“I am deeply persuaded that the foundation for people transforming ministry is love... Love is what drove God to send and sacrifice his Son. Love led Christ to subject himself to a sinful world and the horrors of the cross. Love is what causes him to seek and save the lost, and to persevere until each of his children is transformed into his image. His love will not rest until all of his children are at his side in glory... Without it, [Christ's love for his own] we have no hope personally, relationally or eternally. This love is not a band-aid attempting to cope with a cancerous world. It is effective and persevering. It is jealous, intent on owning us without competition. It faces the facts of who we are and how we need to change and simply goes to work. Any hope for the problems we face-with our own hearts and with a dark and corrupt world-is found in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. This love offers hope to anyone willing to confess sin and cry out for transformation.Yet this is where we often get stuck. We want ministry that doesn’t demand love that is well, so demanding. We don’t want to serve others in a way that requires so much personal sacrifice. We would prefer to lob grenades of truth into people’s lives rather than lay down our lives for them. But this is exactly what Christ did for us. Can we expect to be called to do anything less. The love of Christ is not only the foundation for our personal hope, but our incarnation of that love is our only hope for being effective for Christ with others. Sadly many of us have forgotten this and we are resounding gong people in cymbal clanging relationships. There is a whole lot of noise but not much real change.”Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands