Thought For Today: Recent Episodes
Angus Buchan
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 20th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 10:27:
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
Can you hear His voice today? You know, I marvel when I maybe get invited to a birthday party and there’s are a whole lot of young mothers and they all chatting, having a cup of tea together, and all the little children are playing on the playground, maybe 10, 15 children, little ones, under 4 years old, and all of a sudden one of them falls and starts to cry. It’s a miracle. I just hear a whole lot of children shouting and playing but that mother, the mother of that child, straight away, she puts her cup down and she goes straight to the playground to her child. Why? Because she knows her child’s voice even if she’s crying. It’s incredible, it’s a miracle!
I read something very special the other day. It is not unusual for a person who loses someone very dear to them to hang on to a final voice mail recording, just to be able to hear their voice again. How many times have you heard that? Sad but true.
The Good Shepherd knows His sheep and they know His voice. In the Middle East they don’t chase sheep around with sheepdogs like we do in the west. No, the shepherd calls his sheep and his sheep follow him, it’s quite something to see. I’ve got a son who uses cattle dogs to herd his cattle. These dogs are amazing. I love them, I pat them, I talk to them but they don’t listen to me. They only listen to one voice and that is my son’s voice. Why? Because they know him. When a child is in it’s mothers womb is already connecting with mom, and when it’s born and it grows and mom speaks to that child, and dad, every day, when they grow up there’s a bond that cannot be broken. Now, we need to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. In John 14:6, Jesus said:
“I am the way…”.
We need to listen to that beautiful voice, still small voice, and we need to obey Him, then we will not get caught up on the wrong road and get ourselves into trouble.
Today, listen and hear the voice of God. He is speaking to you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 19th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 16:15:
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Just that far - we need to do it! We can’t keep Jesus hidden in our homes. We have to tell the world the wonderful news. I read a beautiful illustration in one of Charles Swindoll's devotionals. This is how the story goes: “During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men to the local cathedral to see if they could find any of the precious metal there. After investigating, they reported: “The only silver we can find is in the statues of the saints standing in the corners.” To which the radical soldier and statesman of England replied: “Well melt down the saints and put them into circulation!” That brief but direct order states the essence of the practical goal of authentic Christianity, not rows of silver saints crammed into the corners of cathedrals, but melted saints circulating through the mainstream of humanity.”
Isn’t that beautiful? You and I have to get out there and we have to be prepared to be melted if necessary, to be mocked, to be criticised but to make a difference, to tell people about Jesus Christ. It is no good keeping your Christianity hidden. We need to get out there and tell the people, just like Oliver Cromwell got those saints, melted them, made them into coins and sent the coins all over England. Let us get out there, not just be a Christian on Sunday morning, but Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and make a difference in a world that is desperate to hear the truth.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 18th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 8:48:
“And He said to her (Jesus), “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
Then we go to Romans 8:11:
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
What beautiful scriptures!
Remember the woman who had the issue of blood? She could not stop bleeding. She had been to the doctors. She had spent all her money and the doctors had tried to help her, twelve years she was in that state then she went on her own when she knew Jesus was coming. She pushed through the crowd and she said to herself, “If I can only just touch the hem of His garment, I’ll be healed." And of course, she did, she pushed through, I can just imagine her going through the crowd and getting nice and low, touching the hem of His garment, and instantly the blood dried up and she was healed. Jesus turned around and said, “Who touched Me?” And the disciples said, “Lord, there are people pushing from all angles. How can we know who touched You?” And she said, “It was me, Lord.” And what did Jesus say? He said, “Go in peace because your faith has made you well.”
On Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday, just a short while ago, I took the service here at Shalom, and I told them I would be praying for the sick. A lady brought her son to be healed. He was a grown man. He had cancer of the brain. She came forward, we anointed him with oil like we did with all the people who came forward. We prayed a simple prayer of faith, and God, through the power of His Holy Spirit, touched that young man and healed him. Now, she went to the specialist the next week, and she said to the specialist, “My son has been healed in Jesus’ name.” She claimed his healing! The specialist looked at her and said, “No, he has got cancer.” She said, “Please do another MRI on him, another test." He did that.
He was very, very skeptical and he wanted to know what happened. She said she had been to a healing meeting and she believed her son was healed. Well, reluctantly, he went and did it and afterwards he came out and his face was quite pale. And he said to her, “There is no cancer in your son’s brain. He is healed!”
Today, claim your healing from Jesus.
Have a wonderful day!
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Tuesday morning, the 17th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go the Book of Genesis 11:9:
”Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth;…”
Then we go straight to 2 Corinthians 6:16:
“I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
Babel - you know, I looked up the Oxford dictionary. It means, confused noise made by many people speaking together. The Lord saw what the people were doing. They were trying to build a tower to get to heaven and so what He did was, He confused their language. They all started speaking different languages and they could not work together to try and build this tower to heaven. Often, the Lord will confuse an issue because He is trying to save us. He’s trying to save us from trying to be like God.
I have a beautiful grand-daughter. She is a speech therapist. She studied language and the art of speaking at university and she sat with me one day and she said to me, ”Grand-dad, it is so complex. The Lord has created us in such a very special way that to be able to speak, to use your tongue and your voice box is incredible. It is a miracle, there’s no doubt about it."
I have just taken a photograph of a stone carving that I picked up in Ethiopia. It is of the last supper, Jesus with His disciples, but at the bottom you will see a language. It’s the original language in Ethiopia which is 3000 years old. That language was written and spoken 1000 years before Christ was born. You’re talking about a long time ago, but I want to tell you that God sent His Son Jesus Christ down from heaven to earth to give you and me a brand new language. It’s called love.
I’ve spoken to people all over the world who can’t speak english and I can’t speak their language, but once we are in Christ, it is miraculous how we can talk to one another through the language of Jesus Christ which is the language of love!
Today, go out and love someone even if you can’t speak their language and the Holy Spirit will unite you together in a miraculous way.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Monday morning, the 16th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus says:
”Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
The Lord never promised us, when we gave our lives to Him, that it was going to be easy, but what He did promise us is that He’s going to walk with us through this troubled life in which we are living at the moment. We are stressed out, we are worried, we are fearful about so many things, but all the Lord has asked you and me to do is to stand. He says that in Ephesians. “Stand” He says. The battle belongs to the Lord, take it to Jesus. You say, “Why?” I’ll tell you why, because He knows, and He really does understand what you are going through.
I really want to caution folks who are trying to comfort others who are stressed out at the moment, who have been through a tragedy in their lives. Do not say, ”I understand,” especially if you’ve never been there. Rather, put your arm around them, love them, weep with them, and just sit with them and have a cup of tea with them, but don’t come and start giving them all your personal opinions.
Oh, it’s happened to me. I’ve been in the depths of despair where there’s been no light at the end of the tunnel and I just don’t know how I’m going to get through or over this mountain. Those are the times when you need people who can come and sit with you and just love you and allow the Holy Spirit to walk with you through your time of testing. You see, Jesus does understand. He was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was so stressed out that He was sweating blood, folks. He does understand. Take your burdens to the Lord today. Cast your burdens upon Jesus because He cares for you.
Today is a day that you can come aside and say, ”Lord, this is my situation, this is my financial situation, this is my relationship situation, this is my business challenge, and I’m giving it to You because You said to me in Your word,
“Cast your burdens upon Jesus because He cares for you”,
and you’ll find that in 1 Peter 5:7.
Jesus bless you and remember He cares, and He will see you through.
God bless you and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Sunday morning, the 15th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
It is Father’s Day, and I really want to congratulate all fathers, not an easy job, on this day the scripture that I have for you is found in Exodus 20:12:
“Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
It is the first commandment in the Bible with a promise added to it. Honour your dad, so that your days may be long in the land. Now, I want to speak to young people, and I want to be straight with you, this programme, we don’t do it to tickle ears. The truth of the matter is that a lot of dads, a lot of fathers don’t justify to be honoured. Oh no, some fathers are abusive, other fathers are absent, other fathers are adulterers. So what is the Lord saying? The Lord is saying that we must honour our parents, so you don’t have to agree with them, you don’t even have to love them. Now that might be tough one. You say, “Uncle Angus, I can’t love him”. But you can honour him because God says you must. You can pray for him because God says we must pray for one another and trust God for a miracle in your relationship.
But I want to speak to other dads. I want to say I am so proud of you. It is so wonderful to see sons and fathers, daughters and fathers together. You know, that’s one of the highlights for me at Mighty Men Conferences, to see a father standing arm in arm with his son. We always say, if a boy is twelve years old and he can ride a horse and can shoot a rifle, he is a man, and therefore he is eligible to come to a Mighty Men Conference, but to see them sitting together…
It is not easy, young men, to honour your dads - different opinions, different generations, different backgrounds, but nevertheless, the Lord says He promises you that your days will be long in the land if you would honour your father. So today, just ask the Lord Jesus to give you that love for him, and I am telling you that it will change your life forever.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Father’s Day today, dad, as your wives, your daughters, your sons, your grandsons (I have got a great-grandson), honour you today and give God the glory for your life.
In Jesus name,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Saturday morning, the 14th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
I want us to go to the Book of Philippians 4:19:
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
All your needs, not all our wants, no, but all our needs!
I want to talk to you today about tools. You must have the right tools for the job. We need the tools for the work that God has called us to, and in Philippians 4:19, He has already told us that He will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I had a tremendous desire, I still do, to get the Gospel of Jesus Christ into Central Africa, and the Gospel is the Word, and the Word, according to Psalm 119:105:
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
I had a dream to have a huge truck and I would call it the Seed-Sower. I think you’ve heard about it! Yes, a 20-ton Mercedes Benz, 4 x 4 truck. 32 gears in that truck, an 80 kilowatt lighting plant on the back, a platform that came down from the side that could accommodate a whole band and the preacher, and one name on the side, “JESUS”, that’s all. The colour? Bright yellow because they tell me that that is the colour that is easiest to identify, especially when you are reading. It even had 4 diesel tanks. It could go almost through a whole country without having to refill. It had a water tank on the back because many places we visited had water that was not drinkable, and it supplied all of our needs: to shower, to cook, and to drink.
There we went out and took Bibles, thousands of Bibles and tracts and Christian books. We took food and clothes. The funny thing is, they never wanted the food and the clothes so much, but they wanted the Word of God, the Bible. We had the tools of the trade and then by faith we went out into unreached people groups where the Gospel had not been heard before, a most incredible experience, little children running out of their huts, never having seen a white man before. It was quite amazing and so open and so loving. Sowing good seed because we had the right tools!
Get the right tools first before you do the job.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 13th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Corinthians 8:9:
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”
What a beautiful promise from a wonderful Saviour!
Then we go straight to Philippians 2:7:
“…but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.”
Our beloved Lord Jesus, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Lily of the Valley, the Bright Morning Star, the Great Ploughman, the Shepherd of the sheep - He came from Heaven, left His throne, and was born in a manger, (a feed trough, that is what a manger is, where you put food for cattle and sheep to eat, that was His manger), in the form of a helpless little Baby. The King of Glory to become a helpless little baby! He gave up everything for you and for me.
My dear lady, I want to tell you, God loves you that much! He became poor so that you and I could become rich. All we have to do is receive that gift. Say “Thank You, Lord, I receive it, I once was lost but now I am found.” He has made us in His own image and He has given us the ability to receive all the riches that He has in store for us. What is it today that you require of the Lord?
You say, “I am poverty stricken, I can’t read very well, I can’t speak very well, I can’t write very well. I am not much of a sportsman.” Are you talking about me? That’s exactly how I was. Ja, I left school early but I had one desire and one dream. “Lord, I want to tell people about You.” Remember, I used to practice, preaching to the maize plants in the field, and then when I wanted to pray the Sinner’s Prayer with them, a gentle breeze would come up and all the maize plants would bow their heads. Yes, it is a joke but it is not a joke actually, it is true and He can do the same for you. All you have to do is to ask Him. He says,
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7
Do it today and He will help you!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 12th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Genesis 9:13:
“I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.”
Then we go to the Book of Hebrews 12:24:
”…Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant,…”
God gave us, you and me, the most beautiful sign in the sky that He would never ever flood the earth again. Now, being a farmer, I study the clouds, I study the weather, and after a beautiful shower of rain on a hot summer’s afternoon, what do we see? We see a beautiful rainbow in the sky, a sign that the Lord has given to you and me that He will never flood the earth with water again, but God has now given us yet another even more powerful sign - a cross. You know folks, I want to tell you honestly, Jesus Christ has been made the Mediator (that is what it says in Hebrews) between God and ourselves. What is a mediator? Well, the Oxford Dictionary calls a mediator, a peacemaker, a go-between, a middleman, and that is what Jesus Christ is to you and I.
I don’t know how many and maybe a lot of you listening to this message have seen it as well - I have seen a cross in the sky. Oh yes, I have seen a cloud with a cross cut out of the cloud. Then I have seen a cloud in the form of a cross, not once, many times in our great outdoor meetings, and there are thousands of witnesses who have seen the same cross. That cross is a New Covenant between you and me and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father sent His Son down to finish the job. “Go down Son, and be the final covenant between Myself and man.”
If any man or woman, boy or girl, be in Christ Jesus, they are a new creation. So if you love Jesus Christ today, you have nothing to fear. When you see the rainbow in the sky, it is a beautiful reminder. Oh, but when you see the cross, you know that we have eternal life through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Have a beautiful day and continue to be a cloud watcher, because remember, at the end of the day, the Master is coming back in the clouds to take you and I home to be with Him in glory forever and ever, amen.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 11th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 8:5. Jesus is talking about the parable of the seed and the sower. He says:
“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside;…”
Now I am going to stop there and I am going to explain something to you as an old farmer. The most important thing for a farmer to do is to plant the seed, sow the seed, and stop procrastinating! You don’t have to be a farmer, you might be a student at university. Keep on studying! You might be a sportsman who is trying to make it in the first team. Keep on playing that game! You might be looking for that wife or that husband. Keep on keeping on. That’s how you do it!
I have been farming from the age of 19 years old and I want to tell you, the secret is to keep on putting the seed in the ground. “Oh yes, but I have done that, but it hasn’t worked” Well, don’t stop. That is what Jesus is saying. Some of the seed fell by the wayside, okay? So that seed was trampled down and birds devoured it. So what do you do? You go back and you plant again. Some fell on the rock and then it sprang up and because it lacked moisture, it shrivelled up. Oh yes, I have seen that. Some fell amongst thorns. Keep on planting!
I don’t know how many multi-millionaires I have read about that failed at least 3 times before they made it. You have got to keep on planting the seed. That’s our job, and the rest is in the Lord’s hands. And then verse 8:
”But others fell on good ground,…”
Unconditional sowing - prepare the land properly, sow the seed, study hard, get your qualifications, step out on the water, go into that business, go for it and give it everything you have got. Don’t spare anything, and I tell you what - if you do not grow weary in doing good, in due season, you will reap if you do not lose heart.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 10th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 9:1:
“So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”.
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”Philippians 4:13
David Livingstone is a man that I respect greatly. I have told you before, I like to think that there is a contact there. My mom’s mother was a Livingstone before she got married! But David Livingstone was a great explorer, remember he was instrumental in part for abolishing that hellish trade in human flesh, called slavery. He said, “I will go anywhere as long as it is forward.” Can you say that this morning? You say, “But things are tough for me and I don’t think I am winning.” Oh yes you are! God has already said to you and me, He is giving us domination over every creature on earth. Read on from Chapter 9 and you will see - all the fish in the sea, all the animals in the field, He has given us domination. Go out and take it!
I love that story of John G Lake, the American evangelist who came out to South Africa and did a mighty work here. He said, when you get up in the morning and get dressed and wash your face and you comb your hair. You put on your best clothes to go to work, look in the mirror and the person you see in the mirror, speak to that person (yourself) and say that wherever that man goes today, God is going with him, and then go out and face the day, go out and take the future by the scruff of the neck and say, “I can and I will and God has given me the authority.” You will be surprised how the doors will open.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 9th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 8:2:
“Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons,…”
Then we go on a bit further to Luke 19:8:
“Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
Wow! Now that is genuine repentance, that is genuine appreciation for what God has done for a person who is a sinner. Mary Magdalene, Mary of Magdala - I have been to Magdala, it is a little village on the shores of Lake Galilee in Israel - now Mary has been delivered from seven demons and yet, once forgiven, and healed and delivered, she became one of Jesus’ most faithful followers. I always say, if you get to Heaven before me, have a look and see who the most beautiful woman is in Heaven. I know many of us will say Mary, the mother of Jesus, but I beg to differ. I believe it will be Mary Magdalene, and I believe (I am getting emotional) she will be sitting at the feet of the Messiah, because she was forgiven much. Jesus didn’t patch her up; He made her into a brand-new, beautiful handmaiden. You know, after that time, she never left the Lord once. She was the first one down at the tomb in the morning after the Lord had been crucified and had been put in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb. She was the first one, not Peter, not the disciples, it was the woman who had been forgiven much, and that’s what I love about her.
Jim Elliot, a missionary who went to the Amazon said, “It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” What is that? It is your life. John Newton, forgiven much, a slave ship captain - can you think of anything worse? He wrote probably the most famous hymn of all time:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
In a believer’s ear,
I once was lost, but now am found;
I was blind, but now I see.
What about Peter, the big fisherman? He said, “Lord, I will die for you,” and yet when the test came before the cock crowed, he denied his beloved Saviour three times, but God forgave him, restored him and eventually he was crucified, by his own request, upside-down, for the love of Christ. Today, love the One who has forgiven you much.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 8th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Genesis 12:1:
Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 12:1:
”… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, …”
I want to say to you right at the outset so you get it loud and clear, we are not talking this morning about immigration, we are not necessarily talking about changing our country or our residence, but what we are talking about is the journey of life. Maybe today you are starting a new journey because you have just been newly married, and what a blessing that is, but it comes with a lot of challenges: two people from two different backgrounds, two different homes, two different habits, and now you have got to work together! That is a journey, one that I walked on for over 50 years, and I remember the day I made the pledge to my beloved Jill, like it was yesterday.
Maybe you are on a journey, you are just starting a family, your first baby is about to be born - so exciting, so scary! “I don’t know if I can handle it. I don’t know if I am cut out for it!” Yes, you are and yes, you can, but you see, the ingredient here is one word, “faith”. You see faith is the substance of things hoped for, it is the evidence of things not yet seen. (Hebrews 11:1). By faith you can do it.
Maybe it’s a new business you are starting. That’s a new journey, the first time in your life, now you have left employment, and now you are stepping out into the unknown and you are starting your own business. A lot of people are saying to you, “Go for it”, others are saying, “Don’t be a fool.” Hear from God and step out by faith! Maybe you are just about to get your degree and now you are starting your career. It’s a journey, young man, young lady and it is one you cannot afford to go on by yourself.
Maybe it is home time. Yes, maybe as you are listening to this message, the doctors have said you have three months and then that is it. Well, it depends on what God says, but we need to be prepared for this journey. We need to make sure that everything is settled at home, nothing outstanding. Write those letters, contact those people. Make sure that when you leave you are not carrying any baggage when you go to Heaven.
Then most important, your spiritual journey. Some of you have just met Jesus very recently, maybe some through this very message that I send you every day. Some of you may be walking with the Lord for a long time. It doesn’t matter. Make sure your spiritual journey is intact so that when the Master calls you, you can say, “I am ready Lord, and I am ready for home time.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful journey,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Saturday morning, the 7th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 53:5:
”And by His stripes we are healed.”
Then we go to 1 Peter 2:24:
“…by whose stripes you were healed.”
Jesus Christ did not heal us sitting in His palace in Heaven. No, he came down to earth and was crucified for our sins on the tree, the Cross. He was severely beaten, humiliated, and thrashed with a whip that made His back look like a ploughed field, the Bible tells us, and by the blood that came out of His back, by the stripes that He received, you and I have received our healing.
Now I want to share two testimonies with you. Now, the first happened in Bethesda in the Old City in Jerusalem, a couple of years ago when I took a large group of pilgrims to Israel. We were at the swirling pool where the man who was paralysed was healed by Jesus. Remember, he couldn’t get into that pool because it only stirred up once a year. The angel would stir it up, and the first person that got into that pool of water was healed, but because he was paralysed, he couldn’t get there, but Jesus healed him right in that position. He took up his bed and he walked. That is the power of the healing of Jesus Christ.
Now, I was praying for the sick at that same place. There was a man who came forward for healing. He and his dear wife are farmers at the base of the mighty Drakensberg mountains. They had a coal stove. They had stoked the coal at night. They had gone to bed, and during the night, the chimney in the stove had fallen and jammed so that the smoke could not get out, and so what happened, the fumes, the carbon monoxide, the same sort of fumes that come out of a motorcar, went through the house and they were both unconscious and only found a long time afterwards. The gentleman was in a coma for a number of days. He did recover, as did his wife, but he had brain damage. He couldn’t remember things and he had no balance. I want to tell you that he was healed at Bethesda, at the healing pool, when we prayed for him.
The same thing happened to me on Easter Sunday of this very year, 2025. I prayed for a young man who had cancer of the brain. God healed him, but the amazing thing was that when I was praying for the sick, I myself was sick, and God has healed me as well. He is the Healer and He wants to heal you today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 6th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 7:16:
“…and the Lord shut him in.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 11:7:
“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, …”
Noah is rated as one of the great giants of the faith in the Bible. Noah and his whole family were saved by faith in God. Remember, it never rained on the earth until Noah had built the ark, and all the animals and his family (there were eight of them, three sons and their wives plus Noah and his wife) had gone into the ark, and the Lord shut the door. Then it started raining for 40 days and 40 nights. Hebrews 11:6 says,
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Many, many years ago, when I was a brand-new Christian, my wife, Jill and I, invited some Indian ladies to come and visit us at Shalom. They were beautifully dressed in saris, I just love those saris, and they said, “Brother Angus, we want to be baptised. Please baptise us.” The only place I had in those days was the dam in front of my little house. They said, “That will do fine.” It was so cold that morning, there was ice around the edge of our little dam. Some of those ladies were senior citizens. They walked into that water, freezing cold, in their beautiful saris and I had the privilege of baptising them, and as they came out of the water they started to prophesy over Jill and I. They said many people would be saved in this place and this place, Shalom, would become an ark, like Noah’s ark, a sanctuary for the lost, and I want to say to you today, my dear friend, that the Lord honours faith.
You see, the rain only started coming after Noah was in the ark and the door was closed. It didn’t start raining, and then he built the ark. You need to walk by faith and not by sight, and by the way, that prophetic word came to pass because many of you listening to this message have been on this farm, where we have seen tens of thousands of people come to Christ, and into a renewal of their faith, and into a first time commitment.
Today, just do what God tells you to do.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 5th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 1:5. The Lord says:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
Then we go to the New Testament to the Gospel of Luke 12:6-7. Jesus says:
“Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Are you feeling lonely today? Are you feeling that no-one cares about you? Are you feeling totally isolated? Oh yes, we all understand that, but I want to tell you something now. There is One who really loves you and today you need to know that. Many years ago, when we had our little children’s home, here on the farm, the social welfare people arrived with a beautiful little bundle, a little baby girl. I don’t think she could have been more than a month old. They brought her to us to look after her. They had absolutely no details. She was left on the front doorstep of a pastor’s house. And so, we called her Pretty because she was a very beautiful, pretty little baby, but I want to tell you, there wasn’t a soul who knew where she was born or where she came from.
Little Pretty didn’t stay with us long and she was obviously born prematurely. I think she could have been maybe only four or five months old when Jesus decided to call His little one home, and little Pretty is with Jesus today. I want to tell you, Jesus knows all about her because He says to you today, “Before you were conceived in your mother’s womb, He knew you.” He says that five sparrows will fall to the ground, he knows each one of them. He says He even knows how many hairs are on your head. So He knows all about Pretty. Maybe nobody on earth knows who she was, where she came from, who her mother was, her grandfather, who her dad was, but Jesus knew her and He died for her and I can’t wait to see Pretty when I get to Heaven.
So today, do not feel lonely, do not feel abandoned. Call to Jesus because He wants to be not only your Friend, but your Saviour.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 4th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Philippians 4:11. Paul says:
“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content…”
I looked up the word “contentment” in the Oxford Dictionary. It is a state of peaceful happiness or satisfaction. Are you content today? Am I content today? I want to ask you a question, and the Lord has asked me the same question this very morning - how much is enough? As a young man, my dream was to own my own farm, and I thought that would bring me total contentment in life. Well, I worked myself to a standstill and eventually I owned my own farm. But I have got news for you young man. That did not bring contentment to me. I was still not satisfied!
You know that King David had everything that he needed. He was the hero of Israel. As a young teenager, he slaughtered a giant with one stone. Oh yes! When he went to war, he came back with victories, the people used to worship him, praise him, sing songs to him. He had as many wives as he needed and he was still not content. If you look at Psalm 51:10, he says:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”
So David had everything, but he still was not content, then he went back to the Lord and he said, “Oh Lord, renew in me a clean heart”.
I received a beautiful letter from a wife who is so grateful, sent to me just last night. Her husband was very sick and went into a coma. When he was in that coma, he heard a conversation with God, and God says he was never content with what he had, but God would give him one more chance, not because of anything that he had done but because of people who had prayed for him. That young man, I can tell you right now, has been given a second chance and he is totally content with his lot in life.
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
1 Timothy 6:6
Be content with what you have, God will take care of everything else.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 3rd of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
I want to speak to you today about the unsung heroes, the people who no one knows about, but they just get on and do the job. I want to speak to you about Joseph. No, not Joseph, the Prime Minister of Egypt who became the second most powerful man on earth, next to Pharaoh himself, not that Joseph. No, no, no! I want to speak to you about Joseph who was the earthly father of Jesus. If we look at Matthew 1:20-21, this is what the Bible says:
“But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you (Joseph, yes -the carpenter, I am talking about, and you) shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
I asked my wife this morning, “If you had to tell me about one unsung hero in the Bible…?” and she immediately said, “Joseph.” Joseph - we don’t hear much about Joseph, do we? He is just a carpenter but I want to tell you that he was the earthly father of Jesus Christ, my beloved and your beloved Saviour. I want to say to you today, I know of two unsung heroes that I want to tell you about. The first one was and old man and his wife that came to live with us, and he stayed here with us on this farm, Shalom, until the day he died. He was a wonderful old man. He forged his mother’s signature when he was underage to join the Royal Navy so that he could go fight in the 2nd World War. He had chest problems, caught while he was in the navy but he came and spent his latter days with me. He used to come down every morning with a little piece of paper and on there was a scripture reading and he used to say to me, “Angus, there is a scripture for you today.” He used to take all our children that lived at Shalom to school everyday. But I want to tell you, that man impacted my life more than many.
There is another man. This man is one of the top businessmen in South Africa. He is the man that started the whole Wimpy Fast Food Franchise for the Southern Hemisphere. He was a director of numerous companies. He laid it all down for one reason, so that he could go home and nurse his wife, which he is still doing and enjoying it immensely. That man has impacted my life more than many of the giants that we read about or hear about of the faith.
Today, just be faithful to God and He will do the rest.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 2nd of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Micah 6:8:
”He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?“
Then we go to the Book of Isaiah 1:17:
”Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.”
If we look at Genesis 5:27, we see that Methuselah lived on this earth for 969 years. That’s a long life but Jesus, He lived on this earth, the Son of God, only for 33 years and then He died. He rose again on the third day, on the Sunday. So, what am I saying? I believe the Lord is saying to you and me this morning, it’s not about how long you want to try and live on this earth but rather how you spend your days here on earth, which really counts. It’s obedience that the Lord Jesus wants.
You know God used Moses to divide an ocean. God used a young shepherd boy of maybe 13 or 14 years old to kill a giant who stood about 7, 8 foot tall. God used Gideon to defeat a mighty army with just 300 men.
Oh, but it’s not how long you live, it’s what you do with the life that God’s given you and me. Matthew 26:13 - a woman came in and washed Jesus' feet, and dried His feet with her hair after having anointed Him with oil, and the disciples were not impressed. In fact, Judas Iscariot, the thief said, ”We could have given that money to the poor.” But Jesus said that what this woman has done will be a memorial to her for the whole world to see. So she used what she had for the Lord and I want to tell you to this day, what that woman did is known throughout the Christian world. So it’s not how big you do it, it’s about how well you do it and it’s about using your time wisely.
Today, just do what He tells you to do and you’ll be surprised how He will use you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 1st of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 12:50:
”For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
I want to speak today about family. The first family that ever existed was the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yes, we’re talking about the Holy Trinity. That is why family is so very important to our Lord Jesus Christ and that is why the devil is hell-bent on destroying families. What do they say? You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. The hardest place to be a Christian is in the family because they really know you. There are no masks on. It’s the real deal, but seriously, the first family on earth was Adam and Eve and they had two boys. One’s name was Cain and the other was Abel and what happened? Yes, they fought but they didn’t just fight. In fact, Cain killed his brother. Families are not easy places to get on with one another.
Early this morning, I was in a prayer meeting and as I walked into the little chapel where we meet as a family, a men’s prayer meeting, and we’ve become very close to each other over many, many years. One of my brothers was there, a senior man, and I said, ”How are things with the family?” He said, ”My wife has gone up to Pretoria to spend time with my daughter because she has had a little baby and she is helping her with the baby.” I said, ”Are you missing her?” And he looked at me and he smiled. He said, ”Yes.” He said, ”I’m missing the arguing.” He had his tongue in his cheek.
Family is very important. The family that prays together, stays together. We really need to get into the habit of praying as a family. Even this morning after we had met together, there’s over twenty men, we started to sing, we sing before we pray. I want to sing a song for you and I want you to join me because we sang it this morning and it just brings a bonding and a family love.
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am God
I am the Lord that healeth thee
I am the Lord that healeth thee
I am the Lord that healeth thee
God bless you today and stand strong together as a family,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 31st of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the first book in the Bible, Genesis 4:9:
“Then the Lord said to Cain “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Then down to verse 12. The Lord says:
”A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
Then we go to the Gospel of John 8:44:
”You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
The devil is a liar.
God asked Cain, ”Where is your brother?” Cain had murdered Abel and Cain told the first lie. He said, ”Am I my brother’s keeper?” He knew exactly what he had done and where he had put the body but he told the Lord he didn’t know. So Cain became a vagabond. I looked up the dictionary. A vagabond is someone who has no settled home. He became a vagabond and a fugitive. A fugitive is a person who lives in hiding. What a way to live!
My dear friend. Today, you and I need to understand one thing. Lies come from the devil himself. He is the father of all lies. It will not get you out of trouble. It will not help you. It will, in fact, condemn you. We need to tell the truth at all costs.
One of the most tragic stories that I have ever known was when President Richard Nixon, the president of the United States of America, told lies. We are talking about the Watergate scandal, when he said that he didn’t do it when he did. He put his hand on the Bible and swore that he had not told lies, but you see what happens with lies, they always find you out and he was the first and only president that resigned from his office. He had to, because he told one lie on top of another lie, on top of another lie, and it cost him his position.
Today, the Lord is saying to you and to me, tell the truth because if you tell lies you can be sure they will find you out. Today, speak the truth and you will not be a fugitive or a vagabond, but you will be a child of God.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 30th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 3:7. Jesus says,
“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.”
I want to speak to you about starting the journey. The best way to start the journey is with Jesus Christ. He will not allow you to get lost. He will not take you on the wrong road. He will make sure that you get to your destination, and He will, most of all, help you to enjoy the journey.
I always remember my late mom used to say when we went on holiday, “The best part of the holiday is the journey.” Isn’t that true? Now folks, I want to tell you something. In 2014, CUM Books, which is Christian Art Publishers, Chris Johnson, a very dear brother of mine in Christ, we got together and he said to me, “Angus you are an evangelist. You get out there and preach the Gospel and you show people how to start the journey with Jesus, and we will supply a little book that we will give to every single convert or backslidden Christian as a gift from us." He has held to his promise, I am talking for 11 years! Now, if you are listening to this you probably know we have done some very big events, not just mighty men conferences, not just prayer meetings, but huge events in stadiums and Christian Art Publishers have been so faithful. Every time a person gives their life to Christ, they have an opportunity of getting one of these books for free. These wonderful people pay for the printing of that book.
Now I picked up one of those books this morning,“Starting the Journey’. It says, “The most important decision that you can ever make”. I made it on 18th February, 1979. Oh, I will never forget it. We are talking on close to 50 years ago. I will never forget that decision. Now this little book will tell you how to start the journey and to go through this life. I would encourage you to get one of these books, but folks, I am going to pray for you because that is the purpose of Thought for the Day. Please pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I want to start the journey which will take me to Heaven. I ask you to forgive me for all my sinful ways and from today onwards, I promise to put You first in my life, and I thank You for walking this road, which is quite tough at times, Lord, for walking this road with me.
In Jesus name, Amen.
God bless you and keep on with the journey. Home time is sooner and closer than you think.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 29th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 6:46. Jesus says:
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?”
Then we continue with the Book of Luke 19:8:
“Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
You see, what the Lord is looking for today from you and me is action, not cheap words. Faith is a doing word, it is a verb. It is not a noun, it is an action word. It is not just empty words. You and I have to start becoming more intentional. Zacchaeus was prepared to give back 400% to anyone that he had cheated. Now you see, that is faith in action. That is showing Jesus that he meant what he said, and because of that, you read down further in the scripture, Jesus said, “Salvation has come to this house today.”
You know that old joke about the guy that is always promising to pay his way, and every time it comes to his time to pay, he has short arms and long pockets. You know those guys? Maybe you and I are one of them, just keep saying, “I’ll pay” and you never put your hand in your pocket! Just pay and don’t say anything. That is more honourable. I want to say to you sir, you and I, we must stop telling our wives we are going to change that lightbulb, or we are going to mow the lawn. Just do it and you will show your wife that you really do love her. We need to be doers of God’s word today and not just hearers.
Today, go out, tell somebody about Jesus Christ. Maybe take your girlfriend and go and buy her an ice cream. Don’t keep telling her you are going to do it, but seriously, maybe you need to spend more time in prayer. Maybe you need to get yourself into physical condition so that you can be more effective for the Gospel of Christ. Maybe you need to be more verbal and not just hopeful, and God is watching you and He is watching me, and He will promote us and He will reward us.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 28th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 4:6:
”So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?”
Then we go to a very special verse in the Bible for me, 1 Timothy 6:6:
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Remember the prodigal son? The prodigal son came to his father and said, “I want my inheritance.” His dad gave him all the money that was due to him. He went and spent it foolishly on women, wine and song, and he came back as an absolute tramp. He lost everything. His father was so relieved to see him come back. He had a big party organised. He loved him, but the older son who had been working in the field all day, became jealous.
Jealousy is a killer. He forgot that his father was going to leave the farm to him (he was the oldest son) and everything that he had, and because his brother was fussed over, he said, “My brother did nothing. He squandered everything we had, and my dad goes and slaughtered the fat ox and has a party, where he won’t even give me a goat that I can have a party with my friends." Jealousy - it is ugly, it’s distasteful. That is what happened with Cain and Abel. Cain became jealous of Abel, and as we know in the story, eventually, he actually killed his brother. Folks, we need to be so careful. The countenance is what he lost. His father could see it because Cain became resentful, he became distrustful, envious and he became suspicious.
Young lady, if you allow that jealousy to get into you, it will destroy you. You will start thinking things that are not even true. Look what happened with Saul, the first king of Israel. He was a handsome man, head and shoulders above any other man in Israel, and when he saw the young shepherd boy, David, succeed, instead of encouraging him, he actually lost his countenance and became a bitter and resentful man.
It is like rust in a motorcar. When rust gets into a vehicle, you take it to a panel beater. He doesn’t put body filler over the top and cover it over and paint it. No, he takes his cutting torch out and cuts out that piece of rust and he puts new plates in, welds it up and then he paints it over and it’s fine. Today, deal with that jealousy in your life. How do we deal with it? By looking to Jesus Christ and He will give you peace.
Count your blessings. Look what you have, and the person you are jealous of, love them and pray for them. God will heal you and set you free.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 27th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
We go straight to the Gospel of John 15:7:
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Wow! Now that’s powerful. Think about that. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “abide”. It means to accept or obey a rule or decision. So if you obey the word of God, if you as a believer do what God has called you to do, and when you go out and about, His word remains in your heart during the day, during the night, when you are about to write an examination, when you are going to start a new job, when you are endeavouring to do something you have never done before, if you keep the word of God in your heart, He says what you desire shall be done for you. Now, that is massive.
As I walked into my prayer room early this morning, there was a message for me, and the message came all the way from Northern Ireland, from one of my spiritual sons, and he said, “Dad, Angus, I have just watched the movie, Faith Like Potatoes, and I want to encourage you and thank you for it because of what it means to me.”
Now, as a young boy, my desire was to get the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the furthest points of Planet Earth, and I want to sit here and tell you in my little prayer room, that that desire of my heart is actually coming to pass in front of my very eyes and I have nothing to do with it. I just asked the Lord, many, many years ago, “Lord, I want you to use me to send the word to the furthest points of the planet Earth, and He is doing it.
Today, if you keep the word of God close to your heart and you stay close to Him, then you are going to ask correctly, and He is going to answer you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 26th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the word of God, to the Book of Isaiah 53:3:
“He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
I want to speak to you this morning about rejection. What is rejection? Well, according to the Oxford Dictionary it is to be shunned, to be cast off, to be turned down, to be snubbed, to become unpopular. Jesus knows exactly how you feel today, my dear friend. If you have been rejected, I know what it means, and I know what it feels like, but Jesus really knows. Not only does He know but He cares. He cares for you and most of all, He understands what you are going through.
The great revivalist, George Whitefield, who lived in the 1770’s said, “If you are going to walk with Jesus Christ, you are going to be opposed. In our days, to be a true Christian is really to become a scandal.” Now that is heavy going. Who is going to make you a scandal? It will probably be nominal christians, christians who say, “Lets live and let live and if that guy wants to live that lifestyle, leave him, and if that woman wants to do that, lets just have peace.” That’s not what God called us to do. He called us to be salty, He called us to be different, He called us to stand up for truth and righteousness and give us a passion for lost people, hurting people, sick people and rejected people!
DL Moody, another great evangelist said, tongue in cheek, but it is true, ‘If everybody has got something good to say about you, be sure, Jesus has got nothing good to say about you.” It’s true, isn’t it? Because if everybody has got something good to say about you, you are luke-warm, you are like salt that has lost it’s flavour and is only good to be cast out in the street and trampled over.
So be encouraged today if you are rejected because you are standing up for truth and righteousness, and know that the Lord is very proud of you and when He comes back to take us home with Him, He will recognise you.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 25th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Romans 3:23:
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, …”
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”John 3:16
Why did God send His only Son down to earth to die for your sins and my sins? Do you know why? Because God knew we could never make it to Heaven on our own because there is not one person on this earth, apart from Jesus Christ, who is without sin. It is impossible for a man to work his way to Heaven. Did you hear that? Impossible. Now, I love George Whitefield, the great English evangelist who died in his mid-fifties, but he said something I have never forgotten. I am laughing because I want you to think about this. He said, “It is easier to go to the moon with a rope made of sand than it is to work your way to Heaven.” In other words, it is impossible.
I remember many, many years ago, I had the privilege of ministering at a funeral. The gentleman that had died was a very good friend, and he had a very checkered background, he had made some mistakes in his life. He had done some things that he regretted, but one thing I did know about him is that he loved Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour, and he was born again. I said at the funeral, ‘I know this man is with Jesus, not because he was a good man but because he was a believer.” And at the end of the service, a neighbour came up to me and he was furious. He said, “How can you say that good people don’t go to Heaven?” I said, “Good people cannot go to Heaven, only believers can go to Heaven.” He was not very happy, but you know, before that man died, his son had led him to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today, do not fool people and try and tell them that because they are good people they are going to Heaven. That is not the truth. It is only believers in Jesus Christ that will go to Heaven.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 24th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Matthew 7:17. Jesus says,
“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.”
Then if we go onto verse 20, the Lord says:
“Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
Then we go to James 2:18:
”…and I will show you my faith by my works.”
Folks, remember that our words must match our lifestyle. You can get a fancy qualification through bribery, cheating and corruption. That’s maybe the easy part, but then when you get into the world to get a job and the employer employs you and tells you to get into the workshop and fix that tractor, fix that motorcar, and you can’t do it, straight away you are in big trouble and you will not last there very long at all. Your words must match up to your lifestyle. What you say, you must be able to deliver.
I remember hearing a story of a man that was having a party with all his friends and the conversation got onto a certain sport. This man said, “Yes, I played for that team. I was in the first team at university and I got my full colours for my sporting abilities,” and another man standing next to him said, “What team did you play for?” And he told him, “The first team.” “What university did you go to?” He told him the name of the university.” And what year did you play?” He told him the year and he said, “That is very strange because I played for the same team, at the same year and I played in the first team and I don’t remember you at all!” Do you know how embarrassing that can be? Don’t do that.
I want to say to the young lady who is listening to this message, be sure that that young man you are going out with can deliver what he says. Words are very cheap and they are easy to say, but I want to tell you, there must be fruit. If he is continually late when he fetches you for an invitation that he has invited you to, there is a note there. If he is always spending time with other girls but tells you that he loves you, there is another problem coming that side. You know, when somebody falls in love with you, he will be there on time, in fact even earlier, because the fruit of what he is producing is love, and he loves you and respects you. Check the fruit and you will see that a fig does not come from a thorn tree.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 23rd of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 6:42:
”…how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”
I am laughing because that applies to every single one of us, especially you, sir! You know folks, I love Jesus so much and His teachings are so simple and yet so profound. Remember, people who live in glass houses don’t throw stones. Do not criticise, sort your own situation out before you start to criticise and become a hypocrite. Now, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “hypocrite”. It means “a person who pretends to have higher standards than they really have,” and that is you and I, isn’t it? Let’s be honest.
I have one of my sons who is a very accomplished rugby coach. He has his full colours for Kwazulu-Natal for teaching schoolboys how to play rugby, and often he comes up and visits us on the farm (he is living down in Durban), and we have a little chuckle together. He says to me, “Dad, the main problem I have coaching rugby is not the little boys I have to teach. No, it’s their mothers.” That’s what he told me!
He didn’t say so much about the dads. Mom, you must listen up today. He said they stand on the sidelines, and they are telling their little boy that they must kick the ball, or pass the ball or that he must tackle, or that he is messing up the game plan. He said it gets so bad that he has told the little boys - by the way, it is not their fault - ”If you listen to your mother shouting from the sideline, I am going to substitute you for somebody else." That is harsh, hey? But that is what he has to do because otherwise the kids are listening to their parents who have never played rugby, and this young son of mine has got his full colours as a rugby coach! And of course, the little boys listen to the rugby coach and that is why he is so successful.
Today, please let us, all of us, take the plank out of our own eyes before we start to tell other people how to live. Let’s start doing what Jesus says and not what we think.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, 22nd May 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
We start in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 3:9:
“Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” He could not find Adam.
Then we go to Proverbs 18:24:
“…there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” But if you want to have a friend, you have to be friendly!
I want to say to you today that the reason why God created us, man and woman, is not because He needed us. God doesn’t need anybody nor anything because He is God. Go outside today and look around at the clouds in the sky, the moon at night, the sun during the day, the stars - He made them all by saying one word. In the beginning was the Word, so He doesn’t need us, but He created us because He wants to have you as His personal friend.
Now, to me, it is one of the saddest scripture verses in the Bible. “Adam, Adam, where are you? I am looking for you.” What was Adam doing? Adam and Eve were hiding. Why were they hiding? Because they had been disobedient and had eaten of the forbidden fruit. God knew that, of course, because He knows everything, and He was so heartsore because His friends had actually disobeyed Him. Let’s not do that today.
You see, God didn’t run away from Adam and Eve, they ran away from Him. Jesus never ran away from the disciples or blamed any of them. The disciples ran away from the only Man on earth who could help them, Jesus Christ. It is so precious to have a dear friend and another mistake that we make so often - “I want to go and see my old friend but I just don’t have the time”. Then eventually you get to it. You pick up the phone or you go and visit him and they say, “He died last week. He has gone home to Heaven.” What a tragedy, and you didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye.
Today, do not hide from God and be obedient to what the Lord tells you. Go and visit your friend because if you are lonely, the best way to overcome loneliness is to go and be a friend to someone else.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 21st of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Luke 6:38. Jesus says:
”Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
We are talking about giving, and I want to clarify something here this morning. We are not just talking about money, although money is also a factor. What you give is what you get. If you give nothing, you get nothing. It’s very simple, and this is what the Lord is saying but, you cannot out bless God. I love Him so much. I want you to know that. The more you give Him the more He gives you back. You see, because He is a giver by nature. He’s not a taker. He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to you and me so that we might have eternal life.
We started a little children’s home many years ago on the farm. I think you may be aware of that. I'll never forget, at one stage we had 18 cots, little cots in our children’s home with babies in it that were all a couple of months old. We didn’t do it for any return. We did it because Jesus said that we must take care of them. These children were abandoned and they were found in different places - abandoned in hospitals, abandoned walking down the road, and we took them in. Twenty-seven of them, plus a number that went to be with the Lord because they died in our little children’s home, but they were loved up until the day they died, but I want to tell you, you can’t out bless the Lord. The Lord says: ”For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Just yesterday, I went into town to watch one of my little grandsons playing rugby. There was another school playing against the school my grandson goes to, and I looked up and I saw one of the coaches that was coaching the opposition team, and I looked and I saw that it was one of my sons that had grown up in our children’s home. He has grown into a fine, handsome young man. I shouted across the field to him and he shouted back, ”Hello Dad, how are you?” I was so proud. I didn’t have to tell anybody else, and I have many, many sons and daughters. Some are professional rugby coaches, others are international singers, others are farm managers, others are cordon bleu chefs. We have many that have done so well and we give all the praise, honour and glory to Jesus Christ.
Today, start sowing intentionally and you will reap.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 20th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Corinthians 11:3:
“But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus.”
We have got to keep it simple, very simple. When the devil tempted Eve in the garden, he didn’t say, “God said this…” No, he asked her the question in Genesis 3:1:
“Has God (really, has He) indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
You see, that is how the devil works, he doesn’t attack you straight on. He plays with your mind. He says, “It’s not that bad, is it?” We need to keep the Gospel simple. There is nothing difficult about the Gospel.
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “simplicity” and one of the meanings is “clean lines”. Keep it clean, don’t let it get congested. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith you cannot please God, and he who believes must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. God said it, we believe it, that settles it. We must be careful that we are not too clever for our own good because the devil will help you along.
A lot of people in South Africa are starting to write exams, whether it be for your final year in school or university, and I want to tell you about something called cheating. Cheating is a sin. You cannot cheat. “Aah”, you say, “but Uncle Angus, it is not going to hurt anybody else. It is just going to help me along.” No, what it is going to do, it is going to open the door for the devil to come in and play havoc with your life. Remember, there is nothing new under the sun - the wisest man who ever lived said that. “Did God really say...?” That is how the devil works. “Is it really going to hurt anybody? No - well, then do it!”
I want to say to you today, you need to watch out for the slyness of the devil. I was taught when I was a new Christian, “Look out for the 3 “P’s”. What are the 3 “P’s”? It is not a joke. The first P is power. When you get power, you want more power because people listen to you and you start thinking that you are something when you are not. That is the first “P”.
The second one is petticoats. I am talking to the men. Look out for the temptation of the devil. You shouldn’t go anywhere with a woman who is not your wife by yourself, because of the temptation of the devil. “Aah, but it is just a one-night stand. No-one will find out.” Do you know how many letters I get from men who are broken because they let their wives down? It has destroyed their marriage.
Then the pennies, chasing the money. Chasing the money, you don’t pay your income tax. You think you are clever? I want to tell you something now, you will be caught out. That is exactly what happened to Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Today, let’s sharpen up our act and let’s not give the devil a chance to move in.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 19th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Genesis 2:18, yes, the first book in the Bible, says:
“And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
He didn’t want the men to be lonely. Then we go straight to Matthew 19:5:
‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’.
Women are so different to men. I can hear all the men saying, “Hallelujah”! Do you remember that movie? Many of you don’t, but I am sure you have all heard of it, it was made in 1964, called My Fair Lady? The punchline from the movie is, “I said I’d make a woman and indeed I did. I knew that I could do it! I knew it! I knew it! I said I would make a woman and succeed, and I did.” Remember, the actor when he and his friend were in the street in London? They saw this illiterate young girl selling flowers on the street, and he said to his friend, “I will bet you that I can change that street urchin”, as it were, “into a refined lady”, and they took a bet. That was the theme of the movie. A common woman, uneducated, selling flowers on the street to try and make some money and he educated her into a beautiful, sophisticated young woman, and that is exactly what God did for you and me.
My best friend is my wife. There is no doubt about it. I don’t have to go out with ten other people to enjoy myself. I can spend time with Jill, on my own, as long as I need to and hopefully she will say the same about me. Why? Because God has made and created you and I for each other. I read you the scripture just now. For this reason, a man will leave his mom and dad, and I love my mother and father, be joined to his wife and the two will become one flesh. Such a beautiful union, made in Heaven!
Look after your wives today, gentlemen. Treat them gently. They are not rough like us. They are gentle and refined, they are beautiful, and they are very strong, and they are also made in the image of God.
Have a wonderful day!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 18th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 14:2-6:
”And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. (He was sick)And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go. Then He answered them, saying, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” And they could not answer Him regarding these things.”
Jesus didn’t come down from heaven to earth to break the law. No, He came to fulfil the law. In fact, He is the law. He fulfilled everything His Father told Him to do and He’s told you and I to do exactly the same thing. The Sabbath was not made for man to worship. No, the Sabbath was made by God so that we can rest. You can read that in Genesis 2, where God Himself, after working for six days, rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath. Man is not created for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is created for man. Mark 2:27.
I’m a farmer and I can tell you if I get up early on a Sunday morning to go to church and I love going to church, ask my family, it’s the favourite time of the week for me. We have a church on the farm. We have a congregation. We have two resident pastors here and elders. I am not the preacher. I go there and I sit in the congregation and listen to the word of God every Sabbath. But as a farmer, I want to tell you something. If there is an animal that is caught in a snare, trapped in a dam, I will unfortunately have to leave going to church to save the life of the animal. How much more for a person? Do not get confused. Do not throw the baby out with the water, as they say.
The Lord created us so that we could worship Him and part of worshipping Him is obeying Him. If somebody is sick, if somebody’s hungry, feed them. He says if you do that, you’re doing it unto Me. Today, remember, keep the whole law and the whole law is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your fellow man as yourself.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sabbath.
Goodbye.
*Uncle Angus is aware that according to Jewish tradition, the Sabbath falls on a Saturday, however he is referring to the Sabbath meaning a day of rest in this message.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 17th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Hebrews 12:1-2:
”Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Jesus finished His race!
I want to speak to you today about one of the most gruelling marathon races on the planet. Yes, I am talking about the Comrades Marathon which is going to take place in a few weeks time. It is the Mount Everest of marathon races. In fact, it is two standard marathons, back to back, plus a few kilometres extra. I ran that race once, the downhill one from Pietermaritzburg to Durban but 14 kms from the end, I could view the Indian Ocean, I was on the outskirts of Durban, I collapsed, and was taken to hospital by ambulance and they put a drip in my arm. That happened because I did not eat and I did not drink sufficiently and, so I dehydrated.
I want to tell you about a little bird. Yes, I am talking about the swallow. He is currently leaving South Africa and heading north to Europe for summer. That little bird, I don’t know how much he weighs. He eats and drinks on the wing. He hardly ever stops. He catnaps on the wing, he is disciplined, and that little bird will fly all the way to Europe and then when the winter comes in Europe, he will fly all the way back down to South Africa.
You and I must also be disciplined. We must spend time with Jesus Christ every single day if we are going to finish our race, and it is not a sporting race. It is a race of life and death. Many people start so well but they don’t spend time with Jesus on the route and in the end they collapse and they fall by the way. Let’s not do that today. Let’s be disciplined like the swallow. Let’s spend time with Jesus Christ. He is the source of all we need to eat and drink and we will finish the race strong!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 16th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to Genesis 2:2:
”And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.”
Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Gospel of Mark 6:31:
And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
This is Jesus speaking. Now, if God rested on the seventh day, I’m talking about the Creator of heaven and earth, who created everything that you can see with one word (In the beginning was the Word), if He rested on the seventh day, how much more should we mere mortals also rest? C. H. Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, wrote a letter back to his congregation when he was resting and recovering, probably from exhaustion; he said, ”By doing less, I hope to accomplish more.” Are you listening to this message my dear friend? Well I am, because I think it applies to me maybe more than some of you. That is not a joke actually. It’s very serious. It’s time to smell the roses. What does that mean? Some of us are so busy that we don’t even see the roses, never mind smell them.
They say - don’t quote me - but when the French Revolution took place in France and the whole metric system came into being, they decided to work for ten days and then rest, but it didn’t last long because the very draught animals, the horses, were dropping down in the streets and dying from exhaustion, because we have been designed to work for six days and then to rest for one day.
I really want to encourage you to look at your own lives very carefully because I’ve had to do the very same thing myself. We can make many excuses. You know, I know men that are holding down two and three jobs at one time. They are working themselves to death and your children want you, not what you can give them. They want you to spend time with them. So today, let’s re-evaluate how we are living our lives and give God first place, then your family second place, then your work, your vision, your ministry, third place.
Jesus bless you and have a restful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 15th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis 1:27:
”So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Then we go to the Book of Colossians 1:27 which says:
”…Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
I don’t care what anybody says, the Bible tells me very clearly, we did not evolve from animals, from monkeys. We were created specifically by God, and you and I have a free choice today, whether we want to serve Him or not. He’s given us the freedom to choose. You see I’ve got cattle on this farm. They don’t get any choice. Those cattle do not have a spirit in them. We have a spirit in us. That’s why we are different to the creation of the world.
We were made in three parts - body, soul and spirit. The body is your physical appearance. The soul is your character, your personality. There are no two people who have the same character or the same personality or the same set of fingerprints. Each and everyone, can you believe that? I don’t how many billion people there are on the world today but there’s not two people who have the same fingerprints because God made us, and that is why you and I need to be born again. Who said that? Jesus said that. He says, ”Unless you are born again, you’ll never see the Kingdom of Heaven.”
You know, this is a very important thing I want to say to you today, my dear friend. The spirit of a man never, ever dies. His body dies, it goes from dust to dust, but his spirit lives forever. Now we need to be sure that when we die we are going to heaven and not going to hell, and that is why we preach with such passion to people. I used to say it myself, I want to be honest with you, ”Let’s eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow we die.” No we don’t die. You either go to heaven to be with Jesus forever or to hell.
My dear old mother, I loved her so much, and I’m going to see her one day in heaven. Just after I had given my life to the Lord, I went to visit her one day, and she was crying. I said, ”Why are you crying mom?” She said, ”Because it’s different, Angus. It’s not the same anymore.” I said, ”Why?” And then I realised my mom had recognised that I had changed. The Spirit of God was within me. Today, tell people about Jesus.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 14th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 1:19:
”So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”
Then we go to Psalm 74:16:
”The day is Yours, the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun.”
The Lord has made night and day for you and me. I want to say something to you this morning, I am a morning person, my day starts at 4 o’clock in the morning. It always has as far back as I can remember, especially when I was farming full time and my children were still young. I found that in the morning was always the best time for me. It still is by the way. That is when I do this very thought for the day for you. I have breakfast at 9 o’clock with my dear wife, Jill, on the farm because that’s what I used to do when I was farming. I would start work early and come in for breakfast at 9 o’clock and I want to be honest with you, the bulk of my work would be done on the farm by that time. They were the most critical times of the day for me.
I believe Jesus Himself was an early morning person because often the disciples would say, ”Lord, where have You been? The people are in the valley, they have been waiting for you.” But He had been getting instructions from His Heavenly Father on the mountain, early in the morning. I am talking about a quiet time aren’t I? - Giving the Lord the first fruits of the day - Isaiah 40:31:
”But those who wait on the Lord…” Those who spend time with the Lord, ”But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
If you put the Lord first in your life and I’m talking about in every area, that will give you the strength to see the day through. The great reformer, Martin Luther was asked, ”When you get very busy, what do you do in the morning?” Expecting him probably to say, ”Well, I have to cut back on my quiet time.” He says, ”No, I get up even earlier.” I want to say to you today. Start getting up earlier and spending time in the presence of the Lord when no one else can disturb you, and you’ll be surprised at how well your day will go.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 13th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Luke 6:12-13:
”Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve…”
When was the last time you spent a whole night in prayer, on your own, with the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever done it? We really need to spend time with the Lord and we need to make quality decisions. We are living in perilous times and we cannot afford just to wing it, as they say. We need to spend time in prayer, especially when it comes to major decisions.
The Son of God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, spent a whole night in prayer before He made a very serious decision and chose the twelve disciples, who literally changed the world. If the Son of God, Jesus Christ, spent a whole night in prayer, how much more should we be doing that? Many of us don’t even give Jesus a time to answer us when we pray about something and we end up just doing a thumb suck and saying, ”Well, let’s see which way the wind is going to blow and I’ll take that as a decision from the Lord.” You can’t do that anymore because we are living in times that are so dangerous. We really need to hear from God.
Many of the men listening to this message, and the women, will remember in 2008, that we booked the biggest tent in the world by raw faith. It was made in Britain, enlarged in Europe and it was shipped out to Johannesburg, South Africa, for the World Earth Summit. We booked it and they brought it down to the farm. Seventeen 40-ton trucks brought that tent down. It took three weeks to erect it.
We had an amazing time. We had 30,000 men seated inside and about another 30,000 men seated outside. The tent was too small! After that amazing event, some very kind, godly businessmen from Johannesburg wrote to me and said they wanted to buy the tent for me, no strings attached. I mean, this is a tent that is worth millions and millions of rand and I said, ”Can I pray about it and I will come back to you?” And I did pray and I prayed hard and the Lord gave me this message. He said, ”Do not receive that tent,” because that tent would have become a millstone around my neck. It would have killed me.
You see, just to erect that tent cost R1,000,000 every time, never mind transporting it to the next venue and so very, very humbly I said to them, ”Thank you. I’m so touched that you want to do this but I’ve got instructions from the Lord. I spent time in prayer, lots of time, and He told me I won’t need it.” You know the next year, we had 120,000 men on this farm.
Spend time in prayer and God will give you correct answers.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 12th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 3:1-2:
“To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;…”
Then we go to the Gospel of John 4:35. Jesus said:
“Do you not say,‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”
We are speaking today about seasons. What season are you in? In South Africa, we are going into winter. I know in Europe and in North America, they are going into summer. I love seasons, as a farmer, I really do. Every season is so special. We are in the autumn season at the moment in South Africa. The Americans call it the time of fall, the fall season, where all the trees are losing their leaves. They are a beautiful golden amber colour, rich in colour. The crops are golden for harvest. Jesus says, “Do not hold back. It is time to reap.”
What season are you in at the moment? I know that Canada is a beautiful country, but it also can be very harsh for agriculture. Those men have to work because they have a hundred days to prepare their land, plant their crops, and harvest their crops before the snow. They need to look sharp.
Don’t waste the season that you are in at the moment. The Lord will use you in whatever season you happen to be in, and do not wish it away. I get so sad when I hear people say, “I wish this winter would finish” and then they say, “I wish the spring would get done with” and then “Summer, it is so hot. I wish the winter would come.” They are never happy. Every season is very special. Don’t wish it away, but rather embrace it and enjoy it. Don’t be afraid of retirement, madam. Sir, don’t be afraid. It is an opportunity, a new opportunity to be used by God. I want to say to that young man, a faint heart never gained a fair maiden. If you love her, propose to her and marry her. What are you hanging around for? If you don’t look sharp somebody else will marry her.
I remember in London in the City Temple, I married no less than twelve couples in one night, and they came in their casual clothes. It is a service I will never forget as long as I live. I also remember standing in the stadium, the rugby stadium in Durban, at Kings Park, and saying, “To hell with El Nino” (that’s the drought). I am going home to plant potatoes.” And I did.
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 11th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
We start off in the Book of Genesis 1:11-13:
“Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. (That is oranges, making oranges, apples making apples - fruit trees, that’s right!) And God saw that it was good. So the evening and the morning were the third day.”
Then we go to the Book of Hebrews 6:7:
”For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; ...”
The seed, we can’t live without the seed germinating because that is what makes the food, young man, young lady, that you eat every morning for your breakfast. You know what they say - “Never criticise a farmer with your mouth full because if he doesn’t produce the food, we do not eat, and if we don’t eat, we die!” Of course, the farmer does not actually produce the food. God does. The farmer simply cultivates it.
Over the last few weeks, I have had some incredible testimonies coming in from some of the driest areas in Southern Africa. People in tears, when they are sending me photos of a miracle, areas where there has been not one drop of rain for 4 years, and now it looks like the Garden of Eden. But I can hear some farmers saying, “But Angus, we are getting drowned out in our area.” Oh, I understand sir, only too well. I remember Domoina like yesterday, where the area in Greytown was cut off from civilisation. For 3 or 4 days we couldn’t get out because of the floods, but I want to tell you something now, the floods will cease and the sun will shine and the rain will come and the seed will germinate.
I have grown seed for over forty years and I want to tell you, there is nothing more beautiful than seeing that beautiful seed being harvested and pouring into the back of my old truck so I could take it to the factory. Today, be grateful when you eat your food young boy, young girl and thank God that you have got food to eat and pray for those who don’t. But remember the seed of the martyrs of the church, some of them never lived to see the fruit of their labours, but they will see it in Heaven.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 10th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Mark 10:28-30:
Then Peter began to say to Him (to Jesus), “See, we have left all and followed You.” So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time…”
We will just stop there.
I really believe that today is decision time for you and for me. Are we going to follow Him with all our hearts? Are we going to be like the rich young ruler who walked away because he couldn’t? He couldn’t give it all up for Jesus’ sake. Jesus didn’t want it, He was just testing him, but he failed the test. I want to ask you today, are you counting the cost? You see, when you make a decision for Jesus, you could be mocked even by your very own family. It could cost you your relationship with your girlfriend, your boyfriend. Yes, it could cost you a job promotion. If you have made a decision to follow Jesus, it could cost you your very own life!
Remember Jim Elliot, that young 29-year-old man with his beautiful young wife and his baby daughter, who went to the Amazon Jungle to preach the Gospel to those who didn’t know Jesus. It cost him his life; they killed him. He said and I quote: “It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” What can’t you keep? You can’t keep your own life, and when you make a decision for Jesus, you can’t lose. You have eternal life waiting for you. Today, you need to decide. Remember that song? We haven’t sung one for a while, have we? Sing it with me, “I have decided to follow Jesus.”
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
No turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back
The world behind me and the cross before me
The world behind me and the cross before me
The world behind me and the cross before me
No turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
Don’t turn back now - It is too late! Jesus is not coming soon, He is on His way I tell you. Have a wonderful day, stand strong and He will stand with you. A very good day to you!
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 9th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 43:1:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine.”
What a promise from God! Do not be afraid. Then we go to the New Testament, to 2 Timothy 1:7:
”For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Now the opposite of fear is faith. That’s right. The Lord says in Mark 11:22 “Have faith in God”, not in anybody else, not even in yourself, in God! Many many times, the Lord, when he had prayed for the sick said, “Go in peace, your faith has made you well.” He said that to Bartimaeus, the blind man, in Mark 10:52:
“Go your way; your faith has made you well.”
We really need to put our eyes on Jesus and not on that fearful thing that is plaguing us at the moment.
Do you know folks, do you remember Neil Armstrong? Who was Neil Armstrong, young people? Well, he was the Captain of the space shuttle Apollo 11. He was the first man ever to walk on the face of the moon. Go out tonight and have a look at that moon. He walked on top of that moon. His famous quotation was, ”That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” Do you know that 530 million viewers worldwide heard that around the world. That is an incredible step of faith, step into the unknown.
Well, I want to tell you another little story. I’ve got three daughters and when they were small little girls, I would jump into the swimming pool and they would come and stand on the edge and I would say, ”Come on now. Jump in and I’ll catch you.” And you know what little girls are like, they want to jump in but they’re too scared. Then they are standing on the spot and their little feet are going up and down and they are holding their hands and they are saying, ”Dad, I’m scared. I’m scared, Daddy.” I’d say, ”Don’t be scared. Just watch me and jump and I’ll catch you.” And then they would take one giant leap and jump into that pool and they would defeat fear.
Today, maybe you are full of fear. You don’t know what the future holds for you and the devil’s telling you, “You’re a failure, you’ll never make it.” It’s a lie I tell you, from the pit of hell. Just take that leap of faith into God’s arms. He has promised you that you are His and He will keep you safe.
Lord, I pray for my friend listening to this very message now, that You will give them faith the size of a mustard seed, that they can take a giant leap into Your arms today, and their problems and their situations will disappear.
In Jesus name, amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 8th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 1:1:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Do you believe that? I believe it with all of my heart. Then we go to the last book in the Bible, Revelation 22:12-13: Jesus says:
“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”
Listen to this now, verse 13:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
Oh my dear friend, Jesus Christ is God made flesh. When the disciples said, “Lord, show us the Father”, He said, “You have been with Me so long, have you not seen?” He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe in the Holy Trinity.
Now, I read an article explaining how the Big Bang started and this is what it says: “According to this theory, the universe expanded from an extremely small, extremely hot and extremely dense state. Since then it has expanded and become less dense and cooler. The Big Bang is the best model used by astronomers to explain the creation of matter, space and time, 13.7 billion years ago. That is the Big Bang Theory.
Now, you might say to me, “Who created God?” Well, God always was. I have just read it to you. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He has always been and He always will be. He says,
“I am the same yesterday, today and forevermore”. (Hebrews 13:8)
The Big Bang Theory - we need to ask those astronomers, who created the Big Bang or who created the extremely hot, extremely dense state? And they cannot tell you. I want to say to you today, I have a high respect for science. In fact, I have family members who are science teachers so I am not going there, I am just a simple farmer - but I have met the Man from Galilee, I have met the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is my Friend. He saved me from eternal damnation and hell and He can be your friend too, if you will simply open your heart today and believe Him. If people ask you questions and you don’t have the answers, don’t try and give them your explanation. Just tell them, “I don’t know about all these things but I do know one thing - Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Saviour.”
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you and by the way, He is coming back very soon. I can’t wait, can you?
Bye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 7th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 18:4. Jesus says:
“Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Have you ever seen a small little child of maybe three, four years old coming to a meeting, standing there so shy, so humble? Oh, you just want to pick up that child and just love them, don’t you? Such innocence!
We go to Philippians 2:7. Paul is talking about Jesus:
“but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.”
I am talking about the King of Glory, the Lord of Lords, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the greatest King who has ever lived, made Himself a servant, a bondservant.
You know folks, we must remember that your attitude will determine your altitude and it just depends on how you conduct yourself. I have been humbled so many times in my own life and I just want to tell you a story, maybe I have told you before, but I think it is worth listening to again.
I was invited to the palace of a great king. This king has over 13 million subjects. After we had met and spoken about the Lord and I had shared my testimony, he took me out to show me his grounds to show me a herd of beautiful cattle that belonged to him, and while the entourage was with him and we were standing together and admiring his cattle, a lady came up to me and said, “Can I speak to you?” And I said, “Yes”. She said, “Where can I get some tomato seedlings? I want to put them into my garden.” And I looked at her and I said, “Madam, I can tell you exactly where to get them. What is your office here in the palace?” Folks, I kid you not, she said, “Mr Buchan, I am the queen.” You know, I was looking for a hole that I could hide myself away, I was so embarrassed, but what a gracious lady - she never batted an eyelid, she just carried on talking. You must humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, otherwise you will be humbled. Now folks, let's go out today with a heart of humility.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 6th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 5:32. This is Jesus speaking. He says:
“”I did not come to call the [self-proclaimed] righteous [who see no need to repent], but sinners to repentance [to change their old way of thinking, to turn from sin and to seek God and His righteousness].” (Amplified Version)
Straight forward, straight talking - “I didn’t come to seek those who think they are okay. I came for those who know they are not okay but they want to change their ways.” We need to remember where we came from. Remember, people who live in glass houses don’t throw stones! I am one of them because I remember where I was before I met the King of Glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. I was lost, I was desperate, I needed help and I met the Lord and He changed my life. He also changed my way of thinking.
Sometimes the best ambassadors for the Kingdom of God are newly converted believers because they understand so clearly what the other man or woman is going through. When you walk with the Lord for many years, you tend to forget sometimes what the man in the street is up against and you can’t identify with him. I remember a minister once saying to me, a lovely man of God, he said, “The day I put the dog collar on, the day that I got dressed in my minister’s garb, I lost 95% of my witness, because people see you coming from a long way away, not to say that it is wrong, but that is a fact.” What do they say? It takes a thief to catch a thief. I shouldn’t really say that should I? But what I think that saying means is that if you really understand where somebody is, you can identify with them.
The first man I ever led to the Lord Jesus Christ was in a maize field, my green cathedral, and that man is now with Jesus today. But the two of us were in tears, we didn’t know really how to pray the Sinner’s Prayer but we did it and I know God saw it and I know that that day, that man changed. Jesus has come for you today. I don’t know where you are at in your life. Maybe you are lost and you say, “I can’t go on anymore, Angus.” Please pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I am a sinner and I need you today to help me.
I can’t go on much longer.
Please help me, and I ask this in Your precious name.
Amen.
That is good enough for the Lord, and now follow through. Find a believer, tell him your story, get a Bible, start reading it because if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 5th of May, 2025, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Malachi 4:6:
“And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,…”
A reconciliation produced by repentance, by saying sorry and humbling ourselves. Then we go straight to the Book of Ephesians 6:1 (Amplified Version)
Children, obey your parents in the Lord [that is, accept their guidance and discipline as His representatives], for this is right [for obedience teaches wisdom and self-discipline].”
Children, you’ve got to honour your mom and your dad. You say, “But you've never met my mum and dad. Uncle Angus.” No, I haven’t, but I'm a father myself. You see, the first commandment in the Bible with a promise added to it is Commandment Number 5, which says, “Honour your mother and your father so that your days may be long in the land”. You've got to honour Mum and Dad, for God's sake, if you want a blessing over your life. The hardest place to be a Christian is often in your own home, especially if mom and dad don't want to follow the Lord. You've got to honour them. Then I want to say to dads,
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger. Do not exasperate them to the point of resentment with demands that are trivial, small things, or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive, nor show favouritism or indifference to any of them,…”
Ephesians 6:4
You can't have any favourites in the home. You must treat all your children the same way. Don't embarrass them in public. Do you know the peer pressure that your children are going through at the moment is unbelievable? Let home be a safe haven for them, where they can come home and open up their hearts towards you, and tell you about what's happening at school or, in university, or in life. These are very important.
“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul” (or his family)? Mark 8:36.
I really want to say to you today, work on your home, work on your marriage, work on your relationship with your children. Do you notice that the Lord is speaking here to fathers, not mothers? Gentlemen, you must take up your right responsibility, and children, you've got to respect your mum and dad, and then things will go well in your home.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 4th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 60:1:
“Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.”
Oh, my dear friend, He is not dead, He is alive, and He is coming back soon. The tomb is empty. We have just celebrated Easter. Our Saviour is alive and He is well!
Then we go the New Testament, to the Book of Ephesians 5:14:
“Therefore He says: “Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.”
The Lord is telling you and I to get out of that place of despondency, that place of death, and arise because our Champion is very much alive today. How is it with you? Are you feeling depressed? Are you feeling that there is no future? There is a future, and the future is Jesus Christ! He is coming back very soon to fetch you and me and take us home to be with Him in glory. We need to prepare. Somebody once said we must live like He is coming tomorrow, and we must prepare like He is coming in 1000 years. We must be prepared.
They asked John Wesley, the great English reformer, “If you knew that Jesus was coming tomorrow, what would you do today?” He said,“Well, this morning I have got a Bible study at 9 o’clock, then I am getting on my horse, Dobbin, and I am riding to the next town, and then I have got another meeting and then this evening, I will be meeting with a few people.” In other words, he just carried on.
Arise, awake! “Martin Luther, if you knew the Lord was coming tomorrow, what would you do today?” He said, “I would plant an apple tree.” If you go to Germany you’ll see they have many apple trees, beautiful apple trees. What are these two giants of the faith saying? They are saying that we need to awake. We need to realise that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who gives us the strength to live one day at a time. Don’t look for the living among the dead. The tomb is empty. Jesus says, “Wake up, wake up today.”
Jesus bless you and wake up!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 3rd of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Malachi 3:18:
”Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”
Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Book of Matthew 7:21, Jesus says:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
The Lord has given us the ability to discern good from evil, righteous from unrighteous, and we need to use our God-given senses and not be foolish. The Lord says you shall know a tree by its fruit. An apple tree does not produce oranges, and an orange tree does not produce lemons. We need to understand that.
We have got a magnificent bull on the farm here. He is a beautiful bull but very cheeky. Sometimes, when I ride Snowy, I go into that open field, and fortunately, Snowy is still very nimble and fast, but that bull watches me all the time. He doesn’t take his eyes off me, and he is dangerous. Now, I have spoken to my grandsons, my two grandsons are very good horsemen and good stockmen and I have said to my one young grandson, Nathan, “Be careful of that young bull. Don’t just wander across that field. He will charge you and he will hurt you.” We need to be very discerning.
I am also a bee-keeper. I want to say to young people today, if it is a very hot day, the sun is shining and the bees are agitated because they are working very hard, do not go and disturb them. They will hurt you. You say young man, young lady, “I can run away from them Uncle Angus”. No, you can’t, no-one, not even Usain Bolt can run away from a swarm of bees. I fear a swarm of bees more than a lion. We need to be discerning.
Then lastly, I want to say to that young lady who is going out with that boy and he keeps saying “If you don’t let me sleep with you then I am not going to be your boyfriend.” Give him the push, get rid of him, he is just using you. He does not love you. You tell that young man, “On the night that we get married, is the first night that we will love each other”, and he will soon tell you by his actions whether he loves you or whether he is trying to use you.
Let us be wise. God has given us discernment, therefore let us use that ability.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 2nd of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Exodus 3:2
”And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.”
An amazing sight, Moses saw that bush burning but it was never consumed. Then we go straight to the Gospel of Luke 5:26:
”And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”
Have you seen any strange things lately? I have and I tell you what, it never ceases to amaze me. I think a couple of years ago, when we were called to go down to Jeffrey’s Bay, we were at a Mighty Men Conference, and we were told that Port Elizabeth was running out of water. There was no water. People couldn’t water their gardens, they had to use water very sparingly and on the Sunday morning, we had a prayer meeting and we said, “We are going to pray for rain, that the Lord will fill the Kouga Dam with water", and folks, I want to tell you as I was finishing off the message, people were pointing up into the sky and I looked up into the sky and I saw the sun. It was close to midday, and the sun was burning brightly, but there was a distinct ring around the sun. I have never seen that before in my life. Indeed, we have seen strange things, and we give all the glory to Jesus Christ.
I want to say to you today, do not limit God. By the way, that Kouga Dam, to my understanding, is still flowing with water. It filled and it has been running non-stop for the last couple of years.
Jesus bless you as you open your spiritual eyes and see the strange things which are happening on the earth at the moment. That's nothing to be afraid of. It is something to get very excited about. Jesus Christ is not coming soon, He is on His way I tell you!
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 1st of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Malachi 3:16:
“So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the Lord
And who meditate on His name.”
Then we go straight to the Gospel of Mark 16:7:
”But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”
Jesus remembers your name, my dear friend. It doesn’t matter what you have done or haven’t done, He still knows you by name because He created you in His own image. There is nothing sweeter than to hear the mention of your own name. Come on now, be honest, it is lovely when somebody says, “Hello John, Hello Mary, how are you?” You think to yourself, “he remembered my name”, “she remembered my name”, and Jesus tells us this morning that He has got a book of remembrance. Your name is in that book, the Lamb’s Book of Life - nothing sweeter!
Peter, the big fisherman, was always changing feet. He was like a bull in a china shop. I tend to be a bit like that myself and get into trouble, but the Lord loved Peter so much. Even though Peter dropped the ball, even though Peter denied the Lord three times and he had just said a few hours before, “I will die for You” but he denied Him. He even blasphemed the Bible says, he swore, ‘I don’t even know Him” and yet the Lord Jesus knew that when the disciples were told to go down to Galilee and there Jesus would meet them all, He knew that Peter would not come because he was so broken. He had let the Lord down. “Tell the disciples—and Peter, I will see them in Galilee.” The Lord is saying to you the very same thing. “Tell Joe, tell Barnabas, tell Mark, I will see them in Heaven.” Today is a great day.
Jeremiah 1:5 in the Amplified Bible is even more confirmation:
“Before I formed you in the womb (in other words, before you were conceived in your mother’s womb, Jesus says) I knew you [and approved of you as My chosen instrument], And before you were born I consecrated you [to Myself as My own]; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
That’s how much He loves you. He knows you! Speak to Him today!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 30th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 5:16:
“So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.”
Who am I talking about here? I am talking about the Son of God, I am talking about Jesus Christ, I am talking about Immanuel - God with us. Now, if He had to do that, how much more should you and I be doing that? He did it often, not now and again.
Oh my dear friend, I think this message is aimed more at me than it is at you! Contemplation - when you contemplate something. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “contemplate”. It means to look at thoughtfully, to think about, to think deeply and at length. It says that to contemplate is to look at, gaze at, stare at, view, regard, examine, inspect, observe, (are you getting the story?) survey, study. He contemplated. We need to ponder, you and I, how many times are we taking time out to think about the way forward? We don’t, do we? We just go for it, we wing it. It is one of my favourite things and I hate myself for it. There is no time left in the world to wing it. We need to concentrate on something called time management. Remember Jesus was never late, He was never early, He was always spot on time.
We think about Lazarus, His friend in the grave. “Lord, if You had come, my brother would have lived,” but the Lord commanded him to be raised from the dead. You know, it is first the mountain, and then the ministry, or your work or whatever else. If you don’t spend time up the mountain, not a literal mountain, but time in the morning, praying, reading the word of God, and contemplating about what you are going to do that day, you will make some very poor decisions. Now, let us start to think.
I remember, very clearly, sitting at the banks of the mighty Zambezi River, which separates Zambia from Zimbabwe, about to go across that river on a pontoon with that 20-ton Mercedes Benz truck for six weeks, leaving my young wife and children back on the farm. I was contemplating things very seriously, crying out to God to protect my family and He did. We need to hear from God first before we make any decisions.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 29th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Malachi 3:3, the last book in the Old Testament:
“He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;
He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer to the Lord
An offering in righteousness.”
Then we go straight to 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul says:
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
Are you going through a rough time today? Are you saying, ”Angus, I can’t take this anymore. I have come to the end of my tether.” Well, you are not alone. The Lord tells us very clearly that this has happened to all of God’s people who have gone before us and who are walking on this very road with us at present.
I looked up the refiner’s fire. Do you know how hot that fire is? I have been in many bushfires, and the heat sometimes is incredible, almost unbearable, but in order to make glass, you use sand as one of your main ingredients, and they melt that sand to 1,500 degrees centigrade, and then it becomes molten glass. Now, the Lord is doing that very thing with you and me. He is perfecting us for the great day when Jesus will take us home so we must put our trust in the Lord, and we must understand, He will take all the impurities, the sin, out of our lives through fiery trials so that we will be pure before the Lord on that great day. But the scripture I love so much is that He says He will not allow you to take more than you can handle. He knows how much you can take.
Trust Him, He is your creator, and out of this testing time that you are going through at the moment, you will be surprised how beautiful it will be when you come out of that testing. So today, trust Him and He will see you through.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 28th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Isaiah 63:9:
”In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old.”
Then we go to Hebrews 13:5, where the Lord says:
”I will never leave you or forsake you.”
He says, ”I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you.” I want to read a little story to you that you know very well, but I think it’s worth listening to again because maybe I’m talking to somebody who says, “Lord, where are you? You promised me, Lord, You promised me that You would never leave me, You would never forsake me, but I am going through my deepest time of testing and I need Your help.” It is called Footprints In The Sand:
“One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each, I noticed footprints in the sand, sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was only one.
During the low periods of my life I could see only one set of footprints, so I said, ‘Lord, You promised me that You would walk with me always. Why then when I have needed You the most, You have not been there for me?
The Lord replied, “The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried You."
Father God,
I want to pray for my dear friend listening to this message that they will realise that today you have promised us that You will carry us on Your shoulders when we can’t walk any longer, and You will strengthen us and You will ensure that we get to our destination which is ultimately to be with You in Heaven, forever and ever, amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 27th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Luke 5:10:
“And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.”
What a beautiful scripture! The Lord wants to make you and I fishers of men. Then we go to the Gospel of Mark 16:15:
“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
The Lord is calling you and I today to be fishers of men, not just fishers of fish but men. Peter was a fisherman. He used all his secular skills to win souls for Christ once the Lord had called him into full-time service. I want to speak to young people this morning. A lot of young people are getting ready to write their final exams and then go into the world. I want to say one thing to you, get qualified! Get qualified. If you are qualified, you will be of more use to the Lord in the mission field than in anything else. The Lord is looking for doctors, nurses, engineers, farmers. He wants to teach people how to fish.
Now, I remember clearly as a young boy, maybe 16 years old, I read about an organisation called VSO, Voluntary Service Overseas, and I wrote to them and I said I want to offer myself to help the poor in foreign nations, and I never even got a response. I was so disappointed but you know, they were quite correct. I had nothing to offer. We don’t want to go to some underprivileged country and eat the food from poor people, and we have absolutely nothing to offer in return. Let us get qualified. If you want to be a motor mechanic, then be the best one for Jesus. If you want to be a farmer, then produce food for Jesus, and that will give you a passport into any nation on earth. When people know that you are qualified as a doctor, an engineer, and as a farmer and let us shine for the Lord so we will be fishers of men. And once we do that, people will ask us to please help them, pray for them and lead them to Christ.
Have a wonderful day as a fisher of men,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 26th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to 2 Corinthians 6:2:
“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Every day is a special day for you and me. When we wake up in the morning, we should rejoice, “Lord, we have been given the privilege of living one more day on this earth for you”, but we take it for granted, don’t we? We must stop doing that. I read an article written by Ann Wells from the Los Angeles Times. She tells the story of a friend who was packing up all the clothes and personal possessions from a relative, and just the importance of using what we have. Today is a very special day for you and for me. God has given us the privilege to live it.
Let’s not waste this opportunity, let’s not save that special dress for a special occasion. Put it on today, and you will look beautiful in it. That tool you have got in your toolbox, sir, that you are waiting to use on a special day - today is the day. Use it! Drive that motorbike, get in that car and go for a ride, take your wife out and buy her a special meal today, not tomorrow, because we only have today. Let us redeem the time. Then she finishes up by saying, “Everyday is that special day you have been waiting for. Seize it! Carpé Diem, seize the day!”
Go out today and spoil somebody, go out today and give somebody that thing that you have been saving up to give them at Christmas. Do it today because we might be in Heaven by Christmas. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Use it!
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 25th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Malachi 2:7:
“For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge,
And people should seek the law from his mouth;
For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.”
Then we go to the Book of Galatians 4:14 in the New Testament:
“And my trial (this is Paul speaking) which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.”
Do you know the power there is in a spoken word, positive or even negative? If you go into the jungle and find a shaman, a witch doctor, and if he speaks a curse over the people, over a particular person, that man will go and sit under a tree and literally die because a curse has been spoken over his life, that is if he does not know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour.
We need to be so careful what we say. You and I are representing the risen Lord Jesus Christ, therefore our opinion does not count, the only thing that counts when you are giving somebody advice, is what the Word of God says about the situation. I have just read a letter which concerned me a lot, written by a final year student, studying for a B.Com Degree. She told me in the letter, that she has been diagnosed with some medical condition which is hampering her studies, and I could hear that she was very stressed out. I want to tell you, that letter was so beautifully written and I could hear that it was written by an extremely intelligent young lady. But the diagnosis she got was that basically she was not going to make it. I spoke against it, I have prayed against it, and I have told her that I am looking forward to when she receives her degree. I will not listen to the lies, negative words of the devil, spoken over people, and you shouldn’t either.
We need to encourage people always in love but they need to hear the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Today, let your words be very carefully spoken and make sure that you are only talking things that the Lord, Himself, would say. Paul said to the people, “You treat me even like an angel or like the Lord Jesus, Himself“, and we need to do exactly the same.
Jesus bless you and go and speak life over people, not death,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 24th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 2:6:
“And turned many away from iniquity.”
Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Book of James 5:20:
”…he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of visiting an older gentleman who was well into his nineties, a very fine older man. I went to have a cup of tea with him. His daughter was there as well and his daughter was concerned about his salvation. We sat and had a cup of tea and started to talk to him (he originated in bonny Scotland) and spoke to him about the old country, as it were, and we talked about lots of different things. Then slowly but surely I started to speak to him about his salvation, about the fact that Jesus loves sinners, about the fact that we need to put our trust and hope in Him. I was praying all the time in my heart, “Please Lord, open this man’s heart to you” and I asked the old gentleman, “Sir, do you mind if we pray together?” He was actually quite open to it, together, we prayed the prayer of faith. That gentleman went to be with Jesus just a week or two ago.
I want to say to you that when you go to speak to someone about his salvation, especially a man who is a proud man, a good man, but he has never made a commitment to Christ, you need to be gentle. You need to be forthright but you need to be gentle. You need to speak to that older gentleman, or that older lady, or that young person about something they are interested in and get their trust first and then once you have done that you broach the subject and you pray with them the Sinner’s Prayer. Very rarely have I had anyone who refused to pray that prayer with me.
I want to pray for you today. Maybe you have never actually made a public confession of your faith. Why don’t you do it now? Pray this prayer after me please:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I acknowledge I am a sinner and I am in need of a saviour, please help me to put my trust in You completely.
I will serve no other gods but You.
I thank You for dying for me, a sinner,
In Jesus’ mighty name, amen.
Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 23rd of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 4:28-30:
“So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ told the people in the synagogue, that “this Scripture has come to pass”, where He said He would set the captives free, heal the broken-hearted and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 5:9:
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.”
I want to say to you today that we must move on. Sometimes we continue to ask people to forgive us, and they will not do it. Eventually, Jesus moved on. He went down to Galilee to Capernaum and performed many, many miracles there. We need to move on with our lives. You cannot keep holding back because people do not want to forgive you, they will not release you.
Remember the prodigal son, what happened to him? He told his father he wanted all his inheritance, went off, and blew the whole lot. His father didn’t run after him and say, “Come back son, let’s talk about this.” He left him, and when he was completely at his wit’s end, he came back to his dad. His dad loved him, forgave him and restored him.
Today I might be speaking to someone who is dealing with that very issue. I have to move on, there is no change, they will not forgive me, they want to continue to persecute me. I am moving on with my life. The Lord says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” not “blessed are the peace-lovers." Sometimes, in order for reconciliation, there needs to be a time of moving on, and if that person wants to sincerely forgive you, they can come and visit you and forgive you, but in the meantime, you have got to get on with the calling on your life.
Now, today move on just like Jesus did and leave that person whoever it might be. Maybe it is a member of your family, a loved one, or a workmate. Leave them in God’s hands and He will deal with them in due course.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 22nd of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Luke 3 and I am not going to read that chapter. I would like you to read it, but that whole chapter is the family tree of our Lord Jesus Christ, starting from verse 23 - Luke 3:23.
“Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi,…”
Do you know that that family tree goes all the way back? You will see in verse 38: “
… the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.”
That is the family tree of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. If you go to the Book of John 15:5, the Lord says Himself:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit…”
I am talking today about the family tree. Maybe you are sitting there and you are saying, “Angus, I am an orphan. I don’t have any family. Maybe your family has rejected you, maybe your family has died and you feel that you have got nothing. I want to tell you that if you are a born-again Christian, you are not an orphan. You are a son or a daughter of the Living God. Family trees are important to people. I think I have told you before, my family comes from Scotland. My mother's mother was a Livingstone. Have you ever heard of David Livingstone? Of course you have. Well, she came from the West Coast of Scotland and that's where David Livingstone comes from. I would like to believe that I am related to that man who was partly responsible for abolishing the slave trade in Africa. My dad’s mother was a Finney, her maiden name was Finney. Have you heard of Charles Finney, the great American revivalist who won many, many souls to Christ? That is my family. I don’t know whether it is direct or not, it doesn’t matter, but ultimately and more importantly, I am a child of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, my sins have been forgiven, I have got a family tree, a future that I can look forward to. What about you? Let's pray together.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Today, I am sorry that I think I am an orphan. I am not an orphan, I am a son of the Living God, I am a daughter of the Living God. That is my inheritance and when I get home, you are not going to say to me, “Welcome friend”, You are going to say, “Welcome home, son or daughter of the Living God.” That is something to look forward to.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 21st of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Zechariah 13:9b:
“They will call on My name,
And I will answer them. I will say,
‘This is My people’;
And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
Then we just go to Zechariah 8:8:
“They shall be My people
And I will be their God,
In truth and righteousness.”
Then just the last verse for today, Matthew 16:24:
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
The Lord says that we are going to go through fiery trials, oh yes, just like silver and gold, we are going to be purified in fiery trials. Then we will call Him our Father and He will call us His people. The Lord never promised you and me a bed of roses. No, no, there is nowhere in the Bible He said that.
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Psalm 34:19
I want to tell you a little story. Many, many years ago, there were a group of actors, production people and producers and editors who came to Shalom, they came to make a movie called, “Faith like Potatoes” and the principle actor, a man that I love dearly, Frank Rautenbach, took the part of Angus in the movie. The night we met, we had to meet all the actors, Jeanne took the part of my wife Jill, did a beautiful job and all the support actors, not to mention the directors and producers, it was a wonderful time. We had an evening together and apparently, I don’t remember this, Frank has told me I said “You are going to play my part but you are going to go through many fiery trials.” And he has.
Oh but friends, I want to tell you that through that incredible little movie, and all the glory goes to Jesus Christ, the Lord used these actors and multitudes have come to Christ and are still coming to Christ when they watch that little movie. Yes, Frank has been through fiery trials but through it all, Jesus has been glorified. Today, don’t be afraid of the fiery trials you are going through. The Lord will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, Resurrection Day, the 20th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 24:17:
“And He said to them…” (Jesus said to them) “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?”
Are you sad this morning? Are you believing that Jesus Christ is still in the grave, are you believing that there is no hope for you? Folks, listen to the next verse:
”Then Jesus said to them: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!”
Luke 24:25
It was prophesied the fact, that the Saviour of the world had to die for our sins but that He would live again and live forever. You and I need to understand, Jesus is gently rebuking us today, when we doubt. We look at the world. We see what’s happening all over the world and our faith starts to fade away. He says everything is happening according to the Word. “I told you about these things", He says, ”In me you will have peace. In this world you will have tribulation. Be of good heart for I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).
I want to say to you today, where do you stand? Are you waiting for the coming of the Lord? He is coming I’m telling you now. There is nothing more sure than the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back again for you and for me.
Romans 8:31:
”If God is for us who can stand against us?”
It’s not over yet. It’s not over. This is just the beginning. You and I have to die to self in order to live for Christ. We have to allow our physical bodies and our mental attitudes to change. Our Saviour is not in the tomb. I’ve been there folks. I’ve been to Israel, not once, many, many times, and every time I go to the tomb, I tell you it is empty. Why? Because He’s alive. He has risen. Yes risen indeed.
Jesus bless you on this resurrection Sunday and look forward to an incredible future with Him.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 19th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Job 19:25:
“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth…”
Do you know that your Redeemer lives this morning? Do you know that He will be standing on this earth at the last? We go straight to the Book of Romans 8:11:
”But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,(thats the Holy Spirit) He (the Holy Spirit) who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
What an incredible scripture! Oh, my dear friends, we need to believe, we need to know He is not in the grave, He is alive. We need to believe that! We have a saying here at Shalom, “One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons”. Jesus was known by His miracles that He performed, not so much by the sermons He preached, He preached very few that are recorded, but the signs and the wonders and the miracles - He is the Miracle-Worker!
I just want to tell you again, you have heard my story more than once but it is worth telling again. It was down in Ein Gedi, the lowest point on earth. It was in 2012. It was so hot, we were drinking water that was coming out of our bodies as we were drinking it. I think it was well over 40 degrees. It must have been 8 o’clock at night. I was asked to bring the message. There were 5,000 delegates from all over the world, something like 80 nations gathered together. I was reading from the Book of Acts, the account of the disciples in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon them. I was so in love with the Lord that night and so full of faith. I said, “Lord, please do it again.”
When I think back on it, what would have happened if He didn’t? Well, He did, so I don’t have to even think about all the egg that would have been on my face. I walked around the front of the lectern and a mighty rushing wind started blowing. Folks, it blew so hard, blowing the musical instruments off the platform and then it started to rain. It doesn’t rain in that place, it is dry, it is like the moon, there is nothing there. Those palm trees are being irrigated from miles and miles away. The Lord visited us. And I want to tell you, I did not have to make an altar call, I didn’t have to tell people to come forward to repent, they ran to the front. Some of those ladies were lying in the dust, just rejoicing in the faithfulness of God. Jesus is alive!
Tomorrow, Resurrection Sunday, we will celebrate the fact that our God is not dead, He is not in the grave, He is alive!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Good Friday, the 18th of April, 2025 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of John 12:24, and Jesus said:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain”.
Yes, it's in dying that we live, and today, the Lord Jesus Christ, our beloved Saviour, has shown us by example what we need to do. If we want to live, we need to die to self. He did the same thing. It's in dying to self that we truly live. As a farmer, I can tell you it is only when you sow good seed into the ground and that seed dies, that it produces new life, new plants abundantly. Don’t hoard it, don’t stash it away, and don’t put it in a container where there is no disease, insect damage, or any mould that can touch it. It will stay there forever, but it is when you take it out of that enclosure and put it into the ground it starts to live. We mustn’t be selfish.
Jesus, today, 2000 years ago, showed us that if you want life and you want it abundantly, you must be prepared to die to self. No one took His life, He gave His life freely. No-one can touch the Son of God, and you and I today need to do the same. We need to put the flesh down, we need to start to prefer one another, we need to start to live and to work for our fellowman, and then we will find the key to an abundant life and a life that is worth living, a life that has purpose, and then we will understand the principle of living for Christ.
I want to encourage you today to sit quietly somewhere with your Bible, maybe in the garden, wherever, and just think about what the Lord did for you and me today. If He had not died for us and our sins, we would not be alive today. What a mighty gift He has given to you and me.
Jesus bless you and have a peaceful day, thinking about what the Lord did for us,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 17th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Deuteronomy 8:3:
“…man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
Now, that was written 600 years before the birth of Jesus. Quite incredible! Now, we go straight to the Book of Luke 4:4:
And Jesus answered him, (He answered the devil when He was tempted in the desert. He said):
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ ”
Isn’t that incredible? 600 years later, the Son of God, in the desert while being tempted by the devil said,
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”
You know, the holiest sacrament in the Christian faith is communion, Holy Communion, breaking of bread, yes, and this is the eve of the Last Supper, the last meal that our beloved Jesus had on earth, and He sat around the table with His disciples and He had Holy Communion. We read that in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25. Now this is Paul. He says that
“the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
Now, listen to this, verse 26:
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes”
Very, very important. Maybe tonight, sit with your family around the table as you think about Good Friday, which is tomorrow, and have Holy Communion together. You know folks, when I travel, and sometimes I go into the poorest of poorest areas, maybe in Central Africa, maybe overseas, people always tend to give you the best they have, not necessarily the richest people, but the poorest people, and it is so important to eat it heartily and to give thanks because that is what they want.
Now, tonight as we break bread together as a family, remember, Jesus says it is the Word of God that satisfies the soul, that gives you strength and healing and hope. Spend time reading your Bible.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 16th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 2:49:
“And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
This is a 12-year-old boy. I am talking about our Saviour - Jesus Christ. A 12 year old boy was lost, his mom and dad couldn’t find him. He had been lost, not for three hours but for three days! Where was he? He was in the very place he was supposed to be. He was in the temple in His Father’s house. He was found sitting quietly, debating, listening, asking questions and giving incredible answers and confounding the greatest minds in the world at that time, and they were astonished by His answers. Jesus says to you and me today that unless we become as little children, we will never see the Kingdom of God.
Oh my dear friend, you and I must be so careful that we don’t underestimate the young person’s mind - they are open. I just love speaking to young people. They are unpolluted by the things of the world. They are soft, they cry easily, they are very emotional, they are pliable. Just like a young sapling, a young tree, they can bend in the storms of life. They are teachable, not like an old tree, set in its ways, and eventually, the big wind comes, and they cannot bend, and they break, they snap.
We must not be like that. Jesus says we need to become like little children. I got an email a few days ago from a young 12-year-old boy by the name of Noah. I was so touched. Noah came to his very first Mighty Mens Conference at Jeffrey’s Bay a few weeks ago. His life has been completely changed.
Today, let us be gentle, loving and kind, and listen to what young people have to say!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 15th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Luke 2:25:
“And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.”
You don’t hear much about Simeon, do you? No, he is one of the ordinary people. There are millions of ordinary people in the world. He was not a high priest, he was not one of the inner circle. No, but I will tell you one thing, he saw and recognised Jesus before any of the high priests or the Pharisees did. The Lord showed him and he said,
“Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,…”
You will see that in verse 29, when he recognised the baby Jesus, who had been brought to the temple. We need to understand something. It’s not about education, and there is nothing wrong with that, by the way, it’s a relationship with the Lord.
I had a man working on the farm. You have probably seen him in the movie, Faith like Potatoes. Yes, his name is Simeon. Simeon is illiterate, he can’t read, he can’t write, but I want to tell you, he became one of my best friends when I was a young farmer. Some of the holiest times we used to have together were in the workshop early in the morning before the staff arrived.
When I used to travel a lot and Jill was on the farm with the children and they were young, I used to call him in, we used to sit together and I would say, “Please look after the family till I get back”, and he would say to me, “Don’t worry, I will look after them.” And he did - Jill said to me, often in the middle of the night, she would hear him walking around, just checking that everything was okay, and he was the one man that when he laid his hands on my head and prayed for me, he made me cry. I don’t know why. Yes, like Simeon of the Bible. Let us not judge a book by it’s cover. Let us be very slow to judge one another because I want to tell you, I have seen so many godly men in my life who don’t hold any public office, but they have seen Jesus.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 14th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Acts 4:13:
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
Then we go to Zechariah 8:23:
“Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”
People should want to be with us. We are not to Bible-punch people, we are not to threaten people with hell and damnation. We are to love people. I remember like yesterday, when I was a very young man trying to find my way. I was a rugby player. We would go down to the rugby club on a Saturday night with all the young guys and the young girls. There was one particular young man I used to admire, and I couldn’t understand how the girls all clamoured around him, and us young guys who were spending time in the gym trying to get strong and look good, we had to struggle to get girlfriends, but this young guy the girls just flocked around him.
Now, he was nothing to look at. He was a bit skinny, he had long hair, those were the days of the Beatles, if you remember. He had buck teeth but you see folks, the difference between him and us was that he cared for the young girls. He would be the first one to welcome them, he would pull the chair out for them to sit on, he would complement them on their dress, ”You’re looking so pretty tonight.” He would make sure that they had something to drink. He would be more concerned about them than himself and they just loved him and they were flocking around him.
I want to say to you today, let’s try to stop forcing people into the Kingdom of God and let’s start loving them into the Kingdom of God because when people see Jesus in you, they will be drawn to you, when they see the peace in your heart, the love, that you’re not judgmental, that you’re not angry, you’re not bitter, for they see Jesus in you. Today, let’s be like Jesus.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 13th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Zachariah 8:16:
”These are the things you shall do; Speak each man the truth to his neighbour;”
Then we go straight to the Gospel of John 17:17:
”Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
The Bible is the absolute truth. That’s why when you go to a court of law they make you put your hand on top of the Bible and you have to say, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God”. If you and I truly love our neighbour then we have to tell them the whole truth.
It’s like that huge boil you’ve got on your arm, that tumour, that abscess. You can’t keep on putting plaster over the top. There comes a time when it is ready to be lanced, and you have to take the plaster off and take a sharp scalpel to lance it so that all the rubbish can come out and there can be healing. You can’t keep putting a plaster over it. You see there’s no such thing as telling white lie in order to keep your neighbour happy. By the way, there’s no such thing as a white lie. It’s the truth.
Henry Ford, the giant car manufacturer, was asked by his men if they could change the colour of his famous Model T Ford from black to another colour. He answered, ”You can change it any colour you like as long as it stays black.” Now that is how the Bible is. You cannot change the word of God.
I remember like yesterday, officiating at a funeral service, many, many years ago. I knew this man very, very well. He made some very big mistakes in his life, I want to be honest with you, but one thing I do know for a fact - He loved the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart and at his funeral I said, ”Good people don’t go to heaven, believers go to heaven.” Because that’s what it says in the word of God in John 14:6, one of the most famous scripture verses in the Bible. Jesus said to him,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
I said that at his funeral and afterwards a man came over. He was very upset with me. He said, “How can you say that good people don’t go to Heaven?” I said, “Because that's the truth, it’s what the Bible says. It’s faith in Jesus Christ. You must be born again.” Now today, if you love your neighbour, you must tell him the truth!
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 12th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 1:32:
”And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.”
The Holy Spirit coming down from heaven in the form of a dove and settling upon Jesus Christ. Oh, what a beautiful picture!
Early this morning, it was still very dark and misty, we’re having beautiful rain on the farm at the moment. I walked out of my house and into the prayer room, and in the shadow I saw a beautiful pair of turtle doves. There was such a peace about that picture, and you know they say that a turtle dove only mates once in his life. So if you kill his partner, he remains alone for the rest of his life.
I looked up the meaning of the word turtle dove and its characteristics, and it says he is a harmless bird. He represents innocence, powerlessness, meekness and humility. Don’t we need that in the world today, my dear friend? The sign of peace is the turtle dove.
I remember like yesterday, as a very young man when we had just arrived on the farm, Shalom, I was just about to have my breakfast in the morning, in those days we had the old phone that you had to crank the handle and there were two signs, two shorts, one long, that was your call sign. The phone rang and I picked it up and it was the Deeds Office in Pretoria saying, “You have to give us the name of your new farm that you have just bought”, and I had no idea what we were going to call this farm. So I shouted through to the bedroom, Jill was doing something in the bedroom. I said, ”Jill, we need a name. We need a name for the farm.” And she shouted back, ”Shalom.” Well that’s the name of this farm. Now Shalom means peace in Hebrew and of course the Prince of Peace is often represented by the Holy Spirit.
I want to say to you today, let us go out and when people are aggressive and when people are fearful and when people are ugly, let us represent the Holy Spirit. Let there be peace in our hearts. Oft times people come to Shalom to visit us and as we greet them, sometimes they burst into tears and we say, ”Why are you crying?” They say, ”We don’t know why we are crying,” and I’m hoping that they also can feel the peace of Jesus Christ in this place.
Today, let’s go out and represent the Prince of Peace, the soon coming King, Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 11th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 1:80:
“The child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel [as John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah]. (AMP version)
I want to speak to you about that desert time. Are you in a desert time at the moment? Does it seem like nothing is happening young lady? Do you think you will never get married, yes? Young man, do you feel there’s never going to be a lady for you to marry? Do you feel that you are studying all the time - when is this going to end? When am I going to realise my potential and my dream?
Well, there is a preparation time. John the Baptist spent time in the desert until God called him to proclaim the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It took Jesus thirty years of preparation before His ministry started. It took Moses forty years in the desert before the Lord saw he was ready to take the Israelites out of Egypt. Don’t rush.
Now, as a farmer, I can tell you it takes nine months before a cow will produce a baby calf. It takes the calf six months before it is weaned from it’s mother. It takes a young heifer eighteen months before she is ready to go to the bull and to produce a calf herself. A crop of maize takes one year, approximately one year to produce from the time you start preparing the soil. A good artisan, a tradesman - takes five years of apprenticeship before he is qualified as a tradesman, and it takes a lifetime for us to be prepared for entry into Heaven. Don’t rush, there is plenty of time.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 10th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 18:14:
”Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Wow, that’s a good question. I hope you can answer that one, and then we go straight to the Gospel of John 14:14:
”If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
That is a promise from God, folks, not to be argued. I want to ask you a question this morning. How big is God? Well, the answer is simple. He is as big as you allow Him to be. Some people keep Him in a matchbox. That’s true. I preached in Scandinavia many, many years ago. What a beautiful part of the world. Everything works there. They build the biggest trucks in the world. Their water is so clean and clear you can almost drink it out of the lakes. As I was preaching, a lady came up and she was weeping. I said, ”What is the problem?” She said, ”Please pray for us. You see, we keep Jesus in a matchbox and every now and again we just let Him out just a little bit.”
Folks, we must depend on God, not on the works of our hands. You see, some people think they don’t need God but I want to tell you, He is a miracle-working God and He’s asking you today, what is it that you need? Remember the story of Sarah? Sarah was in her nineties, and God said He would give her a baby boy, but she laughed. She didn’t believe it because she was in her nineties. How can a ninety-year-old woman conceive and bear a child? How can a man of a hundred years old be the father of many nations? I’m talking about Abraham and yet that’s exactly what happened.
You and I today need to think outside of the box. We hired the biggest tent in the whole world in 2008. We had five hundred rand which is about thirty US dollars in our pocket, and we booked it. A thirty thousand-seater tent, and we were expecting about twenty thousand men. Sixty thousand men arrived on this farm - many are listening to this message this morning! We fed them. Do you know we had to kill forty oxen to feed these men for one meal? We fed them for a whole weekend. How big is God? He’s as big as you allow Him to be in your life.
William Carey, the man that took the Gospel to India said, ”We must attempt great things for God and we must expect great things from God.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 9th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Luke 1:76:
”And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,…”
Zacharias was talking about his son, John the Baptist. Jesus said there has never been a man born from the womb of a woman, greater than John the Baptist. (Matthew 11:11)
John the Baptist was a scout. Yes, a forerunner. I looked up the meaning of the word, “scout” in the Oxford Dictionary. It says “a person who is sent ahead to gather information about the enemy. Now when you are going into a new country, you always send your best man ahead. He prepares the way. That is what John the Baptist did for Jesus. He finds out the best route. He also finds out about the danger in that area and comes back and reports it. The Lord Jesus Christ has called you today, my dear friend, to be a scout, to be a forerunner, to be one who prepares the way for the people. We have an obligation. Our obligation is to lead the way. How do we do it? By our conduct, by our lifestyle, by our love and by warning people of the dangers ahead.
Do you remember that old song? I think we have sung it before:
I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus
No turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
The cross before me and the world behind me,
The cross before me and the world behind me,
The cross before me and the world behind me,
No turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
You and I are not turning back. Where are we going to go to? Back to Egypt? No, we are going forward. Where are we going? Our destination is Heaven. You and I are just travellers in this world, sojourners. Pick up your head and remember people are following you. Do not lead them down a dead-end alley, a cul-de-sac. Do not lead them into the enemy camp, but lead them in a place which is safe, a place where Jesus inhabits and they will thank you for that, and most of all Our Heavenly Father will be most proud of you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 8th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Isaiah 6:8:
“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
“Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?”
Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Zechariah 4:10:
“For who has despised the day of small things?”
Are you feeling this morning that you are not good enough, that you will never make it? Are you feeling that you are not equipped? Well, you are in good company! That’s exactly how I feel so many times - never despise small beginnings. Remember, God chose King David, the smallest and youngest of all of Jesse’s sons. There were eight of them all together, but God chose the youngest. It’s never too late to put your hand up. Remember Gideon’s army? He had 32,000 fighting men. The Lord said, “Send them all back”, and he ended up with 300 fighting men, and defeated the enemy. You will find that in Judges 7:7.
We ask ourselves a question. Why? Why does God choose the youngest, the most ill-equipped, the most uneducated? Why? Because He will not share His glory with any man. You see, when God does a miracle through an ordinary person’s life, God gets all the glory because people say there is no way that that man could have done that. God doesn’t need our expertise, He doesn’t need our intellect. He doesn’t even need our effort. All He wants is one thing, He wants our obedience. Yes, He wants us to love and to dedicate ourselves to Him alone.
Jesus told the fisherman right down at the Sea of Galilee, to leave their nets and follow after Him and He would make them fishers of men and look what happened with those twelve men. They changed the world. I want to tell you very quickly about a dairy farmer who lived in America. His name was Demos Shakarian. He came from an Armenian background. That man was saved, he thought he was going to be an evangelist. He bought a big tent and held a few meetings and he was fairly successful, but that wasn’t what God wanted him to do. Then God showed him to start the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. Do you know that that movement touched tens of thousands of key businessmen around the whole world? A book was written called, “The Happiest People on Earth.”
I want to say to you today, put your hand up and say, “Lord, I don’t have much but I am going to give You what I have got,” and you will be surprised how He will use you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 7th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Zachariah 3:4:
“Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”
A beautiful promise from the Lord, to take away all of our sin. Then we go to the Book of Revelation 19:8:
“And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”
Yes, we are talking about the marriage day, that wonderful, wonderful occasion when you and I will meet our beloved Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom. The Lord is preparing a great marriage feast for you and me when we meet Him in Heaven. You and I are the church and the bride, and Jesus is the Bridegroom. I want to ask you a question. Are you ready? Am I ready?
You know, I love weddings. I have had the privilege of marrying off my children and my grandchildren. What an occasion it is! The excitement when the mothers are getting the food ready, the bride and the bridesmaids are getting their dresses ready, the bridegrooms are cleaned up. These boys have had a nice shave. They are ready with their beautiful suits on. It is an incredible occasion, the flowers in the church are magnificent. It is a joyous occasion and lots of fun.
I remember, my very dear brother in Christ - his son was getting married to my youngest daughter, and he offered his vintage tractor. Yes, it was an inheritance he got from his grandfather and I want to say to you, this tractor was imported from England and was working up in Central Africa. He brought it to the farm and said he would drive my daughter and me to the chapel in this tractor. What a wonderful machine. Pop, pop, pop as it went up the hill, but it did have a little bit of a problem with the exhaust. There was a lot of black smoke and maybe even the occasional drop of oil. Now, my daughter had a beautiful white dress on! Aah, but we sorted that out because we gave her a lovely umbrella, but I want to say to you today there must be no oil, there must be nothing in our garments that will tarnish the wedding day. The Lord said He has given us new garments and we need to go to church, we need to go to the wedding day, clean. Are we ready for that great and wonderful day when we meet our beloved Jesus face to face?
Prepare yourself because that day is coming very soon.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 6th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Romans 10:17 (the Amplified)
”So faith comes from hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the [preaching of the] message concerning Christ.”
I got a most beautiful encouraging message just yesterday and I want to read it to you. This is what it says:
Hi all,
Ralph here. I would like to share my affirmation and scientifically proven miracle that the Lord healed me at the pools of Bethesda. That was where the swirling pool was with the man who couldn’t get into the pool. Jesus healed him and told him to take up his bed and walk. That’s where we were. This is where Uncle Angus prayed over me for healing for brain damage which was a result of the carbon monoxide poisoning incident that Kath (his wife) and I had a year before our Israel trip. The MRI scan I had in the hospital showed clearly that I had brain damage. Theo may remember that I thought Angus was ill after he had prayed for me. I said to Kath, Theo, Sandra and Gary that Uncle Angus’ hand was burning hot and something must be wrong with Uncle Angus. It was the Holy Spirit touching my head and tangibly healing my brain from the brain damage. After this I was able to stop taking my tray of pills and believed I was totally healed. I didn’t feel I needed any proof or to go for another MRI scan. I knew I was healed.
Recently, I was booked for an MRI body scan as a precautionary check-up. The radiologist is a good friend of ours who knew our story and was one of the multitude of people praying for our recovery and asked if I would mind if he could scan my head. He explained later that most people do not allow this to be done as a result of the MRI showing the brain damage clearly. It can be very upsetting for most patients to see. I said he can do the scan feeling confident of my healing and miracle in Israel.
The scan results scientifically proved the miracle is real and showed all signs of the brain damage previously seen had miraculously disappeared. “This is scientifically impossible,” said our radiologist friend. He was so emotional and in awe when he could see that my brain was perfectly healthy and normal after 22 hours of carbon monoxide exposure and being in a coma for five days. This is a pure miracle. But God. Amen and Amen.”
God bless you.
Jesus is the healer!
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 5th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Luke 1:46-55, but before I read it, I just want to say something to you. This is a beautiful, beautiful scripture spoken by Mary the mother of Jesus.
I want to tell you the thing that I love about Mary more than anything else is her faith in God, truly, a giant in the faith. You see, Mary was not divine, no, no, no. She didn’t come down from heaven like an angel. She was born of an ordinary mother, an ordinary father, just like you and me, but God looked right through the world to find one maiden, a virgin, who He could trust with His only beloved son, Jesus Christ, and He found Mary from Nazareth. He saw this young virgin and He said, ”She will look after My Son while He lives on earth.” What an honour, what a privilege! But what I want to stress is the faith that Mary had, to believe the message that the archangel Gabriel brought from our Heavenly Father down to her, and when he told her that she was going to bear the Son of God in her womb - a Baby, nine months in your womb, and then you are going to bring Him up to age. What a responsibility, what an honour! This is her response, verse 46:
And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord,and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; (You see, she didn’t think of herself as anything special at all) for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
For He who is mighty (our Heavenly Father) has done great things for me, and holy is His name.
And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.”
You see, no doubt at all. Accepted the call. Said, “Yes Lord, I’ll do it.” And by faith she did it. Today, start to trust God by faith with the things that He has promised you that maybe haven’t come to pass just yet. I can tell you, they will come to pass if you continue by faith. Remember faith can’t see. Faith is to believe what you cannot see. God will bring it to pass.
Jesus bless you richly today and goodbye!
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 4th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of John 14:9: Jesus said to him,
“Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Oh, I just love that scripture. You see, Jesus is God made flesh. Jesus has a distinct personality. He has a beautiful heart. He has an incredible character and His viewpoint is “yea and amen”. That is exactly what God is like. We do not have to ask ourselves the question, ”I wonder what God is going to be like.” All we have to do is study the life of Jesus and then we know exactly what God is like.
I have 8 grandsons. They know me and they know me very well. I’ve heard them sometimes when they were younger, they bring their little friends to the farm to play and I’ve heard them talking outside and their little friends are a bit nervous to meet me and they say, ”He’s a bit gruff isn’t he? He’s a bit loud with his voice? I see he takes no nonsense. I also notice, he doesn’t talk twice, he only asks you to do something once.“ Then the little grandsons who know me, who have heard me, speak up and they say, ”No, Khulu (that’s the Zulu word for grandfather), no, he’s kind, he’s very kind to us. He’s gentle with us. He says we must be kind to the girls we must be gentle with the animals and just one important thing, when you go into the house, whatever food gets dished up for you on the plate, make sure you eat all of it, because you see Khulu’s father, my great grandfather, was in the war and he told Khulu how the people used to starve because there was no food. Don’t waste food.” So my grandsons know my character because they spend time with me.
Today, if you spend time praying, meditating, and reading your Bible, Jesus will become such a reality to you that on the great day when you meet our Heavenly Father face to face, it will not come as a surprise to you. Jesus bless you richly as you get to know Him better.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 3rd of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Zechariah 1:10 in the Old Testament,
“These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth.”
Then we go straight to Hebrews 1:14:
“Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?”
What are we talking here about this morning? We are talking about angels. Do you believe in angels? Well, you better otherwise you can’t believe the Bible. It was the angel Gabriel that came and spoke to Mary and said she was going to be the mother of Jesus. There are angels written all over the Bible, ministering spirits. You see, this life that you and I have been called to walk through is tough enough as it is. This is not a one-man show, oh no, not at all! The Lord has sent angels to minister to you and me.
I want to tell you a little story. My wife and I went to Ethiopia a few years ago. We went to see something that is absolutely miraculous. There are eleven churches built out of solid rock. Now this is the interesting fact - They are not built from the bottom upwards. No, they were built from the top, downwards, a solid rock, with a hammer and chisel, and those eleven churches were created, most beautiful churches. I have walked in them, out of solid rock, no tin, no supports, standing on their own and they were built by a king by the name of King Lalibela. He had a dream because the Ethiopians couldn’t go to Jerusalem in Israel because the muslims were stopping them. So he said, he was going to build a new Jerusalem right there in Ethiopia. This was in the 12th century, which was 800 years ago. He had a dream. He started building it with his people from the top down in solid rock. Folks, it is an amazing thing to see but the point I want to make, it’s very important. They say that every night, ministering angels came and took all the rubble away so when they started carving out of the rock the next morning, it was clean and tidy. No people did that, the angels.
I want to tell you today, don’t pray to the angels, no, no. We pray to our Heavenly Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we ask the Lord to send His ministering angels to help us.
Father,
I pray for my friends that are listening to this message, that even today they will know that they are never, ever alone. You have sent angels to be with them wherever they go, and we thank You for that beautiful angelic company that surrounds us today.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 2nd April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Gospel of Luke 1:37, and a very special verse for you today. It says: “For with God nothing will be impossible.” What are you trusting the Lord for today? Nothing? Well then, you will get nothing! I am trusting the Lord today for a miracle. Oh yes, every morning is a miracle.
Now, Mary was told by the angel that she was going to have a baby and she said in verse 34 of the same chapter, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” “I have never slept with a man and you are telling me I am going to have a baby?” The angel of the Lord said in verse 37: “For with God nothing will be impossible.” I want to ask you a very serious thing today. Do you believe in miracles?
Don’t ever write off a promise that the Lord Jesus Christ has given to you and stop calling miracles coincidences. There is no such thing as a coincidence. It is so sad that people struggle to believe in a miracle from God. They are always trying to explain it away instead of simply believing it. You know, many of you listening to this message were maybe there, but a few years ago I had the privilege of speaking at the Feast of Tabernacles, down at the Dead Sea at a place called Ein Gedi.
It was a hot, humid night. I read the account of the visitation of the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room. Just as we are thinking about the approach of Easter, and the disciples were gathered together and they were petrified. They were hiding because they were being sought by the Romans and being slaughtered, and a rushing mighty wind came through the Upper Room and tongues of fire settled on each one’s head and they began to speak in other languages and the power of God came upon them.
As I finished reading that incredible incident, I walked around the front of the lectern and I said, “Please Jesus, do it again.” And He did it! Oh yes, He did it. Now some people said that was a coincidence that that wind came at that time because the wind does blow from time to time down in the lowest part of the earth, but folks, the timing at that time, and then it started raining. It never rains there. Some people will tell you it does rain occasionally but at that very moment, let’s stop calling a miracle a coincidence. Let’s start praising God and thanking Him for answered prayer.
What is it that you want today?
Lord, I pray for my friend who is listening to this message right now, who is depending on a mighty miracle in their lives. Lord, as they would put their trust in You, we thank You for answered prayer and for that miracle to take place. In Jesus name, amen.
God bless you and believe it, it is on it’s way,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 1st of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Romans 3:23:
”for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,…”
All of us! You see we are faced with temptation. I want to say to you that the sin is not temptation. No, no. Jesus Himself was tempted in the desert, remember? He came up against the devil with the word of God - “It is written…” Temptation is not sin but when you look at somebody first maybe a beautiful young girl, maybe a very handsome man, the first time you see them they are very beautiful. We are created to appreciate beauty but if you turn around and you look at them a second time, as it were, then lust starts to come in and sin, that seed is born.
King David who was the apple of the Lord’s eye, a man after God’s own heart, stood on the verandah that one evening and looked down and saw Bathsheba, a very, very beautiful woman. She was bathing. Now he could have turned around and walked away, but he didn’t and he looked the second time, he lusted after her and that was the beginning of the end of his wonderful career because that sin, that temptation, caused him to commit adultery and then murder and we know the end of the sad story. We need to be so careful.
I can hear a young man or a young lady say, “No, no, I can handle this!” I want to say to you that human willpower will only last for a certain time, and then after that, it will crumble. We need Jesus Christ to help us. You know that even one of the giants of our faith, Paul, the Apostle, says in the Book of Romans 7:19, he says:
“…for the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”
Then we go down to verse 24:
“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Now, here is the key - he says in verse 25:
“I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
We can only do it through the power of the Holy Spirit in us. You don’t just wake up one morning and decide, "Today I am going to steal some money” or “Today I am going to have an affair with my secretary in the office.” No, it starts off with a thought and then you start to feed that thought, it germinates and it grows into a tree until you can’t contain it and then you fall. Yes, God will forgive us, nobody knows that better than me, that is what grace is about - undeserved loving kindness. We have been saved by grace by faith and not of ourselves - but the scar remains. Please don’t do it. Stop it today. Cancel that text. Say “no more!” and look to the Helper, the Holy Spirit (John 16:7) and He will help you overcome.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 31st of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Malachi 4:6:
”And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers…”
Then the very same verse, you can read in Luke 1:17:
”He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah (The lord is talking about John the baptist) ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children’…
What a command that is to fathers and also to the children. I had the privilege of being at a Mighty Men Conference in Jeffrey’s Bay, on the eastern side of South Africa, just a short while ago, and what an incredible time we had together. One of the highlights for me always is to see fathers and their young boys together, to see them worshipping God, and you will see a big, strong father with his young boy on his shoulders, worshipping the Lord.
At the end of one of the meetings, a young man came up to me with his little boy. I think he could have only been about seven years old, and this man was weeping. He said, “Uncle Angus, I went up to the cross to pray with my little boy (there was a cross on a hill just behind the conference), and I got on my knees, and I broke down, and I wept.” You see mom, that is why the men need to get together sometimes because they cannot always expose their feelings in front of the girls and the mothers because it appears like a sign of weakness, when we know it is the opposite. As he was weeping and repenting before God, he felt that little boy put his arm around his dad’s neck, and he said, “Dad, don’t worry I am going to help you.” It brings a tear to my eyes.
We need to have patience with one another. We need to love one another unconditionally, and that is how we will bring reconciliation in the home between dad and his little girl and his little boy, and mom will be so proud of that. Men, we need to stand up and take our rightful place because the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back very soon to take us to be with Him in Heaven, forever.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 30th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Haggai 2:5 and the Lord says:
”According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!”
Did you hear that, mother? Did you hear that, dad? Did you hear that, young boy? The Lord says, ”Do not fear.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 13:6.
So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
What a beautiful promise! The Lord promised the Israelites, when He took them out of Egypt, He said that, ”My Spirit remains with you,” and it is still with His children, even today. So do not fear. The only thing we need to fear actually is fear itself. That’s absolutely true. In Philippians 1:21, Paul says,
”For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Now, I think you’ve heard me say this before, but you cannot frighten a Christian with heaven. So if we live, we live for Jesus and with the Holy Spirit, and if we die we go home to be with Jesus. It’s a win-win situation.
I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the meaning of the word “fear”. It says, “an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger”. Not danger, the threat of danger. You know the story of the cobra, that big snake, and the little mouse. Well, what happens is the cobra hypnotises that little mouse with fear. He gets totally paralysed and he can’t move and the cobra just slides up and just eats him. That little mouse could just turn around and run away, the cobra would never catch him, but he’s paralysed with fear.
You see the opposite fear is faith. Fear paralyses a person but faith strengthens that person, and the Lord says without faith, you cannot please Him, and he who believes must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6). So today, let’s walk by faith and not by fear.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 29th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 1:6-7:
“And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.
Zacharias and Elizabeth had no child, they were getting old but they loved God so much. They served Him faithfully in the Temple, patiently, not complaining, patiently waiting for their miracle. And what happened, yes - they had a baby and what was his name, John the Baptist. You know Jesus said there has never been a man born from the womb of a woman greater than John the Baptist. He was an incredible man of God. I have noticed in the Bible that most of the women who had to wait for a baby gave birth to incredible children.
We think of Samson’s mother, we think of Hannah’s baby, Samuel, and it goes on and on. I want to say to you today, there might be someone listening to this little message who has been waiting to fall pregnant, you and your husband, for a long time. You have been faithful and you just felt, “Well Lord, whatever it is, I am prepared to accept it", but maybe God has got a surprise for you. It will be a huge surprise, I know!
It brings back to memory a story that took place when Covid broke out. I had to do a Mighty Men Conference, one right around the world and I had to do it on Zoom. When I was preaching, I was saying to the people watching all over, and there was a very big turnout because no-one could go anywhere. I said, “There is a young girl who is unable to have a child. Her and her husband are waiting for a baby and I believe if you can just continue to trust God, He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). I got a report from my very good friend, Tommy. He said to me that his granddaughter had tested herself to see if she was pregnant, and she was not pregnant. A couple of days later, they listened to this broadcast and after the programme had finished, I am talking about a couple of days, she went and tested herself again and she was pregnant. They now have two beautiful children. Today, continue to serve God faithfully, love Him with all of your heart and believe for the impossible.
Father,
I pray in Jesus’ name, that that woman will fall pregnant.
In Jesus’ name and we give You all the glory.
Amen.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 28th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Haggai 1:7:
”Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways!”
Think about where you are, what you are doing, and then we go on a bit further to verse 9: The Lord says:
“Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.”
The Lord says, “My house is in ruins but you are looking after your own houses.”
I want to tell you a little story I heard many, many years ago. I have never forgotten it. It is the story of two ladies. The one lady was extremely rich. She was a lovely lady, she was a very fine lady but all her attention was focused on her own mansion. She lived in a beautiful mansion, and the other lady was her maid. She worked in the kitchen, looked after the house, made sure the dogs were fed, made sure the gardener mowed the lawns and everything was done properly. That maid had nothing on this earth. She lived in a little room at the back of the mansion, and that is where she served her mistress from.
They were both Christians, they both loved the Lord, but the maid spent hours in prayer. She was an intercessor, she was sending prayers to Heaven all the time. She was praying for her mistress, she was praying for her friends, and she was a godly woman. One day she got sick and died, and the lady of the house was devastated because not only was she a maid, but she was her personal friend, and she went home to Heaven.
A few years went by, and the rich old lady also died and went to Heaven, and when she arrived in Heaven, St Peter was waiting for her at the pearly gates. He said, “Welcome home” and they started walking down the main street, paved with gold, and there were huge mansions on either side of the road. There was that river running down the middle with trees that bear fruit every month of the year. As they walked on a little bit further, St Peter stopped and said, “You see that mansion on the other side of the road?” The old lady said, “Yes.” “That is where your maid lives”, “Wow, that is incredible.” The old lady thought, “Well if that is where my maid lives, imagine what my house must look like.”
They carried on walking and walking. Then the street of gold stopped and there was a street of silver and the houses were getting smaller, and she carried on walking and then eventually, the road of silver turned into tarmac, and they kept walking, and the rich old lady started getting a bit worried. She said, “Peter, where is my house?” He said, “It’s coming.” Then they went on to a dirt road and they carried on walking and eventually came to a little shack and Peter said to the rich lady, “There is your house.” She said, “Well, why am I living in a house like this?” He said, “Well, this is all you sent up from earth for me to build your house.”
Today, concentrate on the things of God. He will take care of the rest.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 27th of March, 2025, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today.
We start with Luke 1:3-4:
"It seemed good to me also having had Perfect understanding of all things it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed."
Then we go to Hebrews 2:3:
"How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him."
Perfect understanding. Orderly account. Certainty. Our faith is not based on old wives' tales; our faith is not based on fables. A fable is a legend; it's a story that is not true, like Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan. Like Narnia, they are stories, but they are not factual. Do you know there is more evidence that Jesus Christ walked on this earth than there is about Julius Caesar, the emperor of Rome? No one questions the existence of Julius Caesar, but many doubt the existence of Jesus Christ.
We need to build our faith up. How, you might ask - by reading the Word of God, the Bible. Romans 10:17 says:
"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Mums and Dads read the Bible to your children. Read the Bible to your workers. Read the Bible to your students, why because it is true!
Have a wonderful day!
Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 26th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 16:15:
“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Then we go to the Gospel of John 15:16. Jesus says:
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
What are we talking about this morning? We are talking about the Great Commission. The Lord has called us. The last thing He said before He arose and went back to Heaven to be with His Father, was to go into all the world. Now remember, He has gone before us and He is waiting for us in Heaven. He has called you and me to be soldiers of the cross.
You say, “Well, I am not a theologian, I have never been to Bible college”. No, you don’t have to - you just have to meet the Man from Galilee. That is quite sufficient. “Ja, but I don’t have a congregation to speak to.” Oh yes, you do. It starts at home, in your home dad, in your home mom, with your children. Then after that it starts at work. Some of you have got bigger congregations than any church. I know one of my sons is employing over 400 men. What an opportunity every morning, to bring the good news to those men, before they go to work.
There are others who are professional sportsmen. I just love it when these men kneel on the field before they play the game. They signify that Jesus Christ is their Lord. What about in the marketplace, yes, the people in business? When you are in the marketplace you can still preach the Gospel by the way in which you act. I want to say something to you. I really believe this with all my heart. It is the layman’s time, the laymen. Do you know that not one of the disciples was a priest, a pastor, an evangelist? Not one. They were ordinary working men and women like you and I. They were laymen.
John Wesley’s secret, I believe, nobody has told me, but I studied his life, that little man from England was responsible for starting one of the greatest revivals the world has ever seen, and you know what he did? He used ordinary laymen and women to do the preaching. Count Zinzendorf was a wonderful man. He started the Moravian Church in Germany. He used laymen. He sent two grave diggers to Greenland to preach the Gospel. Can you believe it? That is where the secret is. I want to say from my heart because you know I love people, the harvest is too great just for one or two pastors to take it on. All of us need to be involved.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 25th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Corinthians 9:8:
”And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
We’re talking about sowing seed, good seed. The Lord says that we must be cheerful givers. You don’t give to the Lord reluctantly. He doesn’t want your money or your effort if it burdens you. He wants you to give cheerfully and He also wants you to give bountifully. Now, any farmer will tell you that if you sow your seed in the ground bountifully, you will reap a bountiful crop, but if you hold back on your seed and you sow it sparingly, you will reap a very average to poor crop.
Young farmers, I want to tell you something, when the going gets tough and it does, the one thing you don’t hold back on is your seed. You always plant the best seed you can buy and you always plant generously. You know, if you have to cut back, rather cut back on your fertiliser, rather cut back on your land preparation, rather cut back on your spraying program but never, ever cut back on your seed. If you start sowing sparingly, you’re going to reap sparingly. If you start sowing inferior seed the chances are you’ll get a poor crop but if you sow generously, you’ll reap generously.
The Lord also likes a consistent giver. Farmers, you can’t go for it and then pull back, then go for it again. You’ll end up with nothing. If you’re going to go for it, put everything in that you can and expect a good return and you’ll get it and be a cheerful giver. It’s a blessing to give to people isn’t it. I love giving to people. I love to see the smile on their face when I give them one of my little Snowy books. Those little children's faces light up. It is such a privilege and such an honour.
This Scripture is a particularly special scripture for Jill and I. When we got saved, I was going to give the farm away. That’s right. I was going to Bible College, I was going to become a pastor but I said to Jill, "I’m going to pray about it.“ I went up the mountains and I fasted and prayed. I came back and God gave me this Scripture, but listen to this! Jill was having her own quiet time and God gave her the exact same Scripture. So we kept the farm and we have sowed and I think we have been more successful than if I’d given the farm away because we’ve used the farm for the Gospel.
Remember, Jesus was given to us by our Father in Heaven. He is the ultimate giver. He gave us His only beloved Son.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 24th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Romans 13:10:
”Love does no harm to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Then we go on to Galatians 5:14:
”For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
Love fulfils the law. You see folks, we can’t work our way to heaven. No. We’ve got to understand something. If we love God, then we will do the right thing. Love keeps the marriage pure. You don’t have to try and obey the law and not have an affair with another woman or with another man. No, you love your wife so much that you could never bring yourself to having an affair with another woman. That’s what love does. Love is so powerful. Love keeps a man honest. A man cannot love God and steal. You can’t do it. Your conscience will not allow it. Love keeps a man honest. It makes it very easy to obey the Ten Commandments because you don’t want to break them. Love covers a multitude of sins.
I want to say to you today, how about just saying sorry to someone. “Aah but I’ve got my rights.” No, you don’t have any rights. When you gave your life to Jesus, you surrendered all your rights. Go to the person and say, ”I’m sorry if I offended you. I’m sorry if I took that thing from you. I’m giving it back to you.” Most of all, say to your loved one, ”I am sorry for shouting or being selfish.” You see, there’s no more condemnation when you are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1. Love brings freedom. Yes, freedom from yourself, most of all. Okay, you don’t have to work so hard, it’s all been paid for. Grace means undeserved loving-kindness.
I loved my old mom. When I came home with my school report, she would only ask me one question before she even opened the report, ”Angus, did you do your best?” I’d say, “Mom, honestly I did my best.” And if it was 40% or 50%, it was good enough for mom. She took the pressure off me.
Now, when Jesus said, ”It is finished,” He meant you don’t have to work at it; you just have to receive it! Now go out in freedom today, knowing that the Lord goes before you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 23rd of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 18:33:
“He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Habakkuk 3:19:
“The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,…”
I looked up that animal that climbs the high mountains, the mountain goat from North America. Do you know, his feet have been designed by God for climbing steep rocky slopes? They have inner pads on their feet to stop them from slipping, they have cloven hooves that can spread apart to stop them from slipping. They can live in high altitudes, up to 4000 metres above sea level. Well, the Lord has made Christians like that too. He has given us the ability to access the high places where no unbeliever can go. The Christian can take pressure that the world is fearful of, he can exist where no other can exist.
Look at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in Daniel 3, where they were thrown into a fiery furnace and they did not burn. In fact, there was a fourth Person in the fiery furnace with them who had a likeness unto the Son of God. Yes, Jesus was in the fire with them and they never even got burnt! There was no smell of fire on their clothes. Often we say, “Lord Jesus, I can’t do it, it is too hard, it is too high, it is too scary.” He says, “Take my hand and I will lead you all the way home.”
I remember like yesterday, taking a group of young men from a children’s home in Durban, up into the high places of the Drakensberg Mountains. When we were two-thirds to the top, the path got so narrow. It was so steep; on the one side was a sheer cliff wall, and on the other side, a fall that went down hundreds of metres, and they froze. I said, “You can do it and you must. We can’t go back, there is only one way - forward.” Christian, today let’s keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and He will take us through that high place that you are struggling with at the moment, that scary challenge that you have got at work or school. He will do it. He has given you the ability, all you have to do is keep your eyes fixed on Him, don’t even look around you and keep walking forward and you will get there.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 22nd of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 5:10:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
What a beautiful reward awaits those who have been persecuted for their faith. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “persecuted” - it means that they are abused, they are victimised, they are ill-treated, they are tormented for their faith. Yes, they are intimidated.
At the moment, we are so sad when we see in the news what is happening around the world, where Christian churches are being burned down in India and Christians are being martyred, and what have they done wrong? Nothing at all. Just because they say they are followers of Jesus Christ, they have to pay the ultimate price. We see in the DRC, people getting beheaded for their faith, hands tied behind their backs, a horrific thing. We see the Christians being martyred in Syria. Lord, please have mercy on Your people.
But you know, I want to talk about a different kind of persecution which is maybe even worse. It happens sometimes in your home, oh yes, it happens at work, it happens at school, young girl, when your friends start to victimise you because you will not do what they do. You will not sleep around, you say, “I will wait for my husband until my wedding day” and they torment you and they persecute you when you will not partake of drugs and alcohol because you say it is against your faith. The young men make a fool of you, they say, “You are weak, you are a sissy.” That is persecution. What about when it happens in your very home?
I knew a young boy who used to love going to church, but his family actually tormented him, they mocked him every time he got on his bicycle to go to church. “Where are you going? Off to church again?” He stood alone, he would get on his bicycle and even go to the evening services with a little light on the front of his bike, but he kept on going. He was persecuted in his own home but it made him strong, and I want to tell you that through his standpoint and because he never wavered, his whole family came to Christ.
We need to understand that there is a price for our faith. It cost Jesus Christ His life on the Cross of Calvary. So you are asking me a question, “What do we do about it?” Well, there is only one thing we can do about it and it is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17.
Pray without ceasing.
Pray for your persecutors, pray for those who torment you because they are blind. When Jesus died on the Cross, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” When they stoned Steven outside the city gate, he said, “Do not hold this sin against them today.” Let us pray for the persecuted church.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 21st of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We are approaching Easter, and I have a special message of encouragement for the ladies today. If we go to Matthew 27:55-56:
”And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.”
I really want to pay tribute to the ladies. You know, it was a woman who was the first one to go down to the tomb early on Sunday morning to visit the Lord. Not the men, no. You know, dad might be the head of the home but mom is the heart of the home. The biggest scourge we have facing our beloved nation of South Africa, is that we are faced with a fatherless generation. Yes, I’m not talking about young children that don’t have a father. Many of those fathers are present but they are not operating in their position. I praise God today for the mothers.
John Wesley said his biggest influence in his life was not John Calvin or Count Zinzendorf or any of the great theologians. The biggest influence in his life was his mother. Her name was Susanna. We really need to honour our womanfolk. I want to say to the men, we need to step up boys. We need to be the prophet, the priest and the king of the home. The prophet is the one who leads the way. The priest is the one who gets up in the morning, by example, and has a quiet time with Jesus before anyone else rises, and the king is the one who brings home food to feed his family.
Today, let’s honour our mothers, our wives, our sisters. Let’s honour the women of God who are so courageous, who are always there at the end. Thank you Lord for the womenfolk.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 20th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 27:54:
“Truly this was the Son of God!”
Then if you go to Mark 15:39, the very same comment:
“Truly this Man was the Son of God!”
It took gentiles, unbelievers, to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You see when they saw what was happening, the earthquakes; the rocks splitting; the graves opening; the saints walking around; a terrible reverence came over them. What saddens me so much at this Easter season, is that there are some churches that do not even celebrate Good Friday. Oh, they celebrate Easter Sunday, The Resurrection, and so do I by the way, but there is a lack of reverence shown for the incredible price that our Lord Jesus Christ paid for our debt and our sin. There is a lack of respect and reverence shown. No crucifixion, no resurrection! I remember Michael Cassidy saying that once and I have never forgotten it. Without the crucifixion there can be no resurrection.
Jill and I as new believers, we would come home from church on Good Friday and quietly sit in the garden, maybe with a cup of tea, and just humbly reflect on the gigantic price that Jesus paid for our sinful lives. There is much more reverence required in the church today. I am even talking about dress code. When you go to a special meeting, you get dressed up, don’t you? - A wedding or maybe a funeral, but what about coming to church?
I always remember one particular Good Friday, we decided at Shalom, to show the movie, The Passion of the Christ. Yes, it is very graphic and maybe for younger children it is not even appropriate, but I want to tell you, I watched that movie and when the movie was finished and the people quietly started leaving our church, I was riveted to my chair. I could not get out of my chair. I was the only one left in the church and I wept and I wept.
I went to Israel with my wife, Jill. We went to the Old City and I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As I walked in through those big doors, there are massive doors, there is a little bench inside and on the right-hand side are steps up to where they say was Golgotha. There are two places in Israel, the other one is the garden tomb, which is very special as well, but that particular time, I sat down on that bench and I just broke down. I started to weep uncontrollably. My dear wife had to try and comfort me when I realised what our beloved Master had done for us. This Easter time, please, spend time in the presence of God.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 19th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 50:23:
“Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;…”
Then we go straight to the Book of Acts 16:25-26:
“But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.”
Oh, this morning how are you feeling? Are you feeling bound with chains of fear, stress, depression, anxiety? Why don’t you try praising the Lord? You know, there is incredible power in praising the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ inhabits the praise and the worship of His people. One of the strengths of the Salvation Army is their singing and their brass band as they march down the streets, singing the praises of God.
We have a boy's school not far from us, up in the beautiful Drakensberg Mountains. They major in music and singing, and before their voices break, they sing. Aah, I want to tell you, ladies I love listening to you singing but when these little boys sing, they reach pitches that no woman can reach as high, and I really feel the presence of Almighty God when these little boys praise and worship the Lord with their instruments and their voices.
With the Mighty Men Conferences all over the world, the highlight for me is the praise and worship. It absolutely melts the hearts of hardened men, men who come there who are angry, men who come there who are fighting the good fight and they are down and out, and when the music starts, you want to really see it, it is incredible. You know, they say they can hear us singing from 15 kms away, that’s about 8 miles away, when you get tens of thousands of men entering into praise and worship. No wonder the prison gates flew open and the chains fell off the prisoners!
I love to watch them. I get a bird’s eye view from the platform, tens of thousands. When the music starts they stand there with their arms folded, they are shy maybe, embarrassed, maybe some angry and then as the music proceeds, their arms drop down by their sides, and then after a few more minutes, their hands start wiping tears away from their faces, and then eventually their hands are raised up into the sky, worshipping their King, totally unaware and unconcerned of anybody around them. Then of course that “Amen”, that war cry. “Amen” by the way means, “so be it” and the devil runs for his life.
Jesus bless you. Today go out and praise and sing to the glory of God!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 18th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 1 Thessalonians 5:24:
”Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
Folks, I am so excited today. Do you know that it is the anniversary of 5 years of doing the Thought for The Day, without missing one single day! All the glory, honour and praise go to our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we have not missed a single day, not me, or the team, or the producers, or the editors. We have not missed one single day - not when it has been raining, not when the sun has been beating down, not when there has been wind and ice and heat, not one single day. You know, we have tried very hard not to tell the same story twice in 5 years and it can only be God. I have many friends who are preachers, good preachers and they do say it can only be God if you have not repeated yourself once in 5 years.
We are reaching out to the ends of the world every single day. I am talking about Christmas Day, Easter, I am talking about seven days of the week, to the end of the world, in the city, in the bush. I have done it from Israel, I have done it from Namibia, I have done it from all over, wherever we go, literally in sickness and in health. Now a lot of you remember, it wasn’t that long ago that I could hardly speak. My voice actually went, but by the grace of God, we managed to get those programmes out to you. I want to take this opportunity to thank our team and to thank our producer, our editors. I want to thank those who have done the pictures faithfully, the music. I want to thank the people who are sending it out every single day.
I have a gentleman who is one of my spiritual sons, Anton, he sends it out from Cape Town. I think he has over a hundred broadcast groups that he sends out himself. We don’t even know how many people are getting this because we can’t find out in any way, but there must be millions of people all over the world, so thank you for listening. Old people, young people, children, women - listen carefully, babies! I am talking about soldiers, I am talking about police stations that have all their soldiers and their policemen standing at ease when they get the Thought for The Day, every single morning. I am talking about schools that play it every morning before school, at school assembly, for doctors, prisoners in jail, many, many, many - people in hospitals, in ICU, getting Thought for The Day every single morning. Folks, babies - I have seen! Mothers have sent me clips which made me cry, babies that are crawling around. They put them on the chair and they play the Thought for The Day and the children don’t move. It is God!
Cats and dogs, I kid you not. I have got Snowy standing right next to me here, you can see him. Parrots - parrots listening to the Thought for the Day! Jesus Christ’s word is going throughout the whole world and I want to say thank you very much for supporting us. Please continue to do so and we will continue to put this out every single morning until the day that the Lord says, “Okay, that’s it” and I will stop on that very same day. Thank you for praying for me, most of all and praying for my family and for my loved ones and for our team.
Jesus bless you richly as you continue to be faithful in what God has called you to do, whatever that might be!
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 17th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Habakkuk 2:3:
”For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
Wait for it today. Oh, my dear friend, wait for it, do not become impatient. That is the message from the Lord Jesus Christ for you and me today. You know, Moses had to wait for forty years before the Lord used him to take the Jews out of Egypt, out of slavery. Joseph was imprisoned and forgotten about before becoming Prime Minister of Egypt. David was hunted like a wild animal by King Saul, for years, but he waited for his time. What about Paul? In my humble opinion probably the greatest of all the apostles. He went out into the unknown for three years, Arabia. Then after fourteen years living in obscurity, he was accepted by the disciples in Jerusalem. Then he went on to write two thirds of the New Testament and performed signs and wonders and miracles, unparalleled. I want to tell you not to give up today. I really believe this message is for somebody who is tired, who has been unnoticed and unappreciated and who has just given up. Don’t give up.
Alexander Fleming, a farmer's son from Scotland, discovered antibiotics. The single greatest victory ever achieved over disease. Yes, he and some scientists invented penicillin and started antibiotics. He was a very modest man. He did not give up even when for a number of years, when he brought his discovery to the medical board, they barely noticed him and did not give him any time at all, and yet that man changed the course of history. In the year 2000, it was regarded as the greatest and most important discovery of the millennium, the discovery of antibiotics that has saved the lives of millions of people. Why? Well, because he waited for it.
Today, I don’t know what it is that you’re struggling with but take it to Jesus, wait for it and it will come to pass.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 16th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the New Testament to the Gospel of Mark 14:72:
”A second time the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And when he thought about it, he wept.“
What a sad scripture. To stand up in public for Jesus Christ is not an easy thing, especially when you are in a hostile environment. What do I mean by that? Well, maybe when all your workmates are blaspheming and telling dirty stories, and you stand up and say, ”Sorry boys, I can’t take that,” and you get mocked for that. It takes a lot of courage. You see, it’s easy to praise the Lord in church when everybody else has got their hands raised and worshipping God, but to do it in a work environment, especially a tough one, whether it be underground mining, whether it be in the workshop, wherever it might be, it can be in the business sector, yes it could even cost you your job if you say the wrong thing at the wrong time.
If you tell people you are a Christian when they are enjoying their time of totally disrespecting their wives or their husbands and you stand up and say, ”I love my husband or I love my wife and I will not be unfaithful to them for anything because it’s what Jesus requires of me,” you will be shunned and excluded from that group. I think one of the hardest places to stand up for the Lord is probably at school. When all the young people are trying to make a name for themselves and you will not be part of it. Yes, they totally disregard you, and sometimes there is the temptation of compromising your stand for Christ just a little bit so that you can get that promotion at work or get that work opportunity, please do not do it.
You know, eventually, Peter repented. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he had a complete 180-degree turnaround. The next thing we read in the Book of Acts is that he preached his first sermon, and no less than 3000 people came to Christ.
The world stands aside for a man or a woman who knows where they are going. Make your decision clear today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 15th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Old Testament, in the Book of Habakkuk 2:2:
“Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.”
Write the vision down - do you have a vision? You know what they say, “If you are aiming at nothing, you are sure to hit it!” We need a vision. We need a short-term vision, and we need a long-term vision. A short-term vision is to live day by day for Jesus, and the long-term vision is to reach that goal which you believe the Lord has called you to. Proverbs 29:18 says:
“Where there is no vision, the people perish;…”
The New King James Version says: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint;…” What does that mean? It means if you have no vision, then you have nothing to get up for in the morning.
If somebody phoned you and said, “I have heard that you have been selected to play for the national team", whether it be rugby or soccer or cricket, you are not going to be eating hamburgers and drinking Cokes. No, you are going to be up in the morning. You are going to be training and getting ready for the call.
Many years ago, I used to get up in my pick-up, (yes, there is a a movie made of it, that’s right. It is called Ordinary People), get up early in the morning, drive my pick-up into my maize fields and preach to the maize plants. That is no word of a lie. I had a vision. My vision was to be able to tell multitudes of people about the love of Christ, to tell them that Jesus loves them and has got a plan for them, and I would preach to those maize plants, and then a gentle wind would come and I would pray the prayer of commitment and all the maize plants would bow their heads!
But you know, the beautiful thing about that in that movie was, those maize plants, slowly but surely formed into people, and of course we know about what has happened in the Mighty Men phenomenon around the world. Over 20 Mighty Men conferences this year, in places like France, New Zealand, Australia, Canada - all over the world. And I had a vision to preach to the multitudes. Well, it has happened!
What is your vision today? Ask Jesus to give you a clear-cut vision. Aim for it and go for it, and He in His time will bring it to pass.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 14th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to that well-known scripture, 2 Timothy 1:7, Jesus says,
“I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
I want to tell you a little story about the strongest man in the world. Well, we are going back a little bit to 1956. Yes, his name was Paul Anderson. Paul Anderson went to the Olympic Games in Australia. It was a given that he was going to get the gold medal in the heavyweight division, but when he got to Australia, he got sick. He had a terrible fever. He lost 30 lbs and the doctor said he couldn’t participate, but he tried. He came all that way. Apparently, when he walked onto the platform, everyone could see that it was a given, this man weighed over 350lbs. Well, he started the first lift (you only get three chances). He failed miserably. The second one, he failed again. The third one, the last one to make him the gold medalist, he prayed in his heart, “Lord, if You give me the strength to get this bar and this weight over my head, I will serve You for the rest of my life’, and at that very moment, he said this himself, God gave him the strength and he pushed that weight over his head and he became the world champion. One lift!
What are you struggling with today? What is the lift in your life? What is the challenge that you are struggling with? Folks, I want to tell you, Paul Anderson said, “If I, the strongest man cannot make it through one day without Jesus Christ, how can you?” You know, often God puts us through a test and He gives us an opportunity to call upon Him.
You have probably heard this story before, but there was a year on this farm when we had a devastating drought. I had all my money in the crop. I had a young family, everything was at maximum. My overdraft was full, my production loan at the Co-Op was full, I had no money left and there was no rain and the crop was dying in front of my eyes. I said a similar thing as Paul Anderson. I said, “Lord, if you take me through this crop, I will preach the Gospel for the rest of my life.” That’s exactly what I am doing at the moment.
You know that Paul Anderson went back home and started a youth movement. He started a home for young men. To help young, underprivileged boys, he brought them to his home. They looked up to him, and they respected him. You see, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Today, trust the Lord. He will pull you through.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 13th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 10:19:
“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
Then we go to the New Testament to the Gospel of Mark 14:61:
”But He kept silent and answered nothing.”
That was Jesus Christ when He was being interviewed and He responded by saying nothing. You know, this message probably applies to me more than it applies to you but we need to sometimes keep silent. Jesus never wasted His words. His speech was always “yes” or “no”, but nothing in between. He was decisive. You and I need to become more like that; it will cost us much less pain and confusion. We need to learn to measure our words. Do you know that international wars have started through foolish words? I know of marriages that have been destroyed by men and women who cannot control their tongues. We need to be careful. Many marriages have been destroyed through foolish words. If we haven’t got anything good to say about someone, then we'd rather not say a word.
The Wesley brothers, John and Charles Wesley, were instrumental by God to start one of the biggest revivals the world has ever known. Charles was the hymn-writer. Some of the most beautiful hymns that we sing were written by Charles Wesley, and John was the evangelist. Charles used to often say about his brother, “If you want to keep a secret then don’t tell my brother.” I hope my wife is not listening to this message today.
Billy Graham is an evangelist that I have a great respect for. He has literally touched millions and millions of lives all over the world. He wrote his autobiography called, “Just as I am.” It is a very heart-wrenching book because he kept nothing back. He said it all. Right at the back of his book he has a chapter that speaks about regrets. He said, “I have a few regrets”, he said, “one of them is, if I had to do it again I would speak less, I would study more, I would pray more.”
I want to say to you today, “Let’s keep silent and only speak when we really have to.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 12th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
I want us to read from the Gospel of John 21:24:
“This is the disciple who testifies of these things,…”
That was John, he was giving a testimony - the power of personal testimony! I want to say something to you my dear friends. Every one of us is called to testify for what Jesus Christ has done in our lives. I mean after all, that is what preaching is, is it not? I love Charles Swindell, and I read something he wrote once. He said there are different types of people giving testimonies. He said there is the “eager beaver” approach where there is no follow-up. You have got to be saved and that’s it and away you walk. There is the “varsity approach” which is all about discussion and talking about the things of the Word but no opportunity for the person to get saved. Then there is the “silent approach”. Well, you have just got to live the life, you have just got to relax and people will see Christ in you but that is where it stops. No folks, he says we have got to be available, we have got to be Spirit-led, we have got to be obedient and timing is so important. We have got to be sensitive and we have got to get to the point and stop arguing.
I love that little story of Gypsy Smith, the evangelist (His name was Rodney Smith actually). He used to ride around England in his little painted wagon with his horse pulling that wagon. He would stop on open common ground, and crowds of up to 10,000 people would come and listen to him bringing the word of God. One day when he had finished preaching, a lay-preacher came up to him and said to him, “I really admire the way you just keep on preaching, you never seem to get tired. You know, I have preached the Gospel from Genesis through to Revelation and I am so tired and I have got nothing left. What must I do?” Gypsy Smith said to him, “Just keep telling them what Jesus Christ means to you.” That is what preaching the Gospel is, spending time telling people what Jesus means to you. You see, that is the personal testimony.
As you know, we have got a movie called Faith Like Potatoes, that’s all it is, it is our testimony, myself, my wife, my family and my friends. Today go out and testify about the goodness of God in your life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 11th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in that very well-known scripture, Romans 8:1:
”There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,…”
What a beautiful promise! Then we go to 1 Peter 5:7:
”…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
You see the devil condemns us. Put that baggage down, that burden, that guilt, that insecurity, that fear. Put it down, give it to Jesus. Just after I gave my life to Christ, I had been very burdened up until then with responsibilities. I had a big family, five young children, a farm that I had to pay off. I put a wonderful crop in but every afternoon at four o’clock, those black rolling clouds would come across my maize crop and there was a green tinge in them, often representing hailstones, and I would go into a bit of a tailspin panic, but the one day I was walking through my fields and the penny dropped. I realised that when I gave my life to Christ, I gave Him everything. I gave Him my family, I gave Him my career, I gave Him my life. I gave Him everything, even the maize crop. I gave it to the Lord and I realised I was no longer responsible for the outcome of this wonderful crop of maize because I was merely the Lord’s manager. He was the owner because I had given everything to Him.
Do you know the freedom that came upon me? I was so free. I thought, “Lord, if this crop gets wiped out by hail then it’s Your crop and I’m Yours, my family’s Yours, therefore You’ve got another plan for me.” Folks, I want to tell you it set me free.
Today, cast your cares upon Jesus because He cares for you and when He took your sin, He said there is no more condemnation. Just move on for the Lord and He will take care of the rest.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 10th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 14:41:
“Then He came the third time (that’s Jesus) and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? It is enough!”
Folks, it’s wake up time. There is no time left for sleeping! Jesus is coming back very soon. Then we go straight to 1 Peter 5:8:
“Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour.” (AMP Bible)
We need to wake up. We need to take authority in our homes. Really folks, we need to tell our children, “In this house, we are Christians, in this house we don’t do things like that, in this house we are followers of Jesus Christ. You will pray and we will spend time with the Lord and you will not bring that filth into this house.”
“Aah, but dad, everybody else is doing that.”
“It doesn’t matter - not in this house!” We have to look after our families. Jesus says, “Stop sleeping, it is enough.”
Remember - it might be your business, “Well whatever will be, will be.” Well, that’s not the attitude. Stand up like a man and get back into the fight. Remember, the best form of defence is attack. If the Lord is on your side, you have nothing to fear. Don’t listen to the lies of the devil which are defeat - “You will never make it, you are washed up, you are done.” Don’t listen to that. Remember the word of the Lord. You see, that thing that you fear is not going to go away by having a sleep - no, no, no! You have got stand up, face the enemy eye to eye and say, “This far and no further”.
Draw a line in the sand. But how are we going to do this? I will tell you how you are going to do it - by prayer. You see, Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane when the disciples were sleeping. Three times He came and said, “Watch and pray.” Folks, I am telling you now, you need to watch and pray. Gentlemen, you need to get out of bed in the morning, you need to be on your knees praying for your beloved wife and your children. Yes, it’s not your wife’s job, it’s your job. Children, you need to pray for your parents. Oh yes, they need help. You need to pray for your headmaster and your teacher. You need to pray for your friends, and Jesus will undertake.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 9th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Nahum 1:15:
”Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace!”
Good news! We go to Romans 10:15:
”And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:…” Here we go again”… How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!”
I remember when my second son was born. I was sitting in the hospital. In those days we never went in when the mother was having the baby and I waited for good news and the good news was that I had just had my second son born. Folks, I want to tell you, I got in my pick up and I drove home and I told all my staff on the farm, ”Today is good news. I’ve got a new baby boy. He is born and so everyone can have the day off.” And we had a celebration time.
The good news is that Jesus Christ is alive, oh yes. He’s not a figment of our imagination. He is more real to me than you listening to this very message and the good news is we have to tell everybody. Yes, I know the bad news is when you see what is happening around the world and we have to be aware of that. We cannot be like the proverbial ostrich that hides his head in the sand, but on the other hand, we have good news!
If you look at Hebrews 13:5, The Lord says:
…“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Isn’t that good news? And what about that young man whose business is struggling, that lady who doesn’t know when she’s going to get food to feed her children? The Lord says in Philippians 4:19:
”And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
That is good news.
Now go out and tell people the good news. If Christ be for us, who can possibly stand against us?
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 8th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Mark 14:32:
”Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”
What do we do when we are in our time of extreme pain, extreme suffering? What do we do when we are in our Gethsemane? Well, we do exactly what Jesus did. We pray. We pray for our sick child; we pray for the prodigal son or daughter to come home; we pray for the business that is in dire straits; we pray for our marriage that is falling apart; we pray for the weather. “Why?” you might ask. Well, that’s exactly what Jesus did. You see, He won’t necessarily take us out of the fire but He will walk with you and with me right through the middle of the fire.
Remember, He said to His Father in Mark 14:36
“Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”
Jesus did not want to go to the cross. He knew what was waiting for Him. You do not want to go through the fire you are experiencing at this moment but can you and I pray, ”Lord not my will but Yours be done” Today, you and I need to pray and then we need to drink of the cup. It’s not the cup of prosperity I’m talking about. No, it’s the cup of suffering. But if you pray and walk with Jesus, He won’t take you out of the fire, no, He never promised that. He will walk with you through the fire and bring you out on the other side.
I always tell my wife Jill, when you are going down a country road and there’s been heavy rain and there’s a huge amount of water in the middle of the road, you do not go around the edge of the water, you will get stuck in the mud. You go straight through the middle of the puddle. Why? Because there is hard ground underneath. That’s why the water is lying there. Today, drink of the cup and know that Jesus will bring you safely out of the other side.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 7th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of John 3:16 (AMP Version):
“For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Saviour] shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
My dear friend, what a blessing, the whole Bible in one verse! I want to speak to you this morning about salvation. Another word for salvation is “a ticket to Heaven”, yes - being rescued from going to hell. Abundant life (John 10:10).
Many years ago I went to bonny Scotland to go and have a look at where my ancestors came from. I, myself, am an African, born and bred in Central Africa, but I went to a little village called Buchan Haven, the name of my family, and in that little village there is a hall they called Rescue Hall, a little Christian church, Rescue Hall. What a beautiful name. Now that little village was full of fishermen, I have never seen so many Buchans in my life, a very quaint little village, but a lot of tragedy there from fishermen who go out into the North Sea, into the freezing cold, up to the Arctic Circle, looking for fish so that they can feed their families, pay their debts, educate their children and work hard - Buchan Haven. There is a statue of a woman, a mother with a little child hanging onto her skirts. She has got her hand up and she is looking out into the perilous North Sea to see if her husband, and the rest of the fishermen, are coming home on the fishing boats.
I want to tell you today, maybe you need to be rescued from the perilous seas of this life in which we are living. If you are, then look to the Lord. Look to the Lord and He will save you, like He continually saved those brave fishermen and those brave women who prayed for their men to come home. Rescue Hall is a place I preached in and many people have been saved in that wonderful place.
Today, look to the Lord and let Him save you from the perilous seas of life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 6th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 2 Corinthians 12:9:
”…but He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you [My lovingkindness and My mercy are more than enough—always available—regardless of the situation]; for [My] power is being perfected [and is completed and shows itself most effectively] in [your] weakness.” Therefore, I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ [may completely enfold me and] may dwell in me.”
When I am weak, then I am strong.
I want to ask you today, at the moment, are you going through a really rough time? Then, this beautiful scripture verse will strengthen you. You see, Paul had a thorn in his flesh and he asked the Lord three times to remove it. The Lord did not remove it. He said, “My grace, My undeserved loving kindness, is enough for you.” You say, “But I can’t take it anymore.” Oh, but you can and you must. You see, by His grace, He will see you through but you must let Jesus help you. Verse 10 says,
”For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
You see, the stiff upper-lip, “cowboys don’t cry”, “do it my way”, doesn’t work. I have tried it many times. I remember as a young farmer planting my crop of maize, the planting time is crucial. My tractors broke down, I didn’t know what to do and then I heard the noise of tractors coming over the hill. My neighbours had seen what had happened. They saw that I was at the end of my tether, I couldn’t anymore. They sent their tractors over and completed the planting of the crop for me. It was very humbling, but I was so grateful. Humble yourself, ask the Lord to help you and then carry on and God will send help to you. He always has for me and it is always at the 11th hour. As you can hear by my voice, at the moment I have got a bit of a frog in my throat, but by His grace, the next time you hear me I will be clear as a bell.
Jesus bless you as you continue to look to Jesus, and Him alone, for your help.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 5th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 14:9. Jesus said:
”Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”
What had she done? She had taken a flask of very expensive perfume, she had broken it and poured it all over our beloved Master, and straight away the disciples rebuked her but especially Judas Iscariot. He had an ulterior motive, he wanted that money for himself.
But folks, I just want to say to you today because God has convicted me, we must be very careful that the work of the Lord does not become more important than the Lord of the work. Do you understand what I am saying? So, you are doing great things for Jesus - you are feeding the poor, you are looking after the sick, you are looking after the old age people, the orphans and the widows, but at what expense? It must never be at the expense of denying time with Jesus, giving Him first place in your life. You and I are not hirelings, we are not working for a wage, no - we are sons and daughters of the living God and we have to spend time with our beloved Jesus. That woman got it right, the disciples got it wrong. They said that that flask of expensive perfume should be sold and the money should be taken and given to the poor. The Lord says, “You will have the poor with you forever but I will not be with you for much longer.”
How much time are you spending with Jesus at the moment and how much time are you spending doing good works? We must be careful. You know, I had a massive 20-ton truck. We call it the seed-sower. We took food, we took clothes, and we took Bibles into Africa, right into the rural areas. Some places where those little children had never even seen a white person before, but you know, they would clamour, they would even fight, I saw it with my own eyes, for a Bible. Yes, they enjoyed the food and they appreciated the clothes but what they wanted was the Word of God. They knew that was where their hope was.
Lloyd George was a British prime minister, many years ago, and it is recorded, he said, “Education without Christ makes clever little devils.” Now, that is not a joke, you can educate somebody but if you don’t tell them about Jesus, what have you got? You have got nothing. And that is what happens, many times we put the work ahead of the Lord of the work. 1 Corinthians 13, that famous chapter about love, of course you can spell love, J-e-s-u-s, that is what Jesus is. I want to tell you something now, it says clearly in verse 3 of that very chapter,
“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, (have not Jesus) it profits me nothing.”
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 4th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of John 8:44. Jesus said to the pharisees:
”You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
The devil is the father of all lies. Then we go to Revelation 20:10:
“The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone…”
The devil is a robber. He is a liar and the father of all lies. Folks, his neck was broken when Jesus said, on the cross of Calvary, “It is finished!” The victory is ours. The only thing the devil can do to you and me is to tell us lies, and if we believe him, he will kill us with his lies, but he cannot touch us physically because he is defeated. We need to understand this.
You know, what you believe can actually make or break your quality of life. Fear of God’s final judgement, rejection - a lot of people are afraid to die because they don’t know what is going to happen. Now I want to tell you, the Lord is not here to condemn us. Okay? It couldn’t be further from the truth. Jesus has paid for all of our sins. Romans 8:1:
”There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,…”
Do not allow the devil to rob you of your joy, of your peace, and most of all, your relationship with Jesus today. Remember, our faith impacts the quality of our lives. Folks, I am talking particularly this morning to young people, scholars, and students, where the devil is telling you you’ll never make it, you will never pass. Do you know that Abraham Lincoln is rated as one of the greatest presidents that America has ever had? I don’t think he had more than two or three years education. Don’t underestimate what God can do through you if you trust Him. Winston Churchill, they tell me that his father back-handed the establishment to push his son through the different grades because he wasn’t interested. Some rate him as one of the greatest orators that has ever lived. What about Helen Roseveare, that missionary who came to the Congo? She taught orderlies, you know, the cleaners - she taught them how to do operations. God has given you a brain. Use it - don’t listen to the lies of the devil!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 3rd of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 94:19:
“In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.”
Are you feeling anxious today? Are you feeling that your thoughts are running amok? Well, the Lord’s got a very good message for you. We go to Isaiah 26:3:
“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.”
Today, we need to put our trust in the Lord. Is your mind racing this morning? Are you feeling totally overwhelmed? “Lord, I can’t do this.” Are your busy thoughts totally out of control? Oh, I understand so well how you are feeling this morning. I cast my mind back to an event we had a few years ago when I was about to walk onto the platform and address over one million people live, a sight I will never forget. But I had to come aside and be quiet on my own. My mind was racing, all kinds of thoughts coming into my mind. All things having to remember, so much to remember, and I felt the Holy Spirit say, “Come aside and I will give you My peace.” Do you know that beautiful scripture, John 14:27:
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
Sitting there quietly, collecting my thoughts, concentrating on the Lord Jesus Christ and His call upon my life, not being persuaded by the devil that I will never make it, the people will not listen to me, they will go home - no, none of that rubbish! Concentrating, the Lord said, “I called you, I anointed you, I appointed you for a time such as this”, and then I walk onto that platform with Jesus standing right next to me, almost physically, and the confidence, and the joy and the peace of God overflows my soul.
Do it today, you will be surprised how your attitude will change immediately!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 2nd of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 13:32:
“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
No one knows the time when He is returning, not even Jesus. We need to be careful that we are not fooled by a man who says he knows when the Lord is coming back. The truth is not in him because the Bible tells us not even the angels in Heaven, not even Jesus Himself knows the hour. Don’t be fooled!
You know the gypsy that goes along with his little painted wagon with his wife and children, along the country roads, that beautiful painted wagon, pulled by the horse, he comes to the farmer’s gate and he says, “Have you got anything for me to repair?” He normally sharpens knives, he repairs pots and pans and he sells all kinds of trinkets for the children and his wife says, “I can tell your fortune.” And the housewife is fooled, the husband is working in the field and she sits down with her crystal ball and she starts looking into the ball and she tells the housewife everything she wants to know. ”You are going to have a lot of prosperity, things are going to go well, you are going to write a book, you are going to be famous.” Then the housewife says, “How can you prove to me that you know what is going on?”
You see, the gypsy’s wife is very clever. Before she knocked on the door, she went around the back and she saw all the washing on the line. She saw the husband’s overalls, she saw two little dresses, one probably for a girl about fourteen and another about ten, and a little boy’s trousers - must have been two or three years old, and she tells the gullible housewife, “Oh yes, I know that you are married.”
She said, “How did you know that?”
“Oh no, I know, and your husband is a big man.”
“Yes, that is right, he is!”
“And you have got two daughters, one is about fourteen and the other about…” and the lady is sucked in by lies.
But on a serious note, you say, “Well, what can we do if we don’t know when the Lord is coming back?” Well, if we look at Mark 13:37, the Lord Jesus says: “
And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch!”
That is what we have got to do, watch and pray. We have got to be ready for the coming of the Lord. Oh, for me it couldn’t be soon enough, but let’s carry on and let’s work hard like He is coming in a thousand years, but let’s be prepared so that even if He comes tomorrow morning, we will be ready.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 1st of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Isaiah 55:8. The Lord says:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.”
If we go to the Book of Micah 4:12:
“But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord,…”
Folks, we must stop arguing with God. You know, Job, the farmer, I can identify with that man so much. Job was arguing with God, remember? You can go to Job 38 and you will see where the Lord has had enough of the arguments, enough of the senseless continually questioning God instead of believing Him. He says: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” I just love it - He says, “Stand up like a man and I will question you.” Maybe God is going to question you today, my dear friend, and say, “Where were you when God created? How dare you question God and His integrity and His authority. Let’s stop questioning God and let’s start believing God.
You see, it’s also okay when people come to you and they ask you, “How can God allow this to happen?” You can say, “I don’t know” because you are not God, but that is the time that we can say like the farmer Job when he came to his senses, he said, “Even though He slay me, even though He kills me, yet will I still trust Him”, (Job 13:15), because he knew the heart of God.
Corrie Ten Boom is one of my heroes, that Dutch lady that was put in a concentration camp with her old dad and her sister, Betsy, and her dad died within weeks and Betsy got sick. She was a Christian and Corrie was nursing her on her lap and she was dying, and Corrie was so upset about what was happening. “God, where are You? How can You let this happen to my sister?” And she heard a little voice whispering. She looked down, it was her sister, and the little voice said, “Corrie, if you know Him, you do not have to ask why.”
Let’s stop arguing with God today and start believing Him because He always has our best interests at heart.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 28th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 13:13. Jesus says:
“But he who endures to the end shall be saved.”
That very same scripture you can find in the Gospel of Matthew 10:22:
“But he who endures to the end will be saved.”
Now, the Amplified Version says, but the one who [patiently perseveres empowered by the Holy Spirit and] endures to the end, he will be saved.
There was a missionary going back home who had been in the Congo in Africa for over 40 years, preaching the Gospel, praying for the sick, building churches, schools, and hospitals, and now he was on his way home. He got onto the ship and eventually the ship arrived in America. He went in, through the gates, passed the Statue of Liberty. He came to the dock. He was standing at the back of the ship with his little suitcase all by himself, but on that same ship was a team of football players. They had just come back from Europe. They had won the championship and all of their supporters were there. Streamers were being thrown over the ship, hooters were being blown, people were singing and praising this football team that came back with the cup, and the poor old missionary who spent his whole life preaching the Gospel to the poor, and he stood at the back of the ship holding his little suitcase, all by himself.
He looked up and he cried out to the Lord. He said, “Lord, my whole life has been dedicated to You. There is not one person here to welcome me home, and then he heard a small voice of the Holy Spirit saying, “But son, you haven’t got home yet. Wait for the reward when you get home to Heaven.”
Today, persevere. Let the Holy Spirit empower you to finish the job which the Lord called you to do for Him.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 27th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 12:42 (Amp.Version): “
A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a mite.”
Then we go on a little bit to verse 44, and Jesus said:
“For they all contributed from their surplus, but she, from her poverty, put in all she had, all she had to live on.”
Folks, a very small coin, worth a fraction of a penny. Now, some young people don’t even know what a penny is anymore, but the older people listening to this message, if you look at the picture, you will see I took a photograph of a one penny, a South African coin minted in 1946. You see, people often give from their overflow. That old lady gave from her very substance. She gave the very money that she had left.
God doesn’t need your money, God doesn’t need my money, He wants our attitude, He wants our heart. Some of the most generous people I have met in my life are wealthy people. It is not about the money, it's about the heart of the thing. When we give, we must give not expecting a return. You see, when you give to a poor person, it is as if you are giving to God because there is no return from that person, and God knows that. That is why He says in Matthew 25:40:
”…inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
Aah but folks, come on now, we know the heart of our God. Our God is a giver, He gave us His only begotten Son so that we, you and I, would have eternal life. You see, God is a giver by nature. So we don’t give to God like an investment, like we want something back. No, we give to God because we love Him. If you want an investment back, go and give your money to a bank or an insurance company where you will get a return. When you give to God, no strings attached. You give it to Him because you love Him, but He will give it back to you, pressed down, shaken together and running over.
Jesus bless you and have a great day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 26th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 19:38:
”After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly,…”
Folks, I have the privilege of participating in a funeral service but the lady that we are going to remember is not famous, no. She is a mother, the wife of a minister. She has brought up children and grandchildren. Yes, she’s a washer of dishes, a cleaner of the house, the one that makes the beds every day. Yes, she is a band of one of the feet washers that no one ever hears about, but what a lady! If you think about it, everybody knows who C H Surgeon is. He is called the Prince of Preachers. At 21 years old they built the London Tabernacle for him that could seat 10 000 people but no one knows about the farm worker that was preaching one Sunday night in a terrible snow storm this young man was trying to seek refuge, he wasn’t going to church, and he slipped into the back of the church, where the farmworker, nobody knows what his name was, was preaching the Gospel, but that young man heard one verse, “Look unto me and be saved”. His life was changed. Yes, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, but you don’t know the name of that farmworker. No, he was just an ordinary person.
What about Mordecai Ham? How’s that for a mouthful? Mordecai Ham - do you know who Mordecai Ham was? No, of course you don’t, but I want to tell you that Mordecai Ham was preaching. He was a country evangelist, and he was preaching one night and a young boy, 16 years old, came into the meeting. His whole ambition was to be a professional baseball player. He heard the word, came forward, gave his life to Christ. Yes, I’m talking about Billy Graham, probably the greatest of all modern day evangelists!
Then of course we’re talking about Joseph of Arimathea, a businessman. Yes, when all of the disciples fled and left Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea, took his reputation and his life in his hands and asked Pontius Pilate if he could take the body of Christ off the cross. He put the body of our beloved Master in his own personal grave - Joseph of Arimathea. These are a band of feet washers.
This lady I’m talking about, Marion, was the wife of the man who ran the church where my wife Jill and I got saved 46 years ago. I remember her very well, just a lovely, beautiful person. We always felt welcome in her home. She had a lot to do with our conversion and walk with Christ. She is now receiving her reward from Jesus in heaven. Don’t despise the feet washers.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 25th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Jonah 4:1:
”But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Luke 15:28:
“But he was angry and would not go in.”
Jonah was so upset because the whole city of Nineveh got saved from their wicked ways. He was very upset about it. He said, ”It’s not fair.” Have you been like that? What about the young son, the two boys? The one was an absolute rebel, a prodigal son, he went off into the far country, wasted all his money, came back and his father loved him. The older son never went anywhere. He stayed at home, worked hard, he was a good boy, and there was his father having a beautiful banquet because his lost son had come home. He was very angry about it. He wouldn’t even go into the party. The Bible tells us that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. ”Oh but it’s not fair.” Oh folks, we need to be very compassionate with people who come to Christ at a late stage in their lives.
We praise God through Jesus Christ our Lord, that we serve a God who is a Friend of sinners, a God who is slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness. That’s what Jonah said about the Lord and the Lord relented. It means He changed His mind. He did not blot out Nineveh off the face of the earth. No, He relented. He changed His mind and He gave them a second chance and He did it because Jonah went and gave them an opportunity, but Jonah couldn’t see what he had done. He was just upset because they got saved. Have you ever been in that situation?
You know, I remember when my children were quite young. One of my daughters, when she was a beautiful young teenager, came to me and said, ”Dad, you know, I don’t have a testimony, like some of these other people I read about - you know, of an alcoholic turning to Christ and being completely set free, of a drug addict, of a prostitute coming to Christ, of a thief being in jail, coming out, changing his whole life and coming miraculously to Jesus.” I said to her, ”Oh my sweetheart, you have no idea what these people have been through before they come to Christ, the pain, the shame, the guilt that they’ve had to go through, the grace of Christ that they have to lean on in order to get through one day at a time.
If you come from a Christian home you should be so happy and you should go and thank your parents that they’ve brought you up and spared you from the ravages of the devil. Today, do not be sad, do not be resentful that you haven’t got a testimony. You’ve got a fantastic testimony. Just keep telling people about Jesus!
Until next time, God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 24th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jonah 3:10:
”Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented (He changed His mind) from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.”
Jonah went to Ninevah. Ninevah was a massive city, it took three days just to walk across the city. The King and all his people repented and God saved them. Then we go to the most well-known scripture in the whole Bible, John 3:16:
”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Then verse 17 says:
”For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
God of mercy! The Lord loves us so much today, my dear friend. He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to save us. You know, Jesus is the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd left the ninety-nine sheep to go and find that one lost sheep. Maybe you are that lost sheep this morning and the Lord is crying out to you and saying, ”Turn from your wicked ways, follow me, I will forgive you. I will heal you and I will give you eternal life.”
A while ago we got a letter sent to us in the office by an old gentleman who had written to us. He said he’s very lonely, he lives all by himself. He’s coming to see us and I felt the Holy Spirit say that Jill and I must rather go and see him. So we got the details of where he lived and we went to visit this old gentleman and I want to tell you, what a lovely old man. I will never forget that afternoon we spent with him. It took us three hours to find his farm. The road was so overgrown that I could hardly find my way to his home. He’s living there all by himself with his little dog, and when we arrived at the gate, he came out of his house and he was astonished. He looked at me and he couldn’t believe it. He said, “Why have you come to see me?” I said, "Because sir, God told us to come and see you.” He was totally overwhelmed. You know, we could hardly get away from him that afternoon. He gave my wife three beautiful swans. His wife had died, you see, and these little ornaments obviously were special to his wife and she had died two years before, and he lived in that little house all by himself.
I want to say to you today, go out and find the lost. Jonah didn’t want to go to Ninevah, but the Lord said he must go and He pursued Jonah until He went, and the whole city was saved.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 23rd of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Psalm 18:6:
“In my distress…” (are you distressed today, my friend?)
“In my distress I called upon the Lord,
And cried out to my God;
He heard my voice from His temple,
And my cry came before Him, even to His ears.”
Isn’t that a wonderful thing to know, that the Lord is hearing every one of our cries? Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 8:25. The disciples are also very distressed because the boat that they were travelling in was about to sink in the middle of Lake Galilee:
”Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
Call out to the Lord Jesus Christ today, my dear friend, and He will hear you in your depths of despair. Call upon His name and He will undertake. I looked up in the dictionary “distress” means extreme pain, unhappiness, suffering, agony, or danger. Are you feeling like that today? Well then, this message is for you and the Lord is saying to you today clearly, “Call upon My name, I am listening.” Despair means complete loss or absence of hope. It causes depression, misery, causes one to give up, to lose heart. Are you there today?
Oh, I know it well. I have been in that position myself, many times. I have shared that story with you, it is in the movie, “Faith like Potatoes”, when that fire was going to jump over the fence from our farm and go into a massive forest of pine trees and I was totally stressed out. That is the honest truth. I was a brand-new Christian, and I remembered, the Lord said, “Call to me when you are in times of despair and distress." I got on my knees in the dust and I said, “Please Lord, help me. If this fire jumps into the neighbour’s pine plantation, we will be ruined.” And what happened? The wind changed, gentle rain came up from the south and the Lord put that fire out.
Today, He will put the fire out in your life. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it is a sick child, maybe it is a work situation, maybe it is a financial problem. Today, call on His name. He saved the disciples, the boat did not sink, and He also saved David, “the apple of His eye”, as He called out in his distress.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 22nd of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jonah 1:12:
“Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.” -
Dying to self, preferring your fellow man. Then we go to John 11:50 and of course, the chief priest, Caiaphas, did not even know what he was talking about when he said:
”…one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.”
He was talking about Jesus. Jesus Christ was sacrificed for you and me, my dear friend. You see, Jonah knew that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and so in order to save those crewmen and to save the ship he said, ”Please throw me overboard.” When the high priest soldiers came into the Garden of Gethsemane to arrest Jesus, you know what He did? Yes, the same thing that He always does. He said, ”Let these go their way I am the one that you want.” (John 18:8) He was prepared to sacrifice His life for you and for me.
I’m just thinking of William Carey, that country boy from England, who went all the way with his young wife and children to India to preach the Gospel. He became a great Bible translator. He translated the Bible from English into many other languages. Sanskrit was a very difficult language. This man was uneducated, but He did it for the sake of the Gospel but it cost him dearly. He lost his wife, she died there and some of his children. He paid an incredible price.
Jim Elliot went to the Amazon jungle to preach the Gospel, and at the age of 29 years old, he was murdered, but through his death, many came to Christ. He said, ”It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Today, you and I, let us lay our lives down for our fellow man and then we will really start living for Christ.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 21st of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 19:13-14:
”Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them.” But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Folks, we need to look after our little children. I want to share something with you which touched me very deeply. I got a little clip from TikTok, and on the clip, there was a young mother who was videoing her little child. That child could have only been 4 or 5 months old, sitting on the couch watching the television. One of my programs was on the tv and that little child watched that program and did not move. I don’t know the concentration span of a child of 4 or 5 months old, but I want to tell you that the Word of God never returns void.
I really want to tell you, moms and dads, you must pray with your children every single day, preferably morning and night and you must share with them the things about God. You say, “No well, they’re a bit too young.” They are never too young. Anytime they will take it in because the Word of God is in them. You see the Lord has put eternity in the heart of man when He created man. So for a child to receive the Word is very easy and I want to say something to dads particularly. It’s not so much what you say to your children but it’s the lifestyle that you live that makes the impact.
Dad, if you are aggressive towards your wife, your son will be aggressive towards his wife when he grows up. He’ll hate himself for it but it’s what you’ve taught him. Don’t say to your children, ”Don’t do what I do. Do what I tell you.” It doesn’t work. They will do exactly what you do. If you are a drunkard, they will become drunkards. If you are a womaniser, they will become womanisers. If you are forever moaning at your husband, I’m telling you, your daughters will do the same.
Looking after children is a very serious responsibility. Jesus said that the children must come to Him, doesn’t matter how tired He was. He was always ready to speak to the little children. As I get older, I want to tell you, I love children so much. That little clip of that 4 month old baby touched me so deeply. You know if Donald Trump and Cyril Rhamaposa want to speak to me, they must get in the queue because the little children must come first.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 20th of February 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Jonah 1:3:
"But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord."
You can't run from God. Don't try and run from God. The Lord told Jonah to go to Ninevah, warn the people, and tell them to repent. Jonah didn't do that; he ran away, but we know the end of the story. Jonah didn't win! You know, folks, when God calls you, you must obey Him. I have found, in my life, that happiness comes only through obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Jeremiah had the same situation. Jeremiah 20:9:
"Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name."
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not."
You see, they made a mockery of Jeremiah. They put him in the city square in stocks. They hurled abuse at him, and probably rotten vegetables and everything else. He said, "I have had enough, Lord. I am not doing this anymore. I am not speaking up for You anymore." And then he says, "But there is a fire in my bones, and I cannot help myself. I have to keep on preaching."
I had an incident many, many years ago as a young preacher. I was invited to a little town, and from the start, everything went wrong. The venue was a bad choice; it was a hotel on a Friday night, and all the boys, their girlfriends and/or wives were there, having a massive party. I was supposed to speak at about 6 o'clock, but the food only arrived at about 8 o'clock, so they put me on the floor at about 9 pm.
Many of these people were under the weather already, and I preached my heart out and made an altar call. I told them to come forward so that I could pray for them to accept Jesus. Folks, not one single person responded! I have never, ever forgotten that. I stood alone in that hall by myself, and they all sat in their chairs at the tables, arms folded, some sniggering, some smiling, and some of them not even with us. I stood alone. I will never forget it. I prayed and went home to the minister's house for the night. I didn't sleep that night, folks; I wrestled. I was in a cold sweat. "Lord, why am I doing this? They don't even want me here. Lord, there is a church on every street corner. I am a successful farmer; I don't have to do this." I felt the Lord say to me, almost tangibly, "Are you going to do this or not?" And I said, "Okay."
We had a men's breakfast the following day, and two men came forward. That was a start; on Sunday, we were in the township, and I want to tell you the dam broke, and multitudes came forward. Don't give up today. You are on the brink of a miracle. Just obey the Lord!
Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 19th of February 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Obadiah 1:21:
"…And the kingdom shall be the Lord's."
Then we go to Psalm 22:28:
"For the kingdom is the Lord's, And He rules over the nations."
The last scripture is Matthew 25:34:
" Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
The kingdom of God shall never fall! Where are we investing our time and energy? We live in a time when nothing is secure and solid. Where do you invest your money? Where do you go for peace and quiet? What country in this world is at peace at the moment?
In 1939, Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, went across to Munich, Germany, to meet with Adolf Hitler, who was bent on conquering Europe then. Chamberlain wanted peace, so Hitler said to him, and I quote: "No more territorial demands to make in Europe." He flew back to Britain. Photographed as he got off the plane - that very famous photo of him showing the people of Britain that he had got a peace agreement with Hitler - No more war. Folks, he had barely said that, and Hitler continued his conquest of Europe and declared war against Britain.
Where do we find peace? Where do we find solitude? Only when we meet the Prince of Peace! Peace is freedom from anxiety and war - but the peace I am talking about this morning is your peace of mind, folks. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. In John 14:27, He says: "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." Today, let us invest in eternal things; let's invest in the peace of God; let's spend time with Him.
Father, I pray for my friends listening to this message right now. I pray that You will give them Your peace. Peace that cannot be found in this world, peace that will last forever. In Jesus' name, Amen.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 18th of February 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Obadiah 1:3:
“The pride of your heart has deceived you,…‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’
The Lord will bring us down to the ground if we continue to walk in pride. He says He will do it for our sake. We go to 1 Peter 5:5, and the Bible says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. God will not stand for pride or arrogance, folks.
Do you remember the rich farmer? He had a bountiful crop. He said he was going to build more barns to take in that massive crop, and then he is going to sit down and drink and be merry, but the Lord said, “Foolish man, tonight your soul will be required of you.” It’s a dangerous place to be sometimes when you are succeeding because you think nothing can bring you down. Folks, the safest place for you to be is on your knees because you cannot fall any further. When you are on a pedestal and people put you up there, it is very easy for that pedestal to be kicked out from under you. When you get to the top of Mount Everest, where do you go from there? There is only one way and that is down. We need to be very, very careful.
We are most vulnerable when we are succeeding. We need to be careful. That is why there are few sports teams that become world champions twice in a row, because the first time they become world champions, they have worked blood, sweat and tears to get there, and then they tap off, they ease off and they can’t do it the second time. There is no more incentive, there is no more power, there is no more determination, and that applies to our faith also. We have less prayer times, we are less disciplined, we take things for granted and we become soft, and then we start to wing it but it doesn’t work and then the fall comes, and how the mighty have fallen. Don’t do it today, keep humble, give the glory to God and keep pressing on with what God has called you to, and He will enable you to stay in that position of success.
Jesus bless you goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 17th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 24:35. Jesus said:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”
Jesus puts His word even above His name, the word of God, the power of the spoken word of God. What you say is what you get. What are you saying about yourself this morning, my dear friend? Do you remember that old cliché, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me”? That is totally wrong. In fact, it’s the other way around. If you have a broken bone it can be healed but words said in anger, words of death, are very, very hard to get rid of. You actually need prayer. Words are powerful.
If we look at the Gospel of John 1:1, this is what it says:
“In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.”
Jesus has always been, from the beginning, Him, His Father and His Holy Spirit! I want to tell you a little story that happened yesterday. A senior gentleman, a very, very well-known man, came to see us. He said to me that he had a word from God that he was going to be healed when he came to Shalom. Now I want to clarify something here. This has got nothing to do with me, it has nothing to do with Shalom, it has everything to do with the spoken word of God. He was very persistent, he has been trying to get to see us for months, if not even longer, but he would not give up. It reminds me of Bartimaeus, the blind man, who was persistent. When everybody said, “Keep quiet”, he said, “No.” He shouted louder and the Word of God heard it and His name is Jesus, and He healed his blindness.
This man’s wife had told me he had been prayed for many, many times but nothing had happened. He arrived on the farm and he was walking with crutches. Very, very gingerly, he came into our office. He told me that he had a word from God that he was going to be healed today at Shalom. Folks, I was just a vessel, not a very good one either. I anointed him with oil, I prayed the prayer of faith. He gave his crutches to his wife and he walked out from this place, totally healed. Why? Because that man believed in the power of the spoken word of God.
Today, go out and believe what Jesus said about you, and it will come to pass.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 16th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 26:3-4:
”You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”
Then Psalm 20:7:
”Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
Trust - who are you trusting in today, my dear friend? Are you trusting in politics? Are you trusting in your own efforts? Are you trusting in your personal belongings, your personal riches, your efforts, the things that you’ve built up, or are you trusting in the promise of God?
I’ve got a dear friend, we have walked together for most of our lives and he is a lawyer by profession, and one day I spoke to him and I said, ”Leon, what is the ultimate trust that we can put ourselves into? He said, ”There is a word in Latin and this is what it says, “uberrimae fidei” which stands for utmost trust.” He says, ”The promise and the word of a person is more trustworthy than any document.” He says, ”That agreement that you’ve signed on that paper is not even worth the weight of the paper, it’s the promise that a man gives you.“
Now God has promised you, He will keep us in perfect peace if we concentrate our minds on Him. It’s the trust that we have in the Lord that gives us His peace. Jesus Christ has promised you and He’s promised me that He will never leave us and He will never forsake us, and that is where our faith comes from, and our peace, and our hope, and our future.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 15th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Luke 17:6:
So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”
“Have faith in God.”
Mark 11:22
That’s it - have faith in God. Without faith, we cannot please Him. Now Luke 17:5 says:
”And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
Now, even the disciples asked Jesus, ”Please, increase our faith”, because they realised without faith, we can do nothing. Today, maybe you’re struggling to believe God for a promise He’s given you. Maybe He gave it to you many years ago and your faith is starting to wane, starting to lose power. How do we regain our faith? Well, if you look at Romans 10:17, the Word of God says:
”So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Spending time reading your Bible, spending time believing what the Lord has said about you. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, My Lord will supply all of my needs according to His riches in Glory. We need to get started this morning. We need to get back to walking the faith walk. You see, faith is a way of life, not faith in faith, but faith in Jesus Christ, and the Lord always honours faith.
Now I’m sitting here thinking about the first campaign I ever organised - it was in that little town of Ladysmith about probably an hour’s drive west of where we live. It was ten minutes to seven in the evening. The service was going to start at seven o’clock and I was downstairs in the dungeon. I was waiting for the people to come. The band which we had brought up from Port Elizabeth were bravely on the platform playing music and I climbed up the steps, opened the door, had a look in, there was no-one there.
I was devastated. I mean, I’d been praying and we’d been trusting the Lord. I went down and I said, “Lord, if nobody comes, I’m going to preach to the chairs.” This is the honest truth. At seven o’clock, by faith, I walked up, I opened the door and the hall was half full of people. That was the beginning. Well, I want to say to you, we started off with the Mighty Men Conference on this farm with 240 men, and we ended up with 450 000 men at our last meeting on this farm in 2010, and I’ve got news to tell you, that this year there’ll be twenty Mighty Men Conferences happening all over the world.
That mustard seed of faith! Trust the Lord, my dear friend, He’ll do it for you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 14th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Mark 11:2: “…and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it.”
Now folks, we talk about the Miracle-worker. That is one of the titles of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, He raised Lazarus from the dead after Lazarus was lying in the tomb for no less than four days. Now, in the Middle East when a person dies, they bury them the same day because the body starts to decompose, and yet Lazarus came out of that tomb, well, healthy and strong. Jesus gave people their sight back, their hearing, He caused the lame to walk, He fed the five thousand. Jesus is the Miracle-worker. He is the One who walks on water.
I want to tell you this story as a farmer. A male donkey is called a jack, that's a young colt. That particular one had never, ever been ridden before, he had never had anybody on his back. I want to tell you, a donkey is a highly intelligent animal and yet the Lord rode that donkey for the first time in his life, not only did He ride him, but He rode him through a cheering, shouting, clapping crowd, which is a miracle! Folks, if you understand animals, I want to tell you, it is a huge miracle to me. It takes us a long time to “gentle” a horse. I didn’t say “break” a horse. We don’t believe in that, but to gentle that horse so that you can put a saddle blanket on him, you can put a saddle on him and then you start walking him around in a confined area and, slowly but surely, you introduce him to riding.
Jesus got on that jack and he had never, ever been ridden before. I looked up the behaviour of a donkey. A donkey is very stubborn. He is not easily intimidated by anybody. I know some beef farmers who will put a donkey in amongst his beef bulls. Why? Because a donkey will not tolerate fighting. When the bulls who are way over a ton, start fighting each other, this little donkey who weighs probably 150 kilos, will separate them, and then of course you know the donkey has got a cross on his back. Do you know that, young lady, young man? - Right down the spine and across his shoulders, a cross. One old friend of mine, every time we would go to collect some staff in the lowlands, we would go past a group of donkeys, the old gentleman would raise his hat, tears would fill his eyes, and I would say to him, “Oom Johannes, why do you do that?” He said, “Because that animal carried my Saviour into Jerusalem.
So today, remember, we serve a miracle-working God!
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 13th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Amos 5:4
”For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel…”
That’s you and me,
“…Seek Me and live;”
Then we go on to verse 6. He says it again, a second time:
”Seek the Lord and live.”
You know there is the most beautiful song, I’m sure you’ve heard it. It’s a wonderful song sung by many of the great Gospel singers. It is entitled,
”Give me Jesus.”
Take the world but give me Jesus,
I don’t want anyone else,
I don’t need anything else.
You are everything to me,
You can have all of this world,
I don’t need anything else.
If you have Jesus Christ, oh, you have everything! But how do we find Him? How do we find Jesus? Well folks, that was the question that Thomas asked of Jesus. Often we mock Thomas, the doubting Thomas, but you know, I don’t think he was a doubting Thomas. I think he was like many of us. He really wanted to know the truth. Well, in John 14:5, Thomas asked Jesus, ”How do we know the way?” And then Jesus answered in John 14:6. He said, ”Thomas, I am the way.” Oh folks, if you’ve lost your way this morning, I want to tell you Jesus is the way. He loves you. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, what you haven’t done, what you should have done, but if you have Jesus, you have everything.
I want to tell you a little story that’s very dear to my heart. Probably a couple of weeks after I’d given my life to the Lord, on 18th of February, 1979. We were reffing a game of polo-crosse, that’s rugby on horseback, a rough game. I was standing behind the post with a very dear friend, his name was Jannie Barnard and Jannie said to me in the middle of the match, Angus, "There’s something that happened to you. What’s happened?” I smiled. I said, ”Jannie, a couple of weeks ago I met Jesus and He’s all I need.” He said, ”I want Him as well, Angus. Please, I need Him. I’m desperate.” I said, ”I’ll see you Monday afternoon, in my green cathedral, in the mealie fields.” Jannie and I prayed the sinner's prayer together and Jesus was all he needed, and it wasn’t too long after that that he was called home to be with the Lord. Today seek the Lord and then you’ll have everything.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 12th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 10:51:
”So Jesus answered and said to him, “What do you want Me to do for you?“ The blind man said to Him, “Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.”
Desperation causes us to step out in faith. Are you desperate for something this morning, my dear friend? Desperation is hopelessness. “There’s no hope for me, Angus.” It’s despair, anguish, agony, torment and misery. What is it that you are requiring for the Lord to do for you today? You need to ask Him. Jesus knew exactly what the situation was with that blind man. He was blind, he couldn’t see and yet He asked him an interesting question. ”What do you want me to do for you?” I believe if he had said, ”Lord, I’ve got a sore back.” Jesus would have healed the sore back and he would have been led away blind. No, Bartimaeus was desperate. He knew he only had one chance. Jesus was passing by and he would never return on that road again. He wouldn’t see Him again. “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”
Many many years ago as a very new Christian in the Lord, we were experiencing a terrible drought on this farm, and as I’m talking there are many of you listening to this message who are experiencing a drought in your life. It might not be on the farm, it might be in the business, it might be in your marriage, it might be at school, it might be on the sports field. You might be lying in hospital. You are experiencing a drought. Today we need to do what Bartimaeus did. He called out to Jesus. He said, ”Oh Rabboni, that I may receive my sight.”
That year, I remember distinctly making a deal with God. Now, I know, I know, you can’t make a deal with God but I said, “Lord, if You pull me out of this drought so that I can repay all my debt, I will preach the Gospel until the day I die.” Well, the Lord pulled me out of the drought and you are listening to me at the moment. Yes, I’m keeping my side of the bargain. I’m preaching the Gospel.
Today, call out to Jesus. Call out by faith and with all sincerity. My dear friend, He will answer your prayers because He loves you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 11th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Hebrews 11:1:
”Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
And then verse 6:
”But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Faith is to simply believe. You and I try so hard to please God, we try so hard to do things by faith. We must stop that. It is about believing that Christ is for us, that Jesus is not standing against us. Romans 8:31:
”What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Beautiful, we have the majority.
Faith like potatoes! Listen, I didn’t think that one up. No, I’m not clever enough! There was a Scottish preacher by the name of Peter Marshall. He was the chaplain to the US Senate. He said, ”You must have simple faith - faith you can touch, faith you can see, faith that you can feel - faith like potatoes.” That cliché has been amazing in my own life.
He has done it all. We do not need to do anything. All we have to do is receive the finished work of Christ on the cross. How many times, many of you listening to this message now have been with me where we’ve prayed and asked God to bring rain, and He’s brought the rain and filled the dams to overflowing. How, at big open air events, we’ve asked the Lord to hold the rain back and it’s rained right around the meeting, all the way around but it never rained on the meeting.
What we need to do is to believe that He can do it. How do we get faith? Well, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God and you’ll find that in Romans 10:17.
Today, go out and simply believe that Christ is for you and He’s for me.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 10th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for the day.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 19:27:
“Then Peter answered and said to Him, (that’s Jesus) “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we have?”
Well, Peter always got to the point, didn’t he? Then we go down a little further to verse 29, and Jesus replies, “(and you) shall receive a hundred-fold and inherit eternal life.” That’s the reward!
Jesus is a giver, He is not a taker. He doesn’t need anything from you or from me but what He does want is our complete love and obedience. That’s what He requires, what the disciples gave to the Lord. To prove that our Lord is a giver and not a taker, look at John 15:13, Jesus says:
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
It’s the greatest thing that you can give anybody. You know, my brother’s wife, who I respect a lot, gave one of her kidneys to her brother so that he might live. Folks, that is what we call giving. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a giver, He is not a taker! I remember a story about a former drunkard, and after a few months, his friends would tease him and say, “This stopping drinking, not going to the pub with all of us, what has that actually benefited you? You don’t seem to have changed at all.” And he smiled and said, “Oh yes, I have changed a lot.” They said, “Well, in what way have you changed?” “Aah”, he said, “I now have furniture in my house.” He said, “On a Friday night, I bring my pay cheque home to my wife, I give it to her and she can feed my little darlings. Oh yes, things have changed for me.”
Folks, I want to say to you today, you can never out-give Jesus Christ. I am a personal testimony of that. He has changed my life completely and is still busy doing it - from making me a selfish, self-centred man, hopefully to a loving man who loves his family and his fellowman. Today remember, you cannot out-give the Lord. Give it all to Him and He will give it back to you a hundred-fold.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 9th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Romans 8:28:
”And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Folks, all things. There’s a greater purpose for our lives and often we don’t realise it. You know, I just think of Joseph, the man with the coat of many colours. Yes, he was betrayed by his brothers, sent into slavery, and forgotten in the dungeon, but right through that time, the Lord was preparing him to be the second most powerful man on earth. Pharaoh was regarded as the most powerful man on earth and he made Joseph his Prime Minister but he had to go through that disastrous time.
What about Moses, some say the greatest leader that has ever lived? I’m not talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. An incredible man who could take a nation through a wilderness for forty years, but what happened? He slipped up. He lost his temper. He killed a slave-driver and as a result had to flee for his life. He was an adopted son of Pharaoh, he could have even become Pharaoh, but God had a greater purpose for his life and he saved His people.
What about you today, where are you today? I’m talking to a young man, or a young woman who has maybe just failed university and you say to yourself, ”Lord, have You forgotten me. Have You forsaken me?” No, no, God’s got another plan for your life. You’ll see, maybe not immediately but you’ll see later. Maybe I’m talking to a farmer who has just gone bankrupt and he was so big and so successful and he cannot understand why. Maybe God took the farm away from you in order to save your family because you were spending no time at home and you were losing your family. Now all of a sudden your family has become the most precious thing that you have.
We don’t know what God’s purposes are but one thing we do know is at the end of the day, it always works out for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purposes.
So what must you do? You must carry on with where you are at, and God will turn it around for you. He’s done it for me.
Jesus bless you and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 8th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 8:36:
“For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world [with all its pleasures], and forfeit his soul?”
I want to say something to you today. You can take that scripture and say, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his family? - Because that is his life, isn’t it? We must start at home base.
John Wesley, the great revivalist, found that out. He went all the way to America to preach the Gospel to the First Nations people and he came all the way back home again, totally dejected. He never led one to Christ. But what happened? You see, he was looking in the wrong place. The revival must start in your own life and in your own home. In a little Bible study in London, in a place called Aldergate, he wrote: “A strange warmth came over my heart, the scales fell from my eyes.” I believe he met Jesus Christ in that little Bible study in a very personal way.
Remember charity is another word for love, charity begins at home. Some men and women want to save the whole world at the price of their very own marriages and their very own families. Be very careful folks, your enthusiasm, your excitement, your determination, can sometimes cost very dearly at home. Remember the order: First God, second your wife or your husband, thirdly your children, then your community and then your country, in that order. Remember, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and then the outer ends of the earth. Many of us are getting it the wrong way around.
Now, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to define the word “revival”. Well, it means restoration. Maybe that is going to start at home before we start telling others how to live. Resurrection - maybe you are feeling down and flat and you think by going out to the ends of the earth you will find it. No, it starts at home. Make strong again, bring back consciousness, a people saturated with God. That is what Wesley said revival was, but it has got to begin at home. Let’s roll up our sleeves, sort out our differences, love our families and then God will do the rest.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 7th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Mark 10:22:
”But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”
You cannot bargain with God. You know, I looked up the dictionary - the definition of the word “bargain” is a cheap buy. It’s a giveaway; that’s what a bargain is. You cannot bargain with Jesus. You see, the rich young ruler did all the right things. Oh yes. He tithed, he went to church on Sundays, he was a good family man, but Jesus Christ was not first in his life.
Now, the Lord is not particularly talking about money here today, gentlemen and ladies. No, He’s talking about anything in your life, anything in my life, that we put before Him, is not acceptable. Why? Because He died for you and for me. The least we can give Him is first place in our lives. Don’t you agree? You know, I’ve often wondered about the Lord standing there with the young man walking away. Where was he walking? He was on his way to hell. That’s right, and the tears must have been running down the face of the Saviour because He loves all men.
He didn’t say, ”Listen, let’s strike a bargain. I tell you what. You give half of your goods away and we’ll negotiate the other half.” No, no, it was all or nothing, black or white. There’s no grey area in the Kingdom of God. You and I need to understand something very clearly today. If there is anything in our lives that is more important than Jesus Christ, then we have to surrender it.
Do you remember that beautiful chorus? I’m going to try and sing it with you:
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
And His righteousness;
And all these things shall be added unto you,
Halleluja, Halleluja
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”Matthew 6:33.
Jesus doesn’t want to take your family away from you, sir. Jesus doesn’t want to take your career away from you, your expectations, not at all. In fact, He wants to give them to you and more, but now and again He’ll test you.
“Do you really love me?”
“ Yes Lord.”
“ Well, give Me that thing.”
“ But Lord…”
“ Give it to Me.”
You give it to Him and what does He do? He gives it back. He doesn’t need your money, He doesn’t need your ability, He’s got it all. He said one word and this whole universe came into being. Today, make Him first in your life, and you’ll be surprised by what happens.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 6th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Joel 3:14:
”Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.”
It’s decision time, my dear friend. No more wasting time. The harvest is ripe ready and ready for reaping. We go to Romans 8:19:
”For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.”
The world is standing on tiptoes, waiting for you and me, the children of God, to tell them about eternity. You know, I’ve written a book, a devotional, that came out early this year. It’s called “Living for Eternity”. The Lord laid on my heart about the urgency of the times in which we are living. Now I’m a farmer. I am familiar with seasons. There have been seasons in the past where it hasn’t been right to reap the crop. Never reap a crop that’s green because it will spoil. Wait for it until the harvest is golden and then reap it. You might say, ”Well, I’m not an evangelist.” You don’t have to be an evangelist. I want to tell you some of the biggest multitudes and congregations, are found in the workplace. That’s right - farmers praying and reading scriptures with their workers before they start work. Men going down underground in the mine, while they’re waiting for the cages, can preach the Gospel. What about an assembly at school? What an opportunity to tell them that it is time to turn to the Lord. I get invited to go to hospitals sometimes to pray for a sick man. I’ve been into a hospital room where there are four beds and when I’m finished praying for that man and he’s weeping and we’re believing for a miracle, as I walk out the other three say, “Please, we also need prayer.” Some of them are Muslims, some of them are Hindus, some of them are atheists. It’s the time for people to be saved.
What about that old age home? Those are the people actually, that we should be speaking to more than anybody else because their time to meet their Lord is getting very close. The sports fields, what an opportunity! I just love it when I see young men running onto that rugby field and before they start, they fall to their knees and they pray and God undertakes. What about an auction yard. Oh yes, you laugh, I’ve been to auction yards where they’ve asked me to open in prayer and do a Scripture reading before they start selling their cattle and animals.
Today, let’s be aware that all creation is waiting for you and me to tell them about the coming of the Lord and that they must be saved.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 5th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 1 Corinthians 11:23-26:
”For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”
Holy Communion - It is the most sacred of all Christian events. Jesus said to His disciples, ”Do it often.” It was the last supper that He had on earth before He went to the cross the very next day. I want to suggest to you that you do it at home with your family, that you do it at work with your people, that you do it when you’re on the road. A very dear spiritual son of mine sent me a gift. It is a portable communion set, that’s right, I can take it with me when I travel, wherever. I can break bread when I’m in the aeroplane, when I’m in a car, when I’m sitting in a room on my own in a hotel. Do it as often as you can. I also want to suggest to moms and dads that it’s a good habit to get into. Aunty Jill and I break bread often and normally at breakfast time because that’s the time when we sit together without any interruption from anywhere else. You know, you can’t partake of Holy Communion if you are not talking to each other. No, you’ve got to make up. You’ve got to settle your differences. You see, Holy Communion is a very, very special thing.
Smith Wigglesworth, that Yorkshire plumber, has been documented that he prayed for something like twelve or thirteen people that had died and were raised from the dead, and that man used to break bread continually, especially before he would go and do a special work for the Lord. We need to break bread and we need to do it with our families, maybe in the evening, and dad you can do it, you’re the head of your house. If dad’s not there, mom you can do it. Teenagers, you can do it. It’s not specifically dedicated to one person at all. He doesn’t speak about only the priests. No, He says that we must do it, you and I, so let’s start doing it regularly. It’s a good habit to get into.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 4th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Joel 3:10:
”…Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”
Then we go straight to Philippians 4:13:
”I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
All things, but you see, these things are not for self-gain. No, no, they are for the benefit of others. Many years ago, I used to do powerlifting as a sport and I went to the Zambian National Championships. I was in the Light Heavyweight Division, and you won’t believe it - I came second. Yes, I got the silver medal, but don’t tell anybody else, there were only two of us in my division! But jokes aside, God says we can do all things through Him who strengthens us.
I want to tell you about a man by the name of Paul Anderson. He has since gone to be with the Lord. He was undoubtedly the most powerful man in the world at that time. It is recorded that he lifted, listen to this, 2,850 kilos. Now, if you’re familiar with pounds, that is 6,270 pounds. Incredible, a dead lift, but you know the important thing was is that he used all that strength and fame to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and take care of young people. You see, he used it for the glory of God.
Big George Foreman is probably the biggest in size, heavyweight champion in the history of the world. He lost his title but he got it back. He’s recorded as being the oldest heavyweight boxing champion in the world. I think he was over 40 years old, but the good news is that he used it all for the glory of God. He’s got a gym going. He takes care of young street kids. He’s got a church, and he’s a preacher of the gospel. He’s unashamed of the Lord.
Today, use that strength that God has given you, maybe it’s in business, maybe you’re an artist. Use it for the glory of God.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, and enjoy your day,
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 3rd of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Joel 2:32:
”And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the Lord
Shall be saved.”
You will find the exact same scripture in Romans 10:13. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord - what a wonderful statement! What hope there is in that statement - whoever! Whoever means whoever, anyone, any person that will call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. It doesn’t matter what religion he is part of; it doesn’t matter what his background is; it doesn’t matter what he’s done; it doesn’t matter what he hasn’t done; it doesn’t matter whether he’s black or white; he will be saved. That’s what the Bible says. I believe in the Holy Bible from cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation. It is the Word of God, written by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and this Book tells me that whoever calls upon His name shall be saved.
I want to say to you today that Jesus Christ died for all mankind, and we need to understand that. He died for Jews; He died for Arabs; He died for Gentiles; He died for old people; He died for young people; He died for children and He died for old-age pensioners; He died for men and He died for women and He died for you. What you need to do is to call upon His name.
I want to pray for you today because maybe you’ve never done that and this is maybe the day you need to do it, folks. You say, “Oh, but I’ve done that before. It doesn’t work for me.” But you didn’t mean it. Maybe you’ve been side-tracked, maybe the devil has led you down a cul-de-sac. It’s never too late to call upon the name of the Lord. Ask the thief on the cross. He called upon the name of the Lord literally minutes before he died and Jesus said, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Why? Because he was a good man? No, because he believed. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Father,
I pray for my dear friends. I pray for that man, that woman, who thinks that there is no hope for them. Lord, let them call upon Your name and be saved, and Lord, set free, and have the opportunity of living a brand new life, not because of us but because of You,
In Jesus name,
amen.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 2nd of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Mark 9:50. Jesus says:
”Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavour, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”
The Lord says we have got to be salty. We have to be people who are making an impact in a world that has no more life in it. They tell me there are certain parts of the world, up in North Africa, where salt is almost worth more than gold. You see, you can’t live without salt just like you can’t live without water, and I want to say to you, we need to be salty today. There’s no good being bland and tasteless. We’ve got no excuse. If Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour we should be extremely salty because people need to know that there’s hope in God.
With my Scottish roots, my mother and father both born and bred in Scotland, the national dish is porridge. That’s what I was brought up on, but I want to tell you something about porridge, if there is no salt in that porridge, you cannot eat it. It is absolutely tasteless. We really need to be salty because if the salt loses its flavour, it’s got nothing and is of no value to anyone.
I want to say to you, we need to make a difference wherever we are going. Spend time each day with God. He will make you salty. He’ll give you a reason to get up in the morning. He’ll give you a reason to tell people, “Yes there is hope and He’s coming very soon”. And I want to tell you wherever Jesus went He was extremely salty, wasn’t He? Wherever the Lord went, it was either a revival or it was riot, but I tell you what, He made an impact and He’s telling us, you and I, to do the same thing.
We need to make that difference. Let’s be salty today!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 1st of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Proverbs 18:24:
”A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
We really need friends in this day and age, don’t we? We can’t do it on our own. It’s no good saying, ”No, I’ll just do it my way.” Don’t do that, we need friends to help us. If there’s two of us, one gets stuck in the hole, the other one can always pull him out but if he’s on his own, he can’t.
Early this morning before the sun came up, I was cycling on my mountain bike and I saw a light in the distance coming towards me and it was my dear friend. This friend is very special to me. He was coming out and I was coming back. We stopped and we had a prayer meeting on the road, so much so that one of the neighbours came past in his pick-up and he thought maybe we were in trouble. We said, ”No, no, we are just having a prayer meeting. Would you like to join us?” But he was in a rush, a young man going to work, but we started to talk and you know folks, I want to say something to you, a burden shared is a burden halved.
We are of the same age group and we started talking about different things - physical things, sore backs, sore knees. We spoke about family issues and we just spent about five or ten minutes together and then he prayed for me and I prayed for him and I want to tell you, it just brightened my day completely, and soon as I got back to my prayer room, I just had to tell you about this.
Sometimes we go to an old age home and you see an old lady or an old gentleman sitting there all by themselves and you feel, “Where is their family? Why is their family not visiting them?” But folks, you don’t know that old person. Maybe that old person is not friendly, maybe that old person doesn’t want anybody to visit them, which is so sad. Don’t be like that today. There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. His name is Jesus Christ. He is my friend. When I’m in trouble, I call upon Him. When I’m happy, I call upon Him. When I have tremendous needs, I call upon Him for wisdom, for advice, for counsel. Don’t neglect your friendship. Remember, a man who has friends must himself, be friendly. Go out today and make a new friend but don’t forget about Jesus Christ. He’s the best friend you could ever ask for.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 31st of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 19:30:
”…He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
“Tetelestai” - It means, “It is finished”. The job has been done, the mission has been accomplished, the obligation has been met, the debt has been paid in full!
You know, I went to a restaurant one day with my dear wife. We had a lovely meal together and then I called the waitress and said, ”Can you bring the bill?” She came up and said, ”Sir, it has already been fulfilled, it’s been paid.” I said, ”I don’t believe it!”, She said, ”Yes.” I said,” Well, who paid it?” She said, ”People who have left the restaurant twenty minutes ago.” I could hardly comprehend the goodness and the love of those folk. Paid - you don’t have to pay anything, and you keep wanting to put your hand into your pocket and bring out your wallet to pay but it’s paid!
It’s like a bird that’s been in a cage for some years. You open the gate of that cage to let that bird out and the bird just sits there for a long time trying to comprehend that it is free, and then when it eventually realises it’s free, it goes out of that cage and it flies away.
My dear friend, you are free. Jesus said it and He meant it. All we need to do today is two things: Number one is to believe it, and number two is to receive it and then walk out because your sins have been paid for in full by our beloved Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. The last thing He said was, ”It is finished!” He bowed His head and He gave up His spirit. What a beautiful, mighty, gracious, compassionate God we serve! Go free, your sins have been paid.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 30th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Mark 9:40. Jesus says:
”For he who is not against us is on our side.”
Then we go to John 18:38:
”Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.”
In fact he said that twice. He said it again in John 19:4:
“I find no fault in Him”.
He who is not against us is on our side.
We need to be very careful that we don’t judge people. Pontius Pilate was an infidel. He was a Roman governor. He had more compassion for Jesus than the Pharisees and the Chief Priests. In fact, he tried to defend Him. Always keep the door wide open. I’m talking to a lady who’s stressing because her husband does not want to pray the sinner's prayer with her. Keep the door open. He will come through, just keep praying for him.
I’m praying for that young girl. Mom and dad are pulling their hair out. She just does not want to know about the Lord. Well, she’s not against the Lord. She just feels, she doesn’t need the Lord, at the moment. Keep the door wide open, she’ll come home just like the Prodigal Son. Never judge a book by it’s cover. What does that mean? Well, it might have a very nice cover on the outside and be quite boring on the inside. However, it might have a plain cover and be exciting inside.
I want to tell you a little story. A very good friend of mine, Allan Kruger, was the manager of the huge Kings Park Rugby Stadium. I approached him to book that stadium for the very first big event we ever had, and when I came into his office, he was flat out so busy organising Michael Jackson coming and all kinds of people and he didn’t seem to have too much time for me. He was trying to be kind but he was busy. Well, I want to tell you something now, eventually I persuaded him to hire it to us and then he said, ”Do you realise what’s involved? You’re going to have to have a disaster management committee.” He brought out a heap of forms. He said, ”But on second thoughts, I’ll handle that for you.” He said then, ”Do you realise that you have to have your lighting system?” I said, ”Yes.” He said, “Well, I’ll do that for you.” And he just went on and on. You know that that man organised everything for us. Yes, and he wasn’t a Christian, as per se, but on the big night when it was all over, I stood with Allan Kruger on the twenty-two metre line of that rugby field, and the two of us prayed the sinner’s prayer together. Never ever judge a book by its cover. Jesus says, ”He who is not against us is on our side.”
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 29th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 51:17:
”The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.”
Then we go to the Book of Joel 2:13:
”So rend your heart, and not your garments;…”
The Lord wants our heart, not our possessions. He wants us, not what we can do for Him. He doesn’t need anything from us. He formed the universe with one word. What can we give Him? He says, “a contrite heart”. Now “contrite” means sorry for something you have done. If you look at Psalm 51, that is the Psalm after Nathan, the prophet, came to David and exposed David for his adultery. He had an affair with Bathsheba, who was not his wife. She was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s choice generals, and then David killed him in order to try and cover up his tracks and it failed miserably. What is the difference between David and maybe you and me today? The difference is, David knew how to say, “sorry”. He knew how to rend his heart and not his garments.
Today, my dear friend, I don’t know what is troubling you. Maybe there is something in your life which you are so ashamed of, you’ve made a mistake and you don’t know the way out. Quite simply, go to the Lord today and say, “Lord I am terribly sorry for what I have done”. He will forgive you. He has promised us that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9. Just say, “sorry”.
A lot of suicides take place because a young person has made a mistake and they have no one to go and confide in, and they are too ashamed to go to their parents, and so they take their lives. Please don’t do that. Go and speak to somebody and say, ”Listen, I’ve made a terrible mistake. What must I do?” And you know, confession frees us. The devil doesn’t want you to do that. He wants to hold you captive. He doesn’t want you to tell anybody about the mistake you made, but the Lord says, “Rend your heart”. Open your heart and don’t try and cover it up with other things.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 28th of January 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 8:2:
”I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.”
Jesus was a kind person, Jesus is a kind person. Then we go to the Gospel of John 21:9:
”Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread.”
Jesus had prepared a meal for His disciples on the shores of Lake Galilee, after His resurrection. He was concerned for the well-being of His disciples, even though they had run away and left Him - a kind man. “Compassion” means sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings of other people. Oh, my dear friend, we need to become kinder in this world. You know it’s one of the fruits of the Spirit. Yes, you’ll find that in Galatians 5:22. Kindness is one of the fruits of the Spirit.
Just the other night, I was watching the news on the television. BBC World News said that when they interviewed little children all over Britain, the watchword for 2025 was kindness. “Little children, what is the most important word for you?” Kindness, I wonder why? Oh man, my eyes filled with tears. Why would the little child say kindness? Maybe because there’s a lack of kindness in the world we live in today.
You know, I love horses, I think you know that. Horses are beautiful animals. I can look into the eye of a horse and I can tell you whether that horse is a kind horse, and I’m very serious about it, or maybe he’s impatient, angry, uptight, self-centred, but a soft, kind eye in a horse is something that I look for very carefully before I will ride him.
I want to tell you a little story, maybe you’ve heard it before but it’s worth listening to again. A young pastor, many years ago, told me here in Greytown that he was studying theology in Scotland. He and his young wife were walking down the high street on a very cold, windy, wintry day, and they saw this beautiful little home, and the door was wide open. There was a bunch of flowers on the table and they walked in and this kind old lady walked out and said, ”Can I help you?” “Yes please, can I have some tea and scones?” She said, ”No problem. Please be seated.” And she started to prepare them. They were fresh and they could smell them cooking. They did get a bit impatient because she took such a long time. Eventually, she came out with fresh tea, hot scones buttered with strawberry jam and cream and when they’d finished their meal they stood up and they said to her, ”Madam, how much do we owe you?” And she looked surprised. She said, ”No, this is a private home. You don’t owe me anything.” That is kindness.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 27th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 9:5:
”Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”
That was the Mount of Transfiguration when the Lord spoke to His Heavenly Father and also to Moses and Elijah. Peter, James and John must have stood there with their mouths wide open, not believing what they were seeing. It was so amazing that they did not want to go back down into the valley, where all the trouble is, and the pain and all the suffering and the misunderstanding. Have you ever had a mountain-top experience? Oh yes, I have as well, and you just don’t want to come back down, do you? You just want to stay up there. You know, I am a mountain man, I love the mountains. My dear wife, Jill, loves the sea, and often we have a little giggle together. I say, “Jill, I love the mountains”, and she says, “Oh, but I love the sea.” And then I say, “Jill, Jesus never went down to the sea to pray!” But we cannot live on top of the mountain. We have got to go back down to the valley. We have got to roll up our sleeves. We have got to deal with things in our home, in our workplace. We have got to get involved.
Moses went up the mountain, that’s right, he went to Mount Sinai and he got orders from the Lord. He got the Ten Commandments and then he came back down again into the valley to deliver Jesus’ message to the people. That mountain doesn’t literally have to be a physical mountain. It’s your closet, it is your quiet time place, it is where you spend time with Jesus every day.
There is a thing called “extempore preaching”. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary. The word “extempore” means done without preparation, and to extemporise means to make something up as you go along. Now I am not arguing with the Oxford Dictionary but the great preachers would preach extempore preaching. In other words, they would take one verse out of the Bible, like Romans 1:17: “The just shall live by faith” - and they would preach on that for up to an hour and even longer. The young people would admire them and think they could do the same but what they didn’t realise was that these great preachers had spent hours in their quiet time room getting the message into their spirit man and then simply go out into the open and deliver it to the people.
Today, spend time up the mountain and then you will not make so many mistakes when you have to buy that new motorcar, or you have to sell that house, or you have to go to university, or go to trade school, or get married. Spend time on the mountain first.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 26th of January, 2025 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 9:26. This is Jesus speaking:
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”
Are you ashamed to tell people that you are a Christian? Well, the Lord says very clearly, “If you are ashamed of Me, I will be ashamed of you.” You see, when Jesus died on the Cross of Calvary for your sins and my sins, He hung on that tree, He was naked but He was not ashamed to die for you, young lady. Why are you so secretive of the One that you love? It is time for us to speak out about our faith. He has never made you ashamed of Him, He has never done anything to bring any disrespect to you. He is the only one who is pure, without spot or blemish, has never, ever sinned for the whole time He walked on this earth, for 33 years.
Many years ago, I was privileged to go to that beautiful Emerald Isle. Yes, I am talking about Ireland, and my dear friend, Andy, took me to a maximum security prison. These are very sad places. There were men who were put into that jail for life, and they called the prisoners out into an open area. I remember it was tarmac and I had plenty of room to speak to them. They were standing on the one side of this huge wall and I was standing in the middle, and after I had finished preaching, I said, “I want to give you the opportunity and the privilege of acknowledging Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour publicly, not secretively. I want you to walk across this wall, (it was about maybe 20 or 30 metres) and I want you to come across here and get on your knees, and repent before God. And I don’t want anybody to close their eyes or slip their finger up, acknowledging the Lord.”
I waited and waited and then they started coming. Some of these were tough, hardened men, some of them weeping, and they knelt on that tarmac floor and they gave their lives to Christ openly. But what shook me more than anything, there was a man there. I don’t know if he was a resident pastor, a man of the cloth, a clergyman. He had been to university and studied theology. He started to walk on his own, right across that floor, and got on his knees and repented before God. He said to me afterwards, when I said, “I was so impressed by what you did”, he said, “That was the first time in my life that I made a public confession of my faith in front of everybody. Thank you.”
Go out today and tell three people that you are not ashamed of Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday, the 25th of January, 2025 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Hosea 8:14:
“For Israel has forgotten his Maker,…”
Then we go straight to the Book of Ephesians 2:10:
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
God does not make junk! No, He doesn’t. It does not matter what you feel about yourself today. You might feel that you are no good, you are not going to make it, you messed up and that is over - not at all! God made you, Himself. That is what He says. He says that you are His handiwork. He has created you and I beforehand, that we should walk in that. We really need to understand something - we are not created by ourselves. God created us. Colossians 1:27:
“…Christ in you, (and in me) the hope of glory.”
It is Christ in us - that is why we can say Philippians 4:13 says:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Now, I can hear what you are saying. You are saying, “No, but I made a mistake and I am done.” No, not at all. If you look at the history in the Bible, you will see that God had a habit of using men and women who blew it, who messed up, but what they did was, they repented, they said sorry and got back into the fight.
I am talking about Moses. Moses was a murderer. He killed the slave-driver in Egypt. King David, he did the same thing. He messed up, he took another man’s wife. He was an adulterer and then he murdered her husband to try and cover his tracks. He wasn’t a good man. Peter, the big fisherman, he was a foul-mouthed man, he was arrogant. God used him and God uses ordinary people right through history to do His work for Him. God loves you and He wants to use you.
Now, stand up, dust yourself off and say sorry and get back into the fight.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 24th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to 2 Corinthians 10:4 (Amplified Version):
“The weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood]. Our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”
Folks, we need to understand something. We are in a war. We are in a full-scale war and it’s not a physical war. It’s a war raging in the mind, and we need to use the weapons God has given us to combat this war. “What weapons?” You say. I am talking about prayer, the power of prayer. We’ve got to pray more and speak less. The Bible - that is our weapon. It’s the sword of the Spirit. The word of God says we’ve got to use it. We’ve got to watch what we read, what we watch on TV and especially social media. This very message you are listening to now is coming to you on social media, and thank you very much for praying for me and for listening and watching it, because there is so much rubbish that can be watched even by a small child, ten, fourteen years old - things like pornography which is poisoning people, causing people to be depressed, and causing people to stress and to even contemplate suicide.
Now I want to read something to you that I’ve heard from a lady named Cindy McGarvie. She is an Australian lady, and I want you to listen to the power of social media. Iran attacked America and they were expecting the Americans to retaliate with bombs and guns. Listen to this. “The US could have ordered air strikes on Iran’s military bases where the missiles were launched, but instead they used both soundless and formless computer technology to achieve a similar end. This is called Cyber Warfare. Cyber Warfare is the use of computer technology to destruct activities of a state or organisation.” They didn’t even send a missile or anything. They destructed the whole thing by social media.
We need to be careful what we allow our children to watch and what we are watching and we need to use it for the benefit of the Kingdom of God. Remember the Bible tells us in 1 John 4:4: “…greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world.” And that is the whole purpose of thought for today, to bring to your attention, every morning, the importance of God’s Holy Word which He has given us to stand against the lies of the devil.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 23rd of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 2 Peter 3:18. The Lord tells us to,
“grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
What is grace? Well, grace is undeserved loving-kindness. It’s unmerited favour. We don’t deserve it, but because of God’s love for us, He has given us His grace. We are saved, not by our own efforts but by His grace. Ephesians 2:8 says we have been saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; for it was a gift from God. So let us not become too harsh with others who are, at this point in time, still trying to find the Lord. Some of them are in a bad place and maybe they say some ugly things to you. Just extend grace to them, just like the Lord extended grace to you and me.
The Lord says, “Before you try and take the speck out of your brother’s eye, rather take the log out of your own eye first.” (Matthew 7:5). When you start to realise what Jesus Christ has done for you, then it's very easy to extend that grace towards others. I was cycling on my mountain bike early this morning before the sun came up, using a light, and as I was riding and talking to the Lord, it was as if I remembered all the things that I had done before I met Him as my Lord and Saviour, and I was overwhelmed by His kindness and the fact that He has forgiven me of every one of those sins, because I confessed them. You will find that in 1 John 1:9.
Let’s you and I today extend the grace and the love of Christ to those who are struggling and even to those who are our supposed enemies so that they too might meet the King of Glory.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 22nd of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to Mark 8:32-33: “Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He (that’s Jesus) rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Peter rebuked the Master. We must never, ever get familiar with Jesus Christ. You know, I have a big problem when people talk about, “the man upstairs”, “the good man”, “the big man”, “my china”, “my friend”. Those comments are totally unacceptable when we speak about the Creator of Heaven and Earth. You know that old saying, “familiarity breeds contempt”? And it really does! When we forget our station in life, all of a sudden things turn pear-shaped, don’t they?
You see, if you look at Philippians 2:10-11, the Bible tells us that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We need to respect our God. Peter overstepped the mark, clearly, and the Lord rebuked him in front of the disciples. Respect, by the way, is learned at home. I want to say something very seriously to moms and dads. You might not like what I am going to tell you, but I am going to tell you because I believe it is the truth. You must teach your children to respect you when they are young at home. Don’t allow them to become familiar with you. Yes, you must roll on the grass and play ball with them, you must swim with them, you must shout, but there must be a mark of respect.
I have a major problem when I see young children treating grown-ups as equals. You see, it is not for the sake of the grown-up, it is for the sake of the child because when he goes into the big world and he doesn’t understand respect, he is going to get hurt badly. I remember reading a very sad story about tourists who came from a far-off country to the game reserve. They did not respect the laws and rules in the game park, and they saw a pride of lions, beautiful, big, massive lions, lying underneath a tree, resting. They got out of their vehicles and walked up close to them to take photos. Well, they got badly, badly mauled I think some of them got killed. Why? Because they had no respect.
I want to say to you, Jesus Christ is my Lord, He is my Saviour, He is my personal Friend, but more than all of that, He is my God.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 21st of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 8:15. This is Jesus speaking to the disciples:
“Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, (be careful) beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
Leaven is another word for yeast. Now I looked up in the Oxford dictionary the literal meaning of the word “yeast”. What is it? It is a microscopic, single-celled fungus capable of converting sugar into alcohol. That is what yeast is. The Lord says to you and me this morning, be careful of the influence of the world system in your life. Look out for the Pharisees. They are not serving God, they are actually agents of the world system. I spoke to an alcoholic, you can speak to any alcoholic and say how did you start and they’ll tell you, this one drink.
Many, many men and women, some listening to this message now are hooked on pornography. How did it start? Well somebody said I want to show you something on my device, and it was exciting and that is where it started, now you can’t stop. What about adultery? A man doesn’t just wake up in the morning and say, “I am going to have an affair today.” No, he starts off with a relationship that appears to be innocent but that woman is not your wife, sir. She belongs to somebody else. You have no right at all to get involved with her. And madam, that man is not your husband, he belongs to another lady. You have no right at all to get involved with that man.
Gambling - gambling is on the increase, and it starts off innocently. You normally start off by winning but you always end up losing. I know men who are hooked on gambling who have gambled away their very homes and their wives’ jewellery, hoping to make it just with one more spin of the dice. Let us not do it today. I want to pray for you this morning:
Father God,
I am praying for somebody this morning, maybe a young person who is tempted to experiment with something that they know is not of God. Lord, please help them turn away and walk away from that thing and never to go back again. I am praying for those who already are involved. Lord Jesus, set them free today, because if the Lord sets them free, they shall be free indeed.
I ask this is Jesus name,
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 20th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Psalms 37:7:
”Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; …”
Then we go straight to the Book of Hosea 12:6:
“And wait on your God continually.”
Continually - we must wait on the Lord patiently this year as we start 2025. No more rushing around. That’s what gets us into trouble. You see, King Saul, the first king of Israel, would not wait for the prophet Samuel to come and offer up a sacrifice to God before the battle started, and what happened? He lost his kingship. He lost his kingdom because he would not wait.
This is not a quick-fix religion that you and I are involved in. No, no, no. This is a lifestyle. Wait continually, not a one-off thing, it’s a lifestyle. You know, that’s one thing farming has taught me, is to be patient because the farmer that’s rushing around never reaps anything that’s worth anything. We need to be patient. Remember Jesus, when they called Him, His best friend Lazarus was sick and dying. He came four days late but what happened? Oh, one of the greatest miracles in the New Testament - Lazarus was raised from the dead! Jesus was never early, Jesus was never late, Jesus was always spot on time. We need to get into that habit.
My late dad was involved in the 2nd world war and was up in North Africa with the South African troops when he was caught by Rommel and the Germans. They put him in a prisoner-of-war camp for three and a half years, but my mother was back in Britain and she was in the Air Force. Those two were going to get married. My dad said, ”I’ll come out to Africa. I’ll make some money and then I’ll come back to Scotland and I’ll marry you.” But of course the war got in between them. Do you know that they waited patiently for each other for no less than six years? And I want to tell you that it was the most beautiful marriage. I am so blessed to have been raised in a family of love.
Today, wait for that thing that God is going to give you. Do not rush ahead and He will give it to you in His time.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 19th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Proverbs 27:20:
“Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.”
Wow! Powerful words. Then we go to the Book of Ecclesiastes 5:10:
“He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.”
Chasing the wind, folks, chasing the wind, and then lastly we go to the Book of Hosea 12:1:
“Ephraim feeds on the wind, And pursues the east wind; …”
Now we as farmers know there is nothing good that comes out of the East wind. There’s no rain that comes from the East wind, not to speak of. We need to be careful what we are chasing today. People who are chasing money. I want to tell you about a man by the name of Howard Hughes. He was worth, by today’s standards, $55 Billion US dollars. He died as a recluse and he was just an absolute shell of a man. What about fame? Marilyn Monroe was probably the most famous woman when it came to modelling and acting in the world. She died at 36 years old from an overdose. What about power? Wall Street collapse, men jumping out of windows and committing suicide? Chasing the wind.
Young people, don’t wait and wait and wait before you get married. I’ve spoken to many couples.“ No, as soon as we pay for our house we’ll get married.” Don’t do that. It’s easier for two people to live than for one person to live on their own and you might lose your first love if you wait too long. That young successful farmer, he’s doing very well but he’s getting greedy, he wants to buy the farm next door. That farm could sink you completely. Don’t do it. The young evangelist just keeps on getting sought after, can’t say no and eventually he’s never at home. He’s all over the place. He says he’s doing the Lord’s work but he’s fooling himself because it’s for his own ego and what happens? He loses his family in the end.
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14:
“Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
Let us rather obey 1 Timothy 6:6:
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 18th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Corinthians 5:20:
”Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us:…”
Isn’t that a beautiful scripture, the Lord speaking to the lost through you and I?Then we go straight to the Book of Revelation 1:11, and Jesus says to John:
“What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches… “
You and I have been called to be representatives of Jesus Christ. We have been called to be ambassadors for the Lord. Now, I’ve just spoken to you about two great ambassadors. One was Paul, the Apostle, and the other was John, the blessed disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both of these men wrote the word of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. You and I have a responsibility to tell the world about the soon-coming King. Now I can hear someone saying, ”Ja, well I haven’t got much education, I can’t write a book,” or somebody saying, ”I’m in an old age home. I can’t do much anymore.” Or someone is maybe in a hospital and cannot move around. What can I do?”
The most important thing to do, of course, is to pray, pray and pray! That is the most important thing for any believer to do, but I want to tell you about John Bunyan. Now John Bunyan wrote a book called The Pilgrims Progress, probably the most powerful and well-known book next to the Bible itself. Where did he write it? He wrote it in jail! He was in jail for 12 years off and on. He was a tinker by trade and yet that book, to this day, has impacted lives all over the world. What about C S Lewis, C S Lewis who wrote the book, Chronicles of Narnia? He wrote the Screw Tape Letters. He wrote many books.
Folks, what I’m trying to say to you is, we don’t need to travel around the world in order to get the Gospel out. Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, you might be a farmer; you might be a businessman; you might be a teacher or a nurse; you might be a professional sportsman. You can be an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Today let’s start standing up and start shouting out from the rooftops that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He loves sinners, that He’s coming soon to take us home to be with Him in heaven forever!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 17th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Hosea 11:7, a very sad verse:
“My people are bent on backsliding from Me.”
Then we go to Matthew 21:29:
“He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went.”
Remember, the Lord told the story of the farmer who had two sons. He told the one son to go and do a certain job. The son said, “I will not,” but later on, he regretted saying that, and he went. The other son said he will go but he never went. Which one will the father prefer? The Lord said the first one. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “backslider” - a return to bad behaviour after an attempt to improve. It is plain selfishness, folks. That is all it is, and it is a dangerous place to be. Having known the truth and then turned your back on it and gone back, like the pig goes back to it’s own muck.
I read an article once of a man who walked out of the divorce courts. He had just divorced his sixth wife, and when they spoke to him he said, “She tried so hard to please me.” That is the ultimate in selfishness. He had six wives, but he never could see the log in his own eye. He was always busy taking the speck out of everybody else’s eye but never looking at himself. You know, it is better for us never to have known our beloved Lord Jesus, than to have known Him and to walk away from Him.
The ultimate example, of course, is Judas Iscariot. For three years, he walked with the Lord, saw Him walk on water, saw Him multiply food, He saw miracles, signs and wonders, and still he denied the Lord and betrayed Him. You and I need to understand we cannot live like that today. I want to pray today. Maybe you have a loved one, a son, a daughter, or a father, a mother, who purposely will not walk with the Lord. We need to pray for them because it will be a perilous thing for them to stand in front of the Lord one day, knowing the truth, no excuses and still turning their back on God.
Father,
I pray today for that backslider. Whatever it takes Lord, bring him home, whatever it is, let it happen so that he can repent and come home.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 16th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 8:36:
”Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed”.
What a beautiful scripture verse!
Just the other day I had the privilege of attending a funeral service. I walked in and I could feel the presence of the Lord in that place, a beautiful church. The pastor was waiting, the coffin was positioned in front of the altar. It was a very plain and simple pine box, not even varnished. The handles consisted of sisal rope handles, but some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen at any funeral. The dear sister who had passed on had organised her own funeral before she died. She kindly asked me to bring the message of salvation and to give the people an opportunity to accept Christ. The music was glorious and triumphant, the tributes from the family were warm, loving and even humorous at times, and most of all, the freedom and the love of Christ, our Lord Jesus, was tangible. At the altar call there was not one person who did not respond. Indeed, the whole congregation prayed the sinner’s prayer together.
Now, the order of service was beautifully printed with lovely photos, but this beautiful poem I want to read you was written on the fly-leaf. I want to say, well done my dearest sister in Christ, go and rest in peace, all your desires have been fulfilled. And this is how the poem goes. It is titled, “I Am Free”:
Don’t grieve for me for now I’m free,
I’m following the path God laid for me
I took his hand when I heard him call,
I turned my back and left it all
I could not stay another day,
To laugh, to love, to work or play
Tasks left undone must stay that way,
I’ve found that peace at the close of the day
If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joy
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss,
Ah yes, these things I too will miss
Be not burdened with times of sorrow,
I wish for you the sunshine of tomorrow
My life’s been full, I’ve savoured much,
Good friends, good times, a loved one’s touch
If my time seemed all too brief,
Don’t lengthen it now with undue grief
Lift up your heart and share with me,
God wanted me now and He has set me free.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 15th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Micah 6:8:
“…But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?”
This year we are going to keep short lists. Yes, I am talking about New Year’s resolutions. They never work, do they? Maybe some of us have already broken resolutions we made on the 1st of this month. We need to keep them short and we need to execute them. Short lists - don’t just talk about it, but do them. Do justly, starting in your own home with your own wife and your own husband and your own children. Do justly to those people who you work with and that you work for. Honour them. Do justly as if you were doing it unto the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself.
Be merciful, love mercy. Folks, people are suffering. We get letters every single day of the week, hundreds of them. People are suffering. They are sick physically, spiritually and mentally, and they need mercy, they need love. People make mistakes, all of us. Be merciful to them because it is only by the grace of God that you are standing today. And then, walk humbly with your God. Oh, He is a beautiful friend who sticks closer than a brother. We are saved by grace and grace alone. We are not saved by any good works, by any effort. It is just because He loves us. Let us not become arrogant. Arrogance, I think is one of the things that keep people away from the Lord because they see the way we strut around and they say, “Well, if that is how a Christian is going to behave, I don’t want to be a Christian.” Let’s be humble, let’s prefer one another, let’s get to the back of the queue. If somebody wants to push in, take a step back. Let him go through, let her go through.
If somebody overtakes you on the highway and pushes in, one gets so angry sometimes but you don’t know why that person is in such a rush. Maybe they have a sick child in the car, you never know. Just put your hand up and bless them rather than shake your fist at them. Let’s walk the talk. This year, let’s be Jesus to a dying world.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 14th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Hosea 8:2:
“Israel will cry to me, “My God, we know you!”
But the children of Israel did not know God at that time. They thought they did but they were playing the harlot. They were building things they said were for God but it wasn’t for God, it was for them.
Then we go straight to the Book of Titus 1:16:
“They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him,…”
You know, the Westminster Confession was a group of men of God who many, many years ago got together and they wanted to seek the main purpose for God’s creation for man on earth and this is the conclusion that they came to: “The main purpose of man is to glorify God (number one) and to enjoy Him forever.” That’s it. You see, God doesn’t need us. He really doesn’t need you and I. He wants us, He created us so that we could have fellowship with Him. He wants us but He doesn’t need us. He said one word and everything you and I can see came into being immediately. A few years back, quite a few years back now actually, I virtually heard God speak to me audibly. Now, He has never spoken to me audibly but He spoke to me in my heart so clearly one day. It is laughable but it is actually very serious and this is basically what He said, “Angus, your busyness is making Me tired.” Oh folks! It was a rebuke - “Your busyness is even making Me tired!” You see, it is not what we can do for God, its fellowship that He is wanting, folks.
Now, moms and dads, it is like your children. Please hear what I am saying, I have walked this road. Your children want you. They don’t want what you can do for them. What does it say in the Book of Mark 8:36:
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Well you can change that a little bit to, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his family?” Remember, a good idea is not always a God-idea. We don’t need to help God, we need to obey God. Now, if it is not working for you today, stop it. I really mean that. Stop it. Stop chasing around, wearing yourself out and wearing everybody else out, building things that you say are for God, but they are not. They are idols. Lay them down, spend time with God, spend time with your children, and your life will be much more successful.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 13th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 19:40, Jesus said:
“I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Oh folks. The Pharisees said to the Lord, ”Listen to these people; they’re worshipping you. Tell them to keep quiet.” And the Lord said the very stones would praise Him if the people didn’t. You know, we go to an early morning men's prayer group, and we gather together when it is still dark. We have been doing it for years, and these men are working men but they come out to pray and to worship the Lord, and we pray before the sun rises, just ordinary men, we pray for our families, we pray for the countries of the world, we pray for the lost, we pray for revival but before that, we sing! No, no, no, we are not opera singers. No, no, we are not famous singers, we are not on the hit list, but you know something? We praise the Lord.
Folks, I want to tell you that when we go into that little chapel on the farm, men come in there with all kinds of burdens, but when you praise the Lord you can feel the burdens literally lifting and there is an openness that comes and a joy, and laughter, and faith and expectancy. I want to sing a little song. You all know it, and I want you to sing it with me. It goes like this:
And He is Lord, He is Lord,
He has risen from the dead
And He is Lord.
Every knee shall bow,
Every tongue confess,
That Jesus Christ is Lord.
Come on, you in your pick-up, you are driving, you are getting the kids ready for school, I don’t know where you are - come on, sing it with me!
And He is Lord, He is Lord,
He has risen from the dead
And He is Lord,
Every knee shall bow,
Every tongue confess,
That Jesus Christ is Lord.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 12th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Habakkuk 2:2-3:
“Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.”
I want to ask you today, have you written down any areas of your life that you want to clean up, that you want to do better for the year 2025? We are right into it already. We are almost halfway through January. Can you believe it? But you know, if you don’t write it down, you have got nothing to aim for. What do they say? If you aim at nothing you are sure to hit it. You have got to get that journal. Write down your vision and make it plain, so that others can run with it as well. I have been looking at a devotional and this is what it said, “Think it over.” Now, I wrote in this devotional, you won’t believe it, in the year 2003, 22 years ago! This is what I wrote: “I intend to read my Bible more, to pray more, to have more Christian fellowship, to become a better husband, to become a better dad, to become a better grandad and to work harder for the Kingdom of God.” That is what I wrote in the year 2003, and I stumbled upon that reading this very morning.
I want to say to you, write down the thing that you are aiming for. 22 years ago that is what I was aiming for and I can tell you from my heart that that is still my vision even today. I am not saying that I achieved it by any means, but that is what I am aiming for. And I want to say to you as well, take a notebook, take a diary and write it down, what you are wanting to do and accomplish and then work towards it, and then the Lord says that we must wait for it, He says because it will speak in due course.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 11th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 15:11. Jesus says:
”Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”
You and I have to clean our act up. Yes, we need to check our hearts today because it is more than outward appearances. You see, Jesus and His disciples were eating some food. They hadn’t washed their hands. They had probably been on the road. The pious Pharisees and scribes started pointing fingers. They said, “Look at these men! They don’t even wash their hands before they eat.” But the Pharisees and scribes went through all their rituals, their traditions, and had a special way of washing their hands, of washing their utensils, but inside they were rotten and Jesus saw it.
We must not be hypocrites. As believers, we have got to be an example to the world. Jesus is more interested in the inside of a man or woman than the outside appearance of a man or a woman. Matthew 23:27:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.”
You see, it is hypocrisy that keeps a lot of people from turning to Jesus Christ. Mahatma Gandhi said he would have no problem following this Man, Jesus, but he could not reconcile himself to the followers of Jesus. We’ve really got to start to clean the inside first. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary of the word hypocrisy, and it is really quite scary. It said, “Behaviour in which a person pretends to have a higher standard than what they really have.”
One of the saddest things that happened to me as a new Christian, many years ago - I heard a true story about a pastor. He was a very fine looking man, always well-dressed, well-spoken and he preached a great message. He went away for a couple of weeks and left the key of his postbox with his secretary and his secretary would go and take the post out every week. She went this one week and took the post out and there she found a pornographic magazine that this pastor was subscribing to. You see, he had forgotten that the magazine was coming to his postbox and that destroyed his ministry. After that, he left town. I want to say to you, let us be very careful that we walk the talk.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 10th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Psalm 90:17:
“And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands.”
Make us successful in everything we do, please Lord Jesus, establishing the work of our hands. You know, some say Moses was the greatest leader who has ever lived, apart from Jesus obviously. He took a whole nation for forty years through the desert. Folks, we are talking about temperatures of over 45 degrees, 50 degrees sometimes during the day, and freezing at night. He fed those people, a whole nation, not for one year but for forty years. Moses was a great man of God, but you see his prayer was, “Make us successful, Lord, for Your glory.”
I want to ask you a question. Are you praying every morning before you start work with your staff? Are you praying and committing the day’s work into the Lord’s hands before you start? Whether you be a farmer, school teacher, businessman, or construction man, are you standing with your staff and praying every morning and reading a scripture verse before you start work? Do you know that the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, every single morning, early in the morning, spent time getting instruction from His Heavenly Father as to what He had to do? If you read Mark 6:46, He departed to the mountain to pray, to be alone with the Lord. I want to encourage you to pray in the mornings before you start. That is what makes you a successful man or woman, by committing everything into God’s hands before you do anything else. I want to pray for you at the start of this year that you will do it, that you will discipline yourself and do it every single day. It just makes the day go so much smoother and there is such a bonding with your people when you start the day in prayer.
Father God,
I pray for my friends today, before they start work every morning, that like the man of God, Moses, they will pray, “Lord establish the work of our hands please”, in Jesus' precious name,
Amen.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 9th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Mark 6:50:
“for they all saw Him and were troubled. But immediately He talked with them and said to them, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”
That is what Jesus said when the disciples saw Him walking on the water in the middle of a terrible storm. He is The Miracle-Worker! Oh my dear friend, I have been on a boat in the middle of Lake Galilee and I want to tell you, it is extremely deep. It is the source of life for the country of Israel. Jesus wasn’t walking across a little stream. He was walking across a lake that was in the middle of a terrible storm and the disciples were fearing for their very lives. They were experienced fishermen and they knew that they were in deep trouble. What did He say? The Master said, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.” He stilled the aggressive storm and got into the boat with them. There is no living creature who has ever done this before. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. That is what the Bible says in Hebrews 13:8.
The same Lord asked an old woman who was well-passed having a baby, her name was Sarah, that’s right, Abraham’s wife, He told her she was going to have a son, and she laughed. She didn’t believe it and then He asked her a question (Genesis 18:14):
“Is there anything too hard for the Lord?”
Well, the answer is that there is nothing too hard for Him, but why is it that you and I believe the Bible, we believe the written word of God, but sometimes we cannot believe that Jesus can answer our prayers. He can heal that sickness, He can make those blind eyes open, He can open those deaf ears, He can heal that heart problem, He can find that job for you, He can make a place for you at university where they said there’s no place, He can save that marriage. I want to pray a prayer of faith for you today:
Father,
I pray for my dear friend who is really battling to believe that You can answer their prayers.
Lord, You walked on the water,
You gave an old woman (nearly 100 years old) a baby, and You can answer this prayer today.
We ask it in Jesus’ name,
amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 8th of January 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a Thought for Today. We start in 2 Corinthians 5:17, out of the Amplified Version today:
”Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Saviour], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].”
Wow, what a beautiful scripture! As we start this new year, which is still the first month of a brand-new year, I can hear somebody sitting there and saying, “Angus, I have messed up. I am done and dusted. There is no hope for me - I have let the Lord down, I have let my family down, I have let my husband down, I have let my parents down. There is no hope for me.” Oh yes, there is, according to this scripture! If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. Old things have passed away.
Look at Mary Magdalene. Jesus cast seven demons out of that woman. She was an immoral woman, according to the word of God, and yet the Lord used her. I want to tell you that if you get to Heaven before me, the woman who will be sitting closest to the Lord, the most beautiful woman in Heaven, will be Mary Magdalene. Why? Because God takes broken things, He renews them and makes them new again.
What about Peter, the big fisherman? “I will die for You, Lord.” He denied the Lord three times. He was absolutely disgusted with his life, but he repented. He said sorry, and God gave him a new beginning. What about Paul (Saul), the Pharisee? Paul, who thought he was doing a good thing by killing Christians? He was an evil man, but the Lord gave him a second chance, a new beginning, and Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament.
I want to pray for you this morning. Put the past behind you. You know, the Lord has got a bad memory. What do I mean? When He forgives, He forgets. So let’s say, “Lord, please give us another chance; give us a new beginning.” Pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
This morning, on the 8th of January 2025, I give my life to You afresh.
Lord, I want to make a new start.
I want to put the past behind me.
I see that big blackboard duster rubbing out all that chalk,
all those sins paid for, done.
And Lord, I want to serve You this year with all of my heart.
I ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.
God bless you, and have a wonderful year,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 7th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Romans 1:21:
“…became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
We are talking about vain imaginations, thinking things that aren’t true. Then we go to 2 Corinthians 10:5:
“…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,…”
Oh my dear friend, we really need to be careful what we are thinking about. What am I talking about? We get an attitude against somebody because when we drove past them on our way to work and we waved to them, they did not respond, so we thought, “Oh, they are too good to speak to a humble person like me!” Okay, but what actually happened was, the sun was in their eyes and they didn’t see you. And that other time, you were in the shops and greeted that man who was walking right in front of you, “Hello John,” and he never responded but what you don’t realise is, John left his hearing aids at home and he can’t hear too well, so he never heard a word you said.
