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Timotheus Pope stood in front of a group of more than 50 people in the Student Center last night and asked how many had brought their Bible.

When about half the room raised their Bibles in pride, Timotheus said, “Some people in this room are not believers. Some people in this room have been believers since they were 4 years old. Some people in this room simply forgot their Bibles. And the rest of the people in this room are watching you to see just what a believer looks like.”

Pope spoke last night at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Our Divine Unity meeting. His speech focused on personal Christian faith and the individual search for a relationship with God.

“You all look at the world and see how jacked up it is and wonder, ‘Where is God?'” Pope said. “We think he has forsaken us because we don’t see him working everyday. We can’t be afraid to need him, though. God feels like this: ‘You don’t want me? I’ll take my hands off. Let your enemies do what they’ll do to you.'”

Pope said a person’s spiritual belief system influences everything he or she does. What an individual believes about God will show in the way that person treats other people and handles relationships.

Pope also made a connection between a relationship with God and marriage. When people get married, Pope said, they learn to love each other how they want to be loved. But spouses will not always come out and say exactly what it is they want from the other. Pope said this is similar in a relationship with God.

“It’s not that God’s not saying anything, but what do you want him to say?” he said. “It’s that you’re not listening because you’re out doing what you want to do and not thinking about what he wants you to do. God wants you more than anything else, but he will always let you do what you do.”

Pope said all God wants his followers to do is come home and find their place. God will always be there, he said, but God wants his followers to acknowledge their relationship and strive to be who God wants them to be.

“What you need to know about his love is that God is already waiting for you,” Pope said. “Go ahead, run away. God is going to chase you down like a rottweiler in the ‘hood.”

Pope instructed everyone to look straight at him and follow directions exactly. He told everyone to make an “okay” sign with their hand and hold it against his or her chin. Only, instead of holding his hand against his chin, he held it against his face. More than half the room, watching Pope, followed suit and put their hand against their cheek instead of their chin, as they were instructed.

“Actions speak louder than words,” Pope said. “You can say you are a Christian all day long, you can say you’re touching your chin if you want, but everyone knows you’re touching your cheek.”

Pope said anyone can pursue a relationship with God whenever he or she wants. He said people can either give God 100 percent, or they can give God nothing. For the relationship to work, an individual must be willing to give everything.

“When faced with death, anyone would say, ‘No way God, I don’t want to go to hell, I want to go to heaven,'” Pope said. “Now that’s not salvation. That’s fire insurance. Salvation is free, but it’s not cheap.”

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Our Divine Unity meet every Monday night in Student Center Room 204.

Contact religion reporter Courtney Cook at [email protected].