It surprises me how many new books have come out in recent years speaking against God and religion. Many of these writers have taken their animosity to a new level and their books are filled with spite.

Certainly, some of their criticism is warranted, especially as it pertains to those who call themselves Christians. Too often those of us who claim to follow Jesus Christ have been guilty of hypocrisy and religious intolerance. We have made excuses for our failures rather than confront our sin and come before God in honest repentance seeking his forgiveness and power to change. So I understand why so many books have been published that mock the church and run down God.

That being said, it also troubles me that we have come to this point in our country. People have found so little within the church that resembles God that they have concluded that either God is not real (the position atheists hold) or perhaps God is real but doesn’t really care what I do as long as I go to church once in a while (the position it seems many religious folks hold). Could one of these camps be right? Could they both be wrong? What if instead of living vicariously through the opinion of another we instead set about a journey to discover for ourselves whether God is or is not. I’d like to offer a challenge to this community, namely that we take the next few weeks going into October and we sincerely ask God to show up.

If you happen to be one of those folks who are an atheist, how about trying this, simply making room in your life for God to show himself to be real. What have you got to lose? You don’t really think there is a God anyway, so what would be the harm, right? It is easy to say that folks who believe in God only arrived at that conclusion because that is what they were taught to believe. Couldn’t the same also be said for those who profess to be atheists? What if instead of living our lives upon the opinions of others we truly became truth seekers and set about a journey of discovery for ourselves?

Those of you who fancy yourselves to be of the religious camp, you know the types, good church attendees who know a lot about the Bible but just don’t get overly excited about Jesus or following his teachings. How about if over the next few weeks you make it your habit to ask God to show you his heart not only for humanity, but also more specifically, for you as an individual? If you made room in your life for God to connect with you and begin a conversation, you might be surprised at what God would say. David wrote in Psalm 57:3… “My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness.”

Wouldn’t it be nice to skip all the religious stuff and truly connect with Jesus? Isn’t that why he came in the first place, so that we could connect with God through his son, Jesus? How come this experience seems so foreign in the church? Is that why so many assume there is no God, because so many who claim to know him never really experience his presence?