searching for entrance into the rational faculties”. Behind this perception is the Liar; the Deception, and the static of disbelief in the air. We must endure it by feeding on Scripture when our souls hunger for the better hope.

We have a true home. Accept that this physical stage of life has a use-by date. It’s called death but it is a stingless death. You will never see it. God has decreed it, so let’s go with it as necessary and good. Yes, the beginning and ending of the physical is usually messy, but it’s soon done.

Our whole life span has been watched over by our Father-Creator, even before body and soul were knit together!  All is well. He has brought us into His Son’s being and nothing and no-one can snatch his child from him.  Jesus is invisible now and into His realm we shall soon pass. It is Home. He is there. Actually it is all a lot closer than we imagine. Taking communion is his way of impressing us with this truth.

We have a right to be happy. A God given right to ‘rejoice always’. Negativity and sorrow is a valley of darkness to prepare us for better heights of insight and service to each other and to make hope stronger. That’s why He allows it. The purpose of this life is to learn the language of the country of our true citizenship. Holy love! Don’t miss a chance!

We are ingrained with a sense of the future. There is much up ahead! Paradise the day, the second we leave this body. Let your imagination play with these revelational hints: Jesus will return with the numberless multitude of saints. Heaven and earth will be somehow renewed. The Holy City our home will come down to the restored earth. For a time heaven offers residency for the redeemed and will accommodate us better than we have ever known here. But our real destination is more. No beloved-one in heaven now would want to return to this earth, any more than they would want to hop back into the womb in pitch darkness. Neither can we grasp the future wonders any more than an enwombed baby can imagine the world of oceans, mountains and jet planes!

Paranoia gathers around the earth; from the Mahdi seeking Jihadists in the East to consumer- obsessed secularists in the West. The future is the anguish of the ages. It besets the addiction- crushed, and the spectrum phobias of many of our beloved children.

But hope is here.  A new mind can be received, learned and practised and demons of paranoia eventually crushed. Amazing grace. Mine the Gospel to your advantage! Give in to nothing but Jesus and His counsel!

Ian Clarkson is a UCA minister serving in South Australia

This article was included in the March 2017 edition of ACCatalyst.