to those falling asleep in the pew

Alright everyone, we have a problem. We got people all around us who are believing lies about Jesus and we're ok with that as Christians.
WWHHHHAAAAAATTTTT!!!???
Yeah that's right, you all heard me.
Last week in Sociology, we watched this movie called "Zeitgeist". We watched the first portion entitled "The Greatest Story Ever Told". This section was on religion. My professor prefaced the movie with, "I was talking to a Methodist minister, and he said all the facts presented in this movie are true."
So basically we got 40 people watching this movie, but now they're not just watching it like they normally would. Now they're watching it thinking everything presented in this movie is fact and truth.
This is the link for part 1 of 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61ReohCr35U
I would encourage all of you to watch all three parts.
What you will find is a 20 minute string of mostly lies.
The individual who put out this video makes some pretty amazing claims about several religious historical figures. All you have to do is some research on any of these people in the movie and you will find most of the facts presented are falsities.
Now, I assume that by this point you have taken some time to watch these movies.
Now try to picture yourself in my shoes:
1: Possibly the only Christian in a room of 40+ people
2: The 40+ people thinking the movie is truth
3: the 40+ people laughing and mocking Jesus out loud as the movie progresses

This is a really hard situation to be in, but it happens.
I'm finding that when I'm vocal in class, stuff like this happens all the time, but most of us Christians just don't vocalize like we should.
Wouldn't it be amazing if the GCCS Senior class graduates with 3 of their class moving on to Camden County College. What if at least one of them gets my professor. What if that one person takes the stand that I am trying to take? I think that that will have an impact on my Professor b/c I just don't think he ever faces opposition that can actually defend their point!
Any way, I hope that you guys are disturbed at this point by the movie and the lack of Christians acting like Christians these days.
"This is a call, to the Faithful. With outstretched arms, to the faithless."- Inhale/Exhale
Please guys, talk with me about what we can be doing to change the world. The first century church did it, why can't we?

I'm just going to take a moment to say "I love you" to my most amazing girlfriend ever! She's my favorite little darling i ever did see, and she's very precious to me!
These are some of the reasons I love her so much:
She loves me
She loves Jesus
She's sweet
She's kind
She's lovely
She's patient
She's respectable
She's got an interesting sense of style
She's got a lot of experience with kids
She's an amazing communicator
She's absolutely cootsie-boo
She puts up with my strange sense of humor
She laughs my favorite laughs of all time
She's a good and faithful friend
She's there for me
She never gets tired of saying "I love you too"
She likes hugs
She's super smart
She's amazing at art
She's great at make up
She changes her hair color all the time
She's never the same 2 days in a row
She's great with people
She thinks I'm cute
She sings real pretty
She's sophisticated and simple all at once
She's not afraid of surprising me sometimes
She's not afraid I'll hurt her
She trusts me
She's got a purple van
She loves her little Gumbo [hamster]
She makes Alfredo
She bakes awesome 3 layer chocolate/cheesecake cake
She goes green
She likes taking pictures [unfortunately her camera's broke right now :( ]
She's a night person
She cares about people
She likes my friends
She thinks like no one else thinks
She lights up my life
She's not afraid of leg warmers
She's easy to cherish
She's gonna be a good wife and I love my Hannah Jane Schweigart with all my heart. I'd do anything for her, including dying to save her.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.-John 15:13
And because of this verse, i can without a doubt say I love you!
Love w/all my heart,
Jesse Avery Gruber

