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Sometimes it is called the church. People in the world think of
the church as a building made of stones and mortar, but that is
not what God means by the church. His church—the
assembly—is built of living stones. You are one of them and
so is every believer who has the Holy Spirit. Indeed the Holy
Spirit, who is God, lives in this wonderful building, the
assembly. It is the house of God. I remember hearing of a dear
old sister who was putting on her hat to go out one Lord’s day
morning, and a neighbour said to her, ‘Are you going to
church?’ ‘No’, she replied, ‘I am a bit of the church going to the
meeting’. She was one of the living stones.
So, dear children, we come together on the Lord’s day with
others who belong to the assembly, to eat the Lord’s supper
and to remember Him. As we do this we look for Him to come
in Himself and be with us. We cannot see Him with our eyes
as the disciples did, but He comes just as truly. How reverent
and attentive we want to be so that we may be ready to
welcome Him and to give Him our praises; He loves His
assembly. He loves it so much that He gave Himself for it. He
calls it His bride. In answer, we give Him our love as our
glorious Bridegroom. Our praises go out too to
the blessed Holy Spirit who is with us to help us in the service.
He is God, and the Lord Jesus is God, we must never forget
that. And yet, though the Lord Jesus is so great, He is not
ashamed to call us His brethren. That is a great honour. He
loves to take His brethren into the presence of His Father, and
lead their praises to His Father and our Father, and to His God
and our God. His brethren are all sons of God and God
delights to hear His sons giving Him praise and worship.
There is nothing more wonderful than this service to divine
Persons on the Lord’s day. But Monday morning comes and
we have to go back to school and work, with people who do
not love our Lord. The brethren are not with us now, they
cannot see what we do. But we are still in fellowship, we are
still part of the body, and we must be true to the Lord in the