Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

The most important thing about suffering is not why it happens, but how we respond to it. Attitudes, not answers, are the keys to triumphant living. To know why suffering comes does not ease the pain or heal the hurt. But if we respond to it correctly, it can make us better regardless of its cause. How we respond to suffering is entirely up to us. We do not get to ch...

I do not only believe in the inspiration of scripture, but I also believe in the application of scripture. We are obligated to practice as well as to preach the inerrant word of God.  It seems to me that a lot of people are busy espousing their positions on the scriptures without having submitted themselves in obedience to the scriptures. If we take seriously th...

I have said for a long, long time that I would rather wear out than rust out. The reason I feel this way is that life was made for a challenge. Most of us are our best and do our best when we are engaged in a meaningful and worthwhile work. It is too much leisure time that fills the bars and places of amusement. Too much time on our hands produces boredom and robs lif...

I once received a letter from a lady from Wisconsin whose daughter had been brutally murdered.  She had read one of my books and wrote to ask, “Do you know what heaven is like?  Has anyone ever come back from there to tell us about it?” Her letter expresses one of the deepest longings of the human heart.  “Does heaven have anything to...

I was preaching in a church years ago and at the close of the service a man told me that when he was a seventeen-year-old student at the University of Texas, God called him to preach.  But he didn’t answer the call.  He put it this way, “The phone rang, but I did not pick up the receiver because I knew who was on the other end of the line.”...

St. Augustine wrote, “God had only one Son without sin; he has no sons without suffering.”  Likewise, the Apostle Paul, one of God’s most faithful servants, had to live with intense physical pain. Three times he asked God to relieve it but it was not taken away. However, he does not surrender to a negative attitude of self-pity. There is no not...

The scriptures say, “He that hath pity on the poor lendth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he (the Lord) pay him again” (Proverbs 19:17). The Lord has always had a special concern for the poor and so should we. When we help them, it is as if we have made a loan to God, and God always repays his loans with interest. The word of the angel to...

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 Bible admonishes us to be honest in all our dealings. It says, “Better to be poor and honest than to be rich and dishonest.” (Proverbs 19:1) Dishonesty is rooted in greed and if left unchecked, greed can cause us to lie, steal, cheat, as well as leave us susceptible to get-rich-quick schemes that almost always end in poverty. A good rule to follow is...