Poems and readings to reflect on and shape your faith
How to use Faith Shapers:
- Click on ROOMS to pick a theme
- Search for an author/poet by name
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USE FAITH SHAPERS FOR:
- Prayer or in time of personal need
- Resource for a group meeting
- 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
Ordinary God
‘Do you believe in a God who can change the course of events on earth?’ ‘No, just the ordinary one.’ A laugh, But not so stupid: events He does not, it seems, determine for the most part. Whether He could is not to the point; it is not stupid to believe in a God who...
I fit my stature to your need
I come in the little things, Saith the Lord: Not borne on morning wings Of majesty, but I have set my feet Amidst the delicate and blade of wheat That springs triumphant in the furrowed sod. There do I dwell, in weakness and in power: Not broken or divided, saith our...
The darkling thrush
At once a voice outburst among The bleak twigs overhead In a full-hearted evensong Of joy unlimited; An aged thrush, frail, gaunt and small, An blast-beruffled plume, Had chosen thus to fling his soul Upon the growing gloom. So little cause for carollings Of such...
Climbing out of bed
Teach me thy love to know; That this new light, which now I see, May both the work and workman show: Then by a sunbeam I will climb to thee. George Herbert (1593-1633), Mattens.
The Bible: Bestowed Word of God
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Self-authenticating Scriptures
Scripture is indeed self-authenticating….. We feel that the undoubted power of his divine majesty lives and breathes there… a feeling that can be born only of heavenly revelation. I speak of nothing other than what each believer experiences within himself. John Calvin...
Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
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Finding God at the cross
Either I determine the place in which I find God, or I allow God to determine the place where he will be found. If it is I who say where God will be, I will always find there a God who in some way corresponds to me, is agreeable to me, fits in with my nature. But if...
Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless
Clear Conscience?
My conscience umpire; whom if they will hear, Light after light well used they shall attain, And to the end persisting safe arrive. This my long sufferance, and my day of grace, They who neglect and scorn shall never taste; But be hardened, blind be blinded more, That...
Wise bird
Virtue could see to do what virtue would By her own radiant light, though sun and moon Were in the flat sea sunk. And wisdom’s self Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, Where with her best nurse Contemplation She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings That in...
Hypocrisy invisible except to God
Hypocrisy – the only evil that walks Invisible except to God alone, By his permissive will, through heaven and earth; And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps At wisdom’s gate, and to simplicity Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill Where no ill...
Story of a hotel room
Thinking we were safe – insanity! We went in to make love…. … someone should have warned us That without permanent intentions You have absolutely no protection - If the act is clean, authentic, sumptuous, The concurring deep love of the heart Follows the naked...
The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting
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Saved to save others
Are you content, have you no higher aim Than just to gain admittance at the door, In faintest characters to trace your name Among the list of those who die no more? Do you not feel that you are saved to live? Do you not know you are saved to save? Forgiven that you...
Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living
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No scar? No wound?
Hast thou no scar? No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand? I hear thee sung as mighty in the land, I hear them hail your bright ascendant star, Hast thou no scar? Hast thou no wound? Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent, Leaned me against a tree to die; and...
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
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Choose my Path
However dark it be; Lead me by thine own hand, Choose out the path for me. Smooth let it be or rough, It will be still the best; Winding or straight, it leads Right onward to thy rest. Choose thou for me my friends, My sickness or my health; Choose thou my cares for...
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
The web you weave
A noiseless patient spider, I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. And you O my...
Slight smile
They might not need me, but they might. I’ll let my head be just in sight; A smile as small as mine might be Precisely their necessity. Emily Dickinson (1830-86), Poem 1391.
Take time to be holy
Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord, Abide in him always, and feed on his word. Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak; Forgetting in nothing his blessing to seek. Take time to be holy, the world rushes on; Spend much time in secret with...
Tell me your Story
Don't throw your arms around me in that way: I know what you tell me is the truth - yes I suppose I loved you in my youth as boys do love their mothers, so they say, but all that's gone from me this many a day: I am a merciless cactus an uncouth wild goat a jagged old...
The Church: Provisional but Necessary
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Turn once more our water into wine
No, no; religion is a spring, That from some secret, golden mine Derives her birth, and thence doth bring Cordials in every drop and wine; But in her long and hidden course Passing through the earth’s dark veins, Grows from better unto worse, And both her taste and...
The Mission of God
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Support where it is needed
Fount of mercy, Call back the one who flees from you. Draw towards you the one who attempts to escape. Lift up the one who has fallen. Support the one who is standing. Guide the one who is on a journey. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), Opera Omnia.
Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom
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Respecting women of yesterday today
She was poor but she was honest Victim of a rich man’s game. First, he loved her, then he left her, And she lost her maiden name… It’s the same the whole world over, It’s the poor wot gets the blame, It’s the rich wot gets the gravy, Ain’t it all a bleedin’...
Glory: Now and Then, Here and There
The dream is gone
… When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look but it was gone. I cannot put my finger on it now. The child is grown; the dream is gone. I have become comfortably numb. Pink Floyd, 1979 in the context of the pop...
Dangerous day dreaming
All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find that it is vanity; But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men for they may act with open eyes to make it possible. T.E. Lawrence (1888 –...
Heaven?
Fish (fly-replete, in depth of June, Dawdling away their wat’ry noon) Ponder deep wisdom, dark or clear, Each secret fishy hope or fear. Fish say, they their Stream and Pond; But is there anything Beyond? This life cannot be All, they swear, For how unpleasant, if it...
No cross; no crown
No pain; no palm. No thorns; no throne. No gall; no glory. No cross; no crown. William Penn (1644-1718).