I really want to say to you that we need to capture those vain imaginations because they pull you down and start arguments and thoughts that have no foundation, no meaning at all, just the devil trying to cause trouble. So I want to say to you today, read books that are solid, that are encouraging, that are true. Watch movies that have solid backgrounds. Don’t watch rubbish, don’t make your mind like a garbage pit but rather think about things that are pure and good and what the Lord says about you and your neighbour, and you will live a much more pleasant and positive life for Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 6th of January, 2025, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Kings 17:12:
So she said, "As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar."
That's what the widow told Elijah, the prophet when he asked her to make him a small biscuit. Then we got to Mark 6:37:
But He answered and said to them, "You give them something to eat."
Now, there was a large crowd of people, and they were hungry. Jesus says, "You, give them something to eat." You do it. "But you know, I'm an old-aged pensioner, I really don't have much income." or "I'm just a working man or a working woman. I'm a widow, I don't have much. I can't help..." But the Lord says that we are to use what we have.
Remember, the Lord took two fishes and five barley loaves and fed 5000 men, not including women and children. This morning, God is looking for willing hearts who are prepared to step out with raw faith and obey the word of God. That widow did what the prophet said, and her flour and oil never ran out until the drought was over. If she had refused to make that biscuit, it would have been the last biscuit she and her little son would have eaten. It's in giving that we receive.
What do you have in your hand? Give it to the Lord, and He will multiply it for you. In 2008, many of you will remember that we had the biggest tent in the world on this farm. Oh yes. We were expecting 23,000 men and 60,000 men arrived. The tent was full - 30,000 seats inside the tent and 30,000 men outside the tent. But listen to this. We also told them that we would feed them. Well, folks, I want to tell you something now. We slaughtered 40 oxen for one meal. Then we had those foot-longs, which we call footlong sausages, like hot dogs, and we fed those men. Then we gave them bunny chow, the famous Natal bunny chow. Where you take half a loaf of bread, take the inside out, and fill it up with stew. We fed them the whole weekend, and we never ran out of food.
Today, give the Lord what you've got. He says we must give them something to eat and let him do the rest.
Jesus bless you, and good bye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name, it is Sunday morning, the 5th of January, 2025, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today.
We go to Mark 16:18:
“They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Can you imagine the hands of Jesus being laid upon you, my dear friend, to take away all your sickness, all your pain, all your suffering, all your fear and all your anxiety, those beautiful, beautiful hands. Of course, you know they will have a hole through them. They have been pierced by nails when the Lord was nailed to the cross for our sins, but what beautiful hands.
Early this morning I was repairing a fence the back of our garden, and because I'm a preacher now and not a farmer, I must confess, my hands are very soft. I was quite embarrassed. I just remember my dear old Dad. Man, he had hands like you can't believe. He was a blacksmith, and he used tongs and 14-pound hammers, standing next to that fiery furnace and heating up that steel and banging it. He had the most incredibly powerful hands, yet they were so gentle - I never once saw him try to break a man's hand. He would shake your hand and it was like it was in a vice. It was firm, it was secure! Hands, hands are so important.
I remember, one day, going to the chemist's shop and as I was paying for something I said to the lady, look at my hands. I've got hands and like a woman now that I don't farm actively anymore. She looked at me and she said, “Don't insult women's hands.” Now, when I speak to farmers, I have to put my hands in my pockets because when they see those hands, they'll say those aren’t a farmers hands. But you know, on a serious note, the Lord tells us to lay our hands upon the sick and to pray for healing over them. To get a touch from the Lord is so beautiful and so precious. I love to stop and pray for somebody in the street and I will put my hand on their shoulder; sometimes I don't even pray and they start to weep. It's the love of Christ in us that people need to experience, so it doesn't matter whether your hands are strong or soft.
I think of the hands of that incredible neurosurgeon, Dr. Carson, who had the gift of separating Siamese twins with one operation taking something like 48 hours. Those were hands of compassion and hands that are strong. Remember, folks, people love a handshake, they love a hug, and it doesn't matter whether your hands are rough, or whether they’re smooth but make sure they're always clean. My Dad had the cleanest hands of a man I've ever seen. He made sure that when he went out, his hands were clean. There might be rough and gnarled, but clean, and most of all filled with the love of Jesus.
Have a blessed day.
God bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 4th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Old Testament to the Book of Jeremiah 4:22:
“For My people are foolish,
They have not known Me.
They are silly children,
And they have no understanding.
They are wise to do evil,
But to do good they have no knowledge.”
What a sad verse! And then we go to the Book of Hosea 4:1:
“There is no truth or mercy
Or knowledge of God in the land.”
Another very sad scripture! As we start the new year of 2025, we have to teach the children of God carefully to do good and not evil. These comments have been made, not to unbelievers - no, but to the Body of Christ! We have got to get back to basics.
John 17:17, Jesus says:
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
Because I can hear somebody saying, “Yes, but what is truth?” Well, the word is truth. We need to teach our children, teach our loved ones, about the knowledge of God. That is what will set us free, and the knowledge of God is the undiluted word of God. It’s not about our opinions, it is God’s opinion that counts.
One of my sons met a a new farmer in the district in the local farmer’s co-op, some months back. A very, very successful farmer who had been farming up-country, and he relocated and bought a new farm not too far away from us, and they got talking in the co-op, a good place to talk! This man was devastated. He said, “I have lost almost sixty head of cattle. Sixty cows have died from red water” (which is a tick-born disease). And my son said, “What are you doing about it?” And he said, “No, the vets have told us, the experts have told us to leave the cattle and they will become immune in time.” My son is from the old school. He said, “Sir, I would advise you to dip your cattle regularly.” Well, of course, he got back to the basics and he dipped his cattle. We saw that gentleman in church a few weeks later. His face was beaming. He said, “I have not lost one cow since then.” We have got to do the basics right. There is a lot of theory going on. At the end of the day, it is what Jesus says that counts.
What am I talking about?
Husbands, love your wives - that is what the Bible says, unconditionally.
Wives, submit to your husbands - it’s what the Bible says.
Children, honour your parents - it’s what the Bible says.
Parents, do not provoke your children. Love one another unconditionally.
That is wisdom.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 3rd of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Gospel of Mark 6:20:
“…for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.”
Then we go to the Book of Acts 26:28:
"Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”
People don’t have to like us but they must respect us. You see, even though John openly rebuked King Herod for taking his brother’s wife and living an ungodlylifestyle, Herod still respected John and admired him. There are many people on the verge of giving their lives to Jesus, and your lifestyle and my lifestyle will determine whether they come through or not. You see, the truth of God draws people to Jesus, just like a light draws a moth in the middle of the night - it’s irresistible. King Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”
We must never lower our standards because if we do, people will simply despise us and say, “You see, they are a bunch of hypocrites!” We need to stand tall, we need to speak the truth, and God will bring those people to Himself. When they see your peace, your purpose, your joy, they will come to you and say, “I want what you have got.” So young lady, you don’t have to throw your virginity away just to please people. Young man, you don’t have to bend the rules, put your fingers in the till, as they say, and take money that is not yours, just to keep up with other people. It doesn’t work and it does not last. We really need to stand up for what we believe in.
There is a young man who I love very dearly. I have known him for many years and I keep saying to him, “When are you coming to have a cup of tea with me?” I say to him, “I have got the kettle on, I am waiting for you.” But he knows what we are going to talk about and I am firmly believing by faith that one day, I will get that phone call where he will say, “Angus, I am coming to have that cup of tea.” And that will be the day that he will fully commit his life and his lifestyle to Jesus Christ. But until then, by the grace of God, we continue like John the Baptist to speak the truth in love - in love - and God will do the rest.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 2nd of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 6:8. Jesus said:
“Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”
Now just before that, the Lord tells us that He is not interested in vain repetition when you pray, not fancy words. I love what C H Spurgeon says. He talks about “homemade prayers”. If there is one thing I really desire for you as we go into the new year, is that this year be a year where you learn to speak daily to the Lord Jesus Christ, prayers which come straight from the heart, speaking straight to Jesus Christ - no flowery Christianese, but honest day to day language. The Lord understands it, just that ordinary layman’s language to a Carpenter, just tell Him exactly how you are feeling, tell Him how things really are, and ask Him to help you. It is not so much about the words even, is it? It is more about the heart of the prayer.
We need to speak to Jesus through the Holy Spirit, just as you would speak to your workmate in the office, in the field, in the workshop. David Wilkerson, in his book, The Cross and The Switchblade, said sometimes, when he would pray the Sinner’s Prayer with those young gangsters from the ghettos of New York, their vocabulary was non-existent. Every second word was a swear word and they prayed the Sinner’s Prayer in blasphemous language, they were unaware of that, but their heart was pleading with God.
I remember, just after I had given my life to Christ, we were sitting in a circle in a prayer meeting, probably the first one I had ever been to, and each one of us had to pray. The leader said, “Just pray” and we had never prayed out loud. The turn came to one old gentleman, his name was John, and I have never forgotten his prayer. His prayer came from the depths of his heart. He was in big trouble and he said, “Oh God, please help me!” And the Lord helped him.
As you go into this new year, make prayer a priority in your life, every single morning and right through the day, and last of all at night, before you go to sleep. Speak to Him in homemade prayers.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Wednesday morning, the 1st of January, 2025, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today. Happy New Year! Many of us didn't think we'd make it this year, did we? But God, in His grace and love, has seen fit for us to face another brand-spanking New Year - Happy New Year to you!
We start in Philippians 3:10, Paul says:
"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death..."
Paul waited 13 years before the disciples accepted him and commissioned him to go out and preach the gospel to this dying world. We look forward to a new year; some qualified students are ready to face the world. Some others have just got their papers: qualified tradesmen and women. Children are going into their final year at school, and we are so excited, but I want to say something to you, first to us and then to the whole world.
We've got to get it into our souls first before we take the message to a dying world. My dear friend, there is a time for us to get qualified, yes, there is an apprenticeship that we have to serve before we go out and tell others how to live. Yes, the gospel is for all people, and Jesus said go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That was the last thing He said to the disciples before He went home to be with His Father in heaven. We mustn't forget that those disciples had walked with the Son of God for at least three years, night and day, before he commissioned them to go into the world.
We face a brand new year with wonderful opportunities and an exciting year. I've never been so excited in my life! This past year, the Lord has told me to spend time in solitude and quietness. I have not stood on a platform or preached from a pulpit for a whole year, and I am starting this year. We need to understand before God sends us out, our hearts and souls must be prepared for the gospel. You can't tell others how to live and what to do if it is not good in your heart. Spend time preparing your heart for the great commission, wherever that might lead you, and then when you are equipped and qualified, go out and tell the good news to every soul.
Jesus bless you, and once again, I pray that God will give you your heart's desire this year, 2025, and you delight yourself in Him. (Psalm 37:4)
God bless you and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Tuesday morning, the 31st of December, 2024. It is the last day of this year - for some of us, we're saying, "Wow, we made it," Others are saying, "Man, it's been tough!"
But I want to speak to you about something very special today if we go to John 11:35 - two words:
"Jesus wept."
Jesus cried - I want to say today that we must feel free to cry. Some of you listening to this have lost a loved one in 2024. You are going into 2025 very shortly without that person. Others are facing unemployment; maybe your business is going bankrupt, yes, and I encourage you to feel free to cry tears. Graham Lacey, a man I respect a lot, said: "Tears are words that the heart cannot say." Isn't that beautiful? When a person is struggling, put your arm around them and weep with them. That will minister to them more than a big sermon, I can tell you right now.
"Tears are the silent language of grief." - Voltaire.
I've been through some tough times myself, and the people who have ministered to me the most when I've been in the deepest depths of despair are those who sit and look at me with tears running down their faces. They don't have to say anything more. "Tears can be trusted more than a smile." You know, you can smile and people say: "How are you?" "No, I'm fine, thank you..." But you're not okay. When the tears flow, then you make your feelings evident.
"Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning."
Psalm 30:5
Share tears with other people. Lastly, Graham was saying that God harvests our tears; he keeps them in a bottle. As you face the new year, I encourage you to be honest with yourself and others. I also want to remind you there will be no tears in Heaven, none at all. The Lord will wipe away every tear we've ever cried (Revelation 21:4). Remember the founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth when his soldiers wrote back to him and said, "We're having no joy." He sent back a letter with two words on it: Try tears. That great evangelist, Charles Finney, said that where there are no tears and no amens, there will be no revival. Peter went out and wept bitterly, as the Bible says in Luke 22:62 after he betrayed his Master no less than three times. Yes, we all make mistakes. We've made plenty in 2024. Let's attempt not to do so in 2025. Let's shed a tear instead of making a noise. Let us rather put our arms around those suffering and learn to weep with them sincerely.
God bless you, and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 30th of December 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today. We go to Mark 4:34:
"And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples."
It is vital to spend time alone with our Lord Jesus Christ. As we look forward now, in a day or so, we will be facing 2025. Now, I'm looking forward to it with great excitement, but I know some people are looking forward to it with trepidation, not knowing what the future holds. But if you spend time alone with the Lord Jesus Christ, He will comfort you, direct your path, give instructions, show you which way to go, and show you what to do and what not to do. He is the ultimate Council; my dear friend, it is vital that we spend time alone with the Lord Jesus Christ every morning.
I want to tell you a simple story; many of you were there. I'm talking about the big tent we hired in 2008 for The Mighty Men Conference at Shalom. That tent was gigantic! It was the biggest tent in the world at that time. It could seat 30,000 people inside, and we filled it with men. 30,000 men inside, but we had 30,000 men outside - Making a total of 60,000 men. Can you believe it? I find it hard to believe myself! Do you know that it took three weeks to erect with professional riggers? No farmers were allowed to touch it, and between 15 and 17, 40-tonne trucks brought it here to the farm. It even had a built-in weather station because those guy ropes, about an inch thick steel cable, had to be tensioned according to the weather. It was the size of 4 rugby fields, end-to-end. It was amazing.
The event was incredible, and we gave God all the glory. We saw men changed forever - maybe you were one of them. Now, this is where it's very important to hear God's voice and be alone with the Lord: After the event, a group of businessmen, well-meaning, godly businessmen from Johannesburg, contacted our office and said they wanted to buy the tent for us. Now, who has to pray about that? Well, I did. I asked if I could get back to them. It's very kind of you, but I need to pray and be alone with Jesus. When I went before the Lord, I was quite shocked; He said, do not touch it. I said thank you so much for the kind offer, but I can't accept it. They said well, that's up to you.
But you see, folks, that tent cost a million Rand just to erect, and then it would cost another million Rand to take it to the next destination. The following year, 2009, we had over 120,000 men at the Mighty Men Conference. That tent wouldn't have even housed a quarter of them.
Today, listen to the word of the Lord and obey only Him.
Jesus blessed you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 29th of December, 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today. We start with Daniel 10:19:
"And he said, "O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!"
Then we go to Ephesians 6:10:
"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might."
Be strong in the Lord! Things are very tough; I'm not gonna tell you a lie. We have been experiencing a terrible drought everywhere we look in South Africa. Things are really not looking good with the naked eye. We look at the wars that have taken place in the Middle East, Russia, and Ukraine. We look at the immorality, which is at an all-time high, and we say, "Lord, where are you?" and the Lord says: "Be strong." The Lord says: "Stand, the battle is the Lord's." You'll see that in Ephesians 6:14 (& 2 Chronicles 20:15). We are not to do the fighting; the Lord is fighting for you, young lady and young man. No, the fight is not yours. You cannot make this your battle. It's God's battle, and He wants you to stand. You know those two words, "But God." When people say there's no future for this country, you say: "But God." When they say, "These young people will never amount to anything." You say: "But God."
I want to encourage you as we come to the close of 2024 and look forward to 2025; we need to understand the battle is the Lord's. He has promised us with that beautiful word in Daniel that we need to stand. Folks, when God confronted Moses at the Burning Bush, Moses was a broken man. He had fled from Egypt. He had murdered a slave driver and was at an all-time low. The Lord said to him, "I want you to go and tell my people that I'm going to set them free", and God said to Moses in Exodus 3:14:
"I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you."
That was it. I want you to say today when you look at that mountain and think, "I'll never get over it..." I AM says: "You will." and I AM says: "I'll be with you for the whole of 2025." All you need to do is to stand and be strong. The Lord will do it!
Jesus bless you, and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 28th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Daniel 9:4:
“O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,…”
Then we go to the Gospel of John 14:14-15. The Lord says:
“If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
Wow! Did you hear that? But this is a condition involved here. Verse 15:
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
You see folks, if we are going to be serious about God and we are going to keep the covenant that we have made with the Lord, then He says He will do whatever you ask Him to do, but He will not do it if we are not keeping His covenant with us and His commandments. What am I saying? What I am saying is that if you are married and your husband leaves you or has an affair, he has broken his side of the covenant, the covenant he made on your wedding day, therefore the covenant is no longer valid. You can’t keep half a covenant. When you promise the Lord Jesus Christ that you are going to serve Him and walk in His ways, He will keep His side of the covenant because He never breaks His side of the covenant but the covenant will not be fulfilled if we break our side. That is why when it comes to a thing like marriage which is sacred, we need to understand, He will never break His side of the deal as long as you keep your side of the deal.
When we walk with the Lord and we obey His commandments, He will give us whatever we ask. I have experienced it in my own life. But when we disobey Him, we go our own way and then we cry out, “Lord, where are You?” He says, “I am here but I cannot honour My side of the covenant if you continue to wilfully sin when you know it is wrong." Today, come on, let’s repent, let us say sorry. Come on, let’s do it!
Father,
In Jesus’ name, we want to ask You to forgive us for always crying out, “Lord, where are You? Why are You not keeping Your side of the covenant?” when we know wilfully, we are going against what You called us to. We repent of that today and we start afresh.
In Jesus name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 27th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 4:14:
“The sower sows the word.”
That is what Jesus said. The seed of life, but it is not the responsibility of the sower for the growth. No, he plants the seed but the seed must do the rest of the work. Now, the Lord doesn’t say, “the sower sows the seed”. He says, “The sower sows the word.” He plants the word into our hearts, but it is not the preacher’s responsibility to see that word grow, that is our responsibility. So, today, as we draw near to the end of the year, 2024, we have a responsibility. Are we going to receive the word of life that the Lord has been sowing into our hearts for many, many years, or are we going to reject it? That is quite simply the difference between life and death. We are going to go into a new year in a few day’s time, and how are we going to approach the new year? Are we going to live it the same as we did last year or are we going to draw a line in the sand and say, “This far, devil, and no further.”?
I had the privilege of speaking to a group of people just a short while ago. These people have been through a very rough time in their lives. Many of them are struggling with addictions in their lives. I asked them a question. “Are you going to make a difference? Are you going to change? Are you going to receive God’s Holy Word, what He says about you, or are you going to continue to listen to the lies of the devil over your life? It’s your choice." With my cowboy boot, I drew a line in the sand and I said, “I want to encourage you, get up out of your seat and come and step across the line and say, “This day I am going to receive the word that the Lord Jesus Christ has sown in my life, and I am no longer going to listen to the accusations of the devil and of other people who have no love for me. I am a child of God and I am starting again.”
I would encourage you to do the same today. The sower sows the word, we must receive it.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 26th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of James 4:14:
“For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
Oh folks, we are coming to the end of 2024. Can you believe it? You know, it is not just older people I am talking to. When I speak to young people they say, “Where is the time going?” Just the other day I had the privilege of going to an old age home, and I sat there and I spoke to the old folk and I greeted them one by one. Some were smiling, some were tearful, some seemed to be in another place - they were daydreaming, and I just thought, “Lord, each one of these precious souls has got such a story to tell.” They have walked such a long road. The one old lady was about to celebrate her 90th birthday.
This life is so short, it is like a vapour. I sat there and I remembered all the people that have gone home to be with Jesus, and were in that old age home that I visited, wonderful people with incredible testimonies and stories. Then this morning, I read this beautiful reading that I want to share with you. You have probably heard it before. It goes like this: “Only one life, it will soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Isn’t that so profound?
I was telling them that story of an old man who came to me many years ago and I now am also becoming an old man. I know! It’s a fact, you cannot get away from it. He said to me with tears in his eyes, “Angus, I cannot go down the well anymore, I am too old, but I can stand at the top and hold the rope for you.” So precious, and that rope is prayer. And I encouraged those old folks, some of them can’t walk, some of them need to be assisted, “You can still participate, you can still serve Christ, and probably in the most valuable way of all, and that is by praying and interceding for others, especially for the young people who have still got to run the race and walk the road that they are walking."
Today, let us not waste any more time.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Christmas Day, 25th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. I want to wish every single one of you, my dear friends, a very blessed Christmas.
We start today in the Book of Isaiah 7:14:
”Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel”
What a beautiful word! I went to school with a young man named Emanuel, who was from a Portuguese background - Emanuel Da Silva. Maybe he’s listening to this message on this Christmas Day. That was about 60 years ago. Folks, I want to say to you that that Scripture was prophesied about Jesus about 700 years before it took place because if we go to Matthew 1:23, it’s the exact same Scripture. What a day Christmas Day is for us as believers all over the world.
Jesus Christ said to His Father, ”My people are struggling, Father. I’m going down to earth and I’m going to help them.” And because of that little innocent helpless baby born in that little manger, a feed trough in that stable in Bethlehem, you and I have hope. We have hope to get up again, dust ourselves off and keep up the good work for the Lord. We have hope in Jesus!
Folks, you know we used to do a lot of campaigns in the early days, in the 1980’s and we called it, “Hope in Jesus”. I want to encourage you today, whatever you do, wherever you go, encourage people and tell them there is hope in a hopeless situation because the Babe from the little manger in Bethlehem has told us it’s going to be alright. I have come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly.
I want to pray for you as we close:
Heavenly Father,
I thank you for my dear friends who have been with me this past year, 2024. I pray that they’ll have a blessed day today with their loved ones, with their children, their grandchildren, and their families, and they will celebrate the birth of the greatest Person who has ever walked on the face of the earth, our beloved Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
God bless you and happy, prosperous and peaceful Christmas be to you and yours,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Christmas Eve, the 24th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Now folks, it is probably the most important evening of the whole year! This is the night that we celebrate the birth of our beloved Saviour, dearest Friend, Jesus Christ. We go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 1:21:
“And she (Mary) will bring forth a Son (Jesus), and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
I want us to have just a little bit of a cautious thought about things. I know it is very hectic, especially for mothers in the home, making sure that the food is all prepared; the decorations have been put up; the extra beds have been made because Aunty and Uncle are coming to spend Christmas Eve with you; and the Christmas presents for the children for tomorrow, are all being wrapped up. In the hectic attitude of this season, do not forget the baby! Do not forget that beloved baby - it makes me want to cry. You know, behind me in my prayer room, I have a beautiful picture of the nativity, of Joseph, of Mary and of that little Darling, from Heaven, Jesus Christ. In the busyness of our lives, let us never forget the main thing. The main thing is, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It is so easy to get so busy that we forget the main reason for Christmas Eve.
I want to tell you a little story. I was sitting right here in the same chair in my prayer room, and I heard little footsteps coming through the door of my prayer room, where nobody comes except my immediate family, and I looked around and there was my little granddaughter, she is only about five or six years old. She looked very shy because she knew I was busy, but praise God, she felt she could come and approach her grandfather, and she said, “Kulu”, with those big eyes. She was holding a tube, a bicycle tube in her hand, and I said, “What’s wrong?” She said, “My bicycle has got a puncture, and my cousin (who lives over the road) is coming to see me and we are going to go for a ride but my bicycle is not working. Could you help me?” (I am getting emotional!) I said, “Of course.” I stopped everything. I went out, I fixed the puncture at the back but there was also a puncture at the front. I fixed that. Then she had no oil for her chain, so we put oil on the chain. Then the seat was just a little bit high because it used to belong to her big brother, so I adjusted the seat. Then her cousin arrived and that little thing, if I had bought her a Lear Jet, it would not have meant the same, and off they went cycling together.
Please look after your children, especially the smallest ones. Do not neglect them at this time. Jesus loves the little children.
Have a very precious Christmas Eve,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 23rd of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 3:35, Jesus says:
“For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”
Do you remember the story? Jesus was speaking to the multitude and they came and interrupted Him. They said, “Your mother and Your brothers are outside and they are waiting for You.” And that is when He said, “Who is my mother and my brothers?”
You know, I read a beautiful testimony of a young Muslim schoolgirl. She must have been a teenager, and she found Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Saviour. She was absolutely elated, but she came from a strong, devout Muslim family. She was given a little Gideon’s Bible, a little blue one, and she used to hide it under her pillow. At night, before she went to sleep, she would read it and pray to her Jesus, and in the morning, early before the family got up, she would have her devotions again and then hide the Bible under her pillow when she went to school.
One day, her dad came home in the middle of the day, he needed something and went into her room and found her Bible. When she came home from school, he was furious and told her that unless she repented and stopped this nonsense and started to follow Allah and become a good Muslim girl, he would disown her. She said, “I cannot because I am part of His family now.” So her father threw her into the street, literally, with nothing and she had an extremely tough time. Eventually, Christians brought her into their family, and she grew up and went to Bible College. I believe she is even a teacher of the Word at this time. But you know, the amazing thing is, she never, ever denied Christ. Her mother used to meet her under a bridge somewhere quietly where none of the family knew about it and they used to cry together, and she would bring her some food and she would bring her clothes. After many years, her father saw that she was not turning her back on Jesus and she definitely was part of His family, and by her lifestyle, eventually, she was allowed to come home and visit her father. She had the privilege of leading her dad and her mother and siblings to Jesus Christ.
I want to say to you today, my dear friend, your father, your brother and your sister, are those who worship and live according to the principles of Jesus Christ. There is no doubt about that! Yes, we have got to love our biological family, but we must not be restricted because they do not want to follow Jesus. Every single one of us need to meet Him in a personal way. Why don’t we do what that beautiful Muslim lady has done? By her lifestyle, she introduced her whole family to Jesus Christ.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 22nd of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Psalms 19:14:
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
Yes, a very special scripture to me personally, I pray it every time before I preach, whether it be a large gathering or a small one. On that point, I want to tell you, folks, I am so proud of my grandson, 17 years old, yes - he has been on missions with a spiritual son of mine who is 50 years old, and their small team. They walked along the foothills of the mighty Himalaya Mountains, where Mount Everest is situated. Over 5000 metres above sea-level they walked. They walked sometimes up to 20 km a day, eating very, very meagre diets, maybe a little plate of rice if they were blessed to get that from some small cottage. And what were they doing? They were taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost.
I heard that there was an old person, I can’t remember whether it was a lady or a gentleman, something like over 80 years old and they wanted to hear the Gospel. These boys walked 20 kms to go to this little cottage to pray the sinner’s prayer. I can just imagine them as they were walking along those steep paths, struggling for oxygen, probably praying this prayer:
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
Can you imagine them praying the sinner’s prayer with that older person? They came from the other side of the world to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and by the way, no - they were not speaking in any big stadiums, no - they were not on television, not at all, but I want to tell you they were surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. We find that in Hebrews 12, and I want to tell you something now folks, they have totally humbled me.
Thank You, Lord, for faithful people who are prepared to take the Gospel to the ends of the world. Maybe today you need to go next door. That’s right, 50 metres, and knock on the door and say, “I want to speak to you. Can I have a cup of tea with you?” And tell them about the Saviour of the world!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 21st of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 25:40:
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”
We want to speak today about the microscope of little things. I want to read something to you from that wonderful hymn-writer, by the name of Frances Ridley Havergal. She said: ”We talk about the telescope of faith but I think we want even more the microscope of watchful and grateful love. Apply the little bits of our daily lives in the light of the Spirit, and how wonderfully they will come out.” We need to remember the little things.
Now, I have had the privilege, and it has been a great privilege, to meet many great leaders, kings - yes, prime ministers - absolutely, leaders of great companies, international sportsmen, I have met wonderful people all of them, but I want to tell you, and I honestly mean this, in my little prayer room, I have got some momentoes, and one of them is a sucker stick. I am telling you, a little sucker stick with little writing saying, “Jesus bless you”, given to me by a little boy. This little boy can hardly read or write, he is probably 3 or 4 years old. He came to me one day, very bashfully, at church, and he gave me this as a book marker. Well, I want to tell you, it is up on the wall. Oh yes!
I have a photo of a little boy kneeling in the sand, his little bare feet put carefully behind him, his little hat off his head, his head bowed, and he is praying to Jesus. That brought many tears to my eyes. I have framed that photograph, someone sent it to me. It was taken at one of our large meetings where we were praying for the nation and there were thousands and thousands of people there, but that little photograph touched me so deeply, more than all the dignitaries who attended that great meeting, Governors of the different provinces, Representatives of the President, but that little boy touched me.
Today, remember, it is the microscope of little things that will touch Jesus’ heart.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 20th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 14:50 - It says that all of His disciples abandoned Him and fled.They all deserted Him, all of them.
James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, was a wonderful man of God who took the Gospel to China in the early days. He lived with the Chinese people and brought a revival which I think has been unparalleled. Even today, China is a communist country, it is not a friend of Jesus Christ, and yet the underground church is flourishing like never before. They say there is something like over 60 million believers in China! James Hudson Taylor said, ”Separation never comes from His side”. Separation never comes from Jesus’ side. We are the ones that leave Him, He never leaves us. He said that to us: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5), and He means it, my dear friend. Many a time, people write to me and they say, “Where is God? Angus, when I was calling for Him, He wasn’t there.” Oh yes, He was, my dear friend. He will never leave you and He will never separate Himself from you. That is why I love Him so much.
I have been through many things in my life as I am sure you have as well, but I want to tell you, when the going gets really tough, He gets in even closer with us. Remember the story of the footsteps in the sand? Lord, every time things got tough, there were only one set of footsteps in the sand. Where were You, Lord?”
“Oh My son, oh My daughter, I was carrying you on My shoulders.”
Yes, Jesus Christ will never leave you and that is good news for you today. Go out and tell the world that many may betray you but Jesus, never.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”.
John 15:13
Does that sound like betrayal? Does that sound like separation, my dear friend? No! Today, draw close to Him and He will walk with you through the fire.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 19th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Gospel of Matthew 16:24:
”Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Then we go to the Gospel of John 3:3:
”Jesus answered and said to him (to Nicodemus) ”Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
What are we talking about today? We are talking about dying to self; we are talking about denying ourselves. You see the symbol of the Christian is the cross. I love to see young ladies with beautiful crosses hanging around their necks. It looks beautiful, but I wonder if many of them know what it actually stands for. It stands for dying to self and following Jesus. Jesus never promised you or me a bed of roses. No, but He did promise that He would walk with us, right through all our trials and our hardships.
The other day I was listening to a song, a beautiful country and western song. I love country music, oh yes, I am a cowboy, and I really love American Country Western music. I heard this song and some of the lyrics go like this: “Everyone wants to go to heaven but no-one wants to die”. Wow, what does that mean? Well, it means you can’t have your cake and eat it. It means is you want to follow Jesus Christ you have to walk the Christian road. It means you cannot live like the devil and expect to go to heaven, it doesn’t work like that. If you’ve given your life to Christ, Jesus says you must be born again and if you do not give your life to Christ you are not going to heaven. It’s very simple.
Now, I want to say to you today, we need to check ourselves and we need to say, “Lord,” like Paul said, ”For me to live is Christ and to die is but gain.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 18th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Psalms 91:2:
”I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; …”
What a beautiful promise! Then of course, we go to the Book of Hebrews 13:6:
“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
What a beautiful promise again from the Lord! At this time when we’re living in dangerous, fearful times, this is the time that we need to take the promises of God’s Holy Word and hide them in our hearts. I read a beautiful reading this morning. The little bird that builds his nest goes deep into the dark forest and looks for a leafy tree and then he builds his little nest there, where no one else can see it, and then he flies out and gets all the food he needs, and when he sees the big black clouds of a storm coming up, then he flies to his little nest, and he hides there until the storm is over.
J R Miller said, ”There we should fly in any danger or alarm hiding there in our soul's nest until the storm is past. There are no castles in this world which are so impregnable as the words of Christ.”
Today, make sure you’ve got a nest, you’ve got promises from God, Scriptures the Lord has given you over the years, and when those storms of life come up against you, you shelter yourself in your soul with the living word of God. Jesus says: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5. The Lord says, ”I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.” The Lord says “I will protect you”. Yes, He says, ”I will hide you in the cleft of the rock.”
Today, let us hide in the promises of God when the storms of life try to upset us.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 17th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 18:24:
“A man who has friends must himself be friendly,…”
Then we go to Daniel 6:3:
“…because an excellent spirit was in him;…”
Another version says, “an extraordinary spirit within him, it distinguished him amongst all the others.”
Do we have that spirit in us today? You see, that is what King Darius found in Daniel. He was different to the others. He was a man of an excellent spirit, and that is what we have to do, folks.
So often I have heard young people say, “Ja, but I have no friends.” Well, maybe because you are not friendly. Maybe you are always argumentative, maybe you are always critical, maybe you are sarcastic. They say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. It always comes at the expense of somebody else. We have got to stop that. We have got to start affirming people. We have got to start having a godly spirit within us. We have got to be known as trustworthy, honest, level-headed people.
I remember when I was a young man and I am not proud of it. I was a wild man, I had gone into the far country, and on a Friday night, after work, we were exhausted, all the boys working on the farms. I am talking about overseas, and when we went out to a party, we were going to have a real time of fun. You know what we did? We looked for the man who first of all was levelheaded. He didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke, he didn’t swear, he was a bit of a corny kind of a guy. We didn’t think too much of him, but he had an excellent spirit. So we would give him the keys of the motorcar because we knew that when it came to coming home we would be under the weather but he would be sober because he didn’t drink alcohol. And I want to say to you, when I look back, he was an honourable man, a man who we might not have liked, but I want to tell you, we respected him.
Now today, let us be level-headed. Somebody said to me, “That Angus, he is just a Jesus man.” Folks, I want to tell you, that is probably one of the greatest compliments I have had in my life: “He is a Jesus man.” Of course I am! What other man would I love to follow than the One who had an extraordinary Spirit? His name is Jesus.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 16th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Daniel 5:27:
“You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting…”
Now, this Guest was not even invited to the king’s palace, to his celebration, but He wrote on the wall. This was the One who was not invited but He came and He wrote with His finger upon the wall. What did He write? “You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting…”
How is it with you this morning? I know with me, without God, I’ve got no chance. Without the Lord Jesus Christ, I am in terrible debt. I remember as a young farmer and I’m sure this applies to businessmen, it applies to everybody. We put in a beautiful crop, oh what a crop it was that year! It was golden unto harvest. We had two months to go and then we’d reap that crop, pay all our debt and we’d carry on living. Then we got the phone call from the bank. Oh dear! The lady said, “The Bank Manager wants to see you urgently.” Now I knew that my time was up, I had to pay. The crop was there it was on the ground but he wanted his money obviously. So I got in the pickup, I asked Jill - I said, “Please just pray for me," and off I went to town. I gingerly walked into his office. Of course, you take your hat off, especially when you owe money. I walked into his office, I sat down at that beautiful big oak desk and he sat at the other side of the desk. He had his glasses on and he looked at me over the top off his glasses. He said, ”Angus, I’ve called you here today with regard to your overdraft.” I said, ”Yes Sir, I understand and Sir, I’ve got a wonderful crop and I’ll be able to pay you.” He said, ”Hang on minute, I haven’t finished.” He said, ”Yesterday, somebody walked into this office and paid the whole overdraft, cash. He’s anonymous. He doesn’t want to be known.” I couldn’t believe it. I think I maybe broke into tears. I said, ”Thank you very much.” I went out rejoicing. As I was walking out the door, I said, ”Sir, who is he?” He said, ”He’s a Carpenter.” It’s just a story - but so true is it not?
Do you remember that beautiful old hymn we used to sing? I want you to sing it with me, it goes something like this:
He paid the debt, He did not own.
I owed the debt, I could not pay.
I needed someone to wash my sins away,
and now I sing a brand new song
Amazing Grace.
Christ Jesus paid the debt I could never pay.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 15th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start off in Proverbs 16:18:
“Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Daniel 4:31 and:
“…the kingdom has departed from you! “
Oh my dear friend, we need to be careful of that terrible thing called pride. Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful man on earth. He was the King of Babylon. That is modern-day Iran. He ruled the whole world in those days and yet he fell in a moment. He ended up grazing grass in the field like an ox. The Bible tells us his hair grew long, his nails like claws of a bird. For seven seasons he did that until he humbled himself and acknowledged that Father God was the Ruler of the earth and everything in it.
We need to put men and women around us that can advise us and then we need to be humble enough to take their godly counsel. It’s safe to have men and women around you to guide you. Listen to your wife, young man. She loves you and will tell you the truth. Be careful of flatterers, those who guide you and tell you what you want to hear. Yes-men around you are very dangerous. You don’t need them. I have no less than five advisers. These are men of substance. They are from different churches, different walks of life, and we meet every year regularly and they advise me on what to do. They don’t tell me what to do, they advise me, and they don’t necessarily agree with me because they are trying to look after me and the Word of God.
When Nebuchadnezzar finally had understanding, the Bible says, 'reason', he realised he could do nothing without God and when he did that, his kingdom was restored to him. Today, take good counsel from people who love you and don’t tell you what you want to hear but tell you the truth and then you will succeed and God will get all the glory through your life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 14th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Mark 2:17:
When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Oh folks, He came for the whosoever’s. He came for you and He came for me, and that is why we love Him so much. Isn’t that so? He came for the tax collector, the prostitute, the drunkard, the so-called untouchables. And you know, the amazing thing is, when people like this get saved, when they meet Jesus Christ, they change and they change forever, and they have an incredible witness to the world for what Jesus Christ has done for them. Like overnight, after being an absolute waster, becoming a follower of Christ.
Remember Zacchaeus, that little man who climbed up the sycamore tree because he wanted to see Jesus? When Jesus came past, the Lord looked up, and He saw Zacchaeus. I don’t think He had ever seen him before in His life and He said, “Zacchaeus, I am coming to your house today to have lunch with you!” Zacchaeus must have gotten such a fright, he probably nearly fell out of the tree. He went and called all his friends, all the thieves, the prostitutes, all the tax-collectors, and they had a huge banquet, and Jesus was seated right in the middle of them.
But you see, what happened was, there was such repentance in that place that Zacchaeus got up and he said in the midst of all his friends, “Lord, if I have taken anything away from anyone, I will repay them four-fold, 400%.” Some of us think we are doing well because we give the Lord our tithes of 10%. This man who had been saved, this sick man, this sinner, who had been set free by Jesus Christ, said, “I will pay any man that I have taken anything away from, 400% in return." And what did Jesus say? He said, “Today, salvation has come to this house.”
We really need to understand what The Friend of sinners means. I love all the titles that are given to the Lord, make no mistake - The Alpha and the Omega: The Beginning and the End; The Bright Morning Star; The Lily of the Valley; The Great Ploughman; The Shepherd of the sheep; but the title that I love and brings tears to my eyes, more than any other is when He is known as The Friend of sinners.
Oh today, speak to Him. He wants to meet with you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 13th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Job 13:15. And Job says: (Even)
”Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
Unconditional surrender! It’s not a case of, “Lord, I will serve You if You give me that.” No, unconditional surrender! Then we go to the Book of Daniel and this is when the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was threatening Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego, and saying, “If you do not worship the god that I made out of gold, we will put you in a fiery furnace and this was their response in Daniel 3:18:
“But if not, (if the Lord will not rescue us)…”But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
Oh folks, that is boldness!
The Coptic Church in Egypt, those people are so in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, that they take it as a great honour if they die a martyr’s death. Remember those 22 Coptic Christians that were working in Libya, when they were caught by ISIS? They were marched down to the Mediterranean Sea in orange uniforms with one man behind each one of them in a black suit with a sword, and they were told to deny their faith in Jesus Christ, and they could live. Not one of them relented. Not one of them said, “Okay, I won’t, I will go back to Islam or whatever it was.” No - they said, “We love Jesus.” They weren’t bishops, they weren’t reverends or evangelists. They were working men. They died for their faith. When we get to Heaven, they will be sitting very close to the throne of Jesus Christ.
Then one of my favourites, an old father of the church, you have heard of him before - Polykarp. Polykarp, was the Bishop of Smyrna. He was 86 years old. They took him to the theatre where they were going to burn him at the stake and the soldiers who came to arrest him said, “Look, just deny the name of Christ and we will let you live old man, and you can live peacefully in your old age.” He said, “Never,” He said, ”For 86 years the Lord has never once failed me. How can I betray Him now?” And they took him to the Proconsul, who was the representative of Caesar of Rome, and the Proconsul said to him, “Do you know who I am?” He said, “Yes, I know exactly who you are. You are a son of the devil!” How is that for boldness? And they burned him at the stake.
I want to say to you today, you and I need to serve Jesus Christ unconditionally.
Jesus bless you, have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 12th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Acts 11:26:
“And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
Another translation says, “the anointed ones.” This means that if we say we are Christians, we belong to Jesus. Isn’t that beautiful, folks? He should mean everything to us. Believers - some of the early Christians were called “The men” or “The people of the way.”
There is a secret sign for the early Christians, because in Rome, when they were being hunted by the Romans, two Christians would meet each other in the street with a stick and they would draw a fish in the sand. And that was the sign to say, “I am a Christian.” We should be known by our fruit. Christians are full of love, the love of Jesus - power, patience, loving-kindness, faithfulness. By the way, there is no such thing as a secret agent Christian. Oh, folks, we have got to be a little bit more outspoken, hey? Romans 1:16:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”
What an honour to be called a follower of the most high God! It’s not something to be ashamed of. Oh, I love it if they say to you, “Are you one of those Christians?” Yes, I am indeed. You see, that is the name where the power lies! Folks, there is power in the name of Jesus Christ, power for healing. When I pray I don’t say, “In the name of God, be healed” - no, I say, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, be healed.” There is power in the name of Jesus.
The important thing about a name, if you take the Zulu people, I love what they do. Many of them will not name their child until he is maybe a few months old, because they want to look at him, study his personality, his character, and then they give him a name according to the way in which he looks and acts, and I think that is fair, and he normally lives up to his name. Mom, dad - be very careful when you give a name to your child. It has a tremendous significance.
So today, do not be ashamed to call yourself a follower of Christ, a child of the Lord Jesus Christ, because when He comes back, He will know you by your name.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious Name. It is 11th December 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day. We start with 2 Corinthians 12:10:
“For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
God’s way is different to the way of the world. With God’s way, we advance by going backwards. Oh yes, we become strong by becoming weak! We become wise by being fools. You know, the San Bushman call the Baobab Tree the Upside-down Tree. Why? Because in the winter, it loses all its leaves, and the branches look like their roots. So it seems as if its head is buried in the sand, and the roots are in the air - like it has been planted upside-down.
When we become children of the Lord, we don’t work according to the system of this world. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, was a foot-washer. He washed the feet of His disciples, remember? They were arguing about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God. What did He do? He went, got a towel and tied it around His waist. He got a basin full of water and started to wash their dirty feet because they had been arguing about who would sit next to the Lord in the Kingdom of God.
If we want to be good servants of the Lord, we must understand that we must take a backseat. We have to prefer our fellow man. That goes for our children and our parents. God will promote us when He sees fit, but until then, let us remain humble and work hard. Let us give all the glory to Jesus Christ and let Him be the One who promotes us. Remember, if you want to go forward or advance in the Kingdom, you must be prepared to go backwards.
Jesus bless you richly as you start to live according to the principles of our Lord and not the principles of this world, which is to stand on everybody until you get to the top. That never works, folks. Let’s do it God’s way, and He will promote us in His good time.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious Name. It is Tuesday morning, 10th December 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day. We go to Psalm 119:105:
”Your Word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”
My most precious possession on this earth is Jesus Christ in print. Yes, I’m talking about my Bible. You know, some scribes might know God’s Word better than me. Some may even be theology professors at a university, but unless they have met the author of this book, they are merely history teachers. You will rarely see a photo of me without me holding my Bible. Why? Because my Bible has Jesus in print. When somebody says to you,” Show me this Jesus you’re always talking about.” Give them the Bible.
I call it my Agricultural Manual, and I get criticism from many people. They say I’m making a mockery of God’s Holy Word. No, not at all, not at all, my friend! This book has instructed me how to farm for over fifty years. It teaches me to love my wife, respect my elders, and not antagonise my children. It teaches me to pay a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. It’s the book that comforts me when I am in distress. It’s the book that lightens up my life every morning when I open it and read it.
Oh, my dear friend, if you have never read this book, you have never lived. I want to tell you, according to John 1:1:
”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
I really want to encourage you to start reading your Bible in the first person. You see when I read the Bible, I make it very personal. Let’s take Psalm 23:1:
”The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
I read it differently: “The Lord is Angus’ shepherd, and Angus shall not want.”
Go out today with the book that changed the world. Start to read it - eat it, digest it, and enjoy it because the Lord is coming back very soon to take you and me home to glory forever. His Name is Jesus, the Author of the Bible.
God bless you, and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 9th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 2:5:
”When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
Determination! Those four friends of that paralysed man were determined at all costs to make sure that Jesus was able to pray for him. The crowd was immense. They couldn’t get anywhere near the front door. So what did they do? Yes, they made a plan. They climbed up onto the roof of the house, removed the tiles and let the paralysed man down with ropes and placed him right in front of the Master. You talk about persistence! There’s no ways they were going to let the Lord leave without praying for their dear friend. I looked up the meaning of the word, “determination”. This is what it says: “Persistence in continuing to do something even when it is difficult.” Now that event touched Jesus tremendously. So much so that Jesus healed the paralysed man immediately and forgave his sins.
I want to tell you the story of a determined young man. He lived in my house. He is a son of mine in the faith. He joined the elite Parabat Regiment, one of the elite regiments in the South African Defence Force. He was on his last event when he jumped out of an aeroplane with all the other soldiers and something went terribly wrong, some of the ropes of the parachute caught his fingers and amputated a couple of them. It was just before he was going to graduate and get his purple beret with his wings. But he did not give up. He went to the officers in charge and said to them, ”I want to do the course again.” This course is an extremely hard course. Many men don’t finish - and that young man did the whole course twice. You talk about determination! That’s the kind of man that I would like to go to war with. Oh, by the way, he’s now fully committed into God’s army.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Sunday morning, the 8th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in 1 Samuel 16:11:
”Then he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.”
What was his name? Oh yes, that was David, the Champion of Israel. When Samuel wanted to anoint the future king of Israel, Jesse called his oldest son in first, then the second one and then seven sons later, the prophet Samuel said, ”Do you have anymore sons?” “Oh yes, I have one. Right at the back looking after the sheep.” He said, ”Bring him.” Yes, he was the one!
Then we go straight to the gospel of Luke 14:11:
”For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
I read a beautiful reading this morning by a man named Thomas Champness, and this is what it says: “He who is willing to take the lowest place will always find sitting room. It won’t be crowded. There is no great crush for the worst places. There is nothing like the jostling at the back that there is at the front. So if we would be comfortable we shall do well to keep behind.” Isn’t that true?
No jostling for the back jobs, the jobs that are not seen or heard. No, all the jostling and the competition is in the front but I want to tell you, if you know Jesus Christ, you don’t have to jostle because He will take care of you. Psalm 37:4:
”Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
Don’t be in a rush young Lady. Don’t be in a rush young man. Spend time with God and your time will come. I used to love watching the Comrades Marathon, that long race, from Pietermaritzburg to Durban and then the next year from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. Two standard marathons, back to back, with an extra few kilometres - and that little blonde-headed man by the name of Bruce Fordyce. I used to study him. You know, when that gun went off it was very, very busy in the front, jostling, pushing - where was he? No, he was hanging in the back. You see, he knew what he had to do. He worked with a watch. He didn’t worry about the crowds and he won nine gold medals, eight of them consecutively, unheard of before.
Today, don’t be in a rush to always get to the front. Don’t be in a rush to always make yourself known or seen. God will promote you like he did with David.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Saturday morning, the 7th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Daniel 2:28:
“But there is a God in heaven…”
That is what Daniel was telling Nebuchadnezzar when he interpreted his complete dream for him.
Then we go to the Book of Acts 17:23:
“TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:..”
That was Paul, the Apostle, speaking to the academics in Athens, where they made an altar to the Unknown God. He said, “I know Him, oh yes, I know His name.” In this sad and fearful world people are desperately wanting to meet Him, just like Nebuchadnezzar, just like the wise men in Athens did, but they never knew His beautiful name, Jesus Christ. The Lord used Daniel to reveal God to Nebuchadnezzar, and God used Paul, the Apostle, to confound the academics of Athens and to tell them the name of the Unknown God.
What about you and I? We need to get out there folks, and we need to tell them. You know, there was a mighty man of God by the name of Sadhu Sundar Singh. He was a Sikh, a man who met Jesus Christ, and I want to read something to you out of this book: “I remember a story told to us and a conversation that this man had with a Professor of Comparative Religions in the University of Cambridge in England: “Tell me“ said the Professor, “What have you found in Christianity that you did not find in your old religion?” And the Sadhu replied, ”Oh Professor, I found the dear Lord Jesus.” ”Oh yes,” he said, ”I quite understand but what particular principle or doctrine, tell me what new philosophy in Christianity did you find that you did not find in your old religion?” And again the Sikh replied, ”Oh Professor, I found the dear Lord Jesus.” You see, his witness was to a person and not to a principle, to a life and not to a philosophy. Christ was real. Folks, go out today and make Him real to our dying world.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 6th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Daniel 2:19:
”Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven.”
Then we go straight to the Gospel of Mark 4:41:
”And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
- Jesus, speaking to the weather and calming the storm, a physical impossibility. Here at Shalom, we’ve got a favourite saying, and it goes like this: ”One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons.”
If you imagine Nebuchadnezzar telling his wise men, ”I want you to interpret a dream I had last night because I cannot sleep and I’m very anxious and fearful.” And they said to him, ”Well King, tell us what you dreamt and we’ll interpret it.” “No, no, no, no. You must tell me what I dreamt and then interpret it.” They said, ”There’s nobody on earth that can do that.” And the king started to kill the wise men, the sorcerers and the magicians, until the soldiers came to Daniel, Meshack, Shadrack and Abednigo. Daniel said, ”Give us time and we will interpret it.” Folks, you see, that’s a genuine miracle, and of course, we know that when Daniel interpreted the dream, everything changed.
I want to tell you a little story, a few years ago, I’m sure many of you in South Africa remember it, we had a prayer meeting in Bloemfontein, in the middle of our country. Our country was in dire straits. Over one million people arrived at that meeting, an open-air meeting. It was an incredible occasion. One of my sons brought his friend, a professional rugby player, an unbeliever, to the meeting and he told me afterwards that the young man was very impressed by the beautiful music. He was impressed by the massive crowd and he was interested in the message that I brought, but that didn’t change anything. Then out of the blue, a whirlwind started at the back of the crowd and it came right forward taking up into the air, blankets, deckchairs, cooler boxes, never to be seen again, and hovered over the stage for a while, in a perfectly calm day with not a breath of wind. This young man was so amazed by this event that he gave his life to Christ.
Today, let us not underestimate the miracle-working power of our God.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 5th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Mark 1:16-17:
”And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.” Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
I want to say to you this morning that possibly the least effective way of preaching the Gospel is through the pulpit or the platform. It’s ordinary working people like you who are making the difference in the kingdom of God.
I’ve just read the scripture, Simon Peter and Andrew, his brother, were fishermen, they weren’t preachers, they weren’t professors of theology. What about the farmer, Job? They say Job is probably the oldest book in the Bible. He was a farmer and if you’ve been through a rough time today, my dear friend, and you’re looking for some encouragement, read the Book of Job. Job lost everything but he did not deny the Lord. He said in Job 13:15:
”Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
And what happened at the end of his life? The Lord recovered everything for him and he had exactly twice as much as he had at the beginning.
David, the darling of Israel, the hero of the Jews, King David, he was a shepherd, he wasn’t a priest, and of course, our biggest and best example of all, our beloved Master, Jesus Christ. He was a tradesmen. He was a carpenter. For thirty years He was on the bench and then for three years, into ministry. What about the man who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, Paul. Paul was a tentmaker by trade. I want to say to you today, don’t despise small beginnings. Use what you’ve got.
Remember, Moses said to the Lord in the burning bush, ”What can I do, I’ve got nothing?” When the Lord said, ”Go and tell pharaoh to let my people go.”
The Lord said to him, ”What have you got in your hand?”
He said, ”I’ve got a stick, a staff.”
“Well, use it.” And the rest is history.
Today, don’t despise small beginnings. Don’t put yourself down. God uses anyone who will put up their hand today. Go out today and tell people what Jesus means to you because that’s what preaching actually is all about.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious Name! It is Wednesday morning, the 4th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Daniel 1:7:
”…he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-Nego.”
Then we go to John 1:42:
“Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).”
Lastly we go to the Book of Acts 13:9:
”Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit…” - the power in a name.
Now when the Name of Jesus is spoken there is either a riot or a revival. You know people have died for that Name, they have been burnt alive; they have been fed to the lions; they have been disowned by their families. Yes, it’s the Name above every other name on earth or in heaven. At the very mention of that Name blind eyes are opened, deaf ears unstopped, the dead have been raised, sins have been forgiven and brand new life is born.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says:
”Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
We need to be very careful when we choose a name for our newborn baby because that name has tremendous significance. Today folks, when you go out, mention the Name of Jesus. When people ask you: ”Who do you believe in?” Don’t say, ”I believe in God.” Because that is generic, God is whoever you presume him to be, he might be the trees that you are worshipping. When you say the Name Jesus, that’s when there is power in the Name. Oh, I love that Name so much. Treat that Name with the utmost care.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 3rd of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 1:46:
“And Mary said “My soul magnifies the Lord...”
We want to really pay tribute and give honour to our women folk today. Mothers, grannies, aunties, sisters, great-grandmothers - we want to say we love you and we appreciate you. Early this morning, I was in a prayer meeting with a group of men and the leader said, ”Today, we need to remember the women because they are so vital to us, all of them.” I really want to speak today about the greatest woman that has ever lived on the face of the earth. Yes, I’m talking about Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ.
Think about this, that God our Heavenly Father, must have looked all over the Earth to find a young maiden, a virgin, a young girl who had never, ever known a man, and to allow her to give birth to His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. What an incredible lady! He didn’t choose the Queen of Sheba, He didn’t choose the Empress of Rome, He didn’t choose any royalty. He chose a humble handmaiden, a young virgin from Nazareth by the name of Mary. No, she was not divine, she was an ordinary person, but God chose her to look after His son until He came of age.
If we look at verse 35 of that same chapter in Luke, we see that the Holy Spirit came upon her and the seed was planted in her. Yes, and His name was Emmanuel, which means, “God with us”. What a miracle! That is why you cannot believe in this book, the Bible, if you do not believe in miracles.
Now I just want to read what Mary said, this wonderful woman chosen by God.
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth (from now on) all generations will call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name.”Luke 1:46-49
Today, let us remember our mothers, our wives, our daughters. Let us remember women and treat them with great love and great respect and protect them.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 2nd of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 1:15:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Wow, what a beautiful, clean, crisp statement made by the greatest preacher who has ever walked on the face of the Earth. This is what He says, I’m talking about he Master Himself, Jesus Christ. He says the time is fulfilled. There’s no time to waste, my dear friend, we are coming to the end of another year. Don’t say next year, there might be no next year. The time is fulfilled. Number two: Jesus says He’s coming back soon. You better be ready for that. Aah, but He’s been saying that for 2000 years. My dear friend, maybe tonight your soul will be required of you by the Lord.
Jesus is coming back very soon. Therefore we need to repent. What does repent mean, young man, young lady? It means to say sorry and to stop doing it and start living a Godly life. Then the Lord says finally, “Believe in the gospel”. Stop arguing about it, stop trying to disprove it - just believe it. Believe it! Believe that it is the truth and that it is God’s Holy Word. That is what that scripture verse means.
Now I’m a preacher and I want to tell you something now, if you don’t strike oil within five minutes, stop boring! That great evangelist, George Whitfield said, ”If you don’t finish your message within 30 minutes, even the angels will start getting bored.” We need to get to the point. We need to tell people about the coming of the Lord.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 1st of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ezekiel 48:35, yes, I’m reading the last verse and this is what it says:
”…and the name of the city from that day shall be: THE LORD IS THERE.”
We’re talking about Jerusalem, but I want to ask a personal question today, my dear friend. Can people say that of our homes? When they come to our house, do they find love, do they find peace, do they find joy or are our homes places of argument, shouting, sarcasm? By the way, for the younger people, sarcasm means hurting or mocking someone. You see, it’s not the building, it’s the people who live there, that make the presence of God possible.
I can only use a very intimate example. The Mighty Men Conferences, where we meet, there is no building. They are wide open spaces where tens of thousands of men come to seek the Lord. I remember a story that makes me cry even now as I tell it to you. Many years ago, there were a group of men, three or four men that decided to come to Mighty Men and they asked their friend, ‘What are you doing this weekend?” And he said, ”Oh, I’ve got nothing to do. I’ll probably go to the pub and get drunk or something like that.” They said, ”Come with us.” He thought they were going on a fishing trip, but the Holy Spirit had other plans. They never told him where he was going they said, ”Just bring a rucksack and a sleeping bag.” Typical men, on the spur of the moment. They all got into this big vehicle and off they drove and when they drove into the gate of the farm, this man started to weep and they said, ”What’s wrong? Are you ok?” He said, ”Ja, I don’t know. I just feel the presence of God in this place,” never knowing where he was coming.
You see, it’s people that can make a place where the Lord can dwell. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. As we are approaching Christmas time, let us start to clean up our homes. No, I’m not talking about Mom or Dad or brother or sister, I’m talking about us individuals. Let it start in our own home. Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and if we get our act together, our homes will be places where people will come because they will sense the love and the peace and the joy of Jesus.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 30th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Luke 15:13:
“And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.”
I want to say to you today, we must not keep the eagle in a cage. You say, “What has that got to do with the Prodigal Son?” I will tell you in a minute. You know, in South Africa, we have a mighty, mighty eagle. He is called the Lammergeier. He lives on his own up in the far reaches, in those craggy mountain tops in the mighty Drakensberg Range of South Africa. He is called the bearded vulture. He is a solitary bird. He must have a wingspan of, I don’t know, maybe 2 metres. You can’t put him in a cage. If you put him in a cage he will die. He was never designed by God to be sitting in a cage and fed everyday. He needs to be released, he needs to catch the wind thermal to fly up into the high reaches of the mountain. He is a creation of God. We need to let him go, if we don’t he will die.
Now, I have just read the scripture of the Prodigal Son who came to his father. He said, “I want my portion of my inheritance.” His father didn’t say, “No, you can’t”. He let him go. He knew what was going to happen. I have a picture of that father sitting on the verandah, on the porch of his farmhouse with a long straight road going straight down to the gate, maybe half a kilometre, and every night that father sits there as the sun goes down and waits for his son to come back home, and his son just does not come home, but he doesn’t run after his son, he doesn’t try and put him in a cage. What does he do? He prays, and I am not just talking about men, I am talking about women too. We pray for them. We pray, night and day, and they will come back.
So what do we have to do? Pray and keep the door open, obviously on our conditions, and one day you will see somebody staggering through the gate, right as the sun goes down. The father stands up, he throws his hat off, he starts running down the road and he meets his son on the road, he meets his daughter and they start to weep, and from that day onwards, there is freedom. John 8:36:
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
The eagle will come back if you let it go. He will come back home. Folks, today continue to pray for that prodigal, and they will return.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 29th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 32:25:
”…,He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him., ”
Then we go down to verse 31
”…,the sun rose on him, (he had been wrestling with God all night) and he limped on his hip. Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip in the muscle that shrank.”
A touch from God, a touch from The Angel. Then we go to the 2 Corinthians 12:9. Jesus says:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
Maybe today as I am talking to you, you are saying, “Lord, where are You? Lord, You promised to heal me and I have not yet been healed.” Folks, I want to say to you that I have prayed for many people, I have seen many signs, wonders and miracles - many, but there are some people who God touches and He leaves them in that situation for a reason. I want to tell you that Jacob was a changed man from the day he started to walk with a limp. Always follow a man who walks with a limp. “Why?” you ask. Because that man understands the principles of life, that man has been through many trials. He is slow to speak, he is quick to listen, he is a man full of counsel, experience and wisdom. Remember Saul of Tarsus was very arrogant. He was on his way to kill the Christians in Damascus and the Lord knocked him off his horse and when he recovered he was stone blind. He never, I don’t believe, I might be wrong, he never fully regained his sight. You will see in many of the letters, he said, “Look, you see, I sign this letter with my own hand, in big hand writing.” He talks about eyes but I want to tell you that spiritually, Paul became a giant in the faith.
Do not be afraid when you get a touch from God because sometimes it is there to strengthen us spiritually. Trust the Lord for total healing, of course, but what is total healing? For me, total healing is to know Him more. The same Paul said, “Oh that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”
Today, let us not be afraid of the angel that will touch us because it will only bring us closer to God.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 28th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Psalms 1:3:
“He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.”
What a beautiful promise for the children of God from our Heavenly Father! Then just to confirm that we go to the Book of Ezekiel 47:12:
“They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
What a beautiful promise from Jesus Christ for you, my dear friend and for me, today. When I think of rivers of living water, I think of the mighty Victoria Falls, one of the wonders of the world. Maybe you have never had the privilege of being there. I want to describe something to you. I want you to think of Dr David Livingstone, the missionary, who was walking through the bush for days if not weeks - flat, dry land, no mountains, no valleys, just flat, with a lot of thorn bush. He must have woken up one day and as he was walking he saw a column of smoke going right out of the ground and into the sky. He must have seen it many, many miles away. As he got closer, he realised it wasn’t smoke, it was mist. It was coming from a river, the mighty Zambezi River, and then he saw the wonder of God, the Victoria Falls.
There is a depression in the ground. There is no mountain, there are no waterfalls, the river is running and it disappears into a crevice. The Africans call it Most-Oa-Tunya, The Smoke That Thunders. The ground literally trembles under your feet in the rainy season. You can hardly see anything with this beautiful water. There is a forest there, a green lush forest that looks like a tropical jungle, walking out of those dry wastelands. Now I want to say to you today, that is what Jesus is to you and I, but you need to be thirsty. He was very thirsty, I am thirsty and I am sure you are. That water brings healing to your body. It is a soothing feeling in your very innermost being. It is food, it is life, it’s cleansing, it’s restoring and it is for every season of life.
Today, put your feet in the beautiful, cool water and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will soothe you, refresh you and take away all your fears and all your doubts.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 27th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Joshua 24:15:
“…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,…”
Then we go straight to the New Testament, to the Gospel of Matthew 12:30. Jesus says:
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
I read a beautiful comment made by Mark Hopkins, he said: “Choice and service, these were demanded of the Israelites, these are demanded of you and I. These only, choice and service. In these, are the whole of life.” There is something very powerful about a public declaration, isn’t there, a public declaration of your faith and service towards God?
I remember my oldest son standing up the day he got married at the reception, and telling all the guests that, “Today, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” I have never forgotten that. It was many, many years ago. It cements things, doesn’t it? You know the Fiji Rugby Sevens Team, a beautiful sport to watch, these huge men from Fiji are so often the world champions but I know why, I really do! It’s because they are not ashamed to thank the Lord Jesus for their victory. Often I sit and I chuckle when I see the interviewer stretching out his arm with the mic to give it to the Fijian players, these huge men with the sweat pouring down their faces, some of them bleeding, cut by the match, they take hold of the mic - big mistake for the interviewer! And then they say, “We want to give God the glory! We want to thank Jesus for giving us the strength to be able to play rugby for Him.” And the interviewer is trying to rescue the mic back but he can’t get it back. And then they greet all their families back in Fiji and then they start to sing hymns, that’s right, they are not ashamed of the Gospel. And I believe that is where the power is.
Why don’t you and I do it today? Why don’t we tell the first person we meet today what Jesus Christ means to us.
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 26th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in 1 Kings 19:5:
“Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.”
That was Elijah in the desert and the Lord fed him through the angel. Then we go straight to the Book of Mark 1:13:
“And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.”
Oh my dear friend, nothing has changed, Jesus still wants to do it for you today! I don’t know what situation you are in. Still, He is telling you loudly and clearly, “If I can do it for my prophet, Elijah, feed him in the desert by using an angel, and if I can look after My Son, My beloved Son, for forty days and nights in the most extreme and hostile environment”. He can do it for you and for me!
I really do believe in angels. I want to tell you that Jesus is God made flesh, but He was very much man, and the experts will tell you, after three days the human body closes down if it doesn’t get water, and then forty days without food, any sort of food, is basically physically impossible. So how did it happen? Yes, our beloved Father sent His angels to minister to His Son in the desert to keep His Son from being attacked by wild beasts and by the lies of the devil. He never abandons His children, no matter how desperate the situation might be. I want to say to you today, I don’t know where you are at, but I want to tell you if you allow the angels to minister to you, they will take you on their wings through your situation and bring you out the other side.
George Müller is one of my heroes. Now, George Müller started the children’s homes in Bristol, England a couple of hundred years ago and what a man of faith! He had taken in a whole lot of street urchins, they were in this big boarding house and they had had their last meal that night. The next morning there was nothing to eat and yet when George Müller got up, he said to the children, “Lay the table...” They thought the old man had lost his marbles! “…and let us say our grace, “For what we are about to receive,…” There was a knock at the door. He said to one of the children, “Go and see who is at the door.” There was a dairyman who had been passing by with his wagon, to take his milk, cheese, butter, cream to town to sell and the trailer had broken down. He said, “Can you use this food?” They said, “Thank you”, closed the door and when they had sat down, there was another knock on the door. He opened the door and there was a baker with a red face, very embarrassed and he said, ”The Lord woke me up in the middle of the night and asked me to bake bread for you.”
Folks, I want to tell you, those were angels! Today, trust God for your angel.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 25th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Job 38:1-4:
"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
"Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.
"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"
We are not to question God, folks. We must remember who we are and we must remember who He is! I listened to the most beautiful song last night, sung by a young lady named Phillipa Hanna. It's called: 'You're still God', the words go something like this:
"When all foundations have been shaken
When I'm left standing in the dark
And all I feel is my heart breaking
You still reign, and You're still God
And when it feels all hope has faded
The heavy questions hit so hard
And though my soul may feel forsaken
You still reign and You're still God
Though I can't see what's before me
I know that I can trust Your heart
And this one truth will be my story
You still reign, and You're still God."
You know folks, I remember, like yesterday, my old dad came to stay with us for the last few years of his life because my mother passed away before him. He lived in the little cottage behind us, and then he took sick, and eventually, we had to put him in a home for the frail because my wife couldn't take care of him. He's just such a big man that she couldn't turn him over and handle him. I used to visit him every single day, sometimes twice a day. I'd go to town to get spares for fixing my tractors, and I'd pop in and see Dad. I was so close to him.
He became more than a father to me; in those senior years, he became my friend. One day, I came in, and he didn't look so good, and I said: "Dad, I'll see you this afternoon." I came back to the farm; in those days, we had the old party line - two shorts, one long, that was your call sign or one long and two shorts. Now, the young people with cell phones won't understand that. You had to pick that receiver up and crank that thing to get the operator to answer. We were all connected together.
When I returned to the farm, I walked up to my farm office. I had a telephone there and one down at our little house. As I walked in the door, I heard the phone ringing. I picked it up and didn't say anything; my wife Jill picked up the phone at the house. It was the old age home saying: "We just wanted to tell you, please give a message to Angus; his old dad has passed away and gone home to be with Jesus."
When all your foundations have been shaken, remember He is still God. You know, Job could say, right at the end in Job 13:15:
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."
Maybe you are there today. Lean hard on the Lord and He will take care of you because He knows all things and He has a plan for your life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 24th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of James 1:22:
”But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 27:58:
”This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.”
Yes, we are talking of Joseph of Arimathea, a very rich man. So often, rich people get condemned because they are rich, and I want to tell you something now, some of the most generous people I’ve ever met in my life are rich people, and they are rich because they are hard-working. It’s not a sin to be rich folks. The sin comes when we love money more than God. It’s the love of money that is the sin, not money itself.
Ephesians 2:8 says we have been saved by grace, through faith, and even that, not of ourselves, for it was a gift from God. I know better than anybody that I am saved by grace, there’s nothing good about me that will get me to Heaven. However, we must remember, that once we’ve had an encounter with the Lord, there must be fruit available. Joseph risked his very life asking for the body of Christ from Pontius Pilate. He exposed himself - he could have been killed for that but Pontius Pilate gave him the body of our beloved darling, Jesus Christ. He took that precious body, washed it clean, wrapped it in clean linen cloth and laid it in his own tomb, which he had dug out of solid rock. Remember, faith is a doing word. It’s not just talking, my dear friend.
I remember seeing a cartoon once in a Christian magazine which made me cry. There was a picture of a very big, overfed minister with a dog collar on, and he had a big black Bible in his hand, and with his other hand, he was pointing down at a small little child who was suffering from malnutrition. He also had a big stomach but it was because he was hungry. He was holding a little begging bowl in his hand and the caption under the cartoon said, ”Tell me preacher, will there be food in heaven?”
Today, go out and bless somebody who cannot repay you and you will be blessing God.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 23rd of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Jeremiah 18:4:
”And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.”
Then we go to the Gospel of John 12:24:
”Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
"Heaven will be filled with broken vessels, broken upon the wheel of earth." Campbell Morgan said it, and I think it is so true. Yes, we will be made into new creatures. There is no doubt about it but it’s men and women who have been broken on the wheel of earth, the potter’s wheel of earth, that will fill heaven. You see, it’s in dying that we live. Even as our beloved Christ was broken on the cross, so too we must be prepared to be broken. Maybe this morning you feel that your dream, your vision, has failed miserably. It’s all been a waste of time. Oh no, oh no! Take heart Christians, many of those who have gone before us must have felt exactly the same way. Get up now, dust yourself off and get back into the fight.
I want to give you an example, Jim Elliot, I think he must have been 29 years old, he must have felt the same way when he was being murdered in the Amazon jungle. What a waste - but I want to tell you folks that through his death and through his friend's death, thousands of young men and women have gone to the mission fields to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are still going even today. That same young man said, ”It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Today, you and I, let us keep on. You might feel broken, you might feel that you have disappointed others. Get up and keep going because heaven is filled with people who have been broken on the wheel of earth.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 22nd of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the last Book of the Bible, Revelation 22:12-13. This is Jesus speaking:
”And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
Then we go right down to verse 20 and the Lord says:
“Surely I am coming quickly.”
Oh, how many of us can say, “Lord, today would not be soon enough.” Jesus is our measuring staff. When we look at the chaos in the world today, we just see how things are disintegrating and we cry out, “Lord come, please come Lord. End these double standards, the dishonesty. Shatter the long nights of sin and of sorrow, of tears, of pain, despair and death.” We are to look up folks. Many of us are looking too low. We must look up because Jesus is coming back very soon. He who aims beneath the stars, aims too low. We must aim above the stars - we as followers of Christ. We’re not going back to Egypt. We’ve got no reverse gear in our motor cars. We are refusing to lower our standards for anyone. We are going to remain fearless and expectant for our soon-coming King.
One of the heroes of the early fathers of the church was Polycarp. Polycarp was a martyr, he died for his faith. He was the Bishop of Smyrna. He was 86 years old when they arrested him. The Roman soldiers that arrested him said, ”Listen old man, we don’t want to kill you. Just renounce the name of Jesus, follow after the gods of Rome and we’ll let you die in peace.” He said, ”No ways.” And so they took him to the arena and the crowds were waiting in anticipation to see a child of God be burned at the stake.
The Proconsul, the representative of Caesar, said to him, ”Do you know who I am? I have the power of life and death over you. Do you know who I am?” And the old gentleman said, ”Oh yes, I know who you are. You are the son of the devil!” Folks, we need some men like that who fear nothing but sin and desire no one but God.
Today, lift up your eyes. Get rid of all that sin in your life, and get ready for the coming of the King.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 21st of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Ephesians 4:15:
”…speaking the truth in love,…”
It is the truth that will set you and me free today. The truth cancels out all our mistakes. In other words, just own up and apologise and say sorry, and it sets us free. But as long as you and I continue to tell untruths - yes, that little white lie…there is no such thing as a white lie, we are held prisoner by the devil himself. You see, one lie leads to another lie. As they say, when you tell lies, you have to have a good memory because you have to remember what you said the last time, and slowly but surely, what happens is we get trapped in a spider’s web until we cannot escape. We need today to speak the truth in love.
That is what happened to Richard Nixon. He had the potential to be America’s greatest president. I mean, he made peace with China, he was a great diplomat. He had incredible natural abilities, but he told an untruth, he told a lie and then to cover that lie, he told another lie, then eventually he put his hand on the Bible and swore over the Bible that he had not made the mistake, and he was found out and it toppled him completely until he had to leave office.
Tell the truth today in love and Jesus Christ will back us up all the way and we will walk free because the devil will have no more hold over us. Folks, today Jesus Christ is saying to you and to me, ”Let us walk in honesty and the purity of God’s word.” And if we do make a mistake, and by the way, every single one of us have - Peter made three mistakes, he denied the Lord three times, he didn’t know him when he knew him very well, but he repented, he said sorry and what did Jesus do? He forgave him and used him to head up the church.
Today, let’s walk in truth and let’s be free. The Lord shall set you free - you shall be free indeed.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 20th of November, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 10:19. The word of God says:
“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
Then we go to Matthew 27:14:
“But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.”
Now the Message translation says: “Do you hear that long list of accusations? Aren’t you going to say something?” Jesus kept silence—not a word from His mouth. The governor was impressed, really impressed.”
We need to watch what we say. We need to make sure that our words are sweet because one day we might have to eat them! The longer you speak, the more you dilute your point. Speak less, listen more and we will become mighty wiser people. Mom, those children don’t listen to you maybe because you talk too much all the time. Let your words be shorter and to the point.
I love the story of Sir Winston Churchill, the famous British Prime Minister, the “bulldog of Britain”. He went to Harrow School in 1941, in the middle of the Second World War and all the students were there, probably hanging on each word he was going to say. One of the greatest speakers ever to live, got up, walked up to the podium, looked at those young men and said, “Never, never, never give up!” And then he went and sat down. That was it. Do you know that that speech is the shortest speech he ever made, yet everybody knows it.
Today, be like Jesus. Let your words be few but let each one count.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 19th of November 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 23:3:
”Then Pilate asked Him, saying, “Are You the King of the Jews?” He answered him and said, “It is as you say.”
Jesus Christ is the King of all Kings. Hallelujah. He’s the Lord of Lords. He’s the Lily of the Valley. He’s the Bright Morning Star. He’s the friend of sinners like you and I. Folks, I want to say to you that every single creature that has ever existed in Heaven and on Earth knows in their heart, that Jesus Christ is Lord of all. Philippians 2:10-11 says every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Everyone knows this. You say, “How come?” Because God has put eternity into the heart of a man.
You can go to the Amazon jungle, you can go to the Congo jungle, you can go to the Artic Circle, and you can meet people who have never ever heard the name of Jesus and you can ask them, ”Is there a God?” And they will say, ”There is. There is a higher power”. They just don’t know His name because you and I haven’t told them, but they know that there is a creator! Albert Einstein regarded as one of the most brilliant men that ever lived, acknowledged that there is a God. This creation couldn’t have happened with a Big Bang. It is created.
I want to ask you a question, ”Do you know Him today, sir? Do you know that Jesus Christ is God in flesh? Immanuel, God with us?” I want to suggest to you, stop arguing with God and start believing. Do you know that there is more evidence that Jesus Christ walked on this earth than there is that Julius Caesar was the Emperor of Rome. Yet no-one questions the fact that Julias Caesar was the Emperor of Rome. Yet we are always questioning whether Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God. You know, Pontius Pilate asked Him, he said, ”Are you the King of the Jews?” He said, ”Yes, it is as you say.” Oh, my dear friend. I want to pray with you this morning.
Father,
This man, this woman, who is listening to this message this morning, they continue to doubt Your sovereignty. Please forgive them.
Pray this prayer after me:
I confess that I have doubted God but today,
I choose by faith, to believe that Jesus Christ is the soon-coming King.
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 18th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 42:3:
”A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth.”
Folks, I want to say to you that the Lord will establish justice on the earth. “Gentle Jesus meek and mild” - that was a children’s hymn that was written in 1745. It goes like this:
Gentle Jesus meek and mild,
Look upon a little child,
Pity my simplicity,
And suffer me to come to thee.
They say in the early days that instructing little children to memorise and sing hymns was the most important way to keep truth in their little minds. I want to speak to you about the gentlest person who ever walked on the face of the earth. Yes, His name was our beloved Jesus. You say, ”What was His character like?” Well, let me give you an example. You know He was the one that was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, and you can read it in John 18:8, and yet what did He say, He said, ”Let these go their way,” the disciples, ”I’m the one that you want.” Isn’t that beautiful?
He was the one, when He was hanging on a cross, where spikes had been driven through His hands and through His feet and a crown of thorns rammed upon His head and blood pouring down His face, He could say, ”Forgive them for they do not know what they do.” Oh yes, this is the gentle Jesus I’m talking about. He’s the one who could tell Peter that he will see Him in Galilee. Why didn’t He say that to all the others? No, because Peter was the one who had denied Him no less than three times, but He still loved him.
He’s the one who, when He was hanging on the cross, looked down and saw the disciple John and He said, ”John look after my mother.” And then He looked at His mother and He said, ”Mom, look after my brother” - so gentle. Gentle means mild and kind. Moderate, not harsh or severe but kind, tender, understanding. Talk to Him today, He’s waiting for you. He says to you and I, ”I have come to give you life abundantly.” John 10:10.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day with gentle Jesus,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 17th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Psalm 65:3:
“Iniquities prevail against me; As for our transgressions, You will provide atonement for them.”
Beautiful! In the Amplified Version it says:
“Wickedness and guilt prevail against me; Yet as for our transgressions,You forgive them [removing them from Your sight].”
Oh beautiful! Then 1 John 1:9:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Isn’t that beautiful? Jesus provides a way of escape, a way out. Not only does He forgive us of our sins, but He also forgets our sin! When you go to the Lord and you say, “Lord, remember that thing that I did last week?” He says, “No, I don’t remember. When He forgives, He forgets, not like us - when the going gets tough we say to that person, “Remember what you did to me at that other time?” God never says that. That is why I love Him so very much.
Romans 8:1 (Amplified Version):
“Therefore there is now no condemnation [no guilty verdict, no punishment] for those who are in Christ Jesus [who believe in Him as personal Lord and Saviour].”
Isn’t that beautiful? No fishing - okay, there is a big pool there, you want to go fishing - no! There is a sign up there that says, “No fishing!” When God forgives, it is done, therefore go, sin no more. It is like getting all those accounts at the end of the month. You don’t know how you are going to pay them, you start opening these accounts and there is a big stamp, right across those accounts, “Paid”, “Paid”, “Paid in Full” - “Paid By The Blood of Jesus Christ which was shed on the Cross of Calvary for you and for I.”
Go therefore today, knowing that your sins are forgiven and the Master says, “Go and sin no more.”
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 16th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 10:30-31. Jesus says:
“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Our God is the God of infinite detail - do you know that He even knows how many hairs are on our heads!? Ask your hairdresser the next time you get your hair done, if she can just quickly count the hairs on your head. She will never do it, will she? I can hear somebody saying this morning, ”But nobody cares about me, Angus. I don’t have a friend in the world. If I was to die today, no-one would even notice.” That is not true. He cares for you. He loves you so very much that He died in your place. John 15:13:
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
Do you know that Jesus Christ knows you by name? When you die and you go to Heaven, yes, there will be huge crowds there, tens of thousands, millions, and yet He will be there to welcome you home!
I don’t know if you have ever travelled overseas to an international airport. I am just thinking of Atlanta Airport in the United States of America. You get off that aeroplane, folks, I am telling you, especially for a country boy like me, a farmer, you don’t know where you are. When you go through customs and immigration, you are faced with escalators going up, escalators going down, and signs everywhere. You follow the signs, you go down underground and the next thing, a huge train! The doors open, people go in, people go out and you just say, “Lord, please help me!” It’s quite an experience but I want to tell you, when you get home to Heaven, there is going to be a personal welcome for you. Jesus is not going to send one of His soldiers, one of His disciples, no, no, He promised you, He is coming Himself. He is going to say to you, “Welcome home Peter!”, “Welcome home Jenny, Lindy, Johnny, Patricia!” Let’s not disappoint our Lord Jesus when we arrive at home and we don’t know who He is, because I am telling you He has got a huge banquet waiting for you in Paradise.
In John 14:3, He says,
“I am going ahead to prepare a place for you and then I am coming back to fetch you."
Today, just rejoice as the Lord not only knows you, He loves you and He created you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 15th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 2 Corinthians 1:22, and I’m going to read it out of the Amplified version:
”…it is He who has also put His seal on us [that is, He has appropriated us and certified us as His] and has given us the [Holy] Spirit in our hearts as a pledge [like a security deposit to guarantee the fulfillment of His promise of eternal life].”
Oh beautiful, a security deposit to prove His promise of eternal life. He’s given us His Holy Spirit. Jesus has put His seal upon us. Certified us as His alone. Isn’t that beautiful? He has stamped us with His seal of love over our hearts, like you put an engagement ring on your fiancé’s finger. “She is mine”. Stamped us with His eternal pledge, His eternal promise. We are guaranteed that by His promise, we are His forever. That seal can be seen by everyone, a lifetime guarantee. Isn’t that beautiful?
We were in Israel maybe just over a year ago now and one of our meetings was at King David’s Tower that he built in the Old City, a most beautiful place. We had a wonderful service with all our pilgrims, over 300 of us. At the completion of the service, we were just closing up, a young man came up to me in tears and he said, ”Angus, I feel convicted.” Oom Angus, he called me. “I feel convicted by the Holy Spirit. I need to marry my girlfriend. We have being going out for a couple of years.” I thought she was in South Africa. I said, ”Where is she?” He said,” She’s here, she’s part of the group.” I said, ”Bring her up here.” I called them up onto the platform and he pledged his seal upon her. He got on his knees in tears, she was in tears, we were all in tears, and I married them right there in David’s Tower in the Old City of Jerusalem in Israel, with much rejoicing! He put his pledge upon her, gave her his ring. They were man and wife. God blessed them and you know something, just a month ago, they gave birth to their first child. A beautiful baby boy, I’ve seen the photos. A happy mother, a proud father and take a guess what? They have named him David.
Allow Jesus to put His seal upon you too.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 14th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start with the most well-known scripture in the whole Bible. John 3:16. We all know it, say it with me:
”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
I want to speak to you today about the greatest miracle that has ever happened in the world. Now, when it comes to miracles, St. Augustine said, ”Miracles are not in contradiction to nature. They are only in contradiction with what we know of nature.” I really like that. Be careful folks, that we don’t get too clever and try to explain everything. You can’t explain a miracle.
I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “miracle”. This is what it says: “A welcome event that is so extraordinary it is thought to be the work of God or a saint. It is amazing, astounding, remarkable, extraordinary, incredible, unbelievable, sensational and phenomenal.”
Now, the greatest miracle of all is Christmas. We are in the Christmas season, Immanuel - It means God with us. Now seven hundred years before Jesus was born, Isaiah 7:14, tells us about the virgin birth of Jesus. A virgin is a woman who has never slept with a man, and the Bible tells us in Isaiah, seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, that a young maiden will become pregnant with a baby, without knowing a man, and that baby’s name will be Jesus and we can see confirmation of that in Matthew 1:23.
I want to sat to you today my dear friend, if you cannot believe in miracles you cannot believe the Bible. The Bible is one miracle. The Gospel of John 1:1:
”In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
When an atheist says to you they don’t believe in God and you ask them, ”Well how did everything come into being?” And they will say to you, ”With a Big Bang.” Then you need to ask them, ”Who made the big bang?” It was God.
In the beginning was the Word and you’ll find that your strength will be built up if you believe Romans 10:17:
”So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
Jesus bless you at this Christmas season,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 13th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Kings 6:17.
"Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. ”Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
Then we go to Genesis 33:1:
“Now Jacob lifted his eyes and looked, and there, Esau was coming, and with him were four hundred men.”
We need to open our spiritual eyes and we also need to always remember, if we are followers of Jesus Christ there are always more who are for us than those who are against us.
F B Meyer was a great preacher and he said, “Do not lift up your eyes and look for Esau’s. Those who look for troubles will not be long without finding trouble to look at. Lift them higher to Him from whom our help comes, then you will be able to meet your troubles with an unperturbed spirit. Those who have seen the face of God need not fear the face of man that shall die. To have power with God is to have power over all the evils that threaten us." Isn’t that a beautiful promise? You know, the very thing you are afraid of might never take place.
Now we go back to the story of Jacob and Esau. You see, Jacob had been very unkind to Esau, he had cheated Esau of his inheritance, and there comes his brother Esau with 400 men. Jacob thought it was payback time, he was petrified, he put his family behind him and he thought, “Well, here we go!” And what happened? Esau ran over to him and hugged him and loved him. The very thing that he was afraid of was actually nothing to be afraid of because his brother was coming to love him. Maybe today there is something in your life which is really making you so fearful. I want to suggest to you, lift up your eyes a bit higher, just like Elijah’s servant. Elijah prayed, “Lord, open his eyes and let him see that there are more who are for us than those against us - chariots of fire all around the mountain! I want to tell you, if God is on your side - you have got nothing to fear!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 12th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Judges 7:7:
”Then the Lord said to Gideon, “By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you,…”
Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 26:56:
”Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.”
Have you ever felt deserted? Oh well, go to Jesus, He understands. Have you ever felt that everybody’s left you. Go to Jesus, He understands. I don’t think there’s anything more ugly than self-preservation. It can be such a terrible thing, and that’s what happened. All the disciples fled and left the Master on His own when He needed them the most. Peter followed Him at a distance. You can read that in verse 58. What about Gideon? He started with 32,000 fighting men. He ended up with 300 men.
I believe the Lord is saying to you and me this morning that it’s not about man’s approval. It’s about the vision which God has given to you and I to perform. You see, Jesus was sent by His Heavenly Father on a mission, to save the world from it’s sin, and nothing was going to stand in His way. Irrespective if no one was going with Him, He was still going. If we are depending on man’s support, if we are depending on man’s approval, we will be sorely disappointed.
James Hudson Taylor took the Gospel to China. He went alone. He had no support. There was no big organisation paying his way. I want to tell you the biggest revival in the world today is happening in the underground church, that’s right. China is not supporting Christianity. Something like 60 million believing Christians and counting. One man - he had no support but God gave him a vision.
What about William Carey? William Carey went to the board, he said, ”I believe we need to go and take the Gospel to India.” Some of the long grey beards stood up and said, ”Listen, if India needs to be saved, God will do it. He doesn’t need you.” Can you believe it? That didn’t stop William Carey. He went to India. He translated the Bible from English into all the major Indian languages - a man that was on a mission.
Make sure today that you have a clear word from God for whatever mission you want to accomplish and then go for it.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 11th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 26:52:
”But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”
We must put away the sword. Jesus says if we refuse to put away that sword, we will die by that sword. This morning, the Lord spoke so clearly into my heart while I was preparing. This message is very important, my dear friend. I’m not talking about the war between Ukraine and Russia, the war between Israel and Iran. Although we are praying about all those situations. I’m talking about the war at home. I’m talking about the war in your marriage. The Lord says, ”Put away the sword.” You see, it takes two to have a sword fight, you can’t fight by yourself. Put the sword away. It might save your marriage.
Your children, you are continually fighting with your children. Put the sword away. Your business partner, it’s going to blow up and it’s going to destroy your business, which is doing so well at the moment because you just can’t get on together. Put the sword away!
Now I can hear you say to me, ”But Angus, how can we do that? I’ve got my rights.” Well, if you are a child of God you don’t have any rights. You surrendered your rights the day that you gave your life to Christ. You see the Lord said to Peter, He said, ”I can call down a legion of angels,” He said, “They can literally obliterate these soldiers, but I haven’t.”
I want to say to you, try prayer. Yes, try praying, not necessary out loud but in your heart before you say something. Try a gentle answer. The Bible says it will defuse an explosion. Try tears - yes, compassion - see where the other person is coming from and weep for them if necessary. Try sitting down and having a nice cup of tea with that person. Let’s just talk and pray about this thing. You’ll get up feeling much better.
Do not throw everything you have worked for, do not throw it away in a moment of anger by striking the servant’s ear off like Peter did. It achieves absolutely nothing.
Jesus bless you as you put the sword away,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 10th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to 1 Peter 5:5:
“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
I read a beautiful little reading this morning in my quiet time by a man by the name of Thomas Champness, and it goes like this: “Is it not one of the great difficulties of church work that we have more officers than men?” How true is that? “We need more of the rank and file who are willing to march anywhere and to do the lowliest of tasks. We shall succeed in doing greater things when all are willing to be subjects. It is the bayonet rather than the gold braid which is needed when the enemy is to be subdued. “
You know, Count Zinzendorf was the founder of the Moravian Movement, an incredible missionary movement, and John Wesley, the great English preacher, who by the way, had a Master of Theology degree from Oxford University. He wanted to learn more and went across to Germany, to Count Zinzendorf’s farm, hoping to be taught, and you know what Count Zinzendorf did? He put Wesley to work in his garden. Wesley was most put out and he stayed there for a long time. Humility is what we need in the Kingdom of God.
William Duma, that wonderful Zulu preacher, was invited to Zambia in the early days. He was to preach at a conventional Baptist Church where you come in at the back and walk down the aisle to the pulpit in the front. 9 o’clock arrived and there was no preacher and they were looking everywhere, and the pastor thought, “I better pull out a sermon because he is not coming.” Then they heard a little knock. It was at the backdoor where the servant comes in on a Monday morning to sweep out the church and the pastor went through the curtain to the back, opened the door and there was the man of God. Humility!
Of course, the greatest example of all is our beloved Saviour, Jesus Christ, who was a foot-washer. Let’s be feet washers today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 9th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Ezekiel 37:3;
”And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.”
Then we go to John 5:21, and Jesus says;
”For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.”
Amazing Grace! Jesus doesn’t do a patch up job. Oh no. He does a brand new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17, one of my favourite scripture verses in the whole Bible, and I’m going to read it out of the New King James Version for you:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
What a beautiful promise! The old life is gone, the old order has vanished, we are new creations in Christ Jesus. Now remember, if Jesus can save a detestable slave ship captain like John Newton, then He can save a wretch like you and one like me. Probably the most famous hymn ever written is Amazing Grace. Do you know what grace means? It means undeserved loving kindness, unmerited favour. We don’t deserve it but because He loves us, He’s taken that bag of bones and He’s made us into new people. It’s worth singing about. Shall we sing that beautiful hymn together? Amazing Grace. This is how it goes:
Amazing grace, How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 8th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 8:9:
“And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.”
Alone with Jesus, what a special time of the day! It must become your most privileged time of the day, a time never to be neglected, my dear friend. Maybe we feel a little nervous or shy being alone with Jesus, a bit like when you went out on your first date. Can you remember that? When you had to get all dressed up smartly to try and impress that young lady or that young lady putting on her best dress and asking her mom, ”Do I look all right because he’s coming to fetch me in a few moment's time.”
Aah, but when you’ve spent many years and you’re married and you’ve got children and maybe even grandchildren, aah, it is so beautiful to know each other, to be in each other’s presence, and so it is when you’ve walked with the Master for many years. You can’t wait to be with Him in the early morning before the noise and the distractions of this world take away your attention from the lover of your soul. Do not waste precious time. Savour these moments because they might even save your life. He is gentle to your troubled soul. He will give you clear direction and even confidence and peace in your heart before you have to face the day.
You say, ”But I get very busy and I don’t have a time to spend with the Lord.“ Oh, you need to get up earlier in the morning, my dear friend. Yes, that is one appointment you must never neglect. That is the very appointment that could save your life. You see, Jesus was left alone standing with that woman. She was the woman that the Pharisees accused of being an adulterer but Jesus said, ”Woman, where are your accusers?” And she said, ”No one Lord.” And he said, ”Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
That’s what the Lord wants to do for you and I today. He wants to sit with us alone, He wants to encourage us, He wants to love us, He wants to direct us. He’s a friend that sticks closer than a brother. He’s not the accuser, the accuser is the devil.
Early in the morning, spend time alone with Jesus. It will change your life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the of 7th November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 64:4:
”For since the beginning of the world Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, Nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him.”
Did you hear that, “Who acts for the one who waits for Him.” Then we go to the 1 Corinthians 2:9-10:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”
The only qualification required to succeed in this life is very simple. It is to love Him. That’s all. It’s not a doctorate in university. It’s not a fancy degree. No, it is just to love Him. The Lord says eye hasn’t seen, ear hasn’t heard, nor has entered into the heart of a man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
That little boy with the two sardines and the five small barley loaves of bread, he loved Jesus. Jesus said, ”Has anybody got any food around here?” And he said, ”Yes, I have.” And he took his little lunchbox that his mother had made for him, enough for one little boy to eat. He gave it to Jesus and what did He do? He fed five thousand people. Today, God wants to use you.
When Moses met with the Lord at the burning bush and the Lord said, ”Go and set my people free.” He said, ”I’ve got nothing, what can I use” He said, ”What have you got in your hand?” He said, ”A stick.” He said, ”Good, use it.” He became probably the greatest leader in the history of the world. He took a whole nation through the desert for forty years and delivered them right to the edge of the River Jordan and then the Lord allowed Joshua to take them across. Today the Lord is speaking into your heart. My dear friend, pick yourself up. Understand that there is nothing too hard for those who would choose to love the Lord.
I’ve been doing a bit of research. I’ve been looking at ten of the wealthiest Christians in the world, and you’ll be surprised how they started. There’s a man in Scotland, his name is Robert Todd. He’s a strawberry farmer. He read a book called, ”Faith like Potatoes." He decided to close his shop on Sundays. He had a massive farm store. His employees said, ”You’ll go bankrupt.” He said, ”No, on the Sabbath, I’m going to rest.” You know something? His turnover doubled.
Today, open your heart to Jesus and let Him use you for the furtherance of His kingdom.
God bless you, goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 6th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ezekiel 36:26:
”I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
Then we go to 2 Corinthians 5:17, a very well known scripture, one of my favourites, and this is what it says:
”Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
A new heart! You know, fifty-two years ago, on the 3rd of December, 1967, the first heart transplant was performed by Dr Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town. The whole world was ecstatic. A man who was dying of heart failure, his old heart was taken out of him, and someone else who had donated their heart was put into this man and he lived. I want to tell you, today that’s still the greatest miracle of all, the most beautiful thing to see is someone who has had a change of heart, where the Lord Jesus Christ has performed spiritual surgery in a man’s heart.
I love the story of Zacchaeus, that little short man who climbed up the wild fig tree, the sycamore tree to see Jesus coming into Jericho. Jesus looked up into the tree and said, ”Zacchaeus I’m coming to your house today. I’m coming to have a meal with you.” Zacchaeus was overwhelmed. You see, he was a bad man, folks. He was a thief, he even stole from his own people. He was a tax collector. He called all the other tax collectors together. They came to Zacchaeus’ house and what happened? There was a heart transplant. A heart transplant took place in that feast. Zacchaeus found Jesus Christ. His heart was changed. He said, “If I’ve stolen anything from anyone, I will give them back four-fold, that’s four hundred per cent of anything that I’ve stolen from anyone.” That is a completely new man!
What about Saul of Tarsus, Paul? From being an arch-enemy of Christianity, he became its greatest ambassador. On the road to Damascus, he was knocked off his horse in the middle of the day and Jesus said, ”Why are you persecuting me?” He said, ”Who are You, Lord?” He said, ”I am Jesus.” A heart transplant took place at that moment on that road and that man became one of Christianity’s greatest ambassadors.
Today, open your heart, let the Lord take out that heart of stone and put in a brand new heart of flesh.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 5th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Peter 1:16 and I am reading this out of the Amplified Version:
“…because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY (set apart), FOR I AM HOLY,” “Isn’t that beautiful? “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”
In bold italics, in capital letters - our God is a holy God and He says today that you and I must be holy, even as He is holy. We must have a deep respect for the Lord. That is what the word, “reverence” means - a deep respect for God. Oh folks, He is not our mate, He is not the man upstairs, He is not my buddy, He is God and we need to appreciate that and He expects us to live like He does. We cannot have one foot in the world and another foot in the Kingdom. He says very clearly in Matthew 12:30:
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
We cannot serve God and mammon. We need to live a holy life. You know that people have died for their faith just because they will not deny that name. They have had their heads cut off. They have been told, “Deny that name, Jesus Christ and we will let you live. They say, “We can’t and we won’t”, and they die. They have been burnt at the stake, they have died terrible deaths because they will not deny the name of Christ. Do not use that name cheaply. Oh folks, it is a beautiful name, it is the most beautiful name that I have ever heard in my life.
Holiness is the end product of obedience. That is what holiness means. When we are obedient people then we are holy. You see, there is power in that name, there is healing in that name, there is forgiveness in that name, there is peace in that name. When people are dying and they hear that name, Jesus Christ, it gives them peace and absolute joy. There is hope in that name and most of all, there is salvation in that name. At that name, the Bible says, “Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess.”
Today, let's go out and let's use that name very carefully, and let us magnify Him.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 4th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Hebrews 13:8:
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
The Lord is looking for consistency. This is what the world is desperately looking for and they can’t find it. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary, to find out the literal meaning of the word, “consistent”. It means, “always behaving in the same way.” It means, “unchanging, steady, stable.” This young man, is what a young girl always looks for and this is what the employer always looks for in his employees, trustworthy, consistent people, and by the way, that is absolute character of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know folks, this world is so up and down at the moment, isn’t it? It is like a yoyo, it is like a roller-coaster. One minute you are up in the sky and the next minute, you are down in the dumps. You can’t live like that. This frantic, desperate world is looking for stability and dependable people and situations, something that they can trust. Well, I want to tell you about my best friend, my most trustworthy friend, yes - I am talking about my Bible, I am indeed. The other day I was in the shops and a young girl came up to me and she said, “I see that big red Bible of yours. It looks so big, why is that?” I said, “So I can read it easier.” You see, you can’t change the Bible. No, it has been there from the beginning of time. You can’t upgrade it, no. It doesn’t tell lies, that’s for sure. It cannot be persuaded this way or that way. It has all the answers that we need. It doesn’t tell lies.
Matthew 5:18 says very clearly,
“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
Jesus is so steadfast. Today, consult Him. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes and He is there for you. He loves you. Call upon Him, spend time with Him. Read Him, He is the Word and He loves you so much.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 3rd of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 14:11:
“And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.”
We are talking about Judas Iscariot who betrayed the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. You know, folks, when you are betrayed by someone you don’t regard very much, it is painful, but it is not that painful, you kind of expect it, but when you are betrayed by someone who trusts you - and Judas was entrusted by Jesus to look after the money bag. He was from the inner circle. He was one of the twelve.
That is why divorce is such a painful thing. When people don’t regard you very much then it is not so hurtful, is it? But I want to tell you something now - when it is someone you love and you trust, then it is extremely painful. You know, when Judas Iscariot took the soldiers of the high priest into the Garden of Gethsemane in the darkness of night and betrayed the Master, he walked up to Jesus and he kissed Him. Folks, so painful, very painful! Maybe you are there today. Maybe someone has really hurt you and let you down. You need to stand because Jesus will never betray you.
Do you remember that movie, The Cross and the Switchblade? There was a book written as well about that skinny preacher, David Wilkerson, who had a heart for the gangs in downtown New York. The leader of one of the main gangs was a man by the name of Nicky Cruz. He was the leader of the Mau Mau Gang, a fierce gang. His own mother called him “the son of satan.” He was an evil young man but he came to Christ. David Wilkerson preached the Gospel and he accepted Jesus, and one night he was tested. They had had a meeting in a movie house, or some place like that, and they took the collection and they asked Nicky Cruz to take the collection. Some of David Wilkerson’s men said, “Don’t let him do that. Don’t trust him with that money.”
David Wilkerson allowed him to take the collection. He went right down the aisles and then he had to go up onto the stage, behind the curtain and there was a door, an open door there. He could have run away with all the money, and then he had to come around the curtain and down the other side of the steps to collect the money on the other side, but he didn’t run away. He carried on. That man has become one of the greatest evangelists of the modern era.
Let’s not betray Jesus today by selling Him for 30 pieces of silver. Let’s be bold and stand up and say, “Yes, I am a follower of Jesus Christ.” Let us not turn our backs on Him. He has promised you and me in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you and I will never forsake you.”
He won’t betray you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Saturday morning. The 2nd of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Ezekiel 34:11:
“For thus says the Lord God: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out.”
Then we go straight to the Gospel of John 10:11:
”I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
Beautiful scriptures!
The Good Shepherd, He will search for them and He will find them and He will save them because they belong to Him. They do not belong to you or to me. I’m speaking particularly here now to mothers and to fathers, and maybe you’ve got a son or daughter who has gone into the far country, a prodigal child that is rebellious, that is not listening, that does not want to have anything to do with the Lord, and they’ve gone into a foreign place. The Lord is reminding you today, mother and father, just pray for that child.
Maybe it's young people, and they are worried about their parents. Their parents are digging their heels in and they will not bow the knee to Jesus, and you can see that hometime is close for them and you are desperate for their salvation. The Lord says, “They are my sheep and I will find them and I will save them.”
What do we have to do? We have to pray, and we have to take our grubby fingers off because sometimes we mess up so badly. Maybe there’s a lady who is so desperate for her husband to come to Christ and she’s leaving those magazines on the coffee table, and she’s sending messages to him on the telephone, on the cell phone, maybe even my message. The Lord says, “Lay off.” You need to pray for him. Maybe it’s a wife that's rebellious - you need to pray for her and let God take care of His sheep because they are actually His creation and He paid the ultimate price for their lives.
It’s like when I was actively cattle farming, my sons are doing it now, we would have a large herd of cows in the mountains and we would be bringing them home because they were starting to calf down, they were starting to have babies, but there would be one calf and we just could not find it. We had been out on the horses looking in the krantzes, valleys, and forests; we cannot find that calf. We have had our workers walking over the fields looking for them. We cannot find that calf. Then what do we do, we bring the whole herd back home, and we take the mother of that calf, on her own and we let her go into the forests, into the fields and the next morning we go out and there she is suckling that beautiful baby calf.
Oh friends, I’ve seen it before, a mother at a creche, a whole lot of little children all shouting and playing and her little baby falls and hurts itself and starts to cry. She recognises that voice above all the other children and she goes straight to that baby.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He will save your loved one.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Friday morning. The 1st of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the book of John, the Gospel of John 13:14:
”If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
It's the little things that count. If you look at Matthew 25:40, the Bible says:
”And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
It’s the little things in life that really count, isn't it? You know, that cup of cold water for somebody that's thirsty, Matthew 10:42, doing something for someone who cannot repay you. I think of all the nurses in the hospitals and the doctors. We salute you. We really do. We love you. When I go into a hospital and I see the love that these nurses and doctors give to people that they don't even know, it touches my heart deeply. When I see a policeman trying to help someone who has been hurt, it touches me deeply.
The people that have really impacted my life and the situations, are not the big massive splitting of the Red Sea, walking on the water, calling fire down from heaven. No. The things that have really impacted me is like old Uncle Jimmy, who stayed on our farm with his dear wife Moira for many, many years. He wasn't very well. He'd had TB that he got in the Royal Navy in the Second World War. He had a very weak chest. He didn't sleep much at night, spent most of the night on his knees praying. Jimmy would come down every morning to the farm with a little piece of paper and a scripture verse for me, touched me deeply. I miss him a lot. Old Aunty Peggy, she came and she stayed with us. She told her family on her 70th birthday, I'm going to join Shalom Ministries full time. She had sugar diabetes. They amputated one of her legs beneath the knee. She had blood pressure and all kinds of problems, but what a prayer warrior. I miss her terribly. There's a security guard in town that works at one of the hardware stores. He impacts me every time I go to that store. You know that that gentleman's shoes are shiny. They look like mirrors. I can almost see my face in his boots. His uniform is immaculate. He's got one of those old-fashioned moustaches that I'm sure he waxes that turn up at the ends and his bright and happy demeanor impacts me. Old Oom Johannes Nell came to us and started preaching underneath the trees to a handful of Zulu people. That was the beginning of the church that we have today, which can seat 500 on the farm and we have two pastors doing a wonderful job. It's the little things that really touched me deeply.
Today don't underestimate your opportunities to help people.
That's what Jesus did.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 31st of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Matthew 28:16:
”Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.”
Then we read on to verse 19 and Jesus said:
”Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,…”
Small beginnings - don’t despise small beginnings. Eleven disciples took the Gospel right around the globe. There weren’t hundreds of thousands, no, just eleven, and they were obedient. I want to say to you today, do not despise small beginnings.
A man by the name of Charnock said, ”The biggest actions in the world have usually started from very small beginnings.” He says, “Of a few letters of the alphabet, how many thousands of words are made? Of ten figures, how many thousands of numbers have been made? A point, one point, is the beginning of all geometry. A little stone flung into a pond makes a little circle and then a greater one until it enlarges itself to the sides.” So from small beginnings, God causes huge things to happen right throughout the world.
I remember in 2003, in a game reserve in the north coast of Kwazulu-Natal, sitting, having a rest with my dear wife, Jill, and the Lord impressed upon my heart to mentor young men. That was the birth of the Mighty Men Conferences. The first one we had at Shalom, there were 240 men that came. The last one we had at Shalom, approximately 450,000 men came and now I can report with great joy and humility that we have over 20 Mighty Men Conferences taking place in this year alone, and I’m talking about places like Canada, places like Australia, Namibia, all over South Africa, and they are starting one in South East Asia and Nigeria. They are wanting them all over the world - started by one word from the Lord! And you know the amazing thing folks? I’m not going to be at any one of those Mighty Men Conferences myself this year. The Lord is doing it! Do not despise small beginnings, just do what He tells you to do and He will do the multiplying.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 30th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 8:20:
“The harvest is past, The summer is ended, And we are not saved!”
Then we go to the Book of Matthew 25:2-4:
”Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.”
We must be ready! Oh my friends, time is flying by, isn’t it? You know, as I talk to you now, you can see in the shops people are starting to get ready for Christmas. Yes, Christmas is around the corner. I want to ask you a question today and I’m asking myself the same question. Are our homes in order or are we going to say to the little baby that was born in a manger, a feed trough, in a little village called Bethlehem, two thousand years ago, ”Not this year, don’t come yet, I’m not ready for you”?
When it was time for Jesus to arrive, He came. Now, I’m talking to a lot of mothers and fathers. Do you remember when your first baby was born? There was no notice given when it was time for baby to arrive, baby was coming whether you were ready or not. Our beloved Jesus, He never had a beautiful baby room all prepared with a decorated cot, no. His cot was a manger. Now a manger is a feed trough, it’s where you put food to feed your animals. No, but you know something folks? When it was time for the Saviour of the world to come, He didn’t waste time, He came and Joseph and Mary had to be prepared.
You and I cannot say, ”Next year Lord. We’ll think about it next year,” because next year may be too late. There may be people listening to this message now who will never see another Christmas time. I want to say to you today, the Lord says do not postpone action - that’s what a procrastinator is. Be ready, be prepared and when the Lord comes you can say, ”Lord, I am ready for you to come.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 29th of October, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Psalms. I just love the psalms! Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
Now folks, I don’t know how it is with you but with us here at Shalom, the Lord gave us a specific scripture to stand on. Now, we have adopted this scripture verse as our verse for this ministry. Now, we got it from George Müller, the man who started the children’s home in Bristol, England. Something like 10,000 children went through his home, 60 million pounds through his hands, and what a man of faith, a great inspiration to me, a practical man.
I never had the privilege of going to Bible College, and I tell you what - it is a great privilege and I am very sorry about it. I would have loved to have gone to Bible College but the Lord sent me to a different Bible College. It’s called “the school of life, the school of hard knocks” - that’s right. My school fees were paid on the farm, through drought, through fire, through personal tragedies, through economic hardships, through disease. That is where I learned to delight myself in the Lord and He gave me the desires of my heart. That is why I am speaking to you this morning, my dear friend. Please today, focus on Jesus and He will take care of the rest.
The very next verse, verse 5 says: “Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.”
That was one of the great explorer’s verses. I am talking about Dr David Livingstone from bonny Scotland, who discovered the Victoria Falls, who was instrumental and one of the main players in abolishing that horrible human trade of selling people as slaves - David Livingstone. I want to say to you folks, there was many a time he didn’t know where he was going because no one had ever been there before, but he committed his ways to the Lord, and the Lord did the rest.
Today, delight yourself in the Lord. Let Him take care of your situation. Commit your way to the Lord and let Him direct your paths.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 28th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ezekiel 33:5:
“He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life.”
Then we go to the Book of Hebrews 2:3:
”…how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, …”
We need to listen for the sound of the trumpet calling. It’s a warning, my dear friend, for the time is running out. I just feel in my heart I am speaking to a man at the moment, and maybe a woman as well, who is continually digging your heels in and you are saying, “Tomorrow, I will make my peace with the Lord.” But the trumpet is blowing. The Lord is saying, “This is the day that you need to seek Me with all your heart." This is the day that you need to make your peace with God.
A long time ago, I heard a story about a miller - you know, the old-fashioned mill where it had a wheel and a little stream running past, and the water turned the wheel, and the wheel turned the two huge grindstones, and they ground the corn into meal. This miller was very hard-working but he was totally obsessed by his work. He wasn’t interested in anything to do with the Lord, but he got very sick and his family was worried about him, and they realised the old gentleman was dying. They called an evangelist in, “Please come and tell our dad about Jesus because he is going to meet the Lord very shortly.” They came down to the mill and the old man was now bedridden, and what he had done was, he had asked them to put the bed right next to the grindstone so that he could hear the wheels grinding the corn and making money for him. The evangelist walked up and he started to say to him, “Please sir, the trumpet is calling, home time has arrived. You need to make your peace with Jesus. ”And he kept saying, “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you because of the noise of the mill, grinding the corn.” And eventually, he died and he went to hell.
Folks, I want to tell you, we have got to speak up. I want to pray with you today. I just feel that there is a man and a woman listening to this programme who have never made a commitment to Christ. You know what to do, you know what you are supposed to do but you have been so busy, busy with your work, busy with your vision, your ambition. If you are that person, I want to give you the privilege of praying this prayer with me, a simple prayer. Let us pray together:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I acknowledge today that I have been wasting valuable time. I ask You therefore, to be my Lord and Saviour. I am so sorry that I have been chasing after other gods, like money and fame and ambition. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Amen.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 27th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 18:24:
“But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
You don’t have to be lonely today. Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Gospel of John 16:7, and this is the Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples. He says:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
The Lord Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit.
I want to say to you this morning if you are feeling lonely or if you are feeling fearful, you have got a huge task on your hands next week and you just don’t know what to do, call upon the Holy Spirit. You know, so often we talk about our Heavenly Father, we talk about the Lord Jesus Christ, our best friend, but we don’t always talk about the Holy Spirit, and I want to tell you, He is part of the Holy Trinity, and we cannot do it without Him, believe me! Whenever I stand on that platform and I look out on that sea of faces, I say, “Lord, Holy Spirit, please help me because I can’t do this.” And He does, every single time. In Zulu, we call Him, “Umoya oNgcwele”. Umoya oNgcwele - the Spirit who lives within us. Isn’t that beautiful? In Afrikaans, we say, “Heilige Gees”, He is my Friend, He is my Helper. The Greeks call Him, Paráklētos which means The Helper.
I want to say to you today, we need to call upon Him, we need to love Him, we need to speak to Him because He wants to speak to you. Do you remember that beautiful chorus, “Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me”? Why don’t you sing it with me?
Spirit of the Living God,
Fall afresh on me,
Spirit of the Living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Break me, melt me, mould me, fill me.
Spirit of the Living God,
Fall afresh on me.
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 26th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 40:8:
”…the word of our God stands forever.”
Then we go to the New Testament, to Matthew 24:35:
”Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”
Now that’s Jesus speaking Himself. You see, the word of God is the Bible. It is Jesus Christ in print, as I always say, and that is why even the Master Himself quoted the word of God when He was tempted in the desert by the devil. Remember He said, “It is written, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”. “It is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the Lord your God.” It is an extremely powerful weapon. It’s like a sharp two-edged sword, that’s what the Bible says.
Have you ever watched those fencers at the Olympic Games. It’s incredible, the speed that they use those weapons with, but there’s no good having a fancy jewel-studded weapon that we can’t use. Now, when I read my Bible I don’t just read the Old Testament or just the New Testament, I read them together. I read them systematically. I read them daily. I read them in the first person. What does that mean? Well, let’s take Psalm 23:
”The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
When I read it I read it like this. ”The Lord is Angus’ shepherd and Angus shall not want.” Then it becomes extremely personal. I also want to encourage you to get a sword that you can handle. Get a translation that you can understand. I personally use the New King James Version. I find it very easy and accurate to handle. You need to get lessons, like any sword fighter! Somebody can give you a brand new set of clubs, that doesn’t mean to say that you will be able to hit the ball like my dear friend, Gary Player. Oh no, you need lessons. You need to know how to hit that ball. I really want to encourage you to start using the weapon which God has given you. He’s told us that even heaven and earth will pass away but the Bible will never pass away. Carry one in your pickup. Carry one in your motorcar. Folks, I love Bibles, I really do and every time I read the Bible it means something new to me, it’s so exciting. Now, if you don’t know how to read the Bible, why don’t you start in the Psalms. Start with the Psalms and read about ten verses every morning and get a little notebook and write in the notebook what it means to you, and then go to the New Testament and start in the Gospel of John, and every day just read a portion of the Bible in the first person and it will change your life. It will protect you and it will comfort you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 25th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Old Testament to the Book of Isaiah 50:10:
“Who among you fears the Lord?
Who obeys the voice of His Servant?
Who walks in darkness
And has no light?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord
And rely upon his God.”
Are you going through a rough time at the moment? Oh yes, I know those rough times very well. Is everything dark? Have you lost direction? Do you know where you are going? Is there anybody to help you? Listen to this beautiful reading that I stumbled across early this morning, written by a man by the name of Richard Fuller.
He says, “In fierce storms,” said an old seaman, “we can do but one thing. There is only one way; we must put the ship in a certain position and keep her there.” This, Christian, is what you and I have to do today. Sometimes, like Paul the Apostle, you can see neither sun nor stars, and no small tempest lies on you (a massive storm). Then you can do one thing, there is only one way. Reason cannot help you. Past experiences give you no light, even prayer fetches no consolation. Only a single course is left. You must put your soul in one position and keep it there. You must stay upon the Lord; come what may—whether there are winds, waves, lightning, thunder, huge rocks, roaring breakers— you must tie yourself to the helm and hold fast your confidence in God’s faithfulness, His sovereign engagement, His everlasting love in Christ Jesus, and He will see you today through that storm, and the sun will shine again, and He said, “I will never leave you and I will never forsake you.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 24th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 23:37. Jesus said:
“How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”
Have you ever seen a mother hen, the way she fusses over her little chicks? It is quite something to see. One of my daughters has got a big flock of chickens, little bantam chickens. They are minute in size and they strut around the farmyard, picking up all the insects and making a big noise. They are beautiful! I remember a story like yesterday that I was told from a pastor in the Eastern Cape, many, many years ago. When they were burning fire-breaks on the mighty Drakensberg Mountains, as winter was approaching, that grass burnt very, very quickly, and they finished burning a massive break on the side of the mountain and they were doing a clean-up operation, and as they were walking they found a partridge that had been caught in the fire and it was lying face-down with it’s wings spread out. And as they walked up to this partridge, they turned the partridge over and underneath the partridge was a clutch of little chicks. The mother had protected her chicks from the fire by giving her life up. That is how Jesus is with you and me!
We need to know that He loves you so, so much, more than you will ever realise. In Israel, in Jerusalem, you have the Mount of Olives, and on the side of the Mount of Olives is a little chapel. It is formed in the shape of a teardrop, and you can go into that little chapel and there is a huge window and you can look out of that window and look straight across from the Mount of Olives, through the Kidron Valley, up the other side, and there is the Old City of Jerusalem, and that is where Jesus wrote this. He wept over Jerusalem.
Jesus today is weeping over us. Folks, do not harden your heart against the Lord. He loves you so very much, like that partridge, He too has put His arms out to protect you and I. He died for our sins so that we could have a second chance. Let us love Him and serve Him with all our hearts today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 23rd of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 23:12. Jesus says:
“And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Humility - the Oxford Dictionary defines humility as a humble view of one’s own importance. Whoever humbles himself shall be raised to honour. I like what The Message says about this scripture verse. It says: “If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.” When I think of humility, I think of a big ship, a huge cruiser, these massive ships that are about six or seven decks high, they almost look top heavy, and thousands of people go on holiday on those massive ships. But you know, there is a little part of that ship called the rudder. The rudder of the ship, it is underwater all the time, no-one ever sees it, no-one ever speaks about it, but I want to tell you something, my dear friend, without that little rudder, that ship is going nowhere, the captain has got no control over that ship and it will probably end up heading for the rocks.
We are called to be humble, the Lord is the One who raises us up. When I was sitting here, contemplating someone who I regard as humble, I remember reading about a man by the name of Father Nash. That was his nickname, that is what they called him. Now we have all heard of the great revivalist, Charles Finney, but not many people have heard of Father Nash. You see, he was just the rudder of Charles Finney’s ministry. What would happen is, Charles would be going to a town but a week beforehand, Father Nash would go to the same town, check into a little hotel room and start to pray for revival, and he would pray for a solid week. They said that he prayed so loud they could hear him down the street, and the day before the revivalist, Charles Finney, arrived in town, Father Nash would pack up his little suitcase and he would leave town and go to the next town and do the exact same thing. A humble man indeed! But I think when we get to Heaven we will realise just how much work Father Nash had done.
Today, remain humble and the Lord will exalt you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 22nd of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Romans 8:19:
”For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.”
The Amplified Version says:
”For [even the whole] creation [all nature] waits eagerly for the children of God to be revealed.”
The whole of the universe is waiting for what the children of God are going to do. You know how often people come to us as followers of Christ and they say to us, ”What are you going to do about it?” I’m laughing because it’s ridiculous or, ”How can God allow this to happen?” Now when people come and say that to you do not be upset, it’s actually a backhanded compliment because they see you and I as representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we see the chaos taking place, and we weep with the world, and people come to us and say, ”You know, how can your God allow this to happen?” It’s a wonderful compliment because they recognising that you are a representative of Jesus.
When there is a crisis, that is when we are called in to sort it out, isn’t that right? Where there is a tremendous drought, I don’t know how many times it’s happened to us, they call us, ”Please come and pray for rain.” It’s something that touches me deeply when I drive up to the robots and I’m waiting for the robot to turn green and a pick-up drives up alongside me and a farmer winds his windows down and says, ”Where’s the rain?” - as if I’m the rainmaker, no, but I am not the rainmaker - but I am the rainmakers son, and then they say, ”You’ve got a hotline to heaven.” It almost sounds disrespectful but you must understand that’s how they see it before they come to Christ, “You’ve got a hotline to heaven. Why don’t you pray about it?” Do not get disheartened. The world is always looking to us for the answers because they don’t have them, but you and I must exercise extreme compassion. Jesus wept with the people before He raised Lazarus from the tomb. You can see that in John 11:35.
So if there’s a family dispute and they call you in, maybe try tears before you start telling them what to do. Maybe there’s a business confrontation where two partners are almost at blows with one another, that’s the time to come in and bring peace and sanity into the situation. Marriage arguments - sit down and talk with the couple. Yes, you and I, as followers of Jesus Christ, we have the ability to defuse a potential disaster. How do we do it? We use the manual, we use the Bible and Jesus will rejoice and people will even perceive that we are wise, just by using the Word of God.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 21st of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 28:16:
”Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
Then we go to the book of Luke 24:15-16:
"So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.”
The two men on their way to Emmaus. Jesus arrived and walked amongst them and they did not know Him. Often we look for Jesus in famous places, in beautiful cities, in lovely church buildings. We hear great preachers preach wonderful sermons only to find out that He has been with us all along and we did not recognise it. So it’s not looking for Jesus in famous places, it’s opening our spiritual eyes and ears because He’s right there with us.
Listen to this little story. It’s very cute, I think. It was written by an unknown author. It goes like this. The parish priest climbed up into the high church steeple to be nearer to God so that he might hand down His word to the people, and in sermon script he daily wrote what he thought was sent down from heaven and he dropped the papers down on the people’s heads two times a day. In his old age, God said, ”Come down from the steeple, it’s time to die.” And the old priest cried out from the steeple, ”Where are you Lord?” And the Lord replied, ”Down here among my people.”
Oh folks, He is so close, He is in your heart. Speak to Him today because He wants to speak with you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 20th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Proverbs 6:10:
“A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep—
So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler,…” (like a thief)
Then we go to Luke 4:16:
“So He (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.”
We want to speak today about habits. There are good habits and there are bad habits. Discipline is absolutely vital for a Christian to succeed. You see, a good farmer will check his crop of corn or maize or wheat every day. A poor farmer will check his crop maybe once a week, and it could be his downfall. I remember like yesterday, we had a neighbour who came and farmed very close to us. He was a wonderful man but he came from a different district. He was a sugar cane farmer, a very successful one and a very good one, but he started to grow seed maize, a very technical, tricky crop to grow. One day, I was driving down near his farm and I stopped and looked over the fence and I saw that there was an infestation of cut worm. Now cut worm had just arrived overnight and they were decimating his crop. I phoned him. I said, “Did you check your maize yesterday?” He said, “No, I have been away for a few days. I said, “Please get there quickly.” And he got there and he saw that this infestation of cut worm was literally decimating his crop. We got the spray out and we were able to save his crop. You need to check your crop every single day if you want to succeed as a good farmer.
Now, the Lord Jesus was extremely disciplined. Many times His disciples tried to find Him. “Lord, where have You been? The crowds are waiting for you.” Where had He been? That’s right, up the mountain, spending time getting instructions from His Heavenly Father, as Jesus continually did, a good habit. I want to say to you today if you are taking a lot of strain in your life, have a good look at what your habits are like. You need to maybe spend more time praying and less time speaking. You need to maybe get up earlier in the morning, and go to bed earlier at night. You maybe need to read your Bible more intentionally. Just show me a man’s Bible and I will show you how much time he spends with God, reading the Old Testament and the New Testament systematically, every single morning, and then you need to meditate. Sit quietly with that cup of coffee, that cup of tea, and just let your soul meditate. You will find that your life will become totally different.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 19th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 22:32:
“God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Those who know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour will never die. Isn’t that good news? For He is the God of the living. He is not the God of the dead, but the living. We, you and I, we do not worship a statue made out of stone or wood or precious jewels. No, no - Jesus is very much alive! Now when Mary Madeline ran down to the tomb early in the morning, to go and dress the body of Jesus with herbs and spices, she entered the tomb and there was an angel standing there, and the angel said to them, in the Gospel of Mark 16:6:
“He is risen! He is not here.”
He is the God of the living, a living God! Now maybe this morning, you are feeling a little bit sad. Maybe you have lost a loved one, not so long ago, or maybe years ago. Those who have gone before us, if they are believers, they are not dead. They are very much alive and today, they are living in Heaven with Jesus, and they are waiting patiently for you and me to come home, to be in glory forever. Now, what I want to suggest to you is this - if that loved one could say one thing, this is what they would say, “Angus, please tell them - tell my mother, tell my father, tell my child not to worry, I am well but I desire to see them in Heaven one day. Please encourage them to live a life of faith and love in Christ and we will be reunited again.”
Father,
I want to pray for my friends this morning. Lord, it is a very painful thing when you lose a loved one, whether it is a little four year old boy, whether it is an old granny. We miss them, Lord, we really do. I pray that You will give my friends courage, You will comfort them, You will give them spiritual eyes to understand that their loved one is not dead and that they will be reunited because Jesus said so. I ask this in Your precious name,
Amen.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 18th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 22:14:
“For many are called, but few are chosen.”
I looked up The Message translation and it says: “Many get invited; only a few make it.” Many are invited into the banquet but few respond. Many are called but only those who truly repent are actually chosen. Now, that is Jesus responding to the story of the rich man who had a big banquet. He invited all his guests. None of them arrived so he sent his servants to the highways and the byways to bring the whosoever’s in.
If we look at Matthew 7:21, the Bible says very clearly, that not all who cry, “Lord, Lord…” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven but only those who do My Father’s will. You see, you must not be concerned about what is happening in the world. Things are very unfair at the moment, I know that, and justice doesn’t seem to prevail. Don’t make that your excuse for not following after the Lord. When I was a young man, before I accepted Christ, when I saw some of these guys walking around with their hands in the air, shouting, “Hallelujah!”, like I do now, but those guys weren’t putting food on the table, they weren’t taking care of their families, they weren’t walking in truth - I used to say to my wife, Jill, “Well, if those guys are going to go to Heaven, I will get there before them.” I want to tell you something folks - what will happen on the Day of Judgement when you stand in front of the Lord and you say, “Lord, I didn’t serve You, I didn’t go to the banquet because I saw the way some of your people were behaving, and I said, “If that is the way they behave, I will get there before they do?” And the Lord says, “Well, look around. Those people are not here.” We cannot determine our faith in God by the actions and lifestyle of others. Philippians 2:12 says very clearly that we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
Today, let’s go to the banquet. It is open for everyone who truly loves Jesus and believes in Him.
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 17th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Psalm 146:3:
“Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.”
Then we go to the Book of Ezekiel 28:2:
“Yet you are a man, and not a god,..”
Then the last scripture is 1 Corinthians 2:5:
“…that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
You know folks, it is actually grossly unfair to put the responsibility of making important decisions merely upon men. Now, madam, it might be your husband. It is not fair to put a tremendous responsibility on him because you don’t want to hear from the Lord. Of course, you must submit to him but you must also hear for yourself what God is saying. You can’t put that kind of responsibility on your pastor, it is not his responsibility to make those decisions. You can’t put that responsibility on your own children or your financial adviser.
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”Psalm 20:7
Now you are asking me a question - how do you do it? Well, first of all, you go to your quiet time room, you spend time with God. Secondly, you read your Bible, and you read it personally. Thirdly, you trust men of God to give you counsel, and then by faith, you do it with all of your heart. “What happens when you hear nothing, when there is no answer from God?” Then that is an answer in itself, it means, “Don’t do it.” It means, “Stay where you are”, it means, “Don’t do that investment, don’t make that investment. Don’t be pressurised by men.”
I want to tell you a little story. Up in the North East of Scotland after they discovered the North Sea oil, the big companies from overseas came in and they bought up all the land to put their oil refineries on the land, and there was one farmer, who had a croft, a small little 10 acre farm, and that crofter said he was not selling, and all his friends laughed at him. They said, “You are mad man, sell! The prices are fantastic.” He said no, he is not selling, a little 10 acre plot. And do you know what happened? He ended up right in the middle of the refineries. They wanted his land because they had to build those pipelines right around his farm and eventually, they came to him with a blank cheque and they said, “Fill it in” and he made millions because he waited!
Wait on the Lord, Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 16th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 1 Corinthians 10:12 out of the New King James Version:
”Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
We’ve got to be so careful how we’re standing. Jesus said that harlots, prostitutes, tax collectors and thieves would enter in first before the religious churchgoers who started so well but finished so poorly. We think of Mary Magdalene. She was a woman of ill repute, Jesus drove seven demons out of her, and yet she became His most faithful handmaiden. Zacchaeus, Chief of all tax collectors, an absolute rogue, yet when he met with the King his life was changed instantly, forever.
Early this morning, I was reading the account that Jesus told the people.
He said: A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?”
They said to Him, “The first.”Matthew 21:28-31.
I remember as a brand-new Christian, I think I had known the Lord for three months, I was so on fire for God. What do they say? “You need to lock a new Christian up for 6 months because he is like a bull in a china shop!" But rather have that fire, and that zeal, and that love and that excitement for Christ, than to just carry on doing the old thing. I had the privilege of preaching in our little church in Greytown for the first time ever. I was so excited, I was in a cold sweat, standing in the vestry behind the building, and the elders put their hands on me and were praying for me, and one old lay preacher, after they had finished praying said, “Son, get in there and preach because I have done my bit.” As a brand-new Christian, three months old in the Lord, I couldn’t understand what he was saying. How could you ever do your bit? How can you ever say, “I have done enough for the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross of Calvary for your sins?" I was very devastated, I have never forgotten that. We need to be so careful that we finish strong, on fire for the Lord and not taper off and say, “I have done my bit.” That is what happened to the son who said, “I will go” and then he didn’t go.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 15th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 22:21:
”I spoke to you in your prosperity,…”
I listened to a beautiful reading from a man of God, and what he said is, sometimes God shades our eyes from the brightness of prosperity. Sometimes when we are doing so well, whether it be financially or whatever area, in our family, even in our health, sometimes He puts His hand over our eyes to shade us from the brightness of the sun of prosperity, because when we are prospering we don’t see the big picture so often. We are concentrating on how well things are going, and then sometimes when that shadow comes over the sun of prosperity we can see the bigger picture much more clearly.
So today, if you are going through a tough time, maybe things are not just turning out the way you meant, do not be afraid, the Lord is with you He allows these things to happen. I didn’t say He causes them to happen. He allows them to happen sometimes so that we can get our bearings and see the bigger picture. Let me give you and example - many years ago when I was a runner, we had run a marathon and towards the end of the marathon you are absolutely exhausted. You have been perspiring, sweating for 42 kilometres or whatever the case may be, the sun is beating down on you and you are really struggling. As you come through the finish line, somebody is waiting, a loved one, with a beautiful bottle of delicious ice-cold water. When you drink that water, you are totally refreshed. You don’t want any fruit juice, you don’t want any Coca-Cola, you just want water, pure water!
Now, it’s because you have been through a rough time and you appreciate what you have got. Sometimes when we are doing so well and prospering, we forget the value of things in life. Today, let us appreciate that God sometimes puts a shadow over the brightness of that sun so that we can see clearly where we are going.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 14th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Luke 20:2:
“Tell us, by what authority are You doing these things? Or who is he who gave You this authority?”
Jesus confounded the most brilliant minds in Israel. The Message Translation says, “Show us your credentials.” (Your qualifications). You and I need to spend more time with the greatest Teacher who walked upon the face of this earth if we want answers to the questions of life. I particularly want to address young students who are studying. It’s coming to the end of the year and they are studying for their exams. How much time are you spending waiting on the Lord and how much time are you trying to memorise your notes? I want to encourage you to spend more time waiting on the Lord. Do you know why? Because when you walk into that exam room, there will be a peace, because you would have committed everything into the Lord’s hands and that peace in your heart gives you a clear mind, then you can think clearly, not being totally stressed out trying to remember the things you were studying until the early hours of the morning.
I want to tell you about a very, very successful businessman. His name was Robert Le Tourneau. He was the inventor of earth-moving machinery. Now the interesting thing is that he dropped out of school at the age of 14. It reminds me of someone - yes, but he was a designer and an inventor of note. He designed all that heavy-duty earth-moving equipment. He was known by his contemporaries as God’s businessman. His foundational verse, by the way, that is on his tombstone is Matthew 6:33. We know it very well:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
He would confound the electrical and mechanical engineers that he employed. He would walk into one of their big design offices and they would all be studying different things that they had to put into place to develop a new machine, and they were scratching their heads, they didn’t know the answers, and this man with a very limited education would walk straight in, look at their plans and say, “Move that there, do that and do that.” And he would walk out and they would have it perfectly.
That same man used to give 90% of his income to God’s work and live off 10% and he was a multi-millionaire. You see, his teacher was Jesus Christ and he put Him foremost. This man started universities and technical colleges all over the world. Today, spend time with the Teacher.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 13th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Acts 4:13:
“And they realised that they had been with Jesus.”
Now according to C H Spurgeon, the great preacher, he said, “As Christians, we should be a striking resemblance to Jesus Christ. The best testimony and living example of Jesus should be written in the words and the actions of His followers. Yes, we should be pictures of Christ. People should say of us, “He has been with Jesus. His speech, his actions and most of all, the love that pours out from him, they all speak of the times he spends with Jesus. His everyday actions should speak louder than words.”
I remember many years ago hearing a story of a man who was sailing in the South Sea Islands, and he was shipwrecked. He was a missionary, and the local islanders found him, and they gave him some refuge, and he tried to speak to them about Jesus Christ. They said to him, “You can stay with us. We have our own gods but we don’t want to hear about your God. If you speak about your God to us, we will kill you.” That man lived his whole life on that island. Many, many years later another group of missionaries arrived at the island. The tribesmen welcomed them and they sat down and they had a big talk together. The missionaries started to tell them about Jesus, about the Gospel of Christ, and the islanders did not seem surprised and they asked the islanders, ”Have you heard of Jesus before? Have other people been to the island and preached?” They said, “No.” “Well, how is it, you are not surprised by the miraculous story of the life, the crucifixion, the resurrection of Christ?” They said, “No, we are not surprised at all because he used to live here.” They said, “Really? Can you show us?”
They took these missionaries to the graveside of the man who lived with them and never spoke a word of Jesus Christ, but his lifestyle showed them all about the Son of God.
Today, let our words not be many but let our lifestyle speak of the love of Christ.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 12th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Job 5:11:
“He sets on high those who are lowly,…”
Then we go to Ezekiel 21:26.
"He exalts the humble and humbles the exulted."
Wow! Then of course Luke 1:52:
“He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly.”
God has got a habit of using nobodies to do His work. Are you maybe feeling worthless today as you listen to this message? Are you feeling useless, are you feeling maybe disadvantaged? Maybe you didn’t get a great education. Maybe you are not physically strong as others and you are feeling very down. Please don’t, be of good cheer, for our Lord has a habit of using ordinary kinds of people to do His work.
We think of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In Luke 1:46-48, this is what she says:
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”
Our Heavenly Father never chose the Queen of Sheba to carry His Son in her womb for nine months. Oh no, and the Lord neither chose Pharaoh’s nor Caesar’s wife. No! The Lord chose a beautiful young, godly maiden from a little insignificant country village, called Nazareth - a virgin, in fact, who who had never even known a man. God chose her to carry His Son for nine months in her womb and then to birth that incredible, beautiful Baby and to nurse Him, feed Him, teach Him and to walk with Him - I am talking about God, folks - for 33 years!
Those of you that are feeling this morning, of no consequence, must understand something - how God has work for you to do. Just make yourself available.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 11th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 20:22:
“But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.”
Folks, we are talking this morning, not about a cup of prosperity, no - but a cup of suffering. Now Jesus was about to go to the cross, and when the disciples wanted to sit on either side of Him in Heaven, He said, “Can you pay the price, can you drink of the cup?” And they said, “We are able,” and they didn’t really know what they were saying.
In my prayer room, I have a prayer cross. It was given to me many, many years ago by an Australian pastor when I was preaching in Australia. It is a replica of a cross, a hand cross that was found in the Catacombs of Rome when the Christians were being persecuted for their faith. When you take it up in your hand, you do it when you are praying and when you press on that cross, the corners of the cross press hard into your hand and it is painful, and it reminds us of what the Lord went through for you and me. You and I must count the cost and we must ask that question, “Can we drink of the cup?” Even Jesus Himself, in the Garden of Gethsemane, in Mark 14:36, said to His Father, “Not My will but Your will be done”. He didn’t really want to go through with it but He did because it is what His Father wanted.
So often when you are going through a tough time, it’s not even the physical pain, is it? No, it’s more of a spiritual fight. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5:
“For the weapons of our warfare are not [a]carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,…”
The battle is actually in the mind. It is not so much in the flesh. False accusations when you follow Jesus, people making up stories about you, loneliness, loss of friends. You know, Jesus started off with 120 disciples. In the Garden of Gethsemane, they all ran away and left Him and He remained on His own. Oh, but I want to tell you, the Bible tells us in Psalm 30:5:
“Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.”
God will see you through. Oh yes, I have seen it in my own life. In 2009, when we had the Mighty Men Conference on this farm, 120,000 men were here and what happened? I had two heart attacks, one under the platform and the big one at home. I was dying. I was lying there on the grass, in front of my house saying, “Lord, what is happening?” But you know, they put me in a helicopter and as the helicopter swept over the crowd, I saw 120,000 pairs of hands stretched out, praying for my healing.
Jesus healed me in 15 minutes and I was preaching the next morning. We need to press on, count the cost and the Lord will give us the victory.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 10th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 20:15. Jesus says:
”Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?”
Why are we always telling God what to do? He says here, “Can I not do what I want with my own things?” Then we go to Romans 9:21:
”Does not the potter have power over the clay,…?”
Folks, I used to keep sheep on this farm. We had 500 beautiful stud Isle de France ewes, beautiful sheep. We won many prizes with those sheep at the local shows but never once did my sheep tell me how to live. You’ve never heard of a sheep telling a shepherd what to do or how to look after the flock. Now the Lord says to us the same thing with the clay. Where have you ever seen a lump of clay telling the potter how to make a pot? It’s ludicrous isn’t it? it’s ridiculous! - the same as the worker who does not tell the employer how much he must pay his men, we can’t argue with God, we need to simply obey.
Now, we know the story of the landowner who got up early in the morning and wanted to hire labourers for his vineyard. So the first men that came, he said he would give them a denarius a day, that’ll be the pay, and then later on in the day he hired some more men and he said here that he would pay them as well, and so the day went on and right to the very end of the day, there was only one hour left and he went and employed another group of men. When it came to paying the men he hired last, he paid them a denarius. Now, the men that had been working all day thought, “Well, these men have only worked for an hour, so we are going to get a lot more money because we’ve worked all day”. Then the landowner gave the men that came early the same pay, one denarius. They were most upset, ”How can you give us only one denarius and these men here have only worked for one hour and we’ve worked for eleven hours?” And that’s when the landowner said, ”Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?”
Folks, we must stop saying “It’s not fair” because Jesus will do as He pleases. It’s only Jesus who has paid the full price for your salvation and my salvation. Did you hang on a cross? Did you die for anyone? Therefore you’ve got no right to say anything. What we need to say is, ”Lord, thank you for saving us.”
Today remember who is in charge and I’m so happy to tell you, His name is Jesus.
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 9th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Ezekiel 18:32:
”For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
Then we go to the Gospel of John 3:7:
”Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”
That scripture from Ezekiel puzzled me for a long time - “I have no pleasure in the death of a dying man, therefore repent and live.” What is the Lord meaning? He is saying that He does not want a sinner to die and go to hell, but He wants everyone to be saved and go to Heaven. It’s all about choices, isn’t it? Jesus is known by many titles. He’s known as the Great Ploughman; the Shepherd of the sheep; the Alpha and the Omega; the Beginning and the End; He is known as the Bright Morning Star; He is known as the King of kings, but the title I love the most is known as the Friend of sinners. We have to make a choice, and it’s not about good people going to Heaven at all. You have heard me saying that so many times. When you think about it, when Jesus walked on this earth, He spent most of His time with tax collectors, prostitutes, thieves, lepers, widows and orphans - not the successful! He said, ”I came for the sick, not for the healthy.” So what about you today, where are you standing today?
I looked at The Message Version of the Bible and this scripture ends up where He says, “Make a clean break! Live!” You and I, let’s start to live today.
I want to pray for you and I want to really pray this prayer from my heart, not only for you but for myself, because you know folks, we’ve got to work out our salvation with fear and trembling the Bible says. What does that mean? It means we can’t live a life where one day we’re in and one day we’re out, one day we are for the Lord and the next day we are not. We can’t live like that. We have got to make a decision. ”For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
Why don’t you pray this prayer with me?
Father God,
This morning we come to You and we ask You to save us. Save us Lord from sin, from iniquity, but save us mostly from ourselves, we keep letting You down.
Lord, we commit our lives completely and entirely to You today.
In Jesus name, Amen.
God bless you and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 8th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to Psalms 91:1, and today I’ll be reading it out of the Amplified Version of the Bible. It says:
”He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will remain secure and rest in the shadow of the Almighty [whose power no enemy can withstand].”
Yes, that shelter we are talking about is our quiet time every morning, in our special place, wherever that might be, spending time in the presence of the Lord, praying, reading the word of God, meditating, and then we are strong enough to go out. I received a beautiful poem just the other night, we were having a prayer time up in the chapel and my son Dougal said, ”I want to read something to you.” He got it out of a Scripture Union booklet, that was printed in the 1950’s but listen to this poem. It’s called The Secret:
I met God in the morning when my day was at it’s best
And His presence came like sunrise, like a glory in my breast.
All day long the presence lingered, all day long He stayed with me
And we sailed in perfect calmness over a very troubled sea.
Other ships were blown and battered, other ships were sore distressed
But the winds that seemed to drive them brought to us a peace and rest.
Then I thought of other mornings with a keen remorse of mind
When I too had loosed the moorings with the presence left behind.
So I think I know the secret learned from many a troubled way.
You must seek Him in the morning if you want Him through the day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 7th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler…”Psalm 91:3
- now the Amplified Version says: “For He will save you from the trap of the fowler,…” It’s the little things we need to look out for. Now, the fowler is the devil of course, and he is continually trying to trip you up and to trip me up.
A man by the name of Mark Pierce says, “He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler” - that means from the little things, the hidden traps, the nets that are set for us. Great sins frighten, but little snares entangle. It is easier to escape the huntsman’s arrow than the crafty lure, and where are they not set? In riches and also in poverty, in sickness and in strength, in prosperity and adversity, in friendships and in loneliness, the work and the lack of it. Each has it’s snare wherein not only are the unworthy caught, but the wise and the watchful also sometimes fall prey. Little things, mere threads, hardly worth guarding against, yet they are strong enough to hold us and to hinder us, and may be the beginning of our destruction.”
We need to be so careful. Years ago when I played rugby, I remember clearly, I used to play in the loose forward position, either a flank or an 8th man, and we were known as “the spoilers.” A young man would break away with a ball and all you would do is just grab the edge of his rugby jersey and just pull him back for half a second, that’s all, and he would miss his move, and that is why often, you would see in the middle of a match, the guy stands up and punches somebody else, and you say, “Look at that dirty player” but it is actually not him at all! It’s somebody in the scrum that has just held him back for half a second from making his move. Now that is exactly how the devil works. It is the little things, the things that we don’t notice that hold us back, but the Lord says that He will deliver you and I from the devil and his sly moves if we keep our eyes on Him.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 6th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ezekiel 18:20:
”The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
The Lord has got no grandchildren. Every single person will have to give an individual account of their lives here on earth. What do I mean by that? Well, If your father is a believer that does not guarantee that you will get to heaven. You have to accept the Lord for yourself. Now, maybe there are some young people who are very concerned about their parents because they will not turn their lives towards Christ. Our responsibility is to pray for our loved ones, that’s all we can do. To love them and to be good examples of a Christian life. You and I will not be held responsible for their lifestyle here on earth.
I had the privilege many, many years ago of leading my dearest old mother to Jesus Christ. I remember it like it was yesterday, one of the highlights of my life. Sitting by the fireplace on a very cold morning in Greytown, the little town where we had bought a house for our mom and dad and she was crying and I said, ”Mom, what’s wrong?” She said, ”It’s not the same anymore.” In that beautiful Scottish brogue. “It’s nae the same anymore, Angus.” “Why mom?” She said “Things are different.” What had happened was I had given my life to Christ a few weeks before, myself, my wife, Jill and my children and straight away there was a blockage. Oh, I got on my knees and I started to weep with my mother. I said, "Mom, don’t you want to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour as well?” She said, "Aye, laddie that would be very good.” At that moment, we prayed the sinner's prayer together. Oh folks, I want to tell you from that day onwards, my mom and I had fellowship every single day.
Then a while later, the same thing with my dad. He was in hospital. My mom had already gone home to be with Jesus and I said the same thing. ”Dad, don’t you want to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour.” In that Scottish brogue he said, ”Aye, laddie, not before time. It’s time for me to give my life to Christ,” and I led my dad to Christ in front of everybody in that hospital ward and what a hallelujah time we had.
Romans 10:13
“…whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Pray for your loved ones, your children, your parents, your families and leave the rest in God’s capable hands.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 5th of October, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 12:13:
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.”
Very simple, very profound, spoken by the wisest man that has ever lived, next to Jesus Christ, of course. Then I looked this Scripture up in the Amplified Version, this is what it says:
”When all has been heard, the end of the matter is: fear God [worship Him with awe-filled reverence, knowing that He is almighty God] and keep His commandments, for this applies to every person.”
The only thing in this life that matters at the end of the day, spoken by a man who had every worldly possession that money could buy, he says, in the same book, in Ecclesiastes 2:26:
“This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.”
That is what it is like when you are trying to do something, trying to make yourself something. You are wasting your time. Fear God, do what He tells you to do. Keep His commandments, for this is the most important thing in life. I heard a young girl, the other day, describing it like this: “Solomon was like a modern rockstar.” He had everything that money could buy. He made Bill Gates look like a poor man, like a pauper but you see, the Bible says in Mark 8:36:
“For what will it profit a man (or a woman) if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Solomon says it is like grasping for the wind. So what is the conclusion for you and me? Number one: Fear God - that means don’t be afraid of Him but you must treat Him with reverence and respect, and most of all, love. Number 2: Keep His commandments. It’s not for God’s sake, it is for your sake and my sake. That is why He wrote them, and then Number 3: This is the ultimate purpose of every man on earth - to worship God, to love Him, to have fellowship with Him, because everything else is going to burn up, everything. So let’s do it God’s way and we will succeed and we will accomplish, and we will be people of significance.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 4th of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Colossians 1:27:
” …Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Our Lord is not a fire escape, something built on the outside of the building, just in case a fire begins in the building. No - It is Christ inside us. That is our security! Now Phillips Brooks put it so beautifully. I want to read it to you:
”Religion is not the simple fire escape that you build upon the outside of your dwelling in anticipation of a possible danger and leave there until danger comes. No, no, no, no! You go to it some morning when a fire breaks out in your house and the poor old fire escape that you built up there and thought that you could use someday, is so rusty and broken, and the weather had so beaten upon it, and the sun so turned it’s hinges, that it will not work. That is the condition of a man who has built himself what seems a creed of faith, a trust in God in anticipation of the day when the danger is to overtake him and he has said to himself, ”I am safe for I will take refuge in it then.” But religion is the house in which we live; it is the table at which we sit; it is the fireside at which we draw near; the room that arches it’s graceful and familiar presence over us; it is the bed on which we lie and think of the past, anticipate the future, and gather our refreshment.”
The fire escape is actually on the inside, it’s not on the outside.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 3rd of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 18:21-22:
”Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
Wow, the one who hurts us, we have to forgive him. The one who offended us, we have to forgive him. The one who sins against us, we have to forgive. I can hear somebody saying to me right now, ”I can’t do it.” You can and you must. “Why?” you ask. Well, because Jesus did it for you and I.
In the Gospel of Luke 23:34, the Lord Jesus when He was dying on the cross of Calvary He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” We never condone the sin - but we forgive the one who has sinned against us. Some of us might be saying, ”But it’s not fair! Where is the justice in all of this?” Well, on the great day of judgement, our Heavenly Father will deal with it. Justice will be carried out, that is a fact. That’s why the Lord says to you and I, we must pray for our enemies, because every single person will have to give an account of their lives when they go to Heaven.
When we forgive, it actually benefits us - really, it frees us up. It’s like a 50 kg bag of cement that we’ve been carrying on our backs for years. We lay it down at the cross. We say, ”Lord. I forgive that person for what they did to me.” Maybe it’s adultery, maybe it’s theft, maybe it’s bad using of your name, your reputation. Today, forgive them for what they’ve done to you and move on with your life. You know, some of those people are not even aware that they have offended you or hurt you. Forgive them. I want to pray for you and I want to pray for myself as well.
Heavenly Father,
This is a tall order that you’ve asked us today, seventy times seven. We can’t do it Lord, in our own strength, that’s the honest truth, but today we come to the altar and we lay down that offence, that sin that someone has done against us. We lay it down at the altar because we can’t do it Lord and we ask you to take care of it please. You forgave us Lord, give us the strength to forgive others.
In Jesus name.
Amen
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 2nd of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 27:17:
”As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”
We need each other folks. We need each other - there is no way we can do it on our own. Matthew 18:20, Jesus said:
”For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Beautiful encouragement! Psalm 133, the Lord says where the brethren dwell together in unity, God commands a blessing. Now the family that prays together, stays together and it’s not always easy is it? I know it. Sometimes the children don’t want to pray, they’ve had an argument, they’re not talking to each other. They must pray. It’s a time of getting us together. We pray in the morning, Jill and I, before we get out of bed. We pray for our family. We must pray together.
Ecclesiastes 4:9 says:
”Two are better than one…”
Verse 10 says if the one falls into a hole, the other one can pull him out - especially when it’s decision making. In our house, I’m the accelerator and Jill is the handbrake. Oh folks, I don’t know how many times I would have got into a massive hole. If that wife of mine says, ”Just hang on a minute, Angus, let’s just pray about this thing that you want to do,” there are no one-man shows here at Shalom. We are a team, we work as team and when we work as a team, then we are effective.
When you look at sport, whether it be rugby or football or hockey, you’ll find that the team that always wins the match is not full of superstars, no, just good solid players that when they work together, they’ll beat any team full of individuals. Why did Jesus send out the disciples two by two? For that same reason, so that we can look after each other and protect each other.
Today remember, we need each other, let’s spend time together.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 1st of October, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 18:17:
“And the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing,…?”
Abraham spent a lot of time with the Lord. The Lord was about to obliterate Sodom and Gomorrah off the face of the earth, but first He warned His servant, Abraham, about what was to happen because Abraham spent time in communion with the Lord. We need to spend time with God if we want to hear His still small voice speaking to us.
I read a beautiful little quotation from an anonymous writer who said, “Abraham in communion with God knew long before Lot in Sodom, of the destruction of that city. Oh for more communion, spent time with the Lord.” If we look at the Book of Acts 9:25:
“Then the disciples took him (that is Paul, the Apostle) by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket.”
When God is directing our operations, we are safe. The Jews were trying to kill Paul and so the disciples let him out of the city in a basket which they lowered down from the city wall. God always makes a way out for those who know Him. One of my favourite scriptures is Daniel 11:32:
”…but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
Many years ago, I was preaching in a large stadium in Kwazulu-Natal. I made an outrageous statement. The farmers had been warned, especially the marginal farmers - “Don’t plant your crops because it is not going to rain, el Nino is on its way.” I was so angry that day on that platform, I said, “To hell with el Nino.” I wasn’t swearing, I actually meant it. “I am going back to the farm to plant potatoes!” Now, I didn’t do it because I wanted to be a hero. I did it because God wanted me to make that statement to encourage the poor people to have faith and plant their crops, otherwise they were going to eat nothing. And the rest, of course, we know, is history. God gave me a crop of potatoes out of dry land with no irrigation.
Today, trust Jesus and He will show you what to do.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 30th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 18:15:
”Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”
Settle your differences for God’s sake. I am not swearing, I mean it - for God’s sake and for your own peace of mind. Many years ago, when I was a brand new Christian, I had an altercation with our minister. I really did. It was a disagreement, a small thing, but we didn’t settle it. One day in the church, he decided to have a day of prayer. It was a midweek day and he said you can come into the church anytime you like and pray to the Lord. I was going into town from the farm to collect spares. I was in my farm clothes and I thought I would pop into the church and just have a few minutes of prayer with the Lord. As I walked into the church, there was no-one there. I got down and knelt at the altar to pray and I felt that there was somebody there. I looked to the right hand side, there was the minister, sitting in the corner, he was also praying. God had organised something and I realised, I couldn’t pray until I had asked forgiveness and made up with him. As I stood up he stood up. We walked together, put our arms around each other and started to weep. We didn’t say much, just wept. You know after that time we became firm friends till the day he died. I officiated at his funeral. Settle your differences!
You know it’s like when you’re running a marathon and you’ve got a little stone caught in your running shoe. It is very irritating and aggravating. Stop, take the stone out and carry on running your race and you will finish it. Do you remember that old song, that beautiful hymn, Turn your eyes upon Jesus, when you do that then the things of the world become strangely dim. Let’s sing it together.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of the earth
Will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
Have a beautiful day today. Settle that difference!
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 29th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Philippians 4:19:
”And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Isn’t that a beautiful promise for you and I this morning? He will supply all of our needs, not our wants - a big difference, but our needs. Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 17:27. Jesus says:
”Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea…, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.”
The temple tax - isn’t that incredible? The sea of Galilee - “Go and cast your line. The first fish you catch, open his mouth and out will come enough money to pay the temple tax.” Our God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus our Lord. I want to tell you that He is a miracle-working God. I know that you know that, but I’m reminding you today. You’re probably sitting down and thinking, ”Now what am I going to do”, How am I going to make ends meet? The end of the month is coming and I’ve got accounts and I don’t have the money.” We need to pray, we really do, and we need to ask the Lord to give us godly wisdom and counsel and then of course, we need faith to believe for the impossible. We always say at Shalom, the coin is in the fish’s mouth.
Now, when we are doing the thing which God has called us to - whether it’s preaching the Gospel; whether it’s growing food; whether it’s working in the Roads Department; whether you’re a pilot in an aeroplane; whether you’re a school teacher; a nurse in a hospital, if you are doing the work which God has called you to, then He will supply all of your needs. That’s always happened to us, every single time. We endeavour to have a big campaign and we’ve got no money, and we don’t send out newsletters asking for money. We trust the Lord. The amazing thing is, every time we start, the money starts coming in and funnily enough, when we stop, the money stops. Just enough for the work!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day and put your trust in Him because the coin is in the fish's mouth!
Jesus bless you and Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 28th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 1 Chronicles 4:23:
“These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work.”
Are you feeling like you are no use to anyone? Are you feeling today like you are of no benefit to anyone, ever felt like that? “Lord, what am I doing here? I’m just a simple…” whatever it is. Well, these were potters and they dwelt in hedgerows and they dwelt in the roadways, but they were working for the king. They were doing his work.
Now, I want to read something to you that was written by a very, very famous lady by the name of Frances Ridley Havergal. She was an author, an English poet and a hymn writer. She only lived until 42 years old. She wrote beautiful hymns like, “Take my life and let it be,“ and many, many others, and this is what she wrote, and I want to read it to you because it is very special - specially if you are feeling today that you are worthless, or if you feel that you are of no benefit to the Lord, the King of kings. This is what it says:
”Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell with the King for His work. We may be in a very unlikely or unfavourable place for this.”
Maybe you’re working in a workshop, maybe you’re in the mines, maybe you’re on the farm, and you feel you are of no use. Listen to this:
”It may be in a country life with little enough to be seen of the goings of the King around us.”
Folks, He sees everything.
"It may be among hedges of all sorts, hinderances in all directions. It may be furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for our daily task."
Yes, maybe you’ve got dirty hands; maybe you’re a motor mechanic; yes, maybe you’re a fitter and turner, so your hands are full. She says,
“No matter. The King who placed us there will come and dwell there with us. The hedges are alright or He would soon do away with them and it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way may not be for it’s very protection.”
God puts you there for a reason. He puts things around you. You think it’s a hindrance. No, it’s not a hindrance; it’s a protection. Listen to what she says here,
”and as for the pottery, why, this is what He has seen fit to put in our hands and therefore it is for the present, His work.”
Let’s do His work today with everything thing that we have in us.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 27th of September, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 18:1-4:
”At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven…”
Wow - childlike faith. Imagination, being able to dream! I’ve got two little grandchildren, one’s name is William, and his cousin’s name is Rebecca. William gets on his little bicycle and he rides over to see Rebecca. Rebecca stays in a little house close to us, and William is just over the road. Then they ask Gogo, that’s the Zulu name for granny, if they can make a tea party, and Gogo says “Of course”. So they set out sweets. They’ve got Coca-Cola. They have got every sweet thing you can think of, and then they invite Khulu, that’s me, to come and join them. You talk about a sugar rush! We are eating biscuits, drinking Coca-Cola, eating jelly babies, and it’s all make-believe, and they’re giving us food and drink. But do you know something? When I sit there it brings a tear to my eye. It is so refreshing to see their little imaginations going. They have got a little tea-set. They’ve got to pour the Coca-Cola into the little cups and then you’ve got to drink it and not laugh, you’ve got to be very serious! They are so generous, they keep giving you refills. They are so loving and so innocent but you know folks, they’ve got an imagination.
Now, just in case we look down on little children, Jesus says, unless we become like them, we’ll never see the Kingdom of Heaven. Have you ever heard of a man by the name of C S Lewis? Of course you have, probably the most famous contemporary Christian writer of all time, but you know C S Lewis wrote a book called, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He wrote another book called, Narnia. Now, unless you’ve got an imagination like my little grandchildren, you’ll never be able to understand that story, and yet it is a best seller. They’ve made movies about those two books, not to mention all the other books. He wasn’t childish. He was an Oxford professor and a Cambridge professor in the English language.
I want to tell you today, let’s keep it simple. Let’s be not childish but let’s be childlike.
Jesus bless you and have a good day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 26th of September, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Peter 3:4:
“Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
Then we go to verse 8. Peter said:
“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”
Maybe there are people that you know who tend to mock you a little bit and say: “This Jesus you are always talking about, when is He coming back because the Bible has been telling us for 2000 years that He is going to come like a thief in the night? But we have just heard from the word of God that for the Lord, a thousand years is as one day. So what is the reason then for His postponement? Why is He taking so long to come back? Well, it is a very simple answer - because our beloved Jesus, who loves you so much and loves your family and your loved ones, does not want one person to perish, to go to a lost eternity but He wants all to be saved. You can read that if you go down a little bit further to verse 9. The Lord says that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. And that is the reason why believers are prepared to risk their lives if necessary, in order to see men and women meet with the Lord.
I want to tell you something, and I am maybe going to get a bit emotional, please forgive me, but I am so proud of one of my grandsons. He is going with a team that is being led by one of my spiritual sons, and they are going to be walking up to 20 kilometres a day on narrow, mountain paths. Their sole purpose is to introduce lost souls to Jesus, so that none may perish.
I want to say to you today, my dear friend, you and I, we need to look sharp. There are people that unless they are born again and are following Jesus, they are destined to die and go to a lost eternity, and that is why these young people are prepared to take time out, to take money out of their own pockets, pay their own airfares, put rucksacks on and walk for miles in order for one soul to come to Christ. Please pray for them.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 25th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 9:33.
”Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
First the mountain, and then the ministry. Jesus took the three men, the three disciples, Peter, James and John, up the Mount of Transfiguration, and they had an incredible encounter with the Living God and two of the greatest characters in the Bible, yes - Moses and Elijah. They were so overwhelmed when they heard our Heavenly Father speaking to His Son, Jesus Christ, and saying, “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased” that they just wanted to stay on top of the mountain.
Now, have you ever been in that situation? Of course you have! So have I. To have an encounter with the Living God, whether it be in a meeting where someone brings an incredible word of God, whether you are in a situation where it is absolutely peaceful and tranquil, and you can feel the presence of the Lord, and you don’t want to leave, you don’t want to go back into the rat-race of life, you just want to stay apart. Now, that is how the disciples felt. “Lord, we don’t want to go back down there. We want to stay up here with You. You see, folks, the people who are lost, the people who are sick, the people that are lonely, the people that are fearful, they are living in the valley. We have got to go down from the mountain, back down into the valley, roll up our sleeves and get stuck in and help them. We have got to pass on those precious truths that the Lord has given to us, to those who are desperately seeking. We have got to tell people the experiences that we have had on the mountain with the Lord Jesus Christ. We can’t stay up there forever. We have got to go down into the valley where the great need is.
We also need to pass the baton to the new Christians - not always easy. You say, “No, they can’t do it, they are too young.” Yes they can and they will and when you pass on the baton, they in turn will tell others and that is how the ministry grows. As soon as a man holds that precious thing to himself and he won’t share it, it dies in his hands. Dad, pass it on to your son. “Oh, but he is not old enough yet!” Yes, he is! “But he is not responsible enough” Give him a chance. Mother, pass it on to your daughter. Give her an opportunity, “Yes, but she is not ready for it.” Yes, she is. Give her an opportunity to show you what she can do when you start to trust her, because that is what the Lord wants us to do. First, the mountain then the ministry.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 24th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Samuel 13:11-13. And Samuel said to Saul, “What have you done?” And then right at the bottom of verse 12, Saul replied, “Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.” Now, what happened here, Saul was supposed to wait for the prophet, Samuel to come and offer up a sacrifice to the Lord so that the Israelites would have the strength to win the battle, but Saul would not wait and he went ahead and did it himself. Samuel said to him,
“You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you.” He said, “now your kingdom shall not continue.”
We need to wait for the promise of God. Folks, so often we rush ahead of God, and this is a strong word today for some people. We need to wait for the promise of God. I read a beautiful little saying from an anonymous person which said, “Tarry (which means wait) at a promise till God meets you there. He always returns by way of His promises."
So if He has promised you that He will find the right husband for you, young lady, wait for the Lord and He will honour His promise. Don’t go ahead and do something that you might regret for the rest of your life by marrying the wrong man. The same thing applies young man. Wait for the Lord. Be patient. “Ja, but I will never get this degree!” Yes, you will. If God has given you that promise, give Him an opportunity. He will walk with you right through it. God will help you. I want to say to a farmer who thinks, “I have to sell my cattle now because the prices are so poor, they are never going to pick up again and I am going to lose whatever I have got left." Wait, the prices will change and you can sell the cattle for the correct amount of money. Don’t rush ahead of God! I have seen it happen too many times. Being impulsive, not waiting on the Lord and then the thing goes completely haywire and you lose out. The Lord has promised you that He will come back. He will come back by the way of His promise. He will not come back another way and He will fulfil the promise He gave you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Be patient!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 23rd of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 1 Corinthians 1:28:
”…and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen…”
I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “base”. It means “a low social class”. The Lord Jesus used twelve uneducated, unknown men, to change the whole world but working together, those twelve men changed the world forever, and that’s one thing I want to say to you today. Maybe you are feeling, "I am worthless, nobody cares about me. I can do nothing for anybody”. Don’t believe it. It’s a lie from the pit of hell! I’ve studied all the great men of God and just about every one of them started from a very low position. I think of Dr David Livingstone. He worked in a cotton mill as a young boy and educated himself. He came to Africa and he was instrumental in being one of the men that stopped the horrific trade in human flesh. Yes, I’m talking about slavery.
What about James Hudson Taylor? He took the Gospel to China, and he went on his own, nobody sent him. He was studying to be a pharmacist. He didn’t even qualify and yet he was responsible in sending or leading a thousand families to China to take the Good News to those people, and I want to tell you something, that not one of them was sponsored. They went by faith and the greatest revival in the world today is taking place in the underground church in China.
What about D L Moody? He was a shoe salesman. That man became one of the greatest evangelists the world has ever seen. He took the Gospel all over the world. What about William Carey? He was a cobbler, not even a shoemaker. When somebody was taking the mickey out of him, he said, ”No, I’m not a shoemaker, I’m a cobbler. I can only repair shoes.” We must not look down on base things.
I read this beautiful reading this morning by a man of God and it says this:
“In some of the great halls of Europe may be seen pictures, not painted with a brush but mosaics, which are made up of small pieces of stone, glass or other material. The artist takes these little pieces and polishing and arranging them, he forms them into the grand and beautiful picture. Each individual part of the picture may be a little worthless piece of glass or marble or shell but with each in it’s place, the whole constitutes the masterpiece of art. So I think it will be with humanity in the hands of the great artist. God is picking up the little worthless pieces of stone and brass that might be trodden underfoot unnoticed, and is making of them His great masterpiece.”
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 22nd of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 16:23:
“…for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
That is what Jesus said to Peter, the apostle. What will people say? How will this relationship I have with Jesus Christ affect my hard-earned reputation? We are talking about the fear of man as opposed to the fear of God. Just a bit further on in Matthew 26:75, a very, very sad scripture, the Bible tells us that Peter went out and wept bitterly after he had denied the Lord three times.
There is a price to pay for you and I, my dear friend, when we want to truly follow the Master, but I want to tell you, it is so very worthwhile, as Peter, the big fisherman, eventually found out. After being baptised in the Holy Spirit of God, he went out into the streets totally fearless, putting an end to self-preservation. Peter preached his first sermon in the streets, and three thousand souls were brought to salvation.
Your biggest enemy and my biggest enemy is not the devil. He had his neck broken on the Cross of Calvary when Jesus said, “It is finished!” Our biggest enemy is ourselves. Now if you look at Peter, he is one of the faith’s greatest heroes. What happened? Well, the fear of man was put to death and the love of Christ and his fellowman took first place. How many people do you know…I sat here in my prayer room thinking about this…how many people do you know who have the name, Peter? I have got very, very dear brothers in Christ, many of them who are called Peter.
Some of the greatest buildings are named after Peter. Yes, of course they are built for the glory of God, but they are given the name of Peter because of how he ended up, the very one who denied the Lord three times, the very one who rebuked the Lord, and the Lord took him aside and said to him, “Peter, you are more concerned about the things of men than you are about the things of God.” If we want to live a life of purpose and a life of significance, we have got to look up to the Lord, put Him first in our lives, and I tell you what - you are going to have the most exciting life you could have ever dreamed of.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 21st of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 2 Corinthians 10:5:
”…bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,…”
We need to watch out for what we are thinking. You know, we talk a lot about the heart and that’s wonderful, but what about the mind? We really need to pay attention. My wife Jill sent me a little saying which I thought was so special. It goes like this: “The thoughts that we water every day become the garden that we live in.” We need to take every single thought captive to the Lordship of Jesus.
Now when you look around you, what do you see? You see violence. I know a lot of young people love gaming but a lot of those games are violent, and then you see young people maybe not even twenty years old, trying to assassinate the former President of the United States of America - something wrong with the mind! Pornography is a serious thing, not just among men, among women as well, and your mind eventually becomes like a cesspool if you don’t deal with it immediately. Things like hatred, envy, racialism, and blatant rebellion against everything are seeds that the devil puts into our minds, and if we water them, we have to live in that garden, full of thistles and weeds and rocks and absolute death itself. We need to concentrate on good and pure things. We need to concentrate on the things of our precious Lord Jesus. We need to look at films that are heroic with heroes in them. We need to spend time reading godly books. We need to read about success stories, people that started from nothing, people that looked at the Lord Jesus Christ and then reconstructed their lives through what they thought. Be very, very careful.
When I go into somebody’s house and I look at their library, if they’ve got one, straight away that tells me all about them. I have one look at the books that they are reading or maybe the DVD’s on a shelf - it tells you the whole story, the magazines that they are reading. We really need to guard our minds very, very carefully and that is what the Lord is saying - bringing every idle thought into captivity so that it cannot run wild and cause us to do things that we would never normally do - and the way to do that is to spend lots of time reading the Bible, praying, listening to Christian music, spending time in the presence of God.
Jesus bless you and have a good day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 20th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Luke 21:29-30:
“Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.”
Just outside my prayer room, I have a beautiful little fig tree that was given to me for my birthday by my young daughter. I planted it and when I went out a couple of days ago, a beautiful big green leaf has come out the top of the tree, beautiful indeed! Now, I know for a fact, because I am a farmer, that when the fig tree starts to push new leaves, we know that summer is here. The Lord says the shepherd knows - he gets up in the morning, and he sees that the sky is red and he knows that the weather is going to be quite hectic today, maybe rain, maybe a cold front, and so he prepares his flock in the case of a storm, especially when the sheep are lambing down. But that same shepherd, when he sees a red sky in the evening, he knows there will be no rain. It will be a lovely day tomorrow. The Lord says, we can discern the weather, but why can we not see the signs of the times and the coming of the Lord?
He is telling you and me, very clearly this morning, to get prepared because He is coming back for us like a thief in the night. Now, a thief never tells you when he is coming, he comes secretly and he comes immediately. The Lord is going to come the same way. There will be no more warnings, He has given us many warnings. When we look around us and we see what is happening in this tired old world of ours, we know. I have heard many old christians say to me, “How much worse must it get before the Lord comes?” We see immorality like we have never seen before, people sticking their tongue out at the Lord and saying, “What are you going to do about it, Lord?” No fear of God! We see what is happening in the weather, we see the economy, we see the politics, and all we say as believers is, “Come Lord Jesus”, just like John said at the end of the Book of Revelation.
Now, I have told you this before, I have written something right at the back of my Bible, next to the last verse in the last book in the Bible, “Keep short accounts with God and short accounts with man.” Be ready when the trumpet blows because we will be leaving immediately. Now, that is not scary, that’s exciting. It’s scary if you are not ready but if you are ready, all we can say is, “Come Lord Jesus, come!”
Have a wonderful day and remember, the fig tree has already pushed out it’s first leaf.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 19th of September, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 15:37:
”So they all ate and were filled,…”
Our Lord Jesus Christ never sends anyone away hungry. He always feeds His people. Father God fed the children of Israel in the wilderness for forty years, every single day, with manna from heaven. Now what does the word, “manna” mean? It literally means, “what is it?” That is the actual meaning of the word, “manna” - “what is it?” Well, according to Exodus 16:14, it was small, round substance as fine as frost on the ground.
You and I must get up early in the morning and He will feed us every single day with spiritual food. You see, when the sun came up and started to shine and it got hot, that manna literally melted, and they tried to keep enough for the second day but it didn’t work, it just went rotten. They had to get it every single morning, and by the way, it was delicious. Exodus 16:31 tells us it was like white coriander seed and the taste was like wafers made with honey. Wow, every single morning!
Now, you and I also need to get up early in the morning and receive our spiritual manna from the Lord. We need to do it before the cares and worries of this world melt the food. You see, it doesn’t really work when we are trying to wing it. Driving to work, getting the children ready for school, we start thinking about other things, and that is why many of us are suffering from spiritual malnutrition. We are spiritually dying because we are not receiving that manna every morning. It’s no good trying to get it once a week, it won’t sustain you. The Lord gives us enough for every single day. As we close, I want to pray for you today.
Heavenly Father,
I pray for my dear friends who are suffering from spiritual malnutrition. They are starving to death spiritually. I pray that as of today, Lord, they will start to get up every single morning and they will receive that beautiful white coriander seed with a taste like wafers made with honey every day, and that will strengthen them Lord, to face every challenge in this life. I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 18th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 15:31:
“So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.”
Oh folks, it is amazing when you see a miracle take place! It really does something to your faith, doesn’t it? It lifts it right up. I remember many years ago, holding a huge campaign on the north coast of Kwa-Zulu Natal at a place called Salt Rock. We were bringing in crowds of people every single night in buses. The one night, the tent was packed full, there was a presence of the Holy Spirit, there was an expectation of miracles, signs and wonders, and a man came up onto the platform. He was actually one of the bus drivers, he had a turban on his head, he was of the Sikh faith and he came up with his father, and his father said, “My son is mute, he cannot speak.” Well, we anointed him with oil, we prayed the prayer of faith, I took the mic, I put it to his mouth and I said, “Say “Jesus,” and he opened his mouth wide and he said, “Jesus!” Well, the tent went wild. It was an incredible night!
Jesus Christ is the Miracle-worker! He is the same yesterday, and today and forevermore. I want to say to you that there is nothing that is too hard for the Lord. The Lord is the same yesterday, He is the same today and He is the same forever. (Hebrews 13:8). I really want to say to you today, trust the Lord because He is alive and because He is alive, we can face tomorrow. Do you remember that old song, “Because He lives I can face tomorrow”? Let’s sing it together:
God sent His son, they called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal, and forgive.
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Saviour lives.
And because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.
So go out today and trust the Lord for your miracle. That is all we have to do, we have to believe, and then let the Lord work through our lives. Receive your healing today in Jesus name.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 17th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Deuteronomy 16:13:
“You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress.”
The Feast of Tabernacles (it is also called Sukkot), is the time when the Israeli people celebrate what God has done in their lives. They build a little booth, which they call a sukkot, and that is where they spend time talking about the goodness of God. They decorate it with grapes, figs, olives and dates. They hang them in bunches all around this little building, and then for seven days, they go during the day and they sit in that little place, and they remember how God delivered them from Pharaoh, from Egypt, took them through the wilderness for forty years, and brought them into the Land of Milk and Honey, when they crossed the Jordan River. They sit and they tell their children, and they tell their grandchildren those stories, how God has protected them. They build up their faith. I believe that the strength of the Israeli nation is found in the fact that they continue to remember their past.
If you have written a book, I have written a few, and you have no before-time and you just start writing, it doesn’t make sense. You have got to tell the people where you are coming from. The dictionary says that the word, “prologue” means “introductory scene to a play” or in my case, to a story - what happened before. And that is the strength of the Israeli nation. They continue to tell their children and their children’s children how God has undertaken for them.
I want to tell you, I have got a story, and it started on the 18th of February, 1979 at about 10 a.m., in a little Methodist church in the Main Street of Greytown, our little town that is 15 kilometres away. That day, I met Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour, and as they say, the rest after that is history, but it started many, many years before, and we have been through many hardships since. Yes, we have experienced droughts, fires, floods, disease, hardship, and personal tragedy, but Jesus Christ has been the Golden Thread that has held us together for 45 years on this farm, Shalom.
You need to tell your story to your children. You need to tell them how you met Christ. You need to tell your friends at school how you have come into a relationship with God. That is what it is all about. Don’t forget the Feast of Tabernacles, seven days when the whole of Israel comes to a standstill and they remember where God has brought them from. You do the same!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 16th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
I am reading out of the Amplified Version this morning.
“For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world [with all its pleasures], and forfeit his soul?“
Mark 8:36
Folks, this morning I want to speak to you about family. We can add to that scripture, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his family?” - because your soul is tied up with your family. The first family ever on earth was the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Remember, charity - love, begins at home. It is so precious to the Lord Jesus Christ, the family unit, and the devil knows that, and he knows the only way he can hurt the Lord is to hurt the family. We must never forget, the devil hates God and that is why the devil hates you, because he sees God in you. We need to protect our families with our very lives.
Some of us are locking up the front door to make sure the devil doesn’t come in and the devil is walking straight in through the back door. We need to be so protective over our loved ones. Our priorities must remain in order: First, God, then your wife or your husband, then your children, and then everything else. Be sure that things are okay back at the ranch. It’s no good if the wheels are coming off at the ranch and you are out there, preaching the Gospel to the whole world. We need to start at home base. Let’s be honest with each other, sometimes the hardest place to be a Christian is in your own home. Isn’t that right? You can ask mom. She knows exactly what dad is really like when he is at home.
I will never forget, one of the saddest things for me. When I was a young farmer up in Central Africa, we used to have a mixed farm. We had watermelons, pigs and cattle, and at that time, they were building a railroad from Dar-Es-Salaam on the Indian Ocean, right into the centre of Africa, where we were farming in Zambia. The Chinese would come in with their trucks, convoys of them, to buy all our watermelons, one time, all our pigs - and these men would come in and they all had the same grey uniforms on, and they would stop often and just sit and watch our little children (our children were very young at that stage), playing together in the garden, and then they would come to me, very, very sad and with sign language, they would tell me that back home in China, they would also have wives and children. I have never forgotten that.
We need to spend more time together and we need to appreciate each other much more.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 15th of September, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 23:24:
”Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”
Religion is a killer. These are the words of Jesus. Now, do you know what a gnat is? I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the exact meaning of a gnat. A gnat is a small two-winged fly, resembling a mosquito. Now Jesus says, you strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel. We need to be so careful on this one. We go to Luke 6:9. Jesus asked the pharisees, the religious people:
Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?”
See, and they never said a word. Now there was a man with a withered hand and Jesus wanted to heal his hand but the religious people said you mustn’t do any work on a Sabbath day, and that is when the Lord asked, “Is it right or wrong to do good on the Sabbath?” We must be very careful that we don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Now, moms and dads, tell your children what that means.
A few years back, two young women came into our church, and I must be honest with you, they were very skimpily dressed and very suggestively dressed, and there was a visitor that came from overseas. He was clearly a pharisee because after the service he came up to us and he said, ”How can you allow two women, so badly dressed, to come into the church?” and we looked at him and we said, ”But sir, we have never seen those women before. This is the first time they’ve ever come to church.” You see, folks, those two women were obviously seeking the Lord, and they decided to be brave and come to church to meet with Jesus, but if the pharisee had his way, he would have never allowed them in. How many times do we read in the bible that Jesus was eating with the tax collectors, the publicans, the prostitutes. Even the disciples didn’t come into those eating houses. “Lord, do you know who those people are?”
“Yes, I know who they are. I came for the sick, not the healthy.” Be careful today, that we don’t swallow a camel and try and strain out a little mosquito, a gnat, out of our food.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 14th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Ezekiel 3:17:
”…give them warning from Me…”
We need to warn people about the urgency of the hour in which we are living. Folks, we need to warn them in order for their lives to be saved. We have a responsibility, however - and this is very important - we cannot lead a person to Christ ourselves. Only the Holy Spirit can do that in the name of Jesus Christ.
I have got a special horse. His name is Snowy. I think you know him. I can take Snowy down to the water but I can’t make him drink. He only drinks when he wants to drink, and seriously, that is the case with people. We can tell them about the Lord but we can’t make them serve the Lord. There is a terrible urgency in the world at the moment. People need to know the way home. They need to know that they have to be born again. It’s what the Bible says. If we look at John 4:35, Jesus says:
”Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’?
In other words, tomorrow is another day. In Zulu we say, “Kusasa, evuma uNkulunkulu“ Tomorrow, if the Lord wills. And Jesus says,
“Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”
John 4:35
We really need to blow the trumpet and warn the people. You know, I have got a picture, I have had it for many years in my mind, and this is the picture - of a sleeping watchman on top of the wall of an old medieval castle, and all the people sound asleep inside the castle. Now the watchman has a responsibility. When he sees the enemy coming, he has to blow the trumpet and warn the people to wake up and get ready to defend themselves, but he is sound asleep, and the enemy has put ladders on the walls, and they are busy climbing up the ladders to go into the castle and to destroy the people.
You and I are those watchmen. We have a responsibility. “Ja, but they won’t listen to me, Angus”. No, that is not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to tell them, and that is not only by words but by action and lifestyle. It’s not just the responsibility of the evangelist or the minister or the pastor, no! It is every single believer's responsibility, whether at school, at university, in the workplace, in the hospital, wherever you might be. People need to hear that Jesus Christ loves them and that He is coming back very soon and we need to be prepared.
Have a wonderful day and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 13th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Psalm 2:7:
“You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” Then we go straight to Luke 4:41:
“You are the Christ, the Son of God!” And those are demons acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Son of God. “
Then Luke 8:28, the same thing again:
“What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”
The first people to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God were demons - oh yes! Jesus says that He came into the world, not for those who are healthy but for those who are sick, ordinary people who have never met Jesus Christ in a special way. Folks, I want to tell you, as I record this message, there are Mighty Men Conferences taking place all over the world. Just yesterday I was on a zoom call with men in Australia that will be meeting at Ayers Rock, right in the heart of Australia, to pray for revival for the Mighty Men Conferences coming next year. There has just been one completed in Canada - beautiful! We have got over 20 Mighty Men Conferences happening in South Africa alone, 5 in a row in 5 weeks.. I want to tell you that God is on the move, and I want to tell you that Jesus Christ is the Friend of sinners like you and me.
Now, for the ladies that are listening to this programme, I want to reassure you that the reason why Mighty Men takes place, is to teach men how to love, how to respect, how to honour and how to protect their women and children, how to put bread on the table, how to teach their children how to love Jesus and to stand up and be counted, and the Lord is doing that.
Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and Jesus went into his house to have a meal with him, the disciples said, “Lord, do you know who that man is?” He said, “Yes, I do know who he is.” I want to tell you that Zacchaeus got converted that day. He was that little short man who climbed up the sycamore tree to see Jesus coming. He gave 400% of everything that he took away from or stole from anybody else.
I have seen letters sent to me from little children, 10 years old, in that big, beautiful handwriting - it makes me want to cry, “Thank you for giving me a new daddy after the Mighty Men weekend.” Women writing beautiful letters to us saying, “the man I fell in love with 20 years ago came back home this weekend.” Jesus is on the move, and He is here for the sinner and He is here for those who will put up their hand and say, “Lord, I will follow You.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 12th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 14:25, from the amplified version of the Bible:
“And in the fourth watch of the night (3:00-6:00 a.m.) Jesus came to them, walking on the sea.”
Our dear Lord Jesus had been with His Father, on the mountain, before he performed one of the greatest miracles that this world had ever known. Yes, He walked on the water. Yes, He saved His disciples from drowning. Where did the strength come from? It came from time spent on the mountain with His Heavenly Father. That is what God is expecting of you and from me. Don’t even attempt to serve the Lord if you are not going to hear from God and if you are not going to spend quality time with Him.
Jesus says, time and time again through the Gospels, that He could do nothing without His Father. We find every time the Master did a great work, He had spent time in the presence of His Father. We need to do the same. We need to get our directives from the Lord and not from people and definitely not from peoples’ opinions. The times that you and I are living in, my dear friend, are too dangerous and too critical, for us to simply try and “wing it”, as they say. If in doubt, don’t do it! Hear first from God and then commit and do it with all of your heart.
It was between 3 and 6 o’clock in the morning, when Jesus came walking on the water. That lake was not calm, it was extremely stormy. That lake is very, very deep. I have sailed on that lake a number of times and even today, it is known to be very turbulent and stormy at times. The disciples were sinking in the boat when the Lord came walking over those waves on top of the water, but without hesitation, when He got to the boat and He stepped into the boat, the waves and the storms ceased immediately.
Today, before we want to attempt something, whatever it might be, whatever decision it might be, please spend time with God and hear from Him.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 11th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
I want to speak to you this morning about quiet time, spending time alone every morning with Jesus. We go to Exodus 33:14:
“My Presence will go with you…”
Isn’t that a beautiful assurance? Then Hebrews 13:5, where the Lord says:
”I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
I want to ask you, are you having a regular quiet time every day? “No.” you say,” I’m too busy at the moment.” And how are things going with you? “No. They’re not going well.” Exactly! We need to put Jesus Christ first every morning before we go to work. It doesn’t matter how busy we are. They asked Martin Luther, the great revivalist, “What do you do when you get busier in the morning?” He said: ”I get up earlier and I have my quiet time.” We cannot go into the world without having our quiet time.
F P Meyer was a wonderful man of God, a preacher and I picked up this reading that he had written. It goes like this:
“We should never leave our prayer closets in the morning without having focussed our thoughts, deeply and intensely, on the fact of the actual presence of God there with us, encompassing us and filling the room as literally as it fills heaven itself. It may not lead to any distinct results at first, but as we make repeated efforts to realise the presence of God, it will become increasingly real to us, and as the habit grows upon us, when alone in a room, or when treading the lawn of some natural woodland, temple or when pacing the stony street, in the silence of night, or even amid the teeming crowds of daylight, we shall often find ourselves whispering the words, “You are near. You are here, oh Lord. Amen.”
What a beautiful reading. Today, give Him the first fruits before you go out of your closet.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 10th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Lamentations 4:4. The NKJV version says:
The young children ask for bread, But no one breaks it for them.”
The Amplified version says:
” …The little ones ask for food but no one gives it to them.”
Very, very sad scripture and so true - so many hungry children in our midst. Then we go to Matthew 14:14:
”And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.”
Now folks, remember John The Baptist had just been beheaded. The message came through to His cousin, our Lord Jesus Christ. He must have been absolutely devastated, and the Bible tells us that He went off by himself to a deserted place, obviously to mourn the death of the man of God, and yet the multitudes followed after Jesus on foot. They would not leave Him alone but He put His personal feelings aside and He went out and He healed all of them. You and I need to keep focused on what God has called us to do.
I can hear a person say, I’m in an old age home, what can I do? Oh, you can pray because there is power in prayer. You might be a businessman, you say, ”I can’t get on the platform, I’ve got too much work to do in my business.” Well, you can support the Gospel by the gift that God has given to you, in generating income. There’s always something that we can do.
Remember the story, I’ve told it to you before about the little boy walking along the sea shore and a great wave came in and thousands of little starfish were stranded on the sea shore and this little boy walked along, probably five, six years old, and started picking up the starfish and throwing them back into the sea and a big man came up behind him and he said, ”Little boy, what are you doing? He said, “I am saving the starfish, sir.” And the man said, “Son, you will never ever be able to throw these hundreds of thousands of starfish back into the sea before they die.” He said, “No, sir” but he picked up a starfish (it makes me want to cry) and he threw it in and said, “but I saved that one!” And he picked up another one and he threw it into the sea and he said, “And I saved that one too!”
Folks, we need to do what we can while there is still time left for the lost in this world. They need to hear the Gospel.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 9th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Matthew 14:9:
“And the king was sorry; nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he commanded it to be given to her.”
Peer pressure! King Herod secretly admired John the Baptist for his holiness and his fearless stand for truth and righteousness, but when the crowd was around him, he was under pressure to perform, and he buckled. Do not buckle under pressure.
Just because everyone else is doing it, young lady, that does not make it right. All the girls in your class tell you they are not virgins - it’s not the truth. Do not conform just to be accepted. It could cost you a lot of pain and a lot of suffering. “The world stands aside for a man who knows where he is going” - isn’t that beautiful? People don’t have to like you but they must respect you.
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the words, “peer pressure”. It means to conform, it means to buckle to intimidation, to buckle under nagging, forcing someone to do something, twisting a person’s arm. Don’t allow it to happen. If you cannot afford to buy it, do not buy it. “Yes, but everybody else has got one.” It doesn’t matter? Cut your cloth according to your pocket and then you will have peace and sleep well at night. Just because other people are doing it, doesn’t make it right.
King Herod knew what he was doing was wrong but in order to please people, he capitulated, he changed his mind, he let the show down and it cost him dearly. The man that Jesus said was the greatest man to be born from the womb of a woman, John the Baptist, was needlessly beheaded by a king who did not have the guts to stand. You ask yourself the question, “Well, what must I do? What is right? What is wrong? Do I pay my income tax or don’t I? Do I have an affair because all my friends are? ”Well, I will tell you what to do, it is very simple. You ask yourself one single question, and this is the question: What would Jesus do? Then you do what He would do, and you will be safe and you will live a righteous life and things will go well with you. Just do what the Master tells you to do. You will have peace, peace like a river, you will be able to sleep well, operate well.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 8th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Lamentations 3:39:
“Why should a living man complain, A man for the punishment of his sins?”
Why do we complain when we have done something wrong and things don’t work out? Then we go to the Book of Micah 7:9:
‘“I will bear the indignation of the Lord, Because I have sinned against Him…”
Just be honest and say sorry. Just ask God to forgive you and stop complaining about the punishment you are receiving because of something you have done wrong. Fix it, just fix it! Many years ago I leased a field from a neighbouring farm and we grew a crop on that farm, and a young man, who was working with me was a great farmer and he would come back to the farm and would complain furiously. “What is wrong?” I would say. He said, “The neighbour that we have hired the land from, his cattle keep going into our crops and are eating our crops because the fence is so poor. So I said, “Well, let’s fix the fence.” He said, “But that is not our responsibility. We have just hired the land, he is supposed to look after his own farm!” And this continued, and of course, the farmer we were leasing the land from, he wasn’t complaining, his cattle were getting fat, until one day I said to the young man, “Go and fix the fence. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t our responsibility. We are losing our crop.” And of course, once we had fixed the fence, the cattle couldn’t go in anymore.
I want to say to you this morning, that Jesus is more eager to forgive us of our sins than we are to ask Him to forgive us. Remember the story of the rich young ruler? He came to Jesus and said, “I have obeyed all the commandments of the Bible. The Lord said, “There is just one thing you haven’t done. Give your riches to the poor and come and follow after me.” And he couldn’t do it, he would not, he walked away. And as one minister said to me, “Jesus must have been standing there with tears running down His face,” because that man was walking on his way to hell because he would not repent and adjust his ways. I believe that if that young man had said, “Yes Lord, I will give it all away”, the Lord would have probably said, “Now you can keep it’, because He does not want us to be ensnared by the things of this world.
Today, fix it!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 7th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 13:58:
“Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.”
What a sad scripture! Jesus did not do many mighty works in His own hometown, Nazareth, because of their unbelief. He says just earlier in the passage:
“A prophet is not without honour except in his own country and in his own house.”Matthew 13:57
So sad. From Nazareth down to Capernaum is half a day’s walk. In Nazareth, where Jesus worked in the carpenter shop with His earthly father, Joseph, and his brothers, sisters and mother, Mary, He could perform very few miracles. Yet, a half a day’s walk, down to Capernaum, amazing miracles, feeding 5,000 people with two fish and five barley loaves of bread, walking on the water, healing the sick, setting captives free, delivering people from demons because the people believed.
I want to ask you one thing, and I want you to listen very carefully. Please do not tie God’s hands because of your unbelief. When a person wants to pray for you, it is not the person who is going to heal you. It is the name of Jesus Christ, when a person anoints you with oil and prays the prayer of faith. You can find that in James 5:16. It is the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails much, the Bible says. So many times when I have been overseas, people have come from distances to receive healing and they have received their healing, not because of me. I am merely a vessel of the Lord, but because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
Remember the woman with the issue of blood? She pushed through the crowd and touched the hem of Jesus’ garment. She said to herself, “If I can only touch the hem of His garment, I will be healed.” She was healed immediately. That woman had spent all her money going to doctors. What about Bartimaeus, the blind man? “Oh Rabboni (Teacher), if I could just receive my sight.” Immediately, he was healed. Do not tie God’s hands through unbelief - that is why He could not perform many miracles in His own hometown.
Jesus bless you and have a day where you contemplate the miracle working power of The Carpenter from Nazareth.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 6th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 37:7:
"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;…”
Then we go to the Book of James 5:7-8
“Therefore be patient, (there is that word again) brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
We need to be patient and today everything is almost working to the opposite of being patient. It is a case of “Hurry up and let’s do it quickly!” Everything is fast - fast food, fast cars, a fast life. Folks, I tell you what, it does not last. The Lord says we must be like a good farmer who waits for his crop. Impatient, erratic people will never see the fruit of their labours. You and I have to work at things.
I never had the privilege, and it is a privilege, to go to a theological college to learn about the word of God, but the Lord sent me to the field. He sent me, as a farmer. To put a crop of maize into the ground, or wheat, or corn, it takes a full year, not two or three months. You have to prepare the seed bed, you have to plant the seed, you have to nurture that crop through all kinds of disease, of weather extremes - I am talking about hail, I am talking about drought, I am talking about floods, and you have to stay with that crop. An old farmer once said to me, “Angus, how often do you check your cattle?” I said, “Every single day.” He said, “Then you should check your crop of maize every single day because you will find something else that you can work on.” You need to deal with the weeds that spring up. If there is insect damage coming in, you need to deal with it. You coax it, you tend it, you love it until the day of harvest, and then, once it is in the bag, as they say, you can relax and give the glory to God.
Work on your marriage. There is no such thing as a perfect marriage, I have never met one yet. Work on your marriage! Study hard to get that qualification, it does not come easy. If it did, everybody else would be doing it. Be patient, not only with your animals but with your loved ones. You see me riding a horse and you think that is easy. No, its not easy, it has taken years and years and years of patience and training to get that horse to do what I want him to do.
Now, let’s spend time with Jesus and He will give us the grace to finish the job.
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 5th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Old Testament in the Book of Lamentations 1:20-21:
“See, O Lord, that I am in distress; My soul is troubled;…They have heard that I sigh, But no one comforts me.”
Then we go to Psalm 42:5:
“Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance.”
Now, you know, the interesting thing there, my dear friend, is that we read this scripture from Psalm 42 - it is written twice in Psalm 42 - in verse 11 as well. Then we go to Psalm 43 and it is written yet again, three times on two pages. People are distressed, people are troubled. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to look up the meaning of the word “Distress” It means “extreme unhappiness”, and it means to be “heartbroken.” Now, you and I need to show more love and more compassion to people who are hurting. Please never say to a hurting and distressed person that you understand, unless you have been there yourself, because they can see right through you. Rather put your arm around them, weep with them, sit with them and just be quiet. What they need desperately is hope.
Faith is for the present and hope is for the future. Reassure them that this life is very temporal. It is not going to last, we are passing through, we are sojourners. We are going home. Tell them about the life to come, speak to them about Heaven. You know, Jesus spoke so much about His heavenly home. Paul, the great apostle said, in Philippians 1:21:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
You can’t frighten a Christian with Heaven. If we live, we live for Jesus, if we die, we go home. I see some of these top sportsmen in the changing room before they go out onto the field, banging their heads up against the wall to get psyched up! You and I don’t have to do that. What we need to do is go for a good walk, sit somewhere in a quiet place, and have a heart-to-heart chat with Jesus. Tell Him about your troubles, tell Him about your distressed moments and then leave it in His capable hands, and you will feel so much better. That is what I do. Have a good chat with the Lord and He will reassure you that He will sort it all out in due time.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 4th of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 113:1-3:
"Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, Praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its going down. The Lord's name is to be praised."
We need to praise the Lord, my dear friend, today. How are you feeling this morning? Not feeling so good? It's a good time to praise the Lord, especially when you don't feel like it.
The other scripture is Isaiah 59:19:
"…When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him."
That is the power that we have as followers of Jesus. We can praise the Lord in all our circumstances.
On a Wednesday morning here at the farm, very early before the sun comes up, there's a group of men that come together and we pray in the chapel. Now, when we get into that chapel for the prayer meeting, we've normally had a cup of coffee or a cup of tea, the first thing we do is we start to sing and we praise the Lord and we sing for quite a while, and then we start to pray, and I want to tell you folks, it clears the air. You can see smiles on the men's faces because they are praising the Lord.
Now the reason why I'm sending this to you is because this very morning we had a power failure. There were no lights and the first thing is, I couldn't find the torch. Then eventually I found the torch and I tried to get hold of a candle. I got the candle but I couldn't find the matches. I'm laughing but I wasn't laughing at that time! Now, I'm trying to make a fire because it's freezing cold here and I don't want my dear wife Jill to get up. It's cold in the house but I can't get outside because there's no lights and there's no firewood next to the stove. Eventually I got it all sorted out and we got the candle going, and then the lights came back on!
I want to say to you today, we praise the Lord unconditionally, not just because we feel like it. It's because He's worthy to be praised and when we praise the Lord, it's like that candle, when I've finally found the matches, I could strike the match and the darkness literally went out of the room. I could see what I was doing, make a nice fire for my wife, put the kettle on and give her a nice cup of tea, and then the lights came back on.
Today, I don't know where you are at, I don't know what you are dealing with but just start to praise Him and you will be surprised how things will turn around.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 3rd of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 John 2:15 KJV:
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.”
We need to be unclogged from the things of the world. I read a beautiful reading, early this morning, by a man by the name of J. Ingels and this is how it goes:
‘If you go to the banks of a little stream and you watch the flies that come down to bathe in it, you will notice that while they plunge their bodies into the water, they keep their wings high out of the water, and after swimming about a little while, they fly away with their wings un-wet, through the sunny air. Now, that is the lesson for you and me. Here, on this earth, we are immersed in the cares and the business of the world, but let us keep our wings, the wings of our soul, our faith and our love, out of the world, so that with these unclogged, we may be ready to take our flight to Heaven.”
Isn’t that beautiful? Don’t get bogged down with the things of this world that rob us of our joy. We start getting involved in things that have got nothing to do with us. Remember, you and I are sojourners, we are travellers, we are passing through. We are not remaining here forever. No, let us do what we can while we are here but let us keep our wings dry so that when the Lord calls us, we can fly away with Him into our heavenly home.
Today, folks, let us focus on the most important things that count - first of all, God, secondly, our loved ones, our family, then our friends, and then our work or our ministry. But let us keep them in order so that we do not get bogged down. We get our wings wet and then we cannot fly out of that water. Today, let us fly into the sunshine with dry wings and a body that is ready to face the Lord Jesus Christ, when He calls us and He says, “Well done good and faithful servant, come and enter into thy rest.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 2nd of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Old Testament, the Book of Proverbs 3:15:
”She is more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her.”
Then we go to Mathew 13:45-46:
”Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
That pearl of great price! Oh, my dear friend, it is our salvation. It’s when we find the Lord Jesus Christ, isn’t it? That is exactly what it is like.So often, we forget what God has so freely given to you and me: eternal life, freedom, and a new opportunity to serve Him. We don’t even know sometimes what we are holding in our hands, do we? The Passion Translation says: “When he discovered one very precious and exquisite pearl, he immediately gave up all that he had in exchange for it.” The Message Translation says: “Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it.”
On the 26th of January 1905, in South Africa, the largest rough diamond ever found on earth was found in the Cullinan Mine. It weighed 621.2 grams. It is worth 19,000,000 British pounds. It was named after the mine owner, Thomas Cullinan. Incredible! But I want to tell you, I found my diamond on 18th February 1979, at about 10 o’clock in the morning - an absolute pearl of great price. Yes, I met Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour, and you know, since that day, everything else in this world has paled into insignificance in comparison. What about you? Would you like to find that diamond of great price? Maybe you did and you lost it. I want to pray a prayer with you today, that you would again commit your life to Jesus. Please pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I have been searching all my life for peace, joy and purposeful living. Today, by faith, I accept you as my Lord and Saviour. I thank you for dying for a sinner like me and today, You will become the most important person in my life.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 1st of September, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 13:31-32:
" Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches."
Then we go to the Gospel of Luke 17:6:
"So the Lord said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."
The smallest of the seeds becomes the biggest plant in the garden. In fact, so big that even the birds of the air can build their nests in it. Never despise small beginnings. What is it that the Lord requires of you and me in order to do something big for Him? He requires faith and obedience that's all, nothing else.
You know the true story of the little boy who's mom gave him two little sardines and five small barley loaves for his lunch, and when he went to hear Jesus preaching and there was a crowd of over 5000 people, he took his two sardines, his five barley loaves - yes, his mustard seed. He gave it to Jesus. Jesus multiplied it and fed a crowd exceeding 5000. That is what we have to do today. Just take what you've got and give it to the Lord, and He will use it and multiply it, and it will bless many others.
I love that beautiful story about a little Dutch boy walking along a dike late one afternoon. Now we know that large parts of Holland are below sea level and there was a little hole that sprung forth from the dike and the water was starting to pour in. The little boy got down on his knees, he put his finger in the hole where the water was coming through, and he stayed there all night and kept his finger in that hole, until people came the next day and helped him. He saved a whole town from a devastating flood.
I want to say to you today just use what you've got. I carry little bottles of mustard seed around with me in my pocket and often when people are feeling down I give them a little bottle of mustard seed and they say, "What is that?" And I say, "That is a reminder that all you need is faith, the size of one mustard seed and the Lord will undertake for you."
Put your trust in Him today. Give Him what you've got and let Him show you what a miracle working God He really is!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 31st of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the 2 Samuel 19:6:
”…you love your enemies and hate your friends.”
That was a word that Joab, the general of the armies of Israel, told King David. Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 13:27:
”So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?” (or weeds).
The Lord is speaking to us this morning very clearly because the farmer said to his servants, “Leave the weeds and concentrate on the wheat. Let them both grow out together and then at harvest time, we take the weeds out first, burn them, and then we’ll reap the rich crop of wheat.” We need to be very careful that we are not spending our valuable time in the wrong place. We need to start to spend more time with those who want to spend time with us.
You say to me, ”but what about those who hate us? What about those who are constantly putting us down, bad mouthing us? What do we do in that case?” I will tell you what you do - you commit them into the Lord’s hands, you pray for them and then you move on, and you spend time with those who want to spend time with you, and you do not allow those negative things, those weeds, those tares, to influence your life to such a degree that the people that love you are neglected.
C. H. Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, was walking down the high street one day and a man came up to him and said,
”You! You are the chief of all fools”, or words to that effect, and he turned around and said, ”Well, at least I’m the chief of something!” Don’t let those negative words, those negative influences, put you down.
Today, let us walk with those who love the Lord and those who want to walk with us. Let the Lord take care of the weeds and the tares, and let’s start to be grateful for the friends that the Lord has given us.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 30th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 5:5:
“But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”
There is our key word for today, “nevertheless”. “Nevertheless, even though it is not working, Lord, You said it, nevertheless I will do it once more.” And Peter threw that net over and the fish that swam into that net were so many that the net was breaking and he had to call the boats to help him bring in the catch.
Do not stop, do not give up. Never, ever, ever give up. Throw it in once more, try it once more, write that exam once more. Keep going, don’t stop, work on that marriage, work on that degree, don’t stop. Simon threw the net in once more and what a catch! Do you remember the story of the King of Scotland, Robert the Bruce? He was one of the mightiest kings that Scotland ever had but he was getting defeated by the enemy. His army was scattered everywhere. In fact, the King of Scotland was hiding in a cave for his very life. He was sitting in that dark cave, he was totally disillusioned, he didn’t know what to do. Then he saw a spider, and this spider was trying to weave a web and was swinging from one side of the cave to the other side but he kept missing. He couldn’t make it. He came short and he fell and he crawled up the wall again, and he climbed up the wall again and he swung across again, and he did it many times and eventually that little spider made it to the other side, and then he was able to weave his web. That little insect prompted the King of Scotland to get out of that cave, to rally his troops and once more take on the enemy. Yes, and he defeated the enemy and chased them out of Scotland.
Today, do what the Lord says. If He says, “Nevertheless, do it once more”, please obey what the Lord tells you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 29th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Malachi 3:6:
”For I am the Lord, I do not change;…“
Isn’t that a beautiful promise? Our Lord cannot tell lies, it is against His nature, He can’t do it. If we look at Numbers 23:19, the Bible says:
”God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Oh, you can bank on it, He will not disappoint you. I think, one of the hardest things for us to face is broken promises - when your husband promised he’d be home at 7 o’clock and he doesn’t come home, or that young lady promised that she’d deliver and she didn’t do it. It is so heart wrenching, isn’t it? But the good news is, there is One that we can be absolutely confident in, yes, His name is Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6:
”being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you, will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
Isn’t that wonderful? I want to say to you today that with a world that is so insecure, where you can’t trust anyone, there is One who is trustworthy. I read a beautiful reading early this morning, written by a mighty man of God, Samuel Rutherford. He said, and I quote:
”Our hope is not hung up upon such untwisted thread as for example, “I imagine so” or “It is likely”. No, rather it is the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor. It is the oath and the promise of Him who is eternal truth. Our salvation is fastened with God’s own hand and Christ’s own strength, to the strong stake of God’s unchanging nature.”
Today, put your trust in the Lord. He will never disappoint you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 28th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the 1 Corinthians 11:1. Paul says:
“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”
Wow, there is a challenge for us! It’s no good shouting at your tractor driver because he is ploughing in the wrong gear, and he is wasting diesel as the black smoke goes out of the exhaust pipe. Stop him at at the headland, ask him to move over, jump on the tractor and show him how to do it and he will not argue with you. I remember years ago, buying a beautiful Simmentaler bull from a very, very well-established stockman. His name was Cedric Taylor. There was a group of young guys trying to help me, and we were trying to load this huge one-ton Simmentaler bull onto my truck, and he would just not go on, and we were trying everything, and then I heard the old man say, “Excuse me, can you just move over a bit?” And then he walked up to that bull and he put his big hand on the middle of the back of that big bull, and said, “Come on boy, let’s walk onto the truck’, and that big bull walked straight onto that truck.
You see, we need to imitate Jesus because He is the only one that can help us. Now that old gentleman didn’t have to tell me that he was a stockman, I saw it with my own eyes and I have never forgotten it. John, the apostle, the legend goes that when he was a very old man, he was the last of the disciples to die, they used to carry him in on a bed, to the meetings that he had, and he would always say, “Little children, love one another.” And they would say to each other and to John, “But John, why do you always tell us that?” And with tears in his eyes he would say, “Because that’s what the Master always told us to do.”
1 John 4:8 says very clearly that:
“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Today, let’s go out and imitate our beloved Lord Jesus.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 27th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 13:16:
“But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear;…”
The Lord has given us spiritual eyes and spiritual ears so that we can see and hear directly from Him. You and I need to lift up our eyes and open our ears much better. He who aims at the stars aims too low! We have got to aim higher, above the stars.
1 Corinthians 2:9:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
You know how much God has in store for you, why are we grovelling when we should be standing tall and aiming high? I want to ask you a question, how big is God? Well, God is as big as you allow Him to be in your life and today we need to lift up our eyes and open our ears.
A very famous South African statesman, Jan Smuts said, “A man is not defeated by his opponents but by himself.” We really need to understand that. I remember going to Sweden, many, many years ago. We were praying in the vestry at the back of the church before the service started. One man said to me, ‘What are you doing over here? Why don’t you go back to Africa? We don’t have poverty or hunger here.” And then a lady started to cry. She said, “Angus, here we have everything that opens and closes - we have water that we can drink out of the lakes, we have the biggest trucks in the world but we keep Jesus in a matchbox and sometimes we just let Him out a little bit. Please pray for us.
Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Don’t tie God’s hands by doubt and unbelief. Write that book that you want to write, start that business that you believe God wants you to start. Study and finish - to be that doctor that can help the poor and the sick. Train hard and be an international sportsman so that you can glorify God on the podium, like so many Christians have done in the Olympic Games. Do not limit God in your life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 26th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Acts 6:15:
“And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him (that was Stephen), saw his face as the face of an angel.”
You and I need to tell our story. Stephen was waiting on the tables. He wasn’t one of the apostles and yet he told his story. That story led to his death actually. They eventually stoned him, but the man who orchestrated the stoning - yes, Saul of Tarsus, because of that testimony, became the greatest of all the apostles when his eyes were open and he realised what he had done. We need to tell our story. When was the last time you told somebody about how you met Jesus Christ? Yes, it could make you very unpopular, it cost Stephen his life, but I want to tell you, there is no power greater than personal testimony. We need to tell our story.
Now, Fanny Crosby lived 100 years ago plus, and at 6 weeks old she went blind, but she became one of the greatest of all hymn writers, and probably her most famous hymn was the one, “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine”. I want you and I to sing it together this morning and then maybe we could go out today and tell somebody our story. You say, “But I am not a preacher.” No, Stephen wasn’t either! He was a waiter, he waited on the tables. It goes like this:
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.
Perfect submission, all is at rest,
I in my Saviour am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long;
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Saviour all the day long.
Go out today and tell your story,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 25th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 8:34,
”When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
It’s a costly business, following the Lord Jesus Christ. It requires a change of lifestyle. When I first left school, I worked as an apprentice printer in a daily newspaper. Now, if you are working at a daily newspaper, that means the newspaper must be printed in the evening, so when all my friends went to work early in the morning as the sun was rising, I was going home to sleep, and in the evening as the sun was going down I was going to work and it cost me. It became very lonely. My friends were going out together to parties and to play sport and I was going to work.
The other day, I was talking to some of my grandsons and they said, ”Sometimes it becomes lonely to be a follower of Jesus Christ.” You become excluded from some friends. You are no longer popular because you have made a definite change. Your Christian belief has cost you. What do we always say at Shalom? If it has cost you nothing, it’s worth nothing. There’s always a price to pay for anything worth having in life. If you want to pursue a certain career it’s going cost you. If you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, with all your heart, it will definitely cost you.
Oh but my friend, I want to tell you something, it is so very worth it and it will pay off handsomely at the end, so don’t despair, and you are not the only one that is walking tall for the Lord. There are many others, you just need to find them, but the most important thing is that you are prepared to change your lifestyle and to live a life of holiness, in order to achieve what God has in store for you, and He has so much in store for those who will put their total trust and their lifestyle in His hands.
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 24th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 15:14. Jesus says:
”You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
Then we go to Matthew 12:50:
”For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
Remember, Jesus was teaching the disciples and a person came in and said, “Your mom and your brothers are waiting for you outside.” Jesus said, ”Who are my mother and my brothers but those who do the will of My Father.”
We need to understand who our family are. You know that the Lord has no grandchildren. What does that mean? Well, if you love the Lord your God but your children are in the far country, there is no guarantee they will get to heaven. Each and every one of us needs to meet the Lord personally, and by the way, it’s not how long we have known Him that counts but rather how closely we have walked with Him that counts.
Even the devil himself knows Jesus, make no mistake about that but he’s not going to heaven, I can tell you that, not him or any of his demons. Now, we see the thief on the cross, he had known the Lord Jesus only for moments, but intimately, and yet Jesus said to him, ”Today, you will be with me in paradise,” because the thief acknowledged and believed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and the Son of God. You’ll find that in Luke 23:43.
I’ve got people that I’ve known for 40 years. I know them casually just to greet them in the street but I don’t know them personally. Then there are other men and women that I meet and I’ve only known them for a short while, maybe when I’m overseas, maybe in Australia, in the USA, in Britain, and I feel that I have known them all my life. How is that? Well, it can only be through the Holy Spirit. There is the Holy Spirit who unites us together, and even though we’ve only met each other for half an hour at the airport we become firm brothers and sisters in Christ forever.
So today spend time with Jesus. Spend quality time and spend quantity time because indeed, He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 23rd of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 19:14:
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Gospel of Matthew 12:37:
”For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Oh, we need to make sure that our words are sweet, as the saying goes, because someday we might have to eat them. If you’ve got nothing good to say about someone rather say nothing at all. Remember, people who live in glass houses don’t throw stones.
You know, before preaching at any meeting, whether it’s a large one or whether it’s a small one, I first kneel, I humble myself before the Lord and then I pray aloud the verse that I’ve just read to you:
”Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
Then I start speaking words of life to a dying world. In Proverbs 10:19, the Bible tells us that:
”In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
We need to be so careful that we don’t talk too much. You see, it’s not how much we say that makes an impact but it’s about timing and it’s about sincerity of words that count. Like the lady who got up one morning and she was so down, she said, ”Lord, I really need a word from You today, otherwise Lord, I’m not going back to church anymore.” She came to a church that I happened to be preaching at, a very large church in Durban, South Africa, and it was a packed out house. This little lady came all by herself, it wasn’t her home church, and she sat there and participated in the service. Remember she said, ”Lord, if You don’t give me a word, that’s it, I’m not going back anymore.” Right at the end to the service, I think in order to avoid the traffic, she started to slip out of the back of the church and when I preach, my eyes go all over the place and I shouted, I don’t know why I did it, obviously it was the Lord and I said to the lady, just trying to quietly get out of the church, ”lady!” And she turned around and I said,” Can you please come up to the platform.” She was very shy. She came up to the platform and I told her something very simple like God loves you, and that was it. Then she wrote me a letter a week later and said, ”My life has been transformed because Jesus (not me), spoke to me directly out of a crowd of a few thousand people.”
Speak the word of life and God will do the rest.
Have a wonderful day
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 22nd of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 8:29:
“He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”
A beautiful scripture! Remember, we always say on this programme, good people don’t go to Heaven, only believers go to Heaven. I get into trouble, I know that - some people say, “You cannot say that.” Well, that is what the Bible says. Like never before we need to start to know what we believe in. Who is Jesus? He is the Son of God. How are we going to get to Heaven? By faith in Him alone.
Last night Jill and I watched an old movie. I am sure you have watched it. If you haven’t you need to get hold of it. It is called, “God is not dead.” The story is very simple, a young student is going to university and he goes into a lecture hall where there is a professor who is not only an atheist but an angry atheist. He puts out a piece of paper for all the students to sign which says, “God is dead.” When this young man gets the paper, he can’t believe it. He says to the professor, “I cannot sign this paper,” and the professor humiliates him in front of the whole class. He then said, “Okay, then explain yourself.” The story goes on, he was really humiliated, his own girlfriend left him, “Why don’t you just sign the form and carry on with your studies?” He said, “I can’t because I believe in Jesus Christ.” It is a wonderful story with a wonderful end. In the end, the 80 students who had all signed that form repented and acknowledged that Jesus was the Lord.
When I was a young boy, I was taught to learn the Apostles’ Creed by heart. Now folks, I want to say to you, you need to know Who you believe in. There is so much compromise out there, there are so many stories to tell you how to get to Heaven but we need to know the basics. I want to read the Apostles’ Creed to you. This is how it goes:
I believe in God, the Father, Almighty,
The Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into the dead.
On the third day, he rose again,
He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the righthand of the Father
And will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy universal church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting, amen.
We need to know it, Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Wednesday morning, the 21st of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to James 5:16 in the New Testament,
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
Today the Lord has just impressed upon me that He doesn’t answer prayer - no, He answers the prayer of faith! There is no use in you and me wasting God’s time and praying for things we don’t believe are going to happen. It’s a waste of time.
Now, if you remember, Elijah was just an ordinary man like you and me, and yet he prayed, and there was no rain for three years and six months, and then he prayed again, and it rained, and the ground produced its fruit. God answers the prayer of faith. If we go to 2 Kings 2:21-22, we see that the people came to Elisha and said that the water in this town, was bad, it was causing a lot of sickness and so what happened? Elisha came and took some salt and put the salt in the water and he prayed and said:
“Thus says the Lord: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’”
Verse 22 says: ”So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.” Folks, I’ve been to the town of Jericho. I’ve seen that spring. Oh yes and it is bubbling out with beautiful fresh water. Now this account took place years before Jesus was even born.
I remember getting a phone call a few years back, from a farmer by the name of Job, that was his name. He said, ”My farm is in a terrible state, there’s no rain.” He said, ”I have to sell my herd of dairy cows if we don’t get any rain.” I felt the Lord say, “Go and take salt with you”, and I took a bag of salt, maybe five kilos and I went to the farm. We flew up, right up in the North West of our beloved South Africa. I said, ”Where is your borehole where the water comes from?” He took me to a big windmill. I said,” I’m going to pour this salt into the borehole, into the spring. I did that, we prayed, we left, and we got some photographs a few weeks later that there was literally a flood on his farm. Folks, the road was washed away, he wasn’t complaining!
Today, pray the prayer of faith and God will answer you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Tuesday morning, the 20th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Isaiah 42:3:
”A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench;…”
We’re talking about gentle Jesus. He is so gentle that He will not even break a bent reed or extinguish a smouldering reed.
We go to Matthew 19:14:
”But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
You see, the disciples were trying to protect the Lord. He had been preaching all day long, and He was exhausted. He was sitting underneath a tree, probably trying to have a rest, and the parents were bringing their children to the Master because they wanted Him to bless their children. The disciples rebuked the parents and said, “Don’t bring your children here, the Lord is tired. He needs to have a rest.” What did He do? He said to the disciples,” Don’t do that, bring them to me.” And He laid his hands upon them and He blessed them. I want to say to you today, we need to be gentle, our Master is gentle. We need to have patience with children and with the old people, and with those who are not prominent, and not just chase after people that can help us. Our Lord is very gentle and He is very kind. The Bible says He won’t break a bent reed or extinguish a smouldering reed.
When I was a young man farming, I would often come in and have a cup of tea with Jill. I would be sitting in the kitchen and a visiting fertiliser representative or herbicide representative would come to visit to get some business. I would be sitting, having my cup of tea, looking through the kitchen door, and I would see him get out of the car, and I watched the way he treated my little children who were playing in the garden. Some of them would come in and not even see the children, they were so busy trying to get business. They would walk right past them and ignore them, and then my dog would come up, and he would push the dog away, not interested, and then he would come and knock on the door and with a big smile, he would say, “Good morning Mr Buchan, can we have a chat?” The answer was normally, “No, not today. I am too busy.”
Then another representative would arrive on the farm, much later, and he would get out of the pick-up and he would walk in through the back gate, and I would be sitting there having my tea, and he would see the children in the garden and he would stop and walk over and get on his knees and have a little chat to them, find out what their name was, and “How are you? Is your dad here?” And the little one would take him by the hand and bring him to me, but as he was walking past, he would stop and pat the dog and say, “That’s a nice dog you have got!” And then knock on the door and say, “Mr Buchan, I would like to speak to you about some business,” and I would probably say, “Come in and have a cup of tea and let’s do the deal.”
Folks, we need to be so careful how we live. We need to be like Jesus, gentle and loving.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 19th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 51:10-12:
"Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit."
How is your first love for the Lord? Do you remember what it was like the day you first gave your life to Christ? It was a romance, wasn't it? It was incredible. You could never get up early enough in the morning to spend time with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You scrambled to get into your poustinia. What is a poustinia? It's a little house at the end of the garden where the Russians spend time alone with God.
This morning, how is it with you? It's so easy to get sidetracked in this day and age. What kind of company are we keeping, you and I? What do we talk about mostly these days? We've got to get back into the gym. We've got to get back into training, not only physically but more importantly, spiritually. Maybe you and I have forsaken our first love. You say to me, "Please don't say that". No, I'm very serious because this scripture was written by God's very, very special man. His name was David. He used to sit on the hills with his harp, watching his father's sheep, singing to the Lord, praying to the Lord, and then he fell, didn't he, into adultery? He says, "Give me a clean heart, Lord, please don't cast me away from Your presence."
In 2003 I was up in the Mkuzi Game Reserve, in the Northern part of our beloved Kwazulu-Natal, having my quiet time, working as hard as I could, planning my next year of appointments all over the world, and this is the scripture which the Lord gave me, which absolutely flattened me, and I want to share it with you. It's in Revelation 2:4. The Lord says:
"Nevertheless…" meaning, you've done all these things but" I have this against you, that you have left your first love."
We must repent today and get back to our first love. If we lose that, we've lost everything. The Amplified version says: "But I have this [charge] against you, that you have left your first love [you have lost the depth of love that you first had for Me]."
Oh, my dear friend, both you and I today, let us repent before the Lord and say, "Lord, I'm so terribly sorry that I have forsaken my first love. Please renew a right spirit in me."
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 18th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 11:4-5:
Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
Now remember, John the Baptist was in jail. He sent two of his disciples to enquire, “Is this the one that is coming or do we look for another?” Jesus didn’t answer with an explanation. He just said, “Go and tell John what I am doing.” I want to say to you today that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. That’s an old saying that is so true. A cake can look beautiful but until you taste it you won’t really appreciate it. Jesus sent back this message to John and this proof that He, Jesus, was undoubtedly the Son of God, made flesh. It was not because of the sermons He preached but by the miracles that He did.
Here at Shalom, we have a saying, “One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons,” and remember, according to Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. We have experienced many miracles here at Shalom, many, over many years. I really believe with all my heart, that the tools of the trade of the evangelist are signs and wonders and miracles, just as the Master did. But we need faith, we need faith to believe for it.
Today, I am feeling in my heart very strongly, that there might be a young lady who is unable to fall pregnant and desperately desires a child. Her and her husband are waiting for the miracle. I can tell you, I have evidence of many, many parents who have children that could not have babies, but when we prayed for them, the prayer of faith, God honoured that prayer. I want to pray for you this morning as I have been praying for some time. Lord, I believe in miracles. Please let us see another one being born today.
Father,
I pray for that lady listening to this message now, who is unable to fall pregnant. I pray for her and her husband, that as this message goes into their hearts, that they will be reminded that Jesus Christ is the Miracle-Worker and He is also present with us right now. In Jesus name, receive your miracle, and we thank You for a baby that will be born in 9 months time.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 17th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
1 Samuel 15:22 - obedience is better than sacrifice. In other words, to do, is better than saying sorry all the time. Then we go to Mathew 5:24:
”…leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
You know, disobedience brings a lot of pain. Obedience brings peace of mind, satisfaction, joy, and progress. Disobedience, on the other hand, brings disaster, fear, restlessness, and, most of all, unhappiness. Let’s stop always saying sorry and let’s start obeying the word of God. For example, pay your income tax, apologise when you hurt somebody or you do something wrong, keep a clear account, owe no man anything, and then we will start to live victoriously. Just do what the Bible says and obey it, and then we will have life abundantly. (John 10:10).
The other night, I went bed and I knew there was something I had to put right. I knew in my heart that the Lord was prompting me to sort out a situation but I thought, “Agh, I’ll just leave it, I’ll leave it till tomorrow morning.” Have you been there? Yes, you have! And I tossed and I turned and I turned this way and I turned that way, and I couldn’t sleep. Eventually I got up out of bed, I went through to my prayer room, I sat down and I wrote that letter and I dealt with that situation. You know that I came back, I got into bed and I went sound asleep and I had a beautiful sleep that night.
Just obey what the Holy Spirit is telling you to do, at that very moment, and you will be surprised at how well things will go for you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 16th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Philippians 3:14. Paul the Apostle says:
“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Pressing hard towards the finish line! Do not tap off at the end. If you forget everything else about this message, don’t forget what I have just said. Do not tap off, but rather press hard right through to the finish line. Run right through that finish tape, and Jesus is waiting for you and me, right behind that line with arms wide open, saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant! Come and enter into thy rest.”
Last night I was watching the Olympic Games and these amazing athletes, breaking world records and doing the most amazing things. They have been training hard for years for that one last half second to get the gold medal. The race was one of those middle-distance races, and the one man had it all sewn up. He was far ahead of everybody else and he was coming towards the finish line and he tapped off, just for a moment folks, I think he had 10 metres to run and he was quite relaxed, he thought he had it in the bag, and out of the blue, one of his opponents came screaming through and took the gold medal. He was devastated, I could see it on his face, he couldn’t believe it, he tapped off right at the end. He had 10 metres to go, and he would have got the gold medal and been the champion of the world, but he had to settle for the silver medal because he did not finish his race strong. He did not run right to the very end of the race.
I want to say to you today, and I am talking to myself, we need to finish strong. The Lord is not interested in good starters, He is interested in good finishers, and the only way we are going to do that is to keep ourselves focused on the goal, right to the end. I am talking about the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Today, concentrate on finishing your race, don’t be concerned about getting everybody else into line. Make sure that you yourself are focused on your race and you will win it with a gold medal.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 15th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Micah 7:6-7:
“For son dishonours father, Daughter rises against her mother, Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; A man’s enemies are the men of his own household. Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; My God will hear me.”
That is quite a tough scripture, isn’t it?
Then we go to Psalm 62:5:
“My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him.”
It is very unfair to put so much expectancy on our loved ones. That’s where the trouble comes in the home. You must remember, our loved ones are only human, like we are, and they shall disappoint us many times. Children at university fail the year, devastation at home, absolute devastation, but look at the situation before you judge your child. You don’t know what they are going through at varsity. On the sports field - so your son did not get the gold medal, he only got the silver medal, my goodness me, folks! What did we get? We didn’t even make the team! And it’s not a joke.
In the business domain, just because your next-door neighbour has bought a new motorcar, don’t put pressure on dad and say, “Why haven’t we got one?” Never compare your loved ones with other people. When you got married, you made a covenant before the Lord. You said, “For better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health,” so we need to stick to our covenant. So what is the solution? Well, the solution is found in Micah 7:7. So we will trust the Lord, put your expectancy on God, not on your children, not on your parents, not on your loved ones.
Let’s have a good hard look at ourselves first before we start to humiliate our loved ones, especially in public. I have seen it - because a child doesn’t get the first prize, the mother or the father humiliates that child in front of everybody else. “Why didn’t you do it?” “Well, dad, mom, I tried my best.” “That’s not good enough!” That is very painful indeed, like the young man who had just become the world champion bull rider. I don’t think there is a more dangerous sport on earth, and he ran up to his dad, “Dad, I got it, I won it, I got the prize, I made the million dollars!” His dad turns around and says, “Yes, that’s good but let’s see how long you can keep it.” His son was absolutely devastated.
Dad, mom, when your child comes home and you look at that report from school and you see that he only got 95% this time, “Why didn’t you get 98% like last time?” Don’t be foolish. We need to exercise more grace.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 14th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 10:32:
“Therefore, the one who confesses and acknowledges Me before men [as Lord and Saviour, affirming a state of oneness with Me], that one I will also confess and acknowledge before My Father who is in heaven.”
What a beautiful promise from God, but verse 33 is a very serious verse:
“But the one who denies and rejects Me before men, that one I will also deny and reject before My Father who is in heaven.”
To use that Name in some countries is enough to get your head cut off. That Name is above all names. Jesus Christ is Lord! Just making a statement like that in some countries will have you arrested and put into prison. Some people will be shunned by their families and disowned, and people have a funeral service because they say that “that member of our family is now dead.” Oh yes, some young people are shunned by their friends because of that name, Jesus Christ.
But we can’t hold it in, can we? We cannot keep it in. That Name calms the storm, it breaks the heart of a sin-hardened man. I have seen it, men in prison, many coming to Christ by that Name. It lights up hope in the eyes of a sick child. It takes away bitterness and hatred and turns it into love and forgiveness. A mother calling that Name beside the bed of a small child, it just dispels the fever and leaves the little soul healed. A dying saints last words before he dies, whispers the Name of Jesus. Emperors have tried to destroy it, tyrants have tried to stamp it out but it still stands. The day is coming, my dear friend, when every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! (Philippians 2:10)
I want to sing that little song. It is called, “There Is Something About That Name”:
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
There is just something about that Name,
Master, Saviour, Jesus,
Like a fragrance after the rain.
Oh, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Let all heaven and earth proclaim,
Kings and kingdoms will all pass away,
And there is something about that Name.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 13th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to Ephesians 5:8:
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
We have got to walk the talk. It's not just about talking but its about being. Now I heard a beautiful story about the first President of the United States of America, George Washington. He was a farmer and he was very successful. He was then called by the people to stand against the mighty British army, and eventually they had the War of Independence, where the Americans defeated the British and there was great celebration, and they loved George Washington. In fact, they wanted him to become the first King of America, but he declined, he said no. He wanted to go back to the farm and pursue his love for farming but there was a lot of arguing amongst the leaders of America after the war, and he was very upset about it. He called a meeting with all the top leaders of America together in one room, and he had painstakingly written out a speech that he wanted to present to them to get them to pull together. He read the speech out but there wasn’t too much of a response. He could see that the men were still arguing about who was going to have what and who was going to take authority in which area.
Then the story goes like this - George Washington, who was about 51 years old, reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of wire-ringed glasses. He put them on and said, “This war has made my hair turn grey, and now I am even going blind”, and then he read the note. That doing, that being, impacted those men more than anything else. Some of them started to weep openly when they saw what the War of Independence had cost this man, and they pulled into line, and he became the first President of the United States of America and served two terms in office before he returned back to his farm.
Today, remember it's not really so much what you say, its not really so much what we do but its rather who we are which makes the difference.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 12th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 10:31:
“Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
I can hear somebody saying to me, “But you know, I have woken up this morning, and I feel that no one cares for me. I don’t have a friend in the world. Everything is going wrong for me. My family has deserted me.” Jesus says that He loves you more than you can believe! He says that He knows if one sparrow falls to the ground. He says you can buy two sparrows for a copper coin but He says, “I know you more and I love you more than anybody else.” He says, “I even know how many hairs are on your head.” Isn’t that beautiful? So why are worried? Why are you lonely? Why are you fearful? Jesus says, “I will never leave you and I will never, ever forsake you.” I read a beautiful reading once about a definition of faith. Faith is not in what we know but in what we do not know and yet believe.
My dear friend, today I really want to encourage you to trust the Lord. He has promised you that He loves you so much, He died for you. He says, “I know exactly what is waiting for you up ahead.” He says, “I am going before you, I am making a way for you. Speak to Me, spend time with me, I love you and I want fellowship with you.” It’s not about other people liking you or not liking you. It is not about other people taking care of you. He will take care of you, so if you seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33).
So today, go out, knowing - knowing that the Lord has got everything in control. If He is a God who does not allow a sparrow to fall to the ground without His knowing, then He knows everything about you, and if He knows everything about you, you have got nothing more to be worried about.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 11th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Acts 4:13:
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realised that they had been with Jesus.”
Whoever you spend time with, that is who you eventually become like, is that not so? You know, all my sons are farmers, I am a farmer. An engineer - you will find very often, his sons will become engineers. A nurse, her daughters will become nurses or doctors. Remember, your children do not always do what you tell them to do but they normally do what we do, and that is quite scary, isn’t it?
If you love and honour your wife then your sons will do the same with their wives. If you love and submit to your husband, your daughters will do the same to their husbands. Now, if you truly love Jesus Christ, your children will also love the Lord. Proverbs 22:6 says:
“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Now I feel burdened at the moment for some parents whose children are in the far country and they are so worried about them because they know they are not serving the Lord. I want to tell you, if you brought up your son or your daughter in the fear of the Lord and they have seen Jesus in your life, they will come home, just like the Prodigal Son eventually came home to his father, after he had just wasted all his money on foolish things and his father welcomed him home. Keep the door open and say, “You can come home anytime you like, but remember, you are coming home under the conditions that you obey the way in which we live in this house, and that is to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your heart.” And they will come home. I am going to pray for you:
Father,
I really want to pray for parents who have children who are just not pulling their weight. They are rebellious, they are not listening to what their parents are saying. Lord, please give mom and dad patience, and Lord, whatever it takes, please bring that wayward child back home, and normally, Lord, they end up the strongest Christians of all. I pray, Father, that they do not have to suffer too much before they realise that they are on the wrong road. I ask these things in Your precious name, Amen.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 10th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mathew 10:8:
”Freely you have received, freely give.”
That’s good news. It is for free! You can’t buy it, it’s not for sale. You can’t earn it, you just have to receive it. What are we talking about? We’re talking about salvation, when Jesus says, ”Come unto me.” It’s for free. Jesus paid for everything. He paid for it when He died for our sins on the Cross at Calvary.
Do you remember Peter, the big fisherman? He was the leader of the pack, do you remember? He said to the Lord, ”You’re not going to wash my feet,” in fact you can see that in John 13:8: “You shall never wash my feet!” The Lord said,“If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Remember? Then Peter said, ”Then Lord, wash all over my body.”
A thing called pride is what keeps many of us back from opening our hearts completely to the Lord. You see a lot of us were born and bred in the old school. If you can’t pay for it then you don’t take it. Now, that’s not a bad principle because there are too many greedy people in this world, but there comes a time when you’ve just got to say thank you - that’s all you have to say. It’s a hard lesson I’ve had to learn, but if you don’t do that then the Lord says, ”Then I can’t do anything for you.”He told the disciples, ”Freely you received now go and freely give.”
I remember a story once, a gentleman that they invited to one of our meetings said, ”I’m not going to go. I know those evangelists. It’s just a money making racket,” and the people said,” No but they don’t charge anything. You don’t have to buy a ticket, they don’t even take a collection.” Then he said, ”Well! In that case I’m going to come and see.” He did come and he gave his life to Christ. You and I have received salvation freely, we can’t pay for it, we can’t earn it. All we have to say is, ”Lord, thank you very much,” and go out and tell other people too. The Gospel of Christ is given freely and let them accept it and appreciate it and enjoy it.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day as you go out and give the Gospel freely to a dying world,
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 9th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis 2:24:
”Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
What a beautiful scripture! Then to confirm that we go to the Book of Mathew 19:6, Jesus speaking:
”So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man
separate.”
In South Africa we are celebrating Women’s Day. I don’t know what it’s like in your part of the world but I love to celebrate Women’s Day because my best friend is a woman, her name is Jill.
If you look at the Oxford dictionary the definition of a friend is, “a person that you know well and you like. It is a confidant.” I can tell you something now, that wife of mine is my number one advisor. As a young man, I used to love to tell her to jump into the pickup, take her around the fields and show her my crops of potatoes or maize or beans, whatever we were growing. If we bought new cattle, the first person I wanted to show the new cattle, that new bull, that cow, I wanted my wife to see it first. “What do think, Jill?” She would always encourage me and say, ”Beautiful!”
When we were newly married we didn’t have a lot of money, most young people haven’t, but for us to go and buy a hamburger and sit in the field was amazing. I’ve dined and wined with lots and lots of well-known people, in very plush five-star hotels, but that hamburger in the fields with my best friend, aah, it tops it all.
I’ll never forget the first time I bought a motorcar for Jill and I, actually for Jill, I had a pickup. She had been visiting my parents in Kenya, she’d come home, I picked her up at the airport and I took her out into the carpark. I said, ”I’ve got a surprise for you.” I took her to an old bashed up pick-up that was sitting there, I think it had a box of chickens on the back, and I said, ”Look at our new vehicle.” And she didn’t know what to say. She’s a very gracious person, and then she said, ”No, well, that’s nice.” Then I took her to the next row of cars and I had bought her a Mercedes Benz, imported from Germany, second-hand, but it was in good condition. She couldn’t believe it! The first thing she said to me was, ”Where did you get the money from?” I said, ”Don’t worry about that,” because she is my best friend.
I want to say to the men today, let’s spoil our ladies. Let’s spoil the women, our daughters, our sisters, our mothers, don’t forget the mothers, our grannies and your wife.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 8th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Genesis 18:14, the Lord said to Sarah:
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Remember Sarah was laughing because she was almost 100 years old and the Lord said, “You are going to have a baby,” and she couldn’t believe it. I want to tell you, my dear friend, that I believe in miracles. Now if you forget everything else today remember what I’ve just said - I believe in miracles!
As I was going to prepare this message, I had a phone call, and it was somebody very close to me, who reminded me of an incident that took place at the Krugersdorp “Speak Jesus Campaign” that took place a couple of years ago. It was a wonderful event. The Holy Spirit was present in a mighty way. It was quite busy and there was an usher directing the traffic. He was stopping the traffic so the pedestrians could cross over at this very busy intersection. One of the pedestrians walked up to him and said to him, ”I’ve just found a bunch of car keys for a Mercedes Benz motor car. I wonder if maybe you can make an announcement over the radio and ask anybody who’s lost keys to come to collect them?”
He said he put the keys in his back pocket and he forgot about them and he carried on directing the traffic. About forty minutes later when the service was over and all the people were leaving, and it was a huge open air meeting. He was talking to somebody when he felt a tug on his shirt. He turned around and a man said, ”Can I speak to you please?” He said, ”No problem, what can I help you with?” He said, ”I have just lost my car keys. Do you know of anybody that might have picked them up?” The usher turned around and smiled did the protocol and said, ”What did the keys look like?” This man described everything exactly, and the usher took the keys out of his pocket and said, ”Here are your keys.” Now the man was overwhelmed. Now listen to this, this is the important part of the story, he said, ”Just a few minutes ago at the alter call, I gave my life to Jesus Christ. I prayed the sinner’s prayer and as I started to walk back to my car I felt that my keys were gone and I said to the Lord, ”Lord, if You are for real and this commitment I’ve made is real, then I’m going to speak to the first man that I find, in a massive crowd of people, and Lord I want that man to have my car keys.”
He walked straight up to this usher now there’s hundreds of people going back to their cars and there the keys were. I want to tell you that our God is a miracle working God, trust Him folks, He will never let you down!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 7th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 9:28-29:
“And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.”
And the blind men’s eyes were opened. The key there is, “be it according to our faith.” Now, in Luke 17:5, the disciples said to the Lord, “Please increase our faith.” That is a good prayer and I am going to pray that prayer for you at the end of this little message. I can hear somebody say, “But how do you get that faith to trust God for a miracle?” Well, the answer is found in the Book of Romans 10:17:
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
When you spend time reading your Bible, spend time praying, God increases your faith. Abraham is regarded as the father of faith. The Bible tells us in James 2:23:
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
And he was called the friend of God.”
He is the only man that we hear of in the Bible that is called the friend of God, because he believed. Faith is not a feeling, faith is a fact.
”For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
2 Corinthians 5:7
And by the way, it is never a walk in the park! It is not easy. Let me tell you, many a time when we step out in faith things seem to get harder, don’t they, than easier? But the reward is mind-blowing. Aah, friends, I haven’t got time to tell you of the things that God has done when we trust Him. The secret is the prayer of faith. That’s what moves the hand of God, not prayer, the prayer of faith. You have to believe what you are praying, and we need to pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
Father,
I want to pray for my friends, listening to this message. Many are in deep trouble, they need help. Lord, even as the two blind men said, “Lord please, heal us”, and the Lord said, “Do you believe that I can do this?” And they said, “Yes.” I pray for my friend, Lord, listening to this very message that You will increase their faith to believe You for the impossible.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 6th of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Romans 1:16. It is a scripture that all of us know and we should actually know off by heart,
”For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”
If we go to The Message translation, the same scripture goes like this:
It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else!”Romans 1:16
Then The Passion translation,
“I refuse to be ashamed of sharing the wonderful news of God’s liberating power unleashed in us through Christ! For I am thrilled to preach that everyone who believes is saved - the Jew first and then people everywhere!”Romans 1:16
It is for everyone. The other night it was very sad for myself and my wife Jill, when we were sitting down and expecting to see a wonderful opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris, France, and we saw something that was so sad my dear friend that we actually turned the television off before it was halfway through - where our beloved Lord Jesus Christ was publicly mocked and made a complete fool of. Now many people are asking how does one respond to an unprovoked attack on our faith in God? Well, we have to react the same way that our champion did. We pray for them, we ask God to forgive them, for truly they have no idea what they are doing. Luke 23:34, when our Master was hanging on the cross and He was dying He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
You know, funnily enough, in 1924 at the Paris, France, Olympics, yes again, a Christian man, Eric Liddell, before he ran a race and won the gold medal for Britain, walked up the line and shook hands with every single opponent and wished them all the best, and then he proceeded to win the race and receive the gold medal. That is how we respond.
Jesus bless you and have wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 5th of August, 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today.
We start in Luke 5:32:
"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."
Jesus came to save the sinner, not the righteous. He says He came for the sick, not those who are well. Jesus was often found where no self-respecting person would go, and frequently, his disciples would remind him, saying: "Lord, do you know who those people are that you are associating with?" He would say: "Yes, I've come for the lost. For that one lost sheep." Maybe you've got one in your family; perhaps you got a loved one who's drifted off - I want to tell you Jesus will not give up on that lost sheep until it comes home. Luke 15:5 says:
"And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing."
He doesn't just lead it home. He picks it up, puts it on his shoulders and carries it home. Jesus will not give up on your loved one. Jesus will not give up on you; you need to call Him. I can hear someone say: "But it's too late for me." It is never too late, never too late! The Lord loves you; that is why He died for you on the cross of Calvary. He is desperate - He will leave the 99 to go and find the one!
As a farmer, sometimes, when it's calving season, and cows and calves are running all over the place (it's a beautiful sight to see), when we bring the herd home, one little calf is lost. We send the herdsmen out, and they look all over. We get on horseback and go all over the farm, trying to find that lost calf. In the end, in desperation, as the sun is setting, we still can't find it. Do you know what we do? We take its mother, and we let her go. We leave her and let her go. I want to tell you that the mother is standing alone in the field the following day as the sun is coming up. And who is suckling? The baby calf that we could not find. She found it, and I want to tell you that our beloved Jesus is the same. When everybody else gives up on you, He will never give up on you. "Come unto me, all of you that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
In my prayer room, where I pray every morning and get this message for you, I have a beautiful painting that a dear friend did. It is a painting of Jesus welcoming a lost sheep home. I also have a beautiful olive wood carving that I got in Israel, depicting the Lord Jesus Christ carrying that lost sheep.
Today, be encouraged! He will not let you go until you are totally brought home; Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 4th of August, 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today.
We start in Matthew 8:34
"And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region."
What a sad scripture verse. I think it's probably one of the saddest scriptures in the Bible. The people didn't want Him. I feel like crying, because I see it so often. He had just set a madman free that no one else could. That man must have terrorised that district and those people. They tried to tie him up in chains, but he broke the chains. Jesus came and set him free, and then the people said: "Please leave us; we don't want you to be here."
You know, folks, people don't like to change, do they? And they don't want to be controlled, so they think. Jesus doesn't control us; Jesus leads us and loves us. Often, I get phone calls from concerned relatives phoning up: "Please can you phone my dad? Can you please phone this lady? They need to know Jesus. They are in a desperate state." So, I go ahead and phone them, and then I get rebuffed: "Who are you? What do you want? No, I'm not interested!" I feel like saying: "Look, I didn't ask to phone you. Your loved ones asked me to phone you" - not interested. So now, before calling anybody, I still will but I say to them: "You phone your relatives and ask them if Angus can speak with them." If they say no, then I'm not phoning them.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, the disciples ran away from the only One who could help them in the whole world. Matthew 26:56 says,
"Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled."
They ran away from the only person in the whole world who could help and protect them. Don't do that. Today, decide to call upon the Lord. Sometimes, we hear reports of people who want to avoid coming to our outreach meetings. They say, "Nah, it's just a money-making racket. I know these evangelists - I'm not interested." But then they get a bit of a shock when the person turns around and says: "But they don't take any collections at those meetings, and they don't even mention money." And then the man says: "Yeah, well, maybe..." He still doesn't believe it.
I want to tell you, do not harden your heart against the Lord today. He wants to help you. He's there for your benefit, not for His. That's why I came down from Heaven to Earth to help us undertake what we must go through.
Today, call upon Him, He will help you.
Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 3rd of August, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Peter 5:7:
"…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."
Then, that beautiful scripture in Hebrews 12:2:
"…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,…"
You and I are on a journey. This journey is taking us all the way home but we need endurance. How are you feeling today? Are you feeling tired and weary? Well, I want to tell you, there is no going back to Egypt. There is nothing in Egypt for you and I. We have got to press on homeward. We have got to get rid of unnecessary burdens, for the journey is long, and we need to travel as lightly as we can. Don't ever give up, don't ever stop. There is absolutely nothing for us to go back for.
You might be carrying family problems today, you might be carrying burdens that are taking place at work, you might even be physically sick today, but Jesus says, "My grace is sufficient for you." By the way, we are not running alone. Many of our loved ones are cheering for us in Heaven. They are saying, "Keep on, I want to see you in Heaven one day. Don't stop!" So let's get rid of that sin, let's get rid of that doubt that I won't make it. Let's cast it off because it will wear you down.
Now, that old British bulldog, Winston Churchill, said a couple of very true things. One of them was, "Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." Maybe today you have hit a couple of corrugations in the road. Don't stop. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." So I really want to encourage you, and most of all, remember, we don't travel this journey alone. No, no, no! We are walking with Jesus, hand in hand and He knows the way home, by the way. Matthew 11:30, He says:
"For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Jesus bless you and continue to enjoy the journey because soon, and very soon, we are going to see the King of Kings.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 2nd of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Acts 20:24. Paul says:
“But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
We have got to keep the main thing, the main thing. We have to focus on what God has called us to, which is to tell people about Jesus. It’s very simple. We have to do it in our workplace, we have got to do it on the sports field, we have got to do it in the classroom. It is all about preaching the good news, the Gospel of Christ, and you and I need to finish the race. We need to complete the task and we mustn’t waste time. Now maybe you say to me, “But I have never had the privilege of being able to preach from a pulpit or a platform”, but that doesn’t matter. These men that we are reading about, Paul, Peter, James and John - these were men who preached in the workplace. They weren’t even allowed in the synagogues.
The other day, a group of people arrived on the farm and they came to buy a horse from my son. I greeted them and we started talking about horses. Of course, I have got a horse, you know that! His name is Snowy, that’s right, the kids love him. They are always asking me, “How is Snowy doing?”
So we started up a conversation. I told them I have been riding horses since I was 19 years old and they told me about their horses, and then slowly but surely the conversation swung around to all the Mighty Men meetings that we have had on this farm, to people's lives that have been changed through the preaching of the Gospel in the open air.
Today, don’t underestimate where God has called you. If you are a school teacher, you have got an instant congregation in front of you, day after day. What a privilege! If you are working in a factory, you have got a whole group of men and women you can tell about Jesus. I am not talking about Bible punching. I am talking about you telling them how Jesus has impacted your life. Maybe you are a homemaker or a housewife. Aah man, those are the people I salute the most. You know, Jesus had a mother, her name was Mary. She was dedicated to looking after Him and Him alone, but look what happened from her obedience - the Son of God!
I want to tell you today, go out there, keep the main thing, the main thing. Focus on the work God has called you to, and most of all, enjoy it.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 1st of August, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to 2 Chronicles 16:9:
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”
It’s a beautiful scripture but do you see how the eyes of the Lord have to go to and fro throughout the whole earth to find a loyal man, a loyal woman? Loyalty - it’s very high in the ranks of the Lord.
The Oxford Dictionary calls “loyalty” - a strong feeling of support, faithfulness, devotion, and commitment. Hebrews 13:5, Jesus says:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
He is loyal to us. We can depend on God for He has never once let His people down. On the other hand, betrayal is a terrible thing, folks. It is a terrible thing to have to work through. It’s called a “breach of trust”. Now, Peter the Disciple knew that, didn’t he, when he betrayed the Lord three times. Matthew 26:75:
“So he went out and wept bitterly.”
Please don’t do it! Don’t cheat on your wife, don’t cheat on your husband, don’t cheat on the company that you work for, don’t speak to others about confidential matters. Be loyal, don’t be disrespectful. It is extremely destructive. Do you remember that movie, “Braveheart’? Do you remember that part in the movie where William Wallace, who was basically winning the battle, saw Robert the Bruce, the future King of Scotland, be disloyal towards the Scottish people, and was found to be on the side of the English? When he knocked him off his horse and he pulled the helmet off his head, William Wallace saw his future king who had betrayed the Scottish people, and he sat down and he gave up at that very moment. He was so devastated by the disloyalty of his future king.
I want to say to you today, don’t do it! The Lord is looking for loyal people that He can depend on, that He can trust, irrespective of the situation. Be loyal to the Lord because He loves you so much and He will never let you down. You can depend on Him.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 31st of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Mathew 8:20:
”And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Then we go to John 14:2:
”In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
What a beautiful promise from our Lord Jesus Christ. Today maybe I am speaking to some young couples who are really struggling to find a home to live in because there just doesn’t seem to be any houses available.Jesus is telling you and I today, not to worry for He is building us a beautiful home in heaven. Rather be content with what you have at the moment and invest in heavenly things.
I remember, long time ago, a gentleman who I regarded greatly, a very hard working man. He basically spent most of his working life building a house for his retirement, and when he had finished it and he had retired, I went to visit him one day, and I admired his house and he was sitting on the verandah and I said, ”What a wonderful job you’ve done here.” And tears started running down his face and he said, ”Yes, but what for Angus?” You see the man had cancer and three months after he had moved into his new house, he died.
The Lord is warning you and me today not to put all our finances, all our effort, into things which will perish one day. Do not be like that foolish farmer - remember? - who had a bumper crop and made a lot of money and he said, “I’m going to build another barn to put all my bumper crop into, all my maize, my wheat, and then I’m going to sit down and I’m going to eat, drink and be merry.” The Lord said, ”Foolish man, this very night I will require your soul from you.”
Let us concentrate on our eternal home where we’ll live in peace with our beloved Jesus forever and not be so taken up by having to own a home on this earth.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 30th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to 1 Corinthians 11:23-30:
”For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes. Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.”
Holy communion is the most sacred of all Christian sacraments. It is something we must not neglect. I break bread with my family and I break bread with my wife as often as I can. Just a week ago I spent two days with over 100 men who I am mentoring and the climax of the two days is when we break bread and say farewell to each other.
A while back I was sent the most beautiful gift from one of my spiritual sons, a portable communion set. I take this set with me and I have communion with the Lord as often as I can. There is no special place to have communion. You can have communion with the Lord, flying in an aeroplane, driving into Africa in an overland truck, you can have it with a person who is dying and going to be with the Lord. If you love Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you may perform it. It doesn’t have to be a certain person. What it does have to be, is someone who is very sincere for the Lord.
I want to encourage you to break bread with your family as often as you can and we remember what Jesus Christ has done for each one of us.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 29th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Mathew 8:13:
”Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.”
The prayer of faith moves the hand of God. God doesn’t answer prayer, God answers the prayer of faith. There’s a huge difference. Now, I can hear somebody saying, ”But what is faith?” Well, according to Hebrews 11:1:
”Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
And verse 6 says:
”But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
I want to say to you today, my dear friend, start to trust God with all of your heart. If you can’t believe Him for the big things, start believing Him for the little things. Like the old lady who comes into town and says, ”Lord, I’m tired, my legs are sore. I need a parking place in front of the supermarket, please make it possible.” And as she drives down the street, very slowly, somebody reverses out and in she goes. I want to tell you, those little acts of faith build and build. Eventually, you trust in God for miraculous signs and wonders. When I started many years ago as an evangelist, I only had the faith to believe God to heal people with colds and flu and sore heads, and then I started to see the Lord answering my prayers of faith, and they grew and grew, and since then I have seen the most incredible miracles taking place, and all the glory to God - blind eyes open, deaf ears unstopped. Oh yes! I have seen them with my eyes and I want to tell you today, you can as well.
That centurion wasn’t even a Jew, he was a Roman, he was an Italian, but he said, ”You don’t even have to come to my house, just say the word and it will happen.” And so it was. I want to encourage you today to start trusting the Lord for that miracle, for that financial situation, for that relationship in your home, for that sickness, and I’m going to pray for you right now.
Lord, I pray the prayer of faith over my dear friend listening to this message. Lord, that you will increase their faith, just like the disciples asked you the same thing Lord. They said, “Lord please increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). The Lord is not short that His arm cannot save, He’s not deaf that He cannot hear. Has He not said it, will He not do it. Has He not spoken and will He not make it good?
I want to say to you today that nothing is too hard for God. Start to believe Him by faith.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 28th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Job 1:11:
"But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!"
That's what the devil said to the Lord, "The only reason that this farmer, Job, is worshipping You is because You are blessing him, but if You remove that blessing from him, he will curse You to Your face."
And then we go straight to the Book of Luke 6:48:
"He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock."
I want to say to you today that the weather affects the righteous and the unrighteous. So what's the difference? The difference is that Job the farmer, built his house on the rock and the others, the unbelievers, those who mock God, do not trust the Lord. When the storms of life come against them, they crumble and fall.
Today, my dear friend don't look at the conditions of the weather and I'm not talking about physical only, I'm talking about a situation in your home with maybe sickness, with maybe financial difficulties, maybe problems in the marriage, problems in the workplace. If you have built your house on the rock, like Job did, when the storms of life come against you, you will stand. If you read the whole Book of Job, you will see that at the end of his life the Lord blessed him with exactly double everything that he lost.
Today, keep your eyes on the Lord. Build your house on the Word of God, the Rock. Stand, the storms will come, don't we know it? But the building will not crumble.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning. The 27th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Malachi 1:11 in the Old Testament,
"For from the rising of the sun, even to its going down,
My name shall be great among the Gentiles;…"
Then we go to Matthew 8:8:
"Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed."