Love in the Garden

i'm just gonna make a couple comments on the Garden of Eden.
I think that many people, including myself, forget who God is. We don't see His might, power, and love in every act He does. I think that's a problem, for if God is not all of His attributes at all times, then is He God?
There's a statement that I'd agree with saying that "God is bound by His attributes." This is true, because every act God wills to come about, cannot contradict who He is at any given time.
SO, we'd live differently if we took the time to delve into some specific acts of God throughout Scripture just to see how many different attributes we can find!
This time we're gonna look at the act of God kicking Adam and Eve out of the Garden.
Love-
God's love is often not seen in acts where He is pouring judgement on someone or something, but it is indeed here in the Garden. Gen 3:22 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever--Gen 3:23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Gen 3:24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. "
This right here is amazing, and often overlooked. This passage says that God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden. But this was not a punishment for them. it was protection for them.
You see, if God had allowed Adam and Eve to continue living in the Garden with their sinful state, they would still be able to eat of the tree of life. If they did that, they'd live on earth for eternity with the curse! No good at all.
So instead, God chose to remove them from the Garden. In doing so, He allowed them live their lives and die, rather than live in sinful bodies forever! Pretty cool huh? Especially since we know that God didn't just kick them out to die, He also made provision for them to reach heaven.

What a wonderful God we have!!

Hopefully i'll get to do more of these little blurbs cause there's just so much to write about i could sit here for hours!
Thanks for reading and drop me a facebook message letting me know what you thought!!!

to my friends that are still interested in my sociology updates

well
i don't even know what to say.
it's amazing the power that a teacher has over the class. it kind of scares me. like today [11/6-09] we talked about religion. about half way through the class the girl next to me noticed i hadn't been putting in my input, but also noticed that i was definitely not buying in to anything he was saying. she looks at me and says, "so what do you think?"
i said, "he's got some really foolish arguments." and i laugh
she says, "yeah i'm dumb, i really don't know what's going on, but i believe what he's saying because i don't know the other side of the argument."
wow.
so i really felt bad for her so i started to get a little more involved, but also being very cautious due to the raised tension level in class.
so i picked started formulating little discussions in my head while he was talking about Jericho.
he said that God told Joshua to go in and kill all those in Jericho so that the Israelites could get the land.
so he got to a point where he asked me what i thought.
i asked, "did everyone in Jericho die when the Israelites conquered it?"
he said historically yes.
so i'm pausing trying to think of what history books even talk about this event, and he just skips on to another subject while i just look at him puzzled.
the truth is, everyone in Jericho didn't die.
Rahab was saved due to her [very little] service to the Lord.
God was kind to her because she hopped on His bandwagon, unlike the rest of Jericho.
amazingly she is also included in the line of Jesus if i'm not mistaken [see Matt. 1:5].
so i really wasn't able to speak into that one at all.
so they started talking about God being a bully when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. again he said that everyone was killed, so God wasn't gracious.
again, the Bible says that Abraham intercede for the cities many times. God in His graciousness decided to "barter" with Abraham as to the number of people willing to follow God. the number ended up at Lot.
so, again, God saved Lot, the only one that would've followed God.
this story shows us God knows the hearts of man including their intents.
but he never gave me a chance to speak.
so he gravitated to the issue of inequality of women.
he said that God thinks women are second to men and thus inequal.
he then quoted part of the passage including the "wives submit to your husbands" passage and left it there.
i [thinking of pastor phil's message on sunday concerning submission] immediately raised my hand and asked "does submission have anything to do with equality?"
he told me he didn't understand.
so i said that the phrase right after that says, "husbands love your wives"
and everyone started talking at once saying that that doesn't mean anything because husbands who beat their wives claim that they love them.
i said "yeah but are they showing it?"
everyone got quiet and Baron [my prof] switched subjects again.
so i never really got a chance to say anything that i would've considered profitable, but at this moment i'm sitting next to one of my friends that just talked to me about my opinion on all of this. so we just talked about Jesus.
yay.
one small victory as far as i'm concerned, but mayb God's got something bigger.
i hope so.
message me on facebook if you have any more thoughts or questions. i left out a lot of details. like this girl who was arguing for Christianity, but only spoke from what her pastor said, not about the Bible or any historical evidence. so yeah.
message me [with encouragement would be best!].

