Few Outwardly Focused Ministries

Few Outwardly Focused Ministries

Few Outwardly Focused Ministries
By David Cox

Following our study of 7 Deadly sins of a dying church, the next one is that they have few outwardly focused ministries. The key here is introspection, or a selfishness of doing everything for their own selves. As a missionary, I have experienced some 50 years of watching things in local churches. At one time churches rallied around their work abroad, and today, church after church either just does not support missions at all, or their missions budget is sending their own people on joy rides around the world (mission trips) where the go to England to pass out some tracts, and mostly see sights.

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Where do babies go when they die

By Pastor David Cox

Where do babies go when they die. Where do babies go when they dieRecently I had another person ask me about where babies go when they die. This has come up several times over my ministry, and I gave this person my answer, and I thought it might be of solace to others.

I do not know about infants that die. The Bible is strangely silent on that. On the one hand God gives men the chance of hearing and exercising faith. Babies don’t have that opportunity. So God’s mercy would seem to indicate that He will do something special for them.

On the hand there is the very strict understanding that without faith in Jesus Christ there cannot be salvation. No exceptions. So I leave that to God’s mercy.

When a couple loses there unborn baby what do you tell them?




I think that the baby is in God’s hands, and God is a merciful God. We cannot make up stuff to comfort people. Some theologians think that David’s comment on losing his child was that there is not that can bring the child back, I can only go to him. In some way, that sounds like the child is in heaven. Maybe that is the way it is. I cannnot say that dogmatically. The truth here is that the child is in God’s hands to do whatsoever God wants with him. We just cannot go beyond that.
When the parents have no control over the life or death of the child, or even when they did and something went wrong, we are to do God’s will the best we understand it and leave things there. God will hold us accountable or not. In cases of the death of an infant where the parents had no control over it, or they did something thinking to save the baby’s life but that didn’t end like they were trying, I see no blame on the parents hands.
Last year a lady in our church died. She was like 40 years old, younger than Tule and I. She had a tumor in her stomach the size of a fist. Her husband decided that she was too weak for the surgery, and that is debatable. Probably was too weak. But he refused to sign the papers for them to operate. The doctors took a poor attitude and sent her home. We cannot do anything else for her. That was not helpful as she needed more blood transfusions and stuff. She died.

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More Warning Signs Bad Pastor Part2

By David Cox

See part 1 here

In the next series of posts, I am examining more Warning Signs of a Bad Pastor. I am taking these from my own experience and several posts on the subject that I have found around the Internet, comparing all of that with what I understand of Scripture.

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What is the purpose of a Sermon? Part 3

In talking about the purpose of a sermon, I think we have established in the previous two posts that a sermon should change people, not just add more used and unacted upon knowledge into a person’s head. I will turn to the same topic but more towards an individual sermon.

By Pastor David Cox

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 (posts 5/1/20)

There are few factors more likely to cause a sermon to “crash and burn” than the lack of a clear, concise purpose. Before a preacher steps into the pulpit, it is essential that he know what it is he is seeking to accomplish. Unless the preacher knows what the sermon is for, no one else will either. Here are three keys that will unlock the door to more meaningful preaching. 1. Determine the Sermon’s Purpose First, 2. Design the Sermon around its Purpose. 3. Deliver the Sermon with Purpose in Mind.
from Three Keys to Preaching that Makes a Difference by Michael Duduit

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