There is no other name in Heaven or on Earth by which we may call Him. He is the Saviour of the world. He is the power, the authority, He is healing and salvation. He is God made flesh. You know what the problem is, my dear friend, you and I don't use it enough, do we? We don't make mention of His name enough because for some people it is offensive. I want to tell you something now - we have to start shouting out His name louder than ever before. Isaiah 62:6, the Lord says:
"You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent,…"
We have got to speak it out.
Do you remember that beautiful old song, "It's the Name Above all Names"? Let's try and sing it together:
Its the name above all names, and we will declare it, we will declare it
Its the name above all names, and we will shout it to a dying world.
Who will declare My name? Who will shout My name in the middle of the nations?
Who will take the shield of faith and the sword of My tongue, And declare My name to a dying world?
You who have declared Me thus far, Will walk in even greater power
Though the sands of time are running out, My name will be declared in this final hour
I am Jehovah! I Am that I Am! And My trumpet will soon call out,
I formed the worlds with a whisper But Im getting ready, I'm getting ready, I'm getting ready to shout!
Its the name above all names, and we will declare it, we will declare it, oh, we will declare it!
Its the name above all names, and we will shout it to a dying world.
Go out and shout it from the rooftops,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 26th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start the Book of Deuteronomy 1:33 in the Old Testament,
”…to show you the way you should go, in the fire by night and in the cloud by day.”
Now we know very well the scripture in John 14:6. Jesus says:
”I am the way,…”
You might say that was for the old days. No, it’s not. Hebrews 13:8 says:
”Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
I was preaching at an open-air meeting in Tennessee, the United States of America. My dear friend, Pastor Alan Jackson, had organised a meeting for us on his campus in the open. It was in summer and it was extremely hot. There were thousands of people there. We stood on the platform and I could see the people were literally wilting under the heat. There were clouds above us and I asked the Lord, not quietly in my heart but openly and loudly, on the mic so that everybody could hear, “Lord, please put that cloud over the sun, so that we can get some shade.” And what happened, the Lord put that cloud over the sun for the whole time of that meeting.
Now I can hear somebody saying, ”Oh, that was just a coincidence.” But the miracle was, there were other clouds on either side of that cloud and the wind was blowing and the clouds were moving except that one cloud. How can you explain that? Well, how can you explain a miracle? The Lord says to you today, my dear friend, you have to have the faith to believe Him for the impossible. In that desert that the children of Israel walked through, they say at night it went to sub-zero conditions, it was so cold, and yet there was a pillar of fire. Not only did it protect them, it kept them warm. During the day, there was a cloud that they followed but the cloud wasn’t just for direction but it was to keep the sun off the children of Israel because the temperature there goes up to 50 degrees sometimes.
Jesus wants to direct your ways. He wants to shelter you. He wants to protect you. Please call unto Him and He will undertake for you.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 25th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start with the Book of Luke 6:46:
"But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?"
It is not about doing, it's about being. It's about a personal relationship with Jesus. We cannot earn our way to Heaven. If that was the case, people from other religions would get there long before us! In Isaiah 64:6, the Lord says all our righteousness is like filthy rags in the sight of God. That is quite a statement. I want to say to you this morning, dad, your son wants you to spend more time with him, he doesn't want what you can buy for him, he doesn't want all the fancy goodies that you can get him, he wants you, he wants to spend time with you. Mom, your daughter wants to spend time with you. It's not what you can do for her, but she wants to spend time with you because she loves you and she needs you. And so is it with Jesus Christ - He created us to have fellowship with Him. He doesn't need us, He wants us. Remember, the whole of creation took place with one word. He doesn't need any man, but He desires to have fellowship with us.
We really need to spend more time with the Lord every morning. We need to sit and talk with Him and let Him talk to us in our spirit. You say, "I can't hear Him." No, you can't hear Him because you are too busy doing things, maybe even for Him. So sit down, be quiet, and let's have fellowship together. "Let's have a cup of tea together," the Lord says.
So today, make a point to spend quality and quantity time with Jesus, and you will find everything else will start to fall into line.
God bless you richly and have a wonderful day with your personal Saviour,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 24th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 19:8:
"Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold."
Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 7:20, Jesus says:
"Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Zacchaeus was a scoundrel. He was a thief. He was like the mafia; he and his friends were stealing money from their own people. You couldn't get anybody worse than that. But what happened? Salvation came to his house.
"Today salvation has come to this house,…"Luke 19:9
We need to bear fruits worthy of repentance. What does that mean? Well mother, if your husband has had an affair with another woman and he comes back and asks forgiveness of you and says he made a terrible mistake, you must forgive him, but that man must bear fruit worthy of repentance. He must never be seen with any other woman, he must never ever be seen to text another woman, to phone - no! There must be fruits. He must repent completely.
That man who has become a Christian but was a thief, yes, he stole from his partner, he stole from the company, but now he has given his life to the Lord, there must be restitution. Now, what does "restitution" mean? According to the Oxford Dictionary, it means "The restoration of something lost or stolen, back to its proper owner." That's what it means. When He had healed or forgiven somebody, Jesus often said, "Go and sin no more, your sins are forgiven." In other words, "Go and bear fruits worthy of repentance."
Remember Charles Colson? He was called "the hatchet man." He was President Nixon's righthand man. He went to jail in the place of Richard Nixon. He was such an otherwise kind of a person, Colson. They said he would walk over his own mother's grave to get what he wanted. But what happened? - 180 degree turn around in prison. He became a born-again Christian. He started the Prison Fellowship. For the rest of his life, he was one of God's greatest ambassadors. There has got to be a change. Yes, we must forgive; of course, we must, but there also must be a complete turn-around.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It’s Tuesday morning, the 23rd of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Matthew 7:13-14:
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
There is no shortcut into the kingdom of God. There’s no quick fix, there’s no bending the rules. It’s not a case of, “Well I’ll just wing it.” You can’t wing it and you can’t cheat when it comes to the things of God. It’s like an engineer who bribed somebody to forge his qualifications, then all of a sudden he has got a degree in engineering. He gets the job but he can’t produce because he doesn’t know what he’s doing and he ends up jobless. I really want to encourage that young student who is studying. Do not cheat, but work hard and get a degree that is worthwhile, and then go into the world; you’ll be sought after.
Like that young lady who’s trying to buy her driving license. There are many people that will give you a forged driving license if you pay them enough money, but what happens when you get into the motorcar and you don’t know how to drive it? Disaster!
Titus 1:16 says:
“They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him,…”
They say they love Jesus but by their actions, they deny Him. We need to go through the narrow gate because thats the one that will lead us eventually to eternal life.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 22nd of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Song of Solomon 4:16:
"Awake, O north wind, And come, O south! Blow upon my garden,
That its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come to his garden
And eat its pleasant fruits."
The wind of hardship, the wind of pain and suffering. When an orange is on a tree it looks beautiful, it's got a lovely colour, but that's as far as it goes. You take that orange, and you squeeze it, and you crush it into a glass, and then and only then, can you taste its delicious flavour. When you go into a rose garden, those beautiful magnificent roses are so pretty to look at, but it's only when you take the leaf, and you break that leaf, that you can smell the beautiful perfume that comes from that rose. Oftentimes, suffering and pain bring a man or a woman into the fullness of what God created them for. I'm not suggesting a minute that God causes it but God works through it.
A man came to see me a couple of months ago and he shared his story. He was a hugely successful man. He lived in a country north of our borders. He had everything that he wanted. He was a wonderful sportsman, he had plenty of money. He had achieved lots of wonderful things - wine, women and song as they say. Then one day he was falsely accused of murdering somebody, and they put him in a maximum security jail for no less than ten years, but he told me that through it all he found the true meaning of life. Yes, he found Jesus Christ as a result of that hardship, that pain and that suffering.
Today maybe you are going through a hard time, you cannot even understand why. I want to encourage you my dear friend just to hang in there and to trust the Lord because something beautiful will come out of it.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 21st of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mathew 7:7-8:
”Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
I want to ask you a question this morning, have you given up? Have you given up asking? Have you given up seeking? Have you given up knocking? Please don’t do that. I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word “persistence”. It means to continue doing something in spite of difficulty. Now, I want to tell you a little story. Many, many years ago, maybe 1993, I came back from preaching in Scotland. I had been there for three months, preaching with my oldest daughter, Lindy. When I got home, I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to take an A4 pad and a pencil and to write a book. I had no formal education and I started writing the book. When I’d finished writing the book, I published it myself because no one else would look at it.
I then took the book to a little bookstore in Pietermaritzburg, very close to us. I asked the owner if he would mind selling my book for me. He was reluctant. He said, “Local authors don’t do very well”. I persisted. Eventually, I think to get rid of me he said, ”Ok, give me one copy.” One copy that’s all, the last of the big spenders! He put that on the shelf and he said, ”I will phone you as soon as it gets sold.” I was so excited, I went home, told my family and we waited, and we waited, and we waited and we waited. After about three weeks I thought, “Why is he not phoning me?”
Now listen carefully to the crux of the matter. You see, if I hadn’t persisted nothing would have happened. Eventually, I put my pride in my pocket and I phoned the gentleman and I said, ”Did you sell the book?” He said, ”Angus, I sold it the next day but I lost your phone number and I couldn’t get hold of you.” If I hadn’t persisted, that book, “Faith like Potatoes”, would have never got onto the market. I can tell you it’s in 17 languages today, and a movie’s been made from it. Persistence - ask, seek and knock!
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 20th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start with the Book of Jeremiah 29:13. The Lord says:
"And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."
Then we go to the Book of Revelation 3:20. Jesus says:
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."
The handle of the door is on the inside. There's no handle on the outside. The Lord expects you and me to search for Him but He says open the door and I will come in and sup with you and you with me. How many times have you heard the story of the young man searching for the girl of his life and he gets on the aeroplane and he flies all over the world looking for this girl and comes all the way back home and she is living next door and she's been there all the time for him. It's the same thing for the young girl who wants to have a career and meet the man of her dreams only to come all the way back and find out that he's the farmer that lives down the road.
You know, Elijah was seeking for the Lord, (1 Kings 19:12), and he stood in the mouth of the cave, and a mighty wind went past and the Lord wasn't in that, then there was a massive earthquake, the Lord wasn't in that. Then there was a huge fire, the Lord wasn't in that, and then the still small voice spoke and the Lord was there. So often we search for the Lord in the wrong places, don't we? We go with great excitement and anticipation to a massive conference expecting to hear from God or we go to a huge stadium meeting and we expect to hear from the Lord, but we don't. He's not found in the overseas trips, He's not found in that latest book or that movie, no. He's often found in the quietness of the closet.
John Wesley went all the way to America to find God. He came all the way back disheartened and he met Him in a little Bible study in Aldersgate in London. Charles Finney met with God in the forest. The love of God was going through him so strongly he said, "Lord, if you don't stop, You'll kill me."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, slipped into a little country chapel just to get out of a snow storm, and heard a farm worker bringing the Gospel because the pastor wasn't there. "Look unto Me and be saved" - that was the scripture he heard and changed his life.
Today, you don't have to go overseas, you don't have to go to that big meeting. Go into the quiet place and He will speak to you there.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 19th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Psalms 37:25:
"I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread."
Wow! What a beautiful promise from the Lord. Maybe today you are worried, worried about the future; worried about your family; maybe you have got a sick member in your family; maybe you are financially strapped, and you don't know how it's going to work out for tomorrow. Well, the Lord is telling us very clearly not to worry about tomorrow, He says, for tomorrow has enough worries of its own. Do you remember that beautiful old Gospel song that goes like this: "One day at a time, sweet Jesus"? Do you remember that? I am going to read you the words of that beautiful song. This is how it goes:
I'm only human
I am just a man
Help me believe in what I could be
And all that I am
Show me the stairway
That I have to climb
Lord, for my sake, please teach me to take
One day at a time
One day at a time, sweet Jesus
That's all I am asking of You
Just give me the strength to do everyday
What I have to do
Yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Lord, help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time
*Do you remember
When You walked among men?
Well, Jesus, You know
If You're looking below
That it's worse now than then
Oh, there's pushing and shoving
And it's crowding my mind
So, Lord, for my sake
Teach me to take
One day at a time*
One day at a time, sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking of You
Just give me the strength to do everyday
What I have to do
Yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Lord, help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time
Lord, help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time
Listen carefully to the words of that beautiful song and apply them to your life today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, it’s the 18th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 55:8, the Lord says:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.”
Then we go to Jeremiah 29:11, a very well-known verse in the Bible. The Lord says:
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
What a beautiful promise from our Lord! Oh, my dear friend, maybe you feel forsaken today, maybe you feel the Lord has left you, maybe you feel He has got nothing for you. I want to tell you some good news! God has got plans for you and me, well-being and not disaster. You know, the farmer makes a plan. Well, I have got news for you - not one of my plans have ever worked! I have never heard God speak to me audibly, but in my heart, and one morning many years while having my quiet time, the Lord said to me in my heart, “Your busyness, Angus, is making me tired.” I shared that with Jill, my wife, and she reminds me often about that one. The Lord has peace for you and I, not evil. He has a future for you and I, a hope, and it is all found in Christ alone.
Last week we had the AGM of the movie, “Faith like Potatoes”. Do you know that that movie was made 18 years ago and it is still going strong? Sony, the film-makers have just signed a contract for another 15 years for that movie. Isn’t that incredible? Now, I want to tell you very quickly what happened. I was standing on the platform at Kings Park Rugby Stadium in Durban, South Africa, and I made an outrageous statement, because a terrible drought was predicted - el Nino was coming. I said, “To hell with el Nino, I am going home and I am going to plant potatoes." I had never planted potatoes in my life before, I had no irrigation. You know the story very well, but you see, that wasn’t the plan. The plan that the Lord had was, out of that statement of faith, because that is what it was, raw undiluted faith, a little book was born called “Faith like Potatoes”, and then the movie was born. That was God’s plan, that wasn’t my plan.
I want to say to you in closing, that little book and that movie have touched more people than any bit of preaching I have ever done in 46 years. Now, today slow down, listen and do only what God tells you to do and you will be amazed at the plans He has for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 17th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 6:33:
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
What a beautiful promise from the Lord! Just before that, in the same chapter He says, "Why are you worried, my dear friend?" Why are you and I worried? He says, "Look at the beautiful little birds in the field and look at the beautiful lilies in the valleys, look at the beautiful grass and the flowers", the Lord takes care of every single one of them. Why, then, do we worry about food tomorrow, about clothes to wear when the Lord is already supplying it for His creation?
When I have to travel overseas, Jill, my wife, stays at home. She looks after things at homebase and often I will be in a hotel room somewhere on the other side of the world. It does get rather lonely, I must confess, especially after the meeting is finished and everyone has gone home, and I go to my hotel room on my own and I sit there sometimes and I tend to worry a little bit. Is Jill okay on the farm back home? Then the Lord reminds me, "Angus, what are you concerned about? You are doing the thing I told you to do, so why are you being concerned? You seek first My kingdom and I will take care of the family and of every need that they have."
I want to say to you today, cast your cares upon the Lord Jesus Christ, for truly, He does care for you and me. He has cared for me for over 40 years and every time I come home, I find that everything is in order - in fact, sometimes it is better than when I left it because God has promised me, "If you do what I have told you to do I will take care of the rest." You and I need to do the same thing today.
Do you remember that beautiful old hymn, 'His eye is on the sparrow'? It goes something like this:
Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
So let us live for the moment - carpe diem, seize the day, and leave the future in God’s capable hands.
Jesus bless you! Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 16th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 16:13:
“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Then we go to the last book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation 3:15. The Lord Jesus says:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.”
We cannot afford to be fence-sitters. Sitting on a fence is a very uncomfortable place to be, especially if it is a barbed wire fence! People despise folk who cannot make up their minds.
Have you ever tried to drink a cup of tea that is lukewarm. Now, I am a tea drinker, I love tea. I want to tell you, there is nothing worse than a cup of tea that is neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. I don’t mind drinking iced tea on a hot day, it is very refreshing, the Americans do that, I love iced tea. But on a freezing winter’s day while sitting by the fire, when someone gives you a strong, hot, steaming cup of tea - wow! You can’t beat it. People never respect a man or a woman who cannot make up their minds because they don’t want to offend anyone.
If you need to follow Jesus, you need to follow Him all the way, or you need to disregard Him completely, which I would strongly advise you never to even think of doing. You see, people don’t have to like us but they must respect us. Lets be those who make up their minds. You are either black or white, no grey area. We are going to go on for Jesus. You know the old saying, “A faint heart never gained fair maiden”? If you love that girl, tell her. Don't let her have to guess it. Be determined. Young lady, if you have an affection for that young man, let him know, because the devil will try and keep you apart and then you will end up losing that person.
It is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. Today let us be definite, let people know that we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation, for those who believe, first the Jew and then the Gentile. You will find that in Romans 1:16.
God bless you and have a decisive day today. Make some good solid Christian decisions.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 15th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of 1 Corinthians 3:10:
"…as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it."
" There is no quick fix drop, there is no building on the sand. Matthew 7:26 tells us:
"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.
We cannot wing it, we cannot just quickly make a plan. Everything done today seems to be done instantly but it doesn't last. You see, when the storms of life come the building won't stand. We must build on the rock. Who is The Rock? His name is Jesus Christ. Especially for those who are coming after us. You see, when a building collapses it doesn't just destroy the builder but it destroys many other lives as well.
As Christians, we have an obligation to others. I can hear somebody saying, "Well, it is my life, I can do as I please." No, you can't. When you gave your life to Christ, you surrendered all your personal privileges. We are now living for the Lord and we are living for each other.
I remember a story of a young missionary that went to the Congo. This young man worked night and day. He was so passionate for the Lord, but you see, he wasn't spending time with God. He was building a hospital, he was building a school, he built a beautiful church. He never rested, he never spent time putting down foundations in the Lord. He was literally working himself to a standstill and the villagers were coming to church and they were serving the Lord and were so excited about what was happening.
One Sunday morning they arrived at church. The young missionary lived in a little hut but the door was closed, and they thought, "What is wrong, he is normally up early, he is normally the first there?" Then they knocked on the door. There was no answer. They broke the door down and they found that the young man had taken his life. He had committed suicide. They were devastated, that whole congregation went out, they closed the door and they nailed a sign on the door, "There is no god," and they went back to their former lifestyle.
Be careful that we don't upset and chase other people from God because we are not building on The Rock. Jesus is The Rock, first the Lord and then the ministry, first the Lord and then your family and your future.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 14th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Proverbs 23:4:
“Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease!”
In other words, stop it. Then we go straight to Matthew 6:21:
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36
I don’t know if you remember reading about the famous Wall Street financial crash. It happened in 1929, the Stock Market Crash. Overnight, share prices collapsed to nothing. That triggered the worldwide Great Depression, where there was starvation and hunger all over the world. That Wall Street Crash caused businessmen to commit suicide, literally jumping out of the windows of their business houses in their skyscrapers.
It is time for you and me to do a heart check today. Where are our priorities? Where are we spending all our time? What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul? I remember watching a programme on television many years ago, the history of the great motorcar manufacturer, Henry Ford. He had an affair with another woman and when he came home to confess to his wife that he had had an affair, he noticed she wasn’t surprised at all, and he asked why not, and she said, “You have been having an affair with your business for years and I have always come second.”
We must not do that, ladies and gentlemen. We must spend more time with Jesus, more time with our families. We must apply Matthew 6:33 which says:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
God bless you and have a wonderful day, and think about this, because I think it is very important to some people listening to this message,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Saturday morning, the 13th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the book of Mathew 6:18, from the Amplified Version of the Bible:
“… your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.”
Now, I don’t know about you, I want my reward in heaven, I do not want my reward here on earth. In Mathew 6, you will see the Lord says when you are fasting, you are going without food because you want to deal with an issue in your life or you want to grow closer to the Lord, don’t walk around looking like you are half dead but comb your hair, wash your face and don’t let anyone know what you’re doing and then you’ll be rewarded by the Lord.
Jesus said in Mathew 11:11 about John the Baptist,
“among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist”
Why? Because John the Baptist never touched God’s glory. In John 3:30, John says:
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
We’ve got to remain humble and I want to tell you, I don’t know if you’re like me but sometimes I get so disappointed in myself. We love the applause of men, don’t we? The thing is, the Lord says if we get our applause here, or your reward here, there’s nothing for you in heaven. I remember one Sunday after Jill and I had preached in a church in Durban, we were on our way home and we went into a little restaurant and we had a meal together quietly. There were other people in the restaurant and when it came time for us to leave, we said to the waitress, ”Can you bring us the bill please.” She said, ”The bill has already been paid.” We said, ”There must be some mistake, we haven’t paid yet.” She said, ”No, the couple that was sitting across the way from you have paid for your meal.” And they got up and quietly left. Folks, that touched me so deeply. We couldn’t get out of the restaurant quick enough to see if we could find them. They were gone; they didn’t want their reward from us. They were just doing what they believed God wanted them to do.
Today, don’t be so concerned about getting your reward here on earth, but be more concerned about obedience to God and the Lord is going to reward you on the great day when you meet Him in Heaven.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 12th of July, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in that well-known scripture found in 2 Timothy 1:7:
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
They say that the twilight time of the day is probably the most dangerous time to drive a vehicle. I looked up the Oxford dictionary to define the word, 'twilight". It means scarcely visible, it means half-light, it means gloom - the most dangerous time to drive a vehicle. It's not light and it's not dark. You cannot distinguish things.
Are you confused today? Confusion is uncertainty. It is when you are in a state of doubt or even bewilderment. Do you know where you are going? Do you know what you are doing? Do you know what you believe in?
My one son is a horse trainer. He trains horses on the farm and we breed them as well, and he often tells me," Dad, the problem is not the horse, the problem is the rider." Some of these people get on a horse and they want to ride a horse, but they are pulling on the reins and they're kicking the poor horse to go forward. It's like trying to drive a motorcar with the handbrake on and you're putting your foot on the accelerator. It is totally confusing. The animal doesn't know what to do.
I want to say to you today, there are some people who are confused about what they actually believe and we have got to back to basics. By faith, I said by faith, we need to take the Word of God, the Bible, and we need to believe it from cover to cover. As soon as you start pulling out parts of the Bible that you think are not accurate, you are in trouble. You are now becoming your own Saviour, your own god, because you are determining what you think the future holds. Don't do that - the Bible is accurate, I can tell you right now! I don't understand everything in the Bible, but by faith I choose to believe it and that gives me peace and calm in my spirit.
Jesus Christ is the son of God. That's it! Jesus is the only way to the Father - John 14:6:
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
That is a fact. If you don't believe that, you are not a Christian. The Bible tells us that if we confess our sins, He will forgive us (1 John 1:9). That is a fact. He says that there is another life after death; that is a fact. When you start to believe the word and you start to live it, then confusion goes out the window.
Today, let's get back to basics.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 11th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mathew 6:8-13:
”Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye:”
Let’s pray this together, you and I:
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
That is the Lord’s Prayer that our Lord Jesus taught His disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray. We need to teach that prayer to our children, moms and dads, as young as they are. We need to teach that prayer to our staff at work. Young people, you need to teach it to your friends at school. Farmers, you need to teach that prayer to your farm workers. We need to teach that prayer in the office. It is the complete prayer which Jesus taught His disciples to pray.
Maybe you are struggling with your memory at the moment. I want to tell you that, that beautiful prayer will sharpen your memory. Maybe someone catches you in the street, in a restaurant, or somewhere else, and he’s desperate and says, ”Please pray for me,” and you don’t really know what to pray at that particular time. Ask them to pray with you and pray the Lord’s prayer. It is complete. It is the most beautiful prayer ever.
It’s an introductory prayer. You can pray that prayer before you start preaching or before you start delivering your message to whoever has asked you to speak to them. I want to say to you today that that prayer comforts you when you’ve lost a loved one. That prayer gives you direction when you do not know which way to go. When you pray, pray carefully and listen to the words, and Jesus will comfort you by them.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 10th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Jeremiah 23:29, in the Old Testament
“Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”
The Bible is the strongest weapon that we have as Christians to stand against the evils of our time. If we read just before this verse, we see that the Lord told Jeremiah that He has no time for false prophets. Now, how do you judge whether a man is telling the truth when he says he has had a dream and God has shown him something? How do you test the prophet? Only one way, and that is by the word of God, the Bible. If his prophecy lines up with God’s word, then we believe him. If it does not then we cast it aside. Now, fire burns up dross and rubbish. If you have seen a rubbish heap that people set on fire, all that rubbish gets burnt up and there is just ash afterwards, but it is clean. It purifies. You see, the word of God exposes lies and people who tell lies.
On the farm, we fight fire with fire. It’s the best weapon that we have at the end of the day to protect our precious crops and animals. Yes, we have water carts, we have firefighters, we have even got aeroplanes that drop water onto fire, but the ultimate weapon is to put a fire in and backburn against the on-coming fire, and eventually it meets in the middle and the fire is put out. Fire also breaks the hardest of hearts. “Is not My word like fire, like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” I have seen it so many times in my life. The word of God softens the hearts of the hardest of criminals. Yes, it sets the captives free, the spoken word of God, the Bible. It also frees men from all kinds of hellish vices, like alcohol, drugs, hatred, and unforgiveness.
If we go to the word of God in Luke 8:30-31, we see that Jesus cast out the demons from the Legion.
Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion” because many demons had entered him. And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.”
My dear friend, today, start using the word of God and stop reasoning so much, and start using and believing God’s word. I can tell you, it works every single time.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 9th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the word of God, to 2 Timothy 4:2:
“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching.”
I want to read you a story that was sent to me a couple of hours ago from a dear young man that I am mentoring.
“Robert Schuller’s teenage daughter, Cindy, was in a motorcycle accident and had to have her leg amputated. John Wayne was a big fan of Robert Schuller. He heard Dr Schuller say on one of his programmes that his daughter had been in an accident and had to have her leg amputated. John Wayne wrote a note to her saying:
“Dear Cindy,
Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you will be all right.”
Signed, John Wayne.
The note was delivered to her and she decided she wanted to write John Wayne a note in reply. She wrote:
Dear Mr Wayne,
I got your note. Thanks for writing to me. I like you very much. I am going to be all right because Jesus is going to help me. Mr Wayne, do you know Jesus? I sure hope you know Jesus, Mr Wayne, because I can’t imagine Heaven being complete without John Wayne being there. I hope if you don’t know Jesus, that you will give your heart to Jesus right now.
See you in Heaven,
(and she signed her name).
She had just put that letter in an envelope and sealed it and written across the front of it, “John Wayne”, when a visitor came into her hospital room to see her. He said to her, “What are you doing?” She said, “I have just written a letter to John Wayne, but I don’t know how to get it to him. He said, “That’s funny. I am going to have dinner tonight with John Wayne at the Newport Club down at Newport Beach. Give it to me and I will give it to him.” She gave him the letter and he put it in his coat pocket.
There were twelve of them that night, sitting around a table for dinner. They were all laughing and joking and the guy happened to reach into his pocket and felt the letter, and he remembered. John Wayne was seated at the end of the table and the guy took the letter out and said, “Hey Duke, I was in Schuller’s daughter’s room today in the hospital and she wrote you a letter and wanted me to give it to you and here it is.” They passed the letter down to John Wayne and he opened it, and someone happened to notice, looking down at John Wayne, he was crying. One of them said, “Duke, what is the matter?” And he said, “I want to read you this letter.” He read the letter then he began to weep again. He folded it up, put it in his pocket and he pointed to the man who had delivered the letter to him and said, “You go and tell that little girl that in this restaurant, right here, John Wayne gives his heart to Jesus Christ and I will see her in Heaven." John Wayne died three weeks later.
May God bless you richly. Tell somebody today about Jesus,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 8th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Corinthians 13, and it is the chapter on love. I am going to read the whole chapter to you and I would like you to be very careful to listen to every single word because this is Jesus in print. You see 1 John 4:8 says:
"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."
I was at a prayer meeting, a mens' prayer meeting early in the morning and the one gentleman shared a testimony. He said, "I have got a man staying at our place. He is now a committed Christian, he has given his life to Jesus, he's been baptised and he gets up every morning at 4 o'clock and prays with some of his friends, and he prays again at 8pm at night. He said he used to be a Muslim and has changed. What is the reason? He says, "love". He has never known or experienced love like he has experienced among Christians. That is out of his mouth." I want to tell you that Muslims need Jesus. Listen to this beautiful chapter:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known."
And now listen to this, verse 13:
"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day and go and tell somebody that God loves them.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 7th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 28:20. I am reading the last part in the last verse in the Gospel of Matthew, and Jesus said:
"…I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
What a beautiful, comforting promise from our Master! I want to ask you a question this morning - How big is God and how close is God to you? Well, a very dear friend of mine sent me a little story that I want to read to you. I want to adapt it, and it goes something like this:
A little boy was asking his dad one day, "How big is God, dad?"
So Dad took the little boy out into the open, and they looked up into the sky. They saw a huge airliner, an international plane, going from one continent to another. It was minute, like a little dot in the sky. His dad said, "God's size depends on how close or how far you are from Him."
And with that, the little boy said, "I can hardly see that aeroplane. It is just a speck in the sky."
So Dad took the little boy to the airport, they got out and walked up to a massive plane, a huge Jumbo 747, and the little boy said, "Dad, that plane is massive!"
He said, "That is the same plane that you saw in the sky," he said, "You see, son, the closer that you are to God, the greater He becomes in your life." That is so true, isn't it, for you and I? The more time we spend with the Master, the bigger He becomes in our lives.
When a person says to you, "Show me this Jesus," give them a Bible because that Bible is Jesus Christ in print.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."John 1:1
Jesus bless you and have a special day with your dear friend,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 6th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Jeremiah 23:6:
“In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
Oh, isn’t that a beautiful title for our beloved Saviour? THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! Then we go straight to Matthew 1:21:
“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
You see, it is His righteousness in you and I, my dear friend, that will save us, no good works of our own, it’s no efforts of our own. In fact, the more we try, the more we mess up. Jesus will save His people and no-one else can save them.
Luther tried it and then he found a little scripture, Romans 1:17:
“The just shall live by faith.”
His eyes were opened. He saw that it was actually Jesus who was his righteousness, not him, not his fasting, not his praying, not his beating himself up. No, it was Jesus. Wesley found the same thing. He said, “A strange warmth came over my heart, scales fell from my eyes.” I believe he was born again and filled with the Spirit on that memorable Bible study that took place in Aldersgate in London, and then of course, the revival broke out. John Newton, the slave ship captain: “I once was blind but now I see, I was lost but now I am saved.”
You know, there is a beautiful song written by Jack Campbell and Jimmie Davis and this is how it goes:
“I can't take a heart that's broken make it over again
But I know a man who can
I can't take a soul that's sin sick wash it whiter than snow
But I know a man who can
Some call Him Saviour the Redeemer of all men
But I call Him Jesus for He's my dearest friend
If you think that no one loves you and your life is out of hand
I know a man who can
I can't walk upon the water and I can't calm a raging sea
But I know a man who can
I can't cause blinded eyes to be opened or the lame get up and walk again Oh, but I know a man who can”
Today, call upon that Man. His name is Jesus Christ and He will undertake for you, my dear friend. I don’t know what battle you are fighting at the moment but give it to Him because He can!
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 5th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Acts 1:3
“…being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”
Jesus was seen for forty days before He finally departed and went home to Heaven to be with His Heavenly Father. He was not in a rush to leave, He wanted to make sure everything was in order before He went home. He reassured His disciples, He strengthened them. He lingered with them for forty days before He finally went home to be with His Father. What amazing love! That’s how much Jesus loves you today, my dear friend, and He loves me. He really didn’t want to go, but his work on earth had been completed, and He had to go back home to Heaven to be with His Father, and He wants to make sure that nothing is left undone and that we are not left as orphans. He sent His Holy Spirit to come and to be our Helper.
The other day, I was asked to take a funeral service, and there was an opportunity for the family to come up and pay tribute to their dad and grandfather and just thank the Lord for what he meant to them. I was so deeply touched when his son came up and paid tribute to his dad. He said that his dad had made sure that his mother was settled comfortably in a nice home, and when everything had been completed then he closed his eyes. He went home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ peacefully, but he had made sure that everything was in order for his dear wife before he left.
Jesus has gone home but He has put everything in order for you and I. He has first of all promised us that He is coming back again, to take us to be with Him in paradise, but in the meantime, He has given us His Holy Spirit to be a Friend and a Helper to each one of us. What amazing love!
Today, go out and love somebody who has got no father, no mother and reassure them that there is a God in Heaven who loves us so very much.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 4th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Exodus 21:24:
“…eye for eye, tooth for tooth,…”
Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 5:38-39. Jesus says:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
I want to tell you a story that touched me very deeply. There was a dairy farmer in the USA. He was born in 1913. His name was Demos Shakarian and he came from an Armenian background. He was the biggest dairy farmer in America in those days, and he met the Lord Jesus Christ, fell in love with Him and he thought the Lord was calling him to be an evangelist. So he bought a massive tent and started preaching but it was not his calling. So what he realised was that he was an instrument by God to set up meetings for other people to preach at. He formed the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. It went right around the world touching businessmen. But he tells the story that he set up his tent and had a visiting evangelist - a crooked evangelist. After this man had preached the Gospel, he made the appeal for money and people came forward and they gave lots of money, and he made another altar call and he did it again.
After the meeting, they went around the back of the tent and they were sorting out the finances and Demos Shakarian was going to give the evangelist a generous gift and he said, “I just need to square up all the debt and then I will give you the money that is left.” He said, “No ways! I want all of it, the whole lot!” Demos Shakarian turned the other cheek, didn’t he? He gave him the bag of money and the evangelist disappeared. A few years later, Demos Shakarian was sitting in town in his pick-up and he saw a tramp walking up the road in rags. He looked at that tramp from a distance and he thought, “I recognise that face” - it was the evangelist.
I want to say something to you: Don’t worry if someone has short-changed you or done you down. Pray for that person, commit them to the Lord, and move on with your life. The Lord is the one who will do justice.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 3rd of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 5:37, the Lord Jesus says:
“But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.”
We must not make promises that we cannot keep. We must be honest, come clean, and say, “We cannot do it” rather than try to pacify people. If you have made a mistake, just go and ask the person to forgive you. I am thinking of that relationship, that young couple who are contemplating marriage, and maybe she has realised at the last minute that this is not the man for her. You need to let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’ for your sake, for his sake, and most of all for the Lord’s sake. The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the peace-makers”, not “blessed are the peace-lovers” and sometimes to bring peace in your family you have got to make decisions. You have got to say to your children, “No, you are not going to do that, we are going to do this” and eventually your children will come and thank you for that. We have to become more decisive.
When I left Zambia, and I came down to South Africa, we had signed up to purchase a farm, and I had to go to the lawyers to sign the papers, but there was something in me that was not really at peace, and I had to cancel the farm sale, and I bought another farm. At the time, I was very, very embarrassed and the gentleman who was selling me the farm was extremely disappointed, but I had to say to him, “This is not the farm that we are going to buy because I want to grow seed maise on this farm and I don’t have isolation distance from other commercial crops of maise, and it just wouldn’t work.”
I made the right decision. It was very difficult and as a result, we bought the farm, “Shalom” and God has blessed us on this farm with many, many good things, but I can tell you right now, if I had purchased the other farm, just to make the seller happy, we would have gone bankrupt. Today, let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and let your ‘no’ be ‘no’ and anything else, the Lord says, is evil. Don’t keep on doing things you know you shouldn’t do because you will not get the victory in that situation. Be decisive and then you will be at peace.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 2nd of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Acts 17:6:
“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”
Pascal, the great French philosopher, mathematician, etc. said something that is so special. He said, “The serene beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world next to the might of God” - a holy life. You see, that is what happened. Paul was preaching Jesus and said, “He is the Christ, He is the coming Messiah, He is the hope of the world”. The Greeks were persuaded to follow after the Lord Jesus Christ, but some were envious, some were evil, some went to the marketplace and got a whole lot of rabble-rousers and they attacked the house of Jason, where Paul and the apostles were staying - those who have turned the world upside down!
Now, they did not turn the world upside down with a mighty army - no! They did not turn the world upside down by a great invention - no! Well, how did they turn the world upside-down? By telling people that there is a God, that His name is Jesus Christ, that there is eternal life, that after we die in this world, we don’t go to a lost eternity. If we believe in Him, we have life eternal.
That great English evangelist, George Whitefield, said, “We are immortal (in other words, we can’t die), on this earth until our work has been completed.” I want to encourage you today to stop worrying about things that are not even going to happen. I want to encourage you today to focus on the Lord and that will bring more people to Christ than anything else.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 1st of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 5:22 and Jesus says:
“But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”
That’s quite a statement. Don’t call any man or woman “a fool.” You know, years ago when children were taught at school, they all had to write with their right hand, and little children who were born left-handed would get punished if they tried to write with their left hand. As a result, many left-handers from that era are very poor writers, (I happen to be a left-hander), but we cannot presume that people are foolish because they don’t do things the way other people do. Mother, be very careful how you talk to your children. Some people learn slower than others but they are not fools. No, in fact, often the ones who learn slower, when they get it, they are brilliant.
I read the life story of a woman called Helen Roseveare. She was a missionary doctor who went right up into the Congo. She built a hospital, literally out of the jungle, and she even taught her clearners, the people who swept out the wards where the patients were lying and made the beds and took the rubbish out - she taught them how to be surgeons. Now they couldn’t even read or write. She taught them how to deliver babies by operating on that mother when she couldn’t give birth naturally, delivering the baby, then stitching up the mother’s wound and making sure that mom and baby were both perfectly healthy, a miracle!
We need to dream our dream. Don’t call anybody foolish. As Christians, we need to encourage one another, to dream our dreams. Speak it into being - have patience with each other because we all operate at different paces and different levels.
Let's be encouragers today and not critics.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 30th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Timothy 2:3:
"You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
People say "Come to Jesus and all your problems will be over." Now, I have been looking for that scripture in the Bible for quite a few years and I just can't find it because it is not there. There is nowhere where Jesus says, "Come to Me and I will give you a bed of roses" - not at all! He says, "Come to me and I will give you rest," and He says, "Take My cross up and follow Me daily." If we look at Hebrews 12:12-13, the Lord says:
"Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed."
We are in the fight of our lives. Yes, we have the victory, I know that so well, but nevertheless, it is still a fight. I read a little article the other day that says, "This life is not victory but a battle." We need to be patient for a little longer and then we will have the victory. Do you remember that beautiful hymn, "I have decided to follow Jesus?"
I remember a few years ago when we were going to Cape Town. They had had no rain for two years and we went to parliament. We were praying that the Lord would undertake for us, and I got an opportunity to stand up and to speak up, and I felt the Lord say, "I want you to sing. I want you to sing that you have decided to follow Me." Please sing it with me because as a soldier of the Cross, it gives us strength to run the race and to finish it. Of course, we have the victory but we need to be good soldiers. We need to disciplined. We need to get up every morning and face the day until that wonderful day when Jesus comes to take us home to be with Him in glory forever. The song goes like this:
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
Oh, no turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
The second verse goes like this:
Tho' none go with me, I still will follow,
Tho' none go with me I still will follow,
Tho' none go with me, I still will follow;
No turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
As good soldiers, let's press on towards the mark of our high calling.
Jesus bless you, have a wonderful day,
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 29th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
That is the whole Bible in one verse. Sixty-six books in the Bible, the whole Bible summed up in one verse, for God so loved you today, my dear friend. I listened to a Gospel song last night. I love country and western music and this young cowboy was saying something before he started his song. He said when he was a young boy, his grandfather was a preacher and he said, “Son, are you coming to church today?” And the young boy said, “No, grandfather, I don’t think I will go to church today.” And then his grandfather said to him, “Well son, I wouldn’t go to church either if Jesus Christ had done nothing for me.” Very profound.
Why do we go to church? “Well”, you say, “I go to church because it is the right thing to do.” No, that is not good enough. “No, it is a tradition in our family.” That’s not good enough either. “Well, my parents expect me to.” That’s not a good enough reason. “My boss expects me to go.” That’s not a good enough reason. “My girlfriend goes to church.” Son, that’s not a good enough reason either. None of those reasons are good enough.
We look at Jeremiah, the Prophet. Jeremiah had been made a fool of. They put him in the stocks and he was the laughing stock of the city, and he says in Jeremiah 20:9:
Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, (in other words, I will not speak about Him anymore.)
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not. (I could not hold it back, I had to keep telling people about the Lord)
I want to tell you today, I go to church to meet with the Man who saved my very life. He did everything for me. I go to church every Sunday to say, “Thank You,”. I go to church to learn from Jesus, I go to church to be with His family, my friends. You might say to me, “I get nothing out of church.” Well then you need to find a church that is preaching the Gospel and your life will be transformed. Go to church because He loves you and He wants to meet with you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 28th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Acts 18:9:
“Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”
Now, that was a message that the Lord gave to me personally, many, many years ago. That was my calling to go out and to do the work of the evangelist, but up until then, I had, had no experience whatsoever. I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to go to a little town, about an hour’s drive west of our farm, Shalom. I drove into that town, I will never forget it and I felt the Lord say, “Book the town hall and have a campaign for a week.”
Well, I want to tell you, my dear friend, it doesn’t come easy. I started knocking on doors, and I got no response at all. I went to each and every church in that town almost, knocking on the doors, saying, “I am coming, we are going to have a campaign, bring your people. We are not trying to start our own church and we want to support what you are doing in the town.” I got very little, if any support at all. But you see, I think, the Lord was testing me, because there was one minister who was out of town. I knocked on his door, there was no answer. I left a little note underneath his door with my phone number and said I had been to see him and what we intended to do. I came home and I said to my wife, Jill, “I think I have missed it, they don’t really want me there, they don’t know who I am, they have got no need for me. That’s what it appears to be like.”
But you know, the next morning, at about 6am, I got a phone call from that town. That minister had come home that night. He said, “You won’t believe this - we have been praying for six months on top of the hills around this town, and we have been asking the Lord to send a revival. We are waiting for you and you are most welcome.” And the rest is history, as they say. That was the beginning.
But I want to read something to you that is very interesting. It was written by a man by the name of F B Meyer, a great man of God. This is what he said, he said: “Obedience to a divine prompting transforms it into a permanent acquisition.” Now for the young people, what does that mean? It means the Holy Spirit puts something on your heart, and you are obedient to what the Lord has placed on your heart. Maybe He said, “I want you to go to university, I want you to become a doctor so that you can help poor people; I wanted you to start a business so that you can support the work of God; I want you to play good sport so that you can be a witness for Me,” and you don’t feel that you can do it, but you are obedient to it. Listen to this: “Obedience to a divine prompting transforms it into a permanent acquisition.”
Once you are obedient to what you feel the Lord told you to do, it becomes a reality. Now go out and do it!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 27th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Jeremiah 17:17:
“You are my hope in the day of doom.”
Are you going through a tough time at the moment? Well, He has told us He is our hope, and that is a wonderful thing to know! Then we go to the Book of Romans 8:31:
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
It's a win-win situation, isn’t it? Oh my dear friend, you know, I love watching rugby, and they tell me when the South African Springboks go across to Wales to play rugby, the Welsh have a reputation of singing. They are beautiful singers, I have heard them myself, especially the male choirs. They have these male choirs come on the field and they start singing those beautiful Welsh songs before the match begins. It’s total intimidation. It is like they have ten points on the board before the Springboks even run onto the field.
Well, I have got good news for you. For you and I, remember this, the score is on the board. Before we run onto that field, it is a clear-cut victory. Jesus Christ has told us that if He is for us, there is no-one who can be against us. As we go out today, we need to remember that. It doesn’t matter how much tribulation, how many trials, how many hard times you are going through at the moment. The bottom line is we know the end score; it is a victory because Jesus has fought the good fight, He has run the race, He has paid for our sins, and He said all we need to do is believe.
I want to encourage you today to go out and tell somebody the score is on the board. It’s a win-win situation. The devil is a liar and a thief, and he can do nothing to God’s people. Today, remember, in bright lights, the score is on the board. We have the victory!
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 26th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 34:19:
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Romans 5:3-4:
“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Are you going through a rough time at the moment? Are you feeling like, “Lord, I just can’t go on anymore.” Well then, this message is for you. I want to tell you about three people who have impacted my life more than most, and I have had the privilege of meeting some very, very well-known people, famous people. I am talking about kings, yes, I am talking about presidents, oh yes, and I want to tell you these three people have impacted my life more than any famous sportsman, etc.
The first is an old lady who has gone to be with Jesus. Her name was Aunty Peggy. Aunty Peggy had diabetes and she had one of her legs amputated just below the knee. She struggled with blood pressure, and you know, she lived with us for many, many years in a little cottage on the farm. I want to tell you, whenever I needed some compassion and a good listening ear, I didn’t go to some specialist or to some supernatural theologian, I went to Aunty Peggy. I sat down and we had a cup of tea together and she listened to my problems, my fears, my inadequacies, the pressure I was under, and she just smiled, and she just oozed with compassion. By the time I had had a cup of tea with Aunty Peggy, I walked out of that cottage and I felt I could take on the whole world.
The second person is a gentleman who lives in England. He went to Africa and took care of disabled children. He poured himself out on behalf of those who could not pay him a cent. He contracted malaria, he lost his sight, but I will tell you what, I have yet to meet a man who has more insight than David. He is a gentleman and a giant of the faith.
The third person is a man who has been extremely successful in business. I told him the other day, “Martin, you need to write your story.” The man said, “What story?” I said, “Martin, you have a story to tell.” Probably one of the most humble men I have ever met, I trust that he will write his story before he goes home to meet with Jesus.
Today, do not be scared, do not be afraid of being pruned hard. When you get pruned, you produce quality fruit.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 25th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 5:13:
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavour, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men."
Have you ever tried to eat a plate of food without salt? Have you ever tried to eat a plate of porridge with no salt! Oh folks! Coming from a Scottish background, where porridge is our staple diet, aah - it is terrible. It is bland, tasteless, it is extremely hard to swallow. It is like listening to a preacher bringing the word of God to a congregation, who is just so very boring, no passion, no conviction. I remember once preaching to a group of farmers down in the Eastern Cape and at half time, it was an all-day affair, I was in the bathroom, and an old farmer walked in and he said to me, "Son, when you preach, you don't have to sweat so much." I said him, "Sir, you haven't seen anything yet. Wait for the second half!" We need to be committed to our walk with Jesus Christ. Some people don't even believe in what they are preaching. There is no emotion, no tears.
Charles Finney was a great revivalist from America. He said, "Where there are no tears and no "amens" there is no revival." No conviction, no love, no desperation - you and I have been called to be watchmen, we have been called to warn the people of the evil one. We need to prepare people's hearts for home time. We mustn't preach to the head, we must preach to the heart, always preaching for a response, expecting results. We want a verdict. It's like a defence lawyer. Have you ever seen him pleading for the life of his client who has been condemned to death? He is not playing the fool, he is desperate. He only has one opportunity. You and I are exactly in the same position. There must be an urgency for your loved ones to be saved. People must have an opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Now, maybe you are listening to this message for the first time and maybe you say, "I don't know what you are talking about, being born again. What does that mean?" It means you need to stop your life of total disregard for God, and you need to start living for Jesus Christ.
Pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I repent of my sin today. I am sick and tired of doing things my own way. From today onwards, I choose to follow You and only You.
In Jesus' name, amen.
God bless you. Now, go out and tell the first three people what you have just prayed.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 24th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 17:7-8:
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.”
Then Hebrews 13:6:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
We need to trust the Lord unconditionally. If we have done everything we can in our own strength, then after that, it is totally in God’s hands. I remember the drought we had on this farm. Folks, I want to tell you, there is nothing worse, there is nothing that puts a man down more than driving around a crop that he has planted by faith, and watching it start to shrivel up and die because there is no rain. That is the time when you and I have to trust the Lord unconditionally. Job 13:15, remember Job was a farmer, he said:
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
You see, God can do something with a man like that who unconditionally trusts the Lord. Yes, you have got to do your homework, work hard, and make sure that you are walking according to God’s precepts, and then allow Him to change a drought into an abundant crop. Now folks, if you can’t believe in miracles, then you can’t be a Christian, because the word of God is one miracle from beginning to end. I want to tell you, I have seen too many miracles in my life not to believe that our God is alive, He is well and He is on the side of those who put their trust in Him. I have seen years where it looks as though the crop is done and then at the eleventh hour, the rain comes. The roots are deep into the ground, they are drinking the water and there is an incredible reward.
Don’t walk by sight, walk by faith in God - 2 Corinthians 5:7, and He will see you through. Whatever that thing is that you are struggling with today, give it to the Lord, do your best and then start to praise Him and watch what He will do for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 23rd of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Romans 12:12:
”…rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer:...”
Wow, what a beautiful scripture! I looked up the Amplified version of the same scripture, Romans 12:12:
” …constantly rejoicing in hope [because of our confidence in Christ], steadfast and patient in distress, devoted to prayer [continually seeking wisdom, guidance, and strength],”
Wow! Are you feeling a bit down today, or you just don’t seem to be able to get it right? Are you feeling like you keep dropping the ball? Are you feeling, “Lord I’m not growing in Christ.” Well, I want to tell you something, through that scripture, the Lord has said to us that our Christian walk is an ongoing state, it’s not a one-off state of mind. No, we are working at it all the way until we get home. It’s making an effort, and the easiest way is to spend more time with Jesus, because the people you spend time with are the people that you become like.
I remember meeting a man, as a new Christian. This man was one of the strongest men I’ve ever seen. When you shook his hand, his hand enveloped your whole hand and what a kind man, but you see, he was in a wheelchair because he’d had an accident on the farm, one of the most even-tempered, godly men I’ve ever met. What an encouragement, I always liked to spend time with him.
The other night I was listening to an interview on TV by Bill Gaither, he was interviewing a pianist by the name of Gordon Mote, and he said that they were all sitting at a roadhouse having a meal, the whole band, they were on their way to some event. They parked the Combi outside and when they’d finished their food, they all stood up and they walked outside and jumped into the combi. When they got into the combi, this makes me want to cry, they looked around to find out where Gordon was. Where was the pianist? He was still sitting in his place in the diner. You see, Gordon is blind, he can’t see. He was patiently waiting for somebody to take him out to the combi, and when Bill Gaither told that story there were tears in his eyes.
Maybe today you’re feeling a bit overlooked. Well, how do you think David felt? Seven brothers all lining up to see if they are going to be the next king of Israel and Samuel the prophet said. ”No, it’s none of these, don’t you have any other sons, Jesse?”
“Ja, Ja I’ve got one more, he’s looking after the sheep.”
“Call him.”
And he was anointed as the greatest king Israel has ever had next to Jesus. I want to say to you today, stop being irritable. Irritable means easily annoyed, angered, or bad tempered, grumpy. Don’t be like that. Jesus sees everything, He saw blind Bartimaeus, He saw the little man, Zacchaeus, up a tree, He saw the women at the well, and He sees you today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 22nd of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Timothy 1:12 out of the Amplified Bible:
“…….for I know Him [and I am personally acquainted with Him] whom I have believed [with absolute trust and confidence in Him and in the truth of His deity], and I am persuaded [beyond any doubt] that He is able to guard that which I have entrusted to Him until that day [when I stand before Him].
To know Him - I want to ask you a question today, my dear friend, do you know Jesus personally? Not as a historical figure, not as someone that somebody else tells you about. Have you personally met Him? You know Paul says in Philippians 3:10,
”that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,”
Jesus is alive, He is living, He is not dead, He is not some statute or some place where you go to worship Him. No, as I’m talking to you now, He is with me. He is in my prayer room right now and that is so exciting! I read a very special reading this morning by an unknown author and this is what he says,
”Personal acquaintance with Christ is a living thing. It’s like a tree that uses every hour for growth. It thrives in the sunshine, it is refreshed by the rain, even the storms drive it to fasten it’s grip more firmly in the earth for it’s support. So, troubled heart, in all experiences, say this comes that I may make closer acquaintance with my Lord.”
Father, I pray for my friends today. Lord Jesus, please be more real to them than you’ve ever been before. Lord, we need You now more than we have ever needed You before, and we need a personal touch from You. Please today, be even closer to us than a brother can be. We ask it in Your precious name, amen.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 21st of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 4:19-20:
“Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”
The importance of being called - following Jesus is not a good idea, it has to be a calling. Now, these men were working when the Lord called them. They were not sitting in a corner waiting for the call. They carried on with their daily work. A sailing ship, tied up in the harbour, is not going anywhere, but a sailing ship in the open sea, even if it is going the wrong way, with an experienced sailor, can be turned around and tacked against the wind and using those sails, will take the passengers to their desired destinations.
When Jill and I wanted to serve Jesus Christ, we thought that we would have to stop farming, go to Bible College and study theology, but we decided to fast and pray. I went up to the mountains on my own, Jill stayed at home with the children. You can imagine, she was quite nervous, not knowing what the outcome was going to be with five small children. I came back from the mountains and she was standing by the gate with the children when I drove in and she had a big smile on her face. I think she was quite relieved because you see, the Lord had spoken to her and called her at the same time He called me.
We went into the bedroom, we sat down together, I opened my Bible, she opened her Bible, and we had separate quiet times; we prayed together every day, but we had separate quiet times with the Lord. The Bible has 66 books in it. We both opened the Bible to 2 Corinthians 9:8. It says:
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
First of all, our legs went to jelly, we were still brand-new Christians - we couldn’t believe that the Lord gave us the identical scripture! The Lord showed us, stay on the farm and make a place for My Holy Spirit to work, which as we know, has taken place. We have had some of the biggest men’s conferences, I think, in maybe the history of the world, 450,000 in 2010 and still going strong even today. So, a good idea is not always a God idea. Carry on working hard, seeking the face of the Lord and He will tell you the time that you need to leave your nets and become fishers of men. We are full-time fishers of men at present and still making a place for our Lord, Holy Spirit, to work in people’s lives.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 20th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 15:16:
“Your words were found, and I ate them,
And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;…”
Then we go to Isaiah 55:11:
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
The power of the spoken word of God! You and I must learn to devour God’s word. We must eat it, we must get it into our spiritual man. The spoken word of God, with authority and with love and compassion, will save many who hear it. God’s Holy Word never returns void, the power of the spoken word of God. People are not interested in our opinions. Why should they be? People are interested in what God says about the situation. All our major decisions should be decided on what the Bible says about it. That is the ultimate authority. That will bring peace and joy into the situation.
When we go to court, what do we do? We put our hand on the Bible, and we swear over the Bible that we will speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. That is what they do in a secular court situation. People need to hear the word of God, and that is what brings joy, peace and compassion, and most of all, love, and it brings a rejoicing in our hearts.
Every morning, when I get up early and have my quiet time, I can maybe feel a bit concerned about the situation. Maybe I am a bit concerned about my children and my grandchildren, but when I start to read the word of God, it fills me with confidence. Lord, you said it, I believe it and that confirms it - and then I go out and I impact the world, not by my words but by Jesus’ words, spoken out of my mouth.
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 19th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
We go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 4:4:
"But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'"
We want to speak today about the power in the spoken word of God. Now Jesus is God made flesh, and yet when He was tempted in the desert by the devil, he could have told the devil just to "push off", but He didn't, did He? No, He realised the tremendous authority in the spoken word of God, because Jesus is actually the Word of God.
Now, if we look at the Book of Ephesians 6:17, the word of God says:
"...and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;..."
It is the only weapon that the Lord has given us to stand against the enemy. We are not using it enough. I am going to pray for you at the end of this message, that God will help us use the weapon that He has given to us. Little David, the shepherd boy in 1 Samuel 17:45, said:
"But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."
He was standing up against Goliath. They say David was just a teenager. He was a young boy. He stood up against a giant, the champion of the Philistines. They say that Goliath stood approximately ten and a half feet high. He had a spear like the shaft of a weaver's beam. He was a very ugly man. What Goliath are you facing today, my dear friend? I want to pray for you:
Father, I pray for my dear friend right now who is facing a Goliath in their life. They don't know which way to turn, they don't know what to do. Lord, I pray that they will do exactly what Jesus did to the devil in the desert when He was sorely tempted after forty days and forty nights of fasting and prayer. He was weak, but He used the Word, "It is written". I pray that my friend will do the same, and Lord Jesus, that You will give him, You will give her, a tremendous victory.
David killed Goliath and got the victory because he came against him with the word of God. Pray the word of God today.
Thank You, Lord, amen.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 18th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 3:22:
“And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, (that was Jesus) and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”
This account is written in no less than three of the Gospel stories. “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Why? Because Jesus was obedient. We serve a very humble Lord who leads by example always. 1 Samuel 15:22 says:
“… to obey is better than sacrifice,…”
John the Baptist did not want to baptise Jesus. He said, “I am not worthy”, but Jesus said, “Do it”, and he did it, and through Jesus’ obedience, the clouds opened up and the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove and the Lord said He was well pleased with His Son. I want to say to someone today, God wants you to be obedient to what He has called you to. It doesn’t matter what it is, it doesn’t matter how big the task is, it doesn’t matter how small the task is, He really wants obedience.
Now, many, many years ago, when I was a new Christian, I heard a testimony, a very, very powerful testimony that was sad, but at the same time it was victorious. It was about a young teenage farm boy who lived on a sugarcane farm in Kwazulu Natal, just north of where Shalom is positioned. His father had given him an off-road motorbike but he had told his son, very carefully, “I don’t want you ever to ride on a district road or a public road, only on the farm, on the sugarcane roads around the farm.” While his father was away one day, a report came to him that his son, who was riding his off-road motorbike, had been killed in a motor accident. Obviously, the father was devastated. When he got back, he asked one question, “Where was my son riding his off-road motorbike?” They said he was on the farm, a tractor had come around the corner, and they had a head-on collision.
As devastating as that testimony was, the thing that touched my heart deeply was that his father was so grateful that his son was obedient. He was not riding on the main road, disobeying his father. He was riding on the farm and the accident took place. I want to say to you today, when we are obedient, irrespective of the conditions, our Lord Jesus Christ is very proud of us.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 17th of June, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mathew 3:8:
”Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance,…”
When we come to Christ, there has got to be a change in our lives. We cannot tell people we have become Christians, and yet we continue to live in our former lifestyle. We have to demonstrate new behaviour that proves a change of heart and a conscious decision to turn away from sin. People we know well should come up to us and ask us the question, ”What has happened to you?” And you look at yourself and you say, ”Why? I’m still wearing the same clothes.”
“No, there’s something different happened to you. We see a peace in your heart. We see a joy. We see a love in your heart. You never had that before.”
That’s when you can tell them you have had a change of lifestyle, and I want to tell you the people who will notice it first will be your very own family. When the men who have been at a Mighty Men Conference for a full weekend go back home and some of them get on their knees in front of their families and ask forgiveness for their lifestyles, and say, ”Things are going to change. I have been arrogant. I have been self-centred, and it’s going to change. I am going to start to live for my family.”
We get letters sometimes, that makes you want to cry, from a little 10-year-old child, with that big handwriting saying, “Thank you for giving me a new daddy.” Now, we haven’t given that child anything; God has, but the child has seen the change in daddy’s life and we get a beautiful letter from a wife who says, “Thank you for what has happened to my husband over this weekend. The man that I fell in love with 20 years ago has come back home again this weekend.” That is what a truly repentant life must look like. It’s like the Government. We’ve just had elections in South Africa. The Government promised us many, many things. Now, they must deliver if there is true change to take place.
Don’t just tell people that you love them, show them that you love them by your lifestyle. Prove it by living a changed life - no more swearing, no more drunkenness, no more self-centredness, but starting to live for Christ, and the fruit of that changed lifestyle will just come out of us, we don’t have to try and do it, it’s natural.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, it is the 16th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. I want to start by wishing all fathers a very Happy Father’s Day. Dads, well done for looking after your families.
We go straight to the Book of Matthew 2:14:
“When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt,…”
So often, dads get overlooked. Now you don’t hear much about Joseph, but I want to tell you, Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, our Saviour, had a very important job to do. First of all, the Lord told him to name the baby, “Jesus.” Yes, that is right, Joseph actually named our Master, “Jesus.” He is the one that put the food on the table, he looked after that young maiden and her baby, and was a carpenter by trade. He was very sensitive to the Holy Spirit. He was warned in the middle of the night. The Bible says, he arose and took the young child, Baby Jesus, and Mary, the mother and he departed for Africa. That’s right, I am talking about Egypt. He stayed there until the Angel of the Lord said, “You can now return to Israel.” He was a good father, he protected his wife and his child. He was sensitive, caring, responsible, obedient and protective.
It reminds me, if you go into the bush, to a game reserve, and you see a pride of lions. Often, you will see the male lion. He will be sitting under a tree by himself, and all the cubs and the young lionesses will be playing together on their own, and it will almost look like he is uninterested, but he has a vital role to play. The hunting gets done by the females, and when they make a kill, who gets the first share? Yes, the male, he comes in and he eats. He has to be strong. I want to tell you something, without a male lion in a pride, that pride is vulnerable to the hyenas or to other lions. He has a vital role to play but you don’t always notice it. The same thing happens with dads. They sit there quietly and the children say, “Why isn’t dad participating?” Maybe dad is thinking about how he is going to put food on the table or about the future of his family.
Please moms, children, give dads plenty of love and respect today. He is doing a great job. He is the father of your children, mother and he is your dad, and you have got his surname. Just love him and treat him with lots of TLC today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 15th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Philippians 4:6, and I am reading it out of the Amplified Version:
“Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God.”
Then we go to Matthew 7:7 (AMP):
“Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.”
I am speaking this morning about prayer. You know, Jesus prayed more than anything else. He always prayed without ceasing and He asks you and I to do the same. I got a message on my phone yesterday to say that the Kouga Dam, outside Gqeberha, is overflowing at seven cumecs at the moment, spilling over the wall. God answers prayer.
I remember like yesterday, thousands of us, standing at the base of that mighty dam wall, and I think there was less than 12%, that’s just a little mudhole in the middle of that dam. There was nothing, thousands of us prayed, and we continued praying at Jeffries Bay, at the Mighty Men Conference, and look what is happening! We are going into winter. It is winter in the Eastern Cape, and the dam is overflowing seven cumecs at the moment. I want to pray for you today:
Heavenly Father,
I pray for my friend, listening to this message. I pray Lord, for those who are anxious, depressed, fearful and filled with anxiety. Lord, I pray today that they will lift up their eyes and see that Jesus Christ is seated on His throne in Heaven and He is waiting to hear our requests, our petitions. Lord, if we don’t pray, how can He answer? Lord, please show us and teach us to pray because when men pray, God moves, and I thank You, Lord, for the evidence that we see in this dam which is overflowing as I record this message.
In Jesus’ name! Amen.
God bless you and keep on praying,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 14th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Numbers 12:3, in the Old Testament,
“Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.”
I want to speak to you about humility, about genuine humility and humbleness, meekness. Now, Moses led a nation of over a million people, through the desert, a terribly tough place, for forty years. There was nothing soft about him. As some people say, the softest part of Moses was his teeth. I am looking forward to meeting him in Heaven. What a man! But he was the humblest man who ever lived, according to the word of God, and we are not talking about Jesus of course.
“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5
Now, I want to speak to you about real humility today, not false humility. Sometimes when you watch some sport on television and you see a tennis player or maybe a soccer player, a rugby player, and they are interviewed and the interviewer says, “How did it go?” And the tennis player says, “Oh, I am so pleased with myself. I hit the ball so sweetly today.” Or a golfer, “I really connected that ball, I really am pleased with myself.” It sounds like he is really bragging you know, it sounds like he is really arrogant but the truth of the matter is, my dear friend, he is so excited about the improvement in his game. He is not talking about himself as per sé, he is talking about the fact that he hit the ball so nicely, he has been working so hard on it.
Like when you go to a farmer and he takes you around his farm and he shows you a beautiful maize crop and he says, “Man, I am so pleased with myself, I have got such a lovely crop. And you think, “Come on man, stop bragging.” He is not bragging, he is so excited about the achievement, or a magnificent animal on the show when he has just got the grand champion, a beautiful big bull. He is so excited about it. False humility is walking around with sackcloth and ashes and saying, “I am suffering for Jesus.” That doesn’t bring any glory to God.
I want to tell you a little story. I was at a book signing once, and a little boy walked up to me, and he was standing back, and he had a red face; he was very embarrassed. He had a cell phone in his hand, he had one of my books and a pen. I walked over to him and I got down on my knees. I said, “Son, would you like me to sign your book for you?”
And he had a big smile on his face, “Yes please, sir.”
“And would you like a photograph with me?”
“Yes please, sir.”
So we posed together, we did a nice selfie, and a lady walked past. She was pushing someone in a wheelchair, and she said, “Christians are supposed to be humble.” Ag, I just smiled and I said, “Yes, thank you, madam’, but that little boy walked away so happy.
Today, shout it from the rooftops. Matthew 10:27. Tell people about your newfound faith and about how good God has been to you.
Have a lovely day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 13th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 10:16:
The Lord is King forever and ever;…”
Oh beautiful, and then we go to Jeremiah 10:10:
“But the Lord is the true God;
He is the living God and the everlasting King.
At His wrath the earth will tremble,
And the nations will not be able to endure His indignation.”
Just before that, please read it if you have time, you will see that Jeremiah talks about people who worship idols made by human hands. They cut a tree down, carve it, make it into a beautiful carving, and then worship it, but it can’t talk, see, or hear. It is ridiculous, isn’t it? Then we go to the last scripture, Matthew 26:63-64:
“Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” Jesus said to him, “It is as you said”.
Then they started to tear His clothes and beat the Master and eventually crucified Him, but on the third day, He rose from the dead. Our God does not live in buildings, there are no buildings on earth that can house Him, He is too big. Our God is not found inside statues of marble or gold, even though they might be beautiful, but they are all man-made. Where does He live, Angus? Oh, I am glad you asked that question.
Early in the morning, when you see that sunrise, oh you will see Him. He is in the sunrise, He is in the late evening sunset. When you see a newly born calf and a mother cleaning, licking and loving her, He will be there. You will see Him when you see the roll of the waves onto the seashore and the power and the majesty and the smell of that salt air, He will be there. You will see Him in a newborn baby. Oh folks, what a beautiful way to see the Lord. You will see Him in a young couple that are in love.
I married twelve couples in the City Temple in London, just right off the cuff. They were in their ordinary clothes. The Holy Spirit moved in the City Temple, a beautiful building that was built to commemorate the Lord. But you know, when those couples were in love, they were weeping, they were repenting, the building just faded into insignificance, when the glory of God was manifest through those young couples who decided they were not going to live together anymore. They were going to get married immediately.
Remember today, wherever you go, open your eyes and you will see the glory of God. Jesus is alive, I tell you, He is not dead.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 12th of June 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Jeremiah 9:23-24:
"Thus says the Lord:
"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me…"
We should only glory in knowing and understanding our Lord, Jesus Christ. Job 28:28:
...the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.
Jesus was 12 years old when He was in the temple. Remember how His parents lost Him and couldn't find Him? They went back to Jerusalem to find Him sitting in the temple amongst all the teachers, the wise men, and the priests, and He was confounding them with the truth (Luke 2:47).
There is a wonderful old gentleman who is one of my advisors. He is a chartered accountant by profession. We often cannot balance the books because we get to the end of it and don't know where the next income is coming from. Thankfully, the books seem to balance. In God's kingdom, two plus two can sometimes equal seven, which confuses the mathematicians!
A few years ago, Jill and I visited Ethiopia to look at the incredible, miraculous stone churches. King Lalibela built them 800 years ago out of solid rock. There are architects who are not even Christians who come from all over the world to see this miracle. You see, King Lalibela, the then King of Ethiopia, had a dream, and the Lord showed him how to build 11 churches. He didn't create them from the bottom upwards, no, no, but he built them from the top, downwards with a chisel and hammer. Now, I've been to those churches; they are beautiful, 40 to 50 metres high. You can walk in there. There are beautiful arches and carvings, and they are incredible, all made out of stone. The local people say that the angels built them at night. You can say you don't believe it, but I want to tell you something now: I believe it because I believe in miracles! I've seen too many miracles in my life not to believe it.
I want to say to you today that it's very important to get an education. Study as much as you can, but never overrule the fact that whatever happens in your life, give the glory to Jesus. God bless you, and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, it’s the 11th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Mathew 1:25:
“And he called His name Jesus.”
Now we don’t often hear much about Joseph, the country carpenter, but I want to tell you, he fulfilled a major role in this Bible. The Lord used him to name the Son of God, Jesus, yes, the Saviour of the world. I want to say to you today that it is very important to remember a person’s name. You know what its like when when somebody comes up to you and says, ”Hello brother, hello sister.” They’ve forgotten your name, but it’s so nice, isn’t it, when somebody comes up and says, ”Hello John, I haven’t seen you for years”, and he says, ”And you still remember my name?” “Of course I do. We went to school together.”
The importance of a name can be encouraging, it can break down, or it can build up. Unfortunately, the name of Jesus can be used as a swear word or with great respect. I want to tell you a little story. There was a rough man who worked on the railways. He was a guard on the railways, and he was working in the yard one day and he had given his life to the Lord just a few months before, and his friends used to mock him and say,” You won’t last.” “Oh!” He said, ”I will. That name saved me, the name of Jesus, the most beautiful name I’ve ever heard in my life.” One day, he was working in the yards where they were shunting trucks, rail trucks back and forwards, and the driver of the train was way up in front and the guard was standing at the back, and he was waving the driver on for the connection of the two carriages when he got his hand trapped in between the two carriages, and it crushed his hand and he let out a tremendous swear-word. He used the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in a manner of disrespect completely. His friends were all standing around him, they were shattered. This poor man was trapped between the two carriages. Eventually, they managed to get the train to move forward and they took him out, called the ambulance, his hand was just a bloody mess. He was on his knees as the ambulance driver came to call him, ”Let’s go to the hospital.” He said, ”Just wait, please. Wait!” And right there, in front of all his friends, he repented. He said, ”Lord, please forgive me for using your name as a swear word.” After he had done that he said, ”Now, you can take me to the hospital.”
I want to say to you today, be very careful that you never use the name of our beloved Jesus, the Saviour of the world, in a manner which is unfitting. It cuts me to the quick when I hear a man using the name of my beloved Saviour as a swear word. Don’t do that. Let’s love Him today. Let’s respect Him by the way in which we act. and most of all, the way in which we talk.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 10th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Mathew 1:23:
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
What a beautiful scripture and of course you know the very same scripture is in the Book of Isaiah 7:14, which was written about seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. Isn’t that incredible?
This morning I believe I’m talking to some people who are lonely. Are you lonely today? I looked up the Oxford dictionary to define the word loneliness. It means sad because one has no friends or company. It means solitary. People even advertise in the newspaper, the Lonely Hearts Club. It’s not funny - it’s very, very sad. But I want to tell you the good news this morning, there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. You’ll find that in Proverbs 18:24.
In the kitchen of our little house, Jill has put something up on the wall and this is what it says, “Where there is tea there is hope.” Where there is tea or you can say coffee if you want, there is hope. You know there is nothing nicer than to come home when I’ve been away, and to sit by our wood stove in the kitchen, with a nice hot cup of tea and have a good chat to my best friend. Yes, it is something I always look forward to.
Now maybe today you are feeling lonely. Well, I want to tell you that Jesus Christ came down from heaven to earth because He knows that you are lonely, and He wants to be your friend, but if you look at that verse in Proverbs 18:24, it starts off and it says:
“A man who has friends must himself be friendly.”
If you want to have friends, you must be friendly. Today we need to go out and be friendly to other people, but I just feel I need to pray for you.
Father,
I want to pray this morning for our dear friend who is feeling lonely. Maybe their loved one has gone to be with you, Lord, or maybe their children have gone overseas or maybe there’s a young student who is studying in another country and just feels so lonely for that cup of tea with their family. Today, remind them that You are with them always. You’ve said in your word in Hebrews 13:5: ”I will never leave you and I will forsake you.”
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 9th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Galatians 2:20, and I am reading this verse out of the Amplified Version of the Bible:
“I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
The great paradox! I got hold of the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “paradox”. This is what it says: “A statement that sounds absurd or seems to contradict itself but is in fact, true.” So a paradox is self-contradiction, inconsistency, it’s puzzling, but I want to tell you, it is true.
I don’t know if you remember, some of the men listening to this message, we had a Mighty Men Conference on Shalom, and we called it, “Dying to Live”. If you want to live, you have to die. Our biggest enemy today is not the devil. Remember when Jesus died on the Cross? He said, “It is finished.” Our biggest enemy is ourselves. Jim Elliot was a young missionary who went out to the South Americas, to the jungle in the Amazon, and he was murdered for his faith. He was 29 years old. He said, “It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” We cannot keep our faith, we cannot keep our lives, but we can have eternal life.
“…unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
John 12:24
People say, “What a waste of a young life.” He left a young wife and a baby girl behind. But folks, I want to tell you that was no waste. They say thousands of students from university went out when they heard about the death of a young missionary, and they went out to preach the Gospel all over the world.
Today, die to self, live for Christ and then you have a reason to get up in the morning, and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 8th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Gospel of Matthew 1:1:
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:…”
Then it goes right right the way back and up to the present moment. Jesus has always been and always will be. The family tree is an important thing in most people’s lives. Where did you come from? Who were your forefathers? Well, I am just going to share a couple of personal things with you. My mother came from Scotland, and so did my dad. On my mother’s side, her mother was a Livingstone, and I am hoping that maybe there is a connection between the great missionary, Dr David Livingstone, and our family. On my father’s side, his mother was a Finney. You have heard of the great American evangelist, Charles Finney, who really started a massive revival in America. Then of course, our family name, Buchan. There is a county in Scotland, in the north-east of Scotland, just past Aberdeen, called the Buchan County, and my first name, Angus, is also after another county, just south of Dundee. This is all about roots, it’s about family trees.
But I want to be honest with you, my dear friend, when you come to know Jesus Christ, as your Lord and Saviour, it doesn’t matter if you are an orphan, and you say you have no roots, you have no family tree - that doesn’t matter a thing. When you become a Christian, you become part of the family of Jesus Christ, and that family dates back to Adam and Eve. So if we are believers, that makes you my brother, my sister, and I have family all over the world, in China, in India, in Africa, in the Far East. Yes, we are family and those are the roots that you and I need to really look forward to because one day we are going to be together in Heaven forever.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 7th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Mark 8:36:
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his family? We need to be very careful here today, because charity, which is another word for “love”, begins at home. I read a little quotation that was quite sad by an anonymous writer, and basically, it goes like this: “Be very careful, that in order to reach the roses, we do not trample down the daisies.”
You see, we have to put God first, and straight after God, we put our family, and then after our family, we do the work of the Lord. You know, something that is very tragic for me is when I speak to a young person and I say to them, “Why are you so “anti” the Lord? Why are you not interested in following Jesus? And then, with big tears in their eyes they say, “We don’t want to follow Jesus because Jesus took our daddy away from us.” How sad! I am talking about children of a full-time worker for the Lord.
We need to get our priorities in order. When travelling overseas, I meet new people. The first question they ask me, it’s not, “What degree do you have in theology, or what Bible College did you go to?” Just as well, because I didn’t go to any of them. The first question they ask me is, “How is your wife?” The second question is, “How are your children?” And then, “How are things back at the farm?” When I answer those questions correctly, then they say, “Can you please now tell us about your message and what has brought you across here to our country?”
We need to be brutally honest with ourselves today. I am talking to men and women. Why are we doing this? I remember as a young man, before I met Jesus, I was working 18 hours a day and I would come home when it was dark, and Jill would say to me, “Where have you been?” And I would say, “I have been working, Jill, to put food on the table for you and the children.” In the morning, I would leave before the children got up. They never saw me, and then I realised, when I came to know the Lord, that I wasn’t working for Jill and for the children, but for my own ego, for my own ambition, for my own vision. We can’t do that. We need to sit down and we need to take an account, because you and I are going to have to tell the Lord one day, why we really did it.
Let’s do it for the Lord, but never at the cost of our loved ones.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 6th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Numbers 11:16-17 in the Old Testament:
“So the Lord said to Moses: “Gather to Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tabernacle of meeting, that they may stand there with you. Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take of the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone.”
You see, Moses was exhausted. There were a million people in the desert, they were hungry, they wanted food. He said to the Lord, “I can’t do this anymore on my own.” I want to say to some young aspiring businessman, some young lady who has a huge vision to help the poor, God will never give us a job to do that we cannot perform, and when it becomes too heavy for us, and the burden becomes too heavy, Jesus will send others to help you, but you and I have got to learn to delegate to others. You see, in the Kingdom of God, there are no one man shows. No, the Lord has purposely designed us so that others can help us. We can’t do it on our own.
I remember the Mighty Men conferences on this farm. Do you know, we started off with 240 men and we ended up 7 years later, with 450,000 men, I can’t believe it myself, on this very farm. Then the Lord spoke to me, almost audibly, and He said that was the last one that was going to happen on this farm. That was in 2010. He said, “Take the baton and pass it on to the young men,” which I duly did. I wasn’t very popular, people said, “You are stopping the revival.” No, we are not stopping the revival, we are growing the revival, because every one of those young men took up the baton, and they have done the same thing. We have over 20 Mighty Men conferences happening in South Africa, alone, this year, and in Canada, and in Australia, all over the world. Why? Because we delegated. We have got to pass it along.
Jesus, Himself, in Mark 16:15, said to the disciples:
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel…”
He also delegated. If you don’t delegate, it will die with you. Please don’t do that. God wants to use you powerfully, but you must learn to share the burden.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 5th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Revelation 22:18-19:
“If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life,…”
You and I need to warn people about the word of God and how sacred a book it is. Come on, let’s be honest, the Bible is Jesus in print. If somebody says to you, “Show me this Jesus you are always talking about”, give him a Bible. It is the best gift you can give anybody, especially when a young man is graduating from university or a young girl is graduating from high school, a Bible. I remember my mother buying me a Bible when I had left junior school. I didn’t really understand it. It was in the King James Version, but I treasured that book especially. The Bible is our pathfinder in this jungle that you and I are living in.
When a hunter or explorer walks through the midst of a dense jungle, that compass is a matter of life and death to him. If he loses that compass, he will die in that jungle, he will never find his way out. We need to look after our Bibles like that hunter or that explorer cherishes his compass. It shows him the way out. Do you know, the ancient scribes in Jerusalem were called by God to write out the word of God, the Bible. Before they started to write the scriptures, they would go and have a bath. They would wash their bodies, put on clean clothes before they started to write out the word of God. If they made one mistake, and that goes even today, if they made one mistake when they were writing out the scriptures, they would destroy the scriptures and start again.
You and I need to respect God’s word a lot more than we are doing at the moment. They tell me that in some of the persecuted countries, where they meet underground they take a Bible and they take it apart, page by page, and they circulate the pages of the Bible through the congregation. They take it home and they memorise those scriptures, they bring them back to the next meeting and exchange that page for another one. We really need to memorise the word of God.
The young orthodox children in the Jewish faith memorise the first five books of the Bible before they become of age. That is quite something. I remember distinctly going to a Muslim’s home to have a cup of coffee with him, and I put my Bible on the carpet next to my chair, and he walked in and he said, “Sir, please don’t put that book on the floor. Put it on a coffee table.” That’s right. Let us start to respect God’s holy word.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ name! It is Tuesday morning, the 4th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the last book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation 22:11:
”He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”
The line is being drawn in the sand. Jesus says in Matthew 12:30:
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
We need to understand one thing today: that even as things are becoming more evil, more un-godly and more immoral in the world, one good thing is that we know who is for us, and we know who is against us. There has got to be a deciding moment in every person’s life. You see, for sin to abound, all good people have to do is nothing. When Emperor Constantine declared all of the Roman Empire to become Christian, I think that did more damage to the Christian faith than it did any good. Good is the enemy of best. Jesus has no time for a lukewarm Christian.
In Revelation 3:16, He says He would rather we be ice-cold than lukewarm, but if we are lukewarm, He will vomit us out of His mouth. Those are very strong words. We really need to have a good look at ourselves today and ask ourselves a question. Where do we stand? I was just reflecting again, on the 21 martyrs that died in Libya. They were ordinary construction workers, just ordinary people like you and I, 20 of them were Coptic Egyptian Christians, and one was a Ghanian Christian. They say that just before they had their heads cut off, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the last words they uttered were, “Jesus, Jesus.” They asked Matthew, “What about you?”. He said, “I am a Christian and I am like them.” And they cut his head off as well.
Folks, we need to understand that the time is coming when you and I have to be bold, and we have to literally stand for our faith. We cannot be undecided. We cannot be like the wind that blows the waves in the sea, this way and that way. We are either for Him or we are against Him. I pray today that you will be for Him because He is coming back very soon.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 3rd of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 6:16:
“Thus says the Lord:
“Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls.”
Then we go to the Book of Matthew 11:29, Jesus says:
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
The old paths. Why do we always want to reinvent the wheel? Let us not become so arrogant and let us start to listen to the Lord Jesus Christ. He has walked this old path before, He knows the way home. He knows about the pitfalls and the dangers.
You know the mighty Comrades Marathon that takes place in South Africa every year? It is two standard marathons, back to back. It is a killer, let me tell you. I tried it once and I didn’t finish. Why? Because I didn’t listen and I did not take advice, and I did not keep to the old ways.
You and I are running the marathon of our lives at the moment. We need a good bus driver. You might ask what is a bus driver. Well, I will tell you what he or she is. In the Comrades Marathon, you get an experienced runner who has run many, many marathons. They put a little reed on the back of their belt of their running gear and it has a little flag on it, and you get onto that bus and you run with that bus driver, and that bus driver will guarantee that he will take you home in the given time if you listen to him. He will tell you where to stop, he will tell you where to drink, when to eat, he will tell you when to walk and he will tell you when to run. He will tell you to swing your arms and sing songs when you are taking strain, and he will guarantee that he will take you home - if you listen to him.
Now, Jesus Christ is the absolute, all-time champion. He is offering you and I, today, the best way home. Let’s follow His instructions and enjoy the journey.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 2nd of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Revelation 21:23:
“The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.”
No darkness in Heaven, no need for any security lights at night because the sun doesn’t go down. There is no evil in Heaven, God will be our constant light and our security. Oh, my dear friend, what a day that will be! It’s worth waiting for, it’s worth getting prepared for, it’s worth getting ready for, because Jesus Christ, one of these fine days, is coming to take you and me home to a heavenly place where there will be no more fear, no more insecurity. There will be more need for any keys in Heaven, because nothing will be stolen, nothing will be lost, so there will be no need to lock anything up. Have you ever thought about that? I don’t know about you - I am always losing my keys. My wife is always saying, “Where did you put the key?” And I can’t remember where I put the keys. Now, in Heaven, there is no need to have keys. Everything will be open because there are no thieves in Heaven.
There is nothing to be afraid of in Heaven. We really need to lift up our eyes and we need to look to the Lord because He is our light, He is our security, He is our strength. Oh folks, in the meantime, let’s press on, let’s be good stewards of what God has given us. Yes, we have to look after what we have, and I can tell you something now, when you get to Heaven, you can throw those keys away. You won’t need them, you won’t have to lock up anything, you won’t have to put on the security lights, you won’t have to close those gates, because everything will be open, because there are no secrets in Heaven, there are no dark places in Heaven. It is a place of peace and joy and love.
God bless you as you have a special day today and you look forward to your home in Heaven.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 1st of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Revelation 21:5:
"Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
That is a wonderful promise from God. He doesn't do patch-up jobs, He doesn't try and renew something that's old and broken. He does a brand-new job.
One of my favourite verses in the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says:
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
It is a miracle, an absolute miracle, and it is something I can never, ever get used to, and I have seen it for 45 years. You preach the Gospel with love, with sincerity. You challenge the men and the women, the boys and the girls - I have seen it from Sunday School, to men's conferences to ladies meetings, and then you give them an opportunity. You say, "What about giving your life to Christ today?" And you see the change in the countenance of the person. A person who is down and out, who is broken, who has been defeated, all of a sudden, it is the power of God, folks, it is the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit who moved in the upper room. A group of people who are cowering in the corner, absolutely petrified, waiting for the Roman soldiers to come in and to execute them, all of a sudden filled with the power of God and completely new life comes into them.
Remember Peter? He preached his first sermon and 3,000 people came to Christ. The same thing has happened, wherever I go I see it, and it touches me deeply. A man who is an alcoholic and is giving up, he prays that prayer, he asks Jesus into his heart, and God takes that thing away from him; broken marriages restored; physical healings taking place. He is the God of the impossible! Put your trust in Him today. I want to pray for you. Maybe you have never prayed this prayer yourself. Why not do it on the 1st of June, a new beginning? Pray this simple prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I am tired of living the way I am living. Today Lord, I surrender my old life to You, and I ask You to make me a new creation. I want to start again, Lord. I repent of my sin, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. I will serve no other gods but You, today onwards, in Jesus' name,
Amen.
God bless you. Now, go out and tell the first three people that you meet what you did today. You are a brand-new person!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is the 31st of May, the last day of the month, Friday morning, and the year is 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Psalms 39:3:
“My heart was hot within me;
While I was musing, the fire burned.”
“Musing” means contemplating. It means thinking deeply. It means being in a quiet place. You know that lovely old blind preacher, by the name of George Matheson, you hear me often speak about him. They loved him so much that when he died, and they buried him, they put the coffin in the grave, and they say they filled that grave with red roses. He was a wonderful man of God. George Matheson says we must come apart and we must sit quietly and allow the fire of God to fill our hearts, before we go out and speak to others.
He says, “Oh my soul, would you have your life glorified, beautified, transfigured, to the eyes of men? Get up into the secret place of God’s pavilion where the fires of love are burning. Your life shall shine gloriously to the dwellers on the plain. Your prayers shall be luminous, they shall light your face like the face of Moses, when he knew not that it shone. Your words shall be burning, they will kindle many a heart, journeying on the road to Emmaus. Your path shall be radiant when you have prayed in Elijah’s solitude. You shall have Elijah’s chariot of fire.”
We need to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us. Get alongside the Lord, sit by that little fireplace, and look into those beautiful bright coals and flames, and let the Holy Spirit speak to you. Then go into all the world and tell people about your beloved Jesus, and you will get amazing results. Because you see, they won’t see you; no, they will see Christ in you.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 30th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 9:25:
"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?"
Oh, my dear friend, we have to stop working so hard. We have to stop trying to please God. The Lord loves us as we are. We don't have to do anything to earn His love. We just have to love Him, that's all. So many of us are trying to earn our way to Heaven. You can't earn your way to Heaven, it is for gratis, it is free. You don't have to pay for it, you just have to receive it. The Lord just wants you and I for fellowship. He created us so that He could speak with us, love us, and we love Him. That's all.
The other night, Jill and I were sitting, listening to the most beautiful song. It's called "Broken Ladders". The song was written by Samuel and Becca Mizell. I think that's how you pronounce their name. I want to read this to you. It is the most beautiful song:
You never asked me to be king
Build my tower up to the sky
So why do I try
You never asked me to be rich
And buy the things that gold can buy
So why do I try
All You ever wanted was my heart
My heart, my simple heart
To You that's all that really matters
Why do I feel I have to reach
Believe I have to rise
When You never said I had to climb
These broken ladders
You never asked me to be complete
By myself, find all I need
So why do I try
Oh, You never asked me to stand alone
Face the struggles on my own
So why do I try
When all You ever wanted was my heart
My heart, my simple heart
To you that's all that really matters
Why do I feel I have to reach
Believe I have to rise
When You never said I had to climb
These broken ladders
Cause all they do is take my eyes off You
And make me forget the truth
All You ever wanted was my heart
My heart, my simple heart
To You that's all that really matters
Why do I feel I have to reach
Believe I have to rise
When You never said I had to climb
Oh You never said I had to climb
These broken ladders
Oh these broken ladders
What beautiful words! Today, stop trying to do things for God and just love Him. That's all He wants.God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 29th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to probably the most famous scripture verse in the whole Bible. Oh, my dear friend, this one verse sums up the whole Bible, 66 books of scripture in one verse, and we know it together, let's say it together:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."John 3:16
What a beautiful scripture! Do you remember that magnificent hymn, "The Love of God"? Now, I am going to read the last verse to you, but as I read it to you, and I am talking to the young people particularly, I want you to imagine and try and dream and think of what these words say. This is how it goes:
"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made;
were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade;
to write the love of God above (listen to this)
would drain the ocean dry;
nor could the scroll contain the whole,
though stretched from sky to sky. "
Wow! Imagine if the whole ocean was ink and the skies were paper, and every stalk on earth was a pen, and every single man and woman, boy and girl, was a writer by trade and had to write the love of God above, it would drain the whole ocean dry, and nor could that piece of paper contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky. That is how much Jesus loves you today, my dear friend. He loves you more than you can even imagine.
Yes, there is a lot of sadness, destruction, war, it's all foretold - but the love of Christ is bigger and more powerful than all of that put together. Today, when you go out, look at the sky, have a look at the ocean, look at all those stalks in the field, and think to yourself, if all of that were put to pen, it still would not explain the love of God.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 28th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 3:2:
Many are they who say of me,
“There is no help for him in God.” Selah
And then we go on to verse 8:
Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah
And then we go on to Psalm 4:2:
How long will you love worthlessness
And seek falsehood? Selah
The word, “selah”, literally means to pause, to think about it. Right through the Psalms, you see the word “Selah” at the end. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “pause”. It means to take a break, to rest, it means to wait, to take a breather, it means to stop talking or doing something for a short time before continuing again. I think this word is more for me than I think it is for you. If you don’t believe me, maybe you should ask my wife because she keeps telling me, “You don’t stop.”
Now, we have got to pause, and that is what the psalmist means when he says, “Selah”. You read that scripture, then you pause, and you think about it, you “chew the cud” as the cow does, and you think about it, and then it makes sense. You and I need to slow down and start to “selah”, start to pause. The musicians tell me (and I love music, I think you know that, I can’t play any instruments but I love music) if there is no pause in the score in the music, then it doesn’t sound like anything.
For example, you know that beautiful song that we sing, “Because He lives”?
And because He lives (pause)
I can face tomorrow (pause)
Because He lives (pause)
All fear is gone (pause)
And because I know (pause)
Yes, I know, He holds the future (pause)
And life is worth the living (pause)
Just because He lives.
Jesus bless you today, as you take a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, and you pause when you read God’s word.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 27th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Revelation 21:4:
”And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Now, isn’t that something to look forward to? Wow, I can’t wait! The former things have passed away, there will be no more tears in Heaven, there will be no more death in Heaven, there will be no more sorrow in Heaven, there will be no more crying in Heaven, there will be no more pain in Heaven, and the past has been wiped away. What a future to look forward to. There will be no anticlimax, there will be no disappointment.
A few years back, I had the privilege of being invited to meet, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest evangelists to have ever walked on this planet, yes, Dr Billy Graham, himself. I was flown up in a jet from Tennessee, USA, up to Montreat, North Carolina, where he lived. They fetched us at the airport. I was so excited to meet this man. They drove me to his home, but at the gate there was a security guard, and he asked the gentleman who supposedly organised the meeting for the credentials, and of course, the thing fell flat. He said, “You can’t see Mr Graham because we don’t know about this appointment.”
I was so disappointed, honestly. Look, they were very kind to us, they took us to the museum, they showed us where he grew up, where he lived, his home. They showed us all the different, wonderful things that he had done in his life. Many other retired evangelists were there. They took us around, it was wonderful, but it was an anticlimax. When we go to Heaven, there will be no anticlimax. If we look at verse 3 it says:
“God Himself will be with them and be their God.”
Revelation 21:3
That is a guarantee, that is a given. He personally will meet us at the gate, He won’t send His angels, He won’t send Peter or any of the disciples, He has promised us, He will meet you, Mary, He will meet you, John, personally, and welcome you home. I can’t wait for that day. In the meantime, maybe today, you are feeling a bit down, you’re feeling a bit lonely. Maybe you have also been disappointed. Well, I want to tell you something now, lift up your heads and look for your redemption draws near. I want to pray for you as we close.
Dear Lord Jesus,
I pray for my friend today who is not feeling very happy. Maybe they have lost a loved one, maybe they have been terribly disappointed by a relationship, maybe they don’t have work, maybe they are fearful of the future. Oh Holy Spirit, reassure them today of the wonderful future that awaits them when You come to fetch us personally, and to take us home to be with You in glory, forever and ever, Amen.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 26th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
I am reading out of the New King James Version, out of the First Book of Peter 5:7:
”…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
What a beautiful promise! Then if you look at the Amplified Version, this is how it reads:
“…casting all your cares, all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all on Him, for He cares about you with deepest affection and watches over you very carefully.”
Isn’t that beautiful? I remember like it was yesterday, many, many years ago, we booked the Kings Park Rugby Stadium in Durban to hold an outreach. It was very exciting for me. It was the biggest attempt I had ever had and the first major stadium I had ever booked, and that night, I was so excited when the crowd came. We were talking about casting your cares upon the Lord, and what had happened was, there was a warning of el Niño, that massive drought that was going to hit South Africa, and the radio stations and the TV stations were saying to the people, “Don’t plant your crops on marginal land because it will fail.” That night, I stood up on the platform and I said, “To hell with el Niño, I am going home to plant up all my fields, and I am going to plant potatoes!” And folks, you know, after I got off that platform, I mean I had cast all my cares on Him, I had burnt my bridges, there was no turning back, I had committed myself, and then the devil started on me, “Well, yes, that is the end of you. You are going to go down because it is not going to rain and you are supposed to have irrigation when you plant potatoes.” I had no irrigation. But by faith, I went home and I planted that potato crop and I planted a maize crop, and I leased some other land and planted maize there, and then I started to pray, and I cast my cares on the Lord, every single day.
Folks, I want to tell you, the good news is, we had a wonderful crop of potatoes, we had a beautiful crop of maize. It was a wonderful year for us. I want to say to you today, cast your cares on the Lord, lift up your eyes higher, higher folks. One man said, “He who aims at the stars, aims too low.” That’s right, we have got to aim above the stars. Philippians 1:21, Paul says:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
So what have we to be afraid of? Nothing. Today, cast your cares on the Lord and get on with the job that God has called you to. He will do it for you, He is not a man that He should lie.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 25th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 15:7:
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
Wow! That is a beautiful promise from the Lord, but the key there is abiding in Him.
Philippians 4:13 - we know that scripture so well:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Its Christ Jesus, folks, it is not our own efforts. Jesus spent thirty years with His Father, His Heavenly Father, in the carpenter shop for a mere three years of ministry, thirty years of preparation for three years of ministry. The devil wants you and I to rush, rush, rush. He keeps us off balance all the time, running, running, running, so that we cannot spend time with the Lord. But Jesus is the opposite. He is never in a rush and He is never late.
Remember, He came to the tomb of Lazarus, His friend, 4 days after He had been summoned by Mary and Martha, Jesus’ friends. But what happened? A miracle took place. Lazarus was raised from the dead. The main objective of the believer is to spend time with Christ and to allow His strength to flow through us. Then, there shall be nothing too hard for us. Nothing is too hard for us when the Lord Jesus Christ is flowing through us, absolutely nothing. Remember the story I told you before about one of the greatest presidents of the United States of America? Abraham Lincoln was asked, “If you were given six hours to cut down that large tree, what would you do?” “Well,” he said, “I would spend four hours sharpening the axe.” Now, I cut trees and I split wood, I want to tell you, that is profound. There is nothing more sad for me to see than a man trying to cut a tree down with a blunt axe. It doesn’t work.
John Wesley went across to Europe to meet with a very special man of God, Count von Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravian church. Do you know what happened? This man, John Wesley, had an MA in theology, and von Zinzendorf made him work in the garden for months. He was so offended. What was he doing? He was trying to get Jesus into the man of God, and out of that, started one of the greatest revivals that the world has ever known.
Today, spend time in His presence. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 24th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Old Testament, in the Book of Proverbs 16:32:
“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty,
And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.”
Wow! That is a powerful scripture. We need to exercise self-control. In other words, we cannot afford to lose the plot, as they say. You know, a moment of anger loses all your respect from other people. They just do not respect you at all. It is so sad when you see a grown man “throwing his toys”, as they say. And if we happen to be famous, or we happen to be rich, that has got nothing to do with it. I really want to say to you, some of the most wealthy people I have ever met, and famous, are normally very, very humble people.
If we lose the plot then we become totally unacceptable. Jesus loves to see a person who is in control of themselves. I always say to people, if you have got a short fuse, count to ten before you say something, and then you will probably never say it. Don’t throw your reputation away in a fit of anger. Now, the greatest example for you and me when it comes to self-control is our Lord Jesus Christ. If you go to the word of God in Matthew 27:13-14, when Jesus was standing before Pontius Pilate, and this is what He said:
“Then Pilate said to Him, “Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?” But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.”
He couldn’t believe it! Pontius Pilate was trying to help Him. He said, “Speak up for Yourself” The Lord never said one word.
I read something beautifully written this morning, by a man named Dean Stanley. He says, “More dear in the sight of God and His angels, than any other conquest, is the conquest of self, which each man with the help of Heaven, can secure for himself.” Today, let’s go out and let’s make sure that we don’t cause people offence, we don’t cause our brother to stumble, and that we answer every accusation with a gentle answer, and then the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, will be very happy with us.
Have a wonderful day today.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 23rd of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Revelation 19:9:
”Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’”
If we love Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we will be invited guests. We are the called ones. It is going to be the greatest marriage feast that we have ever seen in our lives. We are not being called as casual observers or spectators, looking through the fence at the amazing spectacle taking place. No, no, it will be our time. It will be our wedding day with our beloved Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, you know folks, I have done many, many weddings in my life, and I just love to stand and observe and see how excited the bridegroom is when he is waiting for the bride to arrive, and his best man, some of them have got more than one, they are making sure that he is looking smart, that his collar is out and his shoes are shining, that everything is in place. Then of course, the bride, with all the bridesmaids, coming behind, making sure that her dress is in order, that the train that is flowing behind her dress, that no-one stands on it, that her head covering is beautifully put in place, that lovely bouquet of flowers is positioned nicely on her arm, and everybody is excited.
If we go to the Book of Ephesians 5:27, this is what the word says:
“…that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
When you are getting ready for your wedding, you don’t want anything out of place. Your hair must be beautifully done, everything must be in order. The same thing is going to happen on a much grander scale when you and I go home to be with our beloved Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ. Get yourself ready for the greatest marriage feast that you can ever even imagine! Get yourself in order. Don’t wait for the last minute. This is your time to get ready for your wedding with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 22nd of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 4:3:
“Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns.”
Then we go straight across to the Gospel of Mathew 13:7:
”And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.”
We have to prepare our hearts just like the good farmer prepares the land that he will plant his precious crop into. A lazy farmer does not take pride in his land preparation and he doesn’t do a fine job. It is rough, it is unkempt, and from the start the seed is going to struggle. We must be very careful that we don’t try and cut corners because if we do we are wasting our time. The thorns and the weeds and the thistles will grow up and strangle those precious little plants as they emerge from the ground.
If we look at verse 22, we see that the word of God tells us that the distractions, the worries of this world cause the plants not to grow because of the competition on the land. Compromise, pleasures, delights and the riches of this world choke the word of God and it yields no fruit.
I remember a farmer came into our area many, many years ago. He came from a different part of the country. Here we have very fertile land and it rains beautifully in this area. This man came from a marginal area where the land was quite dry. He did most of his weed control by mechanical means, cultivating his rows of maize with a tractor and a cultivator. We said to him, ”You need to spray all your weeds because they are getting out of control.” He said, ”No, no, I’ll just let them grow and then I will come in on a nice hot day and I will cultivate them out of the ground.” Well, of course that dry hot day never came. It just rained and rained and rained and eventually his whole crop was strangled by the weeds. We couldn’t even see the little plants. After a couple of years that man left this district because he couldn’t farm here anymore.
We need to cultivate our walk with the Lord. My dear friends, sometimes the most dangerous thing is when you go on holiday and you don’t get up in the morning and don’t have a good quiet time with the Lord every day. You don’t read your Bible, you don’t pray because you say you’re having a rest, but that is when the weeds come in and strangle your relationship with the Lord. When on holiday you need to be spending more time with the Lord and reading His word and praying. Cultivate your land and God will give you a mighty crop.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 21st of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Revelation 19:1:
“After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honour and power belong to the Lord our God!“
A victory shout, a singing in Heaven, the devil has been defeated, his demons will never rule again! I want to say to you today, you might be feeling a little bit sad, you might be feeling a bit angry actually and you might be saying, “How is it that evil people seem to get the victory?” and “Where is the justice? How do these people just carry on doing their own thing and nobody apprehends them?”
My dear friend, I want to tell you that vengeance belongs to the Lord. Leave it, put them in prayer before the Lord, and you and I need to start praising God for the victory He has given us already in Christ Jesus. You see that Babylon has fallen, the powers of darkness will never, ever overcome the Lord. That is good news, that is worth singing about, isn’t it? It is worth singing about because the end of the story is not yet written. It is still coming, and I want to tell you, every unrighteous deed will be dealt with, and every person who feels they have been short-changed, will be dealt with by the Lord. He will overcome, He has overcome, and the victory is ours!
Do you remember that old song, that beautiful worship song? I am sitting in my prayer room here, it is still dark outside, and I just wanted to sing with you. Remember that chorus, Alleluia? Let’s sing it together:
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia,
Thank You, Jesus,
Oh thank You, Jesus,
Thank You Jesus,
Thank You Jesus,
And we thank You, Jesus,
Thank You, Jesus,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Go out today and thank Him because you have got the victory in Him, and nothing else will overcome you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 20th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalm 145:8:
“The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.”
Isn’t that beautiful to know? Then we go to Psalm 85:2:
“You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin.”
Praise God that you and I serve a merciful saviour! Peter asked the Lord Jesus, “How many times must I forgive my brother? Seven times?” And remember what Jesus said to Peter? “Seven times seventy.” Wow! I thank God that our Lord is slow to anger and He is quick to forgive. He is a merciful God.
I want to tell you a little story about when I was looking for forgiveness, mercy, and grace from my neighbours. Many years ago, I was burning firebreaks on our farm. We have a huge wetland right on the boundary of our farm. It is the sponge which supplies the water to the Umvoti River, which goes all the way down to the Indian Ocean. I was burning away there. Fortunately, I had contacted everybody and all of a sudden, a gust of wind came up and took the fire straight into the huge swamp. Now, inside that swamp are 12-foot-high reeds; it is like an ocean inside there, and the most massive fire got going, where the clouds were black and literally covering the sun. I felt so terribly embarrassed. I had to get on my radio on my pick-up and radio all my neighbours who were on the boundary of this massive wetland on the other side. This was in the middle of winter, when those those reeds were snow white. Fortunately none of the farms were affected, but that day I needed mercy and grace and you know, my neighbours were so kind, they were more understanding and gracious to me than I could ever have imagined.
Today, remember, Jesus Christ loves you, He is not here to condemn you. He is not here to cast you away. No - He wants you to grow. Sometimes we have to be chastised a little bit, we have to be disciplined through the mistakes we make but He is always quick to pick us up, dust us off and say, “Come on now, you can do this.”
Jesus bless you today as you are also understanding and forgiving to others.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 19th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Proverbs 30:8-9:
“Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.”
To be full and to be hungry, to be successful and sometimes to fail. I think it is harder to deal with success than it is to deal with failure. When you are successful, you can start to think that you don’t need God, and that is a terrible place to be in, and when you are on your knees, you can’t fall any further, can you? When you are on that pedestal you can get knocked off so easily. We need to pray for those who succeed, whether it be in sport, whether it be in business, whether it be at university, we need to understand one thing, when we are conscious of our Lord Jesus Christ then things go well, but when we get so busy because we become so successful, the tendency is to say, “No, I can handle this myself.” How the mighty fall!
Remember The Titanic ship? They said it was unsinkable and yet on it’s maiden voyage, because people didn’t take note of God, it hit an iceberg and went down to the bottom of the sea within a few minutes, with thousands of people dying in the process. We need to keep humble, we need to thank God for everything that we have and we need to walk very carefully before God and before our fellowman, especially when the Lord is blessing us.
Today, remember, if you are going through a hard time, stick close to the Lord. He will teach you lessons in those hard times that you will never learn in times of prosperity and success. If I look back on my life, the highlights of my life have been when I have said, “Lord, I just can’t do it anymore, You have to do it for me”, and He has brought me through. Do not be afraid of success, do not be afraid of failure, just walk humbly before your God.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 18th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 5:16:
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
It is not so much what we say but rather who we are that makes an impact on the world. Isn’t that true? It is like that beautiful lighthouse standing on top of that cliff, with all the dangerous rocks behind it. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great preacher, said, “The lighthouse makes no noise, it makes no song and it is silent, but on a stormy night it shines through the noise of the waves that are crashing on the seashore, it helps that desperate sea captain, when he is trying to navigate his ship, with waves that are 3 metres high and he can’t see where he is going, and then all of a sudden he sees a little light in the distance, just a spark, that’s all he sees, and it speaks louder than a thousand choirs singing because now he knows where the danger is.”
Many, many years ago, I had the privilege of going to speak at a men’s conference in the northern part of our beloved South Africa. I got letter in the post before I left, to say that “There is an old gentleman who would like to meet with you.” Well, I want to be honest with you, at the time I felt I didn’t have time to go and see him, but I felt the Holy Spirit say, “You must go and visit this old man on the way up to the conference”, which I duly did. As I walked into his house, I sensed the presence of God there. I saw a huge photograph on the wall of an old lady and an old man. I looked at that old man and I couldn’t believe it. It was a photo of the Yorkshire Plumber, Smith Wigglesworth, a man who had been used by God, mightily. In fact, something like 13 people had been raised from the dead through his ministry.
I said to the old gentleman, Mr Harold Berry, “Sir, is this a friend of yours?” He said, ‘It is one of my relatives. It is my wife's grandfather.” I was amazed. I got on my knees, on the carpet, and I asked him to please anoint me. I said, “I want your mantle, Sir.” This old gentleman had started many churches up in the Congo. He was ninety years old. He walked into his room, got a bottle of healing oil and anointed my head with oil. Then he started praying undiluted scripture over me. It was impressive, very impressive, but the part that I remember, only one part, he said, “It won’t be so much what he says but who he is, that will make the impact,” And I have never forgotten that. It is not what you say, it is not how loud you can sing, it is how well you can shine for the Lord.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 17th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 2:13:
“For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
“Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it.”Proverbs 16:22
Exchanging a fountain of water for a broken cistern is short-sighted and short-lived. But why do we do that? We disregard the blessings of the Lord so often. A spring is a fountain that comes out of the ground. The Lord says we must guard our hearts because it is the wellspring of life. We must be careful that we don’t pollute and muddy the living water that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, in our hearts.
We tend to build massive dams for holding huge volumes of water, and that is fine as long as it rains and the rain fills the dam, but when there is a dry cycle and a drought, the water in the dam dries up, it evaporates, but that little spring which draws it’s water from deep down in the ground, just keeps coming up. The springs from deep down in the earth never dry up. We need to guard our hearts, my dear friend, with everything we have. Do not allow the pollution of this world to muddy the waters of our hearts.
In the Jordan River in Israel, if that river dried up, there would be no Israel. It is one river that runs from the top to the bottom of Israel. It starts in a spring, right up in the mountains in the northern part of Israel. Yes, we do have Mount Herman and it is covered with snow, and the snow melts and also fills the river, but it is the spring that comes out of the ground which is the life of Israel. No Jordan River, no Israel! The same thing in South Africa - we have a spring in a place called Kuruman, on the west side of our nation. I have been there; it is something to behold. Everything around is dry and desert-like but this spring just bubbles up out of the ground with beautiful crystal clear water.
Today, the Lord is saying, “Do not fill your life and your purpose with broken cisterns, but rather draw on the fountain, the spring, the wellspring of life, which is Jesus Christ.”
The Lord bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 16th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Samuel 1:27-28:
"For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him. Therefore I also have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord."
This is Hannah, the woman who could not have a child and who wept in the temple, so much so that the High Priest, Eli, thought she was drunk. God heard her prayers and gave her the most beautiful little baby, Samuel, who some say was the greatest of all the prophets in the Bible, but she had to give him back, and she asked her husband, "Let me just nurse him until he is weaned." In those days, they would suckle a baby, probably until it was three years old. And then that little baby, that little boy, was given back to the temple, to the Lord, and he served the Lord all his life.
Now, she used to go up every year, it brings a tear to my eye, I tell you what, and make a robe for the little boy and give it to him every year. Maybe you are struggling with something in your life today. The Lord gave you something and now the Lord wants it back. It might be your career, it might be a member of your family, it might be some vision, some expectation that you had, something that you were looking forward to, and the Lord says, "I want it back now." It's a very, very hard thing to do, but do you know something? Samuel's mommy, that's right, I am talking about Hannah, she gave her little boy, her only child, that she had waited for so long, back to the Lord. She said, "I lent him back to the Lord."
But my dear friend, that is not the end of the story. If you go on a little bit further in the Bible to 1 Samuel 2:21, you will see that after she had done that, the Lord blessed her with three more sons and two more daughters! What a lovely awesome story - so she gave what she had back to the Lord and He blessed her with 5 more children.
Do not be despondent today. Do not feel that the Lord has been unfair. Do not feel that you have been let down - not at all, my dear friend! Rather rejoice. You cannot out-give Jesus. Jesus is a giver by nature. He loves to give, so today, give freely and He will freely give back to you.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 15th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Revelation 14:13:
“‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours, and their works follow them.”
We need to run our race, and once we get close to the end, there is sheer joy in knowing that we have completed our task here on earth. Paul, the great Apostle, in 2 Timothy 4:7 said:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
You see, it is not about all the trophies, it's not about all the goals that we achieve, no - its about finishing strong. Just recently, I have met a number of people who are dying, who are coming to the end of their race. They know it, they have told me, and the amazing thing is that they are looking forward to home time. I haven’t met one yet, I am talking about strong Christian men and women, who are fearful of dying. Some of them have accomplished great awards, great trophies. They have achieved the goals that they set before them, but you know, the funny thing is, not one of them speaks to me about their achievements here on earth. No, they speak about home time, they speak about having finished their race, completed their task, and now they are looking forward to going home.
I want to say to you today, yes - we need to live the life that God has called us to, we need to be an example to others, especially unbelievers, but we must focus on the finish line.
“No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62
We need to plough the field, we need to complete the task, and then we need to look forward to home time. The older I am getting, the more I am looking forward to meeting the Lord one day, face to face, and the more I am walking on this road, the things of this world are becoming less interesting to me and less desirable. I am looking forward to eternity, to spending the time with my beloved Jesus. You should be the same. We are not here forever; we are simply passing through, but we need to live the day that God has given us; we need to live it to the full, but our eyes must always be on the finish line.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 14th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 66:4:
“when I called, no one answered,…”
And then we go straight to the Matthew 26:40:
“Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”
Without a doubt, one of the hardest things to deal with in life is loneliness, don’t you agree? You know, our Heavenly Father desires fellowship with you and me. That is the main reason why He created us. He created us for His own good pleasure. He loves us so much and He desires to spend time with us. He didn’t create us because we had to do something for Him. There is nothing we can do for God, He did it all. He created the whole universe with one word. In the beginning was the Word, but loneliness,…I really believe our Heavenly Father gets lonely and desires fellowship with His people, but so often you and I are so busy doing other things that we don’t get a chance to speak with Him.
Remember, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus really needed His disciples, more than ever before - they were fast asleep. Don’t you and I do the same thing? We really need to understand that we have to spend time with the Lord, not just for our sake but also for His sake.
I have learnt what loneliness is. Over the years I have travelled all over the world, preaching the Gospel, and it sounds very glamorous and it sounds very exciting, but I can tell you something now, after the evening is finished and we have preached to multitudes of people, and we have seen the power of God moving, and people are so excited, they are born again, Spirit-filled, they are healed physically and mentally, then I get ushered back to my hotel, and I walk up those stairs or catch that elevator, I go to my room and I sit there all by myself. Oh yes, and that is the time when I think of Jill and the children back home, and my grandchildren, and I might be on the other side of the world, and I wonder, are they safe? Are things good there? It is the middle of the night there because we have big time changes as well. That is the time that I have to lock in with God, and He becomes a friend to me, that sticks closer than any brother.
You need to do the same. We really need to spend time with Him and then we won’t be lonely like that again. After I have had a good chat with Him, I turn over on my side, and I go sound asleep.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, and remember, you don’t have to be lonely!
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 13th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 66:8:
“Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day?
Or shall a nation be born at once?”
Can a woman give birth to a child without going through pain? You know folks, I want to tell you with our Jesus, all things are possible. He is the miracle-working God. Do you remember the prayer meeting that we had in Bloemfontein, in the centre of our beloved nation, South Africa? We called the nation together to pray. We called it, “It’s Time”. If you remember, no less than over 1 million people came together in less than 6 weeks. We prayed, we praised God, we worshipped, we wept, and we asked the Lord to please undertake.
2 Chronicles 7:14 - you know it so well, it says:
“If My people who are called by My name” (which people is that? Those are the people of God, those are the believers, the Christians) “will humble themselves, and pray…”
And that is exactly what we did, and what happened afterwards? Folks, there was a change in the government, yes, a national maize crop that was doomed to be a failure, turned around to be a bumper crop. There was singing of hymns and Bible readings in Parliament! Do you remember that? The government were about to build a nuclear power station which would have bankrupted the nation. It was deemed unconstitutional and was put aside. So many miracles took place. Yes, we are coming to the elections yet once again. People are very anxious. I want to tell you, we need to pray because when we pray, God moves. Even as I am recording this programme, people are praying all over the nation of South Africa and indeed the whole world because nations are going to the polls, in the USA and all over the world, but we need to pray the prayer of faith, not just pray. You see, a lot of people pray but they don’t believe what they are praying. We need to pray, we need to be intentional, we need to be determined, and then we leave it in God’s hands.
I am very optimistic for the future, not by what I see with my eyes but by what my spirit tells me when I spend time with God every day, in the closet, and I read my Bible and I pray. If Christ is for us, my dear friend, there is no man that can stand against us. Romans 8:31.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 12th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Luke 1:46-48: And Mary said:
"My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed."
That was spoken by the mother of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour. I want to say right at the beginning, a very, very special and precious Mother's Day to every mother and to every prospective mother listening to this message. At the end of this message I want to pray for young ladies who are unable to fall pregnant. I really feel the Lord wants me to pray for you, that you too will become a mother.
When we look back at the history of the Bible, starting right at the back of the Old Testament, with Abraham. Remember, Sarah was unable to fall pregnant, and then the Lord blessed her with a son and his name was Isaac. And it goes right through the Bible. Hannah couldn't have a baby and then God gave her Samuel, which some regard as the greatest of all the prophets.
We go right on to Elizabeth. Elizabeth couldn't have a baby. She fell pregnant very late in life, and John the Baptist was born through Elizabeth. Jesus Himself said, "There has never been a man born from the womb of a woman who is greater than John the Baptist." And we can go on and on - Samson's mother couldn't fall pregnant.
I want to say to you today, mothers, we love you, we cherish you and we appreciate you, and I want to say particularly to fathers, husbands, I want to say to young men, appreciate your mother while you still have her. I remember my own mother very, very specially. She was a wonderful woman and I look forward to seeing her in Heaven. I had the privilege of praying the Sinner's Prayer with my mom. I led her to Christ. It was one of the highlights of my entire life.
Now, I am going to pray for those young women who are unable to fall pregnant:
Father,
Your word says, "Ask and you will receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be answered unto you." I pray for these women right now in Jesus' name, that You will give them the desire of their heart. They want to have a baby. I ask you to honour this prayer in Jesus' mighty name, Amen.
God bless you mom. Get up in the morning, look into that mirror and start speaking. Dad, start calling her "mother" because she is going to have a baby. And when that mother becomes pregnant, please contact us. I want to rejoice with you.
Jesus bless you, and Happy Mother's Day!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 11th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 1 Corinthians 15:58
“…be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord’
The Amplified Bible says: ”Always doing your best and doing more than is needed.”
I read a beautiful reading by Bishop Ryle who lived many, many years ago. He said: Activity in doing good is one recipe for being cheerful Christians. It is like exercise to the body and it keeps the soul in health.” Doing good makes cheerful Christians. It keeps us spiritually fit. Just like exercise, going to the gym, keeps us physically fit, when we do Christian deeds for others, it makes us spiritually strong.
Remember, no man is an island. We were never created to be on our own. We were created by the Lord to help one another. There are no lone rangers in the Kingdom of God. We really need to help each other. Now, I have told you this story before, but it is worth hearing a second time, and this is a true story about a young man, many years ago, in this district where we live. He was looking for a job.
He was riding on his horse and in those days the district roads all had gates which led from one farm to the other, and he heard this old motorcar coming from behind, probably a Model-T Ford, and an old couple were driving this motorcar and he jumped from his horse and opened the gate to let them go through. They tipped their hats and said, “Thank you,” and he closed the gate behind, got on his horse and the motorcar stopped just ahead, and as he rode up, the old gentleman said, “Where are you going, son?” He said, “I am looking for a job, sir.” So he said, “Well come along, come along to my farm and I will give you a job, it’s right down the road”, and that is exactly what he did. That young man eventually inherited that farm because the old farmer and his wife never had any children. So, by opening that gate and doing something good as a Christian, he inherited a farm.
Today, we don’t do it for any return or reward, we do it because it is what God wants us to do, to help one another and to be cheerful about it. Go out today, make that phone call, take that bunch of flowers to your teacher at school, send a text message and tell people you are praying for them. It will do you the world of good.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 10th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 46:34 - This is Joseph speaking to his brothers:
“…that you shall say, ‘Your servants’ occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; (Now, listen to this) for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”
“Every shepherd is repulsive to the Egyptians.” The Amplified Version says.
Then we go to Matthew 7:6, this is Jesus speaking:
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”
Very, very strong words. They are spoken by the Lord, Himself, and the Old Testament reading spoken by Joseph to his brothers, when they came to Egypt. This really shocked me when I read this scripture initially from Genesis. You and I need to be very careful. Joseph was a very wise man and he told his brothers, “Don’t say you are shepherds”, because actually that is what they were. In fact, God said to Peter, on the shores of Lake Galilee, “Do you love Me?” He said, “I love You, Lord.” He said, ”Feed My sheep.” So Peter was a shepherd, a shepherd of the flock. We need to be very sensitive when we share our faith with people in the world. Some don’t understand, some don’t want to understand and some will actually get quite aggressive towards you.
We need to pick the time. Often I say, “Tell the first three people you meet, after you give your life to Christ, what you have done, and I still maintain that, but we need to be clever. The Bible says we must be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves. So when we share our testimony with somebody, we must pick the right time and the right place, otherwise we will be rejected severely. That’s why it wasn’t a lie that Joseph was telling his brothers not to tell the Egyptians. He said, “Tell them that we are keepers of livestock and not shepherds.”
I want to say to you today, we never apologise for our faith, we are never ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, but we need to be very, very wise if we want to lead people to Christ. So today, when you go out, just be very careful who you share with and when you share it, but never hold back on the truth.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 9th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Isaiah 66:2. The Lord says:
“For all those things My hand has made,
And all those things exist,”
Says the Lord.
“But on this one will I look:
On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
And who trembles at My word.”
There is absolutely nothing that you and I can do for God. Earlier on, He says, “Heaven is my throne”. He says, “The earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you can build for Me?” We can do nothing for Him, He has done everything for us. What He requires of you and me is a contrite (which is a repentant), a broken spirit that trembles at His word. The Lord wants us to be simple, plain and reverently responsive to what He says. You will find that out of the Message in Isaiah 66:2.
We need to be so careful, and maybe I am speaking more to myself today, my dear friend, than I am to you. We need to be so careful that the work of the Lord does not become more important to us than the Lord of the work, if you know what that means. You see, Jesus actually doesn’t need anything from you and I. He has made it all, He has done it all, there is nothing that we can do for Him.
Now, there was another farmer and he was having a conversation with the Lord. He was quite upset with the Lord, and maybe you are today, but if you look at Job 38 - yes, I am talking about the farmer Job, and you can read that whole chapter from verse 1, the Lord takes him and brings him to attention and says, “Listen, sit down a minute. I want to ask you a few questions. Where were you when I made the earth? Where were you when I did this? Where were you when I did that?” How dare we question our creator!
He says in Job 40:2:
“Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?”
I mean, it’s ridiculous isn’t it? It’s absolutely ridiculous. What we have got to start doing now is to be plain and simple in front of God and go to the Lord like a little boy goes to his dad and sits on his lap and asks him, “Please help me, dad, to fix my bicycle, please help me dad, to do this.” And dad loves doing it! Don’t argue with God, love God and appreciate what He has done for you and me.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 8th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 32:5:
“I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden. (in other words, I have confessed my sins)
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
Then we go to the Book of Daniel 9:23:
‘At the beginning of your supplications (your prayers) the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; …”
That was the angel, Gabriel, who brought a message to Daniel from the Lord. I want to say to you today that the Lord hears and knows your prayers, even before you speak them. Isn’t that wonderful news? You might say, “What is the point in us praying?” Well, mother, that little boy of yours, he comes into the kitchen. You know that he is ravenous, you know that he is so hungry but you want to hear him say, “Mom, could I please have something to eat?” And then you give him that lovely sandwich or whatever it is that he needs.
I remember going down to Cape Town like yesterday. They had no rain for two years, and the people were literally about to start dying of thirst. We had a prayer meeting on the sand dunes of Mitchell’s Plain, one of the most dangerous places on the Continent of Africa. Something like a quarter of a million people cried out to the Lord, asking God to send life-giving rain. I want to tell you, it makes me want to weep when I think of it. In the middle of the service, we hadn’t even finished the service, it started raining and it hasn’t stopped since. That huge dam that supplies water to the city of Cape Town was dry. It was like a desert. They said it would take seven years to fill if it started raining. Well, it was overflowing in 4 months. God knows what we are asking before we even ask and yet He still wants to hear us praying and saying, “Lord, please help.”
Today, let us ask the Lord with faith, believing, and then we start to thank Him for what is coming.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 7th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 7:13:
“and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer,…”
Jesus is calling us. Matthew 6:33:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
We cannot live a life of disobedience, doing our own thing, and then expect God to bless us. It doesn’t work that way. It is no use getting up early in the morning, having a good quiet time, listening to the voice of the Lord, and then going out and doing our own thing. Delayed obedience is actually disobedience. As followers of Christ, we need to start hearing the word of the Lord and obey it immediately. For example, pay your accounts on time, when they are due, otherwise if you don’t, your motorcar will be repossessed, and then we cry out and say, “Lord, why have you done this to us?” No, you didn’t pay your account on time.”
I am a farmer and we are facing winter now in South Africa. This is the time when farmers’ firebreaks should be in place. The farmers should have made their firebreaks by now. It should be in position. Now, if you don’t make the firebreak in time, and the fire season is upon us, after the first frost things turn over night. The grass is dry, it’s vulnerable, the wind gets up and a fire breaks out in the middle of the night and burns right through your farm, and now your cattle have got nothing to eat. Then you cry out, “Lord, why have You allowed this to happen to me?” No, not at all. What’s happened is, you have delayed doing what you know is right.
We really need to start hearing from God now, not only hear from God but also apply His principles, and we will succeed like never before.
Have a good day, Jesus bless you, and start listening and obeying the word of God.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 6th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 64:6:
“And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;…”
Wow! That is a powerful statement made by God. Our good works, He says, are like filthy rags.
Then we go straight to the New Testament, to the Book of Philippians 3:9:
”…and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;…”
We will never get to Heaven by doing good deeds or by doing good works. Now, I am going to say something that is controversial and a lot of people don’t like it when they hear it, but it is the truth, and that is that good people don’t go to Heaven, believers go to Heaven. If it was good people who went to Heaven, I want to tell you that people from other faiths would get to Heaven before most of us Christians. It is not by our efforts. It is purely by faith in Jesus Christ that we get to Heaven. You say, “Well, prove it.” Do you remember the thief on the Cross? He wasn’t a good man, he deserved to die and go to hell, but just before he died, he said to Jesus, “Lord, please remember me in Heaven.” He believed that Jesus was the Son of God, and Jesus said to him, “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.”
I remember officiating at a funeral of a man. He wasn’t a good man, he had made many bad and poor choices in his life. His family was in a bit of a mess, he had done lots of things that he wasn’t proud of, but that man loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and at his funeral, we were standing by his grave. I said to the people, “This man is going to be with Jesus in Heaven, because I knew him and he loved God and he repented of his evil ways, and I really believe that he is going to Heaven, because good people don’t go to Heaven, believers go to Heaven.” After the service, a man who was furious, came up to me and said, “How can you say that good people don’t go to Heaven?” I said, “Because it is in the Bible, our good works are like filthy rags before God, that is what He said. We go to Heaven because we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and because we repent of all our sins.”
Today, remember it is faith in God that will save us, nothing else.
God bless you and have a good day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 5th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Psalm 31:19:
“Oh, how great is Your goodness,
Which You have laid up for those who fear You,
Which You have prepared for those who trust in You
In the presence of the sons of men!”
Then we go straight to 1 Corinthians 2:9:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Why do you and I always seem to settle for second best? The Lord has stored up such good things for you and I. He has stored up such good things for those who reverently respect God. Jesus has prepared so much for those who hold Him in affectionate reverence. Isn’t that beautiful? I got that out of the Amplified Bible (affectionate reverence), for those who obey Him and for those who recognise the benefits that He has given to us.
We think of the Prodigal Son. He had so much prepared for him, he had an inheritance. His father was a wealthy farmer. He was going to inherit part of that farm with his brother, but what did he do? He went and squandered everything he had, and if you look at Luke 15:16, he ended up thinking to himself, “I will gladly eat the food that the pigs are eating.”
It’s like a little child. Have you ever seen a little baby who gets a beautiful Christmas present or a birthday present with all that shiny bright paper and big ribbons around it? The baby undoes everything, and there is a beautiful gift awaiting that baby, but the baby ends up playing with the paper and the ribbons and doesn’t even look at the gift.
You know, a very sad story - King David who killed Goliath, I think he was only about 13 years old, he traded in his glorious future for a lustful affair with another man’s wife. Oh, it cost him dearly. Yes, he repented and yes, God forgave him, but he paid a terrible price after that. You never hear of David killing any Goliaths after that affair.
You and I today, rather let’s wait for the beautiful promises which God has prepared for us, and He will bless us immensely.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 4th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Hebrews 10:19:
”Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,…”
Boldness to enter into the Holy of Holies in the temple of the Lord. You know, for 15 centuries—that’s one thousand five hundred years—there was no access to the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem. But since the death and resurrection of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ, that curtain has been torn in two from top to bottom, and you and I are free to enter.
Listen to this beautiful scripture in Hebrews 10:23:
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
The Lord has made a way for you, my dear friend, and for me. He has made a way for us to enter into the Holy of Holies, whereas before it was only the High Priest who could enter once a year. It was such an absolutely holy place, they would tie a rope around the ankle of the High Priest because they could not go in there, and they would put bells on the edge of his garment and while he was in the Holy of Holies, ministering to the Lord, the bells would be ringing. If the bells stopped ringing, that would mean that the High Priest had collapsed or died and they would pull him out, backwards, by the rope. It was such a very, very precious place. There would be signs up there, “No Entry!” Have you ever seen those signs? “No admittance. Danger!” The skull and the crossbones, “High voltage electricity!”
Dangerous, but Andrew Murray says the sign has been changed since the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It now says, “Enter in, the veil is torn, free access anyone, come in!” The holiest of holy places in the world is open, and you know God is waiting for you and me. He is waiting to welcome us, my dear friend, “Come in”, He says, “And I will take you in my arms, into my ample bosom, and hug you and love you and have intimate fellowship with you.”
You don’t have to be lonely, you don’t have to be left out in the cold any longer because Jesus has made a way that we can have fellowship with our creator, our Heavenly Father.
Today, go in and spend time with Him. He is waiting for you. Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 3rd of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 20:22:
"Wait for the Lord, and He will save you."
I read a beautiful quotation by James Hudson Taylor. He was the man who took a thousand families to China to preach the Gospel, by faith! He says, "Quiet waiting before God would save from many a mistake and from many a sorrow. We need to wait for the Lord. It will save making many mistakes by quiet waiting upon the Lord Jesus Christ. This will save us from many a sorrow, quiet waiting."
I am just thinking at the moment of all the students that are going to be writing exams again very shortly. I want to say to you, when you go into the exam hall and you sit down to write that important exam, take all the time they have given you. Do not rush. You see, some of the bright stars, they will write up their answers and they will be up and out of that exam hall so quickly, and that will put pressure on you. It will make you panic. "I better hurry up!" No, take your full time and when you have finished writing your paper and you have still got a half an hour, sit there quietly, spend a little bit of time in prayer and go through your answer paper again. I guarantee that you will pick up one or two mistakes, and that might just give you those extra marks you need to pass.
I want to say to that businessman, don't make a rash decision. Tell them you will come back tomorrow. "Aah, but they said I have to make a decision today
otherwise the deal is off." Well, rather let the deal be off. There is no pressure from the Lord. There is no rushing.
That crop that you want to plough in - I have done it myself before. You want to plough it in because you can see there is nothing coming in from this crop. Just wait a little bit. You will be very pleasantly surprised. You might just get that last shower of rain that will just turn the crop and get it full to the brim with good grain.
Folks, we need to wait upon the Lord quietly, and we won't make as many mistakes as we have in the past, and we won't be so sorrowful. That proposal that that young man has made to you, just wait, young lady, there is no rush. Tell him you will come back to him, you are going to pray about it. Absolutely, and then you can be sure that God is with you on that decision that you have made.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 2nd of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 62:2:
“You shall be called by a new name,…”
Then we go forward to the Book of Hosea 1:10:
‘You are sons of the living God.’
Sons of the living God, wow! Very personal and so intimate. A son has access to anything a father has. A son can go into the Holy of Holies. Oh yes, visitors have to wait outside until they are invited in. You and I need to understand something today - we are not hirelings. We are sons and daughters of the living God. We are not working for wages, a hireling works for his wages. He carries a watch on his wrist and whether it is 5 o’clock or whatever the time might be, he knocks off. It doesn’t matter what is happening on the farm or in the business. He is only working for a wage. He is not working for his inheritance. That’s the difference, but a son is working for his inheritance. He doesn’t wear a watch, he doesn’t watch the time, he does his job.
You know the story of the Prodigal Son? We are always pretty hard on the older brother. Remember he said to his dad, “So this prodigal son has come home, he has wasted all his money, and you have killed the fatted calf for him and you wouldn’t even give me a lamb, to have a party with my friends.” And his father said to him, listen carefully, Luke 15:31:
“Son”, I get tears in my eyes: “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.”
Maybe today you are going through a hard time and you say, “Where are You, Lord? I am Your son”, or “Your daughter”, but you are going through a time of learning, a time of testing. When I was on the farm with my two boys, they would work harder than anybody else. Don’t ask them about that, they always exaggerate of course, it wasn’t really that bad! But you know, when the cattle broke out in the middle of the night and went into the maize crop, who had to get up out of their beds? Yes, the boys and me, and we had to put the cattle back. You can’t expect the staff to get up in the middle of the night because they are not paid for that. We have to go the extra mile.
Now, when you are a son of God and the Lord has promised you that He has given you everything you need and more - when we go home, we are not going home to Heaven as strangers, we are going home to Heaven as sons and daughters of the living God. He is waiting for us. He wants to spoil us.
Now, today, we need to man up as they say; we need to understand that the going is tough for the sons because He is preparing us for eternity because He loves us so much. So, son, daughter, go out today and take your inheritance.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is 1st of May, Wednesday morning, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Habakkuk 3:18:
“Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
Then we go straight to Nehemiah 8:10. We all know that verse:
“…for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Now, you might say to me this morning, “What is there to be joyful about?” Well, let’s start with our salvation, because He has saved you and me from a terrible life of bondage to the devil. He has set us free! He has covered us with a robe of righteousness; He has hidden our shame; He has clothed us with garments of salvation. That’s right, yes, a new beginning. He has given you and me a brand new life.
You know that scripture in Isaiah 61:3? He has given us a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Folks, this joy that the Lord is speaking to us about is not a feeling, it’s a fact. We don’t have to walk around with a big smile on our face all the time and be happy all the time. It’s a deep knowing that if we have to die today we are going home to be with Jesus, not because we are good people but because He is a Good God, and He loves us and we have acknowledged Him as our Lord and Saviour. It is a guarantee. For us to live is Christ and to die is but gain - that is what Paul, the Apostle said. I want to say to you today, it is the joy of the Lord.
We need to praise God because when we praise Him, that is what takes that spirit of heaviness off us.
Do you remember that song which the Gaither’s wrote, Bill and Gloria Gaither? It’s a song that has gone right around the world so many times. Early in the morning, on a Wednesday morning, there are men who get together in our little chapel on the farm, and we sing together, and this is one of the favourite songs that the boys love to sing, and I want you to sing it with me. It goes like this - Because He lives, that’s right, I can face tomorrow:
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
And because I know, yes I know, He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!
Now come on, all together:
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
And because I know, yes I know, He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!
Go out now and praise the Lord because He lives.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 30th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.”Isaiah 41:13
Then we go to the Book of Hebrews 13:6 in the New Testament.
So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
A famous old preacher from way back said, “Don’t try to hold God’s hand, let Him hold yours. Let Him do the holding, and you do the trusting.” I think that is a beautiful reminder, the Lord has got hold of us. We don’t have to be concerned about that. You know, when you look at those trapeze artists in the circus, the one that we are all concentrating on is the flyer who goes through the air, doing somersaults, but we forget that the most important part of the act is actually the catcher. He is the big one with the strong arms who is flying backwards and forwards on the actual swing, and he catches the flyer. If he misses, it’s a disaster. I want to say to you that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Catcher in our lives.
Have you ever seen a fireman’s lift? Do you know what that is? It is when someone takes a hold of your arm and they hold your forearm with their hand and you hold their forearm with your hand. It’s a double lift, and if you are tired and you are weary (I have been there by the way) and eventually you can’t hang on anymore and you let go. You don’t fall because the fireman has got you by his hand. The fireman is nobody else but Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, and today you might feel like letting go. You might say, “Lord, I just can’t anymore.” He says, “Rest, relax, I’ve got you. Together, we can do this and we will.”
Remember the Catcher, His name is Jesus Christ. He has never dropped anybody in His life before and He is not about to drop you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 29th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Revelation 5:11-12:
“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain…”
What a day it will be when you and I meet the Lord Jesus Christ, face to face, in Heaven! It’s going to be amazing, folks, I tell you what. You know, I can only just….I haven’t even got a glimpse of it but I want to relate something to you. On this little farm, Shalom, I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, approximately 450 thousand men worshipping and praising the Lord and saying, “Amen”, like a gunshot going off. You know that Greytown, the little town next to our farm, is approximately 15 Kilometres from this farm - they could hear us in Greytown! But I want to say to you, that was only maybe close on half a million men. What is it going to sound like when thousands, ten thousand times ten thousands are worshipping the Son of God and worshipping Him and thanking Him, the One who died for your sins and for my sins?
Maybe as you are listening to this message you are driving in your motorcar or maybe you are sitting in your home by yourself, and maybe you are feeling a bit down and a bit hard-done-by. I want to encourage you to start worshipping the Lord. Start singing to Jesus, start praising His name and you will be surprised how that heaviness will lift up off you and you will have freedom.
Just thank Him. “Thank Him for what?” you say. Thank Him that you are alive, thank Him that you have got a future, thank Him for dying for you, thank Him for the soon-coming time when we will meet together in Heaven, all of us and our loved ones, and we will praise the Lord together with one voice. What a day that will be! I can’t wait.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 28th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Ezekiel 36:36:
“Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do it.”
Rebuilding the old ruins - Jesus will help us. Jesus is a builder, He is not a demolisher. We have been called to be builders with Him, not demolishers. We are called to reinforce. 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
We must never write people off, God never does that. I don’t know about you but I love to see new buildings going up. I really love it, I get so excited, and I am quite sad when they break down old buildings, and I know it has to be done sometimes. That big steel ball and that chain suspended from a crane, knocking down old buildings, it breaks my heart sometimes. We need to cultivate virgin land. When I arrived on this farm with my young wife and children 48 years ago, nobody wanted this piece of ground. It was full of weeds and invader trees. There was nothing here. There was no water, no lights, no electricity, and we started from square one, but those were good days because we were building.
I love speaking to young men and women. I love hearing their dreams their visions and their new ideas and projects. I just love it. The other day I went to town with my dear wife, and she loves going to these secondhand furniture shops and looking for pieces of furniture that she can purchase. I was sitting there and a gentleman came out and introduced himself to me. He was a former headmaster of a school and he is retired and he is doing the thing he loves the most. He goes around buying old furniture and he brings it back to his factory and he restores it like new. It was wonderful to meet him. As he came out with a piece of furniture that my wife had bought, I shook his hand and said, “I am Angus.” He said, “Yes, I know the voice.” He said, “I hear it every morning at 5 o’clock in my bedroom.” But what a lovely man! He is a restorer, he is not a demolisher.
Most of all, you see the Holy Spirit make brand-new people out of people who have been broken and pushed aside - Mary Magdalene was one of those. Seven demons were cast out of her, she was a woman of ill-repute, but what a faithful servant and follower of Jesus. Don’t write off anybody today. Don’t disregard people. Every one of them has incredible potential.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 27th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to Isaiah 40:31:
"But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; (now listen to this) They shall mount up with wings like eagles, ..."
You and I need to fly high, just like that eagle. I love that bird so much. Often on the farm, when I am riding my horse, Snowy, I look up into the sky and I see that solitary bird flying high in the sky. He is not flapping his wings like those crows on the power lines. No, he has locked his wings, he has caught the thermals of the air, and he is flying high. He is keeping away from the corrupt things of this world. I really mean this - I think the Lord wants us to be very careful that we do not become polluted or contaminated by the things of this world.
We must not be like that foolish eagle that kept pushing his luck, and kept flying lower and lower and lower until one day a farmer came out with his shotgun, thinking that, that majestic eagle was a chicken hawk that was going to kill his chickens. He shot that mighty eagle down and as the eagle lay there dying he looked up with his eyes, into the sky and he realised he had made a terrible mistake. He should never have flown so low and contaminated himself with the things of the world.
Today, let us fly high. Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ. Let us use those wings, those wings of the Holy Spirit to escape from all the hurts and all the troubles in this world of ours.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 26th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 60:11:
“Therefore your gates shall be open continually;
They shall not be shut day or night,…”
Isn’t that beautiful? No need to lock yourself up at night. Then we go to the Book of Revelation 21:25:
“Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).”
There will be no night in Heaven, no need to shut yourself up, no need to lock the gates, put on the alarm, or make sure there is nothing left that someone can steal. There will be no night in Heaven, no darkness. Jesus will be there; He will be our light.
I want to ask you a question this morning. Are you afraid of the dark? Do you struggle to go to sleep at night? Well, I have got good news for you. The Lord Jesus wants to assure you today that He will be with you in the dark of the night. You know, I have a picture of the Lord sitting on a big armchair, maybe next to a fire, on a cold night, and He is asking you to come and sit on His lap, and He wants to put His big strong arms around you and pull you into his ample bosom, into his chest, and just lie there and I will tell you before you know it, you will be sound asleep.
It's not about counting sheep when you are trying to go to sleep. Just close your eyes and talk to Him and He will comfort you. You don’t have to worry about closing the gates, locking the doors, making a big fire so that no-one will come and disturb you. I think of many hunters when they camp at night, they make a big fire because they don’t want lions and hyenas to come into their camp, but when we are with Jesus we have nothing whatsoever to fear. There will be no gates in Heaven, the Lord says He will be our gate. So tonight, close your eyes, just rest in Him and He will give you ample sleep.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 25th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 60:1:
“Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Ephesians 5:14:
“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”
Oh, like never ever before in this world of ours, it is time to shine for Jesus, so that the people will be taken out of their darkness. This world, my friend, is in an absolute state of desperation. It is lost, aimless, it is seeking for direction, for purpose for living. This is our greatest opportunity to show the sad world the way home, the way to the Lord Jesus Christ.
What is man’s purpose for being here on earth? Maybe you are asking yourself that question this morning. “What am I supposed to be doing on this earth? Why am I here?” Well, two reasons: Number one is to glorify God, number two is to enjoy Him forever. I can hear somebody saying, “But I am not a preacher, how can I tell the people? We need to let Jesus shine through us today wherever we have been put.
I love horses - I think you know that by now. Monty Roberts, the horse-trainer, the horse whisperer, was taken over to England to show the Queen Mother (she loved horses), how he could gentle a wild horse that has never been ridden before, a racehorse, a hot blood, in one hour, and he did it! A jockey got onto that big horse within one hour, having never been ridden before. You know, that it overwhelmed the old lady so much, she started to weep and Monty Roberts comforted her.
Use what God has given you, the gift that God has given you. I remember an old man who came from Mozambique. He used to walk with a limp, I even remember his name, Napila. He was on our farm when we were in Zambia. That old man was a blacksmith and he had no equipment to work with. He had a home-made set of bellows. He made a hot fire, he used car springs. Now, any mechanic will tell you how hard a car spring is. He made the most beautiful axe-heads, out of those car springs which he put into indigenous wood. Have you ever seen a potter, working with clay that comes out of the earth and making a beautiful creation? Some of our African women are incredibly talented at creating the most beautiful vases and pots.
So, I am going to encourage you today to use whatever gift God has given you. You might be a homemaker, a school teacher, a policeman, or a doorkeeper. It’s time to shine for Jesus!
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 24th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 62:5:
“My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him.”
Not hearing from God? Why? Well, I want to tell you something now. Maybe, it’s not God’s fault, maybe it is our fault, and I really want to stress the fact that this message that I am giving to you today, is probably more for me than any of you. If you speak to my wife, she will tell you that Angus never stops speaking, and sometimes I have got to do a little more listening. Now, I am going to read something for you that I got from an unknown author, and it goes like this:
“Did it ever occur to you that if you do not hear God’s answer to prayer, It may be, not that He is dumb but because you are deaf? Not because He has no answer to give but because you have not been listening for it. We are so busy with our service, so busy with our work, and sometimes so busy with our praying (now that is an interesting point, isn’t it?), that it does not occur to us to stop our own talking, and listen if God has some answer to give us, with that small still voice, to be passive, to be quiet, to do nothing, say nothing and in some true sense, think nothing, simply to be receptive and waiting for the voice of God.”
I want to say to you today, we need to slow down. This world of ours is going at such a speed, we don’t even know how to be quiet, do we? And I want to say to you that that is an active word, “to be quiet”. It means you are doing something, you are being quiet.
Today, be quiet and listen and God will speak to you.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 23rd of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Revelation 3:16:
“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
Wow! Very strong words from the Lord Jesus Christ. It is better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all. We need to call sin by it’s name. We need to stand up and be counted. In order for sin to triumph, all that good people need to do, is nothing. To turn your back on the enemy is the most dangerous thing to ever do. Ask any boxer and he will tell you. When he turns away from his opponent, he is as good as dead. We have got to face our enemies and face them head on.
A very famous statesman once said, “A man is not defeated by his opponents, but by himself.” Peter, the big fisherman, would have understood exactly what that saying meant, when he denied the Lord Jesus Christ three times, after having told Him that he would die for Him. We can find that in Matthew 26:75.
He went out and he wept bitterly. But praise God that our Lord Jesus is the God of the second chance. Yes, Peter got a second chance. You will find that in Mark 16:7. The angel told them:
“But go, tell His disciples—and Peter (isn’t that beautiful?)— that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”
And Peter - thats why I love the Lord so much. He knew that Peter would never go because he had denied his Master, so the angel said, “Tell the disciples—and Peter.” That is so precious.
If we look at the word of God, all the patriarchs, the men that God chose, men like Moses who was a murderer, remember he killed the slave-driver, but he got a second chance at the burning bush; King David, he did a terrible thing. Nathan, the prophet came and told him, but he got a second chance; Saul of Tarsus was persecuting Christians but he got a second chance, and became Paul the Apostle.
Today, ask Him and He will give you a second chance.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 22nd of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Revelation 3:10:
“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”
We have to remain steadfast. We have to be immovable, just like the Rock of Gibraltar. We must not give up. We cannot afford to blow hot and then blow cold. Galatians 6:9 - if we do not grow weary in doing good. That rebellious child, that exam that you are struggling with, that relationship - do not quit. That is the one thing that farming has taught me, is never to give up. Keep persevering with that crop of corn which is giving you so much trouble, that sick animal, keep on persevering. It will come through, because Jesus will see us through.
I want to ask you a question. Have you ever watched that little dung beetle? They call it a “scarab beetle”. Have you ever sat and watched it? He is a most incredible little creature. They say that he is the most powerful insect in the world. The ancient Egyptians revered that little dung beetle so much, they even carved him on the stones in the pyramids. He is a representative of eternal life to them. Now, listen to this - it can move one thousand, one hundred and forty one times it’s own body weight! It’s the equivalent of a human dragging six double-decker buses along the road.
Oh, my dear friend, we must not quit. We must persevere like that little dung beetle. Have you noticed that he is going one way and not giving up for anybody? Respect him and let him teach you something about perseverance. Jesus Christ created that dung beetle, and by the way, He created you and me, and He created us not to give up but to get to our destination. The Lord will help us!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 21st of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 59:19:
“When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him”.
Then we go to the Book of Exodus 14:13-14:
“And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Today, maybe you are up against a real fight. Maybe it’s at school, maybe it’s at university, maybe it’s in the workplace, maybe it’s a physical ailment, maybe it’s a family dispute, and you don’t know what to do. The Lord says, “Stand still. Stand still, the battle belongs to the Lord alone.”He will fight for you and I.
I love the African bush, being an African myself. The one thing I love to see is a pride of lions. A lot of females and young cubs, and then you will find one big, black-maned male lion just lying quietly by himself underneath the tree. You might think all he has to do is eat the meat, and the females have to go and catch the game, and look after the cubs. That is quite true actually, but he has a specific role to play. When the enemy comes in, like a group of hyenas, or maybe lions from a different pride, and they come to trouble the pride, what happens? Oh yes - the big boy stands up and he starts to growl, and he moves in and the enemy moves out!
Today remember, you have got the Lion of Judah. He is standing by and He is watching the situation. All you have got to do is call unto Him and He will answer you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 20th of April, 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Revelation 3:8. Jesus says:
“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”
Oh my dear friend, the door is open, all we have to do is to walk through it. Do you remember the story of that sailing ship, maybe in the 1800’s. The huge sailing ship that was caught in a calm. Apparently, the sailors tell me that’s one of the most dangerous places to be, when you’re in the middle of the ocean and there’s no wind and you’re on a sailing ship. This ship had been standing for about three weeks, the sailors were starting to really panic because they had no fresh drinking water, and all of a sudden they saw a ship on the horizon. They sent a message saying, “We are dying of thirst please help us with water, fresh water.” The other ship sent back a signal to say, “Let your bucket down. There is fresh water under you.” They were about 80 miles out from the mouth of the mighty Amazon River in South America, which pushes fresh water right out into the sea!
Today, the Lord is saying to you and me, “Just let your bucket down because there is plenty fresh water right beneath you.” You just have to take it. The door is open; walk through it. When the door closes, you don’t go through it, but when the door is opened by faith, and the little strength you have goes straight through that door, the Lord has something very special for you on the other side.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 19th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 58:6-7:
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?” (your own family)
This is the chapter on fasting, going without food. Now, to fast is very important. Jesus did it for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. It is a very good practice. It brings the body into subjection with the spirit. It is necessary for each believer to do. However, the Lord says, ”but this is the kind of fasting that I have chosen.” We have got to be doers of God’s Holy Word. We have got to lift the burdens of the oppressed, we have got to share our food with the hungry, we have got to give a bed to those who have no roof over their heads, and we must not hide ourselves from our own families. Jesus says, if we do this, then the light will break forth like the morning, and healing will spring up speedily and then the glory of the Lord will be our portion, and then when we call on the Lord, He will answer us and He will say, “Here I am.” Today, we need to be doers of God’s word.
I remember my dear old dad just after I had led him to the Lord. I said to him, “Dad, we have got to fast as well now that we are Christians, and that old Scotsman looked at me with those blue eyes of his, and he said, “Laddie, fast?” He said, “I fasted for three and a half years.” You see, he was a prisoner of war in the Second World War. He was imprisoned in Germany and Italy. That didn’t impress him so much as when he saw us taking care of the poor and the needy. That impacted my dad’s life more than anything else.
Today, yes, we must fast but let us fast as the Lord says - by taking care of those who are hurting, those who are lonely and those who are fearful.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 18th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Psalm 27:1:
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
Then we go to Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew 28:20, the last verse in the Book of Matthew:
“…I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
You and I can never be alone. Jesus has promised us that He will be with us always. We must always add His resources to our own when we are making calculations. That is what F B Meyer says, and I agree. When you sit down and work out your budget, when you are working on your spreadsheet and making plans for your future, always put it next to it with a little + sign, “But God.” So when people come to you and say it will never happen, it is too big, just answer two words, “But God!” Remember, we can do all things through Christ Jesus, who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13)
William Carey, who translated the Bible from English into many different Indian languages, was just a cobbler. People mocked him and said, “You are a shoemaker, aren’t you?” He said, “No, I can’t make shoes, I can only repair them.” Yet God used that man because He brought God into all his calculations. He became the Chief Interpreter to the High Court of Delhi. A country boy, just a man who could repair shoes, why? Because he added God into all his calculations. He added God into all his resources. He said, “Attempt great things for God and expect great things from God.”
Today, remember to add “But God” to all your calculations, and you will be surprised at what things you can do for the King.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 17th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Psalm 34:7:
“The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.”
“He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.”Psalm 147:3
In the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 12:10, simply says:
“For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
And we ask ourselves the question - how come? Well, it’s because when we get out of the way and let God take over, He makes us strong. You know, proud people are often very lonely people. When we come to the Lord Jesus because we just can’t go on anymore, that’s the time that He takes over. It happened in my life and I am sure it has happened in your life. He says, “I can,” just when you say, “Lord, that’s it. I cannot do it anymore.” Maybe you are in that position today.
As an evangelist, always the highlight of any service for me, is when we make the altar call. We ask people to come forward and to lay their burdens down at the altar rail, at the foot of the Cross. We see instant and miraculous changes taking place. It is quite something. You see a whole crowd turn in an instant from being down-hearted, fearful and afraid. All of a sudden, they start to smile, there is a real sparkle in their eyes. Many are weeping because they are free from the chains and the shackles of guilt and condemnation. It’s definitely the highlight for me, every single time, and I never, ever get used to it.
Billy Graham always used to sing a song, “Just as I am, without one plea”, as the people started to come forward, and I have done it myself many times. It is a very special hymn, it’s a deep hymn, it’s a hymn that sets the captive free, it heals the brokenhearted. That hymn, you know that hymn, maybe you would like to sing it with me?
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidds’t me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears, within and without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!
Jesus bless you,
Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 16th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 4:9:
“Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Then we go straight to Matthew 22:39:
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
It’s a commandment for you and me. It is not optional. The first family that ever existed was our Heavenly Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son and His Holy Spirit - the First Family. Families are under tremendous strain at the moment. I am getting many letters from families who are not getting on. We ask ourselves the question, why is it that there is so much strife and so much trouble in the family unit? Well, I believe it’s because the family is so close to our Heavenly Father’s heart. He loves the family unit, and the devil knows it, and the devil hates God and the way that he can hurt God, is to hurt God’s family.
There is no one who fights like brothers, and it is not even a joke, folks; it is serious. The first two brothers in the Bible were the children of Adam and Eve. Their names were Cain and Abel. Remember, Cain killed his brother, Abel, and when our Heavenly Father asked, “Where is your brother?” He said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Am I responsible? Well, the answer is yes, we are responsible. What about Joseph with the coat of many colours, how he and his brothers could not get on together?
No-one fights like brothers. The Jews and the Arabs have got the same father, Abraham, they are half-brothers, and look at what is happening as I talk to you now, in the Middle East. You know, I knew two brothers who could not get on and it got so bad that the one brother went to the government offices and got his surname spelling changed. He did not even want his name to be spelt the same as his brother's. It is not a joke, folks. It is so serious. We must to learn to forgive, to make up and to press on together, and we must also see how the devil’s hand is in this - he will do everything in his power to destroy the family unit.
So what is the solution? The solution is, we need to talk to one another, we need to ask for forgiveness, say sorry. You say, “I can’t.” Jesus says you can and you must for His sake, for your own sake and for your brother’s sake.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 15th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Numbers 13:27-28.
"Then they told him, and said: "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there." (the descendants of the giants there).
I read a statement, the other day, that really touched me. It goes something like this: "It is when we are in the way of duty that we find giants. It was when Israel was going forward that the giants appeared. When they turned back into the wilderness, they found none." If you are doing something today and feel you have mountains in front of you, you have giants in front of you, keep going forward. There is no reverse gear in the Kingdom of God. We need to go forward and that is why the Lord loved Caleb so much. If you just turn over the page, to the next chapter, Numbers 14:24 - one of my favourite verses, by the way, in the Bible:
"But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it."
It's a promise from God. You see, the other ten spies were so negative, but Caleb wasn't negative; he was going forward, and so was Joshua. I want to say to you today, my dear friend, let's go forward! Of course there are giants there. Anything worth having is worth fighting for! Isn't that true? So let's go forward and we know that the Lord goes before us.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, and don't be scared of those giants.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 14th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 10:16:
“And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.”
Apart from the Jews, the Lord says that there are other sheep who must come into the fold, gentiles. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, it doesn’t matter what your colour, your creed or your sex is. He died for you and me and He wants to bring you into the fold. He gathers the outcasts. That is what it says in the Book of Isaiah.
Romans 10:13 confirms what we are saying:
“For whoever (whoever means whoever) calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
We must never write off anybody. When you look at the disciples that the Lord Jesus chose, they were a real motley bunch, weren’t they? I mean they came from all different types of backgrounds. There were blasphemers, drinkers, they were fishermen, they were tax collectors - they were thieves, those tax collectors. They were zealots, terrorists, and they all came to Christ, and He used them to change the world. Let us not make the mistake of saying, “That person will never become a Christian.”
I remember when I was a new Christian, for quite a few weeks, I was actually chastised by my minister because he didn’t really believe I was for real. I said to him one evening, after Bible Study, “Why are you always picking on me?” And then he confessed and said, “I really didn’t think you were serious; I thought you were having us on.” I said, “No, no, no, my love for Jesus Christ is huge.” “He whom I have forgiven much loves me the most”, the Lord says.
So today, let's embrace the whosoever’s who come into the fold because Jesus died for every one of them, just like He died for you and me.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 13th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 19:46:
'My house is a house of prayer,…'
Then we go to Mark 11:17, the same thing again:
'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'.
Everybody is welcome to pray in the House of God. Then, of course, Isaiah 56:7:
"For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations."
No one is excluded. Prayer is open to anyone who truly seeks help from God. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word "Prayer", which says: "It is a request for help or an expression of thanks, made to God." You say, "I don't know how to pray. I really am struggling." Well, it's funny you should say that because that's exactly what the disciples said to Jesus, in Luke 11:1. They said,
"Lord, teach us to pray,.."
I love sitting quietly and listening to little children pray. It brings a tear to my eye. I am sure the Lord stops in Heaven and says, "Hang on a minute", to all His angels, "these little children want to speak to Me. Just hang on a second."
"No, but there is a big concern amongst…"
"Yes, just hang on a minute, I want to hear these children." Oh, it is so beautiful and so sincere.
We really need to pray more and we really need to speak less. When I gave my life to the Lord, which was 46 years ago, we had a little follow-up meeting after the Sunday service, where mature Christians instructed us on the things of the Lord. We got into little circles, and they said, "Tonight, we are going to start to pray." I took a look around, we were all brand spanking new Christians. We still had the wrapping paper on! Each one of us had to pray out loud, and we were extremely nervous, and this is the honest truth. As we went around the circle, there was one old gentleman sitting there and I could see he had had a hard life. He had all those war maps printed all over his face. He had really been through some tough times, and I could see that he was extremely nervous and he prayed a prayer I will never, ever forget. He just cried out from the bottom of his heart, "God, please help me!" That was his prayer. Now, I have heard prayers from all over the world. I have heard eloquent people praying, but I will never, ever forget John's prayer: "Lord, please help me!" And do you know something? God helped him.
Do it today, it will change your life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 12th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Song of Solomon 1:6:
“They made me the keeper of the vineyards,
But my own vineyard I have not kept.”
Charity begins at home. Service starts with valuable time, spent first of all, in the presence of Jesus Christ, and then your family, and then your work. The Gospel of Mark 8:36 says:
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
We need to spend more time in the presence of Almighty God, both quantity and quality. We need to be careful, and I am talking to myself here more than anybody, that the work of the Lord does not keep us from the Lord of the work—so busy for Jesus that we have no time to spend with Jesus. We really need to be so careful of that fact.
A man I have the utmost respect for, one of my heroes was James Hudson Taylor. That young man took the Gospel of Jesus Christ to China. As a result, they are having one of the greatest revivals in the world in the underground church in China, at the moment, and yet, that man could say, and I am going to read it, “Our attention is here drawn to a danger which is pre-eminently one of this day: the intense activity of our times may lead to zeal in service, to the neglect of personal communion; but such neglect will not only lessen the value of the service, but tend to incapacitate us for the highest service.” In other words, if we are not having a proper quiet time with the Lord, if we are not interacting with the Lord, it will even affect our ministry, let alone our family that will suffer, and most of all, our personal relationship with the Lord.
Remember, first the Lord, then your wife or your husband, then your children, then the rest of your family, and then the ministry or the work that God has called you to. If we do it in that order we will not fail.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 11th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the New Testament, in the Book of Hebrews 12:1:
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,…”
Early this morning, before the sun came up, I went for a ride on my mountain bike on a gravel road. I had to use a little torch that I had fitted to the bike because it was still dark. As I was riding, I heard the most incredible sound. I don’t think I have ever heard it before in my life, and I am a farmer, a man of the land. I heard tens of thousands of birds singing. Now, I didn’t know where the noise was coming from. I was riding alongside a pine plantation on my neighbour’s farm. I wondered whether the noise came from there, but I had never heard that before. And as I was riding, the sun just started to peak over the beautiful surface of the world, and then I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, “Lift up your eyes and look up,” and I looked up and I saw something that really almost brought a tear to my eye.
I saw tens of thousands of swallows flying above. The whole sky was clear but it was full of swallows and they were singing. That’s where the noise was coming from. These swallows were focused; they were flying north to their home in the Northern Hemisphere because winter is starting here in South Africa, and in Europe, the summer is starting, and they were making their way back to their summer address. Their eyes were fixed on their destiny. They were going to their new home. They tell me, I don’t know, that swallows eat on the wing, while they are flying. They sleep on the wing - they have catnaps while they are flying. They are totally focused, they are looking straight ahead to their home.
I want to say to you, my dear friend, there are many people in Heaven, a cloud of witnesses, that are cheering you and I on, and this is what they are saying, “Be like that little swallow. Do not get distracted, don’t get pulled down by the things of this world. Do not allow the devil to rob your joy, keep your vision, keep your focus because soon, and very soon, you are going to get home.” We are going to arrive at our new destination. This is not our home, we are sojourners, pilgrims, passing through!
Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus today, the Author and the Finisher of our faith.
God bless you and have a wonderful day. Don’t forget the swallow, he is a good example.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 10th of April, 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Samuel 15:22, in the Old Testament,
”Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,...”
Then we go to the last book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation 2:4-5. The Lord Jesus says:
”Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.”
Wow, obedience is better than sacrifice. In other words, to do as you are told, is better than continually saying, “I’m sorry.” The Lord is requiring obedience from us this morning. This scripture in Revelation 2, is one of the hallmarks in the ministry at Shalom. I was up at the Umkuzi game reserve in Northern Kwazulu-Natal, having a break with my dear wife, Jill. I was sitting there early in the morning having my quiet time, just like I’m doing right now. I thought I was doing a great job for the Lord, but you see, a good idea is not always a God idea. What are you doing at this time as you are listening to this message? Are you obeying the Lord or are you doing something you think the Lord would like you to do?
This scripture was very relevant in my life. The Lord says, ”I see all the good things you are doing but you have forsaken your first love.” That is your relationship with Jesus Christ. “You are so busy with the work of the Lord, that you haven’t got time for Me,” the Lord was saying to me. So I was listening, I was devastated actually. I felt the Lord saying, “Go home, cancel everything and then I will speak to you.” I did exactly that.
You know something folks? The Holy Spirit impressed upon me to start mentoring young men because we are living in a fatherless generation. I cancelled every single appointment and then I started to mentor young men. I thought maybe two or three and I really mean that. You know by the year 2010 which was seven years after the Lord had spoken to me, we saw no less than four hundred and fifty thousand men on this farm.
Obedience is better than sacrifice. Let’s start doing what the Lord has told us to do and not what we think He’s told us to do. “How do we do that, Angus?”, by spending time quietly in His presence.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It’s Tuesday morning, the 9th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”Isaiah 55:11
The word of the Lord shall accomplish what the Lord has said, and it shall prosper in the very thing for which it was sent. Just like the rain comes down from Heaven and waters the earth, and germinates the crops. I have seen it so many times; it makes them grow so that the seed will become bread for those farmers who cultivate it. I have seen it for over 40 years, and so the Lord says to us today, the spoken word, spoken out in faith, shall accomplish the same thing.
I had the privilege of watching a documentary just the other day, and part of that documentary was what happened in Cape Town in Mitchell’s Plain, one of the poorest places in South Africa, where probably about 250,000 people, many of them poor folk, came to speak the word of God over a city that was without water. People were panicking, they didn’t think they would have enough water to drink, never mind to wash or to grow crops. In the middle of that prayer meeting as we were speaking out the word of God, oh yes, it started to rain! I will never forget it as long as I live. I want to say to you this morning, I don’t know who you are or where you are, but you need to start speaking the word of God out again, by faith. The word of the Lord will never return void. If we look at John 1:1, the Bible says:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Speak the word of God, and it will accomplish the same thing that the Lord spoke because it is His word in your mouth, and my mouth, spoken by faith, will achieve the same thing. Speak to that mountain today and ask the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith, to remove it out of your life.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 8th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, Genesis 2:7:
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."
Now George Matheson, that beautiful old Scottish preacher, who was blind, wrote,
"And so this soul of mine is a compound of two worlds—dust and deity! It touches the boundary line of two hemispheres. It is allied on one side to the divine; on the other, to the beast of the field. Its beginning is from beneath, but its culmination is from above; it is started from the dust of the ground, but it is finished in the breath of God.
My soul, are you living up to your two-fold origin? Are you remembering your double heritage, and therefore your double duty? You have a duty to your God for His breath is in you, and you have a duty to the earth, for out of it you were taken."
Today, you and I must live up to our duty. We must be good representatives and we must be good ambassadors for Jesus Christ. When people see us walking down the road, they must make no mistake, they must say, "You see that man, he has been created out of the earth but he has got Jesus Christ living inside him.
"…Christ in you, the hope of glory"Colossians 1:27
Let's go out today and show the world that Jesus Christ is alive.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 7th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Samuel 7:8:
“Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel.”
Wow, powerful words - a shepherd to a king! Then we go to Isaiah 55:8. The Lord says:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.”
You and I must never limit God in our lives. We saw a shepherd boy, but God saw a king. Do you remember that song, that very popular song that was sung quite a few years ago? The words go like this, I am going to read it to you:
*One by one, Jesse’s sons stood before the prophet,
Their father knew a king would soon be found,
And each one passed, except the last,
No-one thought to call him, surely he would never wear a crown,
But when others see a shepherd boy, God may see a king.
Even though your life seems filled with ordinary things,
In just a moment, He can touch you and everything will change.
Where others see a shepherd boy, God may see a king.
One by one, problems come and dreams get shattered,
And sometimes its hard to understand,
But things like chance and circumstance don’t really matter,
The Father holds tomorrow in His hands,
And when others see a shepherd boy, God may see a king.
Even though your life seems filled with ordinary things,
In just a moment, He can touch you and everything will change,
Where others see a shepherd boy, God may see a king.*
I want to say to you today, my dear friend, even as the Lord is speaking to me, never limit God in your life. We may see a shepherd boy, but when God looks at you, He may see a king.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 6th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Corinthians 6:10:
"…as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."
Then we go to the Book of Nehemiah 8:10:
"Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
The joy the Lord is speaking about here, is not walking around with a big smile on your face, always laughing. That's not joy. Joy is not a feeling, it is a fact. Why should we be happy this morning? Well, maybe the first thing we can thank God for is for the opportunity of having eternal life. If you love Jesus Christ today, my dear friend, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and when the Lord comes to take you and I home, we will find our name is written there, not because we are good people but because we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Some people write to us, and they ask the question, "Why is Angus always so happy?" Oh, folks, I have to be honest with you. I am not always feeling happy. I really mean that. Sometimes, I am not happy at all, but it is the joy of knowing that Jesus Christ died for me, He loves me, and He will fulfil everything He promised me in the word.
Even King David, who wrote all those beautiful psalms, says sometimes, he speaks to his soul, "Oh my soul, why are you so downcast?" We need to understand that joy, always rejoicing, is a decision that we have to make. You know, sometimes when you get bucked off your horse, you don't always feel full of joy, do you? No - I have lost count of how many times I have been bucked off my horse. An old cowboy saying goes something like this: "Cowboy up (in other words, 'cowboy get up') or go and sit in the pick-up." We have got to get up, dust ourselves off and get back into the fight, because the Lord Jesus Christ never promised us a bed of roses, but He did promise us that He would walk with us through the fire.
A man by the name of W. Aiken, wrote: "No Christian can ever know what is meant by these two little words, 'Always rejoicing', but the Christian who takes up his cross and follows Jesus." That's right, he is the one who knows.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 5th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Revelation 1:8:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Wow, what a confirmation! Then, of course, the Lord goes on again to say in verse 11:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,...”
I got so excited when I read that scripture again. I have heard it for many, many years, but it reminded me that He is everything you need, my friend, everything you need. What we need to do is live our dream. We need to fulfil our vision. Where there is no vision, the people perish - Proverbs 29:18. But if Christ is for you, who can stand against you? We hear that in Romans 8:31.
We have just recently completed a beautiful Passover season, and you know that beautiful scripture in Romans 8:11 that says:
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the tomb, is available to you and to me, because He is the Alpha and the Omega. It is like that massive oak tree. We have got some very big ones on the farms around our district, but every one of them started with a small little acorn. That acorn germinated and grew into a mighty tree. I want to encourage you to dream your dream, to fulfil your destiny. Do not let the devil stand on you and tell you that you will never make it. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
I still have many dreams that I want to see fulfilled before the Lord takes me home to be with Him in Heaven. And you, too, should do the same. Remember, if Christ is for you, you have nothing to worry about.
Jesus bless you, and have a lovely day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 4th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the last book in the Bible, Revelation 1:5:
”…Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.”
Wow, my dear friend, what a title! What a Man, the first to ever be born from the dead! He died and He rose again. Jesus Christ, our living Champion. There is only one Lord, and His name is Jesus, the Messiah, and the soon-coming King. The King of Kings; the Lord of Lords; the Lily of the Valley; the Bright Morning Star; the Alpha and the Omega; the Beginning and the End, and I love this title - the Friend of Sinners. That is who He is! He’s the God of all men if they will simply bow the knee and acknowledge Him.
In John 14:6, Jesus says:
”I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
What a mighty God we serve. We cannot apologise for that. It is written in the Bible, and we believe the Bible to be divine. It is a book written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by holy men. Yes, the Bible is Jesus Christ in print. John 1:1:
”In the beginning was the Word,…”
And that is exactly what I’m reading to you now.
Lord Jesus, we want to tell You today that we love You. We thank you for dying for us; we thank You for being so humble; we thank You for being so loving, and we thank You, Lord, for reassuring us every single day that You will be with us even until the end of the age. What wonderful news! Our faithful Witness, the First-born from the dead, the Ruler over the kings of the earth. There is no king, there is no ruler that is greater than Jesus Christ!
You don’t have to be controversial to be a Christian. You just have to read the Bible, and automatically you become controversial because people don’t like that. People would rather hear you say, “All roads lead to Heaven.” They would rather you say, ”There are many gods.” According to my Bible there is no other God, and there is no other Saviour, and His name is Jesus.
Have a wonderful day as you go out and tell people today, “He’s coming back soon to take us home to be with Him, in glory, forever and ever.”
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 3rd of April, 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 12:12-13:
”The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel!”
Then we go on to Chapter 19:15:
”But they cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him! Crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”
The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”
I want to say to you today, do not play to the crowd, otherwise you’ll be like a yoyo. One minute, you’ll be up in the air; the next, down in the dumps, and you and I cannot live like that. I had the wonderful privilege of being with one of the top rugby franchises in the country just the other day. I spent the day with them and what wonderful young men and women they are, totally dedicated to the sport that they are playing. They are physically fit, they are mentally alert, they are totally committed. I had the privilege of sharing a short word with them, and this is the very word that the Lord put on my heart, “Tell them to not play to the crowd but play to Me and Me alone.” I reminded them that one day, you are a hero; the next day, you’re a villain. One wrong move can spoil the game and lose the match. South Africa is currently the world champion in rugby, but if you can remember, in the last three matches we played, we won them by one point, one single point.
Now you can’t live like that, I’m not just talking about rugby, I’m talking about life. You have got to put your trust, faith, hope, and future in Jesus Christ, and in Him alone. He will not let you down. He will not disappoint you. He says, ”I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5.
Today, go out and remember your responsibility is to please only One Person - and He is a good God. He is patient, He is very loving and He is on our side - His name is Jesus Christ.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, April 1st, 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of James 5:16:
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
Today, we are going to speak about the power of effective, fervent prayer. When Dr David Livingstone first began his ministry in Africa, some native tribes opposed him. One tribe said they were going to kill him and everyone in his party, one afternoon. As they were setting up camp, David Livingstone heard that the warriors had been tracking him all day long, and they were outside the camp, and they were going to attack and kill everyone when it got dark. On the night of 14th January 1856, David Livingstone wrote in his journal, “It was in the evening, I feel much turmoil and fear in the prospect of having all my plans knocked on the head.” Those who studied his handwriting said you could even see the fear in the way in which he wrote his journal. He went on, “…but Jesus said, “All power is given to Me in Heaven and on Earth and lo, I am with you always, even unto the ends of the earth.” Livingstone wrote, ”Now, this is the word of a Gentleman, of most strict and sacred honour. So that is the end of my fear. I feel quiet and calm now.” By this point in his journal, the writing has become firm and no longer betrays any fear.
They did not attack that night, and later, the tribe was brought to faith in Christ. David Livingstone asked the chief of the tribe, ”Do you remember the night that you were tracking down my party?”
“Yes,” the chief replied.
“We had heard rumours that you were going to attack us,” Livingstone said, “that night.”
The chief said, “We were ready to attack to attack the camp that night and to kill you and everyone else.”
“Why didn’t you attack?” David Livingstone asked the chief.
The chief said, “When we got close to the camp, we saw 47 warriors surrounding your camp with swords in their hands.”
David Livingstone was baffled. They hadn’t had any guards, nor even any warriors. Later on, when he was on leave in Scotland, he shared this story with the church that was supporting him. A man came up to him after the meeting with his journal and showed David Livingstone that he had written down on 14th January 1856 - it was the night that Livingstone was going to be attacked, that he had had a prayer meeting with a group of men, “and they came and prayed for your protection.” He had written it down. There were 47 men praying that night!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 31st of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
It is indeed Resurrection Sunday. He is not dead, He is alive! Today is a day of rejoicing. Friday was a day of weeping, today is a day of dancing for the Lord. We look at Romans 8:11:
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
That is incredible news. The Lord says, my dear friend, if we have the Holy Spirit in us, the same Holy Spirit who raised Him from the dead (He had been in the tomb for three days and He was resurrected on Sunday morning), if that same Spirit dwells in you and I, that same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead shall quicken our mortal bodies, shall heal us, shall set us free, shall give us new life.
I have been there, I have been to that tomb, I want to tell you it is empty! There are no bones there, there are no relics there. Why? Because it is empty, because He is alive, He is in Heaven and by the way, He is coming back one of these fine days, to take you and I to be with Him in glory forever. Jesus Christ is the only God that there is, who died for our sins and was raised from the dead and is alive today. He is there for you and I. Please, let us take hold of this incredible miracle and gift which is available to us, set us free, give us new life, heal us physically, mentally, spiritually and give us an opportunity to start living all over again for Him.
God bless you as you enjoy this Resurrection Sunday of victory,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 30th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 119:176:
“I have gone astray like a lost sheep;…”
Then we go forward to the Book of Isaiah 53:6:
“All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
The last scripture is in 1 Peter 2:25:
“For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
A sheep is the most defenceless of all animals. It needs more looking after than any other farm animal. A sheep is a follower, it is not a leader, it needs protection. Father God saw the plight of us, His creation, and He sent down from Heaven, the best Shepherd ever, His own Son, Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd. He sent Him down to help us, to guide us, to lead us and to protect us. You see, sheep simply follow sheep (if one goes over the cliff edge, it is the whole flock that will follow over the cliff’s edge), but the Good Shepherd leads His sheep from the front. He does not chase them from behind.
In the old days, the sheep enclosure, the crawl, never had a gate because the shepherd slept across the entrance at night. Any wild animal that wanted to attack the sheep had to pass the shepherd first.
Jesus died for you and me. We remember it at this time of year so that we can live, be protected, be led, and most of all, be loved. Let us not forget today the great price that the Great Shepherd paid for you and me.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Good Friday, the 29th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 15:12-13:
“This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
In the year 2003, which is 21 years ago, my wife, Jill and I went to the Holy Land for the first time. I have been many, many times since then, but that particular trip, I have never forgotten. We went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem. As we walked into that place, I have never forgotten it, I sat down in a little bench and I looked across the way, and there were steps going up to where they say the Lord was crucified and I started to weep uncontrollably. I don’t think I have ever wept like that before in my life. The reality of what Jesus has done for me hit home, and my dear wife, Jill had to actually comfort me. I was completely overwhelmed at the price that the Master had paid for my sin. Yes, I realised what a sinner I was. I broke down and I wept.
I looked up and I saw pilgrims coming into this massive cathedral, flocking in from every part of the world. I saw women from Russia with those little scarves tied around their heads and their brightly coloured clothes, coming up to a slab of granite that they say the Master’s body was laid on when Joseph of Arimathea took Him off the cross after He had died. They were taking cloths from their bags and wiping the top of the concrete slab and the tears were flowing. They would obviously take these cloths back to Russia with them for their families. There was such a presence of the Holy Spirit and I think of all those multitudes of pilgrims from all over, from Japan, China, South America, Britain, South Africa, Canada, the United States of America, coming together and just spending time on their knees worshipping the Lord.
Now, we don’t know exactly where it took place. There is another place in Jerusalem also, where they say (The Garden Tomb) where the Lord was buried. That doesn’t matter to me. What matters to me is that it happened and it happened in Jerusalem, in the Old City, and I just thought how Mary Magdalene felt when she cried and asked the angel in the morning, where the body of Christ was.
I want to say to you today, take time out please to sit on your own and contemplate. It wasn’t the Jews that killed Jesus, it wasn’t the Roman soldiers that killed Jesus. It was our sin that murdered the Darling of Heaven and we need to ask Him again to forgive us and we need to think carefully about our lifestyle so that it doesn’t happen again. This is a time for you and I to contemplate on the greatest sacrifice that has ever been made in the world.
Jesus bless you as you have a very thoughtful Good Friday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 28th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 53:1-3:
“Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
Oh, my dear friend, that is a description of our Lord Jesus Christ, written 700 years before He was even born. We want to thank our dear Lord Jesus this morning. Remember, this is the night before Good Friday. Tomorrow is the day we traditionally remember that Jesus Christ was crucified for your and my sins. When I think of the example that You set for us on earth, Lord, Your humility, a Man who was acquainted with sorrow and with pain, so much so that we even cannot look upon your face, a man who was despised by the world system because everything You ever said and did was the total opposite of the things of this world - but oh Lord, I love You. I love You because you were such an incredible example to us.
I think of the Baobab tree, the San Bushman tell you it is called the upside-down-tree because the roots look like they are sticking up into the sky and the top of the tree is underground. Well, I want to tell you, our beloved Jesus preaches the upside-down Gospel according to the world system because everything that the world says we must do and be, He seems to teach the exact opposite. When the world says you must get to the top, no matter how many people you trample on to get to the top, Jesus says, “Turn the other cheek”. When the world says you must be the greatest, Jesus says you must be the least. When the world says, “Let’s have a party and be happy”, you are found with those who are weeping, those who are mourning, and those who are sorrowful.
Thank You, Master, for leading the way for us, for teaching us, not so much by words, but by action and by lifestyle. Our desires are to become more like You everyday. We love You very, very much. Thank you for being our ultimate example and champion here on earth, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 27th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We go straight to the book of Romans 5:3:
“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Just yesterday I had a very severe lesson taught to me in patience, in humility and character building. I had to go and get a document from an institution that was full of people from every walk of life. I got there early in the morning. I waited in the queue and then by about nine or ten o’clock, I asked the lady at the counter, “What is the holdup?” She said that the internet is down and they cannot do anything. That’s right, my patience was starting to get a little bit tested, a bit ragged. I said, ”Well, should I come back?” She said, ”I think that might be a good idea.” “What time should I come back?” I came back at one o’clock.
When I got there at one o’clock, the place was packed out. There were queues everywhere. I had to sit and wait and you know, during that time of waiting, God started talking to me in my heart. First of all, I saw people from every walk of life and I realised how fortunate I was. An older lady was wheeled in a wheelchair because she had to sign the document. There was a man who walked in afterwards. He had obviously had a stroke. He was walking on one crutch, his wife was trying to keep him balanced and he was waiting for a document. There was a young man and a young woman with two little babies, obviously getting the babies registered. The babies were very hot and not comfortable at all and mom and dad were trying to hold the babies and sign all the documents.
I sat there quietly looking at all of this and the Lord showed me very clearly, just the tremendous need that there is in society. Sometimes, we are so busy doing things we don’t observe what is happening in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Yes, indeed, it was a character-building day.
Eventually, by about half past three in the afternoon, I managed to get to the counter again to collect my document, but only to be told that my fingerprints were not registering on the computer. The poor lady was trying her best to help me but she was failing. I said I’d come back again the next day. She said, ”Please sir, If you don’t mind, I would appreciate that.”
I walked out, and I thought, “I have achieved nothing today,” but just in my quiet time room this morning, I’m realising I had achieved plenty. God showed me just how little patience I have, just how little compassion I have for others, and God taught me a lesson in humility.
Today, don’t be afraid of tribulation. It will make a man or a woman out of you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 26th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the 3rd Epistle of John -
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”
3 John 4
Now, this is a letter that the Apostle John wrote to the people and his friend, Gaius, and he says, “I have no greater joy…”
I want to say to young people listening to the Thought For Today, if you want to bring real joy to your mom and your dad, to your parents, maybe even your grandparents, walk in the ways of God, walk in truth, because you see if you walk in truth, then you will succeed in anything you tackle in this life. Matthew 6:33 says:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
You shall meet the right person in your life because that person will be a follower of Jesus Christ as well. You will pursue a career that will bless others and you will succeed in it. You will make godly decisions. You will do the right thing. Why? Because you are walking in the truth. I know that I can hear moms and dads saying, “If I only knew when I was young what I know now, I wouldn’t have caused myself so much pain and suffering. You see, young person, when you commit a sin, and you repent of it, and you say sorry to the Lord, He forgives you, but the scar of that sin often remains in your heart when you do something you should not have done. You end up in jail. You didn’t mean to do it and you end up in jail. You made that girl pregnant - you didn’t mean to do it but you did it. God will forgive you but the consequences of your actions remain.
I want to say to you today, if you want to make mom and dad happy, and I know you do, then walk in the truth.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 25th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 24:30-34:
“I went by the field of the lazy man,
And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;
And there it was, all overgrown with thorns;
Its surface was covered with nettles;
Its stone wall was broken down.
When I saw it, I considered it well;
I looked on it and received instruction:
A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest;
So shall your poverty come like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man.”
My dear friend,we need to be careful, all of us, that we don’t become lazy. We need to be disciplined. As Christians, we have a responsibility, first of all to the Lord, and then to our families and then to our fellowmen. The Lord Jesus was never found lying, sleeping in His bed. The opposite was the case. Often, the disciples had to go into the mountains early in the morning to find the Lord. “Lord, the people are waiting for you! The crowds have gathered, come and speak to them, Lord.” But He was busy talking to His Father, getting instructions from the Lord.
Because a man is poor, that does not mean that he is lazy, not at all. Maybe that man has come against hard times, his business has failed, not because of any doing of his own, maybe because of the Coronavirus, maybe because the bottom has fallen out of his market, whatever it might be. Never judge a man because he is poor and regard him as being lazy.
Just the other day, I went into town to get something from the Builders Express, the hardware company, and as I arrived there, there was a security guard who walked over to me to greet me. I was so impressed by the way in which he was dressed. He had a real handlebar moustache, nicely waxed, his clothes were spotlessly clean, and what really impressed me was the state of his boots. His boots were shining so brightly, you could almost see your face in them and straight away I was warmed towards that man, and I greeted him, and he was so pleased to see me and he was on the ball.
Folks, remember, we are walking advertisements for Jesus Christ. Please, let us get up in the morning, let us get ready for work because we don’t know, maybe the Lord will be coming for us today, and what a day it would be!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 24th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to that very well-known scripture in the Book of Romans 8:28 in the New Testament:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
I read a beautiful little quotation early this morning and this is what it says: “If our circumstances find us in God, we shall find God in all our circumstances.” That is really special, isn’t it? I will read it again, “If our circumstances find us in God, we shall find God in all our circumstances.”
We need to ask ourselves a question this morning - where do we spend most of our time? If we spend our time in bad company; if we are undisciplined and lazy, we don’t get out of bed in the morning; if we are always watching ungodly material, we will not find God there, but if we get up early in the morning and we spend time in prayer, every day, meditation - what does that mean? - just spending time quietly in the presence of the Lord; reading our Bible systematically every day; if our social life is with people who have the same interests as ourselves, wholesome, godly interests, then we will succeed.
Gary Player is probably South Africa’s greatest sportsman ever, and somebody came to him one day and said, “You are so lucky, you can hit that golf ball so straight.” And I can just imagine Gary Player with a smile on his face, he said, “Yes, it is funny, you know, the harder I practice, the luckier I seem to get.”
Folks, there is no such thing as luck. Luck is just a useless word. We are talking about the blessing of God. Now, if our circumstances find us in the presence of God, then God will be found in all our circumstances.
Today, let us concentrate on spending our time with the Lord and He will ensure that our circumstances change for the better.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 23rd of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 24:31:
“Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.”
The two men walking on the road to Emmaus were joined up by a Man they didn’t recognise. They walked with Him, they talked with Him, they even invited Him in for the evening. He broke bread with them and then they recognised that it was Jesus. He had been raised from the dead! And with that, He vanished from their sight. They didn’t even recognise Him. What about you and I? How many times do we fail to recognise that the Lord is actually walking with us, and we don’t see it? ‘Lord, where were You?’ ‘I was with you all the time.’ My dear friend, Jesus Christ promised you, and He has promised me He would never leave us and He would never forsake us. Hebrews 13:5.
Often, Jesus is busy working in our circumstances, and we are blind; we just don’t see it until much later on in our lives. Never write off the education that you are getting at this moment from the school of life, the school of hard knocks. Jesus loves to show His hand through the unexpected. That is what A.B Simpson said, that great preacher.
There He was, walking alongside these two men and they didn’t even know it. Folks, many a time, when I look back in my life, I realise how God was working with me before I even knew Him. I will give you an example - my dear old mother, that Scottish lassie, was a great storyteller. She would sit there with her cup of tea and my brother and I and my sister would gather around her, because my dad had already gone to work, and in the school holidays she would tell us incredible stories. My mom could tell you what we were going to have for lunch and have you hanging on each word! That’s the honest truth: she was an extraordinary storyteller! I didn’t realise it, but even in those early days when I was a young boy, my mom was coaching me to be a storyteller. Now, that is exactly what I am. I am busy telling you a story right now and I never even knew it.
I want to say to you today, if you are feeling lonely, don’t worry, Jesus is walking next to you. Talk to Him and He will talk back to you through your circumstances, through nature, through a good friend. He will encourage you because He loves you.
Lord, I pray that you will open the eyes of my friends today so that they will see that you have been with them right from the beginning.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Friday morning, the 22nd of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 John 5:14-15:
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
He hears our prayers. We need to just leave it there. I want to tell you that it is a wonderful thing when you know in your heart that the Lord knows what your needs are, not your wants but your needs. Don’t try and tell Him what is good for you or for me. He knows what is good for us. So what we need to do is take our petitions, our requests to God, we need to pray earnestly, we need to have the confidence that we know He hears our prayer requests and then leave it there. I am talking about that relationship, I am talking about that business deal.
I remember like yesterday, many, many years ago when we had that big yellow truck, The Seed-Sower, and we were in Central Africa, and sometimes out of complete communication with anyone. We couldn’t afford a satellite telephone in those days, cell phones weren’t working, and sometimes I would get quite concerned about things at home. I hadn’t heard from my wife, Jill, and the kids for maybe three or four weeks, and then I would stumble into a little village and I would be able to make a phone call to my wife in South Africa. Just to hear her voice, just to hear that she was well, the children were well, the farm was going well, was more than I needed. I didn’t need anything else.
I want to say to you that that confidence, that assurance that someone hears your requests, is massive. Now, when you pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, we know the Word tells us that He hears our petitions. That should be more than sufficient for you and I, because He knows what is good for us.
So today, when you pray, pray the prayer of faith, pray the prayer, “Lord, you hear my prayers and now I am going to leave it there at the foot of the Cross and allow You, Lord, to do the best for me, whatever that is." That gives you absolute assurance and peace of mind.
Have a lovely day as you continue to talk with your beloved Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Thursday morning, the 21st of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Isaiah 51:12:
“I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you should be afraid…”
We’ll just stop there. We go straight from there 2 Corinthians 1:4. We are talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest Comforter of all.
”…who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we”, here’s the key: ”may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”2 Corinthians 1:4
We can only really comfort other people when we truly understand what they are going through, and the only way to really understand is when we ourselves have been through that very trial or hardship, and then to comfort them through it all by the love of Christ. You see, Jesus knows my dear friend, what it means to be lonely. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane when the disciples were with Him? He asked them to pray and then they went to sleep and He was left by Himself? Have you ever felt like that? Of course. When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, the disciples didn’t stand with Him, they ran away—all of them.
He also understands what it’s like to be betrayed. This morning, maybe someone has let you down badly, someone who said, “I’ll be with you till the end,” and they have left you. Betrayal is a terrible thing. Jesus knows what it feels like because His disciples did the same. Remember, Judas Iscariot. He sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, but Jesus still washed his feet. It’s incredible love that, folks.
Thomas said, ”I’ll believe it when I see it.” He doubted the Lord, and Peter, the one He was really relying upon, let Him down and denied Him three times. Jesus understands what you’re going through this morning. What about lies? Has anybody told any lies about you? ”Oh, Angus, plenty.” Jesus understands. He was falsely accused of all kinds of things in front of Pontius Pilate, and He is more than able to comfort you and I. Why? Because He has been there Himself before.
Unless you have been there yourself, never say to a person who is going through a difficult time, ”I understand,” because you actually don’t, do you? Rather love them as Jesus loved us. Weep with them as Jesus wept with us and remind them, very importantly, that weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)
Jesus bless you and keep your eyes fixed on Him. He will walk with you right through that fire.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 20th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 50:9:
“Surely the Lord God will help Me;
Who is he who will condemn Me?”
There is no more condemnation, my dear friend, in you, if Jesus Christ has forgiven you for all your sins. That is fantastic news. Romans 8:1, we all know it. It says:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
Wow, wonderful news! No more condemnation for you and I if we love Jesus Christ and we are walking in His ways. Remember, it is the devil who is the accuser, no one else, and he is very good at it, and he only accuses the Christians. He doesn’t have to accuse those who already belong to him. But it is Jesus who has come to give us life abundantly. (John 10:10)
Many of us just need that reassurance, don’t we? - That our sins are forgiven, especially when we are growing closer and closer to home time. Not one of us listening to this programme is without sin, no, not one. Romans 3:23:
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, …”
Jesus Christ is the only One, by the way, who is qualified to forgive us and set us free.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
1 John 1:9
Yes, when we ask Him to forgive us, He pays the account in full. Paid, paid, paid! Its wonderful news, and then the better news, even than that, is when He forgives, He forgets.
“Lord, remember what I did last week?”
“No, I don’t remember because I have forgiven you, so go and sin no more.” How many times did He say that to people in the New Testament when He walked on the Earth, “Your sins are forgiven.” Oh folks, it is wonderful news, and don’t forget, it is very important, He has forgiven you your sins, don’t forget to say, “Thank you”. “Thank You Jesus for forgiving us our sins.”
Do you remember that old hymn? I am going to try and sing it. I want you to sing along with me, “I had a debt that I could not pay” - it goes something like this:
He paid the debt He did not owe,
I had a debt I could not pay,
I needed someone,
To wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song,
“Amazing grace” all day long,
Christ Jesus paid the debt,
That I could never pay.
Well, there we have it. He has paid the debt that you and I could never pay. Go out today and tell somebody who is confused and sad that Jesus can pay all of your debts. All you have to do is to repent and believe it.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 19th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to Isaiah 50:7:
"For the Lord God will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore I have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed."
The Lord Jesus will help you and me to succeed; we will not be disgraced; we will set our faces like a flint. Verse 6 tells you, just before that, that He gave His back to those who struck Him,
…"And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting."Isaiah 50:6
Even though the Lord Jesus Christ was absolutely, shamefully treated, it did not stop Him from going to Jerusalem and completing the task that the Lord set before Him. He did not retaliate; no, He pressed on to the goal of His high calling. A flint is a very hard rock—a hard, grey rock. It's used to produce a spark. If you take two flints and knock them together, it causes a spark. Now, giving up is not in Jesus' vocabulary.
David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer-missionary who discovered Victoria Falls in Central Africa, was instrumental in abolishing the slave trade. He said, "I will go anywhere as long as it is forward." The Lord Jesus Christ set His sights on Jerusalem, He knew what was waiting for Him but He never looked back once.
Paul, the apostle, knew he had to go to Rome; he knew he would die in Rome; even his dear friends tried to persuade him not to go, but he went and he got his head cut off in Rome for his faith.
A young German, by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was able to escape from the Nazis and go to the USA. He was 39 years old. He had only been there about three months when he said, "No, I have to go back; I have to go back and help my friends." The Nazis caught him and hanged him at the end of the war.
You and I, too, must follow the example of Christ and not be led by our circumstances but rather by the calling that the Lord has put in our lives. Then we shall succeed in whatever we are doing, whether it is that degree you need to get, whether it is that sporting achievement that you are desiring, as long as it is for God's glory, whether it's that business proposition, keep your eyes on the ball, keep your eyes on Heaven and you will succeed.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 18th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 50:4:
"The Lord God has given Me
The tongue of the learned,
That I should know how to speak…"
Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 10:19, Jesus says:
"But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you
in that hour what you should speak; …"
Maybe this morning you are facing a week where you have to give a report to the management in your company, maybe you have to give a speech at school or at university and you are very nervous about it. That is quite understandable. I know exactly how you feel, but the Lord says in Psalm 81:10:
"Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it."
Many times when I have to stand on a platform in front of thousands of people, I can be quite honest with you, I hit a blank, I get nervous, and I am not sure what to say. I look out and I see desperate souls looking for answers. I don't have them, but Jesus does. It is at that time that I normally get on my knees. If you know me well, you have seen it, and then I pray the prayer that I am encouraging you to pray before you have to speak to that management meeting or that school assembly. This is what you will say - it is found in Psalm 19:14:
"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."
You see, as soon as you pray that prayer, the emphasis is now on the Lord and not the crowds that are standing before you. Often I have felt that I am standing next to myself and I am hearing the words of the Lord speaking and it is not me. It's a weird feeling and I am not into positive thinking or anything like that. I really believe it is the Holy Spirit. Robert Murray M'Cheyne, a young Scotsman, who died at the age of 29 years old, was responsible for starting a massive revival in Dundee, Scotland, and he said, "Rather than being an instrument of the Lord, all I was, was an adoring spectator."
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 17th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start with Psalm 127:3:
“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,…”
An absolute blessing from the Lord. Then to Proverbs 17:6 - this is the one specially for grandads:
“Children’s children are the crown of old men,…”
Then the last scripture, these are the words of Jesus, Matthew 19:14:
“But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus was talking about the humility of little children. He said, “People like this will enter the kingdom of Heaven.” Little children can teach us so much, can’t they? Especially when we get older, we have more time. Mom and Dad are so busy, working, trying to put food on the table, trying to educate their children, pay for mortgages for houses etc., but Grandad and Granny have got time. They have got time to sit and listen to the stories of their grandchildren.
I remember like yesterday, I was preaching in Israel, in Jerusalem, in fact, I was preaching at the Southern Steps of the old Temple, the steps that Jesus used to walk up everyday when he went to the Temple to pray. When the meeting had finished, it was evening, and the crowds started to go back to their buses and hotels. Two little grandsons of mine had come with my daughter and her husband. The youngest one, Tyler, was only probably about three or four. All of a sudden, he burst out, and he was weeping his heart out, and my daughter got hold of him and thought maybe something had happened. What was wrong? “What is wrong, son?” “You didn’t give me a chance to say goodbye to Khulu.” Now, Khulu is the Zulu word for grandad, and that was me!
You know, those things mean more to me than if the president of the United States of America wanted to say goodbye to me. I love children and as I am getting older, and I can hear all the grandparents saying, “Absolutely right.” I love children so much. I love it when a little child runs over in a meeting and just grabs me by the leg and gives me a big hug and then runs off again. We must make time for little children. They are a blessing from God. I can hear maybe a couple of old folks say, “But we don’t have any grandchildren, Angus.” Well, I want to tell you, there are lots of children who would love to adopt you as their grandad and granny - go and find them.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 16th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Do not quench the Spirit.”1 Thessalonians 5:19
In other words, do not put the fire out. We are talking this morning about the Holy Spirit. He is a gentleman, He does not force Himself upon us, He waits for us. It is like starting a campfire on a cold, wet night when you are in the bush alone. When you strike that match, you have got to be very gentle with that kindling to get it to ignite. You have to be patient with it, and you have to coax it. You have to blow very softly on it, you have to protect it, you have to fan it, encourage it. Don’t rush it! What happens? It will go out. Don’t put too much wood on the fire before it gets started, otherwise you will starve it. Give it time to ignite.
In Central Africa, where I grew up, I used to be fascinated by the rural people, the way they could start a fire in no time at all. Even though the wood was wet, they would carry a few glowing embers, wrapped up in a piece of bark, from one campsite to another, with no matches or lighter or any firelighters. They would put those embers down, put some grass around it and slowly start to blow it, and then all of a sudden, it would ignite. They were masters at making fire.
So it is with our beloved Holy Spirit. We need to spend time with Him. We need to be quiet. We need to listen to His still small voice speaking to us in our heart. We mustn’t speak too much, and then all of a sudden, we will start to warm our souls. I want to really encourage you today, my dear friend, to take time out to hear the voice of God speaking to you, your soul through His Holy Spirit, the Fire that will warm you, encourage you, and ignite you.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely warm day!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 15th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the back of the Bible, 1 John 4:20:
“If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”
Very, very powerful and challenging words.
“A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John 13:34
Jesus said that. It is not optional. If we do not love our brother, the Bible says we are liars, and the truth is not in us. And by the way, we are talking about home base here. We are not talking about governments or different policies, no—we are talking about the family. The hardest place to be a Christian sometimes is at home base, isn’t it? We have got to learn to be more patient with one another, more understanding, and the best way is to try and see the situation through the other person’s eyes. Let me give you an example - I grew up in a home where I was not allowed to waste any food. My dad would allow us to eat whatever we wanted, as much as we wanted but nothing was to be left uneaten on that plate. He said, “You can take it but you must finish it.” And sometimes we used to get very impatient. “Why is dad so hard on us all the time? Why can’t I leave something I don’t like?” I tell you why, because my father was in the Second World War, and he was captured in North Africa and was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Europe. For three years and six months, he was half-starved. Food was very precious to him. Now, when you look at it through his eyes, you can understand why he would say that.
We need to give young people more grace. You say, “But Angus, I cannot afford to buy him another rugby jersey, or buy her another gym for netball.” They are not really concerned about having another garment. What they are concerned about is avoiding peer pressure at school. They just want to be like everybody else. It sounds as though they are demanding, its not that. Its just that they want to be out of the focus of the crowd, and just be one of the people.
I know an older woman who comes to work, she gets up at 02h30 in the morning. She has to walk about a kilometre to catch a taxi, then she has to sit in the taxi for one hour till she gets to town. Then she has to wait for her lift to come out to the farm. Sometimes it might look like she is a bit slow with her work, but you know, that woman is tired, she is sometimes exhausted. Give her some grace. That is how we love one another. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
Today, let’s love one another unconditionally. Why? Because Jesus said so.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 14th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 John 4:19:
”We love Him because He first loved us.”
Jesus loved us when we were still sinners. When we were dirty and ugly. He loved us because He made us and wants to be with us. God doesn’t need us folks, He wants us because He loves to have fellowship with you and I. You know, Peter, the big fisherman, when the miracle took place at the sea of Galilee and Jesus told them to throw the net onto the other side and he caught a full net of fish. He was so overwhelmed by the presence of God, he said in Luke 5:8:
“Depart from me for I am a sinful man.”
He realised his sin when he stood in the Presence of God and that’s exactly how it is with you and me. When we mess up and some of us have still messed up, I know I have, Jesus loves us unconditionally. He doesn’t say, ”I’ll love you if you love me.” No. He just loves us.
The other night, I was coming home from Cape Town in an aeroplane and when the plane landed, it was quite late at night. The people were very tired and they were trying to get off the plane, getting their baggage off the overhead lockers and all shuffling along. This one beautiful little Indian child, she must have been probably maybe four or five years old, she’d obviously dropped her pen and her mother had her by the other hand and had a whole lot of baggage and she was pulling her along. ”Come on, come on, we need to get going,“ because she could see that she was holding up the queue. I was behind them, and she said,” But Mom, I’ve lost my pen.” I had a ball point pen in my top pocket. I took the pen out and I said to her, ”Come on, you can have my pen.” And her face lit up and she took it with both hands.
What am I saying? I’m saying she didn’t question it. I was telling this story on a radio program just the other day, and the announcer, Wynand, a very good friend of mine, said to me, “But tell me, did she maybe not want to take the pen?” I said, ”No, she took the pen with both hands.” He said, “And how often do we get offered the Gospel of Jesus Christ freely and we reject it.” We say we have to pay for it or we have to earn it.
Today, do not harden your heart. Jesus loves you just as you are, and He has always loved you and always will love you, and nothing you can do will make Him love you more, and nothing you can do that will make Him love you any less. He loves you because He created you.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 13th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Proverbs 18:24:
“A man who has friends must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
Yes, His name is Jesus Christ, our best Friend! I want to speak to you about friends. If you want to have friends, you must be friendly. You must help one another, you must be kind. I want to read a little story sent to me by a precious sister in the Lord the other day. You might have heard it before but it is worth listening to again. It is a true story.
His name was Fleming, a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby swamp. He dropped his tools and ran to the swamp, and there, mired up to his waist in black mud, was a terrified little boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death. The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up at the Scotsman’s sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy he had saved. “I want to repay you,” said the nobleman. “You saved my son’s life.”
“No, I can’t accept payment for what I did”, the Scottish farmer replied, waving off the offer.
At that moment, the farmer’s son came to the door of the family hovel. “Is that your son?” the nobleman asked. “Yes," the farmer replied proudly. I will make you a deal. Let me provide him with a level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he will no doubt grow to be a man we will both be proud of.”
And that he did. Farmer Fleming’s son attended the very best schools, and in time graduated from St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the whole world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin - Antibiotics. Years afterwards, the same nobleman’s son who was saved from the swamp was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life this time? Penicillin, antibiotics! The nobleman's name was Lord Randolph Churchill, and his son’s name was Sir Winston Churchill. Isn’t that amazing? Just the act of love, of kindness. That old farmer pulled that little boy out of the swamp, and look what happened from there.
Today, remember, there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother! Introduce Him to somebody else.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 12th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Deuteronomy 1:2-3, in the Old Testament:
“It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them,…”
The Children of Israel took 40 years to complete an 11-day journey. We are slow learners. They had to go on that same trip time and time again until they learned the lessons that God was teaching them. Isn’t that the same with you and me today, my dear friend? We want to do everything quickly, and then we have to come back and do it again and again.
My wife’s old dad was a steam engineer by profession. In those days, everything was driven by steam - steam railway engines, steamships on the sea, and steam engines. He told me that when he was a young student, the first thing he had to do was to make his own tools. He didn’t buy them, he had to make them. He was an incredible man to have on the farm in his old age. I would have an emergency, a breakdown when I was planting my crops, and I would go to the Spares Department in town at the garage and they would say, “It can only come in two weeks time.” I would go back desperately and see him at his house, and I would say, “Dad, this thing is broken. Can you help me?” He would remake it himself and I would be back in business within hours.
I remember sometimes I was quite intimidated by him. He would come down to the workshop and I would be frantically trying to use a hacksaw and saw a piece of pipe and going flat out with it, just sawing in the middle of the saw-blade, and he would put his hand on my shoulder and say, “When you bought that hacksaw blade, you paid for the whole blade. Use the saw from end to end, not just back and forwards in the middle.” And he was quite right. We mustn’t be afraid to take time to learn.
I love to go down to our neighbour’s farm. He has got an oak plantation. This oak plantation must be about 100 to 150 years old. I love to go into that oak plantation and am quiet in the presence of God, and I am surrounded by trees that have taken 150 years to grow. It makes me feel good and secure. We need to learn our lessons well. If we don’t, the Lord will take us back to that same thing that we are not achieving because He loves us and He wants us to succeed.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 11th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Philippians 1:21
William Rutherford said, “Live in Christ, and you are already in the suburbs of Heaven.” Isn’t that beautiful? He says, “One hour’s sailing from the shore of Canaan Land.” Oh my dear friend, yes, we have a work to do, here on earth, there is no doubt about it. We have to tell people about Jesus. We not only have to tell them about Jesus, but we have to show them Jesus by our lifestyle, but when our work is finished, we are going home. I just want to really remind someone who is struggling. This is not our home, we are sojourners, we are travellers, we are simply passing through. Heaven is our home and we can’t wait to get there.
Every morning, I wake up and I walk outside and I smell the fresh new day, its a beautiful day. The birds are singing in the trees, we have got horses and cattle right next door to our little home, and it is just a pleasure to see them grazing and totally at peace, but I know that there is a war going on, and the war is not so much about flesh and blood but its in the heart, its in our mind, its in our very spirit, and we need to remember as Paul, the Apostle said: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Don’t be afraid to die. Jesus gives you the strength to live and Jesus will give you the strength to die.
What we need to do is to take one day at a time and to live it for the Lord so that when the home call sounds we will be ready, packed and ready to go, not leaving things undone. Oh folks, It is going to be amazing. It is going to be absolutely wonderful! We are going to see our loved ones who have gone ahead of us, we are going to spend time sitting and talking, and eating and spending wonderful time with the Master. I cannot wait to see Him face to face but until then we have work to do, so lets roll up our sleeves and keep on for Jesus Christ.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 10th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 John 4:8:
“He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
That is how the Christian is known by the world, by his love for one another.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”John 15:13
That is what Jesus Christ did for you and me. He is our absolute, ultimate example of Christian love. He is love, in fact, not good works but love. I have had the privilege of travelling all over the world. I have dined in castles, yes, manor houses. I have been fed beautiful, magnificent, really delicious meals, four course meals with all the finest crockery and cutlery you have ever seen in your life, where it is quite confusing, not knowing which knife and fork to pick up. At the start, to be waited upon by solemn waiters in black suits and ties, not smiling, just going through the paces, and I want to tell you, it is very formal and its quite nerve-racking not knowing what to do next. It doesn’t matter how beautiful that food is, you can’t even taste it. You are standing continually on duty and you have to watch and see what the head of the house is going to do next, not enjoyable at all, very cold and no love there. Just going through the process.
Then I had the privilege of having a meal in a simple road worker’s house in the middle of Australia somewhere, with his dear wife and large family, and the only reason I am there is because he needs the money and I am one of his lodgers. When we sit down at the supper table, we get one lonely lamb chop in the middle of a big plate with one spoonful of baked beans, and that is the meal. I am telling you the truth, and yet the love of Christ in that home was amazing, just the love of the children talking about what they did at school and passing this and passing that, and just loving each other. That lamb chop tasted so nice. You know, when you are a cowboy and working with cattle all day long, you are so hungry. I used to slip out after supper saying, “Just excuse me for a bit”, and I had to nip down to the local pub and get a pub dinner to try and fill my hungry stomach, but those people were so full of love, and I was so lonely, so far away from home, I felt the presence of the Lord in that place.
Today, remember, its not what you do, its who you are that people want to see. They want to see the love of Christ in your life.
Jesus bless you and go and be a blessing to others,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 9th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 5:23-24:
"Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift."
This is a tough one, folks, it's a tough one. I can hear someone saying, "But it is not my fault. I have nothing against that person. Why must I go and reconcile with him or her when I have got nothing against them?" It's actually for your own sake that you have to do that because that situation is eating you up inside. Did Jesus do anything wrong for Him to be crucified?
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
John 3:16
Jesus died for you and me while we were still sinners. Our Heavenly Father sent His Son down from Heaven to Earth and said to Him, "Go and sort it out." Now, in order to have peace in our own hearts, we have to deal with the situation, and I can hear somebody saying right now, "But what happens if that person will not forgive me?" There is nothing that you can do about it, but you can walk away knowing that you have been obedient to what God has told you to do. Even though you have got nothing against that person but you know that they have something against you, go and say, "Let's settle this thing. I am sorry for hurting you." You are not sorry for what you have done because you haven't done anything, but you are sorry for hurting them and trust and pray that they will accept your forgiveness and that they will walk with you again because that is where freedom comes, otherwise, the devil keeps on every time you want to do something, he says, "But that brother of yours has got something against you."
Folks, I have had to deal with this situation not once - many, many times in my life, especially with the work that I am doing. I can't please people all the time. I have got to please God and when God says I must do something I must do it, because if I am trying to please everybody, I can't speak.
Now today, hear what the Lord is saying to you, leave your gift at the altar and go and reconcile, go and make up with your loved one, and often it is in the family, isn't it? No, it is not somebody way up there, because they can't affect you, it's somebody very close to home. It happened in the Bible, time and time again. We need to learn from our mistakes, then we will have peace in our hearts.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 8th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Galatians 6:7:
“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
You need to understand that God will never be mocked or made a fool of by any man. We plant what we will reap, maybe not even in this lifetime but in eternity. As a farmer myself, I want to say to you, especially young farmers, never cut back on your seed. If you have to cut back because you have had a rough season and your budget is very, very low, you don’t have much money, what are you going to cut back on? Well, if you are really going to have to, cut back a little bit on your land preparation, maybe on your fertiliser, but never your seed because whatever you sow you will reap. So, if you think you are being clever by saving a bit here and there by buying inferior seed, you will never get a decent crop.
Cattle farmers who are wise will tell you that your bull is half the value of your herd, so if you have a hundred cows and you want to buy a bull, you should be prepared, I am talking theoretically of course, to go up to half the price of your entire herd to buy a good bull, because good seed does not cost, eventually it pays. That bull is half your herd.
Now, you have heard of consortiums of men, farmers, getting together, going to a big sale to buy a particular bull. I mean it is ridiculous, they go into the millions to buy one bull, and they share the semen. That is a wise cattle farmer, the same with a shepherd, he should be able to pay half the value of his flock to buy a good ram because that ram is going to give him good seed.
Jesus says, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.”
Matthew 22:21
Remember, whatever we do, or don’t do in this life we will have to give an account for when we go to Heaven. Let’s sow good seed and give to Caesar what is Caesar’s - that means the government, the authorities, and let’s give to God what is God’s.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 7th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Psalms 71:18:
"Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to everyone who is to come."
As we get older, we have a tremendous responsibility to the younger generation. Old age is not something to be afraid of, no - it is something to look forward to. I want to say to older folk we must never demand respect from young people. No, we earn respect from young people.
Dr David Livingstone, that Scottish medical doctor and missionary who went into Africa, when he came to a village, the first man he would always seek out would be the elder. He was normally the herbalist, and this medical doctor would sit there and was amazed at how many things he learned from these older people. They had certain bark from a certain tree, and when they boiled it up, it was good for sore tummies. There were some other leaves that when you boiled up and when it was cold, you put a poultice on a boil or if you had a problem with eczema, whatever it was, for the eyes, and he would sit there, and he would respect them, and he would listen to them and learn from them.
The First Nation people in America have a saying. "When an old man dies, it is like a library that burns down." I want to say to younger people listening to this message, please do not waste time, go and sit with your grandfather, your grandmother, your aunt, your uncle, that old person and let them talk to you. They will tell you many stories and many incidents of their own lives which will help you. I have the privilege at the moment of mentoring a large group of men and every year we meet together. It's one of the highlights of my year and as I am getting older, I am finding that I am talking less and listening more, and some of these men that I mentor, every year that I see them they are getting a little bit of snow on the top of their heads! They are becoming wise men themselves. Today, let us respect our elders and thank Jesus for the years He has given us because there are many who never live to see their grandchildren and even their great grandchildren.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 6th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 17:3. Jesus said:
"And this is eternal life, that they may know You, (He is speaking to His Father) the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."
Then we go straight to 1 John 2:25:
"And this is the promise that He has promised us (you and I)—eternal life."
Oh, what a promise! Nothing to fear. Granny, grandad, don't be afraid of death. He has promised you, and he has promised me eternal life. It is a promise. By the way, Jesus never breaks his promise.
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word "promise". It means an undertaking, a pledge, a vow, a guarantee, or a total commitment. He will never leave you and He will never forsake you. You can find that in the Book of Hebrews 13:5.
I want to say to that broken-hearted young lady, who promised he would marry you and has broken his promise. I want to say to that young man, she promised that she would be with you always and she has run off with another man. It's heartbreaking, to put it mildly. That business partner who promised he wouldn't let you down and has run away with the money, and so it goes on. They promised you a position in the team and they have dropped you and they have put somebody else in. It's devastating.
Peter promised Jesus, "I will be with you, Lord, right to the end, I will die for you," and he denied Him three times. Jesus understands what it feels like when a promise is broken. But the good news is, He is dependable. If you look at His track record, He never once promised anything that He did not fulfil and He has promised us eternal life. He has promised us that He has gone home to make a place for you and me and then he is coming back to fetch us. You will see that in John 14. He is building us a mansion, not just a little hut, a mansion! He is coming back and He is taking us home to be with Him in glory forever and ever. His promise is sure.
Have a wonderful day and look up to those clouds because He is coming soon!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 5th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Isaiah 45:22:
"Look to Me, and be saved,…"
Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 11:28:
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
I want to say to those people today who are listening to this message and say, "I am not a preacher, I don't seem to be able to do much for the Lord, I am basically a nobody." I want to tell you that God uses nobodies. Many, many years ago in the 1800's, there was a young teenager trying to get home one night and a severe snow storm came up. He ducked into a little Methodist chapel on the road, and there was hardly anybody in the church. He didn't go there to hear the Gospel, he went there to get out of the snow storm. The pastor wasn't even there that night because it was a very cold, miserable night but there was a farm worker, not an educated man, and he took the service. He stood up and said the very scripture that I have just read: "Look to Me and be saved,…" And that young teenager gave his life to Christ that night. Who was he? Well, he was one of the greatest preachers that have ever lived. His name was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He was a Baptist. Do you know that when he was 21 years old, they built the London Tabernacle for him to preach in because the crowds were so large, up to 10,000 people at one service? A farm worker used what he had for Jesus, and Jesus did the rest.
You and I need to do what God has called us to do. There are people who are needing rest. "Come unto Me, all of you who are weary and heavy laden…" There are many people today, go out today and tell them what Jesus means to you, because that is all it's about, nothing else. I want to tell you that Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote 250+ books. He was an unlearned man. He spoke with a very strong English country accent and yet the crowds came in by the thousands, because one farm worker said, "I will do the service" on the Sunday night because the pastor couldn't make it.
Today, go out and tell people your story.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 4th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Matthew 27:2:
“…they led Him away and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate the governor.”
I think it has gone down in history that no man has made a worse choice than Pontius Pilate when he agreed to allow Jesus Christ, our beloved Saviour, to be murdered. If you look at verse 19 of the same chapter, you will see that his wife said,
“Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.”
He still did not listen to his wife. I want to say to a lot of men listening to this programme today, you must listen to the godly counsel of your wife. She has got your back more than anyone else. But you see, because of peer pressure, Pontius Pilate buckled badly. It says in verse 21:
“The governor answered and said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”
He even offered up Barabbus, hoping that the crowd would go and allow Jesus to be released because He was innocent, He had never hurt anybody, He never did anything wrong - and take the murderer, Barabbus and get him crucified, but no, no - they didn’t want it. They wanted Jesus to be crucified.
“Let Him be crucified!”
“When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”Matthew 27:23-24
What a terrible thing to do. He compromised, he backed off because of the crowd. He knew that Jesus was innocent. I believe that privately, he liked Jesus, if not loved Jesus. Still, because of the crowd and the pressure and because he didn’t have any soldiers at his disposal, he was worried about a complete revolution breaking out.
Folks, one of the saddest scriptures is written in Revelation 3:16.
“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
Jesus said that. Many years ago, I was invited to Durban to an interfaith meeting. I was not aware of that. I was told it would be televised live. I arrived at the open-air stadium, and there was a huge platform up there, and I could not believe my eyes. I got onto the platform. I was seated next to many, many leaders of many faiths. There were witchdoctors that were dancing in front of the platform and people were worshipping animals and all kinds of things. I sat there spellbound. What must I do? I felt the Lord say, “Leave this place immediately.”
I want to say to you my dear friend, I got up and I walked out, off that platform, down the steps, through the crowd, into my car and drove straight home. It was the best thing I ever did. Do not compromise your stand for Christ. It could cost you your life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 3rd of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of John 3:7, and that very, very famous scripture, Jesus says you must be born again.
"Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
A beautiful old book was sent to me by a farmer in England a few weeks back, a beautiful book that was written in 1950's, and in it was an illustration which I want to read to you because it touched my heart very deeply. It goes like this: "A father lay on his deathbed and was saying farewell to his family as they stood around him. Affectionately greeting his wife, his daughter and his sons, he used the same expression to each one of them, "Goodnight my dear, when we meet again in the morning, there will be no night there." But then turning to the youngest boy, he put out his hand and said, "Goodbye John".
The poor boy was hurt by this and said, "What do you mean, father? You said "goodnight" to mother and the others but "goodbye" to me." "Yes, my boy. Your mother, your father and your minister have prayed for you. The Spirit of God has been striving with you, but it has all been to no avail. This is goodbye for us." The wayward youth was so overcome that he dropped to his knees and he cried his way, sobbed his way, to Calvary. Then, with his last labouring breath, the father took his hand and said, "Goodnight John, when we meet again in the morning, there will be no night there."
Maybe I am speaking to a wayward son, a wayward daughter, I would encourage you not to leave it too late before you are born again. Maybe you would like to repent right now and pray this little prayer with me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I heard this little story and it has cut me into the quick, and I know that I am not in the right place with you. Please forgive me today before it is too late. I will serve you with all of my heart and I repent of all of my sins.
In Jesus' name, amen.
The Lord bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 2nd of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Corinthians 3:12-13:
“Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.”
God weighs what we bring to Him. He does not measure it, He weighs it. What do we mean by that? Well, often you have seen a little donkey walking along a country road with a huge bundle of hay tied on his little back. Sometimes you can hardly see his face, it looks very cruel, but you know, the hay actually weighs nothing, it’s just bulk. Now we take a little honey bee - have you ever felt the weight of a small jar of honey? It is solid weight. It feels like lead. It’s heavy because it has cost that little honey bee everything. They say a bee only lives for about 3 weeks and it literally works itself to death. It works very, very hard. I am a beekeeper. I love bees and that is why I will not see anybody destroy a little bee. They work so hard. It takes them about a lifetime to produce one teaspoon of honey, but that honey is solid and that is how we have to be with our service towards the Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s not all froth and bubbles and noise. God is interested in solid things. We have to walk the talk, we have got to be an example to the world of how a Christian lives, not so much by what we say but rather by who we are. Today, let us start building that house with gold and silver and precious jewels, not wood, hay and stubble that will burn up.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 1st of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Isaiah 45:4:
“I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me.”
Called by my name even before I knew Jesus! Such an intimate and personal God we serve, don’t we? That’s why I love Him so much. When we remember someone’s name, it means a lot to them. Just the other day I met a young widow who greeted me. She stood right in front of me. We were at a church service and she had a big smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. She was waiting for me to call her by her first name. I knew her very well, her dad and her mom are very dear old friends of Jill and myself. She was in the same class as my oldest daughter at school but I hit a blank. Desperately, I was praying, “Holy Spirit, please help me! And her name just popped out, that lovely name, and when I called her by her first name, such a beautiful smile came over her face and we gave each other such a lovely hug.
Father God knows the first name of every single person who has ever walked on this earth, and by the way, so does His Son, Jesus Christ. Please never forget to use His name when you pray. Now, the way I pray, I pray to the Father, through the Son, Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit. I want to ask you also to personalise your Bible reading. It becomes so special, for example, Psalm 23: “The Lord is my Shepherd” - the way I read that is - “The Lord is Angus’s Shepherd, Angus shall not want.” Put your own name there because He knows your name. He named you before you were even born. That is why Jesus Christ is the Friend of sinners and He is the soon-coming King, and when He comes He is going to call you by your first name.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 29th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Isaiah 44:22:
“I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions,
And like a cloud, your sins.
Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
Then we go to Philippians 4:19:
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
No more fear, no more uncertainty.
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
John 8:36
We are free, we are free indeed! He has covered all our sins like a thick cloud, no more fear, no more guilt, once and for all, the chains are broken and you and I are free.
When I was a young man and I had a big family, five children and we always had a couple of extras, we had a children’s home as well, and when I had met the Lord, I was so in love with Him. One day, I was walking through my “green cathedral” - that's right - my corn crop, my maize crop, and the maize was looking beautiful. Those stalks were high, they were actually joining at the top, the cobs were forming, the beautiful thick green leaves drinking in the moisture - it was a beautiful season with plenty of rain. But you see, with that rain and heat comes hail. We have a lot of hail in our area, sometimes so heavy, so vicious that it can split corrugated iron. About 4pm in the afternoon, I was walking through my fields and I was so afraid. I was talking to the Lord, I said, “Lord, you know, in a couple of minutes a black cloud could come over, full of hail stones and destroy this crop in a moment and I would be completely ruined.”
Maybe you are there today. Maybe you are so afraid, afraid of the future. “Who will take care of my children if I am not here?” So afraid whether your business is going to make it or not. And then it was like a penny dropped. The Lord said, “But I will take care of all your needs because I have redeemed you.” I want to say to you folks, it was like a 50 Kg bag of cement fell off my shoulders. I was free because He has redeemed me.
Cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7
Needless to say, we had a beautiful crop that season and He has never failed me once, in 45 years of walking with Him.
Do the same today. Let Him redeem you and set you free.Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 28th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Revelation 3:20, Jesus says:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ wants fellowship with us. Yes, He ministers to our needs constantly, doesn’t He? He is always there. He is a phone call away, as they say, but I want to say something to you - this morning, the Lord laid on my heart that the Lord wants us to minister to Him. You see, it is not a one-way relationship. It's a two-way relationship, and he wants us also to spend time with Him. He washes our dirty, smelly feet constantly. He forgives us when we cry and we say we are sorry, but He also desires from you and me, exclusive, uninterrupted time so that we can wash His feet.
Remember the story of the lady, the woman who came in to where Jesus was sitting? She was a woman of ill-repute, she wasn’t a godly woman necessarily, but she fell in love with Jesus. She came in and started to cry and weep over His feet. She washed His feet with her tears, then with her long, beautiful hair, she dried His feet. That touched Him so deeply that it is written in the Bible. Just like our loved ones who really want us, they don’t want our efforts, they don’t want our gifts but they want time with us alone. Jesus is the same. Often, He took His disciples aside on their own so that they could rest but He also, I believe, even more so, wanted exclusive time with them because He loved them. They were His friends. He wanted fellowship with them.
Today, come aside and wash the feet of Jesus, spend time in His presence and let Him talk to you, because He loves you.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 27th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Hosea 4:12:
“My people ask counsel from their wooden idols,
And their staff informs them.
For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray,
And they have played the harlot against their God.”
Very sad. Then we go to the New Testament to the Book of Romans 1:21:
“…because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Idols, lucky charms, wooden carvings and stone statues, made by the hands of mere men are not to be worshipped in the place of the living God. Worshiping images does not please our Heavenly Father at all. That image, by the way, could be our business, it could be our sport, it could be our very health, for example - and I am asking myself the same question - do we spend as much time with the Lord Jesus Christ each day as we do training in the gym?
Henry Ford basically invented the motorcar. He had an affair with a woman who was not his wife, and when he was caught he confessed his adultery to his own wife but she showed hardly any emotion or even shock. She said to him, “This is not you - you have been having an affair for years with your motorcars and your business, and I have always taken second place.”
It has got to be Jesus, first and foremost. He will not take second place to any idol or image in our lives.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 26th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 13:34-35:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Then we go to 1 John 2:9:
“He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.”
People will know us by the love that we have for one another. A few years ago, I went to a maximum security prison in our nation of South Africa, and I spoke to inmates who were there for various crimes; these were serious crimes. I asked if I could have an orange overall to put on because I wanted to identify myself with the prisoners, and they gave me one. When I stood on the platform and I had finished preaching, I felt such a love towards these men who were serving their sentences. Yes, they had made mistakes, but they were paying for their mistakes.
The warden said to me, “Don’t get off the platform and walk among them because it is dangerous -” but I just couldn’t help myself. I jumped off the platform and started walking among them, shaking their hands, telling them that Jesus loves them and that I love them, not their deed but the person, and when I came right to the end, there was one particular man - a very notorious criminal but he had come to know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. I walked up to him to shake his hand and congratulate him, and as I was about to shake his hand, I felt the Lord say, “Don’t shake his hand, hug him.” And so I just walked up to him and put my arms around him and hugged him and said, “I love you and Jesus loves you too.”
My dear friend, it is a commandment, it is not a suggestion, that we have to love one another. We don’t have to love the deed that they committed, but we have to love the person. Love people - that is a sign of a believer.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 25th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of John 3:8:
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
It cannot be explained. We must believe it by faith and by faith alone so that no one can touch the glory of God. I remember it like yesterday, in Ein-Gedi, the lowest point on earth, the Dead Sea, in September 2012. It was a night we will never, ever forget. I was standing on the platform, reading from the Book of Acts, where the rushing mighty wind came through the upper room and filled all the disciples with the Holy Spirit, and when I was finished, I was so overwhelmed by the goodness of God. There was a huge crowd, maybe 5000 delegates from 80 nations from around the world, and I stood in front of the lectern, and you can see it - is on video, and I said, “Lord, please do it again, Lord Jesus, do it again.” And I want to tell you there was a wind that came. We don’t know which way it came from. My assistant, Clive, had to go and find my Bible. My Bible weighed about 2 kilos, and it flew off the lectern like a piece of tissue paper. The sound system started blowing away, the guitars, the drums, and the musicians were running onto the platform to try and rescue their equipment, and then when the wind was blowing at its fastest, it started to rain. Now folks, I need to explain to you. It doesn’t rain in that area - very rarely. There are no trees there; it is dry and hot, but this wind blew. It was the most incredible experience I think I have ever had in my life. Now, I just asked the Lord Jesus to please do it again and folks, He did it.
He loves you very much and He wants to fill you also with His Holy Spirit again, but if we look at the verse before, verse 7, Jesus said:
“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.”
What does that mean? It means to make a new start. It means to ask Him to come into your heart and rescue you from the things of this world. Maybe you have never asked Him into your heart. I would like to pray with you now, if I may. Please pray this prayer after me if you would like to:
Dear Lord Jesus,
There are many things I do not understand. I don’t know where the wind comes from and I don’t know where the wind goes to but I do know that the wind blows because I can feel it on my face. Lord, you said we must be born again so today I ask you to come into my life to fill me with your love and to start with me afresh.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 24th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 23:50:
“Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man.”
That was Joseph of Arimathea, a businessman.
Then we go to Matthew 1:24:
“Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife,…” Then verse 25: “And he called His name Jesus.”
We need to do the work which God has called us to do. We can’t all be great ambassadors for Jesus, but we can do the work God has called us to do. Joseph of Arimathea was a businessman. He wasn’t a great preacher, he wasn’t a great leader, he was a good, solid, just man. He was the one who went to Pontius Pilate and asked for the body of Christ. He could have done that at his peril, he could have died for doing that. He took the body of the Master down, he washed His body, embalmed Him in fresh linen which he bought, and spices which he paid for, and put the body of Christ in his own personal tomb, that he had cut out of sheer rock for his own burial, a very expensive operation. He did it gladly because he loved the Lord. He was just an ordinary man doing his part of what God had called him to.
What about Joseph, the carpenter? You don’t hear much about Joseph, do you? Well, I want to tell you that Joseph, the carpenter, was the man who had the privilege of naming that baby that Mary bore. He named the baby, Jesus. He was the one who put bread on the table and he was responsible for clothing and paying for accommodation for Jesus, from the time He was born until the time He was 30 and He went out into public ministry, but you don’t hear much about him, do you? But I want to tell you, he was mightily used by God. He had the privilege of housing Immanuel in his home.
I read this beautiful little saying the other day in a devotional: “He does the most for God’s great world, who does the best in his own little world.” You and I today, lets just get on with the job that God has called us to and He will do the rest.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 23rd of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 44:2:
“Thus says the Lord who made you
And formed you from the womb, who will help you…”
I just want to say to you today, God never makes mistakes and God is the only one who can create anything. He never makes mistakes. He says to us here clearly this morning that He formed you and me from the womb. Remember Sarah, Abraham’s wife, she couldn’t have a baby. She was almost a hundred years old. It is physically impossible for a woman of nearly a hundred years old to conceive and bear a child. Ask any gynaecologist or any child specialist and they will tell you it’s impossible. Hannah could not have a baby; she was the laughingstock of the congregation, and yet God gave her Samuel, who some say was the greatest of all the prophets. What about Elizabeth? She was also old, she couldn’t have a child either and yet she had a beautiful baby by the name of John, The Baptist. Then, of course, what about Mary, the young handmaiden of the Lord? She conceived and bore a child. His name was Jesus, the Son of God. She never knew a man.
What are we saying here? We are saying that it is God who forms you and me in the womb of a woman. I have got a serious word here for lots of moms and dads. Don’t tell your child, especially the last born, ”Oh, you were a mistake.” That can be extremely hurtful and it can be very devastating to some people even when they grow up. They keep on feeling that they were not meant to be, they just happened one night. That is not the truth. Only God can put that seed into the womb of a woman. I want to say to you that the Lord created you in His own image, He loves you very much and He has a wonderful plan for you in your life, and I would like to pray for you.
Father, I want to pray for that person listening to his message who has got a complex, right from when they were small. Their mom and dad probably never meant it jokingly, ”Oh, you were a mistake. We thought our family was complete until you came along." Lord, we cut that thing off in that person’s mind and we remind them today, Lord Jesus, that our Heavenly Father is the Creator, and not man. So we thank You for giving us this life and we pray, Lord, that we will use that life you have given us in the furtherance of the Kingdom of God here on Earth. We ask these things in Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 22nd of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Samuel 17:58:
“So David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”
Then we go to the New Testament to the Gospel of Mark 6:3:
“Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary…?”
Jesse was a shepherd. His son, David, was a shepherd. Jesus was a carpenter, and Joseph, His earthly father, was a carpenter. I am a farmer, and my sons are farmers, too. I love horses. My sons all love horses and my grandsons. I love Jesus Christ, my sons love Jesus. It is a very important thing to understand. Your children will never do what you tell them, hardly ever, they will do what you do! If you are a drunkard, they have a good chance, unfortunately, of growing up as drunkards. If you are a wife-beater, they will hate themselves for it but they might do the very same thing to their own wives.
We have a huge responsibility as parents. Yes, I know the story, the Lord has got no grandchildren, every person has to accept and follow Jesus Christ for themselves. Oh, but we must never be a stumbling block for our children because of our lifestyle. Rather, let us be an inspiration. When they see dad getting up early in the morning and spending time with Jesus everyday, the chances are that they will do the same when they grow up. Those girls see mom, the way in which she submits and respects her husband, the good chance is they will do exactly the same for their husbands.
Today, let us be examples for our children so that they get an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 21st of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 18:21-22:
"Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."
Unforgiveness - we really need to deal with it even today. There is a cancer that eats you up if you don't deal with it. Deal with it today, my dear friend, because every single one of us has to deal with this issue of unforgiveness.
I read a little story by that great Russian author, Leo Tolstoy. He told the story about two little families that lived next door to each other on small farms in Russia. They were the greatest of friends; they shared everything together. If the one needed flour, he just went to his neighbour next door and his neighbour said, "Help yourself." If the other one needed a spare milk cow, he would just walk across to the fence and say, "Can I borrow your small cow today?" "No problem." They helped each other and they were like one big happy family. But then one day, something happened - the one family had a chicken that laid an egg every single day, and this one day, the chicken flew across the fence into the other family's farm and laid an egg somewhere in the barn and then flew back. The old lady came out to get her egg every morning, as she did, and it wasn't there. She went looking for it and she found it in her neighbour's yard and that started an argument. The one lady said, "How can you trespass onto my farm?" The woman who owned the chicken said, "How can you keep the egg?" And it is ridiculous. It really is; it is laughable, but that incident started brewing and all of a sudden there was an argument between the two women, then the two men got involved and then the children got involved and then they started getting ugly with each other and it blew up to such a degree that the one farmer wanted to burn down the barn of his neighbour, but the sparks of the fire spread into the village and burnt the whole village down. The moral of the story is that if they had just said sorry and made up, they would have still been great friends.
I want to say to you today, deal with that unforgiveness in your heart. Just forgive that person. Why? Simply because Jesus said so - that's why. I remember going to pray in a church when I was a new Christian. The church was open during the day for a prayer day so you could go in and out and pray. I went in to pray, but I had an issue with my minister. We had a disagreement. I was kneeling at the altar and felt I couldn't pray. I looked to the right of me and who was sitting there, by himself, in the church, was the minister. We had to get up; I got off my knees, went up, and said, "Errol, I am so sorry." He started to weep, I started to weep, and that friendship was mended and went the full distance. Today, just say, "I forgive you."
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Tuesday morning, the 20th of February 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We go to Galatians 5:22-23:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
I want to speak to you today about branding. Now, on our farm we have cattle and we brand our cattle - We put our sign on the side of the animal. We use a branding iron, why? So that people can see our cattle from a distance, they can see that they belong to Shalom Farm. People should be able to see you and I from a long distance away because we are branded by the Lord Jesus Christ. Our brand mark is the fruit of the Spirit. When we walk into a public place, it should be very easy for us to be identified by the way we stand back and let other people in first; by the way we take care of older people; by the way in which we treat our waiter - Yes, they are getting paid to wait on us but we should treat them with love and patience. There's a ranch in America called King Ranch. They own 825,000 acres. They run 35,000 head of cattle and 200 quarter horses. They have a brand called "The Running W." It's a 'W' that they brand on the side of the cow; why? So that they can see their cattle from a long way away. You and I are branded, yes we are rebranded by the Name of Jesus Christ.
One of these fine days the Lord is coming to fetch us, whether we meet him in the air or whether he comes and takes us home to be with Him. My prayer for you today, my dear friend, is that when the Lord comes to fetch us He won't have a problem identifying who we belong to. Whether we belong to the Lord or whether we belong to the devil. You see, it is not only the brand mark; it's the condition of our animals that tells people where they come from, and we need to be in good condition. We really need to be ready for the coming of the Lord and what a beautiful opportunity you and I have today, to stand up for Jesus, when people can say that man walking down the street - He is a Christian! How do you know? Well, look at the smile on his face; look at the way he's walking. He is a proud man but he is very humble as well. He is a man you can trust, he is a man of God.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 19th of February, 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Isaiah 49:15-16:
"Can a woman forget her nursing child,
and not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands…."
Then we go to 2 Peter 3:9:
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance."
Jesus will never give up on you, my dear friend. It doesn't matter what you've done or what you haven't done. That's how much He loves you. He loves you so much. The Lord uses an example of a nursing mother, that's a mother who is suckling her baby on her breast, and he says even she might give up on that child, but Jesus will never give up on that child.
When you see visitors coming to the farm, and they see a bull in a paddock, people may say to you, 'Beware of that bull. It may charge you." I want to tell you, you don't have to worry about the bull; what you have to worry about is a new calf with its mother - a big Brahman cow who is so proud of her calf, and if you come anywhere near that calf she will literally kill you. That is what you need to be afraid of, not that bull standing in the paddock by himself, but a mother and a calf at foot. That mother will die for that calf, yet Jesus loves us even more than that. Isn't that wonderful news?
Today, after this little program, get on your knees and say, "Lord, thank you that you have not given up on me." It doesn't matter what the devil says. It doesn't matter what other people say, He is not slack and He will persevere with you to the very end. Just open your heart and allow Him to come in.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 18th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 41:13:
“For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand,
Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’
What a beautiful promise! Then we go straight to the Gospel of John 16:7:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
We need to understand we have nothing to fear. The Lord is with us always, He is in our very heart so we have nothing whatsoever to be afraid of today.
You know, that little Zulu preacher, William Duma, who has since gone to be with the Lord, he had an incredible relationship with the Holy Spirit. The story goes that one day, he was travelling on a bus, going to an appointment, driving through the sugar cane fields of Kwazulu Natal. The bus was full of people. He was sitting in the front seat, just behind the driver and he felt the Holy Spirit tell him to get off the bus immediately. So he did not hesitate. He stood up and told the driver, “You must stop the bus, I have to get off.” The bus driver was very angry with him, “Why do you want to stop in the middle of nowhere?” “I have to get off the bus immediately.” The bus driver stopped the bus, the people were quite irate, they wanted to get to their destination. They let the little preacher get off the bus with his small suitcase and away the bus roared, down the road, clouds of dust following it. And he stood alone in the sugarcane fields wondering, “Lord, why do You want me here?”. That bus only went one or two kilometres down the road and had a head-on collision with another vehicle. The very place where William Duma was sitting was crushed. He would have been killed.
The Holy Spirit is with us always. He is our Helper. We need to listen to His inner voice speaking to us on a day-to-day basis. When He speaks to you in your heart, listen to Him, He is here to help you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 17th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Hebrews 8:10:
“…write them on their hearts:…”
I read a beautiful little inscription written by a man named Theodore Cuyler; it goes like this, “Marble and granite are perishable monuments, and their inscriptions may be seldom read. Carve your names on human hearts for they alone are immortal.”
We have got to spend more time with people. We have to realise that they are the trophies of God, not on monuments of granite and stone, even though they might be very beautiful and very meaningful. I think of the “Its Time” prayer meetings we had in our beloved South Africa. The one in Bloemfontein has got three massive crosses on a hill and it is a commemoration of what took place when over a million people came together and prayed for our country. I remember the beautiful cross put up at Krugersdorp when we had a “Speak Jesus” event. I remember the cross put up in Pretoria, Tswane, where countless numbers came to pray, and of course I remember the protea, the South African flower, made in concrete with a dam wall, commemorating the Theewaterskloof Dam which was bone dry and the hand of Elijah, the prophet who spoke about rain and then withheld the rain, and then God brought the rain. That monument is made in Mitchell’s Plain. You can go and see it. We call Mitchell’s Plain the flower of Cape Town. Two hundred fifty thousand-plus people prayed. There had been no water and no rain in Cape Town for over two years and in the middle of the meeting, it started raining, and it hasn’t stopped since.
But the monuments that people will never forget is the folks that got saved, the folks who met Jesus Christ, the people who were healed, relationships restored - those are the monuments that are immortal. I often meet people, even now, and they say, “Do you remember when we were at that big rugby stadium in Pretoria, Loftus Versveld? That is the day that Jesus Christ met me and my heart was changed forever.” We need to spend time with humans, the greatest monuments and trophies of all, and those are the ones that God wants us to spend time on.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 16th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Peter 2:21:
"For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them."
Better to have never known the truth than to have known Jesus Christ and then to have betrayed Him and walked away from Him. Peter, the big fisherman who wrote this very letter, did it himself no less than three times. He denied the Lord and it broke him completely. Matthew 26:75:
"So he went out and wept bitterly."
Young man, do not do it; it's not worth it! You want to go and sow your wild oats, as they say. You want to go and have a bit of fun and then you will come back and serve the Lord. It can become very costly indeed. Yes, I agree - if we really repent, Jesus will forgive us like He did with Peter, but remember, the scar remains. That illegitimate child walking around because you decided one night to have a bit of fun and you made that girl pregnant. That prison record, you went to jail because you chose not to pay your income tax. Yes, you have served your sentence but you have a record that will stay with you.
One of the saddest books I have ever read about a man named Jim Bakker. He was heading up one of the biggest Christian Channels in the world, but in a moment of weakness, he committed adultery, and it cost him severely. He eventually landed up in jail and lost his ministry, his wife and his family. Yes, he has repented, and we trust and believe that he is going on, but it comes at a tremendous price. It's really not worth it.
A lady wrote me a letter just the other day, breaking my heart. In one of the main cities in our country, she said, the young men are leaving their families and going out and having affairs. They don't realise the debt that they are getting into. It will cost them everything. It's really not worth it - the pain, the hurt our selfishness causes to other people. My grandson said to me one day, "Grandad, what about all the people in the desert, the people in the jungles who never hear the Gospel? How do they get judged?" I said, "Son, they will be judged according to their works."
Today, let us have a good look at our lifestyle. Let us change, start afresh like Peter, and walk away from that sin which so easily ensnares us. (Hebrews 12:1) and let us continue with our love affair with the Master who saved us from so much.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 15th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 John 2:6:
"He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked."
We have got to walk the talk. It is not good enough to tell people that you love them, but you have to show them that you love them. I read this beautiful little reading in a devotional by an anonymous writer and this is what it says: "The preaching that this world needs most is the sermon in shoes that are walking with Jesus Christ." Isn't that beautiful?
Arthur Blessitt - I have never heard him preach but I don't think there are too many people in the world who have not heard of Arthur Blessitt. He is the man who literally carries the cross on his shoulder, not only from city to city but from country to country. He is walking the talk. Then we get Mother Theresa. I have never heard any sermon spoken by Mother Theresa or even recorded, but I don't think there is a more famous woman in the world than Mother Theresa, and what did she do? She took care of the poor and the needy. All she did was take people who were dying on the streets of Calcutta, lying in open sewers and, washed them and put their fragile bodies in between two clean sheets, and let them die in dignity after praying for them.
You and I need to walk the talk. We really do. It's all very well telling people that Jesus loves them, but if you show them that Jesus loves them, it has so much impact on their lives. Go out today and be a blessing to someone.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 14th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 40:28:
“Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.”
Wow! He doesn’t rest - He is awake, and He is waiting to hear you this morning, my dear friend. Then we go straight to the Book of Romans 11:34-35:
“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?”
“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”
We can’t give Him anything; He is God! No one, not even Albert Einstein, can know the mind of Christ. Now this Lord, this God, our God, He has a plan for you, and He has a plan for me. He says in 1 Corinthians 2:9:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
What a beautiful promise! As a 15-year-old boy, in Central Zambia, a place called Kitwe, I remember sitting on an ant hill as a young boy, and I used to dream of preaching to multitudes of people about my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Oh, folks, it has happened. Yes, more than once. Please today, do not limit God. Dream your dream. He did it and He still is doing it for me, and He can do it for you too.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 13th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of 2 Peter 2:1:
”But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.”
False prophets, false teachers misleading God’s people and bringing in destructive heresies - we really need to be very wise when we are listening to people teaching the word. When I was a young man, and Jill and I were new Christians, we were so zealous for the Lord, so excited to serve Him. There were a group of people who came from overseas, they were extremely convincing, they spoke beautifully and they came to visit us on the farm. The one man said, “You know, this farm of yours does not belong to you; it belongs to God.” I agreed wholeheartedly. I said, “I want to do whatever God wants me to do.” He said, “You need to sell this farm, and you need to give the proceeds to our ministry.” I had an uneasy feeling in my heart and he was quite upset with me when I didn’t respond immediately. I said, “I am going to pray about it, and I will come back to you.” Jill and I went and we prayed because we felt very uneasy. You see, the Lord had given us a foundational Scripture when we gave our lives to Him.
I was wanting to go to Bible College and become a pastor. I got up in the mountains and prayed about it and the Lord had shown us very clearly that we needed to remain on Shalom because He had a work to do through us on this farm. The Scripture He gave us was 2 Corinthians 9:8, which says:
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
In other words, stay on the farm; God will supply your needs and more than you need so that you can give to others and use this place as a witness for God. I went back to him and said, “Sorry, I am not selling this farm. God has told me to keep it because He wants to use it.” He was extremely upset with me and I want to tell you folks, if I had listened to that false teaching, I don’t know where we would be today. Whatever people tell you, make sure it lines up with the word of God, if it does, not disregard it immediately.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 12th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Isaiah 40:12-14 in the Old Testament,
“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
Measured heaven with a span
And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?
Weighed the mountains in scales
And the hills in a balance?
Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or as His counselor has taught Him?
With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him,
And taught Him in the path of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge,
And showed Him the way of understanding?”
I want to say to you this morning that God is massive. He is not big, He is massive!This same God came down from Heaven to Earth and He actually walked on water. (Matthew 14:25). Who is like You, oh God? There is no one who is like our mighty God. I want to ask you a question this morning, and also myself. How big is God? Well, the answer is quite simple - He is as big as you allow Him to be.
Many years ago, I had the privilege of preaching in Scandinavia. What a beautiful part of the world. You can drink the water out of those lakes, it is so clean. They build the biggest trucks in the world and everything works and everything is clean and tidy. I was speaking in the vestry of a church before a service and we were praying. One man said, “Why do you come here to tell us about God? Why don’t you stay in Africa and look after your own people? They need more help than we do.” Then one lady started to weep. I couldn’t understand why she was weeping. She said, “Please pray for us because the suicide rate amongst the young people is escalating.” She said to me, “You see, we keep God in a box, a matchbox, and every now and again we just let Him out, just a little bit.” Folks, that is so sad when we think we are so clever we don’t need God. Without God we are nothing and we can do nothing, but with God on our side we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us. Philippians 4:13.
Go out today and look up into the sky and look at the glory of God and you will realise we have nothing to worry about. If God is for us, there is no man who will ever stand against us.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 11th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 1:41:
“He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah.”
We have found the Messiah! Then we go to the Book of Acts 7:2 - and I would like you to read this if you get a chance - reading from verse 2 where Stephen, who was a waiter - that’s right, he waited on tables - told the story of his people.
This morning, I want to speak to you about the power of personal testimony. Tell your story. There was a lady by the name of Fanny Crosby, her real name was Frances. She was blind. She loved Jesus Christ with a passion. She wrote over 6000 hymns in her lifetime. She lived till 94 years old. Because she was blind, by the age of 15 years old, she had memorised the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and many other Books of the Bible. She wrote probably one of the most famous hymns that has ever been written. That’s right, we are talking about Blessed Assurance. I want to tell you, it is a personal testimony. She says, “Tell your story.”
Many of you listening to this message know the hymn from when you were small, right from when you were at Sunday School. I want you to join with me and I want you to sing this song please.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
O what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Saviour all the day long
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Saviour all the day long
The Lord Jesus Christ bless you today as you go out and you tell a dying world your story because that story of yours will save somebody today. Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world!
Have a wonderful day, goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 10th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 89:37:
“It shall be established forever like the moon,
Even like the faithful witness in the sky.”
Then we go straight to Isaiah 40:8:
“But the word of our God stands forever.”
Then the last scripture, the Gospel of John 12:34:
“Who is this Son of Man?”
Oh, friends, you know who we are talking about. He is the faithful one; He is the One who never changes, He is the One who said, “I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you.” Yes, He is a sure thing.
Many, many years ago, when I started farming, I was a farm manager on a dairy farm up in Central Zambia, and I worked for a very gracious man; he also bred racehorses and was a very keen gambler. I had never gambled in my life before, and I never will again after this incident. He came to me one day and said, “Angus, I have the fastest horse on this track. I want to tell you, son, take half your wages…” (I think I was only getting about fifty pounds a month in those days). He said, “…take half your wages and put them on my horse, and you will win a lot of money because he is running at 10 to 1. You can’t lose, I am telling you; it is a sure thing.”
So, I did it, and take a guess what happened? Yes, that beautiful horse got beaten at the finish line by a nose, just a nose, and I lost half of my wages. Never, ever have I bet since then. If you are a betting man, stop it today because there is nothing sure about gambling. But one thing you can be sure of is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. (Hebrews 13:8.)
God bless you, have a wonderful day and remember, when that moon comes up, the Lord’s word is as sure as that moon that comes up every night.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 9th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Exodus 20:12, to the second book in the Bible,
“Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
Commandment Number 5 is the first commandment in the Bible with a promise added to it - that your days may be long in the land.
Early this morning, I went into our little town of Greytown, about 15 km from Shalom Farm, and I had to get a few things for the farm. I was amazed - it was pension day, and the town was full of pensioners. Of course, I never see myself as a pensioner because I never look at my face in the mirror. But I was so deeply touched, there was such a serene atmosphere in our little town. The people were coming up from the rural areas, some of them coming up to collect their pensions and then go back home. I went to the chemist to get something and sat on a bench next to an old Zulu lady. I saw this dear old soul take her purse out of her bag, she opened it up and took her money out of the purse and I saw her publicly counting it very carefully and I said to her, “Mama, please don’t let everybody see how much money you have got. Keep it safe just in case they want to steal it.” She thanked me profusely, put her money back in her little wallet and put it away in her bag.
As I went out, I saw an older man and the pick-up he had was probably as old as him. He could not start it, but he knew what to do. He had to get out, open the bonnet, connect a couple of wires to the starter and he got the engine started then he quietly walked back, got into his car and off her drove. I was deeply touched. I saw older women walking with walking sticks. They obviously have problems with their knees or hips but were quite happy walking along. I saw huge queues of people waiting to collect their pension money, quite happy, nobody arguing, nobody complaining, because you see old age teaches you things like patience, teaches you things like gratitude, gratitude for another day, an opportunity to get some money so that you can buy some groceries to go home with you.
Let us be very kind to people. Sometimes young people get impatient - “Come on, hurry up!” But young man, young lady, please understand one thing: that older person is probably in pain; they probably have back trouble. Maybe they can’t see too well, they have got cataracts in their eyes, maybe they can’t hear so well, but you know something? They are very patient, and it costs nothing to give them a smile, take them under the arm and help them across the road, count their money for them so that they don’t get fleeced by somebody, and I tell you, God will honour that good deed every time.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning. The 8th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 40:1:
“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God.
Folks, this is a time to comfort God’s people in every aspect and walk of life. They need God’s comfort. Now, when the Lord tells us to comfort His people, He does not mean that we need to go and visit somebody who has been through a tragedy with a whole lot of Bible verses. No - to comfort someone is to give them a big hug, be a listening ear, and sit and let them speak. To comfort someone is to call them and say, “Look, I just want to tell you that I am praying for you, that God loves you, and I love you.” A short message like “I have got your back.”
A day ago, one of my spiritual sons, a wonderful man of God, sent me a message, “I want you to know I have got your back.” Do you know what that does for a man? It makes his day. Now, on the flip side of the coin, the devil is saying to you, “No, no, don’t phone that person. They are too busy to listen to you. Don’t visit that person because you won’t even get an opportunity to speak to them. They are too important. Don’t even go there. Don’t trouble them. They won’t receive you.” That is a lie from the pit of hell. The devil says, “Don’t trouble her. She won’t listen to you.” I want to tell you, don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today. Remember the old saying, “A stitch in time saves nine”? Now, young man, young lady, what that means is, in the old days, your granny or great-granny didn’t have money to buy another shirt. As soon as there was a little tear in that shirt she would bring it in and sit down and stitch it up and that shirt would last forever. Today, we just chuck them away and get another one.
I want to tell you, when the Holy Spirit says to you, “Comfort that person”, do it immediately. Do not wait. Now, the greatest comforter that ever lived is Jesus Christ; listen to these beautiful words He says in John 14:1,
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
He has a place for you in Heaven. Did you know that? That should be more comforting than anything else. We are not going to be here forever. While we are here, let us keep our eyes on the Lord, and let us comfort His people.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 7th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Peter 5:8-9:
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith,…”
We really need to understand something. The devil is a coward, a bully, and a liar, and he is a thief. His neck was broken on the cross of Calvary when Jesus died, and He said, “It is finished.” He meant it. But the devil tells us lies and if we do not arm ourselves with faith and walk closely with the Lord, he will destroy us by his lies and his accusations. He is like the lion who waits for the stragglers. If you look at the Maasai Mara and the great migrations of the wildebeest. Tens of thousands of them follow after the new grass, and who goes with them? Prides of lions. Those lions will never enter the middle of a herd of wildebeest or buffalo because they know they will be killed. They hang around the outside, waiting for the stragglers, for those that are lame, sick, or young and they pick them off.
