Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

Thoughts of a new beginning appeal to every one of us. Everyone can begin again at the foot of the cross of Christ, and any person wanting to begin life anew must come to him in repentance and in faith. Paul expressed it this way: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5...

The flipping of the calendar does not really change anything. If you find happiness this year, it will be because of what you put into your life. What are the essentials to a happy life and a happy New Year? 1. A self to live with. Is life worth living? Yes, if a person can find a self to live with. Unless you like yourself, there is little chance of your liking life...

Have you ever stopped at a motel late at night to get a room and the clerk said to you, “I’m sorry, we have no vacancies”? Overbooked, overcrowded, no room for you. That very well may be what happened that first Christmas. The innkeeper simply had an overcrowded inn and there was no room for Jesus to stay. What Jesus experienced in that first century...

There is a magnetism to the cross of Jesus Christ that cannot be explained apart from God. Jesus once said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth [on a cross], will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). What is it that gives the cross such a universal and irresistible appeal? 1. It is the magnetism of love. In the cross of Christ we see the love of God a...

1 But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: 2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. 3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love the...

I once was invited to open the House of Representatives with prayer. Both Houses of Congress have a chaplain and both begin each day with prayer. Strange, isn’t it? We are not supposed to pray in public schools, but Congress opens each session with prayer...and have done so since the nation was founded. Don’t let anybody tell you our nation was not founde...

The song "God Bless America" is also a prayer that God will bless us again. For in spite of all our blessings we still have great needs. I think what Charles Dickens said concerning the French Revolution in A Tale of Two Cities could well be applied to our day. He said, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”  Today is a time of d...

In this day of skepticism and doubt many have lost faith in spiritual things. They wonder things like, “Can there be any certainty of the resurrection?” and “How can we be sure that Jesus was raised from the dead?”  In 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 the Apostle Paul presents three evidences for the reality of the resurrection. 1. The testimony of...

God is not dead, neither is he gone. In a time when some so-called theologians are saying God is dead, we need to declare the glorious truth with the same enthusiasm of those early disciples who discovered the empty tomb of Jesus on the first Easter morning: GOD IS NOT DEAD.  A god subject to the final power of death is no god. They tell the story in England of...