Penn of DennWild fires in New South Wales, flooding in Queensland and the ice breaking up on Lake Erie. And to various degrees, tragedy accompanied the events; people died and property was destroyed. And people act surprised, but there is a bit of a pattern here. It's not like people are saying, "Wow wild fires…

Penn of DennYou have probably heard the news stories from Britain concerning the "British Humanist Association" bus advertising campaign. The project, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations as well as the support of prominent atheist Professor Richard Dawkins, has plastered buses across the UK with signs that say, "There's probably no…

Penn of DennThere was a story in the paper recently, concerning a request by the Montreal police union. It seems that they want city council, to pass an ordinance making it illegal for members of the public to insult police officers. Two specific examples given, were the uses of the highly inflammatory slurs: "Pig" or…

Penn of DennIt is quite the story. What could have been a tragedy, instead turned into a story that would be told and retold. The media was quick to dub it the "Miracle on the Hudson" and the passengers of US Airways Flight 1549 spoke with high praise of the professionalism of the flight crew.…

Penn of DennTwo weeks ago, I preached on the topic "Live Like You Were Dying" and last week I saw evidence of what that looked like. I was at the funeral of Captain J. Andrew Rae and the preacher used the phrase, "A life well lived." And I thought to myself: At my funeral, I…

Penn of DennWhen the kids were little, we had a dog named Kato. After we had the pup for awhile, we discovered that while he was friendly with the rest of the family, every once in a while he would nip two year old Deborah. Nobody else, just Deborah. Without warning, we would hear a…

Penn of DennI think one of my New Year's resolutions this year will be: less news. I really don't think the world is getting worse, I think the news services are simply getting better at telling us how bad things are. I came to that conclusion this past week, as the cable news described in…

Penn of DennWhere does the time go? Christmas is a memory and we can almost reach out and touch 2009. 2009! Wow! It seems like only yesterday that people were hoarding water in anticipation of Y2K, what a letdown that was. James was right when he wrote in the Bible: "Your life is like the…

Penn of DennWell, Christmas is almost upon us and if you aren't ready, then you had better hustle.If you are like most people, you decided last Christmas, that this Christmas would be different. You vowed that you were going to slow down, that you weren't going to get caught up in all the commercialization of…

Penn of DennQuite the story from the States last week, about the Wal-Mart worker killed in the shopping frenzy that followed Thanksgiving Day. The Friday following Thanksgiving south of the border, has traditionally been known as Black Friday and I'm sure that name has a different meaning for at least one family this holiday season.One…