Well, it's almost the end of another year, and I can hardly believe that this is actually podcast number 260 and that today is actually the last day of things unseen.

And I want to express my thanks to three members of Ligonier staff who have made things

unseen possible. To Barry to Daniel and to Alex. And I want to thank you also for the privilege of being with you over these weeks and months

when we've tried to reflect together on all kinds of different themes related to our Christian lives.

And over the past year, we've thought about some doctrinal and theological themes,

we've thought about some pastoral themes,

we've thought about some personal themes.

And I'm sure not all podcasts are equal.

They're not all equally well done.

But also because we are wired differently and we're in different places and stages in our spiritual experience,

some of these themes will have been more helpful to us than others.

And that's true of me too. But what we share in common is this, but in a couple of days time, when the clock strikes 12, we will be in a new year, and at least from our human point of view a new

beginning the old year will have gone forever and that's quite a thought isn't it gone forever. And that's quite a thought, isn't it, gone forever? It really underlines the

importance of putting into practice Paul's encouragement in Ephesians 5 verse 16 to redeem the time or as the English standard version

translates it to make the best use of the time. One of my earliest memories of

New Year's Eve is of my parents telling me to go into the bedroom

and to decide on 10 New Year resolutions.

Yes, 10.

I think the number probably had something to do with the 10 Commandments.

Or perhaps I was so difficult a child they assumed that there would be at least 10 ways

I could easily come out of the room slightly improved.

But to be honest, after I'd got the first few obvious ones written down, I actually struggled

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