summary....

Wow I feel like I haven't blogged in forever! O wait..... that's because I haven't! Sorry I went out of town for Thanksgiving and had limited Internet access, and have been kind of busy since I got back on Saturday evening. Anyways I thought I would blog about everything that's been going on. First off Thanksgiving was GREAT this year, I got the opportunity to go to Beaumont,TX with Kayleigh's family and it's always great spending quality time with Kayleigh of course! But it is also awesome getting to hang with the Bledsoe's! Plus Texas is a really cool state (I'm still deciding if it's somewhere I would like to live someday). Sunday morning was Amazing! I absolutely love C3 Sunday morning was just well... REFRESHING! You can check out Pastor Byron and Pastor Barry's blogs, b/c I think they summarize the morning better than I could. But it's so cool how God works. While in Texas I kept up on my blog reading (even though I wasn't contributing) and loved reading all the Thanksgiving blogs about things people where thankful for. But I started to think about how lucky I was! How lucky I am to have the privilege to be able to call Kayleigh my girlfriend! To be able to hang out with Pastor Byron and Mrs. Angie, THANK YOU so much! You guy's will never know the level of impact that both of you have had on my life! You have shown me how to truly love God and love others, and as Mrs. Angie says: LOVE WINS! So thankful for a GREAT church staff,Pastor Byron, Darrell, Travis, Barry, and Josh have all impacted my life and taught me so many things, but I think the biggest thing I have learned is to always function with Integrity and all five of those men display this with everything they do! I am truly blessed and Incredibly Rich! Check out all of their blogs and You'll understand what I mean by Rich. The Awesome thing about everything that's going on at C3 right now is that... This is only the beginning! Can't wait to see whats to come!

barry

Mucinex

So my roommate Josh came to the house yesterday with a really bad sinus cold. He took some medicine then proceeded to go to sleep for like 4 hours, woke up came downstairs ate some chicken noodle soup drank some orange juice and was quite out of it, due to the fact he took Tylenol Cold. He then proceeded to go back to bed and sleep till he had to get up to go to work today. I say all of that to say this, I think he may have passed it on to me... :( I woke up this morning with a lot of sinus pressure more than my usual allergy sinus issues. And I'm feeling a Little under the weather. But Thank God for Mucinex it usually knocks out anything I ever get so My fingers are crossed and I'm hoping today is the only time this bothers me. Any who hope you have a great Thursday and I'm gonna try to blog at least 3 times a week. O and I'll either blog later today or tomorrow about home team last night it was ... AMAZING!

Increase the Peace!

Another Great Sunday!

Wow is pretty much all I can say about today! I love C3. Church this morning was amazing! We launched our last series we are going to do in our current facilities "Barbaric Grace." I'll have to admit at first I was a little confused about the title. Well after this mornings sermon there is no confusion any more! Today was a kick in the backside, and a huge burst of encouragement! This morning Pastor brought it! God's grace is free and amazing but it's all because of Jesus being a barbarian! To hear of so many people in the bible who where just flat out barbarians, was so encouraging! It reminded me that God can use anyone with a willing heart! Worship this morning was also AMAZING! Mrs. Angie closed out the morning by singing "Lead Me To The Cross" with a towering 16 ft. Cross behind her. To think of the barbarian attitude Jesus had to sacrifice himself for YOU and Me! And because of it we now have the free gift of Grace gave me goosebumps! Then I had lunch with Kayleigh and friends, then a amazing time of reading and talking with Kayleigh! We decided to start reading a book by Donald Miller called "Searching for God Knows What" after reading the first chapter we sat and discussed the reading, talked about the morning service, and tried to understand somethings that didn't really make sense... Like how did Adam look at a weird looking animal and know to name it Aardvark? Anyways it was just an amazing and refreshing time to be able to relax and spend quality time with the MOST AMAZING GIRL IN THE WORLD! After that it was off to Regal Cinema @ Waterford for our CRAVE movie night. We saw "Fred Claus" I found it to be very funny and it was awesome to get to hang out with all the students afterwards at The Patio. I had some Barney's Coffee tonight because it was "Cappy Hour" *buy 1 get 1 free* from 7-8pm.(For the record the Egg Nog Latte, Not so good...) All in all it was a GREAT DAY! Hope you have a great week!


barry

Liberty Mutual Ad (1st edition):

