Teaching Series
Resilience
Daniel 1

Series: Resilience  
Message: Determination  
Preacher: Japhet De Oliveira

Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 5:1-6.

Read: Daniel 1 - As you re-read for the final time this week in the ESV translation, what did you discover new about God’s character?

Reflect: Using the historical data from the Assyrians and now the Babylonians, we know that assimilation was essential to the success of these empires. The Assyrians were famous for scattering their captives and not allowing them to huddle together. Forced integration would never had allowed communities of foreigners to live together. They had their culture and wanted you to adopt it. Richard Niebuhr in his book Christ and Culture suggests there are five ways to approach and engage culture. First, you can simply accept it and assimilate to the new culture. Second, you withdraw and try to create your own isolated community. Third, you can transform it. You are welcome to explore the fourth and fifth, but the third is the approach that Daniel used to engage his education and captivity. Similar to Jesus’ counsel in Matthew 5:13-16, we are to be the salt and light of the world. 


Recalibrate: 

  1. How do you view culture today?
  2. What does this mean for immigration and globalization?
  3. When you cook, why is adding salt in the process better than adding salt afterwards?
  4. How are we to be the salt and light today? 

Respond: Pray for the courage to go through the doors that open. 

Research: Read one of the books or commentaries for this series on chapter 1. 

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