"Blood in, Blood Out"

Isn't it interesting that at various times something from the outside, some sort of outside influence or condition, may reflect a certain story or passage that we might be reading in the Bible at the time? A case in point, for me, happened just a few days ago. When I returned home from being out and about, a postcard greeted me at the door. It was left in the door by Victory Outreach in Victorville. The card was promoting an event, a live drama called "Blood In, Blood Out." Judging from the pictures on the post card and this note, "To join the Mafia, you kill....To leave the Mafia, you die" one can assume that this production must have something to do with leaving the "Mexican" Mafia and the brutal lifestyle that it represents.

What was so interesting to me in receiving this post card when I did is that I was reading Acts chapter 9 at the time and reading about the conversion of Saul from early church persecutor to becoming the staunch preacher he was to become.

What's so interesting about that you might ask and what's the connection.

Well, after Saul received his sight and began preaching in the synagogues that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, folks began to take notice; those who remembered him as the one that destroyed many of those that called on Jesus in Jerusalem and those that were convicted by the truth of Saul's words and preaching of Jesus Christ as Messiah.

Verse 22 tells us that as Saul increased more in knowledge and understanding and began to be more and more empowered, he also began to perplex and confuse the Jews and cause an uproar amongst them by "proving" that Jesus was indeed the Christ. In fact, the uproar was evidently so great and so powerful in piercing their hearts by Saul's preaching that they sought to take Saul's life.

Hopefully, by now, you can see the connection. Just as it was in Saul's day where going against the grain and speaking out against what was considered to be true at the time by the religious leadership was seen as punishable by death, so the same goes on today, when trying to leave a powerful criminal enterprise like a gang, in this case, the Mexican Mafia is punishable by death.

Saul began preaching the "real" truth; that the Messiah had indeed come and came in the form of a man named Jesus Christ, with such power that he began to cut the hearts of the so-called religious leadership of his day so much to actually want him dead.

In fact, I was struck so much by the connection between this post card from Victory Outreach and these events that surrounded Saul some 2000 years ago, that I noted in my Bible by verse 23 "Blood In, Blood Out."

Through Saul's exhortation and preaching he was able to clearly demonstrate that Jesus was the Messiah spoken of in scripture, so much so that the "shot callers" in the Jewish priesthood wanted him dead.

Fortunately for Saul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he had become a member of the only "gang" that matters.....the "Royal Priesthood" of Jesus Christ and His family.