Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “The name of Jesus is not so much written into history as it is plowed into it.” Sooner or later we must all face the ultimate question of what we will do with him. There are at least four alternatives: 1. You may be indifferent to him. Pilate sought to wash his hands of Jesus. He thought he could decide no...

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...

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,...

A San Francisco psychiatrist once made an interesting observation about the young ladies who followed Charles Manson, the convicted orchestrator of the murder of Sharon Tate. He said, “Most of Charlie’s girls were hysteric, wishful thinkers, seeking after some absolute.” I think much of the turmoil and confusion of our age is due to the fact that pe...

Laura Drummond, who taught at St. Edwards University in Austin, was a police officer on the streets of Austin for nine years to pay her way through school. After graduation she wrote a book entitled, Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You.   In an interview about the book she was asked, “What did you learn from your years as a police officer?&rd...

Writer Ernest Hemingway grew up in a strong evangelical Christian home in Old Platte, Illinois. His grandparents were missionaries and his father was a devout churchman. His family conformed to the strictest code of Christianity, and as a boy and then man he was active in the life of his church, even serving as a choirboy.   Then came the first World War. H...

In 2009 William L. Calley, the only U.S. Army officer convicted of the 1968 slaying of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai, made an extraordinary public apology.   Calley was a young Army lieutenant when he was court-martialed for his part in the massacre of 500 men, women, and children. In his confession he said, “There’s not a day that goes by that...

Former columnist-turned-commentator Brit Hume was once severely criticized because he suggested that Tiger Woods ought to turn to Christianity in his time of marital and moral crisis. He pointed out that Tiger was a Buddhist and that Buddhism offers no forgiveness and redemption. And he suggested that those were two things that Tiger needed most at this time. He...