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WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today’s blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/Are_You_a_Consumer_Christian.mp3 ___________________________________________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, March 7, 2022, and this is Episode #10 of Series 2022. This episode is titled "Are You a Consumer Christian?" So, what is a consumer Christian? In short, it is a person who looks to God as a vending machine. Wow! That's a pretty disrespectful way of looking at God, isn't it? Yes. It most certainly is! Yet, all of us have been guilty of consumer Christianity at one point or another. You may be asking, "How so?" Well, let me give you some examples: 1. Do you go to God only when you're in trouble? 2. Do you spend more time asking God for what you need than you do in worshipping Him?  3. Does your life revolve around you and the things you're interested in rather than revolving around God and the things that matter to Him? These are only a few of the ways we have bought into Consumer Christianity. And, I can assure you that our Lord is not pleased! In an insightful article by Matt Reynolds, titled "The Death Rattle of Consumer Christianity," and published on July 20, 2020, the author writes this: "The consumeristic approach we've taken to church life in the United States is collapsing because it lacks a foundation. We have favored pragmatism over theology, crowds over disciples, marketing over evangelism, coffee bars over catechism. We have shown greater commitment to manufacturing celebrity pastors than lifting up unseen, humble, and sacrificial shepherds." How true and how sad! But we have only ourselves to blame. Yes, there are pastors who have not been what they should have been to the flock of Christ. Pastors who have twisted and perverted the Gospel for their own gain and their own fame. But we are individually responsible for our own lives. Scripture warns us in Philippians 2: 13 to "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling." In other words, we cannot pass the buck to poor pastors when it comes to the kind of Christian life we are leading. So, let me ask you again: "Are you a Consumer Christian?" If so, do an about-face. Repent and get serious about your relationship with Jesus Christ. Worship Him because He is God and for no other reason. He alone deserves our worship, adoration, and praise. No matter what! If you do not yet know this awesome Jesus Who died and rose from the dead for you, welcome Him into your life now. He is the only way you can be saved. He is your only ticket to Heaven. There is no other way, no matter what anyone tells you. In Acts 1: 11, the Bible says this: "This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” Hallelujah!  Yes, this same Jesus will one day very soon return in the same way He left to remove His Bride from the earth and to take her to be with Him forever in Heaven. Those of us who are born again are that Bride. You can be, too! How? By accepting Jesus Christ now. Pray this simple prayer with me: Lord Jesus,