We Are The Rescued - The Gospel According To Rescue Dogs

Dogs can pull and tug at my heart strings in a way not many other things can (except a good Ryan Reynolds movie, obviously). Specifically rescue dogs. I see their need. I sense their helplessness. I can feel their hearts breaking. I am fueled by people’s misunderstanding of them. I love everything about them. And recently the Lord helped reveal why I was so drawn to them, He said, “You see them, the way I see you.”

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"Every time I see someone rescue a dog, it pulls at my heart because I see the gospel there every time."

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I know rescue dogs can be iffy, which is why people like to stick with their pure bred dogs. They could potentially have all kinds of baggage. So do we. Our baggage could be physical, mental and emotional. It could be in the past, or we could be carrying it right now. I recently had friends who adopted a puppy and brought it home to find out it had fleas and their house had become infested. They said, “if we had known, we wouldn’t have picked her.” The good news is, God knew when He picked us. The scripture says “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8). God knew exactly what he was getting into when he chose us, and he died for us anyway. I love when I see a person or a group take on a hard rescue case even though they know it will be expensive, it will be hard, it will be heart-breaking and it will be time consuming. When I see that, I see the gospel. I see Christ saying, you might be time consuming, you might be stubborn, you might run away and you may take years to come back to me, but I am taking you on anyway. We are the rescued.

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"We are the rescued."

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“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17).  He came for those who needed rescuing. “God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Adoption is at the heart of the gospel: Christ took our place on the cross, for our sins, so that we get to be called sons and daughters of God. Every time I see someone rescue a dog, it pulls at my heart because I see the gospel there every time.