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...

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.”&...

During India’s mutiny against Great Britain 1857-58, British soldiers were camped outside the city of Delhi when the commander gave the order for his men to attack the city. Medics began to move among the troops to determine who among them was fit for battle. A young soldier lay wounded and as the medic looked at him, he pled, “Sir, please don’t dec...

There is an old western painting of a rugged wagon train that has been drawn into a circle for the evening. The men are gathered around the campfire, and the wagon-master has some maps spread out before him. On the map is a heavy black line that traces the zigzag course they have followed. They have swung a little to the left, then south, but always toward the west.&n...

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. 17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; 18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past al...

18 Then come unto him the Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection; and they asked him, saying, 19 Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 20 Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no see...

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...

1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 A time to cast awa...