I have the desire to take part in the assembly of God's people and in the Lord's supper, when I have the opportunity for doing so rightly. But as far as I know, one can not in these days join oneself to an assembly, or take part in the Lord's supper anywhere, without joining oneself, not to pious people, for they are rarely found in any of these congregations, but to the whole mass of worldly-minded people, who could only be a hindrance to blessing. And it is therefore the question, whether it is not better to cease to communicate altogether, than to do it in a manner which leads to no good.

This raises another issue, namely, if we join ourselves to this multitude in any one sect or denomination, we are separating ourselves, (often unconsciously and unintentionally) from the live and fellowship of many pious people not belonging to the same group.

I have made this sad experience on many occasions, finding those who stand apart from one another who were once walking in live. What should hinder us, beloved, from meeting together as Christians? Two or three make a complete assembly, in the midst of which the Lord has promised to be present.

For where two or three are gathered together in My name there I am in the midst of them. - Matthew 18:20

You are of one mind with your wife, desiring to follow the Lord and live to Him. Is not your house then an assembly? Oftentimes you have other friends with you, who are fully of one mind with you in following the Lord. Is that not an assembly, even if you have but little preaching and teaching.

I assure you, I would rather meet with you there than in any other place I know, where thousands might be assembled. And if two or three, who are all in the Lord, were to meet together, and to eat the bread with the good intention of remembering the death of Jesus, and stirring one another up to love Him and one another, desiring to be wholly for Him and for one another with all we have, even to the last morsel of bread, would not that, in your eyes be the Lord's supper? What would there be wanting to make it so?

I can not believe that it would be any less pleasing to the Lord because it was not in some great church, with I know not how many ceremonies attached to it. Meet thus, dear brother and sister, and meet often, and gladly will I in spirit sit down with you.

 

The above article by Gerhard Tersteegen was written over 200 years ago, and as I read it I was surprised to find that Gerhard was experiencing a problem that many are still experiencing today. That of being compelled to assemble in a structure, lest you be labelled as a heretic for forsaking the coming together of the brethren. And as Gerhard questioned, what does constitute an assembly? Is it a gathering together of those whose relationship with God has been birthed out of their death to the old self led life, (for surely death is the birthing process for the new Spirit-led life).

Or, do we content ourselves with the fellowship found within the structured walls of man. It is very tempting to comfort oneself at the warm fire of fellowship when the alternative is a lonely death at the guidance of God's Holy Spirit. A picture of what I speak of can be found in Mark 14:54, where Jesus is taken by His captors to face His accusers and Peter is found denying his Lord while warming himself at the captors' fire. That sense of aloneness and separation from God, as Peter must have felt, can never be fully removed until one falls to the ground and dies.

Jesus said that unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone (John 12:24). So, I ask you to consider for a moment, have you found your place of abiding? For even while you sit around the fire of fellowship, if you have not yet died, you will be aware that you sit alone. Again I ask the question, has fellowship become a substitute for relationship? For some I believe the answer is yes, for one can have fellowship with others of like mind while being separated from the one they call Lord. The key to godly fellowship lies with those who practice the daily baptism of death. Not as some would have us believe, through the act of gathering together on Sunday. Godly fellowship must be born out of your relationship with God, for what fellowship can light have with darkness?

 

It became God, in leading many sons unto glory, to make the Leader of their salvation perfect through suffering. What the suffering and death affected in Christ personally, in perfecting His character, is the ground work of what is affected on our behalf. It was needful that God should make Him perfect through suffering; the perfectness that comes through suffering is meekness and gentleness, patience and perfect resignation to God's will. His followers must walk in the very path in which He walks. Jesus came and was made like us; we must come and be made like Him

- Andrew Murray