Many of you will probably remember English lessons at school and having the meaning of ‘simile’ and ‘metaphor’ drilled into you. A simile is a figure of speech when you say something is like… or as… something else. (eg “For hope grew round me, like the twining vine.” (Coleridge – Dejection)) A metaphor is a figure of speech when you actually say something is something else. (God is a rock.)

Similes and metaphors introduce us to language that goes beyond the functional. They help us to see beyond the tangible and visible precisely by using what is known, seen and familiar and linking these to something invisible or unfamiliar. A metaphor goes further than a simile in that it actually puts the two ideas together without any linking or comparison, and that often jolts us and makes us see something in an entirely different light.

The Bible study tomorrow will be looking at 2 John, which is generally understood to be written to a church rather than to an individual, despite its opening greeting ‘To the lady chosen by God and to her children.’ Metaphors such as this abound in the Bible. Why? What’s the point in saying something is something when it really isn’t?! To the literal-minded among us, metaphors are frustrating because even when you know the plain meaning of a word, they don’t really make any obvious sense.

 ‘A metaphor takes a word that is commonly used to refer to a thing or action that we experience by means of our five sense and then uses it to refer to something that is beyond the reach of our immediate senses.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘The Jesus Way’, P 25) Metaphors are useful precisely because they convey ‘in a single word the indivisibility of visible and invisible, of seen and unseen, of heaven and earth.’ (ibid.)

When we say God is a rock, we know full well what a rock is like and can picture it clearly. God is invisible, however, and we cannot easily picture what He is like. The images we have of God are refined by our understanding of a rock. Clearly, God is far more than rock-like, but the known object leads us into contemplation of the unknown. Furthermore, metaphors often leave us puzzled, surprised or even confused. They require us to think about the description, to enter into the imagery and to use discernment and imagination to see what was previously invisible.

It’s rather like the ‘Night At the Museum’ films, where the exhibits in the museum come to life at night, leaving the night watchman bemused and bewildered! During the daytime, the exhibits seem staid and rather boring, but adventures galore happen after the museum is closed. In the same way, words can seem very dry and boring, but metaphors lead us into the open air and show us all the different ways in which we can see this invisible world inhabited by God. Our eyes are opened and our world of drabness and pragmatism is suddenly invaded by light and life, miracles and angels, eternity and hope. These two worlds are not separate, even though they may appear to be. The two aspects – drabness and colour, darkness and light, life and death – are indivisible and metaphor allows us to move freely between these two worlds.

We also had a birthday to celebrate last night!

In order to understand what is meant by ‘success’ in Christian terms, however, we need to have a Biblical definition of success, an understanding of who can succeed and some idea of how to be successful, for the world’s understanding of success is very different to God’s.

What is success?

Jesus is our ultimate example of success, for we know that He received God’s approval. (Matt 3:17) However, in the eyes of the world, Jesus does not seem successful: He lived for only 33 years and died an ignominious death, which does not feature in any ‘How to succeed’ manuals we may read! The key to understanding success is found in John 17:4. Success for the Christian is defined as bringing glory to God. We can’t simply look at outward actions, but must look at the motivation of the heart. 1 Cor 3:10-13 examines some of the motives for our actions, defining those which are not spiritual as ‘wood, hay and stubble’ and those which are pure as ‘silver and gold.’ The fire of God will burn up everything which is not pure, so we need to be sure that all our actions are motivated by a desire to glorify God. Luke 12:16-20 reminds us that success as defined by the world (wealth, prosperity, a life of ease) is not considered success by God (who called the man a fool.)

Who can succeed?

The good news is that everyone in God can succeed! The only qualification we need for success is a personal knowledge of God. Success comes as we depend on God in childlike faith and delight in His word. Col 2:6 reminds us that we have to continue in Christ as we started out: by faith, depending on God’s grace and help. 1 John 5:4 reminds us that everyone born of God overcomes the world, so we can be confident that we will succeed if we are rooted in God. Josh 1:8 reminds us also of the importance of meditating daily on God’s word, allowing it to feed and nurture us so that we are firmly planted in God. (Ps 1:1-3)

Success also comes to those who are determined not to quit. Abraham Lincoln is a good example of someone who overcame adversity and was not defeated by failure. Despite personal heartache, business failure and rejection, he persevered to become the president of the United States at the age of 52. Perseverance is needed if we are to succeed.

How can we be successful?

We become successful by:

• prayerfully seeking God for His specific plan in our lives
• having a vision for what God wants us to do
• committing ourselves 100% to that vision (which will always involve moving out in faith beyond our comfort zone!)
• asking God to set us free from anything that holds us back. (see Heb 12:1) Sin is the obvious thing that entangles us and holds us back, but the weights that can hinder us are not always necessarily sinful. Regrets, past rejections, shame, fear and lack of confidence can all hold us back.
• committing ourselves to the principle of servanthood, for true greatness comes as we serve God. Matt 20:20-21 reminds us that the way up in God is to start at the bottom! Matt 20:26 reminds us that if we want to be great, we have to become the servant of all, a principle Jesus embodied. (Phil 2:5-9) Every part of the body is required for us to succeed, so we need to seek God for how we can serve Him in our local church and community. Jesus was a success in heaven, on earth and under the earth, because He came to serve and not to be served.If we are to thrive and not merely survive and be faithfully productive and fruitful in 2015, we must learn the spirit of servanthood.

