Month: September 2022

The GPS took us on a loop, to avoid traffic, I had never been on before. As the roads wound through beautiful Tennessee countryside, parallel to the congested highway, at one point I thought where are we. It “felt” so far off the beaten track, not even on the right side of the highway, and yet since I had never gone that way before, I had to trust the GPS and keep driving.

The music was blaring on the radio and I was singing out loud “There’s honey in the rock, water in the stone, manna on the ground, no matter where I go. I don’t need to worry, now that I know, everything I need You’ve got. There’s honey in the rock!” (Brooke Ligertwood) The skies were blue, it was a gorgeous day. Then I came around a bend and there was a clearing with only farmland and one old barn. I saw it in the distance but as I got closer the more I appreciated it.

You see I am a city girl from Minneapolis, MN. We had houses right next to each other. We grew up with street lights, BMX bikes and lots of concrete. Oh we had a little yard, but nothing like the farmlands of Kansas, Montana or Oklahoma. I did live in Seattle, WA for six years, and the mountains, the trees and the windy roads made me never want to leave there. I actually used to say, that was the best place I ever lived. But my dad said to me years ago, Lisa, your best is in front of you not behind you. I never forgot that.

Now on a windy Tennessee road, not sure where I am, we come around the bend and there is this old barn, with a faded American flag and an old car. I slow down so I can save this moment in a picture. My heart was struck by the beauty of this land I call home. America the beautiful, God shed your grace on thee. We are not perfect people, but I love this land of the brave and the home of the free. America is still my favorite place to be and now Tennessee is where I want to be.

“We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.” (1 Corinthians 8:1)

Love trumps knowledge. If you have ever played cards, you know that there is a card called the trump card. It is a card that makes all other cards which once looked powerful, bow to the trump card. Depending on the card game you are playing, the trump card can be an ace of spades, an ace of hearts, a queen of spades, or a joker. When you have the trump card, you have the power to change the game.

Life is not a game, so the trump card is just an analogy, but it applies to this verse in 1 Corinthians 8: 1. As believers we have experienced the church of knowledge, where people are trying to be the one seen, the one heard, the one honored, the one titled, but knowledge only sounds good and looks like it is the most powerful, until God plays His trump card. God’s trump card is love. Love is the most powerful card we can play.

Paul says, love edifies. That word edifies is an architectural term, it is where we get the word edifice from. Edifies means to build up. Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” Love edifies, love builds up.

Love trumps knowledge. God has been revealing his trump card since Jesus came to earth, and it is about to manifest in an even greater way. His love for us is going to surprise us, because we know the church as knowledge, but we have yet to know it as love. Love builds and God is about to manifest the builders in the church, for we have been destroyed for too long by the arrogance of people’s knowledge, it is time to be built up in love!