“Greater is He who is within you that he that is in the world.”1 John 4:4
We need to stand together, and understand that we are in Christ. Revelation 12:11:
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
The devil cannot touch you if you are walking closely with the Lord and if you are walking closely with the brethren. That scripture goes on to say that the same sufferings that you are going through are experienced by the brotherhood in the world. You are not alone. You see, the devil tries to isolate you, and then he tells you you will never make it. It is a lie from the pit of hell. We need to walk together and walk by faith. We need to challenge the devil head-on with the Word of God, and he will back off. Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 6th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 39:4:
And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”
The prophet said to him, if you carry on reading, that “everything you have shown them in your house will be taken away from you and will be sent to Babylon, even your own family.”
Then we go to Matthew 7:6. This is the word of Jesus:
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”
There are certain things which are to remain private and within the family. When somebody comes to me and says to me, “You know, I shouldn’t really tell you this, but …” I stop them right there and say, “Before you go any further, I want you to know something, whatever you tell me I am going to go and tell everybody.” And all of a sudden, they are quiet. We need to guard our private family lives very carefully.
Proverbs 10:19 says:
“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
Nothing is more destructive and damaging to a family when something private, spoken in confidence to a so-called friend, is leaked out and the public knows about it and it comes back to you in the crowd. Very destructive. Keep it quiet. Like that lady who has a beautiful recipe for some brand-new cake she is making, and she tells her friend in confidence because she is doing a little bit of business about it and she is selling her cakes all over the area, only to find out in a few weeks time that there is someone else who is baking the exact same cake and is in direct opposition to her. Very hurtful! I think we need to start to count to ten before we share personal things with others.
That is why you have a patent. Now, the word patent means the sole right to exclude others from making, using or selling an invention. Keep it quiet until you register that patent and then you can tell the world. This is wise advice but especially in the family.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 5th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Numbers 12:3:
“(Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.)”
Then we go to verse 8 when God says:
”I speak with him face to face,…”
“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,…”
1 Peter 5:6
We do not have to defend ourselves. Father God does that for those who remain humble in His sight. Some of us are so defensive that we do not give the Lord a chance to operate on our behalf. We really need to stand back and let Him defend us and justify our cause because He will. He loves us. He did it for Moses. Moses’ brother, Aaron, and sister, Miriam, said, “Do you think Moses is the only man that hears from God?” Moses didn’t say a word in defence. God stepped in. He said, “I speak to prophets through visions, but My servant, Moses, I speak to him face to face.”
CH Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, shared a beautiful illustration I will never forget. He said, “God is the one who defends us.” He said, “It is like a little boy who goes down to the zoo every day after school and sits on a bench opposite the cage of a huge male African Lion, walking up and down. He loves that lion and as he sits there and watches him, some naughty boys come along, pick up stones and start throwing stones at this big, huge male lion. Because he loves the lion so much, the little boy stands in between the lion and these naughty boys, and he is taking the stones that they are trying to throw at the lion.” Spurgeon says, “All that little boy has to do is to open the gate and let the lion out.”
Oh my dear friend, why are we always trying to defend the Lord when He wants to defend us? Just open the gate and let the lion out!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 4th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. Isaiah 38:5:
"I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years."
And then we go down to verse 8:
"So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down."
There is only one God. He is the absolute miracle worker! He can extend a man's life by 15 years just by a word. He can actually change the time. He can stop the sun going down. He can change the sundial by 10 degrees. Never underestimate the power of God, the ultimate creator of death and life. When he was about 100 years old, the Lord told Abraham, "You are going to have a child, you and your wife." He said, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:14). Why do you and I limit the Lord so often? It must really hurt Him when we doubt Him and His ability to help us.
If we look at Matthew 6:30, this is what the Lord says:
"Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"
We really need to start to trust the Lord. I remember having to catch a flight to the USA years ago. I drove with my assistant, Clive, all the way down to Durban. Just before we got to the airport, there was a massive roadblock. A thirty-ton lorry had jack-knifed in the middle of the road, and the road was blocked for about half an hour. When we got to the airport, the lady said to us at the counter, "Sorry, Sir, the plane is full. We waited for you, but you never came and the counter is closed. I said, "Madam, we have to get to Johannesburg. I have got a plane going to America. They are waiting for me there." Then she said, "Let me have another look. I have two seats left, and they are in Business Class. If you hurry up, you will catch the plane." We caught the plane, went to the USA, and had an amazing time.
"But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (other) things will be added unto you."
Matthew 6:33.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 3rd of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 62:5:
“My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.”
Isn’t that so true? Who can we trust in this day and age? Only God. I read a beautiful devotional. A man of God said, “There are no disappointments for those whose wills are buried in the will of God.” There cannot be disappointments if our expectation is in God and not in man. We only get extremely upset, don’t we, when someone close to us, like a family member, lets us down?
“He promised to pick me up at 7 o’clock and he didn’t come. I am so disappointed.“
“I really thought my son was going to excel in that subject and he failed.”
“I really thought that the government was going to come up to the mark and they have failed.”
It makes us extremely disappointed and not only disappointed but even depressed. We need to trust in the Lord alone. Hebrews 13:5 says:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
I have found in my own life that every time I put my trust in God, I am never disappointed. In fact, I am always amazed because God even excels in the very thing that I hoped for.
Today, do not put your hope in man but put your hope and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He will not disappoint you.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 2nd of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Peter 5:2:
“Shepherd the flock of God which is among you,…”
And then just a little bit further down in verse 4:
”…and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.”
We need to look after the sheep. This is a mandate from God Himself. We are talking to everyone this morning who loves Jesus Christ. We need to look after God’s sheep.
“I have gone astray like a lost sheep;…”Psalm 119:176
You and I have an obligation. We have to tend Father God’s flock of sheep until the Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ, returns, and then we will receive our reward. I had a flock of sheep on my farm many years ago. A sheep is a very vulnerable animal. A sheep is probably the only animal that will not defend itself. It is very, very easily led; it has no idea of self-preservation. It is very easily stolen because it does not try to escape. If you are driving down a road and see a group of goats, you are safe. Those goats will not run across the road in front of your car, but if you see a flock of sheep, be very careful because they will run straight in front of your motorcar because sheep have no idea of danger. It has to be protected. This morning, the Lord Jesus Christ is asking you and I to please shepherd the flock until his return.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 1st of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Can you believe it? One month of 2024 has already passed us! Where is the time going? I want to speak to you today about time. If we go to the Gospel of John 11:9:
"Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?"
Just that far. We must capitalise on the time we have left on this earth. Now, maybe I am speaking to somebody who says, "I don't know. I have got nothing to do in this world, nobody cares about me. I have got no work to do; what is the purpose of my being here?" I want to read something to you that came from a man by the name of William Arnott, and this is what he said. He said, "The mere fact that we are here on earth and not in Heaven, is proof that some work still awaits us." That is why you and I are not in Heaven, because our work here on earth is not completed.
Now, get up this morning, dust yourself off, have a good shower, get yourself ready, and get smartly dressed so that people can see that you are an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Look in the mirror. Speak to that person in the mirror, say, "Wherever I go today, God is going with me", and then go out and live the day for the Lord. The Lord has got work for you, and He has got work for me. Remember, the mere fact that you and I are still on earth and not in Heaven means that work awaits us today. There is something the Lord Jesus Christ wants you and I to do for Him - maybe to wave to that person with a big smile, perhaps say to that little crying child, "Don't worry, Jesus loves you." Maybe you need to take a flower to that old lady or that old man who lives in the old-age home and tell them that Jesus loves them.
Today is the day that we can use to benefit the Kingdom of God. Let's keep working till He calls us home.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 31st of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Peter 4:16:
"Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.
Peter says, just a little bit earlier on, if you are going to suffer, then suffer for something worthwhile. Don't suffer for being a thief or, a murderer or an evil-doer. Rather suffer for being a Christian because your reward at the end will be wonderful. If you are suffering because you are a thief, you are an evil-doer, at the end you will suffer even more when you go to hell for eternity.
You know the old saying, it says," It takes a thief to catch a thief"? I am laughing because it is so true, isn't it? Look at the people that God has used to change the world: Moses - Moses was a murderer. Remember, he killed the Egyptian slave driver, and then he had to flee for his life. He is a giant in the faith. What about Paul, maybe the greatest of all the apostles? He was part and parcel of killing the first martyr in the New Testament, Stephen. That's right, he was the instigator. He was holding all their coats while they were stoning the man of God to death. What about Peter, himself, who wrote this very letter? He was a blasphemer. He kept changing feet; he was like a bull in a china shop. He just kept messing up. But the amazing thing is when these men and women, like Mary Magdalene - seven demons were cast out of her. She was an immoral woman, yet she became probably the most faithful of all to the Lord Jesus Christ; she never left Him, not right to the very end.
I have seen it in my own life. I have seen people who I thought I would never, ever give a chance to, and then they get gloriously saved. They meet the Lord and become great ambassadors for Him. Charles Carlson, they call him "The Hatchet Man"; he was President Nixon's righthand man. They said he would walk over his own mother's grave to get something, but he got exposed; he got sent to jail in place of the president because the president never got sent to jail. In jail, he met Jesus, and after that, he started the Prison Fellowship, which went right around the world.
So today, if I am talking to a man who is suffering, rather suffer for Jesus than for your wicked ways.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 30th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Isaiah 35:10:
"And sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
Isn't that beautiful? Then we go to the last book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation 7:17:
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Oh, what a promise! Are you taking a bit of strain at the moment this morning, my dear friend? Well, I have got good news for you. Just keep on going because home time is sooner and closer than you think. You know, I think of the trips I used to take to the top of the Drakensberg Mountains, which are about an hour and a half drive west of Shalom. They were exciting. We packed our rucksacks with all our food and equipment and set off. I often took groups of young men with me. The trip was hard, the trip was tough, the trip was very steep. When you start getting near the top, there is a lack of oxygen. You start battling to keep up. When you sleep at night, you sleep on hard ground, on rocks. There is no nice grass on the top of those mountains. You are eating dry rations, it is cold and windy, there is no sign of the summit in sight. Then, when you are really losing hope and plenty of tears are flowing, you go round a corner, and all of a sudden, you arrive on the top of the mountain - absolute joy and relief - "We made it! We got there!" I am talking about the journey to Heaven. That's exactly right, the highway that leads to Heaven.
When you get the top of that mountain, who is waiting for you, arms outstretched? It's Jesus Himself. He has walked that road. He knows exactly how you are feeling. You are hungry, you are tired, your legs have been cut going through that rough rocky trail all the way to the top, and He waits for you and embraces you. He pulls you into His ample bosom, and He hugs you tight, and then He takes a towel, a nice soft towel that has been tied around His waist. Maybe, just maybe, that's the same towel that dried the feet of the disciples, and He takes that towel, and He wipes away all your tears and all the grime and the dust and the dirt, and He says to you, "Welcome home, my son, my daughter. In this place, there will be no more tears, there will be no more suffering. Come and enter into your rest."
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 29th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 35:8:
"A highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it,…"
The highway, which leads to eternal life, leads to Heaven. The Lord has promised that He will walk with us on that road, all the way to eternity, but because He is a Holy God, He will not walk with us on those other roads that some of us are walking on. This is a serious warning. If God is not prepared to walk on that road with us, what on earth are we thinking of doing on our own? We really need to be so careful, my dear friend.
There is a man by the name of Denim Smith, and he said, "There is a path in which every child of God is to walk and in which alone God can accompany him." And in which alone God can accompany him - what does that mean? It means that the Lord will walk on the road of righteousness with us but when we err and we depart from that road, He will not walk with us on that road and we walk alone, and that is a very dangerous place to be.
So when you are going out with your friends and you go to a place that you know is not a place where Christians should go to, why are you going there? "Oh well, I am going there because I want to be a witness for them." No, no - we do not go to places like that because God won't go there. When you go into a certain unsavoury place, an ungodly place, as you walk in through the door you will know, the Holy Spirit will tell you, "I will not be in this place." Turn around and walk away, and your friends will say, "Where are you going?" And you will say, "No sorry, I can't go to that place.' "Why can't you go there?" "No, sorry, I am not going." And you know often those friends will come to you and say, "I am so pleased that you didn't come to that place because it was terrible that night, the nonsense that went on there."
We need to walk on the road of holiness, which will take us home.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 28th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
One of my favourite scriptures, Philippians 4:13:
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
The emphasis here is in Christ who strengthens me. There was a great preacher named Phillips Brooks and this is what he said: "O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then, the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day, you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God."
That is what brings glory to the name of Jesus Christ - when the Lord gives us the courage, the power and the strength to perform a miracle that people know a man could never do - and who gets all the glory? That's right - Jesus Christ gets all the glory. That is why we say at Shalom, "You must attempt something that is so big that if it is not from God it is doomed to fail." "Why?" you might ask. Well, when it works, people say, "Those people at Shalom could never have performed such a miracle. It must be God." And He gets all the glory.
So today, step out by faith. Trust in the Lord to be your strength. If your vision doesn't scare you, it's not big enough. We really must do things that bring glory to the name of Jesus Christ and not to ourselves.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 27th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Corinthians 1:8, Paul says:
“For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.”
Now, this statement is coming out of the mouth of one who was called by God. Yes, we are talking about the apostle, Paul, in my humble opinion, probably the greatest of all the apostles. He wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. You see, Jesus never promised you, young lady, young man, that when you came to Him that all your troubles would be over. He never said that. What He is prepared to do, He says He will walk with us through the fire but He won’t take us out of the fire. He has put us there for a reason. That is why you are at university and that is why you get ostracised by other people because you don’t sleep around, you don’t use drugs and you don’t drink, and you get persecuted for that. Paul was also persecuted, even from the church. You see, Paul was called and appointed by God. It wasn’t something that Paul thought was a good idea, and yet these extreme hardships that Paul was subjected to were not a coincidence. God had already ordained these things. You say to me, well, how can you prove that? Well, look at Acts 9:15-16. The Lord said to Ananias,
“Go, for he (that is Paul) is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.“For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
I want to say to you, when you come to Christ, it is an honour and a great privilege to be called by the Lord but it doesn’t come free of pain or suffering or tribulation. On the contrary, but it is worthwhile. People are desperate for the truth and that is why they might criticise you but secretly they are envying you because what you are doing, that is what they want to do. Young man, you got married to one woman, make sure you don’t have an affair. Young lady, don’t take your man for granted. Love him, cherish him and submit to him.
These are the things that the world is looking for. Young children, you get persecuted at school for your faith. The Bible says rejoice, for great will be your reward in Heaven one day. Remember, if your faith is costing you nothing then it is worth nothing. So get out there and lift up your head, push those shoulders back and say, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.”
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Friday morning, the 26th of January, 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Ephesians 5:8:
"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light …"
This is our opportunity, like never, ever before, to shine for the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I need to step up now. People are suffering; people are losing hope everywhere. Now remember, it's the amount of Jesus Christ in us that influences those around us. That is the light they are looking for, and that light shines through us into this very dark world when we spend time with the Lord. Now remember the darker things get - and they are getting rather dark, aren't they? - the brighter the light of Christ will shine through us.
You know you can never get a more encouraging word than someone who says, "There is something different about you." And you say, "What's different?" "No, no, the way you talk, the way you are looking at things, that smile on your face, that wave that you always give when you go past us on your bicycle or your motorbike or in your motorcar."
It's not about preaching huge sermons; it's about shining for Jesus Christ. Do you remember that beautiful song that was written by Graham Kendrick some time ago? It goes something like this:
Shine, Jesus, shine, fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze, Spirit, blaze, set our hearts on fire
Flow, river, flow, flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth Your word, Lord, and let there be light.
Go out today and shine for Jesus.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 25th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 33:2:
“O Lord, be gracious to us;
We have waited for You.
Be their arm every morning,
Our salvation also in the time of trouble.”
Waiting on the Lord every morning is so very important. It is a vital part of the Christian’s walk to wait upon the Lord, and it seems to be so hard to do in these days in which we are living, where all of us are double-tasking. We try to do two jobs at once. We are running here, we are running there. We are even running trying to do things for the Lord but we need to learn to wait upon the Lord. Isaiah 40:31.
Don’t run away from the only one in this world who can help you. His name is Jesus. It happened in the Garden of Gethsemane, remember? The only person who could help the disciples was Jesus, and yet when He was confronted in the Garden of Gethsemane by the High Priest’s soldiers, what did the disciples do? They ran away from Him. The Lord said to Peter in the garden, “Could you not watch for me one hour?” And he didn’t. He kept going back to sleep.
You and I need to learn to wait upon the Lord. Moses waited for no less than 40 years in the desert before the Lord called him to go and release the Israelites from slavery. Joshua was the same. He served Moses for 40 years and then walked with him for 40 years. At 80 years old, he took the children of Israel across the Jordan River into the Land of Milk and Honey. Jesus, Himself, waited on the Lord for 30 years before He performed a ministry that lasted for three years that changed the world.
I have a high respect for disciplined men and women who can wait and not rush into things. There is a gentleman that I hold in very high esteem. He has an incredible track record when it comes to business. He started one of the biggest fast-food franchises in the Southern Hemisphere. He has built large churches, he has built schools, and he is a very sought-after consultant. He was on many boards as a director. Do you know what he has done? He has laid it all down to go home and wait on his wife because she hasn’t been well. He has laid everything down. I want to tell you, that man, in my opinion, the greatest thing he has ever done is to be able to go home and wait upon his wife and spend time with her and obviously spend time in the presence of God every single morning.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 24th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Peter 4:3:
"For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries."
Enough! No more - an empty, worthless, fruitless waste of time. We want to thank the Lord that Peter was such a wonderful example, he wrote this letter. He knew all about it, doing things we wish we had never done or said, causing a lot of pain and suffering unnecessarily, making a fool of ourselves at parties and getting nothing out of it. Now, Peter, the big fisherman, would know all about these wasteful things that are done. Yes, the blasphemer, the party animal as they say, but no more!
I want to tell you a story about a man who attended one of our Mighty Men Conferences. He arrived on a huge big, very expensive road motorbike, I think it was a Harley Davidson. He set up his one-man tent and cracked a bottle of Dimple Haig Whisky the first night he arrived, but the following day, he got up to have another drink, and three young men walked past him, three young, handsome, godly men. One of them had a cross around his neck. They stopped, came over to him, and said, "Sir, we want to tell you that Jesus loves you so much." You know, he poured out the rest of that whisky out of that bottle. He broke down, he wept, and they prayed for him. His life was changed instantly from being an alcoholic to not touching another drink.
That same Peter, that party animal, when he met Jesus Christ, said, "Get away from me, for I am an evil man, Lord." The Lord used him to head up the church. Do you know that the legend goes that when Peter was caught and eventually crucified, he asked them to crucify him upside-down because he said he was not worthy of being crucified like his Lord.
We love Jesus Christ today; there must be a change in our lives.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 23rd of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Peter 3:22:
"…Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him."
Wow! Now that is something to look forward to - angels, authorities, powers submitted to our beloved Jesus, and more than that - He is seated at the right hand of our Heavenly Father. It doesn't get bigger than that, does it? You know, we get let down so often with worldly things; well, I do anyway. We get the big build-up to the World Cup Final - and it is, its amazing, its awesome, it comes, but it goes, it's finished. We look forward to some event, it happens. Let's think about Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. I remember that day very clearly, "One step for man and one giant step for mankind." What a day that was! I came back from Israel at the end of last year, we took over 300 pilgrims to the Promised Land, and I want to tell you something, we had a beautiful meeting on the southern steps of where the old, former temple was situated, we had a praise and worship evening that I will never forget. We were told that one of the astronauts, with a guide, walked up those very steps that we sat on, the ones that Jesus used to go up to worship in the temple and to teach the people. He said to the guide, "Walking on the moon was nothing when compared to walking up these very steps that the Lord Jesus Christ's feet went up." He said, "There is no comparison."
Well, we need to look up because our best days are still coming. The Lord Jesus Christ has warned us very clearly that when we see all the signs that are happening in the world at the moment, in Luke 21:28, He says:
"Now when these things begin to happen, (and they are happening), look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."
The Lord is coming very soon. Now that's something to look forward to.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 22nd of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 1 Peter 3:10-12:
"He who would love life
And see good days,
Let him refrain his tongue from evil,
And his lips from speaking deceit.
Let him turn away from evil and do good;
Let him seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their prayers;
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
We have got to watch that tongue! If we want to see good days we have to stop speaking death. We have got to start speaking life. "But God…!" You have heard me say that many times before. When someone says, "There is no hope for this place", you say, "But God…!"
"These young people, there's no future for them." But God…!"
"The weather is not good anymore." But God…!
God can change anything. The other day, I was sent a clip from one of my spiritual sons who was having a Mighty Men breakfast, getting ready for the Mighty Men Conferences this year, and the boys were wearing T-shirts and on the T-shirts were two words, "But God…!"
Jesus is against evil, critical, negative talking, but His eyes are open to the prayers of the righteous. You know the old saying - is the glass half full of water or half empty? Well, it depends on who is talking about it. Our altitude is determined by our attitude. That is why I love to be around young people. They are so refreshing. They are so positive, they have vision, they have faith, they have a relationship with a living God. You see, everything is new and exciting for them. They don't question God's Holy Word, they just take it and believe it and they act upon it. Zachariah 4:6:
"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the Lord of hosts."
They take the word of God literally. I spoke to one of my young grandsons this past weekend, and I started speaking about vision. He is finishing university and he has got his whole life in front of him, and as I started speaking to him about vision and about the fact that we can do anything if we will just believe in the God of Heaven and Earth, if we just believe in Jesus Christ, my own faith was encouraged by speaking to him about the possibilities that God has for a man who is prepared to trust Him.
Today, trust the Lord, watch what you say and your life will be transformed.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, 21st January 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Book of Colossians 3:11:
“…where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.”
What a beautiful scripture from the Lord! Paul said,
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21.
Is Christ all in all for you today, my dear friend? I sincerely hope so because there is nothing else in this world at the moment that is stable, true and honest. I want to say to you today that He has become everything in my life. I really mean that. I don’t have to go to church to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, we do have a church on the farm, Shalom, and I do attend every single Sunday when I am here but I don’t have to go to church to find the Lord. No, He lives inside my heart, so if we die we go to Heaven and if we live, He lives with us, so you cannot frighten a Christian with Heaven, can you?
I picked up this beautiful little verse from an unknown author. This is what it says:
The service of Christ is the business of my life,
The will of Christ is the law of my life,
The presence of life is the joy of my life
and the glory of Christ is the crown of my life.
Wasn’t that beautiful? Have a wonderful day, and be sure to invite the Lord Jesus Christ into every part of your life, the hidden part and also the outward part.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Saturday morning, the 20th of January 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start with John 20:29:
Jesus said to him, "Thomas because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
To trust in the Lord, whom we haven't seen with our physical eyes, takes Faith. I want to give you an example - We have a men's prayer meeting at Shalom at 5:00 in the morning, and we've been doing it for years. I can't see it when I leave my little house and get in my pickup to drive up to the church, but I know it's there. Now, I know it's there because we have a big cross just in front of the church, and that is because it has a timed switch on it. When the sun goes down at night, the light comes on - a beautiful big cross.
Some pilots heading to the nearby airport have told us that sometimes, when they lose their bearings coming into land at night, they look for the cross, and the cross directs them. When I drive up to the church for our prayer meeting with faithful men at 05:00, I can't see the church, but I know it's there. How come? Because I can see the light of the cross!
You may not have seen the Lord Jesus Christ physically, but you know He's there. How do you know He's there? Because He lives inside your heart. His Holy Spirit is the light, and Jesus' Word, the Bible, is our Direction. Today, we are not going to walk by sight; we are going to walk by Faith - 2 Corinthians 5:7.
Have a wonderful day today, as you walk by Faith and not by sight because Jesus is there, heaven is there, and we are going to get there one of these days, very soon.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 19th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 1 Peter 3:8:
"Finally," - I like that word, "Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; …"
Folks, I want to say to you, thats it, that's finally what Jesus is saying - a friendly smile, a wave. Do you know what that does for somebody? In my younger days I used to do a few marathon runs and I want to tell you I have seen love in those marathons like I haven't seen anywhere else and unfortunately, sometimes I don't even see it in a church, and especially towards the end of the race when everyone has got blisters, they are tired, they are exhausted, and then to see somebody smile at you, pass you a piece of orange just to help you along your way, give you a bottle of water because they see you are thirsty. I want to say, that love is unprecedented.
You know, when we watch the mighty Comrades Marathon which takes place in South Africa every year, we are looking at almost 90 kms, and it is hot and mountainous. The thing that really brings me to tears when I watch it every year, and I say this with the greatest respect, is not the man who comes through with the gold medal. No look, we admire him and we honour him. It's right before the final gun is going to go off to close the gate; anybody else coming through after that is disqualified, and to see people, arms around each other and running together, sometimes crawling, that love is amazing and I believe it touches the heart of Jesus.
Now we are not all Comrades runners but you know something, we can all say to somebody when they are trying to get into a queue, stand back a bit and let them go ahead of you, and somebody screaming past you, instead of shaking your fist, have a bit of compassion, you never know, it might be an emergency - maybe they have to get a loved one to hospital. Most of all, let's be Jesus to the people in the street. The love of God will bring them to Christ quicker than any Bible-punching or verse-quoting.
Let's smile for Jesus today,
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 18th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We kick off with Isaiah 31:1:
“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
And rely on horses,
Who trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
Nor seek the Lord!”
Then we go to that very well-known scripture in Psalm 20:7:
’Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.`’
I want to tell you about the Wall Street crash in 1929. The stock market in America, which affected the whole world, crashed, and they lost around 14 billion dollars in one single day! Now, remember, we are talking about a hundred years ago, so I don’t know what it would be worth today, in a single day, and that was the start of the Great Depression that went right around the world. They say that there were men who literally jumped out of their building windows and committed suicide - an absolute crash which has been unprecedented - people putting in their faith, their trust, their blood, sweat and tears in the stock market, in their investments - it crashed in one day!
Look what the Lord says in Isaiah 55:1, He says:
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.”
I want to say to you today, yes, we have got to work hard, we have got to be clever, we have got to invest our money, but our trust must be in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us concentrate today on things that money cannot buy. How about starting to love our family, and how about trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for our health? What about working on our friendships? That will bring us peace of mind that no investment can ever bring us in this world, and lastly, to be content.
Have a wonderful day today,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 17th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 15:8:
"By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."
We glorify our Heavenly Father by bearing much fruit. Now you are asking me what kind of fruit? Well, that fruit is found in Galatians 5:22-23. This is the fruit we are talking about - love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
You know folks, I am a farmer and I can tell you now, when we plant a crop and that crop does not produce fruit, whether it is a mealie stalk and it has got no cob, whether it is a cabbage that is just not forming, whether it be a fruit tree that is just not bearing fruit, we take it out. We take it out; I tell you why - because it is taking up space, it's using up fertiliser, and it is bearing absolutely nothing. We get nothing back from that. We are ruthless. We actually send workers through with cane knives and machetes, and anything that is not performing is taken out. This year, 2024, let's start producing fruit. I am not talking about walking around Bible-bashing people. I am not talking about walking around and quoting scripture and condemning people because they are not going to church. No, I am talking about loving people.
I remember at one of the Mighty Men Conferences on a Sunday morning, I was walking down the sawdust trail going up to the platform to preach the last message. The tent was packed. It was a small one before the big one in 2008. It was a 5000-seater tent, and as I walked down the sawdust trail, I felt the Holy Spirit say, "Put your hand on this man's shoulder and tell Him that I love him." I stopped, put my hand on his shoulder and I said, "Sir, I want to tell you something, Jesus loves you", and I walked up to the platform and preached the message. About two weeks later, we got an email from that same man. He said, "I had been at that conference from Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning when you walked in." He said, "The music was wonderful, the message was good, but I don't remember any of them, not even the message on Sunday morning. I remember only one thing - you touched me on my shoulder, you looked into my face and you told me that God loves me, and at that moment, I committed my life to Christ."
Let us bear fruit this year,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 16th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 30:21:
“Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.”
Then we go to the Book of Joshua 1:7:
“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.”
The Way - now, who is The Way? Well, in John 14:6, Jesus said very clearly, “I am the way…” This year, let us start following the right way and stop going down one-way streets and cul-de-sacs so that when we get to the bottom, we just have to turn around and come back again. I was speaking to an old friend of mine yesterday. We were reminiscing a little bit, and we were talking about the Mighty Men Conferences that we had at Shalom Farm; he was one of the directors of the traffic, and he was an usher. He had a bright yellow bib on him and said he was standing in the main road approaching the farm and trying to direct the drivers into a certain entrance but the drivers were so intent on following their Garmins, that they literally drove right past him! He says he was standing in the middle of the road, literally doing star jumps, trying to catch the drivers’ attention and they would drive straight past him, all the way up to the church and of course to be told, “You took the wrong turning. You have to go back. There is a man with a yellow vest on and he will direct you” and they had to come back again.
Don’t do that this year - this year, let us hear the voice of the Lord and He will show us the way.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 15th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 53:5:
“But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.”
What beautiful words! Then we go straight to 1 Peter 2:24:
“…by whose stripes you were healed.”
Healed! I want to say to you today, so often we forget and we neglect the mere fact that Jesus Christ has paid for it all on the tree when He was crucified, and as He was dying He said, “It is finished!” - and He meant it. I want to say to you my dear friend, please receive the promise of God that you are healed, you are forgiven and you are set free. Healed physically, healed mentally and more importantly, healed emotionally. Jesus has done it all. What is our part in this? To simply, by faith, believe. Now I want to pray for you, a very special prayer, and I really mean it because I have also been praying for you before I recorded this message. Please listen to this prayer and receive it for yourself:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I want to thank You for what You have done for me, not only for me but for my loved ones and my friends. Lord, You said that by the stripes that You received from the beating that You got, we have been healed. We have been healed of that sickness, we have been healed from disease, we have been healed from fear, we have been set free from evil thoughts and we have been given new life. Today, we want to simply say, thank You Lord, for healing me.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 14th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 34:8:
"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!"
Then we go to the Book of Isaiah 30:18,
"Blessed are all those who wait for Him."
The last one is in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke 10:41-42:
And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."
Wait on the Lord. Do not rush into things this year. You know the old saying, "The farmer makes a plan"? Well, I want to tell you, not one of mine has ever worked. We need to wait and the Lord will show us His plan. I knew a farmer who had a farm, not too far from here, and his farm looked like a scrap heap. It was half full of used agricultural equipment, and it must have been worth a fortune. He was always trying to make a plan, never, never giving it an opportunity to work. He would plant potatoes, buy equipment for that, then he would change. He would start putting in maize, and then he would change again and he would put in a wheat crop and then he would change again and that is how a man goes bankrupt. He would then be planting tomatoes, then he would try cabbages. He was a very hard-working man but too impatient. So was Martha, remember? But Jesus said Mary has chosen a much better way.
Let us sit down today and taste and see that the Lord is good. Let's take time with the Lord Jesus today and enjoy what He has prepared for us. Don't rush. I want to say something to dads and young men. Please enjoy the meal that mom has prepared for you. Taste it. Don't just gobble it down because you have got to go. Sit down and enjoy the meal, and it will do you a lot more good, by the way. You won't get any reflux or heartburn, will you? And by the way and very importantly, don't forget to say, "Thank you, mom", "Thank you, my darling, that was a beautiful meal."
Take time to wait on the Lord.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 13th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of James 1:2-3:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."
Are you going through a tough time today? Are you saying, "Lord, why? What's happening?" Sometimes, it is our biggest opportunity to be witnesses for Jesus. If I look back on my own life, the things which I remember clearly are not all the victories I have had. No, they are actually the tough times I went through because that is when the Lord Jesus Christ was closest to me. Through these trials and hardships we learn to grow strong in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That gnarled thorn tree you find growing in the desert has taken years and years to grow. It has gone through droughts, years of no rain, no water, and it is strong. It has gone through wind and persecution. It is gnarled, but that wood is very dense. If you cut one of those branches, you will see the pith - thats the centre part. It is strong and very, very big. When you try to pick up one of those branches, you feel like you are picking up a railway line. It is very, very heavy. It is very hard to pick up a 2-metre length of that hard thorn tree or wood. When you make a fire on a cold night with that wood, that fire burns for the whole night, but not so with the poplar tree.
The poplar tree is planted in the wetland. That tree never struggles for water, it's a very fast-growing tree, and it grows very tall. It is a beautiful tree but when you harvest it, it is very light. It weighs nothing, a paperweight. You pick up a 2-metre length of that wood and you can hardly feel it. It is not used for very much. It does not have much use. They make matches out of poplar wood but it does not give you much warmth when you make a fire and the fire goes out and burns up very quickly.
I want to say to you today, we need to be like that thorn tree. We need to stand on the Word of God; we need to grow through our hardships and trials. He is teaching us to be strong believers in our faith. Today, remember the thorn tree. The thorn tree is the one that brings warmth, security and it is strong because its roots are deep and they are deep in the Word of God. Jesus Christ is our only support.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 12th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 45:9:
“Woe to him who strives with his Maker!”
Do not strive with God! He is too big for us, don’t even go there. The next scripture is Isaiah 64:8:
“But now, O Lord,
You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand.”
He is the potter, and we are merely the clay. Oh, we must never forget that. The Lord spoke to Job very clearly in Job 38:4: He said:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”
It says earlier, “Stand up like a man now and answer me.” Who do we actually think we are, questioning God? Some people say to me, “When I meet with the Lord one day, He will have to give me some answers.” No. No, you have got it wrong, my dear friend. It would be like an ant walking down a path in the forest and a bull-elephant coming from the other side and the ant telling the bull elephant to move out of the way because he is coming through. It is ludicrous! Now, I like that word, “ludicrous”. I looked it up in the Oxford Dictionary. It means absurd, ridiculous, laughable, insane, mad, stupid!
But seriously, it is like Pontius Pilate telling Jesus that he has the authority of life or death over Him.
“Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”John 19:10
Absolutely ridiculous! Those of us who are thumping the table and saying, “When I meet with God, with Jesus, in Heaven one day, He is going to have to give me some answers” - Oh, we don’t even know what we are talking about! We can be very grateful that we have a Lord who is slow to anger and quick to forgive. Today, let us be grateful that we have a loving God who loved us so much that He died for us so that you and I could have eternal life.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 11th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
Nehemiah 8:10, in the Old Testament:
“Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Then we go to the Gospel of John 10:10:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
This morning, you and I have a choice to make. It is a very serious decision we are going to make. Are we going to allow the devil to steal our joy or not? Are we going to take and live the life of abundance that Jesus has freely given to you and me? The choice does not belong to the devil. The choice is ours. We are not speaking here about material things; we are speaking more importantly about spiritual things, which are of much more serious importance.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and he loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36
We can’t buy joy. We can’t earn happiness. It is found within our very soul. At all costs, do not lose it.
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”1 Timothy 6:6
Now, why am I sharing this thought with you today? Because my daughter and her husband bought my wife and me a little gift, a six-week-old puppy. I can tell you this puppy is enjoying an abundant life. It is a miniature tornado! It is not concerned about tomorrow; it is just enjoying everything its little eyes see, whatever it eats and touches until it is totally exhausted, and then it lies down on its blanket, goes to sleep for about an hour and then gets up and it is ready again! I looked at this and I thought, “Lord, look how happy and full of joy and excitement this puppy is.”
Today my dear friend, let us go and enjoy this abundant life that Jesus has created for you and I.
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 10th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 28:29:
“This also comes from the Lord of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.”
The greatest Councillor that you and I will ever find is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the greatest Guide to lead us through the wilderness we are living in now is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no better guide in the bush than a local who lives in that area. There are no better councillors in the world than the grey beards, the men and women who have walked the road for many, many years.
When I was a young man and I started farming with seed maize, I had very limited machinery. I had a little two-row planter, and I could only plant two rows of maize at a time. Today, I see these amazing machines - they plant up to twenty rows at a time. These men will plant 50, 100 hectares of maize in one day. It would take me literally three weeks and longer. One year the rain just wasn’t coming and the time was passing by and I felt that my Councillor was telling me to hitch up that machine and start planting in the dust. Now any farmer listening to this would tell you that that would be suicide because what happens is, there is enough moisture in the soil to germinate the seed but not enough to get it out of the ground. It dies and rots in the ground, but I really felt strongly that I had to get started otherwise I would never get the crop in and I started planting in the dust. I think my neighbours were looking over the fence and saying, “He has lost his marbles completely this time,” but I carried on. I felt that the Lord was guiding me. I planted and it was so dusty that the drivers had to ask for goggles because they couldn’t see where they were going but I kept on planting. I got in more than half the crop and then eventually the rain came, but when it came, it came with a vengeance, it did not stop. It rained night and day for weeks but I had got my crop in, in time, and as a result we had a beautiful crop that year.
Your Councillor is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you read just a little bit before in this very chapter of Isaiah, He will tell you that the ploughman doesn’t plough all day long, and there are certain crops that you plant in a certain way, and there are certain ways of reaping those plants. Listen to Jesus, He will tell you what to do, when to do it and when not to do it.
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 9th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the First Book of Peter 2:2:
“…as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,…”
We need new milk when we are born again. When we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ as Christians, we need new milk. Now that milk is essential. Without that new milk, or colostrum, the baby can die. As a farmer, we often get a cow that will die at birth; if that calf does not get colostrum from its mother, the chances of its survival are very slim.
I remember very distinctly when I was a young farmer, we had a beautiful cow on the farm. I did not have many cows in those days and I cherished every one of them. This cow got into a fight with another cow and it actually died. It was nine months pregnant. I ran into the kitchen and took the first knife I could find, now please ladies, bear with me, I know this might be a bit gruesome - but this is the honest truth. The cow had actually died. I took that knife, I cut the stomach of the cow open and I took out a beautiful baby calf. The calf would have been born within hours. I got a rough sack and I rubbed it, got it breathing and then I put it straight onto it’s mother’s udder and it started drinking colostrum. That first milk is full of antibodies, it protects the calf for the first few months from any diseases on the farm, and that calf grew into the most beautiful cow and gave me many, many babies after that.
We need the Word of God. You cannot survive without the Word of God. You say, “Well, I gave my life to the Lord in 1975.” It doesn’t matter when you gave your life to the Lord, you need new milk every single day. That's what I do. Every morning, the Lord gives me colostrum, first milk, and it helps me to survive all the infections that this fallen world will try and bring against me. Please, this year, spend time in the Word every single morning, and you will grow strong in the Lord.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 8th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with 1 Peter 1:24-25:
"All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the Lord endures forever."
We do not trust in man's empty promises but only in the infallible Word of God, the Bible. Come on now, folks, let's be honest with ourselves - We can't even trust ourselves, can we? You know, if we look at the great apostle Paul, and he was a wonderful man of God, but look what he says himself in Romans 7:19:
"For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice."
Then we go down towards verse 24, he says:
"O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?"
Even Paul, the apostle who made Jesus face-to-face on the road to Damascus, did things he didn't want to do and didn't do things he should have.
My dear friend, let us put our trust only in the Word of God; then we will be trustworthy. As we face 2024, we've got to do it with the Bible. We've got to do it by trusting in the Lord. Remember that old song:
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow
Because he lives, all fear is gone
Because I know, yes I know, He holds the future
And life is worth the living, just because he lives.
So we can face the future because we know the Lord is going with us. Have a wonderful day; Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 7th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Isaiah 40:31:
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
As we prepare ourselves, and some are ready - many of us are even in the race already for 2024, we need to hear what the Word of God says.
Now, George Matheson, the blind Scottish preacher, said a profound thing: "To fly with the eagles belongs to the young soul..." It's a romantic time in your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is when you are newly saved - You've just come into a beautiful relationship with the Lord and feel like you are flying about 30,000 feet above sea level. It's a different story to walk the road of the world, to keep yourself pure and clean, not to become defiled. When you are walking amongst wealthy people who are operating in the flesh and not in the Spirit of God - that takes a mature Christian. He says to be able to shine like the Lord, to make your stand, sometimes alone, with the principles you believe in, that type of walking is a lot harder than flying up into the high places where the Eagle flies. He says if we can do that, keeping ourselves pure and clean while walking through all the mud and all the rubbish, shining like lights and leading other people. He says, then, we have surpassed the flight of the Eagle.
So today, let us remember we need to be where the people are. The people are not all flying like eagles, I can assure you. Many of them are crawling, trying to make it to the finish line. We need to walk with them, pick them up, pray with them, dust them off, and, if need be, carry them across the finish line.
Jesus bless you as you have a peaceful Sunday.
God bless you, goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 6th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 28:10. The Lord says:
"For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little."
That is how you and I will get through this year, 2024. This is not a 100-metre sprint; it is a long-distance race. There are 366 days that we are going to move through and we are going to do it slowly, very slowly, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. Now, if you read this chapter you will see that the Pharisees, the so-called intellectuals, theological intellectuals, pooh-poohed this. They said, "This is for children, it's not for us." But I want to tell you that the Lord has written this for every one of us. He has shown us very clearly that we need to do it His way; otherwise, it is not going to work.
We had an old lady who lived here with us at Shalom for many, many years, a very faithful intercessor. Her name was Aunty Peggy. Aunty Peggy used to write poems for me. I still have them in my possession. She called herself Tortoise O'Neal, that was her surname, Peggy O'Neal, and she called me Buchan Hare, because I was always running flat out all over the place, and she was just quietly walking along and she always got to the top of the hill before me, normally with a nice ice cold Coke. Aah, folks - line upon line, precept upon precept! We really need to understand this principle of the Lord.
How do you eat an elephant? One mouthful at a time. How do you run a thousand miles? One footstep at a time. We really need to pace ourselves this year and obey the word of God. Do you know, this scripture is so serious, that the Lord repeats it in verse 13 of Isaiah 28. He says:
"Line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."
That's how your business will succeed, that's how you will get your degree, how you will finish strong, and how your crop will be nice and golden to harvest if you persevere with it, slowly but surely.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 5th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the First Book of Peter 1:23:
”…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,…”
Incorruptible seed - you know, I was a seed maize farmer when I was younger. It is a very sensitive crop to grow. You really have to be on top of your game. As a seed maize farmer, you are trying to develop a very pure seed without any other types of maize growing in that crop for the company you are growing for. You have young maize inspectors who come to your farm every day. These are young guys; they put on their takkies, are fit, are strong, take a cattle counter with them, and walk through your crop every day. I was growing about a hundred hectares of maize, 240 acres of maize and 35,000 plants per hectare, and if they found 1% - that is one corruptible plant in a hundred, they condemned the crop. We had to take a gyro mower and mow it down, which would have meant literal bankruptcy for me in those days. The reason why they did it is because when they sold their product to the public, to the commercial farmer, they wanted the commercial farmer to see that their seed was pure, that there was nothing in it that was not supposed to be there.
Now, the Lord Jesus Christ says you and I must be born again. That is not a charismatic, a Pentecostal, or an evangelical term. That is a Jesus term. Jesus said we must be born again. Why? Because we have to start afresh. So I want to pray for you as we close that this year, 2024, God will only allow pure, incorruptible seed in your life. It comes through spending time reading the Bible, the word of God, and then the things that come out of your mouth are pure because you are speaking what you have been reading, what you have been praying, and having fellowship with other believers who are also of that incorruptible seed. Pray this prayer after me, please:
Dear Lord Jesus,
At the start of this new year, 2024, I commit my life entirely into your hands. I thank You, Lord, and ask You to please keep me pure so that I can finish this race without any corruptible seed damaging my life. Make me a blessing, not only to You but to my fellow man.
In Jesus Name, amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 4th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Psalm 23:1 (Written by a shepherd):
"The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want."
Then we go straight to Philippians 4:19:
"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."
I believe that the Lord wants us to spend more time in solitude with Him this year and much more time in silence, listening to Him and spending time in His Presence. When you do that, you become a lot more observant. You become slower to speak and quicker to listen. God speaks to his children, often through nature. King David is possibly the greatest king that ever lived in Israel, next to our master, Jesus Christ.
Where was his training ground? That's right, he was a shepherd! He spent hours on his own, with his sheep - where he wrote these beautiful Psalms and sang to the Lord on his harp. He spent time getting strong in the Lord - We must do the same to finish this race strongly.
One of my uncles was a shepherd - Uncle Ronnie was very quiet and observant. He was a lovely man to be near. He gave a spirit of peace whenever you were in his presence. He was a chronic asthmatic and spent a lot of time in the hospital. As a result, he didn't have much schooling, so he became a shepherd. He wasn't physically strong, but he was one of the most sought-after shepherds in his area because of his incredible relationship with his sheepdogs. His sheepdogs were quite something to watch! They did all the work for him - Why was he in such a position? Because he spent time with his dogs and he spent time with his ship. As a result, he was an incredible stockman and very sought-after. He spent hours in the presence of these animals - This year, we need to spend more time with the Lord and less time running around. We need to sit in the presence of the Lord, and He will direct our paths.
Jesus bless you, and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 3rd of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with 1 Peter 1:13:
"Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."
Gird up the loins of your mind! We must understand we are on a critical journey; our destination is heaven, but there is a long road for us to walk. The other night, I watched a television programme about the Tuareg people (I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly) of the Sahara Desert. They say that the Sahara Desert is their country, hardy people
that operate on camels. Every year, they prepare for a journey of about 1,000 km through the most treacherous terrain on earth. They go to buy salt from a specific place where it is quarried.
Hundreds of camels go with these people, but what fascinated me was their preparation before they set out on their journey. They sew up goat skins where they put water so no drop escapes. They dry out dates and take millet to eat a gruel on this journey. They have one very experienced man who takes them through the desert, which goes week after week through dunes with no sign of any directions. That man is the son of a man who did it before him and him before his father.
They prepared correctly. They girded up their loins for the journey and made it every time. They don't stop, whether there's a sandstorm and they can't see one yard ahead - They keep going. They're experienced, seasoned men. I was amazed at their concentration, their discipline and the hope that they had for their destination.
Now, as followers of Jesus Christ, you and I need to do the same as we start 2024. We need to gird up our loins, be sober and rest in the hope of Jesus Christ. Remember, the writer is saying gird up the loins of your mind - it's the mind, my dear friends, that we need to protect to get to our destination, heaven, and meet with the Lord.
Have a wonderful day as you start to prepare for the remainder of this journey that you are taking, on this earth. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 2nd of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Psalm 46:10:
"Be still, and know that I am God..."
As I'm recording this today, I'm thinking more of the mums and the grandmothers, the ladies who have worked so hard over Christmas - Cooking and cleaning and taking care of the children and the older folks; you are tired. I know you're tired - the Lord says we must be still and know He is God.
I want to tell all those men who have had to fill in because they don't have any extra staff - you're exhausted. You don't want to look ahead to 2024 because you feel you won't cope. I've got excellent news for you: you will cope because Jesus is going with you! He will walk every step of the way for 2024 with you. It's not a case of just coming inside and saying, "I just wish I could get some rest" - we've got to learn from the Swallow. We have got to learn to rest 'on the wing'. He hardly touches the ground when the Swallow leaves Europe and comes down to Africa. He eats and catnaps on the wing while it's flying - it's incredible! We've got to do the same. It's no good coming aside for a couple of weeks and expecting to get rest. It doesn't work like that, not with me anyway. We must learn to rest on the wing.
One step at a time... How do you cover a thousand miles? One step at a time. How do you eat an elephant? One mouthful at a time! I heard a story of a tough, old boss - The worker came to him and said, "I am so tired wheeling barrow-fulls of sand from one area to another." The boss said, "Why are you so tired? When you're not pushing the wheelbarrow, you're resting. And you're still resting when you're not shovelling sand into the barrow and pushing the barrow. Just get on with the job, you're resting all the time!"
We have to pace ourselves this year. We've got to take one step at a time. We have to think carefully; we are living in perilous times, and we will only get through this if we do it Jesus' way. He says: "Be still and know that I am God. Every morning, I will give you enough Grace for the day." Just like He did for the Israelites when they left Egypt, they got fresh manna from heaven daily. They tried to collect extra for the next day, but it went bad - Just enough for the day, that's all we need, and that's how we will get to the promised land.
Jesus bless you, and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 1st of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. First of all, I want to wish you a very happy New Year. A very peaceful New Year, a brand new start! We go to 2 Corinthians 5:17:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
What a beautiful promise from God! The Lord has brought us new life, it's a New Year - It's a brand new start, the old has passed away. I always love to say that the Lord has got a bad memory! When He forgives, He forgets! when you said, "Lord, remember what I did last year?" He says, "No, I don't remember. What did you do?"
We need to press on. It's a new beginning; it's a new year! My dear friend, it's a new opportunity to start your life again. I'm going to pray with you in just a minute. We are going to pray together, you and I. We are going to ask God to forgive us for all the mistakes we made in 2023. We can ask him to 'clear the slate' and give us a new start. You know, I love to see new births, and being a farmer, I have a lot of opportunities to see that. Seeing a newly born calf, a newly-born lamb or a newly-born pony. A little foal that is born - it is quite something! I sit and look in amazement, as does its mother. You know that little calf, after its birth, his mum has a very rough tongue, and she'll come and clean him and make him so fluffy, new and sweet smelling. He stands up and staggers a little bit with those big eyes looking around. The first time he's seeing new life - That is how you and I will be this year. We're going to start again. We are going to put all those bad habits behind us. We will say, "Lord, give us a new beginning, please." A new kick-off, that's right! It's a brand new game, and the scores are on the board; we have already won the match, in Jesus Christ!
Please pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for giving me a new beginning. Thank you, Lord, that I can see 2024. I never thought it would happen, but you've given me a new opportunity to make a new start. Lord, by your grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I thank you by Faith that
it is going to be the best year of my life so far! In Jesus' Name, amen. Happy New Year!
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 31st of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. I want to speak to you about a defining moment in your life and defining moments in the world. John 3:16 spells it out clearly, and I want you to read it to you out of the New King James version:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
A defining moment in the universe's history - when God came down from Heaven to live with us on Earth, in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a defining moment. We are now facing the end of 2023 and are about to embark on the exciting thought of 2024. You have to make some defining decisions in your life. The dictionary says, "Certain or sure about something." Have you made a defining decision in your life? Have you decided to change your ways to walk in the power, love and discretion of Jesus Christ? He will give you a completely new outlook on life. He's done it for me and will do it for you.
Let us leave all the baggage, pain and all the disappointments of 2023 behind us. Let us make a brand new start; let's clean the board and start 2024 with Jesus Christ in full control of our lives. Then you will see some exciting developments in your life.
Father, I pray for my friends as they face a new year, some with fear and uncertainty, others with excitement. Some do not know what to expect, but one thing we do know is that the Lord Jesus Christ is going before us. We ask this in Jesus' Name, amen.
I want to wish you a very, very special 2024! God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 30th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Mark 1:15, Jesus says:
"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."
As we are facing the dawn of a new year, we are reminded by our Lord that the time is fulfilled. I don't know how many of us will see the end of 2024 because either the Lord will come or we will meet him. We need to understand one thing - Time is very short! When I was a young man, I never heard many young people talking about being concerned with the coming of the Lord. Older people would talk about time, how its running out, and how they're getting old. Nowadays, I hear young people just as concerned about the urgency of the hour. We must not waste precious time. Benjamin Franklin, former president of the United States of America said: "One today is worth two tomorrows." Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today.
A few years back, a very dear member of our family was quite ill, and we knew that he was going to go home, any day, to be with the Lord, a very strong, mature Christian. One afternoon at about 5 o'clock, I had a very strong sense in my spirit that I needed to get in the pickup, go over, pray with this man, and say goodbye to him. I said to my wife Jill, "I'm going now." She said, "But it's quite late." I said, "I know", and the journey was quite long - About an hour's trip. I said I felt I had to go.
Well, I'll tell you, I drove over to that place, and that elderly gentleman was lying in his bed; his family was around him, and I went and joined them. I prayed with him and asked God to bless him. After I left, I was not halfway home when I got a call to say that he had just gone home to be with Jesus. If I had left that appointment for the next day, I would have missed him. Don't miss it - Make that phone call today! Write that email soon. Settled that difference you've got with someone because time is wasting away!
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 29th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Matthew 5:37, Jesus says:
"But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one."
We need to be more decisive. When we start to hesitate, the devil comes in and unsettles us completely. Ezekiel 18:32, which was one of my first memory verses, the Lord says:
For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord God. "Therefore, turn and live!"
When I first read this scripture, I was a little bit confused - Lord, how can you say you have no pleasure in the death of a dying man? What the Lord said to me was that I have no pleasure in an unbeliever who dies. The man who knows Jesus Christ goes home to heaven when he dies. We need to be decisive.
I want to be quite honest with you, my friend. One of the most tragic things for me to face up to in my life is someone who I have seen or maybe got saved with and grew up with, in the Lord - A man or woman who has walked with Jesus for twenty or thirty or maybe more years and then to hear a report that they have gone back to their old ways. They have denied the Lord. That is tragic for me! It is better to have never known Him than to have known Him and still rejected Him. The Lord cannot handle that. I want to be honest with you; neither can I. It breaks my heart. When you have tasted things of eternity, how can you return to eating the onions, garlic, and melons in Egypt? Please do not do that! We are coming to the end of the year; we are about to face a brand new year - 2024. Let's face it together with Jesus and not without him
God bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 27th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Proverbs 15:29:
"The Lord is far from the wicked,
But He hears the prayer of the righteous."
Then we go to 2 Kings 5:1
"Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honourable man in the eyes of his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valour, but a leper."
Naaman had leprosy. I want to talk to you today about the power of the prayer of faith. Now, Naaman was well-loved by his people. One of the servants working in his home came and said, "There is a man, a prophet, who prays for the sick, and God heals them." So eventually his people persuaded him to go to the little home of Elisha. We go to verse 10:
“And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean."
Now, straight away, Naaman was very insulted because that prophet never came out of his hut to greet the commander of the army of Syria; that was number one. Number two, the prophet sent a message to him to go and wash seven times in the river, and you will be totally healed. He was again very insulted. He said there are much bigger rivers in Syria. Why must I go to wash in this little river? Eventually, he did it, and God healed Him. We need to be very careful with that thing called pride. When somebody wants to pray for you, and you don't feel that they can achieve anything. I'll never turn anyone away who wants to pray for me. Then verse 16:
"But he said, "As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing." And he urged him to take it, but he refused."
Naaman came back after he was healed. He wanted to give Elisha a huge gift. Elisha didn't even come out of his hut. He said I'll receive nothing. It's God who healed you.
We had a beautiful service on Sunday morning at Shalom. There was a fantastic crowd of people. God laid on my heart to go and speak to a man who had had a stroke. He was walking with the stick. He started in a wheelchair and was now using a stick. I took the stick away from him, took him by the hand, and said: "Stand up in the Name of Jesus and walk." He walked right down to the front of the church; the people were rejoicing. Afterwards, a little girl came to me (makes me want to cry); she said, "Uncle Angus, how long have you been performing miracles?" I said, "Daniela, I can't perform any miracles. Jesus alone is the Miracle Worker."
Have a wonderful day, and trust God for your miracle. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 27th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with James 5:7-8:
“Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
I have been farming for over 50 years and have been an impulsive person by nature. One of the hardest things to learn is to be patient; if you don't believe me, please ask my wife. But the Lord has taught me, through farming, to wait patiently for the crop. We plough the land, prepare the fields, plant the seed, and then wait patiently. As a younger farmer, I would go out after a few days and start digging in the field. So much so that my fingernails would be worn down, looking to see whether the seeds had germinated. The Lord taught me, after many years, to leave it in His Hands.
We must also be patient for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ because He is coming. We need to wait and be prepared for His soon coming. He says, patiently wait and establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. It could be today; it could be tomorrow. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming back on a beautiful White Horse. He's coming in the clouds - That's why I'm a cloud watcher! Every morning when I wake up, Lord, could it be today that you're coming back to take us home? I want to tell you even as a farmer sees those beautiful little plants push through the ground miraculously one morning. After about three weeks after being planted and a beautiful shower of rain has fallen in the night before, you see those green lines of maize coming through the ground. It brings joy to your heart; it is a miracle! That's what will happen when the Lord Jesus Christ comes the second time! So let's be patient and wait for He is coming in indeed.
Jesus bless you. Have a lovely day goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 26th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the book of James 4:7-8:
"Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
Today, we are faced with choices. Are we going to persist and listen to the lies of the devil, or are we going to believe the promises of God spoken over us? The devil says: "You'll never make it. He says, "You are the same as your father. He was an alcoholic, and you'll be one as well." The devil says: "There's no hope for you. People have said you're a waster, and that's what you are." That's how the devil talks, but Jesus says: "You are more than a conqueror." Jesus says, "You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you." Philippians 4:13
The devil tells you that you'll never shake that habit. Jesus says:
"... if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17
We need to resist the devil. We can't say, "Well, that's just how it is..." It's not folks! We weren't born like that; all of us were born the same. We need to start to draw near to God. He has promised He will draw near to us.
I heard a story about that old plumber from Yorkshire, Smith Wigglesworth - He was visiting a farm in South Africa in the old days. In the middle of the night, he heard a groaning in the corner of his bedroom. He reached out for a candle, struck it, and held it out. There, he saw the most grotesque picture of a growling demon. He looked at the demon and said: "Oh, it's only you!" He blew the candle out and went back to sleep!
You can deal with the devil - he is a liar, a thief and a bully. There's nothing good in him. By the way, he is a coward, so the Lord says, resist him, and he will flee from you!
Have a wonderful day. God bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 25th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. I want to start by wishing you a very blessed, happy and peaceful Christmas day. I also want to thank you on behalf of my family and our team for being such good friends to us for almost four years now - can you believe it? Where is the time going? Happy, blessed Christmas to you!
We start with the book of Matthew 1:23:
"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."
It's called Christmas that's right! What a miracle Luke 1:37:
“For with God, nothing will be impossible."
I'm praying for you, over this Christmas period, that you will rest with your loved ones, but most of all, that you will spend time with Emmanuel - God with us. What a miracle to think that the Lord Jesus Christ could come down from Heaven to Earth as a baby. Not only that but to be born through the womb of a woman who has never known a man, talk about miracles! Any gynaecologist will tell you it's impossible, but it happened. Remember, God does not tell lies.
"God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
You'll find that in Numbers 23:19. I want to say to you today: believe God for your miracle, whatever it might be. If you are trusting to go to university and they've closed the doors - You need to pray according and trust the Lord that the door will be opened. If you are trusting the Lord that this coming year you're going to find your husband or wife. You want to get married and you've been waiting for a long time - Trust God for your miracle. Emmanuel, for with God, nothing will be impossible. Maybe you want to launch a brand new business. This is the time to talk about it - Tell your loved ones.
It's a time to be happy. Why? Because God came down from Heaven to Earth, in the form of a baby, and He's with us today through the power of His Holy Spirit. Now remember that beautiful scripture in Romans 8:11:
"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies..."
Today, trust God for your miracle, and have a very happy and blessed Christmas. To you and your loved ones: Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 24th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with James 5:17-18:
"Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit."
I love that this scripture stresses that Elijah was an ordinary man, just like you and me. Let's go to Mark 11:24:
"Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."
That's Jesus speaking. I want to say to you that God honours the prayer of faith. God doesn't honour prayer; He honours the prayer of faith. There's no good praying a prayer and then doubting whether it will happen - "Well, I'm gonna pray this prayer, and I hope something comes of it." No, by faith, we've got to find out the will of God in that situation, and then we must pray accordingly, with faith, and God will do the rest. "When men work, they work, but when men pray, God works." We need to pray the prayer of faith!
Do you know the story of the old lady who was just about to go to bed? She looked out the window, and there was a big mountain in front of her little house. She prayed, "Lord, I'm praying that when I wake up tomorrow morning, the mountain will be gone." She drew the curtains, got into her bed and went sound asleep. The next morning, she woke up early, opened the curtains, and the mountain still stood there. Her remark was, "Oh ya, I thought so..." No faith in that prayer. I want to tell you I don't know how many times, mainly through desperation, I have prayed: "Jesus, please send the rain!" or "Jesus, please stop the rain!" Floods and droughts, and I've seen the Lord answer my prayers too many times to believe it is just a coincidence. God honours the prayer of faith.
As we look forward to Christmas day tomorrow, I want to wish you a very peaceful and joyful Christmas Eve, and I want you to start to pray, like I'm going to, more often and, most of all, begin praying the prayer of faith. Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 23rd of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Proverbs 28:20:
"A faithful man will abound with blessings..."
Then we go straight to Ephesians 1:3:
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ..."
My wife Jill heard a little quotation from some anonymous person: "If you want pleasant thoughts, count your blessing, not your cash."
I want to read you a prayer that was re-written as a song by Jim Reeves, the Farmer and the Lord:
While resting the other evening by the side of the road
I saw an old farmer in the field that he just sowed
His face was all brown and wrinkled from the sun and the wind
And he was talking to the Lord just like he'd be talking to a friend
Well sir, he said with his voice calm and quiet
Them corn tassels need stackin' I got no strenght to tie it
Had no rain in so long that the fields are mighty dusty
And it's been so unbearable hot that the kids were even gettin' fussy
Now that grass down and the pasture it should be knee high
If we could just have a little shower Lord
It might keep the calf from going dry
Oh but listen to me talking you'd think I wasn't grateful
Why if you didn't know me so well Lord
You'd think I was down right hateful
You'd think I frogot about that new calf that you sent
And the money in the mail that took care of the rent
Mama's cold better and Johnny's home from the navy
And that good Sunday dinner of chicken and dumplings and gravy
And that new preacher you sent us Lord he's sure a fine young man
Why he's just convertin' them sinners to beat the band
Well guess I'll mosey on home now Lord
I won't take no more your time
Guess there's plenty folks here about waitin' to ring your line
Evening to you Lord and watch us over tonight
And don't you worry about us now Lord
'Cause everything is gonna be all right
Jesus bless you, and have a lovely day. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 22nd of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to Proverbs 18:24:
"A man who has friends [a]must himself be friendly,
But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
As I send this message to you, it is still very dark outside. I'm about to leave to visit an old friend who lives about an hour-and-a-half drive away from here. I'm talking about Simeon Bhengu, the man that started farming with me over 40 years ago!
Quite a few years ago, he decided to move to be closer to his extended family; I'm so excited to see him again. He's expecting me, and we will sit down and talk about things we have been through together. About the fires on the farm that we fought, about the droughts that we went through together - The floods that just about washed the farm away and about personal tragedies in our lives where we lost family members. Friendships are built over many, many years. They are built through trust, love and hardship. They are very precious. Please do not neglect old friendships. This is the time of the year to pick up that phone and speak to your friend - Just say: "I just wanted to tell you I love you, and I appreciate you."
I'll tell you one little story about Simeon. He looked after the farm for me when I was away on a campaign, preaching the gospel. I came back expecting to find the tractors planting the maize crop, but nothing was happening in the shed. The tractors were standing still, silent. Dust was blowing across the field, and there was no rain. He came into the office early in the morning, like you always did before the staff arrived, and I was very bleak. I said: "Simeon, where's the rain?" He said, "It's coming." I said, "But Simeon, all I see out there is just dust." He said, "You've just come back from a campaign..." I said, "Yes, we had an amazing time. We saw people give their lives to Jesus, broken hearts mended, marriages restored, and healings taking place..." He stopped me in my tracks, "So you had faith to go and pray for all those people in the campaign but you don't have faith to trust God for the rain?" I repented in front of him straight away and said, "Simeon, you are so right. Get the tractors out, get the planters hitched up, let's go. Let's plant the crop!" We planted, literally, in the dust. The rain did come, and we had an excellent crop.
Spend time with your friend today; by the way, His Name is Jesus Christ. He's the friend that sticks closer than any brother. Have a good chat with Him today; He wants to hear from you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 21st of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Hebrews 13:8:
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
Isn't that so reassuring? In a time when things are so uncertain, Jesus never changes. Then we go to Philippians 1:21, Paul says:
"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
We always say: "You can't frighten a Christian with Heaven!" Can you? If we live, we live for Christ, and if we die, we go home to be with Him in heaven forever. Jesus tells us clearly in Luke 12:29 not to worry and not to be anxious. The very thing that we are worried about may never happen anyway. Carpe Diem - It's one of the few Latin sayings I know. It means to make the most of the present time. Start to enjoy the life God is giving you. Stop worrying about something that may never happen.
I remember reading a story about a man who was told by a doctor that he had a heart problem and that he would die within the next 12 months or so. So he thought to himself, I've got nothing to lose, I'm going to die anyway - He loved climbing mountains. He came out to South Africa and started climbing the peaks of the mighty Drakensberg mountains. I think he even conquered a few of them. He lived to be over 80 years old! We need to make the most of the present time. We need to capitalise on what God has given us. Jesus says in Matthew 6:33:
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
Today, have a day of enjoyment. Enjoy your day, your family, and your situation because maybe tomorrow Jesus will come, and then there'll be no more problems. God bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 20th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to Ezekiel 3:17:
Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me…"
That was one of the foundational scriptures that God used to call me into the work I am doing at present, namely telling people about Jesus Christ. I had a clear picture of a watchman on the top of a castle, and he had a trumpet in his hand. The purpose of that watchman is to keep watch for the people in the city. It is evening time, the people are all settled down, the gates of the castle have been closed so no enemy can come in, and the watchman's purpose is to ensure they are safe. If any enemies are coming, he is to blow the trumpet and warn the people of the ensuing enemy, but unfortunately, the watchman is sound asleep. I saw a picture of the enemy putting ladders on the walls and steadily climbing up to go into the city to destroy it.
You and I have a responsibility; we have an obligation to the world and our families. You see, the scripture is that the Lord has made us watchmen to the House of Israel, which is our own family, to warn them about the soon-coming of the Lord, about the shortage of time. We must warn them about how the devil is coming into many homes in disguise. It all looks entirely innocent, and it all seems quite simple. It is a case of live and let live, but we as watchmen must warn them about truth and righteousness. We need to warn them that our God is a Holy God and love them by telling them the truth.
Today, blow the trumpet and tell the people to prepare themselves for the coming of the Lord.
Jesus blesses you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 19th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to Jeremiah 23:29:
"Is not My word like a fire?" says the Lord,
"And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?'
Then we go straight to the Mark 13:31, Jesus said:
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."
Who is The Word? Jesus is The Word. John 1:14 says:
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
Jesus Christ is The Word. We really need to understand that. He is the hammer that breaks the hard rock into pieces. He is the One who, if we use His word:
"Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."
Jesus' telephone number, that's right, Jeremiah 33:3, "Call unto Me." If we speak the word of God in faith, it will have an incredible impact on our lives. We need to spend time with the Lord. We need to hear His heart in the situation, whether praying for a sick person or seeking the Lord for a good venture in your life. Involve Him in everything you are doing in your day-to-day life.
Gideon went to the Lord and sought a sign. He cast a fleece before the Lord. You will see that in Judges 6:37-40, and the Lord honoured him. Go to the Lord and ask the Lord to give you confirmation, then pray the Word of God, and that hammer will break the rock into pieces. We have done it so many times, haven't we? We went to the Eastern Cape; there was no rain, and we prayed for that empty dam. It is over-flowing as I speak to you now. We forget about these things so quickly, don't we? We have been through drought. We prayed to the Lord, and He sent the rain.
Today, use that hammer. It's the word of God.
Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 18th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Job, some say the oldest book in the Bible, Job 22:29:
"... He will save the humble person."
Then we go to the New Testament to 1 Peter 5:5:
"God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble."
Just say sorry. It's not always easy, is it? Especially when it's not your fault. You say sorry because you've offended somebody. Be humble, always say sorry. It diffuses a potential explosion. Now, to be does not mean that you have to be weak, not at all. Humility is actually controlled strength - That's what it is!
I think one of the most powerful men in the Old Testament was Moses. What kind of a man was Moses? Can you imagine meeting him in heaven?
I'm looking forward to meeting him in heaven. You talk about a 'man's man', a courageous man! Some say he was the greatest leader that ever lived, next to Jesus. He led over a million people through a desert for forty years and took all kinds of abuse from them, yet he never buckled once. If we look at Numbers 12:3, the Bible says:
"Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth."
Now, I want to tell you there was nothing soft about Moses. The softest part of Moses was his teeth, as they say. Can you imagine the fire in those eyes? That of his must have looked like the mane of a lion when he stood on top of Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, and yet he was a humble man. This Christmas time, let us be humble. You know the family are going to be getting together, it's a very emotional time. It's a time when we remember our loved ones; some of them have already gone ahead of us, and some can't be with us. It's a potential opportunity to display Christ's love through humility.
You know, Jesus is an example, isn't he? If we look at John 8:7 when they were going to stone that woman caught in adultery. What did Jesus do? Remember, he was writing in the sand - I'd love to know what he was writing. He looked up and said:
"He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."
They all left. Every one of them dropped his stone and walked because, of course, we are all Sinners. Today, let's be humble in the sight of God.
Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, it's the 17th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. Luke 1:37:
"For with God nothing will be impossible."
What a beautiful promise from the Lord. We must not 'tie' God's hands through unbelief. You see, if we look at Hebrews 11:6, the Word of God says:
"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
My dear friends, God does not tell lies. He can't tell lies because it's not in His nature, Numbers 23:19
"God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"
We have got to believe if we want to receive a miracle. You see, Mary was a young girl; they say she was very young, in fact, maybe in her late teens. But when the Angel of the Lord came to her with a message from God, she chose to believe what God said. If Mary had not believed or rejected it, she would not have had the privilege of being the most blessed woman ever living on this earth. She had the privilege of holding God in her Womb for nine months and then raising Him up - Emmanuel, God with us. For 33 years, she was his mother on earth. It's an incredible miracle. We must not hold back the miracle God wants to perform in our lives through unbelief.
I want to pray for you:
Heavenly Father, I pray for my dear friend listening to this message.
Lord, they have been waiting for that miracle, some for many years.
It took Abraham and Sarah years to realise their miracle, but they did not stagger through unbelief.
Lord, I pray for my dear friends today that they will start to thank You for the miracle which is coming, which they cannot even see yet but which they are trusting You for, in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a wonderful day, God bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, it's the 16th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell."
James 3:6
The power of the spoken word, the power of the tongue! It has the capacity to make or to break a person. When I was fifteen and a half years old, my old schoolmaster told my mother, "It would be better to take him out of school because he won't do much more in school." Oh folks, just that word, you see, and then I thought, "Well then, I am just not going to make it." It was a lie, but it didn't matter. God redeemed me after that.
I remember one of our early Mighty Men Conferences on the farm, Shalom, when the Holy Spirit was moving powerfully amongst the men. One of the men, a former policeman actually, a big strong man, got up on the platform, and he got very emotional. He said, "I have got my eighteen-year-old son here this weekend, and I have never told him that I believe him and I love him." I will never forget it. At that moment, a big strong eighteen-year-old came running down the aisle in front of all of us and his dad met him in the aisle. They embraced and hugged each other and that dad affirmed him. Do you know that that boy couldn't even make the second team in rugby at school? He went on to make the first team after that comment, not only that - when he left school, he became a semi-professional sportsman because his dad spoke life over him and not death.
You and I must speak life today and not death. Remember that song, "A man saw a shepherd boy, but God saw a king?" God saw David as the greatest King of Israel, next to Jesus, but the rest of the people saw him as a shepherd boy looking after the sheep.
Today, watch that tongue. If you haven't got anything good to say about anybody, rather don't say anything at all.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, it's the 15th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the First book of Timothy 6:12:
"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."
We have got to fight the good fight. We have got to put on that armour of God every single morning because we are in the fight of our lives. I can hear somebody saying, "Oh, but the battle has been fought and the victory is ours when Jesus died and rose from the dead." Quite correct, absolutely correct, but still there is a fight and the fight is within us. Remember what they say? It's not the dog in the fight that wins, but the fight in the dog. Robert Schuller said, "Tough times do not last but tough people do."
Rocky Marciano was the only heavyweight boxing champion of the world to have never lost a title fight - 49 fights, 49 wins. He only stood 5 foot 10" tall and weighed about 85 kilos, but what was the secret with Rocky Marciano? The secret was - he never gave up. He could take incredible pain. He was hugely disciplined. You know, I have two little Jack Russells. They think that they are Great Danes! They don't know how to go backwards. There is only one gear they have and that is forward.
You and I need to fight the good fight of faith. We need to run this race to the finish line. We need to take hold of that eternal life that we were promised and called to. We have got to flee from sin, we have to vigorously pursue this fight with virtue, strong, healthy, full of energy. Oh my dear friend, I am talking to somebody who is down and out. I am talking to somebody who is giving up the race. You have run such a great race. Why are you stopping now? Get up, dust yourself off and get back in the fight.
Now, Paul spoke about a fight, it's in the Bible, folks and I don't think there was a greater fighter than the Apostle Paul, who refused to give up and gave the devil the biggest hiding that he had had for a long time since Jesus walked on this earth. Today, let us confess, "Lord, we need You. Lord, we acknowledge that you are in our corner and Lord, we know we cannot lose this fight if you are with us." He has promised us in Hebrews 13:5:
"I will never leave you and I will never forsake you."
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 14th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of James 2:23:
“And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.”
Faith and obedience - that is what Jesus Christ requires of you and me today. You know, everyone wants to be known as the friend of God; even the devil himself will not take on God. Abraham was known by God as His friend. God looked down from Heaven and saw that farmer, Abraham, and because he obeyed the word of God and had faith to believe the Lord, He said “That man is My friend.” Faith is a doing word; it is a verb. It is not a noun. A noun is like this table that I am sitting next to. A verb that has feet is an active word. Don’t tell people you love them; show them you love them.
Abraham gave God back the most precious possession that he had - his son, Isaac, that he had patiently waited for, for years, and the Lord tested Abraham and He said, “I want him back.” Abraham did not hesitate. He took Isaac up to Mount Moriah and was about to offer him back to God as a living sacrifice when the Angel of the Lord stopped him and said, “There is a ram stuck in the thicket. Take that lamb and use it as a sacrifice.” It touched the heart of God so much that He said, “That man, Abraham, is my friend.
Many years ago, I came back home from overseas. I had been on a long tour. I was very, very tired. I had been invited to speak at some local churches in South Africa and I felt the Lord say, “You must please ask to be relieved from those appointments, and you must rest.” So I phoned them and said I couldn’t make it, but you won’t believe what happened. Just after that, the famous Irish gospel singer, Robin Mark, was coming to South Africa with his band and he was going to perform in one of the cities in South Africa and they phoned me up and said, “Would you do the preaching after he does the praise and worship?” Well, it was a dream come true; I had been waiting all my life to meet this man. Then I felt the Lord say, “But you have declined invitations from the other churches. You can’t do it.” And reluctantly, I said, “Unfortunately, I can’t make it.” But when God saw my heart, I believe He honoured me because we got a phone call a week later saying that Robin Mark is in Durban and has just had a cancellation. He wants to come to the farm, Shalom, and he wants to come and meet me. Well, I was blown away. He came to the farm, we had a beautiful church service. He did the praise and worship, came to my house, had lunch with me and we have become good friends since that day.
Just do what God tells you to do and He will reward you well above what you could ever imagine or think.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 13th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Leviticus 19:18 in the Old Testament:
“…but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord.”
It is not an option; it is a commandment. Then we go to Matthew 22:39:
“And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
I want to say to you from personal experience that good neighbours are more precious than gold. We only really appreciate them when we are absolutely desperate and we have nothing to repay them with when they do us a good turn. Never, ever take your neighbour for granted. When we arrived on this farm, Shalom, nearly 40 years ago, we bought a piece of overgrown bush and badly needed help. There was no water on the farm, no telephone, no lights. We didn’t even have a house, we hired a small caravan. A good neighbour, Brenda, came over and taught us how to build a mud house, which we then built in 3 weeks. Another neighbour saw that we didn’t have any water, and he brought over a water cart and parked it next to our caravan.
We were taught how to speak Zulu by the neighbours and how to understand the local culture of those men and women who were working for us. We experienced the love of Jesus before we ever went to church. We didn’t know the Lord when we arrived on this farm. It was through the loving neighbours that we saw Jesus Christ. You and I must be Jesus to our neighbours, especially the newcomers. I will never forget one Saturday afternoon. I was tired and working 16 hours a day because there was nothing else I could do. I was trying to make a life for my wife and my family and clear the bush to prepare our first crop of maize that we were going to plant.
Then, a pick-up arrived. Our neighbour, John, who was quite an imposing man, said, “You and your wife and your children are coming to my house, on my farm, and you are going to have a braai (a barbecue), a meal with us and your wife is going to have a nice long, hot shower and we are going to watch an international game of rugby together. I have never forgotten that gesture of love and goodwill. It kept me going.
Today, let us love our neighbours,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 12th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of James 2:1-4:
“My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?”
Then we go straight to the First Book of Corinthians 2:8:
“…which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
Partiality - I looked it up in the dictionary; it means being biased, influencing unfairly, prejudice, and basically having favourites. Jesus has no favourites. You see, in that reading in the First Book of Corinthians, what the writer is saying is that if the rulers of Israel knew who Jesus was, they would never have crucified the Son of God.
We look at Jessie, the father of King David, in the Old Testament. He had eight sons but showed partiality first to the oldest, then the next, until the prophet Samuel said, “Don’t you have any other sons?” He said, “Yes, I have got one. He is a young boy, he is probably about 13. He is looking after the sheep.” Samuel said, “Call him here,” this very handsome young boy with a ruddied face, he must have been a redhead, walked in and there he was, anointed as the greatest king that Israel has ever had, next to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because your son or daughter is not a good sportsman or sportswoman and the others in the family are, be careful not to show partiality because your other son or daughter might be artistic and may be a great musician or an artist. We must be so careful about that. When I was a little boy, I think I was quite an awkward character because I went to my mom once when I was small and said, “Mom, who do you love the most? Dad or me?” But that old Scottish woman, she was so wise. She sat me down. “Angus, I love your dad, and I love you in two different ways but I love you both exactly the same.” I was quite happy and I ran outside to play. Today, do not show partiality. There are no favourites in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 11th of December 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Matthew 20:22.
But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with?"
This is when the disciples wanted to sit with Jesus. Their mother was organising for them to sit on either side of the Master when He went to heaven. The cup that the Lord was offering was not a cup of prosperity but the cup of suffering. Sometimes we wonder why we are having such a rough time in life, don't we? Why is God punishing me like this? Everything in my life seems to be going wrong. We thought that when we come to Jesus all our problems will cease. But you see that's not the truth, the truth is when we come to Jesus, He will walk with us through our fiery trials. We can only really feel for and help folk when we have been there ourselves. Then, we have the love, the compassion and the understanding that people really need to help them, and to heal them when they are suffering.
I read a beautiful poem in Streams in the Desert, that lovely devotional. It goes like this:
Once I heard a song of sweetness, as it filled the morning air.
Sounding in its blessed completeness, like a tender pleading pray.
And I sought to find the singer, where the wonderous song was born
And I found a bird quite wounded, pinned down by a cruel thorn.
I have seen a soul in sadness, while its wings with pain were furled
giving hope and cheer and gladness, that should bless a weeping world.
And I knew that life of sweetness was of pain and sorrow born and a stricken soul was singing with its heart against a thorn.
You are told of one who loved you, of a Saviour crucified.
You are told of nails that held Him and a spear that pierced His side.
You are told of cruel scourging of a Saviour bearing scorn, and He died for your salvation with his brow against a thorn.
You are not above the Master. Will you breathe a sweet refrain? And His grace will be sufficient when your heart is pierced with pain.
Will you live to bless His loved ones, though your life be bruised and torn?
Like the bird that sang so sweetly with its heart against a thorn.
Jesus bless you and go bless somebody else.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 10th of December 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in James 3:12:
Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.
Then Galatians 5:22-23:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Identity. How do people see us? I looked up the word in the dictionary, identity means distinctiveness. We've got to be different. We must be unique. We must be original. We must have a specific character and a personality. When you see a cowboy walking down the road, how do you identify him? By the hat he wears, the buckle, the belt around his waist or the boots he wears? No, you identify a true cowboy by the way in which he treats his horse and the way in which he can ride that horse.
I went to a restaurant once, and the swing door where the chef and the servers came out of the kitchen had a big sign above it. It said: Never trust a skinny chef. Never judge a book by its cover. You know, they did a test once, they wanted to prove the importance of first appearances. They put a book on the shelf in a bookshop with nothing written inside it. It just had blank pages, but it had a beautiful cover on the outside. Do you know the amount of people who came up to the till to pay for the book, and the lady at the till would say have you opened the book and looked inside? And they would say no. They opened it up and there was nothing inside.
There's an old legend that John, the Apostle, who was the last one to die, when he was very old they would carry him into the meetings on a stretcher. He would always say, little children love one another, with tears in his eyes. And they would say why do you always say that, John? He would say because that is what Jesus used to say to us when he was with us on earth.
Today, let's be Jesus to some lost soul.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 9th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of James 1:13-14:
“Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.”
Our Heavenly Father will test us, but He will never tempt us. It is the devil himself who is the temptor. That is one of his names, just like he tempted Adam and Eve in the garden. Just like he tried to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ when He was fasting and praying in the desert. We must never play the fool with the devil. James 4:7 says:
“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Do not think that you can handle the devil. If you have a drinking problem, my dear friend, do not frequent a pub or a place where alcohol is sold. Don’t even go there. If you have a problem with lust in your life do not read any pornographic material, do not watch anything on television that has a sexual connotation. Stay well away from it.
We must remember that we are in a war. We cannot have anything to do with the enemy. Don’t even give him a foothold in your life. Now, we all know how much David loved the Lord. David used to write psalms - we can read them. He used to play his harp. He used to sing to the Lord, and he had a very special relationship with God. But what happened? You can read it in the Second Book of Samuel, Chapter 11. He went out one night and stood on the porch of his palace, and he saw a very beautiful woman bathing. Her name was Bathsheba. That one little slip cost him his whole kingdom. Don’t go there. When you look at someone with lust in your heart, be careful because the devil will trip you up every time. Ask God to help you. When a man looks at a woman the first time because she is beautiful, that is not a sin because we are created as men, but when you look at that woman a second time then lust comes into your heart.
We need to be disciplined as good soldiers for the Lord, and the same thing applies to ladies as well. Whenever you are tempted, turn away and walk away from that thing which continually makes you weak and God will save us to the uttermost.
Have a beautiful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 8th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 26:3-4:
"You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength."
Then we go straight to the Gospel of John 14:27:
"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
The whole world is desperately looking for peace. We try to find it in success, in achievements, but it is not found in receiving the gold medal at the Olympic Games or getting that coveted degree at university. Even Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, found that out. He said it's just like chasing the wind. If we look at Ecclesiastes 4:6, he said:
"Better a handful with quietness
Than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind."
You know, the one thing I really love doing is to take my horse, Snowy, by myself and ride up into the hills and wait on the Lord. Now, it takes a lot of discipline, and if you are anything like me, I always have to be doing something. When I go for that ride that takes maybe four or five hours, it's a time to be quiet and listen to the Lord, and that is when the peace starts to come. The Lord speaks to me through the wind; He speaks to me through that solitary eagle circling high up in the sky; He speaks to me through those magnificent little wildflowers that are blooming for the Lord because no one else can see them, but I get a chance to see them; the call of that cow on that hill calling for its little calf that is asleep somewhere; the sheer size of the mountains makes me realise how small and insignificant I really am. Let's be honest, my dear friends, even Jesus Christ Himself did this regularly. He was often being sought after, "Where is the Lord? The people have arrived." Where was He? He was up on the mountain; He was spending time with His Father.
Let's try it, you and I, because you know something, it actually works, and oh by the way, leave your cell phone behind.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 7th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in James 1:7-8:
"For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."
Sailors tell me that being adrift at sea is the most dangerous place for a ship. When you're just floating, going nowhere, it's a dangerous place - you have no control of anything. The Message translation says:
"Don't think you're going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open."
You can't please everybody because if you try to, you will end up pleasing nobody. What do they say? You can't have your cake and eat it. We can't be half-hearted and wavering. It leaves a man very unstable in his ways.How many times I hear the call of a desperate wife or mother saying, "I just wish that he would do something!" Come on, guys, you have got to make a decision. You can't sit on that fence. The ESV (English Standard Version) says,
"A person who doubts God's goodness dishonours Him."
How would you feel if your little child came into the kitchen and said, "Mommy, are we going to get any food today? You tell her, "Darling, I have been feeding you for ten years. Why are you doubting me?" Isn't that precisely what we do with the Lord? We question God's goodness and His word to us. We must not pull back halfway once we have committed to the Lord. It doesn't matter how tough it gets; we have to go through with our commitment. We have to go for it at all costs.
As a very young man and still single at the time, I remember living in Central Africa. We would all go to the rugby club after a match, and all the young ladies would be there. This young guy would walk in and, man, oh man, was he handsome! He was well-built but had no girlfriend; that's the truth, why? Because he never committed himself to anything. He would end up sitting all by himself with his lovely sports jacket on, his hair combed nicely, and everything in place by himself - he never got involved, never committed himself. There was another guy who didn't have much of a physique, but he took care of and committed himself to look after those young ladies, ensuring they always had something to eat and drink and that they were well-seated. Man, they used to flock over that young guy.
Today, let's get committed to Jesus,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 6th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 8:8:
The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.”
Then we go down to verse 13:
Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.” And his servant was healed that same hour.”
That centurion was not a Jew. No, he was a gentile, an officer in the army. He never went to a synagogue. He simply believed that Jesus could heal his servant, Jesus, the Miracle Worker. He said, “Just speak a word, and my servant will be healed.” The Roman soldier believed in miracles.
We need to ask ourselves a question this morning. Do we believe in miracles? The Oxford Dictionary defines a miracle as a welcome event that is so extraordinary that it is thought to be the work of God. Now, the opposite of that miracle is luck. You have heard somebody say, “ Wow, he was lucky that that happed to him” and “I wish you all the best of luck.” What is luck? It is just a word. It has no basis and no foundation but a miracle, that is something different. A miracle is something that someone makes happen and His name is Jesus! He is known as the Miracle worker.
I got a message yesterday from a young man who I am mentoring. He asked me to be a spiritual father to him. He told me that a few days ago there was a huge wind at his home and a massive tree in the garden broke and fell. His little girl, who is not even 12 years old, was playing in the garden with the dog. As she heard the crack of that tree falling, she started to run but the top of the tree caught her and pinned her to the ground. When this young man was telling me this story about his little daughter, he was weeping. He said they managed to get her ought amongst all the branches. He said the one branch was on the left-hand side and another huge one was on the right-hand side but she was safe, right in the middle of those two branches. Her little dog was also trapped under another branch. Apart from a cut on her head, there was nothing wrong with the little girl. They got the little dog out and there was nothing wrong with the little dog. That my friend, is a miracle. I believe God protected her because her dad and her mom love Jesus Christ.
God bless you and have a wonderful day and trust God for your miracle today.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 5th of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
It's a wonderful day on the farm today. The sun is shining, and the birds are singing - especially the doves! We start in the Book of James 1:2-3 in the New Testament:
"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."
Various trials equal patience. It doesn't come any other way, unfortunately. Two cowboys arrived on the farm these last few days with a huge truckload of horses. They were not "wannabe" cowboys. No, no, these were the real deal! These were horse trainers. They had come to the farm to train some horses with my son. After a few days on the farm and riding different horses and working out how they would exchange one horse for the other, a fair deal was arranged and they decided to leave very early the next morning, and I heard the big truck start up. They took the truck down to the loading ramp and started bringing in the horses they had traded with my son. I thought to myself, "This is going to take some time because a lot of these horses are quite green and they hadn't been ridden much, but to my surprise, they had them loaded in no time at all. Why? Because those two cowboys have learned patience with animals. You see, they have dealt with hundreds and hundreds of horses every year. They have been through various trials with these wild horses and they have reached a top level of horsemanship.
When I was having a cup of tea with one of the cowboys, I saw that he had a big scar on his forearm. I asked him what caused that. He said, "A wild stallion attacked and tried to kill me when I was trying to ride him, but we managed to deal with the situation afterwards." Various trials equal patience. If you are going through a trial today, do not become despondent. Out of that trial, you will learn many life lessons and the most important one of all is to trust the Lord Jesus Christ in everything you do. These cowboys were not shy to take their hats off and pray often to the Lord. They are now safely on their way home with their new batch of horses and my son has got his batch of horses that he is going to train.
Don't be afraid of various trials. They will teach you patience and will lead you to success.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 4th of December 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
2 Corinthians 12:9
That is after Paul, the apostle, pleaded with the Lord three times to remove the thorn from his flesh.
For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10
Are you suffering today, my dear friend, with some physical disability, some thorn in the flesh? Are you saying, but Lord, why are you not taking it away? Lord, why have my prayers not been answered? I want to tell you about Paul. Paul is one of my heroes in the Bible. He was an incredible man of God. He was responsible for writing almost two-thirds of the New Testament. Paul was very confident and a fearless warrior for Jesus, but the physical disability must have slowed him down. To be overconfident and successful is a great danger in a Christian's life. You know, the safest place to be is on your knees because when you're on your knees, you can't fall any further. Remember the old saying: Pride always comes before a fall. When a man gets too full of himself, he ends up falling, badly. I will not preach a message to a large crowd from a platform or a pulpit without first getting on my knees. The Lord taught me that when I first started preaching. Before I start preaching, I read Psalm 19:14 -
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
I knew a preacher with a terrible speech impediment; he stuttered very badly. But when he got into the pulpit or onto a platform, the stutter left him, and he preached a beautiful message every time. He stuttered off the platform, but when he got on that platform, no problems at all. You know, in my humble opinion, one of South Africa's premier artists is a young man who had a terrible cycling accident. He was a keen cyclist. He was partially paralysed for two months, with brain injuries, but through persistence and help from his family and other artists, he has become one of South Africa's premier artists - definitely my favourite.
Today, do not be afraid of that thorn in your flesh. Embrace it and press on. God will use it for your benefit.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 3rd of December 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.
Hebrews 13:14
This world is not our permanent home. We must walk very carefully. Don't put too much effort into your home in this world because you won't be here for very long. Our eyes are peeled for the city to come. We are so looking forward to the city of God, which is coming very soon. Do you remember the book The Pilgrim's Progress, written by John Bunyan in 1678? He wrote that book in jail. He was put in jail for his faith. John Bunyan tells the story of a man by the name of Christian, and Christian could be you or me. Christian has left his home, the City of Destruction, and he is making his way to the Celestial City, which is heaven. It's a fiction story, it's one I recommend you to read to your children. They say next to the Bible it is maybe the most-read Christian book ever. Christian, on his journey, meets different characters. He meets characters like Slothful who says: "Just relax, there is no rush, take your time"; Worldly Wisdom, who teaches him to just let all things go, then he meets some giants. Faith is a giant; Hope is a giant; Evangelist is a giant who encourages him to keep going. Some are negative and some are encouraging. Then eventually, he crosses the River of Death and arrives in the Heavenly City, the Celestial City, where the streets are paved with gold; where there's no more weeping; where there are no more tears of anger; where there's no more hatred; no violence - only peace. There's not even a sun there because Jesus Christ will be the light in that city. I want to encourage you today to keep your eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ and home time, and that will encourage you to continue on your journey, which will lead to everlasting life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name! It is Saturday morning, the 2nd of December 2023; and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We go to Hebrews 13:18:
Pray for us, for we are confident that we have a good conscience in all things desiring to live honorably.
We must keep a good track record; we must live in an honourable way before God and men. We must have a clear conscience and live an honest life. A great example was told to me just a couple of years ago: two very good friends of ours were coming down from Johannesburg to visit us on the farm, Shalom. On the way, a very busy highway, they stopped halfway at a garage to fuel up and have something to eat. My friend's wife went to the bathroom. When she came out, they paid their account, got in the car and continued with their journey. After about an hour, they came to a toll gate and as they drew near, my friend's wife looked in her handbag to find her purse to pay the toll. The purse was gone, it wasn't there. They panicked, made a U-turn, and went all the way back to that very busy garage and restaurant.
My friend's wife was distraught. She went straight into the bathroom where she had been because she knew she had left her purse there. In the purse was her driver's licence, credit cards, ID - everything was in there. She walked in and there was nothing. She looked everywhere. And as she walked out, a gentleman walked up and said: "Madam, have you lost something?" She said: "Yes, I've lost my purse." He asked her what colour it was and she told him, and he pulled it out of his pocket. He said: "Here it is, I've been waiting for you." Do you know that that impacted her so much, I think she was in tears. He didn't ask for any money, he didn't ask for a tip, he just gave it to her and said: "Have a nice day." That act of honour and conscience impacted my friend's wife more, I think, than all the big events and campaigns and the big preachers and professors of theology have ever made on her life.
I want to say to you today, keep a good track record for Jesus.
God bless you, have a wonderful day. Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 1st of December, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Joshua 24:15:
Joshua said "…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,…" And then towards the end of the verse he says: "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."
You know it's very contagious when you meet a man or a woman who can make a decision. If you look just a little further down in the same chapter, verse 18, the people of Israel said,
"We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God."
We have to make decisions. I know it's hard but we need to do it, every single one of us, from the oldest to the youngest, who is listening to this message. The Oxford Dictionary says that the meaning of the word, "Decision" is a choice or judgement made after considering something. We cannot sit on the fence any longer. They say it is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. Every single one of us has got to make decisions. It is not man's opinion that you and I are interested in; it is God's opinion on the issue that we are interested in. If you ask ten people, they will give you ten different opinions about a decision you have to make, it can become very confusing. I can hear somebody say, "But then how do we make a good, solid decision." Well, we go to the Good Book. We go to the Bible. We read the Ten Commandments. I can hear somebody say, "But that is old-fashioned." No, it's not. Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill - these are decisions that we need to make, and when we make that important decision we make it according to the word of God and every time (I am a witness to that), you will make the right decision. You might not like it, but you will make it because it is good for you. We obey the Ten Commandments and then we make good decisions every single time. People will even see that we are clever and wise. One of the fruits of making a quality decision is the peace that the Lord Jesus Christ will give your heart after you have made that decision.
Young man, if you do not propose to that girl that you love, you will lose her. It's a decision you have to make. If you do not make that business decision you will lose the whole business. Sir, if you do not stop your excessive drinking, you will lose everything. Today, make a quality decision. Put Jesus firmly on the throne of your life and you will be amazed how everything will change for the better.
Remember, men always follow someone who knows where he is going.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 30th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of James 2:23, in the New Testament:
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.”
You want to be called a friend of God; I am sure you do; everybody does. No one wants to be an enemy of God. God has never lost a fight in His life.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Hebrews 11:6
We cannot please God by good works. He is not interested in our good works. He says they are like filthy rags. He wants us to trust Him. He wants us to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). You see, the reason God loved Abraham so much is because Abraham obeyed whatever God told him to do. Abraham waited for his promise, a son. God gave him a son, a beautiful son, named Isaac. At the age of about 13 years old, God tested Abraham and said, “I want him back now.” Abraham never hesitated. He took his son up to the top of Mount Moriah and was prepared to offer him up as a living sacrifice. God was so moved by that act of faith that he said, “Stop, stop, stop Abraham. There is a little ram caught in the thicket. Use that for a sacrifice.” That is why He loved Abraham. Abraham is known as the father of faith.
George Müller is one of my heroes. George Müller started a children’s home in Bristol in England. Something like 10,000 children went through that home, something like 60 million rand by today’s reckoning, went through his hands. He never asked for one cent; he prayed for everything and trusted God. At the end of his life, people said, “You must have had such a love for children.” He said, “Yes indeed, a great love for children, but the reason why I did it wasn’t even for the children. I wanted to show the world what God will do if we put our trust in Him.”
Today, I want to encourage you. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. Don’t tempt Him, but you can test Him, and I want to tell you, He will never, ever let you down. He is a good God, He is for you and He is for me and He is not against us, so He wants us to attempt great things for Him and expect great things from Him.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 29th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in that beautiful book, Isaiah 9:6:
“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Then confirmation of that is Matthew 28:18:
“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
Wow, folks, we are talking about a government that shall never fail, and as we enter the Christmas season, we remember the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to tell you that the government which the Master, Himself, will head up will be a government that will remain honest. It will deliver everything that it has promised. Everything He said, He shall do, and He has already done. Every promise He has made, He shall keep. The only thing left now is the great day of inauguration, the induction, and I tell you what, I cannot wait! Oh, when we look around, we see the world governments falling apart, making false promises, telling lies to the people, sometimes trying to bribe them to vote for them, and yet the Prince of Peace is coming back soon.
Do you remember that old song?
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government shall be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace is He.
Father,
I pray for my friends today, that they will lift up their heads and they will see that there is a government coming into this world, and the leader is Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
Lord, we have nothing to fear. I pray for my friends that they will keep focused today on the soon-coming King,
In Jesus Name,
Amen.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 28th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ephesians 5:8:
"Walk as children of light…"
What an opportunity for you and I to shine for Jesus in this very dark, old world we live in. We don't always feel victorious, do we? We don't always feel like shining, do we? No, but there is a deep knowing in our hearts that Jesus walks with us, irrespective of how we feel.
"…He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."
1 John 4:4
You see, it's that knowledge alone - that He is sufficient for us, that keeps our light shining, sometimes ever so small, just a little flicker, but it keeps shining. The people in the world want to see how we handle our circumstances when everything around us is dead dark and jet-black. It's easy to shine when things are going well, isn't it? But the test comes. Are we going to shine when things are not going well for us? The greatest example of that in the Bible is Job, the farmer. He said in the Book of Job 13:15:
"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."
Remember the devil said, "Ja, Your servant, Job, serves You because he is so prosperous (I think he was the wealthiest man in the Middle East), he has got a big family, everything is going well. Take it away from him and let's see what he can do. Of course, the Lord said, "Okay, but don't touch his life." Right to the end, Job's light was shining. I want to say to you today, like never before, the world is watching us. Now remember, the darker it gets, the brighter the light shines. You strike that little match in a dark room, what happens? Yes, the darkness has to leave.
One of my heroes was a Scottish minister named Peter Marshall. In fact, he was the one who said you must have faith like potatoes. He was coming home one night, and it was so dark, he couldn't even see his hand in front of him, and he decided to take a shortcut but what he didn't realise was as he was walking down the path, there was a voice that called out to him. He remembered it clearly, "Peter!" Then he stopped, and then he went on a little bit slower, and the voice said "Peter!" again, and he dropped to his knees, and as he dropped to his knees he stretched forward and there was nothing in front of him. He was on the edge of a precipice, on the edge of a huge, stone quarry. There was a hole in the ground. I don't know how deep it was, but it would have killed him if he had carried on walking. That was the change in his life.
People need the Lord. People are walking in darkness. You and I need to be a light shining in the darkness for them today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name! It is Monday morning, the 27th of November, 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start with Isaiah 8:10:
"For God is with us."
I read that slowly because we all need to remember that God is with us. The proof of that is found one page before in Isaiah 7:14:
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."
Which translated means God with us. If we go to Romans 8:31, a scripture which I have got many, many times - basically, it confirms the scriptures which I have just read to you.
"If God is for us, who can be against us?"
That's why we are entering into the Christmas season. That's why we celebrate Christmas - God came down from Heaven, in the form of a defenceless baby, to be with us so that we will not be lonely anymore; so that will not be fearful anymore - Now that is worth celebrating!
If Jesus is on our side, as the tennis players say, it is 'game, set and match'. What do we have to do from our side? Well, that's a good question - Simply believe! Sadly, Moses and Aaron did not believe, so they could not take the children of Israel across the river Jordan and into the land of milk and honey. You'll find that in Numbers 28:12. How do we get that kind of faith? Well, that's a good question. Romans 10:17 says:
“So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
By spending time with the Lord! Do you know that little picture of a little lion cub walking down the road with the caption: "When you know who is behind you, the fear of what's in front disappears."
As long as you know God is for you, who is against you doesn't matter anymore because behind that little lion cub walking down the main road is its huge doting mother. I want to tell you God is right with you today, and you have nothing to fear.
Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning the 26th of November 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We started in Exodus 24:17:
"The sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel."
Then we go straight to Hebrews 12:29
"For our god is a consuming fire."
He's not a God to be trifled with. He is not a God to play the fool with - we are talking about a God who is a consuming fire. That's what the Bible tells us. We need to be ready to meet the coming of the Lord.
Now, I can relate to this so much. You know, we live in the beautiful green hills of Natal, and Shalom Farm is situated right in the middle of many, many forests. We have pine plantations, eucalyptus and wattle plantations - beautiful trees, 30 years old and more before they get felled. But we have to be ready in the event of a forest fire. It is a terrible thing to be part of - when that fire gets going. The signs are always there. It's normally in the middle of Winter. There is a blowing wind, and there's been no moisture for weeks. People are ready; it's going to come. The foresters literally sleep next to their radios, waiting for the fire tower to make that call - fire! The game is on. By that time, we should have all our fire breaks in position. We should have all our water carts full, hitched up to our tractors - all our fire fighting equipment should be ready for action. We have to do it beforehand if we want to stand a chance in saving our homes and our farms.
The question I want to ask you today, and the question God is asking us this morning is: "Are you ready for the coming of the Lord? When the Lord comes He will come like a consuming fire. It says, in Joel 2:11
"The Lord gives voice before His army,
For His camp is very great;
For strong is the One who executes His word.
For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible;
Who can endure it?"
I want to plead with you today to make sure that your house is in order. Make sure that your life is in order. That your children, your dependents know who Jesus Christ is because when that fire starts it is too late to try and get things in order. Do it today.Don't be caught out.
Jesus bless you, and have a wonderful Sunday. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 25th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to Hebrews 12:15 in the New Testament
"…looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;…"
We need to be so careful that we do not allow a root of bitterness which can cause trouble in a person's life and even sickness. Don't let it grow in your heart. Confess it, pull it out by the roots so that it can have no hold over your life. I remember like yesterday, many, many years ago, after preaching, asking people who are sick in their bodies to come forward for healing. I will never forget this old lady who came forward, and she looked so down and depressed. She knelt at the altar rail and said, "I need prayer for healing".
I said, "What is the problem?"
She said, "I suffer from migraine headaches terribly, have done for years."
I looked at her, and I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, "Don't pray for healing for the headaches. There is unforgiveness in her heart."
I said, "Do you have bitterness against someone who has maybe hurt you or disappointed you in the past?"
She was very angry with me. She said, "Young man, I did not come here to confess my sins. I came here to be healed from my migraine headaches."
Then she just broke down and wept and she said, "Yes, I have. I have had issues of bitterness against someone for years."
So, the two of us prayed together. She confessed her sin and she left. I didn't even pray for healing.
The next Sunday she came to church. She was a different woman. She was so happy and totally at peace. I said, "And how are you feeling?" She said, "I haven't had one migraine headache since we prayed together last week." Totally healed by Jesus!
I would like to pray for you right now. Maybe you are suffering, and there is something in your life you just cannot lay down, that person has hurt you, you have been disappointed at work, and it is forming a root of bitterness. Let's deal with it now and carry on with our lives. Pray this prayer after me please:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I am convicted today that I have unforgiveness and bitterness in my heart. I forgive that person for hurting me, for disappointing me and today, Lord, I tear out that bitterness by the root that it will have no more part of my life.
In Jesus name, Amen!
God bless you and have a wonderful Saturday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 24th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 16:24:
"Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me."
Then we want to go to the Gospel of John 15:13:
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
Following after Jesus is a costly business. Sometimes we lose our friends when we get serious for the Lord. We are not so popular anymore and it can be quite painful, especially if you are a young person. People are going out, partying, sleeping around, drugging, drinking, and you say, "No more for me." You will be surprised at how quickly you will lose your friends. I remember when I gave my life to the Lord as a young man. I said to the men who were following me up, I said, "There is one thing I don't want to do - I don't want to lose my old friends." They smiled and said, "Don't worry about that, Angus. You won't have to lose them, they will lose you." You see, we cannot have anything to do with darkness when we are walking in the light. It can be quite painful when people mock us for our stand for Christ.
Gypsy Smith, that old Romany Gypsy who used to preach off the back of his painted wagon to crowds of up to 10,000 people at a time, said, "It takes a dead fish to flow with the current, but it takes a live one to swim against it." Remember, if your faith is costing you nothing, well then, it is worth nothing. It cost Jesus His life, didn't it? He died for you and for me. Sometimes I despair when I see how little you and I are prepared to sacrifice to stand up for our Lord. I remember a beautiful story told many years ago. A big sailing ship was sailing with people down to the South Sea Islands, and there was a lovely young family who had left their safe haven, their home, and they were on their way to one of these islands where there were cannibals. As the captain docked the ship, just off the coast, and lowered a little lifeboat for them to row to the shore, he pleaded with the family, "Don't go there because they are going to kill you." The man said to the captain, "Sir, we died before we left home." I want to tell you today, let's have a good look at our own lives and really see if we are making a difference for the Gospel and helping the lost.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 23rd of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Nehemiah 8:10:
"…for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
Then we go to the New Testament, to the First Book of Timothy 6:6:
"Now godliness with contentment is great gain."
I have just been to a men's prayer meeting. We meet at 5 a.m. at the little chapel on the farm, Shalom, and while we were praying, one of our men prayed a very touching prayer. He said, "Lord, two teams came back from the World Cup. One team have become the world champions, and the other just missed the world championship by two matches; one point separated success from apparent failure, one point. You and I cannot live like that. We cannot put all our hope, all our trust in one single game—the only difference between joy and sorrow, success and supposed failure - one point.
You may be sitting and waiting for your university results to come in, and maybe you are going to make it by one point, or you are going to miss it by one point. You cannot put your whole life's expectancy on one point. Maybe you are a young farmer and you are trusting God for a good crop. You have put all your effort into that crop, just like you do every other year. The only difference between a good crop and a bad crop is whether it rains or whether it doesn't rain.
Maybe you have beautiful animals for sale - beef cattle, sheep, lambs - but because of the economy, there is one point between failure and success. We can't live like that. The Lord tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. That's not a funny ha-ha joy. That is a deep knowing that if you love Jesus Christ, your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and when you leave this world, you are going straight home to Heaven to be with the Lord forever and ever. It brings a measure of contentment that this world cannot give. We must keep focused on the Lord Jesus Christ and His promises over our lives, which will bring us peace, joy and purpose for living.
Today, go out and look forward to an incredible life because when you are a believer, it is a win-win situation. If we die, we go straight home to Heaven, and if we live, we live for Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 22nd of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 35:3-4:
“Strengthen the weak hands,
And make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
“Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.”
Then we go to the Book of Hebrews 12:12-13:
‘Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.’
You and I need to walk on straight paths. We must stop making things even harder for ourselves in a world that seems to have gone mad at the moment. Keep on the main road. There are no shortcuts on our way to Heaven. Every time I take a shortcut, I normally get stuck in the mud and have to walk home and get the tractor to come and pull me out! The Bible says we need to strengthen our hands and weak knees so that they will not be dislocated but rather heal.
You know, many times I read in the New Testament that Jesus told His disciples to come aside and rest awhile because they didn’t even have time to eat. I had an old friend who used to farm next door to me. Alan was a wonderful man, he has gone to be with Jesus now, and we used to meet across the fence early in the morning when we started farming with our staff, and he often used to say to me, “Angus, you need to take time out to smell the roses.” What does that mean? It means to take time to rest to strengthen your hands and your knees for the long road ahead.
William Carey, that great man of God who translated the Bible from English into many different Indian languages, had a rose garden. He would often go into his rose garden that was walled up and be quiet on his own, and that would strengthen him. I have a beautiful hobby: I am a bee-keeper, and sometimes, when the going gets too tough, I just want to go and sit with my bees and not even take the honey out sometimes. I just sit there and watch them working tirelessly and just be in the presence of God.
Today, take time out to smell the roses,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 21st of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to Hebrews 12:5-6:
"My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives."
The word "chasten" means to discipline someone. You know, for me, it is very embarrassing to go to a party or a meeting or a public gathering and to see a very badly behaved little child throwing their toys, literally. I don't feel sorry for the red-faced parent who is trying to control the child, I feel terribly sorry for the undisciplined child who has to face life and walk a very hard road. Mom, Dad, if you love your child, you must discipline them for their sake, not yours, just like Jesus disciplines you and me to make us better citizens and stronger people. If Jesus disciplines us because He loves us, we must do the same.
My son has got a gift for sorting out problem horses. People bring their horses to him, and he sorts out that problem. If a horse has a bad habit of kicking out at people or has a very hard mouth and will not listen, he can discipline that horse and make it rideable. You know, the amazing thing is that the horses with the most natural talent often need the most disciplining and then turn out to be amazing riding horses. The word "discipline" means the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behaviour.
I know a little boy's story, and it is such a sad story that I am telling you. He was big for his age, very strong, and got his own way at home. His mom and dad didn't discipline him, but eventually, the big day came, and he had to go to school. Mom and Dad dropped him off at school, and of course, in the class, he picked on the weakest little boy there and started to push him around. But you see, that boy didn't realise that that small boy had two big brothers in the grade ahead and of course, at break, the big boys would tackle this youngster and really make things very unpleasant for him, so much so that he didn't want to go to school anymore, in fact, he was starting to wet his pants and became a major problem to his mother and father. That is because Mom and Dad didn't discipline him when he was small. Please discipline your loved one if you want them to have an easy walk in life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name! It is Monday morning, the 20th of November, 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in Isaiah 6:8
Also, I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
"Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?"
Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
Then we go straight to Mark 16:15
And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
John Wesley said the world is my parish; the world is my congregation. We need to go out and preach the gospel. Where, you might say. Well, go to the schools, go to the farms, the prisons, the hospitals. You know, when I go to the hospital, I'll go into a ward and pray for a Christian man or woman who's not well. As I leave, there are Hindus and Muslims there, and before I leave the room, they say, please pray for us as well. I have to come back, lay hands on them and pray for them. People are desperate for hope and truth, but most of all, love.
University, what a place to preach the gospel. Radio, if you can get on there, TV. I can hear somebody say, but we have no training! Well, I want to ask you a question - Did the disciples have any training? Of course not. What is preaching the gospel actually all about? It's one hungry beggar showing another hungry beggar where to find bread. My old friend Wynand, from Radio Pulpit, says it's showing people the way to the bakery.
D.L. Moody, a farm boy, went to Chicago as a shoe salesman. He got saved and wanted to teach Sunday school. They told him there was a waiting list of 17 people, and you will be number 18. He said: "I can't wait that long". They said why don't you go down to the ghettos to speak to those little street urchins causing so much trouble. Off he went, he hired a big old warehouse. He would put a pocket of oranges on the back of his horse, like the Pied Piper, and say: "Do you want an orange? Follow me". He would hang up a cage with a canary and tell the kids the first one that doesn't break one Sunday will get the canary at Christmas time. Folks, he was desperate. You know that that man had no less than 500 children in his Sunday school in no time at all.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I was invited to a sportsman's breakfast to preach to people, and many of them don't darken the door of a church. Do you know that 800 people arrived there on a Thursday morning? In the middle of the week, for breakfast at the race track in Durban. I was there with Warren Brosnihan, one of the sportsmen. What an incredible meeting we had!
I want to tell you today: don't waste a moment; tell people what Jesus means to you. Have a wonderful day. May God bless you. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 19th of November, 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Jeremiah 1:9
Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth."
Then we go to the New Testament, John 1:1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The power available to you and me through the spoken Word of God. You know Jesus calmed the storm on the Lake of Galilee with one word! Do you remember that old saying: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me."? That is so untrue, isn't it? It's the other way around - you can heal quickly from physical wounds, but words said in anger against someone can last long. The Word of God spoken in faith can move mountains.
"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God."
Psalm 20:7
John G. Lake, the American evangelist, used to say that when you get up in the morning, and you get ready for work, and you are combing your hair, and you look into that mirror, you say to the person looking back at you - God lives in that person, and wherever that person goes today, God is going with them! If Christ is for you, there's no man that can stand against you.
"And by His stripes we are healed."
Isaiah 53:5
I want to pray a word of healing over your body today. I want to join my faith with your faith and believe for the power of healing through the spoken Word of God. Pray this prayer after me. Maybe put your hand on that area of your body where you are suffering. Perhaps you are suffering from migraine headaches - put your hand on your head. Maybe it's your back that's giving you trouble. Maybe it's a knee - pray this prayer after me.
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that you are my Healer. Today, by Faith, I speak the Word of healing over my body, over my soul and over my spirit. I thank you for healing me, in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 18th of November, 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in Psalm 72:19:
“And blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.”
Then we go to the book of Isaiah 6:3:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”
Then the last one is in the last book of the Bible, Revelation 4:8:
“Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!”
What beautiful scriptures! Holy means God as a Spirit who is active in the world. You know I’ve just come back from my bike ride. What a beautiful morning. The sun is shining, the birds are singing. There’s that beautiful fresh smell on the earth. Yes, He created it all in one word, Holy God! The Orthodox Jews revere the name of God so much that when they sign their name, God bless, they will write G-D. They will not even spell His name and yet this mighty God chose to leave His throne in paradise to come down to earth in the form of a defenceless baby and live amongst you and I and help us, direct us and most of all, show us the way home. I saw Him again today in all His glory and I want to tell you He is worth worshipping and praising!
Now, I’m going to sing a little hymn. I think all of us know it. Many of us may have learned it when we were at school. It was written in 1861 by John Dykes, and the lyrics by Bishop Reginald Heber. It is called Holy, Holy, Holy. If you want to join with me, I would be honoured if you would sing it with me. Let’s try it together:
Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Heaven's elders cast their crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim worship too before Thee,
Who wert, and art, and evermore shalt be.
Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power, in love, and purity.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Saturday and glory by His name for truly He is holy and worthy!
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 17th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Hebrews 12:1:
”Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,…”
Oh folks, we are running the race of our lives. We must be more intentional about it. This is not the dummy run, this is not the practice run, this is it! Many have gone before us, and they are cheering us on today. They say, “Come on, you can make it, you can do this!” The saints are all there in Heaven, your loved ones, they are waiting for you. Keep on running - get up and dust yourself off and keep going.
Get rid of all that excess baggage that is weighing us down. “What kind of baggage?” you say. Unforgiveness, grudges, bad habits, greed, self-centredness. These weights will stop us from finishing the race. We need to become more determined and more intentional, running the race of our lives with endurance. Endurance is the ability to do or cope with something painful or difficult for a long time. This is not a hundred-metre sprint; this is a long-distance race. There are many hills and valleys; the road is rough but leads to home.
Now, when we keep our eyes fixed on the road ahead of us, we must not look behind us; we must not be distracted to the left or the right by the people cheering or booing. It doesn’t make any difference; we are going home, and the wonderful thing is that when we get to that finish line, do you know who is waiting for us? Oh yes, the One who ran before us, His name is Jesus! He has got his arms wide open. He says, “You are nearly home.” Keep on, just a short while, and you will get that gold medal of eternal life spent in Heaven where there is no more pain, no more tears, only peace, joy and bliss.
God bless you today as you continue with me together, running the race of our lives,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning. It's the 16th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Isaiah 5:20,
"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"
We need to call sin by its name. As believers, as followers of Jesus Christ, our standpoint has no grey area. It's either black or white. It's either right or wrong. Remember, people don't have to like us, but they must respect us for what we stand for. For evil to abound, all good people have to do is nothing. Isn't that right? Jesus says in Revelation 3:16:
"So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."
Strong words! I really feel today I need to speak to dads and moms. You have to tell your children the absolute truth. You cannot compromise; they will not respect you for that. They might not like what you are saying at the moment because all their friends are doing something different, but we have to stand for truth and righteousness, and our gauge has to be the Bible. The Word says it, we believe it and that settles it. Remember, old Smith Wigglesworth said that? We have got to be known as people who walk the talk.
You know, I heard a sad story many years ago about a beautiful young lady who grew up in a Christian home. Her mom and dad loved the Lord. She went to Sunday school, she got confirmed, and was a member of the church. Then she fell in love with a young man and she came home one night and said, "Mom, Dad, I am going to get married. They said, "Who are you going to marry?" "I am going to marry a communist." Now, communists don't believe that there is a God. Her mom and dad were totally devastated by what she said, and they asked her why, and she said, "Because he is the first man that I have met in my life who believes in what he stands for, and he stands by it."
Young people are looking for truth and they are looking for a definite - they do not want any wishy-washy opinions! They want to know the truth because the truth will set them free. Let us be strong, bold, courageous and full of love and tell people the truth. His name is Jesus.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 15th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Psalms 65:5-6:
“By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us,
O God of our salvation,
You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
And of the far-off seas;
Who established the mountains by His strength,
Being clothed with power;…”
I want to say to you this morning, how dare we say, “Where is God?” How dare we say, “He has abandoned us.” Open your eyes, open your ears, He is all over the place! As I am recording this message, you can probably hear the rain on our tin roof, and you know we don’t rely on the weatherman for a weather forecast. We simply walk out the front door of our little farmhouse and there we see the rain lilies in full colour and in full display. About two days ago, they told me it will rain because those beautiful little white buds came out of those magnificent green leaves, and here it is. It is raining! The weaver birds have told me that summer is well on its way and there will be plenty of rain. You say, “How do you know that?” Because God showed me. You see, when there is a drought, the weavers build their nest very close to the ground, but when there is going to be rain, they build their nests very high. How do they know? Because they have a Father and they listen to Him. Open your eyes, open your ears.
You know, the swallows have just arrived. They have come thousands and thousands of kilometres. That little bird that doesn’t even weigh half an ounce, and they have arrived. Why? Because they know that it is winter in Europe and they are coming to their summer residence. Now, not only do they come to the same country, but they come to the same province, to the same area, to the same farm and the same house. How do they know where to come? Because their Father in Heaven has shown them the way.
Please never tell me there is no God! There is none so blind as those who do not want to see. This morning, I got a beautiful little message from one of my spiritual sons that I am mentoring: three words - “Love you dad.” It made my day. He is also a young farmer.
Today, thank God that He is with us and that He is coming back soon to take us home to eternity with Him.
Until then, keep running your race.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 14th of November, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 15:16:
"You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you."
Chosen! You are sitting there and saying, "I can't take much more of this." Jesus says you can. He says, "I chose you, and I appointed you for the job that you are doing", but only if we put our trust in Him, but you and I must do our part. Now, remember the story of Abraham and Sarah? When God told Sarah she was going to have a baby, that's Isaac, and that he would be the father of many nations, she went behind the tent and started laughing and giggling, and the Lord said, "What are you laughing about?" And she said, "Nothing." And He said, "You were laughing!" A woman 100 years old will have a baby; no wonder she was laughing. And then what happened? The Lord said in Genesis 18:14:
"Is anything too hard for the Lord?"
I want to say to you today there is nothing too hard for God. God knows how much you can take, and He knows how much I can take; otherwise, He would never have chosen us and given us the job.
Two Afro-American little boys of a single mother lived in America. The mother was a house cleaner. They were failing badly at school, and the headmaster called the mother and said, "If these boys don't wake up, we will have to take them out of school." She went home late one night after cleaning houses. There, the two of them were lounging around, watching television. She said," Switch off that television. I don't want to see it on again." She said, "Go to the library tomorrow, become a member. I want you to read two books a week each." They couldn't believe it, "Then I want you to summarise those books, and I will crit them." They turned from being the idiots of the class to being the geniuses of the class! The one little boy became a neurosurgeon.
Thing that really touched me was that that mother was illiterate; she couldn't write or read. She used to make believe that she was reading their summaries and put a tick here and a cross there. It's amazing. God chose this young man. He became a doctor, not only a doctor but a surgeon, not only a surgeon but a neurosurgeon, a brain doctor! He was the first man to separate Siamese twins, joined together at the back of the head, without losing one of them. Up until then, the one twin would always die because of the blood circulation problem, but he discovered a way to separate them, and they both survived. This man is outspoken for Jesus Christ.
Dust yourself off, get back onto your feet and get back into the race. The Lord has chosen you!
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning the 13th of November 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start with Hebrews 11:16
"But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them."
Then we go straight to John 14:1-2
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."
This home is not our home, not at all. We are just passing through. Let's not get too comfortable. What do you think your mansion will look like in heaven? Have you ever thought about that? Well, I looked up in the Oxford dictionary to find the exact definition: It is a large, impressive house. It is a country house; it is a stately home.
You know, when I travel, I get off that aeroplane, and the first place I want to go is to use the bathroom. I go into the bathroom, and there's a gentleman standing at the door with a big smile. He says welcome to my office. Yes, I do give him a tip! I sometimes wonder what he will feel like (a man who has to clean the toilets) when he walks into the mansion God has prepared for him in heaven if he's a Believer. Keith Green, the gospel singer, former drug addict, and Rock & Roll star, became an amazing ambassador for Jesus Christ. He once said, "If God made Earth in one day and he's been preparing a place for you and me for 2,000 years, man," he said, "We're living in a garbage can..."
But seriously, I want to tell you about a little boy, his name is Togo. He was part of our little children's home on the farm. He was a very sick little boy; he had a terminal disease, but he loved to go for rides on Snowy. He got so weak and thin that I had to put a pillow in front of my saddle so he could ride comfortably. We would talk about heaven, and Aunty Jill would read stories to him about heaven and say are you scared, Togo? No, he's not scared. We would talk about that big white horse that Jesus would be riding when he came to fetch him to take him home to be with him in his mansion in Paradise. Jesus came and took him home, and Togo is in heaven today. Psalm 84:10 says:
"I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness."
Today, let's be sure we know where we are going when we die. God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning the 12th of November 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start with Isaiah 3:10:
"Say to the righteous that it shall be well with them,
For they shall eat the fruit of their doings."
Then we go to Psalm 128:1
"Blessed is every one who fears the Lord,
Who walks in His ways."
These two scriptures are very straightforward and very simple to understand. Even a small child can understand them. What the Lord is saying to us this morning is: Just do the right thing. No shortcuts to success, no ducking and diving, no bending the rules or telling white lies. You see, we might fool some of the people sometimes, but we can never fool all of the people all of the time - and we will never fool God.
You know, shortcuts are not normally the quickest way home. Every time I've tried to take one, I always get stuck in the mud. Let's do it the right way. Why don't we hit the reset button and start again? Say, "Lord, I'm choosing today to start doing things Your way. Not to impress the Receiver of Revenue, not to impress anybody, but to do it because You promised me that if I do it the right way, then You, Lord, will reward me and my family."
Started living righteous and godly lives. With Jesus in our corner, we cannot fail. Romans 8:31:
"If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Now, all of a sudden, the rain will start falling on your crops. Your dams will overflow, and your relationships will be restored. Your cattle will be fat, and your family will love and respect you. Let's do it today. Let's hit that reset button. Why don't you pray this prayer with me:
Heavenly Father, please forgive me for trying to do things my own way. They have failed miserably, but today, Lord, I will start to do things in a godly, righteous way. I'm going to pay my debts. I'm going to love my family. I'm going to take care of those whom I'm looking after correctly, and Lord, I know that you will do the rest in Jesus' Name, amen.
Have a wonderful Sunday as you contemplate what you are going to start doing as of Monday morning. Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 11th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Hebrews 11:8:
"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. "
God always honours faith. You know, when you think about it, Abraham was a farmer. He left everything. He took his wife, workers, and animals and left everything. He didn't even know where he was going. He went because God told him. Remember, a good idea is not always a God idea, and a need does not justify a call. So you don't just do it. You do it because God tells you to.
I am sitting in my prayer room here, thinking very affectionately of the Mighty Men phenomenon because that is what it is. There are Mighty Men Conferences all over the globe. I got a letter the other day from a very dear son of mine in the Lord, telling me that they are calling him to Fiji. They are calling him to the South Sea Islands of New Caledonia. They want Mighty Men Conferences, and we praise God for that. I have seen such sights! I will never forget 2010 on this farm, some 450,000 men assembled here for the weekend. It was something supernatural, but it didn't start that way. It started with a word from the Lord 20 years ago: "I want you to mentor men."
In my heart, God gave me that scripture, and this is the outcome. You know the thing that touches me greatly about this move of God, is that it is not underwritten by some big denomination of some huge organisation. No, it's ordinary men, just like the farmer, Abraham, who take the initiative. In 2010, I told the men, "I am passing on the batten to you. You need to carry it on now. I am stopping (and many of them were unhappy to have me stop). I said, "I am stopping because God said this is the last one", and then ordinary men, like Abraham, went when God said go, they went.
Going to these Mighty Men Conferences is so exciting for me because it is not about numbers. It is about obedience and to see each one has its own flavour and thumbprint - as one man said - completely different. There are miners, farmers, businessmen, professional sportsmen, and teachers - all kinds of men, backed by their wives, of course, and they step out of the boat. They cry, they phone me and say they don't know if it is going to work, and I say, "Go, if God told you to go." Then, of course the great day arrives, and all the cars come in, and the trucks and motorbikes, and there is dust in the air, and there is blood, sweat and tears, and then the Power of God comes down. It is something to behold. If God has told you to go, if God has told you to do something, do it, and I tell you what, He will honour you every time because God honours the prayer of faith.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning. It’s the 10th of November, 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Hebrews 11:6:
”But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Then we go to Mathew 14:28-29:
”And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water. So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.”
He is the only human being, apart from Jesus, who has ever walked on the top of water. You see, Jesus honoured the step of faith which Peter took. There were another eleven men in that boat. None of them got out of the boat and walked on the water, only Peter.
God always honours faith, not presumption, and there’s a big difference here. Presumption means to suppose that something might probably be true. That’s not faith. Faith is when you get a clear word from Jesus. Jesus said to Peter, “Come”, and Peter responded by faith. When you get a word, you act on the word of God, not somebody else’s presumption. It’s not a case of, well, let’s hope for the best. Peter, by faith, responded to Jesus’ word, “Come”.
Sadly, I’ve seen too many folk trying to imitate something God has done in another life. The sad thing is it fails miserably every time. Any act of faith must always glorify God. Faith like potatoes! Oh yes, I acted on the word of God, at King’s Park Rugby Stadium in front of a large crowd. I said,” I’m going back to the farm to plant potatoes.” Why did I say that? Because I had a heart for the rural farmers, who were told not to plant anything because of El Nino. If you remember, I said, “To hell with El Nino. I am going back, and I am planting potatoes!” And I did, and I received a crop of potatoes.
Today, listen to the word of God in your life and act on that and that alone, and He will honour His word every single time.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 9th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 91:1:
"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
Then we go to Psalm 46:10:
"Be still, and know that I am God;…"
Then the last scripture is Luke 21:37-38:
"And in the daytime He was teaching in the temple, but at night He went out and stayed on the mountain called Olivet. Then early in the morning all the people came to Him in the temple to hear Him."
First the mountain and then the ministry. You have heard me say that many times - first the mountain and then the ministry. The quiet time before the battle is absolutely critical. The battle is won or lost in that quiet time place. So many well-meaning people offer their advice before the big meeting, but it is vital that we hear from God. John Wesley, the great reformer, said that God would light him up in the vestry, in his quiet time place, and then he would go out, and the people would watch him burn for Christ. It's where the battle is won or lost.
I want to say to young people, before you have to write that major examination, spend time quietly waiting and hearing from God. Before you have to make a life-defining choice, when the doctor is advising you to have the operation, you need to get aside with the Lord and ask Him, "Do I take the operation or not take the operation?" It is a life-defining choice. You need to be quiet, and you need to hear from God. Next to giving your life to Jesus Christ, the next greatest decision in your life will be the person that you marry because you will be with them until the day they die. You need to spend time in the presence of God before you accept the invitation or not.
You know, many a time before going on to the platform, when I have to speak to a multitude of people, I need to spend time on my own, and there is a major battle that takes place. The devil is trying to rattle me, and the Lord says, "I am going with you." It's an important time to be in the secret place of the Most High. Jesus spent the night in Gethsemane before He went to the Cross. It was such an important decision that He was sweating drops of blood. I believe the victory took place at Gethsemane, not on the Cross. Jesus could have accepted or denied the choice. He accepted it and because of that, you and I are alive today.
God bless you as you spend time in the secret place of the Most High,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 8th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Isaiah 2:17:
"The loftiness of man shall be bowed down,
And the haughtiness of men shall be brought low;
The Lord alone will be exalted in that day,…"
Very, very powerful words. We need to be careful how we stand lest we fall. Then we go across to the Gospel of John 13:12-14 in the New Testament:
"So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet."
Wow! A band of feet-washers, that's what we are! And who gave us the example? None other than the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, Emmanuel - God made flesh. The best way to keep humble, and not to become proud and haughty, is to wash someone's feet. You see, you have to get down on your knees to wash someone's feet, you can't do it standing up. John Wesley, the great reformer, went all the way to Germany to learn from Count Zinzendorf, who was responsible for the Moravian church, which really shook the world, and do you know what happened? Count Zinzendorf put him in the garden. He had to look after all the vegetables and the flowers; this man who had a Master's Degree in Theology, was on his knees, tending the garden. That's how he taught him.
I remember people telling me about the great evangelist Reinhard Bonke, who has been with Jesus now for a couple of years. He took Africa by storm, he preached to millions of people, live. They told me that after a meeting, when he would be exhausted, having prayed for the sick for hours and preaching the Gospel, they would be looking for him and he would be in a caravan with his team, his crew, and what would he be doing? Well, he had the apron on, didn't he? He was cooking supper for them at midnight! That is a mark of humility, a mark of a great man of God.
I will never forget when I went to bonny Scotland, they told me that my dear old father had come over a few years before and had done very well in Africa, he had succeeded and became manager of an engineering company, that blacksmith, and he had his suit on. He was coming to visit some relatives on the small croft, a small farm. As he walked through the front gate, he saw that they had been cutting oats, and the oats were lying in the field. He took his suit jacket off, put it on a post - he was a very strong man, my dad - and started stooking the oats up for drying. They were amazed at his humility.
Today, keep yourself humble and God will raise you up.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 7th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 1:41:
“He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.”
Andrew is known in the Bible as the introducer. He is the one who introduced Simon Peter to Jesus Christ - “We have found Him!” What a moment. “We have found the Messiah!” Can you imagine jumping up and down, “Peter, leave your nets. We have found Him!” It is what is known as a “eureka moment.” Now, Archimedes was a Greek scholar. He jumped out of his bath and ran naked down the street, shouting, “Eureka, I have found it!” He discovered the principle of buoyancy. In 1895, Albert Einstein’s eureka moment occurred. He was a bored, lazy, indifferent sixteen-year-old schoolboy, and he was also a day-dreamer. One day, during one of his daydreams, he dreamt and wondered what a beam of light would look like if he could run past it, and he was the man who was responsible for splitting the atom.
I want to tell you today that my eureka moment was on 18th February 1979, when I was introduced to the Son of God, the Messiah, who has become my best friend ever, and people need to know about it today. Have you introduced anybody lately to the King of kings and the Lord of Lords? Have you told them, “I have found Him, we have found Him.”
Everybody ought to know,
Everybody ought to know,
Everybody ought to know who Jesus is!
He’s the Lily of the Valley,
He’s the bright and Morning Star,
He’s the Fairest of ten thousand,
Everybody ought to know!
Go out today and tell somebody that you have had a eureka moment. You have found the Son of God, and do what Andrew did. He introduced them to Jesus.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 6 of November 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start with Isaiah 2:5:
"O house of Jacob, come and let us walk
In the light of the Lord."
Then we go to Ephesians 5:8
"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light."
There are no secrets in the kingdom of God. You and I need to walk in the light with each other. We need to be transparent, no hidden agendas, no dark areas. You know if you look at Numbers 32:23 the word of God says:
"...be sure your sin will find you out."
When we become Christians, there are no more secrets. We walk in the light, and that gives us freedom. I remember many years ago having the privilege to preach in New Zealand to the Maori people - what beautiful, gentle folk. That is until they get on the rugby field - Beautiful people. They invited me to one of their traditional meeting places called a Marae.
It's made out of wood in an A-frame shape, a beautiful place. The floors are wooden, and you sit on the floors. The Maori folk invited me to come and bring the message of God. It was a great honour for me. As I walked in, I took off my jacket because I cannot preach when I'm wearing a jacket. I always feel constricted. I got my jacket off and put it down, and they looked at me with a big smile on their face - I didn't realise what I had done. Then they said to me what you've done is a very good thing. Traditionally, when you come into a Marae, you show the people that you are not carrying a firearm or any weapon to use against them. You take your jacket off to show them you've got nothing to hide.
Today, let's walk in the light and have no secrets. Let people see that we are children of the light, servants of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Have a wonderful day. Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning, the 5th of November 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for the day. We start with 1 Corinthians 2:9:
But as it is written:
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
Oh, that is good news, the best news I've heard today. I want you to visualise a little street urchin selling newspapers on a busy street corner in a big city like London or New York. He's trying to sell these newspapers, and to get rid of them, he needs to be convinced to convince other people to buy them. He is full of excitement and vitality. He's got a bundle of newspapers under his arm and one shaking up and down and saying to everyone walking past going to work, have you heard the good news? We've got the scoop. This is the good news. Hear ye, hear ye, the good news. The good news is a baby has been born in a village called Bethlehem in the country of Israel in the Middle East. His name is Emmanuel, God with us. Matthew 1:23:
"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."
You need to buy this newspaper today. Do you know that His father is country Carpenter? His mother, a beautiful young virgin who has never known a man - it's miraculous! Have you heard the good news? You know what's happened? He's grown into a very strong young man and they say that he is healing the sick. He's setting the captives free. He is actually raising the dead. Crowds are flocking towards Him to hear and see what He's doing. They say He is the son of God, but you know the best news of all? He's coming back again! Buy this newspaper, read it and then tell everybody the good news.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday and tell somebody the good news. Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 4th of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Hebrews 10:23:
"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful."
Our faith is not in ourselves, but it is in the Faithful One. It is in the name of Jesus. You see, the farmer, Job knew that very well, and he said in the Book of Job 13:15:
(Even) "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."
It's not in ourselves but in Christ alone that we put our trust. It is not in public opinion - no, we must stand strong on the hope of our confession. That is what the scripture is saying. You see, Jesus asked Peter,
"But who do you say that I am?"
Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ."
Mark 8:29
Oh, my dear friend, He is not the man upstairs, He is not our mate, He is not the big boss, He is the Son of the Living God. You know, that name is so powerful and so controversial that by simply confessing that Jesus is Lord, 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians lost their lives, they were martyred, their heads were cut off - just by that statement! - 21 Coptic Christians and one Ghanaian Christian, but they are sitting around the throne of Jesus today. They are martyrs, indeed. We have seen miracles take place. I have seen when the name of Jesus is spoken in hope, that blind eyes have opened, deaf ears have been un-stopped, and people have been delivered from darkness and evil. You see, 1 John 4:4 says greater is He who is within us than he who is in the world. He who is within us is the Holy Spirit, he who is in the world is the devil and he has no power over that Name.
Please use that name more often. Use it when you have need of help, when you are lonely, when you are afraid, use that name. The power is in the confession of the name.
Have a beautiful day today,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 3rd of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
I want to speak to you this morning about probably the greatest and the most powerful weapon every Christian has at their disposal. We go to James 5:16:
"The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."
You know, they asked Dr Billy Graham, probably the greatest of all modern-day evangelists, what was the secret of his success? He said words to the effect, "First, it was prayer, secondly, it was prayer, and thirdly, it was prayer." Oh, my friend, why do we always leave it to the last before we pray? We try everything else, don't we? Then, when it doesn't work we say, "Well, let's pray." I want to tell you that prayer is a supernatural weapon against the powers of darkness, sickness and disease.
Prayer means so much to me that if there is no prayer cover at a meeting where I am invited to speak, I will decline the invitation. "God is not looking for great people but for people who will dare to prove the greatness of their God." A.W. Simpson said that. You see, it is the prayer of faith which moves the hand of God, not prayer, the prayer of faith. Jesus Himself, prayed more than He spoke. He taught His disciples in Matthew 6 how to pray. Prayer must become a lifestyle, my friend. It's not just spending a few minutes in prayer; you pray all day, and you pray in every situation. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing.
Now, remember that great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis? He wrote a book called, "The Screwtape Letters"? It's a fictitious story about Screwtape, an experienced devil, teaching his young nephew, Wormwood, an effective way to turn people away from God. In a nutshell, he said, "Stop them from praying, distract them from praying. Let them do everything else. They can praise God, they can go to church, but don't let them pray." Why? Because when we pray we move the hand of God, and also don't limit God with prayers of unbelief. Be prepared to pray for great impossibilities. Luke 1:37:
"For with God nothing will be impossible."
We went down to the Kouga Dam Wall, and we went down to Jeffries Bay in the Eastern Cape. They had no water, nothing at all, and we prayed. Many of us, thousands of us prayed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, and the Eastern Cape has got plenty water and the Kouga Dam is overflowing for the first time in many years.
Let's continue to pray together today,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 2nd of November, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Hebrews 9:16-17, in the New Testament:
“For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.”
What an incredible promise from God and so exciting. You know, when I read this scripture, it was like the Lord opened something very special for me. A testament is a will, and a will is drawn up by a parent for their child, for example, while the parent is alive, the will is actually of no benefit to the child, but when the parent dies, the child receives the benefit of the will. The will comes alive, in other words. Before that, it was just a piece of paper in the lawyer’s office. You can do nothing with it, but once the person who made the will dies, the will becomes alive, and the child receives the benefit, for example, a farm, a large sum of money, a house, a motor car, whatever it might be.
Now, that is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you and me. When He died on the cross for all of our sins, our inheritance came into being. What do we need to do? We need to accept it, to believe it, and we also need to be eternally grateful and thankful for the tremendous price the Lord has paid for your sins and my sins. We can’t earn our way to Heaven, no way. When we stand before the Lord one day, all we are going to say is, “Lord, we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,” and of course, we have to live the life, but that is the fulfilment of the testament, the will that the Lord Jesus Christ left for you and me.
Now today, let us go out and let us be a blessing to those who do not know Jesus and let us tell them that unless they are born again, unless they have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, they cannot be part of the will, the testament that Jesus left for us when He died on the Cross of Calvary.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 1st of November, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 9:5:
“Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
You can’t live on top of the mountain. You see, when Peter, James and John experienced the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to His Heavenly Father and the visitation of Elijah and Moses, they were so overwhelmed. They didn’t want to go back down into the valley where all the day-to-day issues and problems faced them. They wanted to stay on the mountain, and you and I need to be very careful about that as well. We need to meet the people where they are at. You know the old saying, “Don’t become so heavenly-minded that you and I are no earthly use.” We need to touch base with the man in the street.
Do you know, they asked Martin Luther, the great reformer, “What would you do if you knew that the Lord was coming back tomorrow?” He said, “I would plant an apple tree today.” You see, in Germany, there are lots of apple orchards. They asked John Wesley, “If you knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was coming back tomorrow, what would you do today?” He said, “Well, it is 9 a.m., I have got a Bible study meeting in this village, and then I am going to get on my horse, Dobbin, and I am going to ride to the next village, and I am having lunch with a group of people there, then I will preach the Gospel in the evening…” In other words, what these two giants of the faith were saying was that we carry on living day to day.
God uses ordinary people. Look at the track record in the Bible. God used fishermen, shepherds, tent-makers, and He even used tax-collectors. Don’t lose touch with the man in the street. You know, I have just returned from a wonderful weekend as a speaker at a Mighty Men Conference in the central part of our beloved nation, South Africa. What wonderful people! Farmers and miners, just ordinary working folk like me. These people love Jesus in a simple yet profound way. It was so refreshing for me not to try to solve all the problems of the whole world, which we can’t do anyway, can we? Not so caught up with doctorates, theology - I mean, I can’t even spell the word - which have no bearing on living from day to day, putting bread on the table, finding employment, or working through marriage issues.
You know that after we had finished preaching on Saturday night, a group of us got together and watched the World Cup Rugby Final on television. What an experience! We were laughing, we were trying to tell the referee what to do, we were crying with joy and pain! Don’t lose touch with reality, even though we are passing through this world, even though we don’t belong here. That was the secret of the Master’s touch. That was Jesus’ touch, meeting with all people!
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Tuesday morning, the 31st of October 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Isaiah 1:18:
"Come now, and let us reason together,"
Says the Lord,
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool."
And then we go to the last book in the Bible, Revelation 7:13:
"Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?"
And I said to him, "Sir, you know."
So he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
What powerful scriptures! Is it possible that Jesus could give a sinner like you and me a second chance in life? The answer is yes, most definitely! Not only that, but He is more than willing to do it. You know, we are dirty, and we look like we have been rolling around in the mud sometimes, don't we? You know, when you get a little dog, a little puppy, and he comes to the farm, especially the farm, where there is all kind of mud and cow patties around and all kinds of things lying around - What does he do? He goes straight into that mud. Even that cow manure, and he rolls around in it, then he comes running into the house and mother just about tears her hair out. Nobody wants anything to do with that little puppy, right? Well, sometimes you and I mess up so badly no one wants anything to do with us, either.
Many years ago, I used to show stud sheep at the show. I had Ile de France stud sheep. We used to take those beautiful rams and put them on a table, wash them down with soap and then we would even use shampoo. It would take a long time, but when we had finished, they looked magnificent, like they were coated with cotton wool. Lovely, soft, snow-white and not a mark on them, that is how we got the champion.
I want to tell you today, "Don't roll around in the mud, in the cow patties of this world. Come to Jesus and let Him wash you so clean because He loves you so much. He is waiting for you in Heaven.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 30th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Hebrews 8:10 in the New Testament:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
How does the Lord speak to you? Well, the Lord speaks to me first and foremost through the Word of God. That's why I get up in the morning and have my quiet time before I do anything else. Then He speaks to me through my conscience. Now, what is a conscience? Well, according to the Oxford Dictionary, it is a moral sense of right or wrong. Standards, values, principles, ethics, and beliefs are what a conscience is. I believe the Holy Spirit is our conscience if we allow Him to be.
For example, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you know when you are breaking the speed limit, don't you? I can see some smiles there. I can see some people's faces are going red. Ja, I know mine is too. You may not break the speed limit because that's against the law. You find when you are a follower of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will remind you to pay the full price. Don't go and shortchange somebody, and if you have, go back and say sorry and give them the full amount. Be courteous, especially to older people. Respect them, and stand back. Give them an opportunity. Some of them are in pain. They've got sore backs, they've got knees that are giving them trouble. Stand back and help them. What reminds you to do that - that's right, your conscience. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you.
You know, when you don't know Jesus Christ you couldn't care less, isn't that right? You barge in. You push in. You muscle your way around. You shout. You perform. You scream. You blaspheme with no problem at all, but when Jesus Christ comes into your heart, and He is Lord and Saviour, the Word becomes a reality, and all of a sudden, you know when you are doing wrong. You know when you are being dishonest, and that's the Lord speaking. Don't allow your conscience to become seared. What does that mean? Don't harden your heart so that when the Holy Spirit talks to you, you don't listen to Him. You do that, and you'll get yourself into big trouble. Just do what the Lord says, and He says in His Word, "They shall be my people, and I will be their God."
What a promise!
Jesus bless you today,
have a wonderful day and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 29th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 4:34:
“And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.”
When we spend time in meditation, when we focus our minds and free our minds from uncontrolled thoughts, when we start carefully thinking about the situation, then the Lord can speak to us in our hearts very clearly. That wonderful Scottish preacher who was blind, George Matheson, wrote the following words:
“My soul, practice being alone with Christ. The scripture says that when He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything. Do not wonder about the truth of this verse for it can be true of your life as well. If you desire to have understanding, then dismiss the crowd, just as Jesus did. Let them go away one at a time until only Jesus is left.
Have you ever pictured yourself as the last remaining person on Earth or the only person left in the entire universe? If you were the only person remaining in the universe, your every thought would be, “God and I…! God and I…!” Yet He is already as close to you as that. He is as near as if no hearts but His and yours ever beat throughout the boundlessness of space.
O my soul, practice that solitude, dismissing the crowd. Practice the stillness of your heart. Practice the majestic song, “God and I! God and I!” Let no one become between you and your wrestling angel. You will receive conviction, yet pardon when you meet with Jesus alone.”
Have a wonderful day as you come aside and meditate for a while with the Prince of Peace.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 28th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Song of Songs 2:14, the book of love:
"O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret places of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your face is lovely."
Then we go back a little bit to verse 10:
"My beloved spoke, and said to me:
"Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away."
What beautiful words! Then we go to Psalm 35:9:
"And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord; It shall rejoice in His salvation."
Do not become so very busy that we neglect our first love. You know, people come to see me from time to time because they have problems with their marriage, and I sit down, and I ask them, "Is there a third party? Is there someone else who is getting involved in your marriage?" And they say, "No," and I say, "Well, what is the problem?" They say, "We want to get divorced because we don't have anything in common anymore." So sad! What happened to your first love? You neglected it because of the busy schedule that you have, and you know, the excuse that many of us use as men is that "I was so busy working for my family." Come on now guys, let's get real. For a lot of us, it was for our own ego. We were building our own empire and it cost us our marriage. Don't go there.
Revelation 2:4, the Lord says,
"… I have this against you, that you have left your first love."
Now, that is tragic. It must not happen. That is exactly what the devil wants to do: to keep you and I so busy that we neglect our first love. "…I have this against you, that you have left your first love." What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? I want to say to you today, work on your first love. Jesus is waiting to talk with you this morning. As soon as this little message is finished, I want to challenge you to find a quiet place, sit down and start to talk to the Lord. Tell Him how much you love Him, and ask for forgiveness for how you have neglected to spend quality and quantity time with Him because if you neglect your first love, what have you got left? Absolutely nothing.
So Jesus bless you today as you rekindle that first love and it will take care of all of your problems.
"Come unto Me, all of you who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."Matthew 11:28
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 27th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in Isaiah 40:31:
"But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint."
Oh my dear friends, this morning, we must become more intentional regarding this race of life we are running in together. This is not the warm-up race. This is the final. We need to be more focused and keep our eye on the goal, the finish line. If we look at Philippians 3:14, the word of God says:
"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
We really need to get serious. This is not the dummy run. This race will lead us home to Heaven, and Jesus will be waiting for you and me at that finish line. What a day that will be. But until then, we need to keep on keeping on. You know, I remember so distinctly watching the Comrades Marathon on TV. I remember that small little man with the blonde hair, Bruce Fordyce. Do you know that he won the Comrades Marathon no less than nine times? Nine times! Runners come from all over the world, and there is a lot of money for the man who comes first.
The Russians and Americans were here - but one thing about Bruce Fordyce - he was focused. He was intentional, and he kept his eye on the goal. When the gun went off and the race started, I remember so clearly all the novices were coming out of the stalls there flat out, running like a hundred-metre race, and five kilometres down the road, they had blown out already. Bruce Fordyce kept his eyes on that watch. He was totally committed to what he was doing. He wasn't looking at the crowds around him. He wasn't worried about all the other runners that were way ahead of him, some of them five or ten kilometres ahead of him. People would probably ask him, "Do you realise your opponent is far ahead of you?" He was focused on his race. He was disciplined, committed, and knew exactly what he was doing.
On the upward run, he would come up to Polly Shorts which was just outside Pietermaritzburg, that very, very ugly steep hill, and then he would just put on the pressure. He would come right past the runner who had probably been running ahead all the way, tap him on the shoulder and give him the "death-hand shake", and off he would go and come through the finish line because he knew where he was going. He had disciplined himself, he had done all the preparation work correctly and he was confident that he was going to win.
You and I today need to do exactly the same.
Jesus bless you as you run for the finish line,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 26th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 49:15-16:
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;…”
Now folks, the Book of Isaiah was written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ died on the Cross of Calvary for your sins and my sins. I want to ask you a question this morning. Are you feeling lonely today? Do you feel that no one really cares for you? Do you feel that you have no friends? Well, there is One who cares for you and me so much that He was prepared to die for you on that ugly cross. Jesus loves you so much that the holes in his hands made by those crude nails proves just how much He loves us both.
If you look at the word of God in John 15:13, Jesus says:
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
The greatest thing that you can give somebody is your life. There is nothing more that you can give. I remember sitting in a little Bible study many years ago, and a gentleman explained the pruning process and how God prunes us so that we can bear much fruit. I can hear you and me saying, “But it is so painful sometimes.” This gentleman said, “Yes, but the Man who is holding the secateurs, the pruning tool, is pruning you, but He has holes in His hands, so the pain that you are suffering, and I am suffering by being pruned, is not as much as the Man who is doing the pruning, because of the pain in His hands.
Today, remember, you never need to be lonely because He cares for you more than a nursing woman cares for her baby.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 25th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of 2 Corinthians 5:17:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
What a beautiful promise. Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 8:13:
"A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away."
Obsolete is old fashioned, it is no longer relevant, it is no longer valid like your passport when it runs out, you have to get a new one. You might as well throw the old one away because it is no longer valid. You cannot travel on a passport that is redundant. You and I cannot earn our way to Heaven by our own efforts. Jesus has paid in full - all our debt. All we have to do is to say thank You! That's very hard to comprehend, isn't it? Especially when you are from the old school. Some of us struggle with this free gift of eternal life. We always want to earn it or pay for it. Why? Probably because of pride. If I cannot pay for it, then I do not want it. Many of us, including myself, struggle to accept a gift from someone.
A couple of times, more than once, I have been sitting in a restaurant with my wife and my family, and we have just had a lovely meal. I call the waitress and ask if she could please bring us the bill because we want to pay for the meal, and she looks at us and says, "Your meal has already been paid for in full." Now, it is very humbling, but it is so special and so touching. You see, you can't even pay it back; You can't even say thank to the person who has paid for your meal because they have already left the restaurant and gone. That is what grace means. It means un-deserved, loving kindness. Now, that is exactly what the new covenant is all about. Father God has given us His Son, Jesus, who has paid in full for all our debts. What must we do? We must say, "Thank You, Lord," and go out and sin no more.
Have a beautiful day and remember, if Christ is for you, there is no man that will ever stand against you. (Romans 8:31).
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 24th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ephesians 2:8:
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,…"
Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 7:22.
"…by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant."
A surety means "a person who guarantees that somebody else will do something or pay a debt." Now, that is exactly what Jesus Christ has done for us who believe; therefore, we cannot let Him down or disappoint Him. We cannot get to Heaven by trying to live a better life, by earning "brownie points" because we fail miserably every single time, don't we? Jesus Himself has become our guarantee! Isn't that beautiful? A guarantee that we will make it.
I remember a story that I heard so many years ago. It was one of my favourite stories about a cowboy preacher. He was a circuit preacher, riding his horse, going to all the small towns in the prairies in North America. He was a seasoned old man, and as he was riding along on his horse one day, a big dust storm came up from the horizon and he knew what he had to do. He stopped immediately, hobbled his horse, put his saddle down, took his saddle blanket, put it on the ground, got underneath it, pulled his cowboy stetson hat over his head and waited out the sand storm, and he went to sleep. He had a dream that a huge angel was standing in front of him. The angel was holding a book, and the cowboy said, "What is in that book?"
He said, "This is the Book of Life, and everyone who's name is in this book goes to Heaven."
The old cowboy said, "Well, my name must be in that book because I am a preacher of the Gospel."
The angel looked it up in the book, and he said, "No, sorry, your name is not in this book."
The old cowboy was angry. He said, "It must be!"
He said, "It's not here. What is your name?"
"My name is John Smith."
He looked it up, but he couldn't find the name there.
"I demand to go to Heaven. I want to speak to God and find out why my name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life."
The angel said, "Okay, jump on my back, hold tight, and let's go."
So they flew into the universe, in through the blackness, twice the speed of sound. Eventually, they saw a little light in the distance. The angel said, "That is Heaven. Get ready, we are going to be landing shortly." The light got brighter and brighter and brighter until they arrived in Heaven. The angel landed on a floor of pure gold. He let the cowboy down gently. The cowboy was absolutely petrified by this time. He was lying on his face on this floor of gold, and he heard a voice like a thousand rivers saying, "Who are you? What do you want here?" The cowboy was petrified. He couldn't move. A second time, this voice came. "Who are you? What do you want here?" At that time, he heard footsteps coming from behind him. A beautiful robe was swishing back and forth. He could hardly lift his head. Feet that wore sandals walked up next to him, and big, strong arms bent down and picked the cowboy up from underneath his chest and stood him to his feet, and the voice said, "It's okay, Father, he's with Me. He is My friend."
I want to say to you today, make sure that Jesus Christ is your friend. He is the only guarantee you will ever have.
Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 23rd of October 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start with Galatians 4:9
"But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?"
Why do we always want to go back to Egypt - Back to slavery, when the Lord has set us free? John 8:36 says:
"Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."
My dear friend, the Lord has set us free; why do we continually want to go back, as it were, to our former lives? 'No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.' You and I need to press forward, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
You know you can hear my voice. I'm so happy this morning. Why? Because it's raining! Beautiful rain is falling on my tin roof, and there is thunder and lightning, and we are rejoicing. Malachi 4:2
"And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves."
When I was a very young man, 19 years old, I was in bonnie Scotland. There, the calves are put into stalls for months and months during the extremely cold winters. There is snow outside. It is freezing cold. When Spring comes, they open the stalls and let those young calves out. Oh, my dear friend, you've never seen anything like it in your life - They go running around the field eating the new green grass, tails up, prancing around. There's no way you can get them back into the stalls. An old cowboy saying - once you let a cat out of a bag, try and put him back in that bag again... He is not going back in the back!
I want to say to you today: don't return to Egypt. Enjoy your liberty and your freedom in Christ. Remember, good people don't go to heaven. Believers go to heaven. Have a wonderful Monday; Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Saturday morning, the 22nd of October 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We go straight to Hebrews 6:19:
"This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast..."
I'll stop right there - an anchor in the storms of life. Now remember, our hope for the future is in none other than our anchor. His Name is Jesus, absolutely. Faith is for the present, but hope is for the future - Who are you and I hoping for in the future? It has to be our anchor, and his Name is Jesus.
Now, I looked up the Oxford dictionary to define the word anchor, and it says: "A heavy object that is attached to a boat by a rope or a chain and is dropped onto the seabed to stop the boat from drifting." We need to stop drifting. Many of us today are drifting aimlessly. We are going nowhere fast; it is dangerous. Any sailor will tell you that - Especially when a storm is on the horizon. Now, remember, when all else fails, we drop the anchor. The anchor slows the boat down so it does not hit the rocks. Yes, His Name is Jesus - He is our strong anchor; He will keep us from hitting the rocks and destroying the boat. Today, let your anchor down; let Him take control of your situation.
They say that when a flock of geese fly over a lake and they see a storm approaching, they land on the lake, tuck their wings in, and face the storm. They stay there on that lake until the storm passes. Today, you and I, let us put our anchor down, face the storm, and put our hope in Jesus Christ alone.
God bless you, and have a wonderful Sunday.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, its the 21st of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 61:3 in the Old Testament:
"The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;…"
Then we go to the New Testament, to the Book of Acts 16:25-26:
"But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed."
The power of praise! How are you feeling this morning? Are you feeling downcast or heavy-hearted? I know, I know - I feel like that as well, oh yes, I do indeed, but how do we combat that heaviness, that dark cloud that descends upon us? Sometimes, we can't even explain it - everything is going well but there is just a heaviness. Well, we do exactly what Paul and Silas did in that horrible, dirty, dark dungeon. We start to praise the Lord! We praise the Lord especially when we do not feel like it. It is like trying to get fit when you are in the gym and you are training hard for a race or some sport. It is always the times that you don't feel like training that it does you the best. Isn't that right? Normally when you say, "I do not feel like getting up this morning and going to the gym", that's when you must do it. Well, the same thing applies when you don't feel like praising the Lord; thats when you praise Him, especially when we are going through hard times. That is what lifts us up, lifts our spirits when we praise Him unconditionally.
I have just returned from a mountain bike ride early this morning. There was nobody anywhere to be seen hardly, and I started to sing praises to the Lord on my mountain bike. I am sure if anybody saw me, they would have thought I had lost my marbles, but you know, the more I praised the Lord, the lighter my spirit became, and I started to focus on positive things, like soon, very soon, the Lord is coming back to take us home to be with Him in Heaven. I started to focus on the fact that the Lord promised me, "I will never leave you, I will never forsake you." I began to focus on things like, "I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me," and my heart just lifted up. For I am confident of this very thing that He who has begun a good work in me shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Go out today and praise Him because He is a good God and because He deserves it and He is worthy of it.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 20th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Hebrews 5:9 in the New Testament:
“And having been perfected, He (that’s Jesus) became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, …’
Yes, although He was God’s only Son, Jesus went through all the suffering on earth and learned obedience and trust in His Father. He wasn’t exempt. He didn’t just arrive on earth. No, He went through every trial and every tribulation that you and I are going through at this moment. Even as He was perfected, He became the way to eternal salvation to all who obey Him. Now, in John 14:6, we know that scripture so well - Jesus Himself said:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
When we are lost, when we are afraid, when we are in the bush - as a young man, it has happened to me before - I am sure it has happened to you. Maybe you got lost in a concrete jungle. That would be even more scary, especially for me as a farmer. Your water has run out; you are hungry, tired, and lost hope of ever finding your way out. Have you ever been in that situation? Then all of a sudden, a local tribesman stumbles upon you. He’s a seasoned man, he is tough, he knows the terrain, maybe he's a Khoisan Bushman, and that big smile comes over his face, he gently takes you by the hand and points the way out of that harsh environment. After giving you some fresh water to drink, he reassures you that you have nothing whatsoever to be afraid of and he leads you home. That is exactly what Father God has done for you and me. He saw how lost we were. He sent His Son down from Heaven to Earth to rescue us and show us the way out of this jungle we are trapped in.
Listen to Jesus today because He knows the way home and He will show you the way home to eternity.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 19th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Song of Songs 6:3 in the Old Testament,
"I am my beloved's,
And my beloved is mine."
What a beautiful statement! It is written no less than three times in the Book Song of Songs. We need to ask ourselves a serious question this morning, is He our beloved or not, or are we just going through the motions? Maybe the cares of this world have robbed us of our intimacy, our first love with the Lover of our souls? How personal is that love affair that you and I have with our Lord Jesus?
Remember, Jesus is the Saviour of the whole world but He is also the Saviour of the individual. He knows how many hairs are on our heads. Isn't that incredible? When we eventually meet Him face to face in Heaven one day, He is going to greet us personally by our first names. That's right - He is not going to welcome us into Heaven like flocks of sheep or herds of cattle. No, He is going to say, "Welcome home, Johnny!" "Oh, Mary, welcome home!"
Looking at the Gospel of John 1:47-48, we can see how personal the Lord is within every individual.
"Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"
Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?"
Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."
That changed Nathanael's whole life. That's when he became a Christian, "Lord, how did You know me? You have never even seen me before in Your life?" It's so nice, isn't it, when someone remembers you by your first name? It just does something to you. I bought a beautiful silver ring for my wife, Jill, when I was in Israel one time, and the inscription on the inside of the ring says, "I am my beloved's, And my beloved is mine."
Today, please, do not lose that personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. He is waiting to speak to you.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 18th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 14:28-29:
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,…"
We need to finish the job. We need to sit down, count the cost, roll up our sleeves, get stuck, and finish what we started. You know, when I was a little boy, my dad would never allow me to have any dessert or pudding until I had finished what was on my plate. He said, "You can eat as much as you want, but you must finish it." I can hear some little guy say, "I always take too much on my plate." Well, that is the problem - when you put food on that plate, you must finish it.
I remember one of our early Mighty Men Conferences on the farm here at Shalom. It was a Saturday evening, and maybe some of the mighty men listening to this were there. About 600 of us were in the hall, and the Holy Spirit visited us tremendously. I will never forget it as long as I live. That particular meeting started at about 2 p.m. and finished at 8:30 p.m. Men were convicted of all kinds of sin in their lives. It was a wonderful time of repenting, asking forgiveness and starting again. One young farmer got up and came up to the platform and he confessed in front of all of us. He said, "I started building a church on my farm. I got as far as the foundation, I laid the concrete slab to start building the walls, but I never got any further. I am going back home to finish the job. I am going to build that church."
Today, I want to say to you, finish what God has given you to do and then He will give you another project, but He will not give you anything else until you finish the first one.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 17th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the last book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation 3:20. Jesus says:
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."
Is the Lord knocking at our door this morning? I am sure He is. Now, remember, we need to open the door. Our Lord Jesus Christ is a gentleman, He will not break the door of your heart or mine to come in. No, we have to turn the handle and open the door - and by the way, the handle is on the inside, there is no handle on the outside - we need to open the door of our lives and let the Master in - that is what He is saying. He wants to come in and have fellowship with you and me. The Darling of Heaven wants to come into your heart and help you. Don't wait. If we do, we will only regret it.
A good friend of mine, the Founder of Africa Enterprise, Michael Cassidy, told me a story. He said when he was at university in England, I can't remember whether it was Oxford or Cambridge, he would travel past the rooms of a tutor who would encourage and teach the students privately. He would go past the rooms of this man many, many times and was tempted to knock on the door and go in and spend time with him, but he never did it. That man was none other than C S Lewis, who wrote books like Mere Christianity, The Screw-tape Letters, Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and many, many others. Michael would pass by his rooms and not go in and meet this giant of the faith, I am sure one of his greatest regrets.
Do not pass the opportunity today to meet with the King of Glory, Jesus Christ! He is standing at the door of our hearts. He is knocking. He says, "Open the door please, I want to come in and I want to dine with you." Let's do it today.
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 16th of October 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for the day. We go to Luke 15:7:
"I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance."
The other scripture is found in Romans 10:13:
For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
This morning, I want to speak to you about the God of the individual. Yes, Jesus preached to the masses but also talked to the individual sinner. Remember the woman at the well? First of all, she wasn't a Jew. Secondly, she was a woman. He shouldn't have been talking to her, but when He told her her whole life story, she went into the village, and the entire village was converted.
What about the case of that little short man who went up the sycamore tree, the chief tax collector? Jesus was found in his house - the disciples said, "Lord, do you know that man is? You can't go in there - That man is a sinner. He is stealing money from his people." Jesus said I came for the sick, not for the healthy. What about Mary Magdalene? A woman of ill repute, a woman with a bad reputation. A woman whom Jesus cast seven demons out of, but she became the most faithful of all the disciples.
Do not give up today on your loved one. Do not give up on that son, that daughter - that prodigal who has gone into the far country. Keep loving them, keep praying for them, keep speaking to them. Remember, Jesus also died for them; don't give up on your miracle. Do you know that some of the best Ambassadors in the faith are those who have come out of the grind of the pressures of daily life and business, and when they come through for the Lord, they are incredible, incredible witnesses for Christ?
Concentrate on the individual, and the Lord Jesus Christ will take care of the rest. God bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 15th of October 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day. We start with Psalm 95:8, the Lord says:
"Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
Then we go straight to Hebrews 3:15:
"Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."
Now, the Lord is talking about the children of Israel who spent 40 years in the wilderness and their Hearts were hardened, God was displeased with them, and none of them entered into the land of Promise, the Land of Milk and Honey - the land of Israel, except two: Joshua and Caleb.
We need to guard our hearts this morning. Please do not allow it to become polluted by what is happening in this unjust world at the moment. Remember, the wellspring of your life is your heart; you need to guard it. Proverbs 16:22 says:
"Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it."
We need to guard it with our lives. Do not allow bitterness, anger, evil thoughts, or unforgiveness to muddy the wellspring of your heart - protect it with your life. That's why farmers, when we see a fountain in a field, a beautiful spring of water coming out of the ground, we fence it off so that the animals do not go in there and pollute it when they want to drink water. We take that beautiful water and pipe it out of the spring, through the fence and into a beautiful water trough where they can drink as much water as they need.
My late dad was a prisoner of war in Germany, and he said he saw Men of the Cloth, ministers, take off their dog collars and throw them away in the prisoner of war camp when they saw the horrors that happened there, and said there is no god. Their hearts became hardened because of the situation that they were in. Do not allow that to happen to you today. We need to focus on the things of God. The Lord says that he is our helper, and the Lord says He will never forsake us - We need to take that to heart. The Lord has warned us about these things. You can see it in John 16:33. We must guard our hearts and lift our eyes to the soon-coming King.
My dear friend, spend time with the Lord today and strengthen your inner man. He is coming soon. Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 14th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Hebrews 2:18:
"For in that He Himself (thats Jesus) has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted."
Yes, He knows. Maybe this morning, my dear friend, you are feeling deserted. Maybe today you are saying, "My marriage is in a complete mess and there seems to be no hope for me" maybe you are facing bankruptcy in your business, maybe you have been to the doctor and he says, "There is no more we can do for you. You need to go home and make yourself comfortable." There is One who knows exactly what you are going through at the moment, and I want to give a word of caution to people who have a habit of saying, "I understand", especially when you have no idea what that person is going through. Please don't say that. It is like pouring petrol onto the fire. Rather, put your arm around them and love them if you don't understand.
Many years ago, when I was still comparatively young as an evangelist, I went overseas with my oldest daughter and preached the Gospel for three months. Three months away from home, three months away from my young wife and small children. Yes, I had a man on the farm, a brother in Christ who did the farming while I did the preaching. After three months of preaching in Wales, England, Scotland and Ireland, in prisons and in fellowships, wherever I got an opportunity, I was terribly homesick. Eventually, after three months, when the mission was over, we came back home. I want to be honest with you, I hit a brick wall. Now, I should have been rejoicing. I saw many souls come to Christ, and I saw many miracles take place, but when I came home, my dear wife had to carry on with the work on the farm. She was signing all the cheques - we used to sign cheques in those days. She had to organise the children for school. My brother in Christ, who was looking after the farm, was carrying on with the farming. Even my little Staffordshire Bull Terrier walked past me. He didn't recognise me anymore, and I really went into a deep pit, actually, and people didn't seem to understand what I was going through, not even my family.
One day, I went to visit an old gentleman, an old evangelist who had been preaching the Gospel most of his life. I went and sat down with him and said, "Uncle Gerhard" - his name was Gerhard Engelbrecht - I said, "I have come to see you because I don't know what is wrong with me. I should be rejoicing. We have had wonderful victories overseas, but I feel so down and flat." You know, that old gentleman never said a word. He looked at me, and just smiled and as he smiled, I knew instantly that he understood what I had been through because, you see, he had walked that road himself as a young evangelist.
I want to say to you today, remember Jesus knows. Take your problems to Him and He will comfort you.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 13th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to Isaiah 26:9 in the Old Testament:
"With my soul I have desired You in the night,
Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early;…"
Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 7:7-8, and I am reading out of the New Living Translation:
"Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened."
I just feel I am speaking to somebody, particularly this morning, who has decided to give up. "I can't take it anymore. It's too much for me", and you want to give up your vision and dream. You do not realise, my dear friend, just how close you are to receiving your dream. Now, you know the old saying, "A faint heart never gained a fair maiden"? I remember a young man who was very close to me. He came into my house one day and was very tearful. I said, "What's wrong?" He said, "The young lady I have been pursuing has found somebody else." I asked him, "Is she wearing an engagement ring?" He said, "No". I said, "Get back in there!" He did; he has married her, and they have two beautiful sons. They are very much in love.
You know, at 15 years old, I so desired to become a preacher of the Gospel. I went to visit the minister of our local church in Central Africa where I grew up, and I told him my dreams, and he said, "But you have to go to university and get a degree in theology first." Well, you know I didn't have the qualifications to get into university, and what did I do? I did the unforgivable. I gave up, and I went into the far country literally and became a prodigal son, but praise God, Jesus Christ never gave up on me. I want to tell you I am preaching now with all of my heart, and I am receiving more than I ever thought, in a million years, that I would receive from the Lord.
Do not give up today. Get back in the fight, get back in the race, and the Lord will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 12th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start with Psalm 34:19:
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Then we go to the New Testament to the Gospel of John 16:33, Jesus said:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Oh my dear friend, my heart is heavy when I hear about what is happening in the Middle East. Like never before, you and I need to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). I really want to exhort you to lift up the Middle East and all its peoples. That the Lord would undertake and stop this carnage which is destroying the area. But you and I have got to be an element of peace in this time because people are losing perspective, people are panicking, people are depressed. There is no peace.
Now, you and I are representing the only true Peacemaker on earth. Yes, I am talking about our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. He said in John 14:27:
“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled and neither let it be afraid.”
You and I need to be like lighthouses in a stormy night. We need to be very careful that the ships do not get caught up on the rocks and get broken into pieces. We need to shine brightly, we need people to understand that ultimately, at the end of the day, the Lord is still in control. He is coming back and He is coming back to set the record straight, but in the meantime, you and I need to purvey a spirit, a fragrance of peace wherever we go today. People will be drawn to us like bees are drawn to a honeypot when they sense the real peace of Jesus Christ coming out of each and every one of us.
Let us keep focus today. Let us keep our eyes on the Master and He will direct our paths and those of the widow and the orphan and the old and the frail. Today, remember that Jesus is still on the throne.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 11th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 26:3-4:
“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord is everlasting strength.”
What a beautiful scripture! Then we go to Psalm 18:2:
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
And then lastly, the Book of Hebrews 2:13:
“I will put my trust in Him.”
Now, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word “Trust,” it said, “Trust is a firm belief in the truth, reliability or ability of someone or something.” Now, come on, who can we trust today? Very few, we can’t even trust ourselves, can we? Many years ago, I asked a very dear friend of mine, a lawyer, about legal trust. He said a legal contract is not even worth the weight of the paper it is written on because people can change it and abuse it. I said, “What is utmost trust?” and he told me a phrase in Latin, “uberrima fides”, which means “utmost trust.” So, in other words, if a man comes to you and wants to buy something and you give him a gentleman’s agreement, a handshake, assuming that he is a trustworthy, godly man, that handshake is worth more than any piece of paper.
Now we come to the crunch, and the crunch is this - there is One who will never leave us, He will never forsake us. He has promised us that. He will stand with us when everybody else runs away. He will keep his agreement with us until death do us part. Who is He? Oh, He is the Carpenter’s Son from Nazareth. His name is Jesus, the soon-coming King.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you, and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 10th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 14:31-32:
“And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 2:3:
”…how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,…”
Jesus has made a way of escape from the snare of the fowler. Remember in Psalm 91:3?
“Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler,…’
The thief is trying to catch you, but he is a liar, a bully, and a coward. We need to trust the Lord today like never before. I can hear somebody saying, “No, no, I can manage it myself.” No, you can’t. Peter thought he could walk on the water and did, but what happened? He took his eyes off Jesus for just a moment, and what happened? He started sinking. There are people listening to this message today who are sinking. The Lord says, “Do not neglect the great salvation, the way out that I made for you.” Turn back to the Lord today and He will see you through.
I remember like yesterday, my three little girls - I have got two boys and three girls, and they would stand at the edge of the swimming pool when they were about four or five years old, jumping up and down but too scared to jump into the pool. I would be in the swimming pool with my arms out and say, “Jump, I will catch you!” They wanted to jump but they couldn’t because they were scared. I would encourage them, “Come on now, be brave, just jump”. Then, with a big scream, they would close their eyes and jump into what appeared to them to be nothing, and I would catch them in my arms. They would hug me so tightly and they were so excited that they were in the water at last.
Today, He has got His arms out, and He loves you. I want to pray for you
Father,
I want to pray for my dear friend, listening to this programme at the moment. Lord, they are scared. They are looking around and they are seeing all kinds of things happening in the world - wars, rumours of wars, things happening that they have never seen before but Lord, You are reminding us today to keep our eyes fixed on You and not on the storm, because You have promised that You will never leave us nor forsake us.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 9th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?"Psalm 27:1
Then we go to the Book of Hebrews 13:6:
"The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"
Like never before, my dear friend, we must put our total trust in our creator and not so much in His creations. We have an old saying, "We back the jockey more than we back the horse." Yes, I ride horses and I want to tell you that the horse is very important, but I have seen it many times before when we have a trainer who comes over from the United States of America, a real cowboy, and he gets on a troublesome horse. It is quite something to see. It brings a tear to my eye sometimes. A horse that no one else can ride, that rider gets onto that horse, and the horse just quietens down. It's like the horse knows that this rider is not taking any nonsense, and furthermore, he knows exactly what he is doing, and with that, the horse quietens down and conforms to whatever the rider requires.
You and I need to focus more on the Lord Jesus Christ and less on things which can change in the twinkling of an eye, like the economic situation, the weather pattern, our physical health, our businesses, our employment, our careers, our degrees. If we keep trusting them, we will fail miserably. The situation sobers up very quickly when we don't know what tomorrow holds. We need to put our faith today in the rider, and He is the one who is coming back soon to take you and me to be with Him in Heaven forever. He is riding on a white charger. He is the Commander of the Armies of Heaven. His name is Jesus, and He loves you so dearly.
Have a good day today as you re-focus and put your trust in your creator.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 8th of October 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
Draw me away!
We will run after you.
The king has brought me into his chambers.
We will be glad and rejoice in you.
We will remember your love more than wine.
Rightly do they love you.
Song of Songs 1:4
The greatest love story ever told. Do you remember the first time that you fell in love? I remember it very well. Jill and I, when we fell in love, we didn't have to be entertained. We would buy an ice cream, sit in the field, eat it together, and talk for hours. We would watch the sunset, holding hands, walking down the farm road. You know, over 50 years later, we're still very much in love.
But I want to tell you about a second love that knocked me head over heels. It took place on the 18th of February 1979 at about 10:00 in the morning in a little Methodist church on the Main Street of our little town, Greytown. I was totally swept off my feet. I had a complete life change. I stopped swearing, and I stopped drinking and fighting. I had a whole new outlook on life. I spent the early morning with Jesus, and I still do before anyone else is awake in the house. But over these past 44 years, there's been good times and there's been hard times in my love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, all the mistakes were on my side, where I have been unfaithful and started to chase other things instead of my Lord. But you know, Jesus brings me to tears, my dear friend, He has never once been unfaithful to me. He has never ever told me a lie. He has never ever forgotten me. Yes, maybe I've got caught up with the project and for a moment I have forgotten Him, but I have come straight back. I have run back and He has always been there like the prodigal son coming home to his father with arms stretched out, running towards me. What a love affair I have had and I'm still having!
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
Now you don't have to wait for that relationship to start when you get to heaven, no, it starts right now. It starts today. It starts in your heart. What an incredible love.
Jesus bless you and keep the fire burning.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 7th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Corinthians 2:9:
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
What a beautiful scripture! It has touched my heart so deeply this morning. Another translation says, "Things never discovered or heard of before, things beyond our ability to imagine, these are the many things God has in store for all His lovers." Isn't that beautiful? And yet another translation says, "No one has ever seen or heard anything like this, never so much as to imagine anything quite like it, what God has arranged for those who love Him."
Oh, my dear friend, I love Him so much! You have got no idea how much I love Him. He's been with me through thick and thin. He has been with me when others have rejected me, when they have castigated me, when they have told lies about me, He has been with me. He has never once left me in over 40 years of ministry. You know, I just want to tell you about one highlight because this morning, this message is particularly for you, Sir, to encourage you that He has not forgotten you and in fact, that He has very special plans for you if you love Him. There is the qualification.
Many years ago, a very, very dear friend of mine, the CEO of possibly the biggest publishing house in South Africa, came to me and said, "Angus, we are going to do a Bible for you, a Bible print for you." I couldn't believe it. I nearly passed out! You know how much I love the Bible. You will never see a photograph of me without me holding my Bible because the Bible is Jesus Christ in print. He said, "We are going to do a Bible for you, and we are going to put one of your devotionals running right through it from the Book of Genesis to Revelation.
Well, I tell you, I was so overwhelmed - "Eye has not see, ear has not heard…" I held a banquet on the evening that it was printed. For the first time in my life, I went and hired a tuxedo. Can you imagine me in a tuxedo? We had a splendid evening, I invited all my special friends and those who have been involved with this ministry from the start, and we celebrated. I want to tell you, my dear friend, that even to be associated with the word of God blew my mind. I never dreamt in a million years that I would even have my name on the cover of a Bible. Now, I am not being disrespectful, not at all. It's the Bible with Grassroots Reflections. It is one of the dearest gifts the Lord could ever have given me.
Today, He has plans for you if you love Him,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 6th of October, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 1:18:
“For in much wisdom is much grief,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”
Then we go straight to the last chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes 12:12:
“And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.”
Now, these statements were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the wisest man who ever lived. He was no fool. I am talking about Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, next to Jesus Christ, of course. Basically, I believe the Lord is telling you and me today to keep it simple. You know the old adage, “If you don’t strike oil in 5 minutes, stop boring.” There’s a word there for all of us preachers - get to the point! You have five minutes to capture the crowd; if not, you will lose them all.
I want to say to you that it is very important that you meet people where they are at, all of us. Keep it simple. Like the story I heard about the intellectual who was giving a talk on agriculture in the field to a group of ordinary, practical farmers. He was getting very involved with everything and there was a tractor parked behind him for his demonstration - but this man who had so many degrees couldn’t start the tractor! Why? Because he didn’t know that you have to put the tractor in neutral before the engine starts as a safety device, and he felt very embarrassed when one of those farm workers had to say, “Sir, please put the tractor into neutral and then you can start the engine.” Don’t become too clever. Let's meet people where they are and we will have much more success.
One of the saddest cartoons I saw drawn was a picture of a big, stout minister with a big black Bible, preaching down to a little boy who also had a big tummy, but it was not because he had too much food, it was because he was starving. He had a begging bowl in front of him and the caption underneath read, and the little boy said, “And will there be food in Heaven?”
We really need to put our learning into practice.
God bless you, have a good day and go and bless somebody with the simple news that Jesus is coming back soon.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 5th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Job which some say is the oldest book in the Bible, the farmer, Job says in 19:25:
"For I know that my Redeemer lives and He shall stand at last on the earth;…"
We need to wait patiently like the good farmer Job did. I don't think a man suffered more in the Old Testament than the farmer Job, yet he could still say, "I know that my Redeemer lives…" You and I need to be prepared to suffer if it will ultimately make us better people. Now, the other person who suffered more than anyone else apart from the Lord Jesus was Paul, the Apostle. He says in Romans 5:3-4:
"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope."
You see, through suffering, we are moulded into the people that God wants us to be - patient, loving, gentle people. The scars of sorrow make us into men and women of God, and it takes a long time, a lot of blood, sweat and tears, to grow into a child of God.
Many, many years ago, I worked in that beautiful country, Swaziland. I worked in the south, where it is extremely warm. I worked on a huge sugarcane plantation, and that sugarcane used to be irrigated. I am talking about thousands of hectares of sugarcane. The sugarcane grew literally like weeds and we could cut it at 11 months. Then I moved to South Africa, I have neighbours that grow sugarcane, but that sugarcane takes 23 months to grow because of the frost, the cold and the hardship. But you see, the sucrose is what you get paid for, and the sucrose in the sugarcane that is 23 months old far exceeds the sucrose that they take out of the sugarcane which grows very quickly in a short time.
I want to say to you today, do not despair if you are going through hardship. Do not be concerned if you say, "Well, I am just going through so many tough times, I just don't know how I am going to cope." You will cope, and not only will you cope, you will grow through it in stature and become like Job, who could say,
"Though He slay me, yet will I (still) trust Him."Job 13:15
Have a wonderful day today.
Jesus bless you richly,
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday, the 4th of October, 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the New Testament in the Book of Philemon 1:14-15. Paul says:
"But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntarily."
We serve Jesus not because we have to but because we want to. In the Israeli army, they have to do their national service in the forces, and I have been told that they volunteer before they are even called up, not just the young men, the young women too, because they have such a love for their country. As much as you desire your loved one to come to Jesus, you cannot force them to come. It just does not work, does it? No, we have to pray that they will come to Christ voluntarily. I have a horse and you know him well, his name is Snowy. I can take Snowy to the water, but I can't make Snowy drink.
If we look at the Gospel of Matthew 9:9, we will see that the Lord called Matthew, the tax collector, to follow Him, but He called him freely and Matthew followed Him freely.
"As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him."
Immediately, he left his money on that table and walked away because he found life. He found Jesus. I don't know if you remember that beautiful old song, its very old but its very beautiful. Freely you have received, freely give. Why don't you sing this song with me?
God forgave my sin in Jesus' name
I've been born again in Jesus' name
And in Jesus' name I come to you
To share His love as He told me to
He said, "Freely, freely you have received
Freely, freely give
Go in My Name, and because you believe
Others will know that I live"
God bless you and have a wonderful day. Go and tell somebody that Jesus loves them,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 3rd of October, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 11:4:
“He who observes the wind will not sow, And he who regards the clouds will not reap.”
What a very powerful scripture, not only for farmers but for every single one of us.
I remember like it was yesterday, one of my sons came back from university for a ten-day break. He saw that his mom and dad were extremely tired and also pretty disillusioned. We were going through another drought and the maize plants were withering and dying. He said, “Mom, dad, go away and have a weekend away and I will look after the farm” - which he very kindly did. When we got back, he related this story to us. He said, “Early one morning, I went out in the pick-up and parked in the middle of the maize fields. The maize looked so sorry for itself and I cried to God, “Lord, please send rain. You know, Mom and Dad are totally dedicated to preaching the Gospel for You. Please help them.” Then he said big clouds came up, big, dark, black clouds. He was so excited; he knew they were full of rain, and as the clouds came over the farm - big drops of rain started falling on the totally dry maize plants. And then an east wind came up - can you believe it? - and it split the clouds into two, the one half of the storm went up into the mountains, the other half of the storm went into the valley, and the maize had no rain at all. He was devastated to say the least. He got into our pick-up and went back to the farm office where he was having his quiet time, and opened the Bible and right there, in front of him, was this scripture.
“He who observes the wind will not sow, And he who regards the clouds will not reap.”
Ecclesiastes 11:4
He repented before the Lord and said, “Lord, I am so sorry. I am looking to my own means to try and save this crop, and with that, that evening, he went to sleep and in the middle of the night, he heard, “Drip - drop, drip, drip, drip…” on the tin roof. A gentle rain fell on the farm, and the maize crop was completely irrigated with gentle, soaking, continuous rain.
Today, remember, the Lord has got your back. Just call on Him, spend time in prayer and He will undertake for you.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 2nd of October, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Titus 2:3-5:
“…the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.”
You know, the man may be the head of the home but the woman is the heart of the home. That scripture in Mark 8:36:
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
We can maybe abbreviate that - what does it profit a woman if she gains the whole world and loses her family? We need to hold the home together, mother. Everyone needs you and is looking to you. Don’t allow the devil to put you down. You know, the power of the spoken word of a mother, whether it is spoken in anger or encouragement, can make or break a man. My late mother, and I love her so much I can’t wait to see her in Heaven again, she always had lots of time for me. I never once heard my mom say, “Look, I am too busy, I can’t speak to you at the moment.” She would sit down and she would talk to me, make a cup of tea and sit with me and talk with me. My dad, and I love him dearly, was always working, always trying to make money to put bread on the table, but my mother spent hours talking to us as children. She was a great storyteller. My mom could tell a story about anything. She could hold you spellbound. She was amazing, and I learnt my trade from my mom, not from any theological establishment. By the way, so did John Wesley, probably one of the great giants of the Christian faith. He said that he learnt everything from his mom, Susannah, and not from all the great theologians of the time. And by the way, his dad was a pastor. I will leave that with you.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 1st of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 16:33, Jesus said:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
What a beautiful, reassuring scripture that is. I want to read a little story to you today which was told by Charles Francis Richardson. It goes like this:
“Paganini, the great Italian violinist, once stepped on stage only to discover something wrong with his violin. Just as the audience was ending their applause, he looked at the instrument for a moment and suddenly realised it was not his best and most valuable one. In fact, the violin was not his at all. Momentarily, he felt paralysed but he quickly turned to his audience, telling them there had been some mistake and he did not have his own violin. He stepped back behind the curtain, thinking he must have left it backstage but discovered that someone had stolen his and left the inferior one in it’s place. After remaining behind the curtain for a moment, Paganini stepped on stage again to speak to the audience. He said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I will now demonstrate to you that the music is not in the instrument but in the soul.” Then he played as never before and beautiful music flowed from that inferior instrument until the audience was so enraptured that their enthusiastic applause nearly lifted the ceiling of the concert hall. He had indeed revealed to them that the music was not in his instrument but in his own soul.”
Be a tested and tried believer. It is your mission to walk onto the stage of this world to reveal to all Heaven and earth, that the music of life lies not in your circumstances or external things but in your soul.
Today, go out and be Jesus to a dying world.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, its the 30th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 11:1 in the Old Testament,
“Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days.”
Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Gospel of Matthew 10:42:
“And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”
The Lord is saying to us that we are to bless those who cannot return the blessing. We have to invest in those who cannot repay us. This is what truly moves the heart of God when there is nothing in it for you or me directly. You know the story of Elijah, the mighty prophet of God? You can look it up after this message. You will find it in 1 Kings 17:9 onwards. The Lord told Elijah to go to the house of the widow. When he arrived there, she was collecting sticks to make a little fire for the last meal that she and her little boy were going to eat and then they were going to go and sit down and die. The prophet arrived and said, “Can you give me something to drink?” She gave him water, and he said, “I also need something to eat.” She said, “But I have nothing left. There is only enough oatmeal to make one cake for me and my little boy and then we are going to die of starvation.” He said, “Give me some of that cake to eat.” Quite something, isn’t it? So the woman obeyed the prophet of God. She went into her larder and scraped together the last bit of oatmeal she could find. She went to the jar where she kept her olive oil. She poured out just enough oil to make one cake. She cooked that cake with loving-kindness and gave it to the prophet, he ate it and then departed. Then she said to her little boy, “Now, we are going to sit down, and we are going to die because we have nothing else to eat.” But she went back to the larder just once more and miraculously, when she opened the lid there was enough oatmeal to make one more cake. She went to the jar where she kept her olive oil. There was just enough oil left to bake that cake. She baked a beautiful big oatcake with loving-kindness. They sat down under the tree and ate it and were full. Then next morning she went to the larder and there was just enough oatmeal left to make one cake, and there was just enough olive oil to bake it, and she did that for many, many days. She never went hungry. Cast your bread upon the waters and in due time it will come back to you.
Cast your burden onto Jesus
Because He cares for you!
Cast your burdens onto Jesus
Because He cares for you!
Oh Higher, higher,
Higher, higher, higher,
Oh higher, higher,
Lift Jesus higher!
Oh Higher, higher,
Higher, higher, higher,
Oh higher, higher,
Lift Jesus higher!
Jesus bless you,
Have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 29th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 24:38-39:
And He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have."
Holes in His hands - that's our Lord Jesus Christ. Are you suffering this morning? Are you crying out, "Lord, where are You? I need help." I want to say to you, no pain, no gain. We learn from the experiences we go through. One man of God said once, I will never forget it. He said, "If there is no crucifixion, there can be no resurrection."
I remember it like yesterday, the 2009 Mighty Men Conference. It was the highlight of my life up until then, on the platform, preaching my heart out and what happened? I collapsed. I had two heart attacks, one under the platform and one in my little house. I lay on the lawn while the 911 helicopter came to collect me to take me to the hospital, and I was saying, "Lord, what is happening? This is the finest moment in my life. There are thousands upon thousands of men, waiting to hear the word." They had to cut the fence in my garden to get me out. It was a very traumatic time in my life but you see, those men prayed for me. I will never forget the helicopter circling the men, thousands of hands in the air, but Jesus healed me within 15 minutes.
I want to say to you today, do not despair. The Lord will never leave you nor forsake you. He never promised you a rose garden, did He? But He did promise that He would walk with you and me through the fire like He did with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Have a look at it in Daniel 3:25. Oh, but I want to tell you the good news! The good news was and is that there was a fourth man in the fire and He had a likeness unto the Son of God. My dear friend, Jesus is walking with you today through your fiery trial. Rest in Him and He will bring you through. He will not disappoint you. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says very clearly:
"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 28th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Colossians 1:27, which says simply,
“…Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Then we go to the First Book of Corinthians 6:15 and 17:
“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?”
“But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”
Now, if you and I love Jesus Christ and we have asked Him to be our Lord and Saviour, then we have the Holy Spirit resident within our bodies. That is a very powerful thought and statement and that is what Christ said. Now, I don’t know why I am just feeling this morning that I need to pray for people who are sick - physically sick, mentally sick and spiritually sick. James 5:16 says:
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman) avails much.”
The Bible tells us to call the elders. I am an elder, I am definitely not young, and I love Jesus, and He uses me in this particular area. You know the tools of the evangelist are signs and wonders and miracles. I have prayed for so many people to be healed. I have prayed for women who can’t have babies. I have prayed for people who can’t walk, I have seen people get out of wheelchairs. I have prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill people and this morning I want to pray for you. Please believe that it is Christ in you and in me that will do the healing. Now, the only thing that will hold us back is our lack of faith. It is the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails much.
So Father, I want to pray for my friends today:
Lord, I really pray - there are many people listening to this message right now who are not well, Lord, and I am asking You, Holy Spirit, to touch them in a very real way. I want to ask you to put your hand on that part of your body where you are sick, whether it be a back problem, whether it be sugar diabetes, blood pressure, whether it be migraine headaches, whether it be eyes or ears. Put your hand on that part of your body. Now, Lord, as my dear friend is putting their hand on that part of their body, they heart, maybe it is a liver problem, cancer, in Jesus name, I pray the prayer of faith over them and I thank you for a miracle today in their bodies. Be healed in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth! Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day and I look forward to hearing the good news.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 27th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Old Testament, in the Book of Ecclesiastes 10:8:
”He who digs a pit will fall into it,…”
Then we go to Psalm 7:15:
“He made a pit and dug it out, And has fallen into the ditch which he made.”
We need to be very careful how we walk in this life and how we live. You know, revenge might sound sweet at the time, but it can be very costly. You can actually fall into the very hole that you are digging for someone else to fall into. Be careful that pit does not catch you out yourself. Remember the story of Queen Esther and Haman? Haman was determined to annihilate the Jewish nation. You can read it in Esther 9:25, but it ended up that Queen Esther went to the king because she was Jewish, told him the story, and he wrote out papers for Haman to be hung on the very gallows that he had built to annihilate the Jewish people. “Do not bite off your nose to spite your face”, as the saying goes.
I want to tell you a very sad story that happened many years ago. There was a couple who decided they wanted to get divorced, which is so sad. God hates divorce. Instead of doing it out of court in an amiable way, setting their goods and separating what the one had and then the other, they decided to go to court. They went to the lawyers and got them involved. You see, they wanted revenge on each other and eventually they lost their property, they lost their home, they lost their money and they walked away with nothing but bitterness in their heart. Don’t do that, don’t dig that pit, because you will fall into it yourself. In Matthew 5:25, Jesus says to sort out your differences before you go to court, lest the judge end up sending you to jail. Please folks, let retribution and revenge be sorted out by the Lord. The Lord is fair. He will not let people go away un-judged. You say, “But Angus, it is not fair.” There are a lot of things in this life that are not fair but remember the end has not come yet. Jesus is the ultimate Judge.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 26th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 15:1:
“A soft answer turns away wrath, But a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Then we go straight to the New Testament, to the Gospel of Matthew 5:9. Jesus says:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.”
I want to say to you today that it’s a soft answer that stops an argument, and even as I am speaking to you now, I am totally convicted that it is not good enough anymore to say, “I have my rights.” When you become a follower of Jesus Christ, you have to, as they say, put your guns down, and you have to deny yourself. You have to prefer your fellowman, whether it be your wife, your husband, or your children. You need to become a peacemaker, with a gentle answer. Like never before, people are under tremendous stress and strain at the moment. You know the old saying, “Count to ten before you say something you wish you had never said before” - because by the time you get to ten, you probably won’t say it. Start becoming a peacemaker. The Lord Jesus says that you will be called a son, a daughter of God. Peacemakers are few and far between and I want to tell you it takes more courage to become a person who brings a soft answer than someone who continues to pound the table and insist on their rights.
Today, when you go out, remember, the Lord has called you and I to bring reconciliation amongst our fellowmen. Just settle down. Don’t shout the odds too quickly. Now, why am I saying this to you? Because I am a chief culprit. I speak too fast and I listen too little. God gave us two ears and one mouth. He wants us to listen twice as much as He wants us to speak. As I am getting older I am asking the Lord to give me more grace, more loving kindness, because you know something? The older you get, the less you want to fight, and half the time, it is not even an argument, it is a misunderstanding. The person didn’t understand what you meant and now you are arguing over something and the devil is climbing in, boots and all.
Today, make a decision - "Lord, I am really going to wait on you before I speak and if I have nothing good to say about someone, I am making a decision today to say nothing." Rather pray for them.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus precious name. It is Monday morning, it’s the 25th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the book of John 12:24, a scripture verse that you and I are very familiar with,
”Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
We must die in order to live. What a great paradox that is. If you take that seed, and by the way, I’m a farmer, I know what I’m talking about. I have been planting seeds for over 40 years. You put that seed in a safe place, keep it dry, free from any insect damage and at a constant temperature, you will preserve that seed for many, many years, but unfortunately it will produce nothing for you. Take that same seed and put it into lovely moist, fertile soil, and that seed will die but within a couple of weeks, the good news is it will produce new life, a new plant and a new crop.
I’ve just returned from Israel. I had one of the greatest privileges of my life to be able to baptise many, many people in the Jordan river at the exact same spot that John the baptist, baptised our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. It was one of the highlights of my life. The old man goes down under the water and all those sins, habits, fears and anxieties go down as well and the new man comes up out of the water. It is a beautiful sight to behold. I saw people who were guilty, who had lost hope, people who had made mistakes, people who had no hope in the future, go down into that beautiful river and come out with joy. Some were weeping with joy, some had such beautiful smiles on their face. New life and a new beginning. Listen to this - do we call it dying when a seed germinates into a plant? Of course not.
Today remember, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning, it's the 24th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Philippians 1 and I'm reading verse 23-24. Paul says:
"For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless to remain in the flesh is more needful for you."
Then we go straight to the Second book of Timothy 4:8 and Paul says:
"Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing."
We are sojourners in a foreign world. This world is not our home; our home is in heaven and maybe that's why you can't understand why you don't feel comfortable in this world because you're not from this world. The Lord Jesus Christ has promised that He will take us home to be with Him in heaven one of these fine days, but in the meantime, we need to work hard. We need to tell people about eternal life. We need to give them an opportunity to accept Him as Lord and Saviour.
Maybe there's a young man or a young woman, who says, "You know, I feel so uncomfortable in this world. I feel like that fish that is swimming up against the current all the time and all the rest of the fish are flowing downstream with the current." Well, I want to tell you something, Gypsy Smith, that old Romany evangelist who used to preach off the back of his painted wagon, said, "It takes a dead fish to flow with the current, but it takes a live fish to swim against the current." Today, don't be disheartened if you feel you are swimming against the current. There's nothing wrong with that. You and I have got our eyes fixed on heaven. Jesus Christ and heaven is our eternal home. We are just doing the work of the Lord here on earth and as Paul said, "… as soon as it's done, I'm going home."
Have a wonderful day and keep standing up for Jesus.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus precious name. It is Saturday morning, it’s the 23rd of September, the year 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Ecclesiastes, in the Old Testament chapter 9 and I’m reading verse 16:
Then I said: “Wisdom is better than strength…”
Wisdom is better than strength. Then we go straight to the Gospel of Mark 6:2:
…where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands!”
That’s right. Jesus went up to the synagogue He started to preach in Nazareth. The people were astonished. They said, ”Where did this wisdom come from? We know who this man is. His father is Joseph, the carpenter. We know his brothers and sisters, we go to school with them. Where did this come from.” I want to say to you that the Lord Jesus Christ has given to each one of us the same brain power, the same opportunities to do great things for Him, but the question is,
my dear friends, are we prepared to use what God has given us? Are we prepared to get up in the morning out of our beds and spend time with Him? Are we prepared to learn to discipline ourselves because every single one of us has been given the same brainpower and the same opportunity to receive wisdom from God.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of a doctor by the name of Dr. Ben Carson. He is an Afro-American from the USA. He is one of the top neurosurgeons in the whole world. He’s the man that can separate Siamese twins that are joined together at the head. He has done it more than once. Very few surgeons have ever done that in the world, but he didn’t start off that way. He came from an extremely poor family. His mother was a single parent. She raised him and his brother on her own. These two brothers used to sit at home and watch TV all day when they were young. He got poor marks at school and the teacher had given up on him. One day, his mother came in and said, ”Turn that TV off, and from now on, I want you to read two books a week, and I want you to give me a summary of the books you read.” They couldn’t believe it. Well, they started, and you know his mother used to read the summary. They didn’t realise it, but the poor woman was totally illiterate. She couldn’t even read. She made out that she did and she persevered and believed in her sons, eventually he became top of the class. Then he became one of the top neurosurgeons on earth.
We’ve all got the same opportunity. Let’s knuckle down. Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to give us strength and wisdom to work for Him and let’s make a difference in this poor old world of ours.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 22nd of September, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 64 and I am reading verse 4:
“For since the beginning of the world
Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear,
Nor has the eye seen any God besides You,
Who acts for the one who waits for Him.”
Then we go to 1 Corinthians 2:9-10:
But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”
This morning, we need to start to think out of the box. Write that down somewhere. We need to stop limiting God. You see, the Lord has many things planned for you and me, my dear friend, but the problem is, we do not give Him an opportunity to show us what He has planned for us. You know, we read that first scripture:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
We quote that quickly, and we don’t always quote verse 10. You see, the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit is the one who gives us our game plan. Now, in order for Him to give us our game plan, we need to set ourselves apart so that He can speak to us. I want to tell you that every time the Lord has used me in any area which is much bigger than me (which is most times - I would never attempt such things in my own strength!) it has been when I have been fasting and praying.
I remember going to a lake not far from our farm, Shalom, with a bucket of water and a one-man tent and I stayed there for a number of days until God spoke to me through His Spirit, and I clearly heard, “Go to the rugby stadium at Kings Park in Durban and book it for an event.” I was petrified but it was so clear. He never spoke to me audibly, I have never had that privilege, but He spoke clearly in my heart and through the scriptures, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Today, lift up your eyes. Today, expect great things from God, attempt great things for God, as William Carey said, and you will be surprised, very pleasantly surprised, at what the Lord has in store for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 21st of September, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Job 13:15, Job said:
“Though He slay me yet will I trust Him.”
Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Book of Romans 8:28, a verse that we all know so well:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
I can hear somebody saying today, “I don’t understand what is happening in my life. Things are just falling apart. I really cannot understand why this is happening. Lord, why is this happening? Why are You allowing this in my life, in my family, in my business, in my career? I don’t understand.” Well, I want to tell you a story, and this might help you with your understanding of the things of God.
Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch lady, and her sister, Betsy and their old dad had a jeweller shop in Holland during the Second World War. They were hiding Jews in the upstairs room in their Jeweller shop. Somebody found out and reported it to the Gestapo, and the Nazis arrived to arrest Corrie, her sister and her old dad. Well, within three weeks, the old man had died. Corrie and her sister, Betsy were put in a concentration camp with the Jews, and it was a hellish place. Betsy was a wonderful woman of God. She was very strong in her faith, much stronger than Corrie at that time, but Betsy got very sick and one day she was lying on the ground, Corrie had her in her arms, and Corrie looked up and was crying out to God, “Lord, I don’t understand. Why are You doing this, allowing this to happen to us?” And a little voice from her sister, Betsy, as she was dying, whispered to Corrie, she said, “Corrie, if you know Him, you don’t have to ask why.”
I want to say to you today, my dear friend, if you know Jesus, you don’t have to understand. You only have to believe. Put your trust in the Lord and He will see you through. He will not desert you, and He will not leave you. He says in Hebrews 13:5:
”I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 20th of September, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 2 Timothy 4 and I am reading verse 2:
“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching”
Now, as I have shared that scripture with you, my dear friend, you are thinking of somebody standing in a pulpit or maybe on a platform, speaking to a crowd. No, no - we are all called to preach the Gospel, whether you are an older person living in a nursing home, whether you are a prisoner in jail, whether you are a young person at a school hostel, whether you are a professional sportsman, a farmer, a doctor, or maybe you are a lawyer. We are all called to preach the word in and out of season. Like never before, people are desperate to hear the truth, not the tickling of ears - no, but the truth, the truth in love. You see, preaching is different to teaching.
Now, John Stott was a man who was used by the Lord very powerfully. He said, “True evangelism seeks a response.” When you preach the Gospel, you preach with the expectation of a response - it expects results. We preach for a verdict. That is different to teaching. When you lecture somebody, it is dispassionate, objective and academic. It is addressed to the mind. It seeks no result but to impart certain information to provoke the student to further inquiry, which is necessary. We really need that. That is why we have universities and Bible colleges, but when it comes to preaching the word, the evangelist comes with an urgent proclamation of peace through the Blood of the Cross and with a summons to men and women to say sorry, to repent, to lay down their alms and to humbly accept the offer ardently. Isn’t that beautiful? That is what I do. I have been doing it for over forty years - the greatest moment in my life is when I see a man who is broken, and he is weeping, and he comes back to Jesus, and after that, he goes back to his wife and his children, and he starts all over. When you see a man who is in the gutter, all of a sudden, because he has heard the truth, the simple truth in love, he has completely changed his outlook. Whether a man is in prison, in hospital, or at a funeral, speak to him in a language that he understands and speak to him with urgency. You will be surprised at the result.
Pray this prayer after me:
Jesus, today I ask You to give me the courage, the strength, and most of all, the love and the compassion to tell others about You, that they might be saved from themselves, and I ask it in Your precious name, amen.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 19th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Timothy 3 and I am reading from verse 16:
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
And then we go straight to the Book of Ephesians 6:17:
"…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;…'"
And then lastly the Gospel of John 1:1-3:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made."
We are talking about the Lord Jesus Christ of course. He is the Word. Now, some of us today have forgotten to use our swords. It's the only weapon that the Lord speaks about. All the other armour we put on, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt - all for defence. The sword is the weapon that destroys the enemy. Now, come on, let's be honest, some of us haven't got our swords out for a very long time. They are rusty, they are blunt, you have even forgotten where you have put it! You know, I am laughing but it is not funny, is it?
You see, the devil will not leave your family, will not leave your home if you are standing there shouting, ranting and raving. No, he is not concerned about that. It is only when we get out that sharp two-edged sword, the word of God, and we quote scripture, that's Jesus speaking. "Man shall not live by bread alone" - scripture; "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" - scripture; "My God shall supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory" - scripture, that is when he backs off. This battle you and I are involved in is not physical. No, it's a spiritual battle that can only be won when we use spiritual weapons.
"Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the Lord of hosts."Zachariah 4:6
Have you ever seen those sword-fighters, those fencers? It is an Olympic sport. It started a thousand years ago in ancient Egypt. Those people practice, and they are disciplined. You and I need to get that sword out, sharpen it up and start using it systematically daily. We need to understand what we are reading. If you need help understanding the translation, get an easy one you can understand. Read the Old Testament and the New Testament every single day. Read it in the first person, e.g., Psalm 23 - "The Lord is Angus' shepherd, Angus shall not want." Then the Bible will come alive, and you can use it effectively.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 18th of September 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start in the first book of Samuel, chapter 17, and I'm reading from verse 45:
Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you.
This morning, the Lord is saying to you and me that we must face our giant. Never, ever turn your back on the giant in your life. Like Shepherd boy David, face your enemy head-on and do not put it off, do not procrastinate. Don't put it off because the longer you leave the confrontation, the more ground you give to the devil. Draw a line in the sand today - This far, devil, and no further!
Go to that man that you owe money to, don't phone him, don't write him a letter - go and visit him today and look at him eye to eye. Explain your situation and tell him you have fallen on hard times; you don't have the money but are not running away. You will pay him every cent, plus interest, that you owe him. He will give you extra time. If you turn your back on the enemy and run away from your giant, you will end up in jail because he will think you are trying to leave the country. Face the giant.
I want to say to that young couple struggling with a marriage at the moment. Sit down together and speak out your situation. God will not abandon you. Many times, couples come to me, and I ask them if there is a third party involved. They say "No".
"Why do you want to get divorced?"
"No, we've got nothing left in common."
That's not good enough. We need to obey what the Lord tells us. We need to understand who's trying to break up this marriage - It's the devil himself. Face your giant, give it to the Lord, and He will heal that which is broken.
Don't focus today on your giant. Focus on Jesus, the Giant Killer, and that giant has to fall. May the Lord bless you today and give you courage as you face the challenge. You'll be pleasantly surprised at how easy the victory actually is.
Jesus bless you and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 17th of September 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start off in the book of Titus 3:8:
This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.
Now, before anybody says anything, I want to qualify something. You cannot earn your way to heaven by good works. Nobody knows that better than me.
Ephesians 2:8 says:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.
The word Grace literally means undeserved loving-kindness or unmerited favour. Jesus is our ultimate example of good works. A week ago, I can hardly believe it, we were in the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem in Israel. I was there with a team of over 300 pilgrims. It was a life-changing experience. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we sat, and we thought, and we meditated, and we repented, and we cried when we thought of the quality decision that Jesus made, which changed the destiny of the whole world forever. You say how come? Well, He said to His father in heaven, in Matthew 26:39 - "not as I will, but as You will".
That's right, he chose to do it for you and I. He did not want to go to the cross, He did not want to be crucified, He was innocent, and yet He did it for your sake and my sake. If He had not made that decision, and He didn't want to by the way, but He did it, we are talking about good works, so that you and I would have an opportunity to have eternal life. He chose to do it. As a result of that, a young man was convicted in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of the men on our tour, and when we were having a service later on at David's Tower at the Jaffa Gate at the entrance to the old city, he came up in front of all of us, and he was weeping. He said: "I was convicted by what happened in the garden. I've been living with a lady for two years, and I feel guilty about it, and I love her". I said: "Where is she?" He said: "She's in the crowd". And in front of 300 pilgrims, that young man got on his knees and he proposed to the girl. They are now married. Why? Because of what Jesus had done for him. By doing good works and living a good Christian life, we influence people.
Have a wonderful day. Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 16th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Romans 8:1:
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,…"
Then we go to the Book of Ecclesiastes 7, and a part of verse 21:
" Also do not take to heart everything people say,.."
Do not always be so concerned about pleasing everybody. I know I tend to do that and get into trouble. You will never be able to please everyone. Rather start by pleasing God first of all, and then all these other things will come into line.
C.H Spurgeon, the great preacher, the Baptists call him the prince of preachers, was walking down the road one day and some man walked up to him and said, "You know, you are the chief of all humbugs." Now, a humbug is an old-fashioned word for an idiot. His reply was, "Well, at least I am the chief of something!"
Oswald Chambers, who wrote probably the greatest devotional of all, "My Utmost for His Highest", would never read any articles referring to him, no criticism, no flattery; he would never, ever read it. If you do that kind of thing, your life will become like a yoyo. One minute you will be up in the sky and the next you will be down in the dumps. Rather listen only to the words of Jesus and then build yourself up in the inner man. For example, Philippians 4:13:
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
And you can! Keep away also from "yes" men, you know, the guys who get around you because they want something from you, maybe they want to find favour from you and they will agree with whatever you say. That's a dangerous group of men or women to be around. Constructive criticism is very helpful, it helps you grow. I remember many years ago as a young man, a theologian, a well-educated man, had quite a number of degrees in preaching. He said, "I am going to sit in the back of your meetings and I will do a crit. I will tell you how good you are." I had never even had the privilege of having been to a Bible College. At the end of the message, he came to me and said, "Can I tell you how I have assessed you?" And I said, "Ja, okay." He said, "Well for introduction, you got 2/10." He said, "Your three point sermon, I gave you 4/10, your conclusion was about 3/10." And I was feeling a bit down-hearted to say the least, "But", he said, "The presence of the Holy Spirit in your message was 12/10."
Folks, lets just listen to the Holy Spirit and He will guide you in everything you have to do today.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 15th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Romans 12:3:
“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
We need to be very careful how we stand. Do not think of ourselves too highly, but we need to be sober. The word of God says sober-minded, but how the mighty have fallen. God gives a measure of faith to each one of us. In 2 Samuel 1:19, the Bible tells us how the mighty have fallen.
You know, just like one of those mighty cedars in the forest, the whole ground shakes around it when it falls. I want to be honest with you, I almost fear for someone who is obviously so naturally talented and gifted, especially young people. It is very, very difficult to stay humble, especially when you get everything right at school or at university, you seem to succeed in everything you attempt - a good sportsman, a good speaker, popular with everybody else - it is so easy in a situation like that to forget the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, after all, gave it to you anyway, and when you forget, then the fall comes and when it comes, it comes very hard.
I remember the sad account of John Lennon. He was the leader of the world-famous Beatles music group. He said that they were more popular than Jesus Christ. You know, it wasn’t long after that, that he was coming home and walking into his Manhattan mansion in New York City, when he was gunned down. A man shot him in the back four times and he died on the way to hospital. How the mighty have fallen.
The First Book of Peter 5:5 says,
“God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
If God has gifted you, just remember where the gift has come from and you will be fine. Don’t start thinking more highly about yourself than you are. Use that talent to glorify God and remain humble always.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 14th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 7:10:
"Do not say, 'Why were the former days better than these?' For you do not inquire wisely concerning this."
Then we go straight to the Gospel of Luke 9:62, which is very well-known scripture, especially to farmers.
"But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
Luke 9:62
We can't live in the past. We have got to look forward. No man can plough a straight line if he keeps living in the past. Have you ever tried ploughing with horses? I have, oh yes - and I want to tell you it is one of the most exhilarating experiences I have ever had. I didn't hear the noise of the tractor's engine or the exhaust smoke blowing all over me. No, these beautiful horses, one in the furrow and one on the top, just quietly walking along and the soil just turning over with the most incredible aroma that one could ever want. It is a wonderful experience, but I want to tell you something very clearly. I would hate to have to plough with horses all day and every day. You see, the most I could expect was maybe one or two acres a day, and that is hard work, let me tell you, depending on the soil type. Now, with a modern tractor, sitting in that cab, with air-conditioning, you can plough maybe thirty, forty, or even fifty acres a day with these big tractors. Having sweet memories of the past is good, but we must be realistic. We have got to move forward, especially for the sake of our young people.
You say, "I remember the old days when we drove in our pick-up." Ja, but your pick-up had no air-conditioning. Remember the dust coming in? I used to go out to a dance in the evening, wearing a white coat like Jesse James, the cowboy, and when I got to the party, I had to take my dust-coat off because I was so covered in dust. No, we thank the Lord that we have vehicles that have air-conditioning and are very pleasant to drive.
So have good memories of the past, definitely - and let's look forward. Why? Because Jesus is coming soon.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 13th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Luke 5:4:
"When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, "Launch out into the deep…"
I want to say to you today, even as we have to catch the big fish in the deep sea, so too, Jesus is calling you and me to go deeper today. You see, it is the safest place to be if you ask any sailor who knows how to sail a sailing ship. The deep seas are the safest place to be when the storms come.
Mark Guy Pearce wrote, "May our prayer be that of an old Englishman, who said, "Oh Lord, send us into the deep water of the sea, for we are so close to shore that even a small breeze from the devil could break our ship to pieces on the rocks. Again, Lord, send us into the deep water of the sea, where there will be plenty of room to win a glorious victory."
Yes, I can hear you saying, "But those deep waters, that's where the strong winds are. That's where those contrary big waves are." True, but it is also the safest place for the big sailing ships when the storms come, not hugging the land where all the rocks are but getting out into the deep water. When the storm is at its height, that is where our faith is built the most. It's where we rely on Jesus the most. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, "Fairweather faith is not faith at all." Today, let us not be afraid of the big storms. Let us get right out into the deep waters, where Jesus can take care of us and direct our paths.
Today, set your sail to sail all the way home to our place of rest in Heaven one day, through the deep waters of life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 12th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 5:4:
"When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it;
For He has no pleasure in fools.
Pay what you have vowed—
Better not to vow than to vow and not pay."
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word "vow". A vow is a solemn promise. Now we go straight to the Book of Judges, and I want to say to you my dear friend, this is possibly the saddest story in the Old Testament. Judges 11:30-31:
"And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord, and said, "If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."
Now, what happened was he was a mighty warrior and was defending Israel. He made a deal with the Lord. He said, "Lord, if you give me the victory, the first thing that comes out of my house, I will offer up to You as a sacrifice." When he returned, the Lord had given him the victory. The first thing that came out of his house was his little daughter, his only child. He was devastated. He said to her, "You have broken me." She said, "Father, if you have made a vow to God you need to keep it. Give me two months to wander the mountains with my friends and then you can take the action you promised God." And he did.
Never make a light vow to God. If you promise God something, you have to keep it. A couple of years ago, I was going through a terrible drought, one of the worst droughts on this farm. The maize crop was failing. It was our main source of income. I went out and said, "Lord, if you turn the weather around and give me a decent crop, I will preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the rest of my life." Well, He gave me a decent crop and I am busy fulfilling my vow, not reluctantly, with great joy and great pleasure.
Today, count the cost before you make the vow.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 11th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Colossians 1:27:
"Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Who are you trusting this morning? Who am I putting my trust in? Is there anything in this earth that we can really trust? Not really. You can build yourself a castle but it won't take any fear out of your heart if you have a fear of the unknown. You can go to the highest mountain and think, "I will find peace there." You won't find it there if God is not in your heart. You can go into the most beautiful valley, but you won't find Him there either. You can get on a ship and go across the ocean. You won't find Him there because He is in your heart.
I have read a beautiful poem I want to share with you. The author is unknown, obviously a very humble person, but what a beautiful poem. Please listen to this with me. It starts like this:
My home is God Himself; Christ brought me there,
I placed myself within His mighty arms,
He took me up and safe from all alarms
He bore me where no foot but His hath trod,
Within the holiest at home with God.
And had me dwell in Him rejoicing there.
O holy place! O home divinely fair!
And we, God's little ones, abiding there.
My home is God Himself; it was not so,
A long, long road I travelled night and day,
And sought to find within myself some way.
Nothing I did or felt could bring me near
Self effort failed, and I was filled with fear,
And then I found Christ was the only way
That I must come to Him and in Him stay.
And God had told me so.
And now, my Home is God and sheltered there,
God meets the trials of my earthly life,
God compasses me round from the storm and strife,
God takes the burden of my daily care.
O wondrous place! O home divinely fair!
And I, God's little one, safe hidden there.
Lord, as I dwell in You and You in me,
So make me dead to everything but Thee;
That as I rest within my home most fair,
My soul may evermore and only see,
My God in everything and everywhere.
My Home is God.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 10th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the First Book of Timothy 6:6-8:
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.”
We came into this world as newly-born babies with absolutely nothing, and when we have run our race on this earth, we will leave this world with absolutely nothing material that we have built up or gained. Food and clothing are all we really need for this part of our lives. We shall never need all that excess that we are working so hard to accumulate when we get to Heaven. Like the man who spent his whole life collecting gold and putting it in a suitcase, he said, “When I die, I am going to Heaven. I am taking gold with me.” And they laughed at him and said, “In Heaven, the very streets are made of gold!” Oh, we are so ridiculous sometimes.
What did Jesus leave behind when He went up to Heaven? Nothing material. When they crucified him, He left one garment and even that garment was cut up and gambled over. The only thing the Master left when He went home to Heaven was His beautiful Holy Spirit, His word - our Bible, and His love.
As you and I go out today, let us start to accumulate things which rust and moth cannot destroy. Let us work on being God’s ambassadors on earth. Let us sow things that nothing can destroy, and when we leave here, we leave this place better than when we arrived.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 9th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Zachariah 4:6:
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts.”
You have often heard me say, “A good idea is not always a God idea.” In an emergency, we always want to make a plan, don’t we? And we hear people say, “Do something, do something!” Do you know that waiting on the Lord is doing something? Did you know that? Moses tried to help his people, the Israelites, by doing something, and it went badly wrong for him. It went from bad to worse. He tried to deliver his people out of slavery by his own influence, and when that didn’t work, he used violence. Remember, he killed a slave driver. I got that from “The Streams in the Desert”, that beautiful devotional. So Moses made a complete hash-up by trying to help people in his own strength, and he ended up having to flee for his life. He lived in the desert for 40 years, and for 40 years in the desert, the Lord changed his heart and completely changed his attitude of doing something to rather stopping and listening. And what happened? Yes, the Lord revealed Himself through the burning bush. Do you remember? And he gave instructions to Moses on what to do. When Moses approached Pharaoh, he came from a totally different viewpoint. He said, “Thus says the Lord, I AM has sent me to tell you to let my people go.
When we allow the Holy Spirit to direct our path, then things start coming into line very quickly. That beautiful scripture found in Romans 8:28:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
That scripture is self-explanatory. When we stop making a plan, when we stop trying to do something and allow God to do it, all of a sudden, it works and becomes a beautiful plan. Today, stop doing something and start asking the Holy Spirit to direct you; you will find your life changed completely.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday, the 8th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of James 2:1-4:
“My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?”
There are no favourites in the Kingdom of God. I don’t know if you remember that book, “In His Steps”? It was written in 1896. It has sold more than fifty million copies. It’s a fictitious story, written by Charles Sheldon. The story goes like this - there was a very up-tempo church with plush carpets, beautiful pews, and a lovely pulpit. It was a very posh church. All the congregation are seated on Sunday morning, and in staggers a poor man in rags. He walks right down the middle of the aisle, right to the front of the church, and he stands there in front of the pulpit and says he is out of work, he needs help, and then he collapses, and a few days later, he dies.
The congregation was shocked and the pastor, Henry Maxwell, didn’t know what to do either. They all just stood there in amazement, looking at this poor man, lying on the carpet in rags. After that event, that pastor had many sleepless nights, and he came back to his congregation and said to them, “We are going to ask ourselves a question, “What would Jesus do?” And from that, there was a complete change in that congregation and that church. People started to roll up their sleeves and get into the reality of life.
God has no favourites. God loves you, Sir. He loves you, Madam, little boy, little girl, just as you are. He doesn’t love one more than the other. He died for all men. He said,
“Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:13.
Have a wonderful day today as you go out and love your fellowman as yourself because God loves him as much as He loves you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 7th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the First Book of Timothy 5:8:
“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
I didn’t think there could be anything worse than an unbeliever, but we hear very clearly in the word of God that we need to take full responsibility for those God has given us to watch over. You know, mom, dad - that small little child actually belongs to Jesus. He is just allowing us to watch over those children for Him. He loves them so much. If we look at the word of God in Matthew 18:6, Jesus said:
“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone (that weighs about 5 tons by the way) were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (bold comment added)
We need to put our family first before anything else, before our career, before our ambition, even before our ministry. We need to look after our loved ones first. I will never forget as a young boy, just going into my teenage years, when the peer pressure is at it’s worst, so competitive, everyone checking out to see what the other person’s got, I told my mom one morning before I went to school, “You know mom, I am one of the only boys in my class who don’t have a wrist-watch. All the other boys have got one.” She said, “Angus, we just don’t have enough money to buy one at the moment.” You know, we came from a middle-class family. My dad was a blacksmith, he worked very hard but we didn’t have a lot of money. My dad was just getting ready for work, I will never forget it, he walked up to me and he took his wrist-watch off his big, strong, muscular arm and he gave it to me and said, “There son, you put that on.” I have never forgotten that act of love in all those years.
You know, it’s not how much we give, its how much we love our family that counts. Go out today and do something special for your family.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 6th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the Gospel of Philippians 1:6, Paul says: "…
Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;…"
I want to ask you a question this morning. Do you feel like giving up? Ja, I know that feeling. Do you feel like, "Lord, this journey is just too long, this mountain is just too high and I don't think I am going to make it." I have got good news for you. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, who is affirming this morning that He is the one who will complete the task He has given you to do. Our confidence is not in ourselves but rather in Jesus Christ, our beloved Lord and Saviour. You see, this truth takes all the pressure off you and me from the things we are trying to accomplish on our own. So often, we give it to the Lord and we take it back, and we give it to the Lord and take it back. Don't do that, that is what is making us tired.
We must never be afraid of the storm when Jesus Christ is in the vessel. Christ said to us, "Let's go over to the other side, not to the middle of the lake - and be drowned." No, He is taking us to the other shore, and you and I need to remember that. I don't know how many times I have said to the Lord, especially as a young farmer, "Lord, I am just not going to make it. It's not raining, the crops are failing, we owe money to people, I have got a young family", and I go on and on." And the Lord says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you must be confident of this very thing, that I, who have called you, will also do it."
Now, today, keep your eyes fixed on the Captain of the ship and don't try and sail it yourself. You handed over your life to the Lord, now let Him take control. You work hard, do your best and leave the rest to Him, and we will see you on the other side.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 5th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the First Book of Timothy 5:1-2:
“Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity.”
We have got to show respect to one another as Christians. It is very, very important. Our actions and manners are so important, especially in public and especially when we call ourselves followers of Jesus. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “Respect,” which says: “It is a feeling of admiration for someone because of their qualities or achievements.”
Now, it is very easy to respect someone you admire, who you look up to a great sportsman, maybe a great leader, maybe an intellectual, somebody who has written lots of books, maybe somebody who has been very successful in business, but sometimes it is hard to respect an old gentleman who is sitting in the gutter and he has made a complete mess of his life - but he is still an older man. Young men, we still have to honour older people. Do you know that the first promise in the Ten Commandments, the first commandment with a promise added to it, is number 5:
“Honour your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land...”
Exodus 20:12
It is a promise from God. We need to honour people who are older than us. So sometimes you have to sit next to that old man and put your arm around him. He might be a bit smelly and reeking from alcohol or drug abuse, but respect him, and that is all he needs. You know, he made a mistake, didn’t he? He took a wrong turn in the road and he has walked a long road and paid for it. Just look at the wrinkles on his face. You have still got to respect him. That old lady, carry her shopping basket to the motor car. If she says she will do it, say, “No, I insist.” It will make her feel so good. Protect that young girl. She might not be your sister but if she is a fellow believer and the guys are giving her a rough time, step up, boys, step up and tell the guys to back off otherwise, they are in trouble.
I want to say to you, it is such a wonderful thing for me to sit and watch how young people respect older people, to see how young boys respect girls and don’t treat them cheaply. I want to say to you that those are the signs, those are the fruits of the Spirit that will draw people closer to Jesus.
Have a wonderful day and be respectful,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 4th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Hebrews 11:8:
“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
Now, Abraham was a farmer. I am a farmer, and I want to tell you when you have to leave your farm, it is not just like leaving another job. Farming is a way of life; it is actually a culture, and when you have been on a farm for many generations, it is a huge step to leave your farm. Not only to leave your farm but to go to an unknown destination. You see, Abraham didn’t even know where he was going. All he knew was that his Father, our Lord, told him to leave. That is why, in the Book of James 2:23, Abraham is known as the friend of God. Why? Because he believed God.
God is not interested in our plans. The farmer makes a plan. Well, not one of mine have ever worked. It has to be God’s plan. He has so much more to offer you and me, my dear friend, if we would only trust Him and obey Him.
The captain of a large aeroplane flying overseas in huge planes flies at over 38,000 feet above sea level. That pilot cannot see where he is going. He has no idea where he is going. What he does is, he relies entirely on his instruments on his computer. He sets his course, he does all his preparation correctly and then he flies off into the unknown, as it were. But the secret is, and this is the key - he prepares correctly beforehand.
Now, you and I need to really put our total reliance on the faithfulness of God, but in order to do that we have to do our homework. We have to do our preparation. We have to hear directly from God. That comes from having a good quiet time every morning, reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, reading your devotional, spending time with Christians, and God will give you your instructions, slowly but surely. Sometimes you have to wait. Waiting is a very important part of the Christian’s life, but if you do that and put it into motion, you will find that you are going exactly where God wants you and you will succeed, and you will prosper and you will have a life worth living.
Today, do your work by faith and then move because faith has got feet!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 3rd of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the First Book of Timothy 6:12:
"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."
We have to follow through. Paul said to Timothy, "You have made a confession of your faith and now you have to complete it." There is nowhere in the Bible where it says, "Come to Jesus and all your problems will be over." I will tell you why - because it is not in the Bible. No, not at all. Paul says we have to fight the good fight. That means it is a continual ongoing battle, but when we have made that confession, the Lord Jesus Christ is in our corner! So we are going to win that fight if we keep on. We need to run this race to the end. You only get the prize at the finish line. If you don't finish the race, you don't get the prize. I know that. I ran the Comrades Marathon. I did not finish and I never got the medal. We need to finish the race that the Lord has put us in. Jesus never promised you and me a bed of roses, but He did promise us that He would never leave us or forsake us.
Now remember, it is not the fighter that can deliver the punch that becomes the champion. No, it is the boxer who keeps getting up when he has been knocked down. Eventually, his opponent is totally overwhelmed by the man's determination and gives up and loses the fight. There is only one heavyweight boxing champion in the world who was totally undefeated. Rocky Marciano was a small man by today's standards. He weighed about 170lbs, he stood 5ft 9 inches tall, and he was undefeated. He was fighting men who were 6ft 3" and weighed 230 lbs. What was the secret? The secret was that this man could take pain. He just never, ever gave up and eventually he wore his opponent down.
Now, you and I are in the fight of our lives. We need to stand. The Lord is in our corner, He will give us directions but we need to keep on fighting, and remember what a reward awaits you and me in Heaven. One day when we have finished our race, when we have fought our good fight, and the Lord says, "Well done, good and faithful servant, come and enter into your rest."
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 2nd of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of John 4:35:
“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”
You and I need to seize the day. In Latin, it says “Carpe Diem” - seize the day! We cannot wait. Jesus says the harvest is white and the workers are few. I want to say to a young man who has fallen in love - you are so in love with that young lady, that beautiful fair maiden, but young man, you need to propose to her. She won’t propose to you! Remember, he who hesitates is lost. Yes, it takes a lot of courage. Believe me, I remember the day I did it. Yes, but you need to do it, and if she is the right lady for you and you believe God has called you together, what are you waiting for? Carpe Diem, seize the day!
As believers, we need to walk the road of faith. We have to take a step into the unknown.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”Hebrews 11:1
Remember what St. Augustine said? Faith is to believe what you cannot see, but the reward of that faith is to see what you believe. You know, I remember when we ordered the big tent for the Mighty Men Conference in 2008, we had to seize the moment. We had to take the step of faith. If we had hesitated we would have lost. As we took the step by faith, the Lord Jesus Christ honoured every step. The event was fully paid for. We didn’t have to beg for money, we took the initiative. Carpe Diem - seize the day! We saw 60,000 men plus, coming to an experience with our beloved Lord Jesus.
Today, I encourage you to make the most of this day. It might be the greatest day of your life. Do not hesitate. Once God has given you a clear green light then don’t hold back.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 1st of September, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Mark 8:34:
“When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Self-denial is the hardest thing to do, isn’t it? You know, our biggest enemy in this life, my dear friend, is not the devil, oh no! It’s ourselves. Now, even the great apostle, Paul, said, in the Book of Romans 7:19,
“For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”
Then we go down to verse 24 of the same chapter.
“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Yes, He is the one who will deliver us from ourselves. Jesus said that if you want to be my disciple, you must take up your cross. What does a cross represent? It represents death. We have to die to self. You know, in my prayer room, I have a little brass cross. It’s called a hand cross. You put it in your hand when you are praying and squeeze it tight, and the corners cut into your fingers and you remember the pain that the Lord Jesus Christ suffered for your and my sins. I was given this cross many, many years ago in Australia by a pastor and I have held it for many a year, especially when I have done something wrong that I shouldn’t have done. So what should we do in a case like that? We simply say, “Lord, please forgive me.” That is where the power of confession comes into place. He will forgive you, and you will stop it, and you won’t do it again. We must continue to carry our cross every single day until we get home. Yes, He sets us free, but it is the flesh that you and I struggle with. We need to put it down daily and Jesus shall set us free.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 31st of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Book of Habakkuk 2:3:
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.”
I believe the Lord wants us to be patient and wait for the vision He has given us to be fulfilled. Maybe you are in the waiting room, maybe through sickness or maybe through financial problems, maybe you just feel, “Lord, that vision is never going to come to pass.” But if you are anything like me (ask my wife, Jill), I am not very good at waiting. I am very impulsive by nature but there comes a time when we need to wait for the vision to come to pass.
Sometimes others abandon you and leave you alone. They say, ‘No, we are walking away from this vision - it is not from God.” That is when you have to remain exceptionally patient. I just want to say to you today, do not lose that vision, that dream, that the Lord gave you. Remember, your vision must always be, first and foremost, the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that scripture in Matthew 6:33:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
You may think there is nothing happening but I want to tell you, if you love Jesus Christ and He has given you a vision, it will happen. I don’t know if you remember when Covid broke out, the horrible Coronavirus. Jill and I were locked in our garden for 67 days, that’s right! We kept going back for a test and it kept coming back positive. I won’t go into any details there. I want to tell you that it was very hard for me in that time - I am an active person, and I want to do things. But through that time, God gave me the vision to start doing the “Thought for Today,” which you are listening to now and which is running unbroken for 1,240 odd days. I have never missed one day. It is going right around the globe and all the glory goes to our Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t lose your vision.
Do you know that The Pilgrim’s Progress, the second most read book in the world, next to the Bible, was written by John Bunyan, in Bedford, England. While he was in jail for 12 years, he wrote that book. That book has touched more souls than any evangelist that has ever lived. In prison he probably thought, “Well, that is me, washed up”, and he wrote the most powerful book.
I thought, when I was in lockdown for 67 days with my wife, Jill, “Where is the vision, Lord?” That was the birth of the “Thought for Today.”
Have a wonderful day and keep the vision.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 30th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 5:1-2:
“Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.”
“Do not be rash with your mouth,
And let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.
For God is in heaven, and you on earth;
Therefore let your words be few.”
We really have got to watch what we say.
“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.”
Matthew 6:6-7
We need to be very careful what we say. Do you remember the story of King Herod and John, the Baptist? You know, King Herod, the Bible tells us, respected John the Baptist greatly. He really looked up to him and he made a very bad mistake. When he was under the influence of alcohol, he opened his big mouth and said something that he never should have said. He said to the young girl, “If you dance for me, I will give you anything you want.” Her mother hated John the Baptist, so when she had danced before Herod, he said, “What do you want?” And she said, “I want John the Baptist’s head on a platter”, and he was very upset about that, but because he had made that outrageous statement in front of everybody, under the influence of alcohol, he had to follow through. So he had to kill the man that he admired greatly, and even looked up to.
I want to say to you today that we need to be very careful with our words. The Bible tells us our words need to be few. We need to sit and think carefully when we speak to Jesus because whatever promise we make to the Lord, He will hold us to it. We really need to be careful with that business deal. We have to follow through once we have said we will do it. That proposal, young lady - if that young man proposes to you, be sure when you accept that you follow through. And most of all, with our commitment to Christ, when you publicly confess your faith, you need to follow through.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning. Yes, it is the 29th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
We start in the Book of Psalms 37:16:
“A little that a righteous man has
Is better than the riches of many wicked.”
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
1 Timothy 6:10
I want to qualify something right at the beginning: To be rich and to have lots of money is not a sin. The Lord is saying to us here today that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. You know the old saying, “There is no honour among thieves”? Do you remember the great train robbery? It took place in 1963. The equivalent of 61 million pounds sterling was stolen off a train. To my knowledge, the gang of 17 members were all caught and ended up in jail. They had absolutely no benefit of the money they had stolen.
Don’t be greedy. Please don’t sacrifice your family for the sake of making extra money, and only find out later in life that it was all worthless anyway.
“What does it profit the man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?”
Mark 8:36
Work hard, be generous, spend lots of time with Jesus and He will make you rich. He will give you riches that this world will never give you. He will give you peace of mind, He will give you relationships that will last all your life, and your family will love you, not for your money but for who you are.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 28th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Romans 10:14:
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”
I want to tell you about a boy preacher, that’s right, that’s what they called him. His name was Harry Moorhouse. He was an English evangelist, a young boy who had no theological training. He was very quietly spoken and came from a very average family in Manchester, England, in the 1840s. He just loved Jesus and started to preach, and he did so well that they sent him to America and the great evangelist, D L Moody, who literally rocked the world, listened to this young man.
They called him the boy preacher; he wasn’t even 20 years old, and he preached on one verse in the Bible, John 3:16, which says:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
That was the only scripture verse he used and he preached for seven nights in a row straight and the crowds could not even fit in the hall. Just a simple message, and after hearing this boy preacher, the great evangelist, D L Moody said, “I used to preach that God was behind the sinner with a double-edged sword, ready to cut him down. But now,” he said, “I am done with that. I preach now that God is behind him with love and he is running away from the God of love.”
You and I need to do what Harry Moorhouse did - we need to tell people that Jesus Christ loves them unconditionally. I want to say to you, my dear friend, you might not have any Bible training, and you might have never been to a Bible college, but if you have met the Man from Galilee, like Harry Moorhouse did, just go out and tell people what Jesus means to you and you will be surprised at how they will respond to the love that you have for them.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 27th of August 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start off in the book of Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, in the Old Testament:
Two are better than one,
Because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up
Two are better than one. My wife is my best friend. Do you know what I really love doing? Just sitting quietly with her and having a cup of tea. It is absolutely beautiful, just a nice quiet cup of tea. Next to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Jill is my number one advisor. When I need godly counsel, she is the one who gives it to me. Do you know why? Because she's honest and sincere, she has no ulterior motives. I know that she has my best at heart and will tell me the truth even if I don't like it. But it always helps me in the end. We sharpen each other like the Bible says: iron sharpens iron.
When we go on holiday, she is meticulous when packing the motor car. Me, I just want to go: "Come on Jill let's go, come on please, please hurry up". And she says no, she wants to put everything exactly where it's meant to be. But you know the amazing thing is, when we're on our trip, and I can't find something, I say do you know where it is, and then she says: "Yes, I know exactly where it is". When I travel a lot preaching, she packs my suitcase for me. I take extra stuff out, she puts it back in, and I say I don't need all that. She says: "You do". When I get to that hotel overseas somewhere, and I'm looking for something, there it is, and I say: "Lord, thank you for that wife of mine".
In Ecclesiastes 4:12 it says:
...And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Jill and I have each other, but ultimately, the Lord Jesus Christ makes us strong. You see, a three-fold cord is very hard to break. If we cannot agree on something, we have a disagreement, oh yes, we do, you might be surprised, we sit down and go to the Bible. We say, what does Jesus say about the situation and then whatever He says we make it good.
Today, spend time with each other, appreciate each other and make sure you pray together because the family that prays together stays together.
Jesus bless you, and have a lovely Sunday.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 26th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the First Book of John 2:16-17:
“For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 6:24: “
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
Just a little before that, in verse 21, the Lord says:
”For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
I remember, many years ago listening to a sermon by a Scottish preacher. He told the story of a man who was not interested in God, only building his own kingdom. He was a miller by trade. He had a mill with a big grindstone, right next to the river, with that big paddlewheel and night and day this grindstone would grind out the corn and make flour. The man got very old and started getting very sick. His family was concerned about him, but he wasn’t interested in anything else but making money. Eventually, he got so sick, he asked them to take his bed and put it right next to the grinding stone, and he was actually dying. The man was dying and yet he was still completely concerned about his flour mill and making money.
A minister came to see him one day and was trying to speak to him, saying, “You are going to die, and you are going to a lost eternity. You need to give your life to the Lord.” And the old Scottish miller said, “I can’t hear you, laddie. The mill is making so much noise.” He could not hear the message from the man who was offering him eternal life because he was making too much money. Obviously, straight after that, he died.
Do not waste valuable time on things that are passing away, but concentrate on things with eternal value and eternal life.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Saturday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 25th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 4:6:
“Better a handful with quietness
Than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind.”
“And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.”Mark 6:31
Then, the last scripture is one that we should all take notice of. It is found in the Book of Exodus 20:11, right at the beginning of the Bible:
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
Even God Himself rested. We really need to purposely take time to rest, my dear friend. This message probably applies more to me than to many others.
You know, the swallow comes all the way from the Northern Hemisphere, right down to the Southern Hemisphere, as the seasons change, but he rests and feeds on the wing while he is flying. That is exactly right, and we need to do the same.
William Carey took the Gospel of Jesus Christ all the way across to India. He was probably one of the most busy men. He translated the Bible into many different Eastern languages. He became the chief interpreter in Delhi for the British Government. He was a man who loved God but, he had a very special place where he rested. That’s right - he had a little rose garden. When he was completely worked out, he would go into his rose garden and work on his roses.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Baptists called him “the Prince of Preachers”, said in his senior years, “By doing less, I hope to achieve more.” Some of us, including me, are rushing around too much. We need to slow down and find a special place to rest, somewhere in your garden, in your closet, where you and Jesus can spend time together and rest, and we will find that we will be much more effective.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 24th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 4:1-2:
Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun:
“And look! The tears of the oppressed,
But they have no comforter—
On the side of their oppressors there is power,
But they have no comforter.
Therefore I praised the dead who were already dead,
More than the living who are still alive.”
Now these are tragic words, spoken by King Solomon himself, basically saying, “There is no hope”, and even as I am sharing this scripture with you today, my dear friend, I can sense in my spirit there are many who are listening to this message who have lost hope in the things of this world. Everything seems to be upside-down. Now, I want to say to you that Jesus Christ, in John 10:10, says, “I came to give you life abundantly.”
The Lord has come to give you and me life, and life in abundance, and we really need to understand that. A beautiful example is, of course, the prophet, Elisha and his servant. The servant came out of the hut in the morning and saw enemy soldiers and chariots everywhere. He cried out to the prophet of God, “We are done. There is no hope for us.” But if you look at 2 Kings 6:17, the word of God says:
“And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
There are more who are for us than against us. Today, lift your eyes higher. Lift up your eyes because the Lord has promised you, my dear friend, and He has promised me, that He will never leave us, that He will never forsake us, (Hebrews 13:5) - and that is great news.
Go and tell somebody today, “Don’t worry, Jesus will not forsake us. He has promised to give us abundant life.”
Go out today and enjoy your life.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 23rd of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 20:9:
"Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name."
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not."
Oh, when you have met Jesus, you can't keep quiet. Then we go straight to Romans 1:16, a verse we all know so well, don't we?
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."
Just the other night, I was watching the Cincinnati Open Tennis Championship Final. The Ladies' Title was won by a young Afro-American girl, not even 20 years old - It was so beautiful to see her first-ever major tournament, and when she won it, she was like a little girl, dancing around the court, full of joy and glee! Then came the speech, this young girl, in front of thousands of people, said, "First of all, I want to thank my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, for making this possible." She said, "In my hotel room, for the last two weeks leading up to the final, I was crying, I was afraid, but He was with me." Then she went on to pay tribute to her mom, dad, brothers, sisters, her family and her team. It was so beautiful to see in a world where there is so much compromise and everybody is so afraid to speak up and tell people about their love for Jesus.
You know, one of the hardest place to witness is in your own home, isn't it? But we need to stand for Jesus and He will give us the courage. Do you remember that old song?
I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus,
Oh, no turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
When none go with me, I still will follow,
Though none go with me, I still will follow
Though none go with me, I still will follow,
No turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
And then the last verse:
The world behind me and the cross before me,
The world behind me and the cross before me,
The world behind me and the cross before me,
Oh, no turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back!
Go and tell somebody today that you love Jesus,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 22nd of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the First Book of Timothy 4:12:
“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”
I just love being around young people! “Why?” you might ask - aah, because their hearts are soft, because they have unrestricted dreams and expectations. They tend to see the very best in people. They are not cynical. What does the word, “cynical” mean? Well, according to the Oxford Dictionary, it means believing that people always act from selfish motives. Young people always believe that the glass is half-full and not half-empty.
Just yesterday, I went for a ride on my mountain bike with my grandsons. They range in age from 8 years old to 16 years old. Hearing them laugh, talk, joke, and just enjoy life was like a tonic for me. No ulterior motives, no selfishness, so refreshing - you know, it brings a tear to my eye, actually. My oldest grandson just came up alongside the youngest one when he was taking a bit of strain going up a hill, and he just gently put his hand on the little boy’s back and pushed him up the hill on his bike. Please folks, don’t ever write off young people. Please don’t be negative in their presence, don’t be bitter in front of them, don’t restrict them. You see, they will still be here when you and I are long gone. Help them to realise their God-given potential.
When I started preaching, I had only known the Lord for three months, that’s all, and some beautiful older people gave me a kickstart in the little church in which I was saved. They allowed me to preach from the pulpit. When I started preaching, they just loved me through it all, and when I look back, I think I must have been preaching apostasy, heresy and all the other “..sy’s”, but they just loved me. What did I bring to the table? Definitely not theology, not anything academic. Maybe what I brought to the table was excitement, innocence, purity and most of all, love. Yes, youthfulness that’s what we need.
Have a blessed day, love the young people!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 21st of August 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start in Ecclesiastes 3:11:
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."
Then we go to Acts 17:23:
"...for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you..."
Every human being knows that there is a God, a Creator, because you and I are made in His image and He has put eternity into our hearts. You see we are constructed - spirit, soul and body. The spirit never dies. The soul is your character, your personality. Then, you have a physical body. You see the cattle in the field, they have a soul and a body, but they do not have a spirit because God has put eternity in our hearts. People know there is a God. They've never met him personally and don't know his Name. There is no such thing, I believe, as an atheist - oh no, it can't be, because God has put eternity in our hearts.
They say Charles Darwin, the man who said that we are descendants of apes, his wife was a very strong follower of Jesus and on his deathbed he acknowledged that there was a Creator. Even the most primitive people living in the jungle believe in a Higher being, they know that there is a Creator. You can go right up to the Arctic Circle, the Inuit people will tell you that there is a Creator. You can go into the Amazon Jungle, and they will tell you that there is a higher being, they just haven't met Him by name. You know a beautiful scripture in 1 Timothy 3:16 says, and I'm reading out of The Message:
He appeared in a human body,
was proved right by the invisible Spirit,
was seen by angels.
He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples,
believed in all over the world,
taken up into heavenly glory.
His Name is Jesus Christ. He's my best friend. I want to tell you, He saved me. Go out today and tell somebody that there is a God and His Name is Jesus.
Have a wonderful day. God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning, the 20th of August 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. If we go to Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus says:
"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it".
I've just been to the Lowveld Mighty Men Conference a couple of weeks ago, and a Gentleman by the name of Peter did of the most beautiful picture for me. It's done with charcoal, a picture of a rider and a horse standing together. But you must look at the picture carefully to see what's happening. You might think the rider is just gazing over a fence, and the horse is standing behind him. But it's not that at all. The rider is actually opening a gate, that's right, he's opening a wire gate, obviously to let his animals in or out.
Now, Jesus Christ is 'the gate', 'the door'. He says that in John 10:11. He is the door for the sheep to go in and out. In the old days, they say that the Shepherd would sleep across the entrance of the sheep corral, where the sheep would sleep at night. He would sleep right across, so anything that went in and out had to cross over him. We're talking about wolves, jackals, and thieves, and they would have to cross over him to enter.
One of my spiritual sons sent me an article just last night. Archaeologists in Israel have discovered a gate in the Southern part of Israel that is 5500 years old. Can you believe it? But I want to tell you that Jesus, 'the gate', has always been there, and maybe today you are trying to find your way. He says in John 14:6,
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me".
Today, enter the gate that will lead you to eternal life, young man and lady. It is difficult, steep and hard going, but I want to tell you, it is worthwhile.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day.
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 19th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Ecclesiastes 3:1:
"To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:…"
What season are you in at the moment? Is it winter, is it summer, is it spring or maybe, is it autumn? We must learn to embrace whatever season we are in to appreciate it and live it to the full. We start with spring. Oh, spring is a lovely season to be in. It's the season for new beginnings, the time for learning. It is the time for developing your God-given skills and exploring new roads in life. I love to see young children, they are so excited for whatever they see. They are an inspiration to me.
Then we come to summer. Now summer, that is when we are beginning to reap the harvest of all our hard work. It's the busiest time in our lives, working long hours - hard work but great satisfaction. It is a time when we have to build, develop, and step out onto the water. Summertime is a time of short sleeps and long hours of working.
Then we come to autumn. Autumn is a golden time in our lives. We reap the labour of our hard work. The field is empty, but the storehouses are full of produce. Our children have grown up, and we no longer have to prove anything to anyone. We have got the T-shirt, quite a few of them actually! And we walk the talk, nothing to prove.
Then comes winter. Winter time is a time when we are looking forward to going home to be with Jesus. It is a time when we sit quietly and reflect on the goodness of God towards us over many, many years. Its a time to chew the cud. Have you ever seen a cow? She goes out in the morning and eats the grass until her stomach is full, then she finds a restful place under a shady tree. She regurgitates all that grass and chews it, and enjoys it for a second time. It's a time to read lots of God's Holy Word. It's a time to speak for long hours with Jesus, uninterrupted. It's a time for looking forward to the most exciting time of our lives. It is a time to meet our beloved Jesus face to face. I want to tell you, I can't wait! But enjoy the season you are in at the moment.
God bless you and have a lovely day
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 18th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the First Book of Timothy 3:5:
"for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?"
That's a serious verse. You see, charity begins at home, that's right. Another word for charity is to take care of your own family. It's to be loving, generous and kind. It's to have a godly lifestyle. If you and I want to be leaders in God's church, then we need to get it right at home first. It is no good wanting to go out to the mission field, young man, and preach to the heathen when back at the ranch, as the saying goes, the wheels are coming off. This kind of hypocrisy is what is keeping people from coming to Christ.
As a young married man, many years ago, trying to start farming on my own, with a young family, really struggling to feed my children, to dress them properly and to make ends meet, we would have a family turn up at meal times regularly, and of course, we would feed them - a young man and his wife and children. Jill would even give some of our children's clothes to the mother of this visiting family because we felt very sorry for them. But the problem was, the husband would not find a job. He was lazy, he would not work, and the worst thing of all was that he was always telling me that I needed to get my life right and follow Jesus as Lord and Saviour. He would always be saying, "Hallelujah, praise the Lord," but I did not see any fruit.
I would say to Jill often when that family left, "If that man is a Christian, then I will get to Heaven before he would!" But you see, that is what kept me from following the Lord. But who was to say that he was a Christian? He said he was. We shall know them by their fruits. We need to be very careful not to keep people from following the Lord by our sub-standard lifestyle. Let's get our home in order first. Let's make sure there is bread on the table for our families before we go out doing good works for others. Let's make sure that our children are disciplined correctly, and respect their elders, before we start preaching to others at Sunday school.
Now, this is a hard word, I know, but it's a true word, folks, and we really need to lead from the front, so go out today and walk the talk so that people can come to us and say, "We want what you have got," and then you can introduce them to our beloved Saviour.
Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 17th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Psalms, Psalm 37:5, the Lord says:
"Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass."
The Lord gives us enough strength for the day, strength for the strain. You have heard me say that before. I was looking through an old diary and came up with an entry I made in August, 2001 - 22 Years ago! My, where has the time gone? I really want to read this to you but before I do, I want to say that we need to sit down and count the cost. We need to stop rushing around. When we do that, we will accomplish what the Lord has done for us. Remember, He only gives us enough strength for each day, no more and no less, just like He did with the Israelites in the wilderness. He gave them fresh manna every single morning but that manna would not last for two days. They had to collect it every morning. You and I need to sit down and count the cost and realise God has given us enough strength for one purpose, for one day.
This is how my entry goes. I am just going to read it straight off and you can work it out for yourself:
"The second expedition of the seed-sower, and I am sitting at a familiar place now on the banks of the mighty Zambezi River, looking over into Zambia. Contemplating last year's campaign, I realise just how fast time is moving on. It seems like just a couple of months ago that we were last here. Thinking about the hardships, the home-sickness, the fatigue that we went through preaching in 11 campaigns, and setting up the stage, the sound, the lights, etc. every time, and then the follow-up material, then praying for the sick, then having to pack up and move on to the next one. The continual unending streams of people with you all the time, almost day and night, eventually it can become quite overpowering."
Then Jesus clearly reminded me in my quiet time that He would give me enough strength for the strain, and that only as I need it, but also that through the strain, I would learn many new things, mainly about myself. Father has promised me that He will not allow me to be tempted above that which I am able to handle. My prayer at the Zambezi River is: Lord Jesus, please help me to keep the vision, to see the lost, the blind and the confused folk and help them. Yes, to bring in the great and mighty harvest. Amen.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 16th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If you listen carefully, you can hear the raindrops falling on my tin roof. Oh, what a beautiful sound! In winter, where we live, we hardly get any rain, hardly ever. It gets very cold, it gets very dusty and dry, but as I am sharing this message with you I am rejoicing. The Faithful One has sent us some rain! I want to speak to you about a broken and contrite heart this morning.
“The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.”
Psalm 34:18
The Oxford Dictionary described the word “contrite” as someone who is sorry for what they have done. Have you messed up today? Have you made a mistake? Have you done something that you are not proud of? Well, just say sorry because the Lord is quick to save a crushed spirit. When we have been humbled and our pride has been crushed and our stubbornness has been broken, it is the broken heart which pleases the Lord. You know, it is only when you squeeze an orange that you can taste the sweet juice. It is only when a rose petal is crushed that we smell the sweet fragrance.
“…God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5
If we want to truly help other people and be honestly sympathetic towards them and to even feel their pain, then we must be prepared to be broken ourselves, otherwise, we don’t really understand, and we don’t feel what they are going through. You know, when I listen to a young up-and-coming preacher sharing his message with passion, and he gets deaf ears and no response from the congregation, it is extremely painful. One young man came and poured his heart out, weeping one day. He said, “I preached my heart out but I know I was too hard on the congregation, and I got no response,” but I think he saw in my eyes that I knew exactly what he was going through. Many years ago, I got up and I preached a message. Everything went wrong. It was in a hotel, and the food was very late in coming. The people had been drinking, and they were not interested in hearing about Jesus. I stood up on the floor, and I preached my heart out. I made an altar call and there was no response, just folded arms and people smiling at each other, not interested.
