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
- Explore more by using the tags
- Feel free to share Faith Shapers
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
Love is not far to go
It is not far to go For you are near, It is not far to go For you are here. And not by travelling, Lord, We come to you, But by the way of love, And we love you. Amy Wilson Carmichael (1867-1951), Edges of His Ways, 1980.
Earth’s crammed with heaven
And every common bush aflame with God But only he who sees takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61), Aurora Leigh.
Missing?
Missing God, His grace is no longer called for before meals: farmed fish multiply without His intercession. Bread production rises through disease-resistant grains devised scientifically to mitigate His faults. Miss Him, during the civil wedding when, at the blossomy...
‘His Eye to Watch’
I bind unto myself today The power of God to hold and lead, His eye to watch, his might to stay, His ear to hearken to my need, The wisdom of my God to teach, His hand to guide, his shield to ward, The word of God to give me speech, His heavenly host to by my guard....
The Bible: Bestowed Word of God
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Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
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Christ’s passion
And now, O Father, mindful of the love that bought us, once for all, on Calvary's Tree, and having with us him that pleads above, we here present, we spread forth to thee that only Offering perfect in thine eyes, the one, true, pure, immortal Sacrifice. Look, Father,...
Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless
I must atone
It is not the feeling of anything I’ve ever done Which I might get away from, or of anything in me I could get rid of – but of emptiness, or failure Towards someone, or something, outside of myself: And I feel I must – atone – is that the word? T.S. Eliot...
Wise men
We returned to our places, these kingdoms, But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation, With an alien people clutching their gods. I should be glad of another death. T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), The Three Kings.
I am weary
I am not God’s little lamb, I am God’s sick tiger. and I prowl about at night, and what I love I bite, and upon the jungle grass I slink, snuff the aroma of my mental stink, taste the salt tang of tears upon the brink of my uncomfortable muzzle. My tail, my beautiful,...
My move
… The saint knows That the spiritual path Is a sublime chess game with God And that the Beloved Has just made … a Fantastic Move…. Whereas, my dear, I am afraid you still think You have a thousand serious moves. Hafiz...
The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting
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Give me simplicity
A wreathed garland of deserved praise, Of praise, deserved unto thee I give, I give to thee, who knowest all my ways, My crooked winding ways, wherein I live, Wherein I die, not live; for life is straight, Straight as a line, and ever tends to thee, To thee, who art...
Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living
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Wash my Feet
Swift, tired, true, headstrong, tender, merciless – your feet have more persona than your head: born for earth that you may be freed for sky – Does anything that serves you serve like this? So why should someone say, ‘Not my feet, Lord – far rather wash my hands or...
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
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Mysteries yes: look with astonishment
Truly we live with mysteries too marvellous to be understood…. Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say ‘Look!’ and laugh in astonishment,...
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
I took the road less travelled
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveller, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it...
Not far to go by the way of love
It is not far to go For you are near, It is not far to go for you are here, And not by travelling, Lord, We come to you, but by the way of love, and we love you. Amy Carmichael (1867 – 1951), Edges of His Way, 1955.
Am I talking to myself?
They tell me, Lord, that when I seem To be in speech with you, Since you make no replies, it’s all a dream One talker aping two. And so it is, but not as they Falsely believe. For I Seek in myself the thing I meant to say, And lo! The wells are dry. Then, seeing...
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
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Time for Christianity to vanish?
On the whole Christianity I suppose is kinder than it was, Helped to it, I fear, by the power of the civil arm. Oh Christianity, Christianity, That has grown kinder now, as in the political world The colonial system grows kinder before it vanishes, are you...
The Mission of God
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Practical thanks for God’s amazing grace
God’s amazing grace The Scriptures received as God’s word. People who are alive to God Ideas which are new to me A need to which I am fitted to respond A new achievable challenge Confidence reposed in me The family together and in harmony Graham Greene (1904 –...
Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom
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No voice of mourning
What passing bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries for them from prayers or bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, The shrill,...
Glory: Now and Then, Here and There
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I held your hand
I held your hand. The ancient bone beneath the flesh had been there since the dawn of time: you were an immemorial fact which none could cancel. Our staunch pact could not be broken. None could rinse away the rhyme and reason of that Elie beach with everything...