Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

6 Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Introduction A song popular some years ago started out talked about "Me and My Shadow" taking a stroll down the avenue. This points to an undeniable fact: no man can escape his shadow. A truth of far deeper significa...

I once talked with a young man who had fought a serious alcohol problem in his life for years. He had at one point almost ruined his own life and the lives of the members of his family. As we talked the thought struck me, “If you removed just one thing from that boy’s life—alcohol—his life would have been entirely different.” When I share...

On the surface the argument is plausible: let liquor become part of a child’s life when he is young and he will drink in moderation. Unfortunately it does not seem to work that way. It appears strange that while many countries are cracking down on the abuses of alcohol, we Americans are calling for more leniency. Alcoholism is one of the great social problems t...

I have two friends who recently became Christians. Before their conversion they both had serious drinking problems. One said to the other, “Before I was saved I drank a fifth of whiskey a day.” The other one said to me, “I hated to tell him, but I spilled that much every day.” My friend has now been dry for several months. He says, “The...

Drunkenness is one of American’s leading health, moral, and social problems. The Bible warns, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1).  The evils of drunkenness can be seen in a story that I found in an old Spanish schoolbook many years ago. On a lonely stretch of mountain road a...

Victor Frankl, the Swiss psychiatrist and author, said that the primary motivating force in life was not a quest for power but a quest for meaning. Noted philosopher Albert Camus said, “Here is what frightens me. To see the sense of this life dissipated. To see our reason for existence disappear. That is what intolerable. Man cannot live without meaning.”&...

One of the most serious problems facing our nation today is that of drug and alcohol use. Millions of Americans struggle with substance addictions. However the number of Americans who undergo treatment is not nearly as high as the number of those facing the problem.  There is confusion about drugs in most people’s minds. Therefore I want to share the reaso...

1 But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine: 2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. 3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; 4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to...