I was broken, humiliated. I went to bed that night and said, “That is the last time, Lord.” I wrestled all night with the Holy Spirit, and the Lord said, “Are you going to do this for Me or for the people?” I said, “For You, Lord.” And the next day, I went out again, and I preached again and we had an absolutely wonderful response from the crowd.
If you want to be sympathetic, you have to be prepared to go through it yourself. Have a blessed day and go and comfort someone.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 15th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Ecclesiastes 1:16-17, the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, said:
"I communed with my heart (spoke with my heart), saying, "Look, I have attained greatness, and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge." And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly (which is foolishness). I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind."
I want to ask you a question this morning, my dear friend, and I am asking myself the same question. Are we grasping for the wind this morning? Are we driving on a road that leads to nowhere? Well, we need to stop. We need to pull over, sit down, and count the cost because we are going nowhere very fast. If we look at Luke 14:28:
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost,…?"
As a young family, we left a beautiful farm in Central Africa and drove all the way down to South Africa in a truck, trailer, and motor car. We drove a very long journey and were determined to start again. You see, I thought if I could build another farm from square one, then I would find peace and happiness, but I was so disappointed. You see, my focus and my goal were all in the wrong place. Are you there this morning? I managed to obtain that farm, oh yes - it nearly killed me in the process, working myself to death - but no fulfilment. Then in desperation, I sought out the Lord Jesus Christ and my life changed, and I am now on the right road. Yes, I have got many challenges, probably more than before, but I know where I am going and Who I am going with.
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."Matthew 6:33
Today, count the cost, get on the right road and keep going.
Jesus is coming back soon!
Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Monday morning, the 14th of August 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start in Ecclesiastes 1:9:
That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
Spoken by the wisest man who has ever lived, King Solomon, the son of King David. You see, he was absolutely correct up to that time in the World, but we always say: "But God" right? But everything changed when God came down to Earth as a little defenceless baby - Emmanuel, 'God with us'. A member of the governing body of Israel, a highly educated and respected man by the name of Nicodemus, came to Jesus by night so that no man would see him asking for advice from Jesus, the Carpenter from Nazareth. He wanted to know how Jesus could perform the incredible miracles that no one had ever before seen on Earth. The answer was something that this old World had never heard before not even from the time of Solomon, who said there is nothing new under the sun. Jesus answered Nicodemus and said, in John 3:3:
"... I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Then again, in John 3:7 he said you must be born again - Something very beautiful and something very new! I want to tell you today that you need to be born again. It is a biblical term spoken by God himself - I was born again on the 18th of February 1979, 44 years ago, and my life has never been the same again.
I would like to pray with you this morning. Maybe you have never heard of this before, or you have, and the cares of this World have blinded you. You have forgotten Jesus did something absolutely brand new. He said:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
You'll find that in 2 Corinthians 5:17. Why not pray this prayer with me and go out today as a brand new person?
Dear Lord Jesus, I believe that the Bible is the Word of God. Jesus said I must be born again. Today, Lord, I repent. I'm sorry for all the sins I have committed, for all the selfishness in my life. I ask you to be my Lord and Saviour, I will serve no other gods but You. In Jesus' Name, amen!
Go out today and tell three people what you have just done. God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning, the 13th of August 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start with 1 Timothy 1:19:
"... having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck..."
Do not allow yourself to become shipwrecked through a lack of faith and time spent with God that comes about by being complacent, slack, and not being alert and disciplined in your lifestyle. Proverbs 6:10-11:
“A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep
So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler”
You know, many years ago, I stood in the harbour of Belfast, Northern Ireland - a most beautiful place, and I saw the site where they built the most magnificent ship on earth, to that day - the mighty Titanic. The new steel structures on which the massive cranes were fitted to take the materials out to the building of the ship in the harbour are still standing to this day. They are huge; they look like skyscrapers. This gigantic ship, they said, was Indestructible - a very big mistake! On its Maiden voyage to America, the shipbuilders were overconfident; they said the ship could not sink, but they forgot about the power of God's creation. They hit a massive iceberg in the ocean; that ship was opened up like a tin can and sank to the bottom of the ice-cold Atlantic Ocean in a moment.
You and I must watch how we stand lest we become a shipwreck. In the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 10:12, the Lord says:
"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall."
Spend lots of time with the Lord, have good quiet times, read your Bible, pray, share with fellow Christians and strengthen your inner man - this is a fight we are in, which we will win, but only by discipline and trust in God.
Have a wonderful Sunday; Jesus bless you, goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 12th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 31:10-12:
“Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life.”
A godly and virtuous wife is a great and wonderful asset, young man, and an absolute gift from God. We must never take our life partner for granted, old man, - yes, I am talking to myself as well. Unfortunately, so often we do, especially with a wonderful, virtuous wife. We don’t do it intentionally, but you know our favourite saying, “Oh no, she will understand…”. She will understand because we are late, she will understand because Friday night is boys’ night out. That is a lot of rubbish I want to tell you, and if I am talking to somebody now, stop it immediately because those days are over. They stopped when you got married! We really need to value and appreciate our wives.
Next to the Lord Jesus Christ himself, she should be our greatest friend, adviser and lover. Why? We may ask - simply because she has no ulterior motives but wants to see us succeed. There are other people that you are putting trust in and they don’t have your interest at heart. They have another motive. Maybe they want to get a part of the business. Maybe they want to get an inside corner. I want to tell you, your wife doesn’t. She is not a “yes” person and I really mean this, she’s not one of the “yes” people. Don’t have a lot of “yes” people around you, they are dangerous. They’ll agree with anything you say because they want to find favour with you.
Your wife will tell you,”No, I don’t agree with that.” Because she loves you and she wants to protect you. Proverbs 18:22 says,
”He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favour from the Lord.”
Therefore, do not abuse your wife, don’t take her for granted but appreciate her as your absolute best friend in this life next to Jesus Himself, and you won’t go wrong.
Have a wonderful day. Go and spoil her today.
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 11th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 2:17:
"When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."1 Timothy 1:15
What do they say? It takes a thief to catch a thief. It's very important to be able to identify with the people that you are talking to. It is no use going to a group of cowboys standing around with their horses and speaking to them about motorbikes, getting invited to a sportsman's breakfast and then talking about dressmaking. It really doesn't make sense. They are not going to listen to you. If we truly want to see a person put his trust fully in our Lord Jesus, he must, first of all, trust you and me, and then when you have won his confidence, you can speak to him about the One who has changed your life, who has changed my life.
I remember visiting a maximum security prison a few years ago, and I asked the warders if I could put on an inmate's orange uniform. I saw those hardened criminals looking at me, dressed like them, thinking, "What does this clown think he is up to, being dressed like us in this prison garb?" They were sitting there with their arms all folded, some very tough men, let me tell you. They had been through a lot, but when I said to them, "The only difference between you and me is that you got caught and you are serving your sentence. I haven't got caught, and I have to rely on the grace of God. You see, Romans 3:23 says:
"…for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God..."
When there is acceptance by the crowd, then they are prepared and ready to hear us. Never, ever preach down to people. Always preach up to people and esteem them greatly as God's precious creation, and then you will become a true soul-winner.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 10th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the First Book of Timothy in the New Testament, Chapter 1:4. This is Paul talking to his spiritual son, Timothy. He says:
“…nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.”
Keep away from old wives’ tales, fantasy stories which cause folks to move away from the truth. Keep away from myths which can cause us to digress and lead to controversies. We need to keep to the Bible, the word of God. God said it, we believe it, and that settles it. Keep it the main thing. It stops confusion. A fable is a story; it is not necessarily true, and a genealogy is a family tree. You know, some people won’t get out of bed on a Friday if it lands on the 13th day of the month! They say it is bad luck. They just stay in bed all day. Can you believe that? My old mother, before I had the privilege of praying the Sinners Prayer with her, if she saw my knives on the dinner table were crossed, she would say, “Angus, un-cross those knives because it brings bad luck.” I want to say to you there is no such thing as luck anyway. What is luck? It is nothing. It is just a word.
We also need to keep away from the old family tree. I don’t know how many arguments I have seen take place when the mother starts talking about her bloodline and the father starts talking about his bloodline, and ”My family came from this place,” and “My family came from that place”, and “My grandfather was this…” No, stop it, stop it!! The Bible says clearly in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
When you become a Christian, then you also have a new family. You have brothers and sisters from different countries, language groups, colours. It is wonderful. You know, I can meet somebody and love that person in five minutes if they are a genuine follower of Jesus, and I have got other people, sadly to say, they have lived nearby, I have known them for forty years and yet I still don’t really know them.
When we are in Christ, we put away fables and old wives’ tales, and we follow Jesus. We have friends that we know will stay with us until the end because we have the same father, we have got the same destination, we have got the same Saviour that died for us. Oh, it is beautiful!
Go out today and be a friend and tell people about the miracles of Jesus and forget the old wives’ tales.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 9th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
We start in the First Book of Corinthians 14:33:
"For God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints."
The author of peace and not of confusion! We do not see Jesus rushing around anywhere in the Bible. He never did that. He was always telling His disciples to come and rest awhile, "Come and sit down". In fact, He did the opposite of rushing around, Jesus was always filled with the peace of His Father. Often his disciples would be looking for Him, "The crowds, the multitudes have arrived, Lord, where have You been?", "I have been up the mountain. I have been waiting to get a word from My Father." This morning, we need to slow down and stop rushing around.
Now this applies to me just as much as any of you. "Shalom" was the standard greeting when entering a person's house, anywhere in the Bible. "The peace of God be with you." It is so beautiful to enter into a home that is filled with the shalom of God, isn't it? It's like a sweet-smelling fragrance. One does not feel rushed, you don't feel out of place, you feel really welcome, and there is no anxiousness, no stress, no pressure to hurry up.
I want to say to you, gentlemen, leave all that stuff at work. When you come home, you must convey the peace of Jesus to your family, especially your little children. They are so stressed out by this world we are living in anyway, and when dad comes home, they can see him walk into the house and there is security, love and peace that has come home. Mom, it is so important when dad walks into the house to feel the love and the peace of Jesus. I love it when my wife goes into the garden and gets a little bunch of flowers and sometimes puts them in my prayer room. It touches me more than if somebody was to give me a whole fistful of money. You can't buy peace.
I read something written by the evangelist, Billy Graham. It goes like this,
"Peace-making is a noble vocation, but you can no more make peace in your own strength than a mason can build a wall without a trowel, a carpenter build a house without a hammer, or an artist paint a picture without a brush. You must have the proper equipment. To be a peace-maker, you must know the Peace-Giver. To make peace on earth, you must know the peace of heaven. You must know Him who is our peace."
Is Jesus your peace today? Well, then, go out and share it with others.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 8th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Exodus 4:1-2:
Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’ “So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand? He said, “A rod.” (A stick).
“The ants are a people not strong,
Yet they prepare their food in the summer;
The rock badgers are a feeble folk,
Yet they make their homes in the crags;
The locusts have no king,
Yet they all advance in ranks;
The spider skillfully grasps with its hands,
And it is in kings’ palaces.”Proverbs 30:25-28
This morning, my dear friend, I believe the Lord wants to say to you and me, use what you have and do not envy others. If we look at history, Abraham was a farmer, David was a shepherd, Peter was a fisherman, Paul was a tent-maker, Matthew was a tax collector and the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ, was a carpenter.
We need to get away from this entitlement mentality. “Woe is me! I didn’t have a good opportunity! I did not have a chance!” Every one of these men that I have just mentioned moved mountains for God. There wasn’t one of them that was an academic, as it were, maybe apart from Paul, the Apostle. But I want to say to you today, they used what they had like the ant, like the dassie - the rock badger, like the locust, like the spider. They work with what they have got and what they have in their hands and the Lord multiplies it.
Go out today and tell people about Jesus in your work situation, and you will be surprised at what will happen.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 7th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the New Testament, 2 Thessalonians 3:8-9:
“…nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labour and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us.”
As believers, we are to be no man’s debtor. The only person we should be indebted to is the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself. We are not hirelings. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. My dear friends, it is such a poor witness when a Christian becomes a beggar, walking around hinting that he doesn’t have enough money to pay the rent, or buy groceries, but he is a child of God. Go to your closet, pray, trust the Lord, go out and find any kind of work, and then the Lord will honour you. We take away our witness when we have the attitude of begging. We are sons and daughters of the living God. We are the ones who should be lending, not asking for favours all the time.
God is quick to answer all our prayers of faith. The giants in the early church that have impressed me so greatly are men who never asked for anything - George Müller, who started the children’s home for 10,000 children, 60 million pounds went through his hands, he never asked for a penny. God supplied. At Shalom Ministries, we say, “When the money runs out, we stop.” Well, in 44 years, the money has not run out, and we are carrying on and working according to godly principles.
I really want to encourage you today. You see, Paul is saying that we make ourselves an example to the world of how people should follow us. I have a real problem with men who preach for 20 minutes, asking for money and only a 10-minute message - it is totally wrong. We need to understand something. “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” What does that mean? A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. If you are a preacher of the Gospel like I am, God will prompt people to sow into our ministries. It is not for us to persuade them with sob stories for them to give. No! We need to do the work God has called us to. That is why a calling is so important. When God called me, He promised me that He would supply, and He has never failed me yet and He will not fail you.
Trust Him!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 6th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
The most well-known scripture verse in the whole Bible is John 3:16:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
I read a story in a beautiful devotional the other day about a man who went to a church service to listen to the message, but nothing special came out of that message. Right at the end, as the preacher knelt to pray, the preacher said, "Our Lord, You know we can trust the Man who died for us". Isn't that beautiful? "Trust the Man who died for us."
"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."
John 15:13
Who can we trust in this day and age? We can't even trust ourselves, can we? But we can trust the Man who died for us! I encourage you today to put your total trust in the Lord. He will not let you down, and He will not let me down. You know, it would be like somebody coming to you and giving you their credit card and PIN number and then saying, "Go and help yourself and take as much money out of the account as you need." I mean, that is incredible, isn't it? You can't say to them, "Well, do you trust me?" Of course not, and that is exactly what our Heavenly Father did for you and me on the Cross of Calvary. He gave His only begotten Son, and said, "He will die for you therefore, you can trust Him completely."
I want to encourage you today to take time out and sit and think about this. You can trust the Man who died for you. If you cannot trust Him, then who can you trust? There is no one else. I put my trust in Him 44 years ago and I want to tell you, my dear friend, I love Him today more than I have ever loved Him in those 44 years. I give Him everything I have: my family, life, vision, ambition, and health because I know He cares for me.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 5th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 John 4:7-8:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Oh my dear friends, I will never forget preaching the Gospel in Wales many years ago, the country that sings. Even when they speak, they are singing. They have such a beautiful accent. I was down in the south speaking to over a thousand farmers and their wives and children. We were talking about the love of God and reminiscing on the great revival that took place in Wales in 1904 and 1905 amongst the Welsh coal miners. These men would come out of the pits after they knocked off, black with soot from the coal dust and go straight to the halls where they would worship God. They would have white stripes down their faces where they had been weeping in the presence of God.
The police had no work to do, and the pubs closed. There was a great revival. Many great songs came out of this revival. The Welsh people know how to sing. When you go to an international rugby match, those men start singing, and the opposing team must cringe when they see what they have to put up with. I remember one particular song, “Here is Love, Vast as the Ocean”, these farmers and their wives and children started to sing it in Gaelic. It made me cry, and I could hardly preach. It went something like this:
Here is love, vast as the ocean,
loving-kindness as the flood,
when the Prince of Life, my Ransom,
shed for me His precious blood.
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He shall never be forgotten
through heav’n’s everlasting days.
On the mount of crucifixion
fountains opened deep and wide;
through the floodgates of God’s mercy
flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
poured incessant from above,
and heav’n’s peace and perfect justice
kissed a guilty world in love.
Let me, all Thy love accepting,
Love Thee, ever all my days;
Let me seek Thy kingdom only,
And my life be to Thy praise;
Thou alone shalt be my glory,
Nothing in the world I see;
Thou hast cleansed and sanctified me,
Thou Thyself hast set me free.
In Thy truth Thou dost direct me
By Thy Spirit through Thy Word;
And Thy grace my need is meeting,
As I trust in Thee, my Lord.
Of Thy fullness Thou art pouring
Thy great love and pow’r on me,
Without measure, full and boundless,
As I yield myself to Thee.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. God loves you!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 4th of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 30:8-9:
“Remove falsehood and lies far from me;
Give me neither poverty nor riches—
Feed me with the food allotted to me;
Lest I be full and deny You,
And say, “Who is the Lord?”
Or lest I be poor and steal,
And profane the name of my God.”
Then we go straight to Matthew 8:20:
“And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
The richest person who has ever lived on earth or in heaven, He owns all the cattle on a thousand hills and all the silver and gold - He never even had a house to live in when He was on earth. Young man, be very careful what you ask for. With great success also comes great responsibility. Young lady, be careful what you are asking for. Marilyn Monroe, an American Actress who took the world by storm in the 1950 and 1960s, died in her bed at 36 years old from an overdose of drugs. Solomon, the richest man who has ever lived - he had more money than Bill Gates or any of the rest of them if you work it out from the money he had in those days, and yet he said in the Book of Ecclesiastes 5:10:
“He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is vanity.”
We must be very careful what we ask for. I know some very wealthy and successful people, and they are generous beyond measure. I also know some poor people who are tight and only speak about making a quick dollar. I drove around our farm many years ago on a Sunday afternoon with a young preacher. He loved farming so much, and yet he said to me with a few tears in his eyes, “You know Angus, I would love to farm more than anything else, and God knew that, and He knew that if He had given me a farm, I would have forgotten Him.”
I want to say to you today, godliness with contentment is great gain.
1 Timothy 6:6.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 3rd of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the New Testament, to the Book of Romans 5:3-4:
"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope."
Are you facing a mountain this morning, my dear friend? Yes, we all face them from time to time, and from a distance, that mountain looks so massive that you will never get over it, but we need to keep moving slowly but surely towards our mountain. Don't run away from it, and you will be surprised when you reach the foot of the mountain. You will slowly but surely start putting one foot in front of the other and climb your mountain, and before you know where you are, you will be right on the top and right over the dangerous part.
You know, on our farm we have got two types of trees. In the valley, we have got the poplar tree. It is very soft, it grows quickly because it grows in the wetlands, and then we have the thorn tree. It grows very slowly, but it is very tough and hard. One grows fast, and the other grows slowly. We are in the middle of winter here in South Africa. This morning it was 1 degree; it was freezing. When you want to make a fire and you burn the poplar tree, it burns very quickly and gives very little warmth. But the other tree, the thorn tree, burns slowly and for a long time, giving off tremendous heat.
You see, tribulation and hardship teach us to be strong, sturdy, and hard going. We climb the mountain slowly but surely, and we get to the top. Those who want the Lord to use them to comfort others must be prepared to go through tribulation, a time of testing. It's not pleasant at that time, but we need to do it if we are going to bring warmth to those who are cold and fearful.
Today, face your mountain.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, it is the 2nd of August, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Job 38:4:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Who has ascended into heaven, or descended?
Who has gathered the wind in His fists?
Who has bound the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is His name, and what is His Son's name,
If you know?”
Proverbs 30:4
Then we go to the Gospel of Mark 4:41:
" And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!"
Oh, we need to show much more respect and honour to this mighty God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Indeed, He is a miracle-working God. In five weeks' time, I have the privilege of taking a very large group of pilgrims to Israel, to Jesus country. Oh, what a day that will be when we touch down at the airport at Ben Gurion! We will walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. We will sit together on the shores of Lake Galilee, which is approximately 13 km wide and 21 km long, and listen to the gentle waves lapping up against the shore. But you know that that lake can become very stormy and extremely dangerous in a matter of hours. It's my favourite place in Jesus country, the Lake of Galilee, and I will tell the pilgrims the story of the Son of God who literally walked across the lake on the top. Yes, it is not a shallow lake, it is extremely deep, 13 km across the top of the water. What man has ever done that? What man has ever walked on water? And that same man, the Son of God, calmed the raging storm with one word. We must honour and respect Him. That is when Peter said, "Who is this man that even the waves and the wind respect Him?". I want to say to you today, my dear friend, call upon Jesus if you have a need or a problem, and He will help you. He will not fail you. In 1 Peter 5:7, the word of God says:
"…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is the 1st of August, that's right! The year 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
We start in John 4, and I am reading verse 35:
"Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!"
The word "procrastination" in the Oxford Dictionary is defined as: "postponed action". Don't leave things off for tomorrow that you can do today. Things left undone - a stitch in time saves nine!
We didn't come from a very wealthy family, and my mother was very determined that when we tore our shirts or trousers, we had to go to her straight away. She would stitch it up and save the shirt or trouser because if you don't, it tears so badly that it has to be thrown away. Today, let us be more diligent in doing things immediately.
I read a beautiful reading in Streams of the Dessert just the other day, and it says: An old Quaker saying," What shall I do? I expect to pass through this world but once, therefore, any good work, kindness or service I can render to any person or animal, let me do it now. Let me not neglect or delay to do it, for I will not pass this way again."
Listen to this poem:
It isn't the thing you do, dear,
It's the thing you leave undone
That gives you the bitter heartache
At the setting of the sun.
The tender word unspoken,
The letter you did not write,
The flower you might have sent, dear,
Are your haunting ghosts at night?
The stone you might have lifted
Out of your brother's way;
The bit of heartfelt counsel
You were hurried too much to say;
The loving touch of the hand, dear,
The gentle and winsome tone
That you had no time or thought for
With troubles enough of your own.
Those little acts of kindness
So easily out of mind,
Those chances to be angels
Which even mortals find -
They come in nights of silence,
To take away the grief,
When hope is faint and feeble,
And a drought has stopped belief.
For life is all too short, dear,
And sorrow is all to great,
To allow our slow compassion
That tarries until too late:
And it isn't the thing you do, dear,
It's the thing you leave undone
That gives you a bit of heartache
At the setting of the sun.
Jesus bless you as you go out today and love someone,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Monday morning, the 31st of July 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We started in the Book of Proverbs 29:18:
"Where there is no vision, the people perish..."
Another translation says: "When there is no clear prophetic vision, people quickly wander astray." Another version says "If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves."
We need a vision - we've got to dream our dream, we've got to think out-of-the-box, it is so important. Once God gives you a vision, then according to Habakkuk 2:2:
"Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry."
You know, if you are aiming at nothing you are sure to hit it! If you aim beneath the stars, as one man said, you aim too low. You've got to aim high, very high. We must attempt something that is so big, if it's not from God it is doomed to fail. Why you might ask, because when it works people will say no man could have done that and God gets all the glory.
You know, I want to say to you right at the outset, you need a short-term vision and you need a long-term vision. You need to dream it, you need to eat it, you need to believe it. God will bring it to pass but, a good idea is not always a God-idea and a need does not justify a call... What does that mean? It means that when Jesus walked on the Earth He didn't feed all the hungry. He only did what His father told him to do - No more, no less. Some of us are going the wrong way because we are not listening to the Word of God. We think that we are helping God - God doesn't need your help, He doesn't need my help! What He needs his obedience.
You know that 20 years ago, this month July, I was in the Umfolozi Game Reserve having my quiet time. God gave me a vision, it was so clear. You see He told me in Revelation 2:4-5:
"Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent."
"What must I do Lord?" "Go home, cancel all your appointments, and start to mentor young men." That's what I did, that was the birth of the Mighty Men phenomenon that's going around the world at the moment.
Today ask God to give you new vision and it will change your life.
Jesus bless you have a wonderful day!
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 30th of July 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start off in Malachi 3:10:
"Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,"
Says the Lord of hosts,
"If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it."
Then we go straight to Matthew 7:7:
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."
That is a beautiful scripture; the one in Malachi is also very special to me. The Lord says: "Test me." He doesn't say "Tempt Me" - "Test Me and see if I will not honour you." I want to tell you today that many of us have a pauper attitude when our Father owns all the cattle on a thousand hills, He owns all the hills, He owns the silver and the gold, and yet we are walking around with a begging bowl asking for scraps. As one man of God said, "Why ask for only a cupful when God owns the entire ocean?" A ray of light - why do we ask for a ray of light when Jesus holds the sun in His hands?
I remember like it was yesterday when the Lord impressed upon me to hire a tent for a men's conference on the farm. We hired the biggest tent in the world, that's right! It could seat 30 thousand men inside, and we had 30 thousand men outside. I want to tell you a secret; when I thought about hiring that tent, we had precisely R500 in the ministry account - R500! That is about $50, not even, and that tent cost millions. It took 17 30-ton rigs to bring it to the farm. It took three weeks to erect, but do you know something? When I stood on that platform on that first night, we owed nobody.
We fed those 60,000 men; that's right, we fed them for the whole weekend. We killed 40 oxen for one meal. How did we do it? We did it by faith. We tested the Lord, heard a word from God, and did it. We took our tithe to the storehouse. Where is the storehouse? The storehouse is where you get your spiritual food from. The Lord says, "Test me and see if I will not honour you."
I want to encourage you today to lift your eyes and ask God because He wants to bless you. He has more than you need and more than you will ever spend, but you must have the right heart and attitude. It is not for you but for Him and His people and the Kingdom of God.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you, goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 29th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 13:7:
“Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”
Maybe today you have woken up, and there is something in your life and you just don’t understand it. “Lord, I love that person so much and have heard they have gone home to be with you. Why did You take them when they were still so young?” You just don’t understand why it happened. Well, the preacher, J.R. MacDuff, told a beautiful story about the wonderful cedars of Lebanon. They are all over the Bible. You see accounts of these beautiful trees that sheltered animals from the storms, gave the shepherd rest in the heat of the day, and yet the timber man came with his big, sharp axe and cut those trees down. What a tragedy! Those huge logs were floated down to the old port of Joppa, then transported to Jerusalem, where they were formed into beautiful beams and put in the Temple of the Lord, and there they gave glory to God.
We don’t know and don’t often understand why things happen or why you are going through such a rough time. Maybe the Lord is fashioning you and me, perfecting us for home time when we eventually go to the City of God in Heaven, where we will be with the Lord forever. I want to encourage you today not to ask too many questions and not to be afraid to say to someone, “I don’t know the answer, but when I get to Heaven, God will tell me, and then I will understand fully, but until then, I will continue to serve Him, just like the old farmer, Job said,
“Even though He slay me, yet will I still trust Him.”
Job 13:15
I want to tell you today that I have many unanswered questions, but I know one thing: on the great and wonderful day when I meet the Lord, face to face, He will answer every single question. In fact, I won’t even have to ask Him any questions because the answers will be straightforward and waiting for us. So today, if you are going through a time of hardship and there is a fashioning taking place in your life - maybe you have lost a loved one and you are feeling lonely, and you are thinking, “Lord, why did you do that?” Well, I want to tell you that it was time for that loved one to meet the Master and to be part of His eternal plan, but in the meantime, He will give you the strength to take one day at a time, waiting for the wonderful day when we will be together forever in Paradise.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 28th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Proverbs 28:14, which says: '
Happy is the man who is always reverent,…"
"…always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all."
1 Thessalonians 5:15
Unseen kindness, doing things that you don't necessarily get a reward for - that is what God is looking for. He is looking for servants' hearts. Serving God and our fellowman brings such joy into people's lives and our own lives. I remember hearing about Kathryn Kuhlman, the woman God used with a tremendous healing ministry, saying, "If you feel sick, go and find somebody who is sicker than you, pray for them, and you won't feel so sick after that." Like the good farmer, keep sowing good seed, and eventually, you shall reap a good crop if you keep on persevering. We know that scripture so well that compliments that statement, and that is found in Galatians 6:9:
"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."
Acts of unseen kindness are what God is requiring from you and me today in this sad world which seems to be so self-centred. I heard a beautiful story once about an old gentleman who used to carry an oil can in his pick-up, whenever he came to a farm gate, and it was squeaking when he opened the gate, he would take out his oil can and oil the hinges. Nobody saw him, not even the farmer, but he did it because he felt it was a good thing to do. Do you know what joy it brings into your heart when you do something and know that it will benefit somebody else, especially when nobody knows that you are doing it? Even now, as I am sharing this story with you, it brings back memories of when I was a little boy, maybe 7 or 8 years old. My little brother would have been 6 years old, and we used to walk to school every morning with our satchels on our backs, and it was a fair walk. There was an old man who used to come with his old pick-up, I will never forget it, and he would stop and give us a lift to school. When I got into that pick-up, I could smell the smoke of his pipe. He used to smoke a pipe, and he would greet us. He was a sunburnt man, he worked outdoors, and he would take us all the way to school. I have never forgotten that.
Today, be zealous for Jesus and do somebody some good without them even knowing it, and you will see how happy your heart will be.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 27th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 27:20:
"Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied." "All things are full of labor;
Man cannot express it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing."Ecclesiastes 1:8
Never satisfied! The definition of greed is taking more than you actually need. We need to be so careful that we don't become greedy because a lot of the things that we have accumulated we can't take to Heaven with us. I want to say to you, how much is enough? You know the old saying, "How long is a piece of string?" It's as long as you make it!
When John Wesley left this earth, he left 6 pounds in his account, 1 pound for each of the pallbearers who would carry his coffin and a few silver teaspoons. That's all he left. That man wrote many books, and all the money that he got from those books, he gave back to the poor.
George Müller started a massive children's home for over ten thousand children. Millions of pounds passed through his hands, yet when he died, he left a chair, a table, a bed and a cupboard. That's all he left on this earth, but when they were doing the accounts and finalising everything with the Bristol Children's Home, they saw there was an anonymous donor who, month after month, for years and years, put money in. When they did their finalising, they realised it was actually George Müller himself. 1 Timothy 6:6 says:
"Now godliness with contentment is great gain."
Be satisfied with what you have got. Be thankful that the Lord has blessed you, but don't let greed come into your life.
My brother once visited an old gentleman who had made a fortune through sportswear and equipment and was a multi-millionaire. My brother sat across the table and said, "Wow, you have done so well. You have been so successful." But the old gentleman looked up from the table and said, "Yes," he said, "I built an empire, but it cost me my health. Now, I am trying to buy my health back, but it's not working."
You and I need to be satisfied with what God has given us; that is all we need.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 26th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the First Book of Thessalonians 4:13-14, Paul says:
"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus."
For a believer, death is nothing to be afraid of. That is what Paul is saying here. If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you will never die. The Lord will raise you up. I heard one old preacher say that he was immortal until his work on Earth was completed. What a beautiful promise! Remember what Billy Graham said, "One day, you will read in the newspapers that Billy Graham died last night." He said, "Don't believe a word of it. I won't have died, I will just have changed my address." As a Christian, we have nothing to fear, and maybe I am talking to someone who has just lost a loved one, which is very painful. One can become very lonely and miss that loved one, but please remember that if that loved one knew Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour, they are not dead - they are waiting for you in Paradise. We must build ourselves up and remember that, as Paul said,
"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain."Philippians 1:21
He said, "I would rather be with the Lord", but for our sakes, he said, "Let me remain on earth." I feel exactly the same way, the older I get. This world holds very little for me. I cannot wait to see my beloved Saviour on that wonderful day when we meet Him together in Paradise. So concentrate on the future and don't worry too much about the past. Remember what Martin Luther said? "I only have two dates in my diary, today and that day!"
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 25th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Proverbs 27:19:
"As in water face reflects face, So a man's heart reveals the man."
Another translation says: "Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart."
When preaching, I always like to look into the eyes of the people because the eyes are the window of our hearts, it mirrors the heart of the crowd. Before I even start preaching, I can work out what kind of crowd I am talking to. I would be a very useless card player because I cannot hide the hand of cards I am holding. My face tells the whole story, whether I am happy or sad. I am one of those guys that wears my heart on my sleeve, and it often gets me into trouble, but at least you know where you stand when you are talking to me.
Many years ago, I was about to speak to a group of farmers in the Eastern Cape. One old gentleman came up to me and said, "Boy, when you speak today, preach to us so that we can see your heart." That is so true. If it's not inside, it's not coming out. I want to ask you a question - can you imagine looking into the face of Jesus one day? Because all of us will. The Bible says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord. Can you imagine those beautiful, gentle eyes that will look straight through you? We won't be able to hide anything. Remember when Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well? If you look at John 4:19, after He had told her her whole life's story, she said,
"Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet."
Today, when you speak to somebody, look at them in their eyes, and they will tell you a whole story. When you look at them, let them see eyes of love, forgiveness, compassion, and gentleness - because what's in your heart will come out when they look at your eyes.
Spend lots of time with Jesus, ask the Lord to give you a soft heart, and then you will have gentle eyes.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 24th of July, 2023, and this is Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We go to Hebrews 4:16:
"Let us, therefore, come boldly to the throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need."
I want to speak to you about prayer, especially intercession. Now what is an intercessor? My wife is an intercessor, and I also have a son in the Lord who is heading up an intercessory ministry for Shalom ministries. Something like 3000 people around the world are interceding on our behalf. An intercessor is someone who stands in the gap and prays on behalf of others. Now the greatest intercessor that has ever lived is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and even as I talk to you now, He is interceding on our behalf.
So how do we pray? I can hear somebody saying, "I struggle to pray." Well, this is how I pray. I pray to my Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ my Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit - Three in One; this is a team effort. Sometimes, I don't even know how to pray, but the Holy Spirit helps me. Sometimes I don't know what to pray, and He directs me. He is the Helper that is His name, and Jesus is the one who is standing in the gap. He's coming to our Heavenly Father on our behalf and interceding for us.
So you need to find a quiet place, sit down quietly, meditate, and the Holy Spirit will bring to your attention things that you need to pray. To pray for your loved ones, maybe you've got a relative overseas, and you just feel burdened for them but you don't really know what to pray. Ask the Lord Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to make your petition to our Heavenly Father, and you will be surprised at the answers you get through these simple prayers. Most of all, don't stop praying. Pray without ceasing.
Have a wonderful day today. Remember, you can pray out loud, you can pray quietly in your heart, you can pray a quiet prayer that God hears, and He, through Jesus, will make sure that prayer gets answered.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 23rd of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Genesis 4:9:
"Then the Lord said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
Then we go straight to 1 Thessalonians 4 and I am reading verse 9:
"But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another;…"
Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, I am indeed, and we need to love one another. Paul told the Thessalonians, "I don't even have to tell you that. You know that already because God has told you." Money cannot buy friendship. In these perilous times, you and I live; we need to love one another. We need each other, not only the men but ladies - you also need friends. You need sisters in Christ that you can share with.
I recently met with over a hundred men here at Shalom just for two days. These men have asked me to mentor them; many others couldn't make it - they live overseas, but it has become one of the highlights of my Christian walk with Jesus. I think I am the one who is more blessed than any of them. It's not a conference; we don't need more conferences, do we? It's not a heavy theological instruction time - no, it can't be because I can't even spell that word! No, not at all - it is a time spent loving one another, crying, laughing, and sharing each other's burdens. Remember, a burden shared is a burden halved. A time of praying together, worshipping Jesus, sitting around the table and talking to each other - oh, my dear friend, it is like a breath of fresh air.
I must tell you one quick story in closing. I explained to the men how the Maoris in New Zealand kiss each other. I have preached there, and I love the Maori people. They are the toughest men on a rugby field and the most gentle men off the field. One of my spiritual sons was sitting very close to the platform I said to him (he is an Indian gentleman), I said, "Anesh, I want to show you how the Maoris kiss each other, and I got hold of him, and he thought I was going to kiss him on the lips. He said to me, "No, no, no, no! You can't do that!" I grabbed him by his whiskers, rubbed his nose, and the guys just packed up laughing. It's that kind of love that we need in this world today, where we can trust one another, cry on one another's shoulders and love each other with the love of Christ.
Go out today, find a friend, love him, love her - spend time in the presence of Jesus.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, 22nd of July, 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start at Job 13:15:
"Though He slay me, yet will I still serve Him."
Then we go to Matthew 26:42:
"O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done."
We're talking today about suffering. Some of the greatest heroes in the Bible are not those who can part the Red Sea or call fire down from heaven. No, those doing God's will and experiencing suffering - those are the men and women of the highest form of faith and the most glorious of all Christian achievements.
Reading 'Streams in the Desert', that beautiful devotional, we see examples of great faith. Charles Parkhurst said: "Great faith is exhibited not so much in doing as in suffering." To be going through an extreme test and yet to still stand by faith is what the Lord is looking for. In my humble opinion, Job is probably the greatest man of faith in the Bible. Why? Because he went through hell, literally, and yet he did not deny the Lord. He did not back off. He stood firm and said, "Even though I die, I will still serve the Lord." That is the kind of faith that God requires from you and me.
Remember, Jesus didn't have to drink the cup of suffering; by the way, it wasn't a cup of prosperity but a cup of suffering. He didn't have to drink it. He could have said, "Father, I didn't want to do this." If He had said that, you and I wouldn't be here today, but He went through with it. He said, "Your will be done." That is what God is looking for in the world today - men and woman, boys and girls who can stand up and say: "Even though the going is tough, I'm still going to trust the Lord." Remember, the school of suffering graduates exceptional scholars. That's where you learn - you don't learn it anywhere else. Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts; you have to live the life.
So today, remember, it doesn't matter what you're going through. It doesn't matter how hard it will be; the Lord will ultimately see you and me through, but by faith. We need to drink that cup. The people that have influenced my life more than anybody else are the old ladies who have been told, "There is no hope for you. You are about to die. Go home and make yourself comfortable," and then to see them, still smiling and saying: "I can't wait for the great day." Those are the ones who have inspired me to keep on walking this walk, by faith, in Jesus Christ.
Have a wonderful day. Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 21st of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Deuteronomy 25:4, and the exact same scripture in 1 Corinthians 9:9:
"For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain."
Wow! A fair day's work for a fair day's pay. You see, in the old days, they would get oxen and span them and make them walk around in circles, pour the grain out and the oxen would tread the grain and thrash it ready for milling. They would always feed the oxen as much as he could eat because he was working so hard. You can never pay too much for good land, you can never pay too much for a good animal - a good bull. One old stockman told me years ago, "Don't be scared to pay too much for a good bull because he is half of the herd, so whatever that herd of cattle is worth, you should be able to pay as much as half the price of the herd for a good bull."
Just the other day, my son told me that a bull went for over R4 Million. That is a lot of money. You can buy a couple of farms for that, and it sounds ridiculous, but wise men did that because they wanted good blood in their herds. You can never pay too much for a good vehicle, and most of all, you can never pay too much for a good worker. You see, you can pay too little. If you pay too little, you get a poor worker, if you pay a little money for a vehicle, it will let you down, and you will regret that day. You pay too little for an animal and it won't perform, but if you pay lots of money, as much as you can afford, for a good animal, a good piece of ground, it will yield a good crop. We are to work hard, we are to buy the best seed and we will always reap a good crop. Even in a poor year, it will yield well. Most of all, we need to invest in the Kingdom of God, and then we will reap a good crop. Give Jesus your first fruit every single morning. Spend time with Him, young lady, young man. "Oh, I don't have time. I have got to study for my exams." I want to tell you, spend more time with the Lord first and He will enlighten you, and you will be surprised at how well your exams will go.
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."Matthew 6:33
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, it is the 20th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the New Testament, Romans 12:2. Paul says:
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
We have got to sanctify ourselves. What does the word “sanctification” mean? According to the Oxford Dictionary, it means that we are to make ourselves holy, to make something legal or right. Yes, you and I are to be a living epistle, a living letter. People need to read us when they see us walking down the street by the way in which we behave. As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to understand that we have to walk the talk. Remember dad, your son will not do what you tell him. He will do exactly what you do and that is quite scary, isn’t it? So, if you are a heavy-drinking man and you tell him, ‘I don’t want to ever see or smell alcohol on your breath,” you can rest assured that when he comes of age, he will do exactly what you do.
We need to be an example to our fellowman. We need to do the right thing, not to impress man but rather to be obedient to God. We need to pay our income tax, not because we believe in the government but because it is the right thing to do. We need to be no man’s debtor. Don’t owe people money if you have the money, pay them. You say, “No, I have ninety days to pay.” Pay it as soon as you can. Why? Because it is not yours anyway. Don’t take advantage of other people. We need to make our loved ones proud of us by how we live. This has got nothing to do with trying to earn your way to Heaven, by the way. No, no - we are saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves, for it was a gift from God. (Ephesians 2:8) Nobody knows that better than me, but we have got to live a life that is pleasing to God, and this is about not becoming a stumbling block to our fellowman. People are watching you. When you say you are a follower of Christ, I can tell you now, you are on display all the time!
Do not conform to this world’s system. Just because everybody else is doing something, that does not make it right. Just ask yourself a simple question every day, what would Jesus do in that situation? And then do it! I want to tell you, you will have a life of success, a life of peace and a life of joy.
Have a wonderful day as you walk the talk,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 19th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 27:1:
“Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth.”
Then we go across to the Gospel of Luke 12:19-20:
“And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
We must never forget to say, “Lord-willing”. In Zulu we say, “ Sizokwenza lokhu noma sizokwenza lokho, Intando yeNkosi “ - “ We will do this or we will do that, Lord-willing.” Tomorrow, by the grace of God, we will wake up. We must be very careful not to become arrogant and forget that every good thing that you and I have or every successful achievement we have completed in our lives is only by God’s permission. We need to be so careful how we stand, lest we fall.
I just love to see a great sportsman run onto a rugby field in front of a huge crowd of 50,000 people, and that young man bows his knee in front of the whole crowd, and he prays, and he gives glory and honour to Jesus whom he knows only too well, allowed him to reach those great heights of glory. He also appreciates that it would only take one severe tackle on that field to put him out of the game for a few months or even a few years.
So, what is the conclusion? Do we walk around in fear and trembling? Not at all. What we do is, we enjoy what God has given us, whether it be a successful business, a successful farming venture, whether it be qualifications that you have received at university, honours degree, masters, whether it be a ministry that is succeeding. Folks, I do not start preaching on a platform without bowing my knee first and asking God to give me the words to speak because I know without Him, I am useless, but the Bible tells us if Christ is for us, who can stand against us? Romans 8:31.
Never forget where the success comes from. Have a wonderful day!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Tuesday morning, the 18th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the book of Proverbs 27:17:
"As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."
Then we go to Acts 18:3:
"So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tentmakers."
Now Paul, the apostle, was a tentmaker. He stayed with Aquila because he was a tentmaker. They had something in common. That's why they were friends and obviously the most important thing was that they both loved Jesus Christ. Just like iron sharpens iron, we need each other today like never before. Even as Jesus was comforted so often by His disciples, we also need to comfort each other in times of suffering and rejoicing. You and I are not created to be lone rangers. We are not one-man shows. We need each other. God designed us to be a team, to love and to look after each.
Proverbs 18:24 says,
"A man who has friends must himself be friendly…"
If you want friends, then you need to be friendly towards others. Find out what the interests of a man are and then engage with him in that particular interest. You will win him over to Christ much quicker than any Bible punching. Paul was a tentmaker, so he stayed with Aquila because he was a fellow tentmaker by trade. Get involved with something that your friend likes doing and you'll get him closer to Jesus than anything else. Ladies, I really mean this from my heart, I know how much you love that husband of yours, and you so want him to become a Christian. I know that. Instead, get involved in what he likes doing. If he's a fisherman, go fishing with him. You say you don't like fishing, well, neither do I, but if it's going to bring him to Christ, then do that. Get interested in the things he is interested in, just like Paul and Aquila, and you will get him to Christ much quicker than leaving Christian magazines on the coffee table. He is not a fool. He knows exactly what you are trying to do, and it just annoys him, rather love him.
My wife, Jill, has a little quotation on the wall in the kitchen and it goes like this: "A friend is that rare person who asks how you are, how you are feeling and listens to your answer."
Let's love one another today because Jesus said that we should.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 17th of July 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We go to 1 Thessalonians 2 and I'm reading from verse 8:
"So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God."
And then Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2:
"Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching".
We must keep telling people what Jesus means to us - that's all that preaching is! We need to keep it simple; the gospel was never meant to be difficult. The parables of Jesus in the Bible are so simple that my little grandchildren understand them. I'm talking about the Sower at the Seed, the Vine and the Vinedresser, the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son... Educators complicate, and communicators simplify. We must meet people where they are. When you speak to farmers about Jesus, make sure you speak to them about farming. When you talk to miners about Jesus, make sure you've got some good stories to tell them about mining.
When you're speaking to a group of sportsmen, make sure that they can identify with you when you tell them stories about great sportspeople. And on that point, just the other night, I watched a lovely programme by Bernhard Langer, the German professional golfer, world champion at one stage. He's got a simple message, and he loves the Lord. My brother was a golf professional, and he told me that whenever Bernhard Langer came to a competition tournament, the first thing he'd do was find a conference room and put a big sign up on the door which said: "Bible study here every day". He is a man who loves Jesus, and he has a way of reaching out to golfers. He would tell golfing stories and then he would preach a simple message of the gospel. I've never played golf in my life, I don't have the patience, unfortunately. But I learnt many golfing stories from my family and I know you have to keep your head down when you hit that ball. You have to go slowly on the back swing and don't forget to follow through. Jesus said that unless one is born again he can never see the kingdom of God, John 3:3. John 3:16, for God so loved the world... Tell people your story and they will come to Christ.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 16th of July 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start in the first book of Thessalonians 2:4:
"But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so, we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts."
This morning, we need to ask ourselves the question: Are we men-pleasers, or are we God-pleasers? You know, if you look at the book of Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, 3:16, Jesus says:
"So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."
The truth can make us very unpopular, but it's the truth alone which will stand at the end of the day. John 17:17 Jesus says:
"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."
Like never before, the world is looking for men and women who are prepared to speak the truth in love because with the truth comes healing. We can no longer sit on the fence; it is a very uncomfortable place to be, especially if it's a barbed wire fence! People need the truth spoken to them in love. Telling a white lie is unacceptable. Living together and not being married will not bring a blessing from the Lord Jesus Christ. The truth sets the captive free.
Many years ago, I was preaching in London, England, at the famous City Temple just down the road from Saint Paul's Cathedral. I was not even speaking about marriage; I was talking about holiness. At the end of the service, as I was leaving, a young man with his girlfriend came up to me and said: "Sir, you cannot leave. You need to marry us first..." I said, "I have to catch a plane, young man." He said: "Sir, please do not leave without marrying us. We are not going home to that flat to live together out of Matrimony." So I came back into the church, the congregation came back into the church, and do you know that that night was one of the most amazing church services I have ever had? I married no less than 12 couples - 24 people. They were in their jeans and casual clothes, coming up weeping. They had no rings, and the congregation lent them Rings. The minister was running around, red-faced with marriage contracts, trying to keep everything in order. There was an old couple who said: "We are marriage counsellors. We will counsel them every single Wednesday night after that."
It was one of the highlights of my life; why? Because we spoke the truth, people were convicted, and they started to live in a godly manner. Today, speak the truth and stand up for Jesus!
Have a wonderful Sunday; God bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus precious name! It is Saturday morning, its the 15th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Job 5:19:
“He shall deliver you in six troubles, Yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.”
“For a righteous man may fall seven times
And rise again,…”Proverbs 24:16
…what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”2 Timothy 3:11-12
Because we are followers of Jesus Christ, that does not exempt us from troubles or persecution. Look at Farmer Job; he was the most righteous and godly man in the Middle East, yet he suffered very badly because he kept getting up when he was knocked down. God restored him at the end of his life and gave him back double of everything that he lost. Always follow a man who walks with a limp. “Why?” you might ask, because that man has been knocked down so many times in his life and yet he still just keeps on getting up, he hasn’t given up and the powers of darkness have not defeated him.
I believe when we meet Jesus, we shall identify Him from the nail-scarred hands and nail-scarred feet that He has got, but remember Jesus did not give up when the devil knocked him down. Oh no, He is our very own champion of the world. So, do not wonder why these things are happening the way they are now. They happened to the saints who went before us,
So today, my dear friend, get up, dust yourself off and get back into the fight, for the victory will eventually be ours. You see, a champion is not the one who gives the punch, no, no, no! A champion boxer is the one who takes the punch and keeps on getting up again.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely Saturday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 14th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 25:21:
“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”
Faithfulness - it is a very high priority in God’s kingdom to be faithful and obedient. Faithful means to be loyal and committed. The other day I was speaking to a large group of men who asked me to mentor them. We were talking about being gentlemen for God, and one of the most important factors in being a gentleman for Jesus is to be a faithful man. Faithful first of all to God, then to his wife, then to his children and then to his fellow-workers.
The example I used was the black and white Border Collie dog who helps the shepherd look after the flock. The dog is totally focused on his master. It is quite amazing to see. A group of people can be standing together and that dog’s eyes and ears are watching every single movement of his master. When the master stands up, the dog stands up, when the master sits down, the dog lies down, when the master goes out, the dog goes with him. That is how you and I need to be, faithful and obedient to Jesus and our responsibility as Christians wherever we go.
The sheepdog is an amazing little animal. My son told me a story the other day. He said a shepherd had told his dog to lie down and wait and the shepherd had gone off to do something else. The dog was lying down in a grassy path and a tractor came along and the driver did not see the dog and that dog did not move. The tractor actually rode over the dog and killed the dog. The dog would not move.
I want to say to you today, you and I need to start being more faithful, more loyal and more committed to the Lord, and He will use us to bring many sheep into the fold.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 13th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Proverbs 15:23:
"A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, And a word spoken in due season, how good it is!"
"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver."
Proverbs 25:11
A word of encouragement, spoken in season, is worth so much - it can absolutely make a person. We need to go out and speak life to people and not death.
"But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you."Mark 16:7
After the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Angel of the Lord told the disciples to go to Galilee, and there they will meet the Saviour, but do you know what is so interesting? Peter, the big fisherman who promised Jesus that he would die for Him, said, "I will never leave you", and he denied the Lord no less than three times. He was absolutely devastated by what he had done, but listen to how sensitive the Lord is - "Go and tell the disciples - and Peter…" Why did He say that? I will tell you why He said that - because He knew Peter would never go to Galilee on his own because he had failed the Lord so badly. Yet, the Lord brought a word through the Angel in season and not only that, but He asked Peter three times if he loved Him on the shores of Lake Galilee, and after that, Peter took his rightful place and headed up the church.
I want to say to you today, it is so important to bring a good word in season, especially to someone who has messed up, someone who has dropped the ball, someone who has let people down. Encourage them to get up again, dust themselves off and get back into the fight. Many years ago, we had a Mighty Men Conference on the farm at Shalom, and I remember walking down the sawdust trail at the back of the big tent up to the platform. As I walked along, I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me just to put my hand on the shoulder of one of the men sitting on the aisle. I stopped and said, "I just want to tell you Jesus loves you." That's all I said, and I continued to the platform to commence my preaching.
Do you know I got that man's email a few days later? He said, "I had been there the whole weekend. I had heard all the preaching, I had heard all the wonderful music," he said "but it didn't move me." He said, "When you told me that Jesus loves me and you put your hand on my shoulder, I was converted at that moment, and I am serving Jesus Christ from now on." A word in season is necessary. Do it today!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 12th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Proverbs 25:8-10:
"Do not go hastily to court;
For what will you do in the end,
When your neighbour has put you to shame?
Debate your case with your neighbour,
And do not disclose the secret to another;
Lest he who hears it expose your shame,
And your reputation be ruined."
Then we go to the New Testament, to the Gospel of Matthew 5:25. Jesus says: "
Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison."
I think one thing that stops us from setting our disputes out of court is actually foolish pride. It keeps us from sitting down quietly over a cup of tea and talking about our differences. We are determined to make our point of view, but it can be extremely costly. It could even cost your marriage, it could cost you your business, it even cost you your farm and your career, and at the end of the day, what have you benefited from the whole exercise? Very little, if anything. We say, "But we have our rights." No, we don't have any rights. We surrendered our rights the day we gave our hearts to Jesus. Just say sorry, ask for forgiveness, and diffuse the potential explosion. Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war, they say. We are not talking about bending the rules or compromising our faith for a little bit of peace and quiet - never! But let's major on the majors and not on the minors.
Do you remember the big automobile manufacturer, the giant Henry Ford? He quoted, "You can paint my Model T Fords any colour you like, as long as they stay black." I shared that with my oldest son once, and he said to me with a smile, "Yes, dad, but that was Henry Ford's big mistake because all the other companies started to paint their motorcars different colours, and they went ahead, but he was determined to keep his cars black. It didn't make any difference with the engine or the running of the vehicle."
I want to say to you today, let's not argue about silly little things. Let's settle our differences and get on with our lives, serving the Lord.
Have a wonderful day today,
In Jesus name,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 11th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Colossians 3:18-20:
"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them.
Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord."
That's right - we are talking about family today. Families are under extreme attack at the moment. The devil hates God and knows just how precious the family unit is to Jesus. Our precious Lord was sorting out family issues while suspended from the cross with crude spikes driven through His beautiful hands and feet. He was telling John to look after Mary, and he was telling Mary to look after John. We must clearly identify where the attack is actually coming from. It's coming from the devil and all his hordes of demons. It is not from your husband, it is not from your wife, and it is not from your children. How does he attack us? Well, very simply, by his filthy lies and untrue accusations. Please do not listen to them; otherwise they will literally destroy your precious home.
How do we combat this evil onslaught against our home? Well, number one is through combined prayer and secondly, communication. We must talk to each other. Now, remember the family that prays together, stays together. We must talk to each other. No, Mom, he didn't go to the club, that is not why he is late for supper. On the way home, he had a puncture in the back wheel of his motorcar. Your child desperately needs to speak to you about a problem at school, Dad. Give him a chance to talk to you. Be very careful. The devil is not coming in through the kitchen door. You have the front firmly buckled up, but he is coming in through the backdoor.
I heard a very sad story once. I believe it was true. A minister was busy counselling on a Thursday afternoon. His secretary came in and said, "Your next appointment is here", and in walked his eighteen-year-old son. He asked his son, "Is this some kind of joke?" He said, "No, Dad," with tears in his eyes, "I made an appointment to see you because it is the only way I can talk to you."
Don't let that happen in your family. Today, talk together and pray together.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 10th of July 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a Thought for Today. We start with Colossians 3:17:
And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
You and I need to be Jesus to a dying world. We need to magnify Him alone, just like the moon reflects the sun and is known as the faithful witness in the sky (Psalm 89:37). You see, the moon doesn't shine; the moon simply acts as a reflector of the sun. When you see a full moon in the middle of the night, it is because the sun is shining on the moon.
You and I need to reflect our best friend, Jesus, to a lost and desperate world. We are to introduce people to Him and to make them hearers from God and not to draw them and make them dependent on us. We've got to be just like John the Baptist. That's what he did. He said in the book of John 3:30, he says: "He must increase, but I must decrease".
Folks, I want to say something to you; I have had the privilege of meeting and sitting under the ministry of a lot of internationally well-known speakers around the world. But I want to tell you about an old gentleman that portrayed Jesus to me more than any of them. I'll just call him Reverend Tom; that was his first name. Reverend Tom came to our little town of Greytown. He was quite an old man. He came with his dear wife Gladys. They came from Yorkshire, England. He was bald-headed, he was quite heavily overweight, and he wasn't the greatest of preachers, but I just used to love going to visit Reverend Tom. Do you know why? Because I saw Jesus in him. He would make me sit down. He would insist that I would have a cup of tea, and I knew he was very busy. And he wanted to know all about what I was doing, how my family was. He wasn't a great theologian; he didn't come with great doctrinal things, no, no, he just wanted to know how the farm was, how is the crop looking, how your cattle this year? He always turned the conversation away from himself and to me and then, of course, ultimately to the Lord Jesus Christ. I really miss him. He had one of the biggest impacts on my life as a believer today.
You and I, ordinary people, just need to tell people about your Savior, Jesus Christ. That's all they want. Maybe just an arm around their shoulders, and maybe just to weep with them when they are very sad, laugh with them when they are very happy, and rejoice with them when they have just succeeded. And you will draw more people to Christ that way than any fancy sermon.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 9th of July 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a Thought for Today. We start off in Psalm 37:1-2.
Do not fret because of evildoers,
Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.
Then we go to the New Testament to the Gospel of Luke 9:54-56.
And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”
But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.
The disciples wanted to destroy those people in Samaria because they turned their back on the Lord. You and I are not to take the law into our own hands and we are not to envy sinners. It appears so often, doesn't it, that the unrighteous seem to do so well and even prosper, but it is not true. I want you older people to cast your mind back a bit and you younger people just to listen up. There's a song that was written by Peter Sarstedt many years ago, it's called: "Where do you go to my lovely". And these are some of the lyrics.
But where do you go to, my lovely
When you're alone in your bed?
Won't you tell me the thoughts that surround you?
I want to look inside your head, yes, I do
Your name it is heard in high places
You know the Aga Khan
He sent you a race horse for Christmas
And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh, ha-ha-ha
They say that when you get married
It'll be to a millionaire
But they don't realize where you came from
And I wonder if they really care, or give a damn
I remember the back streets of Naples
Two children begging in rags
Both touched with a burning ambition
To shake off their lowly-born tags, they tried
So look into my face, Marie-Claire
And remember just who you are
Then go and forget me forever
But I know you still bear the scar, deep inside, yes, you do
And the song goes on... I want to say to you, there are people that you envy and you wish you could be like, but you don't know what they go through because of what it has taken for them to get supposed world success. Rather keep your eyes on Jesus, walk humbly before Him and He will see you right through to the end.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 8th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Colossians 3:1-2:
"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth."
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."2 Corinthians 5:17
As new people in Christ Jesus, we need to be in the world but we don't have to get involved with the things of this sad and depraved system. We need to be different. We cannot be part of two camps. You cannot hunt with the hounds one day and run with the hares the next day. As a new believer, I distinctly remember saying to the minister of our church, "I do not want to lose my old friends in this world", because I was a wild man when I was in the world. He smiled gently and said, "Angus, you will not lose them. Unfortunately, they will lose you." It's very sad but it's true. Your very presence makes them feel uneasy, makes them feel convicted and they would rather you leave than hang around because they cannot tell their filthy jokes and swear and do depraved things when you are present. It is like you are salt and it burns them. Matthew 12:30 says:
"He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad."
You say, "But I feel so lonely. I have got no friends." No, no, don't worry. The Holy Spirit will send you honest, sincere, loving friends who will stick with you through thick and thin. You don't need fair-weather friends. You know what they are like - when the sun is shining, they are there with you, but they disappear into the mist when dark clouds come over. That is not funny, it's true. I have experienced it in my own life many times. You need friends who will stick with you through thick and thin, and they will have the same heart as you because they have the same God that you are worshipping.
So Jesus bless you today as you stand firm and walk away from the things of this world and start concentrating on things that have eternal value.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 7th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 18:24:
“But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
“Jesus said, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
John 16:7
An ever-present help in times of need - Who am I talking about? I am talking about our blessed Holy Spirit. The Greek word for “helper” is parakletos. Jesus promised you and me that He would not leave us as orphans. We need to cultivate our relationship with our Lord, Holy Spirit. He is the Third Person of the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I can hear some young person saying, “How do I get to know the Holy Spirit?” By talking to Him daily, by reading the Bible daily, by listening to that small still voice inside you saying, “This is the way, walk in it.” Give Him time to talk with you, be still, and rest in Him. You will find that in Psalm 46:10. He is a gentleman and He will not force His way into your life. Like any relationship in the flesh, you have to build and strengthen that friendship by spending time together. That is exactly how He wants to be with you and talk with you daily.
I will give you an example. I was coming home from a long journey. I stopped at a filling station to put in fuel. After I had paid the man at the filling station, I parked at the restaurant and closed my eyes for a quick sleep. I was very, very tired. As I closed my eyes, there was a knock on the car window. A well-dressed man stood outside, and he said he had a proposition to make. I should have said to him straight away I didn’t want to, but being tired, I thought I would listen to him. He persuaded me to follow him to the ATM, and the garage he said was offering a very special deal. If I put my credit card into the machine I would receive a receipt and I would take that receipt anywhere in the country and when I filled up again, I would get a 50% discount when I filled up. Straight away, the Holy Spirit spoke to me very clearly in my heart. “Do not put your card into that ATM. He is a thief. He wants access to all your money and he will fleece you.” I turned around and I walked away. That is how He works.
Young lady, be careful with that young man and his promises. He might not be the man he says he is. Young man, that business deal, you say it sounds almost too good to be true, maybe it is not true. Listen to the Holy Spirit and He will protect you.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Thursday morning, the 6th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Romans 8:11:
"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."
And then, Colossians 1:27:
"…Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Oh, that is wonderful news for us today, isn't it? It is not about us. It is all about Him who dwells within us. You see, your biggest enemy and my biggest enemy is not the devil. No, no, no - he is a defeated foe. His neck was broken on the Cross of Calvary. When Jesus said, "It is finished," He meant it. The only thing the devil can do is tell lies. He is the deceiver of the brethren and the father of all lies. Our biggest enemy is ourselves, that's right. The devil tells you things like, "You're not good enough", "You will never make it", or "That's too hard for me", and if you believe those lies from the devil, he will neutralise you, and you will be powerless. But Paul said in Galatians 2:20:
"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
When we put our total trust in the Saviour of the world, then we can make it, we can do it, and there is nothing too hard for us. William Carey was an English cobbler. He wasn't even a shoemaker. When someone was mocking him one day and said, "You are just a shoemaker." And he said, "No, I can't make shoes, I can only repair them." He took the Gospel to India, translated the Bible into some of the most difficult languages on earth, into Hindustani, Sanskrit and many other languages, and his favourite saying was, "Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God."
The Lord is looking for willing and obedient souls. As a new Christian, I always used to say, "Lord, why don't You use famous people? Why don't You use influential people to do your work?" I felt the Lord saying, "Because they are so busy with themselves, there is no room in their lives for Me." That's why God uses the whosoever's. Dwight Lyman Moody, a shoe salesman took the Gospel all over the world and became one of the greatest evangelists ever. One English lady said to him once, "Your English is atrocious!" So he said, "Well ma'am, I am using what I have got for Jesus. What are you doing with your English words?"
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 5th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Proverbs 22:21:
“That I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth, That you may answer words of truth
To those who send to you?”
“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;…”
1 Peter 3:15
Sanctify means to make something holy. Consecrate yourself, so that people ask you for the reason for your faith and you will be able to answer them immediately. Be prepared for whatever people ask you. Always have a sermon in your top pocket to give an account of your faith in Jesus Christ at a moment’s notice. It is very important. Remember, if it's not inside, then it is not coming out.
Years ago, I was invited to a wedding. A beautiful old couple who have since gone to be with the Lord Jesus, were both widows and they were getting married. It was so sweet, I loved them so dearly and the old gentleman phoned me up one morning and said, “Angus, could you maybe just say a word or pray for us during the wedding service?” I said, “Of course, no problem.” We arrived at the wedding and we were a little bit late so Jill and I thought we would just sit at the back of the ceremony, but they spotted us, and the ushers came and fetched us and we had to walk right down the aisle, right to the very front and sit with the family. Then after the MC had done all the introductions, we sang a couple of beautiful Christian songs, then the MC said, “And now Angus Buchan will bring the message, the word of God.” Well, I just couldn’t believe my ears! But the Lord was good to me. I had a sermon in my top pocket.
Often when I am speaking open-air, which is my favourite place, maybe to a very large crowd, I put my notes on the pulpit and a big wind comes and blows them away. Well, that's it! I need to start preaching. You know, they say, if you don’t strike oil within five minutes, stop boring. You need to get to the point. There might be somebody there who is coming for the last time, and they have said, “If I don’t get an answer from God today, I am going to end my life.” That has happened more than once to me because people have written to me afterwards and told me. Be ready in season and out of season.
Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 4th of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Colossians 1:15-16:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Matthew 1:23
You will find that very same scripture written hundreds of years before the birth of our Saviour in Isaiah 7:14.
Jesus is God. That is what Immanuel means. He is not our mate; he is not the man upstairs; He is not the big boss, He is God. We need to respect that name. That name should never be used as a swear word. It cuts me very deeply into my heart and soul when I hear that magnificent, beautiful name used as a curse. The Bible tells us that every single knee shall bow and every single tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. You will find that in Philippians 2:10-11. He is the Word. Jesus is the Bible in print. A young man wrote to me the other day and asked, ”Where does it say in the Bible that Jesus is God?” Oh young man, everywhere! Everywhere! At church the other day, a young lady came up to me and asked me, “How, after forty-four years, can you still love Him with such passion?” I told her, “My faith in Christ is not just a feeling, it is a fact, and as I continued to study His word, the Bible, my love for Him grows more deeply every day.” One translation says, in Colossians 1:17:
“He existed before anything was made and now everything finds completion in Him.”
Do you remember that beautiful old song? Please sing it with me if you know it:
And He is Lord, He is Lord,
He has risen from the dead, and He is Lord,
Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess
That Jesus Christ is Lord.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 3rd of July 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to Proverbs 22:6:
"Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it."
Then we go straight to the New Testament to 2 Timothy 3:15:
"...and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."
You know it's tough to teach an old dog new tricks. The best time to teach him is when he's a little puppy. As a very small boy, I was always taught to mount a horse from the left-hand side - by the way, you can mount a horse from any side. It makes no difference to the horse, but I would never dream of mounting a horse from the right-hand side because I was taught, as a young boy, to get on the left-hand side.
When we sit down as a family to eat a meal, instinctively, automatically, without even thinking about it, we thank Jesus for the food we are about to eat. I love hearing my little grandchildren saying Grace; they aren't even shy because their parents have taught them to say Grace before they eat their food. Who taught their parents? Exactly, we taught them when they were young. Many is the time when, in a restaurant, we give thanks to the Lord for our food - not showing off or trying to make a big issue about it. We do it automatically before we eat. Often, afterwards, people from the other side of the restaurant walked over to us and said they were watching us while we were eating our food, and they saw us give thanks to God before we started eating, which touched their hearts deeply.
I want to say to young parents today, continue to train your children up in the ways of the Lord, and when they grow older, they will also teach those ways to their children.
Jesus bless you, and have a wonderful day goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Saturday morning, the 2nd of July 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start with Psalm 112 and I'm reading from verse 1:
"Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
Who delights greatly in His commandments.
His descendants will be mighty on earth;
The generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches will be in his house,
And his righteousness endures forever."
Then we go to the New Testament, Matthew 6:33:
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
Success is not a coincidence - it doesn't just happen. It's not luck, no. It comes through walking hand-in-hand with Jesus. You know it's catchy, it's contagious - Jesus is not a loser. He is a winner through and through. Walk with Him daily, talk with him moment-by-moment, imitate Him, and you are bound to succeed in every aspect of your life and ambition. A follower of Jesus Christ started Cadbury's chocolate. Did you know that? Quaker Oats, the porridge that you have in the morning, was also started by a Believer.
The other day I sat with an old gentleman who spoke to me about his life. He is 88 years old. He loves the Lord with a passion - I asked him how he succeeded in life; he is an accountant by profession. He said he was at work one day and watched everybody at lunchtime sit down with a little packet of sandwiches and a cup of tea. They couldn't go home for the meal as time was too short. So after work, he went to the supermarket - he bought some meat patties, bread rolls, tomatoes and some cheese. He went and got a box of ice cream and some cokes, and he went back to his family and said to them: "Tonight, I am going to make supper." They all sat down, and he came through with some beautiful hamburgers, followed by ice cream, a milkshake and a Coke. When they finished eating, he asked them, "How did you like it?" They said: "Dad, we loved it" - That was the birth of the Wimpy fast food chain, which is worldwide today. What is the recipe? The recipe is that Eric loves Jesus passionately, and so do his wife and his family.
Today imitate the Lord, and you will succeed. God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 1st of July, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, Loving favour rather than silver and gold.”
Proverbs 22:1
“A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.”Ecclesiastes 7:1
“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36
Remember, an honest man will always do much better in life than a wheeler-dealer, and a god-fearing man looks forward with great joy to home time, to meeting his beloved Jesus, whereas the man who has no love or regard for his fellowman or his God is the one who is afraid to die because he knows he will have to give an account of his dishonest life here on earth. We must invest in things that have an eternal benefit and not so much those that have moth and rust that just simply wear out. You know, I always back the jockey, not the horse, a man of good reputation - by the way, I am not a gambler. A young man builds a good, wholesome reputation rather than concentrating on making a fast buck. Fly-by-nights never last, but good godly men do. Guard your reputation with your very life.
My late father-in-law was a steam engineer by profession, and he told me an interesting story. He said many years ago, somebody was having a holiday and driving through Switzerland in their Rolls Royce, but the Rolls Royce packed up. The gearbox broke down. They contacted the headquarters in Britain, and a brand-spanking new gear box was flown out immediately. It was fitted by professional mechanics from Rolls Royce, and the man continued his holiday. He was so appreciative of the reputation they had. When he got back to Britain, he went to visit Rolls Royce, and said, “I just want to thank you for your service and what you did, and we want to pay for the gearbox that broke down,” and the management said, “What gearbox? No, no, Rolls Royce’s gearboxes do not break down!” They put a brand-new gearbox in there at no charge. Why? Because they had a reputation to defend.
That young girl is more interested in your heart than the money you have, young man, and young lady, that young man is more concerned about your virginity than your dress code.
Have a wonderful day, look after your reputation!
Jesus bless you, and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 30th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 a very well-known scripture to all of us:
"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly) but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,…"
Then we go to Philippians 4:8-9, and this is what Paul says:
"Finally, (just think of that word) brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you."
We need to ask ourselves a question this morning. What are we focusing on? What are we concentrating on? We need to be very careful. You see, this battle you and I are fighting is not about the physical. It's not about the body. Yes, I love training as well, I really do. I like to keep myself in good shape, but it's a mental battle. The battle is in the mind; it's not even in the heart. We need to be so careful about what we are focusing on. Be careful what you read, and be careful what you are watching on television, on your device, or your cell phone!
I remember there was a young man who acted as the Joker in the movie, Batman. He was acting as that demon. Eventually, he died from an overdose of drugs. I want to say to you today. Be very careful how you conduct yourself. We need to read the Bible. We need to read the Psalms. They are so soothing, and they bring peace to the heart. We need to read the Gospels. You say some of it you don't understand. It doesn't matter. What about starting with the Gospel of John? It is so simple, straightforward and uplifting. We need to read encouraging devotionals. Be careful of the company that you are keeping. Keep away from negative people. Protect and guard your minds against the pollution of this world. Don't chase after negative things. We are instead to find out God's opinion of the matter.
It is like that little mouse and the snake. The mouse can run away but gets hypnotised by the snake, and eventually, the snake eats him. Don't let that happen to you today.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, it is the 29th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.
He is ever merciful, and lends;
And his descendants are blessed."
Psalm 37:25-26
"So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver".
2 Corinthians 9:7
You know, even as our Father God is a Giver, so too do we need to be givers. We need to give and give freely because God loves a cheerful giver. Don't give God something reluctantly; He would rather you don't give it to Him. We have to give with the correct heart, and we need to teach our children also to be givers and not takers. Our Heavenly Father is an absolute example. John 3:16, the most famous verse in the whole Bible, tells us that our Father is a giver.
"For God so loved the world that He gave - thats right, freely, He gave - His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
When we give, we must give with the right attitude. We are not giving to an insurance company which says, "You give so much and we will pay you back so much." No, we give unconditionally, and we give out of gratitude and thanksgiving for what God has given to you and me. You see, it's not how much we give that counts. Remember the widow?Jesus sat in the temple and said to His disciples. "Watch, you see that old widow, she has put a couple of mites into the collection but she has given everything that she has. That rich man came with gold, that's only the surplus of what he owns. It didn't cost him anything." We need to give freely because we love Jesus.
Some of my most treasured gifts that I have received and which I cherish have been given to me by little children and by old poor people. One mother showed me something that her little boy had been saving up for months to give to us for the Kingdom of God. I can't remember if it was an event, a Mighty Men maybe or a stadium event, but he came with his cents, and it brought me to tears because he gave from a heart of love.
Today, give and God will give back to you pressed down, shaken together and running over.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 28th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 55:22:
“Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28
It is Jesus who shall sustain us. Our peace and our rest are found only in Him. It is not any doing of ourselves. It is all about God working in and through us. That gives you and me the peace and rest we all so desperately are looking for in this needy world in which we are living.
You know, one of my heroes is a man named James Hudson Taylor. As a young Englishman, he took the Gospel of Jesus Christ to China. He went over there on his own and was instrumental in bringing no less than a thousand families from England to China to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the Chinese people. When he got older, he got quite sick, and had to go back to Europe to recuperate, to get better. While he was there, the horrific Boxer Rebellion broke out in China when the Chinese people started to massacre the missionaries, and he could not get back to China because, in those days, it took up to six months to get back to China on a sailing boat. The reports were coming in constantly, saying, “This family got murdered”; “That family is missing”; “We don’t know where those missionaries have gone.” He was so overcome with grief and pain that he couldn’t even read his Bible. He could not even pray; he was so desperate. Then he got a letter from his good friend, George Müller, who started the children’s homes in Bristol, England, and the message was, “Just trust in the faithfulness of a faithful God.” And it gave him peace.
You see, it is all about the Lord. Cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you. You will find that in 1 Peter 5:7. It is nothing that we can do - it is our trust in the Lord that gives us peace and rest. So today, just rest in the Lord and He will undertake for you. He has promised that He will never leave you and He will never forsake you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 27th of June, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Matthew 6:6. Jesus says:
“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
The power of faithful prayer. Maybe when you woke up this morning, you were a bit fearful, maybe you are a bit anxious about the future, or maybe there is some stress in your life. Well, from experience, I want to tell you that prayer neutralises all fear, stress and being anxious. Prayer fills us with a calm and peaceful heart and mind.
Philippians 4:6 says:
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; …”
You see, it is the effective, fervent righteous prayer of a man or a woman that avails much. (James 5:16). Our Lord Jesus prayed more than anybody. He prayed in the early morning. Many a time, the disciples were looking for Him, “Lord, where have you been?” “I have been up the mountain. I have been praying and speaking to My Father.” We need to pray. We need to pray in all circumstances. We need to pray in all seasons, whether you are flying in an aeroplane, driving a motorcar, whether you are sitting in your office. You can pray. You don’t have to pray out loud. You can pray in your heart.
Now, very early this morning, I went out for a ride on my mountain bike. Now, I have a light in the front, and I have a red reflector that flashes at the back of the bike. It was very, very dark and as I went out, I was praying, praying as I was riding my mountain bike. There wasn’t a soul on this country road that I ride on, but all of a sudden, I hit a wall of mist and fog. I want to tell you, it was so thick that I couldn’t see more than 3 feet in front of me. I thought, “Now what shall I do?” because I could hardly see the road. Should I turn back? I had already come halfway. And do you know what I did? I carried on, praying. “Lord, if you will just lead me, I will follow you.” I thought of that beautiful Psalm 23, when David spoke to the Lord Jesus Christ, “The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not fear.” That's right, if I walk through darkness, He is with me.
I want to say to you today, pray! When you pray, things come right every single time. God will give you the answer to the decision you have to make. Billy Graham said, “If I had to live again, I would pray more and speak less.” That is one of the greatest preachers that ever lived. There is power in prayer. Today, make that decision.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 26 of June 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Then Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the road."
Mark 10:51-52
Do you see just before, that the crowd told Bartimaeus, the blind man, to keep quiet because he was desperate and was shouting, asking Jesus to help him? Desperation makes us pray prayers of faith. If we are concerned about what people think about us if, we are concerned about offending others, I want to tell you now your prayers will never be answered. When you pray you have to pray, believing that you will receive that which you are asking for...
I remember it like yesterday, many of you know my story - it's in the movie Faith Like Potatoes - When we had that horrific fire on this farm. I was still a young man and I had very little firefighting equipment. I call on the neighbours and, as always happens with farmers, they came running to help me. But the fire would not go out, it was a burning Inferno. I felt the Holy Spirit - by the way, I was a brand new Christian, only known the Lord barely a year - I got on my knees in the dust, in front of everybody, my workers on the farm and I prayed: "Lord send the rain. Please, Lord take this mountain away - I'm speaking to the mountain..." and you know something, the wind dropped the clouds came up from the South and gentle rain started falling on that fire and put it out.
Today I don't know what it is you are struggling, with my dear friend, but speak to your mountain, in the Lord. Cry out to the Lord, like Bartimaeus did and you will be very surprised when you see how the Lord will come to your rescue... as he has to me many times.
Jesus bless you today, as you walk by Faith and not by sight
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning the 25th of June 2023 and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. Philippians 3:20-21:
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself."
And then another paraphrased version says:
"We are awaiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ who will transform our earthly bodies into glorious bodies like His own. He'll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything, as it should be, under and around him."
Then the last translation Philippians 3:21:
"Who will transform our humble bodies and transfigure us into the identical likeness of His glorified body and using His matchless power, He continually subdues everything to Himself"
Wow - what a day when the Lord comes to take us home to be with Him! Maybe today you've woken up and you are sore... Maybe you've had an operation, maybe there's something that you just cannot get rid of or you've got cancer. Maybe you have had a nervous breakdown or you have become paralyzed in an accident - I want to tell you that God, through the Lord Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, when He comes is going to give you a brand-new body!
You know I've got two Heroes in my life, one is Joni Eareckson Tada, who as a young girl dived off a little rowing boat into a lake and hit her head on a rock - She broke her neck and has been paralyzed for most of her life. When I hear her talking about how she cannot wait for the day when she meets the Savior of the world... But you know she's talking about simple little things, that you and I take for granted, like being able to peel potatoes, being able to put some lipstick on her lips or able to comb her hair, being able to go for a walk... I think of Nik Vujičić who was born with no legs and no arms - What a man! He came to visit me on my farm many, many years ago. They put him on the table so that his eyes could be level with mine, sitting in a chair, but what a man - That man is so positive. He's looking forward to when his body will be totally and completely renewed.
I want to say to you today, if you're not feeling well, if you're struggling with an ailment, look up because your redemption draws near. Look up because Jesus is coming back very soon. He's going to renew us and give us glorious bodies like his own. What a future to look forward to!
Have a wonderful Sunday as you contemplate on the soon-coming King who will restore all things, Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 24th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Philippians 3:17-18:
“Brethren, join in following my example, and note that those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:…”
We need to follow the pattern. You see, Joshua followed his mentor, Moses. That was his pattern. Elisha followed the great prophet, Elijah. That was his pattern. Timothy followed the pattern of the apostle, Paul. You and I need to follow the pattern of King Jesus, our beloved Lord and Saviour.
“Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ.”
1 Corinthians 11:1
Paul, the apostle said that. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the exact definition of the word “pattern.” A pattern is a model. A pattern is an example for other people to follow. You know, when I look back on my own life, when I was a very young farmer, just starting on my own in Zambia, I had two gentlemen that I was working for. They were very successful farmers. The work ethic they taught me and showed me has stayed with me all my life. They were always first on the job in the morning and they were always last to leave the job in the evening. They would make sure that all the animals on the farm were fed before they could go and have their breakfast. Their dress code was impeccable, boots shining, clean clothes on every single day. They were an example to me. They carried a notebook in their top pocket and everything that they asked me to do, they had written it down before they came to work. I did that all my farming career and I still carry notebooks with me to this day as an evangelist.
What we believe is so important. You know folks, the world is desperate for example patterns because there is nothing you can trust these days. There is no one who knows where he is going in the world. Peter, the disciple, was asked by Jesus, “But who do you say that I am?” You will find that in Matthew 16:15-16. And what did Peter say? He said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Like never, ever before, the world is looking for someone, for people to speak the truth and who are good, solid examples. The world stands aside for a man who knows where he is going. Let's be those men and women today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 23rd of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Book of Philippians 3:10, Paul says:
“… that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,…”
Now, Paul had the privilege of meeting Jesus, face to face on the road to Damascus, when he was knocked off his horse and was converted instantly. But he was not satisfied with that. He said, “Oh that I may know Him…” Do you feel like that, my friend?
The best time of the day for me is early in the morning. In South Africa at the moment, we are going into the middle of winter. It is still dark in the morning. I get up very early in the morning after Jill and I have prayed. I make a fire in our wood stove to warm up the house, I make her a nice hot cup of tea, and then I take my Bible and I go into my quiet time room. Oh my dear friend, it is a precious time of the day for me and I sit there and I speak to Jesus. I read the word of God and I worship Him - the best time of the day! Oh, that I may know Him! And that is how you get to know somebody, by spending special time with them. It is the sweetest time of the day.
And then the power of His resurrection - to realise that this Master, this Saviour who I am serving, is not dead. No, no, no, He is alive. He has been resurrected. And then to have fellowship with His sufferings. You know my biggest enemy is not the devil, it is Angus Buchan, and when we put that flesh down then Jesus has precedence over our lives. Because you are a believer that does not mean that you are not going to suffer. Of course you are going to suffer, like all the saints before, and then being conformed to His death - what does that mean? It means putting the flesh down and living for the Lord, and that is where freedom and joy and expectation come from, and when I have finished having time with the Master, I go out and I face the world.
I want to say to you today, be like Paul the apostle, and say, “Oh, that I may know Him more”, know the power of His resurrection, be prepared to suffer if need be for your faith and also put the flesh down, once and for all. If you do that, I want to tell you, it will revolutionise your life. Get up early in the morning and spend the first hour of your day with the Lord Jesus Christ.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, it is the 22nd of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the First Book of Thessalonians 5:16, just two words:
“Rejoice always,…”
Then we go to verse 18,
“in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
Maybe today you are going through a rough time, maybe there are dark clouds around you and you don’t know any way out. I will tell you the way out is to rejoice always, because if God is for you, no man will ever stand against you. Remember, if there is no storm, there is no rain and if there is no rain, there is no life. I believe when we get to Heaven we will still be able to hear gentle raindrops falling on our corrugated iron roofs. I am sure we will experience that sound when we get to Heaven.
You know, as a young farmer, I had no irrigation on our farm so we had to rely not on the centre pivot but on the eternal pivot! That's right, and many a time our maize plants were taking a lot of strain. Those poor little plants would start so bravely early in the morning but by midday, they looked like onions. They were so shrivelled, they were grey and I would think, “Lord, this crop is not going to come through.” Then I would be lying in my bed at night with my little family and there would be thunder and lightning and wind and then all of a sudden, pitter patter, pitter patter, pitter patter on the corrugated iron roof. The rain has finally come! Being a good Scotsman, counting my pennies, and every drop of rain on the roof, I would say, “Lord, that is another 1 cent in the bag,” and that was the way I loved to go to sleep at night.
I was reading this beautiful little poem in the Streams in the Desert Devotional the other day, I want to read it to you. The writer says:
It isn't raining rain to me,
It's raining daffodils;
In every dimpled drop I see
Wild flowers on the hills.
The clouds of grey engulf the day
And overwhelm the town —
It isn't raining rain to me,
It's raining roses down.
So it doesn’t matter how dark it might seem. Remember the rain is coming and the rain will bring showers of blessing in your life.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 21st of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start with Hebrews 11:1, a very famous scripture verse:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
”Have faith in God.”
Mark 11:22
Now that is a good Scripture for somebody who is struggling with memorising scriptures. Come on granny, you can do it! Hebrews 11:1 and then Mark 11:22 simply says: “Have faith in God.”
C.H Spurgeon, the great English preacher said, “Faith is the road between our souls and Heaven. It's our connection to God.” Now, I often say to people when I am preaching, “God does not answer prayer", and then I just leave it hanging in the air and I can see people getting very uncomfortable in their chairs, and some are starting to get cross, and then I say, “God answers the prayer of faith.” It's the prayer of faith that connects you and me with our living God, not just prayer. You see, if you pray for something and you don’t believe it, it's not going to happen. God requires us to believe and to trust Him for what we ask Him. Mark 9:23 says,
"If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."
We must be very careful that we don’t become so earthly-minded that we are of no heavenly use. You see, Jesus doesn’t want our efforts, He wants us. He doesn’t need us to do anything for Him. He wants to do things for us but we have to believe Him. He does not even need any of our expertise so to speak. I also want to say that we need to keep away from negative people because they are the ones that will say, “if” and they will say “but”, but we say, “But God!” They say it can’t happen but we say, “But God!”
Remember, our faith honours God and God always comes through for us when we walk by faith and not by sight - faith like potatoes! That's not what I said, that is what Peter Marshall said and I just use that cliché. We have got to have simple faith, faith that we can see, faith that we can believe for, simple faith and God answers that every time.
You know, even the disciples asked the Lord Jesus to please increase their faith. You will find that in Luke 17:5.
I want to pray for you today. I just really feel I need to pray for you, that God will give you an extra impartation of faith.
Father,
I pray for my dear friend who is listening to this very message now, that You will increase their faith just like You did for the disciples because Lord, this life we are living is tough and we cannot cope without trusting You. Please increase our faith today, in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a wonderful day!
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, it is the 20th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Psalm 17:8. David says:
"Keep me as the apple of Your eye;…”
“But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel.”Philippians 2:22
Who we are is what counts, nothing else. It's not our qualifications, the trophies that we have won or the medals that we have received, it's not the accolades but the person behind them that people want to know. You see, when Paul was writing to the Philippians, he was recommending Timothy. He says, “he has a proven character.” David says, “The Lord has got me as the apple of His eye. I know He loves me.” Who we are is more important than anything else. When I travel overseas to speak in different countries, they don’t really want to know about my academic qualifications - it's just as well because I don’t have any, but they want to know about my family. The first question they ask is, ‘How is your wife? How are your children, your grandchildren? How are things going on the farm with your farm workers? How is your horse, Snowy?” I am not joking, and then they say, “Okay, right, now tell us your story.”
We need to work on our character. We need to work more on our character and not so much on our achievements. Our Lord Jesus Christ was known as the One who healed the sick, He took care of the widows and the orphans, He was the Miracle-worker, He is the One who stood up for truth and righteousness. Remember when His cousin, John the Baptist baptised Him in the Jordan River? He came out of the water and the Lord, His Heavenly Father said,
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
Matthew 3:17
Today as we go out, whether we are working as artisans, plumbers, blacksmiths, or diesel mechanics, whether we are lecturers at university, whether we are students, whether we are farmers, let people know who we are, not so much by our qualifications but by our lifestyle. That means more to people than anything else.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning the 19th of June 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Psalm 37:11:
But the meek shall inherit the earth,
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Then we go to Matthew 5:5 Jesus says:
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Meekness does not mean weakness, not at all! In fact, the meekest man who ever lived, according to the Bible, was Moses and there was nothing weak about Moses. He took a whole nation through the desert for forty years - no weak man could have ever done that! The Lord wants you and I to be meek. Meekness is not a natural quality of man but rather something that needs to be grown by spending much time in the presence of the Lord. I would like to use the analogy of a spirited horse which is under saddle. It is a beautiful sight to see. You see, a wild horse that has been tamed to accept a saddle and a harness, a bridle is a picture of the bible's concept of meekness. Monty Roberts, The Horse Whisperer, has got an amazing ability to gentle a horse - he doesn't break horses' spirits, he gentles them. He can get a wild horse to come into meekness in an hour. He can put a saddle on a horse that is never been ridden before. He did it in front of Queen Elizabeth and her mother and the old lady, because both of them loved horses very much, he brought that old lady literally to tears because she saw how that horse, a thoroughbred, was tamed, gentled into meekness, in an hour and had a jockey on its back. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to gentle us.
Do you see in the scripture which I quoted, Psalm 37:11, that the Bible tells us those who are meek delight themselves in the abundance of peace? A meek person is a peaceful person. If you want the Lord to gentle you as it were, to become meek, you have to submit yourself to the Holy Spirit just like a horse submits himself to his rider. The horse is not broken, it is in complete control. When the rider tells him to run, he runs immediately but he learns submission and meekness is what is required in these days.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning the 18th of June 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. If we go to John 14:27 Jesus says:
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
How are you feeling this morning? Are you troubled in your heart, stressed out today? Well, listen to this beautiful story I read, written by Henry Drummond many years ago: Two painters were asked to paint a picture illustrating their own idea of rest. The first choose for his scene a quiet, lonely lake, nestled among mountains far away. The second, using swift, broad strokes on his canvas, painted and thundering waterfall. Beneath the falls grew a fragile birch tree, bending over the foam. On its branches, nearly wet with the spray from the falls, sat a little Robin on its nest.
The first painting was simply a picture of stagnation and inactivity. The second, however, depicted rest. Outwardly, Christ endured one of the most troubled lives ever lived. Turmoil and storms, wave after wave, broke over him until his worn body was laid in the tomb. Yet his inner life was as smooth as a sea of glass, a great calm was always there. Anyone could have gone to him at any time and found rest. Even as the human Bloodhounds were dogging him in the streets of Jerusalem, he turned to his disciples, offering them a final legacy - My peace...
Rest is not some holy feeling that comes upon us in church, no. It is a state of calm rising from a heart, deeply and firmly established in God. I want to say to you that in my own life, sometimes in the midst of my biggest testing, I have experienced the peace of the Holy Spirit that kept me going. They say that right in the middle of a tornado is absolute peace - can you believe that, right in the middle of that tornado that is destroying homes and ripping up roads. You see, peace is found within your heart. It is not found in your circumstances - Where you live or what you do.
I want to suggest to you, today, that you need to seek the peace of the lord Jesus Christ. God bless and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 17th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms and to one of my favourite scriptures:
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”Psalm 34:19
“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”
2 Timothy 3:12
This road to Heaven is not an easy road for us to walk on. No, the devil will try everything in his power to try and make you take the shortcut. He will try and persuade you not to walk in the ways of God. He will tell you to not work so hard, not to be so honest and definitely not to follow the way of Christ. Horatius Bonar was a Scottish hymn writer in the 1800s. He wrote many famous hymns, he said, and I quote: “God may not give us an easy journey to the Promised Land but He will give us a safe one.
I want to say to a young lady who is listening to this very message this morning, you are heartbroken because the man that you thought that you loved would not wait until your wedding night in order for you to sleep with him. You refused and what has he done? He has left you. Now, you are heartbroken. I want to tell you that man never loved you. No, he was using you and because you have taken the straight road which leads to eternal life, God is going to bring the right man into your life. You don’t believe it at the moment. You will see it! He will bring you a godly, upright man who will wait until your wedding night.
I want to say to a young man who has maybe just lost his job because you refused to bend the rules because it is dishonest, and they have gotten rid of you now. You feel totally deserted. No, because you have done it God’s way, He will give you a better job. You will see. In years to come, you will look back and say, “I am so grateful that I did not start to bend the rules because those very men are now sitting in jail because of fraud or theft.” We need to stand up for the truth. Now, often when we stand up for the truth - maybe, I am talking to a student at school and you become the laughing stock of the class - don’t worry if you are unpopular. The most important thing is that these people respect you. They don’t have to like you but they must respect you.
Do you remember that old evangelist, that gypsy by the name of Rodney Smith? He used to tell the people, “It takes a live fish to swim against the current and it takes a dead one to go with the flow.” Don’t go with the flow. It will not take you home to Heaven. Do it Jesus’ way!
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 16th of June, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all,…”
2 Timothy 2:24
We need to be more gentle with one another in the world today, don’t you agree? It is actually one of the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5:23 tells us that,
“gentleness and self-control, against such there is no law.”
We need to be gentle with one another. Now, some of us think that you become gentle by deciding in your mind that you are going to be a gentle person, some maybe believe if we do certain Bible courses we will become gentle and others will say, “Well, we will have to work at it because that is what we desire.” No, no, that won’t help at all. It's not something we read about or even something we think about. No, we have to put the flesh down if we want to be gentle. We have to go through the crushing process, we have to go to the Cross, that's right, the Cross of crucifixion. You will never smell the scent of a rose unless you crush the petal. You will never taste the pure sweet juice of an orange unless the orange is crushed. We have to go to Gethsemane. Now, the word, “Gethsemane” is a Hebrew word that literally means, “the olive press.” It's where they used to crush the olives to get the olive oil out. We really need to be prepared to let the Lord crush us if we want to become gentle.
We had an old lady who stayed with us for many, many years. She was an intercessor. Her name was Aunty Peggy. Aunty Peggy exhibited a spirit of gentleness like I have seen in very few people but she had been through a lot of pain and suffering mentally and spiritually. She had one leg amputated at the knee from sugar diabetes. She had blood pressure problems and many other scars from the battle of life. But I want to tell you something now, I have very rarely met a person, who was one of the most gentle people. I used to love to go and sit with her and we would talk. She wouldn’t do much talking, she did the listening, and I did all the talking, but she pervaded in such a beautiful spirit of gentleness. When you left her house you felt absolute peace.
So today, ask the Lord Jesus Christ to give you a spirit of gentleness but then you must be prepared to go through the school of hard knocks.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, it is the 15th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way?”Proverbs 20:24
“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength”.
Isaiah 26:3-4
I just want to say, my dear friends, that we need to stop questioning God and start obeying Him. We need to stop nit-picking the Bible. The Word is very simple. It is designed for ordinary people, like you and me, and we just need to believe it. “Why?” you ask. Because He always has our best interest at heart. I want to use an illustration. Have you ever watched a little baby interacting with its mother? I love doing that, maybe because I am getting a little more mature, a little wise. I love to sit and watch the way a little baby trusts its mother implicitly. It is beautiful.
You know, as a farmer, often a cow will give birth to a newborn calf in a field, and the mother will hide that calf. It's quite incredible. Then she will wander off, graze and eat grass for quite some time, maybe for a few hours. The other cows will walk past that calf and that calf will not move. Humans will walk past that calf, it will not move, a predator can walk past and it will not move. But as soon as the mother comes back, the calf will stand up and go and suckle its mother straight away. That calf knows its mother. Why are you and I always questioning the Word of God? It really concerns me.
There are some men who are well-respected theologians, who are trying to pull the Bible apart. I want to tell you, the Bible is Jesus Christ in print. We have no right to discuss or even question the Word of God. We either believe it or we disbelieve it, and the most unhappy people I meet are the ones who are always debating on whether the Word of God is true or false. For me, I believe it from Genesis to Revelation and it has never once failed me. If you want to have peace in your heart today, you need to start to trust and obey. Do you remember that beautiful old hymn that I learned when I became a new Christian? It was written in the 1800’s. The words are still indelibly printed in my heart:
When we walk with the Lord
In the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way;
While we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey,
For there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
But to trust and obey.
Jesus bless you!
Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 14th of June, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28
That is out of the New King James Version. I want to say to you today that maybe you are going through a rough time and you say, “Lord, how can You allow this to happen to me? I am one of your children.” All things work together - not only the good things, the good, the bad and the ugly as they say, because at the end of the day, the Lord comes through for us every time.
Remember George Müller? The German man who got saved in England and then built the Bristol Children’s Homes where he looked after thousands of children. He asked for no money and God supplied every one of his needs. He said and I quote, “In a thousand trials, it is not just five hundred of them that work for the good of the believer but nine hundred and ninety-nine plus one.” Okay, coming from a man who went through a lot of trials, God pulled him through every single time. You need to press on because the Lord says that all things that you are going through work together for the good of those who are called by God.
One of my heroes is Dr David Livingstone. He was one of the men who were instrumental in abolishing the horrific slave trade in Africa in the 1800s. Do you know that that man walked from Cape Town, right into Central Africa, and then walked from there to the West Coast of Africa to the Atlantic Ocean? Now, I have driven in a big twenty-ton Mercedes Benz most of that way and I want to tell you that it is thousands of kilometres that that man walked. He went through hardship, he went through bouts of Malaria, and he hurt himself many times through that bush that was unchartered. When he eventually got to Luanda at the coast, a very kind captain of a ship said, “I am going back to Britain. I will give you a free passage back to Britain.” Livingstone was so grateful. He had all his manuscripts with him and he was excited, but do you know what happened? He went down with terrible malaria, and he was bedridden. Eventually, the ship had to leave without him. He was devastated. I can imagine him saying, “ Lord, why have You forsaken me?” But do you know what happened? He got a report a few weeks later that that ship got into a storm and sunk and everybody on that ship was drowned. Needless to say, Dr Livingstone recovered from his malaria and he eventually got back to the UK to report what was happening.
Don’t be disappointed if things are going rough for you at the moment. You don’t know how God is protecting you for the future.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 13th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Do not say, “I will recompense evil”; Wait for the Lord, and He will save you.”
Proverbs 20:22
Then we go straight to the Second Book of Samuel in the Old Testament:
“It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day.”
2 Samuel 16:12
Remember the story of Shimei, who went along the hillside opposite King David and cursed him as he went, throwing stones at him and even kicking up dust. Remember, this is King David that he is doing this to. David as a youngster, killed a giant. You can imagine David’s men saying, “King David, sort him out, deal with him, he is just a little runt!” But David said, “No, leave him.” If we look at John 19:9, we see the same thing with the Lord Jesus Christ. When Pilate questioned Him about who He was, Jesus gave him no answer.
Maybe you are sitting there today and saying, “But it is not fair. These people are not being dealt with. I have been unjustly criticised.” Leave it. You know, an old friend of mine, Lukey, said to me years ago, when I was accused of something I didn’t do, “There is a saying and it goes something like this - eagles don’t chase flies.” "Aquila non capit muscas” That is the Latin version. Another good friend of mine took a piece of wood and carved that Latin quotation in the wood, and it sits in a prominent place in my quiet time room, to this day.
Eagles go up to high places, eagles tackle the prey that they can eat and leave those little flies to the house birds. You and I, like King David, must not be detracted, we must not be taken off our course by accusations which have no truth in them, by people who are throwing stones at us. We must rise to the occasion and keep on with the mission that God has called us to.
Jesus bless you today as you concentrate and focus on the things of God.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 12th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
John 15:4-5
Jesus is the vine and you and I are merely the branches. In the Northern Cape, running along the Orange River, are irrigation farmers, many of them are growing grapes by irrigation, and with those grapes they make raisins. They put the grapes out in the sun and they dry into beautiful raisins which are exported all over the world. Their vineyards are an incredible contrast to the arid desert-like conditions just a few kilometres on either side of the huge flowing river which flows right down the west side into the Atlantic Ocean. Canals come off the river which irrigates these beautiful grape farms.
As I rode along on my mountain bike next to one of these feeder canals, the Holy Spirit showed me in my heart, that if these canals are not properly maintained, and they become clogged up, broken down and damaged, and the very livelihood of these farmers would be in serious trouble. Now, Jesus is the river of life, He is the Orange River for us and we are the canals coming off that mighty river. If we do not maintain our Christian lifestyle, spending time in the Bible, spending time in prayer and meditation, and spending time with other Christians, we will restrict the flow of the Holy Spirit into our lives and eventually, we will dry up and die. Christianity is a lifestyle. It is a constant walk with God.
Today, let us maintain our spiritual canal with God.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 11th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Even a child is known by his deeds, Whether what he does is pure and right.”Proverbs 20:11
“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”
Matthew 7:16
Of course not. You know folks, even a little child is known by his deeds and his motives, whether what he does is pure and right. Just like we all know so very well that you can never gather grapes from a thorn bush. You don’t have to be a farmer to know that, do you? - or figs from thistles. That is why we need Jesus to help us walk a road of honesty and integrity because, in our natural man, we have no goodness whatsoever.
Even King David, the darling of the Israeli people, the champion of Israel, and David’s City, Jerusalem, named after him, even he said, in Psalm 51:5:
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.”
We are born with sin in us. That is why we need Jesus. Romans 3:23 says
“for all, (everyone, sir - for all) have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
Now, I am going to offend a couple of grannies here, and I am sorry, granny, that little Johnny, that little grandson of yours, that little Mary, that little granddaughter of yours, she is born in sin. Now, you say, “No ways, she is a little angel. They are absolute angels.” I know, I have eleven myself, but have you ever said to little Mary or little Johnny, “Please just for once be naughty today” - have you ever said that? No, because naturally, they are naughty. You have got to say to them, “Be good,” and teach them the principles of God.
But you know, the good news of God is in Romans 6:23, the Bible says:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I want to encourage you, granny and grand-dad, teach your grandchildren the principles of God when they are young, and when they grow old they will not depart from them. We need to live the life, we need to walk the talk, we need to be living examples and ambassadors of Jesus Christ. So today, go out and be Jesus to people who are lost and who are hurting and who need direction.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you In Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 10th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.”
Psalm 1:3
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
John 15:7
Let us consider the camel thorn tree. It grows in the dry and dusty river beds of the mighty Kalahari Desert on the western side of our country, South Africa. It sometimes does not see rain for many years. This tree grows to a huge size. Its trunk is massive, and its branches and leaves are huge but the leaves are very narrow so as not to waste moisture on blistering hot days. It is hundreds of years old. How does it exist in such harsh conditions? Quite simply it's because its roots push deep underground to a water supply that is not dependent on the weather conditions on the surface. That's exactly how the Lord Jesus wants us to live in these troubled times, not to be governed by politics, by the economy, or by man’s empty promises. No, but by God’s Holy Word and by that alone.
If we put our roots today deep into Jesus’ Holy Word, the Bible, we shall never perish. In fact, we shall prosper. I want to say to you today, be like that camel thorn tree that is not dependent on its circumstances, it is firmly grounded in that underground water supply.
Let us put our roots deep into the Master today and He will see us through.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 9th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John. It is absolutely one of my favourite scriptures, and this is what it says:
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”John 14:6
“who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator"
Romans 1:25
You and I need to disentangle ourselves from the lie. We need to walk in the truth. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is very simple. There are no attachments. There is nothing to get entangled by. We need to speak the truth in love. We need to keep away from old wives’ tales. I am talking about reading tea leaves in tea cups. I am talking about the tales we hear from our grandparents. We need to keep away from that and we need to speak the truth in love.
You know, I have a picture in my mind of beautiful crystal clear water coming out of a fountain, out of the ground. There is no contamination whatsoever. It is pure, it is clean and there are no impurities in it. That is exactly how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. It is pure, it is clean and there are no attachments. We need to tell people that they don’t need to have a degree in theology to meet the Man from Galilee. Jesus says unless you and I become like little children we will never see the Kingdom of God, and that is what I love about our faith, it is so simple. No one is excluded because of a lack of education, or intelligence - no. Jesus came for the whosoever’s. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's as simple as that, Romans 10:13. So don’t allow your faith to become contaminated by old wives’ tales, but keep it pure, keep it simple, and keep it clean.
Jesus is the One who will lead you home!
Have a wonderful day today as you tell somebody about the purity of the Gospel of Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 8th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.“Isaiah 40:31
"And being assembled together with them He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father which He said, “You have heard from Me.”
Acts 1:4
Wait - it is one of the hardest things to do, isn’t it, to wait? But we really need to because the lifestyle some of us are living at the moment is not sustainable. My wife, Jill, and I have just been to the Kalahari Desert. Now, when you drive through the desert at a pace you think nothing is living there. You think nothing is happening, just sand dunes and thorn bushes, until you stop and wait and a whole new life opens up in front of you. I saw trees there that must have been a thousand years old. I saw habitations of insects, birds, and wild animals like I have never seen before because we took time to wait.
You know this blue tick rage is totally unacceptable. Someone sends you a message and they see that you have listened to the message because there are two blue ticks. They want to know why you haven’t answered them yet. You need to understand something, if we are not going to wait upon the Lord we are not going to last. It's not sustainable. That is why people are disintegrating.
You know you look at those Formula 1 racing cars. It is incredible engineering expertise, it really is, but you know, after a few races, they throw the engine away and they have to rebuild and start from the beginning because it is not sustainable. We cannot live like that. Jesus told His disciples in the upper room to wait. I have got a word here for some young girl, wait until you get married. I want to say to a young man, don’t leave that university until you get your degree. You say there is no time, there is plenty of time. Wait for the Lord. Do not run ahead of Him then we will make better decisions. We will cause less stress in our own lives and in others, and we will be a blessing and help others and we will enjoy the presence of God much more.
Wait upon the Lord and He will show you things you never knew existed.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 7th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“With goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men.”Ephesians 6:7
I want to tell you a little story that was sent to me by my good friend, Tom. I might get a little bit choked up during this story but bear with me. It goes like this:
A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of soft drinks and started his journey. When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old man. He was sitting in the park just staring at some pigeons. The little boy sat down next to him and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his bottle when he noticed that the old man looked hungry, so he offered him some chips. He gratefully accepted it and smiled at him. His smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again. He offered him a soft drink. Again, he smiled at him. The boy was delighted. They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling but they never said a word. As twilight approached, the boy realised how tired he was and he got up to leave but before he had gone a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old man and hugged him. He gave him his biggest smile ever.
When the boy opened the door of his own house sometime later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, “What did you do today that made you so happy?” He replied, “I had lunch with God.” But before his mother could respond, he added, “You know what? He has got the most beautiful smile I have ever seen!”
Meanwhile, the old man also, radiant with joy, returned to his home. His son was stunned by the look of peace on his face and he asked, “Dad, what did you do today that made you so happy?” He replied, “I ate potato chips in the park with God.” However, before his son responded, he added, “You know, he is much younger than I expected.”
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. People come into our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Embrace all equally. Have lunch with God and bring some chips.
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, it is the 6th of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 15:15 and Jesus says:
“I have called you friends.”
“Oh that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings being conformed to His death.”
Philippians 3:10
Friendship with Jesus is seen by everyone. If you spend time with the Lord it is Jesus in you that people see and that warms them towards you. I want to read a little story to you from a beautiful devotional. It goes like this: “Years ago there was an old German professor whose beautiful life was a wonder to his students. Some of them were determined to learn the secret of it, so one night they sent someone to hide in the study where the professor spent his evenings. It was quite late when the teacher finally came home. He was very tired but sat down and spent an hour with his Bible. Then he bowed his head in silent prayer and finally closing the book of books, he said, “Well, Lord Jesus, we still have the same old relationship.” You see, to know Christ is life’s greatest achievement. At all costs, every Christian should strive to have the same old relationship with Him. The reality of knowing Jesus comes as a result of hidden prayer and personal Bible study that is devotional and consistent in nature. Christ becomes more real to those who persist in cultivating His presence. Listen to this beautiful little verse: It says:
Speak unto Him for He hears you,
And Spirit with spirit will meet,
Nearer is He than breathing,
Nearer than hands and feet.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day today.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 5th of June, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs
“The lazy man buries his hand in the bowl;
It wearies him to bring it back to his mouth.”
The lazy man is wiser in his own eyes
Than seven men who can answer sensibly.”
Proverbs 26:15-16
You know, I don’t think there is anything more despised than a lazy man or woman or boy or girl. There are no excuses for laziness. I am not talking about someone who is physically sick and cannot get out of his bed to work. I am not talking about that. I am not talking about a man who is maybe physically impaired where he can’t walk, but even a man like that can find work. I might be talking to a man who cannot find a job, I want to say to you, get out of your bed, get yourself washed, dress as smartly as you can, pray and ask God to help you and go and find that job. That job is waiting for you. It might not be the job that you want but there is a job, even if it means sweeping the streets. You see, a hard-working man is never despised, and by the way, don’t despise people who are poor. Poor people are not necessarily lazy people, they are simply people who can’t find work
You know, a stitch in time saves nine. When that shirt gets a small rip in it, sew it up and I tell you what - that shirt will last for years. I want to say to you, there is no excuse for going to work with dirty boots or dirty shoes. Shine them up for Jesus. People notice those things and those are the things that will warm people to you.
Get up, get ready and go and find that job. It is waiting for you. I want to pray for you today.
Lord,
I really pray that that man will go and find that job today. It will earn respect for him from his wife, his children and his fellow man. Lord, that he will humble himself, that he will take whatever work comes his way and I know Lord, that You will promote him when you see that he is a hard-working man.
I ask this in Jesus’ precious Name.
Now, go out there, get yourself cleaned up, and go and find that job and God will give it to you.
Have a wonderful day, an exciting day as you go out and see what God has got prepared for you!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 4th of June, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
Genesis 32:26
That was Jacob wrestling with God. Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Gospel of Luke 22:42, Jesus says,
“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
I read a beautiful account written by JR Miller who said, “We need to stop wrestling with God by prayer and start clinging to God by faith in prayer.” I remember a story so, so clearly, it was an incident that happened in my life. I was in the field, harvesting maize. I was covered in dirt and chaff, and I got a message from the maid that came running from the house to say that my wife, Jill, was coming home from school with my young son in the car and he was desperately ill. I had to meet her at the crossroads and take him straight to the hospital in Pietermaritzburg.
Well, I jumped in the pick-up and I sped as fast as I could and got to the road and Jill was waiting in the car. My young son was running a terrible fever. He had an obstruction in his stomach and the doctor said, “You need to get him to the specialist.” Well, I will never forget that drive that I had with him. I was wrestling with God like never before. “Lord, I am serving You. I am your servant. Lord, You can’t do this to me. Lord, I need my son.” I was wrestling with God and then I remembered what Abraham did with his son, Isaac. He offered him back to God on the altar and then God gave Isaac back to his father, Abraham. When I stopped wrestling with God and started clinging to God in faith like Jacob did when he wrestled with God all night, there was a peace that came over my heart like I cannot explain. We went to the hospital, they put him in a bed and I didn’t sleep that whole night. I sat by his bed and clung to God and I thanked God for His faithfulness and I said, “Lord, whatever you decide I will go with,” and you know, the next morning that little boy was completely healed, and today he is a married man with three children.
Today, don’t wrestle with God, rather cling to God and trust Him to undertake for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 3rd of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Exodus 20:12:
“Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
“Honour your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise, “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”Ephesians 6:2-3
It's the first commandment in the Bible with a promise added to it. This is not optional, this is a commandment from God. A promise was added to that commandment. The Lord says when you honour your mom and dad, you will live long in the land which the Lord has given to you. Honouring your mom and dad is a great privilege, it is a great privilege to have a mom and a dad. You know, folks, I remember like yesterday, my late dad and mom came to live with us on the farm and it was one of the greatest joys for me to go to the local cattle sale and take my dad with me. He would get dressed up in his farm clothes and he would sit in the grandstands while we were doing the bidding and selling the cattle, and just to see him sitting there, and saying, “Well done, Angus. Those were good cattle that we sold today.” It gave me great joy in my heart.
When I was a younger man and played rugby, I was more interested in what my dad thought of the game I played than the selectors. If my dad said, “You played a good game” - aah, it made my day! We need to honour our parents. Now, I can hear some people saying, “But you haven’t met my mom and dad yet. They are not the easiest people to get on with,” and that is probably quite true but it is a commandment from God. Just love them. Do you know why? Because you won’t have them with you forever. I have to wait now until I meet my dad and mom in Heaven before I can have that cup of tea or coffee with them, and I tell you, sometimes I wish - I say, “Lord, I would give a million dollars to be able to sit on the verandah outside our house to have a cup of tea with my mom and dad” - but I will have to wait till we get to Heaven.
So, let's obey our parents. Let's love them, let's cherish them, and God will honour us.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning the 2nd of June, 2023 and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. If we start in Numbers 21:17:
“Spring up, O well!
All of you sing to it"
Then we go straight to Isaiah 33:22:
For the Lord is our Judge,
The Lord is our Lawgiver,
The Lord is our King;
He will save us;
Then just over the page to Isaiah 35:6:
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
Are you going through a barren desert time at the moment in your life, my dear friend? Well, the Lord's got a word for us. He says: "Keep digging your well". "But Lord, it's so dry, we're in the middle of the desert". "Keep digging your well". Jesus says in Matthew 5:6,
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled".
I remember it like yesterday. We arrived on that farm that we bought, now called Shalom, and it was just a piece of bush. There were no houses, there were no facilities, there was no electricity. There was nothing. It was just barren land. We had no water and I found a damp patch, that's all it was, in a low-lying area. With a pick and shovel and with a couple of helpers we started to dig right on that damp spot and we dug down 8 feet, I remember clearly. Eventually, we were lowering ourselves down with a rope it was like we were going into a mine, we just kept on digging I never thought we would get anything and then all of a sudden out of the side of a rock started trickling a beautiful, clear spring. The water gurgled up. We nurtured it lovingly and it grew stronger and stronger and stronger until we had a water supply for our little house. I want to tell you something today, we have no less than four, small dams that originated from that little spring that we dug in the wilderness.
Today, the Lord says to you: "Keep digging your well and you will receive water to quench your thirst". Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 1st of June, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”Matthew 16:24
The Lord is calling us to a life of self-denial, and we have got to prefer others to ourselves. I was sent this anonymous little letter, and it really touched my heart so deeply. I want to read it to you. It goes like this:
“My grandmother always cooked tasty food, but one day, she put a burnt pie in front of my grandpa - not just a little burnt, but black as coal. I waited to see what my grandpa would say, but he just ate the pie and asked how my day was. Then I heard my grandmother apologise to him for his dinner. I will never forget his response, “Dear, I like your pie.” Later, I asked him if he had told the truth. He put his arm on my shoulder and said, “Your grandma had a tough day at work. She was tired. The burnt pie didn’t harm me a bit but a sharp word could have hurt her.”
We all make mistakes. We shouldn’t focus on mistakes but support those who we love! Today, we want to start to deny ourselves and prefer our fellow man.
Jesus bless you richly as you go out and be the Lord to the lost, to the poor and to the needy.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 31st of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man,
And are at their wits’ end.
Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brings them out of their distresses.”Psalm 107:27-28
I want to ask you a question this morning. Are you at your wit’s end? “Angus, I sure am, I don’t know which way to go. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what not to do. I am at my wit’s end.” Well, I have a beautiful poem to read to you this morning, written by a lady by the name of Antoinette Wilson. It is a beautiful poem and it goes like this:
Are you standing at Wit's-End Corner,
Christian with troubled brow?
Are you thinking of what is before you,
And all you are bearing now?
Does all the world seem against you,
And you in the battle alone?
Remember — at Wit's-End Corner
Is just where God's power is shown.
Are you standing at Wit's-End Corner
Blinded with wearying pain,
Feeling you cannot endure it,
You cannot bear the strain?
Bruised through the constant suffering,
Dizzy and dazed and dumb?
Remember — at Wit's-End Corner
Is where Jesus loves to come.
Are you standing at Wit's-End Corner
Your work before you spread,
All lying begun, unfinished,
And pressing on heart and head,
Longing for strength to do it,
Stretching out trembling hands?
Remember — at Wit's-End Corner
The Burden-bearer stands.
Are you standing at Wit's-End Corner?
Then you're just in the very spot
To learn the wondrous resources
Of Him who faileth not.
No doubt, to a brighter pathway
Your footsteps will soon be moved.
But only at Wit's-End Corner
Is the "God who is able" proved.
I want to say to you today, do not be discouraged. You are battling but you know something, the last key on the ring might be the one that opens the door.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 30th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Hebrews, the book of faith -
”But without faith it is impossible to please Him, (that's the Lord Jesus Christ) for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Hebrews 11:6
I read an article by the great prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He says in one of his readings, faith is the phone that links Heaven and Earth. He says, “but if the connection breaks down, how can we receive God’s promises?” Now, we both know, my dear friend, that 2 Corinthians 5:7 says we walk by faith and not by sight. It is faith that links us with divinity. Faith is what links us with Heaven. We need to look after our faith very well. If you lose your cell phone, you have no more connection with your contacts, and I have watched people become frantic if they lose their cell phone. I have seen them in a restaurant, the lady is looking for her phone but it is in her handbag and eventually she finds it and she is so relieved. Well, I want to tell you, faith is the link between Heaven and Earth.
Now, remember, when people come to you and they bring negative words and say, “This country is finished! There is no future, there is no hope!”, there are two words that you answer that negative remark with. You say, “But God!”
I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13
But God! So when they say to you it can’t happen, you say, ”But God! It can happen.” And when they say it is impossible for you to do that, you say, “But with God, all things are possible!” I really want you to look after your supernatural cell phone, your contact - it is called faith. Spend time praying, and spend time believing the promises of God spoken over you.
When the devil attacks you with his lies and says, “You can’t”, your answer is, “But God!” But God! I will pass my examination because God will see me through. God will heal this body of mine. God will restore me. God has forgiven me. You speak life to yourself and you trust the Lord and the more you speak faith, the more faith you will receive and you start to read about faith. You read the Bible, you read Christian books of great men and women of faith who have gone before us, and then you will be connected with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, 29th May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Ephesians 4:32:
“And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
And then we go straight to John 8:11:
“Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
Thats what Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery, when he said to all those men that wanted to stone her - “The one who has no sin can cast the first stone.” And remember, they all threw their stones down and walked away, then he said to the woman, “I don’t condemn you either.”
The Lord Jesus Christ wants you and me to be kind to one another - forgiving and patient, just as Jesus has been to us. I want to say to the young people, when you see an old man or lady and they seem grumpy, or a little bit short, don’t be too hard on them. You don’t know what they have been going through. Maybe that old man is battling with a very bad back and he is in constant pain. Maybe that old lady is mourning because the man in her life, that she has been married to for 60 years, has now gone home and she is lonely. Be kind and understanding. Those young people, be patient with them. Some of them are confused and are letting off a bit of steam because they don’t know how to get rid of the stress in their lives. Be kind to them, just a smile in season, oh man, it is so nice to see somebody greet you and give you a nod, a smile or a wave. It doesn’t cost anything does it? Those are the kind of things that we need to do.
When you go to a restaurant and have a good meal, when was the last time you went through to the kitchen and said to the chef, “That was a fantastic meal. Thank you very much!”? We need to be kind to one another. I have got a trustee, in fact I have four, but I have one who is a senior trustee - 88 years young! He is a kind man. He is a great achiever, he has done many great things in his life, but you know what touches my heart more than anything else? When we have a trustee’s meeting, he brings a chocolate cake to the meeting... That really touches me. He doesn’t have to do that but he likes to do that. He is always asking, “How are you, Angus? How is your wife? How is the family?”
Be kind to one another because this world needs kindness, love and forgiveness, like never, ever before. In other words, be Jesus to people today. God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 28th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 1:1-3
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (That's Jesus). All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
I want to say to you today, that you need to write that book, you need to write that diary, you need to make that account - the powerful written word! There is nothing stronger than that. You know, you might be sitting there saying, “I always wanted to write a book but I have never had the courage to do it. I want to encourage you today to write that book. You say, “My spelling is not too good!” Don’t worry about the spelling as long as the Spirit is in it. Why? Because you will bless others, you will bless your family and those who come after you. Who knows, you might even bless the whole world. The word of God, the Bible, is still the most popular book on earth. Do you know that they cannot print enough Bibles, even now, and it is in so many languages?
I read the life story of a young man by the name of David Brainerd. David Brainerd lived in the 1700s in the USA. He went to Yale University but eventually, he was dismissed from the university because of some things that he said, and they would not let him back. It broke his heart, but he went out into the forests, into the wild, and he started to preach the Gospel to the First Nation people, and he was a young man, not even 24 years old. He slept in the snow. He succumbed to all kinds of physical pressures but he carried on.
David Brainerd started writing all his experiences in a diary and he wrote more than a dozen of those diaries. No-one knew about him and when he was 29 years old, he got TB and died, virtually an unknown person. Jonathan Edwards, who God used to start a great revival in the USA, got hold of those diaries and printed them out. Do you know that those diaries influenced men of God of the calibre of William Carey, who took the Gospel to India; John Wesley who was instrumental in starting one of the biggest revivals on earth; Robert Murray McShane, who also died at 29 years old and started a massive revival in Dundee, Scotland; Jim Elliot, remember the martyr that died for his faith in the Amazon Jungle; Henry Martin and many others.
I want to say to you today, write your book. John Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress. It is probably the most popular book next to the Bible itself. Just do it and God will honour you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
It is Saturday morning, the 27th of May, 2023. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”Ephesians 4:29
“Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.“
James 3:10
You and I need to start speaking life and not death over people. This world is tough enough as it is. A word of encouragement in season can change a life forever. People get great encouragement when you say to them, “You are looking so smart today!” “I just love that dress that you are wearing, it really suits you”, “I like that new hairstyle that you have got.” Just a small, little word, especially for young people. Young people are really under the whip at the moment. They are getting criticised for everything. Folks, look at the heart, not at the outward appearance. Young people especially need to know that they are being supported. Folk need to know that we believe in them. That’s what Jesus did! He took those fishermen and changed them into the greatest preachers that the world has ever known.
I remember like yesterday, when I started to preach in that little church on the main street of our town, Greytown. It was one of the most traumatic times in my life. I don’t know how many people were there, maybe 100, maybe 150. I was so nervous, but when I got into the pulpit and I looked down and I saw all those smiling, encouraging faces, a lot of them were old people, and I preached my heart out. I was literally sweating that day. I am sure I was preaching all kinds of apostasy and heresy but it was always done in love, and those old folk, they just kept on encouraging me to keep going and little did I know what awaited me in the future. I have had the privilege of preaching all over the world, and I have had the privilege of preaching to large crowds of people but I will never forget that small little congregation in that small church on the main street of Greytown, when those people encouraged me, including the minister and his wife, to keep on keeping on for Jesus.
Today, go out and encourage someone with a word of love. That's all they need.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 26th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“These are the things you shall do: Speak each man the truth to his neighbour;…”Zachariah 8:16
Then we go right to the New Testament to the Book of Ephesians:
“…do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.”
Ephesians 4:26-27
Don’t let the sun go down on that argument, settle it before you go to sleep. We need to settle our differences. Don’t keep grudges because they just fester and grow into something ugly. Don’t hold on to unforgiveness. It is not even healthy for us, never mind the other person. Just learn to say sorry. I can hear someone saying, “But it is not even my fault.” It doesn’t matter, the person has been offended, just say sorry. It is the quickest way to diffuse an argument and we are living in the last days, folks. We don’t have time to hang on to arguments and our own personal outlook and opinion. Let us be peace-makers.
You know, a very sad story took place many years ago. A couple really loved each other but the man had a drinking problem and he really tested his poor wife. One night she was lying in her bed, probably not sleeping because she was worried about her husband because he had not come home, and in the early hours of the morning, eventually the vehicle arrived, he staggered into the bedroom and literally just fell on the bed and passed out from drinking too much alcohol. She was so angry and so disappointed in him. She turned over and said, “I wish you would die!” And with that, she eventually went to sleep. The next morning she woke up and remembered what she had said, she wanted to say sorry, and she shook her husband but he never woke up. He actually died in his sleep. She was devastated. It took a long time for her to accept the fact that the Lord forgives if we say sorry.
Don’t let that happen. Don’t let the sun go down on your wrath, your unforgiveness. Settle your differences today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 25th of May, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Job, some say it is the oldest book in the Bible.
“Though He slay me, yet will I (still) trust Him.”
Job 13:15
Wow! That is commitment. Then we go to Matthew 8:25:
“Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
Jesus is in the boat with us. He walks with us in our darkest times. Often we think, “Lord, where are You? When we really needed you, where were You?’ Remember the poem, The Footsteps in the Sand? "Lord, every time the going got tough, there was only one set of footprints. Where were You? Did You abandon us?” “No, My son, no My daughter, I did not abandon you. Those were the times I was carrying you on my shoulders!”
I want to say to you this morning, maybe somebody is saying, “Lord, it is so dark. Lord, I really need You, where are You?” He is right next to us, and Job the farmer knew about that. I don’t think anyone in the Bible suffered more than Job, other than the Master Himself. He lost everything and yet he could still say in Job 13:15,
“even though He slay me, yet I will still trust Him.”
Why? I will tell you why, because to be in perfect peace and security is to be with Jesus.
The disciples were in the boat and the boat was sinking because the storm was so severe, the water was coming into the boat. They woke up the Lord, “Lord, we are perishing! Please help us.” Remember what happened? The Lord stood up and put out His hand, and the wind ceased and the waves stopped and the lake became calm. “Oh ye, of little faith, why are you so fearful?”
Maybe today you are saying, “Lord, I just can’t carry on like this.” I want to encourage you to rest in Him. You can do no more than what you have done. Now, it is over to the Lord. Let Him calm the storm in your life. Remember, the darker it gets, the brighter the stars shine. Jesus promised us that He will never leave us and He will never forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5). So cast your cares today upon the Lord because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). If Christ is for us, no man can stand against us.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 24th of May, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 18:14, God asks Abraham,
“Is there anything too difficult for Me?”
Then we go to Zachariah 10:1:
“Ask the Lord for rain
In the time of the latter rain.
The Lord will make flashing clouds;
He will give them showers of rain,
Grass in the field for everyone.”
Rain is a blessing from God. You will only really understand what I have just said if you have been through a horrific time of drought. There is nothing worse than drought. You get up every single morning, the sun comes up, the small plants try to make a recovery, and by 9 o’clock they are shrivelled up again. Dust blows everywhere, there is no water, and the cattle are thin. It is horrific - but when the gentle rain comes and the new grass comes and the cattle get fat and the crops start growing, it is a blessing from God. Oh yes, our Lord is the Rainmaker. That is not a derogatory term or a familiar term. He is the only One who can make rain. No one else can make rain. You know, sometimes, some of the men meet me and they say tongue in cheek, “Here comes the rainmaker,” and I quickly pull them up and I say, “No, I am not the rainmaker but I am one of His sons.” Oh folks, I can’t explain it to you, when you pray the prayer of faith and you believe, you really believe, God comes through for you every time.
In 2008, we had the biggest tent in the world, it could seat 30,000 men. We had 30,000 men inside and 30,000 men outside. It was an incredible experience and I will never forget it. On the Saturday night, I said to the boys, “Guys, you need to pack up early tomorrow. We are going to have that last service and straight after the service, the Lord is going to bring rain on this farm. I really believe it and I have asked Him for it.” Do you know what happened? At about three in the morning, I heard these big coaches, big busses from Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg, starting to pull out from the camping area. I don’t know why, I am a man of little faith, but I started crying out to the Lord, “Lord, they are leaving already. They are not even waiting for the last service.” No, they weren’t doing that. They heard what I was saying on Saturday night. They didn’t want to get stuck in the fields so they were parking their vehicles on the side of the road and walking back to the big tent.
I have got 60,000 witnesses, after the meeting I said the benediction and goodbye to the boys, then I said, “Guys, get home now,” and as we walked out of the tent, drip, drip, drip and then showers. It rained for three days and three nights! Our God is the Rainmaker, He is the Miracle-worker, and He loves you.
Call on Him today and He will help you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 23rd of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Righteous lips are the delight of kings, And they love him who speaks what is right.”Proverbs 16:13
Your employer likes honesty.
“Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find him so doing.”
Matthew 24:45-46
People are desperate for honesty, truth and hard, responsible workers. In John 17:17, the word of God says:
‘’Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.’
It’s so hard these days to find an honest hard-working man or woman who speaks the truth always in love, isn’t it? I remember many years ago when I had just left agricultural college, I had the privilege of managing a very large farming operation. The boss was a man who had a razor-sharp mind and you could never catch him out. It was a ten thousand acre farm. We had a massive herd of beef cattle; we had vegetables, maize and onions. Yes, it was an operation. I remember we had eight tractors. In those days, that was a huge place. I was in my early twenties and running around and one day the boss asked me a question, ”How much fertiliser did you put on field number 25?”. I must be honest with you, I was running so fast, I did a bit of a thumb suck and I got it all wrong. He was very disappointed in me. He said, ”Angus, don’t ever lie to me again.” I apologised profusely. From that day onwards I carried a notebook in my top pocket, he’d stop me sometimes and say, ”How many bags of cabbages did you send to town?” I would take out my notebook and he’d have to wait for me to look up the page - ”We took a thousand pockets of cabbages to the market.” “Well done Angus. Keep up the good work.”
People need the truth in love, they are looking for responsible people. Don’t be afraid to say sorry. Don’t be afraid to make a mistake but always be honest and confess it if you’ve made a mistake and your employer, your boss, whoever he is, he’ll love you. I worked with that man for many years. He taught me everything I knew about farming. From there, I went into a partnership and then I started farming on my own.
Do things God’s way. Speak the truth in love, work hard and God will honour you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, 22nd of May 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, thought for today. We start in Matthew 6:6 Jesus says:
"But when you pray go into your room and when you have shut your door pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly."
The secret place - do you have a secret place where you speak with your heavenly father? Let us go to Romans 10:17:
"Now then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."
Do you know the that greatest gift you can give to your children or to your friends is to make them 'hearers from Heaven', to make them hearers from God, not to draw them to yourself but to draw them to God... There's a word for a lot of pastors listening to this message - Make people hearers from heaven.
You know the Russian Believers have a little room at the bottom of the garden, it's called a poustinia - it's their secret place. It is where they go to pray to Jesus on their own. Do you know that even the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, you'll find that in Luke 11:1. I can hear somebody saying today: "But I don't have a closet, I don't have a private place to pray..." Well, you could be in a prison cell, you could be in a hospital bed as you hear this message, you could be in a school dormitory but I want to tell you, you can still pray. You see, I want to tell you I have a poustinia, a secret place in my mind... Now, just relax, I'm not talking about positive thoughts here, I'm talking about prayer!
It's a place where I can go to any time I want to and I can be quiet and I can speak to Jesus and I can hear him speaking to me in my heart, not audibly. I'm going to describe it to you - It's a place in central Zambia, where I originate from, deep in the bush of Central Africa. I walk down this little path with tall elephant grass growing on both sides, down to a wetland area. The wild birds are singing in the large African trees, a gentle breeze is blowing the grass but it's absolutely quiet and peaceful. I sit on the trunk of a fallen tree by the side of the path. I quiet and my spirit and I start to listen to the still small voice of Jesus and then I start to speak to Him. Not even out loud, quietly in my spirit man... I do that in airports when I'm waiting to catch a plane, I do it when I'm driving in a motor car - anywhere! Do it today, it will change your life.
Jesus bless you, goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, 21st of May 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with thought for today. We start in Psalms 37:5:
"Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass."
Then we go to Philippians 4:6 and this is what it says:
"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God..."
As we conduct our lives, businesses, our careers and our visions into the hands of the Lord Jesus, then He establishes our thoughts and He directs our paths. A man that has impacted my life amazingly, since I became a Christian, was a man by the name of Robert LeTourneau... There's a book written about him - Mover of Men and Mountains. He was an inventor of earthmoving machinery, and his start in life was very rough.
He was a sixth-grade dropout and yet he gave his life to Christ and he gave his business to the Lord and he gave his thoughts to the Lord and the Lord turned him into a giant in Industry. He became the leading earthmoving manufacturer of his day - He patented more than 300 different machines that he had invented. He had factories on four continents, this man who love Jesus so much gave away 90% of his income and he lived on 10% of his income and was a multi-millionaire... the first man in America to fly a twin-engine aeroplane. Why? Because he gave everything to the lord and the Lord directed his path. You see, when he started off serving the Lord he thought, if he really wanted to serve God, he had to become a pastor or maybe a missionary. He went to see his Pastor and his pastor said something that changed his life - he said God needs businessmen as well!
Robert LeTourneau gave his business to the Lord, he partnered with Jesus. Jesus directed his thoughts and his ways and the rest, as they say, is history! Today give your vision, and your career, give your business to God and He will direct you and you will succeed.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 20th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The preparations of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.”Proverbs 16:1
“But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”Matthew 10:19-20
I want to speak to you about extempore preaching. Now what does that mean? Well, what happens is, the Lord will give you a scripture verse, like Romans 1:17:
“The just shall live by faith.”
And then you preach on that for maybe an hour or two without using any notes. Now, the great giants of the faith, men like John Wesley and John Whitfield, would get up on the platform, open-air, and they would preach for hours without any scripture notes, they would preach from their hearts. People think that's amazing. No, it is not amazing, what it is is the work that has been done before the men get on the platform or into the pulpit. It is times of prayer, fasting, and heart preparation before they speak, and then when they get onto the platform, they open their mouths wide and the Lord speaks through them.
Many a time, I have been addressing a large group, open air, that is my favourite place - it might be a sports field, a stadium, an open-air place, and I would stand up and as I open my Bible, a huge wind would come and blow all my notes away, and then I realise the Lord is saying to me, “I am speaking. All you have got to do is open your mouth.” But you see, fortunately, I have done my preparation before I get on the platform. I want to say to you today, prepare well, prepare your heart well and God will give you the words to speak. Now, it might be at school, at university, at your employment, or even on the sports field. You do your preparation beforehand and God will undertake for you. When you just try and wing it as they say, it doesn’t work, it falls flat and people can see straight through you.
Today, do your part and then Jesus will do His part.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 19th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 14:17
“For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.”
1 Timothy 4:8
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36
Now folks, no one likes exercising as much as I do. I try to ride my mountain bike every morning, I ride my horse, Snowy, as often as I can. I love splitting wood for our wood stove, for my wife, Jill, for the winter. I just love splitting wood. It takes a lot of discipline to keep fit, especially when you get older. We have got to eat properly and we have got to keep in shape physically, there is no doubt about it, but the Apostle, Paul, tells young Timothy, not to neglect his spiritual training and his spiritual fitness. That is actually more important, in fact, it is vital if we are going to finish this race, strong.
You know, the body grows old but the spirit never grows old in a person, in fact, the spirit never, ever dies. We need to train our spirit man. We need to get up in the morning, we need to have a regular quiet time, every single day, with the Lord Jesus. They said to Martin Luther, “What do you do in the morning when you are very busy?” He said, “I get up earlier.” We have got to train our spiritual man, systematically read our Bible every day, and pray faithfully every day. Pray for your loved ones, pray and speak to Jesus. Prepare your mind and spirit for the day ahead. Put on the full armour of God. You know about that - the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth around the waist, clad your feet with the shoes of the Gospel of peace, take up the shield of faith to ward off those fiery darts of the evil one, and the sword of The Spirit, the word of God and then the devil will never defeat you.
So keep training physically but more importantly, spiritually.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 18th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. Today, by the way, is Ascension Day - that's right!
“So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.“
Mark 16:19
“He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Revelations 22:20
He is coming back! I tell you, He is coming back and He is coming back in the same manner that He left. Acts 1:11 says,
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
He is not dead, He is very much alive I tell you, and our Master is returning very soon! The question is, are we ready? We serve a living God. He is not a dead famous person like Alexander the Great or Pharaoh of Egypt, or Julius Caesar of Rome. No, no, no - He is alive! He is coming back to the place that He left from. Where did He leave from? He left from the top of the Mount of Olives, just across from the City of David, Jerusalem. I have been there many times. The same way He left this earth in a cloud, the same way He is coming back again in a cloud. I am what you call a cloud-watcher. Every morning when I get up, I look out and if I see any clouds, I say, “Lord, is it maybe today? Are You coming today” because He says He is not giving us any warning, He is coming like a thief in the night. We must be ready!
Have a wonderful Ascension Day today as you remember that you and I serve a living Jesus and He loves us so much, He has gone ahead of us to prepare a home for us, and then He is coming back to take us to be with Him in Paradise forever.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 17th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…He hears the prayer of the righteous.”Proverbs 15:29
“The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth.”Psalm 145:18
He hears the prayers of the righteous! Now prayer is simply talking with God, isn’t it? If we look at 1 Thessalonians 5:17, the word of God tells us to pray without ceasing. We pray while we are driving in the motorcar, we pray while we are ploughing in the field, and we pray while we are flying in an aeroplane. It is a lifestyle.
One of the most precious prayers I remember so clearly, was when I gave my life to Christ. The day after the meeting, we were sitting in a circle, like a little Bible study, and all of us were so new in the Lord, we were so shy. We didn’t really want to pray out loud because we didn’t know how to! There was an old gentleman there and I could see that he had a major drinking problem, but he had met the Man from Galilee, and this is how his prayer went, “Help me, God.” That's all he said with tears running down his face. I don’t think there was a dry eye there. “Help me, God,” and the Lord did help him.
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “Prayer.” It is a request for help or an expression of thanksgiving. Now, I want to read you a farmer’s prayer that I found, very simple, this is how it goes:
Lord, bless the land that You've given me,
And may I always know
As I tend each crop and creature
You're the One who helps them grow.
Grant me the strength and wisdom
Please protect me from harm,
And thank You
For Your gracious gift-
The blessing of a farm.
Heavenly Father, I want to thank You for my friends that are listening to this Thought for Today every morning. My prayer for them today, Lord, is that they will increase their time spent talking with You, that they will get to know You better, and that they will understand that You are literally one prayer away. I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 16th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, And his tongue talks of justice.”
Psalm 37:30
“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things,…”
Matthew 12:35
Out of the mouth, we speak what is in our hearts. As God’s spokesman, we are to speak life and not death. No matter how hard things are, no matter how bad things become, Jesus Christ is still on the throne, He is still the soon-coming king, and therefore we shall remain optimistic and positive and we shall speak life and not death. Remember, one uplifting comment can change a person’s life in an instant. We need a different spirit.
Now, Numbers 14:24 says:
“But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”
Now remember, Joshua and Caleb came back with a different report. When the other ten spies came back from the Land of Milk and Honey, they said, “There are giants there.” They said, “We feel like grasshoppers in their sight”, and of course so they were, but not Joshua and Caleb. They came back with a different spirit and when they went into the promised land, Joshua said to Caleb, “You can choose any part of the land that you want because you have been so faithful.” He didn’t say, “Give me the nice fertile valleys where the rivers run, where it is quiet and beautiful and the grazing is good for the cattle, no, no, no! He was 85 years young when he said, “Give me the big mountains where the big giants live.” He went up and he cleaned them out.
Today we need to remember if Christ is on our side, we have nothing to fear. John G Lake, the evangelist said, “When you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror, say to that person in the mirror, “Wherever you go today, God is going with you” and then go out and face the world.”
Have a wonderful day today and remember, if Christ is for you, no man can stand against you!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Monday morning the 15th of May 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We started in Proverbs 15 and I'm reading verse 24:
"The way of life winds upward for the wise,
That he may turn away from hell below."
Then we go to Philippians 3:20:
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Then the last one is Colossians 3:1-2:
"If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth."
Have you got your passport in order? How many times, when you want to go on a trip, you look for your passport and find that it's expired?! You need to get your credentials in order... Folks this is not our home here on earth, you and I are simply passing through - have you got your credentials in order? What are our credentials? Well, we believe that Jesus Christ is the risen son of God and not only do we believe it but we also live it. Now, remember the thief on the cross - he left it pretty late, didn't he, before he got his credentials and order. However, I believe we shall see him in heaven, just as Jesus promised him that he would. Make sure that all your family and friends have got valid passports, we don't want to leave anybody behind.
Jesus spoke more about heaven than about this earth. You and I are simply travellers in a foreign land... We're sojourners, we are just passing through - Don't get too comfortable. Can you imagine the welcome when we finally arrive home in heaven? When Jesus is standing there, all the saints, myriads of angels and your own family that have gone ahead before you. Went Jesus says:
"Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord."
Matthew 25:21
Do you remember that old song, it goes something like this:
This world is not my home
I'm just a-passing through
My treasures are laid up
Somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me
From heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore
Oh Lord, you know
I have no friend like you
If heaven's not my home
Then Lord, what will I do?
The angels beckon me
From heaven's open door
And I can't feel at home
In this world anymore
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning the 14th of May 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan thought for today.
Before we start we want to say: "Happy Mother's Day" - Today we remember our Mothers! We start with Numbers 26:59, Jochebed was the mother of Moses, who brought the Jews out of slavery. Then we go to 1 Samuel 1:20, Hannah the mother of Samuel - probably the greatest of all the prophets, never defaulted once. Then Luke 1:13 - Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist of whom Jesus said: "Never has a man, that is been born from the womb of a woman, being greater than John" and then, of course, Luke 1:31 - Mary the mother of our beloved Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to acknowledge moms today, I want to say to you, Mother - Don't allow society, or anything, to undermine how precious you are to us. Where would we be without our mothers? I mentioned just a couple of Mothers, of course, culminating in the greatest of all women, she was blessed to have God in her womb for nine months and then to bring him up into a young man. She was with Him right to the end, she never left Him.
Folks, my mother was 13 years old and had to leave school when her mum died, she had to bring up the family. My Mom was in the Second World War for six years, she was in the WAFs - the Women's Auxiliary Force, the same Force as the late Queen Elizabeth. She used to drive out those huge bombs in big trucks, she those trucks herself, out to the Bombers. My Mom came to Africa as a young woman, with my Dad, and started a life for my brother, myself and my sister. My Mom is one of my Heroes. You know, my Dad used to go to work early in the morning, he was a blue-collar worker, he was a tradesman - a blacksmith. In the school holidays when Dad went off to work, we would run and jump into bed with Mom and we'd lie next to her and she would tell us stories of when she was a young girl. She was probably the greatest storyteller I've ever met. I learnt all my storytelling from my mom, not from any University. She could have you enthralled just telling you what she was making for lunch... Oh, I miss my Mom so much.
The greatest moment for me is when I had the privilege of introducing my Mother to Jesus Christ. sitting by that fire early in the morning, I'll never forget it, Jill and I telling her about Jesus. After that, she used to sit there with her Bible and tell me about all the stories that she'd read. She enthralled me, she taught me everything I know about storytelling...
Go out today and spoil your mom, she's worthwhile. Phone her, write to her, love her because she won't be with you forever. Jesus bless you and happy Mother's Day Moms, we love you and we appreciate you. Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 13th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord.”
Psalm 104:34
“Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.”
1 Timothy 4:15
Are you spending time in meditation? You might ask me, what is meditation? Well, according to the Oxford Dictionary, to meditate means, “to contemplate, to think, to ponder, to reflect, to consider, to focus your mind and free it from uncontrolled thoughts.” In other words, to relax, to take time out - it is not an Eastern thing, its what happened in the Bible. Jesus meditated often, taking time out to smell the roses. That is what my old neighbour used to say to me when we used to meet across the fence, “Angus, take time out to smell the roses.”
Jesus told His disciples to do it in Mark 6:31. He said, “Come aside and rest awhile”, because he could see that they didn’t even have time to eat, they were so busy ministering to the people. Do you remember that story? I believe it's a true account of Sir Francis Drake, the British sea captain, who was playing a game of bowls at Plymouth. He was relaxing and then all of a sudden he was told that the whole Spanish Armada was on the sea and was approaching England, and he reputedly said, “There is plenty of time to win this game and to thrash the Spaniards too!”
Oh folks, he obviously knew how to meditate! He knew how to relax. I want to say to you today, we really need to take time out. I am probably speaking to myself today more than to any of you but the Lord requires us to spend time in His presence, to spend time meditating on His things, and that is what brings you peace. It brings you purpose, gives you focus, stops you from running around like a chicken with its head cut off and helps you to do things in a godly manner.
Today, take time out to spend with Jesus and smell the roses.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 12th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
2 Kings 6:16
Elisha prayed that the Lord would open the eyes of his servant to see all the chariots of fire and all the angels that were on the mountains around them. This servant was petrified because the Syrians had come to attack them, but the prophet asked God to open his servant's eyes so that he could see there are more that are for us than against us.
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”Ephesians 3:20-21
Do not limit God. Don’t ever do that. If God is for us today in whatever thing you are looking for, then you have the majority!
Lord Jesus, please open our eyes, as you did for that servant, so that we can see how many angels are on our side. And if they are, we are victorious!
When you go out to shoot a massive bull buffalo, we need to use a very powerful rifle, not a child’s pop gun, and yet that is exactly what many of us try to do, don’t we? We try to take on the challenges in our own strength and we fail miserably. Today, let's go out and face that challenge with a scud missile, not a child’s pop gun. Jesus has given us everything we need to stand against the enemy.
I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:13
Lord, please open our eyes today so that we can see that those who are for us are more than those who are against us. Let us see that mountain Lord, full of chariots of fire, horses and angels which have been sent by God to give us the strength we need to fulfil the task that is ahead.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 11th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“… for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”Nehemiah 8:10
“Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven,…”Matthew 5:12
Now, joy is not a case of laughing, it is not a funny ha-ha kind. No, no - it is a deep knowing that you and I have a wonderful future awaiting us in Heaven. Philippians 1:21, Paul says:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
You cannot frighten a Christian with Heaven! Because if he lives, he is living for Jesus and if he is dying he is going home to be with Jesus forever. It is a deep knowing that at the end of this life, we shall meet the Master, face to face and that we shall be reunited with our loved ones who have gone on ahead before us.
I remember many years ago hearing a story by a Christian nursing sister. She told us that when she goes into the ward or the room of a dying unbeliever, she said it was a horrible experience often. There was cursing, grinding of teeth, anger, fear, screaming, not knowing where they are going, but when she went into the room of a dying believer there was a sweet fragrance in that room, there was a deep joy, love, peace and assurance. Yes, a confident joy that that person was going home to meet their beloved Jesus, face to face.
Today, remember, the joy of the Lord is our strength. We have a future awaiting us and we need to keep focused on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 10th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Psalm 73:25-26
Isn’t that beautiful? Then we go straight across to Philippians 3:8:
“Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
Remember the story of the man who sold everything that he had to buy a pearl of great price? (Matthew 13:46). Once you have found the real thing, all else is mere plastic and imitation. There is just too much evidence to doubt that Jesus Christ is real. There is no imitation about Him. There is no plastic about Him. He is all we need.
I have a little granddaughter. She is five years old and is absolutely mad about horses - probably takes after her dad, her mom, and her grandad as well. Her name is Rebecca, and when you see Rebecca, all you see are plastic horses, rocking horses, pictures of horses, and as many imitation horses as you can find. One day, her granny and I decided we were going to buy her a miniature horse. You know, we bought that horse for Rebecca and her dad told me the other day that she is a completely transformed child. She is not interested in her plastic horses, her rocking horses, watching horses on television - not interested, she is never inside! Where is she? She is spending time with her little miniature horse and she has called him, “Cracker Jack”. That's his name. She loves him, she brushes him, and she spends time with him all day long.
I want to tell you that when you have found the pearl of great price, when you have found Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, your life will never, ever be the same again. Solomon said looking after material things, chasing after them is like chasing the wind, it's all vanity because it doesn’t last. We need to start spending more time with Jesus Christ and with godly treasures, like spending ourselves on people on the Gospel, spending time with widows and orphans, and investing in eternal things.
Jesus bless you today as you continue to treasure that pearl of great price.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 9th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”Galatians 6:9-10
We have a big seed company very near Shalom, and they grow seed maize, soya beans and vegetable seed. They had a slogan many years ago, and it read like this: “Good seed does not cost, it pays.” So don’t give up, keep on doing good.
Now just last weekend, I had the privilege of speaking at a Mighty Men Conference in South Africa. When I got to the conference, the organisers said, “You have two very special guests that want to meet you. They are two Frenchmen. They have come all the way from France to be here this weekend.” I was amazed. I said, “How did that happen?” They said that the one is a taxi driver from France and he came over with his brother. Now, this taxi driver was taking some of his customers, maybe to the airport, I don’t know where, and they left a book in the back of the taxi. When he got home, he took the book out and he started to read it. It was one of my books and at the back of the book was an address and they contacted South Africa and said they wanted to come across and meet me.
Now, I want to tell you, I have been writing books for many, many years, starting from the 1990’s. I have written many books and sometimes I get weary and tired and I say, “Lord, is anybody going to read these books?” And of course, the devil says, “No, no one is going to read those books of yours.” Yet I have persevered, not grown weary in doing good and what has happened? In due season, I am reaping. I met these two wonderful men of God and it was because of a seed sown, a book left in the back of a taxi in France, can you believe it? Of course, these two men were at the meeting when we did the altar call, they came forward with everyone else and recommitted their lives to Jesus Christ
Folks, don’t give up today. Keep on doing what you are doing for the Lord, and especially for the household of God, and the Lord will give you such a big surprise. He will reward you. Good seed doesn't cost, it pays.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning the 8th of May 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan a thought for today. We started in Galatians 6 and I'm reading verse 3:
"If anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."
Then 1 Peter 5:5 says:
"God resists the proud but gives Grace to the humble."
A man by the name of Elisha Coles said: "It is one of the hardest matters under the sun to become nothing in ourselves." Isn't it so true?
I remember a story, I don't know whether it's true or not, of the great heavyweight boxing champion of the world, Muhammad Ali... I think he was the greatest actually. He was flying in an aeroplane and there was a bit of turbulence in the air. The captain of the plane sent a message to the passengers: "Please buckle up, we going into a little bit of stormy weather..." This young, petite little air hostess was walking up the aisle checking that everybody had put on their safety belts. She came to the seat of the great heavyweight boxing champion of the world and she saw that he hadn't buckled up. She said "Sir..." in a small, little timid voice "Please could you buckle up?" Muhammad Ali said, he said: "Superman don't buckle up!" and this little voice came back to him from the air hostess, said: "But Superman doesn't fly in aeroplanes, please buckle up."
We need to remain humble - it is a very hard thing to do for all of us...
Another story of a very high-profile businessman, rushing to the airport to catch his plane - as he came up to the counter to get his ticket the air hostess said: "Sorry sir, the bookings are closed, the plane is leaving." He said to her: "Do you know who I am? I need to be on that plane!" She said just hang on a minute sir as she got onto the overhead mic, which went right through the whole airport - she says: "I have a gentleman standing in front of me who doesn't know who he is, could someone please help him?"
Humble yourself and the Lord will raise you up! Have a wonderful day Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning the 7th of May 2023 and this is your friend Angus Buchan with the thought for today. We start in Proverbs 15:18:
"A soft answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger."
Then we go to James 3:10:
"Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My Brethren these things ought not to be so."
You know, a very dear friend of mine sent me a little message on his phone, called The Last Pamphlet. It's the story of a little eleven-year-old boy who was handing out Christian pamphlets on a cold rainy day and after he had handed out all his pamphlets, about two hours later, he was soaking wet. His clothes were absolutely saturated - He had one pamphlet left, so he went and knocked on the door of a house because there was nobody in the street to hand out another pamphlet to.
He pressed the bell, there was no answer... Eventually he knocked and knocked as he was just about to leave, the door opened and an old lady put her head out from the side of the door and said: "Can I help you little boy?" He said: "Maam, I just wanted to tell you (with a big smile on his face) that Jesus loves you very much and I want to give you a pamphlet that will tell you all about Him and His great love for you."
That soft, gentle greeting on that cold miserable day saved an old lady's life - You see, she was in the process of committing suicide because she was so lonely. Nobody came to see her, her old husband had died a couple of years beforehand but that little wet smiling face, standing at the door with a gentle soft loving word of Jesus, literally saved her life. A week later she gave testimony in church that she is now following Jesus Christ because there was a little boy, a little angel, who came to see her and told her about Jesus - She was no longer lonely.
Today, go out and give a sweet, gentle comment of encouragement to someone... It might even save a life!
Jesus bless you a goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 6th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”Galatians 5:1
Another translation says, “Christ has set us free to live a free life, so take your stand. Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.”
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
John 8:32
Folks, if anyone be in Christ Jesus, they are a new creation, old things have passed away and behold all things have become new. Let us not be deceived by the system of the world and get caught in slavery, trying to earn our way to Heaven. We can’t do it. It is by grace. It is by undeserved loving kindness that Jesus has set you and me free.
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
John 17:17
The Word of God is the Bible and that is what sets us free. Believe what it says in the Bible and not what other people tell you. We are free from being slaves to the law. The devil is the abuser. He always says, “You are a waster, you will never make it”, but it is the Lord Jesus who overcame the devil in the wilderness. How did He do it? He said, “It is written…” He did it by quoting the Word of God. Now, let's not go back into bondage. We are not going back to Egypt. We are not going back to our past life. There is nothing there for us. We are free. Don’t let the lies of the devil trip us up again.
I want to give you an example. My son is a cattle farmer. He has got big bulls on his farm, some of them weigh over a ton. We put up an electric fence, it is one strand of wire, and that is all it is. It is electrified by the battery of a motor car, a small little battery with a little trickle going through it. It's so small that it won’t even harm a little child if that child touches that wire, and yet, the lies of the devil are holding you and me back, the same way as that little strand of wire is holding a one-ton bull back, from walking across the wire and into a lush field of fresh green grass. He won’t go through because he believes that it will kill him if he goes through there.
I want to say to you today, you are free. Do not be entangled by the things of this world. Trust the Lord and he will undertake for you and give you life abundantly.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 5th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
”Blessed is he who considers the poor; The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.”
Psalm 41:1
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”Matthew 25:40
When you lend to the poor, you lend to God. Do you know that beautiful story of Peter and John going up to the temple to pray? That is a beautiful story. Remember, a lame man was sitting on the side of the road. He was poor, he was a beggar and he was asking for alms, for money, and what did Peter and John say? They said, “Silver and gold, we do not have, but what I do have I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
Do you remember that old song?
"Silver and gold have I none,
but what I have I give to thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, rise up and walk!"
He went walking and jumping and praising God,
walking and jumping and praising God.
"In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, rise up and walk."
I remember many years ago, having a campaign up in the northern part of Kwazulu Natal. I think we called it, Jesus The Healer. We had a big tent, we hired buses, we brought in the poorest of the poor from the shanti towns, and every night the crowd grew bigger and bigger. Do you know why? Because the people there had nothing else to do, they had nothing to go home for, and they were a captive audience and every night Jesus Christ performed miracles, signs and wonders.
I remember very distinctly, one of the bus owner's sons, he was a Sikh and had a turban around his head. He came up onto the platform and he was mute, he could not speak. The power of God was so strong in that tent that night, I walked up to him and I anointed him in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and I said, “In the name of Jesus Christ, be healed, and Lord, we thank You that his voice is coming back.” I took a mic and I put it by his mouth and I said, “Say the word, “Jesus”. He said, “Jesus” and I want to tell you, that whole tent erupted. He got his voice back, he was running around, and he was praising God.
Today, go out and pray for a poor person, feed a poor person, lend to God and God will honour you.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 4th of May, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”Ephesians 5:22
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,…”Ephesians 5:25
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.”Ephesians 6:1
The most effective way of preaching the Gospel is not necessarily from the pulpit or the platform. It's our lifestyle. Just the other day at a men’s prayer meeting, we were speaking about the Christian lifestyle. It's not so much what you say, is it, that impacts people? But it's more how you live that speaks to them. It's pulling out that chair for your wife at the restaurant, and you do it, not to impress anybody, it's because you love your wife and you protect her. It's taking the tab for the price of the meal, not going half and half. No, if you are the man of the house, you pay. If you are taking out that girl, young man, and you want to impress her then you pay for the meal or you don’t take her out for the meal. It's not a case of you paying your share - I have never heard of that before, and I want to say to the young ladies, if a man does that to you, don’t go out with him again because he is not worth it. If he respects you and loves you, he will gladly pay for everything. It is like giving up your seat on a bus for an old lady that is standing there. “Please sit down.” It impacts people. It is a powerful sermon. Helping that old man across the street because he is very unsteady on his feet - it's not what you say, it is who you are that impacts people more than anything else.
A couple of years ago, I was sitting in the car, waiting for Jill, she was shopping (by the way, I don’t like shopping at all, I just want you to know that…I want to say to all the ladies, enjoy your shopping while you can because I don’t think there will be shopping in Heaven, that is just my personal opinion), but seriously, I was sitting in the car waiting for my wife, she came out with the shopping trolley with all our groceries in it, and automatically, not even thinking, I jumped out the car, went around to the passenger side and opened the door for her and seated her in the car and unpacked the shopping.
I was about to get into the driver’s side when a young man came from the other side of the street. He said, “Sir, I have been watching you and I have just seen what you have done.” So I said, “Well, what did I do, young man?” He said, “The way in which you treated your wife.” He said, “Sir, I am a teacher at a large boys' high school, would you please come and speak to my students?” Well, I was quite amazed. Just because I opened the door for my wife to get into the car, he wanted me to preach to a large high school.
Today, remember, it's not what you say, it's what you do that makes more impact for the Kingdom of God, than anything else.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 3rd of May, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start with Job 12:4:
“I am one mocked by his friends,
Who called on God, and He answered him,
The just and blameless who is ridiculed.”
Do they tease you because you are a follower of Jesus Christ?
Then we go to John 1:47:
”Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
A godly reputation. You and I have to walk the talk. People must see that we are followers of Jesus, not only hear it by word of mouth. Remember, people don’t have to like you but they must respect you. As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to display the fruit of the Spirit. Remember, Galatians 5:22-23, says:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
We need to display the fruit of the Spirit when we walk down that road. Now, Gypsy Smith, the Romany evangelist that used to travel around England in a painted wagon and preach off the back of it to thousands of people said, “It takes a dead fish to flow down the river with the current, but it takes a live one to swim against it”.
I want to say to you young lady, keep your virginity until the night of your wedding. The other girls will mock you, it doesn’t matter. Young man, you are known as an honest and God-fearing man, and even though the boys may mock you and tease you, deep down they envy you and they wish that they could be like you. Remember, when you go out to that party, they always give you the car keys, don’t they? That’s right, because they trust you and they know that you won’t get drunk and you will be able to drive them home. They give you their wallets to look after because they trust you. Don’t throw your reputation away!
“For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul?”
Mark 8:36
Remember, a moment of madness, a lifetime of sadness. Walk the talk!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, it's the 2nd May, 2023. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start with Proverbs 14:1:
“The wise woman builds her house, But the foolish pulls it down with her hands.”
Another version says, “Every wise woman encourages and builds up her family but a foolish woman over time will tear it down by her own actions.”
Very sad!
Another translation says, “Lady wisdom builds a lovely home. Sir Fool comes along and tears it down brick by brick.
You know, I built the shed for our home when we arrived almost 50 years ago on this piece of what was then bush, and my wife, Jill, made it into a home. We thank God, that He in all His wisdom and power and might, chose a woman, yes - I am talking about Mary, to bring up His only begotten Son, Jesus, in this dangerous, immoral, destructive world in which we are living. In the Word of God, Luke 1:48, Mary said:
“For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”
Mothers, please do not allow this sick and depraved world to pull you down. I believe with all my heart, that the most vital and important person in the home is you, the mother. Do you know that you have the ability, Mom, to make or break a home down? John Wesley, the great reformer, said of his mother, Susannah, that she influenced his life more than all the theologians, all the mighty men of God at that time. A man wants to come home at night to his house, to a home filled with love, peace and harmony.
Do you know that Jesus loved His earthly mother, Mary, so much, that even when He was hanging on the cross with those crude nails pierced through His hands and His feet, He could look down at His disciple, John, and say to him, “Make sure you take care of My mother until she dies”, and John did. Boys, let's take good care of our moms today! Where would we be without them?
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is the 1st of May, 2023, Monday morning. I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a Thought for Today.
We start in the book of John 8:7,
"He who is without sin among you let him throw a stone at her first."
"Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one."
Galatians 3:20
Mediator... a peacemaker.
"Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God".
Matthew 5:9
A mediator is a go-between, he is the middleman. He is the referee, he's the one who keeps the peace, and that's what Jesus Christ is. He is the Middleman, the Mediator between God and you and me. That's why I love him so much. Now you and I have also been called to be God's representatives here on Earth. We must stop throwing petrol onto the fire. We need to start talking things through. It's not a case of my way or the highway. No, no, no, that's the world's system. There's too much of, "I have my rights". Oh, my dear friend, you and I don't have any more rights, we gave our rights to Jesus. When we become Christians, followers of Jesus, we surrender all our rights just like He did for us. We need to stand up for those who are defenceless, the poor, the weak, the old. You know, I've got a big brother who's two-and-a-half years younger than me, that's right. He's always been bigger than me, but you know why I love him? Because when we were at school he always came to my rescue when some bully was trying to take advantage of me. But I want to tell you today about the greatest Mediator that's ever lived, His name is Jesus Christ, that's why I love Him so much. I was in deep debt before I met Him.
Do you remember that song, it goes something like this:
He paid a debt He did not owe
I owed a debt I could not pay
I needed someone to wash my sins away
And now I sing a brand new song
Amazing Grace
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay
He paid that debt at Calvary
He cleansed my soul
He set me free
I'm glad that Jesus did all my sins erase
I now can sing a brand-new song
Amazing Grace
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning the 30th of April, 2023 and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start in the book of Proverbs - Chapter 13:13:
"He who despises the word will be destroyed,
But he who fears the commandment will be rewarded."
Then we go straight to John 1:1:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
We must never despise God's Holy Word, it is our lifeline to life, it is, in fact, Jesus Christ in print - Literally, the written word. I call it my agricultural manual and some people have criticized me they said "How can you be so disrespectful to the Word of God" I said oh no, folks - the Word of God is everything to me... You will never see a photo of me without me holding my Bible. My Bible is my life, my Bible has helped me out of so many situations folks - When I've been lonely, been overseas away from my dear wife Jill, that Bible has been a friend to me that sticks closer than any brother.
That Bible has given me godly counsel when people have asked me difficult questions... What should we do, should we get divorced or should we work through it? Should we go into business with an unbeliever or should we not? What is going to happen, do we leave the country or do we stay? I go to the Word of God every single time for the answer and only give the answer that I find in the Word of God. I'm talking about the whole Word of God, from the Book of Genesis right through to the Book of Revelation.
Oh, my dear friend, I want to caution you - We may not add anything to go to God's Holy Word and we may not take anything away from God's Holy Word. In the last book of the Bible, in the last chapter - I'm talking about Revelation 22:18-19:
"If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book..."
We cannot touch the Word of God. I really want to encourage you today, to start using this book as your compass, as your direction finder, as the answer to all of your problems and all you needs - You don't need any other book! This book is fool proof, it is wonderful, it is the desire of my heart to get to know this book even more. Please, today take, time out sit down with your family and read The Book, The Book of Life.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 29th of April, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
Galatians 3:2
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,…”
Ephesians 2:8
Then a scripture which is like dynamite, it is like an atom bomb! - Romans 1:17:
“The just shall live by faith.”
I want us to ask ourselves a question this morning. Why are you back in the driving seat? Did you honestly think that you could do a better job than Jesus? Why have we forsaken our first love? You will find that in Revelation 2:4. The Lord has said, “You started so well, you gave it all to Me. Why are you taking it back again and trying to work yourself to Heaven by good works?” Why are we so busy doing good works for God? Have we forgotten that He is the one that saved us? Remember, when we were perishing, when we said, “Lord, I can’t take this anymore, I can’t go on anymore”, we handed all our cares over to Him, didn’t we, and He took care of us? And now, we are back in the driving seat again.
You know, Martin Luther was a Roman Catholic monk and was very passionate for God. He was trying to work his way to Heaven by bringing his flesh under subjection but he failed miserably. He was trying to work his way to Heaven and then he discovered this little scripture, this little pocket battleship, this dynamite, Romans, 1:17, “The just shall live by faith”, and that liberated him completely. You see, this life, my dear friend, is not about us, it is about Jesus in us and that is what we have to concentrate on.
You know, I will never forget when I first gave my life to the Lord. Oh, I was so burdened. I was worried about Jill, I was worried about my five little children, I was worried about the farm, I was worried about the hail that was going to destroy the crop in an instant and then about what was going to happen, and then one day I was walking through my maize crop, my green cathedral, and the penny dropped. I realised I had given my life to Jesus, so it is all over to Him! I am in the passenger seat. He is driving this vehicle for me. If the crop got wiped out by hail, then the Lord has got another plan for me! I am not going to worry anymore.
Today, get back in the passenger seat and let Him drive your vehicle.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name!
It is Friday morning, the 28th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.”
Proverbs 13:12
“Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.’
Psalm 126:5
“Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.”
Psalm 30:5
We must never, ever give up. One preacher said, “Tough times don’t last, but tough people do.” Another version of Proverbs 13:12 says:
Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick but a sudden good break can turn life around.”
Another one says:
“When hope’s dream seems to drag on and on, the delay can be depressing, but when at last your dream comes true, life’s sweetness will satisfy your soul.”
Remember, anything worth having is worth waiting for. You have heard the adage, “Easy come, easy go.” If it does not cost anything, it is not worth anything.” You know, there is a story that has inspired me (I think you know by now how much I love the Bible), and this is the story of a young Welsh girl by the name of Mary Jones. When she was 16 years old, she walked 50 kilometres, barefoot across the rough Welsh countryside, to buy a Bible. She had saved up her money for six years to buy this Bible. When she arrived at the minister’s house, he told her that they were all sold. This young girl was devastated, to say the least. She broke down in tears. The minister was so overcome by this young girl’s hunger for God’s Holy Word, that he gave her a Bible that he had reserved for somebody else. The desire of this girl so impacted this minister that he started the Bible Society of Wales, which started Bible Societies right around the world.
Don’t give up today because I want to tell you, God will see you through. I can give so many testimonies of that.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning. It is the 27th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 14:5-6
“Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus is the way, and that way will lead us safely home. You will not have to go down a one-way street, a cul-de-sac, and then have to turn around and then come back up again to where you started. You will not get bogged down and stuck in the mud. Yes, it might be a narrow way, it might be a steep way and there may be few people on that road, it might get a bit lonely but I want to tell you it will lead you to eternal life. Most of all, it leads us home. You and I have to move more slowly, we have to move more surely, to get to Heaven.
You know, just the other day, I was up in the Mighty Drakensburg Mountains again. What a majestic place. It is a place where the eagles fly. It has never changed since the time the Lord created the earth, and walking along one day, I was praying and seeking the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I was walking along this narrow contour path, there was a notice carved into the side of the path. It said, “Avoid short-cuts, they cause erosion.” I want to say to you my dear friend, there are no shortcuts to Heaven.
The shortcut is hardly ever the quickest way home. Follow the Master, He will take you home because He has been this way before!
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 26th of April, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
Who delights greatly in His commandments.
His descendants will be mighty on earth;
The generation of the upright will be blessed.Psalm 112:1-2
That's a promise from God my dear friends!
“But the posterity of the righteous will be delivered.”Proverbs 11:21
As a result of being a godly man, his family, his children, his grandchildren and even his great-grandchildren will be rewarded because of his lifestyle. At Shalom, we have a foundation verse that the Lord gave to us in 1980, and it is found in Psalm 37:4 which says:
“Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
I hear of many men of my age group who are putting money aside for their children and their grandchildren when they are no longer here and that is a wonderful thing to do. But I want to tell you, the greatest gift you can leave for your children or your children’s children is your example as a follower of Jesus Christ. I don’t know how many people I have met who have told me that when they were little boys/little girls they watched their grandparents early in the morning, reading the Word, and praying for their families. Remember, the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The greatest gift you can give to your family is to pray for them daily, pray for their salvation, and pray for the peace of God to be in their hearts. Pray that they will succeed in what they are attempting to do in this life.
We need to get our priorities right. It's one thing to leave a lot of money behind for your children and your grandchildren but if they don’t know what to do with it and if they have no direction, no vision in life, it is actually a millstone that you are hanging around their neck. Rather pray for them that they will meet the Saviour of the world and that they also would be ambassadors for Jesus Christ. That is the greatest legacy you can leave for your family. The Lord has promised us that if we do that, our generation and the one to come will be blessed!
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 25th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 12:24, Jesus said:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
“For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory,…”
Hebrews 2:10
Jesus went through a lot of suffering to bring many sons to glory, and you and I too must be prepared, through much suffering, to bring people to salvation. It's a very expensive thing to follow after the Lord. I remember years ago, having a Mighty Men Conference on this very farm, and it was called, ”Dying to Live”. If you want to live, you have got to die. What does that mean? That's a real paradox, isn’t it? It means if you want to have eternal life, you must be prepared to die to your own self's desires.
You know, as a farmer, you take that seed and it is treated with insecticide so no insects can damage the seed. If you put it in a special room, where the temperature is controlled, that seed can remain in that room for years but nothing will happen. It is only when you take the seed and put it into beautiful damp soil that has been properly prepared, that it will germinate and grow into a beautiful crop. The seed must die for new growth to take place. Many years ago, in 1927, a young missionary by the name of Jim Elliott, went into the Amazon Jungle to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Auca Indians. They eventually killed him, but before he died he wrote in his journal, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliott gave his life. The world said, “What a waste. He was a wonderful student, he was a champion wrestler, whatever he did he succeeded in, what a waste!” But do you know something? Through his death, thousands of students all over the world went into the mission field and preached the Gospel to the lost.
Today, spend yourself on behalf of another soul and the Lord Jesus Christ will honour you.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name!
It is Monday morning, 24 April 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start off in Jeremiah 33:3, the Lord says:
"Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
And then we go straight to the New Testament, to Hebrews 13:6:
“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Isn’t it amazing, when you see a little child who is struggling to do something and you want to help them but they won’t let you help them? I have grandchildren like that - they will keep pushing your hand away because they want to do it themselves and show you but they can’t do it. Eventually, you just give a helping hand and the job gets done quickly. You and I are often like that with the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to help us but we are determined to do it on our own. There must be a little bit of pride there, what do you think?
Many years ago I was involved in power-lifting. It's a wonderful sport that has a lot to do with the mind actually because you have to discipline yourself. You have got to get strong and fit - Often I would be in the gym training, doing the bench press, lying on my back, taking a huge weight off the stand and pressing it down to my chest and straight up again. It is one of the disciplines in power-lifting. I remember it like yesterday... Many times I would be going for maximum weight, I would take the weight off the stand, bring it slowly down onto my chest, breathe in slowly and then push it up as hard as I could. Often I would just get to that one point where I just could not push it anymore. My trainer would take just two fingers, that's all, and he would put them beneath the bar and up the bar would go. It is incredible how just a little bit of help does the job.
Now, today, don’t be proud - When you are struggling, whatever it might be, perhaps at school, it might be at university... you just can’t quite get it. You might be fixing a motorcar or you might be doing something where you just need that little bit of help. Call on the Lord and He will see you through!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning, 23rd of April, 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start off in the Old Testament, Isaiah 50:4
"A word in season to him who is weary."
This is a time for you and me to encourage one another. Then we go straight to Matthew 11 and I'm reading a very well-known scripture starting in verse 28, this is Jesus speaking:
"Come to me all you who Labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."
Folks, it's a time for us to encourage one another. Now, I looked up the meaning of encouragement - it means to support, to cheer up, it is morale-boosting. Many years ago as a new Believer, we went down to Durban to a children's home and took out a whole group of young teenagers. We brought them up to the farm and they stayed with us for 10 days. Part of that time, I got my old Mercedes Benz truck and took them up to the Drakensberg mountains, those mighty mountains. Now these young men had never been into the mountains, they were city boys and I wasn't a very experienced mountaineer, to say the least being, a farmer - but off we went. We left the farm at 3:00 in the morning... We left half of the food behind, and we left most of our stuff behind but we were so excited.
We got to the base of the mighty mountains and we started our trek up the contour paths. As we went higher and higher the path got more and more narrow and the gorges were steeper until, just before we got to the top, we looked down on one side was a sheer drop, and on the other side was a wall, just a sheer rock. The path was wide enough just for one person at a time. Well towards the top the boys were getting tired, they were getting short of oxygen and things were looking a bit ugly. I said to them: "Boys we need to keep going." They said we can't go anymore. I said you have to, they said we can't. I said you must. I said: " Just at the top there is a beautiful tearoom and there are some lovely hot hamburgers waiting for you and beautiful milkshakes and Cokes, keep going..." Of course, there wasn't but they kept on and eventually, they got to the top. I want to tell you that they were so relieved.
Folks we encourage them to keep going, they got to the top and you know when we got back to the farm, they sat on the lawn, we gave them 2L of Coke each, they could eat as much food as they wanted and they came to me and said to us that was the greatest time of their lives. They were pressed hard but with encouragement, they made it to the top. That's what Jesus Christ wants to do for you and me - He says "Come unto me all of you that are weary and heavy Laden and I will give you rest"
Go out today and encourage somebody to keep on, we are nearly at home. Jesus bless you
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 22nd of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
”Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.”
Acts 10:34
In other words, God has got no favourites.
“God shows personal favouritism to no man…”Galatians 2:6
I want to say to you today, maybe you are feeling that there is nothing you can do for the Lord, maybe you are feeling a bit washed up, maybe you have made a couple of mistakes in your life and you feel that the Lord has closed the door, He has written you off and He can’t use you, well that is a lie from the pit of hell. God will use anyone who puts up his hand for Jesus. God used Moses. Moses was a murderer. Moses couldn’t speak properly, he stuttered and yet God used him to bring the people of Israel out of captivity. What about Peter, the big fisherman? Three times, not once - three times, he denied that he knew the Lord and yet the Lord still used him to head up the early church.
When I was a new believer I used to often say to the Lord, “Lord, why don’t You use celebrities, famous people and rich people to preach the Gospel? Much more people would come to Christ that way. Why didn’t you use Pharaoh to be your ambassador? Why didn’t You use Caesar from Rome to tell people about Christ? I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, ‘Because there is no room for Me in their lives. The celebrities are so full of their own plans and provisions, there is no room for Me, Angus, but I will use nobodies.’
You know, one of my favourite scriptures in the Bible is found in 2 Chronicles 16:9a:
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”
Today, just put your hand up and say, “Lord, I am available,” and I want to tell you, my dear friend, He will use you in the most amazing way.
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
It is Friday morning, the 21st of April, 2023. I greet you in Jesus' precious name! This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, But he who follows frivolity will have poverty enough!”
Proverbs 28:19
We must realise we have a responsibility in this life. There is no use going around, having no purpose or no value. It doesn’t help to be a joker because you will reap nothing.
“Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
James 5:7-8
We have got to be responsible. We must be serious about life. Life is not a joke. We need to manage what God has blessed you and me with very carefully. I am talking Sir, about looking after your wife and your children. I am talking Madam, about looking after your husband and your children and your possessions. Take your responsibility seriously at work. If God has put you in a senior position, don’t take it lightly. If God has blessed you with a lot of money, use it carefully for the Kingdom of God. Do not be carefree, there are always consequences for our foolish actions.
I want to read a little story to you that I got out of a devotional just the other day. It's a very sad story. It's about a very brave, talented, mighty eagle. It goes like this:
“One day in autumn, while on the open prairie, I saw an eagle, mortally wounded by a rifle shot. With his eyes still gleaming like small circles of light, he slowly turned his head, giving one last searching and longing look toward the sky. He had often swept those starry spaces with his wonderful wings. The beautiful sky was the home of his heart. It was the eagle’s domain. It was there he had displayed his splendid strength a thousand times. In those lofty heights, he had played with the lightning and raced the wind, and now, far below his home, the eagle lay dying. He faced death because just once, he forgot, and he flew too low.”
Today, take your life seriously and the call that God has given you and do a good job for the Lord.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 20th of April, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy.”
Galatians 1:23
The miracle of a changed life. In an instant, God changed Saul of Tarsus into Paul the Apostle. I have seen it too often to call it a coincidence. No, not at all! From a person who was hell-bent on destroying lives, to a man who was totally committed to saving lives at all costs. There is nothing more beautiful to see in the world than a changed life, a world that is so negative, a world that is so sad and then to see God perform a miracle in an instant and change a man or a woman from being totally anti-Christ to becoming a follower of Jesus. It is truly beautiful.
In 2008, we had a big tent on the farm which could seat 30,000 people, but we saw 60,000 men arrive on the farm. I will never, ever forget what took place in that tent on that weekend. Jan de Wet is one of South Africa’s top Gospel singers. He is also a minister of the Gospel. He wrote an article for the newspapers about what happened in that big tent. He said that when he arrived he saw men all standing with their arms folded, looking very reserved and probably quite uncomfortable, not knowing what was going to happen and what to expect. He said in the article that he was very relieved that he was not the speaker that weekend, but the music started, the Holy Spirit was present, and the men started singing in unison. Folks, it is something I will never forget. The arms then started dropping to their sides, then hands were starting to wipe tears from their eyes and then the hands were raised in unison to worship God. An amazing move of God took place through that tent and lives were changed forever in an instant.
That is exactly what happened to Paul, the Apostle. He said, “I have no persuasion from men.”
He says in Galatians 1:16, that God …
”revealed His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,…”
The Holy Spirit was his teacher. Straight after his conversion when he fell off his horse on the road to Damascus, he went to Arabia and lived there for three years. The Holy Spirit taught him, and he became possibly the greatest ambassador for Jesus Christ in the whole Bible.
Keep on praying for your loved one. The Lord will bring him or her through for you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 19th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Corinthians 9:19. Paul says:
“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more;…”
Then in verse 22. He says:
“…to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”
“…he who wins souls is wise.”Proverbs 11:30
We need to identify with people if we are going to get through to them for the Lord Jesus Christ. Always see others as better than ourselves. When we preach to people, we don’t preach down to people, we preach up to people. Jesus was the greatest soul-winner of all. When in the changing room with a team of sportsmen, we speak sport. When we are sitting with a group of cowboys in the corral, we speak horses. We must find their heart and their trust first and then comes the breakthrough, and we start to speak to them about their salvation.
I will never forget preaching many years ago to a group of farmers down in the Eastern Cape. The one old farmer came up to me and said, “Boy”, (that was a long time ago, of course!), “Speak to us so that we can see you.” I thought to myself, “What does he mean by that?” What he meant was, “Speak from your heart. We want to know you and then we will trust you.” In other words, get down to where it is really happening. Get your hands dirty.
James Hudson Taylor took the Gospel of Jesus Christ to China, many years ago. He went on his own. He was a young Englishman and he was having no success at all with the Chinese because he was dressed in Western dress. So he changed, he wore a pigtail, grew his hair long, put on peasant Chinese clothes, slept in the town, not in the compound where all the other missionaries slept, and he was badly and heavily criticised by his fellow missionaries, but he had tremendous success. They identified with him, they listened to him.
By the way, the biggest revival in the world today is taking place in mainland China with the underground church, something like 60 million believers, a seed sown by a man who identified with the people he was speaking to.
Today, be yourself and tell people about Jesus.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 18th of April, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself.”
Proverbs 11:25
“So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.”
2 Corinthians 9:7
Don’t be stingy, don’t be tight-fisted, and don’t be mean - it doesn’t pay. You see, our Heavenly Father is a generous Giver by nature. Remember, He gave us His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. If we look at Luke 6:38, Jesus said,
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
The farmer who is generous with his land, who does not hold back, puts plenty of fertiliser, looks after his crop and tends it gently, always reaps a bountiful crop. But the farmer who is always cutting corners, always pulling back. He never ever gets a bountiful crop. Often when I travel to central Africa, I have the privilege of preaching the Gospel to poor people and they give me the best that they have. Sometimes it’s only a cup of water and a crust of bread, but their love and their generosity are so touching and it seems to taste so much better than when I’ve been to a very, very wealthy man’s house and he gives me a three-course, sumptuous meal but he gives it to me with no love and almost a bit reluctantly. It just doesn’t taste nice, does it?
I have a little five-year-old grand-daughter and she comes down to my house and makes things with her granny. Sometimes, she’ll bring me a Marie Biscuit which has got so much glitter, and so much icing, and so many stars and sparkles on it, that I can hardly get it into my mouth, but she gives it to me with such love, it brings a tear to my eye. And that’s not the end, then she brings me a cup of tea and that cup of tea has got about six teaspoons of sugar in it and I have to drink it …and I have to ask if she’s got any more! She has to say to me, ”Next time grand-dad, next time Khulu”. But I want to tell you that I would rather have that Marie Biscuit and those six teaspoons of sugar in that tea than a cordon bleu meal. You see it’s the heart. By the way, granny seems to eat that meal and drink that tea much easier than I do!
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Monday morning the 17th of April 2023 and this is your friend Angus Buchan I thought for today. Hebrews 11:1
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, it is the evidence of things not yet seen"
Then we go to Hebrews Chapter 11:6:
"But without faith, it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
You know Saint Augustine said faith is to believe what you cannot see but the reward of that faith is to see what you believe... That is not based on feelings, it's not based on impressions or if it will work or if it won't work, no. Faith depends on whether you and I believe it or not. If we try to reason it then it is no longer God, is it? It now becomes a work that we're doing. Now how do you get faith, I can hear somebody asking me that question... Well, Romans 10:17 says:
"Faith Comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God."
Folks you have to either believe the Word of God, the Bible, or not. If you believe it that will strengthen your faith - Like do you believe that Jesus walked upon the water? I do
Do you believe that Jesus fed 5000 men with two sardines and five barley loaves of bread? I do.
Do you believe that Jesus Christ raised Lazarus from the dead after he'd been buried for 4 days? I do.
There is no rational explanation for faith. Faith rests upon the Word of God alone. Jesus, by the way, delights to see us step out in faith and faith is a mighty witness to unbelievers because you can't explain it. Trials, by the way, and hardships, are food for faith to grow faith -that's what George Muller said. Not only trials but it's ultimately God's Holy Word, the Bible, that increases our faith.
You know just a couple of weeks ago I was in Namibia I was in Windhoek, and we were at a national prayer meeting and it was extremely hot. The people were really feeling the heat. I looked up and I saw clouds surrounding the stadium and I asked the Lord aloud, not secretly or quietly but with a microphone... I asked the Lord - Please Lord can you move the cloud over the sun so the people can have some shade and take a guess what? Yes, you're quite right, He did it! Not only did He do that, but He also brought a gentle breeze through the crowd. I think that meant more to the crowd than all my preaching and all the praise and worship - One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons.
Have a Beautiful Day, Jesus bless you and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious name, it is Sunday morning the 16th of April 2023 and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start off in the book of Proverbs 11:14:
"Where there is no council the people fall but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety."
You and I need sounding boards, we need somebody that we can bounce something off. We were never created, by God, to be 'Lone Ranges' - no man is an island. We need each other, especially in these difficult times in which we are living. I looked up in the Oxford dictionary to define the word sounding board and this is what it says: "A sounding board is a person that you talk to, in order to test out new ideas." At Shalom Ministries we have a board of trustees, we have four godly men who are mature and experienced. They give me good advice and good counsel but they do not dominate me, and they do not get paid for what they doing... They do it because they love Jesus Christ and they love me. They are definitely not 'yes-men', they can be quite difficult but their council is always word-based. We go back to what the Bible says, that is how we make our decisions and that makes me feel very secure, and protected and gives me the authority to step out for the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to say to you today that a successful sports tea, whether it be rugby, football, hockey or tennis, is not made up of individual stars. It's made up of average players that work together, that respect one another and that support one another - of course, our absolute and complete advisor is the Lord, Holy Spirit... Jesus said in John 16:7:
"It is advantageous for you that I leave because when I leave I will send Him to you..."
At the end of the day, the decisions are made in the quiet time room in the presence of almighty God, through the power of His Holy Spirit. Today if you don't have a counsellor if you don't have a sounding board you need to ask God to show you one because that is where your security is and quality decisions are made.
Have a wonderful Sunday, Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 15th of April, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”Galatians 5:22
These are the fruit of the Spirit, and I want to speak to you this morning about kindness. You know it is a quality and a commodity that we don’t see too much these days, do we? That is so sad. Often when I have been on a plane trip and the plane lands, especially when it has been a long 18-hour trip, I sit quietly and watch the people. I love studying people and I see how quickly they want to get off the plane, understandably. But it is so nice to see a young man stand up and take a suitcase off the top of the rack for an old lady who can’t quite get there. Those types of things really touch my heart deeply and of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is our ultimate example, isn’t He?
You know, after the Resurrection, He told the disciples to go to Galilee and He would see them there. He gave a message to the angel, “Tell them, I will see them in Galilee, and Peter.” Isn’t that wonderful? I am talking about Mark 16:7:
“But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”
You see, Jesus knew Peter would never have gone to Galilee because he had disgraced himself so terribly. He had denied the Lord three times after telling the Lord that he was prepared to die for him, and yet because of the kindness of the Lord, He remembered that. He said, “Tell the disciples and Peter.”
Oh folks, we need to be kind to one another today, and I am talking to myself probably more than I am talking to anybody else. You know, when Jesus had been working all day, praying for the sick - it was dusty, it was hot, He was tired and the women were bringing their little children to Jesus to ask Him to please bless them, and the disciples tried to keep them back. They were worried about the Lord. He was tired. What did He say?
“No, suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not for such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Matthew 19:14
He blessed them, each and every one. And didn’t Jesus bless the disciples' feet on the last night before He was betrayed, knowing that they were going to betray Him? He was kind to them, He was gentle to them because He knew what was coming, and when He did get to Galilee, early that morning, the disciples had gone fishing, they had given up and as they came into land, Jesus was standing on the sea shore, on the shore of the lake and what had He done? He had already made breakfast for them. Kindness!
Today, go out and be kind to somebody.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 14th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”
Psalm 116:15
“Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; If it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”John 14:1-2
“…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”Philippians 1:6
What a comforting scripture that is! Recently, I had the privilege of attending a very large funeral service. When I arrived, the church was packed with many people coming to pay their respects to a well-loved man. Many tears were flowing and yet I sensed a tremendous peace and even joy in the service. The minister brought a very confident and powerful word from God. “Why?” you might ask - because the man that he was speaking about was a friend of Jesus, so he could honestly comfort the grieving family with words of life eternal and hope, that the man was not dead but had simply changed address, very much alive!
Unfortunately, I have also attended funeral services where the people are not sure whether the deceased man or woman was Christian. It's a very sad service to attend. It is empty. It is hard for the preacher to try and comfort the family and I want to say to you today, it is very unpleasant. But that funeral service I attended was full of joy and peace and love. Yes, there were lots of tears because he was very well-loved, but they know that they will see him again very shortly.
Today, make your peace with your maker, Jesus Christ. Be like the thief on the cross who said, “Lord, remember me”. I believe the Lord said, “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Pray this short prayer after me if you would:
Heavenly Father,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
I believe He has died for my sins and I believe that He is coming back very soon to take me to be with Him in Paradise forever.
Amen.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, it’s the 13th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
James 5:16
The power of prayer! No one knew that more than the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane? He asked the disciples to pray with Him and they went to sleep. Remember, He asked them three times? We thank God for the power of the prayer of faith, not just prayer. God doesn’t answer prayer, He answers the prayer of faith. We need to believe what we are praying for.
I want to thank God this morning for our intercessors. What is an intercessor? An intercessor is someone who stands in the gap between you and me and our Heavenly Father. Jesus, Himself, is an intercessor today in Heaven. He is interceding on our behalf and it is a very, very important office in the Christian faith - standing in the gap for one another. You know people often ask me, “What can we do for you?” and I always reply, “Please pray”. It is nothing else that I need, it’s prayer because the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman avails much. I won’t even go on an invitation to another country, even if they have organised a massive event - if they have the stadium organised, the music team, they have got a beautiful sound system up, they have the lights up and the platform, and I ask them, “And how is the prayer going?” And they say, “No, well we haven’t started that yet. We will get to that", and I say, “Well, don’t invite me. I am not coming.” It's a waste of time. It is prayer that moves the Hand of God.
I want to say to you that prayer in the church is like an engine in an ocean-going ship. If there is no engine, the ship is going nowhere. You can be standing on the bridge, and the people can be enjoying themselves on top but if the engineers are not doing their job, that ship is in big trouble. When the engine stops the ship is vulnerable. We need to pray. We need to pray continually. We have over 3,000 people that are praying for Shalom Ministries right around the world. I have got a personal intercessor and this man is also one of my spiritual sons and he is praying 24/7. We thank God for his life. It is a thankless job in terms of the world, but the intercessor’s reward is still coming when he gets to Heaven.
Today, remember, the intercessors are a vital part of the work of God.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, it is the 12th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The integrity of the upright will guide them.”
Proverbs 11:3
Then in Hebrews 13:5, Jesus says,
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Integrity is a wonderful fruit to see in a godly person. The most integral person that has ever lived is Jesus Christ. He is trustworthy, He is sincere, He is honest and stable. If He says He will do something for you, you can be absolutely sure and be at peace that He will do it. God has never ever once broken His promise to me.
Maybe a young lady is listening to this message who says, “But Uncle Angus, my boyfriend has been unfaithful to me. I will never trust another man again.” Oh, young lady, not all men are like that. Maybe a young man is listening to this message who says, you know, I was going to marry that girl. I loved her so much and she has run off with another man. I will never trust a girl again. No, they are not all like that, young man, I can tell you right now. Integrity is a very, very important part of our lives.
You know, if somebody came onto the farm and said, “I want to buy your horse, Snowy (I can hear all the children listening now), that beautiful horse that came from America. I want to buy him because I believe you are having a rough time on the farm and you need the money and we make an agreement and I shake his hand, it is called a gentleman’s agreement and he says, “I will bring the money tomorrow and I will come and collect the horse." A couple of hours later, another man comes onto the farm and says, “I have just heard that Snowy is for sale.” And I tell him, “No, sorry, you are a bit late. I sold him a couple of hours ago.” “Yes, but my little boy wants that horse. I will tell you what, I will double the price that you were offered.” “No.” “I will triple it.” I say, “No, I gave him my word. That is what integrity is and the horse is already sold.” We need to honour our word. When we say something we must do it. Jesus Christ is our ultimate example
You know, my old dad was a country blacksmith. That’s right, when he left Scotland, he used to shoe horses. He used to make wrought iron gates and repair wagons. We were never very wealthy but we always had enough and I will never forget when he got old and very sick, we had to put him in a frail care centre in our town, it was a beautiful place. I would visit my dad every single day and you know folks, it brings a tear to my eye because every day when I left I would say, “Dad, I will see you tomorrow” and he would just say to me as I went out the door, “Angus, is there enough money in the bank?” He didn’t want to owe anybody anything. I said, “Dad, there is plenty money in the bank.”
Let’s be those who honour our word today. What you say you must do. Keep your word and God will honour you.
Have a wonderful day… and by the way, Snowy is not for sale!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
Greetings in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, it is the 11th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Psalm 34:19
“From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep;…”2 Corinthians 11:24-25
“… I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. (That’s the thorn in the flesh) And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”...“For when I am weak, then I am strong.”2 Corinthians 12:8-10
Are you feeling a bit down today, my dear friend? Are you feeling forsaken? Are you feeling that you just can’t take it anymore? Well, I want to tell you, there is a man in the Bible who really understands how you are feeling, Paul the Apostle. He wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. I believe he is Jesus’ main champion. This man was so beaten up because of his stand for Christ. They said he walked bow-legged because of the beatings he had taken on his back and it had affected his spine. He was partially blind. I believe that that thorn in the flesh was his sight. Remember, when he was knocked off his horse in the road to Damascus, he was blind and Ananias prayed for him but I believe the Lord kept him partially blind because the Lord was using him.
Friends, if you are going through a tough time at the moment and you are saying, “Where is God? Why has He forsaken me?” Maybe it is not that. Maybe He is preparing you for a great work ahead. Do you know that that man, Paul, when he was led into the meetings, you will probably find that an assistant took him by the hand and led him in, because with some of the letters he says, “Look I signed it with my own handwriting.” I believe his face must have looked like one of those old-fashioned prize fighters who used to box without gloves on, his face must have been so disfigured, broken nose, and cauliflower ears. When he was a young man and he was seeking to destroy the Christians, he was very loud-mouthed, and very self-opinionated but after he had been beaten and thrashed and stoned and left for dead, I believe he didn’t have to say too much. When he walked in he must have worn all his trophies on his body. The people would have stood in awe. Do you know, when they sent him to Rome, he was put in a house there for a couple of years. The people used to line up outside his house just to meet him, to speak to this champion, this man, this gladiator for Jesus Christ. Eventually, of course, they cut his head off with a sword, but he had a reason to get up in the morning, he had a reason to live. He wasn’t a man that was moaning all the time. He was rejoicing that God had seen fit to use him. Today, remember, it doesn’t matter what you are going through, God has a work for you to do.
Stand up straight, man and woman of God, and know that this is only going to last for a short time and then the Lord is coming back to take us to be with Him in glory forever.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 10th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.”
Proverbs 10:19
“Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.”
James 3:10
The tongue is a very powerful part of the human body. It has the ability to pronounce life or death over someone or something. We need to be so careful how we talk. Do you know that that little tongue can make or destroy a marriage or a friendship in an instant? World wars have been started and millions of people killed by one word spoken in anger and out of context.
We live in an area where there are many beautiful forests, yet I have seen with my own eyes a whole forest burnt to cinders in a moment by one match that has been struck by mistake or carelessness. The unruly tongue can do exactly the same thing. We need to count to ten before we say hurtful or controversial words and we probably will never say them. Remember, if you have got nothing good to say about a person, rather say nothing at all. Mom, please watch how you talk to your little children. I know sometimes they can push you to the very edge but be careful how you talk. When you say, “You little devils,” you are pronouncing a curse on them. Don’t say that! Dads, tell your wife that you love her. “She knows that I love her, Angus.” No, but she wants to hear it every single day. When I wake up in the morning, I turn over and I say to Jill, “Jill, I love you,” and I really mean it - every single morning. We have been married now for just on fifty years.
The power of the spoken word is vital. We need to speak life and not death over people. Jesus always spoke life. When He walked into a house the first thing He would say is, “Shalom” which is the Hebrew word for “peace” as He walked into that house. He spoke life. He never spoke death. Why don’t you tell Jesus today that you love Him?
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, it is Resurrection Sunday, the 9th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.“
John 20:1
No one in the tomb! Then we go straight to John 20:16:
“Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher).”
Jesus is alive! He is not dead, I tell you - He is alive my dear friends! There is no more fear because Jesus is with you and me on this beautiful Resurrection Sunday morning. Death is defeated once and for all.
“O Death, where is your sting?”1 Corinthians 15:55
It's gone. We serve a living God and He is waiting this morning to speak to you and me, just like He spoke to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb on the day of Resurrection. I want to ask you a question this morning. Are you lonely? He wants to be your friend. Are you sick? He wants to heal you. Are you lost? He wants to direct your paths and show you the way home. Job, that old farmer, in the Book of Job 19:25, says,
“For I know that my Redeemer lives,…”
I don’t hope He lives, I don’t think He lives, I know that my Redeemer lives! Why? Because that man went through incredible times of testing and Jesus never forsook him. He was with him all the way.
“My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him.”
Psalm 62:5
You know, we had a tragedy on our farm many, many years ago, but to me, it was like happened yesterday and I used to struggle to sleep and I would set my alarm clock for 4 am, but by 3 am I was wide awake, waiting for the alarm clock to go off. When the alarm clock went off, I would run up to my farm office where I used to have my quiet times in those days, and every single morning, Jesus was waiting for me. I am telling you the truth. It was like He had baked a fresh loaf of bread for me. I was so hungry. I would open up the Bible and every single morning, He would speak to me through His word and His Spirit. I became stronger and stronger every single day. He wants to do it for you this morning. Please let Him!
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 8th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing”
John 21:3
Never, ever, ever give up. You have no idea how close you are to possibly the greatest victory in your whole life. You see, Peter the big fisherman, the leader of the pack was about to give up, wasn’t he? He had walked with Jesus for three years. He had seen miracles, signs and wonders. He saw Jesus raise Lazarus after he had been dead for four days. He saw Jesus walking on top of the water. In fact, Jesus got him to do the same thing! He saw Jesus speak with His Father with Moses and Elijah on the top of the Mount of Transfiguration! But now he has given up. He is going back fishing. He is going back to his former way of life. He is going back to his trade!
We must never, ever give up the fight. We are closer to victory than we realise. Remember, it is not the strongest, it is not the most talented boxer that wins the heavyweight title fight of the world. No, it is the one who just keeps on getting back up on his feet that eventually wins the title match.
Remember, tomorrow is coming very soon. Get ready for the greatest day in the history of the world. Sunday morning is coming - the day of the Resurrection is about to start when the Son of God defeated the devil once and for all. Remember, the tomb is empty. I have been there. There is nothing inside that tomb. There are no bones, there is no evidence of death. Why? Because He is not dead. He is alive and He is on your side.
Today, stand, remember the battle is the Lord’s!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, Good Friday morning, it is the 7th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in Isaiah 53, and I am reading 2 verses, verse 3 and verse 12:
“He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
Verse 12:
“And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.”
Then we go to Luke 23:34:
“Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
One of the greatest sins in the Bible is the sin of unbelief. Now Romans 8:1 says,
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,…”
Maybe today you have made an honest mistake and you just cannot forgive yourself for what you did. You are carrying a millstone around your neck and it is wearying you down. It is robbing you of your joy and your peace. Well, Jesus says to you and me, very clearly today in 1 John, 1:9 that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just (qualified) to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Oh, my dear friend, if Jesus could forgive His disciple, Peter, for denying Him three times, He can forgive you and He can forgive me. If Jesus could forgive Paul who was Saul of Tarsus, a murderer, who was seeking to kill Jesus’ followers, Jesus can forgive you and me today. If you are asking the question, “What do we need to do?” Well, we need to repent. We need to say, “Sorry Lord, please forgive me and I will never do it again.” I would like to pray a prayer of confession with you right now if you would like to pray after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Thank you for dying for me, a sinner, on the Cross of Calvary.
Today I repent of all my sin and I ask you to be my Lord and my Saviour.
I will follow no other gods but You.
I believe that I am forgiven and Lord, I am grateful, very thankful.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
That is where the beautiful hymn, “Amazing Grace” came from. A slave ship captain, John Newton, wrote that when he realised that Jesus had washed away all his sins. Spend time today, quietly, in meditation, in contemplation and thanksgiving for the wonderful gift that the Lord has given to you and me.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 6th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
And Joshua said to the people, “…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:15
And then we go to the New Testament, to the Gospel of Luke 22:42:
“Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Choices! You and I have a choice to make. We have many choices to make, serious ones. Are we going to follow through with our decisions or not? You see, Joshua made his choice, he made it very clear. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, made His choice with great agony. He said, “…not My will, but Yours, be done.” He went through with it at a great cost. Verse 44 will tell you very clearly that being in agony, He prayed more earnestly, and then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Our beloved Saviour could have pulled out. Yes, He could have said, “I can’t do this Father, I am coming back home”, but He didn’t. He made the choice. You and I have to make some serious choices in our lives. Jesus went ahead. He paid the full price for our sin so that you and I could go free. I believe that choice was absolutely critical for the future of mankind and Jesus knew it. That is why he sweated blood. It is not easy to say that the crucifixion was any less important, not to say that, no - not at all, but the fact that He chose to go through with it was the acid test.
Even this day on the very eve of the decision He made before He was crucified, Jesus made a choice. You and I have to make choices as well. Are we going to go through with our marriage or are we going to pull out? Are we going to finish that business venture or are we going to say, let’s just leave it alone? Are we going to complete that degree at university? Are we going to fulfil the calling on our lives? Are we going to serve Him unconditionally? That is the choice that you and I have to make today.
Let's choose, like Joshua, to follow Jesus at all costs.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is the 5th of April, Wednesday morning, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
”For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,…”
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
You and I need to be very careful about what we read and what we watch on television and social media. If we watch negative, violent, immoral programmes, we shall become fearful, disillusioned and even depressed. We shall lose confidence in the future and even in ourselves.
Many years ago I had the privilege of preaching the Gospel in New Zealand. I was invited to a maximum security jail. I remember walking through no less than twelve doors and gates to enter right into the heart of the prison. I had the privilege of speaking to men, prisoners who were sentenced to life in jail. We sat in a circle, the place was spotlessly clean, and bright lights were shining. There was no place to hide. It actually reminded me of an operating theatre. The inmates were huge men who spent most of their time during the day in the gym training because there was nothing else to do, but their eyes were blank, and their eyes were empty. There was nothing, no hope, no future and nothing in them. I started to tell them about Jesus Christ and what He had done for me. I used that scripture in Isaiah 40:31 which says those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. I told them about the majestic eagle, and how he soars high up in the craggy mountain tops. He doesn’t associate with the crows down at the bottom. Slowly but surely I saw flickers of light in their eyes. Hope started returning, a smile here and there. “Tell us more,“ they said, “Tell us more!” Then I prayed with them and told them to concentrate on the promises of God over their lives. We started singing hymns together and Christian songs, and then hope started to flood into their lives. I left them with a promise of hope for the future and said to them, “Keep your eyes on the Lord and He will see you through!”
We need to do the exact same thing today. Let us go out today and concentrate on the things of God and not the things of this dying world.
May Jesus bless you, have a wonderful day and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 4th of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you;…”
Proverbs 9:8
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”
Matthew 7:6
Do not cast your precious pearls before swine, before pigs. Very strong words spoken by Jesus Himself. Don’t share things that are intimate with those who will mock you, ridicule you, belittle you and that will make a fool of you. Do not share precious truths with someone you don’t really know because it will come back and it will bite you. I want to say to that young lady who is listening to this message, don’t share personal and private thoughts with that young man before you get to know him and trust him.
I remember many years ago, we were having an outreach campaign in the city of East London. We had booked the Orient Theatre, a beautiful place right on the seashore and it was a one-week event. It was running very successfully, we were having a full house every night. One night I was preaching my heart out and there was a heckler. A man sitting at the back of the hall and every time I would preach something he would say, ‘Where does it say that in the Bible?” he was really pushing all the buttons. Those are always the meetings I seem to end up in. He was trying to disrupt the meeting but we had a team of very experienced men that quietly came up and escorted him out of the meeting.
After the close of the event, we were all walking out of the hall and this same man was sitting outside, he was drunk and he said, “Preacher, I want to speak to you about your Jesus.” Quietly, I said to him, “Sir, I am not prepared to speak to a drunkard about my precious Lord and Saviour”, and I left.
After the event, I got a phone call maybe two or three weeks later when we were back on the farm to say that that young man who was drunk and who was heckling and causing trouble at the meeting has just given his life to Jesus Christ and he is born again.
Timing is of the essence. There is time to speak up and there is a time to keep quiet. Do it today and you will find that your life will be so much more pertinent and so much more successful.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Monday morning, the 3rd of April, 2023. I greet you in Jesus' precious Name - this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start off in 2 Corinthians 9:8:
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
Only do what God tells you to do. Before we make a serious decision, we need to get confirmation through the Word of God and our loved ones - Those that we really trust and respect. Matthew 7:8, Jesus says he who seeks finds.
When I'd just become a new Christian, I was very zealous for the Lord, as was my wife, Jill and our children. I decided to go up to the mountains to fast and pray for 6 days and 6 nights, drinking only water. I'll never forget the day - Jill and the children, they were very small - the five of them stood at that little garden gate, waving goodbye to me. You can imagine my wife was quite concerned because I thought that Jesus was going to tell me to give our farm away, to go to Bible college and become a minister, a pastor. But you see, when I was up on those mountains and was sitting quietly before the Lord, this beautiful scripture came up when I was doing my daily devotion. I was reading my Bible systemically, not jumping around. The way I interpreted the scripture, 2 Corinthians 9:8, was to stay on the farm to make a place for the Holy Spirit to move and to take care of the poor and the needy. When I came home Jill was standing at the gate again waiting for me but there was a big smile on her face, I said do you know what the Lord's told me? She smiled and said yes she does. We went into the bedroom, sat down with our Bibles and the exact scripture, 2 Corinthians 9:8, was the same scripture the Lord had given to Jill. We didn't even know what books each other was reading. We pray together every day but we have separate quiet times. That is confirmation and of course, the rest, as they say, is history!
Today, seek the Lord - Don't rush into a decision you going to make, He will confirm it as many times as you require. Don't rush around and God will direct your path.
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. It is Sunday morning, the 2nd of April 2023 and I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. This is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
We start off in the Gospel of John 1, and I'm reading from verse 1:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."
We are talking about Jesus Christ... and then we go straight to 1 John, right at the back of the Bible, close to the Book of Revelation. 1 John 1 and I'm reading from verse 1:
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life..."
We're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, God made flesh - Emmanuel! It literally means: "God with us." Now you find out in the Book of Isaiah 7:14 - That book was written over 800 years ago, even before Jesus Christ was even born. Oh, friends, I know this man... Oh my dear friend, He is my dearest friend, He is the Miracle worker! You know I've seen too many miracles with my own eyes to doubt that He is God's only begotten, precious son.
Just last week I was in Namibia where we were in an open-air meeting. The sun was extremely hot, maybe 40 degrees plus, I could see the people were uncomfortable with the heat. In front of everybody, we asked the Lord - Please Lord, can you send the cloud over the sun? Just to shelter the people, and what did He do? Exactly that, He sent the cloud over the sun and we had a beautiful umbrella of shade and then a gentle wind just blew through the crowd - it was incredible!
The weekend before that when I was down near Port Elizabeth in Jeffreys Bay, when I was just about finished preaching, He put a ring around the sun in the middle of the day, to tell us that He loved us! Oh yes, we've got thousands of witnesses to prove that! The weekend before that He broke our hearts, I saw big, strong men, up in the Mighty Men Bushveld (Polokwane), cry like babies as He healed us from fear and doubt.
Embrace Him today, He's waiting for you. He wants to talk with you, He is a friend who sticks closer than any brother - Proverbs 18:24.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday as you spend it with Him, goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 1st of April, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.”2 Corinthians 8:9
You see, it is in helping others that we ourselves become rich. Jesus left His home in Heaven and came down to earth to help you and me. Though He was rich in everything, yet He chose to become poor so that you and I could become rich. How beautiful is that?
The Lord has set the pace, He has set the benchmark and He says we must go out into the world and do the same.
“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
Mark 16:15
Time is running out. You see, it's in giving that you receive. Acts 20:35 says it is more blessed to give than to receive. You can never out-give the Lord. He is a Giver by nature. The more we give Him, the more He gives back to us. I have experienced it in my own life because He loves us so much. We don’t give to get back, we give because we love Him.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
John 15:13
Are you feeling sick today? I challenge you to go and find someone sicker than you and pray for them and you will be surprised how well you become. You see, we have got to take our eyes off ourselves and put our eyes on others. It is like a little boy walking down the street with his mom and complaining bitterly that he doesn’t have any shoes to wear until he sees another little boy getting pushed passed him in a pram because he has got no feet. We need to look outward. We need to give and the Lord will take care of every single one of our needs because He loves us so much.
Go out today and bless somebody and love someone and you will find that your day will be so much better.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 31st of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Exodus 20. You can read it yourself, it is the Ten Commandments that were given to Moses by our Heavenly Father on the top of Mount Sinai, written into stone by the finger of God.
“My son, keep my words,
And treasure my commands within you.
Keep my commands and live,
And my law as the apple of your eye.”
Proverbs 7:1-2
The Ten Commandments were given to us by God, not for Himself, He doesn’t have to keep them, He is God, but they are for us to help us. They are put in place for our good. They prevent us from bending the law, taking shortcuts, and they prevent us from telling white lies. Oh yes! You know, they prevent us from that moment of madness which causes a lifetime of sadness. I am not suggesting for a moment that we try to earn our way to Heaven with good works. No, no, no! No one knows that better than me, a sinner saved by grace, which is undeserved loving-kindness. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we have been saved by grace through faith, and even that not of ourselves for even that was a gift from God, but the law of God protects you and me from the temptations of satan himself.
If you go back to that scripture in Proverbs 7 and read the whole chapter, you will see that the writer speaks about the young man who is tempted by a woman whose husband is away and she seduces him into her house, just like an ox that is being led to the slaughter. I have seen it too many times, I have been to maximum security prisons and I have seen men, hardened criminals with tattoos all over them, you can see they are into drugs and he is standing next to another absolutely petrified prisoner. You can see he has come from a refined home but he made a mistake didn’t he? What did he do? He put his fingers in the till and he is in for fraud. He will tell you, “I meant to pay it back”, but he didn’t have time and the auditors caught him.
Don’t do it! God put the commandments in place to protect us from the wiles of the devil. Remember that song?
A new commandment I give unto you,
That you love one another,
As I have loved you,
That you love another,
As I have loved you.
And by this shall all men know
That you are my disciples,
If you have love,
One for another.
And by this shall all men know
That you are my disciples,
If you have love,
One for another.
May the Lord bless you and keep you in Jesus’ precious name as you walk in the blessing of God by obeying His commandments.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 30th of March, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted,…”
2 Corinthians 7:10
“Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor, and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”Luke 19:8
Four hundred per cent, the tax collector Zacchaeus was prepared to give back to anybody that he had stolen from! Now, that is godly sorrow. That's what it means. It means to produce repentance, to change his ways when he realised that the King of Glory had come to his house and dined with him. Folks, godly sorrow leads to repentance and repentance to salvation.
I just want to tell you a little story. I know an old couple in their eighties. He is a former Major General of the South African Defence Force, a highly decorated soldier. His wife is a gifted musician and a choir leader. Do you know, they gave it all up? That’s right. They are now running a mission Bible college in the bush. They are teaching Bible students from all over Africa, lots and lots of nations, and when I met him and I spoke to him, a godly man, he said to me, “Angus, now I have found my real purpose in life because Jesus is everything to me."
There is a church, somewhere up in the Johannesburg area, that I went to. As I walked through the door, there was a big neon sign up on the wall. “Missionary work is gratitude for Calvary.” When you realise what Christ has done for you, there is nothing else you want to do but to serve Him and serve His people.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 29th of March, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.”
Zechariah 4:6
“…greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world.”1 John 4:4
You know sometimes we neglect the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. We have Our Heavenly Father - oh, I love Him so much. We have His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the soon-coming King - oh, what a King we serve! Then we have the Holy Spirit. He is equally important. He is not a figment of our imagination. No, He is very real and has a character and a personality, and He is so sweet and so beautiful! We often forget Him, so often neglect Him, we don’t consult Him. We don’t even spend time talking to Him. How do you get to know somebody? By spending time with them.
He is our Comforter, He is our Advisor, He is our Defender, oh yes! He is our Protector. Why do we run to everybody else and not to the Holy Spirit for our needs and our counsel? You know in 1 Kings 19:11, we hear about Elijah in the cave, waiting to hear from God. What happened? First of all, a mighty wind came past, broke the rocks and the mountains, then an earthquake came and shook the earth and then fire came down from Heaven, but the Lord was not in any of them, and then a still small voice came. That is right, the Holy Spirit. A good idea is not always a God idea. We need to hear from our Lord, Holy Spirit.
Often when I am preaching, I will just about get up to go onto the platform or into the pulpit and I hear that still, small voice, crystal clear. In all the noise, all the excitement, all the praise and worship, The Lord says, “Angus, don’t share that word, I want you to share this word.” And I am saying, “But Lord, I have prepared the message.” “Don’t do that.” And I change my message, I don’t do it often, I can tell you, and I do it in an instant and that is the time when the power of God comes down on the people because it is God’s word.
Today, listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. He will direct you, He will comfort you and He will strengthen you. He is a Friend indeed. Jesus said, “I am going so that I can send you a Comforter, a Helper, Parakletos. (John 16:7). Have a wonderful day as you walk with your Friend.
In Jesus’ name,
Goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning and I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 28th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Go to the ant, you sluggard!
Consider her ways and be wise,
Which, having no captain,
Overseer or ruler,
Provides her supplies in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest.
How long will you slumber, O sluggard?
When will you rise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep—
So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man.
Proverbs 6:6-11
Folks, we have no place to be lazy as children of God. The Lord our God does not accept laziness. There is no excuse for being lazy. Laziness is to be bone-idle, showing a lack of effort or care. Jesus is our prime example of being a hard worker. Do you know, even in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was praying when the disciples were sleeping? He said,
“Can you not watch with me, not even for one hour?”
Matthew 26:40
A good start would be to get up early in the morning, I am not joking. We have to lead from the front, we have got to be a good example to our children. We should always be at work before our staff get there. We should always be found to be smartly dressed, our shoes shining. Don’t be late for work, don’t be late for your appointment because you know, eventually it is no longer a joke and folk will start to despise us for being constantly late. There are no excuses for laziness.
The Lord God created you and me to work. We were created for work and you know, it is so satisfying to have done a good hard day’s work and to come home and have a good shower and then sit there and speak with your family, feeling that you have done your work for the day. Let’s glorify God through our work ethic. You know the old saying, “If you want a job done, you always find a busy person”, don’t you? He or she will get the job done for you.
So let’s glorify God by how we live and no longer be lazy people but industrious people who love to work hard for Jesus. God bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 27th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Put away from you a deceitful mouth,
And put perverse lips far from you.
Let your eyes look straight ahead,
And your eyelids look right before you.
Ponder the path of your feet,
And let all your ways be established.
Do not turn to the right or the left;
Remove your foot from evil.Proverbs 4:24-27
I believe the Lord wants to say to you and me this morning, my dear friend, that we are not to waste time on worthless, useless arguments. Some people like arguing just for the sake of it. They have no intention of changing at all. No one deserves to hear the Gospel twice until the world has heard it once. If someone continually argues with you about the things of the Lord, pray for them, but move on otherwise you are wasting very, very precious time. I will go so far as to say that it is very difficult to win a person over to Jesus Christ through an argument. You have probably got more chance by losing the argument than by winning it, because people become adamant, they dig their heels in and they will not listen to reason.
You and me, as children of the Lord, must aim for the heart and not the head. You see, the Christian faith is all about trusting in the Lord. I always say, tongue in cheek, it is very hard for a mathematician or an accountant to enter into the Kingdom of God. Why? Because in God’s economy, two and two equal seven! It's a miracle, that's right! The whole salvation plan is a miracle. It doesn’t make sense but it is true.
You know that big game hunters in Africa, when they go out hunting for a buffalo bull, they will never shoot him in the head, they will always shoot him in the heart. When we are speaking about Jesus Christ, we need to aim for the heart. It is not clever words and it's not intellect, it is love that will win a soul over to Christ. Today, go out and love people and they will come to you and ask what they must do to meet the Man from Galilee.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 26th of March, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
What an incredible miracle! Just a short while ago, in one of our previous Thoughts For Today, we were speaking about miracles. I want to tell you, my dear friend, without a shadow of a doubt, the greatest miracle that ever takes place is when a person becomes a brand-new creation in Jesus Christ. When I see that it brings joy to my life, it brings tears to my eyes and I just cannot stop thanking the Lord for that miracle. When I am standing on a platform in a big field and I see people coming forward to repent of their sins, to ask Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Saviour of their lives, weeping uncontrollably when they realise what the Lord did for them and they realise the sins that they have committed and instantly, the Lord forgives them, He wipes away their tears. It is something to see, folks.
I have had the privilege of standing in front of literally thousands of people and when the meeting starts, there is maybe sometimes almost gloom and doom. Nobody knows what to expect. Some people are anxious, some are depressed, and some are bored and when the altar call comes and they come forward to commit their lives to Christ, it is like a completely different crowd. I cannot explain it to you, it makes me want to cry. These people are radiant, it is like they have been washed by the Holy Spirit which they have been, and they are brand-new people, weeping in each other’s arms, husbands and wives, sons and dads, brothers and sisters - it is what I live for! It is my meat, like Jesus said,
“My meat is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work”
John 4:34
I want to say to you today, look up to the Lord Jesus Christ and He will change your life in an instant. He did it for me on 18th February 1979. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious Name. It is Saturday, the 25th of March, 2023. This is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.”
Matthew 5:9
"Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us."
2 Corinthians 5:20
Wow, that’s quite something. You see we cannot do our own thing when we put our hands up for the Lord. We have got to represent Jesus correctly. A good ambassador represents his country properly. It’s no longer about our personal opinions, no, not at all, it’s all about God’s opinion on the matter. We have to use our credentials as ambassadors for Jesus. What are they? It is definitely the Word of God, the Bible. We say we have our own rights, but we haven’t, you’ve got no rights, my dear friend. When you gave your life to Christ you surrendered all your personal opinions, and now you follow the Word of God. When we become God’s representatives here on earth, we have surrendered our personal rights. That’s why we have got to be bold, and very courageous, we’ve even got to be prepared to be unpopular if necessary.
When asked about sex before marriage, I’m talking particularly to young people now, the answer is very clear. Anyone that has sex before marriage is a fornicator. We have to wait for our marriage night before we have sex with our loved one. When asked about being unevenly yoked in marriage or business, we have to be forthright and say that darkness has nothing to do with light, and oil does not mix with water, therefore a Christian should not get married to an unbeliever because you are asking for trouble. A good ambassador will say that. What about the abortion question? We can go on and on, “thou shalt not commit murder”, there can be no grey area in our lives when we are representing the King of kings because we are Jesus’ spokesmen here on earth.
Remember, people don’t have to like us, but they must respect us.
Jesus bless you as you stand tall for the King today.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 24th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But the path of the just is like the shining sun,…”
Proverbs 4:18
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:16
Now, we all know it is very hard to see stars shining during the day. You can hardly see them, but in the middle of the night when it is jet-black darkness, they shine and they twinkle beautifully, don’t they? So as we see things becoming progressively darker in this old world in which we are living, with things like immorality, and disregard for human life, where corruption, lying and dishonour seem to be the order of the day, this is where the Christian has the wonderful opportunity to shine for our Lord Jesus and where folks will see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.
You know, last week a group of us men were coming back from a Mighty Men Conference, and as the plane was about to land there was a heavy mist over the airport and obviously, the pilots were flying purely on instrumentation because we couldn’t see anything out of the windows. It was a little bit bumpy but we landed and the pilot did a great job. After the plane landed and we all disembarked, a lady walked over to us and said, “You know, that was quite a scary landing, wasn’t it?” we laughed and smiled and said, “Yes, it was.” Then she said, “But when I looked up and I saw you Christian men, positive, and talking about the things of God”, she said, “a peace came over my heart and I knew that we would land safely.”
Let your light shine today. You have no idea how many people are watching you and especially from a distance.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, it is the 23rd of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.“
Exodus 3:2
Amazing miracle - the bush was burning but it was not consumed.
“And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.”
Matthew 14:19
Jesus fed 5,000 men, not including the women and the children with two little sardines and five small barley loaves - multiplication of food! A burning bush that was not consumed! I want to ask you a question this morning. Do you believe in signs, wonders and miracles? Some people say, “Yes, we believe but those miracles went out when the disciples died.” I am sorry but I have to disagree with you entirely. You see, Hebrews 13:8 says that Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever. One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons. That is what we say at Shalom, and it really does. You can’t argue with a miracle because it is there in front of your eyes.
I had the privilege of speaking at a Mighty Men Conference just a week ago and as I was finishing up preaching, the crowd was pointing up into the sky and I couldn’t see because I was under a covering on the stage. They had a roof over the top so I couldn’t see anything. They told me to come down and have a look. I came out and there was a miracle in front of our eyes. It was in the middle of the day and there was a bright ring, a clear ring, right around the sun. Now, we had just been praying for rain in the Eastern Cape and God confirmed it for all of us, thousands of us praying for rain for Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Cape, and then when we looked a little bit further, there to the left, there in the sky was a beautiful cross made out of clouds.
Oh folks, I have seen too many miracles in my life to doubt the Lord. Don’t doubt Him, start believing in Him, but we must have patience because sometimes you have to wait a bit longer before you get your miracle.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Wednesday morning, the 22nd of March 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with the thought for today.
"Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life."
Proverbs 4:23
"Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it. But the correction of fools is folly."
Proverbs 16:22
“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
Matthew 12:34
We must not allow our hearts to become clouded and unclear, or to become muddy, because then we can't see what we are doing. Our heart is the wellspring of life. We need to keep it pure and clean. We need to be careful about what books we read, what television programmes we are watching, and what we look at on our cellphones and our devices. It is very easy to pollute our hearts and make them dirty or poison them. You know, when we arrived on our little Farm, Shalom, many many years ago, we had no water. We saw a damp, wet spot in a low-lying area, so we started to dig carefully around that spot and we had to go right down deep. I wasn't in a position to hire a driller, we did it with the pick and shovel. Eventually, we saw a little spring starting to come out of the rocks. We found the eye of the fountain, the eye of the spring and gently encouraged it. We took away all the debris, everything that was restricting it and it became stronger and stronger until eventually, it was able to supply our wattle and daub house with water. It got so strong in the end we purchased a windmill and erected the windmill just above that spring and it's served our house for many years.
Today, let us encourage the wellspring of our lives with good wholesome food. Yes, I'm talking about fresh wholesome food, the Bible. Read the Bible every day. Read devotionals, read Christian books, and listen to Christian programmes that will build up the inner man and encourage your personality to trust the Lord in everything and your life will be transformed.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 21st of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.”
2 Samuel 11:27
“I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!” Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.”
Matthew 27:4-5
We are speaking about King David and Judas Iscariot. A man named Professor Els, wrote me a beautiful letter and told me about his old mother who died recently at the ripe old age of 90 years plus. She said something, and this little quotation I shall never forget as long as I live, “In a moment of madness, a lifetime of sadness.” Folks, don’t do it!
I am talking to that young man. Do not have that affair with that lady in the office. She is not your wife, she is the wife of another man. I want to say to that young woman, do not allow that man to entice you to sleep with him. It could cause you a lifetime of sadness. He is not married to you. I want to say to that businessman, do not go into that business deal because you know that it is not right and you will be found out and you might even go to jail. It will cause a lifetime of sadness for your family.
Judas Iscariot threw the silver down. They bought a field with that money. It is called the Field of Blood. I have been to Israel, in a high-density area, there is one little block, an empty field. That’s right, that is exactly where it happened, the Field of Blood.
David, the darling of every Jew dropped the ball in a moment of madness and had an affair with Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite’s wife, and his life went totally wrong from then onwards. It is not worth it. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you, be responsible, and sit down before you do it and count the cost and you won’t do it.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 20th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
”But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”
Numbers 14:24
Now remember, Caleb was over 80 years old and Joshua said to Caleb, “Because you have done so well, you can choose any part of the Promised Land, the Land of Milk and Honey, any part you want to stay in.” What did Caleb say - “I want the safe place”? Oh no! No, no, no - he didn’t say that. He said, “Give me the big mountains where the big giants live.” What a man of faith!
“The just (the righteous) shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:17
I want to say to you today, you have a choice. You can believe the lies of the devil or you can believe the promises of God. It is entirely up to you. In 2 Timothy 1:7, Jesus says,
“I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Folks, the opposite of fear is faith. We need faith today like never before. I would rather be in a small little rowing boat with Jesus at the helm, going around Cape Horn, in South America, the most dangerous ocean in the world, with six-metre waves around that rowing boat - I would rather be there with Jesus than to be on one of these luxury liners on a calm lake without any waves, without Him. For me, absolute peace and security is to be in the presence of God. Now, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)
So today, spend time in the word of God and listen to the promises of God. He says, “I will never leave you.” He says, “I will never forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5) Do not propagate the lies of satan. Rather, speak of the love and the power of God that comes through the Bible.
Have a blessed day and remember, no one can harm you unless God allows it, and He is not about to do that.
Have a blessed day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name, it is Sunday morning the 19th of March 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
John 14:27
What is peace? Peace is freedom from disturbance. Peace is to be calm, restful and still. Psalm 46:10:
"Be still and know that I am God."
Another word for Peace is shalom - that is the term that Jesus would use when he came into a home, he would say "Shalom", which is the Hebrew word for peace. It is the absence of conflict, it is the absence of turmoil. Now, folks, we live in a very busy, hurried world at the moment, don't we? Even though we might be in the very midst of persecution and even tribulation from the world, we still have peace in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus has not abandoned you my dear friend. He has not left you - He has given us His Holy Spirit to comfort us. We must not yield to fear but we must be courageous you know... I'm sitting, sending this message out to you and it's still dark outside. I'm sitting quietly and I'm praying for you and I'm thinking of you. Even the birds haven't started singing yet, it's still dark outside but there is peace in this place. You see peace is not necessarily your circumstances, peace is not your environment. Peace is in your heart and that's why I want to say to you today - Be still and know that He is God.
Be still and know that I am God,
be still and know that I am God,
be still and know that I am God.
I am the lord that healeth thee,
I am the lord that healeth thee,
I am the lord that healeth thee...
Have a peaceful, quiet Sunday today. We love you very much
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 18th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
2 Corinthians 5:7
“And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.”
James 2:23
I don’t think there is a greater title that one could bestow on anyone than to be called, “the friend of God.” I mean, if you wanted to be known as the friend of a great leader of a country or a sportsman, or a great or famous actor, “So and so is my friend”, that is a great honour, but can you imagine being called “the friend of God”?
Folks, everybody wants to be God’s friend. Even the devil doesn’t want to fight with God. I want to tell you something now, God looked down from Heaven and He saw that farmer, Abraham, and He said, “That man is my friend.” Abraham believed God. We need to walk by faith and not by sight if we want to please God today. Abraham was told by the Lord to leave his farm, to leave all his family in the Ur of Chaldees, that's where he came from, and to go with his immediate family to an unknown destination. That takes faith - just pack up everything and move. Well, I want to tell you something now - that honoured God and then when God gave him a son, he waited for that son. Remember, he was 100 years old. His wife, Sarah, was in her late nineties, and God gave them the most beautiful baby. His name was Isaac.
When Isaac came of age, at about 13 years old, the Lord said to the man of faith, “I want him back again.” Abraham did not hesitate. He took the donkey, he took the firewood, he took his son and servant and off they went. Where did they go? They went to Mount Zion, that’s right - where Jerusalem is built today, and without any hesitation, he tied his son up because he knew by faith that if necessary God would raise his son out of the ashes, and he was about to kill him when the Lord sent an Angel of the Lord to say, “Abraham, Abraham, leave the boy. There is a young ram in the thicket. Take that and offer that ram up as a sacrifice.”
God wants you and I today to walk by faith and not by sight, and He will honour us, He will bless us and He will protect us. That is why I love Him so much. Have you ever heard of a book called, “Faith Like Potatoes”? That's all it is - just do what He says and He will do the rest. That book is in 17 languages, that book has gone right around the world, and a movie was even made from that book, Why? Because by faith, God said to me, “Write your story.”
Now, you do it today - write your story!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Saturday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 17th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.”Isaiah 64:4
What a beautiful scripture!
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”1 Corinthians 2:9
Why do you and I continue to limit our beloved Jesus? Has He given us any reason to doubt Him at all? Of course not, every single thing that He has promised, He has fulfilled. Think about it. Look at your own life. Today, let's start to really trust Him. We say glibly that He is the God of the impossible and yet we do not give our Lord Jesus a chance to move in our lives. God says in Genesis 18:14:
“Is any thing too hard for the Lord?”
Remember the story of Abraham and Sarah? Sarah actually laughed at the promise of God. She went behind the tent, she was over 90 years old. God said to Abraham, “I am going to give you a son through Sarah”, and she laughed. “Impossible!” Haven’t we also done that? Let’s start being honest with ourselves now. Let’s repent and start following the promises of God over our lives.
Listen to this beautiful little poem that I found:
Follow me and I will make you,
Make you speak My words with power,
Make you vessels of My mercy,
Make you helpful every hour.
Follow me, and I will make you,
Make you what you cannot be,
Make you loving, trustful, godly,
Make you even just like Me.
Isn’t that beautiful? How about this one?:
Make your petition deep, oh heart of mine,
Your God can do much more than you can ask,
Launch out on the Divine, draw from His love-filled store,
Trust Him with everything, begin today, and find the joy that comes
When Jesus has His way.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Thursday morning, the 16th of March, 2023 and I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today.”
Exodus 14:13
“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,…”Ephesians 6:14
Holding ground! You know, we always want to do something, don’t we - instead of allowing the Lord Jesus Christ to do it for us? William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, his whole organisation is based on an army. They say that when the Salvation Army was at its height, it had more soldiers than any other army on earth, but these were not fighting soldiers, these were praying soldiers, the Salvation Army. Every time he left the citadel which was a fort, of course, they called it the citadel, not a church, every time he left to go to another country, he would say to his officers, “Hold the fort!”
We need to stand. Remember, the battle is the Lord’s, it is not our battle. We need to stand and it is a very difficult thing to do because we always want to be busy doing something, especially the younger people. As a young farmer myself, I remember planting a crop in faith, the seed was all under the ground and then after a few days starting to dig up the seed, to see if it had germinated or not. I had no fingernails left on my fingers, doubting - has the maize seed actually germinated, or is it there? Maybe the planter skipped and made gaps in the lines, and I would be on my knees, digging it up instead of waiting a couple of weeks, and then early in the morning, go out and see those beautiful green lines of maize breaking through the soil. What a day that always was!
But you and I are always wanting to do something for God. We are programmed that way, aren’t we? Instead of doing, we need to start being. Now, Mary and Martha are a very good example, remember Lazarus’s two sisters? They both loved Jesus very, very much but if you look at Luke 10:41-42:
“And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His divine words while Martha was running to and fro trying to get things ready for the banquet. The Lord says no Martha, come and sit. I want to talk with you. You know, I just want to say to you in closing that the Lord does not need us. No, He is God. He can get anything He wants, but He wants us. He created us to have fellowship with Him.
Today, spend time with the Lord and He will speak with you and use you and bless you.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, it is the 15th of March, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“I believed, therefore I spoke,…”
Psalm 116:10
“I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,…”
2 Corinthians 4:13
"But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Romans 8:11
Oh my dear friend, do you have a testimony this morning? Can you tell people that you believe, because you know, because He lives inside you? Jesus Christ is so much alive today. He is soon coming back. He is going to take you and me to Heaven with Him and we are going to live there in peace and harmony with our Heavenly Father and with the Holy Spirit.
People will only believe you, when you tell them about the Lord, if you yourself believe it. There are some people, the way they preach, it looks to me like they don’t even believe what they are preaching. You see, you have to live the life. There needs to be such a change in your spirit-man, in your life, your character, people will say, “What has happened to you? You are not the same person we knew yesterday.”
You know, when Jill and I gave our lives to the Lord, we were invited by the minister to come to his house and have a mid-week Bible study. After about three or four weeks, I was so hungry for the Lord, I had a complete transformation in my life. I had joy and peace and purpose, but the minister was always rather abrupt, and he was actually a bit ugly to me, to be honest with you. After about four weeks, being a man who wears my heart on my sleeve, I said, “Can I speak to you for a minute?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Why are you so harsh on me? Why are you so short with me? What have I done wrong?” Then he looked at me and I think there were a few tears in his eyes. He said, “Angus, I must confess when I saw you come into my Bible study, I wasn’t too sure if you were the real deal because I know your track record. I know where you came from, I know how you used to be and I wasn’t sure if it was just a facade, but I know now that Jesus Christ lives in your heart." That is the testimony that you and I need. There must be a change and when you preach you tell them, “I believe because I know my Redeemer lives.”
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 14th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Job, they say the oldest book in the Bible.
"Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.”
Job 28:28
”The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; By understanding He established the heavens;…”
Proverbs 3:19
“My son, let them not depart from your eyes—
Keep sound wisdom and discretion;
So they will be life to your soul
And grace to your neck.”
Proverbs 3:21
Like never, ever before, we need the mind of Christ! Wisdom and understanding do not come from the lecture halls of the world. No, wisdom and understanding come from the closet, from the quiet time room, from spending time with Jesus early in the morning, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
”But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33
Do you remember that old song?
Seek ye first the kingdom of God
And His righteousness;
And all these things shall be added unto you.
Hallelu, Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelu, Hallelujah!
Ask, and it shall be given unto you;
Seek, and you shall find.
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
Hallelu, Hallelujah!
Today, seek wisdom and understanding in your closet from the Lord Jesus Christ and go out and bless the world.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 13th of March, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”1 Thessalonians 5:24
A good idea is not always a “God” idea. You and I have got to believe by faith that the Lord Jesus Christ does not break His promises. We can find evidence of that in Numbers 23:19
“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent, Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
The devil is a liar. The devil will break every promise he ever makes to you because there is no goodness in him. John 10:10 says:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” But Jesus said:” I came to give you life abundantly,”
By faith, you and I need to hang on to the promise of God in our lives, even by the very skin of our teeth, if necessary. But how do we get that faith, Angus, that you are talking about? Well, Romans 10:17 says:
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
When God gives me a promise, the way I strengthen myself, by trusting the Lord for that promise is by spending time reading my Bible. That’s how I hang on to the promises of God. If God has promised you that He will give you the desires of your heart, He will do it.
“Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:4
We have seen it happen, time and time again, on this farm, Shalom, and I think many of you listening to this message can witness to that. The Lord said to me many, many years ago in 2003, “I want you to mentor young men, and that is what I did by faith. I hung onto the promises of God and in 2010, we saw over 400,000 men on this farm. God honours His promises.
Now, young lady, if you are waiting for the man in your life, the man that you want to get married to and he hasn’t arrived yet, stand on the promises of God. Don’t run ahead of God because you will marry the wrong man. Young man, you are struggling with your university degree. You don’t think you will ever get it but you believe that God promised you that He would help you through. Hang in there, He will do it for you. The same goes for that business venture, sir. The same thing goes for that farming enterprise. Focus on Jesus and He will fulfil His promise to you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 12th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.”Proverbs 3:7
“Do not be wise in your own opinion.”
Romans 12:16
“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”1 Corinthians 10:12
To be self-opinionated is a very dangerous place to be. To be opinionated means that your opinion is not necessarily based on fact or knowledge, it is just your opinion or my opinion. It is vital to get a second opinion and that is why I have four advisors, four trustees. These men have been my personal mentors for many, many years. They give me godly counsel and often they will correct me and say, “No, we don’t believe that that is God’s opinion for the situation.” People are not interested in our opinions or our fancies, and only want God’s opinion on the matter, and that is found in the Bible. The Bible must be the final authority of any opinion or dispute - especially in the home with moms and dads and the children, in the workplace or even on the sports field.
I remember a cup final many years ago. There was about a minute to go. There was a penalty decision given by the referee to the team that was winning by 2 points. All they had to do was to kick the ball out and it would have been their cup. But one of the players was absolutely adamant about giving his personal opinion. The referee said, “I am not interested in your opinion.” The player continued to give his opinion and the ref turned the penalty around to the losing side, who were losing by 2 points by the way. Their best player kicked the ball through the posts and won the match by 1 point and then the whistle was blown. So because of one man’s opinion, the team lost the cup final. I think he had to be escorted off the field because of the supporters.
Folks, let's hear what God’s opinion on the matter is and that is final.
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 11th of March, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.“2 Corinthians 3:17
Liberty wherever the Holy Spirit is found. Freedom! It comes from the love of the Holy Spirit that He puts into the lives of His children. I remember hearing a story of a very well-known preacher, David Wilkerson, the author of The Cross and The Switchblade. He went onto the platform at a very big meeting, stood there for a moment and then he walked off. He said, “There is no love here. The Spirit of God is not here. I cannot preach.” I want to tell you not to underestimate the Holy Spirit. You know, we are very quick to talk about God our Father, and we are very quick to talk about our friend, the Lord Jesus Christ but very often we forget about the Holy Spirit who is the Third Person in the Holy Trinity. He is for real. He is in this prayer room as I am speaking to you right now, I can feel Him, and He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. When Jesus went home to be with His Father, He said, “I will not leave you as orphans, I will send you My Holy Spirit and He will help you.” The Helper! So today, we need to understand that wherever the Holy Spirit is found, there is liberty.
I remember speaking at the Feast of the Tabernacles, down at the Dead Sea, at Ein Gedi, where David hid from King Saul. It was a wonderful occasion, there were no less than eighty nations represented there. There were about five thousand delegates, maybe more, I don’t know but the Spirit of the Lord was in that place. Now folks, I can only speak English and Zulu and that is about the sum total of it, but I want to tell you, we had eighteen interpreters that night. There were people from every nation you could think of, but you know in an instant when I met them we were friends, we were brothers and sisters in Christ, like we had known each other all our lives. I am talking about Chinese people from mainland China, Russians, Argentinians, Portuguese, Spanish, Africans, Australians, and New Zealanders, from all over the world. Within an instant - why? - because the Spirit of the Lord was there and it gave us liberty.
Sadly to say, there are some people I have known for forty years and still, the closest I can get to them is a handshake, that is about all. There is no spirit of love there, just an association. Today remember, where the Spirit of God is, there is liberty and that is wonderful news.
Have a fantastic day today as you meet up with a fellow believer.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 10th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Psalm 34:19
What a beautiful scripture if someone is hurting this morning, even as we remember the Easter Season.
Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”
Mark 14:32
How are you feeling today as we start to prepare our hearts for the Easter Season? I want to speak to you about afflictions. The word “affliction” means to be distressed, to be tormented, to be burdened, to be filled with pain and suffering, and if anybody ever knew about that it was our beloved Master and Saviour, Lord Jesus Christ. When He went with His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, He said to them, “Wait, I am going to pray.” Gethsemane means the Olive Press. It is where the olives were pressed in the time of Jesus so that pure olive oil could be extracted. It is where our beloved Jesus suffered more than at any other time in His earthly ministry, I want to suggest to you, that maybe even more than when He was actually crucified. Maybe today you are struggling, you are struggling with fear, pain, betrayal - maybe someone has betrayed you, deserted you - maybe they have left you and you are on your own.
I will never forget many, many years ago, preaching in a church in Pietermaritzburg which is very close to us, it brings me to tears actually. At the altar call when the people were coming forward for prayer, there was a most delightful old couple, an old man and his dear old wife. She had those round glasses, and her face was rosy. She had put some make-up on her face, but she was so sad. She had a coat on and he had his deer-stalker and tweed jacket, and the two of them stood there just absolutely lost, and I walked up to them and I said to them, “What can I pray for?” and they burst into tears. They said, “Please pray for us. Our son is stealing from us.” Folks, you know, I think I started crying right there and then and I still do as a relate the story to you. Their own son! The one who would inherit the farm, he couldn’t wait, he was stealing from that old couple. That is pain! That is the pain that Jesus understands. He was oppressed and He was afflicted for our sakes. (Isaiah 53:7)
So today, cast your cares upon Jesus because He cares for you. Simply stand (Ephesians 6:14), and the Lord will fight for you!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 9th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“You are our epistle (our letter) written in our hearts, known and read by all men;…”2 Corinthians 3:2
We need to walk the talk. We need to be a living epistle, a letter. People need to be able to read us with their carnal eyes when they see us walking down the street. There needs to be a difference in us by our lifestyle and not necessarily by anything else, not by our college degree, our university qualifications or our sporting attributes. No - you see the greatest miracle is the change in a person’s life. No miracle can compare with that, not even the splitting of the Red Sea, and only the Master can do that in a man’s life, only Jesus can do that, change a man’s life in an instant.
Remember the story of Zacchaeus, in the Gospel of Luke 19:8? He was a terrible man. He was robbing his own people, the Jewish people, a tax collector of note. He climbed up a tree because he was a short man and he wanted to see Jesus. Jesus was walking through town, looked up at the tree and said, “Zacchaeus, I am coming to your house today to have a meal with you.” There was a complete and instant transformation in Zacchaeus’ life. He says in Luke 19:8:
“Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
He gave back to the Lord, not 10%, but 400%, an instant transformation! Can you imagine what the people must have said as he was walking down the street the next day? A thief turned into an angel overnight, and that's what you and I have to do my dear friend. We need to change. People need to read us like a book. They need to say, “You see that man? He was a scoundrel but now he has become a saint. He has had a change in his life. He has met Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world."
The Lord can do it for you and me today, and then we need to walk the talk and live the life.
Have a blessed day today as you become a living letter, a living email, a living WhatsApp, a living example of what Christ can do in a person’s life in an instant.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 8th of March, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”1 Corinthians 1:18
Isn’t that beautiful?
“For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”
2 Corinthians 2:15
The fragrance of Jesus to a dying world, that's what we have to be when everything is so negative, we must remain positive. Where this world is constantly bringing bad news, you and I need to bring the good news. We ask ourselves a question, is the glass of water half full or is it half empty? Well, that depends on how you look at it. Like never before in our lives, you and I have the opportunity of being a sweet-smelling fragrance of our Lord Jesus Christ to a dying and hurting world.
Don’t become like that miserable old farmer who is never happy. When the sun comes up in the morning, he says, “Here comes the drought,” and at midday when the clouds rise he says, “Here come the floods!” He is never happy. He is never satisfied. The preacher, Chuck Swindall, told a beautiful story, I will never forget it, about a positive farmer and a negative farmer. With the negative farmer, everything was wrong. So one day, the positive farmer said, “Let's go fishing so he took his neighbour and the two of them went and sat at the edge of a lake. The positive farmer brought his dog with him, and as they were fishing, he said to his dog, “Off you go!” The dog ran across the top of the water. The positive farmer said to the negative farmer, “What do you think about that?” He looked at the dog and said, “What’s wrong with your dog, doesn’t he know how to swim?”
I want to tell you about one of the most positive people I have ever met, Leigh Odendaal, she has gone to be with Jesus now. She was the fragrance of Christ even though she was in a wheelchair after a horse-riding accident. She was the most beautiful lady. She would come to church and I would make a beeline to go and see her and she was always, always so encouraging. “How are you Angus? You are preaching well, we love you.” She was totally selfless, a ray of sunshine, an example of the fragrance of Christ. I had the privilege of taking her funeral. It was probably one of the biggest funerals I have taken in my life. The people couldn’t fit into the church.
Today, let’s be a fragrance for Christ,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, 7th of March 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in 1 Chronicles 28:9:
“As for you, my son, Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.”
Then we go to Proverbs 3:5-6:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”
The last one is Matthew 7:7, we all know it:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you.’
No favour here, no luck involved... No, just pure love for God and hard work - Yes, blood, sweat and many tears. Solomon was not a favoured man by God when he was born. He was an ordinary person, just like you and me, but he had a heart after God, a desire to know Jesus more intimately.
A young man by the name of Joseph Majola, was a young Zulu child. He lived across the road from where we are farming. He lived in a traditional hut and he came from a very poor family. He had no lights, and no running water but he loved Jesus Christ with a passion and he was determined to succeed, that means to achieve success. He walked 15km to school and 15km back. He studied with a candle. He washed his clothes every day. He had to go and fetch and carry water but the most important ingredient here is one of motive. Why was he so intent on succeeding? Well, the answer is found with Solomon.
You see, Solomon asked God for wisdom so that he could govern his people, the Jewish nation, correctly. Because of his selfless request, God gave him everything - wisdom, fame, wealth and power.
Oh by the way, the last I heard about Joseph Majola, he was the principal at a high school in Northern KwaZulu Natal, with over a thousand students.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name, it is Monday morning the 6th of March 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. 2 Corinthians 1:20:
"For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us."
You and I can bank on the word of God. The promises of God are "yea and amen" Just like that bank note when you go to the shop to buy something - it's just a piece of paper in it- but on that piece of paper is printed the National Bank of that particular country and it backs up the exact value that is printed on that note. And so it is with the word of God, the Bible. Every promise made by God which, is printed in the Holy Bible, you can trust, you can bank on it and you can believe it. if you really take this to your heart and you really believe it, we will become extremely rich folk... all the cattle on a thousand Hills, all the silver and gold and even the hills themselves, belong to our God and if we, you and I as children they belong to us as well. I don't think we realised the riches that we have through Jesus Christ, who died for us on the cross of Calvary. Now today, go out and attempt great things for God and expect great things from our God because you have the guarantee.
You know the man that said that, was William Carey. He was an Englishman, he was a cobbler by trade, not even a shoemaker. He couldn't make shoes, he could only repair them. By Faith, using the promises of God he went to India to take the gospel of Jesus Christ. That man, who was semi-literate, learnt the most difficult languages in the world, he then translated the Bible - all the promises of God - into the local languages of the Indian folk and to this very day, they are reading the Word of God.
I want to say to you today, nothing is too hard for God. He's giving you all the authority, He has given you the guarantee of everything you do in His name. Now many of us are walking around like paupers, we've got nothing - because we do not believe in the value of the promises of God. It's like walking into a shop with a pocket full of money and then saying you can't afford to buy anything and walking out again. Take the money, take the promises of God and use them! You will be surprised what you can buy with the promises of God. Do it in a responsible way, do it to glorify His name and you will never be the same again.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, it is the 5th of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
2 Corinthians 1:4
Why do we as believers have to suffer so much? Well, we are living in a fallen world and you and I are not exempt from hardship or trouble, not at all. When we gave our lives to Jesus Christ, He never promised us that we would be exempt from trouble. No, in fact, that false preaching, “Come to Jesus and all your troubles will be over” is not true. I can’t find that scripture in the Bible because it is not there. Jesus said He would walk with you and me through the fire but He is not taking us out of the fire. It is a wonderful opportunity to witness for Christ when we are going through tough times.
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that our problems will be over if we come to Christ, on the contrary, but why do we go through those hardships and trials? Well, one of the reasons is so that you and I can identify with those who are going through tough times. I am talking about the loss of a loved one, mourning. Do you know, if you have never lost somebody very close to you, you won’t understand what a person is going through and the tendency is to go to the person, give them a scripture, pray for them and tell them to wake up and get going. That’s not what they want. Do you know what they want? They want you to sit next to them, when you have lost a child, when you have just heard bad news that your company has been declared bankrupt, and they want you to put your arm around them and they want you to cry with them, and say to them, “It's okay, I have walked this road myself and I am telling you it is not going to last. The Lord will bring us through.” That is what they need and that is what the scripture in Corinthians is all about.
When you have been through it yourself, then you understand and you can sympathise genuinely with those who are suffering.
God bless you and have a wonderful day today,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 4th of March, the beautiful year of 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Horatio Bonar was a great hymn-writer and out of one of his hymns this is what he says, “Begin the day with God, He is your sun and day.”
“Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.”Matthew 28:1
The early bird catches the worm - there is no doubt about it. The two Marys were the first people on the earth to see the risen Christ because they got up early in the morning. Don’t speak to people about God until you have spoken to God about people. Many times, the disciples couldn’t find Jesus. “Lord, where have You been? The people are waiting for You.” He was up the mountain early with His Father, getting instructions from the Lord for the day ahead. When God told Moses that He was going to give him the Ten Commandments, He wanted him up the mountain early in the morning.
“So be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself to Me there on the top of the mountain, And no man shall come with you…”
Exodus 34:2-3
You should give the Lord Jesus Christ your first fruits of the day and you should do it on your own, in a quiet time place. I am a 4 am riser and I come out of my prayer room at 9 o’clock. I have the privilege of doing that because my sons are now running the farms. The Lord speaks to me very clearly early in the morning. Yes, He speaks to me during the day, but the day becomes clouded with peoples’ opinions and different situations that occur.
If you want to go to the game reserve and see animals at their best, get up early in the morning. I want to say something outrageous - I have got no scriptural backing for this - I believe when the Lord comes for the second and the final time, what a day that will be! I do not think He will be coming at midday, I do not think He will be coming in the evening, I think He will be coming early in the morning when that trumpet calls and He comes in the clouds of glory! Oh my dear friend, are you ready for that?
Oh Lord, what a morning
Oh Lord, what a morning
Oh Lord, what a morning
When the Saviour comes to call!
Be ready, He is coming soon! Get up in the morning!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 3rd of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Even the youths shall faint and grow weary,
And the young men shall utterly fail,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint”.
Isaiah 40:30-31
How are you feeling today? Are you feeling a bit worn out, or completely stressed out with the pace of life that you are living at the moment? Well, I want to share my heart with you today. I want to read something out of my personal journal. A few days ago, Jill and I went up into the mountains, to a little cottage that was right in front of a beautiful pool of water, like a small lake. We arrived there for a quiet weekend together and I wrote, “Thank you Jesus, we truly need the break. There is no TV in this cottage, there is no distraction at all in fact. On purpose, I have left everything behind. My books (I read a lot, but took no books. I only took my Bible and my quiet time book that I am reading out of for you). It is beautiful here. It is serene. The little lake looks like a mirror. There is absolutely no interruption at all and indeed we can feel the very presence of Jesus in this place. Please talk to us Master, I pray. There is discipline required here and You are going to show me. By nature, I am a very busy person and I am running to and fro. I remember one day Lord, you even said to me, “Angus, your busyness makes me tired” and so it is a good time to sit and be quiet in God’s beautiful nature garden.”
You know, I sat outside on that verandah and I watched, for the first time in a long time, I got up, I walked around in a circle and I sat down again. No cell phone, no iPad, no distraction. I looked and there was a little coot, a little black bird and he had a mate and they had made a nest underneath some roots at the edge of the lake. They were going back and forwards and getting food, and then a couple of Egyptian Geese landed right on the lawn in front of us and they made a big racket, they were having a big discussion together. I was totally taken up by this. Just a few minutes later a cooing dove came and sat in the tree next to me and started singing, and I remembered that it was a Dove that came down and settled on our Lord Jesus Christ. It was the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and nature started speaking to me.
Now, I am a farmer, I should be used to this but you know, farmers are probably some of the busiest people around. We need to take time out, not just to smell the roses but also to watch the birds.
Today, rest in Him and He will renew your strength.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 2nd of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
John 8:36
If Jesus has made us free then we need to stay free and not go back to Egypt, but we say, “It is so hard walking on this road.” We say, “It's very tough. Why did we come out of Egypt?” Now, you will find that scripture in Numbers 11:20:
Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?
You see, the road to eternal life is hard and it is narrow and few walk on it.
“Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”Matthew 7:14
It leads to eternal life. In the desert of life, God teaches you and me to think out of the box. That’s right. He teaches us to improvise. He toughens us up. He has to let us go through these times so that we grow strong, and not be led like sheep to the slaughter. I remember many years ago as a young man listening to a message, I have never forgotten this picture. The preacher said that there is a flock of wild geese and they are flying high and free. They go wherever they want to go. There is no slave driver over them. Yes, it is tough and it is hard and they are lean and sometimes very hungry, but they are free to go wherever they desire. Then we have the Muscovy duck who is pent up in a chicken run getting fed as much as he can eat but he is going nowhere fast. By the way, he is getting fattened up for the pot. He is running up and down that hen run, flapping those little wings of his which would not be able to carry him anywhere when he hears the cry of the wild geese flying overhead. You and I are never ever going back to the fleshpots of Egypt, where it seems so comfortable. Jesus has made us free and we are heading home. That’s right, we are flying to Heaven, and we are going to get there because He is going ahead of us. Today, do not compromise your freedom for a plate of lentil soup like Esau did when he gave away his inheritance because he was hungry.
Jesus bless you today as you keep heading home,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 1st of March, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”1 Corinthians 15:22
“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”1 Corinthians 15:55
Oh Hell, where is your victory?
The greatest weapon of satan is fear and especially the fear of death. It comes through sin, when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden death came, but Jesus Christ has overcome the power of fear by the power of love and faith in Him!
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”2 Timothy 1:7
Yes, the Lord has taken out the sting of death and eternal damnation and He has replaced it with the reassurance that because He is alive, we shall live with Him forever. Do you remember what Billy Graham said? He said, “One day you will read in the newspapers that last night Billy Graham died. Don’t believe a word of it - I would have merely changed my address." That’s right, my address will be Heaven.
My little grandson was heartbroken the other day when one of his best friend’s mom died of cancer, and we had a little talk together. She was a strong and committed Christian woman. I told him to tell his little friend that the Bible says in Psalm 116:15:
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”
As someone once said, “Death is just like leaving one room, opening the door and walking into the next room." Oh, but what a glorious room that will be. What a glorious future awaits us, so let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and the Perfecter of our faith, and today go out and comfort someone who is hurting, who is mourning the loss of a loved one and remind them that if their friends love Jesus, they are not dead, they have simply changed address!
