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
The worship of an hostage
My eyes are almost burned by what I see…. A brown broken bowl and in it some apricots, some small oranges, some nuts, cherries, a banana…. I cannot, I will not eat this fruit. I sit in quiet joy, so complete, beyond the meaning of joy. My soul finds its own...
We do not possess the land
How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. We do not own the freshness of the air or the sparkle of water. How can you buy them from us? Every part of the earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, clearing and...
Just a Drip!
All the treasures under the sky are married in a drop of rain, which conceals the sun in its window, beds itself in the droughty earth, miracles its nature in conception and gives its mind to thoughts of life and birth. If I had such a considerate soul you would find...
Converted
'A wolf is not only turned into a sheep, but doth also take to himself a shepherd's nature. It is as if Christ should bring forth with his hand some angel sent from heaven.' John Calvin (1509-64), Commentary, (Acts 9:1-5).
The Bible: Bestowed Word of God
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Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
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We need a suffering God
When this world’s pleasures for my soul sufficed, Ere my heart’s plummet sounded depths of pain, I called on reason to control my brain, And scoffed at that old story of the Christ. But when o’er burning wastes my feet had trod, And all my life was desolate with...
Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless
Contemplation’s door to wisdom and virtue
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...
My Acorn Child!
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, A...
Ignorant of themselves, of God much more
The worldly wisest Alas! What can they teach, and not mislead, Ignorant of themselves, of God much more, And how the world began, and how man fell, Degraded by himself, on grace depending? Much of the soul they talk, but all awry; And in themselves seek virtue; and to...
Set me Free!
Hear me, O God! A broken heart Is my best prayer; Use still thy rod That I may prove Therein thy love. If thou hadst not Been stern to me, But left me free, I had forgot Myself and Thee. For sin’s so sweet, As minds ill bent Rarely repent, Until they meet Their...
The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting
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Thank you, Lord
… if all the world Should in a pet of temperance feed on pulse, Drink the clear stream and nothing wear but freize, The all-giver would be unthanked, would be unpraised, Not half his riches known, and yet despised; And we should serve him as a grudging master, As a...
Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living
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Faces of sunflowers follow the sun
Come with me into the field of sunflowers. Their faces are burnished disks, their dry spines creak like ship masts, their green leaves, So heavy and many, fill all the day with the sticky sugars of the sun. Come with me to visit the...
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
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In the beginning was the word
We shall not cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started, And know the place for the first time. T.S. Eliot (1888-1965).
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
Ordination of the nail-pierced hands
Christ the Lord has sent me Through the midnight lands, Mine the ordination Of the nail-pierced hands. Hannah Hurnard (1905-90).
A good home for my heart
… As to my heart that may as well be forgotten or labelled; Owner will dispose of same to a good home: refs exchgd., h.& c., Previous experience desired but not essential, Or let on a short lease to suit convenience. Basil Bunting (1900-85), Personal...
We cannot sit here any more
From our low seat beside the fire, Where we have dozed and dreamed, and watched the glow, or raked the ashes, stopping so We scarcely saw the sun and rain above or looked much higher than this same quiet red and...
Sing Without Need of Reply
Sing a new song to the Lord, sing through the skin of your teeth, sing in the code of your blood, sing with a throat full of earth, sing to the quick of your nails, sing from the knots of your lungs, sing like a dancer on coals, sing as a madman in tongues,...
The Church: Provisional but Necessary
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To see God only, I go out of sight
Seal then this bill of my divorce to all On whom those fainter beams of love did fall; Marry those loves which in youth scattered be On Fame, Wit, Hopes (false mistresses), to thee. Churches are best for prayer, that have least light: To see God only, I go out of...
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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Blind. Does it matter?
Does it matter? Losing your sight? There’s such a splendid work for the blind: And people will always be kind, As you sit on the terrace remembering, And turning your face to the light. Siegfrid Sassoon (1886-1967), 1918.
Glory: Now and Then, Here and There
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In case of fire
And whereas I had said; letters and photos And seen myself muscling through the flames, You would go back especially for your houseplants – Those dreamy weeping figs, this stocky yucca – What’s worth remembering remembered, leaving Both hands free for carrying out the...