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Reviews:

Seven Essential Relationships by Howard Katz

Reviews from Amazon.com:

By Whitney Von Lake Hopler (Virginia)

If you want to grow spiritually but aren't sure how, this is the book for you. Seven Essential Relationships vividly describes what spiritual growth looks like, using the metaphor of a potter working with clay. You'll discover that, no matter how messy your life is, God wants to make something beautiful out of it.

Author Howard Katz shows how God shapes the lives of all believers through seven crucial tests that affect seven core relationships in life. Each test corresponds with a step in the pottery making process, helping you see how it impacts you as you're gradually transformed.

Reading this insightful book, you won't be content to just coast along in your faith, settling for the status quo. Every chapter challenges you to move closer to the Master Potter and invite Him to touch your life in new and deeper ways. Just like clay, you'll emerge from the process changed, and your new shape will be a perfect fit for God's great plans for you

 

By Dianne Haskett

This book by Howard Katz, the son of a Jewish Holocaust survivor, is for individuals who are really serious about their faith - for those who desire to become all that God wants them to be and to fulfill all He wants them to fulfill in their lives. It is refreshing in its intensity. It is unlike the commercial pablum that many books offer. Instead, it takes the reader on a personal odyssey, one which will irreversibly change the way they live.
This book is ideal for leaders as no leader can become the person he or she needs to be without passing these crucial tests. Read it - it will change you for the better.

 

By Melissa Holmes

Howard Katz's book is a must read for any person struggling to get a grip on God's hand in the midst of some of life's most difficult situations. This book speaks to seven relationships that God invites us all to be a part of in our walk with Him. It truly ministered to me during a time when several things and people on which I placed my dependency and security were pulled out from under me leaving me feeling thrown up in the air not sure where, or if, I would land. This book encourages us to look and understand the trials and difficulties of life as a true blessing from God for it is God working out His divine plan for our lives.

Through the truths of scripture and personal testimonies Howard spurs the reader on to thank God for the bumps and potholes in the road of life as they are both character building and allow God to put His handprint on us in ways that He is unable to in any other circumstance.

Developing a true dependency, trust and love for our Father is the theme of this book. When we have achieved these seven essential relationships God will be so close and real to us that nothing, not life or death, will seem threatening to us because we will have learned to truly place our life in the Father's hands.

I would urge any believer, or those seeking to find Christ, to read this book. It will deepen your walk with Him!

 

Becoming a God Magnet by Harvey Katz

Reviewed at Crosswalk.com

Review excerpt:

Become a 'God Magnet'

Whitney Hopler
Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer

Editor's Note: The following is a report on the practical applications of Harvey Katz's new book, Becoming a God Magnet: Life Lessons in Sharing Your Faith.

Evangelism shouldn’t be a chore or something you dread. It can be something that just happens naturally as you live out your faith.
That’s because your life sends a message to everyone around you. Like a powerful magnet, your life’s message either attracts people to God or repels them from Him. If others can see God at work in your life, they’ll be drawn to Him through you.
Here’s how you can become a God magnet:
• Focus on your job and leave the rest to God. Understand that it’s God – not you – who does the work of saving people. Recognize that your job is simply to be faithful to minister to people as God leads you to do so. Leave the results up to God. Never try to push, manipulate, or force someone else into coming to faith in Jesus. Realize that people sometimes need plenty of time and space to think through a decision that will determine their eternal destinies. Rather than pressuring people into making decisions when they’re not ready, encourage them to work through all the issues they need to deal with, so their faith will be genuine. Relax and trust that God Himself is at work in the lives of everyone you’re trying to reach for Him.
• Speak to people’s hearts. Try to understand who people truly are and what needs and desires are in their hearts. Identify the ways they’re trying to find fulfillment apart from God – such as through food, alcohol, sex, gambling, excessive work, or other addictive behaviors – and keep that information in mind when helping them discover God. Whenever you encounter someone is suffering in ways you have suffered yourself, identify and empathize with them, and use what you’ve learned in your own life to minister to them with compassion.
• Build real relationships with those you want to reach. Recognize that, to be effective, you need to build meaningful relationships with the people you want to reach with the Gospel. Be willing to invest the time and energy needed to build those relationships. Instead of looking at people as projects to work on, view them simply as people to love. Ask God to help you love people unconditionally, as He does. Make sure your love has no strings attached. Let people know that you’ll still care about them even if they don’t agree with you or fit into your agenda. Accept them for who they are, in spite of their faults and needs. Listen carefully and respectfully to them. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the wisdom to understand them well.
• Pray for people. Humble yourself before God in your regular prayer times, asking Him to show you specific ways He wants you to intercede for people you’re trying to reach. Trust God to reveal when and how to talk with each person about Jesus. Consider writing down what you sense God telling you in your prayer times. Share some prayer requests with some other people you can trust to help you intercede for the people for whom you’re praying. Choose some Bible verses that pertain to certain people or situations, and apply those verses personally to your prayers for them by reading them back to God while you pray about those people or situations.