God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 28th of February, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we start in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, one of my favourite scriptures:
“And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
How are you feeling this morning? You might say, “I am feeling weak.” Well, I want to tell you that when you are feeling weak then Christ is strong in you, that is why Paul can say in Romans 5:3-4:
“I rejoice in my tribulations because tribulation worketh patience, patience, character and character, hope.”
I have never met a man yet in my life worth his salt who has not been through fiery trials. Jesus’ grace is sufficient for you and me. His strength is made perfect when we are weak, so therefore, when we are weak, then we are strong.
I read something very beautiful that was written by C.H. Spurgeon. He said,
“Can a little fish drink a river dry? Can a little field mouse, a shrew, eat a hundred hectares of maize? Can a single man deplete all the oxygen in the world while standing on top of a mountain? Of course not, it is ludicrous to even think of that. Well, can the Lord Jesus Christ not take care of you and me today?” He said, “A little faith will bring us to Heaven,” but listen to this, “but great faith will bring Heaven to our souls.”
Today, no matter how little faith you might have, give it to Jesus and He will multiply it for you. You have nothing whatsoever to worry about today. Just go out and thank Him for every single thing that He has given to you.
May the Lord bless you and keep you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good day to you, I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 27th of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a Thought For Today.
"I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me".
Philippians 4:13
I heard a beautiful saying once that goes like this, "He who aims beneath the stars, aims too low". You have to aim above the stars. We say, "If your vision doesn't scare you, it's not big enough". Why? Because when it works everybody will say that was God, that wasn't you, and He will get all the glory. Remember, the best form of defence is attack. What does that mean? It means when everybody else is afraid and everybody else is pulling back and holding back that's the time when the believer steps forward and doubles up. I really mean that. It's been my motto since I started farming. When everybody says you can't, we say in Christ's Name we can. Okay, obviously we must hear from God first, that's very important, and then we must be very bold, very brave and very strong. We must not look behind us.
“No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:62
As soon as you look back, fear will grip you and you will collapse. Keep your eyes on Jesus and keep moving in a forward direction because He is moving with us. You know, I've mentioned it before, but I need to say it again, when we held that campaign at the Kings Park Rugby Stadium in Durban, South Africa I made a very bold statement. I said: "To hell with El Niño". I said we are going back to the farm and we going to plant potatoes. Folks, we had been told by the government that we mustn't plant our crops, that they are going to take strain without rain. The villagers were told not to plant maize because there was going to be no rain. I said to hell with El Niño, we are going back.
I planted potatoes. I planted maize. I hired fields from the neighbours and I planted maize there too. It was a tough time. There were days when I thought I'd made a terrible mistake because the rain just did not come. But then, it came in time. Because there was such a small national crop the price went through the roof and we probably made more money that year than on a good year, a normal year with normal rain. Do not be afraid to step out of the boat and walk on the water as long as Jesus has told you to, as long as He's holding your hands. This is the most exciting time of our lives. This is not a time to get huddled in the boat, the boat is sinking anyway, it's full of wood rot. We need to walk on the water and we'll meet the King of Kings right in that place.
Jesus bless you on this Monday as you step out again for Him by faith.
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 26th of February 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a Thought For Today.
"The Lord watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow; But the way of the wicked He turns upside down".
Psalm 146:9
I quite like that!
"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?"
Romans 8:31
Have you had some people say: "There was a bit of divine cheating that took place when I wrote my exams because I really didn't understand the questions and I prayed and asked the Lord to undertake and He made a plan for me"? Divine cheating. But jokes aside folks, I want to tell you that if Christ is for you no one can stand against you. Those people that you think are getting away with it, the Lord tells us this morning that he turns the way of the wicked upside down.
Many a time, when I drive into town in my pickup, and I come to a robot, another farmer will maybe pull up alongside me, wind down the window and say, "Listen, can you send a prayer up to the Man Upstairs and ask Him to send us a bit of sunshine?" Then off he drives with a big smile on his face. Sometimes I used to get a little bit angry and think that that man was been totally disrespectful towards the Lord. Then I felt the Holy Spirit say to me "No, don't be like that, Angus, that man obviously believes that you hear from Me and that's why he's asking you to pray and send the sunshine". They call it a hotline to heaven. You've got a hotline to heaven. I know it's always tongue-in-cheek, but I think there's a lot of truth behind that. People really believe that we, as the children of the Lord, can hear clearly from God. So let's not be offended by that. Let us take it in our stride and say, "Yes, of course, we will and we are praying for you as well". Sometimes I see a tear welling up in their eyes because they just want to know the Lord more intimately. So remember, he relieves the fatherless and the widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down. He promises you, my dear friend, that He will never leave you and that He will never forsake you. Hebrews 13:5
Jesus bless you and have a lovely Sunday as you talk to your dear Friend and my Friend, Jesus Christ.
Jesus bless you and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Saturday morning, the 25th of February, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a Thought For Today.
If we go straight to the Gospel of John 1:42
"And he brought him to Jesus".
Who brought him to Jesus? Andrew did. The introducer, that's now his name, one of the disciples, introduced his brother Peter, the big fisherman, to the master. Yet you never ever hear much about Andrew, do you? You don't hear about any sermons that he preached, you don't hear much about any miracles he performed. But he was the introducer. What about John the Baptist? The Lord Jesus said there's never been a man that's born from the womb of a woman more famous than John the Baptist and yet how many sermons did he preach? Not one.
"Behold! The Lamb of God."
John 1:29
Yes, John the Baptist introduced Jesus to the world and yet you don't hear too many sermons preached by John the Baptist. Folks, what am I talking about? I'm talking about nobodies. Maybe this morning you're feeling a bit down and you say: "What contribution am I making to the kingdom of God?" You just keep being yourself. You'll be surprised how many people you are influencing and you don't even know it. Have you ever heard of a man by the name of Mordecai Ham? That's a mouthful. Mordecai Ham was a country evangelist. He was a young man, a dairy farmer's son. All he wanted to be was a professional baseball player and I think it was on a Wednesday night, at the midweek meeting, Mordecai Ham was preaching and he introduced Billy Graham to Jesus Christ. Now, who knows about Mordecai Ham? Everybody knows about Billy Graham. Folks, I want to say to you today, don't despise small beginnings. You don't even know how important your position is.
What about that Scottish doctor and missionary? I'm talking about none other than David Livingstone. I don't know of any sermons he preached. He only led one man to Christ, that I know of, he was the chief from Botswana, and yet do you know a more famous missionary that came to Africa than David Livingstone? Now he was instrumental in helping to abolish the horrific slave trade, he named the Victoria Falls after Queen Victoria. Don't despise small beginnings. God uses nobodies to do His work. Go out today and be somebody for Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 24th of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He was seen by Cephas (thats the other word for Peter), then by the twelve. After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.”1 Corinthians 15:5-8
Oh yes, He is alive! Jesus is alive! You know folks, I see Him everywhere. I see Him in a baby’s smile; I see Him in the faces of two young people who have fallen in love for the first time; oh, and I see Him in the weathered, lined faces of a content old couple sitting on a park bench, still in love with each other; I see Him on the farm - I see Him in a new crop, bursting through the ground, after a beautiful shower of rain; I see Him in the proud mother cow as she has just given birth to her newly born calf. The calf is standing up very shakily, looking out at the beautiful world for the first time, while her mother is lovingly cleaning her. Oh yes! Jesus Christ is very much alive!
I want to share with you an account that I read just the other day of a young five-year-old child that was trapped under the wreckage of the Turkish earthquake, they had been trapped for 112 hours. The journalist asked the young child, “Didn’t you feel hungry?” The child’s response, word for word, was as follows: “Every once in a while, someone dressed in white, (makes me want to cry) would come and give me water and feed me.” Jesus is alive! Call on Him today and He will feed and He will give you drink, He will keep you strong until He comes to take you home to be with Him in glory forever.
Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 23rd of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”Genesis 2:24
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,…”Ephesians 5:25
Men need to take their role in the home very seriously. Jesus has told us very clearly that we, as the men of the home have a very important role to play, not only in the home but indeed, in the whole world. We have a responsibility and we need to accept it and not abdicate. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “abdicate.” It means to renounce the throne or to fail to fulfil or undertake a duty. One of the main problems in the world today is that we are faced with a fatherless generation. Young men don’t even know how to be fathers anymore. It makes me want to cry, really. It is because they have very few role models to follow after.
You know, in 2003 when I was having a break with Jill in the game reserve, the Lord almost spoke to me audibly and he gave me a mandate, and He said, “I want you to mentor young men”, and that was the start of the Mighty Men Conferences that are taking place today all over the world. It is quite simply to teach young men to love their wives, to lead them, to protect them and their families, to cherish and to take care of them.”
“Why only the men?”, some women say, “Why can’t we come to a Mighty Men Conference?” Well, madam, I will tell you why. It is actually for your sake that we have the Mighty Men Conferences because we want to teach the men how to look after you and how to look after your children.
You know, once I was on a radio show and the interviewer was having a full go at me and trying to indicate that I was a male chauvinist, so he said, “Do you help your wife in the house?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Do you wash the dishes?” I said, “Yes”. So he was getting a bit stumped there. He said, “Do you vacuum the floors?” I said, ”No.” “Oh”, he said, “Well, that’s too small for you, is it? Why don’t you vacuum the house?” I said, “Because we don’t own a vacuum cleaner. I use the broom instead.”
Come on boys - let's look after our girls, just like Jesus means us to!
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 22nd of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
Psalm 20:7
“His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish.”
Psalm 146:4
“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.”1 Corinthians 2:6
Our trust is in God alone, not in the plans of man. You know the old saying, and I can say this because I am a farmer, “The farmer makes a plan” - “die boer maak n’ plan” - That is the Afrikaans version. Not one of them has ever worked for me thus far. An old lady wrote to me because I said that once on a radio programme years ago, and she said, “please don’t insult Afrikaans farmers.” I replied and said, “Aunty please forgive me, I didn’t mean only the Afrikaans farmers, I mean the English, the Scottish, the Irish, the Australian, the New Zealand and Nigerian farmers too!” But seriously, when we do things God’s way then things change dramatically.
I want to tell you about an Irish farmer who is farming in Scotland. Robert is a very dear friend of mine. I think he is one of the biggest strawberry farmers in the whole world. He has got an amazing setup. He also has a huge farm store, like a massive grocery store. He read a little book called, “Faith like Potatoes.” He was convicted about his shop being open on Sundays so he said to his staff, “We are not going to work on Sundays. We are going to rest on Sundays.” They said, “Why?” He said, “Because the Bible says in Exodus 20:10, that we must rest on Sunday.” The workers said to him, “We will go bankrupt.” He said, “I don’t care, we are sticking to our guns. We are going to do this God’s way and use God’s plan.” Well, folks, he wrote to me months later to tell me that he was turning over more money, working six days and resting on the seventh than he ever did in his life before.
Let's do it God’s way today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 21st of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?“
Deuteronomy 4:7
For whatever reason, any time.
“The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,…”
Psalm 145:18
Then what about that beautiful scripture in Romans 10:13? All of us know it by heart.
“For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
What a mighty God! He is there for you and me all the time. C.H Spurgeon says in his testimony that one miserable, cold, freezing night there was a snow storm and he ducked into a little church, really just to escape the storm. There was a country preacher, a lay preacher, probably a farm worker, preaching out of Isaiah 45:22: “Look to Me, and be saved,…” and that was the turning point in Spurgeon’s life. He went on to be one of the greatest preachers that have ever lived. At 21 years old, they built the London Tabernacle Church for him which could seat 10,000 people. The Lord is available to us today. He just wants us to call upon Him.
What about that story of Dwight Lyman Moody? I love it so much. The minister was telling the people a story about D.L Moody preaching in the UK. He arrived in his carriage and horses and there were hundreds and hundreds of people waiting to greet him. The massive church was packed. It was full. No one else could get in there. D.L Moody was a big man and he was wearing his suit with tails, they used to have tails in those days, and as he looked to the one side, there was a little street urchin, an orphan, with a dirty face, dressed in rags, sitting on the sun-dial, crying his eyes out. The great man of God stopped with his entourage, he walked across to the little boy and said, “What is wrong, son?” And he said, “Sir, they won’t let me into the church.” He said, “Take a hold of my coattails and don’t let go.” The mighty preacher walked into the church, down the aisle, with people on both sides, the little orphan hanging on for dear life to the coattails, walked up the steps into the huge pulpit, set the little boy next to him, and started preaching, and when the minister had finished telling the story he said to the people, “I was that little street urchin and I am now the minister of this church.”
Folks, it is not what you know, it is who you know that counts. Call unto Him today and He will help you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' name. It is the 20th of February 2023, Monday morning and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with the thought for today. Psalm 145:8-9
"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works."
I wanna ask you a question this morning my dear friend, when was the last time you sat down and had a good heart-to-heart talk with the Lord? You know it's like sitting by a warm fire on a cold, rainy and windy evening, drinking a hot cup of tea or coffee, looking into that fireplace and the flames are dancing around as the wood is crackling - Sitting quietly, listening to beautiful stories of the past told by a kind and gentle old person who has walked the road of life. An honest person who was told stories of success and stories of failure. But most of all examples of how Jesus has been there always - never once deserting or ignoring us.
Love (I want you to put the name Jesus there) suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:47
These are the qualities of the God that we serve. He doesn't think unkindly there's no envy, is not a show-off - He doesn't have to, does He? No, He is exceptionally well-mannered, not self-centred, doesn't talk about Himself, does not think badly of you or me, but only good. He doesn't talk negatively, no. He's always encouraging, speaks the truth in love, He believes in us. He has hope for our future and has endurance - He never gives up! Surely we are talking about our heavenly Father here
Come on today, let's go and sit by that fire, let's drink that cup of coffee - it doesn't matter where you are. Have a good heart-to-heart, and have a good cry if you have to. Speak to him because he wants to hear from you, He loves you and most of all, He's got your back.
Jesus bless you have a wonderful day goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning the 19th of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with John 15:13:
"Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends"
Then we go to 1 Corinthians 13:1:
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal."
Without a doubt, the most powerful force in the universe is one thing - love! How do we spell love? J-E-S-U-S. That's right! Why? Because God is love. 1 John 4:8 says:
"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."
Love is an action word, it is not just talking. We have to become a band of feet-washers because that's what Jesus was. We have to prefer others to ourselves - because that's what Jesus did.
A very dear friend sent me a story the other day and I want to read it goes like this:
After the earthquake had subsided and the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman’s house, they saw her dead body through the cracks. But her pose seemed somehow strange, for she knelt on her knees like a person who was worshipping; her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supporting an object.
With great difficulty, the leader of the rescue team put his hand through a narrow gap in the wall to reach the woman’s body. He hoped that this woman would be still alive. However, her cold, stiff body told him that she had passed away for sure. The collapsed house had crushed her back and her head.
The team left this house and moved on to search for life in the next collapsed building. But for some strange reason, the team leader was driven by a compelling force to go back to the ruined house of the dead woman. Again, he knelt down, wriggled his hand in through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement, “A child! There is a child!”
The whole team worked together; carefully they removed the piles of ruined objects and under the young mother’s dead body they rescued a three-month-old little boy wrapped all snug in a flowery blanket. It was obvious that the woman, desperate to save her son had made the ultimate sacrifice. When her house was falling, she used her own body to make a shelter to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.
The medical doctor came quickly to examine the little boy for injuries and when he opened the blanket he saw a cell phone inside the blanket with a text message on the screen. It said, “If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” As the cell phone was passed around from one hand to another all of the rescuers that read the message wept. “If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” Such was the mother’s love for her child!
That is what love is all about my dear friend and Jesus did the same thing for us. Let's go out today and love someone.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 18th of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
The most well-known favourite book in the whole Bible, 66 books of Scriptures, has to be the Gospel of John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
“Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:3
“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.”
John 3:7
Nicodemus was a very clever man, he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the governing body of Israel. He came by night because he didn’t want anyone to see him. He said to this Carpenter from Nazareth, “How can a grown man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again a second time?” Jesus said, “Unless you are born again you will never see the Kingdom of God.” Now, being born again is not some charismatic, pentecostal or evangelical term. No, not at all! In fact, it is a Jesus term! It means a new beginning, it means starting afresh today, without a doubt the greatest of all miracles. It is a greater miracle than the parting of the Red Sea, it is a bigger miracle than fire coming down from Heaven or even raising the dead. Oh, my dear friend, I have seen it with my own eyes so many times before, and every time it is incredible. I am laughing and crying at the same time. You see a man or a woman who has been a slave to alcohol or drugs, an adulterer instantly set free in a blink of an eye. All fear, all anger, and all doubt are taken away and replaced by peace, love, forgiveness, and patience. Oh yes, a brand-new creature.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”2 Corinthians 5:17
It happened to me, my wife and my family 44 years ago today, the 18th of February, 1979, What about you today? Just pray this prayer with me if you want to and God can change your life as He did ours.
Dear Lord Jesus,
I acknowledge that I am a sinner and I need you to save me from eternal damnation.
Please forgive me for all the sinful life that I have lived in the past.
Today I want to start all over again.
I ask You to be my Lord and my Saviour.
Thank You for dying for me, a sinner, on the Cross of Calvary and because You live, Lord, I will live forever.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 17th of February, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:17
“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”John 1:29
“Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
John 1:35-36
Well, who is this Man called Jesus? Well, Jesus asked His disciple, Peter, “Who do people say that I am?” And Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ!”. I want to ask you this morning my dear friend, who do you say this Man is? This Man who even the waves and the wind obey? This man who walks on water, the one who raises the dead, the only man who has ever lived who said, “I AM, I am God, I AM.” Buddha never said that, Muhammad never said that, no other person has ever said that. Jesus said, “I AM”. Who turns the water into wine, who tells the woman, a stranger at the well, her whole life story? Who, after being brutally murdered, put in a tomb with a big stone being put against it, came back to life after three days? Who sent His Spirit to abide with us so that we may not be lonely? Who is coming back very soon to take you and me to be with Him in Heaven forever? He is not sending angels, He is coming Himself to a desperate and dying world.
You know, Romans 10:9 says if you confess with your mouth, Jesus Christ, and you believe in your heart that He has been raised from the dead, you shall be saved. Oh, let's not hesitate today! Do you remember that song? It goes like this:
Oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
There is something about the Name
Oh, Master, Saviour, Jesus
Like the fragrance after the rain.
Oh Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Let all Heaven and Earth proclaim,
Kings and Kingdoms will all pass away
But there is something about that Name!
Jesus bless you today,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 16th of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,…”Romans 12:4
“For in fact the body is not one member but many.”1 Corinthians 12:14
There are no lone rangers in the Kingdom of God. We are members of the Body of Jesus Christ and He alone is the absolute Head of this church and body of believers. We desperately need one another. A body needs every part to be connected to operate properly, the big and the small.
Maybe today you are feeling a bit left out. Maybe you are feeling that you are of no use and that no one would even miss you if you were not here. Big mistake! That’s a lie from the devil. The Body of Christ needs you very much. Just like this world of ours cannot exist without that little honeybee, the church cannot function without all the different parts of the ministry working correctly together.
Let’s take the intercessor as an example - how many people see the intercessor? Not many. It is a very, very worthwhile part of the ministry. In fact, without an intercessor, we have got no church. I want to say to you that when I get invited to go to another country, to be part of a big campaign, they will contact me and say they have got the platform ready, they have found the facility, they have got a beautiful state-of-the-art sound system, and they will say to me, “We have got one of the top bands in the country that will be operating, everything is in place." I ask them one question: “What about prayer cover? What about the intercessor?”, “No, no, well we haven’t started there yet. We will get that in place.” I normally say, “I won’t be able to come because without intercessory prayer there can be no victory at all.”
Do you know that Jesus Christ Himself, is an intercessor, for you and me? He is interceding on our behalf. He is the link between our Heavenly Father and ourselves. Do not underestimate your role in the Body of Christ because without you we cannot operate correctly. So, do what you are doing. You might be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, that is all David wants to be and that is all I want to be in Heaven. Just do your work and do it gladly and thank God for it.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 15th of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"...for the joy of the Lord is your strength."
Nehemiah 8:10
“But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were loosed.”
Acts 16:25-26
The power of praise! We don’t always feel like it, do we? But we need to praise God because the joy of the Lord is our strength. Many years ago when I attempted the mighty Comrades Marathon, we would be in a bus together. That is a group of people running together with a bus conductor in the front, and when we were taking strain on those big hills, he would start singing a song and you cannot believe how those words just gave us strength to get up the next hill.
John Henry Jowett said, “Let us sing even when we do not feel like it, for in this way we give wings to our feet and turn weariness into strength.” Of course, the devil, himself, hates it when God’s people start worshipping Him in songs and praise. Many years ago, I had the privilege of preaching in Wales. Now, I think the Welsh people can sing like no other nation on earth. Even when they speak it sounds like they are singing. Their words are so beautiful. I was speaking to a thousand Welsh farmers and their wives and children in the southern part of Wales. That evening they sang a song, one of the old revival songs from the famous Welsh revival. They started singing it in English and it was beautiful, and then they started singing the same hymn in Welsh, in Gaelic, and I just stood there and wept. It is very hard to preach after that. The power of God!
I remember in 2010, at the Mighty Men Conference, here on the farm at Shalom, over 400,000 men were gathered together, worshipping and praising God. It was like we were in Heaven. Folks, I am telling you, every demon fled that place. The Lord Jesus Christ was lifted up. Men were healed, men were set free that day, and men were born again. It was something I will never forget. I found it extremely hard to preach after hearing that praise and worship, and of course, right at the end that, “Amen”, that war cry of the Mighty Men Conference - So be it! Amen! I will never forget it as long as I live.
Today, worship Him. Sing songs to Him in your pick-up, in the car, wherever you are, give Him praise and He will lift your spirits up to a new level.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 14th of February 2023. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.”
Titus 3:3
“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?”Matthew 7:3
People who live in glass houses do not throw stones. We have got to have patience with those who are not of the faith. We have got to pray for them. We can’t compromise - no, no, no. We keep the standard, we keep the faith, and no bending of the rules, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
Do you know that some of Jesus’ greatest champions of the faith were absolute reprobates, unprincipled persons, people who say, “anything goes.” Who am I talking about? Well, I am talking about the one the Lord said He is going to build his church upon, the one who is going to lead the church, Peter, the big fisherman. He was a blasphemer, he swore like a trooper. He never kept his word. He denied Jesus no less than three times and yet Jesus called him to head up the church. What about Paul, an accomplice to the murder of an innocent man who was simply telling people about Jesus, his Friend? His main mission in life was to get rid of Christians and yet Jesus used them both as giants of the faith.
You know, Derek Prince was a Bible teacher but he wasn’t always a Christian. He took a Bible with him to the desert in the Second World War to read so that he could prove that it was a lie, and he got saved through the Bible and became an incredible man of God. What about Nicky Cruz? Nicky Cruz was a gang leader in the ghettos of New York City until that skinny preacher by the name of David Wilkerson preached the Gospel to him and he got gloriously saved and has become one of God’s main instruments in evangelism.
Never write off anyone. Pray for those who don’t know Jesus, pray for those who persecute you, and love them. There is a turning point and it will be sooner than you think. I was also one of those reprobates, let me tell you, and yet Jesus Christ saved me. He can do it for you too.
Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning the 13th of February, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start off in 1 Corinthians 11 and I'm reading from verse 23:
"For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep."
Holy Communion is not to be entered into lightly. It is a sacred reminder of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary. It reminds us it, brings the family closer to God and to each other and brings healing to our bodies, our minds and souls. When should we do it? Well, the answer is often. Where should we do it? Well, in church, our homes and our prayer rooms. In meeting places, at work and in the changing rooms... Who should be eligible to partake? Those who love Jesus Christ and are old enough to understand what the holy sacrament is all about.
Do not partake in an unworthy manner, the Bible tells us because it will bring weakness and sickness and judgement against us. But if you are sincere, oh my dear friend, it brings healing to your body, your mind and your spirit. It brings forgiveness of all of your sins and brings freedom to you and your family. Do it often. Aunty Jill and I do it every single day, as we get the opportunity. Sometimes at breakfast time, sometimes at lunchtime, sometimes it's suppertime - but we do it in remembrance of Him. It is a wonderful thing to do!
I've been to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, where The Last Supper took place. It is an amazing place! Break bread today and every day, until He comes.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus' precious Name! It is Sunday morning, the 12th of February 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. If we start in the book of Philippians chapter 3, I'm reading verse 17:
"Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern."
Then 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul says:
"Imitate me as I also imitate Christ"
A pattern is a design, a model - it is an example for other people to follow. Now Dad and Mom, it is a very poor example to say to your children: Don't do what I do but do as I tell you, because when your children come of age they will do exactly what you do. It is very important for us to imitate Christ. Folks, when Paul says imitate me as I also imitate Christ, what he was saying was - don't imitate me but imitate the Jesus inside of me. We've got to show people Jesus, not just tell them about Jesus! They've got to see a difference in you.
I'll give you a good example - when farming and you driving around the field in your pickup and your tractor driver is ploughing up and down the field... And you see black smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe, that means he is driving in the wrong gear and is using up unburnt fuel - it is very expensive. What you do is, when he comes to the top of the field, you stop him, jump on the tractor, ask him to move over and put the tractor in the right gear. You set the plough because he's not ploughing properly. The front coulter is out of the ground, the back one is too deep... You set the plough nicely and then you start to plough, in the right gear, and the tractor just run smoothly along the field because the plough has been set correctly. Then the tractor driver salutes you and says: "Thank you sir, for teaching me and showing me". Your relationship with the tractor driver is excellent, the job is going well and your tractor is doing its job.
Imitate me as I also imitate Christ. You cannot expect people to do what you tell them, when you don't do it yourself! So today, on Sunday, let's go out and let's be a pattern, let's be a design, let's be a good model for people to follow.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
It is Saturday morning, the 11th of February, 2023, and I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”1 Corinthians 10:13
God always makes a way out for us Christians. He will not allow us to be tempted above our ability to handle that temptation but will always make a way to escape. Never think that you have no other option other than the sinful one. By the way, temptation itself is not a sin. Even Jesus was tempted in the desert when He went out to fast and pray for forty days. You will find that in Mark 1:13. It is when we yield to and we succumb to the temptation and we say, “I can’t help it! ” - oh yes we can! Jesus has just told us that we can, but we need to turn around and walk away from that temptation.
If you have a drinking problem and the Lord has set you free, don’t tempt the devil by going into a pub and sitting there and thinking that you can handle it. Run away from it. He will help us. Jesus will never allow you to be pushed past your limit. Each test is an opportunity for us to trust Him even more. He has made a way of escape for every trial that you and I are going through at the moment. We shall be victorious!
Now, what I want to do this morning is I want to pray for you and I want to pray a prayer of faith over you, that God will undertake for you.
Heavenly Father,
Many of us are suffering and we are really struggling with sin in our lives that we just don’t seem to overcome. Lord, I am thinking about unforgiveness. Please give us the grace to forgive that person who has hurt us.
Lord, I am talking about that anger that rises up within us, and we just don’t seem to be able to control it. Lord, in Jesus’ name today, we put it away forever.
That addiction, Lord, alcoholism, drug addiction, Lord, that pornography - today, in Jesus' name, Lord, we desire to walk away from it.
Father, that spirit of fear, please strengthen us and help us to turn from fear to faith. Lord, Your word says in 2 Timothy 1:7, “I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Today, Lord Jesus, we pray for strength to walk away from that temptation.
Amen.
Have a great Saturday,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 10th of February, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.”
Psalm 139:13-14
What a beautiful scripture!
Then Philippians 4:13, which we all know so well:
“I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.”
We say that very glibly sometimes. It's a very serious scripture verse. “I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.” There is no darkness in the Lord. If you look at verse 12, it says: “The darkness and the light are both alike to You.” So the Lord doesn’t see darkness or light because He is God and He created them both.
I want to say to you today, maybe you are feeling a bit down, maybe your business has gone bankrupt, maybe you have lost your job, or maybe you are just feeling totally inadequate. Oh, my dear friend, you and I have been fearfully and wonderfully made by the Lord and we can by His grace, do all things through Him who created us.
I don’t know if you have heard of a very famous lady by the name of Helen Keller. At 19 months old she became very sick and as a result, she was blind and deaf. Can you think of anything worse? She was totally blind and deaf. She had no communication with the world. It is like somebody put you in an iron box and closed the lid. That is how it was. There was no communication. But a lady by the name of Ann Sullivan started to work with her and this is what I am trying to say to you - God has made us in His image. Helen Keller said that the greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall. That woman died at 87 years old, deaf and blind. Well, how did people communicate with her? Ann Sullivan started to use what they call finger spelling, making impressions on her hand and eventually got her out of that iron box. The first word that this woman ever spoke, a woman who couldn’t hear and couldn’t see, the first word she used was, “water” because she said, she felt it flowing over her hand. She got a college degree. She was one of the USA’s greatest ambassadors. She got the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She travelled to 25 countries as a motivational speaker.
We can do it, but not in our own strength - only in God’s strength. My headmaster told my mother when I was at school, “Take him out of school because he won’t do much more here.” I didn’t know Jesus, but when I met Him, well - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and so can you. Have a wonderful day and remember you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Jesus bless you and goodbye!
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 9th of February, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
Romans 1:16
Yesterday, I received a message from a man living in Iran. He has been receiving the Thought For The Day for the last two years. He is teaching the people farming and agriculture and is being a witness for Jesus Christ in a country which does not allow Christianity. He has led people to Jesus and he is using this little tool as a message to reach out to the lost. We really need to pray for the persecuted church my dear friend.
God is moving very powerfully all over the earth at this critical time. We need to pray for more boldness, for more courage and most of all for the love of Christ, for those especially who are persecuting God’s people. One of the greatest persecutors in the early church became its greatest ambassador. That’s right - Saul of Tarsus became Paul, the Apostle. Today, let's pray for the young students at school and university who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ, let's pray for the factory worker when he goes to work and is mocked by his fellowmen because of his stand for Jesus Christ, let's pray for the politician, that he will stand up boldly in parliament and say, “There is no other god but the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." And most of all, let's pray for the pastors that they do not preach a compromised message from the pulpit to please the congregation. Let us stand tall.
In Ephesians 6:14, the Lord says, “Stand, for the battle is the Lord’s.” I am so encouraged today to hear that the Gospel is going out all over the world. Do you remember that old song that we used to sing? It goes something like this:
All over the world,
The Spirit is moving,
All over the world,
The way the prophet said it would be, is moving.
All over the world,
There is a mighty revelation,
Of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.
Deep down in my heart,
The Spirit is moving,
Deep down in my heart,
As the prophet said it would be, is moving
Deep down in my heart,
There is a mighty revelation,
Of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.
Go out today and stand tall for Jesus Christ!
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, the 8th of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:27
He is talking here about the Christian lifestyle. We need to walk the talk. You know, the previous chapters, Chapters 6, 7, 8 up till 9, are all speaking about living a godly life, a Christian life, being a good example to a world that has lost all sense of dignity and morality, where literally anything goes.
They asked the great revivalist, John Wesley, when he was in his mid-eighties, “What is the greatest temptation that you are facing in your old age?”, do you know what he said? He said, “The lust of the flesh.” Folks, we have to put the flesh down. We have to discipline ourselves and we have to lead from the front, not only by word of mouth but also by action too.
I remember when I started preaching 44 years ago. I was so nervous, I was in the back in the vestry, behind the pulpit and the elders were laying their hands on me and praying for me, for strength and courage. There was one old lay preacher, he came to me and said, “Son, get in there and give it to them because I have done my bit.” Now, I was only about 3 months old in serving the Lord and I must admit, I have never forgotten that statement. It made me very sad you know, “I have done my bit.” I felt like saying, “Sir, have you ever been crucified? Have you lost your blood for the sake of the Gospel? How can you ever do your bit? We need to finish this race strong for Jesus. We need to discipline our bodies, we need to bring them into subjection, and we need to live godly lives so that the people in the world can want what we have got. What is it that we have? Well, we have peace of mind, we have the love of the Lord, we have courage, we have long-suffering. Yes, we have Jesus, and you know, when Jesus is in your heart, that is the thing that will stop you from committing adultery, having affairs, putting your fingers in the till, and telling lies. A Godly lifestyle - that is what Paul said, and we don’t want to disqualify ourselves by our actions.
Have a wonderful day as you walk tall for Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 7th of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
1 Kings 3:9
“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?“
1 Corinthians 6:1
Paul says, “How can you go to an unrighteous, secular court to sort out problems when you as believers have all the answers? You see Solomon asked God for wisdom to govern his people. Solomon wasn’t born with wisdom, he was an ordinary person like you and me, but because he asked God for wisdom, God gave him wisdom, so much so that the whole world was in awe of this man. The Queen of Sheba from Ethiopia, travelled something like 3 months to get to Jerusalem to come and visit this man because of the incredible wisdom that he had. She came with very difficult questions and she was amazed. He answered every single question. It took her ages to get to Israel, and she asked those hard questions and Solomon answered every one of them.
I want to tell you, Jill and I have been to Ethiopia. They have been worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for no less than 3,000 years. They have got an ancient language that is thousands of years old. These are highly intelligent people, and yet they went all the way to Israel to listen to the counsel of Solomon. Why? Because Solomon asked God. That is why.
The Apostle, Paul, asks us, the believers, not to go to a secular court where there is no divine intervention to settle our grievances and our problems. We must go to God like Solomon did and He will give us the solutions to our disagreements. I am talking about fathers and sons, business partners, and marriage problems. We just need to sit down, pray and ask God to give us the answers - and do you know something? He will do it!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
Very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus' precious name - It is Monday morning the 6th of February, 2023 and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. If we start in Psalm 136:1-26, you can read it yourself but, I want to just tell you one thing: The Lord loves you so much that in this 1 song, no less than 26 times he says: "His mercy endures forever..."
Isn't that a beautiful assurance for you today as you start this brand-new week? Then the other scripture, which is probably the saddest scripture in the Holy Bible, is found in Jeremiah 8:20:
"The harvest is past the summer is ended and we are not saved."
Our Lord Jesus does not want one soul to perish - He wants every single one to be saved. John 3:16 is a verse we know by heart:
"For God so loved the world (That's you and me), that he gave his only begotten son (Jesus Christ) that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
I can hear somebody saying today but saved from what? Well, sir - Saved from going to a lost eternity, saved from some terrible addiction that is slowly but surely destroying your life, saved from fear itself, depression, anxiety and hopelessness. Yes, Jesus' mercy endures forever!
I looked up the word mercy, it means kindness, it means compassion and generosity. The only one who is qualified to forgive because He paid the full price is our Lord. He died so that we can live again - Remember when He forgives, He forgets.
Today, why don't you say sorry, why don't you just repent and say: Lord I've messed up, please give me another chance." Well, I've just read it for you - no less than 26 times in one song, He says my mercy endures forever. Throw those sins of yours into a deep pond and the Lord will put up a big sign: No fishing. When the Lord Forgives, He forgets!
Pray this prayer with me today if you will:
Father God, in the name of Jesus Christ,
by the power of the Holy Spirit,
please forgive me for dropping the ball,
for messing up my life.
Lord, please help me, I know that the harvest is past, the summer is ended and I'm still not saved.
Lord, I don't know when you coming back again but
Lord, I need you today,
please forgive me and set me free.
Amen.
Have a wonderful day, goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning the 5th of February, 2023 and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. If we start in James 1 and I'm reading verse 22:
"But be doers of the word and not hearers only,
deceiving yourselves."
Then we go to Luke 9 and I'm reading from verse 16:
"Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to Heaven,
he blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to sit before
the multitude. So they all ate and were filled.
Jesus was a doer and not just a talker. We mustn't just tell folk that we love them we must show them that we love them. 1 Kings 17:15-16 is the account of the poor widow who had one little boy and she had run out of food - there was a terrible drought. The prophet Elijah tested her and asked her to give him part of their last meal... You know after that, her bin of flour never run out and her jar of oil never dried up! You can't outgive the Lord.
I remember years ago, in the big Seed Sower, that big yellow truck we were taking the gospel into central Africa... We weren't here right in the heart of Tanzania taking the gospel to an unreached people group. There was a group of filmmakers that were following us hard from behind, in pickups but they had many breakdowns in the thick bush. Finally, one night they arrived at our camp, we'd been on the road for over 3 weeks! Early in the morning, we took the filmmakers a nice hot cup of strong, sweet coffee, we didn't have much left ourselves at that time, they were deeply grateful and touched. You know over the years, from time to time, we bump into each other and the amazing thing is they never speak about the miracles and the signs and wonders that took place on that tour - they only talk about that cup of coffee, early in the morning.
You know washing the dishes touches my dear wife's heart more than a bouquet of beautiful flowers - Go out today and be Jesus to some poor soul. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 4th of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’
Exodus 3:15
“Your name, O Lord, endures forever, Your fame, O Lord, throughout all generations.”Psalm 135:13
His name is remembered forever from the very beginning of time. Now I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “fame”. It means the state of being famous, it means a celebrity, prominence and distinction. A famous person is known only for a season, for example, a famous football star, a rugby star, a tennis star, a film star, maybe a famous politician or a famous artist - but their fame and their impact on the world is very short-lived. When I speak to my grandchildren and mention famous icons from as recently as ten years ago, they tell me, “Never heard of them, Khulu!”.
“Have you never heard of George Best?”
“No Khulu.”
“Have you never heard of Richy McCall?”
But the name that everyone knows, and is more popular and more famous than even when he walked upon the earth - that’s right, Jesus, the Christ!
In Mark 8:29, Jesus asked Peter:
“But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered,, “You are the Christ.”
The most famous person who has ever lived, the most loved and the soon-coming King. Get to know this famous person today because He is waiting to speak with you.
Have a wonderful Saturday,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, it is the 3rd of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.”
1 Corinthians 4:15
Not many fathers in the faith - the problem in the world today in a fatherless generation. You know, I just want to clarify, right at the beginning, we thank God for our moms, for our women-folk, for the homemakers, for the single moms. We really do. What would we do without you actually? But we desperately need dads in the home. Many men in the home are not taking their role as a father figure in the home. They are abdicating. We need to stand up gentlemen, and we need to take our position as prophet, priest and king in the home.
The disciples asked the Lord Jesus to teach them how to pray, and in Matthew 6:9 He said, when you pray, pray like this:
“Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Fathers have a role to play in the home, and they have a role to play in society. Unfortunately, fathers at the moment are taking a terrible beating when it comes to society. Some young fathers don’t know how to be a father anymore because they are getting so broken down. I want to say to you, gentlemen, stand up and be counted. We need you desperately. A dad must lead from the front. He must love his wife, he must love his children so that he brings order to the home. Have you ever seen that big male African lion in the bush? Have you seen him? He is in charge of the pride. He doesn’t mix with all the females. He will sit a little bit aside, maybe under a tree and he will watch them and the young cubs playing with their mothers, but he is looking after the pride. He is protecting the pride from predators. He has a role to play in his pride.
You and I have a role to play in society. We need to be a father of the fatherless. I want to tell you with honour and great pride that I am mentoring approximately 500 men, right around the world. What do I do? I am just there for them they need to ask me, and I pray for them every day. I write them a letter every month and I meet with them every year. That is all I can do. We need fathers. Fathers, you need to take your position in the home and in the nation.
I want to tell you a little story. My wife came home the other day and she said she went to a swimming gala and my grandson was swimming. His dad was standing on the side of the pool and the young boy was coming first, but then all of a sudden another swimmer was going to overtake him. Then the big bellowing voice of the father said, “Step it up, boy!” And with that, he won the race.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 2nd of February, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
Running down on the beard,
The beard of Aaron,
Running down on the edge of his garments.
It is like the dew of Hermon,
Descending upon the mountains of Zion;
For there the Lord commanded the blessing—
Life forevermore.”
Psalm 133:1-3
I have just come back from a very intimate prayer meeting with a group of men and the leader of the group started by saying, “Lord, we need unity in the Body of Christ.” How true is that? The Lord tells us very clearly in Psalm 133 that He commands a blessing when there is unity. I just love to travel around the world and meet different people. I have the privilege of staying in their homes very often, and as I walk in through the front door, I can sense if there is unity in the family. When mom and dad are pulling together, when the children are happy and disciplined, they are listening to instructions from their parents, and there is love and unity which is so special. It's like a well-oiled machine. It's like a rugby team that pulls together. You know, often you get a team full of superstars. They don’t win much because every man is on his own mission and everyone is trying to prove their point, but when you get men pulling together, and women, boys and girls, you see unity demonstrated and that is always a winning team.
I want to say to you today, don’t be shy to say sorry. I can hear some man saying, “But it is not my fault.” That is not the point. The point is it takes two to tango on the dance floor, it takes two to have an argument. If you say, “Listen, I am sorry for my part in it”, it breaks that tension and there is reconciliation. That's what Jesus did. Jesus went to the Cross, not because He was guilty, not because He deserved to die, He went there to die to pay for your sins and my sins. Now, we need to do likewise.
We need to put our selfish pride in our pockets, we need to strive for unity in the home, in the workplace and the nation. Remember, charity starts at home and no man living in a glass house throws stones. We need to work together. Let's pray for unity in the home today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name!
It is Wednesday morning, the 1st of February, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Neither do I concern myself with great matters,
Nor with things too profound for me.
Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul,
Like a weaned child with his mother;
Like a weaned child is my soul within me.”
Psalm 131 1-2
“Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.”
Romans 12:16
No pride or arrogance today but rather a calm and quieted spirit. Let us quietly trust in the Lord Jesus today. You know folks, a little baby who is suckling from his mother’s breast is not concerned about the great and the marvellous things. No, he is just content to be held in his mother’s loving arms. I love to see a little calf in a field with a big herd of cattle. When that calf has lost his mother and he starts bellowing, his mother hears him in the herd and calls back to him and he runs flat out towards her. When he finds his mother he goes straight to the udder and starts to drink that beautiful warm milk. Sometimes it looks like a big frothy milkshake! But he is not concerned about anything else. He is safe. He is in his mother’s presence.
Even though many things are not going well in the world at the moment - people write to me and ask me difficult questions, “How can God allow this? What is happening?” - I don’t know, I want to say to you today, let's be like that little suckling baby, okay? Let's not be so concerned about the big story. Let's rather just concentrate on our little story like the calf suckling its mother’s udder.
You know, I respect an old lady named Corrie Ten Boom. She has gone to be with the Lord now. She was Dutch, and she and her sister, Betsy and her old dad were hiding Jews in the attic of their little watchmaker's shop in Holland during the Second World War. The Nazis found out, arrested them and put them in a concentration camp with the Jews.
Betsy, who was Corrie’s sister, was very sick and was dying. Corrie was lying there trying to muse her sister in amongst all the carnage and the horror of the holocaust when Corrie cried out, “Lord, what is happening?”. She heard the quiet voice of her sister Betsy saying, “Corrie, if you know Him, you don’t have to ask why.”
Today, just concentrate on quietly trusting Jesus and He will take care of the rest.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 31st of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Psalm 34:19
Jesus said:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
You know, just the other night I listened to a beautiful testimony on the television, spoken by Joni Eareckson Tada, the lady who has been paralysed for most of her life. Remember, she dived off a rowing boat into a lake and hit her head on a rock and is completely paralysed from the neck down. She was saying that the Lord does all the sorting out of our characters and our lives here on earth, not in Heaven. She related the story of when they built the temple. The Lord said there would be no fashioning, no cutting, no shaping, and no banging to be done at the site of the temple. It all had to be done at the quarry, so when those big granite blocks were brought up to the temple for the building, they were already perfectly fashioned. They were sized up at the quarry. All the rough edges were taken off before they reached the temple site. Joni Earekson was saying that she believes that all the fashioning is going to be done here on earth so when we get to Heaven, there will be no stone masons there, there will be no need for them. There will be no pain, no tribulation, no sorting out when we get home to be with Jesus, there will be bliss, love, peace and patience and no more tears.
Today you might feel you are going through such a rough time. Yesterday I spent time with a family that lost their beautiful daughter, a university student when she and her boyfriend had a car crash. The car landed in a quarry full of water and they drowned. We were able to reassure one another that she is in the presence of the Lord now with her boyfriend because they both love Jesus. The time of pain and suffering will finish here on earth. When we get to Heaven it will only be love, peace, patience and joy.
So today, remember it doesn’t matter what you are going through, the Lord is going through it with you. He is going through the fire with you and you are getting ready for home time and what a day that will be.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
It is Monday morning, I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is the 30th of January,2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start off in the Book of Proverbs 8:14, the Lord says:
“Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom;
I am understanding, I have strength.”
And then we go to Ecclesiastes 7:19:
“Wisdom strengthens the wise,
More than ten rulers of the city.”
And then the last one is 1 Corinthians 3:19:
‘For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness;…”
Now I looked up the Oxford Dictionary the word, wisdom: Wisdom is common-sense, that’s right, it is logic and it is experience. If you look at our Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, He never made a hurried decision, did he? Remember the woman caught in adultery and the Pharisees who tried to catch him? He just carried on writing in the sand, then He stood up and said: “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.” And they all left her, He said to the woman: “Your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more.”
When Jesus was brought before Pontius Pilate, he asked Him to speak up - Jesus said nothing. That’s wise. I know, my biggest problem in life is that I speak too quickly and I get myself into trouble. When an old man is slow to speak, its not because he is physically tired or maybe overwhelmed by modern society, no - its because he has walked the road of life. He has been to the school of hard knocks. He has made many mistakes in his life. He is slow to speak but quick to listen. Some of the greatest lessons I have learnt have not been in the classroom but rather in the field. There is a big difference between theory and the practical.
At agricultural college, we did our lectures in the morning and we did our practicals in the afternoon. I learnt more from the farm-workers and they weren’t well educated men... The cattle-men, shepherds, tractor drivers, mechanics and the horsemen, than I ever learned from a lecturer. We need to seek godly instruction, practical instruction about life from people who have already been there.
Today, seek your wisdom from the Lord, for He knows all things. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 29th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.”1 Corinthians 3:16
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly) but might in God for the pulling down of strongholds.”2 Corinthians 10:4
Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We really need to look after them. You know, everywhere I go I see gyms, physical fitness centres and that is wonderful. I also am very keen on keeping fit. I am trying to keep myself physically fit all the time, but there is an area where we are slack and that is in our minds. You see, it is no good having an exterior that looks like a Formula 1 racing car but inside the engine is like a 2-stroke lawnmower. We must discipline the whole person, inside and outside.
Folks, seriously, the Holy Spirit will not dwell in a dirty, polluted house. You know, very sadly, I remember reading about a very famous young actor. He was playing a major role in a movie as a virtual demon in the movie, and then he was found in his bed, dead - he had taken an overdose of drugs and he left a message behind, “I just can’t sleep.” It is time for you and me to clean out our temples. What are we talking about? We are talking about things like unforgiveness, hatred, envy, jealousy, bitterness, and anger. We need to clean it out of our homes and we need to fill our temples with love and joy, peace, patience and loving-kindness. Yes, I am talking about the fruit of the Spirit.
Father, I want to pray for my friends that are listening to this message right now.
I pray Lord, that You will help them to discipline themselves, they will discipline themselves on what they watch and what they read, we are talking about things like pornography, the filth of the world. Lord, that they will cast it aside and start to concentrate on eternal things and mostly the love of Christ.
I ask this in Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Saturday morning, the 28th of January, 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
2 Corinthians 5:7, the Word says:
"For we walk by Faith, not by sight".
Then we go just down a bit further to verse 9:
"Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him".
You see you can't please the Lord without faith.
"Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him".
Hebrews 11:6
If ever we needed more faith! I think you'll agree with me, we need it in these days in which we are living. You know, faith is contagious. Faith begets faith. So you need to be spending time with people who have got faith. Remember eagles do not fly around with flocks of turkeys. No! Eagles spend time with the Lord in the high places. Faith begets faith. Augustine said:
"Faith is to believe what you cannot see, but the reward of that faith is to see what you believe".
I've just come off a radio program and I was sharing a story with them. They wanted me to speak about a supernatural sighting and I said, I remember like yesterday the night when my wife and small children were in our little wattle and daub house and there was a huge storm and we had a knocking on the window. There were some Zulu ladies outside who were screaming and shouting that one of their friends had been struck down by lightning and was dead, that's what they told me. We jumped into the pickup and shot up there. I walked into that traditional hut. It was very smokey, I couldn't see too clearly and there was a body lying there with blankets covering it. They said there she is. I said to bring the body to the pickup and we will take it to the mortuary. They said no, no, no, you've been telling us and preaching for weeks in the fields every day that Jesus is a Miracle Worker. We want you to pray that Jesus will raise this woman. Well I was put on the spot, wasn't I? But I will never forget it. I walked up, I laid my hands up on that body and I prayed, please Lord, raise her up so that these people can know that You are a miracle-working God. Nothing happened. I stood back, again I didn't know what to do. The Holy Spirit impressed upon me, do it again. I went and I prayed a second time. Then I felt the Lord say, take her by the wrists and pick her up to her feet, I was a young man then, I was a strong man. I picked that woman right off the ground, I stood her up and I felt the Lord say let her go. I said she's maybe going to fall..."Let her go!" I let her go and she remained standing. I want to tell you those women have never ever forgotten that miracle. We've got to do it by faith.
Have a wonderful Saturday and remember Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 27th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.”
Psalm 126:5
`And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4
Maybe there is a mother today who has been weeping over a prodigal son, maybe there is a father who has been weeping over a prodigal daughter, praying and weeping for them to come home, to come back home to Jesus, and you are not seeing anything at the moment. Keep on.
Dr David Livingstone sowed many tears over Africa. He said there would be those who came after him who would reap in joy. He died in the heart of Africa. The locals called him, “the good man.” He died near Chief Chitambo’s’ village, right in the heart of Zambia. He died on his knees praying in a little grass hut that they had constructed for him. Not one member of his family was near him. If he had died on the moon, it wouldn’t be further away from his beloved Scotland. He had not succeeded in abolishing the hellish slave trade. He had not succeeded in finding the source of the Nile River that he thought would bring commerce and industry into Africa and stop the buying and selling of human flesh.
It all looked like his life had been such a waste. But, the people loved him so much when he died that they cut out his heart and they buried it under a tree. In my prayer room, I have a sprig of that tree and it is framed. They embalmed this godly man’s body and carried it to Zanzibar, something like 1500 km, maybe more, and took it back to Britain. After his death, the hellish slave trade was abolished, the source of the Nile was discovered and the Gospel and commerce and industry were brought to Africa.
I want to say to you today, don’t stop sowing good seed, don’t stop weeping for your loved ones. The Lord has heard your prayers and He will turn the situation around.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 26th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Well, as you can probably hear, there is beautiful life-giving rain, falling on my tin roof yet again. In this particular area, we have had a tremendous heat wave and our crops have been taking a lot of strain, but this gentle, beautiful rain from Jesus is resurrecting them as I talk to you now. How are you feeling today in your heart? Are you feeling lonely? Are you feeling fearful? Are you feeling deserted?
Well, I want to do something for you. I want to read to you probably the most famous psalm in the whole Bible. Yes, it's a prayer and it is written by a man who walked so close with God and yet so often failed Him but this man knew how to repent, he knew how to say sorry and God forgave him.
We are reading Psalm 23, a psalm of David.
He says:
“The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in [b]green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.”
Amen.
Jesus bless you today as you put your hand in the hand of the Shepherd who has promised that He will never leave you, that He will never forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 25th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers,
The same is broken, and we have escaped.”
Psalm 124:7
To be caught in a snare is the most terrible thing. Again, we see how the Pharisees tried to set a snare for our Lord Jesus Christ.
“But they could not catch Him in His words in the presence of the people. And they marvelled at His answer and kept silent.”
Luke 20:26
A snare is set by a poacher - I looked it up in the Oxford Dictionary, the word poacher means: “Illegally hunting or catching game or fish on land that does not belong to you, that is not your own.” Now, who is the one who sets a snare? Its the devil himself, and how does he operate? He operates at night, he doesn’t do it during the day - He does it when no one is looking, so we can’t see where the snare is. He is an extremely dishonest thief.
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”
John 10:10
He is the absolute poacher of all. He sets a snare for us and sometimes he will even parade as an angel of light. He is an excellent liar. He may say to you: “Have an affair with that woman, no one will know.” He is the one who says: “Steal that money,no one will see.” He is the very one who says: “Cheat on that exam paper and no one will ever know.” He is the one who says: “Don’t pay your income tax because you don’t believe in the government.”
He is the one who tells you to tell a little white lie. Once he does that, he has caught you in his snare and you are now his. You belong to him, every time you try to get out of that snare by yourself, it gets tighter and tighter. Only Jesus Christ can set you free!
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
John 8:36
Folks, don’t fall for the lies of the devil. I was jogging down a farm road some years ago and I heard the most heart-rendering crying. It was a little gazelle caught in a snare by its back leg. He was crying and bleating in the forest. It was overwhelming to listen to, I must be honest with you. I bent down, I had to be careful - his hooves are so sharp. I held him gently and took that horrible, ugly snare off his back leg. As I let go, he bolted off and he raced into the forest. I never saw him again.
Don’t let the devil catch you with his snare today. Look to Jesus and He will walk with you right through that path.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning the 24th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“For since the beginning of the world
Men have not heard nor perceived by the ear,
Nor has the eye seen any God besides You,
Who acts for the one who waits for Him.”
Isaiah 64:4
I love that,” …who acts for the one who waits for Him.”
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”1 Corinthians 2:9
You know Romans 8:19 says that all creation, that’s the world, is waiting with expectation, on tiptoes, for the manifestation of the sons of God. The world does not know what to do anymore. They are waiting to see what the sons and daughters are going to do about it. The question is, ”What are you and I doing about it?” The Lord has prepared some amazing things for us but with faith we’ve got to step out and take it.
One of my heroes is a man by the name of Dwight Lyman Moody, an American evangelist that lived in the 1800’s. He was known as D.L. Moody. He had a very, very bad start in life. He came from a very big family, his father died before he even remembered him. His mother was very poor but she brought up 8 or 9 children. D. L. Moody was a man who took God’s word literally. He said, ”The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to Him, and by God’s help I aim to be that man.” Wow, and he sure was!
Folks, that man was a shoe salesman, that’s all he was. He was known as the greatest layman. He had no education whatsoever, he had a Grade 4 education and yet that man took God’s word literally and he began the massive Moody Bible Institute which is still going on today. He also started two publishing houses. He was a great evangelist as well. When he went to Great Britain for a campaign, literally trains of people would follow him from city to city. He’s the one who said, ”Give your life to God because He can do more with it than you can.” He said, ”If God is your partner, make your plans big.”
Have a wonderful day today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning the 23rd of January, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today. If we start in the book of Jeremiah:
“But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these, I delight,” says the Lord.”Jeremiah 9:24
And then we go to the New Testament to Philippians 3:10 where Paul says:
“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…”
That I may know him... What is it that Jesus expects from me and you today? Well, Micah 6:8 says it very plainly. The Lord wants us, today, to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.
You see, being a Christian is not a case of following a set of rules. It’s not learning a whole lot of scripture verses, a parrot can do that - probably better than you or I. It is to know Him intimately as a person. You see, you can know the Bible inside-out but if you have never met the author, it just makes you a history teacher, doesn’t it? It’s spending time with someone that helps you understand them.
My wife Jill knows what my favourite food is, she knows what my favourite colours are. I know the thing that makes Jill happy - it’s not buying her a bunch of flowers. No, it’s fixing a dripping tap and changing a fused light bulb. Those are the things that make my wife happy because I understand her - because I spend time with her.
Duncan Campbell was a Scottish evangelist. In the 1950’s he was invited to hold an outreach campaign on the islands on the west coast of Scotland. When he arrived with his little ship, probably expected to stay there for a couple of weeks, he was met with two old sisters waiting for him at the harbour. One was blind and the other was bent in two with arthritis. They asked him one question: "Mr Campbell, do you know God?" He answered: "I sincerely hope so ladies." They had been praying for revival for years on the west coast of Scotland and Jesus answered their prayers because they knew Him and they understood Him. A revival started in those islands that lasted for, I think, over a year, maybe two... People came from all over the world to see and hear what God was doing.
Today, spend time learning to understand the heart of God.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Sunday morning, 22nd January, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. Psalm 121 - I am reading verse 1 and 2:
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.”
Looking at our situation from God’s perspective, not from ours... Jesus is saying to us today, “Come up higher, then you can see the big picture.”
Some of us are so involved in the storms of our lives at the moment that we can’t even see the wood for the trees, so they say. Maybe it is a turbulent marriage that you are involved with at the moment. Maybe there is a management situation at work that you need to deal with and it is getting on top of you. Maybe, it is a financial crisis, you just don’t have the money or maybe it is a sick member in your family that you are concerned about. The Lord is telling us today to lift up our eyes, to look at our tests through God’s eyes and not ours.
As a young man I used to love going up into the mighty Drakensberg Mountains to fast and pray. Many times, I would leave early in the morning from my campsite and walk high up into the mountains. I would just have a pair of tackies, a t-shirt and a pair of shorts on... and my Bible. Sometimes I would get caught up there at midday, and as you know, there are many thunderstorms, quite vicious ones in the summertime but I would sit on top of a rock and watch the fierce storm happening beneath me. Lightening, thunder, wind, rain, and I would be sitting there with the sun shining down on me, spending time with the Lord, looking at the world from His perspective. And when the storm finished, I would take a slow walk back down to my campsite. There would be little rivulets running down the contour paths. The grass would have been beautifully washed and the birds were singing.
I want to say to you today, I believe the Lord does not want you and I to get caught up in the middle of the storm of life. Let it pass by you and then walk down safely with Jesus, He will give you the right direction. He will let you see your situation through His eyes and it won’t be anything as bad as what you thought.
Keep your eyes on the Lord!
Jesus bless you and have a beautiful Sunday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 21st of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.”1 Corinthians 1:27-29
And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
John 1:46
Folks, the Lord chooses the nobodies of this world to do His bidding because He will not share His glory with any man. Philip was telling Nathaniel that they had found Jesus, the Son of God. Where does He live? He lives in Nazareth and of course, Nathaniel said, “Can anything good come out of that little dusty town called Nazareth?”. Well, the Prince of Peace came out of that little town, and what was He? Was He a doctor of philosophy? Was He a professor at the universities? No, He was a simple country carpenter, but He was God made flesh, Emanuel, God with us.
I want to say to you today, do not despise your situation. One thing the Lord has taught me is that He is no respecter of persons. He will use any man, any woman, any boy, any girl that will put up their hand and say, “Lord, I will go for you.” The Lord chose twelve disciples. They were uneducated. They were country fishermen. The Lord chose the Father of the nations, Abraham. He was a farmer. The Lord chose a beautiful, young Jewish maiden to be the mother of His Son, to carry God in her womb for nine months, and then give birth to Him and bring Him up and look after Him. She was uneducated but she had a heart after God.
I want to say to you today, do not despise yourself. Make yourself available to the Lord and He will use you more than you could have ever dreamed.
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”1 Corinthians 2:9
This is our time. This is the time to stand up and say, “To God be all the glory!”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Saturday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 20th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”1 Corinthians 1:18
What a beautiful scripture - the power of the Cross! Do you remember that old hymn? Oh friends, what a beautiful hymn, written by that famous hymn writer, Isaac Watts. It goes something like this:
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
The power of the Cross defeats death, it defeats sin. The Cross - it cleanses us, purifies us, makes us new, and gets us rid of self.
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”Galatians 2:20
What a promise! The old man is dead, the new man is born.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
What a beautiful experience! The weight has been lifted off my back. That 50kg bag of condemnation and guilt has been taken off my back. I am not carrying it anymore. Worry and uncertainty are gone. The responsibility belongs to Jesus. As a young man, I used to worry so much about that crop of maize which was our sole income - a young man, with a big family of five children to look after. One day walking through that green crop of maize, worrying about the hail, the Lord reminded me, “It's my crop, Angus. I will look after it, you just serve Me.” I have never forgotten that experience. The penny dropped. It is not about me. It is all about Him.
Have a wonderful day today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye!
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 19th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
John 15:16
“God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”1 Corinthians 1:9
He chose us, we did not choose Him. He is the faithful One. He will ensure that we make it to the end, blameless on the great and wonderful day of His second coming. Many people are afraid. They are afraid when they wake up in the morning thinking how are we going to face this day? Many people are afraid when they go to sleep in the evening, but if Jesus has chosen us and called us, He shall never abandon us. He gives us the strength to live and He gives us the strength to die. Do you remember that beautiful little story, “Footprints in the Sand?”
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to him and the other to the Lord. When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that It also happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life. This bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. “Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you would walk with me all the way, but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don’t understand that when I needed You most, you would leave me.”
The Lord replied, “My son, my precious child, I love you. I would never leave you. During the times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”
Jesus bless you and remember He chose you. You didn’t choose Him and He will take you home.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 18th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
Psalm 23:1
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, …”
Ephesians 3:20
The emphasis here is on God, who is able to keep us from falling. The emphasis is not on us, it is on God, and this is the point we want to really focus on this morning. He is the one who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or even think. He is The One, not us. We need to understand this principle. The emphasis is not on ourselves. That is what makes us depressed, fearful and anxious, but it is Christ in us who is going to do it. (Colossians 1:27).
This particular verse, Ephesians 3:20, kept me through one of the biggest tests in my life up until that point. Two young farmers from Middelburg in Mpumalanga came to see me. They told me that God spoke to them in a dream. He said they must book Loftus Versfeld Rugby Stadium in Pretoria. Now, that is a Mecca of Rugby, one of the most famous rugby stadiums in the whole world, “and we are going to have a Christian gathering there.” These two young men, Piet and Paul, looked very anxious, in fact, one of them was in tears when he shared his vision with me. When they had finished sharing their dream, they said, “There is no doubt about it,” but they wanted to ask me a question, “What did I feel about it?” I said, like I always would, “Go for it boys!” They were so excited. “Oh by the way,” they said just as they finished, “You are to be the speaker.” Ah, yes! Well, I had committed myself, hadn’t I?
But I want to tell you seriously, that that little verse, Ephesians 3:20 carried me right through for the next few months and then with our carnal eyes, we saw the dream those boys had, manifest in that afternoon which I will never forget as long as I live, when waves, like a tsunami of people, came into that stadium and lifted up the name of Jesus Christ!
God is able! Have a wonderful day!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 17th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.”
Romans 16:19
We need to be wise in what is good these days, there are so many counterfeit things going on. We need to be very simple when it comes to being concerned about evil. God has promised you and me that He will crush satan shortly. In other words, keep it simple. Stay pure and innocent. God, Himself, will deal with the devil. Don’t be gullible regarding sweet talking. Stay alert at all times. The Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, shall deal with evil, ungodliness and the things of evil in this world. But rather enjoy your time with the Lord. Don’t allow satan to rob us with his filthy lies and accusations.
You say, quite correctly, “But it's not fair.” No, it is not fair. We are living in a very fallen world. You are quite right, but do you know something? It's not over yet. Do your part and let Jesus do His part. What is our part? Well, Micah 6:8 puts it so beautifully. He says we must do justly, we must love mercy and we must walk humbly with our God. So, do not allow the devil to rob your joy today. Do you remember that old song that we always sing? I would like you to sing it with me if you can.
And I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
Oh no turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
And the Cross before me
And the world behind me
And the Cross before me
And the world behind me
Oh, the Cross before me
And the world behind me,
Oh, no turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
Let's follow the Cross and we won’t put a foot wrong.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Tuesday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, 16th January, 2023. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with Proverbs 27:17:
“As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”
And then we go straight to Romans 16:16:
“Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you.”
Do you know that the first sixteen verses of Romans 16 is Paul sending greetings to his friends? Now the main objective of this message I am sending you today, and everyday for the last thousand days plus, “The Thought for Today”, is to keep in touch with you. That’s it - to remind you that I love you and, more importantly, that Jesus loves you so much... Also to let you know that I have got your back, oh yes!
You know, a little text message takes how long on your phone? “I prayed for you this morning, John.” Not a generalised one that goes out to everybody but a specific one - It touches a person’s heart so much. There are so many lonely people in the world at the moment, they are not all old by the way, most of them are young people. A phone call: “Are you okay?”, thats all they need to know or an email: “I just want you to know that I prayed for you this morning again..." And of course, best of all, is a handwritten letter.
Now, you might say that’s snail-mail but I want to tell you that a handwritten letter means so much to me. “Why?” you might ask. Because it takes time and it takes effort. It is something that you can keep and cherish. I have got copies of letters that Dr David Livingstone wrote, right from Central Africa, right in the very heart of our beloved continent. I have got those letters and I love to look at them.
You know, my little grandchildren often pop in to come and see Khulu (My Zulu name) and Gogo (My wife’s Zulu name) - granny and grandad - they just pop along, walk in and say, “Hello Khulu, hello Gogo!” They don’t stay long, maybe five or ten minutes. Often I make a big mistake: I say: “What have you come for?” They look and they say, “We haven’t come for anything. We’ve just come to say hello”. “Did your mom and dad send you?” “No, we came on our own.”
You know it brings a tear to my eye. It means more to me than if I had a visit from some international celebrity because I always have to ask myself the question, “What does he want?” Jesus always had time to visit and to greet. He loved staying in Bethany, at Mary and Martha’s house and spending time with His good friend, Lazarus. Never get too busy, today, give someone a call.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning the 15th of January, 2023. And this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start with Psalm 19:13:
“Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me.”
And then we go straight to Romans 6, and I'm reading verse 14:
“For Sin Shall not have dominion over you…”
Now presumptuous sin means failing to observe the limits of what is permitted or appropriate.
“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
James 4:7
You see, the temptation is not a sin. No, no - Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, but he did not succumb to the temptation. It's when we yield to temptation - that is sin. Remember King David, when he went out onto his veranda in the cool of the evening and he looked first and saw Bathsheba, a very beautiful woman bathing? He should have walked away, but he didn't. He looked at her a second time. The first time was temptation, the second time was lust and he fell badly. Hudson Taylor, that wonderful man of God who took the Gospel to China and started the China Inland Mission, asked a Chinese convert how it was going with him. He said, “It's like there are two dogs in my stomach an evil one and a good one.” And the man of God said, “Well, which one is winning?” “Oh”, he said, “the one that I feed the most.”
I want to say to you today, resist the devil, flee from him. Do not play the fool and the Lord Jesus Christ will be your strength and prevent you from presumptuous sin.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 14th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Be surety for Your servant for good;
Do not let the proud oppress me.”
Psalm 119:122
“…by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.”
Hebrews 7:22
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “surety”. It means a guarantee. It means to stand surety for someone, it means to take responsibility for someone else, for example, for payment of a debt. Now Jesus Christ is our surety and we believe, you and I, that He is the Son of God. I have a picture in my mind of what judgement day might look like because the Bible says that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, every single one of us.
Can you imagine walking into a huge judgement day, walking in and seeing our Heavenly Father, the Judge of all mankind seated in the courtroom, and on His right-hand side, the Defence Attorney which will be the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the left-hand side, the prosecutor who will be the devil, himself? As we walk in, individually, we stand in judgement, the Lord God Almighty will ask us what we did with our lives. Some people will say, “Lord, I did this and I did that, I worked in a soup kitchen and I took care of the poor and the needy, I paid my income tax and I lived a fairly good life, I didn’t hurt anybody, I didn’t do anything wrong.” Our Heavenly Father will look to His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will only ask one question, “Do You know this man?” sadly, the Lord Jesus will say, “No, I don’t know him at all, Father.” Then our Heavenly Father will look to the prosecutor, the devil and say, “Take him away.”
Then the next person will come in and won’t have a very good track record because he was a bit of a heavy drinker in his time, he also got into a lot of trouble, he made lots and lots of mistakes, and he didn’t do many good things. But our Heavenly Father will say one thing only. He will look to His Son again, the Defence Attorney, and He will say, “Son, do you know this man?” and Jesus will say, “Yes, I do know Him, Father. He is my friend. He wasn’t a good man but he did repent, He acknowledged Me as Lord and Saviour, He honoured You and he lived a life of faith, and believing he had a complete life change.” Our Heavenly Father will say to His Son, “Let him in, into the Kingdom of God.”
Today, remember, Jesus alone is our surety of eternal life.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 13th of January, 2023 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
In 2 Corinthians 11:24, Paul is talking about his hardships, talking about the school of hard knocks. He says:
“From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; …”
Then he continues and goes on and on about the perils and the hardships that he has been through. These things are preparation sometimes for helping those who are going through tough times at the moment. You see, when you have been there yourself, then you can truly identify with that wounded person, not to say that God causes the hardships in our lives - no, but through them, He always works good. That's why that scripture in Romans 8:28 holds so much weight:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
When we have a breakdown on the road with our motorcar, who is the first one to help us? Yes, it is normally a guy with an old broken-down car himself, because he knows what it is like to be stranded on a highway these days, but often you see a man driving past in his big new motorcar, saying, “Get that heap of scrap off the road”, because he doesn’t understand. A man is not driving a car like that because he wants to. It is all he has got.
Sometimes a rich man has no time for a poor man who has no employment. He says he is lazy. No, he is not lazy sir, he cannot find a job! “Ja, but he is poor because he is stupid!” No, because a man is poor, it does not mean that he is stupid. But you see, when you have been without work, when you have had a vehicle that gives you constant trouble, when you have to go home and wash your dress that night, the only one you have got, so that you can wear it tomorrow morning for work, when you have got to wash your pick-up on a Saturday night and put benches in the back, with a canopy on to take your family to church on a Sunday morning, then you have compassion for those who are suffering.
You see, Jesus said, in Matthew 5:3:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.”
Go out today and love someone!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 12th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build on another man’s foundation,…”
Romans 15:20
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Mark 16:15
All people need the Lord. John Wesley said, “The world is my parish, my congregation.” Maybe it is your next-door neighbour that you need to speak to about Jesus, maybe it is the people in a far-off land that need to hear the Gospel. You don’t have to build on another man’s foundation. Like never, ever before people need the Lord.
Gladys Aylward was a housemaid. She was a domestic worker in England many years ago. She was a small little lady and had a huge heart for China. She tried to join the missionary organisations but they wouldn’t have her because she was a slow learner, she couldn’t learn to speak Chinese, but she was not deterred. She continued working as a housemaid, saved up her money, caught a train and travelled to China, right across Europe and Asia, on the Trans Siberian Railway. A film was made about her life called, “The Small Woman, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness”. She went all the way on her own because she didn’t want to build on someone else’s foundation. She led over a hundred orphans over the mountains to safety when the Japanese were invading China, and she led many of them to Christ.
In those days they used to bind up children’s feet with cloth to prevent them from growing and these children were almost physically handicapped, and she was instrumental in abolishing that horrific thing. She was loved by all Chinese and became a Chinese citizen. She started orphanages all over the place. Yes, she did not build on someone else’s foundation.
What is your heart today? Maybe you need to start building a foundation on your farm with your farmworkers, maybe in your factory with your factory workers, maybe at school? If you are a school teacher you have got an instant congregation. Maybe at university? What a place to lead people to Christ. Don’t lose your vision. Go into the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 11th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
Psalm 119:103
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven.”
John 6:51
Now, you know, I am a beekeeper, an amateur beekeeper. I love bees and I love honey. I hope you do as well because it is very good for you. Even as I am sharing this with you, my mouth is watering. To walk through the kitchen door on a cold frosty morning, and my wife, Jill, has got the big wood stove going, and she is baking fresh bread, and when the bread comes out and it is hot, it is beautiful to cut a thick slice and then take some of our farm butter and spread it thickly over the warm bread, and then to take some honey and just pour it all over the bread, and then cut it after giving thanks to the Lord. Eating it just does something for the inside of a man.
I want to say to you today that our Lord Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life. There is nothing sweeter to me than the Holy Word of God. When the Lord speaks to me, every single morning, it is exactly like that honey. It is sweet, it comforts me sometimes when I am sad, it gives me direction sometimes when I am not too sure where I am going, but most of all it is a friend to me that sticks closer than a brother.
Jesus is the Word. I want to say to you today to take some of that honey, and don’t just do it now and again, do it regularly. It is good for your constitution. Eat some of that beautiful fresh bread from Heaven and butter it liberally with beautiful thick farm butter. I want to tell you it will last you right through the day. Get into a habit of doing it every single morning and you will find that your day will go so much better.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 10th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
1 Peter 1:24
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
John 1:1
Jesus was with His Father from the beginning. Jesus is the Word of God. If someone says, “Show me this Jesus you are always talking about”, then give them a Bible. From the beginning of time, the word of God has endured. People have tried to destroy this book. They tried to burn it, and they threatened believers with death if the Bible was found in their homes but the more persecution they faced, the more prolific the Bible becomes.
We have taken tons of Bibles into Central Africa into areas where there has little or no evangelism taking place, with us in that big seed sower - of course the seed is the word of God, and yet, after preaching the Gospel to those precious people, right in unreached people groups, we have handed out Bibles to masses of people, and I have seen scenes that I will never forget. I have seen grown men fighting fisticuffs with each other because they do not want to miss out on getting a Bible. I am not talking about a tract or the Gospel of John. I am talking about the whole Bible, from Genesis right through to Revelation. It is something I will never forget as long as I live.
Now, what motivates people who have never heard about Jesus to want a Bible? It is because of the power of the written word of God. You see it is not just a book, It is God speaking to His people through print.
I want to encourage you this year, as you start 2023, to start using this book sincerely and I want to tell you that every question that you have ever asked will be answered through this beautiful book, the Bible.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 9th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13
If there is no aim then there is no purpose. Remember that scripture in Proverbs 29:18? Where there is no vision the people perish. If you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it.
I read a book by Victor Frankl. This Jewish man had lived through the horrific holocaust in the Second World War, where millions of Jews perished in the concentration camps. He saw human nature in its raw state. People who lost hope simply gave up and died, but those who kept on hoping survived. He saw that it wasn’t so much the lack of food or even sickness and disease that killed the people in those concentration camps. It was when people no longer wanted to live. Our hope in this sad world is one person. His name is Jesus Christ, and it is in Him alone that you and I must hope. It is not in an organisation, it is not in a government, it is not even in a denomination. It is in a person. His name is Jesus Christ. He alone is our vision, He is our first love and our soon-coming King. Don’t give up, He could very well even come back today.
Remember, faith is for now, and hope is for the future, so we need to walk daily by faith but we need to keep our hope alive, and that comes by spending time in prayer, and reading your Bible daily, it comes by living a disciplined life and by getting ourselves prepared for home time.
Remember my dear friend, this place is not our permanent home. You and I are simply sojourners. We are travellers. We are passing through this life. We are going home to be with Jesus and those loved ones of ours who love Him as well, who have gone before us. Don’t despair! The future is bright for those who love the Lord. So let's be like Paul who said,
“For me to live is Christ and to die is but gain.”
Philippians 1:21.
Have a wonderful day today as you put your hope in the King of Kings.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, 8th January, the year 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. If we go to Romans in the New Testament, Chapter 15 and I am reading from verse 1:
We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbour for his good, leading to edification. For even Christ did not please Himself…”
We who are mature in the faith, do not live to please ourselves but rather to help those who are weak and struggling. Jesus never lived to please Himself. Those of us who are strong in the faith have a responsibility to support the weak in the faith. The Christian life centres on strengthening others. Remember Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane when the High Priest’s soldiers came to arrest Him? He said, “Let these go their way.” John 18:8, always protecting others.
I remember as a little boy of about 7 years old, I had just started school and my little brother was starting his first year. He was 5 years old and my mother told me, very specifically, “Angus look after him." Well, we were in different classes but we would meet together during break and have our sandwiches together. We would meet at big break and I would make sure that he was alright and then we would walk home from school together. One day my little brother was busy talking to friends on the side of the road and I was crossing the road. I turned around in the middle of the road and shouted to him to hurry up. At that moment a motorcar hit me and knocked me clean into a ditch. The poor lady was beside herself. She put both of us in the car and took us home. She was extremely traumatised and apologised to my mother. My little brother was crying his eyes out. My mother ran over to him, put her arms around him and said, “My darling, are you alright?” And through the tears, he said, “Mother, it wasn’t me who got it. It was Angus.”
Sometimes in protecting the weaker or the younger, we need to take the blows. Go out today and protect those who are less strong than yourselves.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 7th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.”
Psalm 119:67
“It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.”
Psalm 119:71
Yes, it's a wake-up call. You know, when we are young, we tend to feel that we are bulletproof, isn’t that right? That is why a loving father disciplines his son because he loves him and does not want him to hurt himself. It hurts the parent much more than the child. Ask me about it, I remember it so well, but it might save his life one day.
“He who spares his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.”
Proverbs 13:24
I know the animal lovers are not going to like this, and I don’t particularly like it either, I have heard that when Shepherds in the Middle East take their flocks into the open, they don’t have fencing, they don’t have anywhere to put their sheep. If there is a rebellious lamb that continues to push the boundaries, coming to the edge of a cliff face, maybe running away from the flock, subjecting itself to jackals and wolves, the shepherd eventually takes that lamb and breaks its front leg, not the back one otherwise it would never walk again, but the front leg, and after that, the sheep never leaves the shepherd's side.
What about the story of the eagle? We know that when a young eaglet starts to grow and stretches its wings but it doesn’t want to leave the nest, what does the mother do? She starts taking out the down, all the soft parts of the nest and eventually the sticks so that there is nothing left, and makes it extremely uncomfortable for the youngster. Eventually, it causes it to fly.
God loves you and me so much that He disciplines us to protect us from this ravenous world to which we are subjected. Today, don’t be afraid to discipline your loved ones. The Lord loves you and me so much that He gave us His only begotten son.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, it is the 6th of January 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 14:17
This life of ours is not all about tradition. It's not about what we eat and what we don’t eat. It's not about what we wear and we don’t wear, it is about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. How many times have we heard that? For the sake of tradition, don’t send a person to hell. You ask me, “Who are you talking about, Angus?”. Well, Paul is talking about judging people. When a person is a vegan or a vegetarian, that does not mean that he is not a Christian or because he only eats meat, that he is not a child of God. Peter had a vision of a sheet being let down from Heaven with all kinds of four-footed animals, wild beasts and creepy things, and the Lord said to him, “Arise and kill and eat.” Now Peter was a very staunch Jew and there were certain foods that he would not eat, but if we look at Acts 10:15:
“And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call common.”
Eat your food with genuine relish for it may very well save a life. Now, some men go with me when I travel all over preaching, and sometimes we go to a home where we are not familiar with how they prepare their food, we are not familiar with the way they eat their food. Some people eat their food with their hands and by the way, I love eating food with my hands. I find it so tasty. But it is not about that, is it? No.
If we carry on and read the scriptures we will see that after Peter awoke from the vision there was a knock on the door and Cornelius, who was a Roman, a gentile, had sent men to call Peter to his home. Peter realised what God was saying. God called a Jew into a gentile’s house. That was not allowed by tradition but Cornelius was a man of God and Peter went to be with him and salvation came to their home. Do not become so traditional in your ways that you keep a man out of the Kingdom of God.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 5th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Take God at His word!
“So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.”
John 4:50
Without faith, it is impossible to please the Lord. You will find that in Hebrews 11:6. Even the disciples in Luke 17:5 said, “Lord, please increase our faith.” We must believe that the thing we are praying for will take place. I firmly believe that when you pray, you ask the Lord once and then after that you start to thank Him by faith for the outcome of your prayer. Remember, Jesus can hear you very clearly. Isaiah 59:1 says His hand is not shortened, that it cannot save and His ear is not heavy, that it cannot hear. Don’t waste your time praying if you do not believe it will happen. In fact, that kind of prayer will actually weaken your faith. You see, Abraham was a man of great faith. Romans 4:20 says:
Abraham staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief but remained strong in faith, giving glory to the Lord.
Prayer is simply taking God at His word. We need to have faith like potatoes! Yes, you remember the story? Well, I want to tell you, it grew my faith like nothing else ever had up to that point. I was standing on a platform at a rugby stadium in Durban, South Africa. We had heard that a terrible drought, El Niño was coming upon our land, and in defiance, I said, “To hell with El Niño. I am going back home and I am going to plant potatoes, and I don’t even have irrigation. I am going to trust the Lord that He will send enough rain to grow 10 hectares of potatoes." I did it, God answered my prayers and we had our potatoes. I want to pray for you today that God will increase your faith so that your prayer time will become more powerful.
Heavenly Father,
I want to pray for my friend listening to this message right now. He may be doubting the future, doubting the ability to succeed. Lord, I pray that You will increase His faith, increase her faith to believe You for the impossible. Now faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, (Romans 10:17). I pray that my dear friend, Lord, will start to pray, believing that You will answer that prayer.
I ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 4th of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“… it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”
Romans 13:11
“Do you not say, "There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”
John 4:35
There is no time to waste. Do not put off for tomorrow what we can do today. Optimum timing, perfect timing - as a farmer, I can tell you, if you plant that crop late because you have been dragging your heels, and you haven’t prepared your machinery in time, that harvest will still be green when it is time for reaping. Then what happens? Eventually, when the harvest ripens, the spring rains arrive and they spoil the crop and it rots in the ground. Do not waste time today. That is what the Lord is telling us.
I remember a few years back, a very dear member of our family, an old gentleman, we knew that one of these days he would go home to be with Jesus. He loved the Lord. One evening, I was about to go and have a shower after work and I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to get in my pick-up and drive over to his farm. I said to my wife, Jill, “I am going right away. I just feel the Lord prompting me to go and pray with him." I drove straight over to that farm, it took me about forty-five minutes. When I arrived, his family was around him and they were sitting quietly and he was very restless. I came and I laid my hands on him and I prayed that the peace, the shalom of Jesus, would come upon him. With that I said goodbye to the family, I said goodbye to him, I got in my pick-up and I drove home.
When I arrived home I was met with the news that the old gentleman had been promoted. He had gone home to be with Jesus.
Do not leave off for tomorrow what you can do today. Sort out that relationship. Phone that person, write an email but don’t leave it because time is passing us by and Jesus is coming very soon.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 3rd of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Genesis 22:14
"Our God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in Heaven by Christ Jesus, our Lord."
Philippians 4:19
The Lord says He will provide your needs, not your wants. You see, Abraham was an obedient man - that is why Jesus loved Him so much. The Lord said, “I want Isaac, I want your son back. I want you to offer him up as a living sacrifice on Mount Moriah,” and that is exactly what he did. He tied his son up. He put him on the sacrifice and was about to cut his throat, when the Angel of the Lord said, “No - stop, stop, it's okay, there is a ram caught in the thicket. Take the ram and use that as your sacrifice.” God was so pleased with the love that Abraham had for Him.
As we commence this brand-new year of 2023, we must not become fearful, we must not stress. Jesus shall provide for us, just like He provided the ram in the thicket for Abraham.
George Muller, a German theologian came to England and got saved in a little Bible study. He wanted to show the world what the Lord can do through faith in Him. He believed that God wanted him to take care of all the little street urchins, the little orphans running around the streets of England, so he started to take care of them by faith. He never asked for a penny, and so the story goes, when he started he had a boarding house and the children all got together. They had their last meal - maybe that is your case, maybe you need a job today, maybe you need healing in your family today. Maybe you need God, Jehovah Jireh to provide for you.
The next morning George Muller got up. The children knew that the larder was empty. There was no food in the house. He said, “Children, lay the table.” They laid the table. He sat down. He said, “Let's say grace” - the grace that you and I say so many times, “For what we are about to receive (the children thought Uncle George had lost his marbles) may the Lord make us truly thankful.” And with that, there was a knock on the door. He sent one of the children to the door. A baker was standing outside the door with a red face, quite embarrassed. He said, “Please forgive me but the Lord woke me up at three this morning and told me I had to bake fresh bread for your children." They were so grateful. They were about to eat when there was another knock on the door. He sent another child to the door and an embarrassed dairyman was standing outside. He said, “I was just riding past on my horse and my little carriage and the wheel broke on the back. I have got butter, cheese and milk and I know it's going to go off. Would you like to have it?” George Muller said, “Of course, thank you very much.”
God bless you today as you remember, Jesus is your provider!
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning the 2nd of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for the day.
“Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, And revive me in Your way.”
Psalm 119:37
“Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings;
They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.’
Proverbs 23:5
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.’
Matthew 6:33
For us, this is going to be a year of focus. We are going to focus on those things which are of eternal benefit.
”For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36
We need to stop chasing after the wind. That’s what Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived said, he said it no less than three times in the book of Ecclesiastes. Let’s not be like that foolish farmer, who had a bumper harvest and he said to himself, ”I'm going to break down these barns. I’m going to build bigger ones, and then I’m going to store my bountiful harvest and then I’m going to sit down and eat, drink and be merry.” But Jesus said he was a foolish man because that very night, his life was to be required of him. We don’t know how long we’ve got left on this earth. This year, let us work on eternal things. “Like what?” you ask. Like spending time with family, relationships, and focusing on eternal things. Jesus is one year closer to returning than He was last year and that’s not a joke. We must not waste time this year. Let’s concentrate on things which have everlasting benefits.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 1st of January, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
I want to start by wishing you a very blessed and peaceful New Year. May God bless you and your loved ones richly this year.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8
Let this be a year that you and I walk by faith and not by sight. Remember, we can’t please God without faith. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says we are walking by faith and not by sight. Let's stop questioning God this year and start believing Him. Remember, Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you cannot see but the reward of that faith is to see what you believe.” This year let us unconditionally believe and trust the Lord.
Do you remember Job, the farmer? He was asking lots of questions of the Lord. I just love it in chapter 38 - maybe sit down quietly and read that chapter, starting from verse 3. He says:
“Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”
I just love that. The Lord says:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?”
He goes on and on, and of course, Job just got smaller and smaller as God got bigger and bigger!
A very beautiful devotional written by a lady who has long since gone to be with the Lord, Mrs. Kelman, said and I quote:
“In the pathway of faith, we come to learn that the Lord’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways, both in the physical and spiritual realm. Great pressure means great power. Although circumstances might bring us into the place of death, that need not spell disaster, for if we trust in the Lord and wait patiently, that simply provides the occasion for the display of His almighty power. “
Have a very special year as you walk by faith. Do you remember that old song?
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone,
And because I know, yes I know,
He holds the future, and life is worth the living
Just because He lives.
Happy New Year! Jesus bless you and goodbye!
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 31st of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
The last day of 2022! Some people will say, “I am so glad about that!”. Aah, but the Lord has got plans for us my dear friend. You know, as I am recording this message for you, yes, you can hear it - the rain is falling on my tin roof. What a blessing for any farmer! We start off with Matthew 8:22:
“But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Now that scripture is quite a controversial scripture and I just hope you get the true meaning of what Jesus meant. He meant we are not going to hang around and cry over spilt milk. We are going to press on, a new year is beckoning and we are going to be up for it and ready for it.
“But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:62
We need to keep moving forward. You know, the sailing ship that is moored in the harbour is going nowhere. You and I need to get out to the big seas, and even if the wind is contrary and blowing the wrong way, a good sailor will tack back and forth and he will still get to his destination, but if you are sitting snugly in that harbour and not moving, you will die there. We need to move forward.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”Proverbs 29:18
Now, if we aim at nothing, we are sure to hit it. 2022 was a wonderful year but by faith, we are believing that 2023 is going to be a much more successful year. I would advise you to spend a moment today with Jesus, our great architect and ask Him to give us a game plan for next year - a short-term plan for the immediate needs and a long-term plan for where you are hoping to arrive eventually, then write it down and stick to it.
If you go to that beautiful scripture in the Book of Habakkuk, right at the end of the Old Testament, you will find that the Lord says, very clearly,
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, (you must be patient) wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.”Habakkuk 2:2-3
Have a very blessed and peaceful New Year and Lord-willing, I will walk with you every, single day this coming year.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 30th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.”
Psalm 119:9
“I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.”
Psalm 119:16
People are lost at the moment. People are looking for direction. People are living in a world of compromise where anything goes, even when it comes to the Bible! They pick and choose whatever suits them, whatever suits their lifestyle. It is a very dangerous thing to do. Obedience to the whole Bible brings security and peace into a man’s heart. Jesus Himself quoted the Old Testament continuously. Jesus says:
“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil.” He goes on to say, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle (that is a dot or stroke) will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”
Matthew 5:17
The world is full of imitation these days. An imitation is a “copy of”. It is not the real thing. It looks the same but it is not, it is a forgery. Who is the master of imitation? Yes, you have got it right, the devil himself. He is a thief and a liar. The Word has been here from the beginning of time.
“In the beginning was the Word…”
John 1:1
So don’t try to manipulate it. If you do, you will come horribly short. Today, young man and young lady, obey the Word of God and you will have an abundant life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Thursday morning. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is the 29th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;…”
Romans 12:12
The Lord is speaking to us today about Christian character. We shall be known by our fruit, the fruit we produce. Now, I want you to do something for me today that I have never asked you to do for me before. I want you to get a cup of coffee or cup of tea, and I want you to listen to a story. Yes, I am going to go a little bit over time because it is holiday time and I really believe that you need to hear this story.
So we shall be known by our fruit. In Matthew 7:16, Jesus says:
“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”
Definitely not.
We need to be happy because the Lord tells us very clearly in Romans 12:12 to be joyful in hope, we need to be patient when going through hard times, and we need to be steadfast in prayer. You see, it is not so much what you say that counts, but rather how you live that really matters. Now, I want to tell you about an old couple, but before I tell you about them, I want to say to you that I have had the privilege, because of the nature of my work, to have met some amazing celebrities right around the world. Some of them you see on television, some of them are household names, and I am talking about sportsmen, I am talking mainly about preachers, I am talking about politicians, but I want to tell you about an old couple that has impacted my life more than any of those celebrities.
When I was a young man I was pulling stumps out of fields, trying to develop more maize fields. One day I was working hard and I probably wasn’t in a very good mood, and this old motorcar drove up alongside our farm road. It stopped and an old gentleman got out and his dear wife was sitting in the passenger side. There was steam coming out from underneath the bonnet of the motorcar, and this did not seem to deter him at all. He introduced himself and said, “My name is Jimmy and that is Moira sitting in the car.” Uncle Jimmy and Aunty Moira arrived on our farm. He said, “The Lord has told me I have to come here and help you.” I said, “Well, the Lord didn’t tell me anything.” "No, but he told us and that is good enough.” I said, “Fine, so where are all your furniture and worldly possessions?” He said, “In the back of the car.” Anyway, we gave them a little house to stay in, and Uncle Jimmy and Aunty Moira stayed with us until the day Jesus took them home. What characters they were! Uncle Jimmy’s job was to take the children to school every day and he would pile them into the back of his little pick-up with the canopy on. They were all squashed in the back. They were always late for school. They would say, “Please Uncle Jimmy, could you go a bit faster?”, he would say, “Yes, I will put the wings out today,” but he never broke the speed limit and he never got them there on time.
He had a wicked sense of humour. He would pull up to a stop street and the children would be dawdling across the road, going to school. He would stick his head out the window, and he had a full set of false teeth. He would drop his false teeth and go screaming across the road like some kind of a demon. He was joyful in hope but he also had a lot of tribulation in his life. He only had one son and his son was a traffic officer, just newly appointed. He was so proud of him and one day his son was gunned down in cold blood at a roadblock. Jimmy battled to get passed that one. He never ever spoke about it. It took a terrible toll on him. He never complained.
When he was about 16 years old, Uncle Jimmy forged his mother’s signature so that he could become a sailor in the Royal Navy but while he was in the Royal Navy he contracted TB, and it weakened his chest and he never really came right from that. Uncle Jimmy was a great prayer warrior. Moira would often say to me, “He never slept again last night. He couldn’t breathe properly. He spent the night on his knees, in the sitting room, praying.”
Uncle Jimmy was a big influence in my life. I was with him when he died. The last thing he said to me was, “Jock,” (that is what he used to call me, probably because of my Scottish roots), “Jock, I love you. Please take care of Moira.” I said, “I will, Uncle Jimmy”, and I did until she went home to be with Jesus as well.
I am so looking forward to seeing him, both of them, in Heaven one day.
Go out today and be Jesus to a hurting world.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 28th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Blessed are the undefiled in the way,
Who walk in the law of the Lord!
Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the whole heart!”
Psalm 119:1
People that walk in the ways of the Lord, walk in a blameless way. They are truly happy people, they walk in integrity, they walk in the light and they stay on the course. They don’t fall into potholes or grope around in the darkness, searching blindly or full of uncertainty but they are sure-footed. Remember the old saying, “The world stands aside for a man who knows where he is going.” We need to ask ourselves a question today. Do we know where we are going? A man who walks in integrity has got nothing to hide. That’s what true freedom is all about.
“Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
John 8:36
One of the nicest scripture verses for me in the Bible is 1 John 1:9:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
You see, confession brings freedom. I want to say to somebody today, pay your debt! As long as you owe somebody something, they have got a hold of you. Stop that ungodly relationship today. That woman is not your wife, she is somebody else’s wife. That relationship with that man, young lady - he is the husband of some other poor woman. Start today to walk in the light, holding the Hand that will lead you all the way home.
Many years ago, in our children’s home, somebody stole our pick-up. The little children were devastated. They said, “What are we going to do dad?”, I said, “Let's pray” and we prayed but the pick-up never came back. A few years later a few of the children came to me and said, “Dad, that is not fair.” I said, “You need to pray for that man who stole our pick-up because every single day he wakes up before he goes out, he opens the door and looks to the left and to the right to make sure there is no one there who is coming to arrest him. When he drives that pick-up down the highway and he sees a traffic policeman on the side of the road, his heart starts to thump. He has got no peace in his heart. All he had to do was bring the pick-up back and ask for forgiveness. We would have forgiven him and he could have gone his way, but that man has got a chain around his neck.
I want to say to you today, “Blessed are the undefiled, those who walk in the way of the Lord.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 27th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,…”Romans 12:2
Another translation says,
“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in His eyes.”
Romans 12:2
We must resist the evil pressures of this world so that we can discern God’s will for our lives. Just because every other person is doing it, that does not make it right. The battle is not in the flesh, the battle is for the mind.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (that means fleshly) but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,…”2 Corinthians 10:4-5
You see, what you think is what you become. Do not be sucked into second best by the culture around you. It is just like eating junk food. Junk food might taste nice but it is not good for your physical body. Discipline your mind with what you read and with what you watch. Most of all, we need to really slow down. Satan wants us to be so busy that we don’t have time to rest or renew our minds. We need to think.
I picked up a little story that I found which was written many years ago. It goes like this: Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels, he said, “We can’t keep the Christians from going to church. We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can’t even keep them from conservative values but we can do something else - we can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding experience in Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time so they cannot gain that experience in Jesus Christ. This is what I want you to do, distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout the day.”
Spend time with Jesus!
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Monday morning. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is the 26th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
What a beautiful promise of God. The promise of God is the only thing that we can truly rely upon. Our trust and our confidence must be built on Jesus alone. You know, we can’t even trust ourselves, can we? We don’t keep our word, the things we say we will do, we don’t do. So who can we trust? Well, we can trust in Jesus.
Jesus says to us clearly in Matthew 11:28,
“Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Now that is a promise straight from the Lord Jesus Christ’s mouth, and when He says it, He means it and He will not fail you and He will not fail me. If we put our whole trust in God today, we shall never be disappointed. Ask God to give you a scripture verse for the coming year. That is what I do every single year. Read your Bibles systematically and God will show you a promise that He has given you, then stand by it and He will not fail you. C. H. Spurgeon, in one of his books says, ”On man’s word hang only what it will bear, on your own resolve, depend not at all. On the promise of God hang time and eternity, this world and the next, your all and the all of your loved ones.” Isn’t that beautiful?
As we start looking forward now to the year 2023, our confidence is not in any man, in any organisation, in anyone’s opinion - solely on the Word of God. He will not fail you.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name - I want to wish all of you a very blessed and peaceful Christmas in Jesus name! It is Sunday morning, that’s right, it is 25th December 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, wishing you a very, very, happy Christmas and bringing you a thought for today. We start off with Isaiah:
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Literally meaning, “God with us”).
Isaiah 7:14
Then we go straight to Matthew:
“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,”Matthew 1:23
Which is translated as “God with us.” The miracle of Christmas - and what a miracle it is! Now, I looked up in the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, miracle. It means: "A welcome event that is so extra-ordinary that it is thought to be the work of God." That is in the dictionary. Now, what we must remember is that approximately 8 centuries, 800 years, before Jesus was born in the little town of Bethlehem in a stable, next to animals, in a manger which is a feed trough - it was already written in the Book of Isaiah. Now that is a miracle! Come on now... All the skeptics and doubters listening to this message today, how could that possibly be a coincidence?
What about the virgin birth? Ask any gynaecologist in the world and they will tell you that it is physically impossible for a young maiden, a young lady to fall pregnant without knowing a man... Yet Luke 1:37 says that with God nothing is impossible - That is why I love Him so much. You see, this is where our faith kicks in. It is the most beautiful story of documented truth ever told, the story of the nativity. It is harder to believe that the world was formed by a big bang, than to believe that Immanuel came down to earth in the form of the most beautiful baby boy.
I want to wish you a very special Christmas and that God would open your spiritual eyes to the miracle-working power of our Lord Jesus Christ. He loves you so much that He came to dwell amongst us. Have a very special Christmas with your family, spend lots of time together, rest in the Lord and enjoy this special day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name on Christmas Eve, Saturday morning the 24th of December 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day. If we go straight to the word of God in Psalms:
“The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.”
Psalm 118:14
What a beautiful scripture! Then we go to Exodus:
“The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation;
He is my God, and I will praise Him;…”
Exodus 15:2
And then the last one, Isaiah 12:2:
“Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;...”
Jesus came down from Heaven to Earth to save a hopeless wretch just like me. I looked up in the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of salvation. It means: "The saving of a person from sin and it’s consequences, believed by Christians to be brought about by faith in Jesus.” - In a nutshell, that is what Christmas is all about. Luke 19:10 says:
"for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
“Save from what?” I can hear somebody saying. Well, saved from fear, stress, depression, hopelessness, addictions, immorality, sickness and disease. You see, for me, Christmas Day was the 18th of February 1979. Why? Because that is the day that I asked the Lord Jesus Christ into my life. You see, I had worked myself to a standstill. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t stop working, I lost my joy and my purpose in life... Then I met that little babe who was born in a manger, in a little town in Bethlehem, and everything changed in my life. What about you today on Christmas Eve? Why don’t you pray this beautiful prayer with me and begin a new life? What a time to do it! Let us pray together:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I acknowledge that I am a sinner and I need help.
Please forgive me for the wayward life I have been living, trying to do things on my own.
oday, Christmas Eve, 24th December, 2022, I invite You into my life. To take over every aspect of what I am doing. I thank You Lord, that by faith, I am a new person, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, 23rd December 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. If we start in the Gospel of Luke:
“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.”Luke 2:7
Then we go straight to Hebrews 13:2:
“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.”
Can you imagine the inn-keepers face when he got to Heaven and realised that he had put the Son of God in his garage for the night? He put Him in the stable with his donkeys, his milk cow and the chickens! The King of Kings was given a feed trough for His first night on earth. That was His cot, that was His sleeping place and you know something? It makes me want to cry. He was grateful and He never murmured a word of discontent.
Many, many years ago when we first arrived on the farm, Shalom and had built our little wattle and daub house, a friend who was an evangelist, brought a man to our home. He said, “This man, I picked him up hitch-hiking, could you give him a place to stay?” I said, “Of course”. As new Christians, we were so honoured to put him up. He was a school teacher and he was hitch-hiking. We put him up in our little home, but what a blessing this man was to us. He taught our two little boys how to fish. He caught a huge bass, then prepared it and cooked it on an open fire with lemon and salt - What a delicious meal! He sat in the evenings and taught us Christian songs with his guitar, then he told us stories of faith that took our breath away.
He told us how he took his class, one year and he said to them, “I am going to show you how the Lord undertakes if you trust Him by faith.” He took his whole class of children right around South Africa without taking one rand in his pocket, no money - by faith. I have never forgotten him, he was such a blessing to us. He also spoke over us and he told us what God was going to do with this place. Of course, we could hardly believe it. Do you know, every single word that he told us has come to pass? We want to thank the Lord for Piet Uys. I don’t know where you are Piet. The last time I heard, you were a missionary in Malawi - Jesus bless you!
Folks, today be careful when you turn somebody away, you might be turning away an angel. Have a heart of compassion and love this Christmas Season.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you, it is Thursday morning. I greet you in Jesus’ name! It is the 22nd December 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off with Isaiah 51 and I am reading from verse 12:
“I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you should be afraid
Of a man who will die,
And of the son of a man who will be made like grass?
And you forget the Lord your Maker,
Who stretched out the heavens
And laid the foundations of the earth;
You have feared continually every day
Because of the fury of the oppressor,
When he has prepared to destroy.
And where is the fury of the oppressor?”
Why do we fear man and not fear God? Why are we intimidated by man and not concentrating on the love of God? We go then, to Matthew 10:28, Jesus says:
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
The word of the Lord. The fear of man can paralyse us. Rather, let us today concentrate on the love of Christ in our lives and concentrate on pleasing Him and not pleasing man. Don’t be afraid of bullies. They are all talk, you have nothing to fear. They are simply ordinary men, just like you and me. Never allow them to compromise your relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ, just to be one of the gang.
I want to say to the young ladies - Don’t in any way allow men to persuade you to do things you don’t want to do, just so that you can be part of the gang. It never lasts. Rather, concentrate on your friendship with the Lord and then He will lead you to people that you can really make genuine friends with, friendships that will last forever. You do not need fairweather friends in your life. Do you know what they are like? Well, when the sun is shining, they are your friends but when the clouds come over, they don’t want to be friends anymore. You need a friend that will stick with you, closer than any brother. And who is that? It’s Jesus. Proverbs 18:24.
An acid test of a good friend is when you have nothing to give them in return... When we arrived on this farm over 40 years ago we had nothing, that is when we had friends who have stuck closer to us than any others, from that time to now. So today, remember, keep your eyes on Jesus, He will never disappoint you.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name, a very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, 21st December 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. If we go to the Gospel of Matthew:
“Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.”Matthew 4:19
Wherever Jesus went, it was either a riot or a revival. These men were fishing away, quite happily and the next minute their worlds were turned upside down and they were totally disturbed. I looked up the dictionary the meaning of the word, disturbed, it means: "To disrupt or bothered by something, interfered with or unsettled.” That is what Jesus does, doesn’t He?
A very good friend of mine sent me a reading that I want to share with you. It was written by a Ships Captain in the 15th Century and this is how it goes. It is titled, “Disturb Us.”
“Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life, having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity, and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery, where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.
We ask you to push back the horizon of our hopes and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love.
This we ask in the name of our Captain, who is Jesus Christ. ”
Today, let us not be content with a mediocre life. Let us aim high and let the Captain of our lives direct us into the exciting future which He has prepared for each one of us. In Jesus' precious name,
Amen.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, 20th December 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”Romans 10:17
You know, without faith we cannot please the Lord. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith, we cannot please Him and he who believes must believe that He is and that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Jesus is the Word!
”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”John 1:1
Before the world was made, before the galaxies were made, the Word was already there. Why? Because Jesus is the Word! So if a doubting person comes to you and says, “This Jesus that you are always talking about, show me! I want to see Him.” Give him a Bible. That is what the word is, the word is Jesus in print.
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”2 Corinthians 5:7
Now, how do you get faith - That is the big question. People write to me and say, “Please pray for me, that I might have more faith. How do I get more faith?” I never pray for them to have more faith. I pray that they would have a hunger to read the word of God. Many of you know that on the cover of my Bible I have got printed: “My Agricultural Manual.” Now, some people have said to me, “That is disrespectful to the Word of God.” No, it is not - My Bible is a reality to me. My Bible is a tool, it is the tool of my trade. My Bible shows me the way. Psalm 119:105:
“Thy word (The Bible) is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Now today, start to use your Agricultural Manual. Start to read the Word of God, consistently, and I want to tell you it will give you direction. It will give you peace and it will increase your faith.
Jesus bless you today, have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, 19th December 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”Isaiah 52:7
Isn’t that a beautiful scripture? It's good news! Romans 10:15 confirms it:
“And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
Irrespective of what is happening in the world today, it does not matter. He has told us already, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Gospel of John:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”John 16:33
What is the good news? Well, Jesus is not dead - He is alive! Isn’t that good news? He has not left us as orphans. He has sent us His Helper, the Holy Spirit. Even as I am speaking to you now, I can feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in my prayer room, I believe that as I am talking to you now, He is with you. He gives us the strength to live and die. You see, death has lost its sting. Paul says in Philippians:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”Philippians 1:21
So you cannot frighten a Christian with Heaven. We remember at this very time of the year that God became flesh and dwelt amongst us. Immanuel, means literally: “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), so you don’t have to be lonely. You don’t have to be on your own because the Holy Spirit is with you as I am talking to you. This is the message we should be telling the fearful world at this time.
I have sat with many dying people, people who are agitated, restless and very scared but once they are reassured that our Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to receive us and to take us by the hand, as it were, to His heavenly home (John 14:3), then absolute peace fills their faces. They close their eyes, and they walk through that door with Jesus, holding hands, straight into the heavenly place He has prepared for you and me.
Have a wonderful Monday!
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, 18th December 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Jeremiah 8:22 says:
“Is there no balm in Gilead,…?”
Then we go to Isaiah 40:1:
“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God.”
But we say, “With what? We do not have money or wealth.” Well, as Peter said to the lame man in Acts 3:6:
“Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
A kind word, a positive word, an encouraging word - it is like a sweet-smelling ointment used to heal or soothe the skin. That is how the Oxford Dictionary describes the word, balm. “Is there any balm in Gilead?”
You know the power of the tongue is amazing. I remember, like yesterday, at one of our early Mighty Men Conferences, a big sturdy policeman got up in front of all the men and he confessed that he had never told his son, who was sitting there, that he loved him. This big 18-year-old boy came running down the aisle to his dad who was standing on the platform and the two of them embraced each other and loved each other. You know that that young man before that, he couldn’t even make the third rugby team at school. He went back and made the first team, he then became a semi-professional rugby player. Why? Because a kind word was spoken by his dad - It transformed his life completely. You and I need to say a kind word. People are hurting, people are wounded. They need that ointment of love and affirmation, that word of encouragement. Let's do it this Sunday... Let's phone someone.
Tell your wife she looks beautiful, tell your husband he looks so handsome still, even though he might be old and grey-haired. You know, you have no idea what it will do for them.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, 17th December 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day. Psalm 116, I am reading from verse 1:
“I love the Lord, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.”
And then Jeremiah 33:3. Jeremiah 333 - Jesus’ telephone number. He says:
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
Call Him today my dear friend. He will answer, His line is never too busy. That is all that prayer is, talking to the Lord. It's a lifestyle. Jesus always got His instructions from His Heavenly Father. Often the disciples would be looking for Him, “Lord, the crowds of people are waiting for you!” No, He was up on the mountain. He was speaking to His Father. Remember, first the mountain, then the ministry. In Matthew 14:23, the Bible tells us that He went up the mountain by Himself to pray. You can see very easily the spiritual depth of a man or woman by the time they spend in prayer.
You know, I remember we had a typical tropical rainstorm on the farm. The lightning and thunder was incredible. The noise on our tin roof, we could hardly hear ourselves speak. Then we heard voices outside. I looked through the window. There were some Zulu women, half a dozen, with blankets over their heads and they were wailing. I said to them,” What's is the problem?” They said, “Kunenkathazo enkulu. Owesifazane ushaywe umbani washona” (“There is terrible trouble. A lady has been struck by lightening and she is dead.”)
I got into the pick-up. We shot up to that traditional Zulu hut. We went inside and there in the middle of that room was a body lying with blankets covering it. I said, “Pick up the body and bring it to the pick-up. We will take the body to the mortuary.” They said, “Cha! Uhlale usitshela ukuthi sithandaze!Manje, sifuna ukuthi uthandaze kuJesu, uMenzi wezimanga okhuluma ngaye futhi uzomvusa.” (“No! You are always telling us to pray!
Now, we want you to pray to Jesus, the Miracle Worker you are talking about and He will raise her up.”) Well, I was in a corner. I didn’t know what to do so I laid my hands upon her and I prayed the prayer of faith and Jesus raised up that woman. I want to tell you, for weeks after that, in the fields where the women were working, they were singing hymns and praising God. What about you?
I can hear somebody saying, “I don’t know how to pray.” Funnily enough, the disciples said the same thing to Jesus: “Lord, teach us how to pray.” I want you to pray this prayer after me. I am going to pray it really slow and then you can pray it after me:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever.
Amen.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, 16th December 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we start in the Book of Isaiah:
“Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Rebuke the oppressor;
Defend the fatherless,
Plead for the widow.”Isaiah 1:17
Then we go to Micah 6:8:
“He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
(Number 1) But to do justly,
(Number 2) To love mercy,
(Number 3) And to walk humbly with your God?”
As we see the Christmas season approaching, this is when we are to produce the fruits of the Spirit as followers of Jesus Christ. We are to display an attitude that brings glory to God - not the attitude of “I am alright Jack” or self-preservation. That's not what Jesus is looking for in us. It is a time to 'be Jesus' to a hurting, suffering, lost, fearful and confused world.
Romans 1:17, one of my favourite verses, says:
“The just shall live by faith.”
The righteous shall live by faith. Remember, faith has got feet. Faith is a doing word. This Christmas time, don’t tell people that you love them but show them that you love them. Remember, charity always begins at home. Now for the young people listening to this message, charity is an old-fashioned word which means love - Love begins at home. I know some young people listening to this message want to go out into the world and preach the Gospel to the lost but Jesus said, “We are going to start in Jerusalem” - that is your home, then Judea, then Samaria and then the outer ends of the world. This Christmas, we have got to 'be Jesus'.
Now, I can hear somebody saying, “I am not looking forward to this Christmas because my family are all coming home and Uncle John when he comes, he just never, ever stops speaking.” Remember, John has lost his wife, he lives by himself, he is very lonely and he is just so excited to be able to talk. What about Aunty Mary? She is always complaining! Aunty Mary just never stops complaining! Ja, but you don’t realise that Aunty Mary is battling with a very sore back. She has got knees that are packing up and she is always in pain. Be kind to Aunty Mary.
What about those naughty children that are coming this Christmas? They never, ever behave themselves, they are like terrorists. They are just tearing the place apart. Be kind to them this Christmas because you see, mom and dad have got a problem in their marriage and they are so busy trying to sort it out, they are neglecting their children.
This Christmas, let us 'be Jesus' to our families!
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Thursday morning, it is the 15th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Revelation 21:5, the Lord says:
“Behold, I make all things new.”
What a beautiful scripture! The other Scripture which is a very popular one is found in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Our Lord Jesus is a builder, He is not a demolisher. There is nothing or no one that our Heavenly Father cannot restore or make new again. I have seen it so many times in nature on this very farm, as a very young farmer, with a young wife and five young children. We had all our money in a crop of seed maize which was very expensive, and a devastating hailstorm decimated that beautiful crop of maize in five minutes, where our only source of income was destroyed in front of my very eyes.
I have walked through those fields because I couldn’t drive in a pick-up, I have walked with my gumboots and my heart was broken. I came home and told my wife and my children, “I think we are over. I think we are going bankrupt,” only to go out three days later and see that the Creator, Himself, had been busy while we were asleep in our beds and that crop of maize has miraculously stood up again, a bit buckled and bent I must admit, but standing none the less, and we have lived to fight another day.
I have seen the same thing happen with men who you and I have thought, “Well, that man there - there is no hope. That man is a blasphemer, a drunkard, a drug addict.” Then he meets the Restorer. He meets the One who makes all things new. He meets Jesus Christ and miraculously and instantaneously, I have seen it not once but thousands of times, a complete turn-around, a man who is loving, who is gentle, who is prone to weeping, one who works hard and gives his family a good home. Don’t give up on your miracle today. It is on its way and He will not let you down.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Wednesday morning, the 14th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:5
Then in John 20:15, Jesus said
“Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher).
"Woman, why are you weeping?". The Lord is saying to you this morning, "Lady, why are you weeping?" "Young man, why are you weeping?"
You see, Mary Magdalene was the woman that Jesus cast out seven demons. She was a woman of ill repute. She did not have a very good reputation. She didn’t have any friends. She was not regarded by anybody until Jesus Christ came into her life and changed her completely. She must have been having a very sleepless night when the Lord had been put in that tomb, the man who had restored her, the man that had believed in her and given her new life was dead. She loved Him so much. He was everything to her. Yes, she was the first one to go down to the tomb, early in the morning, to go and minister to His body, but when she got there the tomb was empty and the stone had been rolled away. She was so very distraught and sad. She saw a man standing in the garden in the early morning shadows, thinking that He was the gardener, and she asked Him what had been done to the Lord's body. Then she heard that beautiful, rich voice say her name, "Mary!" and she knew it was Jesus.
The night of weeping ceased and with much joy, the morning in her life broke forth forever. I want to say to you my dear friend that I believe if you get to Heaven before me, and you look for the most beautiful woman, I believe it will be Mary Magdalene because Jesus has got a habit of taking broken distraught people, people who are weeping, who have lost hope, and making them into new creatures and brand new people. The night of weeping will pass and Jesus will give us new life.
Today, just remember He is with us. He will never leave us and He will never forsake us.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Tuesday morning, it is the 13th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Never, ever give up! Galatians 6:9 says if you do not weary in doing good, in due season, you will reap if you do not lose heart.
“And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”
2 Kings 2:9
What a request! I have got written in the margin of my Bible, right next to that scripture, “Persistence always pays off.” Elijah, the Tishbite, is my hero in the Old Testament, but I want to tell you that Elisha performed exactly double the number of miracles that Elijah performed. Why? Because he did not give up. How do you cover a journey of a thousand miles? One step at a time. How do you climb a mountain? One step at a time. What do they say to the young people, “How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time.
But seriously, I want to say to you today that maybe there is a young person who says, “I have just failed my year at university and I don’t know what to do." Maybe there is a young guy at school who says, “I have just failed my exams. I want to give up.” Never, ever give up! Some of the most intelligent, brightest people in the world were hopeless at school. One of them was Winston Churchill. His father back-handed a school to keep him in the school. I want to say to you today, “Keep on keeping on and you will get there.”
Now, today is a very special day for me. I want to take this opportunity - and I don’t do this, I have never done this before, but I want to thank you for listening to Thought for Today. I want to thank you for your prayers and your love which have kept me going. Do you know that today is 1000 days of the Thought for Today, without breaking one day, without missing one day, and all the glory, all the honour, goes to the Lord Jesus Christ. Many a time I have woken up in the morning and I have said, “Lord, the tank is empty. I don’t know what to say!" I go to the word of God, I open up the Bible and Jesus gives me the message.
I want to say to you today that we need to keep going forward. Don’t look behind you. No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62). I can hear some person saying, “Now, Angus is that the end?" No, it is not! When are you going to stop? When Jesus tells me and not a day before and not a day after, I want to tell you it is a great honour and a privilege to meet with you every single morning.
Have a very blessed day today.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 12th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Hebrews 13:8 - Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. I want to speak to you about consistency, being consistent. The Oxford Dictionary says that the word “consistent" means unchanging over time. It is so very important that you and I remain consistent in a world which is changing continually, daily actually. Core values and priorities in life change all the time, even the weather patterns are changing, but Jesus never changes, and that's why I love him so much.
What are the things that make a Christian steady? Well, it's getting up in the morning. It's spending time in prayer every single day. It's reading your Bible, not haphazardly, consistently. Not now and again - every single day. It's attending church and being with fellow Christians on a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening, whichever suits you. It's saying your grace every day before you eat your food. Do you still do that? "Well, I used to, but now I'm so busy.” No, thank God every day, and consecrate that food every day. You'll be surprised how healthy you become.
We are looking for consistent people. I think of some young people coming back home over the Christmas period. Why are you coming home? Well, I'm coming up to see my loved ones, but it's also so nice to come back to the farm and see that nothing has changed. We still milk the cows every day, we still have to do our chores, and we have to look after our horses and our sheep. We have to feed the pigs. We have to make sure that the crops are growing nicely with no weeds in the inter-rows. We need to be consistent. That is what makes people feel not only comfortable, but also makes people feel safe.
Do not be like the proverbial yo-yo, up one moment, down the next. Let us as believers be consistent and we will find that our witness will draw many people to Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name on this beautiful Sunday morning, the 11th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
This is the prayer of Moses, the man of God - that is what it says in my New King James Bible:
“Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
Psalms 90:1-2
Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that encouraging? Then we go to Proverbs 8:23. Now we are talking about the wisdom of God. You see, Moses knew that he could never take an entire nation through the desert for forty years without wisdom from God and strength.
“I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.”
Proverbs 8:23
We are talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, of course. He is wisdom. That is another one of His beautiful names. Have you ever seen a photo of Mount Everest? It is another world up there, before Mount Everest was formed, Jesus was there. Even before Mount Sinai was formed, where Moses got the Ten Commandments from the Lord, God was.
“And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’
Exodus 3:14
Today, let us go to the Great I AM, and seek counsel from Him. If a man of the stature of Moses could do that, how much more, young man, young lady, should we also be doing that? Not just asking Him for advice for the big things, but even the little things. I love that story of the old lady driving slowly down the road on a busy Saturday morning, with all the cars going in and out, she needs to get to the shop, but she is not too steady on her feet so she needs a parking place pretty close to the supermarket. So what does she do? She asks The Great I AM, ”Can you make a parking place for me, please Father?” What happens? Somebody just puts their flashlights on, they reverse out of a parking, right in front of her, and she just pulls her little car straight in, in front of the supermarket and she says, “Thank You Father” and out she goes!
Have a wonderful day in Jesus Name,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 10th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.”
John 6:56
Now when the Lord Jesus told this to the disciples, he had over one hundred and twenty disciples. After He said this, they said that this was a very difficult thing, and then verse 66 says:
“From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”
John 6:66
Then Jesus was left with 12 disciples from about one hundred and twenty. The Lord was not talking about literally eating His flesh. No, He was talking about spending time with Him and feeding on His word, feeding on fellowship with Him in prayer and meditation. That is what He was talking about. We need to be spending time with Jesus all the time, not just when we take Holy Communion, when we say, “This is the Body of Christ broken for you. This is the New Covenant in the Blood of Jesus shed for you.” That is a very, very special time for me by the way, the most special of all the sacraments, but we do not only feed on Jesus at that time. We feed on the Lord 24 hours a day. The Lord is talking about fellowship. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Not you, Christ in you (Colossians 1:27). The Lord Jesus says, “If you have seen Me you have seen My Father.”
We really need to spend time in the presence of the Lord. Jesus is our meat and our drink, and the more time we spend in His presence, the stronger we become.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, it is the 9th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
This is Paul speaking:
“My manner of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem, all the Jews know.”
Acts 26:4
Then Agrippa said to Paul,
“You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”
Acts 26:28
I want to speak to you today about the power of a personal testimony. There is nothing more powerful. Most of these men in the Bible are telling us about their personal testimony, their meeting with Jesus, their commitment, their repentance, and their new life. But I want to say to somebody who likes to tell people all about the past and then not too much about the present, a good testimony should be 25% of your previous life and 75% of your life since you met the Lord, otherwise, it doesn’t come across too well.
I have heard some guys go into great detail about all the horrible sordid things they did in their past and then they met Jesus and their lives changed and that’s it. No, no, no! King Agrippa said to , “You almost persuade me to become a Christian (by your testimony).”
Saul of Tarsus was determined to destroy as many Christians as he could. Then he got knocked off his horse on the road to Damascus and his life changed instantaneously, and instead of becoming a persecutor of the Christians, he became an apostle for the Lord Jesus Christ.
I can tell you right now, I love listening to testimonies. You can ask my wife. Any book I buy will always be a biography or an autobiography if I can find one. I have read most of them. I just love to hear how God transforms men's and women’s lives. I once was lost but now I am found, I was blind but now I can see - John Newton, what a story! But there are so many - what about that lady, Mary Slessor, that Scottish lassie that came from Aberdeen, where my folks come from? She went into the jungles of North-West Africa. She rescued little babies because in that particular area if twins were born they would automatically kill one twin. She adopted them and went where very few missionaries went - a woman with a powerful testimony.
Go out today and tell people what Jesus means to you.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 8th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
What man can live and not see death?
Can he deliver his life from the power of the grave?Psalm 89:48
No, certainly not. For each and every one of us, our days were numbered before we were conceived in our mother’s womb. We cannot live one day longer than the Lord Jesus Christ has prescribed. We need to understand that, and there is something that concerns me a lot. There are so many people chasing the wind.
If you look at Ecclesiastes 1:14, the wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, said,
“Vanity, vanity, it is like chasing the wind.”
We cannot do anything without God’s permission. Some people are aimless, lost and who are desperately trying to prolong their lives. Now I am not saying that you must not look after yourself. I am not saying that you must not eat properly and exercise but what I am saying is that we should start focusing on eternity and not so much on this short brief time that we have on this earth.
I heard a stat the other day, there are now 8 billion people on earth, but the thing that shook me is that 93% will never live to reach the age of 65 years old. So those of us who are over 65, and this is no joke, we need to appreciate the time God has given us. We need to not waste it. We need to spend time with our children and our grandchildren and our family because 93% of the people on this earth will never have that privilege.
Billy Graham said, “Don’t complain about your aches and pains when you get old, because there are many other people who would have loved to have taken those aches and pains to see their grandchildren grow up." We need to appreciate every day that God gives us. That is an important fact, and then we need to tell people about Jesus Christ because once they have found the Lord, then they have found everything - life itself.
So Jesus bless you today as you enjoy this day, and remember, if we die, we go to Heaven and if we live, we live for the Lord.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 7th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Adversity! If we look at Hebrews 13:3, and I am reading it out of the King James Version:
“Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, …”
"Adversity” means difficult or unpleasant situations. I was having a cup of tea the other day with a very dear young man who has asked me to mentor him and be a spiritual dad to him. He is one of the top trumpeters in the world I believe. He probably wouldn’t like me to say that, but that is how I see him. He plays for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and as we were sitting and talking, he said he loved the old hymns and wants to do a project with his orchestra on the old hymns. We are talking about hymns like, “It is well with my soul”, “Oh love that will not let me go,” “Abide with me,” and “Amazing grace.”
As we were talking, I said to him, “It is amazing how every one of those hymns that are absolute “Mount Everests" in the kingdom of Christian music, every one of them is under-girded by adversity, difficult times, hard times. He agreed and then he told me his story. He said his dad, who has since gone to be with the Lord as a very strong Christian, sent his wife and his two children over to Switzerland, the plane crashed and his whole family died. He went over to Switzerland to the funeral and a young lady from the Salvation Army was told to go down and comfort the mourners. She didn’t want to at first but she did eventually and that is where she met this young man’s dad. They became friends and eventually got married and she is his mother today. What a story!
What about Horatio Spafford (It is well with my soul) - four of his daughters perished in the icy cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean when their ship sank. Their father caught the next ship and as he went over the same spot on the Atlantic Ocean, he sat down and he wrote that amazing hymn, “It is well with my soul.”
George Matheson was going blind. His fiancé said, “I can’t live with a blind man”, and she left him, but his sister became his eyes. She helped him in every way she could and then she met a young man and fell in love with him. On her wedding night, he sat in the corner in a chair while everybody was scurrying to and fro, preparing the wedding feast and the dress, etc. and he knew that his eyes, his little sister, would be leaving because she would be going with her husband. He sat down and wrote that hymn, “Oh Love that will not let me go, I hide myself in Thee.” He wrote it in a couple of minutes, did not have to edit it and it has become one of the greatest Christian hymns of all time.
Do not be afraid of adversity. Sometimes God uses that situation to bring the best out of us.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 6th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
Daniel 11:32
“If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Romans 8:31
John Wesley, the great revivalist said, and I quote,
“Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils, but if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh be not weary of well-doing.”
Said by a man who was totally castigated, he was mocked, scorned and beaten. He paid a tremendous price for his faith in Jesus Christ, but he persevered, and he came through at the end. How many more can we say that happened to?
What about men of the calibre of George Whitfield? George Whitfield one of the greatest orators of Christianity, stood in front of crowds of 30,000 people. Some loved him, some hated him. I have seen photo illustrations of men standing next to him while he is preaching, with side drums, playing the drums to try and keep him quiet. Men let off pistols right by his ear, almost singeing his hair but he kept on preaching.
We need to understand that when we stand up for Christ we must be prepared to take a lot of criticism, and even a lot of pain and suffering, but at the end of all of that, oh folks, I want to tell you, there is nothing else worth living for than seeing people come to Christ, lives changed forever.
Today, stand up and remember the Lord is with you and it doesn’t matter what men say.
If Christ is for you and there is no man that will ever stand against you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 5th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”1 John 4:4
You and I need to become more proactive. What does the word, “proactive” actually mean? Well, it means creating or controlling a situation rather than just responding to it. Remember, He who is in us is the Holy Spirit, and he who is in the world is the devil and his demons.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10
We really need to take the initiative. I have just finished counselling a young couple who are about to get married, and that young man took the initiative. He asked the young lady if she would be his wife. If he had not been proactive they probably would never have gotten married, but he took the initiative. We need to do it. We need to do it in our homes, gentlemen. We need to be involved in the lives of our families. We cannot sit on the side and criticise. We need to get into the game as it were, not like a crowd at a rugby match who are all sitting in the grandstands criticising the referee but wouldn’t dare get on that field themselves. We need to be involved.
Jesus always got His hands dirty. He rolled His sleeves up, He washed the dirty feet of His disciples, He touched that dirty leper and he was healed, He touched the blind man’s eyes and they were opened. He was the one who said to Peter, “If you have got the faith, get out of the boat and walk", and Peter did, and then he started sinking when he saw the size of the waves and he became afraid. But what happened to Jesus? He was there. He reached out His hand and He picked him up out of the water.
As believers, we have an obligation. Why? Because we have the answer. His name is Jesus Christ. Let us remember today that we, with the Holy Spirit within us, are greater than anything in this world and when we start to do that then God starts to honour our stand for Him.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, it is the 4th of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Romans 7:19 & 24, I am reading two verses. Paul says:
“For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”
“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Now, this is a statement spoken by one of Jesus’ true saints, St Paul, the Apostle. We hear this statement and we think, “Well then, what hope is there for a sinner like me if Paul cannot get it right?”
Remember what we always say, “Good people don’t go to Heaven, believers go to Heaven.” Martin Luther, the great reformer from Germany, tried in vain to bring his body into subjection with the word of God, but he failed miserably. He used to fast, he used to beat himself. They would wear shirts made of horse hair. Can you imagine the intense aggravation to try and bring the flesh into submission? But he failed.
Then one day he found that little scripture verse in Romans 1:17.
"And the just shall live by faith."
So how do we handle it then? Well, when we make a mistake we repent immediately. We say sorry to the Lord Jesus and then we keep on keeping on. One of my favourite scriptures as a new Christian, was 1 John 1:9 which says if we confess our sins, He (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Of course, that does not give us a license to carry on sinning purposely. No! John Newton, I have spoken about him many times before, wrote the beautiful hymn, Amazing Grace. He was the captain of a slave ship. I cannot think of anything worse. He repented. God forgave him. On his death bed, he was whispering some words, and the man standing next to him put his ear right next to John Newton’s mouth and he heard him say, “What a great sinner I am but what a great saviour Jesus is.”
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 3rd of December, 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 speaks about seasons, and verse 4 says, “A time to mourn” - that’s right, we need to take time out when we mourn a loved one, when someone that we love dearly departs from this world and goes to be with the Lord. It is a time for mourning. It is expected of all people. It is in our DNA.
If you look at Matthew 5:4 (part of the Beatitudes) it says quite simply,
“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”
It is a most sensitive time in our lives and everyone has to go through it sooner or later. Do you know that even Jesus Himself wept with Mary and Martha when they were mourning the death of their brother, Lazarus? You will find that in John 11:35.
"Jesus wept."
Yet He knew that Lazarus was about to be raised from the dead.
Mourning the loss of a loved one is a very real emotion and we need to extend a lot of compassion to people when they are in that state. As Christians should be the first to go and comfort someone who we know has lost a loved one and those who are shocked by the great loss of a child, a husband, a wife, a granny, or a grandad, do not need to be preached at or to be told to pull themselves together. They are wounded. They need to be comforted. Rather than being told to pull themselves together, they need to be loved. They need to be hugged and we need to weep with them. When they are so wounded, they cannot hear you, but they can feel your presence. They can see your tears running down your face and they can feel your love. The worst thing to do is to stay away or avoid them. You don’t have to say much at all. Just be there for them and just be Jesus to them.
Go out today. Some so many people need your love.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 2nd of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.”
Acts 27:34
That was Paul speaking to his fellow sailors when they were in the middle of a storm. He said, “We will not sink but you need to take food and you need to nourish yourselves.”
If we do not look after ourselves both spiritually and also physically, we shall not finish this arduous journey we are travelling. We owe it first of all to God to finish strong, but also to our fellow travellers so that we do not become an unnecessary burden to them.
Lord, please direct our discipline, teach us Lord to pray more, to meditate more, to read our Bibles more and to eat physical food as well.
I read a story of the old Yorkshire Plumber, Smith Wigglesworth, who was queueing up at the ticket counter to purchase a ticket for a passage on the train to another preaching appointment. He came up to the counter and said, “First Class please.” The lady gave him a ticket for first class, he paid her and stood aside. Then a pious old preacher walked up and said, “Third class please,” and the lady gave him a third class ticket, he looked up at Smith Wigglesworth, and said, “I am looking after the Lord’s money.” The old plumber, not to be outdone, said, “Yes, well done, but I am looking after the Lord’s servant!”
So today, look after yourself because you owe it to God and you owe it to your loved ones, and Jesus will see you to the end of your race.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 1st of December, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Look to Me and be saved,…”
Isaiah 45:22
What a beautiful scripture! Then we go to John 14:6, where the Lord Jesus Christ says,
"I am the Way.”
So simple - just look unto Jesus and He will show you the way. Not only will He show you the way but He will also show you the way to eternal life. That can begin within you today. There are so many people who are waiting for Heaven to come down, they are waiting for the second coming of Jesus, but you don’t have to wait. The Lord says, “Look to me and be saved.” We need to understand that Jesus Christ doesn’t live in outer space. No! He lives inside your heart, right there where you are today.
I don’t know what your situation is as we start the last month of this year, 2022. Maybe you are very fearful. Maybe you don’t know what is going to happen next year. Maybe you are saying, “I have been searching for the Lord all my life and I still have not found Him.” Like the young man who says he is going overseas to find his bride, his wife that is going to be with him forever. He goes all over the countryside, all over the world in fact and what happens? He comes back home and marries the young girl that lives next door.
The Lord is very, very close to you and me. All He says is, “Look to me and be saved.”
Now I am going to pray a simple prayer for you and I would like you to say this prayer after me. Maybe you have accepted Jesus as your Saviour but maybe today you need to make a recommitment on the first day of the last month of the year. Please pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Today I acknowledge that I can’t live this life without you.
I ask you therefore to be the Lord of my life.
I repent of all my sin and I acknowledge by faith that You will come in and sup with me and me with You, as Your word says so clearly in Revelation 3:20.
Thank you for saving me today, for giving me new life as I continue to look to You and You alone. I love You very much.
In Jesus name,
Amen.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is the 30th of November, 2022, Wednesday morning, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.”Deuteronomy 31:8
“Cast your burden on the Lord,
And He shall sustain you;
He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”
Psalm 55:22
If Jesus goes before us then all is safe. All is safe, follow after Him, you have nothing whatsoever to fear in this world because He will not fail us. He goes into battle with us leading from the front. Jesus will take on the enemy and all we need to do is to follow after Him.
I can hear somebody saying, “Well, I don’t know the way.” Well, if you take a Kalahari bushman and you put him in Times Square in the middle of New York, USA, he will be totally and absolutely devastated and lost. I can just imagine with the trucks, the buses, the cars and the hooters, he wouldn’t know where he was, but take that same Koisan Kalahari bushman and put him in the middle of the Kalahari Dessert with you and he will show you the way. He will show you where to find water. He will show you where to find food and if he wasn’t with you, you would surely perish.
Now Thomas said to Jesus, in John 14:5, “We don’t know the way, Lord.” And in verse 6, Jesus said, “I am the Way.” I want to say to you today that you need to cast all your cares upon the Lord. He will not let you down. He has promised. He has gone ahead of us to make a place for us in Heaven, then He is coming back and He is going to take us by the hand, all the way home. Isn’t that wonderful news?
Maybe go and speak to somebody who is stressed today and say, “Don’t worry. I know a person who knows the way. He is my best friend. He has never let me down and He will take you home."
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 29th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still.”Psalm 107:29
“Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”
Mark 4:39
What storm are we facing in our lives today? Have we taken our eyes off the Master, the Master of the wind and rain, and have we maybe focused on the huge waves and storms in our lives? Many years ago, when I had just started farming, I had a small little maize planter. I had to plant a very, very large crop of corn or maize and I had not calibrated the planter correctly. When the maize started germinating, I realized we had huge gaps in the rows and a very low plant population. It was so sparse that early in the morning I could walk through the maize crop without getting any early morning dew on my clothes, and the devil told me, almost audibly every single day, “You are done. You will get no crop because you have planted no maize.”
I was very worried. I even started getting quite depressed and every day I would drive around that crop in my pick-up and I just looked at these huge gaps. You see, I was looking at the waves, I was looking at the storm and I was not looking at Jesus.
Then early one morning as I was driving around the crop, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me to stop looking at the gaps in the rows and start looking at the cobs on the plants, I looked at them, and they were huge - huge cobs with massive weighty kernels! You see, what happened was, because of the gaps, the maize cobs were just getting bigger and bigger because the fertilizer was there. But you see, that year I didn’t know and neither did anybody else, but we had a terrible drought. If I had planted the correct plant population, those plants wouldn’t have produced any cobs. That year we got a very good yield in terms of weight. We get paid by weight, not by volume!
I want to say to you today, take your eyes off the waves and the storm, and put your eyes on the One who calms the storm so that its waves are still. You will see the outlook will be totally different. He will not leave you, He will not forsake you. He has promised us that in Hebrews 13:5.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 28th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”
John 16:7
“Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.“1 Corinthians 12:27-28
The Bible tells us clearly that the moon is the faithful witness in the sky. You see the moon merely reflects the sun. We are to do the same. We are to reflect our precious Lord Jesus. Maybe there is somebody this morning who feels utterly useless, worthless, of no real consequence to anyone, because we are not apostles, we are not prophets, we are not evangelists, we are not pastors and we are not teachers. What use am I in God’s kingdom? Well, the Lord is reminding us this morning that one of the ministries in the Kingdom of God is the ministry of helps, behind-the-scenes workers.
People talk a lot about the great evangelist, Charles Finney. Well, what people don’t realise is that there was a man called Father Nash, who was helping him. He would go into a town and check into a hotel and he would pray for a week before the great revivalist came to town and the fire of God fell down. No one knew about him. Just before Charles Finney came to town, this man would check out of his hotel room and go ahead to the next one. A faithful worker - a helps ministry.
Another man by the name of Fletcher was one of John Wesley’s, the great revivalist’s right-hand men. Fletcher used to pray so much that they say the very floorboards by his bed had grooves in them from the many hours he spent in prayer, and of course, everyone knows who John Wesley is. What about John the Baptist? He says in John 3:30:
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Today, go out and help people. That is a ministry that will be rewarded only in Heaven one day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. It is Sunday morning. I greet you in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Today is the 27th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Jesus says:
“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.”
John 14:19
What a beautiful assurance. Then we go straight to 1 Corinthians 15:55:
“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
O hell - where is your victory? Well, I want to say one thing to you, if you love Jesus Christ this morning and He is your Lord and Saviour, how can we, therefore, die, if He lives forever in us? We can’t. We are one in Christ Jesus. So when I die, don’t believe what the news states. That’s what Billy Graham said.
“When you read it in the newspapers, “Billy Graham has died.” Don’t believe a word of it”, he said, “I will not be dead, I will simply have changed my address.”
Maybe today you are mourning, you have lost a loved one and you are saying, “Will I ever see him, will I ever see her again?” I want you to know that if they loved Jesus Christ, you will definitely see them again.
When I go to Israel, one of my favourite places is to go to the Garden Tomb. You can go into that tomb and the amazing thing is, nobody is lying in that tomb. It is empty. There are no bones, no! I know many religions will take you to where the remains of their leader lie, but for us the tomb is empty. Why? Because He is alive. He is not dead. Death has lost its sting and we know as believers, we live forever. Isn’t that wonderful news to know in a turbulent time like this?
So, if we live, we live for Jesus and if we die, we go home to be with Him forever.
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”Philippians 1:21
“And because He lives,
I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives,
All fear is gone.
And because I know, yes I know,
He holds the future
And life is worth the living
Just because He lives.”
Have a wonderful Sunday,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 26th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way;
They found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty,
Their soul fainted in them.
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He delivered them out of their distresses.
And He led them forth by the right way,
That they might go to a city for a dwelling place.
Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men!
For He satisfies the longing soul,
And fills the hungry soul with goodness.”
Psalm 107:4
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”Philippians 4:19
Men and women are desperately searching, looking for peace of mind and the soul, but they are looking in the wrong places. They are walking in a desert of confusion and are hopelessly lost. Mark 8:36 says:
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
I was definitely one of those. I thought if I could just get that farm, if I could get a farm of my own I would be content. Well, I did get the farm. I worked myself almost to death in the process and when I got those Title Deeds and the farm was finally mine, I was not content, not at all. You have heard of world-class sportsmen and women, striving to get to the top, striving to get the gold medal at the Olympic Games, striving to put on that blazer that represents their country, thinking that that would give them peace and purpose and joy, only to find when they get it, it is empty. It is totally empty! Many slide down the slippery slope which leads to depression and sometimes even suicide. But when you find Jesus Christ then you can really start to live and enjoy life to the full.
It was only when I accepted Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour that I really started to farm successfully and enjoy it to the full. Today, cast your cares upon Jesus because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7), and then you will find true fulfilment.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 25th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He will not always strive with us,
Nor will He keep His anger forever.”Psalm 103:9
The Lord loves you and me very, very much. When we make a mistake, all we have to do is say sorry, but, He will prune us. He will prune us hard sometimes and it is very painful because He has got those secateurs and He is cutting us right back. Why? Well, according to John 15:2, the word of God tells us very clearly, and it is so important for us to understand it, that He prunes so that it may bear more fruit. I am a farmer. The more you prune something back, the more it yields.
He will pardon us because He loves us. He will not continue to discipline us but He has always loved us, remember that. Our confidence is in Jesus’ sweet, unchanging love towards us. The ones that He loves, He disciplines.
You know, undisciplined people have a very hard time in life. If they have not been disciplined by mom and dad they grow up to be selfish, rebellious, greedy and self-centred. Then what happens? They end up becoming social outcasts. If you love your son you have to discipline him. If he is disrespectful towards his mother or his sisters, he needs to be dealt with very firmly, so that when he grows up he will know how to respect ladies and how to protect old people. An undisciplined boy becomes a menace, even to himself.
Folks, I remember like yesterday, I received a phone call from a minister who wanted to come and see me. I said, “I really don’t have time.” He said, “It's so important Angus. I have to see you and I have to see you soon. I made a very special exception for him. I said, “I will see you on Saturday morning at 11 o’clock, in my office at the ministry." I was there when he arrived and he brought two little children with him. They were beautifully dressed. The little girl had a beautiful dress on, her hair was in ringlets. She had blue eyes and blonde hair. Her little brother was very beautifully dressed as well. They would have been maybe two or three years old. I opened up the ministry office and brought them in. We sat down and he told them to go and play, and as I started to listen to what he wanted to speak to me about, it sounded like there were terrorists in the office - they were running riot. They were running in front of the coffee table. They were pulling out the dried flower arrangements. Every couple of minutes they were running in and tugging their dad’s shirt because they wanted to speak to him.
You know folks, I am laughing but I am sad. After a couple of minutes, I said to him, “This meeting is over.” He couldn’t believe it. He said, “I have driven 600km to come and see you.” I said to him, “I am sorry but I can’t speak to you like this,” and I left him.
I want to say to you, do not be afraid to discipline your children.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 24th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!”Psalm 106:48
“Amen” means “so be it”. It means many other things too. It means, “we agree”, “let it happen”, and “unity amongst the folk.” It clears the air. I have read that even the devil and his demons must flee when God’s people agree together on a statement which brings glory to the name of Jesus.
When you hear tens of thousands of men proclaiming and agreeing that Jesus is Lord, it makes the very hair on your arms stand up. I even heard that a school rugby team had adopted “Amen!” as their war cry before they commenced their rugby match, but please, don’t use the word thoughtlessly. You see, it means “Lord Jesus, I have confidence in You that what I have asked will happen.” That is why at the end of a prayer we say, “Amen.” At the Mighty Men Conference meeting that we had at Shalom farm in 2010, when over 400,000 men shouted, “Amen” they could hear the echo miles away they told us.
One man, when being interviewed by a television company and asked why he had come, he answered, “I came because I wanted to hear the Mighty Men “Amen” call for myself."
Go out today, tell people about Jesus and don’t be afraid to say, “Amen” - So be it!
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 23rd of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
1 Samuel 7:12
“He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up;
So He led them through the depths,
As through the wilderness.”
Psalms 106:9
The Red Sea was parted and the Children of Israel went through. The psalmist is reminding us how the Lord will see us through our present difficulties. You know on the farm, Shalom, right next to the little chapel that my late dad and I built in 1980, after 10 years of God’s faithfulness, we read the story of Ebenezer, all of us that were living on the farm at that time took stones and we made a cairn of stones next to the chapel, we had been there for 10 years preaching up until then. Often, even now when I walk passed that cairn of stones, it is a reminder to me how the Lord Jesus Christ has been with us for so long. We have been here now an extra 30 years but we still remember that cairn of stones.
I have started to read my books for audio because I want to put them into a form that people can listen to while they are driving, or maybe a person who is blind can also hear the stories and the testimonies of how Jesus has been such a faithful friend over so many years. As I read these books I have written, maybe 30 years ago, I think back on how the Lord has been so faithful to us in the past.
Do that today. Sit down quietly with a cup of tea or coffee and just contemplate, ponder, and think about the many, many times the Lord has seen you through your difficulties, and that will help you and encourage you to face tomorrow.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, it is the 22nd of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start with Exodus 20. I am not going to read it. You can read it yourself. It is the Ten Commandments that God has given us to live by.
“Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”
Romans 7:12
…and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”
Hebrews 12:14
What we always say is that holiness is the end product of obedience. When we become obedient children of God, then we become holy people. When we give our life to Jesus, that does not mean that we are no longer subject to obey the Ten Commandments, not at all. When you become a believer, you and I should desire to keep the laws of God, even more so. Father God did not make the law for His benefit. No, it's for our benefit and our well-being. He does not have to obey the law. He is the law.
Someone might quote and say, “Well you know, Romans 10:9 says that if we confess with our mouth, Jesus Christ, and believe in our hearts that He has been raised from the dead, we shall be saved. Now, I know that scripture verse so well because I use it so often when I am evangelising. So you might say, “Well then we are exempt from the law. We don’t have to worry about the law because we are children of God and we can do as we please. Jesus has paid for our sins. I am free, I am saved.” No, not at all! Jesus wants us to bear good fruit, and not for His sake but for our sake.
Let me give you a good example. The Ministry of Roads and Transport make laws that we as motorists need to obey. We do it for our sake, not for the government’s sake. There is a stop street light. You are supposed to stop at the stop street, not go around the corner if no one is looking. If there is a double white line on the rise, the brow of a hill, we are not supposed to overtake because there will be somebody coming from the other side, and that is how you have a head-on collision.
We are supposed to obey the speed limit. Now, some people say, but how can a God of love allow such carnage on the roads? Well, it is not the Lord who is causing that. It is our disobedience and it is because we are not obeying the laws of the land. It is not the Minister of Transport’s fault if we do not obey the laws of the road and we get injured. No! It is not Father God’s fault that there is chaos on the earth because people do not obey what He has called us to do.
Today, let us be those who are good witnesses for Jesus. We are saved by grace, no one knows that better than me but let's obey the law because it is for our sakes and our fellowman.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, 21st November 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Romans:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”Romans 6:23
God has given us a choice of life or of death. Now, unlike the cattle in the field, the Lord has created us in His own image. That’s right - Genesis 1:27 says:
“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
God has created us with a body, a soul and a spirit. In a week’s time I will have the great honour and privilege of marrying off my grand-daughter - How time is passing by! She is a beautiful young lady, she is going to marry a very handsome man... At the wedding ceremony, I will give them a free choice of living their new lives as man and wife together - To do it God’s way or their own way. They will make vows to each other in the presence of the Lord and promises - They will promise to love the Lord their God with all their hearts, to honour each other and to respect their fellow-man.
In the Gospel of Matthew it says:
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”Matthew 6:24
We can’t serve God and then also try and be in touch with the things of this world. We need to make a choice... We need to make that choice very carefully. We need to live according to godly principles and then our marriages will go the full distance. Today we need to make some serious decisions. Stop blaming God all the time because things are going wrong. Be honest with yourself and realize God has given you the privilege of choosing life or death. Choose life today!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you warmly in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, 20 November 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?”Psalm 27:1
What a beautiful reassurance!
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”Hebrews 13:6
And then Romans 8:31:
"if Christ be for us then who can stand against us?"
What a blessed assurance we have! If we live, we live for Christ, if we die, we go to Heaven - How can you frighten a Christian with Heaven! In Philippians 1:21, Paul says:
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
You can’t frighten a Christian with Heaven, the only thing we need to fear is fear itself. Fear comes from satan, it comes from the pit of hell. 2 Timothy 1:7, the Lord says:
“I have not given you a spirit of fear but of power, of love and of a sound mind.”
The devil is trying to make us afraid with his lies. He is like a little mouse running around with a loud-hailer making us scared. The devil is a thief and a deceiver - That is all he is!
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” But Jesus said, “I came to give you life, abundantly.”
John 10:10
I remember clearly, as a small, little boy, going to watch a huge rugby final, a rugby match with my dad. Walking into the crowded grandstands with all these huge, excited men, some drinking beer, some very raucous it was quite overwhelming for a little boy of 5 or 6 years old. Then, all of a sudden, I felt the huge powerful hand of the blacksmith gently squeeze my little hand and say, “Its okay son, don’t worry, I have got you.”
Maybe you are feeling afraid today with everything that is taking place in your life. Jesus says, “Don’t worry, I have got you!”
Have a wonderful Sunday,
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 19th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Make known His deeds among the peoples!”Psalm 105:1
Talk of all His wondrous works!”
Psalm 105:2
I had the privilege of going to a very large agricultural company where there had been some serious problems. There were a lot of accidents that had taken place, people had lost their lives and the staff were very down and depressed. I was asked to come and encourage them and pray for them which I duly did. I am talking about over a thousand people, and when I arrived there my heart was filled with compassion for these poor folk. I had two scriptures for them. One was Jeremiah 33:3 - as we all know, Jesus’ telephone number -
“Call unto Me and I will answer you.”
The other one was 1 John 4:4:
“Greater is He who is within us than he who is in the world”.
I was able to sing with them, and being a Zulu speaker, I could speak to them in the language of the people. Always remember, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. I was able to converse in Zulu, having worked with the Zulu people for over forty years. I love them dearly, they are passionate people and they sing like angels. So we started by singing and we sang praises to God. Then I reminded them that the Lord in us is greater than any evil in the world. We need to pray and ask Him to help us which we did. There was such a presence of the Lord in that place, I will never forget it as long as I live.
The management was there and with their blessing, they had put up a huge cross in their factory. We were able to bind the strongman and expose him as the liar, thief and bully that he is. We were able to uplift these precious folk with the word of God.
We have an obligation, you and I. We cannot keep this truth to ourselves. People need to know about a living God. We have got to talk of His wondrous works. We have got to make known His deeds among the peoples. After we had finished and prayed, and sang some more hymns, the people were dismissed and went to their respective work situations, rejoicing in the Lord.
Go out today and bring a word of encouragement to some person who is really hurting.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, it is the 18th of November, 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.”
Zechariah 4:6
The Holy Spirit took a shepherd boy and made him into a king, that’s right - David, a sling and a stone to demolish a killing machine by the name of Goliath. The Lord Jesus specialises in making nobodies into somebodies. Remember, success is merely a failure turned inside out. It is not us but Christ in us that counts.
“Christ in me, the hope of glory.”
Colossians 1:27
I want to tell you about a man that impacted my life hugely. When I was a young Christian, I picked up his book, “Mover of Men and Mountains.” They called him, “the Dean of Earth-moving.” Yes, I am talking about the greatest inventor of earth-moving machinery, Robert LeTourneau, with no less than 300 patents to his name. I believe he eventually sold out to Caterpillar.
He was the one who said, “When you put your hand in your pocket at church to put your money in the plate, don’t ask yourself the question, “How much of my money am I going to give the Lord today?” but rather say, “How much of the Lord’s money am I going to keep for myself today?”. He lived on 10% of his income and he tithed 90% of his income. He was a multimillionaire. I want to tell you that Robert LeTourneau started very, very poorly. He dropped out of school at 14 years old and yet he became a businessman for God when He made the Lord his business partner and he went into partnership with Jesus. Well, as they say, the rest is just unbelievable history. He invented the Tournapull, a massive scraper that can scrape up hundreds of tons of earth and move it. He was a man who loved God. He was the first man to fly a twin-engine aeroplane in the United States of America but he was just an ordinary man who was filled with the Spirit of God.
Now if we look at Romans 8:11, the Bible tells us if the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, that same Spirit that raised Christ shall quicken your mortal body.
Today, put your trust, like David did, not in a sling, not in a stone, but in the Lord God Almighty of Heaven and earth.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 17th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,…”
Romans 5:20
The Lord says to you and me:
"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9
“Sufficient” means “plenty of”. That’s right! Sin threatens us with death but grace invites us into life. Isn’t that beautiful? Just like light overcomes darkness, you walk into a dark room, you switch on the light and what happens? The darkness leaves. It has to - it cannot be where there is light and Jesus Christ is the Light of the world. Grace is free. You can’t earn it, you can’t work for it, you can’t even study for it, you can only receive it and you see, that is why foolish pride keeps us from it.
I was brought up in the old school. If you can’t afford it, if you can’t pay for it, then you don’t take it. It was a very hard lesson for me to learn when I became a follower of Jesus Christ, that I have to receive His loving-kindness and His grace for free because I cannot pay for it.
Ephesians 2:8 is a very beautiful scripture. It says that we have been saved by grace through faith and not of ourselves, for it was a gift from God. If there was ever a man who understood the meaning of grace, it was John Newton. He was a slave ship captain who wrote that beautiful hymn, Amazing Grace. You see, grace means “undeserved loving kindness.” It means, “unmerited favour.” John Newton wrote the following, “I am not what I might be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be but I thank God, I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great apostle, by the grace of God, I am what I am.”
Isn’t that beautiful? No more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
Go out today and thank the Lord that by grace we are saved.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 16th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start with 2 Corinthians 5:18:
“…and (He) has given us the ministry of reconciliation,…”
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.”
Matthew 5:9
Reconciliation - making two people friendly again - that is what the Oxford Dictionary says. Making two people friendly again - that is what Jesus did. He reconciled us with our Heavenly Father.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”John 3:16.
That is what the Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven to do, to reconcile man to God. Our farm is called, “Shalom.” Now, “shalom” is a Hebrew word for “peace”. In Zulu, we say, “thula” and in Afrikaans, we say “vrede”. Father God has called us to become peacemakers but not peace lovers. You see, that is different because a peace lover will do anything to have peace. A peace lover will compromise his or her faith or morals for peace and of course, it never lasts as we know.
I want to say to husbands and wives today, just talk to each other. Sit down, have a cup of coffee and talk it out. It might even save your marriage. We need to speak to each other. The devil doesn’t want us to talk to each other, he wants us to build up resentment against each other. I have even heard some couples say, “We have got the blue room.” Isn’t that ridiculous? “ That is where I go and sleep if I am not talking to my wife or I am not talking to my husband.” That is terrible! Sit down, have a cup of coffee and sort it out, okay?
I can hear someone saying, “But it is not my fault.” It doesn’t matter. You have hurt that person. Go and ask them to forgive you, a good starting point. That goes for employers too. Sit down with your staff and explain to them why you are having to take such a line of action and then work from there.
Dad, sit down with that rebellious son and tell him why you are going to discipline him, and then discipline him firmly and then love him. He will grow into being a peacemaker. Today, we need to sow peace like never before.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 15th of November 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Romans 5:5
Hope does not disappoint. Faith is for now, hope is for the future. Hope is faith in the future tense. Isn’t that beautiful? Hope is grief’s best music. That’s right - don’t give up. People who have hope are people who have patience. I think John Calvin said that. They are prepared to wait for their miracle. People who lose hope become very impatient, and very erratic and they do things in desperation, and then normally mess it up completely.
Many years ago, I went to Underberg. It is about maybe three or four hours drive from our farm, Shalom, to purchase a beautiful Simmental bull from the late Cedric Taylor. I went with my truck to load him up. Cedric wasn’t there but he had asked his staff to help me load. We got there and this magnificent bull weighed over a ton. This bull could have pushed any international rugby pack around the field with no problem at all. He was a beast of an animal but the harder the staff tried to load this bull, the angrier he became and he would not load. The staff started losing hope and so did I, and then all of a sudden I heard the pick-up arrive and old Mr Taylor got out. He was not a very big man but he had massive hands and he said, “Boys, just stand back a bit.” Quietly, with patience and lots of hope, he walked up to the bull and started quietly speaking to the bull and rubbing him on his back. Quietly and gently the bull walked straight onto the back of the truck. We closed the tailgate and we drove home.
Be patient, do not lose hope. Trust in Jesus and He will do it for you!
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Monday morning, the 14th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”Psalm 34:19
And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Romans 5:3-4
I have never met a man worth his salt that has not been through some fiery trial. You know, as I am relating this message to you, it is raining on my tin roof again as you can hear if you listen carefully. Now, you know they say, “One man’s meat, another man’s poison.” You have heard that said before. I want to tell you that this rain is very, very beautiful and gentle but we also have brothers in Christ who are trying to farm and get their crops into the ground and they are experiencing floods. Now I have been there too. Oh yes!
I want to say to you today when you have been through extreme hardship and even persecution, then you are not so quick to judge others or to point fingers. It is such a comforting feeling to know in your time of tribulation - maybe you have lost a child, maybe you are experiencing financial devastation, but when a person who comes to see you who has been through the same fiery trial that you are going through and has survived it, aah - what a person to be with! That person doesn’t Bible punch you, oh no, or even bring some great prophetic word. Do you know why? Because you can’t hear him because the pain is so devastating.
What do those people do that have been through the same trials that you are going through? They come and sit with you and put comforting arms around you and ever so gently weep with you. Then very quietly they whisper in your ear, “It is going to be okay. Jesus helped me and Jesus will help you too." Then they normally get up and go and make you a nice, hot cup of tea. Why? (I am getting emotional here), because that is what Jesus would do. Jesus loves you, He will walk with you through your time of trial and you will overcome so that you can help others.
Go out today and find a hurting person and love them. Your trial won’t be that bad.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 13th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious,
Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.”
Psalm 86:15
“The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.”
Psalm 103:8
Wow, isn’t that good to know? When people are so short-tempered and so condemning, we serve a God who is merciful, He is gracious and He is slow to anger. Merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in mercy!
Jesus had mercy on Simon Peter when he had denied the Lord three times and yet He still forgave him, and He still made him the head of the early church. Jesus had mercy on Paul who killed one of His special men, Stephen. He had mercy and He was gracious to him and used him to probably be the greatest evangelist to the whole world, that’s right!
The Lord uses people who repent. He has got lots of patience, so do not give up on someone when you think there is no hope for them. Remember how gracious Jesus has been to you and me.
I love the story I heard about the President of America, Abraham Lincoln. He was a very tall man and extremely powerful. He came from a very humble beginning. He used to split poles. In those days they didn’t have barbed wire to make fences, so they put up railings with split poles and that was his job for a while. He would go to an agricultural show, take off his top hat and coattails, take an axe and beat everybody at the agricultural show in splitting wood. He was an immensely powerful man with huge hands and they say his hair was like wire when the hairdresser had to give him a haircut.
There was one man in his government who hated Abraham Lincoln, so much so that he called him a gorilla. He said, “The way he walks, he lopes, he is like a gorilla!” Yet Abraham Lincoln had mercy on that man and put him in one of the key positions in his government. Abraham Lincoln was a great storyteller. He would be telling stories for the men and this guy would get up and walk out in disgust. When Abraham Lincoln died, he was assassinated. He wasn’t even 60 years old when they shot him. At his funeral, that minister broke down and wept like a baby.
I want to say to you today, extend compassion and grace just like Jesus has for you and me.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, it is the 12th of November, 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.”
Genesis 17:5
“…he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”
Romans 4:18
I want to speak this morning about a fatherless generation. I have been in my prayer room for a long time and before I heard this word from God, I have been very anxious and also very sad about the fact that we are in a situation in our nation, and indeed the whole world, where we are faced with a fatherless generation. It concerns me a lot, and I can tell you that the devil’s agenda is to break families down. If he can get rid of the father he breaks the family.
The father is there to be an example to his son, to be a protector of his wife and his daughters, and if he has abdicated the family is in disarray. I really want to salute mothers this morning. Thank God for mothers, wives and daughters. Where would we be without you? But I want to address the situation. Men must take their rightful place in the home - prophet, priest and king. They must lead their family. They must direct their family. They must also be the High Priest in the home.
Dad, it is no good you telling your son he must follow Jesus and you can’t get out of your bed in the morning to have a quiet time, and then he must put food on the table. If you want to have respect from your family you need to feed them. You say, “I can’t get a job.” I understand that - unemployment is at its height, but go and find something because you really need to feed your family.
Then I just want to say to you moms and girls, daughters, pray for your dad. He is under tremendous pressure at work and in the social area of life. He has got to stand, but he needs a place to come home to where he will be loved and accepted. He doesn’t have to go to the pub to find friends. His friends should be at home. I really want to pray for dads right now because there is such a lack of fathers. I am mentoring almost 500 men around the world. They have asked me to help them.
Father, I pray for every man who is listening to this message. Lord, let them stand up, put their shoulders back and get back into the fight. I pray for every mother, every wife and every young girl, that they will stand with their man so that their home will be secure.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 11th of November 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But You are the same, And Your years will have no end.”
Psalm 102:27
“For I am the Lord, I do not change,”
Malachi 3:6
He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Hebrews 13:8
The Lord never changes! He is steadfast, just like the Rock of Gibraltar. That is wonderful news, isn’t it? Especially when everything else is changing daily in the world. The sun still comes up every morning and the moon faithfully every evening. Why? Well, because the Faithful One made them both. Maybe you are struggling with a situation where someone you have trusted has let you down and has been unfaithful, and you don’t know where to turn. Well, I can tell you right now from experience, Jesus is trustworthy and He is absolutely dependable.
Do you remember that old movie that was made years ago? It was about a man called Forest Gump. Forest Gump was a simple-minded man but he had achieved the most amazing feats in the world. He was a Vietnam war hero. He became a multi-million dollar businessman when he invested in the Big Apple. He married the wife of his youth but she died very early and all he had left in this world was a little son and they lived together on the farm. Every morning he used to put that little boy on the yellow school bus that stopped outside the farm gate and promised his little boy (makes me want to cry) that he would be waiting for him right there when the bus came back in the afternoon. Remember in the movie, he just simply sat on that bench and waited for him.
I want to tell you today that Jesus is waiting for you and He is waiting for me, and you can bet your life on that!
Have a wonderful day and remember, He loves you so much, He died for you.
God bless you,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, 10th November 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. If we go to Matthew 8 and I am reading from verse 2:
“And behold, a leper came and worshipped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”
Are we prepared to get our hands dirty? That is the question the Lord is asking us this morning... because Jesus is. You know, I went to a men's prayer meeting and one of the men quoted this scripture that I have just read and again it challenged me deeply.
There was a book written in 1896 called, In His Steps written by Charles Sheldon. A fictional book, not a true story. It has sold over 50 million copies, one of the all-time best sellers. It is the story of a homeless man who staggers into a very plush and wealthy church. He walks down the aisle and collapses in front of the pulpit. The parishioners didn’t know what to do and of course, the pastor himself was challenged by their lack of participation. The theme of the book was: Love your neighbour.
Now, the younger people will remember (and the older) that there was a bracelet we used to wear. On that bracelet was WWJD which stood for What would Jesus do? I wore that on my wrist for years - Maybe we need to ask ourselves that question again today. We need to get our hands dirty, we need to get involved.
In the book, I remember two incidents... One was a young opera singer, she was just about to embark on a tour of Europe. This was her big moment and after being challenged by this situation, she cancelled her trip and went down to the ghetto and started singing for the poor and those that were homeless. The other was an editor of a newspaper who had just got a huge scoop about a heavyweight boxing championship of the world. In those days, of course, they boxed without gloves - It was bare-knuckle fighting. That man was convicted that Jesus wouldn’t accept that and so he said, “I am not printing the story". You can imagine the pressure and the criticism he got from the company.
If your faith is costing you nothing, it is worth nothing. Today, let's get our hands dirty. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, 9th November 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.”James 2:23
Do you know that Abraham is mentioned as the father of faith on no less than one, two, three... four different accounts - Starting in Genesis 15:6. Then going through to Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6 and of course James 2:23.
God is looking for two things today from us. Number one: He wants faith and number two: He wants obedience. Those are two things that the farmer, Abraham, produced. God is looking for men and women of great faith.
Abraham’s title, “Friend of God,” what a title! You know, even the devil wants to be friends with God. We all want to be friends with God. No one wants to fight with God because God has never lost a fight in His life. But God looked down from Heaven to earth and He saw a farmer by the name of Abraham. Abraham did exactly what God told him to do - He left his home and his farm, he left his extended family and went to an unknown destination. When his son, whom he had waited 100 years for, was about 13 years old, the Lord tested Abraham again and He said, “I want him back.” Abraham obeyed and that's why God calls him His friend.
I firmly believe that things in this sad old world of ours becoming darker and more evil - It is the time for men and women to step up to the plate. Father is not looking for eloquence, He is not looking for talent, He is not looking for strength or even charisma, no, not at all. Jesus always chose 'ordinary people'. He chose a stutterer, who was a murderer as well, to take His people out of slavery in Egypt - Yes, we are talking about Moses. He took a blaspheming fisherman, Simon Peter, to head up the church. He took a tent-maker, by the name of Paul who was part of the gang that murdered (in cold blood) Stephen, the first martyr in the New Testament. God is looking for men and women who will put their hands up and obey Him and step out in faith.
God called me in 2003 to mentor young men. In a few days' time, I will be meeting with the Mighty Men Conference organizers. We are having no less than thirteen conferences in South Africa, not to mention New Zealand, Australia, the UK, the USA, Brazil, Namibia, Nigeria and Canada.
Folks, God is looking for a man or a woman of faith today, who will put up their hand and say, “I will go for You, Lord.” Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, it is the 8th of November 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Romans 3:26
He is the Justifier!
“The just shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:17
“So where is the boasting then?” says Paul to the Romans. You see, we can’t earn it, we can’t work for it, it's for free. Jesus is the Justifier. He has done it all. You can only believe it by faith. He has done it all. We must stop striving. As I am talking to you this morning, many people are trying to earn their way to Heaven. We can’t do that. We have just got to believe it and receive it. That’s right!
A Scottish preacher by the name of Oswald Chambers, went to Egypt with his young wife and his baby daughter, during the time of the First World War in 1914. She was a stenographer by trade. She worked in the courts in Britain and as the court case took place, she would accurately write down every word that the judge, prosecutor and the defence would say. Now Chambers preached to the soldiers in the desert, in the First World War. His wife, who he called “Biddy”, took down every word that he preached. Very sadly at the age of 43 years old, Chambers got appendicitis. He went to the hospital and died. She was very, very shattered and eventually went back to Britain with her little daughter, but she had compiled every single sermon that he had ever preached. She sat down and constructed a daily reading book, a devotional. It is probably the giant of all devotionals. It is called, “My Utmost For His Highest.” You know, I have written quite a few devotionals myself but I am just a beginner when I look at this book. Do you know that that humble woman never took any of the honours? Right in the corner of the book, she put a little “BC”. Those were her initials, Biddy Chambers. Why? Because God did it all.
Don’t strive today, don’t try so hard. Let Jesus do it and you will be surprised what He will do through your life.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, 7 November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”Romans 3:23
I remember, a few years ago, going to the Pretoria Central Prison. I have been to prisons all over the world - I have been to an under-21 prison, in Scotland. I have been to a maximum security prison in New Zealand, where I have seen some of the biggest men in my life, just pumping iron all day long. I have been to prisons in Northern Ireland, going through those security gates one after another is quite daunting. Walking past the gallows where the guilty were marched to, to be hung. They tell me they would sing hymns on their way to the gallows while being marched to their end. When I went to Pretoria Maximum Security Prison, I heard a male choir sing for us before I addressed the inmates, about fifty strong. All dressed in their orange overalls, serving time for things they had done wrong.
I have had the privilege of listening to some of the top music groups in the world but rarely, very rarely, have I been brought to tears by their singing like I was when I heard these inmates singing with no accompaniment of any musical instruments. It was like the Lord visited us. When I got up to speak, the Lord gave me such a love for these men who were in prison. Some for life, they had made mistakes but they were paying the price - Some had made some very bad ones, nevertheless they were in jail and serving their sentences. They looked at me with their arms crossed, some looking quite angry. I said to them, “Men, the only difference between you and me is that you have got caught, I never got caught." Straightaway they put their arms down, they relaxed and they started to identify with me. Then we felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, tangibly, come down upon us .
I want to say to you today that Jesus says, if you look at a man with hatred in your heart, you have committed murder. If you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you have committed adultery. Therefore, all of us are guilty - all of us have fallen short of the glory of God, so we need to extend more grace and more mercy on those who have made mistakes and who have fallen.
Go out today and love people, especially the unlovely and the Lord will honour you for that. Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you - greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, 6th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
We go straight to Proverbs 24, I am reading from verse 30:
“I went by the field of the lazy man,
And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;
And there it was, all overgrown with thorns;
Its surface was covered with nettles;
Its stone wall was broken down.
When I saw it, I considered it well;
I looked on it and received instruction:
A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest;
So shall your poverty come like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man.”
Then we go straight to Luke 19:13. Jesus says:
“Do business till I come.”
You know friends, yesterday, I looked out over our valley and on the other side there is a beautiful big field that some neighbours are hiring from the farmer and they were busy planting crops. They were planting very diligently. When the sun went down, I saw the lights of their tractors come on and they were still planting. Just before I went to bed last night, I looked out through the window and their lights were still on, and the tractors were still planting. Very early this morning when I got up to have my quiet time before the sun came up, I looked out and - that's right, the tractors were still working. Now, these neighbours, maybe some people call them workaholics. I happen to know that they are milking a herd of over a thousand dairy cows every single day, they work extremely hard! They have to feed those cows in the winter when there is no food. If they do not work hard now, in the planting season, they will have nothing to feed their cows. I can hear somebody saying, “Aah, but they are very lucky. You know, I don’t have anything to work with!” Oh my dear friend, listen to the scripture.
You know, I remember a young boy, a very poor child. His family lived very near to our farm. He lived in a small, little traditional Zulu thatched hut. This young boy walked to school every day, 15 kilometres. That's about 8 miles and then back in the afternoon again. An old lady, a wealthy old lady had mercy on him and she paid for his school fees. When he came home at night, he would light a candle and do his homework by candlelight and wash his clothes for the next day of school. When he graduated, he graduated with top marks. The old lady really loved him and sent him to university. He qualified at university and today he is the principal of one of the biggest schools in Northern Zululand.
Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 5th of November 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“When the enemy comes in like a flood,
The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.”
Isaiah 59:19
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,”
Says the Lord.”
Isaiah 54:17
David Wilkerson was the author of the book, “The Cross and the Switchblade.” It was a very, very popular book in the 1960s. He was a skinny preacher from the country and went to the ghettos in New York to help drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes and gangsters and God used him so powerfully. He said in one of his messages, “You shall have spells…” - what does that mean? You shall have moments and times of distress and pain. You shall have hardships and you don’t know where they are coming from because your family is in order, your wife, or husband is happy, the business is doing well, and the children are doing well at school but all of a sudden this heaviness comes upon you.
Do you know what I am speaking about my dear friend? You can’t explain it. It comes from nowhere. Often it comes just after you have had a wonderful success. Maybe you have just graduated from university, maybe you’ve just reaped a wonderful crop of corn, maybe you have just started a new business and all of a sudden, this heaviness comes upon you. Well, I want to tell you, according to David Wilkerson (who went to be with the Lord many years ago) and I agree with him - said it is the devil, its the evil one who comes in and tells you lies.
Now, this even happened to the Lord Jesus, Himself. Matthew 26:39 says:
“He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus sweated blood.
I want to say to you that you need to stand. I can hear somebody saying, “But how do you get rid of this heaviness, this dark cloud that comes upon you out of nowhere - this depression, this fear, this anxiety?” There is only one way, and what I do is spend time with Jesus. Get into your closet, increase your quiet time, and spend time with fellow Christians. Phone them, ask them to pray with you and that heaviness will lift. It's not condemnation. You haven’t done anything wrong. It is an attack from the evil one, but remember, greater is He who is in you than He who is in the world.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Friday morning, the 4th of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.”Habakkuk 2:3
“Certainly not! (the Lord says) Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar.”
Romans 3:4
What God has said He will do, He will do. As I am recording this message to you, it is raining. If you listen carefully, the raindrops are falling on my tin roof. God’s promises are yea and amen. He never makes idol promises. He will not go back on His word. He cannot be untrue to Himself, it is not in His nature.
Do you know that old plumber, Smith Wigglesworth? His favourite quotation was, “God said it, I believe it and that settles it.” In the old days, when a man gave you his word with a handshake, over a business deal, it was as good as done. Unfortunately, not so these days. But with our Father in Heaven, when He promises something, we can bank on it. Excuse the pun, it's like a bank-guaranteed cheque. I looked the word “Guaranteed” up in the Oxford Dictionary, it means “a promise with certainty”. You can bank on it.
So I want to say to that young lady who is waiting for the husband of her dreams and he is not coming, wait. Tarry, the Lord says, tarry because it will come to pass. I want to say to that young man who is waiting for a job opportunity. Just be patient, it will come. The Lord has promised you and He will do it. The same thing applies to that healing that you are trusting God for, or maybe a little baby that you have not been able to receive yet. Tarry, wait. If God has said it, He will do it because He does not tell lies. I want to say to you today that the Lord is the only person that we can truly trust with everything we have.
So, have a wonderful day, knowing that the Lord, if He is for you, no man will ever stand against you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 3rd of November, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:13
Whoever!
Now, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “whoever”. It means “any person”, that’s right, “anybody”. It means “regardless of who”. "It is used for the emphasis instead of “who” in questions like, “Who is that?” It means “who” when talking about the individual. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord!
In Luke 8:2, seven demons were cast out of Mary Magdalene. She was a woman of ill repute, she had a bad reputation and yet Jesus saved her. Why? Because she called upon Him. In Luke 19:2, you will find the story of Zacchaeus. He was a bad man, he was stealing money from his own people. He was a tax collector and what happened? Jesus saved him. Why? Because he called upon Him.
What about Peter, the big fisherman? He was a blasphemer, he used to curse and swear. He was the leader of the pack. In Luke 5:8, when he realised who Jesus was, he said,
“Lord, depart from me for I am a sinful man.”
You might say today, “Is there any hope for me?” Of course there is! The Lord says, “Whoever”. That is why I love Him so much. He saved me. You see, Jesus is not interested in our background. He is not interested in how well-educated or how poorly educated we are. He is not interested in whether we have a good reputation or a bad one. He is not interested in whether we are successful or whether we are a failure. He said, “Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Everyone who says, “Help God!” gets help. Anyone who says, “Lord, please rescue me”, experiences new life. Maybe today you have been through an ugly divorce, maybe your business has gone down, you owe people money, and you can’t pay them back. Maybe you have been told by the doctor there is no hope for you because you have an incurable disease. Maybe today you are in a state of depression. The Lord says, “whoever calls upon My name shall be saved.”
Now, I want to pray with you. I want to pray slowly so you can pray with me. Shall we pray together?
Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, through the power of your Holy Spirit, I am calling upon You today. Please save me, save me out of my situation. I am so sorry for dropping the ball. I am so sorry for letting You down but today I want to give You my life completely, with all my problems, with all my sin, I call upon You today. Please save me, a sinner, Lord Jesus. Amen.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 2nd of November 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For there is no partiality with God”.Romans 2:11
Jesus has got no favourites.
“When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”John 8:10
All He asks from us is true repentance. The woman caught in adultery deserved to die according to Jewish law. She was an adulterer, yet Jesus forgave her. Today, all we have to do is say sorry and mean it and God will use us. Isn’t that a wonderful thought today? God is looking for a change of lifestyle - that is what is needed. That woman turned from her sin and God forgave her. It has got nothing to do with being lucky or saying, “That person is fortunate. Why does he always get blessed by God but I don’t?” No, it's about making decisions.
Remember the rich young ruler? He was given an opportunity but he refused. Jesus was offering him new life but he chose to stay the way he was. Any man or any woman who puts up their hand today and says, “Lord, I will go,” the Lord will use. William Carey was just such a man. He was a very, very ordinary person. He was a cobbler by trade and one day a person was being ugly to him and said, “I believe you are just a shoemaker by trade.” He said, “No Sir, I am not a shoemaker, I can’t make shoes. I am a cobbler, I can only repair shoes.” Yet God used that man because he put his hand up. He went to India with his family and he became an incredible translator of the Bible. He translated the Bible from English into many local dialects. He even became the chief interpreter in government.
Go out and live your dream today - Jesus will use you.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is the 1st of November, 2022 today. It is Tuesday morning and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”Romans 1:16
Not ashamed of the Gospel! As a new believer, I was thrown into the deep end, literally. They said to me, “Tell the first three people that you meet tomorrow morning that you have become a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ.” That was not easy, let me tell you. I was in the pub with the boys on Saturday night, on my knees at the altar on Sunday morning, and then Monday morning I had to go out and tell the first three people I met. I will never forget that day as long as I live, but you know what it did? It cemented my faith.
In Matthew 12:30, Jesus said:
He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
There is no neutral ground in the Kingdom of God. I can hear some of you saying, “But you know if I did that I would probably lose some of my worldly friends.” Don’t worry, you won’t have to lose them, they will lose you - it is sad, but it is true. We cannot serve two masters.
I was invited to speak at a very big banquet in Jerusalem in Israel, many in that group were Orthodox Jews. They are still waiting for the Messiah to come. Before I arrived at the meeting, I was given a long list of things I was not allowed to speak about concerning Jesus Christ as being King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You see, the Jews have been persecuted by so-called Christians for centuries. Adolf Hitler himself professed to be a Christian. So they said, “Be very sensitive and do not speak about Jesus.” Well, folks, that is impossible for me, and when I stood up I looked out and I even saw the former Mayor of Jerusalem present. I stood on that podium, I looked out at that huge crowd and my heart broke for those precious souls whom Jesus loves so much and I could not help myself. I started by saying, “My best friend is a Jew. His name is Jesus Christ and He died for each one of you and me.” After that, when I had finished speaking to them in love and making no apologies, I got a standing ovation. As I was walking off the podium, this huge man, the former Mayor of Jerusalem, came forward and grabbed me. He squeezed me and said, “Tonight, I was deeply touched.” You see, it's the love of Christ in us for people that gives us the courage to speak out.
Go out today, I challenge you to tell three people that you are a follower of Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Monday morning, the 31st of October, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with righteousness,
And the peoples with His truth.”
Psalm 96:13
And then we go to the last book of the Bible, Revelation 19 and I am reading from verse 11:
“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.”
It goes on to say in verse 16:
“And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS..”
Oh, what a day that will be! I have had the privilege of meeting two earthly kings. One, the King of the Zulus and another, the King of the Swazis. We know that there is another king in Great Britain who has just been inaugurated, in fact, just a couple of days ago, there was a coronation in South Africa with a new King of the Zulus. There is a lot of protocol involved when you meet a king. I remember being given explicit instructions on how to treat and to greet a king. The King of the Zulus, they say, “Bayete Nkosi. Wena indlovu” which means, “We greet you, oh King. You are the elephant.” Because we know, in Africa, the King of the Jungle is not the lion - it is actually the elephant... There is a lot of protocol. You never, ever turn your back on a king. You walk in, greet him very humbly and then you retreat, never turning around. But I want to speak to you today about the King of Kings - He is coming! He is the King of all the earth, the heavens, the planets and the galaxies. He is the Word!
He is returning soon, not riding a donkey this time but riding on a war-horse, on a majestic horse. All the armies of Heaven will follow Him on white horses. Folks, we need to be ready for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Until that day, the greatest day that the world has ever seen, we need to be prepared. Just like you prepare when you go to a wedding or a grand occasion. Prepare your heart, your mind and prepare your life because when He comes again, He is coming as the Judge and not as the Saviour. We need to be ready to welcome Him and then everything will be put right.
Until then keep your eyes fixed on the clouds because He may be coming today. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, 30th of October, 2022, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy…”Philippians 1:3-
And then we go to Romans 1:12:
"that is, that I may be encouraged together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me."
Iron sharpening iron. that’s right:
“As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.”Proverbs 27:17
We need each other, no man is an island. I can know a person for 20 years and not really confide in him because he is not a Christian, but I can meet a fellow believer and within 5 minutes, I can feel like I have known him all my life. Romans 8:11 is one of my favourite scriptures. If the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you, that same Spirit that raised Christ shall quicken your mortal body. It is because we have the same Spirit dwelling within us.
I have a friend. This dear lady is going to be 100 years old on the 1st of February, next year, she has become my friend. I have another friend who is 3 years old, maybe going on 4 and he sends me photographs of himself in his cowboy outfit with his Bible, and he says he loves me! I have been to cathedrals in Europe that are hundreds and hundreds of years old. I have sung hymns where it sounds like angels singing. I have been into a corral, where you keep cattle, with a cowboy church and all the riders on horseback are singing Country Western Gospel songs. We need each other.
I have been to the land of the Long White Cloud, New Zealand. I have been amongst the Maori people, I really love them. The most aggressive rugby players in the world and yet, off the field, the most gentle and most loving. I have been invited to their meeting houses called a Marae. When you go in there, you sit down and they say to you, “Bring us the Good News of Jesus Christ.” And I stand up, I take my coat off because I can’t preach with a jacket on, it restricts me, and they look at each other and smile. The leader looks at me, he says: “You know our tradition?” I say, “No, what is it?” He says, “When you come into a Morae, you take your coat off to show us that you don’t have any weapons concealed and that you come in peace. Why is it that it doesn’t matter what culture you come from, what colour you are or what age you are but there is a love? It is because the people have decided to follow Jesus.
Do you remember that old hymn?
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
Oh, no turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
Have a wonderful Sunday and go and love somebody.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 29th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“If I say, “My foot slips,” Your mercy, O Lord, will hold me up.”
Psalms 94:18
Another translation says,
“The minute I said, “I am slipping, I am falling, your love God, took hold and held me fast.”
Another translation says,
“When I screamed out, “Lord, I am doomed!”, your fiery love was stirred and You raced to my rescue.”
The Lord is always standing by. It has always fascinated me when a mother, standing in a toddler’s playground talking to all the other moms, and all the little children are playing together in the playground on the swings and the slides, making a huge noise, laughing, shouting, screaming together, but when that mother’s little child shouts out, “Help me, mom! I am slipping!” she hears that little voice above all the other noise, and she comes running to help her little baby. That’s exactly how the Lord Jesus feels about us today. He says in Jeremiah 33:3:
“Call unto Me and I will answer you”,
Do you know the fireman’s lift? What happens is, he takes a hold of you with his hand and you take a hold of his arm with your hand and then he pulls you up out of the fire. Sometimes you say, “I can’t anymore. I can’t hang on,” and you let go of his arm but he has his hand firmly on your arm and he will not let you slip. That is exactly how it is with Jesus today. So when you say, “Lord, I am slipping, my foot is slipping!” The Lord says, “Don’t worry, I have got you. I have got you, just call out to me.”
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
Remember, if Christ is for you, you have the victory. Go out today and be assured of one thing - that when everybody else leaves you, He will never leave you and He will never forsake you!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Saturday today!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Friday morning. It is the 28th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”Philippians 4:11
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”1 Timothy 6:6
I heard a prominent preacher say just the other day, “Know who you are, accept who you are and be who you are.” One of the greatest freedoms that I received when becoming a follower of Jesus Christ, was the liberty I found that I did not have to please other people. I had known the Lord for three months and I started preaching the Gospel. The leadership of the church I was involved in said I had to do a lay preachers course. One of the senior preachers said, “Leave him alone. Let him be who God created him to be otherwise you will ruin him.” I don’t know what he meant by that and I don’t know what there was to ruin. I want to say to dad today, and to mom, let your child be. She might not be a great athlete but have you ever heard her singing? Have you ever heard her play an instrument? The famous Dutch artist, Vincent Van Gogh, was regarded as very peculiar, and maybe he was, but do you know that his paintings today are priceless? You cannot buy them, there is not enough money. You see, it is Jesus Christ Himself that makes us content. He takes the pressure to perform off of us. We are not hirelings. We are sons and daughters of the Living God. We are His creation. Now if He is happy with us and our conduct, that is all that counts.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 27th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And from there, when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and Three Inns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage.”
Acts 28:15
We must encourage one another. Paul was on his way to Rome. He was a prisoner but the brethren came and encouraged him. As believers, we have friends everywhere, all over the world, in every area - we need not despair. Romans 8:31 says - If Christ be for us then who can stand against us?
I remember going up into Central Africa like yesterday, with a big 20-ton yellow seed-sower, taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost. We were right up on the very Northern part of Zambia, where Tanzania and the Congo join together. We had had no contact with home for over four weeks. We were tired, we were weary, we were still pushing on and we still hadn’t gotten to our ultimate destination. I will never forget it. I was trying to make contact with my family but cell phones were not in existence. The only way you could make contact was with a satellite phone and we didn’t have the money to purchase one.
We came into a little village and we didn’t know anybody. We had no contacts at all and there were just traditional primitive little huts. As we stopped just on the edge of that village, we walked into that little town and there was a small, little office. We walked in there hoping to maybe get an email through so that we could let our family know that we were still alive. A young Zambian lady was sitting at the desk, as we walked in we saw her with a huge smile on her face. She was playing beautiful Christian music! I couldn’t believe it! She was part of an overseas aid organisation. She made us so welcome. She gave us the key to her little house and asked us to please go to her house and have a nice hot bath, we hadn’t had a hot bath for over four weeks. Her maid made us the most beautiful fruit salad, from local paw-paw, and we sat there and filled ourselves and we had a beautiful bath and then we were able to continue our journey.
Go out today and encourage someone!
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 26th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Those who are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
To declare that the Lord is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
Psalm 92:13
“But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”Numbers 14:24
We still bear fruit even in our old age. Remember, age is just a number and you are as old as you feel! It saddens me sometimes when I hear of young people, only newly married, talking about their retirement package and the cottage that they are going to live in when they retire. I still haven’t got one! You are as old as you feel and I want to say to you today that you need a fresh vision. As they say, if you aim at nothing you are sure to hit it.
I am sharing this story with you because I had the privilege of going to a game reserve a short while ago and I saw a sad situation. We were driving down one of the roads and there were a group of cars collected together, and straight away I said to my wife, Jill, ”There must be a lion or a leopard there.” Sure enough, there was a massive male lion, lying under a tree with a big black mane which made him look twice as big, a noble beast. I parked next to a motorcar and I asked the lady, “Where does this lion come from?”. She was a warden’s wife and said, “This lion has been in a fight. His brother was killed last night. He is badly wounded because there are young lions that have come into the area and they are taking over the pride, and he probably won’t make it until tomorrow." Well, I must say I was rather sad.
Driving on a bit, I saw an old daka boy. Do you know what a daka boy is? Well “udaka” means mud in the Zulu language. The old buffalos that have been chased out of the herd by the young bulls stay by themselves. They go down to the river and roll in the mud, and they are called daka boys, and they just stay on their own. Then I went on a bit further and I saw an old tusker, standing underneath a tree by himself, and I thought, “Wow Lord, old age!”. But you know something? I realised they still have a role to play, each and every one of them. Without the old tusker, there is no order in the game reserve. Without those senior animals, there is no direction for the younger animals. We need to realise Moses was eighty when God called him to take His people out of Egypt. Joshua was also eighty when he took the people through the Jordan River into the Land of Milk and Honey, and Caleb was eighty-five when he said, “Give me the big mountain where the giants live.” Let's stand up today and finish the job that God has given us to do.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 25th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today!
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Numbers 23:19
Isn’t that beautiful? One thing about the Lord, He is not a liar. He is not a deceiver - what He says He will do, He will do.
“Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,…”Colossians 3:9
Christians cannot lie because it is not in the nature of God to lie. Jesus has never once lied to me, my dear friend. Everything He has promised me, He has done. You and I must also display the same fruit. We must let our “yes” be yes and our “no” be no. Now listen to this beautiful quotation,
“Faith is believing God will not lie.”
That is why we believe. When we tell someone a lie we break their trust in us and that is why unfaithfulness in marriage or friendship is so devastating.
Who is the greatest liar of all? The devil himself. He is known as the father of lies. He is known as the deceiver of the brethren - you and I. Today, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us the courage to admit our mistakes and not try and cover them up by telling lies because your lies will always find you out. So today if there is something you have done, rather ask the Lord to give you the strength and go and say sorry.
My late dad came out to South Africa in his early twenties to make a life for himself. Before he left Bonnie Scotland, he fell in love with my mother and he promised her that he would come back, marry her and bring her out to the home that he was going create for them, but the Second World War broke out, and for six years, my dad would not get back to Scotland. For six years my mother waited for him because she knew he would not lie. My dad was in a prisoner of war camp and after the liberation he went back to Bonnie Scotland, the country of his origin, married my mother within two weeks, and they came back to South Africa together.
That is one of the things I loved about my dad. Whatever he said he would do, he would do. Now, you and I today need to be exactly the same. Let us be honourable and not tell lies.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - It is Monday morning, the 24th of October 2022. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Let's go to that beautiful Psalm that was written by Moses himself - the prayer of Moses - Psalm 90:12:
“So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’?
John 4:35
We need to be so careful that we do not waste time. Time is of the essence, it is very precious. Moses says to the Lord,
“Please teach us, Lord Jesus, so that we may number our days and gain a heart of wisdom.”
There is no time left to waste on trivial and wasteful living. We need to ask the Lord to establish the work of our hands. If you look at verse 17 of the same Psalm, twice Moses says,
“Establish the work of our hands for us.”
Psalm 90:17
Establish the work of our hands. Often a young man will say, “I just want to sow my wild oats first, I want to have a bit of fun and then I will get serious for the Lord.” Please don’t do that because that will leave a scar on your heart. Yes, when we repent, genuinely repent - and I am one of them, God forgives us for our sins, but you know, the scar remains. When you do something wasteful, when you have a relationship that you are not serious about and you cause a problem, you ask forgiveness, you move on but the scar remains and we need to be very, very careful about the way we are living.
Jesus forgives us for our sins. There is no doubt about it, but we do not have time to reinvent the wheel as they say. We need to get it right the first time because our days are numbered and we need to use each one carefully. As I am getting older I am sure there are a lot of older people listening to this message today that can say “Amen” with me.
There are many things that if I had to live my life again, I never would have done, but they are behind me, God has forgiven me. It has cost me but now I am pressing on. I am pressing on and preparing myself for glory because the life to come is just around the corner. In the meantime, let us work hard, let us do what we can for Jesus and our fellowman, and let us appreciate every minute that God has given us.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Monday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Sunday morning, the 23rd of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The just shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:17
That small little verse convicted the great reformer, Martin Luther. It also convicted the great revivalist, John Wesley, and brought them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as Saviour. The just shall live by faith, the righteous shall live by faith. You see, faith is a doing word, it's a verb. It is not a noun like “a table” or “a chair”, faith is an action word.
Billy Sunday, the great American baseball player who became a wonderful evangelist, said, “Don’t stop telling your boy to do right, but show him also how to.” Jesus walked on the water first, then he called Peter to follow him. Dad, and this is very serious, don’t tell your boy not to drink, show him by not drinking yourself. Mom, don’t tell your daughter not to dress cheaply or suggestively, show her by how you dress.
If there is one thing that young people cannot stomach, it's hypocrisy. People say one thing and do another. We need to be honest with our families. We really do, because that is the only way that they will change. In fact, I will go so far as to say many people do not come to church because of the double standards that they so often see.
Paul, the Apostle, was very bold. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, he said,
“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”
Now, that is a very powerful statement. The case of, “Don’t do what I do, do what I tell you” never, ever works. It never worked with my children. What we’ve got to do is say, “Just do what I am doing”, and then, of course, follow up with action. That is exactly what Jesus did. Whenever He preached, whenever He taught, whatever He did, He did it by example. We need to be good examples, not only to our children, not only to our parents but to the unbeliever. He must see that what you say is what you mean.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Jesus bless you richly,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 22nd of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For he was wiser than all men.”
1 Kings 4:31
Who are we talking about? We are talking about Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived. In 1 Kings 3:5, you will see that the Lord said to Solomon,
“Ask! What shall I give you?”
In verse 9, Solomon’s response to God was:
“Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”1 Kings 3:9
Wisdom is something that God gives us when we ask Him. Now, Solomon asked correctly. He didn’t ask for anything for himself. He asked the Lord to give him the wisdom to be able to govern the great nation of Israel, and because God saw his generous, selfless heart, God gave him everything.
He was the richest man that had ever lived, that's a fact, richer than Bill Gates or anybody else, they have worked it out in relation to the riches of those days. He was also the wisest man. Remember, two women, two prostitutes, came to Solomon with a baby that they both said was theirs. Solomon said to his servant, “Bring me a sharp sword.” He said to the two women, “Give me the baby and I will cut the baby in half and give you half each.” Of course, the real mother said, “No, no! Give the baby to the other woman.” Then the wisest man on earth said, “There is the real mother.”
I want to say to you that God gives us wisdom, not to make ourselves special, but to help others. Charles Spurgeon said something very interesting. He said,
“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise, no - but to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”
I want to encourage you today to ask the Lord to give you wisdom so that you can remain humble and He can teach you. John Calvin was one of the greatest theologians of his time and he said, “This is our wisdom, to become learners to the end.” You never arrive. I must be honest with you, the older I am getting, the more I realise that I know very little or nothing, but wisdom comes from the Lord. Wisdom is to know when to speak and when not to speak but to listen.
Remember young people, God gave us two ears and one mouth. Why? Because He wants us to listen twice as much as He wants us to speak!
“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking,
But he who restrains his lips is wise.”Proverbs 10:19
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, the 21st of October 2022, and I greet you in Jesus’ name! This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgement to come, Felix was afraid and answered, “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.”
Acts 24:25
Life doesn’t seem fair, does it? Felix knew that what Paul, the Apostle, was telling him was true but he was convicted and he said, “I will send for you again.” But do you know something? He was left in jail for two years and then Festus succeeded Felix, as the new governor. I want to say to you that the world’s system is not an advantage for the believer, but Jesus warned us about this. He said, in John 16:33:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
In the world system, when you bend the rules and you tell a little white lie here and there, you often get a promotion. When you start doing favours for the boss which are illegal, you come up the ladder very quickly, but, it doesn’t last. When you sell your soul for a mere morsel of temporary food it eventually backfires.
I think of Joseph in the Bible, He was dealt a lot of bad blows, first of all by his brothers and then of course by Potiphar. Joseph would not conform and then he was put in jail. The men in jail were supposed to speak up for him and they forgot, but God was with him. Because he was a righteous, honest and godly man, he became the Prime Minister of Egypt, the most powerful country in the world. Do not compromise for any man. God will promote you!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, it is the 20th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours;
The world and all its fullness, You have founded them.
The north and the south, You have created them;
Tabor (Mount Tabor) and Hermon (Mount Hermon) rejoice in Your name.”
Psalms 89:11
Oh folks, He created it all, He owns it all! It belongs to Him! Jesus says:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7
Then in verse 11, Jesus says:
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
Matthew 7:11
If all the cattle on a thousand hills belong to our Lord, all the silver and gold are His, and the very mountains belong to Him, why do we have an attitude of beggars? He is our Father and He wants to bless us! We need to change our attitude today. We need to go to our Father when we have needs, not to every Tom, Dick and Harry to borrow money that we can’t pay back. Go to your Father!
I heard a cute little story many years ago about two little sparrows sitting on top of a building. They were looking down and seeing all the people scurrying to and fro, running backwards and forwards. The one sparrow said to the other sparrow, “Why are these people rushing backwards and forwards all the time? They never seem to stop and rest.” The other little sparrow said, “Well, obviously they don’t know who their Heavenly Father is like we do, because He supplies all our needs.”
Today, go to the Lord and He will undertake for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 19th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.”
Proverbs 29:18 (NKJV)
I looked up a couple of other translations because this verse is very special to me:
“If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves but when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed.”
Proverbs 29:18 (The Message)
“When there is no clear prophetic vision, people quickly wander astray but when you follow the revelation of the word, Heaven’s bliss fills your soul.”
Proverbs 29:18 (The Passion Translation)
In other words, if we aim at nothing, we are sure to hit it. That is why if we look at Habakkuk 2:2-3, the writer says:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.”
In other words, write it down, and make that vision plain so that others can run with it. It is for an appointed time but it will happen, even though it doesn’t happen immediately.
I had the privilege a few days ago of going down to the harbour in Durban, South Africa. I was asked to pray over a new business venture involving shipping and transport. The vision was started by a family and I met the father and the two sons. Because these men have implemented the vision of God so clearly, it has grown into a mega business venture.
I spoke only to the leaders of the different groups and there must have been over fifty people there. These men and women really impressed me. They impressed me with their timekeeping. The meeting started immediately on time and finished on time. Their standard was amazing. We met in a huge warehouse but it was impeccably laid out for the event. I saw humility there, humble people that commanded a lot of respect in that harbour area. I saw humility and I saw unity. They had a vision and it was a common goal. Everybody knew what the vision was. Most of all, I saw the love and the peace of Jesus in that place.
Realise your vision. It brings glory to God.
Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 18th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“O Lord God of hosts,
Who is mighty like You, O Lord?
Your faithfulness also surrounds You.”
Psalm 89:8
“And they were afraid, and marvelled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!”
Luke 8:25
What a mighty God, you and I serve and not only a mighty God but a faithful God. You know, I am a farmer, I am not very comfortable in the big seas, not at all. I like my feet on terra firm, on the ground, but I love to watch the sea and I have got the sea in my blood. My family originated from the North East of Scotland. They were fishermen. There is a place there called, Buchan, my surname, and there is a beautiful statue of a lady, a wife and her children, looking out to the North Sea, the merciless, freezing cold North Sea, where the menfolk have gone out to fish for food for their income.
Many a time, those ships do not come back. They get swallowed up in the storms in the sea. The ocean is something that can be terrifying, and yet the Lord Jesus Christ stood up out of the boat on the Sea of Galilee, that beautiful lake, where a storm can start in a matter of moments. He put His hand out and the seas and winds were calm. We have nothing to fear if we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says,
“I will never leave you and I will never forsake you.”
Put your hand in the hand of the Man who can still the seas and calm the storms and He will see you safely home.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Monday morning, 17th October, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today. If we go to Matthew 11:28, Jesus says:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Come to Me! The Lord wants to have fellowship with you. He wants to sit quietly with you, He wants to love you, He wants to direct you. He just wants to have time with you because He loves you.
I remember it like yesterday, when I met my dear wife, Jill. We have been married now for just on fifty years - I remember when I was courting her. I didn’t have to take her to a 5 star restaurant for a six course meal with waiters dressed in black tuxedoes. No, I didn’t have the money anyway. I was a learner farmer but I would take her, in my clapped out pick-up, down to the Milky Lane to buy her an ice-cream. We’d go and sit in the park and eat our ice-cream and just sit there and look at each other. We wouldn’t even talk. I know many of you are smiling as you are listening to this because you know exactly what I am speaking about... That’s love!
That is what Jesus wants. He wants a relationship with us. He is saying to you today, “Slow down and come unto Me”. Slow down and know that He is God. We don’t only go to the Lord when we have a problem, we shouldn’t - We don’t only go to the Lord with a shopping list. Your loved one would be so disappointed if that was the only time you came to them, when you had a problem. Jesus created you in His own image. You know what for? To have fellowship with you, to spend time with you. He wants to talk with you and He wants you to talk with Him. He just wants you to enjoy Him and He wants to enjoy you. Do you really believe that? I do. Its been my lifestyle now for 40 years.
I want to tell you that the Lord does not need us. No, He can do anything He wants by Himself but He wants us because He loves us and He wants us to have fellowship. How many times, when Jesus walked on the earth, did He not say to the disciples: “Come aside, come and rest awhile. You haven’t even had time to eat today. You have been praying for the sick and taking care of the needy. Come and sit quietly with Me. I want to have quality and quantity time with you.”
Start doing it today and it will change your whole outlook on life. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name on this beautiful Sunday morning, 16th October and the year 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
A man of God said, “Answer the big question on eternity and then all the little questions of life will fall into perspective. If we go to Jeremiah 33:3, the Lord says:
“‘Call unto Me, and I will answer you”
So that is what we are doing this morning! We are calling unto the Lord and what does He say... Well, He says, in Matthew 6:33:
“But seek first” (there’s the big question) the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (other) things shall be added to you.”
Isn’t that beautiful? And then John 1:1:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
So who is the Word? The Word is Jesus! And so the big question is very simple... Do we believe that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God? Is it Jesus in print, as we always say? If you say, “Yes, I believe that”, the big question has already been answered. Then the smaller questions fall into place. If you start to question the authority of the Bible, you are in big trouble. Some people have told me, clergymen I am talking about will say, “No, we don’t take the Bible literally. It is just a broad kind of line like a direction but we can’t take it as gospel.”
I want to tell you something, for what it is worth coming from an old farmer - This Bible, from Genesis right through to Revelation, I believe... has been written by men, under the influence of the Holy Spirit. This Bible is Jesus Christ in print and I have been following the instruction of this book and finding out the answer to the big question for no less than forty three years. Not once have I found a discrepancy. Not once have I found a mistake. I want to tell you today dear friend, if you take this book literally and live according to it, all other things troubling you (maybe a marital affair; maybe a relationship with your son or your dad; maybe a relationship at work; maybe what you are watching on television and hearing in the news), that the Word of God is accurate and never, ever makes a mistake. So seek the Lord, that’s right, and the answer to the big question is in the Bible.
Jesus Christ is Lord and Jesus Christ is coming back again and Jesus Christ is going to take you and me to Heaven, to be with Him forever. In the meantime, just keep your eyes fixed on Him.
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 15th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
There's a scripture that all of us know so well but we don’t always read it. Do we believe it? This is what it says:
“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31
That is a beautiful scripture - to be still and to know that He is God. (Psalm 46:10.)
If you are going through a time at the moment when you feel down and you are a Christian, you love Jesus, you haven’t done anything wrong, you are just feeling absolutely flat, and it is like the devil himself is telling you all kinds of lies and you don’t know what to do. Physically, you are healthy, the business is going well, and the family is well but you just feel flat. Do you know that feeling? Oh yes! There are many, many mighty men and women of God, preachers of the Gospel who go through these times. C.H. Spurgeon was one, the prophet, John the Baptist went through that, and Elijah the Tishbite also went through times of depression and stress and also feeling worthless.
How do we handle a situation like that? Is that the time that we phone up our friends? No. Is that the time when we have to go to our Bible Study or the pastor or maybe wait for church? No. What do we do? We go into our quiet time room, that place where you sit quietly every morning and you spend time in the presence of God. It might be on top of a mountain, it might be in your tractor, or it might be when you are going for a jog. You need to get aside on your own, and then the Lord Jesus will start to remind you of all the good things that you have done. That’s right, the blessing you have been to so many people, to me, to your family and to your loved ones. Then when the devil comes to try and tell you lies, you don’t have to listen to him.
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”1 Corinthians 2:9
This is not the end of the road for you! This could be the beginning of the finest time in your life. It is not about your age, it is not about your qualifications. What it is actually about is spending time alone with God. He will lift you up. He will strengthen you and He will give you a new opportunity to serve Him. Do it today! Don’t neglect that quality time and quantity time with the Lord.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 14th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“A soft answer turns away wrath,
But a harsh word stirs up anger.”
Proverbs 15:1
When Paul had to give an account of himself, he says in Acts 24:16:
“I myself always strive to have a conscience without offence toward God and men.”
Folks, we need to watch what we say. We need to be respectful to one another if we are going to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ.
“And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,…”2 Timothy 2:24
We really need to watch how we speak. People are so stressed out in these days in which we are living and just a loose word, not even sometimes meant intentionally, can literally destroy someone. You know, I love to go into my office in the morning, and say, “Good morning ladies, you are looking so smart,” I just love that big smile that comes over their faces. “Thank you, Uncle Angus. You are looking smart as well!”, I don’t know if that is always the truth but we need to encourage one another. We need to bring a nice, gentle word in season, because if we don’t it can destroy people. You know the old adage, “If you have nothing good to say about someone, then don’t say anything at all!”
St Augustine’s said of his mother, Monica, “She would never repeat what another said unless it would help. So, if you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything but rather encourage one another." I want to tell you, as a boxer in my time - not very successful of course, one thing we learnt very, very early in training is that when you get into the ring and you start the fight, the boxer who loses his temper in the ring always loses because he cannot even think straight. Boxing is a sport and it is something you need to think about.
Now, when you are dealing with somebody whether it be a business deal or a personal issue in the family, do not be offensive. Rather be kind and loving and keep your words short.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 13th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18:20
“But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”
Mark 16:7
That is what the Angel of the Lord told them at the tomb when Jesus had risen from the dead. “Tell the disciples -- and Peter…”. That is why I love Jesus so much. He is the God of the mountains, the sea and the great miracles but He is also the God of the individual. He is the God that is concerned about the sparrow that falls from the tree. I love Him so much! Peter had denied Jesus three times and the Lord knew, that is why He told the Angel to say to the disciples, “Go to Galilee and I will see you there.” He knew that Peter wouldn’t come because Peter had disgraced himself so badly. That is why He said, “Tell the disciples — and Peter —…” I want to cry. He is such a wonderful Saviour, isn’t He? He used Peter to head up His church. We need not neglect the gathering of the brethren.
Jesus is always waiting and available to meet with us. I have had the privilege of being at international and national prayer meetings where we have prayed together with sometimes over a million of us at one time, and it is very special. I will never forget it. I will never forget the presence of the Holy Spirit, but when we meet on a Wednesday morning at 5 o’clock in the little chapel on our farm, Shalom, with sometimes half a dozen to a dozen people, it is so special.
Do not neglect the gathering of the brethren. When we pray together, Jesus is there. Now if Jesus is there, the devil is not there. He cannot go anywhere where the Lord is, so today continue to pray together and you will sense and appreciate the presence of a very special Savior.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 12th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him”Luke 14:28-29
We need to count the cost first before we commit to getting involved in anything. Don’t pick up something that you can’t finish. Make sure your eyes are not bigger than your stomach. It is very offensive to go out to a restaurant, receive a beautiful dish of food that you have dished up for yourself, and then are not able to finish it. Don’t do that because it is very offensive. My little grandchildren all know that when they come to my house they can eat as much as they like but they need to understand one thing - everything on that plate will be eaten, and nothing will be left. Why? Probably because of the way I was brought up. There are too many hungry people around the world, so if you can’t finish the food then take a smaller portion.
If you can’t afford to buy something young man, then don’t buy it. If you can’t pay for it, don't get it. That is how you get yourself into trouble.
When you commit to following Jesus Christ, it is the most important decision of your entire life. It comes at a huge price. That is why I always take my time when I make an altar call at an event or rally. I am not too concerned about the soft music, the closing of the eyes and the slipping up the hand. No, because that person, when they make that commitment, has to follow through with it. They must count the cost first. It comes at a huge price. You could lose your friends, you could be mocked and criticised after you have made that commitment. But on the flip side of the coin, you will be involved in building something that will never collapse. You will be investing in something that will never crash. You will bring joy and security and peace to your life that nothing in this old world can offer. So why don’t you start today and build a house that you will see the completion of in Heaven one day?
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 11th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours;
The world and all its fullness, You have founded them.
The north and the south, You have created them;
Tabor (Mount Tabor) and Hermon (Mount Hermon) rejoice in Your name.
Psalms 89:11
Oh folks, He created it all, He owns it all!
Let's go to Matthew 7:7. Jesus says:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Then in verse 11, Jesus says:
“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
If all the cattle on a thousand hills belong to our Lord, if all the silver and gold are His, and the very mountains belong to Him, why do we have an attitude of beggars? He is our Father and He wants to bless us! We need to change our attitude today. We need to go to our Father when we have needs, not to every Tom, Dick and Harry, and borrow money that you can’t pay back. Go to your Father!
I heard a little story many years ago about two little sparrows sitting on top of a building. They were looking down and seeing all the people scurrying to and fro, running back and forth and driving at break-neck speed. The one sparrow said to the other sparrow, “Why are these people rushing back and forth all the time? They never seem to rest.” The other little sparrow said, “Well, obviously they don’t know who their Heavenly Father is like we do, because He supplies all our needs.”
Today, go to the Lord and He will undertake for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good day to you, it is Monday morning and I greet you in Jesus’ name! It is the 10th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”1 Samuel 16:7
And then we go to John 15:16, one of my favourite verses. The Lord says:
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
God chooses, not man - Our destiny is not in the hands of man’s opinion, no, it is in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ! David was the youngest of eight boys and when Samuel came to anoint the next King of Israel, they didn’t even consider the little boy. He was only about 13 years old. He was sent out to look after the sheep. Of course, Jesse the father brought in the biggest, the strongest, the oldest, and Samuel said: “Not him, and not the next one, and not the next one or the next...” up to number seven.
“Don't you have any more sons?”
“Yes, I have got one.” “Bring him!”
That was him, a ruddy-faced, good-looking boy with bright eyes. He became the greatest King of Israel, next to the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself!
Do not allow man’s opinions to determine your destiny. I know a young man, very well, and I love him very much. He was sent to a special school for learning disabilities but that same young man eventually went to university and he graduated with honours. Today, he is happily married, with children of his own. He is a strong believer and he is even a director of his company - a man chosen by God.
I heard a very moving story of a young man who was sent home from school by his teacher, to his mother. His mother read the letter and she must have had tears in her eyes, she said, “Come and sit down, Thomas, I want to speak to you. The teacher says you are too clever to be in that class so I am going to keep you at home and I am going to teach you myself.” That young boy grew up and became one of the world’s most famous inventors. He is the one who invented the electric light bulb. He had another one thousand inventions that were patented. When that man’s mom died, he went into her possessions and he found the letter that the teacher had sent home to his mom. He read the letter and in it, it said, “We can’t do anything for him. We can’t teach him anything, better to take him out of school.” That young man was none other than Thomas Edison!
Do not allow men to direct your destiny, that is Jesus’ responsibility. By the way, He is for you and he is not against you! Romans 8:31 - If Christ be for you, there is no man who will stand against you! Follow your destiny because God has chosen you.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Sunday morning, the 9th of October, 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.”
Acts 24:5
Wow, what a title! I looked up the word ringleader in the Oxford Dictionary. It means: “one who causes trouble, one who leads others.” And what is a Nazarene? Well, the greatest Nazarene of all was the Lord Jesus Christ.
“He shall be called a Nazarene.”Matthew 2:23
There was another troubler, a troubler of Israel - That is what King Ahab called him in 1 Kings 18:17. What was his name? His name was Elijah. Do you know the amazing thing is that these men were admired by the people, even if it was from afar, even if they didn’t have the courage to be like them. They so wanted, deep down, to imitate their lives. John the Baptiser, King Herod admired him even though he had his head cut off eventually, but he looked up to him.
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”1 Chronicles 16:9
There was another troubler, his name was Nicky Cruz. He was a gang leader, yes, a ringleader of one of the most feared gangs of New York in the USA. But when he met Jesus, he too became a troubler of the devil. We need to understand one thing and I am talking to moms today - That young son of yours who is so rebellious, he is causing you so much trouble. Be patient with him, he is trying to find his identity. I used to run a coffee bar, with my wife, in our local town. We always found the boys sitting at the back, the ones who were causing trouble, when they eventually came through for the Lord, they were strong, courageous and upright, just like Paul the Apostle.
So today, be patient with them and love them because when they find Jesus Christ, they will be an incredible strength to the Kingdom of God.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning the 8th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16
That scripture verse is saturated by one word and one word only, love - the most powerful thing on earth.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
1 John 4:7
You shall know them by the fruits of the Spirit, and the first one is love! John Wesley said,
“Beware you are not swallowed up in books. An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge."
Isn’t that beautiful and so true? John Wesley had an MA, a Master of Arts in Theology from Oxford University, and he said an ounce of love is worth more than half a kilo of knowledge.
“Cowboys don’t cry?” What a lot of rubbish! I am a cowboy and I cry more now than I have ever cried in my life. You know, my dear old dad, he was a tough man, I keep telling you that. He was the strongest man I have ever known. He was a blacksmith and used a 14-pound hammer like you and I use a hammer. He loved me very much, I know that, but he didn’t know how to express his love sometimes, but when he met the Man from Galilee, Jesus Christ, he knew how to take me in his arms, hug me and love me.
I just love it at Mighty Men Conferences when I see big strong grown men hugging their sons. It brings tears to my eyes. Pure love teaches us to say sorry, even when it's not our fault, that is love. You will never lead a soul to Christ through an argument. We can agree to disagree on certain issues but never at the cost of losing a friend. Now I am not talking about compromising your stand, of course not, I am talking about pure love.
Do you remember a song that was illustrated by a video of the First World War with young German and British soldiers, some of them 18 years old, who were conscripted to fight for their country? They were in trenches that had water up to their knees. It was freezing cold in the middle of winter and they were shooting and killing each other. The cream of the British and the Germans were destroyed in the First World War. Then, Christmas night arrived and one of those soldiers started singing, “Silent Night”. The shooting stopped and they got out of their trenches, they walked across to one another, sat down and spoke to each other and they loved each other - and then, of course, they had to go back to their trenches. It brings a tear to my eye, to be honest with you.
Love one another! It will move mountains and it will build friendships.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ name on this beautiful summer’s day on the farm! It is Friday, it is the 7th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11
We know that very well-known scripture, John 10:10 which says:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
Luke 13:34, the Lord says:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! “
I want to say something to you, my dear friend. God loves you and me. Jesus is for us. He is not against us. He does not desire that you and I suffer unnecessarily. The proof of that is the Father sending His Son to earth to die in our place. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said to the High Priest’s soldiers, “Let these go their way, I am He.” He said, “I am the one you are looking for." (John 18:8). He is always protecting us.
He died on a cross in excruciating pain, nails through His hands, through His feet, ugly thorns crushed onto His head, exhausted from continual beating and totally humiliated by the public. He did it for you and me! God’s Son could still look down in that situation and ask John, the disciple, to look after Mary, His earthly mother, and Mary to look after John. What a Saviour!
Man’s sin, total disregard and selfishness have brought this world into the state that it is today. We need to be Jesus to a dying world. I received a message yesterday which touched my heart very deeply. A beautiful young lady in the prime of her life was found dead on the side of the road. She said in her message on her device a few days before, “My life may not be the way I planned it but it is exactly the way God planned it.” How sad! That's not the case at all. Jesus had a plan, but my dear friend, you and I have a choice. We can choose life or we can choose death. I want to say to you today, let’s choose life. Jesus Christ is for us! He is not against us. Please remember that.
Have a wonderful day!
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 6th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Galatians 6:9
We must not grow weary. We have got to keep on keeping on. Another translation says,
“Don’t allow yourselves to be weary or disheartened in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest that you have planted, is coming.”
verse 10 says:
“Take advantage of every opportunity to be a blessing to others, especially to our brothers and sisters in the family of God.”
And another translation says:
“So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we do not give up or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us, in the community of faith.”
In other words, don’t give up. I farmed actively for more than forty years. My sons are farming now and I want to tell you, the farmer that makes it is not the farmer who goes all or nothing, going for the jackpot, six or nix! Oh no, he is not the one who makes it! The farmer who makes it is the one who faithfully continues to plant good seed year in, year out, whether it rains or doesn’t rain. He is the one who eventually reaps a wonderful crop. We need to go for it, in the good times and in the bad times.
The great reformer, Martin Luther, was once asked what he would do if he knew that Jesus was coming back tomorrow. He said, “I would plant an apple tree today!” Now, in Germany, there are many apple trees. In other words, he would keep on keeping on. They asked another revivalist by the name of John Wesley, the same question: “If you knew Jesus was coming back tomorrow, what would you do today?” He said, “Well, tomorrow, I have got a Bible study with a group of people, tonight I am preaching in such and such a village.” In other words, he would keep on keeping on.
Today, just do whatever you can and leave the rest to the Lord and you will be very pleasantly surprised how things will turn out for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 5th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
John 12:32
C.H. Spurgeon, the great English preacher, refers to Jesus as a Mighty Magnet! Indeed, He is the greatest drawcard that has ever lived! No one has ever been as famous or as well-known on the face of the earth, as Jesus Christ. Everybody knows that name. He is worshipped, He is revered, but unfortunately, He is also cursed and even used as a swear word sadly.
When I first met Jesus, my life was transformed forever. We don’t have to market or advertise that name. If Jesus drew us to Himself, He will also draw all men. All we have to do is lift Him up and He will do the rest. Jesus is an attractive force, isn’t that beautiful? When we meet Jesus, we have peace, love, understanding and forgiveness in our hearts. People are looking for it everywhere. Just lift Jesus up. They will find it.
It is actually Christ in us that draws people to Him. Colossians 1:27 says Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is Jesus living through us! Andrew, the fisherman, ran to his brother and said, “We have found the Messiah!” (John 1:41) and that changed Simon Peter’s life forever.
Today, go out and lift Him up and He will draw all men to Himself.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is a beautiful morning, Tuesday the 4th of October 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven,…”
Matthew 7:21
'Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me.'
Acts 22:22
It can be very disheartening to tell someone about your new-found faith, only to have the door slammed shut in your face. That happened to one of the greatest preachers of all time - Paul, the Apostle. When the Lord Jesus spoke to him and said, “Get out of Jerusalem because they will not receive your testimony”, then we must understand something - telling people about Jesus Christ is not for the faint-hearted, its not for the fearful and not for sissies!
We need to understand that no one can persuade a person to become a Christian. It is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit alone, and of course, that takes tremendous pressure off us. So what can we do? I can hear some people saying, “My family needs to hear about Christ. What can we do about it? They won’t listen to me. I have tried to speak to them.” The first thing you can do is to continue to pray because the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman avails much (James 5:16). Then, we can love them, just love them but do not compromise your stand for Jesus Christ, not for anyone.
In Luke 18:18 we hear the account of a certain ruler who came to Jesus and asked Him a question, “What shall I do in order to inherit eternal life?”. Jesus told him what to do but he did not receive it. He walked away. I remember a minister telling me years ago, Jesus did not run after him and say, “Let's talk about this.” He stood there and the tears must have been running down His face as that ruler was on his way to a lost eternity. We have a responsibility and that is to tell people about the Lord but we cannot do anything more than that.
As a new believer, I was so excited to have met Jesus. My next-door neighbour and I were going to buy some cattle at a stock sale. I had been in the pub with him on Saturday night and on Sunday morning, I met Jesus. As we were driving down the road, I said to him, “You won’t believe what happened yesterday, I gave my life to Christ.” His face went grey and he said, “Oh, I am very pleased for you.” I said, “What about you?” he said, “No, it is not for me.” Two years afterwards, that young man phoned me and said, “I need to talk to you. I need Jesus in my life", and I had the privilege of leading him to Christ.
Do not stop. Just keep on!
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
Good morning to you, it is Monday morning, 3rd of October, 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent…”
Acts 18:9
Then we go straight to Acts 23:11:
“But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, [b]“Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.”
A very important directive. The Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus Himself, spoke directly to Paul at night in a dream - a vision. He did not send an angel because of the importance of this commandment. By the way, this is the very scripture, Acts 18:9, with which the Lord Jesus called me to go out and testify, to speak up and preach the Good News to a dying world.
On the 17th of November 1989, while spending time in my prayer-room, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to me clearly. Not audibly but in my heart and told me not to be afraid but to speak and not hold my peace. From that moment onwards, I started to go out and hire halls, stadiums and open spaces - to speak the Gospel to the 'whosevers'.
I just want to clarify something, its not easy, it takes a lot of faith to stand up in a public place and to declare, sometimes to a hostile crowd, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that there is no other God. It is becoming progressively more difficult these days to preach the Word of God openly. There is a big call for political correctness. You can’t just say this and that... I want to tell you that there are some nations, if you preach from the text found in John 14:6, where Jesus says:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
That scripture verse would be enough for someone to be arrested and put in jail. It is a calling. Do you know something? We are all called to tell people about Jesus Christ.
Many years ago, I was invited to a little town to preach. From the first night, it started on a Friday night, I could sense in my spirit that it was going to be a tough one. First of all we were invited to a hotel, then the food was late and people were drinking heavily. By the time the food came, the people were half-sleeping and some were under the weather. Then I had to stand up in an open place and speak - I preached my heart out. I made an altar call and no-one responded, I will never, ever forget it. That night I couldn’t sleep, I tossed and turned and I said, “Lord, I have got a farm, I am a successful farmer, I don’t need to do this!” And then the next day I said, “But I will carry on, Lord.” And then we had the breakthrough.
Sometimes it looks like nothing is going to happen and then you have an incredible breakthrough. Keep telling people about Jesus.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Sunday morning. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is the 2nd of October, 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Acts 23:1 in the New Testament says:
“Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.”
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the meaning of the word conscience - It is a person’s moral sense of right and wrong. It keeps standards, values, beliefs and principles. A good conscience earns the right to be respected. Remember, we always say, people don’t have to like us but they must respect us. Folk who have a clear conscience are people like Paul. He was fearless in front of the Sanhedrin and the High Priest because he walked in truth, he had nothing to hide. That is how we need to be today. You see, the Lord Jesus said in the Gospel of John:
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
John 17:17
The Bible is our gauge concerning having a good conscience. If we live according to the words that are written in the Bible, then we will have a clear conscience. When you have no conscience then you have nothing left in this life. If we look at Matthew 26:15, we see a man who threw away his conscience for a mere thirty pieces of silver. Yes, I am talking about one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, his name was Judas Iscariot. He threw away his conscience for thirty pieces of silver and you know what happened? That's right, he was tormented. So much so, that he even took the thirty pieces of silver back to the High Priest and the Council and gave it to them and then he went out and he still had no peace. He took a rope and tied it around his neck. He tied the rope to the tree and he jumped off, he committed suicide. He killed himself because he could not find any peace. You see, he forfeited his peace, his authority and his very life, for thirty pieces of silver - Don’t do it!
I want to pray for you today. I really feel some people need to get a clear conscience. It is muddied at the moment and you need to wash your hands and say, “Lord, please forgive me.” Pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus, today, I am convicted that my conscience has been muddied and I want it to be cleansed. Please forgive me.
I renounce anything in my life that has kept me from walking in truth. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
A very good day to you. It is the 1st of October 2022, it is Saturday morning, and I greet you in Jesus’ precious name.
“For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.”Psalms 84:10
A doorkeeper is a servant and if we want to learn anything, we need to start serving. Joshua served Moses for 40 years before he took the mantle. Elisha would not leave Elijah even when Elijah told him to leave, furthermore, he wanted a double portion of the anointing that God had given Him! The greatest example of all is the disciples and our Lord Jesus. For three solid years, day and night, 24 hours a day, the disciples served the Master. He commissioned them and then they went out and performed signs and wonders and miracles. Why? Because they had been observing the Lord.
All I want to be is a doorkeeper in the House of the Lord. Can you imagine sitting and looking at the magnificence and the beauty of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, when we get to Heaven?
I remember hearing a story about a professional horse trainer who came out from overseas to teach us how to handle and train our horses. One would pay quite a large amount of money and that is fair enough because the man is very experienced. The horse trainer sits on a barstool in the ring and you get on your horse, and he teaches you for an hour, and then you pay him.
As the story goes, one young cowboy came in and spent a solid hour telling the horse trainer everything that he could do and everything that his horse can do. The old horse trainer being a wise man, put his hand out, took his money and said, “Well done, son.” The young man went off and never learned a thing.
Let's not be like that today. Let us be doorkeepers in the House of the Lord. Let's get mentors we can learn from and let us sit, listen and watch and learn.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Saturday.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 30th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;
They will still be praising You.”
Psalm 84:4
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36
You and I need to stop chasing the wind and start building a real home. Even the swallow has a nest and the sparrow has found a home. Of course, we are not talking about bricks and mortar here, we are talking about relationships that make a home real.
After having left Zambia, 46 years ago, my greatest desire was to have my own farm once more, to build a home for my family. I thought having my own farm again would bring us joy, stability and security, but I was totally misled - It did the opposite. It caused immense stress and it put pressure on the whole family, especially my dear wife Jill. I was working 18 hours a day, telling the children and my family I was doing it for them - of course, I wasn’t, was I? No, I was trying to build my ego, but then we found our real home! Let's go back to that Scripture again:
“Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;
They will still be praising You.”
Psalm 84:4
Yes, we found Jesus. We found a church. We found caring, loving folks that nurtured us and built us and we are still in the home that lasts forever, and that is having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and His people.
Today, set your sights on eternity and don’t spend so much time on things that are going to burn up and disappear.
Jesus bless you as you work on your family and your family relationships.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Thursday morning, the 29th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.”Acts 22:15
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
Mark 16:15
That is exactly what Paul the Apostle did when he was born again on the road to Damascus. Remember, he was not a preacher, he was not a minister, he was a tent-maker, a tradesman, but he had had an experience with Jesus Christ.
You don’t have to go to Bible College first, just tell the world what Jesus means to you. It is the so-called little stories that move the hearts of the men in the streets. It is wonderful to read about the parting of the Red Sea and an entire nation going through the sea on dry land. It is wonderful to hear about Lazarus getting raised from the dead but many folks, ordinary folk like you and I cannot always identify with those huge miracles. But I want to tell you about a little miracle which I think was a huge miracle. It happened on Saturday at the Speak Jesus Prayer Meeting.
I received the message yesterday. One of the ushers who was very busy showing people back to their cars after the meeting was given a set of Mercedes Benz keys that had been picked up by somebody on the road and he put the keys in his pocket. He meant to get onto the loud-hailer to tell people that he had the keys but he got so busy. It was about 40 minutes later when he was directing people to their cars that he got a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and a young man was there and said, “Sir, have you found any Mercedes Benz keys?”. He put his hand in his pocket and asked the man what they looked like. The man told him exactly what they looked like and he knew that this was the owner of the keys. He gave the man his keys amid a multitude of people walking toward their cars. This man got very emotional, he said, “I have just given my life to Jesus at this meeting and I was so excited. When I was leaving I lost my keys and walking through this huge crowd of people, I said to the Lord, “Lord, if You are real, the first person that I touch and ask for my keys, they will have them.” And he did! He touched this usher and the usher gave him his keys back.
I want to tell you that man will never, ever be in any doubt about who the Son of God is.
Go and tell the world about your miracle today.
Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 28th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“Thus says the Lord: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.”Jeremiah 22:3
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
Matthew 25:40
The best investment that anyone can make is to be generous and kind to the poor, to the old, to those who have no form of self-defence, and to the needy. We make the best investment that we can ever make when we help them. You know, to be poor is not a sin. Always remember that. I am talking particularly to young people. When you see an old man walking down the street don’t despise him because he is poor. You don’t know what he has lost in this life. To be poor is not a sin. To be lazy is a sin. A lazy man doesn’t deserve to eat the Bible tells us. Many folks just need a break, so don’t judge a book by its cover.
We see a tramp sitting all alone on a bench at the seaside. He is tattered, he is unkempt and unshaven and we tend to judge him by his appearance. That man might have lost his family in a car crash and he just cannot come to terms with it. That man might have been through some devastating event in his life, and he just cannot pull himself together, but a loving arm around him, some money in his pocket to buy a nice hot meal and maybe a nice new jacket might be just what he needs to turn him around again. We need to show much more love, compassion and mercy. Jesus says, “When you do that you have done it to Me”.
Let us not be so quick to be mean today. Give that waitress a good tip, that car guard a handsome tip because he is trying his best.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 27th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.”
Exodus 3:2
That was Moses when he was called by God to go to Pharaoh to tell him to let the children of Israel go. He spoke to him through a burning bush.
“Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ So I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’
Acts 22:6
That was the conversion of Saul of Tarsus to Paul the Apostle, probably the greatest of all the Apostles in the Bible. The power of personal testimony is huge. With a testimony, you can either believe it or reject it, but you can’t argue with it because you weren’t there. People always ask the question, especially unbelievers, “How did you meet Jesus?” What a wonderful opportunity for you and me. What an opening to be able to share the good news with the lost.
Two giants of the Bible, Moses in the Old Testament and Paul in the New Testament, had massive testimonies. Pharaoh heard Moses’ testimony, the Pharisees heard Paul’s testimony and what they did with their accounts was entirely up to them. We have an obligation and that is to tell people what Jesus Christ has done for us. We can’t force people to become Christians. We can only share our testimony and allow the Holy Spirit to move in their lives.
Demos Shakarian was a dairy farmer in America, he started the Full Gospel Businessman’s Fellowship. He would hire a very nice restaurant or a hotel and then invite famous people, astronauts, bull-riders, sportsmen, and scientists and all they would do is tell the story of how Jesus Christ impacted their lives. That movement went right around the world and many, many people came to Christ through those testimonies.
Go out today and tell people about how Jesus has impacted your life and you will be surprised how many will listen to you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Monday morning, the 26th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”
James 1:6
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
Matthew 12:30
We cannot live this life undecided. Jesus makes it very clear in Revelation 3:15. He says:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
Now, those are strong words and they are coming from the Master, Himself. We have got to start becoming a people that are decided. A faint heart never gained a fair maiden. Now for the younger people, it means if you do not become single-minded, you will never win a beautiful girl to be your wife. We must start becoming more intentional. If we want to succeed in this life, we must let our “yes” be yes and our “no” be no.
I remember taking some young boys up the mighty Drakensberg Mountains many years ago. We were carrying all our kit with us because we were sleeping on top of the mountain. Some of the boys were focused, but some were fooling around, I remember one young boy, his name was Spider, he was probably the smallest and the lightest of all of them. He knew in his heart that the only way he was going to get to the top of this huge mountain was to stick close behind me and conserve his energy and remain focused.
Needless to say, those fooling around started falling apart when we were nearing the summit. When the oxygen was getting a bit less and it was getting extremely tight and steep, they needed help with their backpacks, etc. but not Spider. No, no, Spider was getting stronger. Why? Because he was focused and because he had his mind fixed on what he was doing.
Make up your mind today who you are going to serve before it is too late.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you. It is Sunday morning, the 25th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman, or boy or girl) availeth much,” the Lord says.
James 5:16 (parenthesis added)
We need to start to thank Jesus today for what He is about to do. We have just completed a national prayer meeting and now I can hear you saying, “Whereto from here?” Well, we have just got to say thank You.
We have got to work by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7.) Remember, the Lord’s ear is not thick so that He cannot hear. (Isaiah 59:1). We ask Him, which we have done, and then we start to thank Him for what He is going to do.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”Matthew 7:7
It is by raw undiluted faith that we thank Him for what He is going to do. Now, some of you maybe don’t know the Lord Jesus’ telephone number. It is found in Jeremiah 33:3:
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
By faith, we are called unto the Lord as a nation. We have prayed prayers of repentance, recommitment, and deliverance from addiction, sicknesses, depression and broken spirits and in Jesus’ name, we are now thanking Him for the revival that is on its way.
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”Galatians 6:9
May Jesus bless you as you continue by faith to pray for the nation, your household, your family, and for this world that is so desperate to meet the Man from Galilee, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday,
Goodbye.
It is Saturday morning, the 24th of September 2022. I want to greet you in the precious name of Jesus Christ, this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Well, today is a very, very important day for us in South Africa and it's a very important day in my own life.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” The New King James Version says: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.”Proverbs 29:18
What does that mean? It means if you aim at nothing then you are sure to hit it. It means that if your vision doesn’t scare you, then it is not big enough. I am in a state of absolute fear at the moment, fear and trembling and excitement, all together. You know if you cannot do it humanly speaking, then you must know that you have to have the faith to do it. Now, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17).
Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith you cannot please God, and he who believes must believe that He is and that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. You see, Moses said to God, in Exodus:33:15, “If You do not go with us, we are not going.” That is what the scripture says, and here at Shalom we have a very famous saying that goes like this,
“You must attempt something so big that if it is not of God it is doomed to fail.”
Why? Because when it works, Jesus gets all the honour and the glory, because people will say, ”Well, they could never have done that in their own strength.” Even as I am sitting patiently in the tunnel as it were, waiting for the big game, waiting for the whistle to blow and to run onto that field, I know that my Redeemer lives, and I know that He is with me. I would ask you to pray for us today wherever you might be. Pray for us in South Africa, pray for us as we hold a national prayer meeting in Krugersdorp, just outside Johannesburg. The city has a name that it has been given, which is very sad. They call it “devils-dorp” and we are going there today to change that name into “Jesus-dorp.” The people are coming by faith, and by faith, God is going to heal the sick, deliver those who are oppressed by demons and increase faith for those who are in depression and have lost hope.
Today is going to be a milestone in the history of our beloved South Africa. Please pray for us as we go out and speak JESUS to a dying world.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Friday morning, 23rd of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Then Paul answered, “What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Acts 21:13
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”Philippians 1:21
You can’t frighten a Christian with Heaven. Oh folks, the safest place to be is right in the perfect will of God. Just like the Apostle Paul, we need to find out what the will is of God for our lives and then simply obey Jesus’ call. 1 Timothy 6:6 says godliness with contentment is great gain. Paul’s friends loved him so much and they knew what was going to happen to him. He was going to die for his faith in Jesus Christ, but I want to tell you Paul was single-minded. He knew exactly what he had to do.
No more regrets for us today. “Oh, if only I had done that”, or “if only I had been bolder”, “if only I had taken that step in faith.” I want to tell you it is better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all.
Jeremiah said:
“There is a fire in my bones, I could not hold back, I had to preach.” Jeremiah 20:9.
As I am sitting in my prayer room today and tomorrow I am going to a national prayer meeting in Krugersdorp, just outside of Johannesburg. I am having a battle, right in my prayer room. The devil is saying to me, “You are going to make a fool of yourself because nothing is going to happen, no one is coming. The weather is going to be against you. People will not be healed, delivered or set free, the government will not change, and you will have egg on your face!”
But you know something my dear friend, I have to go, and I have to go unconditionally because, like Paul, for me, there is no Plan B. You know the good news, He will not fail me and He will not fail you, and I hope to see you there if it is possible. But in the meantime, follow through with the work and the vision Jesus has given you!
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, 22nd September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”
Ephesians 2:8
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
So when I am weak, then I am strong. I want to ask you a question, have you ever made an honest mistake? Have you ever done something that you didn’t mean to do because you didn’t know the truth? Of course, we all have. Romans 3:23 says for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. No one in the whole Bible knew that better than Paul, the Apostle of God. He made a terrible honest mistake. He actually thought he was helping God by killing and hunting down Jesus’ friends, the Christians. That is until he was arrested by Jesus Himself when he was knocked off his horse and a voice came out of Heaven on the road to Damascus.
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”
Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus”
Acts 9:4
Our sin persecutes Jesus. Jesus died so that we could be rescued and saved from our sinful lives. Have you ever heard the term, “friendly fire?”. I heard a testimony of a Jew who had become a Christian, and while he was sharing the testimony, tears were running down his face. He said, “We have persecuted Christians, not knowing that we were doing it.” He spoke about the war zone, right on the border of Lebanon, a column of trucks full of soldiers were parked on the side of the road. The pilot in a warplane came down and pressed a couple of buttons and wiped out the whole regiment in a few seconds. He returned to the airbase only to find out, horrified, that they were his friends. They were Israeli soldiers. It was an honest mistake. You and I have made many of them.
We need to rely on the grace of God. Grace means undeserved loving kindness and unmerited favour. Jesus died so that we can have eternal life.
Let us not persecute Him anymore by our sinful lives.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, it is the 21st of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also?”
Isaiah 7:13
Why is it that we weary our beloved Jesus so much? The Oxford Dictionary defines the word “weary” as causing tiredness or making someone exhausted. Why do we do it? Why do we push Jesus to the very limit with our rebellion, our lack of gratitude and lack of thankfulness? What He has done for us is so great, but we still do it, time and time again. There comes a time in our lives when tough love has to kick in so that we might be saved from ourselves. People have often said to me, “Why is God punishing me? Where is this God of love that you are always speaking about?”. He has never left you, he has never left me. He is still with us.
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
We need to make the call. Are we going to allow Him to help us, or not?
Years ago, there was a beautiful movie made called “Ordinary People.” It was made by one of South Africa’s best film-makers, F.C. Hamman and it was financed by Peter Scott. It was a true story about the Mighty Men Movement, a story of three men who changed from doing things their way and started doing things God’s way. The first man was a hijacker! He was going to hijack a bakkie that was bringing two men to the Mighty Men Conference. The two men overwhelmed him, took the revolver from him, handcuffed him to the inside of the bakkie and brought him to the Mighty Men Conference. He got saved and became a preacher after that. Oh, what a mighty God!
The second man had many family problems. He came here and got saved and he allowed the Lord to change his life. On his way back home he phoned his family and said, “Get the family together. I am coming home. I am a new man.” He had an accident and was killed when he fell off his motorbike, but his family came together.
The third man was a young man who was drinking and partying. His father pleaded with him, “You are making me weary!”. After writing off car after car, he came to the Mighty Men Conference, got saved and his life was transformed.
Let us not weary God anymore today. Let us start doing things His way and start being full of gratitude for what He has done in our lives.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ name! It is Tuesday morning, the 20th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”Hebrews 3:19
“But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”
Jude 5
Unbelief hurts God more than anything else. When He has done so much for us and we still don’t acknowledge Him as Lord of all, it is so sad. We have such short memories, don’t we?
“But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him.”
John 12:37
When we doubt the Lord Jesus Christ, we virtually tie His hands and He can’t do anything. This attitude of I will believe it when I see it is not faith, and that does not glorify the name of the Lord. Even the disciples asked the Lord Jesus in Luke 17:5, “Please increase our faith.”
I have seen too many miracles. I have seen the Worker of miracles in action too many times to doubt Him. Like the old farmer Job said in Job 19:25:
“I know that my Redeemer lives.”
Many years ago I was preaching in a big church in Durban and it was a packed-out service. It was beautiful and the Lord was moving powerfully. There were a few thousand people there, but a lady had come as visitor to the church, and she had said to the Lord that morning in her quiet time, “Lord, if You don’t speak to me personally, I am throwing the towel in, I am giving up.” She was sitting in the crowd somewhere and as the service was coming to an end she got up and tried to slip out the back. I saw her and I shouted in front of the whole crowd, “Madam, where are you going? Can you please come up here?” She came up onto the platform. I asked her what her name was. She told me her name and I acknowledged her personally in front of the whole crowd. She went home and wrote me an email a few days later and she said, “I know for sure that Jesus Christ is alive.”
I have seen the big miracles - I have seen the weather changing, but it is those little ones that touch me so deeply. “Lord, speak to me today in the crowd,” and He did. Don’t doubt the promises of God. Don’t tie His hands.
Go out and believe Him and He will do it for you too!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, 19th of September, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. If we go to the first Book in the Bible, Genesis, and the last chapter:
“Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”
Genesis 50:19
I can hear you sitting there this morning listening to what Joseph, the son of Jacob, said to his brothers when they had sold him out - sold him into slavery, and I can hear you saying, “But it is not fair.... I was sold-out as well. My business partner let me down. My wife, was unfaithful to me or I was falsely accused at work for something I never did - Where are You, Lord Jesus? Well, to me, Joseph was one of the most amazing role models in the whole Bible. He was sold into slavery as a young boy by his own flesh and blood, his brothers. His brothers cheated him, they even went back and told their father that wild animals had killed him... But God was with Joseph. When he finally got an opportunity for revenge, what did he do? He forgave them and acted kindly towards them.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."
Romans 8:28
That is a powerful scripture. You see, because of Joseph’s heart - kind, forgiving and an understanding heart, God promoted him and made him second only to Pharaoh, who at that time, was the most powerful man in the known world. Do not allow that unfair incident to muddy or poison your heart. Give it to Jesus and move along, it is He who will justify you.
God bless you and have a wonderful Monday.
Goodbye.
It is Sunday morning. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is the 18th of September, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. Tell them the old, old story! Let us go straight to Psalm 78:4:
“We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.”
It is vital in the growth and the fabric of a young child, that his mother and father sit down and tell him the old, old story. You know, basically that is what the Feast of Tabernacles, in Israel, is all about. It is a national holiday for a week and the people, the families get together in the evenings. They sit under make-shift shelters and tell their children how their Heavenly Father took them out of slavery and provided for them, through a barren desert, for forty years.
It disturbs me to see young parents that are so busy they do not have time to sit with their children and tell them about Jesus and about the principles of life. I often see a young mother, and I am not blaming her, so busy, she gives the child a cellphone and let's them amuse themselves with computer games... just to keep them quiet. It's dangerous because there is no interaction - We need to talk to our children and we need to warn them. We need to instruct them. Acts 20:31, Paul says to the children of Israel, before he leaves, he says:
“Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”
He goes on to talk about savage wolves that are coming in to try and break down the children of God. We have to speak to one another. You know, that is one thing I thank God for... My mother was a wonderful storyteller. She would sit for hours with me and my siblings telling us about her life - How she grew up in Scotland, what happened to her during the Second World War when she was in the air force, and how she managed to overcome things in her life. What it did was prepare us for when we went out into the world. Sit down and talk to your children, talk to your loved ones - Grand-dads talk to your grandchildren, they want to know the real story of how Jesus Christ has impacted your life.
Have a wonderful day and enjoy this Sunday, sit together and talk about the goodness of God.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is the 17th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Then they all wept freely, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which
he spoke, that they would see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.”
Acts 20:37
That was a sad time. They loved Paul so much. They knew they would never see him again in this world because he was on his way to Rome and there he would die for his faith. Many times, we only realise how much we love someone when they are no longer there. G K Chesterton said, “The way to love anything is to realise that it may be lost.” That is quite a powerful word. In other words, do not take that friendship or that relationship for granted.
Visit that person while you can, phone that person, or write to them because you don’t know if they will be there tomorrow. We need to appreciate the time spent together. Do not waste time arguing or bickering about trivial things which do not matter in the long term.
I went to New Zealand to preach the Gospel. I took my wife, Jill, with me and we went for 6 weeks. It was a very, very tiring trip. I was preaching almost every single day. Jill came with me for the first 3 weeks and then she went back home because the children were still at school. I remember I was very tired. I had been so busy with a hectic itinerary. I took her to the little airport and the plane taxied up to the top of the runway, turned around to take off and then there was a mechanical problem so it taxied back to the terminal and all the passengers got off the plane again. I was able to spend an extra 2 hours with my wife and I want to tell you, I have never forgotten how precious those 2 hours were.
Don’t waste time. Today visit, phone, go and be with that person who you love so much.
Don’t forget to spend time with Jesus.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 16th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”Isaiah 57:15
To revive the spirit! The Oxford Dictionary explains the word, “revive” - it means to make conscious, healthy or strong again, to up-turn, or up-swing. It's a resurgence, a come-back, to re-establish, restore, to bring back. That is what revival means. Isn’t it amazing that the world always backs the underdog? Have you noticed that? The one who is never, ever given a chance, why? Simply because we see ourselves in that position.
Two words will change a so-called loser and make him into a champion. Two words, “But God!” When people say to you, “This country is finished”, you say, “No, but God!” When people say to you, “That boy will never make anything of himself, you say, “But God!”
One of my favourite scriptures is Philippians 4:13:
I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.
We are believing for the greatest revival the world has ever seen. Do you know why? Because that is the heart of God. I remember many years ago I was preaching in Wales. I love the Welsh people. They sing everywhere and always, even their language seems like they are singing when they are speaking. One of the greatest revivals that took place was amongst the coal miners. They would come up in the evenings and go to the meeting halls and start to praise and worship God.
I remember going to a meeting in Wales with about a thousand farmers and their wives. When they sang, they started in English and then in their mother tongue, Welsh Gaelic. They sang that beautiful hymn, “Here is love”, and you know, I just started to weep. This is how it goes:
Here is love, vast as the ocean,
Loving-kindness as the flood,
When the Prince of Life, our Ransom,
Shed for us His precious blood.
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten,
Throughout heav’n’s eternal days.
*On the mount of crucifixion,
Fountains opened deep and wide;
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
And heav’n’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love.*
Well, there we have it and we are waiting for it to come again. It is on its way, I can tell you, I can smell it, I can taste it, I can see it!
Jesus bless you as you go out and revive the person in the street.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 15th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to Acts 20:21 - Paul says:
“…testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Repentance - I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find the literal meaning of the word, “repentance.” It means to feel sorry for something bad that you have done. It is expressing sincere regret or remorse. You know, it was the second verse that I memorised when I became a Christian. The first one was John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The second verse that I memorised was 1 John 1:9 which says:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
There is a necessity for repentance. Remember, if there is no apology there is no forgiveness. We need to acknowledge that we have offended or failed because without it there can be no healing and no moving forward. We have to turn from sin towards God. What keeps us from saying sorry to the Lord? Foolish pride!
“Oh it is not my fault”,
“I didn’t do anything wrong”,
“It was the other person’s fault”,
“It was my wife”,
“It was my husband”,
“No, no! It was my employer”.
I want to tell you that Jesus did nothing wrong but He died on the cross of Calvary for my sin and your sin. When we say sorry it brings freedom, healing, deliverance, it brings fresh vision and it brings joy. Cast your cares upon Jesus because He cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7). When you say sorry, when you repent, it makes you feel clean.
Just last week I preached in a church and I called people forward to confess their sins and repent. I saw unbelievable tears of healing, I saw chains of depression falling off those people. No more guilt, no more condemnation! A new beginning. Our sin has been paid for in full!
Let me pray for you:
Father, I pray in Jesus name, that even as my friend would repent today, you would set them free and free indeed.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is the 14th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Oh, do not deliver the life of Your turtledove to the wild beast!”Psalm 74:19
“My beloved spoke, and said to me:
“Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away.”Song of Songs 2:10
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”John 15:13
We need to ask ourselves a question - do we love Jesus? Is He truly the Lover of our souls?
Robert Burns, the famous Scottish poet wrote a love poem and it goes like this:
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
We say, “But how much does our Lord Jesus love us?” Well, the answer my dear friend, is found in the nail marks in His hands and feet, and the wound in His side. They tell us the whole story. Spend time with the Lover of your soul today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. It is Tuesday morning. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is the 13th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.”Lamentations 3:27
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”Matthew 11:29-30
It is good to bear the yoke. Do you know what a yoke is? A yoke is put between a pair of oxen when they pull a cart or a plough. The yoke prepares us for future tests. You know what they say - no pain, no gain, but who wants pain? No one. I love what C.H Spurgeon, the great English preacher said, “Praise intoxicates if it be not preceded by abuse.” I will give it to you in layman’s language. If you get praised all the time and have never been through hardship or knocked down, it goes to your head and makes you drunk. Praise intoxicates if it be not preceded by abuse. Men who rise to greatness without hardship, without a struggle, usually fall into dishonour. None of us prays for hardship or suffering, obviously, but there is no doubt that it prepares us for future challenges.
Many, many years ago I went to Australia. I was working on a beautiful Hereford beef stud. The owner of the farm employed me, but the chief stockman didn’t particularly like me. He thought I didn’t know much and that he would have to do more of the work. I will never forget it as long as I live, the first day I got there, he said, “Mate, you see that black horse over there in the field?” I said, “Yes sir.” He said, “that is your horse, go and get it.” Well, when I went into the paddock I couldn’t catch the horse. He kept running up and down the field. Eventually, I cornered him in one corner of the field and then he showed me his back hooves. It took me about an hour or two, but I caught that horse and I got on him and he bucked me off a few times. But do you know something? That horse taught me how to ride and I have never forgotten it ever since!
Don’t be afraid of taking the yoke. It will prepare you for the future.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Monday morning, 12th of September and it is the year 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we turn straight in the word of God to the Book of Psalms... Now, this is an interesting Psalm because it is a Psalm that was written by Solomon, not by David. Psalm 72, I am reading from verse 1:
“Give the king Your judgments, O God,
And Your righteousness to the king’s Son.
He will judge Your people with righteousness,
And Your poor with justice.”
And then we go to Matthew, the Lord says:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7
The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, why was he so wise we may ask? Quite simply because he sought counsel from God and not from man. You and I are living in perilous times and we need to start seeking the counsel of God, if we are to succeed - especially in our working environment. We carry cellphones around with us and can google anything at any time we want but there are a hundred different answers for every question. The same thing applies in our home situation... There are so many theories on how to bring up your children, how to manage your home, the role of the mother in the home and position of the father in the home. A lot of it is good stuff but remember, a good idea is not always a God idea.
You know, when people invite me to speak with preaching appointments and I get a lot, I do not just receive them and acknowledge them because it seems to be a good opportunity, no. The only invites I accept are the ones that I believe the Lord Jesus Christ would have me accept. I always go into prayer and ask the Lord. I have also got some very trusted people around me and I ask them about each invitation. We really need to seek God’s counsel in every decision we make, then we will find that things will go well in the workplace, in the home and in the ministry.
May Jesus bless you today as you start to put Him first, just like Solomon did, and then you will be surprised with the good decisions that you make.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name!
It is Sunday morning, 11th September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”
Isaiah 53:3
That is how our beloved Jesus is described in the Old Testament. In Nehemiah 8:10 we read that the joy of the Lord is my strength. You know, happiness is always short-lived, isn’t it? You get your degree after four years, it can almost be a little bit of an anti-climax, don’t you think? You have finally made the rugby team - You have been working so hard and when they give you that jersey, it is almost an anti-climax. You have had a great crop of maize or a great crop of tomatoes and you managed to pay your debt and then there is a bit of an anti-climax. Your team has won the championship, you are so happy. You have a great party but you have got to get up the next morning, haven’t you? Happiness! Happiness is short-lived!
You know, sadly, I have heard of many stand-up comedians who suffer from depression, that’s right. A couple of them have committed suicide and we know them, very famous comedians, trying to make people happy. You see, it doesn’t last. It is very, very short! But Jesus was never known as one who was a laugh a minute, was He? No, on the contrary... We have just read that He is known as a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was often known to be a person who wept. He wept for people. He was a very serious person, but He always had a deep sense of joy. That is why people were drawn to Him always. And that is how we as Christians ought to live.
It is the joy of the future that we have in Christ. It is the joy that comes when we realize that our sins are forgiven and that God has washed them away. It is joy that makes us realize that our future is secure. And most of all, what joy to know that Jesus promised us that He would never leave us and He would never forsake us! Have a beautiful Sunday and know that our future is secure and that brings great peace and deep joy into our hearts.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, 10th September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.”
Deuteronomy 28:6
The Lord Jesus says:
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
John 15:7
When we are walking in the ways of the Lord, we don’t have to be fearful or timid because we are confident that the Lord Jesus Christ always goes before us. Therefore when we go out, we know that the Lord is going before us and when we come back home, we know that He is there, waiting for us. When I am doing God’s work, God’s way, then I am at peace and know that He is watching over my home, my family, my children, my grandchildren, especially when I am away. He is going with me. He is indeed a friend that sticks closer than any brother and when it comes to my appointments, I believe that He settles them before I even get there.
One of my favourite Scriptures is Matthew 6:33:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (other) things shall be added to you.”
In Zululand, if you have the privilege of visting a family who live in a traditional Zulu home, you will find that it is round, it has a beautiful thatched roof and it has a low door in the front. You have to bend quite low to go in through the door. It is quite dark inside but very cool in summer and obviously very warm in winter. When the gentleman takes you to his home, he will always go into the hut before you, and when I first was invited to one of these homes, I used to think, surely the guest must go in first, but no! The reason being is that he wants to show you that it is safe inside and that you are welcome because he is protecting you. Isn’t that beautiful? That is exactly what Jesus does - He goes before us and He is also behind us.
So today, remember, that when you go out or when you come home, the Lord is going with you. Have a beautiful Saturday and Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
It is Friday morning. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is the 9th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.”Psalm 71:9
“Now also when I am old and grayheaded,
O God, do not forsake me,
Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
Your power to everyone who is to come.”Psalm 71:18
Do not resent growing old. Many are denied the privilege. This is a word for someone today who is so upset because they are older and can’t do what they used to do before. Many have never had the privilege of growing old.
Even as I am speaking to you today, I thank the Lord for my grandchildren. I thank the Lord for the young people that I have the privilege of being with. Many of my friends have gone home to be with Jesus and have never even seen their grandchildren. We must be very careful. We must be grateful that God has spared us these years. I love sitting in the company of young people and listening to all their future plans, and expectations. Man, it makes me feel young! After all, age is just a number, isn’t it?