To thank those who love Jesus, and to admonish those who don't

there are two kinds of people: those who love Jesus and those who don't. those who love Jesus do not have "unity" in mind per se. no, these Christians, as we are called, have one end all goal: to be like Jesus. to be honest, being like Jesus trumps all other desires. unity is not the end all goal. if unity is the only thing Christians strive for, then Christ is not where He needs to be.
see this picture?
these fountains are in unity. they are all coming from different angles at different times at different intensities, but you know what? they're in unity...and it's gorgeous.
unity doesn't call for agreement, it calls for humility.
Eph 4:1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
Eph 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
Eph 4:3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Eph 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call--
Eph 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Eph 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

i ask, what comes before the mention of unity? humility, gentleness, patience, and love. these things are followed by the pursuit of unity.
clearly there are guidelines as to how unity is to be brought about, but unfortunately we're all big wads of ego and want our own version of unity, not the "one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father." that Scripture calls for. we'd rather interject our thought's over God's; a very dangerous place to be.

humility is first and foremost. if we recognize ourselves as the authors of unity, we will provide a cicumstance for disunity and arrogance rather than humility.

this is where we are most likely to err, so i would encourage all in the quest for unity to first off seek humility in the life of Jesus and throughout the Scriptures. also remember that God is the author of order and unity, and that nothing will come about without Him making it go down.

email to my soc prof about class discussion on abortion and abstinence

This is the email i just sent my sociology professor:

hello again. i just have a few observations/questions:

why are you for abortion when your mother was almost the victim? if the plan had succeeded, you would never have existed. so if the choice to abort means the life or death of an individual [such as yourself] why is it the end of all the world's poverty problems, which you seem to think it is.

also, i'm getting annoyed with you using the Bible incorrectly. just letting you know in the Mosaic law in the Old Testament of Scripture, it talks about divorce. back then, the Jewish men were leaving their wives for whatever reason they wanted to, and you're correct in saying that the women were left with nothing. if the man wasn't there, they'd have no income and no dignity. BUT God in His law to the Jewish people, made provision for these women who were being left with nothing. He allowed them to divorce their husbands thus rendering their honor in tact and giving them the right to remarry so they would have money to live. so stop twisting the truth, or at least don't use the Bible as a source if you really don't know what you're talking about.

also i think the "discussion" on abstinence was a little overboard. i was sitting there wondering if some of these people were arguing for birth control [which i'm not against in the context of marriage] because they want to live the life of promiscuity. also if you want less teen pregnancy, isn't abstinence the most effective way of birth control? if someone's going to teach abstinence, they shouldn't need to teach birth control as well. it defeats the purpose of abstinence! also, i've been abstinent for going on 4 years with my girlfriend, and i think you don't find me to be a "dumb christian". i actually do my research and i might just be the force to reckon with you.

i hope you don't find me disrespectful, i really just want you to speak what makes sense, and so far...it's not working out so well.


Jesse Gruber


I know, I know, it's really harsh, but at this point, it needs to be. I'm sick and tired of him making fun of Jesus so I'm gonna call him down on it...hard. I'm hoping maybe he'll start listening to me soon, but i realize it's not up to me what he thinks. I'm hoping God gets a hold of him before it's too late. drop me a comment or a facebook message on what you think about abortion and abstinence [sex before marriage]. Also lemme know if I'm wrong in what I did.
Thanks.
Let me know if you want more background of the class discussion on abstinence.

to all who are thinking of me and my convo with the sociology prof.

hello friends. thanks for thinking and praying of me. here's my recollection of my chat with the professor today.

