The Book Of Daniel Is About Teenagers.

HOW MANY MISS THE POINT THAT THESE ARE TEENAGERS!

The Book of Daniel is about a young man and his teenage friends who grew up in a time when his country, Judah, southern tribes of Israel, was judged by God for their idolatry. God allowed the most ungodly leader and nation in the world, King Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, to come and take His people into captivity as slaves.

As part of his policy for dealing with conquered nations, Nebuchadnezzar recruited the best of their young men to his Babylonian Palace in order to have them trained to serve in his administration.  Daniel and his friends were judged to be suitable material for that training, and so they were taken from their families, society, and culture, and transported to a strange and unfamiliar land over 1600 miles away. They walked most of this or were carried at times on a donkey cart. Can you imagine the sheer exhaustion of walking 1600 miles away from home? For our church family, that is like walking from Northwest Arkansas to the end of the Florida Keys!

They had to cope not only with the emotional trauma of forcible removal from their parents, but also with the sheer strangeness of their new surroundings — new language, new customs, new political system, new laws, new educational system, new beliefs and a new religion that was literally worshipping the Devil. It must have been overwhelming for these young men. The Lord spoke to my heart about this and showed me that this is what our young people today are also experiencing. What are they facing?

THERE WERE FOUR TEMPTATIONS that Daniel and his teenage friends faced that are the same ones that our young people are facing today.

1. They were Separated from the influence of home life. The world is attacking the Christian home to separate our young warriors from the truth of God's Word.

2. They were Submersed in a new worldview that is ungodly. Our teenagers are being taught a worldview that is anti-God and contradictory to the core values of the inerrant Word of God.

3. They were sold Social compromise as a privilege. Young people who stand for Christ are seen as social outcasts and not part of the cool crowd. Satan's lure is compromise, which is the first step in denial of faith.

4. They were Substituted with a new identity, not who they are in Christ. The world around us is focused on "re-setting" our young people to make them into the image of sin and evil and to pull them away from their self-image and worth given to them by their relationship to Jesus.

PRAY ABOUT IT. Have you thought about what your teenagers are going through in terms of spiritual warfare? Have you considered what the enemy is trying to do to the young people in your ministry? We are not dealing with flesh and blood, this is a spiritual battle for the next generation in the Body of Christ. Would you pray and fast for your teenagers and those in your church? Would you pray for God to protect them and put His biggest, strongest angels around them as they go out into the world on a daily basis.

-- Dr. Larry Petton