Profound and Sometimes Preposterous Ponderings of Pete

 2 Cor 12: 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I was reading, but to be perfectly honest, I was listening to 2 Corinthians 9 - 13 and when I came to this passage I was deeply convicted. To tears. I had to truly think about what it meant to have a thorn in my flesh to keep me from being conceited. I thought, was I proud and arrogant about my physical condition that God disabled me physically? ...

James 1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Last night I heard that children in the slums of the Philippines are being murdered often. Not much is done about these crimes because they are labeled "slum kids" and as such, the loss of their lives is not worth investigating.  Recently, in one of the big slums, a young girl refused to have sex with a man and he came back and shot her dead. This is not a rare story but an often occurring one.  The cultural insensitivity and long standing prejudice against the slums and the people who survive there makes it very easy to overlook heinous crimes such as this.  The current drug enforcement policies has made the "justified killings" increase and applicable towards children. The thing that infuriates me is the inability to help or do anything but pray.  Yes, our God is greater than any gover...