Fetching for Jesus

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”  (Mark 16:15)

I love to hunt behind dogs, especially behind my own dog. My wife gave me an AKC Irish Setter for a wedding gift. I gave her a watch. (I'm a big romantic.) We named her June because that's when we got married. I began to work with my dog constantly on “coming, staying, and fetching.” It was exciting to do that.

After I finished seminary, we moved to a little town in West Texas called Eden. There were a lot of quail out there, so one of the guys invited me to hunt with him. I brought my dog along with me and he brought his two German Short Hairs. I couldn't wait to hunt. When we fired the first shot, my dog took off and ran back to the truck. (Maybe, she thought I was going to kill her.) I thought to myself, “I have really made her gun shy. I have messed up.”

While we were hunting, she was at the truck waiting for us to get through so she could go home and eat. As we continued hunting, the birds were flying, and his German Short Hairs were really doing their number.

They would point and it was so much fun to hunt behind them. Surprisingly, I looked behind me, and there was my dog about 25 yards behind me. She was following us. She finally came up toward me and realized that I wasn't going to shoot her.

Suddenly, the light came on; when she saw those German Short Hairs fetching (because that was her game), she began to jump in and began to hunt. Her desire was not to point; rather, her desire was to fetch. She would literally run around the covey, as those two Short Hairs were pointing, barking, and waiting for us to shoot. Then, she could fetch. She cared more about fetching than anything else in the world. In fact, she began to out-fetch those German Short Haired dogs, two to one. She had an unbelievable nose and she was all in to fetching. She worked out to be a great dog, especially for fetching.

You might be asking, “What does this story have to do with sharing Christ?” You and I are a lot like dogs. God has put us on point to do some fetching. Do you understand that there are millions of people who do not know Jesus and they need to be fetched? God does not want us to stay back in the truck; He wants us to join the game. We should allow Him to show us where to go and bring in the people. That's what God wants us to do. We must be obedient to the mission He has given us!