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
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Almost a Successful Failure
It was the first failure (Mons Officer Training Unit, Aldershot) I’d ever had, but it was salutary. I had begun my National Service as a committed Christian, a Conservative and, I’m sure, a prig. Now priggishness apart, I was none of these things quite, and though I...
The Bible: Bestowed Word of God
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Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
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The tree of salvation for me
Christ died for God and me Upon the crucifixion tree For God a spoken word For me a sword For God a hymn of praise For me eternal days For God an explanation For me salvation. Stevie Smith (1902-71),...
Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless
I despise myself and curse my fate
When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes I all alone between my outcast state And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries And look upon myself and curse my fate, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising Haply I think...
The Inner Storm
I am a ghost who walks alone. Beyond my yard are high stone walls. I walk and move and speak with calm. But let me tell you this my friends; Beneath the smile, the wave, the nod There screams an inner storm. It roars and wails and tears its hair. It pours in torrents...
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).
Leaving Eden
The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and providence their guide: They, hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way. John Milton (1608-74), Paradise Lost.
The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting
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Deep repentance
Look on him whom they pierced, and mourn; Strike, mighty Grace, my flinty soul Till melting waters flow, And deep repentance drowns mine eyes In undissembled woe. Isaac Watts (1674-1748).
Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living
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Member of the fellowship of the unashamed
I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed, I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, My future is secure. I’m...
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
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Within myself I lose, or win
Not in the clamour of the crowded street, Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, But in ourselves are triumph and defeat. Henry W. Longfellow (1807-82).
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
Prayer: patch a few words together
It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another...
We have done it ourselves
Go in search of your people, Love them; Learn from them; Plan with them; Serve them; Begin with what they have; Build on what they know. But of the best leaders, When their task is accomplished, The people will all remark: ‘We have done it ourselves’. Lao Tsu...
Your Precious Life
Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper…? I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been...
Unwrap our Darkness
We can scarcely believe it, God, this story of your birth in the world. We rationalize and reason, we read the headlines and we doubt, and still, we hope, desperately, that it just might be true. If we have lost faith in the promise of change, unwrap our doubt to make...
The Church: Provisional but Necessary
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Have I forgotten the church somewhere?
Sometimes a man rises from the supper table and goes outside. And he keeps on going because somewhere to the east there’s a church. His children bless his name as if he were dead. Another man stays at home until he dies, stays with plates and glasses. So, then...
The Mission of God
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Not my feet, Lord
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...
Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom
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The First Anniversary
Less passionate, the long war throws Its burning thorn about all men, Caught in one grief, we share one wound, And cry one dialect of pain. We have forgot who fired the house, Whose easy mischief spilt first blood; Under one roof we lie; The fault no longer...
Glory: Now and Then, Here and There
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In heaven and on earth, our Father
…my soul was stirred and once again you came, a passing vision, a glimmer of beauty pure. In fullness beats my heart, feeling once again the resurrection of divinity, and inspiration, and life, and tears, and love. Alexander Pushkin...