Dear Friends at Lake Eunice                        Pondering From the Pastor

What a glorious time of year! By the time you get this newsletter, many of the lakes will have opened, and it is full-fledged spring! I had seen signs of it happening even before the last miserable snowstorm we got. Now it is for sure. As I write this we will have our first 70 degree day. Ducks, geese, swans and myriads of spring birds have arrived.

            It hard to believe that one of the biggest events of the calendar year is already over, Good Friday and Easter. However our church calendar isn’t slowing down. Looking forward into this month we have here at Lake Eunice for the first time the evening National Day of Prayer Service. I certainly do encourage you to come and take part in either the prayer service on May 2^nd at 1^st Lutheran at 12 noon, or the one here at Lake Eunice at 7:00 p.m. or both. The Lord knows that our divided nation needs prayer now more than ever. The relentless attacks by Satan against the family are unprecedented!  The lack of morality and civility, even at the highest levels of our elected officials in our Government are off the charts. We also need to be in concentrated prayer for the unborn in our country, who are being aborted at the rate of over 300,000 a year. Now we have seen even further barbaric practices of not even caring for those who survive abortions, or even outright murdering them. At 60,000,000 plus abortions since 1973 just in this nation alone, and equal to that or more in Europe, we have a lot to answer for as a nation and around the world.

            Secondly, we also see the LBGT agenda gaining even further momentum here and worldwide. If you stand for traditional Christian values, especially only recognizing marriages between one man and one woman, you are seen as bigoted, hateful, and unloving, amongst other things. We have to remember, God is the one who ordained marriage, and it He who decides who can be a family and who is not. God is not silent on this issue, He only recognizes traditional male and female marriages. This is another attack on the family by Satan and it has crept into so many churches that call themselves Christian. The floodgates are open and there is no stemming the direction that this nation is going UNLESS we as a nation turn back to the traditional Christian values that our nation was founded on. How can this be accomplished? It seems like such a daunting task! It is if we are going at it in our own strength.

            As David faced Goliath, as Israel faced enemies much stronger than they were, as Daniel faced the lions in the lion’s den, as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego faced an angry Babylonian King who insisted they bow to an idol or face the fiery furnace, they all realized that the only way they could be victorious is with the Lord at their side. Our archenemies, sin, death and devil are defeated not by us, but by Jesus at the cross. Our nation needs the cross!    P.D.