Poems and readings to reflect on and shape your faith
How to use Faith Shapers:
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USE FAITH SHAPERS FOR:
- Prayer or in time of personal need
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- Illustrations for a devotional address
- Material for a church study course
Latest Posts
Faith-shaping Poets
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Our Father: Hallowed on Earth as in Heaven
Wrack of mortal things!
Man at the best a creature frail and vain, In knowledge ignorant, in strength but weak, Subject to sorrows, losses, sickness, pain, Each storm his state, his mind, his body break, From some of these he never finds cessation, But day or night, within, without,...
Agnostic
I am deaf or this is dumb, This life and world apart from me To whom betrothed at birth I came, In whose silence most I see A calling soul, calling my scrutiny. You with religious faith, to whom Life speaks in words you understand – Believe, I also with my dumb...
As form in sculpture is the prisoner
As form in sculpture is the prisoner of the hard rock, so in everyday life it is the plain facts and natural happenings that conceal God and reveal him to us little by little under the mind’s tooling. R.S. Thomas (1913-2000), 'Emergings', Frequencies, 1978.
God is a Surprise
What is belief? A recognition? Who knows of what? If any say He knows, he lies. Who knows what never was begun And will not end? God is a way, And a surprise. And in that way we cannot choose, For choice deceives us, as it must. We live in sense, Certain at...
The Bible: Bestowed Word of God
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Bible before reason and church
What scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first place of credit and obedience is due; the next whereunto is whatsoever any man can necessarily conclude by force of reason: after these the voice of the church succeedeth. Richard Hooker (c.1554 – 1600), Laws of...
Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
God’s hidden wisdom revealed
All is best, though we oft doubt What th’unsearchable dispose Of Highest Wisdom brings about, And ever best found in the close. Oft he seems to hide his face, But unexpectedly returns, And to his faithful champion hath in place Bore witness gloriously; whence Gaza...
Water into Wine
These people know me only in the thin hymns of the mind, in the arid sermons and prayers. I am the live God, nailed fast to the old tree of a nation by its unreal tears. I thirst, I thirst for the spring water. Draw it up for me from your heart’s well and I will...
Where has he Gone?
With many tears I went in search of him, Climbing high mountains which did still ascend, And gave me echoes when I called my friend; Through cities vast and charnel-houses grim, And high cathedrals where the light was dim, Through books and arts and works without an...
The wise men’s dilemma; a life or death
… were we led all that way for Birth or death? There was a Birth certainly, We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death, But had thought they were different; this birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death. We returned to our places,...
Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless
For those tears I died
You said you'd come and share all my sorrows You said you'd be there for all my tomorrows I came so close from sending you away But just like you promised You came here to stay I just had to pray And Jesus said, "Come to the water Stand by my side I know you are...
A failure?
O God, can a man find you when he lies with his face downwards And his nose in the rubble that was his achievement? Is the music playing behind the door of despair? Patrick Kavanagh (1904-67), From Failure Up, 1988.
Know your enemy
Exaggerate each feature until man is Metamorphosized into beast, vermin, insect. Fill in the background with malignant Figures from ancient nightmares – devils, When your icon of the enemy is complete You will be able to kill without guilt, Slaughter without shame....
‘Foolish soul who sinned today’
Canst be idle? Canst thou play, Foolish soul who sinned today? Hast thou tears, or hast thou none? If poor soul, thou hast no tears, Would thou hadst no faults or fears! Who in heart not ever kneels, Neither sin nor Saviour feels. George Herbert...
The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting
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A stricken deer that left the herd
I was a stricken deer that left the herd, Long since with many an arrow deep infixed. My panting side was charged, when I withdrew To seek a tranquil death in distant shades. There was I found by One who had Himself Been hurt by the archers. In his side He bore, And...
Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living
Holy Saturday
Not darkness but twilight in which even the best of minds must make its way now. And slowly the questions occur, vague but formidable for all that. We pass our hands over their surface like blind men, feeling for the mechanism that will swing them aside. They yield,...