 

Endorsements

Stan Telchin, Author of Betrayed and Abandoned:
“Howard Katz asks us this important question: ‘Why are all believers not experiencing victory?’ As you study and apply the seven truths this book illuminates, you will find you are able to walk in the victory God desires for you. Read it carefully and you will be blessed.”

Wayne Hilsden, Senior Pastor, King of Kings Community, Jerusalem, Israel:
"Howard Katz didn't write this book like he was cramming for final exams. This is the result of decades of learning intimacy with God at a depth few know about these days.

From the life of Joseph, Howard Katz reminds us that there are no shortcuts to really knowing God. Most of it's learned in the school of hard knocks.

Howard Katz brilliantly interweaves the vivid metaphor of the potter and the clay—an image that will make this book stick in your brain ten years from now.

This is one of those books you shouldn't rush through. And it's one of those rare books you'll find yourself picking up and reading again as a reference, especially when you go through one of those Joseph experiences.

This book cuts like a scalpel. But thankfully, Howard Katz provides an anesthetic of humor throughout, while he presses ahead with open-heart surgery.

I've known Howard Katz for two decades. He walks the talk. As a businessman and a pastor he lives in the real world. In this important book Howard Katz cuts to the chase and gives us the real deal."

Wayne Hilsden, Senior Pastor, King of Kings Community, Jerusalem:
“Becoming a God Magnet is full of real-life stories of success and failure. Some might make you cry—others will certainly make you laugh. I don’t know anyone more motivated and gifted in personal evangelism than Harvey Katz. The results speak for themselves.”

Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, Founder, Christ for All Nations:
“Harvey Katz epitomizes the essence of a personal soul-winner. His love for those from every creed and culture who are seeking truth has motivated him on a daily basis. His book, Becoming a God Magnet, will challenge you and provide practical tools in effective soul-winning. I heartily encourage you to read this book!”

Stan Telchin, Author of Betrayed and Abandoned:
"I admire Harvey Katz’s determination to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus and his desire to help make other disciples. Indeed over the years of our friendship he has become a God-shaped magnet. And in his new book, he will help you understand how you can become one too. Read it. You’ll be blessed as you do."

David Mainse, Host of 100 Huntley Street TV Show and Founder of Christian Crossroads Communications:
"What if you could find a fruit tree that produced a fruit with nine flavors? What if the tree grew along the roadside and therefore available to everybody? The fruit is brilliantly colored. Would you be drawn to such a tree? Would the tree pull you to it like a magnet?
Harvey Katz in his personal life is such a tree. When one experiences Harvey, you “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8). The flavors are all there. You can’t miss the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the kindness, the goodness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, the self-control. Of all the people I know, Harvey stands out as the person described in the first Psalm of David. “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.” (Psalm 1:3) Therefore, in my judgment, Harvey is very well qualified to write such a book as this."