EDGE Summer 2007 – Daniel 3 (chapter 6)

Welcome

What are you most looking forward to (next week / this year / next year / at some time...) - each person writes down 4 responses - then put them all in hat - pick one out at a time and everyone decides who that response belongs to - and which time scale. (The person whose response it is could throw in bluffs "I think that sounds like Chris', for example!)

Worship

Listen to a track (focusing on God/Jesus - not our response) from a worship CD you may have... encourage the group to identify what the song is declaring - then play it again and encourage everyone to focus on God

Word

Why was Daniel thrown to the Lions?

What else do you know about Daniel and the lions?

Read Daniel 6

Focus on the character of Daniel – what is he like? What does he do? What doesn’t he do?

 What can he teach us?

Why did God let Daniel face so much danger?

Last time we saw how the 3 friends refused to do what everyone else was doing… here Daniel chooses to do something that everybody else isn’t doing….

 Is one more difficult than the other?

 How can we continue to stand strong when everyone else seems to be against us?

Activity – Your Life is Over

Choose one member of the group to be a Christian prisoner. Mark off an area of the room as a cell and ask the ‘prisoner’ to sit down on the floor in the area. Loosely tie their hands together and blindfold them. Explain that the ‘prisoner’ should remain quiet throughout.

The rest of the group take the role of persecutors and take it in turns to go up to the ‘cell door’ and shout their abuse at the ‘prisoner’.

Encourage people to come up with their own insults. Here are some ideas for insults:

· Where’s your God now?

· This’ll teach you to follow fairy stories

· 10 minutes to go until our next question and answer session – are you going to co-operate this time?

· Your life is over

· You’ll never see your family again

Once the insults have been hurled, they take it in turns to bring an encouragement to the ‘prisoner’. Encourage people to come up with encouragements from the Bible or use these ideas:

· I won’t give up on you, I won’t leave you (Joshua 1:5)

· Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take (Joshua 1:9)

· The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18)

· If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31)

· We are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:37)

When the activity is over, release the prisoner and ask them to explain to the group what it was like to be in a place where they were treated unfairly.

Discuss and ensure the volunteer is fully encouraged!

How could you be treated unfairly for your faith?

How will you respond?

Witness

Pray for one another and continue to pray for real life Daniels around the world who still get thrown to the lions or similar punishments