Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

I was preaching in a church years ago and at the close of the service a man told me that when he was a seventeen-year-old student at the University of Texas, God called him to preach.  But he didn’t answer the call.  He put it this way, “The phone rang, but I did not pick up the receiver because I knew who was on the other end of the line.”...

Why do people suffer, especially good people? Why do evil people prosper? These questions are as old as humankind but as current as today. Is there any answer to them? The explanation of the prosperity of the wicked is easy. It is due to the indiscriminate love of God. He loves all people, even those who hate him and he bestows his blessings on all people alike. (Mat...

I loved the 2010 movie “True Grit.” For one thing, I liked the music, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms.” But the main reason was the acting of then fourteen-year-old Hailee Steinfeld who played the part of Mattie Ross. When they started filming, Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon used a lot of curse words. So, little Hailee started a “bad boy ja...

Christian author Jill Briscoe tells of going into a child’s room once and seeing a poster on the wall showing a little boy after a football match. At the top it said, “I quit.” And the little boy's body language was saying it all, sitting dejected and alone on the bench. But on the bottom of the poster was a cross and in little letters it said, &ldqu...

General Sam Houston, one of my heroes, was commander the army of the Republic of Texas, the first elected president of the Republic of Texas, first Senator from the state of Texas, and later the sixth governor of the state. Life on the Texas frontier was rough and rugged. Men molded by the frontier knew how to fight, drink, curse, and kill. Sam Houston fit the lifesty...

One Sunday a young man dressed in a suit and sitting on the third-row aisle listened and watched with such rapt attention that he caught my eye. At the close of the service an usher introduced him to me. Jason, a local seminary student, extended his hand and said, “It’s an honor to meet you.” (Obviously, Jason had read some of my books.) I resp...

A friend told me birthdays are good for you. People who have lots of them usually live a long time. In 2001 I had bypass surgery. I had seven of those suckers – that’s right, seven. That’s all you can have. I wanted to have eight so I could make the Guinness Book of World Records, but my doctor said seven is the maximum. After the surgery the doctor...

3 Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? 5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. 6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none...