Yeah, it’s leap day!  Here are some great facts about today

1. Leap Day only happens once every 4 years.
2. It keeps our calendar in alignment with the Earth’s rotation around the sun.
3. Those born on February 29 finally get to have birthday cake.  (I almost had one of those.  Just think he would have been 4 today instead of 16 tomorrow.  If only!)

It’s the last one until 2020. That’s pretty sobering.  Just think what could be going on that next time we have today.  And think about what could be different if you start today!

Redeeming the time… Ephesians 5:16 (KJV)

In the world of craziness, today happens to be ‘For Pete’s Sake Day’, which I think is really funny. However, since it is a minced oath and euphemism, it does remind me that we should always be watching and thinking about the way we use the language we have around us.

There is tons of stuff in the Word that covers how we use words, but this seems like a good summary to remember of this particular day.

²⁹ Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 4:29 (ESV)

Let’s use our words for the benefit of those that hear us!

I received an email yesterday as many of you might have from Right Now Media with a link to this Rap Battle.  A Rap Battle of Kindness. Take a watch, it might be worth 3 minutes of your life….

https://www.rightnow.org/Content/VideoElement/128220

Well, it’s a little hokey, I must admit, but it creatively shows the type of battle followers of the Christ should engage in.  A battle, as I continue to write about this year, where we put others before ourselves.

10Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12:10 (ESV)

I love that word in the second sentence. Outdo!  In that word lies a challenge that is directed to us to continually push each other in the way we show honor to others.  That’s not a challenge to make ourselves great.  It’s a challenge to find more and more ways to make others greater!

By the way, This particular video is from a bible study targeted to teenagers by Eric Mason called Decisions. ( of which I have only watched the trailer).

I picked up a new Bible a few weeks ago from Crossway.  I really like the way they have put these books together.  Nice soft bindings, white pages, and a font that is easy to read.  Plus they use the ESV, which is a version that I am really enjoying these days.

Anyway, I got this book, because it is small and fits in my pocket.  I was tearing up a bible by traveling with it that I didn’t want to tear up.  So, since it’s smaller, I started reading the one-page letters this past weekend, as it seems so much easier to tackle with everything just on that little 4X6 page.  I tackled Titus, which is actually a few pages,  and Philemon.

Oh Philemon, a little letter full of all sorts of encouragement.  I was reminded of this bit after my post yesterday.  Yeah, this is good.

4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.7For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. Philemon 1:407 (ESV)