A digital commonplace for a Regular Guy called Charlie Pharis

Category: General (page 2 of 121)

Testing from the CrackBerry Again…

We’re in the middle of a bunch of thunder and lightning, so I turned my desktop computer off. Here I am with my trusty Curve, seeing how it works with the old blog. This is just a test…nothing to see here…move along now…these are not the droids you’re looking for…:-)

Monday Night Unwind, 07.07.08…

Just about to call it quits after a pretty good day. Here’s what’s happened and happening…

  • Got a little Hillsong United playing on Pandora. Third Day’s King of Glory just wrapped up.  David Crowder’s Everything Glorious is on at this very minute. Two of my favorites, especially that Third Day song…it fires me up every time for some reason. Oh, now it’s Hillsong United’s For All Who Are to Come!
  • Did I mention we may have a chick leading some worship for us? And that she’ll be tons better than Darlene However-You-Pronounce-Her-Name at Hillsong?
  • Speaking of Hillsong, did you know that Perry Noble is speaking there later this year? Anderson meets Australia…oh, to be a fly on the wall! 🙂
  • David Foster twittered this great Lou Holtz quote: “The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.” Wow! And ouch!
  • Personal best in the bench press today.
  • But I couldn’t lift the TV that got fried a couple of weeks ago to take it to the shop! Pretty weak! (No, pretty stinkin’ bulky TV!)
  • Oh, anybody want to pony up for a nice new HDTV? Just wondering…
  • The Message is rocking my world these days. Again.
  • This last cup of Sumatra is super!
  • Writing thank you notes to the VBS team. Writing…you do that with a real pen and real note paper. Then you put real stamps on them. And put them in your real mailbox, so the real mail carrier can pick them up and they get delivered. In a couple of days. And they still seem to have that little extra something in these days of Twitter and email and text messages. Just a thought…your mileage may vary.
  • Feeling real grateful tonight for my buds who are making a impact for the sake of the Kingdom. You guys know who you are, and you know I’m pulling and praying for you! Go get ’em, Tiger!

That’s about it…4 am comes real early in the morning! See y’all later!

Notes from the Weekend Just Past…

One of those busy-but-pretty-good weekends went something like this (including today)…

  • Didn’t preach yesterday morning. Had these guys in for their pitch. It was actually pretty good. Heard some interesting stats, a couple of items that made me go “hmmmm!” and one really great, challenging story that will certainly surface somewhere else along the way.
  • “The Boy” stopped by long enough to eat lunch. Always great to see him!
  • Got back to serious working out at the Y. Read some great, challenging articles at the wellness center desk.
  • Caught the last three-quarters or so of G.I. Jane on TV. Love that great, challenging quote from Master Chief Urgayle: “There are no bad crews, only bad leaders!” Hmmm….
  • Touched base with one of my heroes, the one and only Gary Lamb. He doesn’t know it, but he usually challenges and encourages me almost every time I talk to him!
  • Started a little series in our evening service. We’re unabashedly talking about some other churches. And we’re calling them by name. Really picking them apart and all that jazz. Maybe you’ve heard of them. Going to be good….
  • Read Shackleton’s Way, and was challenged and encouraged by his leadership in the middle of difficult and seemingly hopeless times of crisis. Just found a website….
  • Re-discovered Tennyson and Browning, via the book about Shackleton.
  • Made me want to watch Dead Poets Society.
  • Set personal bests in the bench press today! Woo hoo!

Friday Night Unwind, 01.18.08…

Still got The Derailers on my mind, in my ears, and out my speakers! What else is in there, you ask? Well, you didn’t ask, but since I told the woman from the paper today that the main thing I like about blogging is that I don’t have to get anybody else’s permission to write what I think, I can put it down here if I want to! So there!

Gnat Bites…

Random little things that shouldn’t be bugging me today, but they are…

  • Six-week sabbaticals
  • Pastors as Rasputin or Charles Manson
  • Paranoid leaders
  • Cat urine
  • Delays
  • Way too-long and tangled “to-do” lists, with no clear starting point
  • Little flaws that add up to huge character defects

Just a Little Sin…

It was just a little sin, a little insignificant lie. One told out of embarrassment and frustration. Just two little words…

Wrong number.

Actually, it was little insignificant lie #2. The first came just a few minutes before…

It’s already taken care of.

Funny thing about those little insignificant sins: They are huge blocks in one’s spirit, in one’s ability to focus on and hear from God.

Butt-Kicking from the Great Beyond…

Ever had your butt kicked? Ever had your butt kicked by a dead guy? I have! And I do, nearly every day.

See, I get this devotional from A.W. Tozer delivered to my Inbox every morning. And usually the brief samples of Tozer’s writing and thinking pack a pretty powerful punch and deliver a good swift kick, right where it does the most good.

Consider this from today, the final installment in a series on prayer…

Oh God, Let me die rather than go on day by day living wrong. I do not want to become a careless, fleshly old man. I want to be be right so I can die right. Lord, I do not want my life to be extended if it would mean that I should cease to live right and fail in my mission to glorify You all of my days!

I would not want an extra 15 years in which to backslide and dishonor my Lord. I would rather go home right now than to live on – if living on was to be a waste of God’s time and my own!