I've seen this tv commercial several times, and it never ceases to make me stop and think for a moment. This commercial not only encourages me but frustrates me all at the same time. On the one hand it's amazing because the thinking of other's before yourself attitude is awesome! And going the extra mile to do something for someone is even more extraordinary! Just think about how contagious of a life style this is... I mean seriously if you witness a noble act of some kind, does it not make you want to do something noble also? The great thing about this commercial is that none of the acts of kindness are anything challenging! I mean something as simple as opening a door for someone, or even just picking something up, for someone who has their hands full. Not going to break a sweat doing that! Not going to Pull any muscles (or at least you should'nt *if you do though, you should really try to become more active!* ) Your not going to ruin your day, in fact I would argue that it will brighten up your day! You see there is something liberating about helping someone else out, and even more liberating when someone else helps you out. But like I said earlier there is a frustrating part and it's simply this... WHY ARENT WE DOING THIS MORE OFTEN? Seriously so often we walk pass that lady who needs a hand with her groceries, we let the door close and that mans face, we laugh at someone who dropped something out of a bag and now has to pick it up. I remember my sophmore year in high school there was this girl who was permanently in a wheelchair. Well anyways I was on my way to my 4th period class which was out in the back portable buildings, and ahead of me I saw the girl in the wheelchair( unfortunatly I do not know her name, so we'll call her stacie so that I do not have to keep refering to her as the wheelchair girl) steering her way out to the portable's also. Well after some walking we were just about to exit off the main sidewalk onto the other sidewalk that ran parralell with the portable's. But in-between the two sidewalks was a small probably 4ft section of dirt, where they had not filled in with concrete yet. So as "stacie" got to the dirt spot her left tire became stuck, now I was still probably 15-20ft away from her, I watched (in what seemed like slow motion) stacie frantically try to get her left tire out of the dirt it was in. After still walking forward I now was about 5-8ft away (yes I walk very slow) and still stacie could not seem to get her tire unstuck, so you know being the "Gentleman" that I am, and not to mention the "Good Christian" I am, I did what I think most people would do, I side stepped the wheelchair and just kept on walking... WHAT WAS I THINKING? about 15 steps after that I felt like the biggest jerk in the world. So I turned around to go back in help, to only see stacie glaring at me, still stuck in the dirt. I knew I would just have to swallow my pride and go back to help! So I started back towards her, and about 3 steps into it, she wiggled herself free and scooted right on passed me. Very quickly this sick feeling fell over me, and I felt this emptiness inside of me, like my heart had been ripped out of my chest! I didnt know what to do, I felt like I should appologize to stacie, but at the same time if you had seen the glare she gave me, you would have just wanted to keep as much distance between yourself and her as possible. So again I did what I felt was the absolute right thing... I totally ignored it ever happened. As you can tell this story still eats me up inside even after 5 years now, I never had enough courage to go back to her and apologize. Every time I see this commercial it automatically takes me back to that moment in time, when I just side stepped someone in need... A couple of weeks ago I was driving back to Kayleigh's house with lunch on a Sunday afternoon, when we passed a little turtle trying to cross Lake Underhill. I swerved and drove past it, but as soon as I did, that same feeling came back to me, and I again went back to that moment. So I told myself I would not have the same regret this time, although it was only a turtle and not a girl stuck in the dirt. I quickley turned the car around and proceeded to pick up the turtle and carry him to the other side of the road. I felt better knowing that I may have saved that turtle's life. Later that night a student in our small group for Crave, said to me "Hey I saw you stop today, and pick up that turtle. That was pretty cool man!" I couldnt help but smile and say thanks. For some reason I thought about the commercial coming to life! Maybe this student would help someone or something out now. But anyways the reason for this blog was to admitt my stupidity, and also just to challenge you, to do something out of the ordinary today! Take that extra minute to do something nice for someone, help someone out today, say an encouraging word to someone! Remember you never know the impact you'll have on someone. And also you do not want to live with the regret of knowing you could have done something but instead just stepped aside...

-Barry

Simply Amazing!

OK so I know it has been a LOOOOONG time since my last blog! So I figured what better way to start back up then to write about MY BEST FRIEND and The One person who knows me better than anyone else in the WORLD!

These are just a few words that describe you and some of the reasons why I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

K- Kind
A- Adorable
Y- YOU
L- Lovable
E- Encouraging
I- Intelligent
G- Gorgeous
H- Ha-Ha-halarious

H- Honest
A- AMAZING
N- Nice
N- Never Gives Up
A- A Role Model
H- Humble

Babe YOU truly have been there for me through thick and thin, and You have always had my back, and been there to comfort, love, cry with, and even to correct me when I allow my "hard headedness" to take over. You have always been able to look past all of my faults and LOVE me for me... *I still do not understand that one!* You've shown me that people can be trusted, and that God is truly faithful! I count it a HUGE blessing to have been able to experience the last 3 years with you! and consider my life to be amazing because of YOU! You have put up with and dealt with more CRAP than anyone should have to deal with! and Yet YOU have always stayed true to yourself, family, and your convictions! I learn from you everyday! and I'm ENCOURAGED by YOU everyday! I could never thank you enough for the AMAZING influence you have had on my life! Please know that I LOVE YOU with ALL MY HEART! and that I will always be here for you!

I LOVE YOU KAYLEIGH HANNAH!

~barry james

Dear Anonymous

Today I recieved a comment from "Anonymous" on my blog. A few weeks ago where I shared a video of a man singing "Omazing Grace How Sweet The Sound" a video that I found rather funny, and thought that I would share it to help other people have a good laugh also. Well apparently "Anonymous" did not find it funny, or at least will not admit that he/she laughed. But to be honest I don't know how you could have not laughed at it.... Anyways the comment was this... and I quote: "HEY LET MAKE FUN OF THE RETARD! THATS CHRIST LIKE!" Just a few quick thoughts about the comment.

- The correct Grammar would be let's make fun of....

- Why are you yelling at me?

- I do not believe "RETARD" is the politically correct way of saying that someone is Mentally Challenged.

- "Anonymous" I think you may have made some assumptions about the singer also, I do not see any signs of the gentleman being Mentally Challenged.

- "Anonymous" Now I'm going to assume that you don't know me, because if you did, then you would know that in my Heart I would never make fun of a Mentally Challenged person just to make other people laugh! But let me set the record straight. I do not believe this man is Mentally Challenged, just Vocally Challenged and Tone deaf. And I don't see how sharing this video with people who are not uptight, is not "CHRIST LIKE!"

Anonymous, if your really concerned with my Christian walk then have enough guts to confront me and at least tell me who you are... Cause if you truly cared and believed what you were saying was true, then you would have no problem saying your name and standing by your belief.

But I'm sure you won't... and thats ok, I've expressed what I needed to! And now I will go about my day!

BARRY JAMES OSER

It's Monday and I need a Laugh...

Ok so since last Thursday marked the beginning of a new season of "The Office" I figured that I would share one of the funniest things I've seen on the show. Enjoy!