mgpcpastor's blog

You can’t help but notice the change in the view out of the window of my study here at the church.
A green hillside has become a concrete one as Mount Gambier Marketplace opens today.
There’s lots of mixed feelings about this around town of course.
This is the first time a concentrated retail center has been located away from the center of town.
It is a marker, a transition point in our growth from a town to a (very, very) small city.
Some people are excited about their favourite new stores coming to the South East. (Smiggle, anyone?)
Others are concerned about the impact these new businesses (sometimes characterised as ‘outsiders’ though they are staffed by our friends and neighbors), and their location on the northern fringe of town, will have on our existing traders on Commercial Street.
And others yet are simply unhappy about anything new that represents change. You run into a lot of that in a small country town.
As disciples of Jesus we know our security is not located in the presence or absence of various businesses from our community.
Our security does not come from keeping things the same or from getting them to change.
Our security comes from Jesus.
He guarantees us life eternal and provides an abundant life here and now.
And that does not change whether we have a Big W or not. It won’t change regardless of who ends up with the rights to our harvested pine trees for the next one hundred years.
It won’t change if you’ve got good health or you’re struggling with sickness or infirmity.
It won’t change whether your loved ones and friends are cruising through life or if they’re doing it tough.
In Christ, we’re secure, for now, and for always.
That doesn’t mean that what’s going on around us is unimportant or meaningless, though.
We have every reason to want to see sensible investment and productive businesses in our community.
We should be happy for our friends and neighbors who have gained employment, or whose businesses are growing.
We appreciate the improvements in our health services and community infrastructure; with the increasing provision of tertiary education opportunities here in our city.
We consider the needs of those who are doing it tough and try to offer such support as we can with care and compassion.
But the presence or absence of various things; their state, whether strong or weak, is not what provides us with our sense of security.
The Lord Jesus Christ alone provides that.
Sometimes I find myself thinking, caught up in a sense of unease or disquiet that I think would go away if some situation or another was rectified.
There are times when a feeling like that is a pointer to something that I need to do.
There are other times when such a feeling comes from the Lord, as He questions me: ‘Does your security come from circumstance, or from me?’