Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

Somebody asked Billy Graham about the many converts who came to his revivals, “Will they last?” He replied, “You might as well go to the hospital in the maternity ward and ask that same question about the newborn babies you see behind the glass.” “Will they last?” The answer is “no” unless somebody loves them, feeds them...

Have you heard about the country preacher who went to a conference in the city one time? He heard all the preachers talking about lethargy and procrastination. He didn’t really understand what the words meant, but they sounded good. He went back to his own church the next Sunday and he preached about lethargy and procrastination. When he finished, one of his de...

Education is of no avail if the fire goes out. Vance Havner was once talking about the bent toward education, and the coldness that sometimes goes with it when there is a lack of spiritual fire in the church. He said that there never has been a time when the church had so many degrees and so little temperature. We need to be sure that with all of our degrees that the...

Have you learned through the years that what you don’t know can hurt you? I heard some time ago about a Mexican bandit named Jose Rodriguez, who lived down close to the border. He made regular trips across the Rio Grande to a little Texas town and he would rob the banks and then he would go back across the river. He became such a nuisance that finally they alert...

One of these weekend widows met her husband at the door when he returned home from his first hunting trip of deer season and said to him, “I’m sick and tired of sitting around the house on weekends by myself. So the next time you go deer hunting I’m going with you.” That’s the last thing he wanted. And so he tried to talk her out of it. H...

Great men are born out of hardship. If you read enough biographies you will get to thinking that there can’t be a great man except he who suffers. God knows that you can’t develop strong men in easy places. The man who has never had his faith tested doesn’t know whether he has faith. God wants to make you and me into men like Christ and he allows us...

Few people have the ability to see latent potential in others. Most of us look people over, size them up, and then leave them as they are. Many great people have been overlooked in this way. If we had been in England many years ago, we might even have sized up young Winston Churchill and written him off as a failure. He was a redheaded, troublesome boy with a speech i...

The Christian life is difficult. The person who says otherwise hasn’t tried it. As difficult as it is, it can be much easier if you follow some simple rules. It is virtually impossible if you neglect them. Here are four of the most important rules for Christian living. 1. Read your Bible daily. Your spiritual life needs food—spiritual food. Where do you f...

Author and former Congressman Bruce Barton (1886-1967) famously said, “Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think that there are no little things.” If ever a generation ought to be aware of this, it ought to be ours. The problems of the world, everyone keeps saying, are so massive as to be overwhe...