The First Nation people in the United States of America, have got a saying that goes like this, “When an old person dies it is like a library that is burned down.” Young people, listen carefully, instead of having to learn the hard way, paying expensive school fees of blood, sweat, tears, and regrets - rather just go and sit with that old dear, and have a cup of tea, or a cup of coffee with them. They are waiting for you, they are not in any rush, and let them show you the easier way home. Remember, they have walked this way before and they know the way. Also, be patient with older people. You know, growing old is not for sissies! They are carrying a lot of aches and pains, of which they will not tell you, but they picked them up on that road. Be patient and understanding with them.
As an older man, I only have one regret in life and that is that it took me 32 years to find The Way, and His name is Jesus.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6
Have a wonderful Friday.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, 8th September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel."
Isaiah 7:14
“And he called His name Jesus.”
Matthew 1:25
Oh, what a beautiful name!
“This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.”
Acts 19:17
At that name, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. You see, “Immanuel” translated means, “God with us.” God came down from Heaven to Earth and dwelt amongst us in the form of a Man, His name was Jesus. God worked unusual miracles by the hand of the apostle, Paul because Paul knew the Man behind the name. The whole world knows the name of Jesus. It is the most famous name that has ever been proclaimed. They might know the name but do they know the Person behind the name? If you read the account in Acts 19, you will see that there were seven sons of Sceva. They saw the miracles that Paul was performing in the name of Jesus. They saw that where handkerchiefs and aprons that had been brought from Paul, were put on people who were physically sick and possessed by evil spirits, were immediately delivered. They tried to do the same thing and cast out a demon in the name of Jesus, but the demon said to them, “Paul, I know, Jesus, I know, but who are you?” The demon in the man attacked the seven sons of Sceva and nearly killed them. You see, it is one thing to know the name but it is quite another thing to know the Person behind the name!
Paul, however, knew Jesus intimately. We see in Philippians 3:10 that he says, “Oh that I may know Him.” We need to know Jesus. Today, get to know the person of Jesus, and signs and wonders and miracles will happen through you when you pray that prayer in faith.
Have a wonderful day and remember, it is in the Name!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus Christ's special, precious Name today! It is Wednesday morning, 7th September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Jesus says:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”John 16:7
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Acts 2:1
“And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were about twelve in all.”
Acts 19:6
Are you lonely today? Do you feel scared? Do you maybe feel that no one even cares about you anymore? Well, I've got good news for you today, my dear friend. There is someone who loves you and wants to be your very own personal Helper. What is His name? His name is the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said it was better for Him to leave so that He could send the Holy Spirit to you and me. As I speak to you from my prayer room, I can feel His presence in this room. You might be listening to this message in New Zealand, in the UK, maybe in the United States of America, maybe in Israel, and He's there with you as I am here with Him right now. Isn't that amazing? It's one of the most beautiful things about the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is to ask Him to fill us afresh with His love and His peace so that we don't need to be lonely or afraid anymore.
I heard such a sad story. Many years ago, a dear old lady lived all by herself on the 10th floor of a block of flats. The milkman would come every day and put a little bottle of milk outside the old lady's door. One morning the milk hadn't been taken from the day before. He didn't think anything of it and put another bottle of milk next to it. He came the next day and still no one had taken the milk. Eventually, he phoned the police. The police came and knocked on the door and the old lady didn't open the door. Eventually, they forced the door open and got in and the dear old lady was lying in her bed. Yes - It makes me emotional, even thinking of the story. There was a little notebook and pen next to her bed on the table. They opened the book and this is what it said: “No one came today”, and the next day, “No one came to visit me today”, and the next page, “No one came to visit me today.” That went on for about 15 days and then the old lady died.
I want to say to you today, maybe you are feeling like that old lady - “No one cares about me”. What I want to tell you is that there is One who cares about you and His name is the Holy Spirit. Ask Him today to fill you and He will.
Jesus bless you and keep you safe.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, it is the 6th of September 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”Matthew 7:21
Let's be doers of His word, not just talkers! Jesus uses a very strong parable in Matthew 21:28:
“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first.”
Faith is an action word. James 1:22:
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
Remember, it was the widow’s mite that impacted Jesus’ life. He was sitting in the temple with His disciples and seeing all the rich men coming in and giving a little bit of their excess, but it was the old lady who came in and gave all that she had. (Luke 21:1-4).
I was sent a photo of Oom Chris, 79 years young, and two young men, one on either side, with his tractor, preparing the land for a revival meeting. No, they definitely haven't got their Sunday best on, but they are busy with revival work. We need to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. Time is running out!
I am often asked, “What is the secret of the Mighty Men phenomenon that is going around the world - this movement that is impacting men's lives?" It's a very simple answer. It's Jesus who is using 'the whosoever’s' to do his bidding.
Go out today and show people what Jesus means to you!God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, 5th of September, the birds are singing in the trees, it is springtime in South Africa, the year 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. Psalm 81:10 - the Lord says:
”Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
And then Acts 18:9-10:
“Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”
God empowers those He calls and He has called you and I to be witnesses for Him, right around the world. Now, remember speaking is a doing word, it is a verb, not a noun. A noun is like a chair or a table, but speaking requires action and to implement that action requires one vital ingredient - That's right, it is called faith! Without it, we'll never get started and we will never please God.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Hebrews 11:6
On Christmas Eve 1989, Jesus spoke to me, almost audibly, through this very scripture - Acts18:9. I used to get into my farm pick-up, drive to my maze crop, my corn crop. I would drive right into the middle of it, go up a contour bank, get on the back of the pick-up, and use it as an imaginary pulpit or platform. Don't laugh, this is the absolute truth... I don't tell lies anymore, I'm a Christian now! And by raw undiluted faith, I would start to preach to the maize plants that were now standing about six feet tall! In those days we used to plant approximately 40,000 plants per hectare and we had a hundred hectares. That's a lot of maize plants. I would preach my heart out, making sure nobody was watching me. Then I would make a serious altar call and call people to repent and to follow after Jesus Christ as Lord and Redeemer. Then the Lord, and this is the truth, would send a nice gentle breeze and all the plants would bow their heads.
You know, Jesus has honoured that small step of faith and He's turned those maize plants into precious souls time and time again. He can do it for you today. Just be obedient and do what He tells you to do.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, 4th September, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off with Psalm 69:7:
“Because for Your sake I have borne reproach;
Shame has covered my face.”
And then that beautiful scripture found in Romans, in the New Testament:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”
Romans 1:16
I looked up, in the old Oxford Dictionary, to find out the literal meaning of the word, reproach: “Reproach is an expression of disapproval or disappointment.” Parents, I want to say to you today - you need to pray for your children and those of us who are older need to pray for our grandchildren because they are going through a lot of scorn at the moment, for being followers of Jesus Christ. You know, just because everyone else is doing something, that does not make it right and the young people today are under tremendous pressure, by society, to conform to the ways of this toxic world. If they live according to godly principles, they are going to be scorned and mocked - that is a given. That is why we need to stand by them, pray with them and allow them to speak to us.
You know, for a young lady to remain a virgin until her marriage night is something that is almost unheard of, abstaining from getting drunk or participating in drug-taking and pornography - these are real things that they are faced with every day. It’s very important for a young person to be part of the group because peer pressure is very, very tough at the teenage age. When we get older, like me, it doesn’t really matter anymore what people think of us, does it? They have already made up their minds anyway but I want to tell you for a young person, it is extremely hard.
Many years ago, one of my sons, a very keen little fisherman, he was probably about twelve years old and wanted to participate in a fishing competition. I took him up to the lake on a Saturday afternoon and I left him there with his kit and his fishing rod. His mom had made him some food to eat and he was very happy fishing off the edge of the lake... I don’t like fishing. I picked him up again at about 5 o’clock in the afternoon and he said, “Dad, I caught a huge fish”. I said, “Well done son.” He said to all his friends, “I will see you all tomorrow at the prize giving", the guys were there with their ski-boats, etc. and they said, “Aren’t you coming to fish tomorrow?” “No Sir, I am going to church.” They mocked him. They said, “Oh, you are going to fight the devil, are you?” And they all laughed at him and off they went.
Next day, he went to collect his little trophy and when he arrived, all the boys were there with long faces. They had been fishing all Sunday, they caught nothing! That little boy caught the biggest fish, the only fish and the most fish. He got a beautiful prize and some money. I kept the money (laughs jokingly) but folks, I want to tell you, God will never allow you to be mocked... Eventually, you will have the victory.
Stand strong, He will see you through.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 3rd of September 2022, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Two are better than one,
Because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.”Ecclesiastes 4:9
Don't allow foolish pride to stop you from asking for help. We need each other. If we look at Genesis 2:18:
“And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
We need to be helping one another. It’s God's way. He ordained it. You and I need each other. I need you and hopefully, you need me. Even Jesus needs us to stand with Him in these last days which are so dark and in many cases, so evil. We need each other as followers of Jesus Christ. Can you believe that even Jesus Himself needs us to stand with Him in these last days?
Matthew 26:40 - when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night of His arrest, He said:
“Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?
He was so disappointed because the disciples did not stand with Him when He needed them. We need to be accountable for our safety. No man is an island. At Shalom Ministries, we have trustees to who I am accountable to for finances, for every single penny. They look after us and it's very touching. We have four trustees altogether, but one particular trustee, when he comes to visit us says, “I’m not here on ministry business. I'm here on personal business. Angus. I want to know how your wife is. How are your children? How are your grandchildren? Is there anything we can do to make your work easier?” It touches me and brings me to tears.
You know, when Jesus sent out the disciples, He didn't send them out one by one. No, He sent them out two by two because He knew the importance and the danger when doing God's work. If Jesus did it for His disciples, how much more for us? Let's look after one another.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name!
It is Friday morning, 2nd September, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the First Book of Samuel:
“Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.”
1 Samuel 3:10
And then we go straight to the Gospel of John:
“Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher).”
John 20:16
Have you ever sat down and tried to imagine what it is going to be like when we hear our Lord Jesus call our name? Folks, I've got an imagination, that's right, I'm a dreamer. My late mom always used to say to me, “Angus, you are always dreaming”, but I want to tell you, I cannot wait to hear when He calls my name. Will we know him though? That is the question. When he calls your name will you know that it's the Lord? Mary Magdalene thought it was the gardener. Young Samuel had to go to Eli several times because he didn't know who was calling him. I want to ask you when He calls your name, will you recognize him?
“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”
Matthew 25:21
Do you remember that beautiful song written and sung by the Christian band called MercyMe? The title is: 'I Can Only Imagine.' Those words are so beautiful - Can you imagine what it's going to be like when we are standing before the glory of God, when He calls us?
The words go like:
“What will my heart feel?
Will I be able to speak at all?
And I will be able to worship forever, worship you!”
You know, I've often thought about what it must be like to meet Moses and Elijah, I'm talking about the great giants of the Bible! But I actually got quite emotional this morning when I was preparing this little message for you... I thought, “Lord, some days I just cannot wait to meet you face to face because this world, truly, holds nothing for me. Just to be able to sit with You, Lord, and just to gaze into Your glory. What a Man, this Man who said one word and everything that we see came into being!
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” His name is Jesus!
John 1:1
Have a wonderful day and spend lots of time with Him today because He's waiting for you. God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. It is the 1st of September 2022, Thursday morning, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”Philippians 3:12
What is it that the Lord has laid hold of you for? What is the mountain that you are climbing at the moment? When we intend to climb a mountain, we first must sit down at the base and weigh up the cost. If we don't and we tackle Mount Everest, then we will surely fail miserably. Do you know that more than 300 people have died trying to climb Mount Everest? Approximately 200 bodies are still up there due to the difficulty in recovering them, and yet, so many of us do not sit down and count the enormous cost before we tackle our mountain.
Jesus says in Luke 14:28:
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it.”
By all means, we must aim high. Mount Everest is the highest mountain on earth, it stands at 8,849 meters high. It is an extremely serious challenge, but you and I are climbing our own mountains, aren't we? It might be marriage; it might be a business deal; it might be immigration to another country; it might be that operation the doctors say you have to have; it might be that commitment that we made to Jesus. I want to say to you, my dear friend, that there's no turning back. When we start on our journey to climb that mountain, we have to persevere right to the top. It's a dangerous thing to come down again when you haven't reached the top. And by the way, why would you want to come down again when Jesus is waiting for us at the top of that mountain?
Have a blessed day and go for it.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Wednesday morning, 31st August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.”
Genesis 7:24
Abraham staggered not at the promises of God through unbelief but remain strong giving glory to the Lord.
Romans 4:20
One of the marks of great men and women of God is patience. Abraham waited one hundred years before he received his son, Isaac, from the Lord. Noah spent one hundred and fifty days in the ark before the waters subsided. Paul, the Apostle, in my humble opinion, was the greatest of all the apostles, he was sent to the Arabian Desert for three years before God used him. (Galatians 1:18). We need to wait upon the Lord! Many of us struggle in that area, I am one of them, but there's no excuse.
I've been watching a program on television called “The Hundred Days Makeover”, with wild horses that come from the wide-open prairies of the USA and have never, ever, been handled by a human being. They have a competition where each trainer is given one horse and one hundred days to gentle that wild horse, and the one that does it the best wins.
You know, I love horses. I have two myself and they are magnificent animals. Winston Churchill said, “There's something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.” I watched a young teenage girl working with one of those horses. She worked with that horse for a hundred days every single day. These animals were wild, very capable of hurting you badly, and yet, after a hundred days of patience, love and perseverance, that young lady was on that Mustang's back, riding him around like he was a domesticated, locally-bred horse. It brought a tear to my eye.
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”Galatians 6:9
Don't give up. Be patient, be patient with that child, be patient with that husband, be patient with that wife, with those employees, and the Lord will see you through!
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is the 30th August 2022. It is Tuesday morning, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.
Acts 17:22
“At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”Philippians 2:10
You see, the Greeks made an altar to the unknown God. We know His name. It is the most beautiful name in all creation! His name is Jesus. He is the son of the Almighty God! Some of us might say, but who is this? (just like the Greeks said). Well:
He is the King of Kings,
He is the Lord of Lords,
He's the Lion of Judah,
He's the Lily of the Valley,
He's the fairest of 10,000,
He's the Alpha and the Omega!
The Beginning and the End,
the soon-coming King, the great I AM!He's also the Father to the fatherless, the Defender of the widow and the orphan, He's the great Healer, the Physician, and the title I love the most, He is the Friend of sinners.
We need to speak up more readily about our Saviour, my dear friend. Please, don't bring a tear to my eye when you call Him, "the man upstairs” or “my mate”. He is so much more than all of that. We need to be specific when we speak about Him. When we say God or Lord, everyone is happy. All the other religions don't mind, but as soon as you say the name of Jesus, many people become offended. But I want to tell you, and I can testify, that when I pray for the sick and I use the name of Jesus, I have seen people get out of wheelchairs and walk, I have seen blind eyes open. I have seen deaf ears unstop at that name. I want to say to you today, use the name of Jesus, because in that name is where the power is. New life is in the name. Jesus is the miracle worker. Call upon His name today.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus’ precious name!
It is Monday morning, 29th August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Let God arise,
Let His enemies be scattered;
Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.”
Psalm 68:1
And then we go to the Book of Numbers:
“So it was, whenever the ark set out, that Moses said:
“Rise up, O Lord!
Let Your enemies be scattered,
And let those who hate You flee before You.”
Numbers 10:35
Let our enemies be scattered before us! Romans 8:31, one of my favourite verses:
“If God is for us, who can be against us?”
I want to ask you a personal question this morning - Are you feeling a little bit down, are you feeling a little depressed? Are you saying to yourself, “I shouldn't feel like this because I am a child of God”? Well, the Oxford Dictionary explains the word depression as severe despondency and dejection. You see the battle is not in the heart, the battle is in the mind.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly) but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds”
2 Corinthians 10:4
Just because you and I are followers of Jesus, does not mean that we are exempt from feeling down and we are not alone in this battle. You see the devil will try and tell you today, that you are the only one who's feeling a bit. No, not at all. Do you know that some of Jesus' greatest generals also suffered from bouts of depression? We start off with David, that's right? The apple of the Lord's eye, a man after His own heart, and yet in Psalm 55:6, he says:
“Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away …”
What about that great general, Elijah? Elijah is the patron Saint of the Israeli army, a strong man, he's my hero in the Old Testament. Yet he prayed that he might die - He said, “It is enough. Take my life.” And he said that just after the greatest victory he had ever had, in 1 Kings 19:4. I want to say to you today that we don't live by our feelings, we are living by faith in God! In Hebrews 13:5 the Lord says:
“I will never leave you. And I will never forsake you.”
I want to tell you when I have come back from some of amazing campaigns, where I've seen the power of God move, nature come into line with the spoken word of God - I've seen healings, I've seen people born again, by the multitudes, yet I can hit a low time. Oh yes! And that's when I come aside and I say two words… "But God”.
So get up this morning, dust yourself off and keep on because you and I have a glorious future in Heaven.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you this morning in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, 28th of August 2002, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. If we go to the New Testament to the Book of Acts:
“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”
Acts 17:6
Wow, what a title to be known by: “These who have turned the world upside down”. And then we go to Revelation 3:16, the last book in the Bible, Jesus says:
“So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
Those are very strong words spoken by the Master himself. You see, people don't have to like us but they must respect us. Many years ago, I was preaching, down in the Eastern Cape, to a group of farmers at a Christian conference. At halftime, we were going to the bathroom and an old farmer walked in, he looked at me and said, “Young man, when you are preaching, you don't have to sweat so much. You don't have to try so hard.” “Oh”, I said, “Oh sir, you ain't seen nothing yet. Wait for the second half!” You know, if there's no passion, no excitement in your witness for the Lord, why should the world turn around and look to Jesus?
Now I want to clarify something here - I'm not talking about Bible bashing, no, because people are struggling. They are really struggling at the moment with incredible pressure: the pressures of life, some people dealing with old age, other people dealing with loved ones that they have lost and others dealing with the pressure of society. Paul and Silas loved the people and spoke about the love of Jesus Christ, that is what turns the world upside down - the Gospel! The good news of Jesus Christ is for free. You don't have to buy it, you don't have to earn it, you just have to receive it and believe it!
People are lost. People are afraid. Tell them today about your Good Friend, the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll see a smile come on their faces.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful restful Sunday.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning. I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, 27th August 2022, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing.
Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.
For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth endures to all generations.Psalm 100
We need to serve the Lord today with gladness. You see, we have a choice to make. We can serve our blessed Lord Jesus with gladness and singing, or we can sit in the corner and sulk and be sad and negative about our lot in life. Thanksgiving and praise is like light because wherever it shines, it chases out darkness and despair, John 8:12:
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
We were called to parliament in Cape Town a few years ago to pray for the desperate situation in Cape town. It was regarding the terrible fact that it was the only city in the whole world that had no water and no rain. During the meeting, I was called up to speak and everyone looked so sad and worried. When I looked out at the crowd of people I felt the Holy Spirit impress upon me to start singing in parliament, and all of a sudden everybody was up on their feet and they were dancing, singing and praising Jesus. You know, Africa is the singing continent of the world! A short while later, needless to say, the Rainmaker, the Lord Jesus did His miracle.
Do you remember this song? I think it was the one I sang that morning.
I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus,
No turning back,
Praise the Lord, no turning back.
The cross before me and the world behind me.
And the cross before me and the world behind me
And the cross before me and the world behind me
And no turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back,
Go out today and sing praises to your Lord Jesus.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, 26th of August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Acts 16:29 & 31
You know, here at Shalom, we say, “One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons.” It all comes down to one thing, doesn't it? - Faith in God! (Mark 11:22) Paul and Silas were in chains in prison, praying and singing hymns at midnight. All the other prisoners were listening and then suddenly, a miracle happened - an earthquake. It shook the prison, opened the doors and released them from their chains. I can hear somebody say, “Oh, well that was just a coincidence.” Oh, no, sir, that was not a coincidence. That was a God incident so miraculous that the jailer was about to commit suicide, thinking that all the prisoners had escaped, but they were all there and accounted for. They said to him, “Don't do that”, and he said, “What must I do to be saved?”
Maybe somebody's asking that question this morning. What must I do to alleviate this crisis I am going through? This bankruptcy, this divorce, this barren womb, this sickness, this depression - what must I do? Well, you must do exactly what the disciples told the jailer to do. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you and your household will be saved. Maybe somebody is saying, “But that was for those days. That's not for now.” No, it is indeed for now. Hebrews 13:8 says Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forevermore.
I want to ask you a question. What miracle are you looking for in your life today? Oh, I've seen so many miracles in my life. I really have and no one will ever, ever tell me otherwise. I know that my Redeemer lives. Job, another farmer said that. I want to pray for you this morning.
Father,
I want to pray for my dear friend. We are living in perilous times. Lord, things are getting tough all the way around, economically, politically, and morally. Lord, it looks like everything is coming to a standstill, yet we know that you are the One who said call unto Me. We are calling unto You this morning, Lord Jesus. We are asking you to increase our faith to believe You for our miracle.
In Jesus name.
Amen.
Have a wonderful day and believe for that miracle.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Thursday morning, the 25th of August 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Who sharpen their tongue like a sword,
And bend their bows to shoot their arrows - bitter words...”
Psalm 64:3
And then we go straight to Proverbs:
“The truthful lip shall be established forever,
But a lying tongue is but for a moment.”
Proverbs 12:19
And then that scripture that we all know so well, Psalm 119:105:
“Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.”
Remember, what you say is what you get and when you speak bitter, negative, untrue words, it makes you unwell - It makes you sick. Saint Augustine said of his mother, whom he loved so much, she would never repeat what another said unless it would help - isn’'t that beautifu? She would never repeat what another said, unless it would help. Jesus, our Lord, spoke life. He did not speak death and that is why wherever he went, crowds of people thronged to him like bees around a honey pot.
Like never, ever before folks need words of affirmation, words of encouragement. Like Philippians 4:13:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19
Many years ago, in 2005, we had one of our early Mighty Men conferences on the farm. There were about 600 men squashed into a hall on Shalom farm. During a time of confession, men were coming up and confessing their sins in front of the boys, and obviously before the Lord Jesus. Things that they had done, that they were ashamed of and things that they had never done, that they should have. I remember, clearly, a policeman came up and stood in the front. He said, “I’ve never told my son that I loved him and that I believe in him.” At that moment, a big strong, young teenage boy came running up the aisle to his dad and the two hugged each other, with many tears flowing. That young man went back home, he went back to his school and he made the first team rugby squad. He then went on to play provincial rugby because his dad spoke words of love and life over him.
Do the same today. Go out and speak life and not death.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Wednesday morning, the 24th of August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
God's favour! Let's go to the first book in the Bible, Genesis 41:42:
“Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand; and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck.”
And then we go down to verse 46:
“Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.”
God's favour! When we do it God's way, then he will do the rest. I want to say to young people today, do the right thing. That's it! Pay your accounts when they are due, be no man's debtor. Work with your own money and not with someone else's money. Don't keep anybody waiting. I can hear a young man saying, “but that's not good business, Uncle Angus.” I want to tell you, it is very good business. If you owe somebody something, pay them when it's due or preferably before it's due. Why? So that you can receive God's favour. Don't use what is not yours.
Joseph fled from Potiphar’s wife when she tried to seduce him because he knew that she did not belong to him. She was the wife of another man. Don't play the fool. Don't think you can have an affair and get away with it. Why? Because God knows everything. Joseph did what God expected of him and God blessed him.
The Bible says in Romans 6:23:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life…”
You can't fool all the people all of the time and you certainly can't fool God. In one supernatural miracle, God took a Hebrew slave from prison and made him the Prime Minister of the most powerful nation on earth at that time. Why? Oh, well he was very lucky? Not at all. He obeyed God and he did the right thing.
My old dad was a country blacksmith. We never had a lot of money in our home but my dad made sure he paid everything he owed. It brings a tear to my eye - when he was dying in his old age I used to visit him and I had the power of attorney to look after his affairs, and the first thing he would always ask me was, “Angus, is there enough money left in the account?” I said, “Dad, there's plenty of money left in the account,” and he died peacefully. Do the right thing and God will honour you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus' precious name - it is Tuesday morning, 23rd August 2022, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. If we go to the Book of Acts in the New Testament:
“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
“Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
Acts 16:9
Just before that, a few verses before, they were categorically told by the Holy Spirit not to preach in the region of Asia but Paul had a vision in the night of a man pleading with them to come over to Macedonia and help them. You will see it in verse 10 - the Bible tells us and immediately (I love that) they prepared to go. Now, that happened to us, in 2018 in the month of March, we had a clear call to hold a prayer meeting in Cape Town for rain. Not just to Cape Town but we were told to go directly to Mitchell’s Plain, one of the poorest, most violent areas in our nation.
God identified a young man of peace, a social worker and a man of God, Ashley. Not a man of great influence, he wasn’t the Governor of the provence, he wasn’t a multimillionaire but he was a young man and he was working with drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes and broken people - and he was our Macedonia man. We went to a city that was literally dying of thirst and by raw, undiluted faith in Jesus Christ, He performed a great miracle, one that I personally will never forget. We spoke to one of the largest crowds in the history of the Western Province. We saw people kneeling in the sand dunes, amongst the shanty towns - We saw revival. We saw, with our naked eyes, the Glory of God manifest. Out of the poverty, pain and the shame, we saw the flower of Cape Town emerge. And then in the middle of the meeting, what happened? Yes, it started to rain! Oh folks, do what God tells you to do.
A lady wrote us a letter a few months ago, another 'Macedonian'. That lady said in her letter, three times: “Please, please, please, come to Krugersdorp and help us because they have called this town of ours, 'Devilsdorp'.” What a terrible, terrible name! There is so much pain, so much spiritual poverty, so much hunger. Well, I want to tell you, we are going there on the 24th September and we are going to change that name from Devilsdorp to Jesusdorp forever!
Come, please and help us, help us to see revival that will start in that place and who knows? It might be the match that will change the future of our beloved nation.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name.
It is Monday morning. It is 22nd of August, the year 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we start off with Psalm 34:19:
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
And then we go to the New Testament to 2 Timothy 3:12:
“Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”
I've never met a man yet, who is worth his salt, who has not been through fiery trials and persecutions. Remember - no pain, no gain. Ja, it’s painful but you see, some of these old boys and you look at those wrinkles... They'll tell you those aren't wrinkles, those are war maps - it's the road they’ve had to walk. Do you remember that story of the little butterfly in the cocoon? It was on the side of a window and a kind man was sitting writing in his book. He looked at the side of the window and there was this little butterfly struggling to get out of that cocoon. So the kind man thought that he would help her and he took a small little knife and carefully, he cut the cocoon open so that the butterfly could get out so much easier. He watched the butterfly come out of the cocoon, but the sad thing was, when the butterfly came out, it just flopped on the side of the window. It could not fly because her wings were not strong enough to carry her. They were not developed enough. You see, through the hard exercise of getting out of that cocoon, that butterfly strengthens her wings so that she can fly... No pain, no gain! You've heard that many, many times before, haven't you?
The old man who has been through a lot of hardship doesn't speak too much. He just smiles when he hears the young men talking about great exploits. In fact, Jesus himself, when the disciples came back, remember, they were telling the Lord that they'd cast out the demons, they'd set the captives free, and they'd been here and there... The Lord quietly said, ”Ja, but you must rejoice rather that your names have been written in the Lambs Book of Life.”
Growth takes place in the valleys, it does not take place on the mountain-tops, even though we love to go to the mountain tops. You can ask any farmer, the crops are grown in the valleys in the times of hardship. So do not panic. If you're going through a hard time at present, rather embrace it. Ask the Lord Jesus to assist you, to give you strength and to teach you through the tough time. Nobody in the New Testament suffered more than the Apostle Paul and he said in Romans 5:3-4:
“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
If you want character, allow the Lord to work through you. Have a wonderful day. Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you. It is Sunday morning, the 21st of August, 2022, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. If we go to Jeremiah 3:23:
“Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills,
And from the multitude of mountains;
Truly, in the Lord our God
Is the salvation of Israel.”
And then we go to Psalm 121:1-2:
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills -
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.”
Our help does not come from the mountains, No, it comes from God Himself. Not from our finances, not from our health but in the faithfulness of God's Holy Word, the Bible. By the way, I am a mountain man - I love the mountains. My wife, Jill, loves the sea and I always say to her, tongue in cheek, “Jesus never went down to the sea to pray, always up to the mountains.” I know I'm going to get myself into trouble now with all the sea-lovers... Don’t get me wrong, I love the sea. I love that beautiful salty, fresh air that blows in from the sea, but I am a mountain man. But you know, my dear friend, it doesn't matter where you go. It's not the surroundings that are important, it is your heart, for the Lord Jesus Christ and your intimate relationship with Him alone that really counts. But you do need to get away on your own occasionally if you really want to hear a clear word from him. Jesus did it, often the disciples were looking for him, “Lord, where have you been? The crowds are waiting for you.” He was up the mountain. He was waiting to hear from his Heavenly Father.
So as I send this message to you today, maybe you are in hospital but you can still hear from God. Maybe you're in jail - You can still hear from God; Maybe you're a student that's in a school hostel, you can hear from the Lord. Maybe you are a long-distance lorry driver - you can still speak to Jesus in an intimate way. Do you know that Susanna Wesley was the mother of the great evangelist and revivalist John Wesley? She had 18 children if I'm not wrong, and she was the wife of a padré. She lived in a small little cottage with all those children. Now, where could she go, to have a quiet time? She used to sit in front of the stove and pull her apron over her head and she would speak to Jesus. The children knew that when mommy was speaking to Jesus, no one spoke.
You don't have to go up the mountain, literally, but you do have to spend time in the quiet place with the Lord every day.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday, goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 20th of August 2022, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.”
Psalm 62:5
Expectation comes from God alone.
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
You see, when we put our expectation on the Lord, things change. It's not fair for us to put that burden of expectation on anyone else. It's not fair to do it to your husband, or your wife. It is not fair to expect that child of yours to excel and put pressure on them. It's not fair to put that pressure on your parents. You put your expectation on Jesus alone!
The Oxford Dictionary says that expectation means, the “belief that something will happen or be the case.” When we are spending quality time with our Lord Jesus, then we get to know His heart and we can expect accordingly. But if we do not wait on the Lord, silently and alone in His Presence, our expectations will run wild. We will start to ask and expect amiss. Remember, Jesus is not our ATM. You don't put your credit card in and expect Him to deliver, but when we walk according to His ways then we can be confident that He will do what He promised.
Faith like potatoes. It's a ridiculous statement, isn't it? You know, my expectation was not in the potatoes or the weather. No! It was in God and for His glory alone. The Lord and I had some very earnest talks while the crop, which everyone said I shouldn't plant, was growing. There were days when I'd go up to the field and there was no rain. It was during the time of El Nina and the plants were dripping, I'd sit down and wait silently and alone, and I believed with all my heart. God told me to plant those potatoes, and of course, He never once failed my expectation.
My faith grew and we received a crop of potatoes and that little story has gone right around the world. I hope you've read it and I hope it encourages you. If you put your expectation on Jesus, He will not fail you.
Have a wonderful Saturday.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 19th of August 2022, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you.”Romans 16:16
We need to keep in touch with one another. We are living in perilous days in which we are constantly being isolated from each other. We need to keep in touch as Paul did. If you look at the whole of Romans Chapter 16, you'll see he sends greetings to the different churches and different people. The whole New Testament, all those letters, are keeping in touch with the people that loved the Lord, all over the known world in those days.
The Coronavirus has done terrible damage to the world - it has isolated us from one another. Remember the masks? We had to wear masks all the time. My wife would go to the shops to buy some groceries and there would be a loudspeaker on, “Buy your groceries and go straight home”. There were no meetings allowed, no socialising at all and as little contact as possible with each other. But we, as Christians, need to keep in touch with one another. No man is an island. There are no lone rangers in the kingdom of God. We need to speak to each other. Make that phone call, send that text message, God created us to be together. He means for us to be together as a family. We need to wave at that passing motorcar, give them a big smile and shout out that Jesus loves them. Visitation is so important in the kingdom of God.
DL Moody, the amazing American dynamic evangelist that lived in the 1800s, was incredible! He built a massive church in Chicago, but he would personally visit his massive congregation. He would come running up the steps of those high-rise flats, those tenement buildings, and before he got to the door, he would start shouting, “Are you okay?” and then they'd open the door. “Have you got enough food to eat? Do you have enough coal for the winter?” He would pray for them in the house and then be on to the next family. He visited hundreds of families in a single day.
I want to say to you today that we need to keep in touch with one another. I was asked to go and visit a dear old lady on her 90th birthday and she didn't even know I was coming. I went in there, gave her a little book and wished her a happy birthday. Her dear face just lit up! Then I said, “Can we pray together?” We prayed the sinner’s prayer together in that room. She was so happy and her daughter contacted me later and said, “My mom's whole day was made.” It took me five minutes. That's all.
But of course, the most important thing is to keep in touch with Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30:
“Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and keep in touch.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 18th of August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“So I will sing praise to Your name forever, That I may daily perform my vows.”
Psalm 61:8
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
Job 13:15
What is a vow? Well, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary and the literal meaning of the word "vow" is a solemn promise. It is unconditional. You know, that's why God loved the farmer, Job, so very much, even when he lost everything - his farm, his animals, his home, and even his precious family, he could still say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
We, of course, know what happened in the end because Job kept his vow. If we look at Job 42:12:
“Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters.”
And those daughters were the most beautiful in the land.
Verse 16 says. “After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.”
Keep your vow to God because he will always keep His promise to us.
Many years ago, we were caught in a severe drought, yes, another one. The crop was dying in front of our very eyes! Every morning I'd get up and see that it was shrivelling. It was looking like onions and this was a crop of seed maize. The bank overdraft was red-lining. I could actually see the farm slipping through my very fingers, just like sea sand. One day in sheer desperation, I made a solemn vow to Jesus. I said, “Lord, if You pull me through this drought, I will preach Your Holy Word till the day I die.” Yes, He pulled me through the drought and yes, I'm still preaching the Gospel.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning. It is the 17th of August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.”Genesis 15:6
We are talking about Abraham, the man of faith.
“But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?”
James 2:20
Abraham was known as the friend of God. I don't think anybody would want a more wonderful title than that. Why? Because he believed in the Lord and the Lord accounted it to him for righteousness. He wasn't known as the friend of God because he was a good man. No! Do you know that he passed off his wife, Sarah, as his sister to save his own neck, twice! That's right. She was a very beautiful woman. Pharaoh wanted her. He said, “Don't tell him that I'm your husband because he’ll kill me.” That's not a good man. I don't think you'd do that for your wife, would you, sir? But Abraham believed God. Abraham was told by the Lord, “I want you to leave your farm, leave your home and take your family and your animals, take everyone and go to an unknown destiny.” He never hesitated. Do you know that he faithfully waited for one hundred years until God gave him a beautiful baby boy by the name of Isaac?
“He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God”.Romans 4:20
That's not the end of the story. God gave him his little boy, Isaac, and when he grew into a fine young, strong teenager, God tested Abraham yet again. He said to Abraham, “I want him back. You need to offer him up as a sacrifice to Me on Mount Zion”. Abraham obeyed immediately.
Do we want to be known as friends of God? We've got to start walking the talk. Faith is a verb. It's a doing word. It's not a noun. It's not like a table or a chair. It's an action word. When God tells us to do something, we need to do it. In 2008, we hired the biggest tent in the world. It took about three weeks to erect it here on this farm. My son came to me and said, “Dad, we need more money because we need more speakers”.
I said, “We don't have any money left.” He said, “Dad, they have told me that the sound from the speakers will only go to a certain row of chairs. After that, no one will hear anything. We have to have them.” Reluctantly I agreed. We ordered the extra speakers. We didn't have the money. The next day, we got a deposit in our account. A farmer in the Free State, hundreds and hundreds of kilometres away from us sold a flock of sheep and put the money in the bank - the exact amount!
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 16th of August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them.” And then the very next verse: “ …they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.”
Acts 14:18-19
One minute, they were worshipping him and saying he was a god. The very next minute they were stoning him and left him for dead. We cannot look to man for our accolades or our rewards, because one day you are a winner and the next, a loser. The same thing happened to our Lord Jesus when He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. He was worshipped by the people. They were laying down palm branches, leaves and even their very own clothes so that the donkey could walk upon them - but a few days later, the same crowd were calling out, “Crucify Him.”
Our reward must only come from our Heavenly Father, otherwise, we are going to be sorely disappointed. Just like the rugby player who is having a magnificent game and is deemed to be the man of the match, but just before the final whistle is blown, he misses a vital kick, a penalty to win the match, and he instantly becomes the absolute enemy of the whole crowd.
Whatever we do in this life, we must do it as unto Jesus and look to Him alone for our reward, otherwise, we will be like a virtual rollercoaster - one minute we will be on top of the world, and the next minute we will be down in the dumps. When you go out today do everything as unto God and He will reward you.
Have a very special day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’s precious name! It is Monday morning, 15th August, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we start off in the Book of Job:
“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects;
Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.”
Job 5:17
Do not despise the discipline of the Almighty... Then we go to Hebrews:
“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Hebrews 12:11
You know the good news is that chastisement or discipline is not forever! Why does God chastise us if He loves us, why does He punish us if He loves us? Well, it is for that very reason - He does not want us to hurt ourselves through disobedience. Just like the mother who tells her little child to stand still at the stop street while the cars are passing by and the little child is disobedient and does not listen to his mother. He runs across the road and a passing car nearly runs him over. What does the frantic mother do when she runs across the road and picks up her little child? She gives the disobedient child a really good spanking because of the sheer relief that her baby nearly died but has been miraculously spared. It's for the love of her child that she openly does it and she could not care who is watching.
Sometimes God does not answer our prayers in the way which we asked because He knows that it would not be good for us. When I was a young farmer, on a Sunday afternoon - I will never forget it, I took a young minister, a pastor, for a ride in the pick-up. He said to me: “You know Angus, all my life I used to pray. I used to ask God to give me a farm of my own but He never answered my prayers and I would get so disappointed. But now I realize why I never received that farm, because if God had given me that farm I would have forgotten Him. I would have got so involved with the farm that I would have forgotten all about the Lord.”
I want to say to some young lady who is so disappointed because her relationship with her boyfriend has not come to anything - Don’t be disappointed. The Lord has got a special man for you. I want to say to that young man who really wanted an opportunity to play that professional sport but the door never opened - Don’t be disappointed, God knows what is good for you. Just trust the Lord because He loves you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Sunday morning, 14th of August, 2022 and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
Psalm 20:7
And then straight into the New Testament to the book of Philippians:
“…being confident of this very thing that He, who has begun a good work in. will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
Phillipians 1:6
The system of this world is all about 'you can do it'. You've got it in you, you make it happen. It's all about us and not about the Lord. Now, you know, Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali, his favorite saying was, “I am the greatest”. You know that he was an excellent athlete, an incredible boxer but if he had put his trust in Jesus Christ, he could have become exceptional - Our confidence must be in God and not in ourselves.
You see my greatest enemy? My greatest handicap is not the devil - No, it's Angus Buchan, that's the absolute truth...
“I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me .”
Philippians 4:13
The emphasis of that scripture is not on the 'I' but rather Christ who strengthens me. Every single time that I am about to embark on a national Christian event I become so aware of just how weak I am. I find myself spending more and more time in isolation with the Lord Jesus because I know, for a fact, that if He is not going to do it, it's not going to happen.
And that's when 2 Corinthians 12:9 becomes a huge neon sign in my life - It's all about grace. The Lord says:
“My grace is sufficient for you, My strength is made perfect through weakness.”
When I'm weak, then I'm strong. That word grace is such a beautiful word. It means undeserved loving kindness, or unmerited favour and when I am weak, then I know that Jesus is strong within me. Try it today, it will take huge pressure off you.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name!
It is Saturday morning, the 13th of August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
What a beautiful, beautiful Scripture - we are fresh and new, an entirely new creation! Without a doubt, the greatest of all miracles is new life! You know, I've seen many miracles in my life:
I've seen God open blind eyes;
I have seen deaf ears unstopped;
I have seen lame people walk;
I have seen addictions to drugs and alcohol broken in an instant;
I have even seen weather patterns change through prayers of faith;
I've seen barren wombs conceive and beautiful babies born, but without a doubt, the greatest miracle and the one that still brings me to tears of joy is when one sinner is born again. (John 3:3)
Supernaturally, an evil man, like Saul of Tarsus, in an instant becomes a saint. Paul the apostle, when he meets the Son of God, face to face, on the road to Damascus, surely the greatest miracle of all - you can read that in Acts 9. I can hear a mother, a wife crying out, “But my loved one is not interested.” Please continue to pray for that loved one. When a man or woman is born again, they have a fresh start. They are a new creation. I have evidence of this. The old life is gone. You know what brings me more joy than anything else is to receive a letter from a little girl with big handwriting, thanking Jesus for giving her a brand new daddy, when I get a letter from a wife saying,”He's bringing home a paycheck at the end of the month now, and we have food to eat.”
Job said in Job 19:25:
“For I know that my Redeemer lives.”
When I see a turnaround like that, there is no doubt in my mind that we serve a mighty miracle-working God. Continue to pray for your loved one, and Jesus will turn him around.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 12th of August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For so the Lord has commanded us:
‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’“
Acts 13:47
‘I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’
Isaiah 49:6
We have a responsibility. We have to show the people, who are lost, the way home - Jesus is the Light of the world! (John 8:12). People are so lost at the moment, all over the world. I have a picture in my mind of a little boy, maybe three years old and he has been separated from his mommy, maybe in a shopping mall, and she has lost him. He is standing in the middle of the corridor, people are walking to and fro. Everybody is busy with their own things and this little chap, his eyes full of tears, is wailing. Nobody can hear him because of the loud music. His nose is running, he is hanging onto his little teddy bear and he is beside himself. Oh, folks, it makes me cry just to draw that picture for you, but that is what is happening in the world today.
The world has become chaotic, just listen to the news and you will see. I saw a picture on the news of a farmer in the Ukraine, driving his combine harvester in a huge field of beautiful golden wheat, ready for reaping. But he is trying to avoid the craters in the middle of the field from Russian bombs dropped by warplanes, and they were flying over his head as he was trying to harvest his crop - Madness!
People are groping in the darkness like never before. They cannot find a way out of this jungle. It has no roads and no lights, but Jesus says that we have to tell them that He is The Way (John 14:6). We have a responsibility. We have got to get hold of that little boy and take him to his mommy. She is beside herself. She doesn’t know the way. We have to show them the way and it is a case of all hands on deck. Old age pensioners, don’t sit in that waiting room, you are not doing any good there. Tell people about the way! Young boys and girls at school, be bold, be brave, and tell people that Jesus is the answer. The uneducated, the poor, the rich - tell people that Jesus is the Light of the world. Remember, evangelism is just one hungry beggar showing another hungry beggar where to find bread.
Now go out and shine like a light! Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 11th of August 2022, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”
Isaiah 26:3-4
We need to stop rushing around. We need to wait for the Lord. Many of us do not even give Jesus an opportunity to work on our behalf. We pray and ask him to help us and then before He can move, we are vainly attempting to do it ourselves. It was the downfall of the first king of Israel, King Saul. He would not wait. The prophet Samuel said to him, “What have you done?”. He was waiting for the prophet of God to come and make a sacrifice before the battle started, but he saw that his own men were starting to leave and the enemy’s numbers were building up. So he thought, “Well, I'll do it myself" and that impulsive, foolish act cost Saul his entire kingship. You can read it in 1 Samuel 13:11. We need to stop rushing around, seeking counsel from everybody, after the Lord Jesus has purposely told us to wait for Him.
Many, many years ago, as I was starting farming, we were going through a bit of a drought period just after we had planted our maize crop. The soil had a hard crust on it and the seeds were germinating, but they couldn't get through. Many farmers put the plough in and started doing their land preparation all over again. That cost extra fertiliser, extra fuel, and a loss of time. I felt the Lord wanted me to wait and so I did not do that. I took a cultivator and I put it on the back of a high-speed tractor and I sped across the top of the hard crust of the soil, cracked the crust so the little seeds could germinate and then they started coming through the ground. Straight after that, the rain came. We had a beautiful harvest that year. We were about three to four weeks ahead of the men that had ploughed their crop into the ground.
I want to say to you today, if the Lord has told you to do something, learn to wait upon Him. He will not be late, He will not be early - He will be spot on time!
Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’s precious name! It is Wednesday morning, 10th August, the year 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle;
Are they not in Your book?”
Psalm 56:8
Oh, Jesus knows every tear you have ever shed since the day you were born. Then we go to the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible:
“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4
Jesus knows what you and I are going through and what we have been through. Every painful experience we have been through, He was there with us. He has put all our tears into His bottle and they are written into His book. Our God is a God of great compassion. Jesus wept more than He laughed when He walked on this earth - He really does understand our pain and our suffering. I don’t know what it is that you are going through at this very moment but He knows, tell Him about it. You see, He wept when He saw how distraught Mary and Martha were at the death of their brother, Lazarus. John 11:35:
“Jesus wept.”
Now, He was coming into Bethany... He knew that He was going to call Lazarus out of the tomb and yet He still wept because He saw how much suffering they were enduring. We ask ourselves the question, “But how much does Jesus really care?” Well, we just need to look at His Hands, we need to look at His Feet and we need to look at His Side - wounded for our sakes, that's how much He cares. Not only does He care, He also understands. People are desperate for love and when they are hurting, they do not want to hear preaching, they do not even want scripture verses... What do they want? They want tears of love.
You know, my dear old mom who has gone to be with Jesus many, many years ago, when I was a little boy, I was quite sickly and often during the night, my mom would come and she would sit with me. She would rub my chest with ointment and she would speak kind words to me. She would sit with me. If I was suffering from a fever she would put a damp cloth on my brow, I remember it so well. Why did she do that? Because she understood, my mom was also a very sickly woman herself.
Today, let us weep with those who are weeping and let us have compassion with those who are suffering - but don’t forget to tell them that the best is yet coming. Jesus is going to wipe away all those tears and He is going to fill us with peace and joy and love when we are united with our loved ones.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus’s precious name! It is Tuesday morning, 9th August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Genesis 2:18
And then verse 24:
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Genesis 2:24
This is God’s order and plan for our lives. As men today, we want to thank our Lord Jesus Christ every single day for our women-folk. Where would we be boys, without them? The man may be the head of the home but the wife is, without question, the heart of the home. When we arrived from Zambia onto this farm 45 years ago, to start farming on a piece of overgrown bush, I built a shed and Jill, my wife, made it into a lovely, warm, cosy and comfortable home.
In the year 2003 when we were having a rest in the Umfolozi Game Reserve in Northern KZN, the Lord Jesus spoke to me, very clearly, in my heart to mentor young men - It has become one of the greatest privileges in my life, the birth of the Mighty Men Conference. I can call it a phenomenon, which has now become a global movement. Unfortunately, we have picked up a lot of criticism from some woman’s liberation groups asking why is it men only. What they fail to understand is that it is designed to teach men to love their wives. Ephesians 5:25.
It teaches young men to protect their wives and provide for them. That simple act of love brings so much security to children, when they see how dad loves their mom. I want to say thank You, Jesus, for giving to us men, wives, moms, grannies, sisters, and daughters. Please help us to love them more every day.
God bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’s precious name! It is Monday morning, 8th August, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.” And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.”
Acts 13:10-11
We must be very careful that we do not prevent people from seeking the Lord. You see, the pro-consul was intimidated by Elymas the sorcerer. He was trying to explain to the pro-consul that Jesus was not Lord and Paul, that bold apostle, spoke up and immediately that man went blind. Don't play the fool with God.
“Greater is he who is within us than he, who is in the world.
1 John 4:4
“You see darkness cannot live with light. You walk into a dark room, you strike a match and the blackness recedes immediately, just like oil cannot mix with water. With Jesus Christ living within us, we have victory over the devil. In the name of Jesus, miracles happen... And that's exactly what happened. If we go to Acts 3:16, we see it again:
“And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong,…”
That was the lame man that was healed by Peter at the gate. We need to use the power of God at our disposal. Some of us are walking around with a child's popgun, trying to do battle against the devil when we have a scud missile at our very disposal. What have you got in your hand? You say, “I’ve got nothing” Well, that's what Moses said. And the Lord said, “You have got a stick in your hand, use it!” And what did Moses do? He stood against the most powerful army on earth, at that time, and overcame them by the word of God.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
Revelation 12:11
Do you remember that old song? Oh, I loved it, it was sung by a man by the name of Chuck Girard and it went something like this:
It's the name above all names.
And we will declare it.
Oh, we will declare it.
It's the name above all names.
And we will shout it to a dying world.
Let's go out today and shout out that name of Jesus. I tell you what, that darkness must recede and the light of God will come into your life. Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, 7th of August, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Psalm 55 and I am reading from verse 6:
“So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest.
Indeed, I would wander far off,
And remain in the wilderness.
I would hasten my escape
From the windy storm and tempest.”
Running away from your troubles is not the answer, it is not the solution - It is very tempting but it is not the answer. We have to face the enemy and then we will have the victory. In Ephesians 6:14, the Lord tells us to stand and not to run. Remember the battle is the Lord’s. When you want to make a serious decision in your life, never make it while running away from your problem. Face the challenge and face it head on and overcome it that way.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
Revelation 12:11
Then make your decision from a position of strength, peace and of a sound mind. We know that scripture so well, don’t we?
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
2 Timothy 1:7
Do you know that Rocky Marciano, heavyweight boxing champion of the world, was one of the smallest and the lightest heavyweight boxers? He had forty-nine title fights and defences of his crown and he never lost a fight. What was his secret? Well, he never took his eye off his opponent. He never turned his back on his opponent. He could take tremendous physical punishment but he never turned away, he always kept on coming forward.
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
This Sunday, face your challenges, face your troubles - Stand with the Lord and He will see you through. Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name.
It is Saturday morning, the 6th of August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God.” Acts 12:22
Don’t ever touch God’s glory. King Herod was delivering a speech. The people were shouting and saying he was speaking like a god and straight away the Lord struck him and he died. Never ever touch God’s glory. God will not tolerate that from anybody.
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5
Robert Murray McShane was a young Scottish evangelist that lived in Dundee, Scotland. He died before he reached the age of thirty. He was an incredible man of God. He started a revival that swept all over the area in Dundee and when people tried to praise him, he would say, “Rather than having been an instrument of the Lord, all I was, was an adoring spectator.” That is humility.
Francis of Assisi was called to pray for a child who was deformed. He said he would not pray for that child. They wanted to know why. He said, “If I pray for that child, God is going to heal that child and then you are going to think it was me.” They promised him that they would not do that. Eventually, reluctantly, he went and laid his hands on that child and the child was completely restored to health. The people were ecstatic. They were taken up by the power of God. After a few minutes they looked around to see this man so that they could properly worship him, and he was nowhere to be seen. He had fled for his life. Don’t touch God’s glory.
William Duma, the Zulu preacher from the hills of Zululand, was called to preach in a big church. It was 9 o’clock and he had not arrived. The pastor was looking at a sermon he might have to preach because the man of God had not arrived and the church was packed with people. Eventually, there was a little knock on the back door where the cleaning lady came in. The pastor went through the curtains at the back and there was the servant of God, ready to preach.
Folks, God uses men and women who are humble. The Lord said of John the Baptist, “There has never been a man born of a woman who is greater than John the Baptist.” If we look at John 3:30, John the Baptist said:
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Don’t touch God’s glory.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ name!
It is Friday morning, the 5th of August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The fool has said in his heart,
“There is no God.”
Psalm 53:1
What a sad statement! Charles Darwin said, “New species arrive naturally by a process of evolution rather than having being created, forever immutable by God.” The word “immutable” means unchanging.
“So God created man in His own image”
Genesis 1:27
Isn’t that amazing? When God created you and me, He created us as individuals, not in batches of hundreds or thousands. After He created you He broke the mould. There is only one of you in the whole world. You are the only one on earth who has individual fingerprints. Isn’t that incredible? Only one of you in the whole world! That is so beautiful. That is why I love Him so much! Jesus knows us by name. Just like in a crowd of children on a playground, a mother will distinctly hear the cry of her little baby, her little child, above all the voices of all the other children on the playground.
Jesus will leave the ninety-nine in order to find the one lost sheep, like you or me. Our good Shepherd is so interested in us today because He has made us to be His very own son or daughter. Jesus says:
“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:7
I want to pray for you today.
Heavenly Father,
I want to thank You for my dear friend, listening to this message right now.
Oh Lord, through the power of Your Holy Spirit, show them that they are not alone, that they do not need to be lonely or fearful because You have promised us in Your Word that You will never leave and never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Thursday morning, 4th August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
Revelation 3:20
We need to remember that the handle of the door is on the inside. Jesus is standing outside and He is waiting for you and I to open the door so that He can come in and eat with us. What favour we have when we open the door of our lives and let our blessed Saviour in. We don’t have to work for it. We don’t have to earn it. It is because we are His, and He is ours.
‘My beloved is mine, and I am his.”
Song of Songs 2:16
Do we have to ask our mom or our dad if we can have something to eat? Surely not, we are their children. All my children have grown up and have left home. They have families of their own but they still come to our house any time they want and can help themselves to anything they need. We have one particular son who frequents us quite regularly and goes straight to his mother’s cupboard. By the way, he is married with three children of his own. He pops in to say, “Hello” and he knows where all the biscuits and the Cokes are and whatever else he likes. Then of course, I come in a little bit later and I say to Jill, “What happened to all the biscuits and all the Cokes?” And she said, “Well, your son came to see you.” The problem is that everything he likes, I like too. I wonder who brought him up?
But seriously, Jesus wants you to know that we are family and you can go to Him with any problem and with any need you have and speak with Him.
I just love it in the morning, sitting and talking with the Saviour of the world saying, “Lord, these are my problems, these are my needs,” and I know He welcomes me to talk to Him because He is my Father and I am His son. Why don’t you do the same? Instead of running here and there, to and fro to people that you don’t know very well, why don’t you take it to your Father. Sit down quietly and let Him put you on His lap, put your head on His big ample chest and tell Him what your needs are and He will take care of you.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus’ name today. It is Wednesday morning, 3rd August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church...Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands.”
Acts 12:5-7
“…pray without ceasing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:17
The power of faithful prayer! There is an old saying that goes like this,
“When men work, they work but when men pray, God works.”
I am very blessed. This ministry at Shalom has got up to 3000 intercessors praying around the world. That is incredible, it makes me want to weep. When people ask me, “What can we do to help?”, there is one word only, “Please pray.” That is what I am looking for - prayer, because I know I have experienced the power of faithful prayer.
One old gentleman who has gone to be with Jesus, David Kain, said to me once, “Angus I am getting old now. I can’t go down the well anymore but I can hold the rope at the top.” He could pray and he did. Billy Graham, the famous evangelist, was asked if he had to live his life over again, what would he change? This is what he said, “I would pray more and speak less.” Why don’t we do that today? Why don’t we pray about the issue that is troubling us and ask the Lord Jesus to break those chains. “What chains?” you are asking. Chains of fear, sickness and poverty that are holding us back, that relationship that you can’t resolve - pray about it. If they don’t want to speak to you. Pray! God will move them. He can even take a man out of prison. By the way, in that prison, Peter had a soldier on either side of him and four detachments guarding it and he was released because the church prayed. You and I are the church. That disobedient child that just will not listen - start to pray! God will move mountains for us.
Have a blessed day and remember, pray without ceasing,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, 2nd August, 2022 and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Then the disciples, each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.”
Acts 11:29
They had heard about a worldwide famine and so they sent relief to Judea. You know that old adage, “In order for evil to abound, all good people have to do is nothing.” The disciples heard about the terrible famine and got stuck in - they rolled up their sleeves and helped. Don’t only tell people that you love Jesus but show them that you love Him. Remember, faith is a doing word... Faith has got feet! We need to put our action where our mouths are sometimes. Jesus said:
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
Matthew 25:40.
We must be careful that we do not become so spiritually minded that we are of no earthly use. As Christians, we need to get out there, we need to get out into the marketplace. We need to keep in touch with the 'man on the street' to find out what is happening at ground level.
Last week after church, my wife, Jill and I we went down to Pietermaritzburg, a town close to us. There was a bee-keeping show and it was just so refreshing for me just to walk about and listen to ordinary people. Talking not only about making honey and building hives but about life in general. Yes, the ups and the downs... Someone, right now, might be saying, “Well, I don’t have anything to contribute.” I want to tell you, you do. Have you ever tried just listening to people? Everybody has a story to tell. I listened to many, many stories. I did no preaching - I went incognito. I went with my dear wife and we just listened to people sharing their hearts, some happy, some sad, some talking about loved ones who have gone home to be with the Lord and others talking about new exploits they were going to undertake. It was so beautiful!
Try it today. Get out there and start helping people because we have a famine in our land at the moment... And it is controlled by things like depression, anxiety, fear and stress. People need to be loved, go out and love them.
Have a wonderful day in Jesus name.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’s precious name! It is Monday morning the 1st of August 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
Isaiah 57:15
What a beautiful comfort that is... Then we go to the New Testament to the Gospel of Matthew:
“And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” So he went out and wept bitterly.”
Matthew 26:75
When we make a mistake, our Lord Jesus does not write us off like the world does. If we are truly sorry and we humble ourselves, He will forgive us and more than that - He will restore us completely. I looked up the word contrite, in the Oxford Dictionary. It means feeling or expressing remorse. When we feel we have let the team down, that we have let the show down, when we have blown it completely - That is when Jesus can step in and do His beautiful work of restoration. Jesus not only forgave Peter for denying Him three times but He went ahead and made him the head of the early church. What incredible love and forgiveness.
Jesus sees the potential in you and I this morning. He sees past the mistakes we make, He sees what we can do. What He wants us to do today is to repent. What does that mean? To say sorry - “Lord, I am so sorry.” Peter wept, he was so broken. And the Lord says, “Get up and keep on going.” Father God will restore us because He believes in us.
Remember, He took a shepherd boy and He made him a king. He took a broken down fisherman and made him head of the church and He can take you and me today and restore us completely, if we just say sorry, remain humble and keep on going.
Have a wonderful Monday today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you, I greet you in Jesus’s name! It is Sunday morning, 31st July, 2022, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to Acts 11 and I am reading verse 18:
“When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”
And then we go to Romans 10:13, one of my favourite verses:
“For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Peter went to Jerusalem and told the disciples that he had been to the house of a gentile, Cornelius. Jews were not permitted to go into the homes of unbelievers and gentiles but the Lord Jesus showed him clearly that what He has made clean, no-one must make otherwise. Whoever literally means anyone... Jew, gentile, old, young, black, white, man or woman! Whoever calls, appeals or cries out to God with a sincere and repentant heart, the Lord Jesus will not turn away, He will not disregard. It does not matter what you have done, it does not matter what you have not done - Jesus still loves us the same.
Well, you might ask, what does He require of us then? Matthew 22:37 says to simply love Him with all your heart, all your soul and with all your mind. You know, to me the greatest of all miracles that I have ever seen in my life, is to see a changed life. I have been very privileged to have seen Jesus heal the sick, that’s right, open blind eyes, deaf ears... I have seen Him change the weather, open barren wombs and give women beautiful children, I have even seen Him raise the dead. But the greatest miracle of all and the one that brings me to tears is the life of a 'Whosoever' that turns and becomes a follower of Jesus Christ. A person that goes back home after a Mighty Men Conference, after a meeting where he has met with the Lord, gets on his knees and asks his wife and his children for forgiveness and tells them: “I have met Jesus and I am a changed man.” That is a miracle indeed!
Today, do not harden your heart. Call unto the Lord and He will save you.
Have a beautiful Sunday,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name.
It is Saturday morning, 30th July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.”
Psalm 51:1
That is the prayer of King David. A man who loved God so much that he wrote these beautiful psalms, but he had fallen terribly short - He had fallen into sin. He had taken another man’s wife and then had him killed so that he could marry her. He then married her, and their child was born but later died. Nathan the prophet, came and told him exactly what had happened and David was devastated.
Romans 3:23 tells us that all have fallen short of the glory of God and have sinned, no one is without sin. Remember the old saying that goes something like this: "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.”
Remember the woman caught in adultery? According to the law, she should have been stoned to death publicly. They brought her to Jesus, what did Jesus say?
“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.”
John 8:7
They all dropped their stones and walked away. Jesus said to that woman, “Go and sin no more. Your sins are forgiven.” That is why I love this one of the many titles that the Lord has: 'Friend of sinners' because without Him, we have no hope. You see, we were born sinners, King David says in the same Psalm 51:5:
“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
And in sin my mother conceived me.”
Now, I can hear some dear old ladies saying to me, “No Angus, you have got that wrong. My little grandchild is an angel. My little Mary, my little Johnny - they don’t have any sin in them.” That is not what the Bible tells me. I want to ask you a question, a serious question. Have you ever had to ask little Johnny or little Mary to please be naughty... just once? No, it comes naturally. We are always telling them to be good. Oh, but we praise God for mercy and grace because Jesus has paid for it all.
All we need to do today is to say thank You to the Lord and walk in sin no more. Have a wonderful Saturday, God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Friday morning, 29th July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
James 5:16
There is power that is available in the prayer of confession, of saying sorry. I am currently mentoring a group of men. These men range in age from 12 to 70 years old. Just the other day we met and read this Scripture very carefully together, with much fear and trepidation. After we had read that Scripture, one by one, the men and boys started to walk to the front of this large group of men. Some of them for the first time in their lives started to confess to God, in our presence and the presence of their trusted brothers in Christ, any areas of unconfessed sin where the devil had had them chained and shackled for years.
I want to say to you, my dear friend, that very rarely in my 40-plus years of serving the Lord, have I ever experienced, the tangible presence of the love of God like I did that night. Weeping and genuine sorrow at having disappointed the Master was confessed, and then after that, the sheer elation of leaving their confessed sin at the foot of the Cross and having their brothers as witnesses for when the devil would try to bring it up again and being totally delivered from the accusations of satan. Then there was the joy and the freedom of having had the courage to do it - it was very beautiful. I saw fathers and sons weeping in each other’s arms, asking forgiveness. I saw men who had been carrying burdens on their shoulders for many years, leave it at the foot of the Cross.
It was so very beautiful. Something I shall never forget as long as I live. Maybe we all should do it a lot more.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name on Thursday, 28 July, 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And to him who orders his conduct aright
I will show the salvation of God.”
Psalm 50:23
And then we go to Galatians 6:16:
“And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.”
We have to walk the talk. As believers, we have an obligation, first of all to God and then to our fellowman, to walk the talk. We cannot say that we are Christians and then live like the devil. We say, “We have our rights, we can do as we please.” No, you can’t, we cannot because we gave our rights away when we became followers of Christ.
Jesus says, “You shall know them by their fruits.”
Matthew 7:16
Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes? No. We have a huge responsibility... For some, we will be the only opportunity for them to see Jesus. You know, I remember as an unbeliever, I was a wild man. I always used to use that pathetic excuse that I would get to Heaven before some of those ‘happy-clappies’ (I am one of them now) because at least I kept a job, fed my family and paid my debts... Until one day I realized that when I stand before the Lord on the Day of Judgement and use that pathetic excuse that I did more than those who call themselves Christians - what was going to happen when the Lord looks around and says: "But those people are not here!" Then I will be in big trouble.
You and I need to follow after Jesus. We have to be a living letter so that people can read us and see that these men, women, boys and girls are living the Gospels of Christ with love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering and loving-kindness. Go out today and be a living letter for a world that is dying because they do not know the way.
Let’s walk the talk.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name!
It is Wednesday morning, 27th July 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”
Psalm 50:15
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28
Why is it that whenever we get into deep trouble we seem to call upon everyone else first, and then when no one can help us, as an absolute last resort, we call upon the Living God?
The quick fix never lasts. Just like purchasing a pirate part for your motor vehicle. It is quick, available and cheap, but it does not last. Eventually, it will probably let you down. With the genuine part for your vehicle, it will take longer because it needs to be ordered from the manufacturer. It will be more expensive, but it will probably last the lifetime of the motor car.
Jesus knows you and me better than anyone else on earth because He created us. He will get us out of trouble. He will deliver us if we call upon Him. We might not like the way He wants to fix us because His "parts book" is the Bible. He might say, “You need to stop smoking, you need to stop drinking, you need to stop taking drugs.” He might say, “You need to stop worrying and stressing”.
Jesus told the rich young ruler what to do to inherit eternal life. We can read that in Luke 18:18, but the young ruler would not do it. The Bible told us he became very sorrowful and walked away to a lost eternity. A preacher once told me he thought that Jesus would be standing there with tears running down His face. He didn’t say to the young ruler, “Come back and let's talk about this.”
No, He left him to make his own choice. Don’t do it. Obey the manufacturer.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’s precious name! It is Tuesday morning, 26 July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament, to Deuteronomy:
“Now Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him; so the children of Israel heeded him, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.”
Deuteronomy 34:9
We need to take time to prepare ourselves for the work that we have been called to. Jesus, the Son of God, Immanuel, God with us - He prepared Himself for 30 years to do 3 years' work here on earth. Luke 3:23.
Why are you and I in such a terrible rush about things?
You know, we talk about the Joshua generation - the young generation. I want to tell you something, Joshua took over from the Moses generation when he was about 80 years old! He served Moses and learned from Moses... He walked with Moses for approximately 40 years before he took over to lead the nation of Israel into the Land of Milk and Honey. We need to be more patient. You see, it is Satan, the devil himself who keeps us on the run, not Jesus.
My wife's mom and dad came and lived with us for many years after they had retired. They lived with us on the farm, her dad was a steam engineer by profession. These men took a long time to learn the work that they had been taught. He was very handy with tools. One day he walked into the workshop and he saw me trying frantically to cut a piece of steel with a hacksaw. He said to me, “Why don’t you use the whole saw blade when you are cutting and let it do the work for you instead of using the middle of the blade? Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, was a country boy. He was asked a question, “How would you go about cutting down a large tree with an axe if you were given 6 hours to do it? He said, “I would use the first four hours sharpening the blade.”
Today, let's not be in such a rush. Let us learn from Jesus how to walk this road - it will be a lot simpler than we are trying to do at the moment. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Monday morning, 25th July, 2022, and I greet you in Jesus’s precious name! This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Book of Acts:
“And they said, “Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you.”
Acts 10:22
A good reputation is worth more than gold. Cornelius was not a Jew and yet he was highly honoured and respected. We always say people don’t have to like you but they need to respect you. Now, Cornelius was an officer in the army that was oppressing the Jews and yet he was still highly regarded by the Jewish people. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the meaning of the word, reputation - It means the belief or opinions that are generally held about someone or something. Now, it is not easy to get rid of a poor or a bad reputation... I always trust the jockey and not the horse.
You know, when a beef cattle farmer wants to purchase a new bull for his herd he needs to be very careful because the bull is actually half of your herd. You see a bull can make or break a farmer because he can look beautiful but if he is not fertile the cows will not conceive and the farmer will have no calves. I would always buy my bulls from a cattle breeder that had a trustworthy reputation. I would even gladly pay more money knowing that the farmer would never sell me a dud. Now, of course, Jesus has a faultless reputation. Jesus can be trusted, You can trust the Lord with your life, with your family and even with your business.
Jesus has never once dropped the ball, so today, go out and put your whole trust in Him. God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’s name! It is Sunday morning, 24th July 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For this is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide
Even to death.”
Psalm 48:14
Then we go to Isaiah:
“The Lord will guide you continually,…”
Isaiah 58:11
Isn’t that beautiful, what a wonderful promise... So what must we do? Well, first of all, we must follow - You always follow a guide. You do not walk ahead of someone who is trying to show you the way. Secondly, we must obey the guide.... Do what He tells you to do. And thirdly, we must listen to what the guide tells us. If we do not, we will cause ourselves unnecessary pain and hardship. You know, like the little boy who is always determined to run ahead of his mom and dad and show his dad that he knows the way until he gets caught up in the thorn bushes and he can’t get out and he cries and shouts for help. How many of us have done that in our lives?
Jesus is our Ultimate guide. You see, He knows the way home because He has been this way before. He says:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
John 14:6
Remember, the shortcut is not always the quickest way home. How do we know that? This is not the time for us to go down a cul-de-sac. What is a cul-de-sac - It is a one-way street. When you get to the end, what do you do? You have to turn around and go back and start again. We cannot do that because we don’t have much time left.
You know, often I watch these horse trainers that come out from America. These are mainly senior men, they are men who understand how to train horses, and they are the ultimate horse-whisperers. I go with my son and we go and watch how these men operate. Now, they charge money because you have to learn the way from them. One day I saw a young man, he had paid his money - he had paid quite a lot of money and he spent his half-hour telling the horse trainer what he could do. The horse trainer, being a seasoned old man, sat on the stool and he listened to him for half an hour, then took his money. That youngster still didn’t know anything about training the horse!
Let's start to listen today. Let's start to obey and let's start to follow... I will tell you what, you will find that life will be a lot sweeter and we will get to our destination a lot quicker.
Have a wonderful Sunday, and Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Saturday morning, the 23rd of July 2022 and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
"And a voice spoke to him again. The second time, what God has cleansed, you must not call common or unclean."
Acts 10:15
Then we can go to Matthew 15:11, where Jesus says:
"Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man".
When we are about to eat a meal, we pray something like this, "Father, thank you for this meal that we are about to eat. Bless it to our bodies and the precious hands that have prepared it in Jesus name." Then we eat the meal heartily.
Peter had been called to an unbeliever's house and Jews never went to a Gentile's house, but the Lord said what he has made clean, no man call it unclean. The people that travel with me, when I go overseas preaching in different countries, different cultures, with different ways of eating food, have been told very categorically by me, that they will eat everything that is put in front of them because it has been cooked lovingly and prepared for us. It can be so very hurtful and, in fact, insulting to pick at your food when you are at somebody's home. If you are more concerned about your waistline, then don't go out to do the work of winning souls for Jesus.
Peter, the Apostle, broke all the rules. He went into that Gentile's home as a Jew, which was totally unacceptable in those days. Cornelius was an Italian, not a Jew and an officer in Rome's army, but because of that impartial act of love, the whole household became followers of Jesus.
My youngest daughter's husband is a very big, strong and powerfully built man. He has a huge, healthy appetite and I love taking him with me when I go overseas to people's homes. He gets stuck into his food, eats it all and many a time, he helps me eat my meal as well. But at the end of that meal, the host and the cook gravitate towards my son. I want to say to you today, don't worry about what you look like, think of the other person... I tell you what, you'll win him to Christ quicker than any words.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’ precious name.
It is Friday morning, 22nd July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to Psalm 47:1-9, it is all about one thing - praising the Lord.
“Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
For the Lord Most High is awesome;
He is a great King over all the earth.”
“Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our King, sing praises!
For God is the King of all the earth;
Sing praises with understanding.”
“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:10
Wow! Do you feel like that this morning? You say, "No”. Well, you need to do it. Do you know why? Because He is worthy! He is the King of Kings, He is the Lord of Lords, He is the Worthy One. Our Jesus is the Lily of the Valley, the Great Plough-man, the Vinedresser, the High and Lofty One, the Fairest of Ten Thousand, He is the Bright Morning Star! He is also the Defender of the weak, the Friend of the widow and the orphan, and most of all, He is the friend of sinners, just like you and me.
Ian Mackintosh, a very dear friend of mine and former Springbok rugby coach, was the first man to bring the Curry Cup back to Kwazulu-Natal in over 100 years. A few years ago one of his close friends wrote me a beautiful letter and said that he had the privilege of walking onto the field at Kings Park Rugby Stadium with Ian Mackintosh, just before the Curry Cup Final rugby match. The atmosphere was electric. A few years later he came to one of the Mighty Men Conferences with Ian, and they walked in amongst tens of thousands of men, women, boys and girls on Sunday morning. They were praising and worshipping the Living God under the open sky, clapping and shouting, “Amen!” which means, “so be it.” This man said he had never encountered the presence of God in such a miraculous way.
Today, praise Him because He is worthy. Praise Him because He loves you and because He is coming back soon.
Have a wonderful day, God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. I greet you in Jesus' name. It is Thursday morning, the 21st of July, 2022. And this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for the day.
If we go to the book of James in the new Testament, chapter five, I'm reading from verse 14:
"Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him. Anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much."
Do you hear how many times the word prayer comes into those two scriptures? I want to tell you, without the prayer of faith nothing will happen. You see God doesn't answer prayer, He answers the prayer of faith. When we pray we need to believe that God has heard our prayers and that He will answer them. Now I want to tell you a story about George Muller.
George Muller was that German who went to Bristol, England in the 1800s. He started a children's home by faith, never asked for a penny. When he had a need, he prayed - it became his lifestyle. He was invited across to America and on the ship, in the middle of the night, there was a heavy, heavy mist. Eventually the captain stopped the ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. George Muller, being a proper German and a timekeeper, came up from his cabin onto the bridge and asked the captain: "Captain, why is the ship stopped? I have an appointment tomorrow in America." The captain said, "There's so much mist. We can't see where we are going and there are icebergs in the sea. We are afraid that we might hit one of them." So George Muller asked him a question: "Have you prayed about the matter?" And he looked at George Muller (and by the way this story was told by the captain himself) as if this old man had lost his marbles.
He said, "No, we haven't." Muller said, "Well, can you come down to my cabin and let's pray about it and let's ask the Lord to move the mist so that I can make my appoint." So the captain went down to George Muller's cabin. They went into the cabin, got on their knees and George Muller started to pray. When he had finished praying the prayer of faith he opened his eyes, the ship's captain was about to pray and he tapped him on the shoulder. He said, "Look, you don't have to pray because you don't believe it anyway, by the way, the mist has already lifted, let's go." They walked out the cabin up onto the bridge and the mist was gone. The ship continued on its journey and George Muller was not late for his appointment.
I want to encourage you today. Pray about every single thing that you need to do and give the Lord an opportunity to help you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
I greet you in Jesus’s precious name! It is Wednesday, 20th July, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Psalm 85, I am reading from verse 6:
“Will You not revive us again,
That Your people may rejoice in You?
Show us Your mercy, Lord,
And grant us Your salvation.
I will hear what God the Lord will speak,
For He will speak peace
To His people and to His saints;
But let them not turn back to folly.
Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him,
That glory may dwell in our land.”
This is undoubtedly our finest hour - God forbid that we would turn back to folly. (Folly means foolishness).
“O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!”
Habakuk 3:2
It is dependent on the saints, not the unbeliever or the heathen. I am talking about revival - that is what we need. Not only South Africa but the whole world. You cannot revive something that is dead, Jesus this morning is talking to His people.
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14
We need to pray. We need to pray for the unbeliever and the backslider, we need to pray for the lukewarm Christian. Mom, dad, we need to pray for our prodigal children - it is time for them to come back home. The match is about to be struck. I have a little fireplace in my prayer-room. It is very cold in South Africa at the moment and sometimes when I try to start a fire, the kindling is a bit damp and the fire smoulders, it smokes. But when I take a single match, strike it and throw it on top of that smouldering wood, all of a sudden it bursts into almighty flame... That is what is about to happen in our world. Christian, it is time to stand up.
John Wesley was instrumental in starting one of the biggest revivals the world has ever known and he said:
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, 19th July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.”
“Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea”
Psalm 46:1-2
If God is for us there can be no man who can stand against us.
Romans 8:31
If God is for us then what do we need to be afraid of? The devil is like a little mouse running around with a loudspeaker frightening people to death with malicious lies. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find the literal meaning of the word, refuge. A refuge is a place or state of safety from danger or trouble. Let's not make the same mistake that the disciples made when they ran away from the only person in the whole world who could help them in their time of trouble. I am talking about Jesus.
“Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.”
Matthew 26:56
This was in the Garden of Gethsemane when the High Priest’s soldiers came to arrest the Son of God. John G Lake, the evangelist who came to South Africa and started a mighty revival said, “When you get up in the morning, get dressed and look into the mirror, you look at that person in the mirror, that man, that woman, and you say that wherever that person goes today, God is going with him or with her.” Then go out and enjoy the day, knowing that Psalm 46:7, says: “The Lord of Hosts is with us.”
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’s name! It is Monday morning, 18th July, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
Daniel 11:32
And then we go straight to the Book of Acts in the New Testament:
“…here he found a certain man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus the Christ heals you. Arise and make your bed.” Then he arose immediately. So all who dwelt at Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.”
Acts 9:33-35
If we desire to be used by God we need to spend time with Him. You see, it is Jesus alone who trains us to do great exploits for the Lord. It is Him alone that gives us the vigour and the victory, no-one else. It is Jesus alone who gives us strength for the strain. When we get to know the character, power, faithfulness and the love, then nothing is impossible to achieve in His name. When we know Him we can risk everything on His behalf. Paul said in Philippians:
“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,…”
Philippians 3:10
When we get to know Jesus, it is He who excites our very enthusiasm and makes us willing to do the impossible for Him. When you spend time with the Lord, it is infectious, it is catchy. Spurgeon said, “A world of enemies shall be as a drop of water in the bucket when we are with God.”
I made an outrageous statement years ago at Kings Park Rugby Stadium, in Durban. I said, “To hell with El Nino! I am going back to plant potatoes.” I had no irrigation and on the radio farmers were warned not to plant because a terrible drought was coming. It was almost as if the devil was sticking his tongue out at the Lord. I said, “I am going back and I am going to plant potatoes.” We reaped a crop of potatoes that year, why? Because we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’s precious name!
It is Sunday morning, 17th July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we start in the Book of Acts:
“But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.”
Acts 9:27
We don’t often hear much about Barnabas, the introducer. Remember, Andrew too was an introducer - He introduced his brother, Simon Peter, to the Lord Jesus Christ. How we so desperately need men and women in these troubled times with a Barnabas character... People who believe in others. You see, Barnabas was not a trouble-maker, he was a peacemaker.
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.”
Matthew 5:9
Barnabas took Paul under his wing and stood up for him, and then Paul was accepted by the rest of the Apostles. Barnabas came to Paul’s defence and he gave testimony of how Paul preached so boldly about Jesus in Damascus. Barnabas believed in Paul. If it was not for Barnabas, Paul would have found it very difficult to get started and remember Paul became the greatest of all the apostles... I feel. It is all very well standing up for someone when they are a success because there is no risk involved but to stand up and to trust and believe in a young man who has never really done anything, in fact, caused a lot of trouble and pain, is quite another thing.
When we started farming we were very, very young. We had some very tough seasons - a lot of droughts, and disease in the crops and financially we were on the brink of going down. I heard a story the other day that a bank manager who walked with us (Just like Barnabas walked with Paul - he believed in us) was in a meeting in Durban and was told by the other bankers, “I think we ought to go up to Greytown and close down that preacher man.” But that bank manager, I hope he is listening to this message, he believed in us and he kept supporting us and we came through.
Today, many young folks need a break in life. Let's give them an opportunity to show us what Jesus can do through them. God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday!
Goodbye.
It is Saturday morning, 16th July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
1 Timothy 6:6:
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.”
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “Contentment’. It means a state of peaceful happiness or satisfaction, but remember this does not come naturally. It has to be learned.
Philippians 4:11:
“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content.”
My late dad was a prisoner of war in the 2nd World War. He was in Germany and in Italy for three and a half years. As a prisoner, he witnessed extreme hunger and starvation. As a rule in our little home, my brother, my sister and myself, as children were allowed to eat as much food as we wanted, but, there was a golden rule at the dinner table, whatever you put on your plate must be eaten. Nothing must be left over.
I remember him saying it like it was yesterday, and that has been handed down to my own children and even my little grandchildren when they come to visit. I have often heard them whisper to their little friends that when they come to visit Khulu and Gogo, which is Zulu for grandad and granny, everything that you put on your plate must be eaten. But as I grow older I realise that most of the things in this life which we are chasing after are actually worthless. The wisest man who ever lived was Solomon and he said in the Book of Ecclesiastes 2:11:
“…all was vanity and grasping for the wind.”
Today, let us be content with what God has given us. Jesus had nothing. He didn’t even own a house and I don’t think anybody has ever been as content as He was.
Amos 5:6 says:
“Seek the Lord and live.”
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, 15th July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Matthew 5:4 says:
“Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.”
Mourning is an important part of a person’s life. So often we try to stop people from mourning, weeping and being sad (not intentionally) at the loss of a very important person in their life, maybe their life partner, their wife or their husband. We want to try and cheer them up, we tell them to pull themselves together and get on with life. That is wrong. There is a time for mourning, when people need to be quiet, to contemplate and to allow the Holy Spirit to comfort them. Jesus knows that only too well.
The story in the Bible in John 11 tells us clearly that when Mary and Martha lost their brother, one of Jesus’ best friends, they were very, very sad. They were weeping and beside themselves actually, mourning the loss of their brother. When Jesus came into town He was four days late, but He wasn’t really. He was spot on on time. Of course, the people didn’t know that and Mary and Martha said, “Lord, if you had come in time you would have healed our brother.” Jesus knew that Lazarus was about to be raised from the dead and yet in John 11:35, there are two words, “Jesus wept.” Why did He weep? He wept because He had compassion for those who were mourning. People who are hurting and people who have lost loved ones need to be comforted. They need to be comforted by the love of God because that is the only thing they can hear. The worst thing to do to someone who is mourning is to quote scripture verses to them, to tell them it is going to be okay, get up and get going. No! The best thing you can do with someone who is mourning, and I have been in that position many times myself - is to put their arm around you and weep with you. That will comfort a mourner more than anything else. We really need to understand that they are in deep distress and they need to be loved.
Many years ago, when William Booth, the Founder of the Salvation Army, had sent some of his men and women to far-off countries to preach the Gospel, they would write back to him and say that they were getting no response from preaching the Gospel. William Booth replied in a letter with two words, “Try tears.”
I want to say to you today, that we also need to weep with those who are mourning and that will comfort them more than anything else.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
Good morning to you - greetings in Jesus’ name!
It is Thursday morning, 14th July 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Acts 9:18:
“Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptised.”
Saul of Tarsus was on the wrong road. He was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians. He thought he was doing the right thing.
There are none so blind as those who just do not want to see. Paul was clearly on the wrong road and passionately doing the wrong thing. How many of us today are doing likewise? We are saying, “Lord, why are you allowing this to happen to me?” Jesus is saying to us today that He is not prepared to be a rubber stamp of approval on our personal plans. He will not bless them if we are not prepared to listen to His instructions and obey His commands. Unfortunately, just like Paul the Apostle, we will be knocked off our horses because we are going the wrong way. Sometimes Jesus allows that disaster in our lives to save us from sheer death. The scales fell off Paul’s eyes and then he could see clearly.
This morning I am speaking to a broken-hearted young lady whose boyfriend has left her for someone else and she is devastated. I want to say to you that maybe this is the best thing that has happened in your life because that young man might become a very unfaithful man if you were to marry him. He is not for you. God has got a special godly man for you and you will thank the Lord that you never got involved with him.
I am talking this morning to a businessman who is devastated because a business deal he thought was going to make a fortune has just collapsed, and I want to say to you sir, it might be the very thing that is going to save you from being ruined financially.
I want to say to you this morning that we need to open our spiritual eyes. I want to pray for you.
Lord Jesus,
I am praying for my dear friend, right now - that you would put them on the right road just like you did with Paul the Apostle, so that this person might live a life that is fulfilled and a blessing, not only to him or to her, but to many others around them and that Jesus will get all the glory. Amen.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you,
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’s precious name! It is Wednesday morning, 13th July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
Psalm 43:5:
“Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God.”
The psalmist says that no less than three times in two psalms.
Hebrews 16:6:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
We need to ask ourselves that question today. Speak to yourself - why are you so cast down? Maybe one of the reasons is that we are spending time with negative people.
In Psalm 42:10, it says this:
“My enemies reproach me,
While they say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
Remember folks, eagles don’t fly around with turkeys. Your attitude will determine your altitude. Say to your soul this morning, two words, “But God!” It doesn’t matter what people say about you. It doesn’t matter what your situation looks like, ‘But God…” The battle is not against the flesh. It is in the mind.
2 Corinthians 10:4:
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly) but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,”
Remember how many times in the past our Lord Jesus has pulled us out of the miry pit.
2 Corinthians 5:7 says we walk by faith and not by sight. Many years ago I had a total crop failure, an absolute disaster. We had a lot of staff, many, many people here and they had no crop to reap. Do you know what happened? An incident right out of context - we had a snowstorm in this area. It was so heavy that the timber and the forests were all broken and they looked like spaghetti. The forestry companies didn’t have enough staff to clear up and they gave us the job. That job saved us!
Mary, the mother of Jesus, says in Luke 1:46
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.”
Do you remember this song?
Oh my soul hath magnified the Lord
And my spirit doth rejoice in God, my Saviour
For He who is mighty hath done great things
Oh glory to His name.
My soul doth magnify the Lord
My soul doth magnify the Lord
Sing it to your soul today just like Mary did.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’s name! It is Tuesday morning, 12th July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
In Mark 8:34, Jesus said:
“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Acts 9:16, about Paul, He said:
“For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
Who said it was going to be easy being a follower of Jesus Christ? Who is your biggest enemy? Who is my biggest enemy? It is not the devil. No, he is a defeated foe. I will tell you who our biggest enemy is - it is ourselves. One thing that always saddens me, is self-preservation. As long as everything is going well for me, I don’t mind. It is such an ugly thing. Do you remember that epic movie called Titanic? That mighty ship that they said could never sink and on its maiden voyage, it sank in a matter of minutes, down to the bottom of the icy Atlantic Ocean. We hear countless stories of brave people who denied themselves - men who were safely seated in a lifeboat with their life jackets on with their wives and children, getting out of the boat again before it was lowered into the sea, and giving their place in the lifeboat to some child or some old lady. Those are the stories that stir my soul.
One of my heroes is a young American evangelist by the name of Jim Elliot. He was a missionary who gave his life up for the lost. He was murdered by Indians in the jungle at a mere 29 years old. He left behind a young wife and a baby daughter. But do you know what he said? He said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” I want to say to you today that we need to consider suffering. Let's look at Paul - the Lord said he was going to suffer, and he did. He suffered more than all the apostles, but what could he say towards the end of his life?
Philippians 1:21, he said:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
You cannot frighten a Christian with Heaven. If we live, we live with Jesus, if we die, we go home to be with Jesus. It is a win-win situation!
Today, remember, it is all about Him and He will see us through.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
Good morning, I great you in Jesus' precious name.
It is Monday morning the 11th of July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
John 3:16 is probably the most famous Scripture verse in the whole Bible:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
I want to tell you about a young man named Ed Harrison, a young horse trainer from the USA.
He died last week in Namibia while on a horse-training tour. I had the privilege of spending valuable time with this dynamic young man when he came to South Africa on a previous trip. His greatest desire was to tell people about Jesus and he made no apologies about his faith. He would open his teaching clinics in prayer and speak unashamedly about his friend, Jesus. He is not here any longer. The question is, where is he today? We might be honest and say we don’t really know. Thomas, one of the disciples asked Jesus the same question in John 14:5, when the Lord said, “I am going to prepare a place for you,” he said, “But Lord, we do not know where you are going so how can we know the way.” In verse 6 Jesus said, “Thomas, I am the way, the truth and the life and no-one goes to the Father but by me.” Its not about being a good person. We have a saying, “Good people do not go to Heaven. Believers go to Heaven.” You might ask how we can justify that statement. Remember the thief on the cross? Minutes before he died, and he deserved to die according to Roman law, he said, “Lord Jesus, remember me in Heaven.” He acknowledged Jesus as his Saviour and Jesus said, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”
I sense somebody is maybe listening to this message who is afraid of death, and we are all afraid of death. I want to pray a simple prayer, because that is what Ed Harrison would want me to do.
I am going to ask you to pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I acknowledge You as my Lord and Saviour. I believe You are the Son of God. Please forgive me for all my sins. I promise today that I will serve no other god but You. Thank You for showing me the way home.
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 10th of July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Acts 9:4-5:
"Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."
It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Jesus said in Matthew 10:28:
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
Some people seem to fear the devil and his demons more than they fear the living God. I want to tell you today that the devil is a mere creation. He cannot even create a storm in a teacup. He had his neck broken on the Cross of Calvary. When Jesus said, "It is finished", He meant it. He defeated death once and for all. On the third day, He rose from the dead. Satan is a bully and a liar and a thief.
John 10:10
"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."
Don't give him any place in your life.
You see on that road to Damascus, Jesus turned a potential mass murderer into a saint that wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. At that moment, Saul of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle. He did it in mere seconds and He can do it for you and me today. Please don't allow the devil to fill you with fear.
In 2 Timothy 1:7, the Lord says I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
I remember reading a story about Smith Wigglesworth when he was touring South Africa many years ago. He was sleeping on a farm somewhere in a rural area. In the middle of the night, he heard a horrible noise in the corner of his room. He leaned over and lit a candle, and in the corner of the room, he said he saw an apparition, an ugly demon. When he saw him he said, "Oh, is it just you?", he blew the candle out, turned over and went back to sleep. That was his regard for the devil. The devil cannot hurt you. He can only tell lies. Start to believe the word of God. Jesus said, "I will never leave you and I will never forsake you."
Have a wonderful Sunday.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus Christ’s name! It is Saturday morning, 9th July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
John 6:69:
“Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Wow! What a confession by Peter, Jesus’ disciple. That was just after many people turned their backs on Jesus and left Him. Immanuel! If we look at Isaiah 7:14 in the Old Testament, written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born, He is known as Immanuel, which translated means, God with us. He said, “if you have seen Me, then you have seen My Father because We are One.” There is nothing complicated about being a Christian. They say educators complicate, and communicators simplify, either you believe or you do not believe. Jesus is not just a good man. No! He is the Son of God. He is not one of many gods - no, He is the only God. He is the Messiah, the soon-coming King, and I can’t wait for that day.
Simon Peter had absolutely no doubt who Jesus was. He walked with Jesus for three years, they lived together, ate together, and walked the whole of Israel together. Peter saw Jesus walking on water, stilling the storm with one word, raising a dead man who had been dead for four days, He saw Him multiplying food; He even saw Jesus being transfigured and speaking with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration.
But what about us today? Who do we say He is?
I say He is the Friend of Sinners because He saved a wretch like me. I say that He is a Miracle-worker because He has worked so many miracles in my life. I say that He is the most wonderful Saviour and Friend who has ever lived, and I say that He is coming back very, very soon.
Remember, good people don’t go to Heaven, believers go to Heaven!
Today, walk in faith and Jesus will give you life.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name!
It is Friday morning, 8th July 2022, this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Zephaniah 3:10:
“From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia
My worshipers,
The daughter of My dispersed ones,
Shall bring My offering.”
Acts 8:27:
“…a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship,…”
The Minister of Finance from the nation of Ethiopia had come to worship God in Jerusalem. The Lord called the evangelist, Philip, to tell him about Jesus. God has put eternity into the hearts of all men everywhere. It is the way we are made. Jesus died for all men, for all women, for all boys and for all girls.
Often I have been invited to speak in Jerusalem at the Feast of Tabernacles which takes place every year. It is hosted by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. Approximately 80 nations are represented and they have 18 interpreters. There are pilgrims from South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, USA, Canada, Chile, Russia, Germany, England, Ukraine, Portugal, Netherlands, Nigeria, China, and I can go on and on. I was on the platform one night, preaching my heart out, I was making a very serious point, when all of a sudden a group of Chinese people started laughing and I thought, “Why are they laughing? Its not funny.” Then I realised there was a few seconds delay from the previous comment I made. You have to really be on the ball when you are speaking to people from all over the world, all coming to Israel for the same purpose as the Ethiopian eunuch - to worship Jesus in Jerusalem. We all know you don’t have to go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord but this man was seeking God and he found Him. What about us today? How desperate are we to know about Jesus? It took that eunuch approximately three months to get to Jerusalem from Ethiopia. I have been to Ethiopia and I want to tell you, they have been worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for three thousand years. The Lord is all over the world! The sad thing is, some of us can’t even get out of bed in the morning to seek and find the Lord. Luke 11:9 - Seek, and you will find.
He is patiently waiting today. He wants to speak with you.
Jesus bless you. Have a lovely day.
Goodbye.
It is Thursday morning, the 7th July 2022, and I want to greet you in Jesus’s name! This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Psalms 40:9:
“I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness
In the great assembly;
Indeed, I do not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You Yourself know.
I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth
From the great assembly.”
Acts 20:20:
“…how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house,…”
There are no secret agents in God’s kingdom. We have an obligation to speak up and share the Good News to everyone who will hear us. Remember, no one deserves to hear the Gospel twice until the whole world has heard it once.
The Apostle, Paul, was fearless when it came to speaking up for the Master. He regularly got beaten, stoned and abused, just for telling people that Jesus Christ is Lord. The devil hates it when the name of Jesus is spoken. You might ask the question, “But why?”. That name brings salvation, peace, healing, forgiveness and most of all, love. It brings you and I new life. What kind of folk would we be if we were lying in a hospital bed in a ward full of people who were dying with a terminal disease. Then somebody arrived with a bottle of tablets and said, “Take one of these tablets and you will be healed.” You took the tablet and straight away your body was completely healed. You got up, got dressed, packed your suitcase and you looked around the ward at all the other patients who had the same disease as you, who were dying, and you said, “God bless you and keep well,” and you walked out? What kind of person would that be? That is exactly what happens when we have been saved from eternal damnation and we keep the Gospel to ourselves. This sick and dying world needs you and I to tell them about the Great Healer.
Have a wonderful day as you go out and you speak up for the Lord Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
I greet you in Jesus’s precious name. It is Wednesday morning, 6th July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Acts 8:20:
“But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money!”
Simon the sorcerer, the magician, thought that he could buy the power of Jesus Christ and he was severely rebuked by Peter, the Lord’s apostle.
Matthew 10:8 says freely we have received and freely we give.
Preaching God’s word is not for sale. It is not a business. It is a calling from Jesus Christ. What does God require from you and me today? Psalm 51:17 says:
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.”
We cannot earn our way to Heaven. We cannot buy our way home. So what do we do? Well, we simply say to Jesus, “Thank You for Your loving grace.” The definition of “grace” is undeserved loving-kindness or unmerited favour. It was very difficult for me when I became a Christian. I was brought up in the old school and my Scottish parents taught me when I was a little boy - if you can’t pay for it, then don’t buy it. It was extremely hard for me to realise that Jesus Christ paid for everything that I owe, and that is why I love Him so much.
A couple of times in my life I have gone to a restaurant, sometimes with Jill, sometimes with friends, and I have had a nice hearty meal. When it came time to pay for my meal, the waitress came along and said, “Sir, did you enjoy your meal?” “Yes, I did. Can I please have the bill.” And she said, “Sir, it has already been paid for!’” And I said, “Who paid for it?” And she said, “There was a gentleman who walked out of the restaurant 15 mins ago and he has paid for your entire meal.” It is very humbling. Obviously, I was very grateful, I didn’t know who he was and I couldn’t thank him. That is what Jesus Christ says, “I have paid for everything. You don’t owe a thing. You can’t buy the Gospel.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Go and bless someone else.
It is Tuesday morning, 5th of July 2022 and may Jesus bless you today. This is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
Psalm 40:3:
“And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.”
How are we feeling this morning? Maybe a bit down? We need to sing a new song just like King David did. He was in a miry pit, he called out to the Lord and God brought him out and set him on a rock, on solid ground. That is worth praising Jesus for, isn’t it? There is power in praise. Years ago there was a book written about the power of praise. It is not about your circumstances or about how you feel today, its about the fact that if we praise the Lord, He lifts us up.
Remember when Paul and Silas were thrown into prison in Acts 16:25, what did they do? Sit in the corner and cry? No, they started singing hymns. There was a great earthquake, the prison doors were opened, and they were free. It is so easy to sing when things are going well but to sing when things are not going well - that’s a different story. I remember sitting at the dining room table in our little pole and dagga house about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I was witnessing to an alcoholic. This man had lost everything and I was saying to him, “God will undertake for you.” Just then we heard banging on our tin roof, massive hail stones were falling down, our beautiful green maize crop that was standing tall was flattened in about five minutes! I was devastated. This alcoholic was watching me and I gritted my teeth and said, “I am still going to praise the Lord, irrespective.” We couldn’t even drive around the fields in our pick-up. It was so wet and the maize crop was lying flat on the ground. I was saying in my heart, “Lord, what are You doing to me?” He was watching me and there were tears in his eyes. He said, “Angus, why is God doing this to you?” I said, “No, He is not.” I said, “I am going to praise Him anyway.” I did and we sang praises to Him. Three days later that maize crop stood up and we reaped a massive crop that year. The stalks had a bit of a bend in it, but they were full of maize.
Praise the Lord!
And because He lives, I can face tomorrow
Because He lives, all fear is gone
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living, just because He lives!
Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you - I greet you in Jesus’s name! It is Monday morning, 4th of July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament to Esther 4:14:
“Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
Then straight across to the New Testament to the Gospel of John 15:16:
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
Jesus chose you and me, we did not choose Him. That is great news, isn’t it? It takes the heat off. Moses couldn’t speak properly, remember? He had a terrible stutter and was hiding. He was actually a murderer. He said to God, “I can’t” and God said to him, “You can.” Queen Esther said to the Lord, “I can’t.” The Lord said to her, “You can.” When Jesus calls us, he also equips us and He never reconsiders. It is a done deal, that is good news isn’t it?
If we have made a mistake or dropped the ball, say sorry to the Lord, stand up, dust yourself off and get straight back into the race. Get back into the fight. Remember, Jesus appointed us therefore we are qualified to do the job. A young Jewish maiden, she saved a nation from annihilation. A so-called failure hiding in the desert took the Jews out of slavery... What has God called us to do today? Come on young man, finish that degree at varsity. Come on sir, get that business of yours going again. That young girl who is training for the gold medal, keep training, you will get it.
You know, God called me to have a prayer meeting. He said, “I want one million people and I want you to call it, It's Time. He didn’t tell me verbally but He told me in my heart. I said, “Lord, I can’t”. He said, “You can” and it happened. Do you remember that beautiful old song? It goes something like this:
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
The cross before me and the world behind me,
The cross before me and the world behind me,
The cross before me and the world behind me,
No turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.
Have a wonderful Monday,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, 3rd of July 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Lord, make me to know my end,
And what is the measure of my days,
That I may know how frail I am.”
“Certainly every man at his best state is but vapour.”
Psalm 39:4-5
And then we go straight to James 1:11:
“For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes.”
Life is but a vapour. That is what the word of God is telling us, this Sunday morning, that it is here today and gone tomorrow. Don’t put off something that you can do today - Phone, write or best of all, visit that person that you have an issue with today because tomorrow doesn’t belong to us... It might even be too late.
You know, our farm is situated on the edge of a plateau and there is a huge valley right next to us. Often, very early in the morning, the valley is completely shrouded - covered with a blanket of mist and you cannot see anything. When the sun rises, it burns off the vapour, that blanket of mist and in a few minutes and it is gone forever. Now Jesus says our lives here on earth are just as short and just as fragile. We do not have time to waste, we need to get our houses in order.
Do not say, “Tomorrow”. In Zulu, we say, “Kusasa. Uma iNkosi isivumela sizokwenza lockhu nalokhu kusasa.”
“If the Lord allows, I will do this and this tomorrow” but you see, procrastination is a terrible thing. You cannot keep on putting off something - you need to do it today because you may have regrets. Today is the only day that we have, tomorrow might be too late. So today make a definite effort to put everything in order and then when the Lord calls you, you will be ready to go in peace.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday, goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 2 July 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10
What a beautiful scripture - We need to fight fire with fire... Have you heard that terminology before? 2 Corinthians 10 and I am reading from verse 3:
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly) but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds…”
When the Lord Jesus was facing the devil in the wilderness, He had been fasting and praying for 40 days and 40 nights (no human being can do that by the way), and the devil came and attacked Him at His weakest. The Lord Jesus was proactive, He didn’t just sit in the corner and cry, no! What did He do? He said, it is written,” Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” He used the Bible, He used the word of God.
Now I looked up the meaning of that word, proactive and this is what it says in the Oxford Dictionary. It is creating and controlling a situation rather than just responding to it. Now, Father God has given us all the weapons that we need.
Number one: He has given us His Holy Spirit,
Number two: He has given us His Holy Word, the Bible,
And Number three: He has given us the power of faithful prayer.
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”
James 5:16
We must remember that even as Jesus stood up against the powers of darkness, we need to do the same.
You know, just a couple of days ago I was helping my son burning some firebreaks. It is winter in South Africa and the grass was tinderbox dry. We had all the water carts there and the fire fighting equipment but I realized that when that fire started roaring and it actually roars, there was an absolute wall of fire coming against us - how did we fight it? With water carts and hoses and water? No, what we did was we put fire in and we back-burned it, so the fire put the fire out. You and I need to do the same. The devil is a liar, a thief and a coward... when you stand up against him he always backs off. Fight fire with fire.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is the 1st of July, Friday morning, 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…God will be with you…”
Genesis 48:21
These are the words of Jacob to his son, Joseph, when he was dying. And then we go to Romans 8:31 which says:
“If God is for us, who can be against us?”
A wonderful reassurance for you and me living in these troubled times. Maybe today you have lost a loved one and you are battling, saying to yourself, “How am I going to cope with life?” Maybe your business has gone bankrupt or your loved ones have immigrated and you feel all alone.
“... and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”
Matthew 1:23
Immanuel, what a beautiful name which translated means, “God with us.” I want to tell you today that Jesus has given, to you and to me, His Holy Spirit, the Helper. Remember, when Jesus went back to Heaven He said: “I am going to send you a Helper.” - John 16:7. We are no longer orphans, the Holy Spirit is with you as I am speaking to you right now. We need to encourage ourselves with this great news. David had an intimate relationship with God, in Psalm 43:5, he says to himself, “So why are you cast down my soul?” And he says later on: “Hope in God.” If God is with us then we are guaranteed to win.
Now I looked up the meaning of guaranteed - It means a formal assurance that certain conditions shall be fulfilled... It is a guarantee. God has promised us that He will never leave us and never forsake us. Now, if we go to 1 Samuel 17, from verse 43, you will see where a small boy, thirteen years old, with five stones and a sling took on the champion of the Philistines... Goliath said to David: “Do you think I am a dog that you come against me with sticks?” What was David’s response? “I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts.” Today, when you go out remember you are not going alone. You are going with the Lord of Hosts, the King of Kings, His name is Jesus, He will not forsake you. You will not only prevail, you will win!
Keep your eyes on the Lord. The battle is not over yet and we are definitely guaranteed to win. Have a wonderful day and God bless you!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 30 June 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Thus says the Lord:
“Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
Isaiah 66:1
And then we go to Acts 7:48:
“However, the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands”
We cannot put God in a box. He cannot be housed in a man-made temple. Now I have been to London, I have been to that magnificent work of art, St Paul’s Cathedral. It is incredible but too small to house the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You have often heard me speak about my green cathedral... the maize fields on the farm! Walking through those fields as a young man worshipping God... what a place! Or riding my horse, Snowy, in the hills and fields around the farm. Hearing the birds singing with wind blowing on my face... Huge clouds gathering for life-giving rain, the flashes of lighting, claps of thunder and then the rain falling down and washing the earth clean - Oh, what a cathedral!
I have visited prisoners in maximum security prisons all over the world - In South Africa, New Zealand, Scotland and Northern Island and some of these men are there for life. They will never come out. They are sitting in prison where they can hardly see the sun. But you know the amazing thing is when they meet the living Christ as their Saviour, they are more free to worship God than many of us who go into these majestic cathedrals but have never found the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour.
1 Corinthians 6:19 says our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit - There is nothing more beautiful than a believer worshipping their Lord Jesus Christ, from the depths of his heart.
Today, you might be in a wheelchair, or in hospital, you might be in a prison cell but I want to tell you something now - That will not hold you back because Jesus lives inside your heart. Have a wonderful day and praise Him because He is worthy.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, 29 June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament to Deuteronomy 6:5:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
And then we go straight to John 21:15:
“So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?”
The greatest and first commandment, “Thy shalt love the Lord, thy God.” You know, I wrote a book many years ago titled: “Is Jesus Enough?” I want to say to you today that we need to have a good look at our hearts and ask ourselves that question.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (other) things shall be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33
It is not fair to put our trust and hope in our wives or husbands because they are mere mortals, just like you and I. We have to put our hope and our expectations in God, not on our loved ones because it is totally unfair.
“My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.”
Psalm 62:5
When we put our total trust in the Lord, we can love one another freely without any strings attached, without putting pressure on them and that gives us total freedom and strength, not to try and possess one another because our loved ones actually belong to God anyway.
I remember a few years back I was invited to speak at a conference to a large group of pastors, evangelists and teachers. I asked them a question, “How much do you love Jesus?” Of course they all responded very positively: “With all that we have.” And then I asked them another question. I said, “If God told you that He never wanted you to preach another sermon in your life, would you still love Him the same?” I must be honest with you, the whole assembly went very quiet.
We need to ask ourselves a question today - Is Jesus all we need?
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 28 June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we start with Psalm 37 and I am reading from verse 27, the Lord says:
“Depart from evil, and do good;
And dwell forevermore.
For the Lord loves justice,
And does not forsake His saints;
They are preserved forever,
But the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off.
The righteous shall inherit the land,
And dwell in it forever.”
What a beautiful scripture that is! Then we go straight to Proverbs 2 and this is what the word confirms yet again:
“For the upright will dwell in the land,
And the blameless will remain in it;
But the wicked will be cut off from the earth,
And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.”
Proverbs 2: verse 21-22
You know, it sometimes appears these days, that evil and corruption are multiplied and the wicked are getting away with it... Not so according to our scripture this morning! The Lord says He will take care of the wicked. Jesus tells us to take care of the widow and the orphan, He tells us to do good. If we look at the word of God in James 1:27, this is what it says:
“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
That is what we have got to do. Leave the wicked person unto the Lord, He will sort him out. When I was a young boy I left school very early - I worked in a tyre factory. It was a dirty and tough job, it was extremely hot. I was living in Central Africa. But now and again one of our customers, an old man who owned a fleet of old trucks (They were all tied together with bits of wire, painted silver, with a paintbrush by the way!) He would arrive on a very hot afternoon with a big toolbox full of ice cream and he would make an ice cream cone for every one of us in the factory. He did it out of the goodness of his heart - There was no charge but of course, you know who got preferential treatment and the best service when he came in to collect his tyres!
Today, do good, dwell in the land and leave the rest to Jesus.
Have a wonderful day, God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 27th June, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
If we go straight to the Psalm 37:25, it is one of my favourite verses:
“I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.”
What a promise! Then we go to the New Testament to 1 Thessalonians 5:24:
“He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
Moms and dads, that is a promise from God that you can bank on. I can personally bear witness to it, do it God’s way and He will do the rest. Remember, God (Jesus) does not tell lies. If you look at Numbers 23:19 in the Old Testament, another one of my favourites:
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
George Müller is one of my favourite characters. He was that German that went to Bristol, England and started a children’s home on just pure faith. Never asking for anything or for any money, something like 10,000 children went through his children’s homes and something like 60 million pounds (I don’t know if it was even more than that), more money than you or I can think of. When he was an old man (he lived to a very old age) they came to him and said, “You have done such a wonderful job. We want to take out a pension scheme for you so that you will never be short of money.” And I think tears must have run down his face. “Oh,” he said, “Jesus has supplied all of my needs for all these years and of course the vision that he gave me. I could not accept that pension, I feel that I would probably hurt Him. Please give it to somebody else, I will continue to trust Him.”
Have a good look at your own life and ask yourself an honest question: Has He ever abandoned me? Why should He change it now... Just keep on planting good seed, like a good farmer and the Great Farmer, Jesus Himself, will bring it to full harvest. Have a wonderful day. Keep your eyes on the Lord and He will take care of your children and every need that you have.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, the 26th of June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.”
Acts 6:10
And then down to verse 15:
“And all who sat in the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as the face of an angel.”
That was Stephen, the waiter. People are not interested in what we say. They want to hear what Jesus says. Do you remember the old hymn?
The first verse goes like this: All of me and none of Him
Then the second verse goes: Some of me and some of Him
And then the third verse: All of Him and none of me.
It's Bible scripture that sets the captives free, it is not William Shakespeare. It is not Sigmund Freud, no - It is the spoken word of God! That was exactly what Stephen was doing. Remember, Stephen was the first martyr in the Bible. People are starving for God’s word in these last days. We must keep it simple... Remember educators complicate, and communicators, simplify.
Stephen was a waiter. That’s all he was and yet he spoke the word of God and he mesmerized the people with all the answers to life that they were looking for. You see, it is all in the Book, that’s right! Healing, family, business... All the answers are there and they are very simple, that is why the devil is trying so hard to stamp out the reading of the Bible. He does not want us to quote Jesus.
Ephesians 6:17 in the Bible tells us that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. It is the only weapon that the Christian has. Many of us have got to get it out of the scabbard. It is rusty. It’s blunt. We need to sharpen it up and when the devil comes at us with accusations, we return his accusations with the word of God - that defeats him every time. That is exactly what Jesus did when He was tempted in the desert.
That young evangelist, Billy Graham, when he was starting out, preached a simple message. Once, he went out into the forest in the evening. He opened up his Bible, put it on a stump, a tree stump and he got down on his knees and said, “Lord, I don’t understand everything in this Book but I am choosing by faith to believe every word.” And then he went out and he changed the world. Do it today, be a waiter for Jesus and the glory of God will shine through you!
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 25th June, the year 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the New Testament, to Mark 6:31:
“And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves”
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36
Do you remember that old saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”? A dear lady wrote me a message a while ago, she was broken-hearted. She said, “Please tell the people to be careful - My husband lost his family because he was addicted to work... lost the whole family.”
That is exactly what happened with the disciples. You see, they were so busy telling Jesus all the good things that they had done. You can read it in the verse before, verse 30. The apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all the things, both what they had done and what they had taught. It did not impress the Lord, His response was, “Come and rest a while.” You and I need to be very careful, I remember the Lord speaking to me once in my heart, almost audibly. He said, “Your busyness, Angus, is making me weary. Come aside.” We need to be careful. You know, we always talk about laziness which is unacceptable to God, but the opposite of laziness is just as bad - when you are working yourself to a standstill. By the way, this doesn’t only apply to men. This applies to women as well.
Remember the story of Mary and Martha? Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to the Lord speaking. Martha was running around the house, working flat out, "Lord, tell her to come and help me." And He said, “Martha, Mary has chosen the better way.” Do you know why I am sharing this? Because I was right there myself, that’s right! I was caught on that treadmill and I would use a very lame excuse. When my wife Jill said: “Angus, when are you going to come home and just be with the children and with me?” I would say, “I am doing this for you. I am keeping those fences straight and I am keeping those cattle fat, I am making sure no weeds are growing underneath the maize crop..." That wasn’t for Jill and the children, that was for my ego.
I want to say to you today, take time out and rest otherwise you might lose your very family. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Friday morning, 24th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Exodus 20:15 simply says:
“You shall not steal.”’
It is one of the commandments of the Bible. Stealing is such a deplorable thing... I was having my quiet time in the bush outside a little thatched cottage that Jill and I had booked, and I was at total peace. It was early in the morning and I was taking in the glory of God, listening to the sounds of the African bush and the beautiful, peaceful creation of God. Suddenly, a huge vervet monkey pounced on my table. In a flash, he stole a bright yellow banana that I was looking forward to eating. As amusing as this may sound, it broke right through my time of solitary meditation with the Master. I was having a wonderful time with the Lord.
That commandment, “Thou shalt not steal” made a big practical impact on my life. It is not just the stealing, but the infringement on one’s privacy that is saddening.
My prayer for you and me today is, “Father God, let us not do that.” I have done it as an unbeliever and even as a believer. It’s not about stealing physical things but time, ideas of others, emotions and even attitudes, most of all, stealing time from our loved ones. Men, please spend time with your wives. Don’t steal time that belongs to them. Spend time with your husband. Spend time with your children because time is passing away and before you blink they will grow up and be living their own lives.
In Matthew 26:40, Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane. He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, He said to Peter:
“What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”
Don’t steal time from God. He so desperately wants to help and spend time with you. Have a wonderful day and remember, stealing is unacceptable.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Thursday morning, 23rd June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
Luke 15:21
This is without a doubt one of the saddest verses in the Bible. Remember the story of the father who had two sons, an older one and a younger one? The younger one came and said, “I want my inheritance and I want it now.” His dear father probably had to scramble and go to the bank and take an overdraft to get the money out and give it to his son. The Bible tells us that his son went off into the far country and lived a life that was wasted. Maybe I am talking to somebody today that is in that position, or maybe you have a child or a father who is in that situation. I am sitting in my prayer room as I am dictating this little message for you. I am looking straight ahead of me at a painting of the prodigal son returning to his father, a very dear lady painted it for me because I couldn’t find one anywhere. The father has got him in full embrace and the son is in rags. He has wasted all his money and come back home and he has nothing to show for it. What did the father say? “Well, you deserve it!” or “Get out of my sight, I don’t want to ever see you again!” No, he didn’t! He said:
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.” Luke 15:22
We need to exercise a lot of grace for our children and our loved ones. Many of us make mistakes - you have to pay school fees to learn... Sometimes we do things the wrong way round. We must always keep the door open so that when the prodigal son or daughter comes home we can love them, put the past behind us and move on. That is what Jesus did for us on the Cross of Calvary. He paid for our sins, He then said, “It is finished,” and now we need to move on.
May Jesus bless you today as you find mercy, love and forgiveness in your heart towards that prodigal.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, the 22nd of June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.”
Exodus 33:14-15
If God doesn’t go with us, we don’t want to go. The Lord has promised us today that He will go with us. God never gives us something that we cannot handle, that is great news for us. This does not mean that there will be no hardships along the way, just look at Moses when he took the Children of Israel into the Promised Land.
When I was a little boy, if my dad, a big blacksmith, went with me, I would go anywhere. I was fearless. I was afraid of nothing because my dad was standing right next to me. Jesus says in Hebrews 13:5 that He will never leave or forsake us - Do we believe that? If we do, we have nothing to fear. It is fear that makes people sick, but the confidence that the Lord will go with us neutralises all fear.
Remember the story of David and Goliath? You can imagine that nine-foot-tall undefeated giant, with his scarface and huge spear, that somebody else had to carry because it was so heavy. When Goliath looked at that little boy and saw the confidence that David had in God, he knew that he was a done foe.
“He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
1 John 4:4
The Holy Spirit within us is greater than the devil in the world. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Today, let's be like Moses and say, “Lord, if you are not going with us, we are not going.”
“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Exodus 33:14
Have a wonderful day!
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, 21st June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“I will leave in your midst
A meek and humble people,
And they shall trust in the name of the Lord.”
Zephaniah 3:12
The poor people of this world have no other name to trust in but the name of Jesus Christ. They have little personal reputation to call upon and very few connections in the business world to lean on. That is why they are unlikely to turn away from God, more than those who are wealthy in this world.
I often hear the story of a CEO of a large company that has just gone into bankruptcy and collapsed, and we see that man or woman turning publicly to God as their Lord and Saviour. What about you and I? Are we trusting in the name of our Lord Jesus or not? Paul, the apostle, wrote in Romans 5:3-4:
“I rejoice in my tribulation because tribulation works patience, patience, character and character, hope.”
It was only when Paul was brought down low, in the eyes of his fellow leaders in the Sanhedrin, that he changed. The Sanhedrin was the governing body for the whole of Israel - they had the power of life and death over people. Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin but then he changed from Saul of Tarsus to Paul, the apostle. He lost all his friends, but he never once turned his back on the name of Jesus. That same Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He travelled the world as it was known then, taking the Gospel to the gentiles. He died as a martyr for his faith, never denying Christ.
Today, we must be sure that no matter what happens, the Lord remains the most important person in our lives.
God bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
It is Monday morning, 20th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And then they realised that they had been with Jesus.”
Acts 4:13
There is no substitute for being with the Lord. You can go to Bible College and learn to quote the Bible off by heart, but that won’t make any difference - even a parrot can do that. What caused the religious leaders of Israel to marvel at the apostles? It was their boldness. They realised that these men had actually been with Jesus. You see, you can learn all the theory but that means nothing, action always speaks louder than words. The chief priests and the Elders of the church could not heal the lame man sitting at the Gate Beautiful outside the temple, but Peter and John did. They did it in faith and in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That is what caused the leaders of Israel to marvel.
One of my favourite scriptures in the Bible is Colossians 1:27 which says it is Christ in us, the hope of glory. It is not us - It is Christ in us. You and I need to spend more time in the presence of the Lord, not running to and fro, all over the place, trying to get counsel from people. When I was a young farmer, I would see an expert come from the university to tell the farmers how to do certain things. They only knew the theory but not the practical. For example, they could not start the tractor. The students were waiting for him to start it but he didn’t realise there's a safety device and until you put the tractor into neutral, you can’t start the engine. We need to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in.
We need to get to know Jesus personally and then go out and do exactly what He did. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 19th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”
Acts 3:26
Do you know that there has only ever been one person, in the history of this world, who can turn us away from our iniquities (immoral behaviour). His name is Jesus Christ, He is the only One who died for our sins. When He said on the cross, “It is finished!” in John 19:30, He meant it. Jesus paid the full price for our sin. Therefore, because He died for us He has the authority to say, like He has said to millions of people before us, “Your sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more.” Just like a referee has the authority in an international rugby or football match, his decision is final, or like a high court judge, once He makes His ruling, it is final.
If we ask for forgiveness today from our Lord, and sincerely mean it, He is able and willing to forgive us of every one of our sins. John 1:9. Why don’t you ask Him today to set you free? Why don’t you lay down that 50kg bag of cement you've been carrying on your back for so long?
Just say, “Lord, I am sorry. I made a mistake. Please forgive me.” And he will do it.
Do it today.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye
It is Saturday morning, 18th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:62
As a farmer, if I keep looking behind me to see whether the plough is deep enough into the soil I'll lose my direction. Instead of ploughing a straight line, it'll look like a snake by the time the field is finished. We have got to look forward and put the past behind us. I heard a beautiful saying: “Beware of recalling an earlier period in your life. Beware of harking back to what you once were when God wants you to be something you have never been.” (Oswald Chambers). That’s quite powerful. Be careful that you don’t look backwards and only talk and think about the old times, when you should be moving ahead and breaking new ground.
In 2010 I experienced something on this farm that I shall never forget as long as I live. I saw with my own carnal eyes, a sight that brings tears to my eyes just recalling it. Approximately four hundred and fifty thousand men, heads of homes, CEOs of companies, famous sportsmen and leaders, all came to this farm to join together to hear the Word of God. I will never forget, standing on that platform, I saw the people going right out of my sight - I couldn’t see the end of the crowd. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life. They didn’t come for just one hour, they were here for a full weekend, some of them coming on the Wednesday and only leaving the following Wednesday. God said to me, almost audibly, “This is going to be the last one. You must pass on the baton to the younger men so they can do it all over the world.” It was extremely hard for me, a lot of people wrote to me and said, “What are you doing? Why are you stopping the revival, this is something we have never seen anywhere in the world before.” But the Lord gave me a clear word to pass the baton on, which I duly did.
And what happened? There are Mighty Men Conferences taking place all over our beloved nation of South Africa and indeed the whole world - the United States of America, Ireland, England, New Zealand, Australia, Nigeria and Namibia. Why? Because it is time to move forward.
Today, don’t hold onto the past, let it go. God has new plans for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
It is Friday morning, 17th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.”
Psalm 34:7
“My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.”Daniel 6:22
Do you believe in angels? I most definitely do. If you don’t believe in angels then clearly you don’t believe in the authority and the genuineness of God’s Holy Word. Daniel believed in angels. Those lions were not tame. They would have been starved and ravenous because Daniel’s false accusers were thrown into that same den after Daniel was taken out. They were instantly torn apart and killed. Remember one important point - We do not call upon angels when we need help, we call upon Jesus and He sends His angels to help us.
Around 2006 we had a Mighty Men Conference on the farm. We were so excited and expecting approximately 5000 men to come and hear the Gospel. Do you know what happened? 7,500 men arrived! To that ladies listening to this message, how would you like it if your husband brought home 2,500 men for you to feed for the whole weekend? Men have got a habit of doing that, don’t they? They don’t tell you who is coming home, they just bring them. The cooks said to me, “Please tell the guys to go easy on the food.” I was so excited at seeing so many men I said, “There is a message from the kitchen. Eat as much as you can!” I know Jesus sent angels into that kitchen because we fed them for a whole weekend and there were thirty-six baskets of left overs after the weekend.
Call upon the Lord, He will send His angels to protect you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is 16th June 2022, Thursday morning, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the Gospel of John 10:28, Jesus said:
“And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”
Wow, eternal security! I looked up that word in the Oxford Dictionary, eternal - it means valid for all time. It means there is just no end to it! To never perish means we will live forever and ever in the presence of Almighty God! My dear friend, Jesus has got us in the very palm of His hand and no one will snatch us from Him. Paul says in Philippians 1:21: “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
You cannot frighten a Christian with Heaven. The safest place to be is nestled into the loving arms of our Heavenly Father in Heaven. I remember years ago, at a meeting, I felt the Lord say I need to pray for people suffering from insomnia - they just could not sleep at night, maybe you are one of them? I drew a picture in my mind for them. I said, “I want you to imagine our Heavenly Father sitting in a big easy armchair and He says to you, “Come up my child. Come and sit on my lap”. You get up onto His lap and put your head onto His chest, He puts His big strong arms around you and then He just rocks you to sleep." Now that is a lot better than counting sheep! The next evening one of the ladies I had prayed for never came back to the meeting. Two days later I saw her and said, “What happened to you?”
She said, “I came back from work. I sat down, I remembered what you said. I said, “Lord, I am in Your hands” and I went sound asleep. “I never even made it to the meeting.”
Jesus loves you. Today remember He is our eternal security.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, 15th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Acts 3 and one verse:
“Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,…”
Acts 3:19
Oh, folks, the Lord means us to live an abundant life.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”
John 10:10
But Jesus said, “I am going to give you life abundantly.” How are you feeling today, are you feeling condemned? Are you feeling like you are a loser? Maybe you are suffering from depression and you just can’t get out of that bottomless pit? Maybe you are feeling guilty because you did something you know was wrong? Well, I want to tell you today that Jesus Christ wants to set you free.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” - The Lord wants to give us a refreshing time, a moment in our lives when we repent and say sorry.
Romans 8:1
I remember that time in my own life - It was the most wonderful time I have ever experienced, when I said, “Lord, I can’t anymore. I want You to please take over.” And I handed it all over to the Master. 1 Peter 5:7, we know that scripture so well... Cast your cares on Him because He cares for you. Why don’t you do it today? It's like driving down the highway in a motorcar and you are so tired - Just pull over, get out of the driver’s seat, get into the passenger seat and let the Master drive you. You will be totally refreshed and full of the joy of the Lord. I want to pray for you. Please pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Today, I realise I cannot carry this burden any longer. Please take over. I want you to be totally in control of my life, my family, my business and my future.
In Jesus’ Name I ask this
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 14th of June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament, to 1 Samuel 24:10:
“I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.”
This is the story when King Saul was trying to kill David and David had an opportunity to kill him in the cave but let him leave the cave. He cut off the corner of his robe and when King Saul was down the hill, he shouted out to him, “Look what I have got. I could have killed you but I didn’t because I know that I may not touch God’s anointed.” Remember the sad story... Eventually, King Saul actually committed suicide, that was all because of jealousy.
I want to say to you today that we are not permitted to touch God’s anointed. Now, there might be some occasion where you feel it is totally unjust that the person goes unpunished. Obviously, we have got to do what the Lord tells us. If somebody has committed a crime, they need to be reported. We have got to do it according to government procedure but when it comes to touching God’s anointed, God Himself will deal with that person, just like He did with King Saul. What we have to do is to pray for those who have fallen.
Every time I hear a man or woman of God who has been used mightily by God, falls into sin... Maybe putting their fingers in the till or committing adultery. Maybe getting involved with the whole 'power thing' and they fall, it makes me extremely sad because none of them started that way. They started off meaning well, just like King Saul did. He was a very humble man, he was head and shoulders above any other man in Israel. He didn’t even want to be king initially but then he fell.
We need to pray for our leaders, I am talking Christian leaders particularly. We need to pray that God will keep them safe and accountable. The danger is when men and women get separated and they have no one to stand with them. I praise God that I have four trustees and these men hold me accountable. I have to tell them exactly what I am doing, where I am going and where I am not going, it gives me a tremendous sense of security. I want to encourage you to do the same. Get men or women around you that can advise you in your day to day living and keep you safe.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is the 13th June, Monday morning, 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Acts 3, I am reading one verse, verse 10:
“Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.”
One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons. Haven’t we said that before? No one can contend with a genuine miracle... This man was lame from birth and had been sitting at the gate of the Temple, Beautiful, for 38 years, no-one had healed him. Peter and John said, “Silver and gold we don’t have but what we do have, we give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” The people were amazed when they saw him walking normally in the temple.
It reminds me of the Mighty Men Conference that we had here at Shalom in 2009. It was a Saturday morning, we were so excited... There were, I don’t know, maybe 120,000 - 220,000 men, I can’t even remember, were gathered together in the presence of God. I finished preaching, it was very hot. I went down off the platform that was about two storeys high. I went into a place where they had put shade cloth around and there were farmers waiting for me all the way from Australia. I started praying for them individually, as I walked out, I collapsed. My son Andy caught me. He was just coming down the steps after finishing the praise and worship.
I recovered, the men were around and they were weeping already. They put me in the car and took me to the house. I had a second heart attack, two heart attacks, and with this one my blood pressure went down to zero. They got a helicopter to casevac me to the hospital, I got to the hospital but as the helicopter left the farm, the pilot tilted the helicopter.
I was strapped on a stretcher and saw tens of thousands of hands praying for me for a miracle. And I want to tell you that when that helicopter touched down on the helipad in Pietermaritzburg, the city next to us, they took me into one of the top heart specialists in the world. He said to me, “Get on that treadmill.” He put up a big screen, he looked at it and said, “Mr Buchan, there is nothing wrong with you, you may go home.” A miracle had been performed.
You know, we saw the Sunday morning, I was preaching... Yes, I felt like I had been run over by a Mac truck but Jesus was there. When I made that altar call, men were weeping all over. Not because of me, not because of the heart attack but because of the miracle, that I was standing there preaching. Jesus is the Miracle Worker! Don’t ever forget that.
Have a wonderful day. God bless you,
Goodbye.
And a very good morning! It is Sunday morning, 12th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Psalm 33 and I am reading from verse 16:
“No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy”
What a beautiful encouragement, you know Psalm 20:7 is one of my favourite verses. It reads:
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
You know, many years ago I was planting a very expensive crop of seed maize and I had to get it right. I had all the experts and they advised me how to plant that crop: Put in the right amount of fertiliser; plant the right seed spacing. Make sure there are no weeds and don’t forget to top dress with an extra lot of fertiliser. I did everything according to the book but do you know something? I got it wrong. My calibration for the seed spacing was totally out... When the maize came up three weeks later, there were huge gaps in the crop and I really thought I was going to go bankrupt. I used to look at that crop, day after day, and I would get so despondent... Then I remembered that lovely scripture in John 16:33, Jesus says:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
And you know, I put my trust in the Lord -I said, “Lord, I don’t know what is going to happen..." but I want to tell you that that particular year, we had a terrible drought and you know, with those big gaps in-between the plants, the maize crops had more room to absorb the moisture and we had a gigantic crop of maize, that’s right! It didn’t make a bumper crop but I covered all my costs. Now if I had planted that seed according to the way I should have, there would have been no crop because there would have been no moisture for the maize to grow. Sometimes we do things and we make a mistake and we put our trust in man’s ability but at the end of the day, it's our trust in God that sees us through. He turned that crop around for us and we carried on living.
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday,
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 11th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Acts 3:6:
“Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
Well, what a beautiful scripture - If you give someone Jesus, then you have given them everything they need. Remember, the beggar who was sitting at the gate Beautiful. He had been there from birth and he was looking for some money. Peter said, “We don’t have any money but what we do have we are going to give to you.” And what did he give to that lame man? He gave him a key, that’s right - a key that opens the door to life itself. That is what it did. It gave that lame man healing, he could walk again. It gave him a multitude of blessings, opportunities and new beginnings. How many testimonies do we hear of folk who have met Jesus and whose lives have been completely changed in an instant? In 2 Corinthians 5:17, the word of God says:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Now I am one of them, that is right! That morning, I will never forget as long as I live - It was 18th February 1979. I went to that little church on the Main Street of Greytown and there I miraculously met Jesus. I heard the Gospel preached, I responded to the altar call and my life was changed forever. I went home and I started farming more efficiently, I started sleeping at night because I couldn’t sleep before then, I used to be so worried. I became a better, more loving husband and father. Do you know something? If you do the same thing today, it can happen for you. Why not say this little prayer after me?
Dear Lord Jesus,
I am not looking for money, I am not looking for riches - I am looking for life. Today, I ask You to be my Lord and my Saviour. I promise to follow no other gods but You and I thank You for the promise of everlasting life. I ask this in Your name alone, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
It is Friday morning, 10th June, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
If we go to 2 Samuel 22:4:
“I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies?”
And then we go straight to Psalm 34:6:
“This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him,
And saved him out of all his troubles.”
This is of course King David who cried out to the Lord. Why is it that we always wait so long and become so desperate before we call upon the name of our Lord Jesus. We always try to fix things and the problems that we encounter ourselves before, in desperation, we turn to God.
C.H. Spurgeon, the great English preacher, was trying to find answers... He was trying to find the Lord, he was desperate and he was failing. Then one night this country boy, coming home, was caught in a snowstorm. To find shelter, that was the only reason, he slipped into a little country chapel where there was a lay preacher, probably a farm worker, sharing God’s Holy Word. This man read out one scripture verse and it literally saved Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s life and changed it forever. He read out of Isaiah:
“Look to Me, and be saved,…”
Isaiah 45:22
and that scripture verse changed the young man’s course of his life forever. He went on to be an incredible ambassador for Jesus. At the age of 21, in London, they built the London Tabernacle Church for him which could seat no less than 10,000 people. Many of us are looking for help in the wrong place. You won’t find it in education or business or even in the gym. You won’t even find it in your family. All those things are very good but it is faith in God alone, that will save us. Mark 11:22 says:
“Have faith in God.”
Today, look to the Lord and be saved.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 9th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go right to the back of the Bible, to James 1:5:
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
And then that verse we know so well - Matthew 7:7, the Lord says:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Remember, the handle to the door is on the inside and Jesus says in Revelation 3:20:
“I stand at the door and I knock.” He says, “If you open the door, I will come in and I will sup with you and you with Me.”
Every one of us listening to this message today needs advice... We need advice for the big decisions and the small ones. And how do we get advice? We ask our Father, that’s right! We pray in faith and He will answer us.
You know, many, many years ago, my late dad used to live in a little cottage just behind us. He was a blacksmith by trade, he wasn’t a farmer but he had lots and lots of wisdom. Many times I would go and sit on the stoep (the verandah) outside his little cottage in the afternoon, and we would sit and talk. I would ask him for advice, not advice about agriculture but advice on life. Many times he would just say to me, “Son, I don’t know. I don’t know the answer but…”, then he would tell me what he felt and that advice I have never forgotten. I want to say to a young man, a young lady listening to this programme: Right now, please do not become proud. Ask your father, ask your mother and they will help you and they will give you godly advice. It might not be the advice that you are looking for. You might not even like it at the moment but it will bless you and it will help you in the future. We need each other. Do you remember that old song that goes something like this:
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you
Hallelu, hallelujah,
hallelujah, hallelujah,
hallelujah, hallelu, hallelujah.
Ask Him today and He will answer you. Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, 8th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to1 Corinthians 1:31, the Lord says:
"… as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord."
Never touch God’s glory! Always give Him all the praise and the honour. Then we go to James 2:5:
“Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?”
Our Lord specialises in using nobodies and then He makes them into somebodies. You see, God will not share His glory with any man. Often, as a new Christian, I used to say, “Lord, why don’t You use some famous people, wealthy people or some influential people to do Your work? And I felt the Lord saying, “No, I don’t want anybody to take the glory.” You know, God took twelve nobodies and with those twelve nobodies, he changed the whole world. I am talking about fishermen, tax collectors, and zealots.
He took a young teenager to slay a mighty giant, that’s right - David killed Goliath, I think he was about thirteen years old, with a sling and a stone... Who got the glory? It was God. He took a failure, a man who had completely blown it, who was hiding in the desert, looking after his father-in-law’s sheep. He took him at eighty years old, folks, to deliver an entire nation from slavery. That’s right, I am talking about Moses. Jesus can use you and me as well if we can only believe. Mark 11:22.
I remember as a new believer, many years ago, going to a conference. An international speaker was speaking and he said, “You will never make a racehorse out of a donkey. I sat there and I rubbed my head and I thought, “No, no, he has got it the wrong way round.” God takes donkeys, like me and you, and He makes us into racehorses. The first time that I booked a stadium, an event hall, was the Town Hall in Ladysmith. I went to visit all the ministers in town and invited them to the conference. I wasn’t asking for anything, just to come and support us. I went to this one church and this man said to me, “Who is the speaker?” I said, “Me, Sir.” He looked at me up and down, I was in my farming clothes, and he said, “Well son, maybe God has sent you here to bend you a little bit.” I was quite shattered but anyway I carried on.
You know, in John 14:1, Jesus says:
“Believe in God. Believe also in Me.”
And God takes nobodies like you and me and with us, He will change the world. Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, 7th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the New Testament to Acts 3 and one verse - verse 16:
“And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong,…”
Acts 3:16
Remember Peter and John prayed for the lame man and he was healed, the people thought that he and John had done it? And they said, “No, no it wasn’t us. It was the power in the Name.” I want to say to you today that the power, hope and freedom are all in the Name, that’s right - The name is Jesus! He alone is the Savior of the whole world. You will find that in 1 John 4:14. His name means Immanuel: God with us, Matthew 1:23.
Oh, my dear friend, He is not 'the man upstairs', He is not 'my pal' or 'my mate', no - He is God made flesh! The Bible tells us that it is the Name which is above any other name and very soon every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Philippians 2:10. When I hear someone use my Savior’s precious name as a swear word, it cuts me right through to the very heart. Do you know that wars, that’s right, wars all over the world have taken place because of that Name? Do you know that millions of people have died as martyrs because they will not deny that name? That’s where the power lies. I have experienced it in my own life so many times.
It is Jesus who is the Miracle Worker. That is what Peter and John were trying to tell the people. “Jesus healed that man, not us.” You know, when I use that name, Jesus, and I ask Him to bring rain and He brings rain. When I ask Him to heal the sick and He heals the sick, it is the name, it is not somebody’s opinion. It's not even God because god is whoever you presume him to be... The god of your life could be the trees or nature or some other god. But when you mention the name of Jesus it is like everything becomes electric. People either hate or love you at that Name. What a gentle name as well - He is the friend of little children, He is the friend, that name, of old people, He is the Champion of the widow and the orphan.
Speak to Him today. I challenge you to tell three people today that Jesus is Lord. Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 6th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Acts 2 and I am reading from verse 1:
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
That’s right - Yesterday, Pentecost Sunday, the Helper came. Yes, He did!
He is known in Greek as Paracletos, the Helper. You know, Jesus said in John 16:7, it is to our advantage that He goes back to His Father so that He can send His Holy Spirit to comfort us, guide us in truth and give us His peace. I personally experienced an encounter with the Holy Spirit visiting us in Israel, at Ein Gedi, the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth, on 30th September 2012, at approximately 9 o’clock in the evening, when I was speaking to a group of pilgrims who had come from all over the world. I am talking about something like eighty nations represented. It was hosted by the Christian Embassy from Jerusalem.
It was an encounter that I shall never, ever forget, as long as I live. There were about 5,000 delegates there and we all witnessed it together. I had read from Acts 2, as I have just done for you and then I said something. I said, “Lord Jesus, please do it again,” and a rushing mighty wind came from nowhere and just about blew us off the platform! Oh, my dear friend, He is the Comforter. I want to tell you today, to speak to Him. Allow Him to comfort you, to put His loving arms around you. You know, in my prayer room, I have got a little wood stove, here in South Africa we are in the middle of winter now and in the morning it is sometimes zero degrees, maybe one degree... and I come into this little prayer room and I start a little wood fire. It warms me, it comforts me and it brings me lots of joy. Let the Holy Spirit do that for you even today.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, 5th June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off with Psalm 33:9:
“For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.”
Then we go straight to Mark 4:39:
“Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm”
God simply spoke the word! Jesus is the Word.
“In the beginning was the Word…”
John 1:1
You and I have the word of God on our very lips, why don’t we use it more? When Jesus was tempted in the desert, by the devil, He used the spoken word against the devil. What you say is what you become.
“I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13
We need to be so careful how we speak. A negative, hurtful word can literally destroy someone. Moms, be very careful how you speak to your children. Sometimes they test you severely and you say, “You little devils!” Don’t say that mom, it's not right. Or, “He’ll never amount to anything.” That can destroy a little boy or girl, they will remember that for years. But a godly, uplifting, wholesome word can restore, heal and build up a person, like: “You are looking very smart today” - Do you know what that does for somebody? Or "That was a lovely, tasty meal you prepared for us today.” Make that phone call today, a kind word might even save a life - That’s right! “I didn’t think anybody cared for me but you phoned me at the last minute, and it saved my life.”
I remember that film about Queen Elizabeth when the tragedy took place and Princess Diana was killed in that car crash, the whole nation was mourning and they were all at the gates of Buckingham Palace. They were laying down mountains of flowers in memory of the death of Princess Diana. The queen was walking along and greeting the people, a little girl stood out from the crowd with a small bunch of flowers. The queen said, “Thank you so much.” The queen was going to take them and put them with all the other mountains of flowers and the little girl said, “No, those are for you, Ma’am.” I think it brought a tear to the queen’s eye.
Let's be sensitive today and let's speak life to one another.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
A very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 4th of June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Acts 2, and I am reading one verse, verse 44:
“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.”
Don’t tell people that you love them, rather show them that you love them by your actions. You know, it is very hard for a hungry rumbling stomach or a freezing cold person in winter to hear the Gospel preached:
“…and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?”
James 2:16
You see faith is a doing word. Fatih is not just talking, it is action. Now I can hear maybe some of us saying, “But I can hardly feed my own family. I don’t have anything to give anyone.” But it is an amazing thing - God always takes care of a generous person. Do you remember the story of the starving widow and her little boy in the Old Testament in 1 Kings? She only had enough meal and enough oil to make one cake and then they were both going to lie down and die, during a terrible drought. And then the prophet Elijah came and what did he do? He asked for something to eat and she gave him part of their last cake! Miraculously the meal and the oil never ran out and they had food right through the duration of that drought. God takes care of His own.
You know, our little church on the farm, all the members are getting together and are going to make nutritious soup after church on a Sunday morning in a couple of weeks’ time. They are going to make it together for the poor and the needy. They are going to freeze the soup in containers in fridges and then right through the winter they are going to feed the poor and the needy, widows and orphans. The ladies are even knitting balaclavas so that people can keep their heads warm during the winter. We know that you cannot work your way to Heaven. Ephesians 2:8 says we have been saved by grace through faith and that, not even of our own, for it was a gift from God. But Jesus says that when He comes into a man’s heart, it is the love of Christ that compels us to help each other.
Go out today and help a needy person and you will be helping the Lord.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Friday morning, the 3rd June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we start off with Psalm 32:5:
“I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
And then we go to 1 John 1:9, the Lord says:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
That was the second verse I memorised when I gave my life to Christ over 40 years ago. The first one was John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…” but this was the second. And I want to tell you, my dear friend, there is immense power and freedom in just saying sorry. It simply defuses everything. You see, the devil is very aware of this and wants to stoke the fires of trouble and make things much worse than they already are. He says, “Don’t say sorry”. He says, “You have got your rights” and he says, “Stand your ground.”
Jesus says, “You surrendered your rights when you gave your life to me.” We say, “But Lord, we haven’t done anything wrong.” Jesus says in Romans 3:23:
"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God...”
That wonderful English preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, said this: “Sorrow for sin is a perpetual rain, a sweet, soft shower which to a truly gracious man, lasts all his life long...” Isn’t that beautiful?
What stops us from confessing our sins, from saying sorry? Only one thing - It is pride, absolute pride. Now Jesus says:
“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Mark 8:34
There is power in confession. Many, many years ago, as a young man I came to South Africa and I brought everything I could bring with me in the back of a truck. I did not declare everything to the Customs Office and so I thought I was very clever. But when I gave my life to the Lord, it started to eat at me, this unconfessed admission that I brought stuff into this country without paying my customs duty at the border. One day I said to Jill and the children, “I am going down to Pietermaritzburg and I am going to confess it.” I went down and the customs officer said: “Well, all those things you have told me about are duty-free anyway. You have got nothing to pay.” I was free!
Don’t let the devil hold you back from saying sorry and getting on with your life. Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you! Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 2nd June 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Psalm 92 and I am reading from verse 13:
“Those who are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
To declare that the Lord is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”
No such word as retirement in the Bible, only promotion! Remember, age is just a number. You know, I have met some young men half my age and what is very sad, for me, is they are already talking about their old-age pensions and where they are going to stay when they get old. One of my heroes in the Bible is Caleb. Do you remember Joshua and Caleb? They took the people into the promised land, he had a different spirit in him. You'll find that in Numbers 14:24:
“But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”
When Caleb was 85 years old, Joshua said: “Because you have played such a great part, you can pick any part of the Promised Land to make your home.” Do you know what he did? He said, “Give me the big mountains, I love it, where the big giants live.” He went in and he cleaned it out, that is where he settled. That’s right, we are talking about Hebron. Remember, your attitude determines your altitude.
I just love being in the company of young men, they are so ambitious, full of vision and ideas. They are looking for challenges. But I also want to say to you, there is a dear old lady who contacted my office. She is in her mid-nineties, she listens to this message, the Thought for the Day, every single morning and she wants to speak to me. And guess what? I am going to phone her today because I want to hear this dear old soul, I want to hear her voice because Jesus is in her.
You know I have friends, dear friends, who are three years old, that’s right... four years old. They've send me the most beautiful pictures that have taken lots of time to draw and to colour in. They are pictures of Snowy, my horse, and myself... I want to tell you, move over Picasso! These pictures are worth more to me than millions of dollars.
Don’t waste a precious moment in your life. Go out today and live it for Jesus and also for your fellowman.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, 1st of June, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to that favourite old scripture of ours, Isaiah 40:31:
“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength; (that’s right!)
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
One of the most difficult things for us to do is to wait because we have been programmed in this day and age... Everything needs to be done at full pace, whether it is eating, exercising or decisions and it is a dangerous place to be! Acts 1:4 - the Lord Jesus says:
“…wait for the promise of the Father.”
That was before Pentecost. When we do something in haste, it is very often not of God. Now I am speaking from bitter experience. Every bad decision that I have ever made in my life, I am talking about in business and the family has always been when I have been rushing. For example, the car salesman says, “Buy it today. It is your last chance, it will be sold tomorrow” when you come back tomorrow it is still not sold, is it? And the price has even come down - Don’t be in a rush! I want to say to that young lady who is contemplating marriage, if your fiancé is putting pressure on you and saying, “If you don’t accept my proposal, I am moving on.” Tell him to move on because he is not the man for you. Jesus is never early and Jesus is never late. He is always on time.
Remember the story of his friend, Lazarus when he died. “Lord, if you had only been here my brother would have lived”, but Jesus raised him from the dead. You know, I am a beekeeper and those bees, I love them so much, they have taught me many lessons about not rushing. You see, when you are keeping bees, timing is of the essence. I go to my hives on a cloudy, cool, overcast day and they are well-behaved. But if I go on a hot day and the wind is blowing, I am asking for trouble. I have got to be sure that my smoker is working, that just calms them down. If I am in a rush and I don’t prepare my smoker, it normally goes out halfway through the work of the hive. I’ve got to put my bee suit on correctly because if I don’t they will sting me. I want to tell you that when I do it properly and take my time it is sheer pleasure.
Today, take your time. Wait on the Lord and He will direct your path.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, the last day of May, the 31st, 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the Book of Acts, the Lord says:
“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Acts 2:21
A beautiful scripture for sinners like you and me... Then straight to Romans 10:13, you know what, it says exactly the same thing - whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Whoever means anybody. That’s right! Billy Bray was one of those who called upon the name of the Lord. Billy Bray was a self-confessed drunkard. He was a tin miner from the South of England, from Cornwall. He could not pass a pub or a bar without going in and getting drunk, spending all his hard-earned pay on alcohol. His wife used to despair, she had no money to feed her children, no money to run the house. Then Billy Bray met Jesus and his life was instantly transformed - for the first time ever, he brought home a full pay packet of money... And he never, ever touched a drop of alcohol again. He was known in the district and in the town as such a happy and joyful man. He would go singing and sometimes even dancing down the streets, that’s right! He built chapels all over the district and the countryside himself. He took orphans in to his home. He gave people money, he had no money himself, he was very poor but he was so full of the joy of the Lord because God called him home.
I want to say to you today that if you are in a state... You know, the Lord spoke to me once, so clearly, I will never forget it! He spoke to me out of the Book of Revelation, He says:
“You have forsaken your first love.”
Revelation 2:4
Maybe you have done that today. It is no good saying, “In 1965, I gave my life to Christ.” - Are you full of the joy of the Lord today? Is Jesus as real to you as He was when you gave your life to Christ?
I remember at an MMC on the farm, a biker arrived on a big expensive Harley Davidson motorbike... only rich people can afford those! He slept in a one man tent all by himself. He got up early in the morning, took out a brand-new bottle of Chivas Regal imported Scotch Whisky, cracked the top to have a drink... He was obviously an alcoholic. Four young men walked passed, one was wearing a wooden cross around his neck. They came up to him and said, “Sir, you don’t need that stuff.” He poured it into the dirt and started to weep, they gathered around him and prayed for him and he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Remember, today could be the best day of the rest of your life.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 30th May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to that famous Psalm, Psalm 23:4:
“Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
And then to Hebrews in the New Testament:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
Jesus Christ is our rod. He is our staff. He is our protector, yes - He is our comforter, especially in tough times. You know, Moses had a staff. I looked up in the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of a staff: A staff is a long stick used as a support or weapon. Moses used that staff that the Lord told him to take when he visited and confronted Pharaoh and told Pharaoh to let His people go. He used that staff for miracles. Remember, he threw the staff down and it turned into a snake. Then he picked the snake up by the tail and it turned back into a staff. He opened the Red Sea... It is an ocean, not a lake, by stretching out his hand and the staff.
The Lord said, “Lift up your rod.”
Exodus 14:16
It is also a support when hiking in the mountains. Oh, I love climbing in the mountains, the mighty Drakensberg Mountains. On long, tough journeys you need a staff. You know, I love to calve sticks, that’s right, I sit quietly with a knife and I contemplate and meditate. I calve staffs which I give to people as gifts. We get the wood from the thornbushes in Zululand because they grow very slowly and are heavy and very strong. We need to carry our staff wherever we go - when I check livestock on the farm with my son, I like to take a staff or a stick with me.
Today, when you go out, take your staff with you... I am talking about Jesus and don’t go out anywhere without Him. Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 29th May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to Psalm 29:4:
“The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.”
Isn’t that a beautiful verse?
He said to the sea, “Be still, peace.” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
Mark 4:39
How does God speak to us? He speaks to us in many different ways... He speaks to us through His creation, He speaks to us through His elements but we need to listen. People have oftentimes asked me if I have heard the voice of God. The answer is many times, but never audibly. Not many people have and have lived to tell the tale. We serve a very mighty and powerful God. So how does He speak to me? Well, He speaks to me in my quiet times that I spend sitting, and waiting. He speaks to me through reading my Bible systematically. He speaks to me through other faithful believers. Oh yes, the Lord speaks to me through the weather, probably because I am a man of the land.
I remember like yesterday, I was in the United States of America. I was preaching at an open-air meeting, my favourite place, in the State of Tennessee, the deep South, with a beautiful, responsive crowd of people but it was extremely hot. The sun was beating down and I prayed aloud. I said, “Lord, please can you place a cloud over the sun to shelter these people that are getting burnt from the sun.” I was alright, I was on a big platform with a big canopy over me. You know, the Lord put a cloud over that sun! It stayed there until the end of the meeting.
Now, I can hear someone saying, “Oh Angus, that was just a coincidence.” Funny you should say that because the other clouds on either side were sailing passed merrily but that cloud remained - Covering the sun and sheltering God’s people. Yes, the Lord hears us and He speaks to us.
Speak to Him today and then listen to what He has to say to you. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 28th May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to 2 Chronicles 20:21:
“Praise the Lord,
For His mercy endures forever.”
And then we go to the New Testament, to Luke:
“But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Luke 19:40
There is power in praise. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “If these people don’t praise me, the very rocks will praise Me.” We don’t praise God for the situation necessarily, but we praise Him in the situation. If you are going through a hard time at the moment, you say, “But Angus, how can I praise God, my business is going bankrupt, my child is sick or my future is uncertain?” You praise Him in the situation... You don’t praise Him for the situation because He is the one who makes us over-comers through our hardship and our tribulation. Praise takes our eyes off ourselves and it puts our eyes on the Lord. It takes our eyes off the problem and puts our eyes on the problem-solver.
You know, some of our prayers... Let's be honest now, some of our prayers are like shopping lists. That is all we do - We just: "Give me, give me, give me! Lord give me this, give me that. Help me here!” We concentrate on ourselves instead of praising and worshipping the Lord. Praising Him for who He is and not for what He can do for us. Job, that farmer, he got it right, he said:
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
Job 13:15
We have got to take our eyes off ourselves this morning, put them on Jesus and praise Him for who He is. Do you remember that beautiful old hymn:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of the earth will grow slowly dim
In the light of His glory and grace
Come on, you can sing that hymn as well.
Have a wonderful day and praise Him because He is worthy of all our praises! Jesus bless you, have a lovely Saturday.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 27th May, 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to 1 Corinthians 11 and I am reading from verse 24, Jesus says:
“Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This, do as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
You know, when we consecrate everything we have to the Lord Jesus, then He blesses and even multiplies it as He did with the two fishes and the five barley loaves of bread. Remember in Mark 6:38 - He took those two fishes, and those five barley loaves and consecrated them to His Heavenly Father and then He fed 5,000 men.
You know, every morning when we have breakfast together, Jill and I and we break bread. That is right, we have Holy Communion, every single day. God blesses what we eat and also what we do. When we say our grace before we sit down and eat, then also we eat our food heartily.
You know, many times we are invited to places overseas where the food is prepared in ways that we are not accustomed to but do you know what we do? We say our grace, we give thanks to the Lord and then we eat it, heartily. Sometimes some people will come with us and they are concerned about their weight, their figures. We ask them not to come with us, please, I tell you why - because when you start pushing food away from you and you start picking at your food or you don’t eat it, you embarrass and you offend the host and that is not the objective of us as believers. Sometimes you will win somebody to Jesus quicker by participating in their home and their food than you will with any fancy sermon.
We need to forget about ourselves and start being concerned about other people. We need to get into the habit of thanking the Lord for everything that we do. You know, before we travel, we give thanks to God: “Lord, please protect this trip.” Before we do a business deal, “Lord, today we are going to do a business deal. We are going to buy cattle or we are going to sell cattle. We are going to plant a certain crop.” We pray over it.
Before somebody gets employed we pray over them and then God multiplies and He consecrates it.
Today, get used to committing every aspect of your life to the Lord and He will do the rest.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 26th May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Today is Ascension Day - That’s right! Today is the day that we remember that our precious Lord Jesus went back to Heaven, to be with His Father... Ascension Day! Let us go straight to the word of God to Acts 1 and I am reading from verse 9:
“Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
I am a cloud watcher - Every morning I wake up and I look out... When I see the clouds I say, “Lord, are You coming back today?” because He has promised us that He will return on the clouds. What a wonderful day that will be! I am sure you will agree with me, it couldn’t be sooner. It might in fact, even be today for some of us! He will not be riding on the back of a donkey this time as the Savior of the world, no! He will be riding on a white charger, on a warhorse - that is what the Bible tells us. He will be coming on the clouds and on His robe will be written, and on His thigh, “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” Revelation 19 will tell you that.
He says, “Surely, I am coming back quickly.” He is coming back to set the record straight, that’s right! All the injustice in the world, all the immorality, the corruption... those who stick their tongue out and say, “Where is this God that you are always talking about?” Yes! Everyone will be judged, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And that is why we need to pray. We need to pray, today, even for our enemies because the Bible says it is a terrible thing to fall into the Hands of a Living and Holy God. You and I need to keep short accounts with man and God for the time is now very short. I have written that on the last page of my Bible.
Today, remember, the Lord is not dead. He is alive and coming back for you and me very soon. Have a blessed Ascension Day!
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, 25th May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament, to Isaiah 49, I am reading from verse 15. The Lord says:
"Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.”
Wow - Have we ever seen a stronger bond than we see between her mother and her suckling child? Definitely not and Jesus tells us clearly today that His bond with us is even stronger than that! Maybe today, you are feeling lonely. Maybe you are feeling deserted or maybe you feel that nobody cares about you... I want to tell you there is One who cares about you so much. Have you ever seen the loving, doting eyes of a mother holding her newborn baby in her arms? The absolute wonder of it and the love - it's so beautiful to see.
I remember many times, because I have daughters, visiting them in the hospital. When they are holding that little bundle of joy in their arms, they are so proud of their babies. Jesus loves us even more than that - He says, “Look at the nail prints in my hands, that tells you how much I love you - I died for you!” Do you know, that scripture that I just read you was written hundreds of years before Christ was even born?
On the farm, we have some Brahman type cattle. They are highly intelligent. They can be very docile or they can be very aggressive - It depends on how you handle them. When visitors come to the farm we tell them to always have respect for those big bulls that are walking around. Then we tell them to be extremely careful of a cow that has just calved down and has a little baby - Be very careful. She is very dangerous will protect her newly born calf at all costs. My so, his two sons and my grandsons have experienced that when herding cattle on horseback. If you get between a cow and its mother it can cost you dearly.
Jesus feels the same way. In fact, He loves us so much that He died in our place.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.”
John 15:13
Now today, speak to Him and let Him love you. Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you. Goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, the 24th of May, 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to Psalm 27:4:
“One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.”
And then we go straight to the John 3 and I am reading from verse 1:
“There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Even the teacher of Israel was desperate to spend time with Jesus. What is it that compels people to give up all they have in order to follow after this man from Galilee? I think of C.T. Studd, England’s most eligible bachelor of his time. He played cricket for England in summer, rode horses in winter and came from a wealthy family, yet he gave it all up so he could follow after Jesus. He died in the Congo, having preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the poorest of the poor.
What about Eric Liddell - He was the Usain Bolt of his time. He came back from the Olympic Games with a gold medal and yet he chose to go to China as a missionary for Jesus. What about King David, even to this very day, the most popular hero of Israel to the Orthodox Jews? He had everything he wanted... He had fame, riches, and power and yet he said, basically, “Take it all but give me Jesus.”
You know, people talk to me about their crown that they are going to receive when they get to Heaven... I am not really interested in crowns. Like David, I just want to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life. Shouldn’t you and I be doing the same? Taking time out, even today, to sit at the feet of Jesus, like Nicodemus, to learn from Him. He will give you peace, He will give you the joy you are looking for. He will give you that confidence that you have that there is nothing you need to fear if Jesus Christ is in your heart!
Have a wonderful day today and Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 23rd May, 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we start with the Book of Psalms:
“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me”
Psalm 138:7
Oh Lord, we really need our souls to be revived today. And then we go to the Gospel of Matthew, this was the last thing that Jesus said before He went to Heaven:
“I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:20
Oh, so we don’t need to be afraid, no! We don’t need to be afraid of trouble. If I look back on my Christian walk, my fondest memories have been when I have been in my greatest times of turmoil and trouble because those have been the times when I felt Jesus pressing in the closest to me. Therefore, we need not be afraid or fearful of hard times, it is in times like these when we can truly be changed for the better. I don’t remember the good times so much. I really remember those times when I was struggling - Times of drought, floods, times of personal tragedy. Those are the times that He was the closest to me.
You know, I would rather be in a small dinghy with Jesus at the helm, going around Cape Horn, South America, facing huge waves that are so big, they literally blank out the sun, than to be in an ocean-going ship, a luxury liner on a calm lake without any waves, without Him. Today, we need to face our storms, we need to face our troubles. All we need to do is to make very sure that the Lord Jesus Christ is at the helm of our boat. Don’t be afraid of trouble. Embrace trouble, knowing that the Lord said that He will be with us even to the very end of the age.
I really believe that we are so close to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So be strong today - Keep your eyes fixed on the Lord and He will take you right through that storm that you are experiencing.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, 22nd May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought of today.
If we go to Joshua - and we know this one so well, don’t we? Joshua says:
“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 24:15
You know, life is full of choices... You can choose this day life or death, by simply obeying the statutes and the commandments of God - this will bring life. I want to say today, that we need to do things, not in our selfish ways because that is what brings death.
You know, I heard the story of a man who walked out of the courthouse after having divorced his sixth wife, consecutively, and the remark he made was, “She tried so hard to make me happy.” How selfish and self-centred could that be? Marriage is not a 50/50 commitment. No, marriage is a 100% commitment and covenant from both sides. There is no such thing as the perfect marriage or the perfect family.
Remember that comment we heard from that wonderful lady, the wife of the great evangelist, Dr Billy Graham? They asked her a question, “Have you ever thought of divorcing him?”
She said,“Divorce never, murder often!” I can see all the ladies smiling. By the grace of God and our own decision, we have to work on our marriages and our family relationships.
Just one more scripture I really need to leave with you today, it is a beautiful scripture. It is found in the Book of Ecclesiastes: Ecclesiastes 4 and I am reading from verse 9:
Two are better than one,
Because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm;
But how can one be warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Have a wonderful Sunday as you work on your marriage and your family. Jesus bless you, Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, the 21st of May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to Luke 1:37:
“For with God nothing will be impossible.”
What a beautiful promise from God. And then we go to the Gospel of John 21:11:
“Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so many, the net was not broken.”
Wow! Well, I tell you what, we serve a miracle-working God and we need to remember that. Nothing is too hard for the Lord, and nothing is impossible for Jesus - If ever we needed to remember that, it is in these times in which we are living. Therefore, let us press onward on the road that the Lord Jesus has appointed for us and always, remember that He has gone ahead of us. You see, it is not for us to question or to try and reason but simply to keep going forward and He will do the rest.
Do you know that that net was designed for maybe half a dozen fish? And yet 153 large (they call them St Peter’s fish, like a tilapia or a big bream) were pulled up onto the shore and the net never broke. He is a miracle-working God. It is God’s work and so He will see that it shall not fail. All we have to do is to believe in a miracle-working God. We cannot do it in our strength therefore it is not for you and me to reason, we must not doubt, just let Jesus do it. And you know something? He wants to do it as well.
I remember so clearly as a new believer, I was still a young farmer, we were growing seed maize on the farm. That’s all we had. We didn’t have any cattle or any other form of agriculture. Every afternoon at about 4 pm, big clouds used to come rolling over Shalom, I used to get so nervous because one hail storm would ruin us. But you know, one day I was walking through the maize and I realized, “Lord, you are a miracle-working God and this is Your farm. I have committed it to You, I have committed my life to You, I have committed my family to You, so Lord, whatever happens, it's in Your hands.” You know, I will never forget, it was like a 50kg bag of cement fell off my back. I could think more clearly, I could work better and you know something? The Lord protected that maize crop.
Have a wonderful day and remember you serve a miracle-working God.
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 20th May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament:
“For the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord,
But His secret counsel is with the upright.”
Proverbs 3:32
And then we go to Psalm 25:14:
“The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,
And He will show them His covenant.”
God will not share His close, personal issues with a devious person. He will not allow us to enter into that private place with Him. His intimate relationship He only shares with those of an upright spirit. Secret counsel is found between God and His people. His personal friendship He shares with only those who love and respect Him and those people who are straight forward. Have you noticed that when you are involved with something you know is wrong, God seems so far away from you - doesn’t He?
God's guidance, blessing and friendship are only with those who love and honour Him. When we are invited by friends, to a questionable place, maybe to some nightclub or some place that is borderline, we need to ask ourselves a question. Could I take the Lord into this place with me? If the answer is: “No, I would be embarrassed to take the Lord there”, then you need to leave immediately.
Many years ago, I was invited to a huge gathering in a major city in South Africa. They asked me to be one of the speakers, we were going to pray for the nation. When I arrived, straight away, I felt uneasy, they took me up onto the platform in front of multitudes of people. I looked around and I saw people on the platform with me from different faiths, worshipping different gods - Straight away I felt the Holy Spirit saying to me, “What are you doing here?” Well, I had a choice to make... I was most embarrassed but I stood up and walked straight off the platform, through the crowd to the carpark, got in my car and drove away. I was so relieved.
Please don’t compromise your special relationship with Jesus just to make other people happy. Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, the 19th of May 2022, And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For Your name’s sake, O Lord,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.”
Psalm 25:11
And then we go to Romans 5:20:
“But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more”
You know, one of the hardest things for a sinner to do is to forgive himself when all we need to do is to go to the Lord and say: “Sorry Lord” because He says, “My grace is sufficient for you.” I looked in the Oxford Dictionary, to find out the literal meaning of the word grace, this is what it says: "The free and unearned favour of God" or "undeserved loving-kindness." Another one is unmerited favour.
You see, we have to accept God’s forgiveness and it is one of the hardest things for people to do. “Lord, You cannot forgive me. I am such a great sinner.” John Newton who wrote Amazing Grace... Remember the slave ship captain? When he realized the enormity of his sin, he was overwhelmed and he wrote that beautiful hymn - "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound in a sinner’s ear.” Apparently, when he was dying, he was whispering something, a man put his ear right to John Newton’s mouth and John Newton was quoted as saying, “What a great sinner I am but what a great Saviour Jesus is.”
We have to accept that the Lord has paid, in full, for our sin. Peter said to the Lord when He wanted to wash His feet: “You will never wash my feet” (John 13:8) and Jesus says, “I will have no part of you if you will not accept it.” I was also brought up in 'the old school' if you can’t pay for it, then you don’t take it. But we need to understand something - sometimes when we won’t take it as a gift, we offend somebody.
A young man told my son a few months ago that he wanted to give me his horse... Not just a horse but his best horse, as a gift. This horse is worth a lot of money and it is fully trained - You can shoot off its back, you can crack a whip, you can do anything on that horse... but he wants to give it to me as a gift. And another young man wants to make me a handmade, custom-made saddle. Initially, I said, “I can’t take it from these boys. It is also part of their livelihood.” My son said to me, “Dad, if you don’t take it, you will hurt them.” And so reluctantly and graciously I have accepted this gift which has touched me a lot. Now, Jesus paid a tremendous price for you. All you have to do is to say, “Lord, thank you for dying for me on a cross.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, the 18th of May 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to John 20, I am reading verse 25:
“The other disciples therefore said to him (Thomas), “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Well, what can we say? There are none so blind as those who do not want to see... Isn’t that how the old saying goes? Seeing is believing, the proof of the pudding is in the eating? But those are all worldly terms. They are not terms that come out of the mouth of a Christian. Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you cannot see but the reward of that faith is to see what you believe.”
You see, Hebrews 11:6 says, without faith it is impossible to please God. We have to start walking more by faith and not by sight. Even the disciples said to Jesus in Luke 17:5:
“Please Lord, increase our faith.”
We are living in perilous times, all over the world, and I want to say to you my dear friend, if you are suffering from depression, anxiety and stress or fear, you have got to start to believe the promises of God. You have got to start to believe the word of God and you have got to stop listening to the lies of the devil. You have got to be really careful about who you are spending time with because there are so many people who are in a desperate situation at the moment in the world. You see, without faith, you cannot even be a Christian. Because if you say, “Well, I am a Christian”, can you believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin? Can you believe that Mary never even knew a man and she was impregnated by the Holy Spirit? That takes faith.
Can you believe that a man was raised from the dead like Jesus was? Can you believe that He is coming again, in the clouds? Well, that takes faith. One of my heroes in the Bible is Caleb, in Numbers 14:24, this is what the Lord says:
“But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit (What kind of spirit? A spirit of faith.) in him and has followed Me fully, (obeyed me) I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.”
There were only two men from an entire generation that went into the promised land, into Israel. One was Caleb and the other was Joshua. When Caleb was 85 years old, are you listening up boys? Eighty five years old, Joshua said, “You can have any part of Israel that you want because you have been a faithful servant.”
He said, “Give me the big mountains where the big mountains live.” I love that spirit. Today, let us walk by faith and not by sight.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, 17th of May and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
If we go to the Gospel of Matthew, the word of God says:
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.”
Matthew Chapter 5:9
Not blessed are the peace-lovers, no - Blessed are the peacemakers.
And then we go to John 20:21:
“So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
Jesus was sent down to earth by His Father to be a peacemaker. Today, he sends you and I out into the world as peacemakers, not troublemakers. There are more than enough troublemakers in this world, aren’t there? Remember, it takes two to fight. God has called us to bring peace in the home, not strife but peace. It takes a much stronger person to turn the other cheek.
But I can hear you saying, “I have my rights as well.” Well, actually, we don’t have any rights do we? We gave them up the day we said we were going to follow Jesus. To be a peacemaker you have to be at peace with yourself. An angry, bitter, hurting person can never display the fruit of peace, the peace that Jesus is asking us to produce today. We need to forgive just as we have been forgiven. We need to love, just as we have been loved.
Our farm is called Peace, that’s right - it is just spelt in Hebrew: Shalom. Whenever Jesus came into a home, the first thing he said was, “Shalom,” which means “Peace be in this home”. But you know, you can’t earn peace, you can’t do a course in peace, you can’t get a degree in peace, no! You have to let peace come into your heart. Jesus says:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
Revelation 3:20
Remember, the handle of the door is only on the inside... We need to invite Him in.
Many years ago, when we had those massive men's conferences on the farm, Shalom, I remember a beautiful story.... There were three or four young guys who were going to come down to the Mighty Men Conference, they had a friend who was taking a lot of strain. I don’t know what it was - He was so uptight, so intense and they invited him. He didn’t want to come. They actually conned him into it, saying they were going on a fishing trip. He got in with his fishing rods and tackle and off they drove. When they came to the farm, Shalom, this man got out of the pick-up and asked, “Where are we?” As his feet touched the ground he started to cry, uncontrollably, as peace started to enter his heart. Now, that peace didn’t come from the ground or the surroundings. It came from tens of thousands of men who had peace in their hearts and the Lord Jesus Christ was there, in all His Glory.
Today, be a peacemaker. Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
It is the 16th of May, Monday morning - the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to, probably the most famous of all Psalms in the Bible, Psalm 23:
“The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.”
And then we go straight to Philippians, in the New Testament:
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19
I just feel, in my heart, that you need to join me and we need to repeat the 23rd Psalm together because if ever this world needs comfort and reassurance, it is in these days... Would you like to read it after me, please?
“The Lord is my shepherd;” Come on, say it!
“I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.”
What comforting words to read! I want to give you some homework, I really do. I want to tell you that it is worth memorizing this Psalm and say it often because it is like the balm of Gilead. It is like that cream that you put on a 'roastie' when it is hurting so much. Remember, He is my supplier. That is right! He restores my soul, even though I am living in dangerous times, literally, in the shadow of death. He has promised me that I shall not be left alone. Jesus’ rod and His staff, they comfort me. The rod to discipline me and the staff to protect me. He feeds us and He comforts us amid our enemies and there is nothing that they can do about it. His goodness and His mercy follow us all the days of our lives.
And best of all, what a future we have to look forward to, to dwell in God’s house forever.
Jesus bless you, have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, 15th of May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Let not mercy and truth forsake you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart,
And so find favor and high esteem
In the sight of God and man.”
Proverbs 3:3
And then we go straight to the New Testament, to the Second Book of Corinthians, Paul says:
“…clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.”
2 Corinthians 3:3
As Christians, we are to display mercy and truth and to wear it around our necks like a necklace of fine jewels. It should be written on our hearts, not with ink but by the Holy Spirit of the Living God. We should be an epistle, a letter of Christ, a living letter so that people can see the love and mercy of Jesus through us. Don’t tell people that you love them, show them that you love them! Remember, actions speak much louder than words... And that is what Jesus did.
When the disciples were all sitting around the supper table He took a basin, He took a towel, He filled the basin with water and He washed their feet. John 13:5 - the King of Kings washing His servant’s feet. Now, you know, that physical act spoke louder than any number of seminars or conferences. The world is starving for love, kindness, mercy and truth. Let’s you and I be a band of foot-washers today.
Do you remember the story of the missionary who was marooned on a desert island in the South Pacific? The islanders found him. They said he could stay with them but he must never preach about Jesus because they had their own gods. The man lived with them and he died and they buried him. A hundred years later, another group of missionaries arrived on a sailing ship. On the island, they sat all the islanders down and started to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They were surprised because these islanders looked like they had heard the Gospel preached before. They asked, “Have you heard the Gospel preached before?” They said, “No.”
They said, “Well, how do you know the story?”
The islanders said, “Because the man you are talking about used to live here amongst us!” And then they went and showed the missionary’s grave, where he had been buried.
Action speaks louder than words. Go out today and be a living epistle of Jesus Christ. God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
It is Saturday the 14th of May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“I will declare Your name to My brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.”
Hebrews 2:12
Speak up for Jesus even as He speaks up for us before His Heavenly Father. Then we go to Luke 9:26, Jesus says:
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed…”
Wow - Strong words! This is not a time for us to hold back. We must speak up about our faith in God. Remember, that beautiful easy memory verse Mark 11:22:
“Have faith in God.”
An easy one to remember! The very first night I had the privilege of preaching the Gospel in the little local church in Greytown, I was in the vestry at the back of the church... All the elders were praying for me. An old man said to me, “Son, I have done my bit. It is your turn now, get out there and preach.” I must say, even as a brand-new Christian, it didn’t sit well with me. We can never do enough for Jesus because He went the whole way for you and me - He died so that we might live. Then, a few weeks afterwards, on the first Sunday morning, I had the privilege of addressing the whole congregation, the main congregation.
I was so very nervous. I had prepared the message for about six weeks - fifteen pages... the poor people! I got into the pulpit and opened my Bible, took out page number one which was the introduction to welcome all the people. I turned the page over and there was page fifteen, the benediction... 13 pages missing! Well, I tell you what, I was absolutely shocked. I looked up and Jill, my wife, was sitting at the back of the church, I looked at her and you know when you have been married a long time you don’t have to speak. She shot out the back of the church, went to the pick-up, had a look and came back. She stood in the back of the church, put her hands up and said, “They are not there.”
Well, now was decision time. Am I going to declare the name of the Lord to the brethren or not? We had a little band from our local coffee bar that we used to run, Jill and I, and they had just sung a song, “Here comes Jesus, walking on the water.” The Holy Spirit, just about audibly, said to me, “Are you going to walk on the water, or not? Are you going to speak up for Jesus, or not?” I said, “Lord, I am going to do it.” And I have never stopped since.
Go out today and tell people that Jesus loves you and that He is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother. Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Friday morning the 13th of May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the Old Testament to Isaiah 26, I am reading from verse 3:
“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”
And then John 14:27, one of my favourite verses, the Lord Jesus says:
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
We can only trust someone that we know and we can only know someone by spending time with them. Then, when you really know someone, you will obey them. Just a couple of weeks ago I was privileged to speak to a large group of students at one of South Africa’s prestigious universities. It was an evening service and it was packed out, shoulder to shoulder and people standing outside. The praise and worship was amazing, I knew that I was speaking to Christians. And then I asked them a question. I said, “How many of you had a quiet time this morning? How many of you this morning spent time reading your Bible, praying and spending time in the presence of Jesus?” The place went quiet. I said, “I want you to be honest with me.” That is why I love students so much, they are so soft and so open. They want to learn and they are so honest.
“If you did not have a time with Jesus this morning, can you please put up your hand” Oh folks, my heart broke - Over 80% of those students had not had a quiet time that morning. I said, “How can you trust God for revival if you don’t spend time with Him?” Well, the pastor told me, one of my spiritual sons - he said his daughter is also at the residence and she said the next morning she couldn’t find a place where she could have a quiet time because everybody was up, spending time with Jesus.
I have got a picture for you. A little girl, maybe three or four years old, in her swimming suit... She is so proud, she is at the swimming pool with her big, strong dad. He is in the deep end, in the water, and she is standing at the edge. He has got his big strong arms out and he says to this little thing, “Come on darling, just jump and I will catch you.” She is jumping up and down, “Oh dad, I am so scared. I am so scared!”
“Come on. You can do it!” And then she closes her eyes, as all girls do, and she just runs into the pool. Her dad catches her in his big, strong arms and pulls her into his ample bosom and just loves her - He was so proud of her! That is what Jesus wants you and I to do today.
Do you remember that beautiful old hymn, Trust and Obey?
And when we walk with the Lord
In the light of his word,
What a glory he sheds on our way!
While we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Oh, trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
So as you go out today, trust and obey, because there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 12th of May, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament:
“Listen to Me, O house of Jacob,
And all the remnant of the house of Israel,
Who have been upheld by Me from birth,
Who have been carried from the womb:
Even to your old age, I am He,
And even to gray hairs I will carry you!
I have made, and I will bear;
Even I will carry, and will deliver you.”
Isaiah 46:3-4
Oh, what a beautiful promise! Then we go straight to Philippians 1:21, Paul says:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
We are, therefore, in a win-win situation. If we live, we live for Christ and if we die, we go home to be with Christ in Heaven forever... You can’t frighten a Christian with Heaven, so what are you afraid of?
“I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread.”
Psalm 37:25
A beautiful promise from God for all the young moms and dads today. You know, I can hear some people saying, “But I need Him now. Where has He been?” Remember the old story of the footsteps in the sand? The man says, “But every time I was going through a tough time, there were only one set of footprints in the sand, where did You go?” “Oh,” God says, “That was when I was carrying you.” Yes, the Lord has never, ever forsaken us. Those of us with grey hair can testify to that fact. People, remember one thing, Jesus will never, ever forsake you, He loves you so much!
A lot of young people write to me from overseas, they have had to go overseas to find employment and start a new life but their old folks are still here, at home. They write and ask, “Please, could you take care of them, we are worried about them." I want to say to you today, that you have nothing to worry about. Just trust the one who has looked after them from birth, Jesus will still look after them in their old age. What a beautiful promise - So today, remember, if Christ is for you, there is no man that will ever stand against you.
Have a blessed day,
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 10th of May 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament, to Ezekiel 33:11:
“I (says the Lord) have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
And then Ezekiel 18:32, again the Lord says:
“For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
You know, many of us are dead. We are walking around, our hearts are pumping blood but we are dead in our spirits and the Gospel of Luke says:
“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:7
Jesus came for sinners, just like me and just like you. You know He is known by many titles but the title I love the most is the “Friend of sinners.” Some of the greatest sinners have become God’s greatest ambassadors. Therefore, we must never give up on a lost sheep... on a lost soul. One of them was Saul of Tarsus, that’s right! Remember he became Paul the apostle when he was knocked off his horse on the road to Damascus while he was seeking to murder Christians. And the Lord Jesus said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus.”
You know, after that conversion he went on, Paul the Apostle, to write almost two-thirds of the New Testament. He took the Gospel all over the world. Another lost sheep who found Jesus, was a man who wrote probably, the most famous of all hymns, Amazing Grace:
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
That’s right - his name was John Newton. What about Charles Carson, one of the most brilliant minds in the world. He was President (of the United States of America) Richard Nixon’s right-hand man. He was an evil man. They called him 'The Hatchet Man'. They said he would walk on his own mother’s grave to get to the top. Well, he was found out. He was sent to prison and there he met Jesus and he started The Prison Fellowship, where tens of thousands of prisoners all over the world came to Christ. Remember, good people don’t go to Heaven, believers go to Heaven.
“if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9
“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:13
Jesus bless you today and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 10th of May 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament, to Ezekiel 33:11:
“I (says the Lord) have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
And then Ezekiel 18:32, again the Lord says:
“For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!”
You know, many of us are dead. We are walking around, our hearts are pumping blood but we are dead in our spirits and the Gospel of Luke says:
“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:7
Jesus came for sinners, just like me and just like you. You know He is known by many titles but the title I love the most is the “Friend of sinners.” Some of the greatest sinners have become God’s greatest ambassadors. Therefore, we must never give up on a lost sheep... on a lost soul. One of them was Saul of Tarsus, that’s right! Remember he became Paul the apostle when he was knocked off his horse on the road to Damascus while he was seeking to murder Christians. And the Lord Jesus said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus.”
You know, after that conversion he went on, Paul the Apostle, to write almost two-thirds of the New Testament. He took the Gospel all over the world. Another lost sheep who found Jesus, was a man who wrote probably, the most famous of all hymns, Amazing Grace:
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
That’s right - his name was John Newton. What about Charles Carson, one of the most brilliant minds in the world. He was President (of the United States of America) Richard Nixon’s right-hand man. He was an evil man. They called him 'The Hatchet Man'. They said he would walk on his own mother’s grave to get to the top. Well, he was found out. He was sent to prison and there he met Jesus and he started The Prison Fellowship, where tens of thousands of prisoners all over the world came to Christ. Remember, good people don’t go to Heaven, believers go to Heaven.
“if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Romans 10:9
“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:13
Jesus bless you today and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, the 9th of May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Matthew 27 and I am reading from verse 55:
“And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.”
And then we go straight to John 19 and I am reading from verse 26:
“When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.”
We must never ever take our mothers for granted. We have just celebrated Mother’s Day... Never forget that Father God chose a woman to nurture, grow up, teach and to protect His only Son Jesus, when He came down from Heaven to Earth, in the form of a defenceless baby. He could have come amongst us as a mighty warrior, just as He will do the second time He comes, which could be any moment now - I can’t wait!
You know, I would give a million dollars to be able to sit down and have a cup of tea with my mom, that old Scottish lassie. Oh, I really am looking forward to seeing her in Heaven. I want to say to the young men and women, don’t waste valuable opportunities to be close to your mom. She won’t be with you forever. Give her a phone call, tell her you love her because she is the one who is responsible for bringing you up.
John Wesley the great revivalist said that his mother, Susannah, taught him more about God than all the great theologians of his time. Listen to mom. Remember, she has been there before and she will give you good, godly advice.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, the 8th of May 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble;
May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;”
Psalm 20:1
And then we go to verse 7, its a verse we all know so well:
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
Who can we put our trust in, in these troubled days? Can we put our trust and our faith in education? We thank God for education but I know many young people who are well educated who can’t get a job. Can we put our trust in the economy? One day it's up and the next it is down. Take the price of fuel for example. Can you put your trust in your health? Folks, I am a man who exercises. I ride my horse, I ride my mountain bike, I do press-ups but I can’t put my trust in my health. Can I put my trust in politics? Definitely not. One day we get promised this and the next day we get promised that - There is only One who will never, ever fail us and His name is Jesus Christ. He is totally trustworthy, He has promised us in Hebrews 13:5:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
His word is dependable and sure. You can stake your life on it and indeed, the lives of your loved ones. You see, Jesus has got an unblemished track record - He has never failed. Everything that He has promised us He has given us. His track record goes right back to the beginning of time itself. Your investments might fail you, they may fail overnight. Men may let you down with empty promises but Jesus, never! What He said He will do, He has done. Jesus said it, I believe it and that settles it. That was said by a Yorkshire plumber named Smith Wigglesworth. Jesus said:
“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.”
John 14:1
I never had the privilege of going to Bible College. I would have loved to but I went to a different college - I went to the School of Life. I have been involved in agriculture for 55 years. I have planted good seed, year after year, after year and then sat down and watched Jesus make it grow. He will do the same for you today! Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, trusting God, and watch what He will do for you.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Saturday, the 7th of May 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Psalm 19:14 - it has become a very special and dear scripture verse for me. It says:
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer”
What a beautiful scripture! Remember - if it is not inside, it is not coming out! We have got to think before we speak. We have to adhere to this statement and obey it. If we do, we shall make very much fewer mistakes in life. The Lord Jesus Christ impressed this beautiful scripture upon me many, many years ago. The Lord Himself only spoke when He had to. He stood before Pontius Pilate and Pontius Pilate said, “Have You got nothing to say?” He spoke when the Lord God, His Father, gave Him the words to speak. In Proverbs 10:19, it says very clearly:
“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking,
But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
In other words, only speak when the Lord gives you the words to speak. Now maybe some of you know that before I speak at a big meeting, wherever it might be, what I do is get on my knees and humble myself before God and before the people. I was always taught, as a young man, you preach up to people... You never preach down to people. Always perceive people to be better than what you are. And then I proceed to quote this very scripture:
“The words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart, Lord,
Let it be acceptable in Your sight, my Strength and my Redeemer.”
And then my spirit is quietened to focus on what I need to be speaking about. It prevents me from speaking about irrelevant things. Often times I have got on that platform or into that pulpit and at the last minute, the Lord changes the message that I have had to speak and that is the honest truth. And I have done my homework before hand, then I know I need to bring the message that God has laid upon my heart.
If you watch some of the world-class athletes in rugby or soccer, just before a player is about to kick the ball through the posts or into the goal, you notice that he stands... (I am talking about Christian men that I know personally). Before they kick the ball, you can see when the cameraman comes up close to their mouth, they are praying. They are probably praying a prayer similar to this verse and then they quieten themselves down and they kick the ball sweetly right through the middle of the goal. We need to pray more and speak less.
Today, quieten your spirit. Spend time in the presence of the Lord. He will give you His peace. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful weekend.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 6th of May, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the Man!”
John 19:5
Another translation says: “Here is the Man!” Jesus, who had been flogged, mocked and had a crown of thorns put on His head... Blood coming down, streaming down His face, His beard had been plucked out, He had been beaten and here He came and was presented to the people of Israel:
“Look at Him! Here is your Man” Another translation says, “Here He is, the man! Look at the poor fellow!” Oh folks, the Darling of Heaven totally humiliated and mocked by His very own creation! It wasn’t the Roman soldiers, no! It wasn’t the Jewish High Priests - It was our sin! Yours and mine... and it still happens today.
Have you ever been mocked? Have you ever been made a fool of by your peers, maybe at school or at work, on the sports field? Like the little boy that goes to Sunday school with his brand-new pair of bright, shiny brown shoes his mom bought him, he is so proud of them. He sits in a row with all the other little boys only to find out that they have all got white shoes on and they mock him. I have seen it so many times, children can be very cruel at times.
When I was at school, I remember, we had a girl there that everyone used to mock. She had bright red hair, her teeth looked like they were too big for her mouth and she had long gangly legs. She had freckles all over her face and she was mocked continually... until one day! Her sister, her big sister, came to fetch her. She was visiting and this sister was the local beauty queen! She also had long legs and she had beautiful teeth and beautiful red hair. All of a sudden we realized that this girl that everyone had been mocking, is going to look exactly like her sister one day. Just like that magnificent butterfly that started off as a caterpillar.
When Jesus returns, He will not be wearing a crown of thorns, He will not be beaten and humiliated. No, no, no! He will be the most handsome and the most dignified Man that we have ever seen. Today, go out and be encouraged. Don’t worry about what people say about you. Jesus loves you and He created you in His own image!
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
A very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning the 5th May, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament to Micah 7:8:
Do not rejoice over me, my enemy;
When I fall, I will arise;
When I sit in darkness,
The Lord will be a light to me.
Maybe we are sitting in a dark place this morning. Maybe our enemy is laughing at us. Well, the Bible says that weeping may last for a night but joy comes in the morning. We may be knocked down but we are by no means knocked out of the fight. “Why?” we might well ask - Because Jesus Christ is on our side! So, no matter how dark the situation may be, He is with us in our time of extreme testing. You see, He has been through that night of extreme darkness and He knows what we are experiencing right at this very moment.
“…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:7
You see, Jesus has been there... He was in the Garden of Gethsemane - He was left all alone, His disciples were asleep. Jesus was in absolute darkness and despair. The Bible tells us that He was sweating blood. He was taken to the High Priest’s house and was put into a pit. I have been there, I have seen that hole in the bottom of the High Priest’s home where He was left there until morning. He knew what was coming - death on a cross! Oh yes, He has been through what you and I are feeling right at this very moment. But I want to say to you, my dear friend, Jesus says in Psalm 34:19:
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Yesterday I met a gentleman who has just lost his wife. His wife for over 40 years and I could see the pain in the old man’s eyes. Tears welled up, He said, “Angus, I have had to sell my house and have now moved to an Old Age Home. I said, “Can I pray for you?” He said, “Yes, please.” I put my arm around his shoulder in the middle of a carwash business. They were washing our cars and I prayed for him. I prayed: “Lord, please be to him a Friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
I got a message yesterday of a mother who was absolutely distraught. She has lost her young son, he was killed in a car crash and she just needs help... I want to say to say to you: “Mother, stand, for the battle is the Lord’s” Ephesians 6:14.
I want to pray for you:
Lord, I pray for that mother. I pray for that old gentleman...
And not only that distraught mother and that old man, but every person who is listening to this message who is going through a time of darkness.
Stand with them, please Jesus.
I pray, Lord, that they will see that weeping lasts for the night
but joy comes in the morning.
Father, be a comfort to them today.
In Jesus’s Name,
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, the 4th of May 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight John 18:36:
“Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
We mustn’t become too comfortable here on earth, this is not our permanent home. Home time is waiting and for some of us, very soon and for me personally, I can't wait for that day. Jesus made it very plain to Pontius Pilate that this earth is not His Kingdom and not His home - Heaven is our home. We need to be careful that we do not spend all our time and all our money on our temporal dwelling here on earth and nothing for our heavenly home.
Like a story I heard of a rich lady and the maid servant that worked in her mansion. Both of them were Christians but had different value systems. The rich lady spent all her money and time making her home very beautiful, her garden was absolutely exquisite. But the maid spent most of her spare time in prayer and service towards the Lord by helping the poor folk. Eventually, the maid grew old, she grew very tired and she went to Heaven. A few years later, the rich lady also died and went to Heaven.
St Peter was waiting at the pearly gates to show the rich lady where her home was in Heaven. So they walked down streets of beautiful gold, magnificent homes built on both sides of the road. St Peter showed the rich lady a beautiful home, he said, “That is where your maid lives.” The rich lady was so excited. The road carried on, eventually the gold road turned into silver, they carried on walking and then the silver turned into tarmac. The rich lady started getting a bit concerned. And then the tarmac road turned into a gravel road and eventually a footpath. They then arrived at a little shack made with tin and poles. The rich lady said, “There must be some mistake. What has happened?” St Peter said to the rich lady, “That is the only material you sent to us for building your home here in Heaven.”
Folks, it is just a story but we must remember one thing very clearly. We are only passing through in this life. Heaven is our home. Have a wonderful day. Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, the 3rd of May 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the New Testament to the Book of Romans:
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."
Romans 1:16
Not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ! People do not have to like us but they must respect us. Peter, the big fisherman, must have felt so wretched when he said, "I am not", in John 18:17, when the servant girl asked him if he was not one of them, he said, "I am not." Yet that same very big, outspoken fisherman who denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed (just as the Lord said he would), when filled with the Holy Spirit in the upper- room, went out into the streets and unashamedly preached the Gospel and 3,000 souls were saved. This is not a time for us to hold back. we must speak up.The Lord Jesus tells us to open our mouths wide and He will fill it - Psalm 81:10. Do not miss the opportunity today, for some poor lost soul it might be their last chance to hear the Gospel before they die.
You know there was a preacher named Mordecai Ham... that is a mouthful, isn't it? Many people don't know who he was, but he was not afraid to speak up. He was a country evangelist. One week night during a small evangelistic campaign, as he was preaching his heart out, preaching the truth, a young 16 year old dairy farmer's son who wanted to be was a professional baseball player, reluctantly came to the meeting to listen to the preacher. He heard the good news preached with no apologies, no frills - straight from the heart, full of love. He went forward at the altar call and gave his life to Christ. That young dairy farmer's son who responded to the call was none other than Dr Billy Graham, rated by some people as the greatest modern day evangelist of all time.
Today, don't waste an opportunity, don't be afraid. Just open your mouth and tell people about the love of Christ. Like never before in the world people are desperate to hear the truth.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 2nd of May 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today!
If we go to Deuteronomy 32, I am reading from verse 10:
“He found him in a desert land
And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He encircled him, He instructed him,
He kept him as the apple of His eye
As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,
So the Lord alone led him,
And there was no foreign god with him.”
The apple of His eye!
“For he who touches you touches the apple of His eye.”
Zachariah 2:8
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you…”
John 15:16
Do you know that you are the apple of God’s eye?
I have a daughter, my youngest, she has siblings but she openly tells her brothers and sisters that she is my favourite child. By the way, she is married and has three boys of her own... Of course her siblings do not believe that for a moment but that is not the point - The point is, she does! The Lord says:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
1 Corinthians 2:9
You see, it depends what you feel today... I want to tell you that He loves you so much that He died for you! There was a very famous Zulu preacher named was William Duma. This little man was driving his little car one dark night in a dangerous township area in Kwa-zulu Natal, South Africa. As he came around a corner he found that the road was blocked with debris. So he stopped his little car, in the middle of the road, got out and started to move the branches off of the road. Some men came out of the bush with knives and clubs to attack him, the man of God, but he stopped them in their tracks. He said, “Do you know who I am?”. They stopped, they couldn’t believe it. He said, “I am a child of the Living God. If you touch me, you touch God.” They dropped their weapons and ran into the bush. He cleared the road, got in his little car and proceeded on his way - God’s man!
Today, as you go out remember, you are the apple of God’s eye and if God is with you, there is no man that will harm you.
Have a blessed day and God bless you.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, 1st May, 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the Revelation, the last book in the Bible, Jesus says:
“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”
Revelation 3:5
Do you know that seven times, I have counted - seven times, Jesus speaks about overcoming. Now, that does not mean that we have arrived, no. It means we have to keep on running the race which is set before us. If we look at Philippians 3:12, this is what the word of God says. Paul says:
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
But you know the good news is that we are not running this race alone. No, our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, is running this marathon with us, one step at a time, just like the bus driver that you will find on an ultra-marathon. He sets the pace. Now it is not an actual bus. It is a group of people that run with a man that they trust. He puts a little reed in his belt, behind him with a flag on it, and you follow after him. He knows what it will take to finish this ultra-marathon. He is the one who tells you when to stop, to have a drink of water or to have something to eat. He tells you when to walk, when to jog and then he tells you when to stop and have a rest.
If you listen to the bus driver, if you obey him, he will get you over the finish line. I remember, often he would tell us to start singing when he saw that we were getting very tired. He would tell us to start swinging our arms around like a windmill getting the blood going, picking our legs up. He would sing songs, some of them were like nursery rhymes. He would keep the spirits up because he knew - he had been there before. Now, Jesus is our literal bus driver. He says, “If you obey Me, I will get you home. If you obey Me and My statutes, you will be over-comers.” And He will help us to make it right to the end.
Today, try not to do it on your own because we can’t make it on our own. Rather get onto that bus, get into that group of believers and let's run this race together, helping each other until we become complete overcomers. Have a wonderful Sunday as you contemplate on the race that you are running.
Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is the 30th of April, Saturday morning, 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament and just one verse:
“Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Ecclesiastes 4:12
Then we go straight to John 17:21, Jesus says:
“That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
Strength in unity - there are no Lone Rangers in the Kingdom of God, no one man shows. Jesus desires that we get on together, even as He and His Father in Heaven work together. We need to stop fighting each other and to start helping each other. God never designed us to be loners, He put us together in families. A three-fold cord is not easily broken, the Bible says - Jesus is in the middle of your friendship, your relationship and in the middle of your marriage.
Many, many years ago I went to Australia. I was working on a ranch as a cowboy and I had to find accommodation in the local town, a village. Now, I had money, I could have easily found the hotel and booked in to stay there but no, I found a family. One of the poorest families in town - a dad, mom and three small children. He was a road-worker, she was a waitress. They were wonderful people but very poor and they needed the extra income, so they took me on as their border. Why didn’t I stay in the hotel where I could have had my own room? I could have had three good meals everyday, I had the money. Why did I go and stay with this family... probably one of the poorest families in the village. I will tell you why - Because I was homesick, I was lonely and because I needed a friend.
I remember they put me in the middle bunk. The one little boy slept at the bottom, and the other one slept at the top, I had to slide in the middle but you know something? We had a wonderful time together. They took me everywhere they went, it was amazing!
Jesus is a friend who sticks closer than any brother (Proverbs 18:24). We need to spend time together this weekend. We need to say sorry if we have offended each other. We need to really put family, loved ones and friendship right at the top of our list. We need to put Jesus at the very top because He will never leave us and He will never forsake us.
Have a wonderful weekend this weekend as you spend time together.
Jesus bless you! Goodbye.
A very good morning to you it is Friday morning, the 29th of April the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Psalm 14 And just one verse:
"The fool has said in his heart, there is no God."
That must be the greatest and the most foolish statement ever made truly. And then we go straight to Matthew 16, I'm reading from verse 15:
"He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus says, if you've seen me, you've seen my Father because we are one with the Holy Spirit. We can go into the jungle, I've been there. We can go into the darkest reaches where people have never seen or heard of a Christian missionary. And we can ask a man if there is a God and he will tell you, straight away, that there is a great being - that there is a Creator. A man who can't read, a man who can't write but he knows because God has put eternity into the heart of men. They asked Albert Einstein, who is regarded by some as probably the greatest mathematician scientist of all time. He said, there is definitely a God. So the absolute arrogance and rebellion of a person who has the audacity, a creation, to say that his creator does not exist is the complete extreme of foolishness.
You might say this morning, but where is this God you're always speaking about. Ah, I want to tell you, my dear friend... I see my lord in the early morning as the sun rises. Oh, yes, as I brought that crop of corn of maize, and I see it coming through the ground the miracle of new life. I know that my Redeemer lives. Another farmer said that his name was Job. You know, when I hear the loss of a baby, wrestling on the Lord with his mom or his dad, man, I can see Jesus. When I see a couple who have just fallen in love. And I see how they look at each other in absolute amazement, I can see the Creator.
The other day, we had a little foal born on our farm, a beautiful little colt, and the way his mother runs around after him, that big horse, and just dotes over him is quite something to see. When I see one of my children when they've had their first child, and they hold that little baby in their arms. And they look at the child with absolute amazement because they can't believe that that child belongs to them and looks like them. Oh, my dear friend, there is no doubt about it. We have a God and that God walked on this earth. That's right, 2000 years ago, and he lived for 33 years on this earth to show us and to prove to us that he's a friend that sticks closer than a brother and then he's coming back very soon to take us to be with him in paradise.
Today, go out and thank God for what he's done for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, the 28th of April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25, I am reading from verse 37:
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
What powerful words! My wife and I visited a very quaint little coastal town in the Southern Cape. It was a lovely day and it was my turn to do the cooking, so I decided to go downtown to a fish and chip shop and buy some fish and chips... much easier than cooking! I walked into this little fish and chip shop and I placed my order. While I was standing, waiting for the ladies to make the fish and chips, I looked up on the wall and there in bold lettering was this beautiful inscription, printed on a large board, I want to read to you. It was written by William Penn, a quaker, who went from Britain to the United States of America and formed the State of Pennsylvania. He was a quaker and also wore a hat, just like I do.
And this is what he said:
“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”
And I want to tell you that that sobered me up right away. I want to say to you today let’s take our eyes off the carnage and world politics, etc, taking place. We can’t do anything about that, can we? No, we can’t but you know something? We can pray, and we do. But let's go out today and be Jesus’ hands and Jesus’ feet to those who cannot help themselves. Do something today for someone who can’t pay you back.
Have a wonderful day today as you ponder on that beautiful saying written by William Penn.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, 27th of April, 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the word of God in Philippians 4 and just one verse, verse 19:
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
What a promise! You know, if you get a deposit made by the bank into your cellphone account or on your computer for a certain amount of money, from somebody, it is usually dated. It can be drawn or spent on that day, you can bank on it... Excuse the pun! The national bank is your guarantee. You can’t see it but you have to believe it. We need fresh faith every single morning to believe God’s promises. Like a young businessman who believes that he can make a huge investment work... He persuades the bank to lend him the money and then the test comes to see the dream - the vision materialize! That takes raw, undiluted God-given faith.
In 2008, we believed God. We believed that God gave us a vision to stage a Mighty Men Conference on the farm and to feed 50,000 men, for an entire weekend, for free. The bank did not guarantee that meeting but God did! I remember we slaughtered over 40 oxen for just one meal.
We cut 200 litre steel drums in half and used them as pots for cooking. We built big fires underneath them and then cooked the meals for the men. They made their own breakfast but we provided the rest of the meals. It started on Friday night and finished on Sunday morning. Who paid? The Bank of Heaven paid!
Today, find out what God wants. Get confirmation from Jesus and then with childlike faith, go and do it. God will not disappoint you, He has never ever disappointed me once in my life. May the Lord bless you and have a very special day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, the 26th of April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we go to Psalm 12 and I am reading from verse 1:
“Help,Lord, for the godly man ceases!
For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.
They speak idly everyone with his neighbour;
With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.”
Flattery is a dangerous thing, we are not supposed to flatter people. We are supposed to encourage people, even rebuke people, in love if necessary, but never flatter anyone - It doesn’t help at all. The great writer, Oswald Chambers, who wrote that amazing devotional, My Utmost for His Highest, said he took no notice of criticism and he took no notice of flattery. He treated them both as the same enemy. Don’t listen to flattery, it will not help you one little bit! Concentrate on the truth, Jesus Christ is the Truth! He says to us clearly in John 17:17:
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your Word is truth.”
Encourage people but never flatter them. I remember a dear friend of mine in Australia, who personally knew and grew up with one of the most famous actors in the business... And this man said to him once: “I want you to come with me to a premier.” They were holding a premier in Sydney, Australia. This American actor said, “I want you to walk ten paces behind me on the red carpet when all the paparazzi and the cameras are flashing and listen to what the people say”, so he did exactly that. As the actor arrived the people were screaming and shouting and saying, “Wow, it’s fantastic, what an amazing movie, what an amazing actor!” And then when he had walked passed, his friend, my friend, was walking 15 paces behind him and heard the people say, “You know something, he is not as tall as I thought he was.” and “He is starting to lose his hair...” and “He looks nothing like he did in the movie.” Flattery gets you nowhere.
Be truthful. Always be gentle with people and be loving. Most of all remember, sanctify one another with the truth of the Word of God. Have a wonderful day today as you encourage one another and flatter no man.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, a new week - the 25th of April, 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Just one verse this morning... Jesus says:
“I have glorified You on the earth. (He is talking to His Father) I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”
John 17:4
God is not interested in good starters, He is only interested in good finishers. We need to finish the task that has been set before us by our Lord. I remember when I was actively farming, sometimes I would prepare the land and prepare a beautiful crop of corn (maize) and tend it with tender loving care. Then a drought would come and the maize would start taking strain, it would start twisting. It would start looking like onions. And I thought a potential disaster was on its way. Some of my neighbours in the past have put the plough in and said, “We will start over again.” But I felt, “No, I must finish what I have started.” And I tended it and I looked after it as best I could and yes, the rain came and the crop grew. Often, it was the best crop that I had ever planted because no one else had any corn and the price went up so we got a good price for our crop. But I finished the job. We need to finish the job that the Lord gives to us.
I just watched something, the 1992 Olympic Games, and I want to tell you something now, I sat there with tears in my eyes. A runner, a 400-metre runner, at the Olympic Games at the top of his game. What an occasion to be selected by your country to run in the Olympic Games - Derek Redmond. The race started, the gun went off and the runners were running. They were so fleet at foot, it was an amazing thing to watch and then halfway through the race, he must have pulled his muscle in his leg and he went down on the track... he lay there in a crumpled heap.
It was devastating, a massive crowd, television right around the world, watching this young man. The next thing, we see a figure coming out of the crowd, running across the track. Yes, it was his dad, picking him up... Oh folks, picking him up, putting his arm around his neck and starting to carry him to the finish-line.
The officials ran across the track, trying to tell his dad to go and sit down. He pushed them aside. “Leave me. I am finishing the race with my son.” A potential tragedy turned out to be, probably, one of the most memorable incidents in the entire history of the Olympic Games. Why, because he came first? No, not at all, he came last actually. He walked across the finish line... He didn’t even walk, he hobbled across, arm in arm with his dad. Oh, what an occasion folks, it makes me want to cry. You see, it is not how you start, it is how you finish. He would not stop and his dad supported him all the way, he fought off the officials and finished the race.
I want to say to you, today, get up and finish your race. Whether it be your marriage, your business, your degree or your ministry - finish what you have started and Jesus will stand up in Heaven and clap for you.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, the 24th of April, 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to John 16:33, one of my favourite scriptures - Jesus says:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Jesus has overcome the things that are going wrong in this world. But we say, “But it doesn’t seem like it. It seems like evil is abounding. The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer.” Then we go straight to Proverbs in the Old Testament:
“Do not fret because of evildoers,
Nor be envious of the wicked;
For there will be no prospect for the evil man;
The lamp of the wicked will be put out.”
Proverbs 24:19
Revenge - that word revenge. Some of us want revenge... Well, the Oxford Dictionary says revenge means retaliation for an injury or a wrong. We see corruption, we see abuse. We see people taking advantage of the poor and the defenceless. But the Lord has told us that this world will be filled with hardship and tribulation because the devil is going around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8.
Some of us are getting so bent out of shape that we are losing our joy, even our very own faith because we are seeing what is going on, which is so wrong, all over the world. Don’t do that! That is exactly what satan wants. Let’s understand one thing. We are on the winning side. Let the Lord Jesus Christ deal with all the corruption and the injustice.
You know, I remember like yesterday, there was a massive cup final, a rugby cup final, in South Africa. The one team was winning the match. There were only a couple of minutes to go and the referee blew the whistle and gave a penalty to the winning side. All they had to do was to kick the ball out and they would have won the match but the one player started to argue with the referee and what happened? The ref changed the decision, he reversed the decision to the losing side and one of their players stepped up and he kicked the ball right through the posts and they won the match by a couple of points. Now all that player had to do, on the winning side, was just kick the ball out and let the ref make the decision but no, he did not. He kept trying to take the law into his own hands and lost the match. The whole crowd went silent! I will never forget it as long as I live. I think that player had to be escorted from the field, the people were so angry.
Let God be the judge. He has told us that in Him we will have peace.
Have a wonderful Sunday. Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you, it is Saturday morning, 23rd of April, 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed,
A refuge in times of trouble.”
Psalm 9:9
And then we go straight to that famous Psalm:
“Because he (that is you and I) has set his love upon Me (that is the Lord Jesus), therefore I will deliver him; (or her)
I will set him on high, because he has known My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will deliver him and honor him.”
Psalm 91:14-15
Have you got a safe place? Is there somewhere in the house, business, school or the hospital... a place where you can find refuge from the trouble of this world? Remember, the Lord says to us not to run from Him but rather to run to Him. We must not be like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane when they all fled and left Jesus on His own. The only person in the whole world that could have saved them and they ran away from Him, we must be careful that we don’t do that.
You know that great English preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, they called him the 'prince of preachers' - At the age of 21, they built him the London Tabernacle, which can seat 10,000 people... He had no formal education. But do you know something, He knew the Man from Galilee. Now the way he got saved was one night in a tremendous snowstorm. He was trying to get out of the storm and he slipped into a little country church where he heard a layman, probably a farmworker, preaching. He heard one word, Isaiah 45:22:
“Look to Me, and be saved”
It changed his life. He found his safe place. William Carey took the Gospel to India. He translated the Bible from English into many Asiatic languages. He worked non-stop but he had a safe place, he had a refuge. He had a rose garden. He said he would go and sit in his rose garden and he would find peace. He said, “Attempt great things for God and expect great things from God.”
Jesus went up the mountain. Many times the disciples said, “Where are You, Lord? We can’t find you. The multitudes, the crowds are waiting for you - He was in His safe place. He was hearing from His Father in Heaven, for instruction. What about you today? My safe place is riding my horse, Snowy. I get so much joy and peace for my spirit-man when I am on my horse. I also have a quiet time place. I spend time in the place of refuge and that is where the Lord strengthens me. You do the same today.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, the 22nd of April 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Psalm 30:5:
“Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.”
And then John 16:22:
“Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.”
How are you feeling this morning? Do you feel like giving up? Well, please don’t even go there... Jesus has promised that He is coming back for us. You know, He talks about childbirth - He says when a woman is having a baby, it is very painful indeed, physically painful as well. But what joy when that baby is born... to see the face of that mother! The pain instantly disappears even though she has gone through a very torrid time.
I want to say that this is for the gentlemen listening, if having babies were left up to the men, to give birth, this world would be extinct! That’s right because we are a bunch of sissies, aren’t we? But I want to salute the ladies this morning - What an amount of pain you endure for the birth of that little blessing from the Lord.
You know, one of South Africa’s greatest sportsmen, I am talking about Gary Player, who won the major golf titles in the whole world - somebody once said to him, “Gary, you are so lucky. You seem to hit the ball so sweetly all the time.” And his reply was, “Yes, it's funny. The harder I practice, the luckier I seem to get.” Yes, no pain, no gain. We need to keep on, keeping on for Jesus. We need to keep focused because the Lord is coming back, sooner than you think, and we need to be ready for Him. You say, “But it’s so hard.” I know it is, I really do know exactly what you are feeling.
Psalm 126 verse 5, Jesus says:
“Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.”
When Jesus meets us on that wonderful day all the pain, the suffering will disappear. Have a wonderful day and God bless you.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, the 21st of April 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
If we go to Psalm 23, probably the best-known psalm, I am reading from verse 1:
“The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.”
And then straight to 1 Peter 2:25:
"and we like sheep going astray."
I want to say, there is nothing worse for me than to see a sheep lost in a field... We used to keep sheep. They are beautiful animals but they are so vulnerable. It is one animal that cannot protect itself and to see a sheep running around in a paddock that doesn’t know where it is going, is very, very sad to me.
John 10:11, tells us that Jesus says:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.”
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep. Jesus is our Shepherd. I remember many, many years ago I was studying agriculture at the North of Scotland College of Agriculture. There was a student there. I remember his name - His name was MacMillan and he came from the West Coast of Scotland. He was a shepherd and he was the only student that received permission to go home, a very mountainous area, to bring his flock of sheep down to the lowlands where they could give birth to their little lambs in safety. Why? Because he was the only one who knew the way to bring them down from those high mountains. I want to say to you today that Jesus knows the way. He says in John 14:6:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Today, look to the Good Shepherd and He will lead you home. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, the 20th of April 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
If we go to Psalm 8, I am reading from verse 4:
“What is man the You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels
And You have crowned him with glory and honour
You have made him to have dominion
over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet…”
What a beautiful scripture! The Lord loves us so much that He has put all creation under our feet, literally. God cares for you my dear friend and He cares for me. If we go to Matthew 8:25, the disciples were in the boat. It was sinking but Jesus was sleeping. They woke Him up and they said, “Save us, Lord, we are perishing!” They thought that they would drown in the storm but Jesus saved them and He wants to save you today... Save you from yourself, actually.
You know, Peter the big fisherman had so disgraced himself that he never thought that Jesus would ever have anything more to do with him. Remember, after saying to the Lord that he would die for Him, he denied Him three times. The Lord knew that and when he sent the angel to tell the disciples in Mark 16:7 telling them to go to Galilee and to wait for Him… Let’s read it, starting from verse 6:
“Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. (Now, listen to this!) But go, tell His disciples - and Peter - that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”
He knew that Peter would not come because he felt so terrible. The Lord said, “Tell the disciples... and Peter.” That is how much the Lord Jesus Christ loves us - It is a miracle! Do you know, the Lord knows us individually by name. And do you know that He has given each one of us individual fingerprints? Now they say there are approximately 7.5 billion people on the earth at the moment and yet there is not another person who has the same fingerprints as you! Never mind the billions that have gone before us. He loves us and He cares for us.
Do you know the word mindful? I looked it up in the dictionary, it means to be aware of something - He is aware of you. We had an old couple that came to join us on the farm, Uncle Jimmy and Aunty Moira. They just arrived here one day. He said, "God has told me to come and help you." And so I said, "That’s fine." We put them in a little cottage and they came to stay with us. When Uncle Jimmy was dying, on his deathbed, he used to call me, “Jock”, he said to me, “Jock, take care and be mindful of Aunty Moira.” I gave him my word and I said, "Until the day she dies..." and I did but I want to tell you, Jesus loves us so much.
Our Heavenly Father said in the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, for God so loved you and me that He gave us His only begotten Son. Have a wonderful day and remember, He loves you and He is mindful of you!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning the 19th of April, the year 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to James, at the back of the New Testament:
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.”
James 2:23
One of the only men in the whole Bible that God looked down from Heaven and He saw that farmer, Abraham, and said, “That man is My friend.” Everybody wants to be God’s friend, even the devil wants to be God’s friend but not many men are called the friend of God. Why was that? It is because Abraham believed God. Abraham obeyed God and that is why He is known as the friend of God. What an amazing thing! Don’t you and I want to be known as the friend of God?
It's because he was a man of faith. Romans 1:17 says the just, the righteous will walk by faith. God is not interested in our efforts. He is not interested even in our good works. He only is concerned about us trusting in Him, why? Because it glorifies His Son, Jesus.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1
St Augustine said, “Faith is to believe what you cannot see. But the reward of that faith is to see what you believe.” Now, I can hear someone saying, “How do you access that kind of faith?” It is very simple, it is found in Romans 10:17:
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
That’s right, it is by reading your Bible systematically. By believing the promises of God and then executing them - That’s how you get faith. We have a saying here at Shalom. It goes something like this: You must attempt something that is so big that if it is not of God, it is doomed to fail. Why? Well, if it works, God gets all the glory because people will know that no man could have done it. It’s like planting potatoes in a year when El Nino, the drought, is threatening... I will never forget it, will I? No.
I was at Kings Park Rugby Stadium and I opened my big mouth, once again. “I am going home to plant potatoes with no irrigation.” Why? Because people, the radio stations were telling the rural farmers, not to plant their crops in marginal areas because it wasn’t going to rain. And you know what? God gave us a crop of beautiful potatoes.
Today, step out in faith and believe in the promises of God. He will reward you.
God bless you and goodbye!
And a very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 18th April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to John 21:17:
“He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”
We have work to do! If we go to 2 Peter 3:9:
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
That is why the Lord is tarrying. He does not want one person to go to a lost eternity. He told Peter, “Feed My sheep.” You know, a very special place for me in Israel is Peter’s Landing. It is right on the shore of that beautiful lake, Galilee, if you go there, there is a beautiful statue of the Lord Jesus speaking to Peter. That is exactly where He said to the boys, “Have you caught anything.” And they said, “No, Lord.” And He said, “Throw the net on the other side”, and remember? They brought in a huge amount of fish. Three times, the Lord Jesus said to Peter, “Do you love me?” Maybe, some people say because three times Peter had denied the Lord. The Lord said, “Peter do you love me?” “Yes Lord, I love You.” “Feed my sheep.” That is why the Lord Jesus is taking so long to come. He wants everyone to have the opportunity to hear the Gospel. He doesn’t want anybody to perish. Maybe you need to go out and tell three people what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for you.
You know, I remember it like yesterday, I had just come to know the Lord and I was at a Polo cross game. I was repping the game, standing behind the goal posts. They call polo cross “rugby on horseback”. And my friend, Jannie Barnard was standing next to me and he said to me, “Angus, you have changed. You are different.” And I smiled and he said, “ I want what you have got.” I said, “I will see you tomorrow afternoon at 4 o’clock in my dream cathedral, in my maize fields.” Well, you know, that afternoon, I didn’t know what to say. I was so nervous. I had never told anyone about Jesus. I said, “Jill, I just don’t know what to say.” She said, “Just tell him what Jesus means to you.” One hungry beggar showing another hungry beggar where to find bread! Jannie gave his life to Christ in that maize field! We wept, we cried, we hugged each other and a few years later he went to be with the Lord.
You know, on that same field, many, many years later, I had the privilege of praying that same prayer, telling people about Jesus - to tens of thousands of men! Isn’t God amazing!
Go out today and feed His sheep.
God bless you,
And a very good morning to you! It is Resurrection Sunday - Sunday morning the 17th of April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” So they came and held Him by the feet and worshiped Him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell My brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me.”
Matthew 28:9-10
He is alive, He is not dead! The tomb is empty. Death has lost it’s sting, once and for all! You know there are many religions in the world and many gods. You can go to their graves, you can go to their tombs and you can see where their bones are buried. You know that if you go to the Old City in Jerusalem you can even see the casket where the remains of King David are buried. I’ve been there... but not Jesus!
The tomb is empty, I’ve been there too and the grave is empty! Why? Because He is not dead. He is alive I tell you. Now, if you can believe that’s true, you too will never die. That’s why Jesus said to the two Marys; "Rejoice!"
The Oxford dictionary says the meaning of the word rejoice is to experience great joy.
Are you full of joy this morning? You know, the great evangelist Billy Graham once said,” One day, you’ll open the newspaper and you’ll read that Billy Graham died. He said, "Don’t believe a word of it, I won’t have died, I will simply have changed my address." Isn’t that true?
Maybe some people listening to this message today are actually dead. Your heart is still pumping but there’s no life in you. Today is Resurrection Sunday. Ask Jesus to give you a new life. One of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is Romans 8:11 and this is what it says:
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
That same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead can give you new life today, new beginnings.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
Make it a special day today - the 17th of April, 2022. Lord Jesus come into my heart and give me new life.
Have a wonderful day! God bless you and enjoy Resurrection Sunday. Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 16th of April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“My soul, wait silently for God alone,
For my expectation is from Him.”
Psalm 62:5
Are you feeling disappointed this morning? I looked up the Oxford Dictionary the meaning of the word, disappointed. It is: “To be sad or displeased because one’s hopes or expectations have not been fulfilled.”
We need to ask a question today - Who are we putting our expectations in, man or God? You see, it is not fair to put your hope or your expectation in a person because that person cannot fulfil your dream, only Jesus can. Now the disciples went through this very thing:
“Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.”
They said to him, “We are going with you also.”
John 21:3
Have you ever felt like that, like your dreams have been shattered? For three years they had walked with Jesus, they saw Him walk on water - No-one has ever done that before!
They saw Him raise the dead. They saw Jesus heal the sick, cast out demons and even change the weather. They used to sit together and argue about who was going to sit next to Him in Heaven and then everything collapsed, right in front of their very eyes. Jesus died, was crucified and buried in a tomb. The Roman soldiers were hunting Him down.
Maybe today you are feeling like that as well. Maybe you are dealing with a broken relationship; maybe a business deal that failed miserably. Maybe a child of yours who you were hoping would do so well has disappointed you or you have just come back and you have a doctor’s report where they say they cannot help you anymore. I have good news for you, it is not over yet, do not give in! You and I are on the brink of a mighty miracle!
Jesus is in the habit of turning a potential disaster into a glorious victory - Only believe! Wait for tomorrow, it's on its way!
Jesus bless you. Have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, Good Friday morning! The 15th of April 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
John 15:13
The greatest act of love ever shown in the history of the world! We need to understand that the Lord Jesus Christ, on this Good Friday, paid the ultimate price for you and me. And we really need to take time out today... Maybe, just to sit and meditate a while on the great and wonderful gift that He gave to us - Jesus took our place. In John 18:8, the Word of God tells us that Jesus said:
“I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way”
Our Master lived a selfless life. I am a farmer, I know this verse very well:
“…unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
John 12:24
Jesus died on this day, 2000 years ago so that we could live forever - What a gift! You probably know I am a bee-keeper, I love bees very much. They are wonderful little creatures, they make honey which is pure and clean and medicinal. Do you know that that little honeybee will defend its hive, its home, at all costs, yes! A bee can deliver a sting that is quite painful, for a while, but it won’t kill you. But do you know that every time a little honeybee stings someone, it dies? They leave the sting in you and they go and sit somewhere and die. That is what Jesus did for you and I - He died so that we might live.
The catacombs of Rome, you probably know about them, are caves underground where the early Christians used to hide when the Roman soldiers were trying to hunt them down to kill them because they would not deny their faith in Jesus Christ. In my prayer-room, I have got a little hand cross. I put this cross in my hand when I am praying and I squeeze it tightly. The corners cut into my fingers and they remind me of the pain that Jesus suffered, on this day, 2000 years ago so that my sins could be forgiven. Jesus loves you, he loves me, so much that he died for us. Today, let's spend time in His presence.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 14th of April, the year 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament, to Isaiah 53:3:
“He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
And then, straight to the New Testament to John 1 and I am reading from verse 10:
“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.”
As we go into this Easter time, the most important date on the Christian calendar, we remember that Jesus did not sit on His throne in Heaven and dictate operations on earth, oh no! He got His hands dirty, He came down to Earth from Heaven and He got involved - He really does know how we are feeling today. You see, Jesus has been despised, he has been rejected, he is acquainted with our grief, he was even betrayed and that is why we can take our problems to Him. He really does understand. He says:
“Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28
You always know when someone understands what you have been through because that person has probably been there before... He is not a person who speaks a lot, he doesn’t give a lot of advice, no. They are quick to weep with you, comfort you, sit sometimes in the gutter with you and put their arms around you and comfort you. He doesn’t tell you to pull yourself together, read some scripture verses and get going. Jesus is exactly the same, He identifies with us because He has been there before.
I remember a story of a man who had come from the Eastern Block, from a communist country, where he had been persecuted. He had been put in chains. This man was standing on the platform, there was a huge crowd there but they were becoming restless. They weren’t really identifying with what he was trying to tell them. He was trying to tell them how his brothers and sisters in the communist countries were suffering. Eventually, in frustration, he stopped speaking. He started to undo his shirt. The people looked at each other and they must have said, “What is he trying to do?” He undid his shirt and took it off in the middle of the meeting. He turned around and they saw his back - His back looked like a ploughed field. It was full of scars where he had been beaten and thrashed by the communists and then the people went quiet because they understood that this man knew what he was talking about.
Jesus knows exactly what we are going through, so today, take your problems, your fears and your pain to Him for he knows.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye
And a very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, and the date is the 13th of April, the year 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”
John 15:16
He chose us, we didn’t choose Him. What an incredible privilege but of course, with it goes an incredible responsibility. Even as Jesus called the disciples, He is calling us this morning. If we look at Matthew 4:19, we will see that Jesus called the disciples. He said,
“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
Does that mean that we need to give up our occupations? Not necessarily but we do need to bear fruit where God has put us. You say, “There was a time when I walked very close to the Lord but the pressures of this life have taken me far from God. Is there maybe any hope left for me? Yes, indeed. If Jesus could still call Peter after he denied the Lord three times then He can give us a second chance as well. All we need to do is say sorry, dust ourselves off and get straight back into the race.
Right through the Bible, we see that men messed up regularly. They really did and God persisted with them because He had called them. He didn’t give up on them and He won’t give up on you or me today. What we have got to do is say sorry and get started again.
Moses - Moses took the Israeli nation out of slavery. He took them through the wilderness for forty years and yet he was a murderer... Remember, he killed the Egyptian slavedriver. Jacob - Jacob was a liar, that’s what he was, and yet the Lord changed his name to Israel. David - David was an adulterer and yet the Lord said, “He is the apple of My eye.” He repented - That is what they all did.
He is calling you and me today. Let’s respond... I would like to pray a little prayer with you today, if you would like to pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Please forgive me for going into the far country.
Forgive me for not putting You first in my life.
Lord, I can hear this morning, loud and clear, that you are calling me once again.
I want to respond Lord and I want to get back in the race and I want to serve You with all of my heart.
In Jesus’s name.
Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, the 12th of April, 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Luke 13, I am reading from verse 34. Jesus said:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and [k]assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”
You and I are so loved by God, so very loved. There is a little church on the slopes of the Mount of Olives, it sits directly opposite the Temple Mount. You have to walk down the Mount of Olives until you get to the Kidron Valley and then up the other side to reach the Temple Mount where Solomon built the Temple. Jesus would have sat there and wept over Jerusalem. He knew what was coming, not only to the city but right up to this very present day that we are living in.
He wants to tell us this morning that He is here to love and protect us, just like the mother hen protects her little chicks. I heard a beautiful story many years ago. In the mighty Drakensburg Mountains when the men were burning firebreaks as winter was approaching. These firebreaks were to stop fire from spreading. Men were walking along the firebreaks they had burnt and it was just black and charred. They were checking to see that nothing was left smouldering before going home. They saw the burnt remains of a wild bird lying in the path, it was a partridge. It was caught by the fire, its wings were spread out and it was lying there dead. When they turned it over there was a little clutch of chicks, alive and well. She had protected her chicks with her very life.
Oh, my dear friend, that is what Jesus wants to do for you and me as we remember Him at this Easter Time. Today, allow Him to protect you and to look after you.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Monday morning, 11th of April, the year 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Can you hear the rain on the tin roof? That is the music we are going to be hearing in Heaven!
"... the joy of the Lord is your strength"
Nehemiah 8:10
And then we go straight to John 15:11, Jesus says:
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full...”
Enjoy time spent with the Master because that’s where our strength lies. Remember, you cannot earn your way to Heaven. We are going to Heaven through God’s grace alone. What is grace? It is undeserved, loving-kindness, unmerited favour. Ephesians 2:8 says:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”
We really need to enjoy our time with the Lord. Enjoy His music, that’s right... Some love the old hymns, some love Country & Western music, others love modern Gospel music. I love all Christian music. Enjoy the food God has given us. Some people just eat vegetables, some people just love eating meat - I enjoy eating food. And of course, all children love eating ice cream.
Folks, we have got to enjoy the time God has given us on this earth. Enjoy exercising, some people love running, others swimming. Some love riding their mountain bikes, as I do, others sailing. We have got to enjoy our time with the Lord because that is where our strength lies. What hobbies have you got? Some people love photography, others carpentry, and some love riding horses. I love riding Snowy as often as I can but most of all, enjoy spending time with the Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, “But I battle to keep awake when I am praying.” Well, start walking when you pray and I mean that. Some of you are saying, “I struggle to read the Bible and concentrate.” Well, get a translation that you can understand. Some say, “Well, I just can’t find the time.” You need to discipline yourself and have a fixed time each day to spend alone, alone in His presence. Without a doubt, I want to say to you, my dear friend, that the most favourite time of the day for me is spending time and enjoying God.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, the 10th of April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”
Ephesians 6:16
The shield of faith is what will hold off, quench and put to an end the fiery darts - the accusations of the devil. We must remember clearly here, that the devil cannot physically harm you. He is a liar, he is a thief and that is why he will attack you with his lies. That is why we need the shield of faith. Psalm 28:7 says:
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; (yes, that is right!)
My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
And with my song, I will praise Him.”
He cannot hurt you, he can only upset you if... you believe his lies. Remember, the Bible tells us after doing all of that, stand, don’t run. If you have your back on the devil you have no protection from the back. All the armour of God is to protect you from the front. Face your situation today and God will fight for you. Never, ever turn your back on your opponent.
Any successful boxer will tell you that as soon as you take your eyes off your opponent and you look away, you will lose the fight. It doesn’t matter how intense the fight is, keep your eyes on him and smile at him. It doesn’t matter how painful it is, just smile. I tell you what, you will undo him so quickly because he doesn’t know what else to do.
How do we overcome these lies, these fiery darts of the devil's? Well, there is only one way, the same way as Jesus defeated the devil in the desert. That’s right - He said, “It is written” - the power of the Bible. It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” It is written, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord your God.” - It is written.
Do you know, every single morning before Jill and I get out of bed, we put on the armour of God. The whole armour of God and then we face the day together. We start off with the helmet of salvation, and then we put on the breastplate of righteousness, then we put the belt of truth around our waist and we clad our feet with the Gospel of peace. We take up that same shield of faith and then we take up the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Then we go out with the joy of our Lord, which is our strength.
Have a blessed day today.
Jesus bless you and Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 9th of April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“I can do all things”
- that is a wonderful promise, isn’t it? But we must read the whole verse, not just half of the verse. It says:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13
We cannot do it on our own.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5
I want to say that again. Jesus says: "for without Me you can do nothing.”
I wish I had known that as a young man because I struggled. I worked and I did things in my own strength - they never amounted to anything. When I handed over to Jesus, all of a sudden, things started coming right. As we remember this Easter Season, Pontius Pilate had Jesus standing in front of him and he honestly believed, because he represented Rome which ruled the world, He said to Jesus, “I have the power to crucify or to release You.” (John 19:10-11) And Jesus said to him, “You have no power because the power that you have only comes from God. God gave you the permission.” We really need to remember that - Without Christ, we can do nothing.
Every time I preach, I get down on my knees and I pray before the Lord, “Lord, that You would watch over the words of my mouth and the meditation in my heart, for I ask it in Your precious name.” And then I preach, if I don’t do that, there is no power at all. Remember, Romans 8:31 says that if Christ is for us, who can stand against us? Now, the Lord is the One who prunes the branches of the vine, isn’t He? He says that the branches that bear the most fruit, He prunes the hardest and I sometimes say, “But Lord, does that make sense?” And He says, “But I want more fruit from you, Angus.”
Remember though, that the pain of the pruning is much more painful for the vinedresser than it is for us. That’s right because He holds the pruning shears in His hand but He has a hole in His hand that He received on the Cross of Calvary. It is more painful for Him than it is for us but at the end of the day, oh folks, it is so worthwhile.
Let Him prune you today. Ask Him and always say, “Lord willing, we will do this today or tomorrow”... not "I will do it." No, “Lord willing.”
Have a wonderful Saturday and God bless you!
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is the 8th of April, Friday morning, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for the day.
If we go straight to the Old Testament, to Isaiah 26, I am reading from verse 3:
“You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Trust in the Lord forever,
For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”
And then we go to the New Testament to a famous scripture, Jesus says:
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
John 14:27
Another word for peace is Shalom. Do you know, as believers, that is one of the fruits of the Spirit? That is what we should display, people should recognise us by the peace that is in us. Our peace does not come from the world, it comes from knowing the Prince of Peace. This world, at the moment, is in turmoil with stress, fear, depression and anxiety. This is the time for Christians to display the fruit of the Spirit, peace.
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
Psalm 20:7
You know, George Muller is one of my heroes, he started the Children’s Home in Bristol, England. When he was old some of his friends came together and said, “We want to get a pension for you.” Tears filled his eyes and he said, “Please give it to someone else. All these years, the Lord has supplied for me. I don’t need anything. Please give it to somebody else.” Peace comes when we put our total trust in God. The Lord says, “Do not let your heart be troubled.” I think the opposite of peace is fear, I really do... When we are afraid and worried. Worry is a terrible thing, isn’t it? It's a killer, actually.
I remember reading a story, many years ago, of a young man who was a mountain climber. I think he lived in Australia if I am not mistaken and he had some heart problems. He went to the doctor and the doctor said, “You have got a rare heart disease. Go home and make yourself comfortable because you will die within the next two years.” He went home and he thought, ”You know, I have got nothing to lose, anyway.” I think he bought an air ticket to South Africa and started to climb the mountain peaks of the mighty Drakensburg range in our country of South Africa. Some of these peaks are sheer walls of stone. He had nothing to fear because he thought he was going to die anyway, and he scaled most of them. I think his name is in the book. And you know something? That man lived until he was in his late 80s and he died peacefully.
Don’t worry - It's probably not going to happen anyway. Keep your eyes on the Prince of Peace. He says He not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7
Have a wonderful day as you walk in peace.
Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is the 7th of April, the year 2022, Thursday morning. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.”
Psalm 1:1-3
What a beautiful promise from God for us this morning. Spending time with God each day is number one. Avoid bad company, remember - Eagles don’t fly around with turkeys. Oh no, they fly close to the Lord, keeping away from negative people. Avoid them like the plague because they continually complain. Rather be that man or woman getting up early in the morning, delighting themselves in the Lord’s holy word, it's like fresh manna from Heaven every day. We need to be like that tree planted by the rivers of water, always bringing forth fruit in season and out of season because the roots are focused and fixed in the river.
Christians by the way are not exempt from troubles. So there is no scripture that I can find in the Bible that says, “Come to Jesus and all your troubles will be over.” I can’t find it, because it is not there. Jesus walks with us through the fire, He doesn’t take us out of the fire. We need to understand that. We are here in this world, which is a fallen world, but the Lord says if we spend time with Him, every morning, we will succeed. Our lives will not crumble when the heat is on, on the contrary, we will prosper because God is with us. You know that beautiful scripture in Hebrews that says:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
I want to say to you today that you need to look at that glass of water - Is it half-full or is it half-empty? Well you see, that depends on who you are spending time with. If you are spending time with doubters, they will tell you, every time, that the glass is half-empty. The person who is spending time with the Lord, who continues to meditate on the Bible, will tell you it is half-full.
Today, go out after you have spent time with God and tell the people that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forevermore.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, 6th April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
John 14:26
That is right, the Helper, the Holy Spirit. The Greek word is Parakletos - He will be our Protector, our Confidante, Advisor and most of all, He will be our Friend! Jesus did not leave us alone? No - The Holy Spirit is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother. You will find that in Proverbs 18:24. We never need to be lonely, He is always with us. Jesus promised us, before He went to Heaven, not to leave us as orphans, helpless. You will see that in verse 18. That is why He sent His Holy Spirit to guide us, love us and protect us.
When I was a little boy, I think 8 years old and my brother was 6 years old and my baby sister hadn’t been born yet, my dad would take us to watch a rugby match on the weekend. When we walked into that rugby stadium with all the people jostling around, it was amazing how, when my brother and I walked in the front, people just seemed to move aside for us. We were so amazed, we thought we must be very important... It was only many years later that we realised that they were not moving aside for us - They were moving aside because there was a big, strong Scottish blacksmith walking right behind us! I tell you what folks, we have the Holy Spirit who is walking behind us today, and in us and around us, and we have nothing whatsoever to fear!
Have a wonderful day today as you remember, you never need to be lonely. You never need to think twice - Just ask Him and He will help you. He will speak to you through the Word, through another Christian and He will speak to you in your heart.
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, the 5th of April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the NewTestament to the Gospel of John, John Chapter 14 and I am reading verse 14 and verse15:
“If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
If you love Me, keep My commandments."
John 14:14-15
Wow, what a promise of God! Anything in Jesus’ name and He says He will do it for us... but He expects us to obey His commandments and to keep them. He is not going to give you a big Mercedes Benz car just because you want it, no! He is going to do anything that you ask Him in His name if you obey His commandments.
You know, many years ago, I had a great desire to meet probably one of the world’s greatest Christian Gospel singers who lived in Ireland. I really wanted to meet him, I loved his music. I had come back from overseas and I was very tired. I was supposed to preach at a certain church in Kwazulu-Natal. I was so tired that I phoned them and I said, “Sorry, I cannot go. I feel the Lord wants me to rest.” They were not very happy with me but they did release me. It wasn’t a week later that I got an invitation to a city-wide campaign in South Africa and the music team that was going to play before I spoke was none other than this international Christian Gospel singer and his band! Now, that was the same weekend I had just said I could not go and speak at this other church.
I was sitting in a dilemma now, what do I do? This was a chance of a lifetime! I felt the Holy Spirit say, “You refused to go to the other church, you can’t make this appointment.” And I was really, really gutted actually. Anyway, I wrote to them and told them I could not make it. I didn’t tell them why and I thought, “Lord, you know that is the one thing I really wanted.” I want to tell you something when you obey God, He gives you the desires of your heart.
“Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
Psalm 37:4
It wasn’t about 3 to 4 weeks later we got a phone call, the very singer was in Durban. He had a Sunday off and He wanted to come and sing for us in the service and he is bringing his band with him - What, I couldn’t believe it! He came up to the farm, he did a beautiful praise and worship service for us. I preached the Gospel straight after him. He came to my house, we had lunch together and since then, we have met each other in Ireland and in Canada.
God says anything that you ask in His name, He will do for you if you obey His commandments. Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, the 4th of April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
John 10:10
The devil is a thief. He is a compulsive liar, he cannot physically hurt us because he has no power. His neck was broken by Jesus on the Cross of Calvary at this very season, Easter. On Easter Sunday Christ rose from the dead and the sting of death lost its power. 1 Corinthians 15:55:
“O Death, where is your sting?
O Hades, where is your victory?”
I want to tell you that if the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you and me, that same Spirit shall quicken our mortal bodies! We really need to understand something - The devil has got no power. He is a liar and a thief. He is the father of all liars. He is the deceiver of the brethren, I want to say to you today, don’t listen to his lies.
You know, just over a week ago, we were called to the Eastern Cape to pray for rain. People had been writing to us for weeks, “Please hold a prayer meeting for rain.” The only province in our country, South Africa, that was still dry. Well, we left early last Saturday morning on a plane from Durban towards Port Elizabeth. The plane was due to leave at half-past eleven and what happened? Yes, the devil was on the go... fifteen-minute delay - “Sorry, the plane is late!”
The team prayed in the departure lounge. I will never forget it. We got on our knees in front of everybody and we prayed, “Lord, we need to get there. People are waiting.” Half-past eleven - no plane! Quarter to twelve - no plane. Twelve o’clock, quarter past twelve, half-past twelve! By this time I said, “Lord, what is happening?” Plane delayed!
Eventually, we got onto the plane at 1’o clock. Now we were already too late. I was supposed to be on the platform, speaking at half-past three. The plane flight is an hour and a half, then one hour and forty minutes from the airport to the mountains where we were going to pray. The devil told me, “You are a loser. You will never make it.” The heat of the battle was on.
What about you at the moment? Are you in that same battle where the devil is telling you you will never make it? Well, I want to tell you we arrived there and it was too late. It was three o’clock. We were only going to get to that venue at about five o’clock. Do you know what we did in desperation? We found a helicopter, that’s right! We hired a helicopter. That youngster, what a pilot - 300kms an hour... flying. We got to the venue and I walked onto the platform at half-past three! We prayed, we worshipped God, we believed God! Multitudes of people waiting.
Three days later - rain, rain, rain! Don’t listen to the lies of the devil.
Jesus bless you, have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Genesis 18:14
Then we go to Matthew 19:26:
“But with God all things are possible.”
That is what Jesus said! And then that old farmer, Job, said to the Lord:
“I know that You can do everything…”
Job 42:2
That is a fact, isn’t it? But you know Sarah, Abraham’s wife, laughed when God said she was to have a baby. The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh?” Now, as I am talking I can just hear somebody, listening to this Thought for Today, laughing... And you are saying, “My situation is beyond any help, beyond any redemption.” The only thing, my dear friend, that stops God from operating in your life is one word: Unbelief.
It ties God’s hands - He cannot work with us if we refuse to believe Him and to believe His promises over us. Remember, God specializes in taking 'nobodies' and making them into 'somebodies'. If God can give a woman who is almost 100 years old a beautiful baby boy (Isaac), then He can give you the desires of your heart as well.
Just like the disciples of old, today, this Sunday morning, let us ask Jesus to please increase our faith. You know something? Oh yes, He will do it! He can bring rain when everybody says there is no rain, oh yes! He can grow a crop out of the ground where there is no moisture, I have seen it with my own eyes. He can heal the sick, He can set the captives free - He can give us new life. He said, “I came that you might have life abundantly.”
Today, go out and trust God for the impossible because there is nothing that is too hard for Him. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, 3rd April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
Genesis 18:14
Then we go to Matthew 19:26:
“But with God all things are possible.”
That is what Jesus said! And then that old farmer, Job, said to the Lord:
“I know that You can do everything…”
Job 42:2
That is a fact, isn’t it? But you know Sarah, Abraham’s wife, laughed when God said she was to have a baby. The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh?” Now, as I am talking I can just hear somebody, listening to this Thought for Today, laughing... And you are saying, “My situation is beyond any help, beyond any redemption.” The only thing, my dear friend, that stops God from operating in your life is one word: Unbelief.
It ties God’s hands - He cannot work with us if we refuse to believe Him and to believe His promises over us. Remember, God specializes in taking 'nobodies' and making them into 'somebodies'. If God can give a woman who is almost 100 years old a beautiful baby boy (Isaac), then He can give you the desires of your heart as well.
Just like the disciples of old, today, this Sunday morning, let us ask Jesus to please increase our faith. You know something? Oh yes, He will do it! He can bring rain when everybody says there is no rain, oh yes! He can grow a crop out of the ground where there is no moisture, I have seen it with my own eyes. He can heal the sick, He can set the captives free - He can give us new life. He said, “I came that you might have life abundantly.”
Today, go out and trust God for the impossible because there is nothing that is too hard for Him. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 2nd April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for the day.
“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or as His counsellor has taught Him?”
Isaiah 40:13
Then we go straight to Romans, in the New Testament:
"For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counsellor?" "Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?" For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 11:34-36
God does not need us, no, He has everything, He is God - But He wants us. The Lord made us in His own image so that He might have fellowship with us. If we go to the first book in the Bible, Genesis 3:9, it is a very sad verse because this is what it says:
“God called to Adam, “Where are you?”
You see, God used to walk in the garden in the cool of the evening and have fellowship with Adam and Eve but when they fell into sin, He couldn’t find them because they were hiding. He created you and me in His own image. We don’t have to do anything, we just have to be there for Him. Remember the story of the two sisters, Mary and Martha? Martha was running around the house trying to get everything organised, Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to Him and having fellowship with Him. Martha said, “Lord, can’t You tell my sister to help me?” He said, “But she has done a better thing.”
The Lord wants to spend time with us today. It is much more important to spend time with someone than to keep trying to do something for someone. Dad, your children want you! They don’t want what you can do for them. Mom, your husband needs you, not just your achievements! Sometimes you don’t even have to say a word, just spend time together before it is too late.
My old dad used to live just behind us in the cottage. Every single afternoon I would go up and I would sit there and we would chat with each other. My goodness, I miss those days! I have said it before, I would give a million rand to have a cup of tea with my old dad... But I have to wait now until I see him in Heaven. Don’t waste time today. Spend time with each other. Spend time with Jesus because He is waiting for you this morning.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 1st April, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Mark 15:34
Have you ever felt forsaken, have you ever felt betrayed... Have you ever felt totally alone? Jesus knows. Have you ever had to take the blame for something that you never did? Oh, Jesus knows - He has been there. Jesus took it all for our sake, He took all our sin. He took it upon His shoulders... All our filth, all the sin of the world, so much so that His own Heavenly Father could not even look upon Him while He was dying on the cross. That is why Jesus called out to Him.
“Lord, why are You forsaking me?”
Remember, if there is no crucifixion there can be no resurrection. Our sin killed the Darling of Heaven. Not the Jews, not the Romans but our sin! The most famous verse in the whole Bible is John 3:16 which says:
“For God so loved the world (God so loved you, John. God so loved you, Mary)… “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, (that is Jesus Christ) that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
Jesus did it all for us at this Easter time. He died for sinners, not for good people - for sinners, just like me and you. Mary Magdalene loved Jesus so much, do you know why? Because when everyone else gave up on her, Jesus didn’t. He drove seven demons out of that woman and who was the first to visit the tomb on Easter Sunday? Was it the disciples? No, it was Mary Magdalene. We see it in Mark 16:9:
“Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.”
I want to say to you today, my dear friend, Jesus Christ has not given up on you. All you have to do is say sorry. Stop doing what you are doing, turn your eyes upon Him and He will give you new life.
God bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, the last day of March - 31st March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we start off in John 13 and I am reading from verse 34:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.”
And then that other beautiful verse in John 15:13:
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
And that is what Jesus did for you and me at this Easter time. It is the hallmark of the Christian - love. Not power or effort, not even success but love, unconditional love. Not just loving those that love us but loving our enemies. Now, that is not easy, is it? In fact, sometimes we say, “Lord, it is not even fair. How can you expect me to love one who is lying, being unfaithful or who is cheating?”
And you can hear Jesus saying to you and to me this morning, “But I loved you when you were still very much an unbeliever. In fact, not only did I love you but I even died for you.” We must remember that, especially at this Easter time. You see, there is no force on earth greater than love.
The old disciple, John, the last one to be alive out of the disciples - when he was very old, he would be brought into the meetings on a stretcher and he would say to the people in the room, “Little children, love one another.” And they would always say to him, “But John, you always say that, why do you always say that?” And then with tears in his eyes, the oldest disciple would say, “Because that is what The Master always said.”
That’s right - a new commandment... Remember that old song?
And a new commandment
I give unto you
That you love one another
As I have loved you
That you love one another
As I have loved you
By this shall all men know
That you are My disciples
If you have love one for another
And by this shall all men know
That you are My disciples
If you have love one for another.
Go out today and love somebody.
Jesus bless you, goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, 30th March, the year 2022 and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“…even like the faithful witness in the sky.”
Psalm 89:37
Yes, the psalmist is talking about the moon, the faithful witness in the sky. Then we go to the Colossians 1:27:
“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
We are to reflect Jesus, not ourselves - just as the moon reflects the light of the sun. So when you see a full moon, it is actually the sun that is shining on the moon and reflecting in the darkness to us. That is exactly how we are supposed to be, as followers of Jesus, a good reflection in a dark world. Like never, ever before people are looking for hope and they can only see it in us, as representatives of Jesus. Jesus said:
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
John 12:32
We are not to draw people to ourselves but to draw people to the Son of God. That is why the Lord speaks about His cousin, John the Baptist. He says in Luke 7:28, among those born of women, there has never been a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Why? Because he was a selfless man, John the Baptist said,
“He must increase but I must decrease”.
John 3:30
I think it was the great preacher, C.H. Spurgeon, at the age of 21 years old that the London Tabernacle was built for him, a church that could seat no less than 10,000 people. With no formal education, a country boy who spoke with a very strong English accent, but said, “Our purpose on earth is to make men hearers from God.” Not hearers from us! I am speaking to preachers listening to this message - We need to be so careful that we don’t draw people to ourselves, we must point them to the Lord.
Robert Murray Mcshane was a Scottish preacher. He died at 29 years old, mission accomplished - he started a massive revival on the East Coast of Scotland in a place called Dundee. When people said to him, “You did such a wonderful job,” he said, “No, no, no!” He said, “Rather than being an instrument of the Lord, all I was, was an adoring spectator.”
Oh, I want to say to you today, point people to Jesus and that is the best help you can ever give them. God bless you and have a wonderful Wednesday.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 29th March, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament, Isaiah 40 and I am reading one verse, verse 31. We know it very well:
“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
We need to wait upon the Lord. Life is so hectic at the moment. We need to be like that majestic eagle (my favourite bird) in the high places. We need to rest on the wings. You never see an eagle flapping around, stressing. No, he locks his wings and catches those beautiful wind thermals - We need to mount up with wings, just like that eagle.
We need to run and not grow tired. We need to walk and not become faint-hearted. I think the eagle is one of the most beautiful of the Lord's creations. He is never in a rush, have you noticed that? He doesn’t fly around with a group of turkeys, no, no. He stays on his own and he catches those wind thermals and is totally focused. When we look at the eagle, we get fresh strength and I am talking about Jesus. We don’t get tired, we don’t lag behind.
John Wesley, that great evangelist, died at the age of 89. He preached 40,000 sermons and 225,000 miles ridden on his horse. They asked, ”What is the secret?” He said, “I take catnaps during the day.” I take five minutes just to close my eyes and rest... There is a point for somebody.
Just take a time out to have a rest and don’t waste valuable time, running up and down oneway streets. Keep focused on the goal that God has set before you. Wait on the Lord, don’t run ahead of Him. We must also savour the promises of God. Enjoy your life and by doing this we will find endless supplies of fresh strength... We must pace ourselves.
Remember Bruce Fordyce, he is an absolute legend in the world. He is the only man who has won the Comrades Marathon, which is 89km (more than two standard marathons), 9 times - 8 times in succession. Why? Because he paced himself, he let all those young guys run ahead but slowly and surely, he wound them in one by one. I used to watch him, he was always looking at his watch. He wasn’t looking around him and then of course he would come up Polly Shorts, into Pietermaritzburg and that runner in front, maybe some overseas runner, he would pat him on the back and he would shake his hand and then leave him in the dust!
Folks, we need to pace ourselves today and spend time with Jesus.
God bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 28th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
Luke 21:28
Folks, I want to say to you, very soon we will be free, we will be free indeed and forever. I looked up the meaning of the word redemption in the Oxford Dictionary. It means: "A thing that saves someone from error or evil." Not too long before you and I will see Jesus coming in the clouds, that’s right - to take us home to be with Him in Heaven! All the signs are there, everywhere we look.
But the Lord says to us this morning that we need to lift our heads and not look down. Lift our heads because He is coming in the clouds - You see, I am a cloud watcher, I hope you are. It says in the word of God that He will be coming to fetch us. He will be coming in the clouds... The second coming of the Lord!
Now, I am not concerned whether I am alive when He comes at the second coming, or whether He comes to fetch me before. It makes no difference. This Easter is very good time for us to think about eternity, we are not here forever. Many of us need to lift up our eyes, do you know that beautiful scripture in Psalm 121:1-2?
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills - From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord…”
And that is exactly what we are doing! There are many people at the moment, I don’t know if you have noticed, who are going home... That’s right. Old and young, they are going home - I firmly believe that our days were allotted to us on earth before we were even conceived in our mother’s womb, so don’t be afraid of death. Death simply means that we are going to be with Jesus forever! As one person said, it is like opening a door and walking out of one room and into another.
All we need to be sure of is that we are ready, when He calls us. Keep short accounts with men and keep short accounts with God. Be prepared to travel lightly. Now let’s be encouraged because death has lost its sting. It has no hold over the believer because our Redeemer is coming to take us back home to Heaven, where there will be no weeping, there will be no suffering, there will be no pain and we will be reunited with our loved ones.
Have a blessed Monday. God bless you,
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, 27th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"Look, the world has gone after Him!”
John 12:19
That’s right, one genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons, you cannot argue about it - You cannot dispute it! You see, Lazarus had been dead for four days in the tomb, now He is walking around alive. No one could dispute that fact.
You will see that in verse 17 of the same chapter. The world has gone after Jesus because He performed miracles as no one else had ever done before. It was not the sermons that He preached. In fact, the only sermon that we know of was found in Matthew, Chapter 5 - the sermon on the mount. It was only recorded once and I believe that it was the signs, the wonders and the miracles that Jesus performed that people saw and followed after Him.
The whole world has gone after Him.
You know, some people say that miracles stopped happening when the apostles died. I don’t believe that at all because in Hebrews 13:8, the word of God tells us that Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Just yesterday I was visited by a school, a class of senior students who are using our little book, Faith Like Potatoes, as a setbook. Obviously, I was deeply honoured and I had the privilege of speaking to them and praying for them. One of the students stood up and said, “Where did you get the name from, Faith Like Potatoes?" I said, "That was a name that Peter Marshall (He was a pastor to the US Senate in America, many years ago.) He came across from Scotland as a printer, studied and became the personal chaplain to the US Senate and he said, “You have got to have simple faith. You have got to have faith that you can touch, faith that you can taste, simple faith like… like potatoes!” Just believe and stop arguing and you will see many more miracles.
I stood up at Kings Park Rugby Stadium in Durban and I said, “I am going back to plant potatoes, in a year when El Nino was prevalent and they said, “Don’t plant your marginal fields.” I said, “I am going back…” And I planted a crop of potatoes and you know, we had a beautiful crop of potatoes that year.
So faith is to believe what you cannot see and the reward of that faith is to see what you believed. That is what Augustine said. Have a wonderful Sunday and Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
It is Saturday morning, 26th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the Psalms, oh I love the Psalms:
“What is man that You are mindful of him?” the word of God says.
Psalm 8:4
And then Job, one of my favourite books and I am reading from Job 38:1:
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said:
“Who is this who darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man;
I will question you, and you shall answer Me”.
Verse 4:
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”
Wow, we mustn’t get too big for our boots! Early this morning before the sun came up, I went out for a ride on my mountain bike and I looked up into the sky. What a beautiful sky, full of stars early this morning... It started to get a little bit chilly because, in South Africa, we are going into Autumn. I know in the northern hemisphere, you are going into spring. I looked up and there it was... The magnificence of the mighty southern cross in the sky and right next to it were the two pointers. Father God is so faithful, isn’t He? He is so steadfast, He is so reliable and He is just so big!
You know, it reminded me of years ago when I was up in Central Africa. I was preaching the Gospel, with our team, to an unreached people and right in the middle of the bush, late one night, I came out of my little tent, my one-man tent. I looked up into the sky and then a friend of mine, standing next to me said, “Angus, can you see the southern cross? You can only see it in the Southern Hemisphere.” I said, “I can see it.” He said, “Do you see the two pointers next to it?” I said, “Yes.” He said, "Take a straight line from the top of the cross to the bottom and a straight line through the middle of the two pointers, where they join, that is dead south.” And I looked up and I did that and I thought, “My little wife and my little children are on that small farm called Shalom, they are nicely tucked into bed and the Holy Spirit is there with them and He has put His angels around that home.” And I felt so at peace.
I want to say to you today, stop arguing about God. Now, I am sending you a little pic. You can look at it on your device or your cell phone. It is of two little boys, my sister sent this to me from London. Two little boys are looking up in the sky, they look like farm boys with their dungarees on, and this is what is written underneath: “Sometimes I just look up, smile and say, “I know that was You, God. Thank You.”
I want to tell you, I love Him so much. Folks, don’t argue with God. He is in Heaven and we are on Earth. Just love Him and appreciate what He has done for you.
Have a wonderful Saturday,
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 25th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for the day.
“Peter said to Him, "You shall never wash my feet!"
John 13:8
Do you know that statement was very pride-filled? That statement nearly cost Peter His whole ministry because right after that, Jesus said: "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
"God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble."
1 Peter 5:5
You see, it is all about Him. Do you remember that hymn that we used to sing years ago? It goes something like this:
“All of me and none of Him” - the first verse.
