KidzPort – January 10 – Dreams and Statues

January 18, 2010

Did you ever have a dream that woke you up, and left you wondering what it meant?  Sometimes are dreams are so real that we cannot accept that they didn’t really happen.  At other times, we dream about familiar people in unfamiliar circumstances.  Either way, dreams are an important part of our lives.

This week we looked at the story of Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel found in Daniel 2.  The king had a strange dream, and he asked all his astrologers, magicians and fortune-tellers to explain it to him.  As an added challenge, he wouldn’t tell them what the dream was.  The king figured if they were for real, then they would know.

When no one could figure out the dream, Daniel was brought before the king.  Daniel told him that God was sending him a message.   He went on to explain the king’s dream.

³¹ “You, O king, were watching; and behold, a great image! This great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you; and its form was awesome. ³² This image’s head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, ³³ its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. ³⁴ You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. ³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

Notice something about this “image” or statue that the king saw.  As you look from top to bottom, the materials get less valuable.  But they also get stronger.  Daniel told the king that the dream meant that there would be many kingdoms, each one less wealthy than the previous ones.  Finally (just like the legs and toes) the kingdoms would become divided.   Finally, the Kingdom of Heaven would come and destroy the earthly kingdoms, and would last forever.

We know that the great “stone” in the vision is Christ.  His kingdom will last forever.  What’s important here is understanding how God speaks to us, and how we need to be open to what He is trying to tell us.

For Parents:

• Talk to your child about dreams.  Do they ever wake up with nightmares?  A good thing to do is to pray woth your child when a nightmare comes.  This will get them in the habit of turning to God in scary situations.
• Read over the story in Daniel 2 and see if your child fully understands what is happening.  What is the most valuable part of the “image?”  Who does that represent?

KidzPort November 22 – Writing on the Wall

November 23, 2009

The tale of Belshazzar, Price of Babylon hold a lot of information and some

great lessons for us.  Belshazzar’s story is told to us mainly in Daniel 5, although historical documents also prove his existence.

Belshazzar was the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and the son of Nabonius, King of Babylon.  He was charged by his father with the protection of the city, while Nobonius took his army to meet the Persians in battle.  Instead of doing his job, Belshazzar had a great party, using gold and silver items stolen from the Temple of God in Jerusalem.  While he and his guests partied, a strange hand appeared in mid air, and began writing on the wall of the palace.

Belshazzar was scared and confused – the words made no sense.  He called his wisest men and fortune tellers, but they couldn’t explain either.  Finally, Daniel was called, and Belshazzar promised him much wealth and power if he could interpret the message. Daniel said he didn’t want money, but would do it any way.  He said the message was three Aramaic words: mene mene, tekel, u-pharsin. Taken together, these words mean “counted, weighed, divided.”

Daniel told the prince that God was telling him that his days had come to an end, that he had been judged and found wanting, and that his kingdom would be divided.  Belshazzar lives up to his promise and gives Daniel much wealth, but that very night Belshazzar is killed when Darius the Mede captures the city and becomes king.

So what lessons can we learn?  It’s basically three-fold.  First, we have to know when God is speaking to us. Secondly, we have to understand what He is saying. Finally, we must be obedient to what He says.

Knowing, understanding and obeying.  These the steps to understanding what God says to us, and getting the most from it.

For Parents:

• Read Daniel 5 with your child.  Make sure they understand what happened in the story.
• Why didn’t Belshazzar understand the writing.  What did Daniel have that he didn’t?  (A relationship with God)
• Talk to your child about a time when they think God spoke to them. Did they understand it?  Did they listen and obey?

KidzPort July 5 – Freedom!!

July 6, 2009

Since it was Fourth of July Weekend here in the States,  it seemed appropriate to begin this week’s discussion with a question: “Why do we celebrate the Fourth of July, anyway?  Our oldest KidzPort group is 7-9 years old, so the answer to the question was not as easy as one might think.  Most of them could put together that it was Independence Day, buit no one could tell me what “independence” really meant, or who we were “independent” from. 

After a (very) quick primer on the American Revolution, we began to discuss the idea of “freedom.”  What exactly does “freedom” mean, anyway.  One common answer was that freedom mean you could do anything you want.  Of course, that’s not true.  In any country, there is still the rule of law, and so people cannot do whatever they want to do.  But, we are (here in America) free to voice our opinions, to vote someone into or out of office, and to worship how we see fit.

One person in the Bible who did not enjoy such freedoms was Daniel.  Daniel lived during a time when his country, Israel, was under the rule of a more powerful country, Babylon.  Daniel, in fact, Daniel was forced into service to the King of Babylon, a man with the unlikely and hard-to-pronounce  name of Nebuchadnezzar.  The King made Daniel interpret a dream, and because of that, Daniel (whose Baylonian name was Beltshazzar) became a man of great standing.  Danel later interpreted the “writing on the wall” (Dan 5) for Belzhazzar. 

When Babylon was taken over by the Persians, Daniel found himself in the service of Persian King Cyrus.  Cyrus had made a law that no one could be worshipped but him.  This limited Daniel’s freedom, because it meant that he could not worship God legally.  Imagine if someone came to your house and told you you could only pray to the President of the United States, or you would be killed!!  These things happen all over the world, even today.  Thankfully, we live in a country where we all have freedom to worship God.

Eveyone knows Daniel’s story, about being thrown into the lion’s den.  God rescued Daniel for his faithfulness.  Amen!

Our 3-7 group was working on John 3:16.  They made pictures depicting their idea of what God’s love looks like to them.

For Parents:

• Talk to your child about freedom.  What does it mean to you?  What does it mean to them?  How what responsibilities come with freedom?
• Read the story of Daniel in the lion’s den.  (Daniel 6)  What does the story mean to them?
• If you have a younger child, have them explain their picture to you, and learn John 3:16