It is not often that I have time to sit down and watch television strictly for pleasure. During one of those rare moments, I stumbled across a popular YouTube series entitled, “Pop The Balloon”. It’s a potential dating/looking for love show in which contestants “pop” their balloon to display they are no longer interested in moving forward with the person being presented to them. I noticed that sonme of the contestants voiced that “religion”, “spirituality”, and even a “relationship with God” as important qualities in their potential mate. However, those individuals that claimed to have a relationship with God often leaned on their church attendance (going once or twice a month or having been raised in the church) or trying to be a good or trying to pray more as a indicator to validate their claim to their potential match.
All of this struck me as somewhat odd. Not because those actions aren’t good things, but because they really did not reveal much if anything at all about that persons spiritual or religious beliefs. 1 John 2:23 proclaims, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” Simply put, you can’t have God without having and understanding His son, Jesus. Lots of people claim to know God and have a relationship with Him, while attempting to remain amigious about their beliefs on Jesus. The Bible teaches says that they are a packaged deal. You can’t get one, without the other. Perhaps the better question, whether you find yourself on an episode of “Pop The Balloon” or not, should be, “Who do you believe Jesus to be?”. The answer to that question alone will shed more light on a persons true relationship with the one true God.
- Trey Wiley
The Core Hope 