Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

To live life is to wrestle with temptation. There is no way for us to live our lives free from it. If there were a possibility of that, then Jesus, the Son of God, would have been able to live without temptation. But the Bible says that “he was at all points tempted like as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). We can do nothing to prevent temptation from coming our wa...

I once talked with a man who was convinced that Christianity was a failure. His conclusion was based on the fact that while our cities are full of churches and preachers, our world is getting worse and worse. If you think about this criticism, you must agree that there is much religion in America that has little effect on the daily lives of people. While the number o...

Our world is victimized by bigness. We seem to be conscious only of the monumental. We are impressed with big salaries, big cars, big houses, and big people. Perhaps as never before we need to be reminded that little things mean a lot. Let it never be forgotten that glamour is not greatness, applause is not fame, noise is not influence, prominence is not eminence. Th...

Who wants to be average? The person who is average is either the sorriest of the best or the best of the sorriest. Too many people are content to be just average. We too readily allow the world to level us down to the same plane. It is a part of the purpose and work of Jesus Christ to help people rise above the average. Jesus helps people rise above the average in th...

"Men are like steel; they are of little use when they lose their temper," said actor Chuck Norris. The Bible agrees. In Proverbs 16:32 the Lord says, “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” Everyone is tempted at times to fly into a rage of anger. There are occasions when we are all o...

All too often the newspapers tell us of some terrible crime that has been committed. What causes a person to do such a thing? While no man can know the heart of another, part of the answer must lie in the Bible truth: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). Any student of psychology knows that habitual thinking along a certain line wil...

Can a person be a Christian in business? Will religion and business mix? Is God interested in the way we do our work? To say no to these questions is to relegate God to a place of no importance in that area where we spend most of our time. To say no is to make God a Sunday god, and a Sunday god is no god at all.  On the other hand, to answer yes to those questio...

There is planted in every person a sense of right and wrong and he is often called on to choose between these two. Today it is increasingly more difficult to make a distinction between them because our standards are sometimes muddled.  In the face of moral decisions, some people say, “I do as I want.” They reject all standards of morality and live on...

Someone once asked John D. Rockefeller how much money it would take to satisfy a man. He replied, “Just a little bit more.” Every one of us must be on guard constantly against that greedy, selfish spirit that makes money a god and things the supreme desire of life. To save us from the slavery of materialism, the Lord has commanded us to use our possession...