11/06/2013 RE-BUILDING OUR NATION
Nehemiah 1:1-4 The Autobiography of Nehemiah, the son of Hecaliah: In December of the Twentieth year of the reign of King Artaxerxes of Persia, when I was at the palace of Shushan, one of my fellow Jews named Hanani came to visit me with some men who had arrived from Judah. I took the opportunity to inquire about how things were going in Jerusalem. "How are they getting along?" I asked. "—the Jews who returned to Jerusalem from their exile here?" "Well," they replied, "things are not good; the wall of Jerusalem is still torn down, and the gates are burned." When I heard this, I sat down and cried. In fact, I refused to eat for several days, for I spent the time in prayer to the God of heaven.
[Living Bible translation]
Summary
Throughout the Bible, there are a number of examples of God dealing with cities (like Sodom, Gomorrah and Jericho), with nations (such as the nation of Israel, Ancient Egypt, the Babylonian Empire) and with individuals (for example, Abraham, Moses, David, Peter and Paul). Sometimes GOD uses a single individual to make a difference in the history of a great nation, such as when GOD used Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt or when David became king of Israel. The book of Nehemiah is an autobiographical account of how one man, a simple cupbearer, prayed that GOD would allow him to rebuild the walls of a broken nation and how GOD answered that prayer. One person was willing to leave a comfortable palace in order to lay a few bricks in order to rebuild and restore the physical and the spiritual health of a nation.
THE STATE OF OUR NATION
Physical Fitness
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, we are a nation in trouble:
- Obesity now affects 17% of all children and adolescents in the United
States - triple the rate from just one generation ago. - Childhood obesity is the result of eating too many calories and not getting enough physical activity.
- Approximately 12.5 million children and adolescents, aged 2—19 years, are obese.
- Since 1980, obesity prevalence among children and adolescents has almost tripled.
- Children 8—18 years of age spend an average of 7.5 hours a day using entertainment media, including TV, computers, video games, cell phones, and movies.
- Of those 7.5 hours, about 4.5 hours is dedicated to viewing TV.
- TV viewing is a contributing factor to childhood obesity because it may take away from the time children spend in physical activities; leads to increased calorie intake through snacking and eating meals in front of the TV; and, influences children to make unhealthy food choices through exposure to food advertisements.
- More than one third of U. S. adults (37%) are obese.
- Obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable deaths.
- Non-Hispanic blacks have the highest age-adjusted rate of obesity (49.5%) compared to Mexican Americans (40.4%), all Hispanics (39.1%) and non-Hispanic whites (34.3%).
- Among non-Hispanic black and Mexican-American men, those with higher incomes are more likely to be obese than those with low incomes.
- By state, obesity prevalence ranged from 20.5% in Colorado to 34.7% in Louisiana in 2012. No state had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Nine states and the District of Columbia had prevalence between 20-25%. Thirteen (13) states (Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia) had a prevalence equal to or greater than 30%.
See, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/obesity.