Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

One of the greatest blessings of life is a Christian home. It is a source of strength and help for all of life. An essential ingredient in a Christian home is a family altar. You cannot have a Christian home in the fullest sense of the word without it. What is a family altar? It is not a piece of furniture or a place. It is an event. It is a time when the family join...

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor/theologian who was executed by Adolph Hitler for participating in a plot to kill the Führer. In a biography of his life, he describes Christ as a man “for others.” Then he reminds us that the church, as the body of Christ on earth, is a community in which Christ dwells and like Christ himself, exists &l...

B.H. Carroll, who founded the world’s largest seminary, lamented at the deathbed of his son, “I’ve taken care of the Lord’s house but not my own.” Billy Sunday, one of America’s greatest evangelists of the past, saw all four of his children die before reaching their 40th birthday. He said, “Funny, but in the last 20 years I&rs...

John Wooten, the great UCLA basketball coach who won 10 National Championships in 11 years said, “No team ever won the National Championship with the nation’s leading scorer on the team.” Then he added, “It takes teamwork to make the dream work.” This principle is just as true in marriage, in business, and in the Christian life as it is...

The subconscious mind is a strange thing. The night before my dad’s birthday I had a dream about him. He died many years ago at the age of 75.   In the dream I was crying and mother asked me why. I said, “Because dad never told me he loved me.” Then suddenly he was present, put out his hand to shake mine like he always did, and said,...

In his book, Trial by Ordeal, Craig Parshall tells of a conversation between Tess and Kevin. A homeless man has died and Kevin felt no responsibility for him. Then Tess reminds him of A Christmas Carol by Dickens where a ghost comes to Scrooge’s door and tells him, “Mankind is your business.” Then she tells Kevin, “This man is a part of your r...

There is nothing more common nor more detrimental to marriage than an irritable, quarrelsome, critical spirit. It is so ordinary because it takes no brains, no talent, and no self-denial. It is so detrimental because it makes life miserable for everyone. The Bible warns us against this when it says, “Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter [irritable, quarr...

The outstanding Christian author, John Powell, related this account of his father’s death. He was weeping in the hospital and one of the nurses tried to console him. He explained to her, “I’m not weeping because my father died (the man was in great pain and death was a release). I cry because he never told me he loved me.” It’s too late...

There is a great deal of talk nowadays about reforming or abolishing marriage. Some psychologists are saying that marriage as it now exists is failing to meet the needs of modern society and that we have put the cart before the horse in the past. They say we have been forcing men and women to conform to the mold of marriage, when what we should be doing is changing ma...