Skin of the Hippo

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First Peter 2:24 says, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”

     When i decided to go into the ministry full time, my pastor at the time would give me advice every now and then.  One of the things he mentioned was that a pastor needs to have skin like a hippopotamus.  In other words, it needs to be thin because you are going to get stuck by all kinds of people one time or another.  He was right.  Your feelings get hurt a lot if you are “thin” skinned.  There has always been someone in every church ministry that didn’t like me or some one thing that I would teach. 

     The verse above is our prime example of One who was completely innocent and never did nor said anything wrong.  He is our perfect example and yet , the people hated Him on that Friday so many years ago that the mob cried out for Him to be crucified.  As one of the thieves said, “We deserve to die but He did not.”  It is good for us to watch what we say to others and that we do not intentionally insult people by our manners.  I am finding that common courtesy and manners and ethics are vanishing from our society at a rapid pace.  Young people especially are quick to leave a good job because they have been offended by someone else.  Every job has its bad moments, even when you are in the ministry.  While at one church I had the responsibility of going to one of our “Christian workers in the education department and inform them that their behavior in a certain area was  not proper.  I hated doing it but it had to be done and I prayed a lot about it and finally met with them and delivered my message as kind as I could.  It  turned out well later on so I was pleased about that .  For many people, it would have resulted in them leaving the church because they were “offended” by being called on the spiritual carpet.  Every one of the apostles died a martyr's death so you can assume that people hated them and their message that much to burn them at the stake, cut off their heads, crucify them even upside down, boiled in oil and any other extreme method of death.  Peter says that if we are doing right  and suffer for it, that is good, but  if we are doing wrong and suffer for it, it is our own fault.  When you think you have it tough or no one likes you nor do they appreciate you, think of the Lord Jesus Christ.  By His stripes we are healed.  He died for us.  He paid the price for all of our sins. He bore our sins in His body.  Talk about not being appreciated.  He is the Prime Example.  Praise God today for the sending of His Son to die for the sins of the world.