bmore4jesus

I’m not much of a football fan, but I do want to see a great blessing on my city of Baltimore.  I love the joy and the hope that a winning Raven’s score inspires.  I love the camaraderie and brotherhood of cheering neighbors.  I love hearing veteran linebacker, Ray Lewis, say through tears, “No weapon formed against us shall prosper!”

I remember back to the stories after the Super Bowl of 2000 when Ray Lewis was embroiled in a nightclub murder investigation, doing his own thing, living his own way.  To be honest, this city is full of people who look like the Ray Lewis of 2000.  Talented, loveable people, who in living their own way, who in doing their own thing, have gotten caught up in the wave of destruction that has pushed them in way over their head, and fully beyond their own power to regain control.

But in the past 13 years we have seen a different Ray Lewis.  A Ray Lewis who wears Psalm 91 on his undershirt, a Ray Lewis who unselfishly encourages his teammates, and to my understanding a Ray Lewis who has humbled himself before an Almighty God and has experienced a life transformation.

May Ray Lewis be a sign for our city.  A sign of hope.  A sign of victory.  A sign to the one enraptured, then captured, then capsized by sin, that there is yet hope and a future –hope that comes through our rescuer and redeemer, Jesus Christ – the one who makes all things new!

Psalm 91 speaks to us, my dear Baltimore friends,

“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.  He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.  With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”

Baltimore – This is your time!