Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

Some time ago a man just dropped in my office who obviously was despairing of life. It did not take long for me to know that he had virtually come to the end of his rope. He had no meaning, no purpose in existence. I had just been teaching to our church the Roman road of salvation and I decided that I would use that plan of salvation on him. I took that little book of...

In 1909 Pierre Curie, a man who along with his wife discovered radium, was run over by a wagon and killed instantly. The loss of her husband was a devastating experience to Madam Curie emotionally. Thereafter for months, she wrote personal notes to him daily in her diary. In one of those notes, she described the funeral service and how they gathered by the graveside a...

I walked into a hospital room several years ago and the patient was dying with cancer. He knew it and I knew it. It was obvious when I stepped into the room that he had been crying. He brushed the tears off of his cheek and said, “Come on in, preacher. Let me explain why I am crying. I want you to know that my relationship with God is in good order. Everything i...

About a year ago, I was visiting with one of our ladies whose husband was in the hospital dying of cancer. He had entered the hospital just four days after she had returned home from surgery herself. She said that when she learned of his illness and his hospitalization, she became a bundle of nerves.  She could not eat; she could not sleep; she could not do anyt...

11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14 Who gave himself for us, that h...

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...

Psychiatrists say that the vast neurotic misery of the world could be termed a “neurosis of emptiness.” Such emptiness is always dangerous, for human nature like physical nature abhors a vacuum. A person must be filled with something. If his life is not filled with good, then he becomes easy prey for evil. Jesus emphasized this when he told the story of a...

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...

When Alexander the Great crossed into Asia he gave away almost all of his belongings to his friends. One of his captains asked him, “Sir, what do you keep for yourself?” The answer of the king was, “I keep hope.” Whatever else you lose or give away, so long as you keep hope you are keeping life’s most valuable asset. Hope is to man what...