well first off, he was half hour late. he forgot and was in the teacher lounge. i had to hunt him down so i didn't waste my morning.
but after i finally found him and we sat down he said, "so you have questions for me?"
to be honest i had already asked him some questions the class before [wednesday]. here they were [this is like a flashback so bear with me]
WEDNESDAY
he explained to the class this "amazing evolutionary discovery" whose name was Ardipithecus ramidus or "Ardi". he told the class that Ardi had an apposable thumb on her foot like an ape, but walked upright like a human. he then explained how through natural selection had weeded out this species over time. he then opened up for questions.
of course i raised my hand. i said "i don't understand, if Ardi could both walk upright and swing from trees, why did she get weeded out in natural selection. i mean, doesn't that seem like she had the best of both worlds? wouldn't these genes remain intact rather than choose one setting over the other?"
know what he said? he said, "i agree with you. i don't know. any more questions?"
so i raised my hand again. i said, "in the documentary the archaeologist who found her stated that he himself was surprised that they were able to piece her together. he said that some of her bones were so crushed it was simply luck that they were able to piece the puzzle back together." i then asked, "if Ardi's bones were so crushed that it took luck to piece them together, then how do we know they pieced them together accurately?"
know what he said? he said, "i'm not and anatomologist, i don't know. any other questions?"
so i raise my hand again and said, "the archaeologist also said that he thought to himself when they found the hip and foot bones 'maybe these two things are part of the same skeleton'. how did the archaeologists know the two pieces were to the same thing?"
know what he said? he said, "again i'm no archaeologist. i don't know. any other questions?"
so i raised my hand again and said, "aren't fossils made from from rapid sediment depositing on a living organism and thus preserving it for a long time? how can Ardi have died and been laying on the ground when she fossilized like the documentary said?"
know what he said? he said, "i don't know. any other questions?"
i raised my hand again and asked if a monopoly in an industry was detrimental to society. he said yes.
i was going to tell him today that the scientific community was a monopoly of evolutionists, but never had the chance.
also another questioned i should've asked but didn't cause i didn't think of it at the moment would've been "are these fossils available for other scientists to do research on them" because most times, they close these fossils off to society so that society has to accept what they say as truth.

TODAY
so he made the statement about questions to me and before i could answer he starts going into this long rant about how science and faith cannot mix. he claims that the Pharisees wrote the Bible [they didn't, they possibly made copies, but never autographs]. i asked him to find me contradictions in Scripture. he then started explaining to simpleton me how languages change and how we don't have the same Bible as it was in the original languages. [what i should've said at this point was "oh so you mean that it wasn't perfect in the original languages, but somehow there aren't any notable contradictions in Scripture today? but i didn't. didn't have time.]
he also claims that evolution is happening currently and we can observe it, even though he also admits that species aren't changing into anything new. basically he's talking about micro evolution which no one argues because it's observable. so nothing new there.
i then made a statement or two about entropy, which is a scientific law that states everything is moving from a state of order to disorder, from good to bad. i asked that isn't evolution in contradiction with scientific LAW if things evolve from less complex to more and more complex? he said it seems to, but that doesn't mean that it isn't science and that it's not valid.
WHAT??? he's got more contradictions in that statement that politicians in the senate! i just stared at him.
he also went into some really weird directions like "Pontias Pilate's courtyard wasn't big enough to hold a large crowd" and weird stuff like that. basically stuff that didn't really have anything to do with anything.
he then mentioned that the Creationists say that men rode dinosaurs, and that those people talk flinstones not science. i said that i'm pretty sure they found dinosaur fossils and human fossils in the same layer of earth. he told me that i'm wrong. that i need to check my sources.
class was going to start, so i pulled out the movie Expelled by Ben Stein. i explained to him how the movies challenged evolutionary thinking with the Intelligent Design concept.
he refused to take the movie because he "doesn't like Stein's political views"
unbelievable right? i thought he was kidding so i handed it in his direction again. yeah he wasn't kidding, he didn't take it. i just stared at him, looked at the class, laughed in disbelief, and started to sit back down.
he told me he liked the conversation. he wants to have another one.
oh gosh. he basically said "yeah evolution defies scientific law, but it still is science."
i'm still trying to figure out in what setting we're going to talk again. hopefully in a class setting so all may see that he really doesn't have many pieces together [kinda like Ardi].
by the way a archaeologist just told me that the ending "pithecus" means "ape" in Latin.
i just thought that was kinda funny/ironic.
if you guys have any info for me that i can use, let me know, leave a comment or shoot me an email at: shrankaplooza@gmail.com
thanks all!!!!!
in Christ
Jesse