Paul W. Powell Legacy Library

  5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee.” Introduction Kim Linehan was one of the greatest long-distance swimmers in the world. She held the world record in the 1,500-meter freestyle competition from 1979 to 1987. According to her coach...

How strong is your faith? Can it stand the shock of a “no” answer from God?  I have long been fascinated by the story of the three Hebrew children in the Old Testament. The king of Babylon commanded all people to bow down and worship his golden image. These devout Jewish young men refused. When they were told that they would be thrown in a fiery furn...

One of the secrets of the great life of the apostle Paul was that he learned how to forget. He did not spend his time looking at his successes or his failures. Rather, he kept focusing on the future and pressing toward the mark of Christian maturity (Philippians 3:13). This is one of the secrets of any great life. It was the brilliant mind of Aldous Huxley that came...

Experiences such as failure, difficulties, heartaches, and disappointments can sometimes almost crush a person. The problems may have to do with marriage, business, health, or children. Christians face these kinds of pressures just like everyone else. We are not members of a Red Carpet Club. All the pressures of life remain or are intensified when we become followers...

“The American nation will soon be in a state of nervous collapse..." So said the 1969 British writer Tom Stacey in the London Daily Telegraph. If we are on the verge of a nervous collapse, it is because we have added to our lives a multiplicity of activities without keeping pace morally and spiritually. We cannot be ever achieving new powers, enlargin...

Jack Taylor, in his best-selling book The Key to Triumphant Living tells that even as a minister, he came to a point of almost complete exhaustion trying to live the Christian life in his own strength. Jack wrote that after he became a Christian, no one told him about the Holy Spirit. So he thought he had to live the Christian life on his own. His father was a farmer&...

Many people are living defeated Christian lives simply because they do not know about the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit within them. In Pecos County in West Texas, there is a famous oilfield known as Yates Pool. It was called Yates Pool because the oilfield was discovered on a sheep ranch that was owned by Mr. Ira Yates. During the Depression years Mr. Yat...

There is an old saying, “A pessimist sees a difficulty in every opportunity, and an optimist sees an opportunity in every difficulty.” Good leaders focus on objectives, not obstacles. They are like a good hurdler. The hurdler doesn’t focus on the hurdle, he just sees the finish line. He looks at the destination, not at the obstacles to prevent his ge...

I think it is significant that the Lord likens his kingdom to a vineyard where there is work that needs to be done. He does not compare his kingdom to a place of idleness where men stand around and twiddle their thumbs and wonder why we are and what we are to do. It is rather a place of work, a place of employment, a place where things need to be done and he suggests...