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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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...
The Bible: Bestowed Word of God
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Jesus Christ: Crucified God in Person
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a gambler who won
And, sitting down, they watched him there, The soldiers did; There, while they played with dice, And, sitting down, they watched him there, The soldiers did; There, while they played with dice, He made his sacrifice, And died upon the cross to rid God’s world of sin....
Humankind: Sinful, Rebellious and Faithless
Traffickers in words
A brother came to Abba Theodore and spent three days begging him to say a word to him, but without getting a single reply. So, he went away aggrieved. Then the old man’s disciple asked him: ‘Abba, why did you not say a word to him? See how he has gone away aggrieved?’...
Little boxes on the hillside
Little boxes on the hillside… And they’re all made out of ticky tacky And they all look just the same. Malvina Reynolds (1900 – 78), Little Boxes, 1962 song about tract houses in San Francisco.
Getting and spending
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending we lay waste our powers. William Wordsworth (1770-1850).
Worthless fame
No not to us, O Lord! The praise or glory be Of any deed or word; For in thy judgement lies To crown or bring to nought All knowledge or device That man has reached or wrought. And we confess our blame – How all too high we hold That noise which men call fame, That...
The Grace of God: Justifying and Converting
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View me Lord, a work of thine
In thy word, Lord, is my trust, To thy mercies fast I fly; Though I am but clay and dust, Yet thy grace can lift me high. View me Lord, a work of thine: Shall I then lie drowned in night? Might thy grace in me but shine, I should seem made all of light…....
Christ-likeness: Progressive Christian Living
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Let the voice of conscience be heard
Strange fondness of the human heart, Enamoured of its harm! Strange world, that costs it so much smart, And still has power to charm. Whence has the world her magic power? Why deem we Death a foe? Recoil from weary life’s best hour, And covet longer woe? ...
Holy Spirit: in Christian Experience
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Setting others free
Drained is love in making full; Bound in setting others free; Poor in making many rich; Weak in giving power to be. W.H. Vanstone (1923-99), Love’s Endeavour, Love’s Expense.
Believers: Assured, Called and Prayerful
Crippled soul, let it be so
… ‘Crippled soul,’ do you say? Looking at him from the mind’s height; ‘limping through life on his prayers. There are other people in the world sitting at table contented, though the broken body and the shed blood are not on the menu’ ‘let it be so,’ I say. ‘Amen and...
Need a Window?
In darkness the poet needs a window 'You speak as though No sunlight ever surprised the mind Groping on its cloudy path.' 'Sunlight's a thing that needs a window Before it enters a dark room. Windows don't happen.' So two old poets, Hunched at their beer in the low...
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...
Twisted Religion
I have pretended long, in loyalty. I had a childhood hurt for five harsh years, I let it wound my good fragility And over decades I've shed many tears And sometimes wished that I were wholly free Of faith because it was to me all fears, Unhappiness and, yes,...
The Church: Provisional but Necessary
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Bishops?
I admire the Bishops of the Church of England No man can be a Bishop of the Church of England And a fool. A man can be a Bishop of the Church of England And a knave. But Fortunately Few if any of the Bishops of the Church of England Are men of ill will. They do their...
The Mission of God
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Good and bad fences
My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbours.’ Robert Frost (1874-1963), Mending Wall, 1914.
Moral Justice: a Vision of God’s Kingdom
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Glory: Now and Then, Here and There
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This world of our happiness
Not in Utopia – subterranean fields – Or some secreted island, Heaven knows where! But in the very world, which is the world Of all of us – the place where, in the end, We find our happiness, or not at all. William Wordsworth (1770-1850), The...