Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

A young man who recently became a Christian said to me, “I am going home to a non-Christian family—a family that is prepared to laugh me out of the house. How should I deal with that?” Although he grew up next door to a parsonage and there were several different ministers who lived there over the years, no one ever spoke to him about being a Christi...

Juvenile delinquency is a problem in America. This problem may seem far away from us, but it is not. Some time ago a store manager told me about catching 17 shoplifters in his store in one week alone. When you seek for a cause of this youthful lawlessness, you are driven ultimately to the home and to the parents. In fact two Harvard Law School criminologists pinpoint...

Convicted Soviet spy Stig Wennerström told his interrogators that his basic procedure during the five years he worked in the U.S. included the cultivation of “big shots” by first winning the friendship of their wives. “Women,” he said, “have a much greater influence over men than we realize.” This is true. Women do have tremen...

Occasionally one hears the complimentary statement, “He is a Christian and a gentleman.” The expression throws a shadow across our modern brand of Christianity. The implication is that a Christian is not necessarily a gentle person. In all likelihood all of us could relate a case or two to bear out the point. Most of us have to work for years to wear off...

During the Bobby Baker hearing in Washington in 1963, charges were made that a certain witness was a “character assassin.” A character assassin is a person who attempts to demolish the character of someone else by slander, lies, gossip, or half-truths. The chief weapon of the character assassin is his tongue. With it he injures innocent people. The tongue...

The apostle Peter urges husbands and wives to live in harmony with one another in their marriage relationship so that their prayer would not be “hindered” (1 Peter 3:7). The word hinder means “to cut” or “to interrupt.” Strife in the home is like static on the radio or television. It interferes with clear reception and good co...

Someone has said that marriage is like twirling a baton, turning handsprings, or eating with chopsticks—it looks easy until you try it. Marriage is not as easy as it looks. In marriage two people with different backgrounds, tastes, views, habits, etc. begin to share their lives completely. Conflict is inevitable. After all, no two people will agree on everythin...

Several years ago I ran across the phrase “The stormy north side of Jesus.” It stuck in my mind because this is a side of Jesus we so seldom see and so often forget.   We have so long thought of him as “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” that we’ve overlooked the fact that he was capable of anger (Mark 3:5). Jesus has a stormy north sid...

There is much talk today about the generation gap—that invisible chasm between parents and their children. While there has always been a gap between one generation and the next, there are many who feel that it is deeper and wider today than ever before. Several factors, like the rapid changes that are occurring all over our world, improved communications throug...