Canadian worship leader and
song-writer Brian Doerksen's "Fortress 144" is punchy in a way that
his more usual ballads are not.
I took this worship song along to
our home group one evening, as we were sharing inspirational music with each
other. "Fortress 144" (based on Psalm 144) is not only inspirational,
in my view, but also great music.
We played it through and I went over some of the words afterwards. We had with
us that evening a person of Muslim origin keen to learn more about the
Christian faith. When I read out "send down lightening from on high,
scatter all who would oppose your light" from the song, he started
slightly.
I was perplexed. On the one hand,
here was a song whose words and music stirred the soul – but which also
embarrassed our Muslim friend.
What to do? Share a difficult
truth and risk alienation? Or demur into safe territory and not address the
Gospel's challenges?
I decided that I should take
inspiration from Ecc. 3 v 1 and acknowledge that there is "a time for
everything". I would address the Gospel with my Muslim friend in the right
(Spirit-led) circumstances. But there are times when it would not be
appropriate to do this. I think that playing "Fortress 144" that
evening was probably not appropriate, and I regretted my insensitivity.
But God knows all these things
thankfully…. Better next
time…
.
Est-ce la façon de
témoigner votre foi à un musulman?
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