Messy Worship

09/21/2026

“We are so hard on ourselves, and so hard on each other. Grace is the medicine for both.”

Preach, brother. ❤️🙌🏾🙏🥹

For a long time I believed I had to earn my worth. Climb higher, push harder, and maybe then I would finally be enough.

It is an exhausting way to live. There is always another summit, another test, another way you have fallen short. You never quite arrive.

The thing that finally set me free was grace.

Grace is the wild, almost unbelievable idea at the very heart of the Christian faith. That we are already loved, fully and completely, not for what we have achieved, but in spite of every way we fall short. That Jesus meets us exactly as we are, mess and all, and calls us friend anyway.

I did not have to become impressive for God to love me. I did not have to summit anything. I simply had to stop striving long enough to accept a gift I could never have earned in a thousand lifetimes.

And that truth changed how I see everyone else too. If I am loved like that, undeserving and all, then so is the person in front of me. It makes you gentler, slower to judge, quicker to forgive.

We are so hard on ourselves, and so hard on each other. Grace is the medicine for both.

Where in your life have you been striving to earn something that has been freely yours all along?

09/18/2026

Honest confession: I get nervous when I hear the word "confession".

I think it's because so many times that word is connected to a regret, something shameful or embarrassing, or a label I don't want to define me (but am afraid does).

The thing is... God tells us to confess our sins to each other and to Him. I firmly believe that, in all things, God works for the good of those who love him - this included. That means confession is good for the mind, body and soul. So I want to make a habit of confessing my shortcomings, selfish moments, sins and imperfections. But what I want even more than that is for my heart to WANT TO confess to God. I want my heart to shift from shame to solace when I think about confessing my yuck to God.

God gave me an answer on that issue today when I read through chapter 19 of the book of Acts. In that chapter, Luke documents two different ways (witchcraft & idols) the people in Ephesus were acting out of alignment with God's teachings. One group responded to the correction with fear and deep reverence for God. The other group started a riot.

It made me ask myself how I respond to correction: Reverence or Riot?

My answer wasn't 100% reverence.

So as I thought about wanting to confess my desire to RIOT rather than REVERE, a song came to mind. For me, music is super meaningful. So I spent the next few minutes singing DIY karaoke to God along with a song that spoke my confession perfectly. And guess what? It felt incredible. The words and melody of the song made me sincerely glad I have a God who loves me and forgives me.

Here are the lyrics in case you're like me and music opens up the door to conversations with God you wouldn't normally have...
❤🙏

"THE WAR I'M IN" ::Sanctus Real::

I said to self
Self don't be selfish
That's the root behind the word that lives for self
I said to self
Self don't be reckless
Cause If you are you'll always be by yourself

Myself is ruthless
If I let it rule myself
It'll ruin my life
Myself is truthless
All that matters to itself
Is its own lies

I don't need a graven image
Or an idol made of stone
When I can worship my own image
When I just can't let me go

That's the war I'm in
I'm fighting my own skin
I wanna do what's right
But still I crave what's mine
Jesus help me
It's so hard
To simply lay down my life
And that's the war
Oh that's the war
The war I'm in

I said to self
Self don't be faithless
Cause someday we'll need to trust somebody else
I said to self
It's time to confess
That I don't think that I can keep living for myself

Myself is weakness
Dressed up to make you think
He's got some strength
Myself's a sequence
Of having to fix all of the problems
That it makes

I don't need a graven image
Or an idol made of stone
When I can worship my own image
When I just can't let me go

That's the war I'm in
I'm fighting my own will
I wanna do what's right
But still I crave what's mine
Jesus help me
It's so hard
To simply lay down my life
And that's the war
Oh that's the war
The war I'm in

So take this flesh
And these skin and bones
God I surrender myself
And I'm givin' up control

That's the war I'm in
I'm fighting my own skin
I wanna do what's right
But still I crave what's mine
Jesus help me
It's so hard
To simply lay down my life
And that's the war
Oh that's the war
The war I'm in
Oh that's the war
Oh that's the war
The war I'm in

07/06/2026

The King lives in YOU!!!! ❤️

06/20/2026

Being a godly influence isn't something that a person "ages out of". Even if you're not a Dad, God is using you to make an impact on those around you!!

Check out my dad's wisdom about the way parenting/mentoring/influencing looks in different seasons of life and for different gifts/personalities. ❤🙏🤗

One more left in the Dad series - I saved the best for last, to be shared on FATHER'S DAY!!!

06/18/2026

THIS.

If I call God “God” I speak truthfully.
If I call God “Lord” I speak submissively.
If I call God “King” I speak servilely.

But if I dare to call God “my Father,” I speak with a brassy audacity, chutzpah, that is shockingly familiar and intimate. So it seems anyway.

You dare to call the Master of the Universe “Father”?
You dare to call the One who controls heaven and hell “Father”?
You call the Omnipotent one “Father”?

Who do you think you are?

It is difficult to imagine a more audacious act than to stand before the Creator of the world and to name him “Father.” And mean it. And not only to mean it, but to act and speak as a child acts and speaks before a loving and doting Dad.

It’s shocking. It’s exhilarating.
And it’s beautiful beyond words.

But here’s a secret: it’s not really chutzpah. It’s not some brassy boldness that we work ourselves into, nor it is gained by swallowing a bottle of liquid spiritual courage, as it were.

To call God “Father” is simply to live in the space which Jesus created. To move from residing far from God as his enemy; or on the other side of town from him as a stranger; or down the street as an acquaintance; or in an adjoining house as a servant; and to move into our own bedroom as a child in his family. To wake up in the morning and see our Father sipping a cup of coffee and saying, “Good morning, my child,” as we respond, “Good morning, Father.”

You see, when we live in this house, when we move into the room built by Jesus, we inhabit the home not merely of a Master or Lord or King, but the one who’s given us his name and made us his own, now and forever.

“Our Father”: two of the most amazing words ever uttered.

06/11/2026

“He put my stuff in jello again!”

To get your own (jello-free) copy, visit: https://online.nph.net/why-god-made-dads.html

06/01/2026

This is gonna be SO, SO GOOD!!!!! 🙌💗🙏🔥
https://amberalbeeswenson.org/event.php?id=moving-on-2026

06/01/2026

Celebrating Dads this month!!!!!!

05/10/2026

Happy Mother’s Day to each and every one of the women out there who have made someone else feel SEEN & LOVED. God is using every molecule of you to bless those in your circle of influence - not because you’re perfect but because you’re His dearly loved child.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”(Galatians 6:9)