The Biblical story validates our feelings that things aren't as they ought to be through the literary theme of Exile. Exile speaks to this time and place we live ought to feel like home, and yet somehow doesn’t feel like home in the way it was intended to be, but God has provided a way back home to him.

We are taking the next several weeks to walk through the book of Daniel in order to see how to live faithfully in the midst of an exiled era. It begins with having the hope of God and living in his holiness.

Easter Sunday!! He is risen!! When we look to the resurrection of Jesus, we see the result of how God uses suffering to bring glory. However, it's not only that God's radiant light shines on us through his presence. It's not just becoming glorified in heaven after we die. But because of the resurrected Jesus, we experience his glory here and now through our suffering. Suffering and death don't have the last say, God's glory manifests to bring us through suffering and death to new life.

God identifies with our suffering through the person of Jesus, and one of the many ways he want through suffering is experiencing loneliness and isolation. When we look to Jesus we see the answer to how we should respond to loneliness through leaning into God and into our community.

We all carry a burden, we all try to carry it alone, and yet none of us can. Therefore Jesus enters into our burdens, and bore that weight for us, bears it with us, and calls us to bear it with one another in his love.

As Tara continues in our series leading to Easter, we're discussing how God identifies with our suffering through the person of Jesus. Jesus was no stranger to trials, and he went through many throughout his life. Sometimes we think of going through trials as God being far away, however, the gospel message tells us that God is actually present through them.

We are walking through our series leading to Easter about how God doesn't just have power over my pain, but can identify with me in it. This is all because he chose to subject himself to the very suffering that we go through, and by his wounds we are healed.

One of those ways is how he walked through rejection and out the other side to redemption so that we could be accepted. Therefore in order for us to heal, we need to follow Jesus all the way outside the comfort and convenience of the city gates where he is.

We are starting a new series leading to Easter, called "The Suffering Servant." The God of all creation entered into our suffering and therefore identifies with us whenever we are in pain. He also became triumphant over it for "by his wounds we are healed."

One of the ways we suffer is through the Devil, or, the slanderer, filling us with lies. We have been given a way out because of Jesus, and therefore have power over the slanderer because of his life, death, and resurrection.

So often in our lives shame gets the best of us and we end up running away and hiding from God. As we conclude our series, we come to an incredible story of love and kindness shown by King David. Even in his elevated state, he still remembered his covenant partnership with his best friend, Jonathan, and showed kindness to his family. Jonathan's son was hiding in fear and shame from the new King, and David summoned him to restore him to the family line, and adopted him to a seat at his table.

As a result, we learn three things from King David, pointing to our King, Jesus, through this story: We have a king who pursues us, we have a king who sees us, and we have a king who adopts us.

Our series, Beautifully Broken, is about how God doesn't look at stature or outside appearance, but looks at our heart. The story of David shows us how a complacent heart can turn our reliance from God and toward our own self-sufficiency. However, when we look to some of his Psalms, we also see the way to turn back to God and his heart.

As Taylor continues our series, Beautifully Broken, we come to a difficult part of our walk with Jesus: doubt. The story of the disciple Thomas shows incredible charisma when he is with Jesus, and incredible faith after Jesus bears his scars, but in the middle he struggles with his faith. We can be encouraged by such a story, that Jesus not only welcomes our doubts, but moves in towards them so that by his wounds we can heal.