What are You Looking For?

Have you thought about Easter yet?  Believe it or not, Easter is two weeks and two days from now.  Sixteen days.  Wow.

As I've been praying about our Easter service, a scripture came to my mind:

The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them,

“What are you looking for?”  

- John 1:35-38

That really caught my attention, "what are you looking for?"  Truth is, everyone is looking for something.  I supposed Annie Lennox was on to something with her 1983 hit "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), singing "I travel the world and the seven seas, Everybody's looking for something..."

I remember listening to that song on MTV, sitting in my house in Imperial Beach California, all tweaked out on a cocktail of mind-altering substances. See, I was looking for something, I just didn't know what it was I was looking for.  I thought I was looking for fun, pleasure, love, excitement, money... I tried so many things, and they all came up empty. I never found what that 'one thing' that I desired, until I myself was found by God.

God must have looked down and, seeing me, thought "what a pity, traveling the seven seas, looking for something, and what he really needs is right before him - ME!" In His mercy He reached out and touched my life, and in the process connected me with the one thing that I needed so badly; A relationship with my creator!

Guys, we are surrounded by an entire culture that is seeking, looking, experimenting, trying to find some sense of belonging, looking to be satisfied, searching for that one thing that will make all things new.  And guess what, WE HAVE THE ANSWER:  Jesus Christ!

I want to encourage you now to start praying TODAY for who you will invite to our Easter services at Calvary Chapel.  The theme this year is "Searching,"  because we know people are searching, and want to help them find the answer that will satisfy them for all of eternity.  Be specific.  Pray for the Lord to open an opportunity.  Pray for boldness.  Pray that God would open their eyes.

... till the whole world hears,

Pastor Clay

LifeHacker Tip - Set you "to-do list" as your screen lock

OK I just geeked out ...

I don't know about you, but I've always had a hard time keeping my to-do list in front of my eyes, especially since i am on the move a lot.  I've tried notepads (great as long as I'm sitting at my desk), dayplanners (hassle to carry around), iphone apps (love the integration, but you have to open them to see the list).

All of these are options that work - but not quite as fast and efficient as I'd like.  My current setup is a combo of Orchestra (get it here) and Evernote (get Evernote here):  Orchestra keeps my 'long list' with due dates and people that tasks are assigned to, and Evernote has a nifty format tool that allows you to create check-boxes in your list, so i put my daily check list on an Evernote.

But still, i have to open Evernote on my phone/ipad/mac to see the list.  Then it hit me - why not use a screen-shot of my Evernote as my iPhone lock screen?  Then all i have to do is hit the home button, and there's my list.  It's quick and easy:

1. refresh my to-do list in the morning
2. get a screen grab (press the 'home' and 'power' button at the same time)
3. go to my photos, and set the screen grab as my lock screen.
4. bam - instant glimpse of my to-do list.

The only downside is its not updated, but i can usually remember what i have already done, and it only takes a few seconds to grab a new screen grab if i need to.

enjoy!

Pastor Clay