Taking Off the Old and Putting on the New by Pastor Jim Wilson

Michael Todd went to a new school where he was the target of taunts and laughter. He did not have new clothes and was feeling very left out. Garrett and Kristopher Graham, a pair of freshman football players, were two of the kids piling on. When the Graham brothers realized what they were doing was wrong, they hunted through their drawers and closets, found shirts, and pants they could part with and presented them to Michael the next day. Todd didn’t just get new clothes, he put them on and wore them to school. Wouldn’t it have been a tragedy if he took the gift, but did not use it?   Like Todd, we have something new to put on. We are no longer “dead in our trespasses and sins,” we are now “alive” (2:1-10) Paul directly tells us to take off the old self and put on the new. Paul wrote, “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:22-24).   Todd wasn’t the only one in the story that took off the old and put on the new. Not only did the Graham brothers give Todd new clothes but they became his friend and eat lunch with him every day. “I’ve been bullied my entire life,” Todd said this was “The best day of my entire life.”   https://abc7news.com/memphis-mlk-prep-college-preparatory-school-boy-gets-bullied-over-clothes/5535360/