Dear Christian friends:

In our text God tells the Israelites that they should remember how God led them in the past when they traveled in the wilderness for forty years. This was necessary for them; and it is also necessary for us today. It is good for us at the close of the year to sit down and think of God's care and leading during 1959. The unbeliever will try to forget 1959 by getting drunk. But the Christian should not forget it but remember it and learn some good lessons from it. So

Remember the problems that seemed hard to solve. It may have been a personal problem at home. A problem that you had with your wife or husband. Perhaps someone was ill and needed extra care and money. Perhaps you had a problem at work with your boss or another worker. Maybe you had a problem with your neighbor or friend. Or perhaps a problem with a son or daughter.

God either helped you solve that problem or He gave you the strength and patience to bear it cheerfully for Jesus' sake. Praise Him because He helped you with your problems.

Then you as a congregation we had some hard problems in 1959. You had the problem of getting this new church building finished and dedicated. God did not fail you in that. You have a beautiful new church almost finished and with few debts left. God caused the deaf and hearing people to give and work generously for this beautiful new church. He even let it win an honor award from the Minnesota Society of Architects. That ought to make us very humble. We do not deserve such a beautiful church.

When I first came here last June and saw this beautiful new church and all the fine equipment in it I felt ashamed and unworthy to be the pastor here: Me a sinner to have such an honorable place to preach God's holy word? Could I preach good enough here? So you should feel too, unworthy to have such mercy and blessings from God.

Then you had the problem of your pastor Kraus accepting God's call to St. Louis. That left you without a pastor for a few months. God gave you that problem. You called three times and they refused. It was a hard problem. Finally God gave you a pastor again. He answered your prayers. Perhaps not exactly as you before hoped or wished, but He gave you a pastor. Oh praise Him and thank Him for that. We do not deserve pastors because we are often careless and don't attend to them as we should. But God continues to pity us and give us pastors and His Word anyway. As David says in the Psalm, "Oh give thanks unto the Lord for He is good!"

We should remember also the problems we had with the P.T.R. Mission and also with the Every Member Visit, (E.M.V.) pledge this fall and how God led us and helped us to do that work and blessed our work very much.

Then let us look back also on our sorrows and troubles in 1959. God did not forsake us in these sorrows. He helped us to suffer them and continue believing His Word and promises in the Bible. Some were in the hospital. Some lost friends and relatives in death. Yet we did not give up faith and hope in God's mercy. We remembered His Word which says, "though we die, yet shall we live."

Oh praise God, that He helped us continue believing in Jesus through sorrows, sickness and death. Yes, thank Him that through these trials He made our faith grow more strong while our body became weak and our friends died.

Let us also remember our sins and failures in 1959. Although we insulted God with our laziness and carelessness; Although we did not serve Him and honor Him as we should at home and at Church, yet He did not forsake us as we deserved although we didn't love and forgive one another He came to us again and again. He stayed with us and through preaching and the Lord's Supper again and again announced forgiveness of sins in the name of His Son Jesus.

Finally, as the year closes let us look ahead into the new year with hope, because He who led us through the days of 1959 will not forsake us in 1960! Our looking back and remembering how God helped us in 1959 should make strong our faith for 1960. God did not fail us in 1959; He will not fail us in 1960. You can depend on Him! Past history proves that! Also His Word in the Bible proves that. Jesus says, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:20)

That dose not mean that we will not have problems, sorrows and even death in 1960. A few of us may die in 1960. Maybe we all will be destroyed in war. But we can be sure that even in the troubled days near the end of the world, God is with us and loves us and promises to support our faith and finally in Jesus bring us to glory and peace in heaven. We believe like the three men King Nebuchadnezzar intended to throw in the fiery furnace. They said, "Our God is able to deliver us from the fire, but if He will not we will still believe in Him" (Daniel 3:17-18) And old Job said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him (Job 13:15)

So looking back on God's leading during 1959 and trusting the promises of His Word let us follow Him into the New Year without fear, but with confidence and joy. We are one year nearer to our final salvation and victory. We have a little more time to work and preach to others before they die or before the end comes! Let us meet the New Year with eagerness and quiet faith - not in drunkenness.

Amen.