Breaking News

Local Columns

We were upcycling, thrifting and repurposing before it was cool

Upcycling, thrifting and repurposing vintage clothes, furniture, and décor is all the rage these days. You can’t open a magazine or peruse social media without stumbling upon someone upcycling something! It is common to see article titles such as, “Thrift Your Way to a Cozy Home,” or “Upcycled Thrift Store Décor” or some similar variation. I am not complaining, mind you; I think it is wonderful to keep as much as possible out of our landfills. Still, I must stifle a chuckle when I see this trend portrayed as a new, novel idea. Heaven knows, I have been practicing it my entire ...

MCL has evolved through the years

Last week, I ended my column with a brief note about the Kish Branch Library also moving into new digs in 1975. I still want to write about that but I had a library user ask me to write about the changes I’ve seen during my thirty years of library work. I started working at the Mifflin County Library in 1994. Even back then, we had an integrated library system; in other words, the computerized check in and out system. We had the same company that we have today: The Library Corporation. Although, back then, they were known as Library Corp and now they prefer to be called TLC. ...

Interlibrary loan (ILL) will change your life

The central philosophy of many libraries is that information should be shared with as many people as possible, both around the country and around the world. If you need something and your local library doesn’t have it, you can request that a book, article or even DVD be sent to your local library. This is called interlibrary loan (ILL) and it is free for you to use. ILL has been around in some form or another since at least the 1890s, when an arrangement was made to share books between different branches of the University of California’s libraries. More than 100 years later, the ...

Winter brings us life, just like God’s Word

Isaiah 55:8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. 10”The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. 11 It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it ...

Jesus condemned legalism and man-made regulations

Church Growth - Grace I Are you being made perfect by the flesh? Galatians 3:3 Jesus condemned legalism, man-made rules, and regulations that are imposed by men. In the book of Galatians, Paul condemned those who tried to impose the Old Testament law on New Testament believers who were living under the new covenant of grace. Legalism, by keeping the law, or trying to follow the rules of men, both have this in common: they give us a picture of men trying to earn their own salvation or favor with God. The “way of grace” is based on the fact that salvation is by grace alone, ...

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up

1 Corinthians 8:1-13 “Knowledge puffs up but love builds up,” It’s true. Paul encountered people like that in the early church. Some looked down on those who weren’t as well educated or as sophisticated. Some were not only elitist in their cultural preferences, but also in their politics, in their social relationships and even in their faith. Christianity was a very liberating force in the lives of the earliest followers of Jesus. Most had been drawn from the Jewish faith. They had once lived under the law with the burden of the legalisms of that day. But Christ had set them ...