Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

Joseph Parker tells the story of the little watch that was not content to serve in the pocket of his master. It kept watching Big Ben on the tower there in London and thinking, “Boy, how I would like to be the place of prominence. How I would like to be upon that tower. If I were up there, then I could serve all of London. I wouldn’t have to stay here in t...

Walter Shurden tells of an incident someone related to him about a Southern Baptist pastor invited by a pulpit committee to meet with the deacons of the church for a preliminary conversation. After the usual light chitchat they got down to business. One of the deacons, a delightful wholesale grocer, looked at the candidate and said, “Sir, what one question do y...

The parable of the laborers in Matthew 20 reminds us that it is not too late for you to go to work in God’s vineyard. He hired workers until the 11th hour. And the 11th hour was the last hour before quitting time. And even though they had failed up until that moment to find employment, when the Master called they answered that call and until the last hour our Lo...

I read a sermon by a fellow pastor some time ago. He was announcing to his congregation that he was resigning his pastorate. He said, “I’m just burned out. I have been burning the candle at both ends. I am exhausted, so I am going to take a leave of absence for a year from the ministry. I’m going down to a hospital as an assistant chaplain, and after...

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...

Last week I read A Short History of the Baptists by H. C. Vedder. In the book he told of a pioneer Baptist preacher who came into the wilderness of East Texas down around Nacogdoches before this land was ever settled country. Here is what that pioneer said about his life: “Every day I travel, I have to swim through creeks or swamps, and I am wet from head to fee...

A Sunday school teacher, a Mr. Kimball, in 1858 led a Boston shoe clerk to give his life to Christ. The clerk, Dwight L. Moody, became an evangelist. In England in 1879, he awakened evangelistic zeal in the heart of Fredrick B. Myer, the pastor of a small church. F. B. Meyer, preaching to an American college campus, brought to Christ a student named J. Wilbur Chapin....

There are all kinds of partnerships in life. There are marriage partners, dancing partners, tennis partners, and business partners. However, the greatest of all partnerships is the privilege of being a partner with God and his great work. The apostle Paul speaks of this when he says, “We are labourers together with God” (1 Corinthians 3:9). To every...

“If Christianity today is losing its influence, the reason may be that the church consists of soft pews, soft music, and soft soap.” So said Pastor John C. Jeske one time in the Presbyterian Journal.  We must never so water down our message as Christians that it loses its cleansing power. We must fight the temptation to be apologetic and even as...