Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Depending on God

Nehemiah 1:1-11

Nehemiah 1 New International Reader's Version (NIRV)

Nehemiah Prays to the Lord

These are the words of Nehemiah. He was the son of Hacaliah.

I was in the safest place in Susa. I was there in the 20th year that Artaxerxes was king. It was in the month of Kislev. At that time Hanani came from Judah with some other men. He was one of my brothers. I asked him and the other men about the Jews who were left alive in Judah. They had returned from Babylonia. I also asked him about Jerusalem.

He and the men who were with him said to me, “Some of the people who returned are still alive. They are back in the land of Judah. But they are having a hard time. People are making fun of them. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down. Its gates have been burned with fire.”

When I heard about those things, I sat down and sobbed. For several days I was very sad. I didn’t eat any food. And I prayed to the God of heaven. I said,

Lord, you are the God of heaven. You are a great and wonderful God. You keep the covenant you made with those who love you and obey your commands. You show them your love.

“Please pay careful attention to my prayer. See how your people are suffering. Please listen to me. I’m praying to you day and night. I’m praying for the people of Israel. We Israelites have committed sins against you. All of us admit it. I and my family have also sinned against you. We’ve done some very evil things. We haven’t obeyed the commands, rules and laws you gave your servant Moses.

“Remember what you told him. You said, ‘If you people are not faithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me, I will bring you back. If you obey my commands, I will gather you together again. I will bring you back from the farthest places on earth. I will bring you to the special place where I have chosen to put my Name.’

10 Lord, they are your people. They serve you. You used your great strength and mighty hand to set them free from Egypt. 11 Lord, please pay careful attention to my prayer. Listen to the prayers of all of us. We take delight in bringing honor to your name. Give me success today. Help King Artaxerxes show me his favor.”

I was the king’s wine taster.

New International Reader's Version (NIRV)

Copyright © 1996, 1998 by Biblica

The truth has been decided by one man and we are to believe his story because the grand jury hasn't indicted him. They have had months to coach him and his story is convincing again that the big black man overpowers him and it was self defense. None of the witnesses were white so their account of the story is skewed. He was in danger, he's calm and cool now and totally convinced that color makes no difference. Cool, calm, and collected. I did my job that day. I am and the there is remorse. He did his job, followed his training, he had never fired his gun before. Had he worked in black neighborhoods before. Had he taken him down like that cop at the Renanassince festival then maybe he would be alive. 

We have to ask The Lord for Discernment. Discernment allows us to sit quietly,and breathe deeply, and allow myself to to become relaxed and peaceful. I ask God to give me discernment as I begin to study the book of Nehemiah.

ABC News has the exclusive with George Stephanopulus of the officers version. Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu were able to find forgiveness and peace with the police and with the authority. 

In bible it says to pray for our leadership and people of authority. Their decisions should be accepted even if we feel the decision is an unjust. So, the story now us big black man, suspected of just robbing a convience  store, scared cop the cop with his "Hulk" strength. So we just have to accept, non violence is the way. Use the law and the facts. It's not making me comfortable. Nehemiah says depend on God. I have been drawn to this and I know God needs people who care about justice. How ever long it takes.

Household Income And DemographicsEdit

Racial and Ethnic groups

Race Income.png

personal and household income
in 2005

Despite advances minorities have made to exit poverty, there is still an uneven racial distribution among the income quintiles. While White Americans made up roughly 75.1% of all persons in 2000,[47] 87.93% of all households in the top 5% were headed by a person who identified as being White alone. Only 4.75% of all household in the top 5% were headed by someone who identified him or herself as being Hispanic or Latino of any race,[48] versus 12.5% of persons identifying themselves as Hispanic or Latino in the general population.[47]

Overall, 86.01% of all households in the top two quintiles with upper-middle range incomes of over $55,331 were headed by a head of household who identified him or herself as White alone, while only 7.21% were being headed by someone who identified as being Hispanic and 7.37% by someone who identified as being African American or Black.[48] Overall, households headed by Hispanics and African Americans were underrepresented in the top two quintiles and overrepresented in the bottom two quintiles. Households headed by persons who identified as being Asian alone, on the other hand, were overrepresented among the top two quintiles. In the top five percent the percentage of Asians was nearly twice as high as the percentage of Asians among the general population. Whites were relatively even distributed throughout the quintiles only being underrepresented in the lowest quintile and slightly overrepresented in the top quintile and the top five percent.[48]

In terms of race in 2010 data, Asian American households had the highest median household income of $57,518, European-American households ranked second with $48,977, Hispanic or Latino households ranked third with $34,241. African-American or Black households had the lowest median household income of all races with $30,134.[49]

Ethnic groupAll householdsLowest fifthSecond fifthMiddle fifthFourth fifthHighest fifthTop 5%
White aloneNumber in 1000s92,70216,94018,42418,97819,21519,7215,029
Percentage81.93%74.87%81.42%83.87%84.92%87.16%87.93%
Asian aloneNumber in 1000s4,1406245937868711,265366
Percentage3.65%2.76%2.26%3.47%3.84%5.59%6.46%
BlackNumber in 1000s13,7924,4743,3392,6372,0531,287236
Percentage12.19%19.77%14.75%11.65%9.07%5.69%4.17%
Hispanic or Latino
(of any race)
Number in 1000s12,8383,0233,1302,8631,9311,204269
Percentage11.33%13.56%13.83%12.20%8.53%5.89%4.75%

SOURCE: US Census Bureau, 2004[48]

Education and gender


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