Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

Victor Frankl, the Swiss psychiatrist and author, said that the primary motivating force in life was not a quest for power but a quest for meaning. Noted philosopher Albert Camus said, “Here is what frightens me. To see the sense of this life dissipated. To see our reason for existence disappear. That is what intolerable. Man cannot live without meaning.”&...

We have accumulated enough knowledge to conquer outer space and the computer chip, but we lack the wisdom to govern our inner selves. What we are desperately lacking today is not technical know-how but moral and spiritual want-to. Where can we get the true wisdom we need for living in today’s world? The Bible says in James that God will give us the wisdom we se...

All of us are interested in making our nation as strong and as good as possible. But wherein lies the strength of a nation?  The strength of the nation is first of all in the home. The family is recognized by almost everyone as the basic institution of society. It is the foundation of society. When divorce, unfaithfulness, permissiveness, and materialism dominat...

One day a friend told the philosopher Plato that someone had spoken evil of him. “What are you going to do about it?” his friend inquired anxiously. “I shall live in such a way that no one will believe the report,” Plato answered, undisturbed. That’s the advice of scripture. We are to live so that when people speak evil of us, no one wi...

There is no greater blessing than to have a true and loyal friend, one in whom we can confide in times of trouble. There is no greater tragedy than to have a friend betray the confidence that you have put in him. The Bible warns: “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth” (Proverbs 25:19). We should all strive to be a loya...

I read somewhere of a story about a group of teenagers who broke into the department store one night. They didn’t steal or destroy anything. They just had a wonderful time switching price tags. The next morning customers were puzzled and delighted to find fur coats selling for $5. Lotion was priced at $100. A silver service set was marked at $1.75 and a pair of...

Someone has well said, “One trouble with the world today is that so many people who stand up vigorously for their rights fall down miserably on their duties.” In Christianity, as in citizenship, there are responsibilities as well as rights. There are duties as well as privileges. In Micah 6:8 the question is asked, “What doth the Lord require of thee...

A friend of mine was baptized into a church as an infant but never came to personal faith in Christ. While in college he heard people talk about their personal conversion experience, and he realized he had never experienced that. So, he went with one of his friends to a revival service one night. The old minister who preached was uneducated. He had been called to pre...

Jesus called James and John “The Sons of Thunder.” That’s because they had a short fuse. They would cloud up and rain all over you in a New York minute. When a Samaritan village did not show them proper hospitality they wanted to call down fire from heaven and destroy the entire population! That’s a normal reaction. When people are rude to us,...