Guest speaker Yan Hadley spoke last night on the theme ‘Saved For Success.’ It is wonderful to know that God offers salvation to all, but we are also saved for a purpose. Is 61:1-6 looks at some of the ways in which God saves us for success, offering healing for our brokenness, revelation for our blindness and freedom for our bondage.

God’s purposes are that we:

1. Stand firm

Isaiah 61:3 says we shall be ‘oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord.‘ Oak trees can stand firm for centuries through storms and wild weather:

We often feel unsteady and unstable, but God wants to make us oaks of righteousness, standing firm in Him. We need to turn from compromise or sin in order to be sturdy in God.

2. Are stirred into action

Motivation is so important in life. God wants us to be passionate and excited about living for Him. Is 61:4 reminds us that there are purposes in God for us to achieve: rebuilding, restoring and renewing all that has been destroyed. The enemy seeks to erode all that is good. We live in a society where our Christian heritage is under daily attack, marriage no longer being honoured (and compromise even coming into the church if we are not careful); children’s innocence being attacked and persecution for our Christian faith on the increase. God wants us to be stirred into action to proclaim His truths. It starts with being stirred to pray, repenting of sin and pleading with God to move in our nation. (2 Chron 7:14)

3. Shine as trophies of His grace

Matt 5:16 reminds us that Jesus wants us to shine for Him. We can only do this as the glory of God fills our lives and we live each day with a sense of His presence. Is 61:6 says that others will call us priests of the Lord and ministers of our God. The church is here for healing and to be a prophetic voice. We are ambassadors for God. (2 Cor 5:19-21) Often we feel a failure in this regard, but Paul reminds us that our failures are not barriers to God, for Jesus can forgive, set us free and help us to live for Him. (see Rom 7:19, 24)

Dave spoke from Luke 12:16-20 this morning at Cherry Tree Court. So often, we feel our lives are routine and familiar, but we need to be aware that God can step into any day and change it completely. For Noah, the first day of the flood must have started like any other: working on his boat project which had occupied him for so long, but then the rains started and nothing was the same again. For Moses, it was just another day looking after the sheep… until he encountered God in the burning bush. For David, it was just another day minding the sheep when he was summoned home to meet the prophet Samuel… and told he would become Israel’s king. For Mary, it was just another day until her encounter with the angel. Each person’s life was transformed by their encounter with God.

The day is coming when Jesus will return to earth, and everything will apparently look like just another day until the trumpet of the Lord sounds… The parable Dave read reminds us that days can change really quickly. The rich man seemed to have it all together and anticipated a life of luxury and rest, but was called a fool by God because he had failed to take God into account at all and died that same day.

Death is an inevitable certainty in life, and we need to be prepared to meet our Maker. Rom 3:23 reminds us that all have sinned and there is therefore a chasm between us and God which can only be bridged by Christ. We need to acknowledge our need for salvation, believe Jesus is the way and commit to following Christ, for we need to be ready to meet Christ, either at our death or at His coming.

The tragic events of this week, when twelve people in Paris went to work as usual and never returned home, remind us of the fragility and brevity of life. This parable underlines that fact and shows us that if we want to be called wise by God, we are wise to live every day as if it were our last and evaluate our lives in terms of heavenly perspectives and eternal goals.

In the 1990s. John Major ran a Conservative political campaign with the motto ‘Back to Basics‘, emphasising the need to return to basic moral values. The campaign backfired when various Conservative ministers were caught out in a number of moral scandals, including adultery and corruption. As is often the case, our moral aspirations may be laudable, but we lack the power in and of ourselves to live the way God intends us to live…

January is traditionally a time for ‘New Year’s resolutions’, focussing on things we know we need to change and intend to do differently. So often, the resolutions fizzle out long before the month ends. Nonetheless, the need to go back to basics, to evaluate afresh what is truly important in our lives and to make adjustments accordingly, is very sound.

Basics are often scorned because we feel we have outgrown them. One of the things I loved about teaching languages was the fact that the basics are absolutely fundamental to all progress in language. I saw them as building blocks. Every single thing learnt in a language is not wasted, but becomes the launchpad to new discoveries. The bricks at the bottom – our first words and verbs – never become irrelevant or unneeded:

In the same way, there are basic Scriptural truths which we never outgrow. We are saved by grace through faith and we live by faith. (Eph 2:8-9, Gal 3:1) God loves us so much that He sent Jesus, His only Son, to die for us so that we don’t have to perish – and not just us, but the whole world! (John 3:16)  God is maker and ruler of everything. (Col 1:16-17) Every week at our church we celebrate Communion, the sacrament God has given the church to remind us of the basics of His love, grace, mercy and power.

For Christmas, I received the Chris Tomlin CD ‘Love Ran Red.’ As I’ve been listening to this over the past few weeks, I was struck by the very basic nature of some of these songs. Chris Tomlin has been writing songs for over twenty years and yet some of these songs sound so simple and basic. At first, I was a little irritated by that. But as I continued to listen, I realised that just because something contains simplicity does not make it simplistic, nor does it invalidate the truth that is contained therein. We all need to be reminded of basic truth. We all need to build our lives on basic, foundational truth: ‘ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care.  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ‘ (1 Cor 3:10-11)

One song I keep returning to because of its very foundational truth is ‘Jesus Loves Me’. Don’t let its simplicity or repetition deceive you. You need the truth it contains. You need to build your life on the simple truth that Jesus loves you and is for you. You need to know that there’s nowhere you can run where He will not find you. You need to know He holds your heart and has died for you. You need this truth more than any of your resolutions, because where your resolutions may fade and fail, His love lasts forever and is unfailing.