Backyard fireworks display spirals out of control

GASTON, SC (WIS) - A Fourth of July fireworks show in one South Carolina town got out of control Sunday night. New video shows the aftermath of the accident.

A viewer sent WIS the original video Monday.

According to the viewer, who asked not to be identified, about 100 church members gathered at a house in Gaston to watch the annual backyard fireworks show.

The fireworks were set up on a small island in a pond when something went terribly wrong.

The video shows what appears to be

The musician, the man, the composer...

Push the pause button on my player (right column of homepage) and go to the1st video (interveiw) or just listen to him play (2nd video). OUAIS! (yeah mon!) Fritz Kreisler - the man - the composer. Love it!

Personality in Art
The influence of the artist's personality in his art finds a most striking exemplification in the case of Fritz Kreisler. Some time before the writer called on the famous violinist to get at first hand some of his opinions with regard to ...Read More

Does God really speak to us?

My friend Andrew is quite annoyed at people who claim that God spoke to them. "How dare anyone stake such a claim on the personal attention of the Almighty? Only great prophets of old heard God's voice from heaven. People today are only trying to justify their own convictions and desires, trying to give them credibility by saying that 'God told them' or that God called them"

I rarely meet a Christian who has actually heard a voice addressing them from heaven or from some corner of a room, announcing itself to be coming from God. When they do say that God spoke to them, they never go into details about how things really happened and how they knew it was a message addressed to them by God. I am not sure why I hardly ever ask for details. Maybe I don't wish to give an impression that I am doubting , since each person is entitled to believe what he wants about his own experience. Or perhaps I am more interested in hearing what God had to say.

Has God ever spoken to you? How did you know it was God? Does God necessarily use an audible voice or does He send messages through others, through His Word or through events that you witness? How then do you know that it isn't just your own conscience or a strong feeling about something - does it have to be God speaking?

On the other hand, if you doubt that God ever speaks, what do you make of the verse that tells us
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” John 10:27 ESV
And why entertain the thought of praying/conversing with God if he doesn't talk back? Where will you get answers?How will you really know He was listening?

I read an article on the subject and I will share it with you:

God Speaks Today
By Martha Noebel
CBN Staff Writer

CBN.com -- God still speaks to the hearts and minds of His people today. Dr. Charles Stanley wrote of four reasons why in his book, How To Listen To God. They are:
1. He loves us just as much as He loved the people of the Old and New Testament days.

2. We need His definite and deliberate direction for our lives as did Joshua, Moses, Jacob, or Noah.

3. He knows we need the comfort and assurance just as much as did the believers of old.

4. He wants us to know Him.
Dr. Stanley shares that some of the ways God chooses to speak to us are ... Read More...

Wide asleep in the pew

Do I really need to explain the reason why I slept all the way through the sermon this morning?

Have you ever done that? The sermon's not boring and you're not particularly tired, but a cloud of heavy slumber descends just as the preacher gets into it, and there you are, wide open in the pew, head tilted over almost touching the seat , mouth open and drooling...
I believe I heard my mother say once that the Enemy does that. If he can't distract you or cause some kind of confusion or upset for you on the Lord's day, he can just throw some sleep dust into your eyes and there you go. Do you believe that? Can't quite remember if C.S. Lewis had included that ruse in his Screwtape Letters.

Feeling too guilty to give the customary compliment or show some sign of appreciation to the waiting pastor, I found myself filing out with everyone else avoiding the pastor's eyes. It must have been a spanking good sermon ( no less from John Earnhardt, racing car driver Dale's cousin). Maybe I did hear the intro. Something about mosquitoes feeding on blood. He wanted to draw some kind of parallel with Christians needing to feed on the blood of Christ in order to live His life.

I slipped between two old folks shuffling out as though I was in a hurry and looking for someone over the other side of the foyer. But I didn't escape the smile of the most beautiful Pamela, and she caught me inside a warm embrace, beaming up at me as though she was delighted I was just there today! Dear Pamela. Maybe in eighty years you have grown shorter, more fragile, wracked with arthritis and suffering from Parkinson's, but you still manage to remind us of God's all-embracing, forgiving, unconditional love

Waiting for the night

At the backside of the neighborhood
on the wrong side
sitting on the front steps
hanging with friends
blazing gold earrings
drop from lobes
strained stretched by their weight
wait
for the night
jukebox glamour
dressed in best
club bound
swirling
puffing
sniffing
high
till morning light

Mother Comfort

She made us mugs of "Milo"
before bed
and we drank
side by side
half drinking
half eating
crunchy, malty beads
still suspended
in a swirl of milky foam
at the top

                                         She and I
                                         sucking
                                         rich, chocolate smell
                                         close loving arms
                                         stroking
                                         close your eyes
                                         head on breast
                                         mother -comfort.
                                         warm sweet sticky drops
                                         from the corners of our mouths
                                         prolong the evening
                                         misty thoughts
                                         of bedtime slumber
                                         upstairs
                                         several mouthfuls away.

IN THE HOLLOW OF THY HAND

"In the hollow of thy hand"
like eye of hurricane,
calm...
till sudden gale whips from behind
to snatch like a roof torn from its hinge
flagged like paper
flown like kite
tossed across
to land abrupt
dismantled object
in a stranger's yard.

LOVE UNTENDED

your deep rose
dried
drooped
head on stalk
petals crisp
thirsty brown
lifeless...
love
un-watered
withered in its bloom

WISTERIA

dripping
dropping
topping the eaves
cascade of lavender
like grapes
hung in cluster
soft in Spring
as light as sweet,
warm fragrance
floating on a breeze
wisteria

MANY MANSIONS

Brother's keeper,
doer unto the least of these,
my brethren.

His hands (click)
His feet
His Word.

Plate of chili
under steamy sun,
take, eat,
for this is my body
broken for you,
take, drink,
a cup of life,
one more day,
homeless,
hopeless stray
I show you the way
to that city
In my Father's house
there are many mansions
I have prepared a place for you.

MAXCY GREGG PARK

Depicting a new dawn- survival, and a passage into life.

Coming out from the frame of an exit way, they step forward into a luminous future. The bronzed figures of a man and woman are holding a child by the arms, striding joyously, as the child gaily skips along between them, keeping up with their pace. It is a representation of hope and healing. Renewal. Behind the open door-frame, not too far behind, others ,

OFF-CAMPUS LIFE

"Boom- Boom! Thud! thud!"
"Boom -Boom! Crash!

If you have ever lived in the apartment below, then you probably have begun to guess at what I am griping about. But I don't live in the apartment below. I actually live at the top of a one-hundred-year-old two-story house, shared by a couple of teenagers renting below! Yet, it is amazing the difference it does not make in terms of noise disturbance. Footsteps,