Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

We live on a higher level. We look to another world. We dream of a better day. Some years ago, an American tourist visited a very famous Polish rabbi, and as he looked around the apartment of this rabbi, he was astonished at the plainness and simplicity of it. There were just some bookcases full of books over here, a table over there, and a bench in the room. The asto...

Several years ago, I read with great interest a book by Elmer G. Letterman entitled How Showmanship Sells. It is one of those success motivation books with a lot of good philosophy in it. He said, “People come to me oftentimes and ask me for the secret to success.” He continued, “There is no one simple answer to that, but there is one necessary first...

One man said concerning his wife, “My wife has a terrible memory. She never forgets anything.” Another one said, “Every time we argue my wife gets historical.” His friend said, “No, you mean hysterical.” He said, “No, historical. She always brings up the past.” Learning how to forget is important in getting on with being...

Maybe I’ve shared with you the experience of one of the greatest football coaches I’ve ever known. He was the athletic director at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, where I pastored, and he was a small college Bear Bryant. He had the kind of record, disposition, and reputation that Bear Bryant had. Most everybody was afraid of him. But he cam...

Somebody told me about a bumper sticker they read the other day. It said, “The more people I meet, the more I like my dog.” We are not such a holy righteous bunch, you know. I mean when you get right down to it, when you shuck right down to the cob, there are a lot of us who are far from what we ought to be. We’ve drifted from the straight and narrow...

I read a sermon by a fellow pastor some time ago. He was announcing to his congregation that he was resigning his pastorate. He said, “I’m just burned out. I have been burning the candle at both ends. I am exhausted, so I am going to take a leave of absence for a year from the ministry. I’m going down to a hospital as an assistant chaplain, and after...

Have you heard about the country preacher who went to a conference in the city one time? He heard all the preachers talking about lethargy and procrastination. He didn’t really understand what the words meant, but they sounded good. He went back to his own church the next Sunday and he preached about lethargy and procrastination. When he finished, one of his de...

I was talking with a preacher one day, and he mentioned the bucket committee. I said, “The bucket committee? I’ve been in Baptist churches for 25 years. I think we’ve got every committee you could possibly have. We’ve got 28 standing committees, three sitting committees, two lying committees, and one dead committee. Surely there are not anymore...

Education is of no avail if the fire goes out. Vance Havner was once talking about the bent toward education, and the coldness that sometimes goes with it when there is a lack of spiritual fire in the church. He said that there never has been a time when the church had so many degrees and so little temperature. We need to be sure that with all of our degrees that the...