Brief summary of our teen's week 3 meeting

Daniel was a young man when he was taken captive by the Babylonians after his country, Judah, fell. The king of Babylon carried some things away from the temple of God in Jerusalem to put in the temple of his god in Babylonia. In their thinking, that meant that the Babylonian gods were more powerful than the Hebrew God. The Babylonians were used to conquering other people. They’d become pretty smart about what to do with nations like Judah. They took the best and brightest youth from the nations they had conquered and took them to their capital city, also called Babylon. The head court official – a man named Ashpenaz – was in charge of turning young people form Judah, including Daniel, into good Babylonians. Ashpenaz had to teach Daniel the Babylonian language. He had to introduce Daniel to Babylonian literature. He had to change Daniel’s eating habits. He even tried to change Daniel’s identity, starting with his name. The meaning of Daniel’s name in Hebrew was “God is my judge”. But Ashpenaz gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar, which is a prayer asking the Babylonian god Bel to protect your life! (Daniel 1:1-8)

Daniel could have wondered what God was doing to him, putting him in a place far away from his family, with weird food, strange customs, and a language he couldn’t understand. He could have done what so many other young men form the nations conquered by Babylon had done: go along with the Babylonian plan for his life and not make any waves. But Daniel couldn’t do that. He was aware that God was always with him, and he would remain faithful to God, no matter what.

Daniel’s story will show that, if we love God, He will be with us wherever we go. And even when really tough things happen to us, God will help us stand strong for Him. The world is constantly trying to make God look weak. The world is constantly trying to convince Christians that God’s standards don’t matter anymore. But like Daniel, we have to be willing to stand up for what we know is the truth, what we know is right. The Babylonians tired to mold Daniel into a good Babylonian. The Babylonian influence is alive and well today, trying to influence us with the world’s attractions. All of these brainwash tactics are designed to keep us from having the kind of uncompromising life that God intends for us. But just like Daniel did, one way we can beat the brainwash is to build our faith with God’s Word – and then share it with others. In the next few weeks we’ll be memorizing verses that can be used as you share your faith. Teaching you how to win people for Jesus Christ is our focus in this course.

The last sectment of every meeting is Council Time conducted by our Director, Steve Fowler.

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