Timeless Teachings

Shift your thinking
As human beings we have a tendency to stick to events of the past and often our thinking and behavior is based on what happened to us at one time or on what someone said to us. Sometimes people still hold anger because someone was rude to them 20 years ago! In Respectfully Yours the changing of our thinking and behavior, by looking ahead instead of behind, is a main theme. In chapter two I wrote the following.
Jesus didn't get stuck in the past; He always looked to the future. When He was teaching the crowd about the Law in Matthew 5 and 6, He kept saying, "You have heard that it was said" and by doing that He urged the people to think about their behavior up until that moment. In other words: why do you do the things you do? He then continued "But now I tell you" and from that moment on He tells them to change their thinking and behavior. He didn't say the Law was no longer there, He gave them the way of fulfilling it. Jesus still wants to shift our thinking and behavior with His timeless teachings. He is still telling us "but now I tell you." He still urges us today to change from this moment on. We can make the decision today to live life from Jesus' point of view. Remember, love is the fulfillment of the Law. We need to love, because God loved us first! It is our Christian duty!

Love is the key

How do I want to be treated?
In my newest book Respectfully Yours a lot of questions are being asked to make the reader think. The key question is: how do I want to be treated?
God expects us to have a certain attitude towards our parents and others, not as a result of what they have done to us (good or bad) but as an example of Christ's love in us. Jesus teaches us to shift our thinking when it comes to treating others with respect or love. We shouldn't ask: what has he or she done for me. We have to ask ourselves another question, namely: how do I want to be treated? If we want to be loved, we have to love. If we want to be respected, we have to respect. If we want to be obeyed, we have to obey.

Our attitude towards others should no longer be the result of past experiences, but the key to unlock future blessings!

Doing Our Duty

Love is the fulfillment of the Law
Listen to what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 7:12

Do for others what you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses and of the teachings of the prophets.
Treating others the way we want them to treat us is the meaning of the Law. Have you ever looked at it that way? To be honest, that one had me thinking for a while. Yet, it is so simple: I want to be loved, so I have to love others and in doing so I fulfill the Law. People have been discussing and debating the Law for ages and it all comes down to one simple question: how do I want to be treated? The answer to that determines my attitude toward others. The question therefore should no longer be: how am I going to respect the people who hurt me? How do I obey the ones that mistreat me? How can I do this? It is time to stop this struggle.
Our attitude should not depend on what other people did to us; it should be the result of what Jesus did for us! We are loved by Him and He expects us to do the same for others. It is time we stop thinking that we do God a favor when we are nice to someone-we are simply doing our duty!

Relationship Check-up

'Respectfully Yours' offers in dept analysis
The first chapter of the newest book in this series, Respectfully Yours, starts with a powerful word from the bible; to get your mind working!

For through the living and eternal word of God you have been born again as children of a parent who is immortal, not mortal.
You can find this in 1 Peter 1:23. It sets the stage for a study about family relations, not just natural ones, but spiritual ones as well. We are children of a heavenly Father as well as an earthly father and throughout this book we will look at our attitude towards both of them. We will take a closer look at family relations in general, as we know them and as God sees them. It turns out He wants to open up our family circle! Once we will be able to shift our thinking about those topics, we will experience freedom in our attitude towards God and other people. I believe it is time to get excited about discovering God's path that will honestly lead us into well-being and a long life. You will find out what His plan for the New Testament generation is: freedom in fulfillment!
This book will definitely help you to get on track. To help the reader even further each chapter ends with some questions and thoughts to meditate on. For example:

# Which relationship do I want to change/improve in my life?
# Would I call myself a child of God? Why or why not?
# What do the words 'overall well-being' mean to me? Do I experience that?

Mutual Respect

A Major Issue To God
Hope I didn't scare away the fast food junkies with a book like Respectfully Yours. I know, I know, the 7-steps to happiness and success books are popular, but that is just not what this is all about. No processed food, no prepared dish. You actually have to do some work to get the best result; so let's start cooking!
In Respectfully Yours we will take a look at the mutual respect between parents and children. You may think: that is not the guideline I need to better my life. How would it be possible to change the things around me and eventually the world into a better place by respecting my parents or being kind to my children? It seems such a minor act of influence compared to all the wickedness I experience around me. Well, maybe it is a minor issue to us, but it is a major one to God, that is why he put it on His special list: the Ten Commandments.
If you think the Commandments are outdated, think again. If Jesus said I have not come to do away with them, but to make their teachings come true (Matthew 5:17), how in the world could we do away with them! That would be contradicting His statement. Jesus made the teachings come true. As followers of Christ we need to do the same. Every time we act in love, we make the teachings come true, because love is the fulfillment of the Law (Romans 13:10).