Wow. What a day. After a few straight days of getting to sleep at either 2am or 3am, this launch day of my wife’s $4.99 ebook, The Husband’s Guide to Getting Lucky, has been incredible! Marla has had four books published prior to this first ebook, and we can only thank God for how He’s used her talent and changed lives and marriages around the globe.

Lots of people always ask what I think of her sharing our lives like an open door on these pages (or screens now). My perspective is that my life is not my own. We were created for community, and God’s only blessed us so that we may bless others and glorify Him. Thankfully Marla does a tremendous job at keeping what should be private, private. But she’s also not afraid to boast of God’s goodness or pass along some advice after we’ve messed up.

Sex was not a dirty word in the beginning, and I see it as our job to reclaim the beauty God intended it to be. Marriages have been saved as a result of God speaking through her book for women (Is That All He Thinks About?) and we’re already seeing this happen on day one as this ebook for men is launched.

My advice on getting lucky? Read God’s Word, then pick up either or both of the books for you / your wife. I believe it’s very important to realize that one woman was created to be loved by one man, and that anyone outside of that combination (homosexuality, pornography, adultery, etc….) will not make you happy. I could go on forever, but thankfully Marla does a much better job and has sweated and prayed through the words God’s let her share.

I know you men out there are ready to start loving your wives like they deserve to be loved. I’ll be praying for those of you that are able to read this new ebook. You’ll be encouraged to read the stories that show you’re not alone!

It sucks to say it, but there’s an evil one who is out to push you into a life of taking a second or third look at a woman, start playing with porn, leading you down a path that ends in an affair, divorce, and leaving your children wondering what this life really is all about or if it’s even worth it to see another day. Fight your hardest, and do all you can to occupy the minutes spent even near that trash, seizing them as opportunities to reflect the God that created you. Be thankful that He’s given you the chance to love!

Thanks to our insanely talented and newly married friend, Wes Molebash, who designed the artwork for the book cover. Be sure to check out his awesome stuff, maybe even hire him to create something just for you, after buying your new $4.99 Father’s Day gift of course! Congrats on your first ebook Marla!  You did an awesome job!

Here we go! My first blog in a while, but I’m thrilled to be a part of the Radical (book by David Platt) read-along community! This book is going to be a doozy, I can tell that from just the first chapter!

When we hear the word radical, I think it’s accurate to suggest that there has to be an opposite lifestyle. Living a life that is “not radical”. I think ALL OF US live that kind of a life. A life where we try to tell ourselves that some of our actions are radical enough….for the moment. Blending into our communities and not doing anything too obvious that would make us look radically ignorant to those around us.

Everything in life is about community, isn’t it? Then why do we think we can escape living a life where we view the community around us as important as God has? As David puts it on page 18 – “the cost of nondiscipleship is profoundly greater for us than the cost of discipleship”. We can easily escape by getting busy, tired, becoming undisciplined with our spending, maybe saving more than we need, or try to tackle this life in all sorts of ways that center around us getting something out of it. The reality is, most of suck at life if we would just admit it. Who would look at a life like that and call it radical? If God wouldn’t, then I think we’ve taken our first baby step in the wrong direction.

Living a radical life for God should scare us a bit. The fear of the Lord that Psalm 111:10 talks about makes a whole lot of sense when you start questioning the essence of your life. Are we ready to start asking questions?

To read what others have to say about the first chapter, click on the links at the bottom of Marla’s blog post here.

It’s been a pleasure to work closely with my friend Kary Oberbrunner on the new website (YourSecretName.com) we are launching on March 15th. Your Secret Name is the title of his newest book, which comes out in September but is available for pre-order on Amazon.com today. A few of Kary’s friends have donated over $6,000 worth of prizes that will be given away throughout the day during the March 15th Online Launch Party, including an Apple iPad! Not sure why you wouldn’t want to RSVP for free!?!

Check out the awesome video below, created by Josh Franer, featuring the song “Stay” by Robbie Seay Band and available on iTunes. You’ll see a few individuals labeled with Given Names the world has handed to them. Kary’s book and a test that will be available on the website will help each of us look into scripture and recognize our Given Names, and discover who God has created us to be. See you online on March 15th! There will be giveaways and online events happening throughout the entire day. This book is already touching lives, and it hasn’t even been released yet. Great job Kary!

Marla brought a book over to my desk yesterday, which was written in 1932, that she picked up from her grandmother’s house. The name of the book is Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret (pictured with previous cover). Here’s part of the quote that starts the book out, by E.M. Bounds:

Men are God’s method. The church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods. The training of the Twelve was the great, difficult and enduring work of Christ. It is not great talents or great learning or great preachers that God needs.

In our current culture, we’re usually focused on how functional our programs are, how easy our website is to use, how pretty the building is that we meet in, or even how contemporary our style of worship is. We want to stand out, and we each want to be admired. That’s not what God is after, and I know I am failing. God is after people that want to talk and walk with Him ONLY. Individuals who praise Him, confess their sins, counting on His provision, and full of love for others. I might fit in there a little bit, but that isn’t how someone would define me if they had to.

I need to wake up and stop falling for the lie that everything IS new under the Sun. What a challenge not to get caught up in being new or being admired and respected. We might be important to God, but no more important than everyone else! Do you also struggle with letting your relationship with God be predominant over anything else that you are doing / being?

PRAYING for more of an attitude of prayer and personal reflection. PRAISING God for those who have come before us, and have lived the kind of lives we need to.

Tony Morgan has written an excellent leadership book with Killing Cockroaches. I can now personally testify that there are some serious spiritual steroids coming out of the nearby town Piqua, OH. Tony’s sister (our church‘s own) Jen Morgan has recently taken a chunk of our heart with her to minister to children in Cambodia.

Tony is a proven leader. Leaders have to rely on others, and they have to empower others. What was evident to me while reading his new book was that he wasn’t stuck on his own agenda. The agenda of his life, as shown through his book and his blog (www.tonymorganlive.com), is a transparent filter of both the Word of God and the wisdom God has given Tony through other great leaders. That is what you can look forward to when reading this book. Valuable insight and thoughts on the leader God wants us to be. And valuable lessons Tony has learned from others. Those attributes display the unselfish character of the author.

Tony did bring up two unsanswered points that I would like to address as what some have called a “technology leader” myself. For some reason he still believes in the cellular service of Cingular over that of AT&T (he refers to them as his “mother’s long-distance carrier”). I’d love to have Tony on for a God’s Mac podcast interview and share how excellent the UVerse and iPhone service has been. It’s obvious, as one of his now 4,100+ blog subscribers, that he is in tune with technology. He brings up an interesting question in the book, which ponders how Apple (the computer company) might do church. I will do Tony a favor, and dedicate a second blog to him and this question specifically tomorrow. Until then, head over to his site – subscribe, by the book, and enjoy learning!

PRAYING for the leaders God has placed in your life. We all have them. PRAISING God for the impact that books are having today, and the effort authors put into them!