Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

I’ve discovered that people usually just drift away from Christ. People are like sheep. Sheep don’t get wild, but sheep do wander. What do you say when you go after these people? Well, you don’t hound them. You just go to visit them, to be friendly with them. To have a cup of coffee with them and let them know that you are interested. When the time c...

God left Titus in Crete because he wanted to use him as his instrument to change the world. Paul tells Titus that he was left in Crete to “set in order” things that were wanting. The term set in order is a medical term that means to “set in joint.” It describes what a doctor does when you go to him with a broken bone. Because the parts of that...

One of the tragedies of people being cold and indifferent spiritually is that they spread their spirit everywhere and to everyone. Let me illustrate. I was talking with a fellow pastor one day and he mentioned a “bucket committee” in his church. I replied, “Bucket committee? I have never heard of such a thing. I thought our church had every committe...

Newcomers in town are often confused when trying to find a church home. There are so many good churches around that they do not know how to decide between them. No one church will suit everybody but there are four things that are important in this decision. 1. The pastor. While the pastor is only a small part of the church, he exerts an influence all out of proportio...

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...

Several years ago, I became concerned about the lack of growth in the church I was pastoring so I took several days and visited the pastors of some of the leading churches in Texas. I wanted to know the secret to their success. Do you know what I discovered? None of them had a sure-fire plan for church growth.  I found no trick plays.  I returned home wit...

13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. Introduction  Would you know th...

Introduction Cult leaders are relatively easy to identify. Perhaps our greatest danger comes not from them but from what I call Christian heresies or “near-cults.” “A heretic,” someone has said, “is a person who has a complete grasp of a half-truth.” The closer a false teacher gets to the truth, the more dangerous he becomes. Such...

1 How amiable are thy tabernacles, O LORD of hosts! 2 My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. 3 Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God. 4 Blessed are they that dwell in t...