by Howard Katz
Publisher: Believe Books
ISBN: 0-6151582-5-0
Page Count: 151
Price: $15.99
Format: Paperback
www.KatzBrothers.org

God’s ultimate purpose and plan for all of us as believers is for us to be changed and transformed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. But, in order for us to become more like Christ, we have to submit ourselves to complete obedience and go through the process toward spiritual maturity. Howard Katz eloquently shows us how to do this Seven Essential Relationships: How to Pass God’s Crucial Tests.

Each believer, Katz says, will be tested in seven essential relationships. “Each relationship builds on the previous ones—they are all interlinked. Since these relationships are progressive in nature, one cannot skip one relationship before moving to the next relationship.”

The seven essential relationships along with their corresponding tests are: (1) our relationship with God’s Word and its corresponding obedience test; (2) Our relationship with the world and its corresponding separation test; (3) our relationship with authority and its corresponding submission test; (4) our relationship in the way in which God deals with us and its corresponding preparation test; (5) our relationship with God’s plan and its corresponding possessive test; (6) our relationship with God Himself and its corresponding priority test; and (7) our relationship with the Glory of God and its corresponding faith test.

What is so beautiful about Seven Essential Relationships is how in an open an humble way, Howard Katz uses candid examples from his own life and from the life of Joseph, to illustrate each of these seven relationships.

Katz also intricately interweaves the seven step process a potter uses in the molding of a piece of clay to form the perfect vessel, to give us further understanding of these seven relationships. He takes us from the removal of the clay from the ground, to the refining/firing process, ending in a beautiful vessel fit for the Master’s use. Seven Essential Relationships is written in simple language, but it is very powerful, and if you let is, it can revolutionize your Christian life and your relationships.