Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

A friend of mine was baptized into a church as an infant but never came to personal faith in Christ. While in college he heard people talk about their personal conversion experience, and he realized he had never experienced that. So, he went with one of his friends to a revival service one night. The old minister who preached was uneducated. He had been called to pre...

God’s opinion of the atheist is so clear that even the atheist can understand it. He says, “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” (Psalm 14:1) Why does God, in all the Bible, make this one statement on atheism and thereafter dismiss the subject? It’s because the foolishness of atheism is so self-evident that no other comment is nece...

Does going to church matter? Let’s ask Henry Brinton, former pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church in Virginia. He once wrote of a U.S. president’s church attendance, “Politically, church attendance is a sign of integrity. If the president says he’s a Christian, then going to church shows that he doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the w...

A San Francisco psychiatrist once made an interesting observation about the young ladies who followed Charles Manson, the convicted orchestrator of the murder of Sharon Tate. He said, “Most of Charlie’s girls were hysteric, wishful thinkers, seeking after some absolute.” I think much of the turmoil and confusion of our age is due to the fact that pe...

The old proverb says, “It’s an ill wind that blows no good.”  When the storm winds of life blow your way, when trouble comes, when you experience suffering, look for the good in all of it. It is not always easy to see, of course. When Winston Churchill, the man who led England safely through World War II, was then defeated in the election of 19...

It is a disquieting thought, said Charles Dickens, to do anything for the last time. I love the story from Fred Smith’s book, You and Your Network. He writes, “A young preacher in his first pastorate in a small northern mill town was talking for his first time with the mill owner, who said, ‘Young man, you have not seen me in church and you...

In the midst of all the rebellion, lawlessness, disorder, and crime in our world, some people are asking, “Is God at work in today’s world or has he abandoned it altogether?” Jesus once told the story of a man who planted a seed in the ground and then he went on about his daily activities. All the time that he was carrying on the normal activities o...

Bernice Washington, a businesswoman, author, and motivational speaker was one of five children raised by her sharecropper father who worked in a Louisiana cotton field. One of the great lessons of life he taught her happened when a schoolmate said to her, “Bernice, you are poor; your brother is poor; your sister is poor; in fact, your entire family is poor.&rdq...

First-century Christianity was simple and uncluttered. Early Christians cut through the complexity of their culture and allowed what was primary and essential to surface.   What are the basics that matter in our faith? Here are four cornerstones: God and his word are trustworthy. Christ is the Savior and King. There’s hope for the future and forg...