Release it to the enemy or redeem it for the Lord?

Something has been bothering me for a while now. It leaked out again as I was preaching last night. Here it is: I am troubled when the Church seems to be handing so many things over to the enemy so easily. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like through the years, too many believers have run from too many potential kingdom tools and surrendered them to the forces of darkness.

Alcohol hurts people when abused, so let’s hand it over to the enemy instead of redeeming any possible value. Jesus turned the water into wine and Paul encouraged it for the stomach’s sake, but now it is evil?

Movie theaters play sinful material, so let’s hand the cinema over to the enemy and lose our potential for kingdom impact there.

The Internet is wracked with garbage and pornography, so the Internet is bad. We better leave it alone too....nevermind it's immeasurable kingdom potential!

Yoga is rooted in Eastern religions, so you are a bad Christian if you participate in it. Never mind the call to meditate on scriptures, the value of contemplation and reflection and the strong biblical connection between our physical and spiritual man. Let’s just hand yoga and anything that smells like it over to the enemy for him to use.

I could keep going and make similar statements about the radio, TV, music, technology, dancing, and many of the arts.

As for me…

• I want to participate in redeeming the things of this world back to the creator of it all!
• I will not play dead and submit potential kingdom tools over the punk enemy!
• I will fight for the kingdom redemption of contaminated possibilities.
• The church needs to rethink how to reclaim creation for the creator.
• I feel this strongly. I need to work it through more in my mind, heart and Bible.

I know this is some touchy stuff. And I know A LOT of how we approach this needs to be connected to our spiritual strength. The further you feel from the Father, the more careful you need to be in flirting with things that carry greater possibility of temptation.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment…