Where’s the party?

I cycled to Ararat in Whitchurch yesterday, for the Central Ministers’ Fellowship – a gathering a Baptist Ministers from Cardiff and the valleys which meets roughly six-weekly. I don’t mean the meetings are rough – they’re usually quite peaceful!
So a 20-mile round cycling trip is a new record for me in my married life. I used to do those kind of trips regularly (and a lot longer) when I was a student, but I was less than half as old then as I am now!
The meeting was good, and it is always encouraging to be in that kind of group. I stopped to eat my packed lunch in a park in Whitchurch, and read some more of the book I am currently on, which is called Divine Intention – How God’s Work in the Early Church Empowers us Today, by Larry Shallenberger. No prizes for guessing the nationality of the author!
I’m really enjoying this book – in each chapter the author takes an episode from the Book of Acts, then writes a short piece of fiction to go with it, about three friends meeting up, then describes something of church life and about the Holy Spirit. There is an extremely good chapter on the question of suffering, which includes a very helpful section about free-will, “the loaded gun that fatally wounded humanity.”
The chapter I read in the park at Whitchurch was called Love without partitions, concerning Peter’s visit to Cornelius, and the question of breaking down fences of race, culture, etc. The author pointed out something that is obvious, but still really struck me, which is that Peter and Cornelius weren’t looking to connect, and in the normal way of things there would be no way these two men would have met.

“We need to realise that God is and intensely social Being. He is constantly working to bring the lost and the least to the feast at his table. He is perpetually connecting his followers with those who need to experience his love. He orchestrated the party between Peter and Cornelius’s family.”

He continues by saying that we should be asking the Holy Spirit regular questions, such as: “Now what?”, Where do I go from here?” and “Where’s the party?”
On the way home I met someone on Aber Cycleway, not far from Bethel who stopped me and wanted to talk at some length. And I had one of those moments where you think something, and God comes right back with a response and it’s suddenness makes you gasp (or maybe laugh). The thought I had was ‘I’m not supposed to be doing this kind of ministering while I’m on sabbatical’, and the answer from God struck me instantaneously and with some force: “Didn’t you just ask me ‘Where’s the party?’!!!”