Be part of a godly generation in an ungodly world.
Our Mission: To be saved, and to help to save others in this crooked and perverse generation, and to grow godly youth in this ungodly culture.
Acts 2:40 (Matt 17:17; Phil 2:15-17; Matt 12:39; 16:4; Deut 1:35; 32:5)
Lyrics:
Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known
Standing by a purpose true
Heeding God's command
Honor them, the faithful few
All hail to Daniel's band
Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known
Many mighty men are lost
Daring not to stand
Who for God had been a host
By joining Daniel's band
Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known
Many giants, great and tall
Stalking through the land
Headlong to the earth would fall
If met by Daniel's band
Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known
Hold the Gospel banner high
On to vict'ry grand
Satan and his hosts defy
And shout for Daniel's band
Dare to be a Daniel
Dare to stand alone
Dare to have a purpose firm
Dare to make it known
Dare to make it known
Source: Musixmatch
The Book of Daniel opens with two succinct statements about the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. The first describes the event in terms of secular history: “Nebuchadnezzar . . . came to Jerusalem and besieged it.” The second is in terms of biblical theology, as the Bible says, “And the Lord God gave Jehoiakim . . . into his hands.” Nebuchadnezzar however was not content with controlling the leading cities of these lands. He also desired to control the thoughts and hearts of the people in these cities. Rather than forcing the ruling leaders to change, Nebuchadnezzar moved the best and brightest young people of the land to his palace. In so doing, he was taking a long-term view of his conquest. He knew that overcoming people by military force was not enough. If they continued to resist him, more and more of his resources would be demanded. He was not the last leader to realize that capturing the hearts and minds of the young people would eventually capture these nations! Though Daniel and his friends, were faced with challenges that was capable of swaying them from God and the path of righteousness, the young men did their best to stand for God and God stood for them. From the Bible’s account, Daniel who was one of the young captives, became an example of what it means to stand for God in very challenging situations. Daniel's life became an example of how we can live a life of integrity in a culture that is trying to squeeze us into its mold. In this age, our task is to take the principles that Daniel lived by and apply them to our own modern experiences, so that we can live a godly life in this ungodly environment. This is the lesson we have to learn from Daniel and his generation of friends.
The word generation refers to a group of people that live together at a certain time. They are the peer, a cohort, or age group that lived together. In this sense, Daniel's generation were people of his time who lived at his time and experienced the same thing he experienced. In the strictest sense, they were young people the Babylonians conquered along with Daniel, taken captive to Babylon, and remained faithful as Daniel did. They were young Jews who were trained in the way of the Lord but were unavoidably relocated to a land completely different from where they were taught the way of the Lord.
They were young people who had to undergo a major spiritual and cultural upset and shift in a different society and under a different civilization. They were people who had a supposedly good reason to abandon their background and claim their new experience. But because they were people of purpose, they decided not to allow their environment to define them, but rather they chose to define their environment. They were Godly young people, who decided to live a godly life in an ungodly society. They were young people who knew that God always had a purpose and a plan for his people, therefore, they knew that they should not allow their environment to influence them against God’s purpose and plan for their lives.
In the time of Daniel, many young people were taken captive from Judah, but only a few chose to stay together for God even in the strange land. They chose not to forget their background, they realized that they were peculiar people, a people specially chosen, and are therefore to live for God, in truth and in spirit. They made the Bible, the word of God their watchword, though, the spiritual context changed so radically, that they continued to hold to their true biblical foundation even in the land of spiritual confusion. The exciting thing about the boys of Daniel's generation is that despite the spiritual and cultural shift, they allowed God to do something spectacular in their lives. Right in the midst of their new experience, they allowed God to do the works of sanctification in their lives. They watched for what God wanted to do with them in their new, but ensnaring environment though everything looked and felt chaotic. While the world around them shook, they knew that God and His Word remained unshakable. They chose not to refuse God who speaks in His word. They knew if those who refused him who spoke on earth did not escape, how could they escape if they turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, the One whose voice then shook the earth; the One now has promised, as He said, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth but also heaven." They realized that this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since they were receiving a kingdom that could not be shaken, they saw the need for grace, by which they could serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. (See Heb. 12:25-29). They were the true remnant of God’s people, even in the midst of spiritual, and cultural confusion.
At the time of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar’s army came and Jerusalem was destroyed, Judah was destroyed, the temple of God was destroyed, and articles from the temple of God were taken from Judah into Babylon and put into a temple of false gods. You can imagine how disconcerting this was to the leaders and the people who had invested in that place at that time. “Yet God raised this generation out of that period of shaking that went into this place Babylon, and they witnessed to the power of God in such a powerful and convincing and miraculous way that we saw multiple world leaders brought to their knees declaring that the God of Daniel was the only God.”
Yes, Daniel and his team were young men in a strange land away from their culture and values. They were young people who under immense peer pressure, decided to stand their ground for God, and instead of conforming, they saw the pressure as that which they must overcome. They were, young people who knew they did not have to abide by the saying that, “When you go to Rome you must do what the Romans do.” Daniel and his team lived a life of conviction, a life of purpose, and they boldly refused to partake of what the world offered and that which the children of the world freely enjoyed. They knew it was against their belief, and that purpose in life was to please God and for that, they constantly stood even when the whole world chose to bow.
Daniel and his team determined in their heart that they would not defile themselves no matter what the consequences they had to face. Their decision to stand alone was not only life-endangering, it was pleasure denying. Obviously, one of the reasons God allowed Daniel and his team to thrive even in this harsh environment was because they had purposed in their heart, to do what was right, and to do what God expected them to do no matter where they were! They did not forget the saying that, “It is purpose that makes demands on an individual, and discipline is one of the demands.” Daniel and his team would not engage in anything that would destroy their relationship with God. To them, God came first in their life. God desires us to be thermostats not thermometers. A thermometer reflects the temperature of its environment. It has no say in the matter, it just plays along and assumes the heat value of its environment. But not a thermostat! It regulates the temperature of its environment, calling the shots and dictating the pace. The controller of your fan or air conditioner is a typical example. When it is hot, you increase the speed of the fan or drop the temperature of the air conditioner using the thermostat and vice versa. Daniel and his team understood that this was God’s expectation of them, to be a thermostat, calling the shots and dictating the pace; not a thermometer that will only simply conform, reflect and assume the temperature of its environment.
Do you want to thrive in this harsh economic, immoral, cultural, and spiritual environment that you find yourself in? Then be a man/woman of purpose, then dare to be a Daniel. Remember, no one loves a person who is not firm about where they are going in life. This is the time, you and I need to purpose “To seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”, to go about our father’s business, and to fulfill God's will for our lives.
Today, God needs a people who will make up their mind that they would not defile, taint, or dishonor themselves with the king’s finest delicacy or with the wine of confusion and ungodliness; people who will ask the commander of the officials of this world that they might [be excused so that they would] not defile themselves. God needs a NEW GENERATION OF DANIELS, who will choose to lead a godly life in the ungodly context in which we now find ourselves. God needs a generation that can learn to stand strong in this shaking world. A people that can choose to be salt in this tastefully bitter world, and light in this dark world of sin. You can be one of them. Will you?
• that will live a GODLY LIFE IN THIS UNGODLY GENERATION!
• That is SAVED AND HELP TO SAVE OTHERS!!