Where now?
My road calls me, lures me West, east, south and north; Most roads lead men homewards, My road leads me forth. To add more miles to the tally Of grey miles left behind, In quest of that one beauty God put me here to find. John Masefield...
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
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The world’s danger
I saw a stable low and very bare, A little child in a manger. The oxen knew him, had him in their care. To men he was a stranger. The safety of the world was lying there And the world’s danger. Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907).
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
We freely love
… That thou art happy owe to God; that thou continuest such, owe to thyself, that is to thy obedience; Therein stand…. This was that caution given thee; be advised. God made thee perfect, not immutable; And good he made thee; but to persevere He left it in thy power,...
They also serve who stand and wait
When I consider how my light is spent, ‘ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, and that one talent which is death to hide, lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent to serve therewith my maker, and present my true account, lest he returning chide, Doth...
In his own dungeon
He that has light within his own clear breast May sit i’ the centre, and enjoy bright day, But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the midday sun; Himself his own dungeon. John Milton (1608-74), Comus (1637).
Scaffolding
Masons, when they start upon a building, Are careful to test out the scaffolding; Make sure that the planks won’t slip at busy joints, Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints. And yet all this comes down when the job’s done Showing off walls of...
The Church: Provisional but Necessary
Anglican clergy called to account
O, when our clergy, at the Dreadful Day, Shall make their audit, when the Judge shall say ‘Give your accounts. What have my lambs been fed? Say, do they all stand sound? Is there none dead By your defaults? Come, shepherds, bring them forth That I may crown your...
Dressed for God
Holiness on the head, Light and perfections on the breast, Harmonious bells below, raising the dead To lead them into life and rest: Thus are true Aarons drest. Profaneness in my head, Defects and darknesse in my breast, A noise of passions ringing me for dead...
The priest, these graces shall possess
Give me the priest, these graces shall possess: Of an Ambassador, the just address, A Father’s tenderness, a Shepherd’s care, A Leader’s courage which the cross can bear, A Ruler’s arm, a Watchman’s wakeful eye, A Pilot’s skill, the helm in storms to ply, A Fisher’s...
Singing with mind and heart
The fineness which a hymn or psalm affords, Is, when the soul unto the lines accords. He who craves all the mind, And all the soul, and strength, and time, If the words only rhyme, Justly complains, that somewhat is behind To make his verse, or write a hymn in...
The Mission of God
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Seed Planting
This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, Knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We...
Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom
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Pave Paradise with a Swinging Hot Spot
Don’t it always seem to go. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til its gone…. They paved paradise And put up a parking lot, With a pink hotel, A boutique, and a swinging hot spot. Don’t it always seem to go. You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til its gone…. Joni...
Glory: Now and Then, Here and There
Mourning dress
Shall I wear mourning for my soldier? Dead! I, a believer? Give me red! Or give me royal purple for the King at whose high court my love is visiting. Dress me in green for growth, for life made new; For skies his dear feet march, dress me in blue; In white, for his...
I sought to stand for God
I sought to stand for God Tall, straight and proud, An oak of righteousness Head in a cloud. The spirit winds that blew Stripped all my leaf, Broke heavy branches off, Trunk split in grief. The gentle morning sun Shone down on me, My helplessness complete,...
Ungranted God, one with him in me
Faith Unfaithful Mute, with signs I speak: Blind, by groping seek: Heed; yet nothing hear: Feel; find no one near. Deaf, eclipsed, and dumb, Through this gloom I come On the time-path trod Toward ungranted God. Carnal, I can claim Only his known name Dying, can...
Uninhabited Cross
Not the empty tomb but the uninhabited cross. Look long enough and you will see the arms put on leaves. Not a crown of thorns but a crown of flowers haloing it, with a bird singing as though perched on paradise’s threshold. R.S. Thomas (1913-2000),...