By Fred Luter NEW ORLEANS (BP) - In September 1986, my life was changed forever when I was elected as pastor of a dying Southern Baptist mission called Franklin Avenue Baptist Church. I grew up in the National Baptist denomination. I was the middle of five kids raised by a single mom who required everyone in her house to attend church on Sunday mornings. At the age of 21, I was radically saved while lying in Charity Hospital in New Orleans not knowing if I was going to live the next 24 hours because of a serious head wound. A deacon of the church I grew up in put his finger inches from my face and said without apology, "Boy, obedience is better than sacrifice. If you were obedient to your mom, you would not be sacrificing your life here in this hospital!" That night I asked Jesus Christ to come into my life and woke up the next morning with a commitment to live the rest of my life as a born-again Christian. After getting out of the hospital, I started a street ministry in the neighborhood I grew up in because I wanted everyone to know about this Jesus who turned my life around. While preaching one Sunday at a National Baptist church, someone mentioned to me that Franklin Avenue was looking for a pastor and asked if … [Read more...]

By David Jeremiah EL CAJON, California (BP) - Instead of having one slow brain, today's computers have several really fast brains that can handle tasks independently of each other. While the brain God gave us is more powerful than any computer, we only have one. And it works best when it is focused on one thing at a time. If you're a student of the Bible, you already know where we're headed: Matthew 6:24 - "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (NKJV). Spiritual multitasking First, let's look carefully at Jesus' words in this part of the Sermon on the Mount, then define them more closely. To give context, Jesus is talking about the practice He witnessed in Roman occupied Galilee - slavery. When He says, "No one can serve two masters," the word for serve is "douleuo," from which comes the familiar Greek word for slave - "doulos." A doulos was a bondservant, a slave, not an employee. His allegiance was to only be to one, and only one, master. Those listening to Jesus' teaching would have understood perfectly what He meant: "Being a slave is a full-time job. You owe complete allegiance … [Read more...]