Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

A man I knew when he was just a boy lived near one of those old-timey neighborhood grocery stores. As a boy he was in that grocery store every day. He knew the owner and those working in the store very well. One day he stole some pencils. It didn’t amount to very much—maybe 25 cents. Just three, four, or five pencils, and he didn’t need them. It was...

In 1736 John Wesley entered in his journal an account of going to German pastors to ask them some questions concerning his conduct. One of those German pastors said, “My brother, I must first ask you a question or two. The first question is this: Have you the witness of the Spirit within yourself? Does the Spirit bear witness with your spirit that you know the S...

Have you learned through the years that what you don’t know can hurt you? I heard some time ago about a Mexican bandit named Jose Rodriguez, who lived down close to the border. He made regular trips across the Rio Grande to a little Texas town and he would rob the banks and then he would go back across the river. He became such a nuisance that finally they alert...

E. Stanley Jones, that great Methodist missionary who spent his life in India, said one day he had planned a trip to the jungle. It was his first, so he hired a guide. The guide had a machete and they came to the edge of the jungle and being unfamiliar with the ways of the jungle, Stanley Jones asked the guide, “Well, where is the trail? Where is the path?&rdquo...

In the days of the potato famine in Ireland, many Irishmen left the country and came to America seeking a new way of life. And among those thousands of people who came as immigrants to our country there was a young man who couldn’t afford passage on the ship, so he hid himself aboard and became a stowaway. Halfway across the Atlantic their ship hit an iceberg an...

Huey P. Long grew up the son of poor Baptist parents in Northern Louisiana. He got some education in the state and then he went to Oklahoma for a semester and went to law school. Dropped out of law school, came back to the state of Louisiana and by the year of 1935, almost owned the state. He started running for office and eventually became the governor of the state...

Willie Sutton decided that he would read the gospels as though he had never read them before. With that fresh approach he would see what new revelation, what new understanding he could gain from the gospels. And so, as best he could he washed his mind of all previous ideas, all preconceived conceptions of the Lord. And he went to the gospels and read them as though he...

I have a watch on my wrist and the beauty of this watch and the fact that it moves and works with accuracy and precision makes me know that somewhere there had to be a maker. So if you say to me, “That is a beautiful watch. Where did you get it? Where did it come from?” I wouldn’t say, “It didn’t come from anywhere. It just happened.&rdqu...

How can a doctor treat a patient if he is not with him? How could you set things in order if you aren’t there? Jesus was often criticized because he associated with sinners. He justified his actions by saying, “They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32)...