Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

There are three places we can live—in the past, in the present, or in the future. Some people live in the past. They are always looking back. Their lives are so weighted down by mistakes, failures, regrets, and sins of the past that they don’t enjoy the present. Others live in the future. They either spend so much time dreaming of the future or dreading...

When President John F. Kennedy appointed newscaster Edward R. Murrow director of the United States Information Agency, a Senate committee asked Murrow how he would combat communist propaganda against the United States. He replied simply that the agency should print all the news, “the warts and blemishes” as well as the “sunshine.” When the Bib...

I once had a long-distance telephone conversation with an angry caller. The person felt that I had ignored a member of his family in a time of need and so proceeded to “dress me down” for it. When I tried to explain that I was not aware that I had neglected the relative and that it certainly was not intentional, he accused me of not being very bright....

There is a lot of fuzzy thinking about guilt. It is a favorite theme of the playwrights, novelists, and poets, and even a popular conversation piece at cocktail parties. What is guilt? It should be noted that there is a difference between guilt and a “sense of guilt.” A sense of guilt ordinarily accompanies guilt, but not necessarily. It is possible to co...

There are millions who are wondering if there is not more to life than they have found. They are convinced that if there is not more, life is one great disappointment. In their search for satisfaction, millions are turning to narcotics, alcohol, pleasure, and sex. But the material things of this world do not satisfy. They are like drinking salt water. They cannot...

John Newton, who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace,” was once the captain of a slave trading ship. In 1748, caught in a great storm at sea, he turned to God and became a Christian. In time he became a wonderful parish priest and built a great church. As an old man and blind, he began dictating his memoirs. One day he said, speaking of the thousands of slaves...

One of the hardest teachings of Jesus is, “Love your enemies, bless them who curse you, do good those who hate you, pray for those who despitefully use and persecute you.”  You say, “I could never do that.” You not only can, you must. If we don’t forgive others who hurt us, God will not forgive us of our sins. As has been said, by r...

In 2009 William L. Calley, the only U.S. Army officer convicted of the 1968 slaying of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai, made an extraordinary public apology.   Calley was a young Army lieutenant when he was court-martialed for his part in the massacre of 500 men, women, and children. In his confession he said, “There’s not a day that goes by that...

Former columnist-turned-commentator Brit Hume was once severely criticized because he suggested that Tiger Woods ought to turn to Christianity in his time of marital and moral crisis. He pointed out that Tiger was a Buddhist and that Buddhism offers no forgiveness and redemption. And he suggested that those were two things that Tiger needed most at this time. He...