The second verse - “Some of me and some of Him”
And then the last verse - “None of me, all of Him.”
You see, this pride starts from when you are very young. Have you ever seen a little boy, maybe two or three years old trying to tie his shoelaces? I have many grandsons and often you want to help them but what do they do? They push your hand away because they wants to do it themselves... until eventually they can’t and then you help them.
Many, many years ago, when I started farming as a young man I used to grow seed maize and it is a very technical crop. You’ve got two varieties growing in the same field. With the one variety you have to pull the flowers out before they pollinate otherwise the company will condemn the crop. I got myself into a very tight spot - I had over a hundred hectares in one block. That was everything I had and the flowers were just coming out so fast I could not get them out in time. The inspectors came to me on a Friday afternoon. They said, “If these fields are not clean by Monday morning, I am very sorry but we will have to condemn you.”
Now, I didn’t know what to do, I was a young man - I had limited funds. I was desperate and I knew that I could not get those flowers out by the Monday morning. What did I do? Well, I had to humble myself, I really had to humble myself. I phoned a neighbour, an extremely successful farmer who employed hundreds and hundreds of workers, I said to him: “Can you please help me because I cannot manage.” Do you know, that gentleman, I will never forget what he did as long as I live, arrived here Saturday morning. I think he had three or maybe four lorries full of staff - hundreds of people. He had brought water so they had water to drink. He had two-way radios with his foreman and they went into my field and cleaned it up.
It was amazing, absolutely amazing! If I hadn’t have asked him I wouldn’t have a farm today. A couple of weeks later, I phoned him and I said, “I am still waiting for the invoice to pay you.” He said, “What invoice?” - What a man, hey? Sometimes we have to go through hard times to be taught humility. Paul says in Romans 5:3-4:
“…but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
I have never met a man yet, worth his salt, that has not been through fiery trials. Today, ask Jesus and He will give it to you. (Matthew 7:7)
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 24th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we go to the Old Testament, to Jeremiah 33:3, Jeremiah 333! The Lord says:
'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.'
That’s right! That's Jesus’s telephone number: Jeremiah 333! “Call to Me, and I will answer you,” but how can we call on someone that we do not know and how can we call someone we don’t believe in or even worse, we don’t trust? You see, in Hebrews 11:6, the Lord says:
“But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Maybe today, you and I are like Moses of old, when he stood before the burning bush in Exodus 3:13-14:
“Then Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.' "
I want to say to you that today that we need to know His name. It is all about faith, isn’t it? Not faith in faith but faith in a person. Now Augustine said, "Faith is to believe in something you cannot see, but the reward of that faith is to see what you believe." And that is what I love about it. Can you imagine phoning somebody, dialling the number, and they say, “Yes, can I help you?” And they say, “Who is he, what is his name?” And you say, “Well, I don’t know his name.” - How can they help you? They can’t help you... Now, Thomas had the same problem.
In John 14:5-6, he said,
“How can we know the way?”
“Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Today, we need to get to know the name of the person we are phoning - “Call unto me!” Lord Jesus, please help me today - and I tell you what, He will help you! He wants to help you more than you want to call Him.
Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, 23rd March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for the day.
“After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.”
John 13:5
The ultimate servant, oh yes, the Son of God - Can you believe it, washing dirty, stinky feet! And a pair of those feet were about to leave and betray Him for thirty pieces of silver and yet he still washed them. Jesus says to us today, if we want to be the greatest, we have to be prepared to become the least. I looked up the dictionary, the word servant: “a person employed to perform duties for others.”
You know, I want to tell you about a man who you have probably heard of, Charles Colson. Charles Colson was the right-hand man of President Nixon when he was the President of the United States of America. He was a ruthless man, Charles Colson. He was known as The Hatchet Man. What a terrible name! They said he was ruthless, he would even walk over his own mother’s grave to get to the top. Then the terrible Watergate Scandal broke out and Richard Nixon told lies and was impeached and taken out of office. But you see, a President had never been put in jail before and so the right-hand man, Charles Colson, went to jail on behalf of the President. But that is where his life really began. That is where he met the Greatest Servant of all, Jesus Christ. This is what Charles Colson said: “It is not what we do that matters but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us.”
God doesn’t want our success. He wants us. He doesn’t demand our achievements, He demands our obedience. And after he came out of jail, having met Jesus Christ, Charles Colson started a huge prison fellowship ministry and eventually went to be with the Lord, as a servant of God.
Today, go out and be a servant of the Lord.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 22nd March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the Book of Acts, The Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament:
“ For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Acts 2:39
And that is what Peter said to the people. God always keeps His promise, and we need to keep our promises... First of all to God and then secondly, to our family and thirdly, to our fellowman. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary the meaning of the word promise and it is: “An assurance that one will do something.”
You know, not so long ago, I had the honour and privilege of doing the wedding ceremony for my oldest granddaughter and her fiancé. It was a wonderful occasion, we had it out in the open on the farm. Kayla’s husband was dressed in a beautiful Scottish kilt and they asked me to put on my kilt so I did, the Buchan Tarta - it was a wonderful occasion. And when they made their vows to each other, they promised each other to love each other until death parts them... and that is what they are going to do.
You know, in the old days, a handshake would secure a deal. A big deal - the sale of a business, the sale of a farm, the sale of a horse - a man's handshake meant: "I promise to do it" Don’t ever break your promise and never make a promise that you can’t keep.
I knew an old man who was staying in an old age home. His family had emigrated overseas but they promised him that, when they were settled, they would send for him. Every time I spoke to him, he kept telling me that they were getting settled... They never came and he died but do you know something? He went to Jesus and Jesus never breaks His promise.
“Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”
1 Thessalonians 5:24
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5:
He can’t be untrue to Himself, it is not in His nature. He will keep His promise and you can count on it. Have a wonderful day! Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 21st March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we go to John 12 and I am reading verse 43:
“ …for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”
People will often do anything to find acceptance in society. You see, many of the rulers believed in Jesus, but for the fear of becoming unpopular with the crowd, they did not speak up. And of course, as we approach Easter we remember the story of Pontius Pilate. He had an opportunity to set Jesus free, the Bible tells us clearly that Pontius Pilate found no fault in the Lord.
If we go to Matthew 27:23, Pilate said,
“Why? What evil has this man done that you want to crucify Him?” And then because of the pressure from the crowds, he washed his hands and he said, “You see to it.”
In these days of extreme compromise where society says, “All roads lead to Heaven,” and “Just do as you please,” and everyone is running his own business, has got his own ideals, God is looking for people with courage, who will be outspoken about the truth and about righteousness.”
I want to say to the young people today, stand your ground. Young lady, don’t give up your virginity just to please the crowd. It doesn’t last and it won’t work, it will get you into trouble actually. Young man, don’t start drinking and drugging with the crowd because you want acceptance from them. Eventually, they will chuck you out. Stand up for your beliefs. Stand up for the standards that God has put in place. Remember, people don’t have to like you but they must respect you.
Don’t hunt with the hounds and run with the hares, as they say, but be a righteous person who is not ashamed of the Gospel. Remember, it takes a live fish to swim against the current and it takes a dead one to flow with the crowd.
If Christ is for you then who will be able to stand against you?
Romans 8:31
Go out today and stand for righteousness, God will honour you. Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and Goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 20th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we start off in the first book of the Bible, I am reading verse 25:
“Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
Genesis 18:25
Then we go to Job:
“Surely God will never do wickedly,
Nor will the Almighty pervert justice.”
Job 34:12
You and I serve a just and righteous God. In Numbers 32:23, the Bible says:
“…be sure your sin will find you out.”
Our God will not be mocked, no! Nor made a fool of by any man, government or by any world leader. But we say, “But look how they get away with it.” The worldly system of justice, we know, is rotten, it is perverted.
We say, “Lord, where are you?” But our God sees everything, even that which happens behind a closed door. Why do righteous men like Steven pray for their enemies? While the people were stoning him to death in Acts 7:60, He said, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” Why? Because those righteous men know that we serve a just and a righteous God and unless there is repentance, there will be severe consequences.
Do not be concerned about justice taking place, God has promised that justice will take place. Let's make sure that we get the plank out of our own eye before we start taking the splinter out of somebody else’s.
I remember as a young farmer, just starting off, I was still a wild man - I hadn’t met Jesus yet. I used to work 18 hours a day, I had a young family to feed... There was a man who used to come and visit me, about the same age as me, him, his wife and children. He always arrived round about lunch time, that’s right! And we always gave him lunch. He didn’t have a job. His family didn’t really have clothes to wear and my wife used to give some of our children’s clothes to that lady so that her children could have clothes.
He was always telling me to get my life right. “Angus you have got to become a Christian. We are Christians. You can’t live like you are living.” I used to say to myself, “When we got to Heaven, I will get there before he does because at least I can feed my family.” But what would happen if I got to Heaven and said, “Lord, the reason I have not become a Christian is because this other guy who says he is a Christian has lived a terrible life.” And the Lord looks around and says, “But he is not here.”
Folks, I want to tell you, we need to concentrate on our own lives and God will do the rest.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 19th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we go straight to the word of God, to John 12:35 and this is Jesus speaking:
“Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtakes you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
I think you will agree with me that we are living in a very dark world at the moment, with the rumours of a world war, viruses, disease and sickness and where immorality is blatant - It is a dark place. But the good news is Jesus is the Light of the world!
Now, remember, light always overcomes darkness. Walk into a dark room, strike a match and what happens? The darkness has to leave, it cannot be where there is light. We, as the children of Jesus Christ, as the sons and daughters of light, need to shine like never before.
Thomas the disciple, said to Jesus when He said He was going ahead to prepare a place for them: “How do we know the way, Lord?” Remember that beautiful verse in John 14:6:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
We have a thirty-foot cross on the farm and it has got a timed switch attached to it. When it gets dark on the farm, the light comes on and the whole cross lights up... It is magnificent! There is an airstrip on the farm next to us and a lot of planes land there, often the pilots say, if it is a misty night, they look for that bright shining cross on the hill, next to the little chapel that my dad and I built in 1980, and then they see their way home. Now, that cross was built by a man by the name of Mike. Mike was my neighbour, he was a wonderful man, a forester. He had a tragedy in his life, his son was killed, his only son. He has two beautiful daughters as well. His son was killed in a hit and run tragedy by a driver who did not wait at all... He was absolutely broken.
He arrived at the door of my farm office one morning and I could see that his bottom lip was trembling. He was very, very emotional. He said, “I had a dream last night.” Now to my understanding, Mike wasn’t even a Christian then. “I had a dream last night, I dreamt that there was a big cross on this farm on this high spot. Would you mind if I erected it?” I said, “Mike, you can erect a hundred if you want!” And he put that cross up on the farm, and then we put the lights up as well.
Mike became a very strong Christian after that - him, his wife, daughters and his mother-in-law. We used to have Bible Study at their home. Mike and Colleen have gone to be with Jesus, they have gone to be with their son. I want to say to you today that this is the time to shine in a dark world. People will come to you and you can introduce them to the Light of the world - His name is Jesus!
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Friday, 18th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Woe to him who strives with his Maker!”
Isaiah 45:9
“But now, O Lord,
You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand.”
Isaiah 64:8
And then the last scripture:
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
Ephesians 2:10
Why do we contend with our Maker? How can the clay criticise the potter, the arrogance of it! It is like an ant trying to argue with an elephant. I remember an old story I heard many years ago, one of my favourite stories actually about a cowboy preacher and circuit rider. He would ride from town to town, preaching the Gospel.
He was a wise old preacher, one day as he was riding along and a big dust storm came up from the west. So he stopped, he hobbled his horse, took off his saddle, put his head down on the saddle, put the saddle blanket over him and waited for the storm to pass. As he lay there he went to sleep and he had a dream. He dreamt that the angel Gabriel was standing before him, holding the Book of Life and the angel asked him, “What is your name?”
And he said, “John Brown.”
And he said, “I am sorry your name is not here.’
John Brown was absolutely angry. He said, “I demand to speak to God.” And the angel said, “Well, I don’t know if I can organise that but I will try my best. Jump on my back.” And the angel flew him to Heaven – it was amazing!
He put him down on a solid floor of gold, shining gold and he lay on his face. As the preacher was going to get up he heard a voice like thunder, like raging rivers, like a hundred rivers. “Who are you and what do you want here?” With that, the petrified preacher just lay shaking on the floor of pure gold. He tried to raise himself up again and he heard the voice again: “I said, who are you? And what do you want here?" Absolutely petrified, he just lay there. He heard some steps coming behind him, wearing sandals, and then the swishing of a robe. And beautiful, big, strong hands picked him up and hugged him and a voice said, “It’s okay Father, he is one of Us. John Brown is my friend.” And that wonderful voice of God said, “Okay, let him in!”
Folks, we can’t argue with God. We need Jesus. Go out and don’t question God because He loves you very much!
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 17th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we go to Matthew 6:12, yes, it is part of the Lord’s Prayer:
“And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”
You know, if we can’t afford it then we must not buy it... We have to pay our debts. Maybe you are listening to this and you say, “Buy I owe so much money!” Well, you need to stop buying things you cannot afford and those people you owe money to, the best thing you can do is to not ignore them hoping that it will pass away – it won’t! You need to get in your motor car and go and visit them. Sit down with them and explain that you have fallen on hard times, but you will pay them as soon as you can. Even if you have to pay them a mere pittance every month, start paying them otherwise they will hand you over. We need to take responsibility for our debts.
The system of this world is “Buy today and pay tomorrow” and once they have got you then you are in trouble. It is not God’s principle.
The Lord says we must be no man’s debtor. As soon as you owe something to someone, in a way you become enslaved them - to that company, organisation or person, until you have paid back every single cent. Do you know that debt can ruin a marriage? It can ruin a friendship. It can ruin a life, so just don’t do it. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it.
The only one that we need to be indebted to is the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know I remember with great fondness my old dad... My mom went to be with the Lord first and my dad after that. When he was in hospital, every time I visited him, he would ask me, “How is the money?” because he gave me the power of attorney, the signing power. I always said, “Dad, there is plenty there.” He said, “Are you sure?” I said, “Dad, don’t worry. There is lots of money there, you don’t owe anybody anything.” And I could see peace come upon him. Be an honourable person, let the only person you owe a debt to be the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you remember that old song? It goes something like this:
“He paid a debt, He did not owe
I owed a debt, I could not pay
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song
Amazing grace!
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.”
So go out today, settle your debts and be free!
Jesus Christ bless you, goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, 16th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
I want to speak to you today about reviving your soul. We need to revive our souls... If we look at the Book of Philippians, Paul says:
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.”
Philippians 3:12
We have got to keep growing in the Lord. You know, Paul had a personal encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus and yet he could still say in Philippians 3:10:
“…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…”
You see, we already have His Holy Spirit within us when we are born again. We have His church around us and the Holy Bible with us. We have everything we need but we need to keep growing. The Bible is God’s written word, it is our ultimate and the absolute teacher. The Bible is our adviser, our peace-maker in the home and our marriages. What does the Bible say... And that is the answer!
The Bible is also our conscience - It tells us when we are doing something that is wrong or when we are doing something right. The Bible corrects us when we are on the wrong road or when we are making a poor business decision. The Bible prepares us for the work ahead and equips us with the right tools.
God’s Holy Word, the Bible, is alive. It is not dead. Every time I read this book it tells me something different. You know that the Bible exposes our innermost thoughts and our desires, the desires of our hearts. I want to read a very special scripture to you which is so beautiful. It is found in Hebrews, listen to this:
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12
I wish I had known this when I was a young man. It would have saved me so much pain and so many bad decisions... We just don’t need to do that anymore. You see Christian growth is what God wants us, He wants us to grow and that requires reading the Bible, meditating on the Word of God. It requires studying and memorising the Bible.
You know, when I went up into Central Africa, many, many times with that big 20-ton Mercedes Benz Seedsower with an 18-metre trailer, taking Bibles, clothes and food... We had tons of food, tons of clothes and tons of Bibles but do you know what the people wanted? They didn’t want the food, they didn’t want the clothes - they wanted the Word of God because they were starving for the truth.
Don’t waste your time, read the word - It will revive your soul!
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 15 March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
If we go to the Gospel of John and one of my favourite scriptures:
“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”
John 12:24
It's an amazing paradox, isn’t it? In other words, it is in dying that we actually live... Now, farmers understand that principle. You can take precious seed maize or corn, any kind of seed really, and it can be preserved for hundreds of years if it is kept in a safe climate and a controlled storeroom. But the tragedy about that seed is that it never does anything, it just stays on its own. It does not produce food, it is absolutely self-contained and 'selfish'.
This life is not about seeing how long we can live and how long we can preserve ourselves. No, not at all, it is actually the very opposite. It's about dying to self. You see, our biggest enemy is ourselves. When we start to live for others then we start to produce everlasting life, peace, joy and good honest production.
If we look at Matthew 16 and I am reading from verse 24, Jesus says to His disciples:
“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
It's in dying that you and I live, it requires getting your hands dirty - That’s right. It requires taking risks, it requires walking on the water. That is not easy but the rewards are immeasurable. You get peace of mind, you get a purpose for living. You get joy when you see the crops starting to multiply. It's the greatest time in a farmer’s life when he sees the seed germinating in good soil and then hearing those wonderful words from the Lord Jesus Christ, when we get to Heaven one day, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Come and enter into your rest.”
Go out today and sow your seed because you can’t take it with you to Heaven. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 14th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
"Jesus wept."
John 11:35
Possibly the shortest verse in the entire Bible... Great compassion, is what the world desperately needs today. We are looking for compassion today. Jesus knew that Lazarus was about to come out of the tomb and yet He still felt heartsore for the people. Compassion is to have sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
You know that wonderful man of God, William Booth, and founder of the Salvation Army was sent a letter from some of his soldiers overseas. They said, “We have tried everything. We are trying to preach the Gospel and the people are not interested.” He wrote a letter back to them, only two words on that letter: "Try tears." When we are not having success in preaching the Gospel we need to get closer to the people. Charles Finny, the great revivalist, said: “Where there are no tears and there are no amens, there is no revival.”
I want to say to you today that we need to be more compassionate. You know the story of the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette... she was totally out of touch with her people, they had no bread to eat - The people were starving and she said, “Give them cake to eat.” I don’t know if that is factual or not but that is the story. We need to get to where the people are.
We need to have a heart of compassion, a heart that can identify with people who are suffering. Maybe you are suffering yourself today, you say, “No-one cares”. Oh, my dear friend, I want to tell you, there is one who cares. His name is Jesus... You know, He wept more than He laughed. That is an absolute fact. I am finding that the older I get and the more I preach, I seem to be weeping more than preaching. I want to be where the people are - we need to do that today.
When you go out today, look for people who are hurting and love them. Don’t preach to them, put your arm around them and weep with them - That is where the healing comes from.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, 13th March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up.”
John 11:11
In the old days, that was another terminology for when someone died - they said he’s gone to sleep, Jesus said: "It’s time that I go and awaken him."
You know, I was in a rut... Another word for a rut, you know like a rut in a road, is a shallow grave. That’s right, I was dead and I didn’t even know it. Then on a beautiful Sunday morning in a little church on the Main Street of our little town, Greytown. It was actually the 18th of February 1979 - Jesus came and found me. And He woke me up from the dead. He literally brought me back from the grave.
How are you feeling this morning? Just like the Lord said to Lazarus in John 11:43, "Lazarus come forth!" He wants to say that for you and me today. I will never forget that morning. I didn’t really want to go to church. Jill saw that I was literally failing in every area in my life, "Angus, we need to go to church." Reluctantly I went and I want to tell you that morning was resurrection day for me!
My dear friend, He wants to do it for you today. I can hear somebody saying, “But for me, Angus, it is too late.” But that is what they said about Lazarus when Jesus came to Bethany. They said, “Lord, it is too late. He has been dead for four days in the tomb.” But you know, Jesus is never late for an appointment. He is never late and He is never early - He is just spot on time.
Maybe you are in a rut today and you are saying, “I don’t know what to do.” - Why don’t you call upon Him? Why don’t you just pray this little prayer after me today?
Dear Lord Jesus,
I am in a rut and I really need you today, Lord.
Please help me. I want You to bring me back from the dead.
I want to come back home.
I want to have fellowship with You.
I am sorry for all the sins that I have committed and I ask You to take over my life completely, just like You did for Lazarus.
I ask that You bring me back from the dead,
In Jesus’s name.
Amen
Go out today and tell someone, maybe tell three people what you have just done. Have a beautiful day and Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 12th of March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
That's a beautiful scripture, isn’t it? Then if we go to Romans, in the New Testament:
“Do not be wise in your own opinion.”
Romans 12:16
Now I looked in the Oxford Dictionary to get the exact meaning of the word, wise. It means: having or showing experience, knowledge and good judgement - We need to be wise these days. And it is not a case of the old song, “I did it my way”... That didn’t help 'Blue Eyes' too much - We have got to do it God’s way, right? We have got to make quality decisions. We have got to do it the way the Lord would have us do it, we must not be impulsive. We must not be quick to act or in a hurry. We have got to take our time.
Remember when the Pharisees brought the woman who was caught in adultery to Jesus? He didn’t give a decision straight away, did He? No, He bent down and He started writing in the sand with His finger. Now a lot of theologians have got a lot of theories about why He did that but I believe He was waiting for instructions from His Heavenly Father. Then He stood up... Now you see, according to the instructions of Moses and the Ten Commandments, that woman found in somebody else’s bed should have been stoned to death. The Lord stood up and said, “He who is without sin cast the first stone.” And what did they do? They put their stones down and they walked away and He said, “Woman, where are your accusers?” She said, “They have left.” And He said, “Go and sin no more. Your sins are forgiven.”
That young girl that's being pressurized by her boyfriend to make a decision to marry him, I want to say to you, young lady, do not be in a rush. “Yes, but he said if I don’t make a decision, he is moving on!” Well, let him move on - He is not the right man for you. And that young man that's been given an opportunity to go into business, and they want you to sign that form today, and they said, “You have to do it today”, and you are not too sure about the decision - don’t do it. God has got a better decision for you!
We must not rush. You know when you see an old person walking down the road and you think they are walking slowly and they are not making rash decisions... It is because they are getting old and feeble, that is not the case at all. They have been to the school of life, the school of hard knocks and they realize that they have to make quality decisions.
Remember, anything done in haste is not from God and we really need to remember what the Lord says - He shall direct our paths. So today, have a wonderful Saturday and remember Jesus will direct you.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 11th of March and the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Matthew 16:26
Folks, those are stirring words... And then we go to Luke 12:20:
“But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?”
Remember the story of the farmer who had a bountiful crop? He said, “I will pull down my barns and I will build greater ones,” and then he says, “I will eat, drink and be merry.” The Lord said, “Tonight your soul will be required of you.”
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36
I heard a story of an old businessman who was extremely successful and very wealthy. Somebody came to visit him and sat in his beautiful office and said: “You have done so well.” The old businessman’s eyes filled with tears and he said, “Yes”, he said, “I have used all my strength to build up this gigantic business and now I am using my money to try and buy back my health but it is not working.”
I want to say to you today that we need to keep our priorities in order. I knew an old gentleman who worked his whole life to build his dream home that he was going to retire in... He eventually retired and moved to that beautiful home and then I got a very sad report that he had contracted cancer and he only had a few weeks to live.
I went to visit him, he was sitting on the verandah of his magnificent home and I didn’t know what to say. I said, “What a beautiful home you have built for yourself. Tears filled his eyes and he said, “Yes, but for what?” He didn't live in that house for more than a couple of months before he died.
You know, in the 1600s a group of clergymen, professors of Theology, got together and they waited on God to find out what God’s purpose for man is on earth and they came to the conclusion, very simple:
The purpose of man is:
1) To glorify God and,
2) To enjoy Him forever.
I want to say to you today, “Are you doing that?” Because the wisest man who ever lived, that’s right - Solomon, said very clearly in the back of the Book of Ecclesiastes:
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13
Jesus bless you as you spend time with your Friend today.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 10th of March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.”
Psalm 33:6
And then we go straight to James, in the New Testament, James 3 and I am reading from verse 5:
“Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.”
The power of the spoken word! We must make sure that our words are sweet because we might have to eat them, as they say! But seriously, world wars have been started by careless words spoken in anger.
A word can be used for good and a word can be used for evil. I have seen too many broken families (it breaks my heart, by the way), divorces, and strong friendships destroyed, by a word spoken in the heat of the moment. You know, a scripture verse that I have remembered, Jill told me many years ago, found in Proverbs, says:
“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking,
But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
Proverbs 10:19
Sometimes we need to let our words be few, but of course, words can also heal, they can forgive, they can build up and they can strengthen.
Words, like when Jesus said to Lazarus after he had been dead in the tomb for four days: “Lazarus, come forth.” And he rose from the dead. Words can also restore relationships and heal - Remember the woman caught in adultery? Jesus said, “He who has no sin cast the first stone.”
Healing takes place through godly words. We need to talk things over, dad and mom, brother and sister. Now, remember, the evil one he does not want this. He fuels the fire, He exaggerates thoughts and he doesn’t want you to resolve them so that they fester and become huge.
Many years ago, Jill and I knew an old couple who have since gone to be with Jesus. They had such a beautiful marriage. They had been married for, I don’t know, well over fifty years... We said to them one day, “What is the secret of your beautiful, successful marriage?” They said, “Every Sunday afternoon, after we have had our lunch, we lay on the bed together and we have a good talk to each other... about everything. About offences that were taken during the week, about not doing things we promised we were going to do - We cleared the air and the most important thing is we encouraged one another and we love one another.”
That is what we need to do today. We need to speak life and not death.
Jesus bless you. Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you - It is Wednesday morning, 9th of March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.”
But Jesus says, “I came to give you life, abundantly.”
John 10:10
And if we look at Nehemiah in the Old Testament, Nehemiah 8:10, the Bible says the joy of the Lord is my strength. God’s purpose for us is to give us a rich and satisfying life. Abundance, more than you can expect, until you actually overflow... more than we ever dreamed of. So we need to be careful how we talk.
I want to ask you a question this morning - Is that glass half-full of water or is half-empty? Well, that is your decision... The devil says it is half-empty. Jesus says it is half-full - What do you believe today?
You must remember one thing, the devil had his neck broken on the Cross of Calvary. When Jesus said, “It is finished”, He meant it. The only thing that the devil has got the power to do now, is to tell lies. He is the father of all lies and he is the deceiver of the brethren. Today, do not allow the devil to steal your dream. That is all he can do, don’t allow it.
In 1994, a long time ago now, I returned from a preaching tour in bonnie Scotland. I had been there for three months. I was tired, I was weary and I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to take a pencil, that's right - just a pencil, and an A4 pad and write your story! Well, straight away the devil came in and tried to steal my dream, didn’t he? He said, “You have got no formal education, you have got no learning. You don’t know how to write a book. No one taught you anything.” The Lord said, “Write the story!”
Well, I very nearly listened to the devil and if I had I would not have started writing books. I want to tell you, I did not allow him to steal my dream... That’s right, Faith like Potatoes. That book is now in 17 languages and a full-scale movie has been made from that book. We have had countless miracles, healings and lives changed from that simple story.
Jesus tells you today, “Do not allow the devil to steal your dream! Live your dream today and remember, we have a glorious future to look forward to. We are going to spend eternity in the presence of God.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 8th ofMarch, the year 2022. And this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”
John 10:3
Jesus leads us, He does not chase us from behind. In the west, we use sheepdogs to herd our sheep but in the Middle East the shepherds lead their sheep and their sheep follow them because they hear and know the shepherd’s voice. “How does this happen?”, you might say. Well, because they spend time with him all day long, not just for five minutes in the morning. You know, I have a very dear friend, a very successful forester and they tell me that when he was running his huge operation, he employed over 900 employees. Do you know, he would greet every person by name every day... No wonder they worked so well for him.
In these turbulent times in which we live, folk just don’t know what to believe. They don’t know where to go and they don’t even know what to do. We need to follow the Good Shepherd. Many of us today are just like Thomas, one of the Lord’s disciples - Remember Thomas?
In John 14:5: "How can we know the way?"Verse 6, Jesus the Good Shepherd says: “Thomas, I am the way.”Involve the Good Shepherd today in every single decision you make.
You know, there is one man, one of my heroes, a Zulu preacher by the name of William Duma and he would do nothing without God’s permission. Once a group of men came to him and said, “We see you have done so much work for Jesus. We want to send you to Israel on a tour.” They asked him and they asked a number of other pastors. All the other pastors put their hands up and they said, “Yes, please. Thank you. God bless you!” But the man of God, William Duma, who came from the South Coast of KZN, from the Umkomaas mountains said: “Can I let you know tomorrow. I just have to ask permission from my Good Shepherd to see if I can go.”
A famous preacher once said, “The best thing that we can do for people is to make them hearers from Heaven.”
Today, listen to the Good Shepherd and you won’t make a mistake.
Jesus bless you and goodbye!
And a very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 7th of March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”
John 9:27
You know, there are none so blind as those who refuse to see. We believe whatever we read in the media, don’t we... In the newspapers, on our devices, on television. We don’t question it but we always seem to doubt a genuine miracle that is performed by God. Even when the person in question confesses that he has received healing, like this young man who was blind from birth, yet we don't believe.
The Pharisees said, “Were you really blind from birth?" He said, “As my parents.” And of course, they were afraid of the people, peer pressure is a terrible thing, so they said, “Ask him.” He said to them, “No-one has ever opened the eyes of a blind man”, and of course, the blind man, once his eyes were opened, he became a follower of Jesus Christ.
You and I need to stop questioning God and we need to start, simply believing what He has said and what He has done. That is the only way that we can be used by God.
A very dear lady sent me a book which she has just written and in it, there is a pencil parable, it goes like this:
In the beginning, the pencil-maker spoke to the pencil:
“There are five things that you need to know before I send you into the world to become the best that you can become. Number one - you will be able to do many things but only if you allow yourself to be held in someone’s hand.
Number two - you will experience a painful sharpening from time to time but this is required if you are to become a better pencil.
Number three - you have the ability to correct any mistakes you may make.
Number four - the most important part of you will always be what is on the inside.
Number five - no matter what the condition, you must continue to write. You must always have a clear, legible mark no matter how difficult the situation.”
Everyone is like a pencil, created by the Lord Himself for a purpose. A special meaningful purpose, in our heart and a relationship, with God daily. Go out today and believe God and He will use you to perform mighty miracles for Him.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, 6th of March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Or let him take hold of My strength,
That he may make peace with Me;
And he shall make peace with Me.”
Isaiah 27:5
Then we go to Job 22:21:
“Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace;
Thereby good will come to you.”
And then of course the last one is a scripture we all know so well, found in John, Jesus says:
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
John14:27
Peace only comes to us when we acquaint ourselves with the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ Himself. They tell me that in the centre, in the heart of a vicious tornado or hurricane that is tearing houses and buildings up from their very foundations, there is absolute peace and calm. You see, peace comes from within and not from the outside.
When I was a young man and I had to leave Zambia and sell my farm. My whole ambition was to own a farm one day in South Africa and I thought that if I owned that farm it would bring me peace. You know, I almost worked myself to death trying to get that farm. Eventually, I did manage to secure the farm but at a tremendous cost. But there was absolutely no peace in my heart, in fact the opposite was the case… I had come to the end of myself.
I then reached out for Jesus and found real peace for the first time in my life. And we call this little farm, Shalom. My wife actually thought of the name and we weren’t even Christians then. Of course, Shalom means peace and many people have found peace in this place.
I want to pray for you on this Sunday morning because maybe you are troubled in your spirit, maybe you are fearful. Let us pray. Please pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Today, I am anxious, I am fearful and I am stressed. I really need Your peace in my life. I have to make big decisions and I don’t know which way to turn so I am turning to you today, Lord Jesus, on Sunday 6th March. I am asking You to come into my life and give me Your peace.
Amen.
Have a wonderful and peaceful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 5th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"Can anyone teach God knowledge, Since He judges those on high?”
Job 21:22
Then we go straight to Romans 11, in the New Testament:
"For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counsellor?" "Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?"
Romans 11:34
It is ludicrous to question God, it is absolutely ridiculous and yet we always do it, don’t we? We are always questioning God and we always have a better solution... It has got to be the absolute maximum in arrogance to question our creator when we are merely a creation.
You know, I have a very beautiful little four-year-old granddaughter, she has got her Kulu wrapped around her little finger. She comes down to Gogo’s house and she has a tea party with all her dollies and all her tea-sets. Now I want to ask you a question - Can you imagine that little girl arguing with Albert Einstein about physics, can you? When we want to argue with God it is ridiculous, instead of acknowledging the fact that He is in Heaven and we are on earth.
You know, it is okay to say to an atheist or an unbeliever, when he asks you a question like, “Why do some people get healed when we pray for them and others don’t get healed?” It’s okay to say, “I don’t know. I don’t know because I am not God.”
If we go to Job 38, read that chapter if you get a chance and you will see where the Lord is getting tired of Job asking so many questions and giving so much advice. He basically says, “Stand up like a man and I want to ask you some questions. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth, who shut the sea with doors?” The sea does not go any further than the Lord allows it to.
“Can you command the morning?” He asks. "Can you make the sun come up? Have you entered the springs of the depths of the sea where the water comes from? Can you determine life or death?” - Of course not.
I want to leave you with one very important scripture and you can use it as a memory verse. It goes like this:
"Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding."
Job 28:28
Have a wonderful day and by the way, Einstein believed that there was a God in Heaven. Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 4th of March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
Exodus 3:14
What a statement!
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1
That’s right! But if we go to John 8:58, this is what the word of God says:
“Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
Oh, Halleluja! Revelation 1:8 - He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Beginning and the End.
I want to ask you a question: Why did they kill Jesus?
Jesus was not a murderer, He was not an adulterer or a thief. He never did anything wrong. The Bible says He was so gentle that He did not even break a bent reed, or even extinguish a smouldering flax.
Why did they kill Him? Do you know why they killed Him... Because He said, “I AM.” He said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father because the two of Us are One Person. Emanuel - God with us.” No other reason. I want to ask you a question this morning and you need to answer it: Who do you say He is?
Many, many years ago I had the privilege of going to Great Britain. I went to the Welsh Agricultural Show, The Royal Show. What an incredible event. I had never seen such beautiful animals in my life before. I asked if I could do a film in the shed where they were preparing all the bulls for the finals.
Now there were magnificent bulls there. There were Charolais - they come from France. There were Simmentals - they come from Switzerland and from Germany. There were Herefords from England. There were Aberdeen Angus’s from Scotland. It was a grand affair.
As we walked into the bull shed, I came in from the bottom entrance, and I walked up amongst all the bulls. They were in stalls on either side of the passage and the stockmen were brushing them furiously for the final, it was early in the morning. I went right to the top of the shed and there was the Grand Champion. He had been the Grand Champion for two or three years. This bull must have weighed over a ton and a half, I have never seen such a big animal.
I preached my heart out. The cameramen were taking the film and I could hear the boys were listening but they carried on brushing their bulls. At the end when I said Amen, the one old man next to me brushing his bull, said, “How can you say that Jesus is the only God?
I said, “Because He is.”
He said, “No, He’s not”
I said, “Who do you say He is?”
He said, “It is a mystery to me, boyo!” I said, “No sir, it is a fact.” And with that, I turned around and walked all the way down the shed, slowly, greeting the men and they were smiling and waving and brushing their bulls.
Who do you say He is today?
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
And a very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 3rd of March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
John 8:36
We need to turn our eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of the world will grow strangely dim… Do you remember that old song? It was a beautiful old song. The things of this world do not last. They lose their lustre and their glamour but when we meet the Master, that is when life really begins. There is nothing else in this world that makes you more excited about the future as you get older, than when you become a Christian. Okay, there are a lot of people sitting in the waiting room, that's right, they are waiting to die but when you become a Christian life gets better as you get older.
You get the CEO who has been working all his life, running a large organisation, saving up his money... His dream is to have his own beach cottage right by the sea and to go out fishing every day. Eventually, he retires, he gets his beach cottage and he goes out every morning to fish but after a month or so he gets bored and stiff. He starts driving his poor wife around the bend, but when you meet Jesus, Jesus sets us free. We still enjoy fishing and the beach cottage but it is not the main reason we get up in the morning.
You see, Jesus sets us free from ourselves. Your biggest enemy, my biggest enemy, is ourselves. When we take our focus off of ourselves and we put our focus on Jesus, all of a sudden when you get up in the morning, the sun is shining brighter.
Remember the story written by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol - That mean old man, totally self-absorbed? His name was Scrooge. He was so mean. He had no family and remember on Christmas Eve, he wouldn’t let his employees go off, they had to work. He gave them nothing. Then he has a dream that he died and he went to hell. He's an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas, past, present and yet to come.
After that visit, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder and more gentle man. Why? Because he took his eyes off himself and he started to live for others. He goes out and buys a massive turkey for his employees and the family who had nothing, and his life just comes alive.
Today, Jesus will set you free and then you can start living a life that is full of purpose and joy. He said in John 10:10, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy but I came that you might have life abundantly.
Enjoy your day today and go and bless someone.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you. It is Wednesday morning, 2nd of March, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“For He is coming to judge the earth.
With righteousness, He shall judge the world,
And the peoples with equity.”
Psalm 98:9
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the meaning of the word, equity. It means the quality of being fair and impartial. Then we go to Revelation 14:7:
“Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come”
Looking around the world at the moment and we see gross injustice, don’t we? You turn on that television and you see wars everywhere... disease and sickness. I can hear some of us saying, “It is not fair. How can they get away with it?” Well, I want to say to you that it is not over yet. Judgement day is still coming and remember, judgement belongs to the Lord. He says in His Word: “Revenge belongs to me.” Every single one of us is going to give an account for our life here on earth.
“Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.”
Malachi 4:5
Every single one of us will be judged according to what we have done on this earth. Joel 2:31:
“The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.”
We really need to get our lives into order and we need to leave revenge and judgement in the hands of a fair and impartial God.
I remember many years ago, a very special nursing sister and friend of my wife’s and I... Daph used to tell us that when she would go into a room, where a person was dying - when she went into the ward and to the room of an unbeliever, of an atheist, of an angry, unforgiving person, it was a terrible place to be. She said that person would be grinding their teeth, they would be cursing God and swearing.
But when she went into the room of a believer, sometimes in a lot of pain, she would see tranquillity and peace and joy as that person was getting ready to meet the Lord.
“For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:13
This is not a time to take judgement into our own hands. This is not a time to start making out that you know who is guilty and who is not. We actually need to pray for our enemies. You say, “Come on Angus, that is going a bit too far.” No, that is what Jesus did on the cross. In Luke 23:34, He said:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
Today, let the Lord be the judge and you live your life according to His principles.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is the 1st of March 2022, Tuesday morning. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day. If we go to the Old Testament, to the book that they say is the oldest book in the Bible - the Book of Job:
“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth.”
Job 19:25
Wow, there is a big difference between hoping and knowing. Despite what Job suffered, and did he ever suffer, losing everything and all that he went through - he could still say, “I know that my Redeemer lives.” Our faith can never be based on feelings. There is no place in God’s Kingdom for fair-weather Christians.
What does that mean? Well, when the sun is shining, we love the Lord but when the dark, black clouds come over, we don’t want to know the Lord anymore. In these last days, Jesus is looking for unconditional loyalty and faith in Him.
You see, Job said:
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
Job 13:15
Wow folks, that is commitment and we need to exercise that commitment in our lives today. You know that even before Jesus came down from Heaven to Earth the first time, Job was already talking about the second coming, because he says at the end of that verse: “He shall stand at last on the earth.” What a wonderful thing to know:
“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth.”
Now, how do you find that kind of trust? Well, it is by knowing someone. It is by spending time with that person.
You know, many years ago, I think in the north-west of Scotland in the islands, the Isle of Lewis and the Isle of Harris, they invited an evangelist to come up from Scotland, from the south. His name was Duncan Campbell and they wanted him to hold an evangelistic outreach for a couple of weeks. When the boat arrived at the harbour, there were two old sisters, the Morris sisters and they were standing on the Harbourside waiting for the man of God to come off that little boat. The one was almost blind and the other was doubled in two, she had arthritis. They asked him a question, “Mr Campbell, do you know God?” And he said, “Well, I really hope so.” Because they had been praying for the revival and that revival came and it stayed on those islands for two years. People came from all over the world just to see what God was doing.
Do you and I know God? “I am not too sure about that Angus.” Well, today spend time with Jesus.
Have a wonderful day and Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you. It is 28th of February, Monday morning, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.”
Matthew 10:27
This is not a time for you and me to be quiet. We need to be more vocal now about our faith than ever before. Jesus has told us, today, that we need to shout it literally from the rooftops. Like never before in the history of the world, people need the Lord.
What with full-scale war looming in Russia we need to understand the times in which we are living. Disease and viruses paralyzing the whole world - People need the Lord! In John 16:33 the Lord says very clearly:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Jesus is never caught by surprise. He knew all this was going to happen 2000 years ago. We need to speak it out in the workplace, in schools, hospitals, on the farm and in the aeroplane. People are asking questions. It is time to tell them about a friend who will never leave them nor forsake them.
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
I was preaching down in the Eastern Cape, many years ago, to a group of farmers. At the interval, I walked into the bathroom and an old gentleman walked in behind me and he said to me: “Son…” I said, “Yes, sir.”
“When you preach, you don’t have to sweat so much.”
“Aah,” I said, “Sir, you haven’t seen anything yet! Wait for the second half!”
A couple of days ago, I had the privilege of speaking at a memorial service in Pietermaritzburg, it was a wonderful occasion. A man of God went home to be with Jesus. As the service ended I was walking back out of the conference centre when a gentleman came up and said, “Angus, many years ago I was working on the railways and I was fixing the railways on the top of the hill next to your farm. I am talking about 3 or 4 km away and you know, when you started preaching, we could hear you clearly. I told all the workers to sit down next to the railway line and we heard the full message.”
This is a time to tell people about Jesus. Dwight Eisenhower, former President of the United States of America, on his deathbed, Billy Graham was there and he wanted reassurance of his salvation saying: “Billy, tell me about Jesus.” This is the time to tell people about the Saviour of the world.
Have a wonderful day and shout it from the rooftops.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, 27th of February 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day. If we go straight to the Gospel of John:
“Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?”
She said, “No one, Lord.”
And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
John 8:10
And then we go to Luke 9:56:
“For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.”
You know that there is nothing you and I can do to make Jesus love us more and there is nothing we can do to make Him love us any less. The Lord has not come down to Earth from Heaven to condemn us but to forgive us and to give us a brand-new life. One of my favourite scriptures is found in Romans 8:1, where the Lord says there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
You know what I love? Jesus has got a bad memory… Oh yes, because when he forgives us, he forgets. The devil is the accuser of the brethren not the world and he is also a deceiver. You will find that in Revelation 12:10.
One of my verse special scriptures, 1 John 1:9, the Lord says if we confess our sins, say sorry, then He will forgive us our sins and He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Just say sorry today to the Lord and then move on with your life - Leave it at the foot of the cross. Remember, Jesus died for sinners, that’s right! He didn’t die for good people, He died for sinners like you and me.
I want to tell you about a man who was very, very evil. He was one of the most evil men you could ever think of. He was the captain of a slave ship. He took innocent people, by force in his ship, all the way from Africa to the Americas and they were enslaved. And yet this evil man, when he died, as he was dying, he said something so weakly, they couldn’t hear him. His friend put his ear to this man’s mouth and the man whispered, “What a great sinner I am but what a great Saviour He is!”
Who was that man? Well, that was John Newton. He wrote one of the most famous hymns of all time…
Amazing Grace,
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me,
I once was lost
But now am found,
I was blind
But now I see.
What beautiful words! Go out today, knowing that your sins are forgiven. Jesus says, “Go, and sin no more.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 26th February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
If we go to the Gospel of John, the officers answered:
“No man ever spoke like this Man!”
John 7:46
The greatest Orator who ever lived, oh yes! An orator is someone proficient in public speaking. Now, remember the soldiers were told by the High Priest to arrest Jesus and they didn’t. When the High Priest said, “Why didn’t you arrest Him?” They said, “We have never ever in our lives heard a man speak like this?”
No one can hold a crowd transfixed for a measure of time as Jesus could. Yes, the soldiers were transfixed by what He said. You see, it's not so much what you say, it is more who you are that holds people’s attention. The greatest sermon ever preached is found in Matthew 5, that’s right - The Sermon on the Mount.
I want to talk to you about extempore preaching. Do you know what that means? Extempore preaching is what the great preachers of the old times used to do. They would take one verse, like let's say, Romans 1:17 which says:
“The just shall live by faith.”
And they would preach, open-air, no notes, for three hours non-stop. You see, if it is not inside you then it is not coming out of you. These men spent time with God. You know, the old preachers used to say to me, “Son, if you don’t strike oil in five minutes, stop boring.” You have only got five minutes to get the attention of a crowd and if you don’t climb in there, you have got no chance.
You know, as a young man I was so desperate to preach after I gave my life to the Lord. I would jump in my pick-up, many a day, go into the middle of my maize fields (the cornfields) and when nobody was looking, I would jump on the back of the pick-up and preach my heart out to the maize plants. And then at the end of the message, I would say, “Let's bow our heads in prayer” and the Lord Jesus would send a gentle breeze and all the maize plants would bow their heads!
Aah folks, I want to say to you today - before you go to work, go and read the Sermon on the Mount. It is a magnificent message. And then go out and tell people about the greatest Man who ever lived. No man ever spoke like this man!
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day!
And a very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 25th February, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
"I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are you all! “
Job 16:2
If you have nothing good to say about somebody, rather say nothing. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ, He believes in us - He is the One that you have got to spend time with. Paul says:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13
But you know, one negative word can break a person just like one encouraging person can build us up. I looked up the dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the phrase Job’s Comforter, this is what it says: “A Job’s Comforter is a person who aggravates distress under the guise of giving comfort.” You see, Job’s friends were supposed to comfort him but they didn’t really, did they?
Now, I want to say to you today, we (including me) need to encourage one another. When your wife, sir, cooks you that beautiful meal. Don’t get up from the table to say: “That was very nice. Thank you very much, but it's a pity that you burned the potatoes a little bit.” That is not encouragement, that is putting the needle in, isn’t it? Or when your husband comes home and he brings you a lovely bunch of flowers. "Oh", you say, “Darling, thank you. Those are beautiful but they are not really my favourite flowers.” What does that do? It just un-does everything. We need to build each other up... There is enough pain in this world.
Vincent Van Gogh is one of the greatest master painters and artists of all time. You know, his brother used to take his paintings, give him a couple of cents for them and hide them under his mattress because he was ashamed of those paintings. Those paintings are so expensive, you can’t buy them today. We need to encourage one another, not take away from each other. The Lord has called us to be encouragers, like Barnabas. He was an encourager.
Build people up. Phone somebody today and say, “Listen, I just want to tell you I really appreciate your friendship.” When you see somebody old, say, “I really love that dress you are wearing there.” And that will make that old lady’s day. Walk that old person across the road. Sit down and spend time with somebody today.
Be an encourager. Don’t be a Job’s Comforter.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 24th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags”
Isaiah 64:6
Wow - It is a heavy scripture. Then we go straight to Matthew:
“Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
Matthew 7:22
The Lord is not interested in our good efforts. Mark 8:36:
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
He does not want our efforts, He says they are like filthy rags - He wants us. Just like your wife, sir... She wants you, not all the gifts that you can bring her. Not all the things that you are building up, no, she wants you. She married you! Your daughter, Mother, she wants you, not what you can give her. And God wants us. Not what we can do for Him, He doesn’t need us... He wants us! He created you and me to have fellowship with Him.
John Wesley sailed, in a big sailing ship, all the way to the United States of America to find God. He preached his heart out to the First Nation people (the original inhabitants of America) and not one single convert did he see. Remember, he had a Master of Arts degree from the university. He came all the way back to the UK, very disheartened. On his way over, coming back home, the ship engaged in a huge storm on the Atlantic Ocean and the ship was about to sink.
As he looked up, on the surface of the ship, there was a group of families, German Moravian Christians, and what were they doing... They were singing hymns and they were worshipping God. The sea washed across the deck of the ship, it was in big trouble and he realized he didn’t know God at all. He went to a little Bible Study when he got back to London in a place called Aldersgate and he sat there and he said, “A strange warmth came over my heart and scales fell from my eyes.” He came to know and to have fellowship with Jesus Christ and then God used him to start one of the biggest revivals the world has ever seen.
Today spend time with your loved ones, spend time with God, and not concentrate on what you can do for Him, but spend time with Him.
Jesus bless you, have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you. It is Wednesday morning, 23rd of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son?”
Matthew 13:54-55
And then we look at Psalm 81:10, the Lord says:
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
Spending time in the presence of God, the Holy Spirit is our teacher and the Bible is our compass. You see, spending time studying without the Holy Spirit, makes us mere history students - If you haven’t met the Man from Galilee, that’s all you become.
Memorizing scripture... and I love doing that by the way and the older I get, the harder it is... but memorizing scripture without knowing the Author of the Book has no reward. In fact, you can even teach a parrot to do that.
“for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”
2 Corinthians 3:6
Do you know that not one of the disciples was a Bible teacher, a priest or even a scribe? Peter, James and John, what did they do for a living? They were fishermen. Matthew, what was he? A tax collector. Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, was a tent-maker. He was a tradesman. And Jesus, Himself, was a carpenter.
We must not ever say that it is a waste of time to study, never - I would have loved to have gone to a Bible college. I didn’t have much education, I left school early. I wanted to be a preacher, the minister who loved me said, “You have got to go to university for seven years.” And I gave up. I should never have done that, it wasn’t the minister’s fault. I should have just pressed on with the vision and the passion that I had to tell people about Jesus.
You know, I love sitting down and listening to anointed teachers and men of God, don’t get me wrong, but time is short... Don't get me wrong. Today, there might be a young man or woman who would love to tell people about Jesus but they feel like they have lost the opportunity. Never, never - There is no time like the present.
It is Christ in you that is the hope of glory!
Colossians 1:27
Go out today and just tell people about Jesus. You might be a farmer or a shopkeeper. You might be a doctor, a nurse... just tell people what Jesus means to you, that is what God wants us to do. Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 22nd of February, the year 2022. And we go straight to the Gospel of John, this is what it says:
“Now the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles was at hand.”
John 7:2
Just that far. Then down to verse 10 of the same chapter:
“But when His brothers had gone up, then He also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.”
Jesus was asked to go up to the Feast of Tabernacles with the disciples but He went secretly, why? Because He knew the Jews were plotting to kill Him. I want to say to you today that we need to make a decision. Do we believe that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God?
You see, if we go on to verse 12 it says:
“And there was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, "He is good"; others said, "No, on the contrary, He deceives the people.”
I want to tell you, and I mean it from my heart... I am sitting in my prayer room and I am remembering what happened to me on 30th September 2012 when I was invited to be the speaker at the Feast of Tabernacles, at Ein Gedi, on the Dead Sea in Israel. I was invited by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ). It was a very, very warm evening, over 40 degrees at 7 p.m. - Remember, it is the lowest point on earth. It doesn’t rain there, the wind doesn’t blow there - It is dead in more ways than one.
I went up onto the platform and I started reading from Acts 2:2-3 and this is what it says:
“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.”
When I had finished reading that, I closed my Bible, I was so excited. I was in Jesus country... I said, “ Lord, please do it again!” - And oh my dear friend, He did it! Yes, He did! A rushing mighty wind came like I have never seen before. It blew the side screens down, it started blowing the equipment off the platform - all the guitars and the keyboards!
Now, I want to ask you a question today. Was that a coincidence or was that a God-incidence? I am telling you that there are people that will still say to you, “No, that was just a coincidence.” Folks, why didn’t the wind blow an hour before the meeting? Why didn’t the wind blow two days afterwards... It blew right at that very moment and then it started to rain. Now, it doesn’t rain there, it is like the moon. There is nothing there.
You see, up to that time, many people said, “Is He the Son of God?” And they argued. I want to tell you people are still doing that today but we need to understand one thing: Jesus Christ is coming back very, very soon and we need to believe and we need to be ready.
I am telling you, I couldn’t sleep that night. They took me back up to Jerusalem to my hotel. I lay on my bed the whole night - I was weeping, I was laughing, I was praying. Jesus Christ visited us that night.
Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Monday morning. It is the 21st of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Since his days are determined,
The number of his months is with You;
You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass.”
Job 14:5
And then Psalm 39:4:
“Lord, make me to know my end,
And what is the measure of my days,
That I may know how frail I am.”
Our days on this earth have been appointed to us even before we were born. You cannot lengthen and you cannot shorten your life - It is in God’s hands alone. Now, there are exceptions... King Hezekiah prayed to God on his deathbed. He was weeping bitterly and he asked God to increase his life and God gave him 15 years extra. You can read that in 2 Kings Chapter 20.
The sad thing is some people are obsessed with trying to prolong their lives and in so doing live miserable, sad lives. It is not about the length of time that we have on this earth that counts, it is what we do with that time that God has given us that counts. You know, Paul said
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Philippians 1:1
In other words, you can’t frighten a Christian with Heaven. If we live, we live for Jesus, if we die we are going home. David Brannon took the Gospel to the First Nation people in America. He did his work in 29 years. At 29 years he died. Robert Murray McShane started a massive revival in Dundee, Scotland. He died at the age of 30.
Jim Elliott took the Gospel to the Amazon Jungle, he died at 28. Remember, he said (This was his favourite saying): “It is no fool that gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. That's right! You can’t keep your life on this earth and make sure that you do not lose your life in Heaven.
Some folk are afraid to die. Remember, Jesus gives us the strength to live and He gives us the strength to die. He says:
I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
And then I love this quotation by the Lord in Matthew 6:25:
“Don’t worry,” He says, “do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”
Today, go out and have a wonderful day. Enjoy the day that the Lord has given you and do what you can to help your fellow man.
Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you. It is Sunday morning, 20th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
In the same manner, He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
1 Corinthians 11:24-25
When Jesus spoke about this act, sadly a lot of His disciples left Him. That’s right. If we look at the word of God in John 6:66, it says:
“From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.”
He was left with twelve. He had had about a hundred and twenty. This is a very solemn reminder of what Jesus Christ has done for you and me. Do you know that every single day that I am on the farm Jill and I, at the breakfast table, have Holy Communion in the morning?
Remember now, with this wonderful act of God there is no one who is exempt. All who love the Lord Jesus Christ can come to the table, that is the qualification. Jesus did it with his disciples at the last supper. I have been to the Upper Room in Jerusalem, in the Old City. I had a wonderful experience there with God, the presence of the Holy Spirit was almost tangible. Please do it with your family, dads. Do it on your own, if you are not married... There is no specified place, there is no specified time - You can partake of the Holy Communion in a hospital, a jail, university, at work, down the mine or on the farm.
I want to tell you one of the highlights for me is breaking bread with my oldest grandchild and her husband on her wedding day - Oh, so special! And I want to say to you today that when you partake of Holy Communion my dear friend, there is healing that takes place. That's right, physical healing... There is freedom, the forgiveness of sins, liberty and most of all, there is salvation because when we remember what Jesus Christ did for us the devil has got no more hold over us.
Please do not abstain from breaking bread in the presence of Almighty God. He said: “Do it in remembrance of Me, until I come.”
Have a wonderful Sunday, Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is the 19th of February, Saturday morning and the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
Jesus says:
“I am the bread of life.’
John 6:48
You know, if you don’t eat, you die. I looked up, in the Oxford Dictionary, the exact meaning of the word malnutrition. It says: "Not eating enough of the right things.” Now if a man does not eat good, solid, wholesome food, he cannot do the work.
When I was young, my dad would always say to us, “What you save on the grocery bills, you pay out on the doctor’s bills.” - So true.
In South Africa, when we go to work, we will always carry a stick of biltong in our back pocket... Wherever we go, especially if we go and watch rugby or cricket, biltong is dried meat. In the USA, they call it Jerky, in Australia they call it 'Roadkill'. That doesn’t sound too good, hey ladies? But the fact of the matter is, we need protein if we are going to work. It is the bottom line, if you don’t eat, you cannot operate. Even an angel, in 1 Kings 19:7, told the great prophet, Elijah, to eat because he was about to embark on a journey.
If we don’t eat the Bread of Life, we will die. I am talking about the Bible. I am talking about spending time in the presence of Almighty God, every single morning. I am talking about prayer, Bible reading and meditation, each morning before we go to work. And then when we are at work, yes, during your lunch hour, spend time just reading the word of God. Then, of course, before we go to sleep at night, preferably with the whole family, we spend time reading God’s Holy Word. You know, when you do that, I want to encourage you, it will protect you... Physically, spiritually and mentally. It will energize you, it will strengthen you.
Jesus is the Bread of Life and if you feed on Him you will never hunger and you will never thirst.
Have a wonderful Saturday, Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 18th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
And to depart from evil is understanding."
Job 28:28
We must not waste valuable opportunities. Especially spending time with people who have lots of wisdom they want to give us for free. "When an old man dies, a library burns to the ground." - African Proverb.
We must never waste the opportunity to learn from people who have walked the road. But then again, it is not so much about age, is it? No, it is more about a person who knows God.
“Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, (that was Jesus) sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. (By the way, Jesus was a mere 12 years old) And all who heard Him (the teachers) were astonished at His understanding and answers”.
Luke 2:46
We must spend time learning. Don’t keep having to go round that mountain, we don’t have that kind of time left. There are a lot of people, full of wisdom, that would love to share it with you but you just don’t seem to have time to talk to them.
I remember an old man, a farmer, who used to drive up and down the country roads in his landrover. He was a most delightful old gentleman. He was an absolute encyclopedia on beef cattle. He was a former Farmer Of The Year in Kenya and yet he looked so lonely to me. He never seemed to have anything to do. But where were the young farmers? Why weren’t we asking him questions? Well, he is not here anymore, he has gone home to be with Jesus in Heaven.
I looked up a special book I have got with lots of old memories in it and I pulled out a poem. Now, there was an old lady who used to live on this farm, she was an intercessor. She was one of the dearest friends I have ever had. Her name was Aunty Peggy and she used to write poems and give them to me. She used to call me “Buchan Hare”, you know a hare - that rabbit that runs all over the place. And she called herself “Peggy Tortoise”. I just want to read the last verse of a little poem that she wrote me. I might even get a bit emotional towards the end, please forgive me. It goes like this:
Clouds are gathering, dark over our land
Many are the heart transplants to be performed
By The Surgeon of surgeons with sharpened scalpel in hand
The hardened hearts taken out,
Replaced by those that are soft and pulsating with God’s love
Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (the fruits of the Spirit)
A new world to prepare that the old be forsaken.
Come Buchan Hare, come to the fore and lead again the team as before.
But remember, as weak as I am, I will not hold back
And though I will not always be there
I will be with you in spirit and prayer.
God bless, Go strong.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, 17th of February and the year is 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”
Revelation 16:15
The early bird always catches the worm... You know, my wife always says to me, “It is just as easy to be early as it is to be late.” It's an absolute fact. It is a good habit to be early. We really do need to get up in the morning. It's the early bird that catches the worm - such a true saying, isn’t it?
Jesus was never late for an appointment, He was never early for an appointment, but He was always spot on time! You see, if you are late starting off, you just don’t seem able to catch up, do you? You are just late all day long. Often the disciples were looking for Jesus early in the morning because the crowds had already gathered. And where was He - He was up the mountain. He was fellowshipping with His Father, He was getting instructions from His Father for what He had to do that day.
A prime example is an illustration that Jesus gave about with the ten virgins, remember? Five early risers and five late risers, five wise virgins and five foolish virgins.
“And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
Matthew 25:8
We cannot afford to sleep in, we cannot afford to miss the boat. As a farmer, I used to do most of my work before breakfast in the morning. That's right. We would have a late breakfast every morning, Jill and I, at 9 o’clock. We were up way before the sun came up and we had most of our work already running smoothly. The tractors were working in the field, the cows had been milked, everything had been done before breakfast. Then you can enjoy a nice breakfast and fellowship with your wife.
What about your quiet time - when do you get up for your quiet time? “Oh well, I don’t have time at the moment.” - You can’t afford not to have time. When I was a young man in Scotland I used to walk down the little village roads and a farmer would hang over the fence with a piece of straw out of his mouth. He would always have time to speak... But do you know why? Because he was an early riser. He had done most of his work early in the morning. Always have time to speak to Jesus. He is never too busy to speak with you.
You know, that brings a to my eye. He has got more on His mind than anyone else in the universe but He has always got time to speak to us.
Get your instructions from the Lord, early, first thing in the morning and you will be pleasantly surprised how much work you can get done in a day.
And then lastly, go to bed earlier in the evening.
Jesus bless you.
Have a wonderful day.
Very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, 16th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“Know that the Lord, He is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
Psalm 100:3
Remember, God does not make mistakes, oh no! He has created us in His very own image. God does not make junk, you cannot be dissatisfied with yourself - We are one of a kind. Do you know that there is no one in the whole world (I think there are 7 billion people) who have the same fingerprints as you and I have? He knows our finest details. He knows our strengths and He knows our weaknesses. So why do we continually go to every Tom, Dick and Harry when we have a problem - Why not go to The Manufacturer for help? If you happen to own a Land Rover and it is giving you trouble, why would you go to a Land Cruiser agent for help? Now, if we look at Proverbs 8:17, the Lord says:
"I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.”
Let's go to the Creator of our very selves today, early, and ask Him to sort out that problem that we are having. Whether it be physical, spiritual or mental.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7
Why is it that we are always so dissatisfied? Ladies, I am talking to the ladies now. Ladies with curly hair always want straight hair and ladies with straight hair always want curly hair. Ladies with blue eyes want brown eyes and those with brown eyes, want green ones. You say, “How do you know?” Well, I have three daughters of my own! Short men want to be tall and tall men want to be shorter. We need to be satisfied with the way God has made us.
That healing evangelist, John G Lake used to say, “When you get up in the morning and you look in the mirror, speak to that person in the mirror and you say to that person that wherever you go today, God is going with you. Then get up, straighten up your shoulders and go and face the day and enjoy it.
God bless you and goodbye.
Very good morning to you! It is Tuesday morning, 15th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
Daniel 3:25
And then John 6:21:
“Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.”
Oh yes, I want to tell you He understands. He has been there before you see. Jesus didn’t take Meshach, Shadrach and Abed-Nego out of the fiery furnace, no, no, no! He walked with them in the fiery furnace. Jesus didn’t take the disciples out of the boat amid the storm. No, He got into the boat with them.
I want to say something very important. Never say to a person that you understand when they are hurting badly, when you have never been there yourself. You see, Jesus was in the furnace, Jesus got into the boat!
He has never promised us that He will take us out of the fire, not once. What He has promised us is that He will never leave us and He will never forsake us. You will find that in Hebrews 13:5.
Maybe today you are feeling forsaken... Well, Jesus understands, He has been there. In the Garden of Gethsemane they all ran away and left Him. Maybe you are feeling betrayed by a loved one... Well, Jesus’ right-hand man Peter, betrayed Him three times and said, “I never knew Him.” What about pain? You say, Angus I am suffering a lot of pain today. Well, they say the worst, most painful death ever, was invented by the Romans. It was called crucifixion - Jesus went through that, He understands.
There is nothing worse, and I want to be quite honest with you... A young student comes out of Bible College who has never had a girlfriend in his life. The poor youngster has to then sit and counsel a couple who are having marriage problems, who have been married for twenty five years - You can’t do it. You have got to be there yourself. you have got to have gone through it. I can hear somebody say, “Well then, what do we do?” You know what you can do? You can get into the fire, that’s right! You can get into the boat! How do we do that, well you put your arm around that person who is mourning and you weep with them.
That guy that’s sitting in the gutter, that drug addict, you get in the gutter with him, put your arm around him and you love Him - just like Jesus did for you and me.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
Very good morning to you - It is Monday morning, 14th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“I am the Lord, and there is no other;
There is no God besides Me.
I will gird you, though you have not known Me,
That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting
That there is none besides Me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other”
Isaiah 45:5
I think that is very, very clear. Then Mark 8:29
“He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”
We need to ask ourselves a question this morning, “Who do we say that the carpenter from Nazareth is? Yes, He is indeed Immanuel, God with us. Remember, Romans 8:31 says:
"If Christ be for us then who can stand against us?"
No one at all. I want to say to you that our Heavenly Father is not to be trifled with, not to be played with. He is not the man upstairs, He is not my mate - He is Almighty God. We cannot turn Him on and off like a light switch. I want to say to you that even this very day, the Orthodox Jews, if they write you a letter, and they do write me letters... When they sign off, when they write God bless you, they write G-d bless you! They will not even write His name because He is such an Almighty God.
When Moses went up onto Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments from the Lord, no human being or even an animal could even touch the base of that mountain for fear of death. I want to say to you, this Might Creator of the universe created everything that we see with one word.
In the beginning, was the Word. He came down from Heaven to earth in the form of a little defenceless baby. Why? You know why - Because He wanted to have fellowship with you and me. He even knows how many hairs are on your head, isn’t that amazing?
Bring all your fears to Him today and all your inadequacies at the start of this week. Why, because He is bigger and stronger than your greatest fears!
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Sunday morning, the 13th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth , will draw all peoples to myself.”
John 12:32
What a name, the name of Jesus. There is power in this name, there is life in this name. There is healing in this name, there is peace in this name. There is salvation for the lost man in this name and there is a future in this name. It is not the name of an organisation. Oh no! It is not the name of an NPO - not at all.
It is the name of my Friend and, I trust, your Friend too. And He has said, “If you lift Me up I will do the rest". Oh yes, He is the Weatherman. I know that only too well. Yes, and He is The Miracle Worker. I know that one as well but you know, He is so much more, isn't He? He is the friend of sinners, He is the comforter of those who are bereaved. He is the Teacher for those who are trying to find the way. He is the Son of God.
Polycarp was one of the early church fathers. He was an old man. He was arrested by the Romans. They took him to the arena. They were going to burn him at the stake but just before they did, they said to him, “Just deny the name of Jesus and honour the gods of Rome and we will let you go home and die a peaceful death" And with probably tears running down his face, that old gentleman who was 86 years old said, “Oh, He has been faithful all these years. How can I deny Him now? “ And they killed Him. It is that name, Jesus. What does that name mean to you and me today?
Do you remember that old song? I am going to try and sing it for you. A beautiful song. It goes something like this:
Oh Jesus, Jesus, oh Jesus
There is just something about that name.
Oh Master, Saviour, Jesus, like the fragrance after the rain.
Oh Jesus, Jesus, oh Jesus, let all Heaven and Earth proclaim.
Kings and kingdoms, they will all pass away and there is something about that name.
Go out today and tell people about Jesus, your friend. The soon-coming King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Don’t be ashamed of Him. There is nothing to be ashamed of.
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, 12th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews, therefore, said to him who was cured, "It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed."
John 5:8
We need to be so careful that we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater... as the saying goes.
"What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out?”
Matthew 12:11
Don’t miss it... It is all about people. The Jews were looking at an absolute miracle! This man had not walked for 38 years and now he was walking. Yet they were more concerned that he was carrying his bed on the Sabbath because they were not supposed to do any work on the Sabbath. That is so sad, I see it so often.
After a healing meeting we took in a coastal town, many years ago, it was an amazing meeting, we experienced a mini-revival. People were healed every single night. We bussed people in from the local townships. They were getting healed and after the campaign, we phoned up the local churches in the area and said, “Can we bus the people to the church on Sunday morning.” They said, “Please don’t bring them here. We cannot cope with those sorts of numbers.” - So sad.
You know two young girls came to our church a few years back and I must admit, they were very suggestively dressed. After the church meeting, a visiting church leader approached us and said, “This is the House of God. How can you allow this kind of dress code in your church, from your congregation?” We looked at them and said, “But we have never seen them before.” They were visitors, two young girls seeking to find Jesus. They were coming to our church for the first time.
Be very careful to take the plank out of your own eye before you try and take the splinter out of your brother’s eye, Jesus says. And you will find that in Matthew 7:3.
Today, let us spend time with people. People are our first priority, people were Jesus’s first priority. Yes, we have to obey the law. That is what it is there for but remember, it has been put there to benefit people.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Friday morning, 11th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.”
John 4:50
I read out of the New King James Version of the Bible, if we go to 1 John 5:7, do you know what it says?
It says there are three that bear witness in heaven - come on now, who are they - The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit… Is that right? - No, that is not right! My Bible says:
“For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”
So who is the Word? That is right, the Word is Jesus. You see, that nobleman came to Jesus. He said, “My son is dying, please pray for him.” Jesus prayed for the son to be healed, he wasn’t even there. The nobleman left because he believed the Word of God and his servants came running up the road saying, “Your son lives.” The nobleman said, “When did he get better?” They said, ”Yesterday, on the seventh hour.” That was the exact time that Jesus prayed and said to the nobleman, “Your son lives” - the very same hour. Jesus is the Word!
“In the beginning (that is right in the beginning) was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1
You and I need to believe the Bible because it is Jesus Christ in print. A couple came to see me, from Pretoria I think it was, a few weeks ago. The man had been very sick and he had lost his sight. He could hardly see, he could hardly walk into the office.
His dear wife was with him. He was a backslider, that is what he told me. He actually said he gave his life to the Lord in 2008 at the Mighty Men Conference, when we had the big tent. He was a broken man but his wife had incredible faith. She started weeping from the moment they walked into the office. He put his head down on the table. He sat in our boardroom and he just wept like a baby. I asked him, “What do you want Jesus to do for you?”
Now you might say that is a strange question to ask a man who obviously needs his sight back, but the same thing happened with Barthimaeus, in Mark 10:51, exactly the same thing.
“So Jesus answered and said to him, "What do you want Me to do for you?" The blind man said to Him, "Rabboni, ( which means teacher) that I may receive my sight." And immediately he was healed.
I asked this man the same question. He said, “I want to see.” We anointed him with oil. He prayed a prayer of repentance, his wife was weeping, he was weeping, we were all weeping. Now, she had driven him all the way from Pretoria. He said goodbye and my secretary came to me and said to me, “They have just driven out of the driveway.” I said, “Oh yes, that’s nice!” She said: “But he is driving the car!” - He drove all the way back!
Believe the Word!
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Thursday morning, the 10th February, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“For He remembered that they were but flesh, A breath that passes away and does not come again.”
Psalm 78:39
And then we go to the Book of James:
“For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
James 4:14
You know right next to our farm we are on a plateau. There is a big valley. It is a vlei land and often early in the morning when I go for my bike ride, it is shrouded in vapour, in mist, and when I come back from my ride an hour later it is clear, the sun is shining and you can see the whole valley. That is how brief our lives are. Today, we need to get our priorities in order.
Remember, Jesus only did what His Father told Him to do. He did no more and no less. Let's not put off for tomorrow, what we can do today. You know the adage: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Tomorrow I will do this... 'Kusasa', we say in Zulu: “Sizokwenza kusasa uma iNkosi izovuma” - "We’ll do it tomorrow if the Lord wills." No, do it today.
Jesus did it all in a mere 33 years on this earth. It’s not about seeing how long we can live on this earth, it’s about maximizing the time that we have here. Remember the foolish farmer in Luke 12:16 - He had a bumper crop... He said I’ll break my barns down, I’ll build bigger ones. I’ll fill it with grain and then I’ll sit down, eat, drink and be merry. And the Lord said: "Foolish man, tonight you soul will be required of you."
But we’ve got nothing to be afraid of because He’s coming for us, as soon as He has planned. Not a day early, not a day late. So what we must do, we must live like He’s coming today but we must plan like He’s coming in a hundred years. Paul said in Philippians:
He said,” For me to live is Christ and to die is but gain.”
Philippians 1:21
We have nothing to be afraid of. You can’t frighten a Christian with heaven - it’s a win, win situation. So today, let’s get our priorities in order. Tell your wife that you love her. Tell your husband that you love him. Keep short accounts with God and with man.
Have a wonderful day and look up because the Lord is coming back very soon.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Wednesday morning, 9th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend.”
Job 6:14
And then the other scripture which brings a tear to my eye many a time is:
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
John 15:13
No greater gift can you and I give to our friends than to die for him or her. That is what we call extreme kindness and Jesus did that for us. Now, if you want to have a friend you must become friendly. A good test of who your friends really are is if they are around when the odds are down. Job found that one out. Jesus unfortunately also found that out in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the high priest’s soldiers came to arrest him. The Bible tells us that all of the disciples forsook Him and fled. But you know, just before that, Jesus said:
“…If you seek Me, let these go their way.”
John 18:8
That is indeed an incredible friendship. He says:
“I will never leave you and I will never forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5.
Isn’t that beautiful? There is a man in the Bible that we don’t hear much of, he is spoken very little of in the Bible. His name was Joseph of Arimathea. He came from Arimathea. He was a kind man and he was a genuine friend of Jesus. When Jesus died on the cross Joseph went to Pilate, at the risk of his own life, because he identified himself as a friend of Jesus. He asked for the body of Christ and Pilate allowed him to take it off the cross.
He took those horrible rusty nails out of Jesus’s hands. He took those horrible rusty nails out of Jesus’s feet. He washed His body, all the blood and the gore... he took that horrible crown of thorns off His head. He wrapped the body of Jesus in brand new, clean linen that he bought himself. He took the body and he put it in his tomb, the tomb that he had dug for himself out of solid rock and you know something? Jesus didn’t even know about it because He was dead at that time. He did it because he loved Him.
If you get to Heaven before I do, you will see Jesus sitting on His throne. In front of those myriads of angels and millions of believers, worshipping Him, and sitting very close to His side you will find Joseph of Arimathea.
I want to encourage you today to go out and be kind to people. Be a friend to those who do not have any friends because this is what the Lord Jesus Christ requires from you and me.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you, it is Tuesday morning the 8th of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
John 4:34
We cannot live without food and we cannot complete the task unless we finish it properly. Food is life, if you don’t eat, you die - That’s a fact... Many people walking around today are dead - Their hearts might be pumping but there is no life in them.
Food is to do the will of Jesus Christ and to finish His work. That is the most important part - The Lord is not interested in good starters, He wants good finishers. The least effective way to preach the Gospel is behind the pulpit or on a platform. Now I know a lot of pastors won’t be happy with that statement but it is a fact. I know, I am a preacher.
That truck driver listening, I want you to drive that truck for Jesus today. That gold miner, be the best gold miner that there is. The shop assistant - put a smile on your face today madam, and let the people know who you belong to. That school teacher... you have got an instant congregation every day of the week. That is your meat, that is your food. That sports coach, you can do it - You can encourage people.
I have got a son, his name is Sipho. He is a professional rugby player and he is also a school teacher, he coaches young children in rugby. I want to tell you he is more popular than any youth pastor I have ever met. He is doing it for Jesus.
I want to tell you about Eric. Eric started one of the biggest fast-food franchises in the Southern Hemisphere, that’s right. Some people call him Mr Wimpy but he started and he is still doing it and He is still active for the Lord Jesus Christ. He swims in the Indian Ocean every morning. He rides his mountain bike every day and he is 87 years young!
I want to tell you about June. June is a Bible translator, she translates the word of God for Wycliffe Bible Translators. I met her in Mozambique many, many years ago when I was using the big yellow Seed Sower to preach the Gospel. She was living in a very small little home in a big township with very few amenities, living by herself. She was translating the Bible so that the local people could read God’s word. Nobody knows about her and by the way she is still doing it, even today. We need to do the will of Him who sent us and to finish His work.
Come on now today. Let's stand up, dust ourselves off and get back in the race. Jesus needs you to tell people about His second coming.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you. It is Monday morning the 7th of February, the year 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20
Today, I want to say that it is in dying to self that we live. I have always said it to you: Our worst enemy is ourselves.
My wife Jill shared a little quotation with me that she read from a famous woman and it goes like this: "To be thankful to God for the things that we do not own.” Now, I had to think about that... "To be thankful to God for the things that I do not own." You see, when you hand over everything you have to Jesus, then freedom comes. Hand it over to Him today and He will lighten your load.
“…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:7
When we realize that the responsibility is God’s anyway, it gives us great joy, peace and confidence.
“…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” Philippians 1:6
It is His responsibility. You see, Sir, your wife belongs to God - She is not yours… You say, “No, she is.” No, you didn’t create her. That little baby that is a tremendous gift, Mom and Dad, is not yours. God has given you that little child to look after (her or him) for God. She belongs to Jesus. Do you see the freedom there? That is why we are thankful to God for the things that we don’t own. Your husband belongs to God. Pray for him but he is God’s responsibility.
You know, it is not an easy thing for a Dad to walk his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day... it is not easy - I have done it. I have done it three times in fact. From that moment onwards, you realize you have had her for so many years, twenty-odd years, but she is not yours. She never was. she is God’s and that gives you freedom.
That business, Sir... You say, “I started this business from the beginning by myself.” - God gave you the ability. Your career - give it to God! "I can do what I like. It is my life." No, it is not your life. God created you in His own image. That is why suicide is not an option.
I remember like it was yesterday, just after I had given my life to the Lord, I was walking through my maize crop one morning and they were talking about the possibility of hail. I was nervous and fearful and then the penny dropped. Jesus said, "You gave your life to Me, this maize crop is My responsibility, Angus. If it gets wiped out by hail, I will have another plan for you. It's not yours!” Do you know the freedom that I had in that! I lay down in that maize field and I just rejoiced. Cast all your cares on the Lord.
Remember, be thankful to God for the things you do not own. You don’t have to take care of them, He will!
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you. It is Sunday morning, 6th of February and the year 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence
From the plots of man;
You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion
From the strife of tongues.”
Psalm 31:20
Has anyone accused you lately of something that you didn’t do? Well, the man who wrote this psalm was David, he knew all about false accusations. Then if we go to the Book of Job:
“You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,
And you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes.”
Job 5:21
I looked up the meaning of scourge in the Oxford Dictionary and a scourge is a whip that was used as an instrument of punishment. It can be very painful, especially when someone accuses you of something you have not done or when that comment is not even true. But the Lord Jesus Christ has promised us that He will hide us from all the attacks on our character. The real question today is how does one handle untrue accusations or people who twist your words?
Well, we handle it the very same way that Jesus did. If we go to Matthew:
“Then Pilate said to Him, “Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?” But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.”
Matthew 27:13-14
Not one word... We need to seriously pray for our accusers, often they are speaking out of a heart of fear, jealousy or envy. If we don’t have anything good to say about someone then rather say nothing.
I love the story that I heard a long time ago about one of my heroes, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. They call him The Prince of Preachers. At the age of 21 they built him the London Tabernacle, which could seat 10,000 people.
He was walking down the High Street in London one day when someone walked up to him and said: “You are the chief of all humbugs.” I looked up what that word means - It means a hypocrite... “You are the chief of all hypocrites.” And this man of God’s reply was, “Oh well, at least I am the chief of something.” And that is the way to treat it!
Remember, Jesus loves you, so just love those who have a go at you because, at the end of the day, the truth always comes out. Have a wonderful Sunday.
Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Saturday morning, the 5th of February. The year is 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But as for me, I would seek God,
And to God, I would commit my cause -
Who does great things, and unsearchable,
Marvellous things without number.”
Job 5:8
And then we go to Psalm 40:5:
“Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works
Which You have done;
And Your thoughts toward us
Cannot be recounted to You in order;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered.”
Wow, too many blessings to count - We need to be thankful today. We need to be full of gratitude for the goodness of God towards us. You know, it makes me sad when I see so many people are so ungrateful in the world... Always complaining, have never got enough or nothing is going right. We need to understand that the blessings of God towards us cannot even be numbered.
A good exercise is maybe to sit down with that cup of coffee or tea and count your blessings and name them one by one. Let's talk about rain, you know in South Africa at the moment we are having the most incredible rainy season that I can remember in forty-five years of farming. I have also just come back from the Kruger National Park and I have never seen the animals so fat. They were lying under the trees at nine o’clock in the morning and they are full - they can’t eat anymore.
Folks, I want to say to you that we have got so much to be grateful for. You know that scripture that says there are more blessings than we can even number. Now I am not talking about the parting of the Red Sea, I am talking about blessings that we take for granted.
I heard the story of a former alcoholic who was asked by a sarcastic person: “So what real difference has it made to you in your life since you have stopped drinking?” "Oh", he says, “When I go home now, I have got furniture in my house, my wife and my children have got food to eat. I tell you, that to me, that miracle is greater than the parting of the Red Sea.”
Today, we need to count our blessings and we need to number them one by one.
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you - It is the 4th February, Friday morning and the year 2022. This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to James, right at the back of the New Testament, James 5:16-18:
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman) avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature just like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for 3 years and 6 months and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced fruit."
I just feel this morning that we need more faith. We need more faith just to make one day at a time, don’t we? I can hear somebody saying, “Maybe just one hour at a time.” Now, the Lord says that we need to pray the prayer of faith and He will supply our needs, not our wants - There is a big difference, but our needs. You need a job. You need healing for a member of your family. You need vision... That is a need. Wants are: "I want a new motorcar or I want to travel the world."
We are going to pray this morning for you, that's right, The Holy Spirit has laid on my heart to pray the prayer of faith for you. You know I got a voice mail, just the other day, from a very dear friend in Douglas, in the Northern Cape, the biggest province in South Africa. He says in that message that they have had 520mm of rain since that prayer meeting we had in the desert, in the dust, the fire raging and the heat. Since that day 520 mm of rain spread right over that time - That is 21 inches.
Now I want to say to you today, can God not answer your prayers? You see the Bible tells us that Elijah was just a man like you and me. There was nothing supernatural about him but he prayed the prayer of faith. You see, God does not answer prayer... God answers the prayer of faith. And that is what I want to do with you today. I really want to pray the prayer of faith. You say to me: “Angus is that a righteous thing to do?” Absolutely!
If we look at the Gospel of Luke, the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Lord, please increase our faith.”
Luke 17:5
And that is what I want to do. I want to pray with you today that God would increase your faith to believe Him for the miracle that you are waiting for. And then once you have asked Him, start thanking Him and let the Lord do the rest. Please pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I come before You today and Lord, I don’t see much light at the end of the tunnel.
In fact, sometimes it is just like blackness but Lord, by faith, just like Elijah, I am asking you for a miracle in my life. In order for that miracle to take place, I need faith to believe for it. So, Lord, I am joining my prayer now with Uncle Angus and I am believing for a miracle in my life. I thank You, by faith, that it is going to come to pass.
In Jesus’s Name
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is Thursday morning, the 3rd of February 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 4:14
Have you ever been thirsty, I mean really thirsty? All you want is clear, pure, cool water to drink. Not tea, not coffee or a coke, no - just water!
But of course, Jesus is not speaking here of physical water. He is speaking about spiritual water.
“…he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
John 6:35
Just like a human being cannot live without water so too, the person who does not drink from the fountain of life, Jesus Christ, will also die - spiritually.
Many years ago, I attempted to run the mighty Comrades Marathon. I was 58 years old at the time. I had done my preparation. I did my qualifier of 42 kilometres, I did a slow 68 kilometre with my daughters seconding me and I did many 21 kilometres and I thought that I was ready. But you know what happened? I did not drink. All I wanted to do was to finish that gruelling 90-odd kilometre race. Fourteen kilometres to go before the end and what happened? The tarmac, the road, started moving! That's absolute truth and I didn’t know anything else.
One old intercessor, Aunty Moira, says she thinks that Jesus turned out the lights because she knew I wouldn’t have stopped and I would have died in the process. I woke up in an ambulance with a drip in my arm. I was totally and completely dehydrated.
If we don’t drink from God’s Holy word every day and if we don’t pray every day, we will not make it.
Now, come on today - Let's drink deeply from the Water of Life. It's for free.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you! It is the 2nd of February, Wednesday morning, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
Romans 12:3
We need to be careful we don’t think too highly of ourselves. Like I've always said, our biggest enemy is not the devil, because his neck was broken on the Cross of Calvary, our biggest enemy is ourselves.
Now, John the Baptist, he was the opposite, in John 3:30, he says:
“He must increase, but I must decrease.”
And that is why John the Baptist is such an amazing person. He is one of my heroes in the Bible - A humble man.
A Scotsman by the name of Oswald Chambers wrote a devotional called, My Utmost for His Highest. Think about that... My utmost for His highest. We are not here on earth to promote ourselves, we are here to promote Jesus. Solomon had everything that money could buy. He was handsome, he was the wisest man that ever lived. He had anything he needed and yet what did he say at the end of his life? He says (paraphrasing): “Vanity, vanity, it is like grasping for the wind.” Ecclesiastes 1:14 & 12:8
You can read that in Ecclesiastes 12:13, where he says:
“Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.”
You and I today need to strive to serve the Living God and not ourselves. Jim Elliot, that young, dynamic American student - He was sick and tired of chasing the wind. He went to the jungle with his young wife and little baby and he was martyred by the Auca Indians. They stabbed him with a spear. But you know, before he died he wrote something in his journal. He said, “It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose, eternal life.”
Elijah, the prophet, in 1 Kings, was crying out (paraphrasing):
“I am the only one left in the whole world who is a prophet.” And the Lord said to him, “There are 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to the devil.”
1 Kings 19:14-18
It's not a bad thing to be humble. One of the most humble men I have read about was James Hudson Taylor. A small Englishman with a peaches and cream complexion and watery eyes that took a thousand families to China and started the China Inland Mission. While he was sitting in a little Bible Study an American journalist walked in and he wanted to get a big scoop on this incredible 'giant of God'. He was introduced to everybody and there was this small man sitting in the corner with a dark trench coat on who never said a word throughout the whole Bible Study. Who was he - James Hudson Taylor.
The journalist thought to himself, what am I going to write about - until at the end of the Bible Study, when this man started to pray and speak to his God. He said, never in his life had he heard a man pray like that.
Go out today and lift up the name of Jesus.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to You. It is Tuesday morning the 1st of February, the year 2022. And this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day!
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
John 3:18
It's about one thing - believing. It has nothing to do with our effort or our good works but simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Son of God - nothing else.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33
But we say we are not ready because we cannot get rid of this habit, that dirty habit or when we have dealt with some unforgiveness or hatred in our hearts... then we will come to Jesus. No, Jesus says to us today, "Come as you are, just as you are, with all your warts and all your pimples and your mistakes."
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Mathew 11:28
It is all about faith, which is the absolute opposite of fear, worry, anxiety and stress.
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”
Philippians 4:6
We need to give it to Him by faith, you see, it is Jesus who heals, delivers and sets us free. All we have to do is let Him do it.
You know, I remember like yesterday before I became a Christian, walking down the farm road one day with one of my little girls. She was about three years old. She was happy and carefree, chatting non-stop as little girls do. She was picking wildflowers and I thought to myself as a fear cane over my heart, "If I die today, who would look after her? Who would be her daddy?"
Her little hand was going right around my little finger, holding on tight. Well, Jesus says to us today, "Simply believe in me, trust in me - I have got you." I did and He is... That little girl is now happily married to a godly man and has children of her own.
Simply believe today that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and you will be saved.
Have a wonderful day!
God bless you and goodbye.
A very good morning to you! It is Monday morning, 31st of January, the year 2022 and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.”
Job 3:1
Remember, Job had lost everything. Our biggest enemy is ourselves, it is not the devil - The devil is a non-starter. All he can do is tell lies, he is the father of all lies and the deceiver of the brethren.
You are sitting there, I am sitting here and we say: "We can't take it anymore Lord.” - And that is exactly what Job was thinking when he lost everything- his family, his farm and his house. He was sick and he was humiliated. He was sitting in ashes, full of painful boils from the top of his head to the very soles of his feet. But you and I need to do what Job did. We need to stand up, dust ourselves off and today, we need to get back into the fight. Yes, the very fight of our lives! It is not a skirmish, it is not a dummy-run! No, this is the real thing. From here it is home time to Heaven.
We need to keep on keeping on but the good news is that we are not alone because Jesus is going with us every step of the way. You say, “But we have messed up.” Well, welcome to the club - Haven’t we all? If you look in the Bible, Moses who took the Israelites out of Egypt was a murderer. He messed up, didn’t he? David, the hero of Israel, was an adulterer. Peter, the leader of the pack, the big fisherman - he was a liar... He denied Christ three times. Paul who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament persecuted the Christians. But what did they all have in common? They repented. They said sorry and they got up again and they carried on, just like you and I are going to do today.
One of my favourite scriptures in the Bible is found in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Now let's carry on with the race today. Let's not look behind us, let's look ahead and I am telling you, Jesus will see us through. That finish line is a lot closer than we realize.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
t is Sunday morning,30 January and the year 2022, this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:1
We have to make a new start, we have to make a new beginning. We can’t just grow up in the faith. There has got to be a defining moment in our lives when we have got to say, “Lord, I can’t do it anymore. I am handing it over to You. I really want to start again.” We are talking about a relationship with a living God - His name is Jesus Christ.
Don’t keep on putting it off. Time is not on our side. It is a different experience for each person. Charles Finney, that very famous American revivalist was a lawyer by profession. He had a dramatic encounter with the living God in a forest. He said it was like a shaft of light was going through him. The love of God was overwhelming him, so much so that he said: “Lord if you do not stop, you will kill me.”
John Wesley - he went all the way to America to try and find a relationship with the living God but came back again, totally disillusioned. In a little Bible study group in a place called Aldersgate in London, he said a strange warmth came over my heart. Scales fell from my eyes and from that moment on he started a revival that the world had never seen before.
What about C.H. Spurgeon? They call him the prince of preachers. He was a country boy and he had a very broad accent. He was walking home one night and a terrible snowstorm overwhelmed him. He ducked into a little country church and as he walked into the back of the church there was a layman, probably a farmworker, preaching. All he said was, he quoted Isaiah 45:22:
“Look to Me, and be saved,…”
It changed his life, that young man at the age of 21 years old. They built the London Tabernacle Church for him that could seat 10,000 people. Yes, he met with Jesus!
You know I asked my dear wife, Jill this morning, “The time that we surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ in that little church on the Main Street in Greytown, what was the first thing that you encountered?" She said, Hope. Up till then, she had no hope for the future and that day when she gave her life to Christ, hope came into her heart. For me, it was a burden that fell off my shoulders. It was like I was carrying a 50 kg bag of cement all over and that morning I laid it at the foot of the cross.
What about you today, wouldn’t you like to pray this prayer with me? Maybe this is the day that God is going to change your life forever... Pray it after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Today, I surrender my entire life to You. I want to be born again. I want to start afresh.
Thank You for coming into my life, for washing away my sins, for dying for me, a sinner, on the cross of Calvary. And Lord, because you live, I can face tomorrow.
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Saturday morning the 29th of January, the year 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.”
Psalm 34:7
Then we go to Hebrews:
“Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?”
Hebrews 1:14
Do you believe in angels? You have to, they are all over the Bible... Yes, I believe in angels, oh definitely! They fight for us against the forces of darkness. You know I was speaking to a middle-aged single lady on the phone a week ago. She said, “You know Angus, you speak a lot about families. Please don’t forget us, single people.” Well, I want to say to you today, this is maybe just for you. You are never ever alone. Then we go to Matthew, Jesus says:
"Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels (there you go) always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 18:10
I want to say to Mom and to Dad, that little child of yours starting school for the first year - don’t worry. You pray for Johnny and pray for Mary because they are going to school with their own personal bodyguards. It makes me want to cry... their own personal angels who see the Face of God all the time.
Now, you may say, "I don’t believe in angels". Well, you know that even a donkey can see an angel. Ask Balaam, because he couldn’t see the angel standing in the road and started beating that poor donkey until the donkey lay down. He wouldn’t go any further because he saw an angel. Do not ever feel, as a follower of Jesus Christ, that you are alone. You are never, ever alone.
Many times we have attempted something that is humanly impossible - Like, for example, feeding 5000 hungry men, catering for them and then 7,500 arrive for the weekend. The ladies kindly came up to me and said: “Angus, please tell the men just to go easy with the food.” And of course, I get up there and say to these starving men: “I have a message for you from the kitchen - Eat as much as you can!"
Oh, I love Jesus so much and He has got these angels all around us! We need to remember that. You know, they picked up thirty-six baskets of left-overs from three big meals for those men. Thirty-six divided by three is twelve baskets per meal. How many baskets of leftovers did they collect when Jesus fed the 5000 at the Sea of Galilee?
That’s right - Twelve baskets each! He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. Hebrews 13:8. So remember, God has put an angel right next to you. You have a special angel looking after you all day.
Go out and enjoy the day.
Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Friday the 28th of January, the year 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to Job, some say it is the oldest book in the Bible:
“Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?”
Job1:8
I think that Job is one of God’s favourite men - An incredible man of integrity. Now this is the quality that Jesus is looking for in us in these last days. Especially when we are under extreme pressure like we are. Sometimes even loved ones close to you will not support you because of what you are going through.
“Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”
Job 2:9
That is quite a statement, from his wife... His response was very clear - One of my favourite scriptures in the Bible:
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
Job 13:15
I remember many years ago sitting in my little tin house, it was four o’clock in the afternoon. I had had an incredible maize crop that year. The maize was standing ten foot tall, it was beautiful. The cobs were forming. It was a seed maize crop and all of a sudden out of nowhere came big green black-green rolling clouds, filled with rain and hail. I was sitting and talking to a man that I was helping. He had a dear heart but he was a hopeless alcoholic. I said to him, “You know Peter, God has never forsaken me and God will never forsake you.” And at that moment there was big bang, bang, bang on the roof.
Hail stones were falling, the rain was falling and his eyes got bigger and bigger as I was gritting my teeth and saying: “Even though...” I want to tell you folks, I remember that afternoon like it was yesterday... I couldn’t even speak to him, it was so noisy. After the storm subsided we walked around the fields, we couldn’t drive, it was absolutely sodden. The whole crop was lying flat on the ground. He says, “Angus, why is God doing this to you?” I said, “God is not doing this to me” and I just grit my teeth.”
“Are you still going to love Him?”
I said, “I love Him very, very much.”
I must say, inside I was saying, “Lord, what are You doing to me?
Well, three days later, that’s right - that crop stood up again and I got a bumper crop. It had a permanent bend in the stalks but it stood up... I will never forget that day.
If Christ is for you, who can be against you?”
Romans 8:31
We need to do the right thing today. Pay your accounts, be no man’s debtor. Honour your loved one. Stand tall for God and God will see you through. My old Dad was just a country blacksmith, he didn’t have much money. My Mom died first and then my Dad got sick, I used to visit him every single day. Do you know what the first thing he said to me when I walked into that room? “Angus, is there enough money in my account?” He didn’t want to owe anyone anything. I said, “Dad, there is plenty money in your account.”
Do the right thing today and honour God and He will honour you.
Jesus bless you, goodbye.
A very good morning to you!
It is Thursday morning, 27th of January and the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.” So they said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare?”
And He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” ’ Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready.”
So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.”
Luke 22:8-13
You and I need to have a good chat, that's right - a good talk with our loved ones. With our wives, our children and husbands and where do we do that? The same place that Jesus did it... at the dinner table. How often, Mom, do you lay the table in the evening for supper? It is so very important.
In the family, there is no blue room... I remember as a young man, guys telling me, “We have been sent to the blue room.” What does that mean? “Well, my wife is not talking to me at the moment and probably quite rightly so anyway.” But that is exactly what the devil is trying to do. He is trying to separate families. He is trying to separate Mom and Dad, he is trying to separate the children from their parents. Even with this coronavirus going around the world and wearing masks... I know we have to do it by law and I am not saying we mustn’t. What I am saying is that we don’t have a chance, do we, to speak to each other?
Jill comes back from the shops and she says, “I didn’t see anyone to speak to today. I just saw a lady from a distance, we gave each other a wave but we couldn’t speak to each other.” We really need to speak, we have got to speak. Speak to your boss, tell him you are not happy with the way things are going. “No, but he won’t listen to me Angus.” Make an appointment and speak to him. Speak to an employee and tell him the thing he is doing is upsetting you so that he can rectify it.
Dad, do you know why your little boy doesn’t like school? “No, well, I didn’t like school when I was young either.” No, that is not the point. Maybe it is because he is getting bullied at school and he doesn’t know what to do about it. Mom, your teenage daughter is under severe peer pressure at the moment, do you know that? She needs help, she needs counsel. Her boyfriend says he loves her but he wants to be more intimate with her and if she doesn’t comply he has told her he is breaking up with her. She doesn’t know what to do.
Just like Jesus spoke to his disciples and told them what was going to happen to him, how He was going to be crucified but on the third day He was going to rise from the dead - they didn’t believe him anyway, but he had prepared them. We cannot have any secrets, we need to work through challenges together - Speak about it. Many a marriage could be saved if you just sit down at the dinner table and talk about it.
Do you know for example, what your wife or husband's favourite colour is? Do you know what toothpaste they use? Do you know what deodorant they like, or what scent? What food do they like? What flowers does she like? How many sugars in their tea?
Today, sit down and have a good honest chat with one another, and Jesus will do the rest.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Wednesday morning, 26th of January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
His mother said to the servants: "Whatever He says to you, do it."
John 2:5
Now they had run out of wine, there was a wedding feast at Cana and they had no wine left. Mary said to the servants, “Just do what Jesus tells you to do.” Now, remember, faith begets faith - In other words, the more faith you exercise, the more faith you receive. I can hear someone saying, “What is faith?” Well, according to Hebrews 11:1:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
St Augustine said faith is to believe what you cannot see but the reward of that faith is to see what you believed. How do you get more faith?
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Romans 10:17
The more time you spend with Jesus the more faith you will receive. You see faith is a doing word, it is not a noun. It is not like a table or a chair... It is an action word.
“Let God be true and every man a liar.”
Romans 3:4
Faith requires action. Those servants were told to fill six waterpots with water, that was 720 litres of water. Can you imagine what those servants must have thought, "Is He mad... We have run out of wine, not out of water.” But what happened? The water was turned into the finest wine that they had at the wedding feast.
I remember planting in the dust. I know many of you have heard that story but you need to hear it again this morning. The rain took a very long time, it just wasn’t coming. I only had limited equipment, we had just started farming - a small little two-row planter instead of these massive eight and ten-row planters they have these days. I had to put in a hundred hectares of seed maize. I felt the Lord telling me, very strongly: “Start planting.”
“But Lord, we don’t plant until the rain comes.”
“Plant!”
So I got the drivers out, they had to wear goggles, they couldn’t see where they were going. The neighbours thought we had lost it completely. But you know what happened? Eventually, the rain did come but it came so heavily that other farmers couldn’t get into the fields to plant. Our maize crop was coming up beautiful, strong and even. We had a bumper crop that year.
Just do what He tells you to do and he will do the rest.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Tuesday morning, 25th of January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have the opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
Galatians 6:9
I believe this morning the Lord is telling us not to give up - Do not grow weary, we don’t even know how close we are to victory. With that rebellious child in the house, keep on persevering, keep on loving that child and they will come through. In that relationship at work, you say, “Angus, I can’t work with that guy anymore - Keep on and don’t grow weary. Keep putting your best foot forward and God will do the rest.
This lockdown which has been breaking people down all over the world, I really believe it is about to lift and God is still on the throne. Continue today making good plans, remember Jesus is with us.
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
Folks, it took Moses forty years in the wilderness. God was getting him ready to undertake a mammoth task - Taking a whole nation out of Egypt, through the desert and into the promised land. It doesn’t happen overnight.
For many of us, these last couple of years has been extremely tough. I know that but I really believe with all my heart that we are about to embrace a new season. It is coming just like it always does and we are so very excited.
Remember, Proverbs 29:18:
“Where there is no vision, the people perish”
Don’t miss this opportunity of doing good. Write down that vision, make it plain so that others can run with it. I have never been so excited in my life, 2022 is a new beginning, a new opportunity to do good to one another. Let's go out today, don’t lose heart.
Remember, if Christ is for you, there is no man that can ever stand against you.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Monday morning the 24th of January 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He first found his own brother Simon, (Simon Peter) and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.”
John 1:41
What is evangelism? Evangelism is one hungry beggar showing another hungry beggar where he can find bread - That is all it is, nothing else. That is exactly what Andrew did, he brought his brother, Peter, and introduced him to Jesus. You can’t do it without zeal and belief. You see, unless you have been hungry yourself, you will never understand what it means to show somebody some bread.
We have to just keep on telling folk what Jesus means to us. That is what Gypsy Smith said when he was preaching off the back of his painted wagon in the fields... A worn-out preacher came and said, “I have preached everything from Genesis to Revelation, I am worn-out.” Gypsy said, “Just keep telling people what Jesus means to you.”
Billy Bray, the Cornish tin-miner, a tough boy - he met Jesus, he was introduced to the King of Kings! He wanted his fellow miners to be saved as well. So he would stand on a wall in the village square on a Saturday morning, and preach his heart out. One day one of his former drinking buddies came to him and said, “If you don’t shut up I am going to punch you.” He kept on preaching. His friend hit him so hard, he knocked Billy off the wall. Billy got up, nose bleeding and spitting out teeth, got back on the wall and told him the same story again. He said, “Billy if you don’t shut up, I am going to knock you out” and he hit him again. The third time Billy got up on that wall... I tell you what, the blood was flowing, but he was so full of love for his friend. His friend just broke down and wept and knelt at the foot of the wall, “Billy, tell me about your Savior!” And he led him to Christ.
Have you seen that movie, “Ordinary people’? I hope you have - It is the story of Mighty Men. One of those stories, a true story, is about a highjacker who tried to highjack two men coming to the Mighty Men Conference. They were in Cape Town and he shot at them and missed them. They overpowered him, they were big, tough policemen and what did they do? They handcuffed him to the back of the pick-up. It was a double-cab and they brought him to the Mighty Men Conference. And what happened - That highjacker got gloriously saved and the last I heard, he was preaching the Gospel in Gugulethu, a township in Cape Town.
Go out today and introduce somebody to Jesus, the King of Kings.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Sunday morning, 23rd of January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14
I want to say this morning that sometimes the worst thing that you can say to somebody who has been through a bad experience is "We understand"... Maybe you are going through one yourself at the moment. Maybe bankruptcy, the loss of a child or maybe you are going through an ugly divorce... If somebody comes to you and says: “We understand”, when in fact they have no concept or no idea of what you or that poor individual is going through.
The good news this morning is that Jesus knows what you are going through - Why? Because He has been there, He walked on this very earth. We have just heard it right now in the word of God. If we go to Isaiah 53:3, the Bible says:
“He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
Oh yes, He understands, He understands that you are not in the first team. He understands that you are not popular because He has been there. In the eyes of the world you have not made it - He understands that too! Even your family does not understand the peer pressure that you are going through at the moment but Jesus knows. And He says to you and me this morning in John 10:10, the thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy.
But Jesus said, “I have come to give you life abundantly.”
We must remember it is not the dog in the fight that wins. It is the fight in the dog that wins. It is not the one that can deliver the punch that wins. It is the one who can take the punch and stand up again - It is not over yet. Jesus says to us this morning, "Stand" - He says, “the battle is Mine!” Ephesians 6:14.
The battle belongs to the Lord. The Lord knows how much we can take, why, because He has been here. Remember, He has walked on this very earth.
Have a good heart to heart chat with Him today, you have got time, because He really understands and most of all He loves you.
Jesus bless you,
Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye
And a very good morning to you!
It is Saturday morning, 22 January, the year 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Train up a child in the way he should go,
And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6
And then we go to the New Testament:
“…from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
Timothy 3:15
I heard a very disturbing story... My wife was telling me that a young school teacher who we know well, she is a lovely Christian lady, phoned up her mom and said: “I feel like giving up teaching. I have been given a class of small children that are totally undisciplined, unruly and very bad-mannered.”
It made me so sad - You know, Moms and Dads it takes time and it takes effort to bring up your children. It is not the responsibility of the school teacher, carer or of the maid for that matter - It is your responsibility. Remember, your little boy will not do what you tell him, Dad - He will do what you do. If you love his mom, he will love his wife when he grows up. If you have quiet times with the Lord every morning, that little boy will do exactly the same. If you work hard Dad, he will be a hard worker when he grows up.
The other day I went down to the city with one of my little grandsons and he wanted to buy me a meal so I allowed him to do that. When it came time for paying, I said to him, “Let me do the paying.” He said, "No, I will pay, please. I invited you.” He insisted and so I allowed him to pay and he got his little wallet out and he counted out the money exactly. He was so proud to pay. And then afterwards, the waitress was standing there and then he dug back into his wallet. I said, “What are you doing now?” He said, “No, no, I am giving her a tip”, and he gave her an extremely generous tip I want to tell you. I said, “Why are you doing that, son?” And he said, “Because Kulu (that’s what he calls me, the Zulu name for grandfather), that is what my dad always does."
You know, there is nothing more embarrassing for me than to see a young child disobey their mother in public and her mom is sitting there trying to negotiate with a three or four-year-old child. It makes my heart very sore, not with the mother but for that poor little child. You see, that little child has to go out to an unforgiving world where she will be treated very severely for lack of respect for others.
Moms and Dads do the godly thing. Raise your children and they will make you very, very proud.
"I have been young, and now am old;
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Nor his descendants begging bread."
Psalm 37:25
Bring up your children correctly and they will do well in the marketplace.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is the 21st of January, Friday morning, and it is the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today!
“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”
2 Corinthians 5:20
Now I looked up the Oxford Dictionary the definition of the word ambassador: “A diplomat sent by a state as its permanent representative in a foreign country.”
Now we have been called to represent Jesus and for me the ideal example of an excellent ambassador was none other than John the Baptist. If we look at John 1:20, they asked him,
“Are you the one? Are you the Christ?”
He confessed. ”I am not the Christ.”
He was the bravest of men, he was so outspoken and he was a godly man but he was also very humble at the same time. He was afraid of no-one. He stuck his bony finger out and told King Herod, “You are an adulterer.” And that eventually cost him his head... They cut his head off because of that.
“I am not even worthy to loose His sandal strap.”
John 1:27
He was talking about Jesus. John the Baptist never touched God’s glory. There is a word for young men and women - be careful you don’t draw people to yourself, draw people to God. What are the credentials of an ambassador of Christ? Well, the fruit of the Spirit:
“...love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
Galatians 5:22 - 23
You know folks, often we get called to a drought-ravaged area, to communities, sometimes even provinces or cities and we are asked to come and to please pray for rain. Sometimes, we get sarcastic comments, “Oh, so you think you are the rain-makers do you?” I don’t know, but our reply is always, “No, we are not the rainmakers, we are the Rainmaker’s sons and daughters.”
And then of course the Lord always comes through for us when we pray. The rain comes and the critics just disappear into the mist.
Be a good ambassador for Jesus today.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you.
It is Thursday morning, the 20th of January, the year 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:1-2
Who is the Lord speaking about? He’s speaking about Jesus. Yes, Jesus is the Word... Now, if we go to 1 John 5:7 and I’m reading from the New King James Version:
"For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit..."
No, it doesn’t say that - I’ll read it again:
"For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.”
So who is the Word, that’s right it is Jesus - That’s why I love this book so much. Now, if anyone says to you, "Show me this Jesus you’re always talking about.", give them a bible. Why do you think I’ve written on the front of my bible: “My agricultural manual." There’s a reason for it... This book, when I was an active farmer, was my daily direction finder.
I remember going to a Muslim's home once, I was sitting in the lounge with my bible. I put my bible on the carpet next to my chair. He came in with the coffee and He said, "Sir, please don’t put that book on the floor, put it on the coffee table."
With that 20-ton Seed Sower, we took up into Africa, full of food and clothes and bibles... You know something, a lot of those poor folk had no food to eat and hardly any clothes to wear but they weren’t interested in the food. They weren’t interested in the clothes either, they wanted the bible. They would even fight over that book, lest they go without.
This book it’s a friend if you’re lonely. It’s a compass if you are lost and it’s a lawgiver in times of dispute. It never, ever ages, it’s the same yesterday, today and forevermore. Hebrews 13:8. Yes, it’s a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105 but most of all this book never, ever changes in a world which is so uncertain, at the moment.
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away."
Mathew 24:35
Spend time in the book of life today and I tell you what, your life will become so much more simplified and so much more fulfilled.
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Wednesday morning, the 19th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Esther had not revealed her people or family, for Mordecai had charged her not to reveal it.”
Esther 2:10
“Esther obeyed the command of Mordecai as when she was brought up by him.”
Esther 2:20
“Obedience is better than sacrifice.”
1 Samuel 15:22
To obey is much easier and less painful than to keep saying sorry. Esther was obedient to her uncle Mordecai and this action saved her life. She was an orphan, her mom and dad had died and her uncle had to raise her - he had raised her correctly. He had disciplined her when she was a little girl and so she listened to what her uncle said. The King of Persia was captivated by Esther’s beauty. She was a very beautiful Jewish young maiden but her uncle said “Do not tell them at this stage that you are Jewish.”
Now, when we disobey God there are always consequences for our actions. Discipline is so very important in these days in which we are living, where people don’t know what to do - especially young people. Discipline your children when they are young and when they grow up they will not depart from the ways of the Lord. It is for the sake of the child and for the protection of that little girl, that Mom and Dad, you need to discipline her and she needs to obey you.
Hebrews 12:11 is a hard verse but it is for our own good:
This is what the word says: “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
That is why Esther was protected - she listened to what she had been taught when she was a little girl.
When we make a mistake in life, and let's be honest, we all have made mistakes, ask me about it! But if we repent, God forgives us but of course, the scar always remains.
Just the other day we moved a herd of cattle from one field right up the road to another field, maybe five or ten kilometres away. It was a big herd of cattle but when the cattle had been in that new paddock for a day, a mother was calling for its calf. The calf had been left behind, a newly born calf. Do you know, the stockman took that cow back to the original paddock and there was the little calf, lying exactly where the mother left her. That calf did not move until the mother came back for her. That is discipline. If the calf had, the jackals would have got that calf.
We need to obey the word of God, it brings us safety and security.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Tuesday morning, 18th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Be still, and know that I am God”
Psalm 46:10
And then we go to the New Testament, Mark 6 and I am reading from verse 30:
“Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.”
A few years ago the Lord spoke to me almost audibly and do you know what He said? He said: “Your busyness is making Me tired.” I tell you what folks, it was a wake-up call. God is not impressed by our busyness - He wants you to Himself. It is only the world that is impressed - “I am going here, I am going there, I am doing this, I am doing that!”
Even the disciples did not have time to eat. They were telling Jesus of all the miracles and the healings that had taken place, and Jesus said, “Come aside and rest a while.”
You know I ride my horse Snowy, I love that Appaloosa and he talks to me probably more than a lot of people. If I am in a rush and I just want to have a quick ride before I have to go and do something, that horse of mine becomes very agitated. He becomes naughty sometimes. He doesn’t listen to what I am saying because he thinks that there is trouble, he thinks that Angus is too uptight. We need to relax and we need to be still and know that the Lord Jesus Christ, He is God.
The Lord always makes people feel important. Remember the woman at the well? She wasn’t even a Jew, she was a Samaritan. Jesus had time to speak to her and tell her her whole life story. I am talking about God Himself. What about the little people? They came to Jesus, the disciples tried to chase them away. He said:
“Suffer the little ones to come unto Me and forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of God.”
These days, nobody wants to listen anymore... We really need to take time out. My old friend, Alan, who was my neighbour on the farm next door, we used to stand at that barbed wire fence, early in the morning, waiting for our staff to come to work. I am talking about before 5 o’clock.
We used to chat to each other, and he always used to say to me, “Angus, take time out to smell the roses!” Alan, I am trying - I am trying!
Go out today and smell the roses.
Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Monday morning, 17th January, the year 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
1 Timothy 6:6
Then we go to Philippians 4:11, the Apostle Paul says:
“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.”
That was a man who had been to the two extremes of life. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the definition of the word, contentment. It means: “A state of peaceful happiness or satisfaction.”
Now, King David - he had everything. He had money and he was a very, very handsome man. He could do whatever he wanted. He had the most beautiful women in the world, he had fame and power but then he said in Psalm 27:4:
“One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,…”
How are you feeling today, are you content with your lot in life?
I remember the story of a little boy who was always complaining to his mom that he wanted another new pair of shoes until he was walking down the street with his mom one day and he saw another little boy, being wheeled up the street in a pram because he didn’t have any feet.
You and I need to be content and we need to be satisfied with what God has given us. Today I walked out of my house and Jill has got a little window-box made out of brick and cement. She had the most beautiful display of pansies, please look at the picture... Then we had that terrible hailstorm and it wiped out every single flower that she had in the whole garden.
But I walked out this morning and I looked at this little window-box and growing out of the wall, out of the side of the window-box, that’s right the brick and the cement was the most beautiful, content, happy, smiling pansy! And the Lord just said to me, in my heart, “You see Angus, that little Pansy is so content.”
Well, the wisest man that ever lived, Solomon, he said:
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, and that is:
“Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13
Have a good day,
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 16th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command brought by his eunuchs; therefore the king was furious, and his anger burned within him.”
Esther 1:12
And then straight across to Ephesians 5:22 & 25
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.”
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her”
I want to say there is nothing more humiliating for a man when his wife publicly disobeys him. That is what happened in the Book of Esther. She was the most beautiful woman. The king called for her, he wanted to show her in front of all his nobles but she refused. It brings tremendous insecurity to everyone when the wife refuses to submit to her husband.
I am thinking particularly of children, little children - they get so upset when mom and dad just will not get on, and the husband loses respect among his colleagues at work and in the social structure. It breaks down a marriage quicker than anything else. We need to clearly understand here today that the marriage institution, the covenant between a man and a woman is not a good idea - it is God’s commandment, and it is for the benefit of the whole family.
Disobedience causes division, rebellion and complete breakdown - that is the devil’s plan. He wants to destroy the family because he knows how much it hurts the Heart of God.
But husbands do not make it hard for your wife to submit to you. If you are a lazy man who cannot get out of your bed in the morning or put food on the table for your family, if there is no discipline in the home or if you are completely selfish, it is extremely hard for her to submit to you. Love her by looking after her, protecting her, looking after the children, making sure they respect mom and all of a sudden things will change completely. It is a beautiful snowball effect.
You see the more you love and cherish her, the more she will willfully submit to you, and most importantly, the children in the home will flourish.
Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
It is Saturday morning, 15th January, the year 2022 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him, and He vanished from their sight. And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:31-32
That first encounter with the Saviour of the world - Oh, let us cherish it. Let us never forget it! It was just like the moment you first fell in love with your wife, with your husband. Never, ever lose that memory. Never lose that time. Do not allow the business of this world to rob you. Do not waste precious times because of the mediocre, mundane and wasteful things that this life has to offer.
My good friend, Michael Cassidy the Founder of African Enterprise, told me a story. He said when he was studying at the university, either Oxford or Cambridge I cannot remember, he said, the author C S Lewis (probably one of the most famous Christian writers of all time he wrote books like
“Surprised by Joy”, “Reflections on the Psalms”, “The Four Loves”, “The Business of Heaven” and many others) used to ride past that place where this man was lecturing. He was a tutor. He said he could have gone in and had a cup of tea with him but he didn’t do it and he regrets that time. I want to tell you don’t miss an opportunity to meet with the Living Christ.
I remember going to Jerusalem, to the Old City, one of the first times I had ever been to Israel. And I walked with Jill, my wife, to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. I walked into that huge church, sat down and all of a sudden I had an encounter. I cannot explain it to you correctly, an encounter with the living Christ. You know, I broke down and I wept, I wept my heart out.
I remember my dear wife putting her arms around me, wondering, “What is wrong with you, Angus?” It was like an encounter I had with The Man from Galilee, the Carpenter’s Son, Jesus Christ. I will never forget that time.
Now, these two men were walking down the road, weren’t they? They were on their way to Emmaus and they had an encounter with Jesus. What about you today? In Revelation 3:20, Jesus says:
“I stand at the door and knock, and if you open the door, I will come in and eat with you, and you with Me.”
Now, remember, the handle of the door is on the inside. Why don’t you do it today - Have an encounter with the Living Christ.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Friday morning, 14th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (other) things shall be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33
I believe today, we need to speak about priorities. Now I looked up the Oxford Dictionary and the meaning of the word, priority: “A thing regarded as more important than others.” What is your priority today, what is my priority today?
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36
And in this rat race of life that we are living in at the moment, we have got to get back to basics. Now, this is how it works...
Priorities:
God first; secondly, your wife or your husband; thirdly, your children and your extended family; Fourthly, your career, your ministry, your vision and whatever.
We have to be so careful that we get it in the right order. How many times have you heard of a couple, as soon as the children leave home, they get divorced! Why did they wait so long? “No, we did it for the children.” It is not acceptable. First your wife or your husband, and then the children, that is after God.
Be careful that the work (I am talking now to pastors) of the Lord does not become more important than the Lord of the work - Do you understand what that means? First your relationship with God before anything else.
You know, President Barack Obama, of the United States of America, he wrote in a book. He visited his old granny in Kenya in East Africa and she sat there this rural woman, and she was talking to her grandson. The president of the most powerful nation on earth and she said to him, “If everyone is your family, you have got no family.” Quite something isn’t it, quite profound! If everybody is your family, you have got no family. We have got to have priorities.
Yes, we have got to be friendly to everyone. We have got to take care of as many people as we can but not at the cost of your family. Now listen, don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today. Make that phone call, have that cup of tea, spend that visit.
You know often they used to look for Jesus, they could never find Him. “Where were You, Lord? The crowd is waiting for You.” He says, “I am with My Father, I am up the mountain and I am hearing from Him and I am spending time with Him.”
Spend time today and get your priorities in order.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Thursday morning, 13th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today!
“And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them.”
Luke 24:11
Now that is when the women came back and told the disciples that the tomb was empty. Then we go to Luke 17:5, where the disciples said to Jesus:
“Lord, please increase our faith.”
You see, without faith we are not going to make it. We need childlike faith, not childish faith but childlike faith. That is the only way that we are going to complete this race here on earth.
You know, my little boy... Well, he is not little now, he has boys of his own. But my young son, Fergie, when he was very small, if I would take him out in an evening and show him a big full moon, bright yellow, and if I was to say to him, “Fergie, that moon is made out of cheddar cheese" and then if he was to meet Neil Armstrong, and he would say, “Fergie, the moon is not made of cheddar cheese. I have walked on the moon. It is made out of rock and dust.” He would say, “No sir, my dad said it is made out of cheddar cheese.” God wants us to be positive.
Now, if we look at John 20:25, we will see that Thomas did not believe. He said:
“Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
And then of course you know what happened, the Lord just stood straight in front of him. He didn’t knock on the door, He didn’t open the door, He just appeared. And Thomas fell to his knees and he says:
“My Lord and my God!”
John 20:28
And then the Lord said to him,
“Yes Thomas, you say well because you have seen Me but blessed are those who have not seen Me and yet believe.”
John 20:29
I want to say to you today that we need to have simple faith, simple believing faith. Without faith, we can’t please God.
You know, there was a Scottish preacher, his name was Peter Marshall. He went over to America and he eventually became the Personal Chaplain of the United States Senate, the Government. He had an incredible ability to speak, he was an accomplished orator. And he said one day to his people:
”You must have faith, you must have simple faith. You must have faith that you can touch, faith that you can taste, faith like….faith like potatoes.”
We need faith like potatoes! Remember, we wrote a book called, “Faith Like Potatoes.” We made a movie in 2006 called Faith Like Potatoes!
Go out today and believe what God has told you and it will change your life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, 12th January 2022, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!’
Luke 24:5-6
He is not dead, He is alive - I am talking about Jesus, that’s right! Our Lord is not a historical figure, some famous person who used to live on the earth and is now dead. I can take you to Jerusalem and the Old City, I can take you to the grave of King David, probably the most famous man in Jerusalem apart from Jesus, and I can show you where his bones are buried, but I cannot show you Jesus’ bones. No, because He is still very much alive! In fact, this very morning, a couple of hours ago I was having a hot cup of tea with Him... having a chat with Him in my prayer room and that is not a joke - That is the absolute truth. I can honestly say it and mean it, Jesus Christ is not a figment of my imagination.
By the way, He also wants to be your friend today.
The many times He has been so close to me are not when I have seen Him move in great signs, wonders and miracles, but rather when I have been going through my deepest, darkest valleys. Times when I thought, I am going to lose this farm, through drought, floods, disease or due to the economy. In times when I have had a personal tragedy, He has been there holding my hand, calming me down.
I can hear somebody saying, “Have you ever seen Him?” Oh yes, many times. I see Him in the face of a baby... I just love children so much as I am getting older. I see Him in the morning sunrise, I am an early morning man. I see Him after a shower of rain on a hot dry field when the steam is rising, that scent that is incomparable. I see Him in a young couple who has fallen in love - Jesus is all around us, we simply have to open our eyes and our ears.
Please speak with Him today, He is waiting to hear from you!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, 11th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living.”
Genesis 3:20
Then we go to the John 19:27:
“Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.”
A newborn’s conversation with God:
A baby asked God, “They tell me You are sending me to earth tomorrow but how am I going to live there, being so small and helpless?” And God said, “Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you.” The child further inquired, “But tell me, here in Heaven, I don’t have to do anything but sing and smile and be happy.”
God said, “Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you and you will feel your angel’s love and be very happy.”
Again, the small child asked, “And how will I be able to understand when people talk to me if I don’t understand the language?” And God said, “Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak.”
“And what am I going to do when I want to talk to You?” And God said, “Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray.” “And who will protect me?” And God said, “Your angel will defend you even if it means risking it’s life.” “But I will be sad because I will not see You anymore.” And God said, “Your angel will always talk to you about Me and teach you the way so come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you.”
At that moment, there was much peace in Heaven but voices from earth could be heard, and the child hurriedly asked, “God, if I have to leave now, please tell me my angel’s name.” And God said, “You will simply call her, “Mom’.
Isn’t that beautiful, hey? I had an angel, my mom! I can’t wait to see her in Heaven one day. I want to say to you today, boys and girls, moms and dads, look after mom! She is so precious!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
It is Monday morning, 10th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to Malachi the last Book in the Old Testament:
“Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.”
Malachi 3:8
Remember, the tithe belongs to the Lord, the full 10%, offerings and gifts come after that. We will never be able to 'out-bless' the Lord. He is a giver by nature - He gave His very life for us.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
John 15:13
Now I can hear you saying, “But where do we tithe?” Well, you tithe to the place where you receive your spiritual food and remember, God loves a cheerful giver. We must never give anything to God reluctantly. You will find that in 2 Corinthians 9:7. We are not just speaking here about finances only, not at all but also time given to God each day.
How much time are we giving to the Lord each morning? How much time are we giving to our family? Yesterday, I went with my son and my grandson to look at some horses we were thinking of purchasing. We spent a full day together and enjoyed it immensely. We didn’t even buy the horses in the end but we spent time together.
What about time given to helping widows and the orphans, they need us to help them. And what about time given to yourself, do you spend a bit of time on your own? What am I talking about - I am talking about sport, about exercise, I am talking about maybe gardening.
William Carey, the founder of the Baptist Outreach Union to India, loved gardening - He had a rose garden. He said that is where he found a lot of peace and tranquillity every day - The man who translated the Bible into all the Indian languages. I love to ride my horse, Snowy. I discipline myself and I ride that horse, I have to. If I don’t ride him regularly, he gets out of hand. We need to spend time. Give God the first fruits of everything that you have, let us not give it to Jesus as our leftovers. Put Jesus first and then everything else will fall into line.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (other) things shall be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33.
Have a wonderful day as you continue to give to the Lord and to your fellow man.
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 9th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Nevertheless in Your great mercy
You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them;
For You are God, gracious and merciful.”
Nehemiah 9:31
Many times the Israelites sinned against the Lord, forgot Him and turned their back on Him, but He constantly forgave them and was merciful towards them. Then we go to the New Testament:
“Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”
Matthew 18:21
Folks, that is a lot of forgiveness... I looked up the word forgive, in the Oxford Dictionary, this is the definition: "To excuse an offense, a flaw or a mistake.” It is actually for our own sake that the Lord says we must forgive. You know if we carry an offence, in an attitude of unforgiveness, it will eventually eat us up and completely destroy us. Many times, the person you are hateful towards is not aware of it and it doesn’t even affect them. Unforgiveness wears us down - It is like carrying a 50 kg bag of cement on your back, wherever you go. Eventually, it will completely wear you out... Rather lay it down today at the foot of the cross and leave it. Revenge belongs to the Lord, let Him deal with it.
Jesus, when He was on the cross, was an innocent man and what did He say?
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
Luke 23:34
Today, this Sunday, let us forgive. Let us carry on and leave the results to Jesus, you will have a much easier, happier and more fruitful life.
Jesus bless you today.
Goodbye.
It is Saturday morning, 8th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him.”
Luke 23:8
Without a doubt, Jesus Christ is the most popular man that has ever lived on Planet Earth... You and I, my dear friend, have an obligation to tell this dying world about Him.
Many years ago, with our little children’s home (That closed many years ago) just across the road, we had a little boy and his name was Thoko. He was about five or six years old, we weren’t sure because we got him when he was just a baby and he had been ravaged by some terminal disease. His little body looked like he was only about 2 or 3 years old.
My dear wife Jill used to read him Bible stories, his favourites were always about Heaven and what it was going to be like when he went home. I used to take my horse Snowy over to the children’s home often and I used to give little Thoko rides. He would sit just in front of me on the saddle with his little emaciated body. Towards the end, he was so thin that we would have to put a pillow on the saddle for him to sit on because the jolting made him so sore. One day he told me that his friend, Jesus, was going to come on His big white horse and take him home to Heaven. Shortly afterwards, that is exactly what happened. Jesus came and took Thoko home.
I want to ask you today, do you know Him as Thoko does - Is He real to you? Herod was so excited when he knew that he was going to meet with the Son of God. I want to close and I want to introduce you to Him, if you have never met Him before. Maybe, just like Thoko knew Him - personally.
If you would like to, please just pray this little prayer after me:
Lord Jesus,
I have read about You in books,
I have seen You depicted in movies,
I have heard people talk about You,
I have seen people sing hymns to You but I have never personally met You.
Today I want to meet You as a Friend, just like You were a Friend to little Thoko.
I ask You to come into my life.
I repent of my sin and Lord, I look forward to very soon shaking You by the hand when You come to fetch us, all of us, on that snow-white steed riding on those clouds.
I ask this in Jesus’s Name.
Amen
God bless you and have a wonderful day. Tell somebody about your newly-found Friend today.
Goodbye.
It is Friday morning, 7th January 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Job 8:7, sent to me by a very dear friend from Canada, goes like this:
“Though your beginning was small,
Yet your latter end would increase abundantly.”
Job was successful, why? Because he never wavered. If we look at Job 42:10 right at the end of the book, Job lived to 140 years old. The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had at the beginning - You will find that in verse 10. And then verse 16:
“After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations. So Job died, old and full of days.”
Successful people are not superstars. No, they are not... Not 'here today, gone tomorrow', those are not the people who make the difference. The people that make the difference are those who carry on through thick and thin. Matthew 7:21, Jesus said:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
We really need to believe the vision God has given to us. Don’t listen to 'Job’s comforters' - the ones who say: “Well, maybe there is sin in your life and that is why you are not succeeding. Maybe you haven’t heard correctly from God.” Don’t listen to them.
I remember going to Ladysmith, the first campaign I ever organized. I said goodbye to Jill and the kids in the morning got in my pick-up with my flask of coffee and in my farm clothes, off I went to that town. I went to the first church and knocked on the door. The man said, “You can come here if you want but this place is as hard as the rocks and the thorn trees that surround it.” I went to the second guy and he said, “This place has been over-evangelized.” He was so hefty, he could hardly get out of his chair, smoking his pipe. I went to the third guy, I thought, “I will get a bit of support here.” He said: “Maybe God sent you here to bend you a little bit."
I went and parked underneath a thorn tree, just like Elijah, and I said, “Lord, what am I doing here? I am a successful farmer, I don’t have to do this.” And I felt the Lord saying, “Are you going to go through with it or not?” And like Job, I persevered. But you know, I went to one minister’s house, he wasn’t there, can you believe it? I left my card underneath his door... The next morning he phoned me and he said, “Angus, we are waiting for you. We have been praying for revival in this town for six months.” And that was the first campaign we ever had and probably the one I will never forget. Probably the smallest one but it was incredibly successful. Obedience is better than sacrifice.
Get out there today, like Job, and keep on keeping on for Him!
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Thursday morning, 6th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go straight to Job 22:29, the Lord says He will save the humble person. 1 Peter 5:5 is the same scripture and James 4:6 says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. He will save the humble person - Always remember, pride comes before a fall. How many times have we seen an arrogant person brought low because of pride?
The mighty Titanic, the ship they said it was unsinkable... Never say anything like that to anybody and not to the Lord. On its maiden voyage it sunk, like a stone, to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. But God gives grace to the humble - That is why God loved Moses so much, Moses was a man who was so humble. Remember, humility is controlled strength. Moses was the humblest man that lived, yet he was not weak by any means.
Many years ago, I was preaching in Scotland. I was in a little country village, in the Community Hall. It was a midweek meeting early in the morning, maybe 9 or 10 o’clock and it was full of lovely folk, country folk. We were having tea and cucumber sandwiches when the organizer introduced me to a middle-aged man. He looked very fit, straight back and dressed in gumboots, a tweed jacket and wearing a deer-stalker, I asked him, “Sir, what do you do for a living?” He said, “I am a part-time farmer and I am a soldier.” He said, “By the way Angus, I have been looking forward to meeting you but at the end of this meeting, I have to go because I have another meeting after this.” I said, “No problem.”
He said, “I will sit at the back so I don’t interfere with the meeting.”
Well, I started preaching and sure enough, just towards the end of the meeting, he stood up, gave me a big wave and slipped out the back of the hall. After the meeting, the organizer came to me and said, “That gentleman that you were having tea with, do you know who he is?”
I said, “Yes, he said he was a soldier.” He said he is the Commander General for the Nato Forces for the whole of Europe, answerable personally to Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, herself.” A soldier indeed!
Humility is a wonderful thing, go out today and be humble and God will raise you up.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, 5th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night.”
Exodus 13:21
And then, one of our favourite scriptures, Hebrews 13:5, Jesus says:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
God never abandoned the Israelites in the wilderness and He is not about to abandon you or me, in these critical times. Now that desert, that wilderness, I have seen it. The heat during the day goes up to plus 50ºC and in the evenings, I believe it goes down to freezing... Now that cloud kept them from the heat, by day, and by night when it got freezing cold, there was a pillar of fire to keep them warm. The Lord thinks of everything, doesn’t He? But of course, the main reason was for direction.
We need direction and we really need to follow the cloud like never before. You know, in East Africa, in the great plains of the Masai Mara, there are herds of antelope, tens of thousands of them, that follow the rain clouds at the end of the dry season, as the wet season begins. They watch the clouds, the thunder and the lightning because they know that those clouds are full of rain... and where the rain falls, the grass will grow very quickly. Now, if the animals knew that, what about you and I?
We really need to follow and to watch the clouds - I am a cloud-watcher by the way! Every morning I get up and I say, “Lord Jesus, are You coming in the clouds today?” Because that is what He told us - He is coming back in the clouds, I can’t wait.
You know, Philippians 2:10-11 says: Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Now, if every knee on earth is going to do it, you will see Him coming in the clouds, so let us now get ready for the coming of the Lord because this rain that we are speaking about it is not only physical rain, it is spiritual rain.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, 4th January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But the just (the righteous) shall live by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:4
And the same scripture in Romans 1:17:
“The just shall live by faith.”
Now I can hear somebody say: “How do you get faith?” Well, Romans 10:17 says:
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” -
By reading your Bible!
I heard a beautiful quote just yesterday written in the 1800s by an American reformer by the name of Horace Greeley. He said, and I am going to read it slowly:
“It is impossible to socially or mentally enslave a Bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom.”
Isn’t that beautiful? So if you are full of fear this morning, then go to 2 Timothy 1:7, Jesus says: “I have not given you a spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind.” You might be full of sin and saying, "I don’t know how to get rid of this sin in my life. I have made some terrible mistakes over this Christmas period. How do I deal with it?"
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
John 1:9
Do you see how the Bible is the key to setting us free? Maybe you are full of hatred. You have got anger in your heart and it is eating you up - How do I get rid of it? By love! The opposite of hatred is love.
“He who does not love does not know God”
1 John 4:8
But then if you want freedom like Horace Greeley was speaking about, freedom comes through the Bible.
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
John 8:36
And now there might be some man who is going to put on his boots today, put on his jacket and go and look for a job, you are unemployed - Success comes through the Word of God.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (other) things shall be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33
I want to say to you that when I was actively farming (my boys are farming now) I would always say: "Boys, buy the best seed you can afford. It doesn’t matter how hard things are because when you put good seed into well-prepared soil, it is a winner.” When they go and buy a bull for their herd of beef cattle, I always say, “Buy a good bull. He is half the herd, don’t skimp."
Now, I want to say to you in closing, this year let us use the Word of God and that will keep us successful and at peace.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
It is Monday morning, 3rd January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Pray without ceasing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:17
For this year, and indeed for every year, this must become part of our very lives. Like we put on our clothes every morning when we get up, we should be praying. We have to become a praying people.
What was Jesus doing at the most critical time in His life when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane? He was praying, not running, not making a plan but praying. Prayer was the focal part of Jesus’s life and remains so, to this day. In fact, He is interceding, in Heaven, right now on our behalf.
If we look at Luke 22:40, Jesus says:
“Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
Remember when the five thousand people had nothing to eat and the disciples came to the Lord and said, “What must we do?” The Lord prayed over two small fish and five barley loaves of bread and the Lord fed five thousand men, and that is not even numbering the women and the children that were there. Mathew 14:17
I looked, up the Oxford Dictionary, to find out the definition of the word prayer and this is what it says: “A solemn request for help or expression of thanks, addressed to God.”
That is what prayer is. I remember praying, as a brand-new Christian, I prayed because I was in a crisis situation. There was a fire on our farm. There was a huge wind blowing and the fire was about to jump into the neighbour’s pine plantation. It would have meant absolute disaster and destruction, for me and my young family. The wind was blowing furiously, my neighbours were trying to help me stop the fire from jumping. Eventually, they had to go because they had to pay their staff, it was the end of the month.
I got on my knees, in front of everybody, in the dust and I prayed because I didn’t know what else to do. I can tell you now, God is my witness, the wind from the north dropped. A cool wind came up from the south and gentle rain fell on that fire and put the fire out.
This year let us become a praying people. Remember the old adage: “When men work, they work, but when men pray, God works.”
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 2nd January, the year 2022, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
Psalm 119:105
Then we go to the New Testament, Mark 13:31, Jesus says:
“Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.”
Do you know that God’s ancient people, the Israelites, are also known as the People of the Book? That is right! Do you know the Bible is the book that comforts us? It is our mediator in family squabbles. It is also the joy of our heart, in fact, it is our hope for this year, 2022.
I don’t really believe in New Years' resolutions because none of mine has ever worked! I looked up, in the Oxford Dictionary, the word: resolution... It means, a firm decision. But I want to encourage you to make one good New Years' resolution. I want to encourage you because I am going to do it as well - To make the Book, that’s right, the Bible, the centre of your decision-making for the year 2022. We will be pleasantly surprised at how wise and successful we shall become.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1
If somebody says to you, “Show me this Jesus you are always talking about”, give them a Bible.” But I can hear somebody saying: “But how do we read it because there are 66 books in the Bible.” Well, first of all, you must read it every single day, first thing in the morning and it will set you up for the day. Then, go to the Old Testament. Start in the Book of Psalms, they are so beautiful. Then read a portion and get yourself a little diary or little devotional book - a book that you can write in, and write down what the Lord has told you.
Then go to the New Testament and start in the Gospel of John. That is a beautiful book to start in and then of course you just keep reading it progressively - from book to book as you continue. Write it down and also read it in the first person - What does that mean? Well, “The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want”. You read it, “The Lord is John’s Shepherd”, “The Lord is Mary’s Shepherd, she shall not want.” Write it in the first person and then read a nice devotional and then spend time in prayer.
And I want to tell you, it will see you through the year. I have been doing it for over 40 years and God speaks to me daily through the Good Book.
May the Lord bless you and have a wonderful day!
Jesus bless you!
Goodbye.
A very good morning and a very happy New Year to you!
Today is 1st January, the year 2022, and it is Saturday morning, this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day!
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
1 Corinthians 2:9
And then 2 Corinthians 5:7... We are going to walk by faith and not by sight this year!
Luke 22:32, Jesus says to us in this New Year, He says: “I am praying for you, that your faith should not fail.” Jesus is as a standing guarantee for us in 2022 - He is backing us all the way.
Now remember, we always say if you aim at nothing then you are sure to hit it. I hope you have got something that you are aiming at this year.
Proverbs 29:18:
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
We really need to aim and at a vision that we ask God to give us. Habakkuk 2:2-3:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time; (2022!)
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.”
Remember, if your vision doesn’t scare you, it is not big enough. I am firmly believing for the greatest revival that this world has ever seen, that is about to explode on this earth. Can you imagine families praying together, Bibles being read in schools, universities, government institutions and parliament. Companies dedicated to sowing finances into God’s Kingdom, Widows and orphans being taken care of, Bible translators being supported so that the word of God can be available in every language on earth? This is the vision for 2022 - God is more than able!
I want to close with a quotation from John Wesley. I think it is so beautiful, this is how it goes:
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, and all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
Jesus bless you this year. Keep your eyes fixed on Him.
We love you very much. Happy New Year!
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Friday morning, 31st December, the last day of the year, 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today!
“No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:62
We are about to face a brand-new year and we need to implement the ploughing principle. I was taught to plough in bonnie Scotland when I was a young man of nineteen years old. It is critical that the first furrow is dead straight -That is the most important aspect of ploughing.
We are starting a new year tomorrow and we need to look forward. Depending on how you execute the first cut in that field with that plough will influence the rest of the field. As we are about to start the new year the same principle applies.
"he who ploughs should plough in hope…”
1 Corinthians 9:10
We are looking forward, we are not looking behind us. You get on that tractor, you put that tractor in the correct gear, you set the plough correctly - each plough shear going into the ground at the same depth.
Then, we pick a point on the horizon, a church steeple, a large tree or a building and we line that up with the nose of the tractor. Now listen to this, then by faith, we start ploughing... We do not look behind us. That is a fatal mistake. As soon as you do that you will pull the steering wheel, put a kink in the first furrow and that will be exaggerated every time you come down the next line. By the time you finish that large field, it will look terrible, crooked lines like a snake.
We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith - Hebrews 12:2. Put the past behind you, 2021 is almost over and you are looking at a brand new field with a brand new plough and a brand new tractor. Let’s start ploughing for Jesus.
Let’s look forward because He is coming back very soon.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is 30th December 2021, Thursday morning, the year 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.“
Luke 22:26-27
You and I have been called by the Lord Jesus Christ to be a band of feet-washers, that’s right! Now, in the world’s economy, it is a case of, “I am alright Jack.” - It is a case of survival of the fittest but not in the Kingdom of God. The Son of God was serving His disciples, remember? He fed them, He gave them wine to drink and He also washed their feet. We must always put the younger or the weaker in the front. We must let them set the pace. Okay?
I remember like it was yesterday, many, many years ago, I took a group of young boys, maybe 16 years old (12, 13, 16), we went up the Mighty Drakensberg Mountains and we camped on the top of Champagne Castle. It is very high. We went up via Gray’s Pass, I will never forget it and these young boys were so brave. We slept up there for a couple of days and then we came down again. When we were halfway up, going up those big contour paths, they were very steep, especially when you get to the top ( No trees up there, too high for that), we came around a corner and we saw a very disillusioned, sad hiker sitting on a rock all by himself. We stopped and we said, “Is there something wrong, can we help you?”
He said, “No, I am going to try and make my way back to the car park because my team has left me behind. They said that I couldn’t keep up with them and they have deserted me.” We said, “Don’t worry, we’ll take you with us, come with us!” Then we put that hiker in the front, not in the back and he set the pace. Do you know something, he worked right the way to the very top. I can tell you when his friends saw him at the top, they were extremely embarrassed and very red-faced. We really need to serve, and to serve means we need to prefer others.
You know, when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night that He was praying before He was crucified. When the High Priests’ soldiers came to arrest Him, Jesus didn’t hide behind the disciples. He didn’t let them try to fight the soldiers off, no - He said, “Here I am. I am the one you are looking for”, and let all the disciples go.
We need to be an example to the world. We need to be a band of feet-washers. Go out today and wash somebody’s feet.
Jesus bless you.
Goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, 29th December 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“So I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?"
Nehemiah 6:3
You see, Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem and the enemy was trying to confuse him and dissuade him. They kept calling him to come down for a meeting but he wanted to finish the work the Lord had given to him. Do not become distracted. Finish the work God has given you to do. Remember, it is not how well you start the race that counts - It is how well you finish the race that counts. We have got to complete the task.
You know the old saying: “A rolling stone gathers no moss.” God will not give us a new project until we complete the one He set before us. I am thinking about things like, for example, your marriage. That’s right, you made a commitment. You have to see it through.
I remember, they asked Ruth Graham, the wife of the famous evangelist, Dr Billy Graham, “Have you ever contemplated divorcing Billy?”
She said, “Divorce, never... Murder, often!”
We have got to finish the race. You have got to finish your university degree, it doesn’t matter how tough it is - You have made a commitment. Your apprenticeship, you must complete it so that you can get your papers.
The Lord Jesus Christ finished His work here on earth. Remember just before He died on the cross, He said:
“It is finished!” and bowing His head, He gave up His Spirit.”
John 19:30.
I know from experience, God will never give you a new project until the old one is completed. In Revelation 3:8, the Lord says very clearly to us:
“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”
Don’t try and break the door down. The Lord will open the one door as soon as you have completed the task and He will close the other door.
I know in my case, with my grandchildren - For you, it might be your little child... What do you say to him? “When you have finished your food, then I will give you some pudding.”
You and I need to finish the job.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, 28th December and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.”
Matthew 14:29
Oh folks... That is the only human being, in the history of the world, who has walked on water. I have been to the Lake of Galilee, it is very, very deep. There were no stepping stones underneath his feet, He walked on the water. I got the most beautiful little diary from one of my family members and on the cover, it says: “You can’t find the honey if you are scared of the bees!”
Isn’t that right? As a beekeeper, I can tell you something now - You do get stung but you can’t find the honey if you are scared of the bees!”
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Hebrews 11:6
Peter walked on the water, better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. I can hear someone saying, “Ja, but he failed, he started sinking.” He took his eyes off Jesus for a moment. He looked at the waves, fear gripped his heart, and he started to sink but at least he got out of the boat. I want to say to you today that fear is paralyzing many people in the world. If you want to eat the honey you must be prepared to take a few stings! The opposite of faith is fear.
Now remember folks, the boat is sinking, it is full of woodworm. The other eleven disciples, who sat in the boat and hung over the edge, looking at Peter walking on the water did not realize that the boat was sinking. We have got to get out onto the water. It is the safest place to be.
If you want to taste that honey... I want to tell you once you have tasted that honey, a few stings don’t even affect you. I want to leave you with a lovely memory verse for 2022. Now, I am speaking particularly to the older folk who battle to memorize scripture verses. This is a beautiful one for you. It simply says:
“Have faith in God”
Mark 11:22.
Have a wonderful day as you go and find that honey!
Jesus bless you, goodbye.
It is Monday morning, 27th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
Genesis 22:14
That's right, Jehovah Jireh is our provider - nothing else. One of my favourite scriptures is Philippians 4:19:
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
We must be givers and not takers because the Lord is a giver. You know, we say all the silver and gold belongs to our God and all the cattle on a thousand hills belong to our God. So why are we stressing, why do we stress... Is God a liar?
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
Numbers 23:19
He doesn’t tell lies. Therefore, we need to trust Him going forward into this New Year, in a week’s time. Our confidence is not in our strength, our confidence is in the promises of God.
“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”
Philippians 1:6
You know, one of my heroes is George Muller. He started the children’s homes in Bristol, England. He was a German. He started as an absolute rogue but he got gloriously saved and then he lived a life of faith, extraordinary faith. In fact, the verse for our ministry here at Shalom is Psalm 37:4 - That was George Müller’s verse:
“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
He took care of no less than 10,000 children. He got no money from the government, only by faith. He said trials, obstacles, difficulties and sometimes even defeats are the very food of faith... Think about that!
“My God is not limited,” he said. They came to him when he was an old man (by the way, he died at the age of 92 years old) and they said, “We want to take out a pension scheme for you.” Oh, I can imagine, there must have been tears in his eyes. He said, “Thank you, very kindly, but give it to someone else. How can I now depend on a pension scheme when He has taken care of me, all of these years.”
Put your trust in Jesus and He will take care of the rest.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 26th December, the year 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
John 14:27
What a beautiful word, isn’t it? And then we go straight to John 16:33, Jesus says:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
You know, my late dad, he was in the Second World War and he never spoke about his experiences, I think because they were too painful for him. He was captured in North Africa and he spent three and a half years in a prisoner of war camp, in Germany and Italy. My mom used to tell us about one incident that impacted his life very greatly.
It was on a cold frosty night in Germany at Christmas time. He was standing, looking through a barbed-wire fence. He was probably missing his family, wondering when the war was going to end, trying to deal with what he was going through with the tragedy of his fellow soldiers dying all around him... All of a sudden, he heard the most beautiful singing from little children. He looked out through that barbed-wire fence, it was a full moon that night, and there was a frozen pond. On it, were little children ice skating and they were singing Silent Night in German. It gave him tremendous hope and peace in that turbulent time of his life.
The Prince of Peace is found everywhere - His name is Jesus. Do you remember that beautiful song:
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone,
And because I know, yes, I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living, just because He lives.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful, peaceful day.
Goodbye.
It is the 25th of December, that’s right - the year 2021. Happy Christmas! Blessed Christmas to you! This is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6
That was prophesied hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus was born in that manger, in Bethlehem.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16
I want to say to you today that that is the most incredible gift anyone could give to a person - To give His own child. And that is what our Heavenly Father did, today, 2000 years ago. He told His Son, “Go down to earth and help them”, that is what He is doing for you and me today.
I want to say to you, today you might be lonely, you might be sick, you might be mourning but there was a little baby who has come into the world, to give you hope, to give you strength and to help you. His name is Jesus, the most beautiful name in my vocabulary... There is no other name. When I hear that name I want to weep with joy because He loves me so much, and He loves you so much, that He gave His life for us.
Now folks, I don’t know - this might be the last Christmas on this earth, that we have before the coming of the Lord! You know, I am a farmer and the Lord says, when you see a fig tree producing new leaves, you know that summer is around the summer. When you see these signs that are happening on the earth, know that my return is imminent. Now if we look at Revelation 22:20 - the second last verse in the whole Bible:
“He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.”
We need to be ready for the coming of the King - How can we get ready?
Well, we need to believe that He is the Son of God. It is as simple as that. It is not about working your way to Heaven, it is about acknowledging that the baby in that manger is God made flesh, Immanuel. I want to pray a little prayer with you today if you don’t mind, and I would like you to pray this prayer after me. I am going to pray a very simple scripture, Romans 10:9, and we will pray this together:
If we confess with our mouths, come on, pray it... If we confess with our mouths, Jesus Christ, and we believe in our hearts that He has been raised from the dead, we shall be saved. Isn’t that wonderful?
Now just remember that. That is exactly what it is about - Its about faith. its not about good works. I want to close now because you have got things to do, you have got family to love and presents to open. I want to close with God’s blessing. Numbers 6:24:
“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”
Happy Christmas! Peaceful Christmas! We love you!
God bless you and goodbye.
It is the 24th of December, the year 2021. Yes, it is Christmas Eve and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Luke 21:36
If ever we needed to be alert, it is in these days where there is so much on the go. There is so much information being put out there, people don’t know what to do or where to go. This is the time to watch and pray.
If we go to 1 Thessalonians 5:6, the word of God says:
“Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.”
It is not a time just to throw caution to the wind. Like never before, we really need to be wide awake. I want to say to you today that the Lord Jesus Christ is on our side, He is looking after us and He is right with us.
“Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch (Can you hear that - keeping watch) over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David (that is Bethlehem) a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”
Luke 2:8-14
Watch and pray - Oh, my dear friends, those shepherds, why did they see the angel and why did the angel speak to them first? Because they were awake and they were watching over their flocks. While the rest of the people in Bethlehem were sound asleep, while the king in Jerusalem was sound asleep, the shepherds were awake. We need to be alert, we need to be awake and we need to hear from God. We need to spend time with the Lord. The early bird always catches the worm, and that is not a joke, it is a fact. We really need to be waiting on the Lord.
One of my uncles in Scotland was a shepherd. He was asthmatic from when he was a little boy. But you know what I saw in that old gentleman? I saw someone who was alert, he was patient and he watched his flock - he had lots of time. He didn’t make bad decisions because he didn’t have the strength or the energy to do so, but he was always right on the job.
I want to say to you today, let's take time out to wait on the Lord and let us pray without ceasing. I will speak to you tomorrow morning and I will be wishing you a very, very blessed Christmas.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Thursday morning, 23rd December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“He makes His sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Mathew 5:45
Oh, my dear friend, this morning we need to understand something very clearly because I was taught a lesson again, yesterday... That's right at my age! As believers, we are not exempt from the hardships and the tribulations of this world. In my humble opinion, the greatest man of faith in the whole Bible was a farmer named Job. Job suffered more than anyone and yet he stood. He was not a fair-weather Christian. He trusted his God in the hardships and in the good times.
Job 13:15 is one of my favourite verses:
“(Even)Though He slay me, yet will I (still) trust Him.”
Hebrews 13:6:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
You know, yesterday afternoon we had a devastating hail storm on this farm, Shalom and it cut like a sword right through it. It is amazing how hail works. Not only does it cut a straight line but it goes up and down like a roller coaster. It will hit one farm and miss the next and then hit the next one.
We have got a house with a flat roof and of course, all the hail and the leaves from the trees around us it packed onto the roof and the roof started to leak like a sieve. I think there was more rain in the house than outside the house. I got on the roof with my little grandson, and we were shovelling hail and leaves off the top of the roof so that the roof wouldn’t collapse, and so that the rain wouldn’t continue to come through.
And while we were shovelling this, I said to Bakkies, “What is that noise?” And he said, “What Khulu?” (Khulu being the Zulu word for grandfather, and Bakkies being the nickname for Buchan). I said, “Listen”, and folks I want to tell you I heard a sparrow singing in the tree. Now, I didn’t think there was a bird left alive. This storm, the hailstorm went on and on. I didn’t think there would be a living creature left and there he was singing. At 8 o’clock last night when we were trying to find a dry place to sleep, my wife and I heard a dove. Now, doves sing in the morning. Nightingales sing at night but this dove was singing at 8 o’clock at night.
I want to tell you that Jesus Christ says, “If I can take care of a sparrow…" - I want to say to you, He can take care of you. It doesn’t matter what you are going through.
Jesus bless you and have a lovely day, find somebody that you love and tell them that Jesus cares.
Goodbye.
And a very good morning to you. It is Wednesday morning, 22nd of December, the year 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
Mathew 5:38
Very, very, powerful words! The Lord wants us, this Christmas time, to go the extra mile. When all our loved ones are together, the Lord wants us to walk the talk. We need to love one another.
You know, the Khoisan Bushmen from the Kalahari Desert called the Baobab tree, the upside-down tree because in winter the Baobab sheds all its leaves and it looks like its roots are in the air with the head of the tree under the ground. I’ve often heard people talk about the gospel being the upside-down gospel... In the world, they’ll say: "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". "You’ve got to get stuck in there and whatever he gives you, you give him twice as much back", but that’s not what Jesus did. You and I are different to the world.
You see, it’s very easy to love those who love us but it’s not so easy to love those who hate us. It’s very easy, also to rationalise our prejudices.
"Ja, but how can I love that man? Look what he did to me!" or
"How can I love that woman? Look what she did to me!"
"How can I love my brother? Look how he stabbed me in the back."
Jesus cuts through all this kind of thinking to the extent of even saying, we are to pray for our enemies. Remember - Jesus washed Judas Iscariot’s feet just before he went out and betrayed the Master for 30 pieces of silver. Now, it is impossible to do this without the help of the Holy Spirit. You see folks, we have to forgive for our own sakes, actually. If we don’t, that bitterness, that anger, that hurt, that unforgiveness, will eventually poison our whole system and consume us. Jesus, when He was dying on the cross (He was an innocent man by the way), said to His Father:
“Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34
Let us go out today and demonstrate the love of Christ by forgiving one another.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
It is Tuesday morning, 21st December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
"You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour's."
Exodus 20:17
And then we go right across to Acts 20:33, this is Paul speaking. He says:
“I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. Yes, you yourselves know that these hands have provided for my necessities, and for those who were with me.”
The word covet means: “Yearns to possess something belonging to someone else.” Now, Jesus says that if you desire to follow Him, you are to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow after Him. Mark 8:34
So often we look at the cross that our neighbour carries and we covet it. “Oh, he has got a much easier walk, Lord. I would really love to have what he has” or “he has got such a wonderful business, or farm” or whatever it might be. I heard this wonderful story a long time ago: Jesus, He is a carpenter, is in the carpenter's shop, making a cross to fit every single one of us - especially fitted for our size. But this man didn’t like his cross, it was very uncomfortable.
So he went and he put it down on a heap of other crosses and decides to choose another one. He looks and he sees a beautiful cross adorned with the most beautiful roses. He picks it up but it is full of thorns and as soon as he picks it up and the thorns stick into his hands. So he put the cross down, very quickly. He looks around and finds another cross, a magnificent cross made out of pure solid gold. But when he picked up this cross, it was so heavy he could hardly put it on his shoulder, so he puts that one down. He looks around and finds a plain wooden cross, smooth, not too heavy and it fitted exactly into his shoulder. He decides this was the one that he wants, only to find out that that was the very one he had put down.
1 Timothy 6:6 says godliness with contentment is great gain. Just be content with your lot in life and thank Jesus for every day.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Monday morning, 20th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!”
“For there the Lord commanded the blessing -
Life forevermore.”
Psalm 133:1 & 3
We need to get on together, there is strength in unity. There is no place for one-man shows. There are no lone rangers in the Kingdom of God. We need to stand together, especially now in this holiday season. We are all together. We need to work at it.
“And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
Ecclesiastes 4:12
It is quite easy to break a single cord or even a double cord, but not a threefold cord. That is what we always preach at the marriage ceremonies, don’t we? Yes, it is the husband, it is the wife and in the middle is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the marriage that will not be broken. Remember, the family that prays together, stays together.
In the days of the Roman Empire, they would say, “Divide and rule!” That is what they would do - they would break a country down. But we say, “United we stand!” We have got to stand together, mom and dad, boys and girls, brothers and sisters. This is the time for the family of God to stay in unity.
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
1 John 4:11
If you look at any team sport you will see, whether it is rugby or football, the team that normally wins is the team that plays together. It is not the team with individual stars in it - That team normally doesn’t work. It is the team that plays together and we need to pray together.
This Christmas time, let's stand united in the love of God.
Have a wonderful day as you go out and love somebody today.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 19th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“We have become a reproach to our neighbours,
A scorn and derision to those who are around us.”
Psalm 79:4
Yes, the laughing stock, have you ever felt like that? Have you ever been mocked by your neighbours? Have you ever felt that you are just no good? Well, let's go to Acts 4:13:
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marvelled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
We must never ever despise small beginnings. You know, William Carey stood up and said, “We need to go to India and tell the Indian people about Jesus Christ.” And the theologians basically told him to sit down and shut up. “If God wants to save India, He will do it. He doesn’t need you.” But William Carey nevertheless went. That man translated the Indian Bible into many Indian languages.
A man was rebuking him and humiliating him one day. He said, “I believe that you are a shoemaker by trade.”He replied: “No Sir. I am not a shoemaker, I am a cobbler - I can’t make shoes, I can only repair them.”
And yet, when the Holy Spirit came upon him, that man translated the Indian languages into English and he became the Chief Interpreter in New Delhi, for the English government. I want to say to you that God is no respecter of persons. He will use any man who puts his hand up.
C.H. Spurgeon is regarded by the Baptists as the prince of preachers and yet he had no formal theological training. He had a very strong country accent and yet at the age of 21, he used to fill the churches in London - They built the London Tabernacle especially for him, it could seat 10,000 people.
We must not listen to the mocking and become a laughing stock because if the Lord is with us, He becomes our ultimate teacher. If we go to Acts 17:6, listen to what the word of God says:
“But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”
We just need to use what we have got and the Lord will do the rest. This holiday time, take time out to see what the Lord has got prepared for you next year. Remember, if you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it. We say here at Shalom, “If your vision does not scare you, it is not big enough.”
Have a wonderful Sunday as you contemplate what God has got prepared for you.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Saturday morning, 18th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach.” And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.
So they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to this good work.
Nehemiah 2:17-18
We are builders. We are not demolishers.
If we go to Matthew 16:18, Jesus said:
I will build My church, and the gates of Hades (the gates of Hell) shall not prevail against it.
Our God is in the building business, He is not a demolisher. He is a builder and as His Children, must do likewise. We have to build people up, not break them down. If we have nothing good to say about someone, rather don’t say anything at all. We might say that we don’t have any building material to work with - Well, just like Nehemiah, let’s use what we have got: a kind word, a positive attitude. You know, like the old story of the glass being half-full of water, rather than being half-empty.
I have often seen that when they build a new road bridge, they leave the old one standing, and I have spoken to some builders and I have asked them, why don’t they take the old one down once they have built the new one. And they have said, it takes more money to break down an old bridge than it takes to build a new one.
You know, they also talk about breaking in a young horse. Now, on this farm, we have many horses and we don’t believe in breaking the spirit of a young horse. We believe what Monty Roberts says, the Horse-Whisperer. He is the original one, he says that we join up with horses. We build up confidence in the horse and then we ride him.
Today, let's be builders and not destroyers. Let this Christmas time be a time of building up God’s people.
Have a wonderful day!
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Friday morning, 17th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“…for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist.”
Luke 21:15
And then in Psalm 81:10, the Lord says:
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
And the last one, John 15:7:
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
If the word of God abides in us then we shall speak correctly and we will have all the answers that we need. When preaching the Gospel, we need to spend more time with God and less time trying to prepare a fancy sermon. You know, the old masters, the men of God who started mighty revivals that the Lord did through them... They used what we call, extempore preaching. I looked it up in the dictionary and it means: On the spur of the moment.
I always say to the young men, you must always have a sermon in your top pocket. You know, I preach mostly outdoors, that is why I wear a hat. And often I will stand on the platform and put my Bible and my sermon notes on the pulpit and the wind will come up, blow those notes away all over the place. I don’t know how many times that has happened. Then it is Jesus, the Bible and me... And I tell you what, that is why it is a winner!
I remember an incident that took place many, many years ago in the Eastern Cape. I was speaking at a men's breakfast, I love speaking at men's breakfasts, and I was sharing my heart and I was laying it down like I always do. After the event, I went back to the farmer where I was staying and he said, ”Angus, a man is coming to see you.” I said, “Oh, that’s wonderful.” He said, “No, he is very angry with you!”
I said, “Oh dear, is he a big man?”
“He is a very big farmer and he is coming with his son.”
So I thought, “Well Lord, here we go.”
Well, I tell you what, he arrived at the farm and he was very big and he was very angry! He walked in and I said, “How are you?” He didn’t speak too much and the farmer I was staying with left us in the lounge. I sat down and I said, “What can I help you with?” He just burst out weeping. He said, “Why were you speaking about me this morning in front of all the other people, I was so embarrassed.”
I said, “Sir, I have never met you in my life before. I have never even seen you before.” I had been telling them, “You see, you have got to hand your farm over to your sons. You have got to give them the cheque book, you have got to give them the debt - you have got to give them everything.”
And he said, "What I have done is, I have built a huge dam and there is no water in the dam. The bank is foreclosing on me and they are going to take my dairy herd away. And my son here (he was crying as well), he has just come back from overseas to take over the farm and he has got nothing.”
Well, we prayed together, and I tell you what folks, a while later I got a response that we had eight inches of rain in that area. The dam was almost full, to capacity. The bank gave him extra credit and his son was farming. Just open your mouth wide and God will fill it!
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Thursday morning, 16th December and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.” Mark 12:43-44
Jesus is sitting in the temple with the disciples. He sees the rich people coming up and showing everybody how much gold and silver they were putting into the treasury. Then this old widow comes up, probably in rags, and she takes out her two little brass mites and puts them in. Then Jesus says, “She has given more than those other people.” And the disciples say, “How come?” Jesus says: “Because she gave out of her substance and they gave from their overflow.”
It's not how much you put in that counts but it is with the right heart that counts. I have got some beautiful pictures that I will treasure for the rest of my life, sent to me in the post by little children - Pictures of my horse, Snowy, and me standing next to Snowy. They mean more to me than if you sent me a painting from Rembrandt Van Rijn, which is worth a hundred million US Dollars because they came from the heart.
Now today, you might be in a hospital, you might be in jail serving your sentence. You might be in an old age home, you might be bankrupt or you might be unemployed and you say, “I have got no gifts for my loved ones because I have no money.” I want to suggest to you to write a letter, that’s right! A hand-written letter with loads of love. A personal letter, spelling mistakes and all! You see, it is so easy to send a text, a voice mail or an email - It is so easy but rather write a letter.
They tell me, I think it was Picasso that famous artist - it might have been some other famous artist, was having a meal in a restaurant with his friend. At the end of the meal, they stood up to leave. The waiter came with the bill and he realised that he didn’t have any money, so he said to the waiter, “Can you bring me a new napkin, a new serviette, and a pen?” And he sat there and he drew a quick picture, and he gave it to the waiter and he said, “Is that enough?” And the waiter said, “That is fine.” That picture, you cannot buy it today - There is not enough money to buy that picture.
Write a letter today and you will bless somebody and that will be more than sufficient because it comes from the heart.
Have a wonderful day!
Jesus bless you.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Wednesday morning, 15th December, the year 2021 and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“So they went and came to the house of a harlot (a prostitute) named Rahab and lodged there.”
Joshua 2:1
And verse 4 says:
“Then the woman took the two men and hid them. So she said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.”
A harlot hid the men of God! Then Luke 10:33, this is a story that Jesus told:
“But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”
Now in those days, a Samaritan was frowned upon by the Jewish people. He definitely wasn’t one of the 'in-crowd'. And Rahab was a prostitute but they took care of those who were hurting, those who were in distress.
You and I, as followers of Jesus, have got to start being a little more kind, a little bit more sensitive and a little bit more caring.
You know, I remember going to Australia as a young man. I was a young cowboy, just over 20 years old and I used to go to the pub in the evening. Not to drink beer but to have some fellowship and some friendship because I was very lonely and far away from home. We really need to open our hearts towards people in the world, if we want them to come to Jesus.
There is a story that I heard that I will never forget, that a pastor told many years ago. He said that when he was a young student, studying theology in Edinburgh, Scotland with his newly married wife, one cold, frosty morning they were walking down a street in Edinburgh and they came upon this little house. It had a beautiful window-box with lots of flowers, the door was open and in they walked, to a B&B. They saw an old lady come out with an apron, a loving old lady and she said: “Good morning, can I help you?” “Yes, we would like some scones and some hot tea.” She said, “No problem, please sit down.” And off she went into the kitchen. They got a little bit irritated because she took a long time but eventually, she came out with piping hot scones, beautiful fresh strawberry jam and whipped cream.
The two young students got stuck in and ate as much as they could. When they finished they said, “That was absolutely delicious!” The old lady with her red cheeks and a big smile on her face said, “I am so pleased - Have you had enough?” “Yes, thank you, how much do we owe you?”
She looked at them surprised and she said, “No, you don’t owe me anything!” And they said, “Isn’t this a restaurant, a B&B?” She said, “No, this is a private home.” She just loved them. He said he had never forgotten that hospitality. We need to do the same.
We need to go out and we need to love people this Christmas time.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
It is Tuesday morning, 14th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.”
Luke Chapter 20:38
He is not dead, He is alive. He is actually, the God that raises the dead. You see, if we are in Christ, then we live forever. We are going through a door - That is how you die, just a door opens, you walk through the door into the next room. As simple as that!
Remember the thief on the cross? Just before he died, he repented and he said, “Lord, remember me in Heaven.” And what did the Lord say? He said:
“ …today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:43
In Zulu, we say: “Namuhla uzakuba Nami eParadisi.”
What a lovely promise. Now the thief wasn’t a good man, you see, that is why he was being crucified. But he acknowledged that Jesus Christ was the Son of the living God. Luke 24: 5-6:
“Why do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, but is risen!”
I have been to Israel, I have been to Jerusalem and I have been to the Old City, the tomb / the grave is empty! Why - Because Jesus is not dead! That is why Paul, the apostle could so boldly say in Philippians 1:21:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
You cannot frighten a Christian with Heaven. If we live, we live for Christ. If we die, then we are going home. Now, remember, this is not our permanent home. We are just passing through. We are sojourners in a promised land. Let us hold lightly to the things of this world because soon, we will be leaving them behind. Just make sure that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And how do we do that - Just by acknowledging Him as Lord and Savior. Pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Today, thank you for reminding me that You are alive.
You are not in the grave and Lord, that You are coming back very soon,
to take Your own, of whom I am one, back to Heaven with You.
In Jesus’ Name.
Amen.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you, and remember He is alive!
It is Monday morning, 13th December, the year 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem” Ezra 7:27
That is right, the Lord has put into the heart of the King of Persia (which is modern-day Iran) a desire to beautify the Temple in Jerusalem.
God has put eternity into the hearts of men.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
I've put in the margin of my Bible: “You cannot chain the Gospel!” I firmly believe there is no such thing as an atheist, not at all! You know, I heard stories my old dad used to tell me, that the Salvation Army, those young girls of maybe 17 or 18 years old, would go down into the ghettos of some of the cities of Britain. They would go and minister to the people in the pubs, where even strong men would fear to go, and no one would harm them. Why, because those people knew that these young girls were representatives of the Living God.
A man knows, in the depths of his soul, what is right and he knows what is wrong. You can go into the jungle. You can go and speak to people who have never ever heard of the Gospel before but that person will tell you that he knows he has been created, that there is a Higher Being, he just hasn’t been introduced to Him by name yet.
The King of Persia knew that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the Creator and that is why he wanted to beautify the Temple in Jerusalem. I want to say to a mother, that prodigal son of yours that you have been praying for so many years, he is going to come home. Keep the door open mom - He will come home, he knows in his heart the truth!
I will never forget as long as I live, as a young Christian I went to visit a Muslim man. I went into his house, a beautiful home he had. He brought me into the sitting room and told me to sit down while he made some tea for me. I took my Bible and put it next to my chair, on the carpet. When he came in with the tea he said: “Sir, please do not put the Bible on the ground, put it on the coffee table.” He knew that there is One and His name is Jesus Christ and He loves you and me today! All we need to do is pray and He will do the work for us.
God bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 12th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Proverbs 18:24 says there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. And then John 15:13:
“Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
I read a beautiful little quotation by a man by the name of Raymond Berron and this is what it says:
"A friend is someone with whom you dare to be yourself." Isn’t that right?
How are you feeling today, are you feeling lonely? Do you feel that you don’t have any friends? Well, yesterday, a group of us went to an old age home. Most of their children went with us to sing Christmas Carols and to hand out jars of beautifully homemade biscuits, made by some very dear ladies. You should have seen their faces light up! You know, there are so many lonely people in this world today, aren’t there? Loved ones are in lockdown, they can’t get to each other, airline flights have been suspended, people mourning the loss of loved ones... lonely folk in hospital. Remember, if you want friends, then you have to be friendly.
I remember when I first left school, I was working in a tyre factory. It was a tough job. It was hot, it was dirty and that is where I was working. I remember an old Jewish man used to come in and he owned a fleet of old trucks. He painted them all silver. He was running them on a shoestring, very cheaply. He painted them all silver, not with a spray paint gun but with a paintbrush. Ja, that was him! But this dear old man, he was the dearest old chap. He would come in often to the factory on a very hot day with a large coolbox full of ice cream, that’s the truth and ice cream cones. And he would give each one of us refreshing ice cream. He was a real friend - Needless to say, he got the best service!
I want to say to you today that forty years ago, just over forty years ago, I met my best friend and you need to know Him too, especially at this Christmas time. You know, this friend is never too busy to talk to you. He is always waiting and you know, when I mess up, He's still my friend. And do you know something else - He knows me better than I know myself because He made me.
Over this Christmas period get to know Him better. Do remember that beautiful song - I am going to sing it and I want you to sing it with me... What a Friend we have in Jesus:
And what a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
And what a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Jesus bless you today as you spend time with your best friend.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Saturday morning, 11th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”
Mark 4:41
Oh yes - That is the Lord Jesus Christ! He is our Weatherman, He is the Rainmaker! There is a beautiful song and it goes like this:
I know the Master of the wind
And I know the Maker of the rain.
That is the Lord! Every farmer studies the weather because it is so important to him and I want to tell you that I am no exception. Very, very early this morning I went out for a ride on my bike and the sun was not quite coming up. There was a cloud behind it and I looked to the North West and folks, I saw a rainbow. I have never seen a rainbow at 5 a.m. and it was beautiful. Now, we go to Genesis 9:13 - yes, this is all about Noah... The Lord says:
“ I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth”.
The Lord made a covenant with Noah that He would never, ever flood the earth again. I don’t know where you are today. I don’t know what mountain you are facing. I don’t know whether it is sickness or separation from family; whether it is a future that you don’t know anything about; or maybe you don’t have work for next year. Maybe your business has gone bankrupt or you have got a child that is sick.
Some people are bringing a baby today who has leukaemia. The baby is not yet two years old and I am believing for a miracle. Who is this Man that even the wind and the sea obey Him. Surely He is the Son of God! (Matthew 8:27)
The Lord Jesus Christ is firmly on the throne - Nothing fazes Him. It doesn’t matter what the politicians say, it doesn’t matter what the experts say. I tell you that He is alive and I tell you I saw Him in a rainbow early this morning. And I want to tell you that He loves you so much, that He even died for you on a cross. This is Christmas time, it is the time when Jesus came down from Heaven to Earth in the form of a defenceless baby. He loves you and he wants you, today, to look up because your redemption draws near.
Have a wonderful day as you concentrate on the Miracle Worker, the Lord Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Friday morning, 10th December 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”
Matthew 21:13
Now, this statement by Jesus is mentioned in all the Gospels, so it must have been very, very important. Prayer is the engine room of the church. The church that does not pray will not last. Church also is a sacred place. It is a place where people can come and worship the Lord at any time of day or night.
At Shalom Farm, we have a thatched chapel next to the tabernacle, the main church, where we meet. And that little thatched chapel which seats about 100 people, is open 24/7 - every day and every night. It is never locked. People can come there, they can sit and they can pray without any interruptions. We have a big window in the front of the chapel. People can sit there and look out to see the animals on the farm and the crops growing. It is a quiet place.
We need to remember that we need to have a place where we can go and be quiet before the Lord and not allow it to be interrupted by a den of thieves. I can hear somebody saying, “I don’t have a chapel where I can go.” Well, Susannah Wesley, the mother of the great revivalist, John Wesley had, I believe, 18 children! She was the wife of a Padre. They had a very small little cottage and she had nowhere to go either. But, you know, every morning she would sit in front of the fire and she would throw her apron over her head, all 18 children knew that ‘mom is now speaking to Jesus’ and there was absolute peace and quiet - no interruption.
You cannot pray effectively to Jesus if you are multi-tasking. And I am talking to moms. You are doing a fantastic job but you have got to give the Lord a special place in your life if you want your life to go well. He has got to have top priority. A quiet time cannot look like a marketplace. You can’t be trying to have a quiet time when you are listening on your cellphone, the children are shouting and there is noise. Dad, you must take authority in the home. There has got to be a place where the Lord has got top priority.
It is either God or the world, it can’t be both. Now, we need to clear out that muddy temple today and we need to give the Lord priority. And I will tell you what, you will have a lot more time than you ever thought you had before because when you put Jesus first:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (other) things shall be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33
Have a wonderful day as you clear out that temple and you give the Lord the top place in your life.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Thursday morning, 9th December 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand (there is the word - stand!) against the wiles of the devil.”
Ephesians 6:10
Put on the whole armour of God. Now, remember, the armour of God only covers the front - There is no protection from the back. Therefore, the Lord is telling us this morning that we need to stand. More than once He says it, we must stand. The battle is the Lord’s. We must not turn around and we must not run because if we do, we expose ourselves to the devil. Remember, the devil is nothing more than a coward, a thief and a bully - That is all he is. He is like a little mouse running around with a big loudspeaker, frightening innocent people to death with his lies.
But what must we do? Well, people always want to be doing things, don’t we? We always feel safer if we are doing something. The Lord says what we must do is pray. Prayer is a doing word.
Every single morning, before Jill and I get out of bed, we put on the armour of God - every single day. We start with the helmet of salvation, that is right, that is to watch over our minds for the day, what we are thinking. We put on the breastplate of righteousness. We put the belt of truth around our waist, so we speak the truth only. We put on the shoes of peace. This is not a time to cause trouble, it is a time to show people the Prince of Peace. We take up the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one - the lies of the devil. We take the sword of the Spirit. It is the only weapon that God has given to us, and that is the Bible, the word of God. And then we go out with the joy of the Lord, which is our strength.
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word stand and what it says: "To stand is to be in or to rise to an upright position."
So I am saying to you, mighty man, mighty woman of God - stand up for Jesus and He will fight for you.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you!
Goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, 8th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Jesus answered and He said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Luke 19:40
Not to be ashamed to speak up and to tell people that we are Christians! If we go to the Old Testament, I am reading from 2 Samuel 6:20 - Now, this was Michal, who was David’s wife. She was so embarrassed because David was dancing, publicly, in his underwear in front of the people. She said:
“How glorious was the king of Israel today, (very sarcastic) uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”
And David responded in verse 22:
“And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight.”
But listen to this sad verse, verse 23:
“Therefore Michal the daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.”
Because she mocked God’s chosen vessel... Not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ! We know that scripture of the Gospel of Christ, we know that scripture very well - Romans Chapter 1, verse 16:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”
There is no such thing as a secret agent Christian. We either publicly admit that we follow Him or we don’t. Do the people that you work with or in your employment, know that you are a Christian? Do the scholars where you study, know that you are a Christian? We need to be unashamed of the Gospel of Christ - That is where the power lies.
Do you remember the 21 Coptic martyrs who lost their lives because they refused to deny the sovereignty of Christ? They were marched to the Libyan shore, 21 of them in orange overalls. They had Isis men standing with swords. All they had to do was deny Christ and they could have lived. Twenty of them came from Egypt.
There was one man who came from Ghana and when they had slit the throats of these men because they refused to deny Christ, they asked the twenty-first man, the man from Ghana, “And what about you?” And he said, “No, I am with them as well.” And they killed him.
Today, we need to ask God to give us the strength to speak up for the Lord. These men were not theologians, they were not great preachers. They were workers, migrant workers, but they loved Jesus.
Go out today and tell three people that you are a follower of Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, 7th December 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”
Galatians 5:22-23
If ever we needed to display the fruit of the Spirit, it is now in this season of Christmas. People are stressed out, people are tired and weary. As followers of Jesus Christ, we need to display the fruits of the Spirit.
Henry Morton Stanley, a newspaper reporter for the New York Herald, was sent out to Africa to find the man of God, Dr David Livingstone who was missing. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack but he did eventually find Livingstone. Livingstone’s son, Oswald, tried to find his father but he couldn’t and they gave up on him but this man who wasn’t even a Christian, found Dr David Livingstone in the middle of Africa.
He stayed with him for four months and four days and not once did he hear a complaint or an ugly word come out of Livingstone’s mouth. He had plenty cause too because people had really disappointed him and left him. Stanley was not a Christian, he was a newspaper reporter - he wasn’t interested in Christianity. He wanted to find a scoop, a story, that he could send back to his newspaper. Yet when parting with Dr Livingstone, Stanley was very emotional and he said he didn’t want to leave him. He begged him to come back. Livingstone said: “I can’t. I have got to fulfil my purpose”, that God had called him to. He said to Stanley, “You have brought me new life.” He kept on saying that.
Folks, I want to say to you today that we need to display the fruits of the Spirit. It is not about Bible punching people, it is not about rebuking people and its not about judging people. It is about loving people and displaying that fruit: Love and joy, peace, long-suffering and kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Did you know that Dr David Livingstone, in Central Africa, is known as the good man? He didn’t lead thousands of people to Christ. He only led one man to Christ and yet he is the most famous missionary, maybe in the whole world, but definitely on the Continent of Africa. Why? Because he displayed the fruit of the Spirit.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Monday morning, 6th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.”
Luke 19:12-
By the way, one mina was worth about three months salary. We need to do business, Jesus says, until He returns. This is not a time for us to drawback. The best form of defence is to attack, that’s right - Do not become intimidated by the lies of the devil. I looked up the word, Intimidated. It means to frighten or to overawe, do not be intimidated by the devil.
You know in rugby they say: “Use it or lose it". When the ball is in the scrum you only have a few seconds to get that ball out to your team, otherwise, the referee blows the whistle and it goes to the opposing team. I remember when I played rugby many, many, many years ago - We used to wrestle for that ball. It seemed like for hours but not today. Today, you have a few seconds, if you don’t use it, you use it.
Now Jesus goes on to say, at the end of this parable, that he gave the one mina (this is the man who hid the money, who didn’t use it) and he gave it to the man who had ten minas. Now even the people said in verse 25 “But Master he (already) has ten minas." Jesus said:
“Everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
You and I have got to keep on living, we have got to keep on doing business until the Lord returns. You know, it is like a sailing ship that is moored in the harbour. That sailing ship is hiding from the storm but it is not going anywhere. But that ship out at sea, even if the wind is contrary and blowing the wrong way, it is moving. The wise skipper can tack against the wind and still continue on his journey and eventually arrives at his destination.
This week, let's do business until He comes.
God bless you,
And have a wonderful day.
It is Sunday morning, 5th December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
Revelation 3:20.
I received a letter a couple of days ago and I just want to read this letter to you. It is a miraculous letter. It reads as follows:
Hello Uncle Angus,
I wanted to write to you Uncle. After my Mom and I listened to you on The Revival Train on Sunday, it was titled The Pearl of Great Price, something happened that morning while we were listening.
Near the end, Uncle Angus talked about Lilias Trotter and how she became a great missionary and while I was listening to the story I heard three knocks, a pause and then another knock on the wall behind us. It sounded like someone was inside the room, on the other side of the wall, knocking. I heard it loud and clear. I wondered what it could be since we were alone in the house and it didn’t sound like any of the familiar sounds that the house makes.
At some point, we thought it might have been something bad trying to prevent us from listening to the Word Of God and receiving the message. So we brushed it aside and kept on listening. But then, Uncle Angus said "As I am talking to you right now on the television, there is someone watching this program and I don’t know who you are, but the Lord says He is knocking on your door, He is knocking..." My heart dropped. I couldn’t and still can’t stop crying when I think about it... it wasn’t something bad at all - It was Jesus! Jesus was knocking.
There have been so many times where my mom and I felt so alone, nothing seemed to go right, like we don’t belong anywhere and no one cares. We would sometimes joke about just how we would forget packing our bags, jump in the car and drive until the gas tank says, “Bitterly sorry my dears, I’m empty there is no more". Hopefully, it will be in saving mode and last until we get to the beach where we would love to end up and live in peace.
Our unclear future and what we should do about it has been weighing on us a lot. Pressure from people, and I am sorry to add, family as well, make us want to curl up in a ball, close our eyes and ears and hide in the corner.
What I have learned is no matter how people treat us, push us aside or forget us, Jesus never will. We did at times wonder if Jesus listens to us, will He deliver us from our problem?
Well, on Sunday morning when I heard that knock and Uncle Angus said “Jesus says He is knocking”, I know now that my mom and I are not alone and He will get us out of here and bring peace inside our hearts. People will let you down but Jesus will never. He heard our cries and He told us, “I’m here, don’t worry I will never let you go, I will take care of you.”
Jesus bless you!
Have a wonderful Sunday.
It is Saturday morning, 4th December, 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” Luke 19:5
Zacchaeus was up the tree, remember? Because he was a short man and he could not see Jesus. Jesus called him down. He said, “I must come to your home.” Is our home in a state today where we could expect King Jesus to come and stay with us? What kind of home could we expect Jesus to find?
Straight away, I can hear the ladies say, “Not yet, Lord. Not yet! For I haven’t washed the dishes and I haven’t had a chance to hoover the floors, or swept them clean.” Just like Martha. Remember Martha and Mary?
What did Jesus say?
“And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:41
So busy, trying to get the exterior correct, and not taking enough time with the main objective which is caring for your guest, and that guest is Jesus! Zacchaeus, the heathen, gave Jesus first place in his home. He received him, the Bible says, joyfully.
I would rather stay in a shack or a grass hut and be made welcome and loved, with a jam tin full of tea and a slice of bread and margarine, than to be in a palace, hosted with all its finery but which is cold and impersonal and without the presence of God.
As we prepare for this Christmas season, let us never forget the most important thing is to have Jesus in the focal point and right in the middle of our home, because if He is there, all people will be made welcome and will look forward to this wonderful opportunity for the family to be together.
May Jesus bless you!
Have a wonderful day and take time out to love one another.
Goodbye.
It is Friday morning, 3rd December, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“What do you want Me to do for you?”
He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God.”
Luke 18:41
Matthew 7:7 says:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
We need to be like the blind man and start asking Jesus for what our needs are. James 4:2 says:
“Yet you do not have because you do not ask.”
Now if we go to John 14:14, Jesus says:
“If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
Wow - What a promise from God! Why don’t we use these opportunities that the Lord has given us? But you see, if we look at John14:15, the Lord says:
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
We need to ask according to Jesus’s will. It is no good just saying, “Lord, I want an aeroplane” or, “Lord, I want a Mercedes Benz” or “Lord, I want You to...” No. When you ask correctly, according to the Word of God, the Lord will answer your prayers. I am a testimony to that. God has answered my prayers, I tell you what, so many times. Another man who asked correctly was the wisest man who ever lived - His name was Solomon.
In the dream, remember, the Lord said: “What would you want of Me?”
Because he was a godly man, he asked, “Give me wisdom so that I can govern my people.” And the Lord’s heart was moved because he had asked correctly, He said: “Because you have not asked for your own personal needs, I am going to give you wisdom but I am also going to give you power. I am going to give you riches and I am going to give you worldwide fame.”
If you ask correctly, the Lord will answer your prayers. If your little boy or little girl came and asked you for something and you could afford it, wouldn’t you give it to them? Of course, you would - Well, how much more our Heavenly Father. Do you know what holds you back... One word: pride. “No, no, I will do it my way” or “If I can’t pay for it, I don’t want it.”
Now, that blind man was desperate. He asked Jesus by faith and Jesus healed him. Now what I want to do for you is I want to pray a little prayer with you. I would like you to join me in this prayer and let us ask the Lord for something that you really need. Maybe the healing of a loved one, maybe some money that you need for Christmas, maybe employment - I don’t know what it is... I want you to name that thing in the middle of the prayer. Pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Today I ask you to forgive me for being so proud that I have not by faith asked you for anything.
I am asking You today, Lord (pray this after me) to please (name it, whatever that thing is)
And by faith, I believe Lord, that You will hear my prayer and answer it.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye
It is Thursday morning, 2nd December 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
1 Corinthians 3:16
And then we go on a bit to 1 Corinthians 9:27:
“But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
You and I need to look after our physical bodies. We need to eat properly, sleep enough, and very importantly, we need to watch over our minds... what we take in, what we are watching on TV and on our devices. Look out for the lust of the flesh. We really need to discipline ourselves.
You know, I hear a lot of people are suffering at the moment with anxiety, fear, stress. Well, let's look at Philippians 4:6, there is the answer. The Lord tells us to be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let our requests be made known to God. But you know, what is more important than physical fitness is spiritual fitness. We go to the gym regularly, don’t we? But do we have a regular quiet time every morning with Jesus? How long do we spend exercising every day, and how long do we spend in the presence of God, every day?
“For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things.” 1 Timothy 4:8
One of my heroes is Joni Eareckson Tada. At seventeen years old she dived off a little boat in a lake and hit her head on a rock and was paralyzed. But she has not let that physical disability hold her back. She become an author, a writer, is a fantastic preacher, she is a singer and she paints with a paintbrush held between her teeth. She is living life to the full - She is, spiritually, extremely fit!
I look at Nick Vujicic, He drove up the road to our farm a few years ago with a whole lot of young people assisting him. Nick Vujicic has got no legs and no arms and they brought him into the boardroom. We sat down.
They put him on the table next to me, that is the truth - And what a dynamic young man... An absolute spiritual athlete, of note.
I have met many international athletes by the way and they are wonderful people, but I have never been impacted by any one of them as I have by Nick Vujicic. When he was there he said to me, “Angus, can I sign my book for you?” And I looked at him... He has got no arms and no legs, I said, “Please Nick.” They put a pen between his teeth and he wrote most beautifully and signed his book for me. A man who is now happily married, he has I think four children and he is preaching right around the world.
He is spiritually fit!
Let's get fit today.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is 1 December, the year 2021, Wednesday morning! It is the beginning of the Christmas season - Halleluja!
But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Luke 18:27-
Do you believe that today? I do. And then we go to Luke 1 and I am reading from verse 34:
“Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”
And then verse 37:
“For with God, nothing will be impossible.”
I spoke to a young man just yesterday. He said people are reverting to their own efforts and they are trusting in their own abilities. It is time for us to get back to Jesus and to experience the miracles of God. I mean let's be honest... How can a beautiful young Jewish maiden conceive and bear a child, without knowing a man? It is impossible - Isn’t that right!
But nothing is impossible with God, the Angel Gabriel said in Luke 1:37. So who are you and I trusting today, at this Christmas season? We need to get back to believing in the miracle-working power of God.
I remember like yesterday, on the 22nd of April, 2017 one million-plus South Africans came together in Bloemfontein to pray for the nation. Countless miracles happened after that because those people believed. We believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. Hebrews 13:8.
Just one quick miracle... a massive miracle - They were taking the platform down on Monday, after that event, a huge three-storey platform. One rigger started weeping and his friend said, “What is wrong?”
He said, “Come and look here.” They had put a massive beam, by mistake, on top of the optic fibre cable that took the power, the picture and the sound out for two kilometres to seventeen stations and that cable had been bent, by mistake, into the letter S - You can’t bend that stuff! And yet the picture was perfect and the sound was perfect... A miracle!
I want to exhort you today to start to believe, over this Christmas period, for the miracle-working power of a Lord, for whom nothing is impossible for Him to complete!
Have a blessed day as you get prepared for a miracle-working God.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, the last day of November, 30th November 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.”
Psalm 126:5
And then John 11:35
“Jesus wept.”
The Son of God was accustomed to weeping.
I want to say to you today that if you are weeping because of a loved one who has maybe fallen by the way, who has maybe left home and said they are not coming back... whatever it might be - we can weep with tears and supplication to the Lord:
“Lord Jesus, bring my loved one back;
“Lord, please heal my love one who was sick.”
Tears of sowing - One man said those tears are seeds and as we sow them they will germinate and bring back a bountiful crop. I can relate to tears so easily folks. Lately, we have been praying in different areas in South Africa where drought has decimated the people. And when we go to those prayer meetings for rain, we see tears flowing openly. No one is shy, no one is ashamed, no one is fearful because they are needy. They are needing answers to their prayers and you know, every single time, God has answered their prayers because of a broken and contrite heart.
Charles Finny, that great American evangelist who was a lawyer, he met Jesus in a dramatic way and then he went on to set the USA alight for the Lord, in the last century. He said: “Where there is no Amen and where there are no tears, there is no revival.”
You might be saying this morning, “I have a loved one. I don’t know how to comfort them. They have had a tragedy in their lives, I don’t know what to say.” You don’t have to say anything. I really know that - All you have got to do is go and visit them. “Ja, but what shall I say?” Go and visit them, put your arms around them and weep with them. I tell you, that will mean more to them than going there and giving them a whole string of scriptures and praying for them, telling them to pull themselves together.
They won’t even remember those scriptures because they are in a desperate state of mourning, or whatever it might be. You see, Jesus wept but He knew that Lazarus was going to come out of the grave, He knew that. Why did He weep? He wept because He had compassion for the people. We need more compassion in the world today. So let’s forget about the stiff upper lip and “Cowboys don’t cry”, and let's get real because that is a whole lot of rubbish anyway.
You know, a couple of days ago, my grandson got up in church. No one even knew about it, not even his mom and dad. He went and stood in the front and he wanted to share something with the congregation and he started weeping. Well, I think every eye in that church was wet with tears, including mine. I went and stood with him and put my arm around him as he delivered a beautiful testimony. But it was the tears that moved the hearts of the people - Don’t be afraid to weep.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 28th November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the Son of Man will be in His day.”
Luke 17:24
Jesus is coming back like a flash of lightning. We don’t have to look all over the place. We don’t have to listen to this prophetic word or that prophetic word and this date or that date - No! When He comes back we will all see Him in an instant. But remember, Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is within us... You will see that in verse 21. We need to be prepared for the coming back of our Saviour. I can’t wait, I don’t know about you - Today would be fine for me!
But seriously, we need to work like He is coming back in a thousand years but we need to be prepared like He is coming back today. Peter said this in 2 Peter 3:8:
“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.”
Now Peter said that because the people were mocking... They were saying, “Where is this Lord? You have been saying for ages He is coming back” - the scoffers who were mocking him. I want to tell you folks, for the Lord, a thousand years is like one day. So time is not an effort and He is no respecter of time whatsoever - He is time.
So, I can hear somebody saying, “What are we to do, how should we live?” Well, Martin Luther said: “What would you do if you knew that the Lord was coming back tomorrow?” He said, “I would plant an apple tree today.” Now, as you know, there are lots of apple trees in Germany - He would carry on living.
The asked John Wesley, “What would you do if you knew the Lord was coming back tomorrow?” He said, “Well, this morning at 9 o’clock, I have got a Bible study meeting, then I am riding on my horse over to such and such a place, and I have got another cottage meeting and then I am preaching tonight.” In other words, he would carry on as if the Lord was coming in a thousand years, but prepared for Him to come immediately.
Remember, we have said it before to you many times - If you are a follower of Jesus, you are in a win-win situation! Paul says:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Philippians 1:21,
You can’t frighten a Christian with Heaven, right? So be ready... Enjoy your life. Make plans for the future but always be ready for the coming of the Lord, because the Kingdom of God is within you.
Have a beautiful Sunday, together with your family.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Monday morning, 29th November 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart.”
Luke 18:1
We need to pray consistently and not lose heart. The power that is found in consistent prayer is amazing.
Galatians 6:9 - If you do not grow weary in doing good, in due season, you will reap if you do not lose heart.
Jesus spoke, in a parable about a woman who would not give up. She just carried on praying - I give thanks to God for women. Women make the best intercessors, they persevere. If we look at verse 5 we see that her continual coming wearied the judge and he heard her prayers.
If we go to verse 8, the Lord says:
“ I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.”
Because she would not give up - She continued to speak to the judge. We need to continue to pray consistently! Without a doubt, the most powerful weapon in the Christian’s arsenal is prayer. Look at our Lord Himself, when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night that they were going to arrest him. What was He doing? Exactly, He was praying. And when He was hanging on the cross, what was He doing?
“Eli, Eli, lama sa bach thani?” “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Matthew 27:46.
Jesus was praying to His Father.
I heard a very powerful testimony, just the other day, given by a senior pastor, a Chinese man, who does a lot of work in the Far East. He said an old pastor, who had been arrested and put in solitary confinement for 25 years, was released. And when he was released, he was very emotional.
The whole world (the Christian world), media, television, radio, social media, were waiting to hear how he managed to do it - In 25 years he never saw a person. He said, very emotionally, weeping: “The communists have taken away everything. They have taken away our Bible colleges. They have taken away our pastors and churches. Even our Sunday School teachers were murdered. They have taken away everything from the Church of China”. Weeping, wiping his tears away, he said, “But they could never, ever, take away our prayers.”
I want to say to you today, it is the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman, that avails much. Pray today and God will answer your prayers and revival will come. It is the backbone - prayer!
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Saturday morning, 27th November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
If we go to the word of God in Exodus 20:12 we read, Commandment Number 5:
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land …”
It is the first commandment out of the Ten Commandments with a promise added to it. Honour your mom and dad, so that your days may be long in the land so that you might prosper. It is a very special commandment. You see, when you honour mom and dad, you bring dignity into the home.
I just love the name: Father, Dad, Papa - In Zulu, we say, Baba. In Xhosa, we say Tata - These names of love and respect often bring tears to my eyes. When I see the way in which a young man or a young woman, respect their mom or their dad. Mother or mama, such an incredible privilege to have a mom and dad still alive in the home, isn’t it? You know I have often said, I would give a million dollars to be able to sit down and have a cup of tea with my mom and my dad, but I will have to wait until I see them again in Heaven, one day.
When I was about, I think, ten years old, I remember in Central Africa, in that little airport in Ndola, in the north of Zambia, I went to the airport with my Mom and Dad. An aeroplane came in from overseas and a very dignified minister came off that plane with all the crowd. He had a black suit with a dog collar on. A distinguished old gentleman, white hair, with his little suitcase and he was looking around to see the person who had come to collect him. And as a little boy, I just sat and I watched this - I have never forgotten it, I am talking about 60 years ago. And then this young dynamic minister, also in a black suit, with a white dog-collar on, he had come to fetch his dad from the airport.
Well, I saw a flood of tears as Dad looked at his young son, a missionary to the Congo, with such pride. They hugged each other, they loved each other and this young boy, memories must have flooded back when he saw his Dad there, what it must have been like at home. He probably hadn’t seen his dad for maybe years, I have never forgotten that picture.
I want to say to you today that family is so important to our Heavenly Father. If we go to John 19:26:
“When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.”
Now, Jesus said that when He was hanging on the cross in excruciating pain, like none of us can even imagine and yet He had a heart for His earthly Mother and His brother. Today, love your parents and love your children. “Why, Uncle Angus?” - Because Jesus said so.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Friday morning, 26th November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
If we go to the 2 Chronicles 33, I am reading from verse 12:
“Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.”
Just say sorry!
Manasseh went into the far country, He abused Israel. He didn’t take after his father, in fact, he did the opposite. He broke down everything but the Lord took his hand off Manasseh’s life and Manasseh ended up in slavery.
He cried out to the Lord, said sorry, and the Lord restored him completely. Maybe today, you are feeling: “Lord, there is no hope for me, I have dropped the ball. I have messed up big time and there is no hope - No, there is hope for you. God came for the sick and not for the healthy. Do you know that the first memory verse that I learned after John 3:16, probably the most famous scripture verse in the whole Bible, was 1 John 1:9 which says:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.
Just say sorry! You know, when the Prodigal Son came home, remember, he had abused everything. He had used up all the money his father gave him. He had spent it on wine, women and song. He was destitute. He was feeding the pigs actually and he thought, “I will go back to my father’s farm and at least I will get a job as a worker.” When his father saw him coming the Bible tells us that his father ran towards his son. God is more interested in forgiving our sins than we are in asking him to forgive our sins. So today, let us humble ourselves. A beautiful scripture for you this day is 2 Corinthians 7:10:
“For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation,…”
Now think about it... the only difference between Peter and Judas Iscariot was the one said sorry and the other didn’t. Peter repented and Judas didn’t. What was the difference - Peter denied the Lord three times, he even blasphemed. He swore, “I don’t even know him!” Judas sold the Lord for thirty pieces of silver but Judas did not go back and say sorry to Jesus. I firmly believe the Lord would have forgiven him. What did he do? He went and he hanged himself. Peter repented and Jesus used him to head up the church.
Today, say sorry to the Lord, get on your knees and repent and start again. The Lord will help you through every trial and tribulation that you are suffering at the moment.
Have a wonderful day as you walk in humbleness before your God.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is 25th November, Thursday morning, 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Nehemiah 8:10, I think we all know that verse off by heart... The Lord says that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Are you full of joy this morning? My wife Jill reminded me of that acronym, J-O-Y:
J stands for Jesus first
O stands for others next, and
Y stands for yourselves, in that order.
First the Lord Jesus Christ and then other people, then yourself. And when you do that, you will be full of joy. I am full of joy today because everywhere I look, I see moisture - I see rain. The grass is green. Early this morning I heard a dove, the symbol of peace and the Holy Spirit. He was singing his heart out, followed up by another number and that was the rainbird. What a beautiful sound to wake up to this morning. We need to count our blessings and number them one by one! The Bible tells us that laughter is like medicine. When was the last time you had a good laugh?
I had a prayer meeting early this morning with some. You know, when men get together they tend to pull each other’s legs... that is why sometimes, the ladies are not allowed. Talking about the one brother who doesn’t have any hair and asking him if he brought his comb this morning - that’s right, just banter. But all in good spirit, all preferring your brother to yourself.
Folks, we really ought to laugh, we need to be full of joy, why? Because Jesus is coming soon. We need to count our blessings. Now, if you love the Lord Jesus, as I am sure you do, then your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Good people don’t go to heaven, remember... believers go to heaven. Today we are one day closer to the coming of the King. Isn’t that something to be joyful about? And the Lord has promised us in 1 Corinthians 10:13, that He will not allow you today to be tempted above that which you can handle. He won’t give you a burden you can’t carry, He has promised you that.
He has also promised us that today we don’t have to go out alone. He is going with us wherever we go.
“If God is for us, who can be against us.”
Romans 8:31
And what about Philippians 1:21:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
You can’t frighten a Christian with heaven! If we live, we live for Jesus. If we die, we are going home to be with Him in heaven. It is a win-win situation. We really need to remember, it is the joy that He set before us that keeps us going. You know, I have got a very dear friend and every time I phone him, I say, “How are you today?” He says, “Angus, I am so well.” You know, I just love phoning that man.
I want to say to you today, go out and bless somebody. First Jesus, then others and then yourselves.
Have a blessed day.
God bless you, Goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, 24th November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today!
If we go to Luke 17:5, the disciples said to Jesus, “Increase our faith.”
Now, we might ask ourselves the question, “What is faith?”
Well, Hebrews 11:1 says:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
I love what Augustine said... He said: “Faith is to believe what you cannot see, but the reward of that faith is to see what you believe.” You see,
"And without faith we cannot please Him, for he who believes must believe that He is and that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Hebrews 11:6.
Jesus wants us to trust Him today. He doesn’t want our good works or our efforts. He wants us to walk by faith and not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7. If the disciples asked the Lord to increase their faith, how much more should we want our faith increased? You see, Jesus says that our righteousness, our good works, are like filthy rags to him. He doesn’t want that - He wants us to trust Him. You will find that in Isaiah 64:6.
We cannot earn our way to Heaven, we cannot even work our way to Heaven - It is only by faith in God. Remember, I have told you before, one of the easiest scripture verses to memorize is found in Mark 11:22, which simply says:
"Have faith in God."
You know, George Whitefield is one of my heroes. He was a great English evangelist that lived in the 1700s and he said: “What, get to heaven on your own strength? You might as well try to climb to the moon on a rope of sand.” That is a beautiful illustration... It is impossible! But I can hear someone saying to me now, “But Angus, how do we get that faith?” Well, we come back to the Bible.
“Faith comes by hearing and hearing from the word of God.”
Romans 10:17
By spending time reading your Bible every morning, by praying and speaking to Jesus, by fellowshipping with men and women of faith. Remember eagles don’t fly around with turkeys...
Today let us get aside and Jesus will increase our faith.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Tuesday morning, 23rd November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“Again, (Jesus says) the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Matthew 13:45
I want to say to you today that we need to seek that pearl of great price.
Why should someone give up a promising career to go off to a distant land and live an obscure life? I looked up obscure in the Oxford Dictionary it means: "A life not important or well-known". Well, simply because they have found something of greater value, something much more precious.
The big fisherman, Simon Peter and his friends, James and John, they found it... and Andrew. Matthew the tax collector left his desk with all his money on it and walked away because he found it. What about that short little man, Zacchaeus who climbed the wild fig tree - the sycamore tree. He too found it and he repaid all the money that he had stolen from his fellow man.
You know, C.T. Studd was England’s most eligible bachelor in the 1800s. He played cricket for England, he was a great sportsman. He rode horses in winter and played cricket in summer... He left it all and he went to Africa and died in the Congo because he had found a pearl of great price.
I have just seen and read the story of Lilias Trotter, apparently the most promising young artist in England. John Ruskin, the famous English writer and art critic said that it was a tremendous waste when Lilias left her promising art career and went to Algeria in North Africa, to be a missionary. She died there forty years later, telling people about the great pearl that she had found.
Today, we need to look at Revelation 3:20:
Jesus says, “I am knocking at your door.” He says, “and if you open the door I will come in and sup with you and you with Me.”
Stop looking for the pearl of great price in the wrong place. Open up your heart today and say:
“Jesus I need you more now than ever before.
I have realized that looking for things in the world is like chasing the wind, as Solomon said. Today, I want to find you in a very special way.”
Have a wonderful day as you find that pearl of great price.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Monday morning, 22nd November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Luke 17:2
Strong words from the Lord Jesus, a millstone weighs about five tons - The Lord is not playing games. He says, “Do not cause one of these little ones (One new Christian, one believer) to stumble.” If we do, there are severe consequences. If we do not have anything good and wholesome to say about someone, rather say nothing at all.
There is enough negative and condemning gossip around then for us to add to it. We must encourage one another. The Lord wants us to build each other up - A loving word spoken today can just make someone’s day.
You know when I go into the office in the morning, often I will say to the ladies, “You are looking very smart today,” or “That dress really suits you!” You know, they just light up - Ladies love to hear that. So often we feel that when someone is doing so well that they don’t need any affirmation. That is quite wrong. Right from the President of the country, downwards, people need to be affirmed.
When I was a very young man in my early twenties, I worked for a gentleman in Zambia. He had a big farming enterprise and he was a very colourful character. If you offered him a cigarette, he would break off the filter and eat the tobacco. He would half-smoke and half-eat his cigars.
But you know something? He was probably one of the greatest encouragements to me in my early farming career. I eventually left him and started farming on my own. He would often pop over to my farm in the middle of the day and tell me to get into his vehicle and drive around my farm, constructively criticizing anything that I was doing wrong. “Why are there weeds in that maize crop? Why were the cattle looking so thin?”
He would encourage me to start working consistently and he used to really build me up with constructive criticism.
Let us encourage young people today, those that are starting out in life, in marriage, business, family and most of all, in their walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is so vital these days.
Have a wonderful Monday as you become an encourager.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 21st November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“Does not Hezekiah persuade you to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, “The Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria”?
2 Chronicles 32:11
One word - intimidation, intimidation is a lie from the devil himself. The Oxford Dictionary says intimidation means to frighten or to overawe someone. Are you feeling intimidated today by your circumstances?
Well, how did Jesus overcome the devil when he was tempted in the desert, after having nothing to eat or to drink for forty days and forty nights? You see, the devil is a coward and a bully. He will always attack you when you are feeling down. If we go to Luke 4:4, Jesus stood against the devil with the word of God.
Jesus said, “It is written, thy shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
“It is written man shall not live by bread alone.”
The devil is a liar, he is a thief, he is a bully - Don’t believe his lies. Stand on the Word and the promises of God. The devil is like a little mouse, running around with a big loudhailer, trying to frighten people with his lies.
Many years ago we were faced with El Niño, that horrific drought. The newspapers and the radios were telling people, “Don’t plant your fields this year because there is no rain.” Now, I went down to Kingspark Rugby Stadium. I stood on the platform in my tartan kilt and I said, “To hell with El Niño. We are going back to the farm and we are going to plant.” Now once you make a statement, you have got to follow through. I committed myself. But you know, that year we had a wonderful crop of maize and potatoes.
I want to say to you today that you need to stand up and face the devil head-on and he will back down. That is exactly what King Hezekiah said to his people: “Don’t worry about the King of Assyria. The Lord is on our side.” And if you read on you will see that the Lord sent angels to defeat the enemy. He will do it again for you and me. Let us not be intimidated by the lies of the devil.
Have a wonderful Sunday as you wait upon the Word of God.
God bless you.
It is Saturday morning, 20th November 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered (not beaten) by great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.
Psalm 33 from verse 16
Listen to this, verse 18:
Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy,
To deliver their soul from death,
And to keep them alive in famine.”
One of my favourites is Psalm 20:7:
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
Never put your trust in the arm of flesh, we must trust only in the Lord our God. In times of drought, we don’t look at the clouds, we trust in the Lord. In times of sickness, we don’t look at the arm of flesh, we keep our eyes on the Great Physician. In times of financial stress, we don’t run to and fro from this bank to that bank, we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.
In times of hardship, we shall not be ashamed, we will not be put down. We will not be distressed - We will stand! Ephesians 6:14. We put the armour of God on and we stand. We don’t turn and we don’t run because there is no protection in the back. The armour of God is only in the front. We look the devil in the eye and we draw a line in the sand, we say: “This far devil, no further.” Remember, Jesus will open the Red Sea before us. He did it for Moses and the Israelites and He will do it for you and me.
Stand still and see the glory of God, for the enemies you see today you will see no more forever, for the Lord will fight for you.
Exodus 14:13-14.
That Red Sea is not a pond it is an ocean. The most powerful army in the world was coming upon them, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Maybe you are there today - Put your trust in the Lord, He will deliver you. He has been doing it for me for as long as I have put my trust in Him - 42 years. He has never once let me down and I know He will not do it now.
God bless you as you have a wonderful Saturday and keep your focus on Jesus, not your situation. That mountain will be reduced to a mere molehill.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Friday morning, 19th November 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
“In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death.”
2 Kings 20:1-
And then we go to verse 3, Hezekiah says:
“Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
The Lord heard his prayers because in verse 5:
“I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you.”
And He added 15 years to Hezekiah’s life. If we conduct our lives according to the principles of God, we can hold the Lord to His promises but if we don’t, we have nothing to say.
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
You know, when a farmer makes a plan, I know, I have done it - "n Boer maak 'n plan” (A farmer makes a plan)... not one of my plans have worked out. Today, why not bring Jesus into your game plan - Why don’t you start doing things God’s way then you will prosper: Pray with your family every morning. Pray with your staff every day before you start work. Stand up and speak up for God.
A few years back I was invited to speak, to preach the Gospel at a very prominent bull sale... That’s right! A very successful agricultural family was having their annual bull sale and they asked me to speak, so the pulpit was the auctioneer’s block... That’s right, I had a captive audience! I spoke from my heart and I prayed with the people, they responded and then they brought the animals in for sale... beautifully prepared bulls and cows. The prices went through the roof, not one of the buyers were disappointed. They had come from all over the country. That family is one of South Africa’s most prosperous agricultural enterprises.
People say: “Oh but they were just lucky.” No, no, they were not just lucky. They are not ashamed to speak up and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Lord of their enterprise.
Do it today, just like Hezekiah and see what God will do for you.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is 18th November, Thursday morning, 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24
Wow, that is quite straightforward, isn’t it?
We cannot serve two masters - It is either God or its Mammon, Mammon meaning worldly things. We will either despise one or the other. We will either hate the one or love the other. We cannot remain sitting on the fence. It can be very uncomfortable, especially if it is a barbed-wire fence!
The rich young ruler had to make a choice and he chose the way of Mammon. If we look at the word of God in Luke 18:23, the Bible tells us:
“But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.”
You see this young man kept all the laws, he went to church, he paid his tithe, he did everything he had to do but then Jesus tested him you see... He said, “Well then, I want you to sell all you have and distribute to the poor, and then you will have treasure in Heaven and then come and follow me.”
I think Jesus was simply testing his loyalty. I don’t believe for a moment that Jesus has any problem with a person being rich because He had many rich friends. In fact, it was a rich man that took His body off the cross, Joseph of Arimathea... but He was testing his loyalty and the man had to make a choice, he chose to follow after his riches.
You know, I believe with all my heart if that rich man had said, “Yes Lord, I will give you everything I have,” the Lord would have given it straight back to him because the Lord doesn’t need his money. But the Lord Jesus let him walk away to a lost eternity, as one teacher told me a long time ago - He believes Jesus was standing there and the tears were coursing down His cheeks as He saw the young man, walked to a lost eternity.
I want to say to you today that it doesn’t matter what it is, it might not even be riches but if anything is more important to you than the Lord Jesus Christ it becomes an idol and it must be dealt with, today. We must put Jesus Christ first and foremost in our lives.
Have a wonderful day as you serve the Master. He is a good Master, He is gentle and He is full of love.
Goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, 17th November, the year 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
If we go to Matthew 17:20, Jesus says,
“ if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
What an incredible promise from the Lord Jesus. And then we go to 1 Corinthians 2:9:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Another beautiful promise! Something to think about all day long today.
Do you know that today is the 32nd anniversary of the time that the Lord Jesus called me in my prayer room, almost audibly, to go into the world and hire stadiums, sports fields and town halls to have campaigns and preach the Gospel and pray for the sick?
I was sitting in my prayer room, I remember it, 32 years ago... And folks I want to tell you it is the most exciting life that I could ever have dreamed of - but it doesn’t come without blood, sweat and lots of tears. I remember driving into Ladysmith, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, in my pick-up, in my farm clothes to book the town hall. The Lord asked me three questions:
Number 1: "Are you prepared to be a fool for me?”
I said, “That is easy Lord, I am a fool anyway."
Number 2: “Are you prepared for people to say all manner of evil against you for My sake?”
I swallowed hard. I said, “I think I can do that, Lord.”
And the third one: “Are you prepared to see less of your family for my sake?”
I must say the tears started to run down my cheeks because I am a farmer, I am used to coming home every single night. I said, “Lord, by Your grace.” And I felt Him say: “Well, carry on.” That was the beginning of the very first campaign that we have ever had.
I want to say to you today, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, the size of a mustard seed, that mountain will move, but you must be prepared to go through with it for Jesus sake.
Have a wonderful day, God bless you.
Goodbye.
It is 16th November 2021, Tuesday morning and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for the day.
“And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.” Luke 15:31
That is right, it is the story of the Prodigal Son and the oldest son being very jealous of his younger brother coming back home. I looked at the Oxford Dictionary - Jealousy means: “Envious of someone else’s possessions, achievements or advantages.”
We need to be very careful and have a good look at ourselves because, you know, jealousy can actually destroy a person’s life, it is self-destructive. Remember what Jesus said? He said:
“The first shall be last, and the last, first.” Matthew 19:30.
Have you ever looked at that magnificent painting painted by Rembrandt van Rijn, that famous Dutch painter? I have got it on your device - Have a good look at it. It is the story of the Prodigal Son. But can you see how angry and resentful the older son is?
He has got everything. His father told him, “Everything I have is yours”, and yet he is so resentful because his brother has come back home... totally distraught, lost everything: self-confidence, reputation, money, the lot. But his dad is so happy that he has come home, once he was lost and now he is found. We need to be so careful how we conduct ourselves. You see, the older son had everything anyway.
I remember so clearly, (I think about four years old) I came into the house one day and I said to my mother, that lovely Scottish lassie, I said: “Mom, who do you love the most?” (What a question!) “Dad or me?” I was the oldest in the family. She looked down at me with those beautiful eyes and said: “Angus laddie, I love you both the same but it's a different kind of love. The love I have for your father and the love I have for you are different but I love you both the same.” I said, “Thanks mom”, and ran outside to go and play in my sandpit thinking to myself, “Yip, she loves me the most!”... Not really!
I want to say to you today:
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
1 Timothy 6:6
Just remember the fact that Jesus died for you, it's all you need to know.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Monday morning 15 November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“And by His stripes we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5
And then we go to 1 Peter 2:24, exactly the same scripture:
“…by whose stripes you were healed.”
The beating that our Lord Jesus Christ took before He was crucified, on His back, the Bible says by that bloodshed we can receive our physical, mental and spiritual healing.
The doctors can do an operation but Jesus has to do the mending... I want to clarify something, quite clearly, right at the beginning: I have no problem with doctors. A medical doctor was one of my most faithful prayer partners for many years before Jesus called him home. I love doctors, I respect them. I have even medical people in my own family but I want to tell you that Jesus Christ is ultimately our Healer.
A couple of years ago, a young lady came to the farm with her husband. She was the mother of two young children. She had been told, by the doctors, that she had stage four cancer. Her body was riddled with cancer and she was to go home and make herself comfortable. We anointed her, we prayed the prayer of faith and God has completely healed her - He is the Healer.
Now, if we look at James 5:14:
“Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith “ - you see there is the point - “will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.”
But I want to tell you I have also been in the healing line myself. In the 2009 we had a huge men's conference on this farm, Shalom. On the Saturday morning (how could I ever forget it) after I had finished preaching, I came down the steps and I was under the platform, praying for a few farmers who had come from Australia. All of a sudden, I felt light-headed and I collapsed - I had a heart attack. They brought me to the house, I had a second one in the garden.
My blood pressure went to zero... My youngest daughter Jilly is a nurse, she said to the family: “Dad, is dying.” Well, I want to tell you, they called in a helicopter. They evacuated me to Pietermaritzburg and as that helicopter was taking off, it went over the crowd and I saw tens of thousands of men, hands raised in the air praying for me. I got to the hospital, landed on the helipad and saw a heart specialist. He said, “There is something wrong Mr Buchan.” He said: “There is nothing wrong, you are completely healed!” I was preaching the next day.
Go out today and trust the Lord Jesus Christ for your healing. He is the ultimate healer.
Goodbye.
It is Sunday morning, 14th November 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
If we go to 2 Chronicles 29:3, King Hezekiah:
“In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them”
Then if we go to 1 Thessalonians in the New Testament:
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 5:23
You know the word sanctify, means holy. It means to be free from sin and what we always say is that holiness is the end product of obedience. When we become obedient, we automatically become holy. We need to come out of hiding... We need to clean up our act, so to speak.
There are so many churches closed, we need to get them open. We need to get them open as King Hezekiah did in Jerusalem. The temple was closed, it was full of rubbish - He cleaned it out. But it needs to start with us, in our own personal lives. You see, Jesus is coming back very soon. We need to ask ourselves a question - Are we ready to receive Him? We need to get started.
I remember many years ago reading when there was trouble again in the Middle East - There was a huge city that was absolutely flattened. There were children’s homes all over the place that were broken down. Little children were running in the streets. There was nowhere for them to go. The United Nations and all the different organizations, World Vision and the children’s organizations didn’t know what to do. So they got hold of Mother Theresa from Calcutta and flew her to that city in a huge jetliner.
When she arrived at the airport, there was a red carpet put out for this small, little lady and out she walked with her womenfolk and they had a big black limousine to collect her. They whisked her off to the first orphanage and when she got out of the car, the place had been levelled to the ground - There wasn’t a building standing higher than a metre. All the experts from all over the world were there with their clipboards. They wanted to hear about the game plan that this little lady was going to implement. She walked up and she looked around and she found a broom... she took the broom and started to sweep all the debris away, in front of her. They said, “What are you doing?” She said, “I am starting.”
I want to say to you today, we need to start. We need to start getting ready. Christmas is around the corner - This might be the last Christmas we will have on this earth before Jesus comes back. But you know, the good news is:
“He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
1 Thessalonians 5:24
Jesus will do it for us. We just need to open the door and let Him come in.
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
It is Saturday morning, 13th November 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:7
Joy over one sinner who truly repents!
You know, Jesus is known by many names in the Bible. He is known as The King of Kings, The Lord of Lords, The Lion of Judah, He is The Lily of the Valley and He is the bright Morning Star... But the title that I love the most is the Friend of Sinners. That is right!
If we go to Matthew 9:12, we will see Jesus says:
“I came, not for the righteous, but I came for sinners to repent.”
He came for sick like you and me, and not for the healthy. Luke 5:27, He said to the tax collector, “Follow me”, and he left his table with all the money and followed Jesus immediately. Luke 8:2: Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus delivered seven demons, and yet I tell you what, I think you will find she is the most beautiful woman in Heaven. Why? Because the Lord takes sinners and he turns them into saints. And these are the type of people that Jesus used to change the world.
I remember reading about a man by the name of Charles Colson. He was known as the Hatchet Man. He was President Nixon’s Chief Advisor in the USA. He was the most brilliant mind of his time but he was a ruthless man. They said, he would even walk over his own mother’s grave just to gain a bit of place.
But you know, Richard Nixon was caught in the Watergate scandal and he was indicted, he was impeached. They removed him from office and he should have gone to jail. But you see, they had never put a US President in jail before, so the right-hand man, Nixon’s Chief Advisor, Charles Colson (Chuck Colson) went to jail in his place. In jail there was someone looking for him, that’s right - He was the one who was looking for that one lost sheep, His name is Jesus. Charles Colson met Jesus in jail.
When he had served his sentence, his full sentence, he came out and he started the Prison Fellowship Ministry where thousands of prisoners all over the world, have come to know Jesus Christ. The Lord takes nobodies and makes them into 'somebodies'.
Today, call upon Him. You say, “Angus, I can't, I have gone too far.” No, you haven’t. The thief on the cross called out to Jesus and the Lord said, “Today, you will be with Me in Paradise.” He is waiting to hear from you this morning - Talk to Him.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
It is Friday, 12th November 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Well, the greatest true story ever told, summed up in one small Bible verse... a Bible that has 66 Books in it and we know that scripture so well, don’t we:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16
What an incredible scripture -Pure, undiluted love And then 1 John 4 and I am going to read from verse 7:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
I don’t think there has ever been a gift given by anyone, anywhere in the world, like our Heavenly Father, gave to you and me. He gave His only begotten, precious Son, yes to a pack of wolves actually, who were going to kill him and to totally destroy Him. But He gave His Son so that you and I could be saved from eternal damnation. Do you remember that song, that beautiful song that goes like this:
“Because He lives, I can face tomorrow?” Why don’t you sing that song with me today because it is such a beautiful encouraging song, oh yes!
And because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, all fear is gone
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living
Just because He lives.
And then one day, I’ll cross that river
I’ll fight life’s final war with pain
And then, as death gives way to victory
I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He reigns.
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow
Because He lives, all fear is gone
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living
Just because He lives
Bless you, have a wonderful day, tell the world He lives!
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Thursday morning, 11th November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it”
Luke 14:28
Rather don’t start if you have no intention of finishing. Remember, no one is interested in good starters. It is good finishers that folk are looking for these days.
“I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.”
John 17:4
Jesus finished the work that His Father sent Him to do. It is 'Mission Accomplished' - He finished the job. Now maybe this morning you are listening to this message and you're wondering whether you should continue with your university studies because it is getting very tough. It is getting very steep - the mountain is getting very hard... Keep on keeping on, you will finish it.
Maybe it is a business that you have just started and you are saying: “I don’t know if I can complete this.” If God has called you to do it He will give you the strength and the courage to finish. Maybe you are struggling in your church, as a pastor, and you just wondering, “Is it going to work or not?” Keep on preaching the Gospel. I remember going to Ladysmith for the first campaign I had ever organized in 1989. That first night I thought, “Lord I am going to preach.” There was nobody in the hall, it was empty! I was down, underneath, praying and at 7 o’clock I came up and I said: “Lord, I will preach to the chairs.” I think God sent some angels because the hall was half-full and we had the most incredible meeting. By the end of the week, it was full.
Maybe it is your marriage today. Maybe you are struggling in your marriage and you say, “Angus, we just can’t get on..." You have to, you made a covenant - You made a commitment. Finish the job! Some of us don’t realize just how close we are to the finish line. Maybe it is just around the next corner.
Keep on running. Keep your eyes on the Lord, He will give you the strength to finish the job. Have a blessed day.
God bless you and goodbye.
It is Wednesday morning, 10th November, the year 2021, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
“Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.”
Luke 14:21
Jesus loves all people and he invites everybody to his banquet table - The poor, the rich, the weak, the strong, the old and the young. Those who have made mistakes and those who have been even written off by society. All they have to do is simply accept His invitation to come to the banquet.
“For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Romans 10:13
You know, one of my heroes is D.L. Moody: Dwight Lyman Moody. He lived a long time ago in Chicago. He was an American. He was a shoe salesman, by trade, and came from a farming background. He got gloriously saved. That is right - He went to the banquet and Jesus saved him, he got so excited. He wanted to tell others to come to that same banquet and so when he became a Christian, he went and said, “I want to become a Sunday School teacher.” They said to him, “You have to wait. There is a waiting list of many people who want to become teachers.”
He said, “I can’t. I can’t wait.”
They said, “Well, why don’t you go down to the ghetto of Chicago and go and tell those street children, those urchins, about the Lord.’ He said yes, he would. Do you know within months, that man had a thriving Sunday School with hundreds of children in an abandoned factory! What he did was, he would take his horse and put a bag of oranges on its back and, like the Pied Piper, he would go down the street and say to the children:
“Would you like an orange?”
“Yes please!”
“Follow me!”
And he would take them into that big deserted factory and that would be his church. He would go and get a beautiful singing canary, put it in a cage and hang it up in the front and say to the children, “The first one who doesn’t miss a Sunday will get this as a gift.” He was desperate to get the children in and many, many got saved and became followers of Jesus Christ.
You and I need to do the same today. Let's go out to the highways and byways and tell people that Jesus loves them.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you.
“and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.”
2 Chronicles 26:5
That was King Uzziah. He was a wise man.
Probably every one of you knows this scripture off by heart:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (other) things shall be added to you.”
Matthew 6:33
That is a very simple and straightforward statement and yet so many times we just do not seem to get it. We get many letters in the office, asking:
“Why has God done this to me?”
“Why have I never got any money?”
“Why are my children so rebellious?”
“Why has my husband run off with another woman?” and
“Why is God punishing me?”
You know, I heard that little joke the other day: The devil is sitting down on the curbside of the street, with his red outfit on and he is holding his three-pronged fork crying his eyes out. And the angel came to him and said, “Why are you crying?” He said, “I get the blame for everything that is going wrong around here!”
Folks, it is not always the devil... We must be honest with ourselves.
Some of us are too lazy to seek the Lord’s will for our lives. We seek God’s council from every Tom, Dick and Harry who just happens to be around - That is dangerous. We have got to seek the Lord.
I spoke to a progressive young farmer the other day, he told me he is tired of all these new programmes that the reps are trying to push down his throat... these new methods of farming - bigger and better and quicker. He says the problem is a lot of these programmes are not sustainable, they don’t last. We have got to start getting back to basics, we have got to start doing things God’s way. As a farmer, that is why I have got a sign on the front of my Bible - I call it my Agricultural Manual. God made it for us and He wants us to use it. And that is not just agriculture!
That is your domestic life, your principles... it is about paying income tax, it's about not overtaxing people, it's about going out with that young man until you really get to know him before you accept his hand in marriage. These are not just 'thumb-sucks', as they say, these are godly principles.
So we have got to start seeking God’s way. Stop being greedy. We have got to start taking time to make decisions. We have to start putting back into the soil, not just taking out of the soil and then God starts to prosper us.
Have a wonderful day today as you start doing things God’s way.
God bless you.
“Be still, and know that I am God”
Psalm 46:10
And then we go to Mark 6:31:
“And He said to them, "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.”
It is time for you and me to take an account of our situation... Are you spending quiet time with God? You see, Jesus is still very much in control, irrespective of what the media might tell you. Did you see the sun come up this morning, my dear friend? Oh, it was magnificent!
Now, I don’t care whether you are in New Zealand, in the USA or bonny Scotland - The sun came up this morning, didn’t it? It was beautiful. Did you hear the heavenly orchestra that was playing first thing in the morning? Well, first on the agenda was the dove, shouting out, “Peace on earth!” Oh, I love that bird. Followed up by a troop of guinea fowl parading past the front of our garden... The mother showing her little ones where to find food, making one heck of a noise but it was beautiful. And then the shrill of a pair of eagles, they are nesting in a tree in our garden.
And then there was a huge flock of heavy-duty cargo planes that landed in the field next to our garden - Yes, I am talking about Spurwing Geese. Those birds must weigh at least 20lbs (10kg each) and they arrived in force. They came to eat the cattle feed in the troughs. Needless to say, the cows weren’t happy about that! And then to hear the faint call of the African Rainbird. The Zulu word for the Rainbird is umGugwane and we call him the Burchell's Coucal. He is a bird that sings the most beautiful music you have ever heard, especially in the ears of the farmer. 'Kukukuku' He says, “The rain is coming.”
I want to encourage you today, take time out to smell the roses because they won’t be there forever. Enjoy God’s creation today - It doesn’t matter where you are. He loves you, He wants to talk to you but please sit down with that cup of tea or cup of coffee and listen to His creation. Be still and know that He is God.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Then He answered them, saying, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” Luke 14:5
No one likes going to church more than me - I really mean that. I love going to church but there are priorities. Now, the Oxford Dictionary says a priority is a thing regarded as more important than others and that is why it is so very important to always ask yourself a simple question.
What would Jesus do? And then take that option. The main thing is to make sure that the main thing remains the main thing. That is something I read in a book just a short while ago. Make that phone call, make that visit, write that letter, write that email, send off that app! Do not procrastinate - that means to delay or to postpone action.
If you leave the ox in the pit until after church on Sunday, he will be dead. You know in Zulu we have a word, “Kusasa.”
Kusasa, uma iNkosi izovuma: Tomorrow, if the Lord wills...
But you know something, tomorrow might never come. Today might be the most important day in your life. If you don’t visit that old person they might not be there tomorrow and that might be a very sad regret. We really need to get our priorities into order. So what do we do? Well, we take the ox out of the pit and then we go to church.
Have a wonderful day today as you sit and meditate on what the Lord wants you to do with your life.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12
Don’t despise the youth. Do you know that Josiah was seven years old when he became King of Israel? That is right, and he restored the House of the Lord to its original condition because it was in a mess. In fact, he reinforced it.
I know of situations where a father will not trust his child to take over the business. One man, and this is not a joke, was no less than 60 years old, before his father who was nearly 90 years old, finally gave him authority to take over the business. What was the result? Well, by that time the son had totally lost vision for the business... No new ideas, no self-confidence in himself, no hope for expansion and of course, the business just fell apart.
In some extreme cases the young man leaves the business. He immigrates to another country and his old dad, losing strength, sees everything that he built up over a lifetime start to crumble in front of his very eyes. Whose fault is that? It is not the young man's. We need to give the young people an opportunity to show us what they can do. What is the worst thing that can happen? Well, maybe lose a business but gain a son. By the way, if he knows the Lord Jesus Christ, he won’t lose you anything.
I remember a lovely story of a family, right down in the Southern part of South Africa - The young boys came back from agricultural college and they told their dad they wanted to change the whole system of the farm. The dad, who was an industrialist himself, with limited experience in agriculture said, “No boys, we have to plough and plant wheat, we have to milk cows, we have to shear the sheep.” They said, “No dad, we are not doing any of that.” And they basically said, “If you don’t give us an opportunity we are going to leave.”
But he was a wise man and he said, “Okay boys, go for it.” And these sons, there were three or four of them, they sold all the cattle, they sold all the tractors, all the dairy cows and they went and they started to farm with fynbos, which are wild flowers. They picked the wild flowers, they built a warehouse on the farm and they sent these wild flowers all over the world. The last I heard, I think they had the biggest business in town.
Don’t restrict your child, give him a chance. They will not disappoint you.
God bless you and have a lovely day!
“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Luke 12:14
We need to keep short accounts with men and with God. We need to stand, that is the word - Stand. Ephesians 6:14, put the armour of God on and stand for the battle is the Lord’s and the Lord is coming back very soon. No man knows the day or even the hour, not even Jesus Himself. Matthew 24:36
But you see, a good farmer knows the seasons of the year. When the fig tree blossoms, we know that summer is coming. Mark 13:28-29 says:
“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near—at the doors!”
We can see the signs everywhere, the Lord is not coming soon - He is on His way! Our champion is coming back to fetch us and He is coming with all His angels, in glory!
I remember a very well-known Gospel singer, Keith Green, he died at the age of 29 I think - He had a plane crash. But you know, he was dramatically converted from drug addiction to singing the Gospel. And I always remember he said, “If it has taken the Lord one day to make this earth which is very beautiful, and He is taking 2000 years to make Heaven, we are living in a garbage can!”
I want to say to you today, be ready - the Lord is coming for His bride.
God bless you and have a wonderful Friday.
“But Jesus came and touched them and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid."
Matthew 17:7
And then we go to Mark 5:28:
“For she said, "If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well."
That was the woman who had the issue of blood... “If I can just touch the hem of His garment, I will be made well.” - And she was. I want to say to you today, it is so important to touch people, that is right - That was what Mother Theresa did. She touched people, that is all she did. She didn’t even preach, she just touched them with the love of Jesus and changed their lives.
I remember very clearly, many years ago when we had the 5000-seater tent on the farm, not the big one. I was walking on a Sunday morning, down the sawdust trail up to the platform to start preaching. As I was walking down the aisle, there were many men in that place, I felt the Holy Spirit say to me, “This man you are walking past, touch him on the shoulder and whisper in his ear that Jesus loves him.” So I did it.
I touched him on the shoulder and I whispered in his ear, “Jesus loves you!” I carried on walking up to the pulpit to preach the message. At the end of the meeting many men came forward to give their lives to Christ, but you know about two or three weeks later I got an email... It came from that very man. He said, “I was there that weekend. The music was wonderful. The preaching was good but nothing touched my heart until you walked past me and you touched me on the shoulder and told me that Jesus loved me. My life is transformed, I am now following Jesus Christ.” We need to be obedient to what the Holy Spirit is telling us.
I got the most beautiful message just the other day. The young man who is going to be my grandson, that’s right - He has just asked my oldest granddaughter to be his wife, that man’s father sent me a WhatsApp. He said: “Twenty-three years ago you were preaching the Gospel in Zimbabwe, in the town of Gweru. You walked up to a pram and there was a baby in a pram, you touched him and you prayed over him. That is the man who is going to marry your granddaughter!”
Oh folks, what a mighty God we serve. Go out today and touch somebody and tell them that Jesus loves them.
God bless you and have a wonderful day!
“…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:20
Where a man’s heart is, that is where his treasure is too!
The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, was also the richest man who has ever lived. Making money, making wealth, he called it vanity. He said it is like chasing the wind, like grasping for the wind. We need to invest in heavenly things.
In the story in Luke 12:20, where the rich man (he was a farmer) had a wonderful crop... He says, “I am going to make new barns, then I am going to store up all my crop in that barn and then I am going to eat, drink and be merry.” And the Lord says: “You fool, tonight your very life will be required of you.” - We need to invest in eternal things!
John Wesley, when he died, he left six pounds in his will - That was one pound for each pallbearer that was going to carry his coffin to the grave. He wrote many books. He sent all his money straight back into the ministry. George Müller, that German, made a children’s home in Bristol, England which took care of tens of thousands of children. When he died, all he had in his will was a table, a chair and a bed. They found in the accounting system that there was an anonymous donor who had been putting money into the children’s home for years and years and years... They only found out afterwards it was him, himself, who was putting his money straight into the orphanage.
I don’t know if you have watched that movie Schindler’s List. Schindler was a member of the Nazi party and he all of a sudden had a change in his life and he started to save the Jews from the gas chambers - He did it through his factory. Little children, he would bring them in and he would save them and would pay money to the Gestapo to keep these people safe. Do you know that he saved 1,100 Jews from the gas chambers and the fiery furnaces? Right at the end of that movie, they came and they brought him a gold ring - I think they had made it out of gold that they had taken from their very teeth and inside it was engraved, “Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire." - It is from the Talmud, and he broke down and he wept when these 1,100 Jews at the end of the war, came and said, thank you to him. He said, “I could have done so much more.”
I want to say to you today, “Let’s not waste our money and effort on things that will perish with rust and just disappear. Let's invest in heavenly things that will last forever.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
“But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” Matthew 10:19
It is the Lord Himself who must direct our words and nothing else. You know, I can tell straight away, when a man is preaching a message from the pulpit - if it is from Heaven or it is something that has been warmed up from the week before. If it is a word from Heaven, it is like hot bread coming out of the oven, delicious to eat - Yes, we need to speak what God tells us.
If you are speaking something that you have learned, something that is not from God, there is no passion. There is no conviction, it is just a case of going through the motions... it will fall on deaf ears and will achieve nothing. People are starving, at the moment, for the word of life. People are looking for hope, direction, truth and most of all, they are looking for love.
You and I need to spend more time in the presence of God than we do preparing flowery messages which are lifeless. People want to know, “What does God say about this situation?” If we look at John 1:47, Jesus told Nathaniel all about Himself before Nathaniel had ever met him. Let's just read it:
“Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
He told him about his character, he told him who he was and where he had come from and that instantly converted Nathanael to follow after Jesus. You know, I was preaching a couple of years ago on the television, and I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to point my finger towards the screen and to say: “There is a lady watching this programme and God says you are going to conceive, you are going to fall pregnant - you are going to have a baby." Well, nine months later she had a beautiful baby. Now, I didn’t know who she was, I didn’t know that she was watching the television. I just simply did what the Holy Spirit told me to do.
Today, go out and bless somebody. Just speak life over them, tell them what Jesus means to you.
Have a blessed day.
God bless you.
“Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Luke 12:6-7
Maybe you are feeling a bit lonely this morning, maybe you feel like no one cares for you - Well, Jesus even knows how many hairs are upon your head. You don’t have to be lonely. There is a friend who sticks closer than even a brother, Proverbs 18:24. Jesus cares, He cares so much for us that He even laid His life down to protect us.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
John 15:13
Talk to Him today, He really wants to hear from you. Tell Him of all your troubles and all your fears. He has lots of time for you. He is never in a rush, He is a very good listener by the way - Isn’t that hard to find these days?”
But to have a good friend, you must be a good friend. You must be friendly. You know, my wife is my best friend here on earth, that’s right! She knows me so well... She knows what food I like to eat, what books I like to read and even what clothes I like to wear. She even knows who my heroes are in the Bible. We can go into a crowded room where there are a lot of people, she can be standing on the one side of the room and me on the other, we just look at each other and we can talk to each other without saying a word. She will tell me, “It's time to go Angus.” It is because we spend time together. Why and how, might we very ask, that these things happen? Because we spend time together.
Spend more time with Jesus today. He has so much more He wants to show you.
God bless you and have a wonderful week.
“Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.”
Luke 12:3
Remember, if you haven’t got anything good to say about someone, then rather don’t say anything at all. You best let your words always be sweet because one day you might have to eat them. Unfortunately, that is an area that I am very much working on because I tend to speak before I think... and it gets me into trouble.
They say a new Christian should be locked up for the first six months because he is like a bull in a china shop! He is so full of exuberance and joy. He wants to tell everybody everything and sometimes he gets it wrong. Be careful how you talk. Remember that old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me?” That is an absolute lie - it is the other way around! If you get a couple of bones broken they will soon heal but when you say an ugly, damaging word it can stay with a person forever. We need to think before we speak because the Lord has told us, everybody will hear about it sooner or later.
Sometimes we need to count to ten before we say something and then once we have counted to ten we will probably never say it. You know, people are not really interested in your opinion. They are not interested in my opinion. They are only interested in God’s opinion. Before I preach, I always pray on my knees, publicly, before the crowd. Every time, I get on my knees because when you are on your knees you can’t fall any further, and I pray Psalm 19:14:
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
Remember, a word spoken by faith can perform miracles, that’s right. It can open seas! It can heal a dying person, it can make a barren woman conceive and have a baby! Today, measure your words and let them be encouraging because people are hurting all over the world. Phone someone and give them a kind word today. Pray for somebody who is really taking strain today and you will be surprised at how good you will feel.
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
“…but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.”
Daniel 11:32
We have got to get into that quiet place away from the distraction of this troubled world. As things become more hectic, we need to draw closer to the only One, in this entire universe, who can truly save us and draw us apart. We have to keep in touch with God.
You know, in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night that the Lord Jesus was betrayed, all of His disciples ran away... from the only person who could help them and protect them. You will find that in Matthew 26:56:
“Then all the disciples forsook Him and fled.”
We have to remain focused on God because it is Him and Him alone who will keep us in peace. John 16:33, Jesus says:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Let's take our eyes off the things of this world and look to the Prince of Peace Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. He will ultimately overcome all of our difficulties in this stormy sea that we are travelling at the moment.
Do you remember that story of that huge battleship, the HMS Hercules, which was doing manoeuvres in the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean? A turbulent storm got up in the middle of the night. They called for the Admiral to come up to the bridge and take control of this huge battleship. He was standing on the bridge with high-powered binoculars, trying to see where they were going and in the distance, he saw a faint light and he said to the man in charge: “Send a message and tell that ship to move over, we are coming through”. They sent a message.
A message came straight back. “Unfortunately, we cannot move our course. We are on a fixed course.” The admiral was furious! He sent a message and said, “Tell him to move otherwise we will ram them.” The message came back again, a small little message, “I am sorry. We cannot change our course.” Then the captain, infuriated, said: “Who are you and what is your destination?” A faint voice came back, and said, “We are the lighthouse on the jagged rocks of the Cape of Good Hope.” Immediately, that admiral changed course.
I want to say to you today, keep your eyes on Jesus. He will never move. There is no virus, there is no anything that will move Him because He is your protector and He is your Savior.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.”
Luke 11:34
Remember, the eye is the window of the heart, so we need to ask ourselves a question today - What are we looking at? We need to discipline ourselves severely. There are so many people at the moment that are suffering from depression, fear and anxiety.
What are we watching?
When it comes to things like TV, social media, cellphones... remember, the quickest way to poison our souls is through what we watch. I heard such a sad story just yesterday: A lovely young thirteen-year-old girl, just coming into bloom, committed suicide. She took her life. You see, she got involved in a toxic social media group.
Be very careful moms and dads, to monitor what your children are watching on their cellphones. You know it is just like eating healthy food and keeping good strong friendships. We need to look at godly wholesome programmes on our devices and on television. Some people say, “No, it is okay to watch negative, ungodly material because that is how you learn about what is safe and what is dangerous - I disagree completely. You know, when they teach people to decipher between counterfeit and real money, they never let them look at the counterfeits, only at the real authentic notes.
Now, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the true meaning of counterfeit, this is what it says: "Made in exact imitation of something valuable with the intention to deceive or to defraud." And that is what the devil is doing. Now, when these people are looking at these notes, these banknotes, every now and again they will slip in an artificial note and straight away it is easily recognised.
Today, keep your eyes on Jesus.
He is the One who will bring you joy and hope and abundant life.
John 10:10
God bless you and goodbye.
“But He said, “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
Luke 11:28
That’s right - Hear it and keep it, there is no grey area!
We cannot bend God’s Holy Word. If you want His blessing and His power in your life then you have to obey the Lord. You have to obey the Word of God, there can be no compromise.
Luke 8:21 says very clearly:
“But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”
Remember, Jesus was teaching and they came and said to Him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside.” He said, “Who are my mother and my brothers but those who obey the word of God.” You know, it is such a wonderful thing, folks, to be a follower of Jesus Christ. You have so many friends right around the world.
Remember, John 13:34:
“A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another; as I have loved you…”
I get an invitation often to go to Israel, to Jerusalem. I go down to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth and I am a guest speaker at the Feast of Tabernacles, which is hosted by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem. It is amazing. There are sometimes up to eighty different nations from all over the world, it's incredible - People from Mainland China, Russia, South America, Africa, Europe - and they all speak different languages, something like 18 interpreters.
But do you know something? I love those people and they love me because of the love of God in us. I have got some people I have known for forty years but I don’t really know them... but these people, I meet them in five minutes, they don’t even speak English and I don’t speak their language but we love each, other in five minutes. Why? Because we have a common denominator and that is love and who is love? God is love.
Do you remember that old chorus, that old hymn we used to sing? A new commandment I give unto you?
A new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you love one another as I have loved you.
By this shall all know that you are my disciples,
if you have love one for another;
by this shall all know that you are my disciples:
if you have love one for another.
Go out today and love someone!
God bless you and goodbye!
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered.”
Psalm 32:1
What a beautiful promise from the Lord for us this morning - reconciled to God, brought back to Jesus. When God forgives, remember, He forgets! I always say to people that the Lord has a bad memory... because when He forgives you, He forgets. And when you say, “Lord, remember that sin I committed yesterday, He says, “No, I don’t remember anything.” Not like you and I - we forgive, then when it suits us we say, “Remember that thing you did to me?” Jesus doesn’t do that. That is why it is such a blessed thing to be forgiven by the Lord. And by the way, no one on earth is exempt from this beautiful blessedness.
You don’t have to wait for Heaven, it can start right here on earth today. The second memory verse that I memorized when I first got saved was John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
The second, and this is a beautiful verse is 1 John 1:9:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Isn’t that beautiful? You see, you can’t earn it. You can’t buy it and you can’t work for it - It is for free... Just receive God’s forgiveness. You can’t even get that blessedness for a long service award - No! The Lord says the last will be first and the first will be last. F.B. Meyer says: “We have not to do, feel or suffer but only to be” and then of course, instantly blessedness starts.
Now, there is someone in the Bible who knew exactly what that meant, and his name was Zacchaeus. Jesus said to Zacchaeus, that short little man who couldn’t see the Lord for the crowd so he climbed up a Sycamore tree (that is a wild fig tree) and Jesus looked up and said, “Zacchaeus I am coming to your house today!” Zacchaeus couldn’t believe it. My dear friend, maybe Jesus wants to come to your house today. I am talking about your very own life. And if we look at Zacchaeus, we look at Luke 19:8:
“Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.”
Zacchaeus said, “I will pay back 400% to anyone that I cheated.” Surely blessedness came into that man’s heart that day. Today, go out and remember Jesus died for you. All you have got to do is say, “Thank You, Lord!” Receive it and believe it.
God bless you and goodbye.
“…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:2
Jesus suffered before He went home to be with His Father in Heaven. I want to speak to you about the great paradox. Now, that word paradox, I struggled to understand the meaning... maybe you do as well. So I looked up the Oxford Dictionary and the word means "A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that may, in fact, be true. That is quite a mouthful, isn’t it? But putting it in layman’s language, it simply means, “No pain, no gain,” therefore you and I must not be afraid of pain nor suffering.
Jesus said in Psalm 30:5:
“Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.”
Because you and I know that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28). What we have just been through in the Northern Cape, the drought, fire, the devastation... and when you are in the fire, it is extremely hot! Maybe you are in the fire today, my dear friend, and you say, “Lord, there is no way out - Lord, why are you doing this to me? Lord, why am I suffering?” Maybe it is because that dross, that rubbish, needs to be burned out of us. I am talking about pride, arrogance, and self-centredness.
No more doing it my way - it doesn’t work. The only way that works is God’s way and God teaches us, through the fiery trials and through the suffering, to appreciate things. Those farmers appreciated that rain more than anybody else because they haven’t had rain, some of them for four or five years. And I have seen farmers, big, strong men weeping but the Lord was there all the time. No, He didn’t cause it but He worked through it, always remember that. God will never reject a broken and contrite heart. Psalm 51:17
You know they said that the great ship, The Titanic, the biggest ship built up to that time was unsinkable. You can’t play the fool with God. On its maiden voyage, it hit an iceberg on the icy Atlantic Ocean and went down to the bottom of the sea, like a stone. It opened up like a tin can in a few minutes. God will not be in any way made a fool of.
Today, endure that pain remembering that is the symbol of the Christian - The Cross. It is the cross of suffering and God will bring you through, He will make you a better man or woman through it.
God bless you and have a great day.
If we go to the Word of God in Romans 5:3-5, Paul says:
“And not only that but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
'To experience or to be subjected to something bad or unpleasant, that is the definition of the word, Suffer from the Oxford Dictionary. The Latin meaning of suffering is 'to bear'. Are you suffering at the moment, are you going through a fiery trial?
Well, I want to tell you I have never met a person yet who is worth his salt, who has not been through the fire. You see fire purifies, it takes out and it burns off all the rubbish in our lives. It is never wasted unless of course, we do not learn from it. If we don’t, then we need to go through that fiery trial again until we learn. The Lord Jesus is the one who disciplines, chastises those He loves and I will back that up with a scripture in the Book of Hebrews 12:11:
“Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
I want to say to parents - the parent who does not discipline their small child, in my opinion, is very cruel... because that child will be disciplined severely in the hard school of life. We must not be afraid of hardship, pain, or suffering because we are not in that fire alone. Remember, Jesus is walking with you through it. He will never allow you to be tempted above that which you can handle. You will find that in 1 Corinthians 10:13. God always makes a way out for you, I can prove that.
You must remember that this correction that we are talking about is very painful. Jesus understands because He is doing the pruning but He is doing it with a pair of pruning clippers called secateurs. They are held in one hand, never forget that that Hand has got a hole through it. It was put there by a rusty old nail and as He is pruning us He is suffering even more than we are. So today, don’t be afraid about suffering. Trust Him and He will bring you through.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:24
The emphasis is actually on Jesus and not on ourselves. It is He who is the trustworthy one and no one else. He will finish the work in our lives, therefore all we need to do is put our complete faith in Him. He will keep us fit for the coming of The Lord. Jesus is completely dependable when He says something, we can be sure that He will do it - He will surely make it happen, we just need to be patient and hopeful.
A couple of weeks ago, we were invited to the Northern Cape to help in that desperate situation where there was no rain only fire and devastation. A pitiful sight to see, it looked completely hopeless. Those very brave farmers, shopkeepers, businessmen, schoolchildren, old-aged people put their faith in the Faithful One and not in their circumstances of fire, drought, heat and devastation. And do you know what? The Faithful One, Jesus came through for them. Rain, gently-soaking, prayer-answering rain is falling all over the Northern Cape. In some areas, they haven’t had rain for years and the rain is coming down.
I want to say to you today, I don’t know what your situation is - Maybe you are facing a so-called hopeless situation. Don’t put your trust, or your effort or your faith in yourself. Put it in the Lord Jesus Christ and He will come through for you. He never ceases to amaze me when it comes to His steadfastness and dependability. I love Him so much.
I want to say to you today my dear friend, put your trust in the Lord for your health, for your finances and for your future. Don’t put your trust in man and God will honour His word. He has never once failed me and that is why I get so emotional sometimes when I see the goodness of God.
Have a wonderful Sunday as you contemplate, think about, the Faithful One. It will change your whole outlook towards life.
God bless you and goodbye.
“So they taught in Judah, and had the Book of the Law of the Lord with them; they went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people. And the fear of the Lord fell on all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, so that they did not make war against Jehoshaphat.” 2 Chronicles 17:9
It is the Word of God that brings peace, that is what it is. If we go to Romans 10:14:
“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”
People need the Lord desperately now, more than ever before. Ignorance, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary, means lacking knowledge or awareness in general. Jesus said in John 17:17:
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”
People are perishing at the moment because of a lack of knowledge of the Word of God. We know that scripture in Proverbs 29:18:
“Where there is no vision (where there is no knowledge) the people perish.”
You see, people don’t know about the power that is available to them through Almighty God. They might be educated but they need Jesus.
That famous British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, said: “Education without Christ simply makes clever little devils.”
Now, that is not funny. That is very true. I remember years ago taking the Seedsower - that big yellow 20-ton truck, with one word on the side of it, JESUS... We took 20 tons of Bibles, clothes and food right up to the North of Central Africa, where Tanzania joins with the Congo - right in the North of Zambia. And I tell you what, those poor people were very poor. Some of them hardly had any clothes on. But you know, the funny thing was, they didn’t want the clothes, they didn’t want the food, they wanted the Bible - Not a tract or the Gospel of John, they wanted the whole Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms - they wanted the Bible! I will never forget driving home, coming back and driving past these little villages, seeing people sitting out in the sun and some of them on the edge of their little thatch huts, reading the Word of God!
You and I need to pray desperately, not only for South Africa but especially for the first world nations, that they get back to the Bible.
God bless you and have a lovely day!
“Now the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the former ways of his father David; he did not seek the Baals”
2 Chronicles 17:3
And then we go to Jeremiah 6:16:
“Thus says the Lord:
“Stand in the ways and see,
And ask for the old paths, where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls.”
There is no time left for us to reinvent the wheel. You know the wisest man who ever lived was Solomon and he said in, Ecclesiastes 1:9:
“There is nothing new under the sun.”
Spoken by the wisest man who ever lived. So many older folks are willing to share with young people all their priceless experiences in life. All we need to do, young people, is to simply ask them but so often pride gets in the way, doesn’t it? Jesus Himself said, in Matthew 7:7:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
I remember when I was a mere 19 years old - I was working on a farm in bonny Scotland, right up in the northeast where it rains just about every day and it is always muddy. I was working on a very steep hill farm and there was an old man, an old stockman and he said to me, “Laddy, will you take the Land Rover with some animal feed up into the mountains and feed them?” And just before I left, he said to me: “Can I just show you a couple of things on the vehicle just unless you get stuck up in the mud, in the mountains?” And of course, typical youngster, I said: “No Sir. I have got a driver’s license. I know how to drive a vehicle.” He said, “Well, off you go.”
Off I went, right up to the top of the mountain, and what happened? I got stuck! Well, about 3 hours later when I had walked down the mountain, I came back to the old gentleman and said, “I am stuck up in the mountain.” He never said a word. He got into the other Land Rover, lit his pipe, and slowly went up the mountain. He got to the vehicle, got in, started up the engine, and then he bent down and he turned something just underneath the seat. I said, “What is that Sir?” He said, “That is the four-wheel drive.” He put it into first gear, drove it out, got out of the vehicle with the engine still running, never said a word to me, got into his vehicle, and drove back down the mountain. I have never forgotten that experience.
Don’t forget to walk in the ancient paths. The Lord says they are proven - They have been walked before. Don’t try and do something just because you want to show somebody what you can do.
God bless you and have a lovely day.
If we go to that very well-known scripture in Psalm 119:105:
“Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.”
Our ultimate direction finder is God’s Holy Word. I am sitting in my prayer room sending you this message and above my desk, hanging from the roof is a plumb line. Now that is used by builders to make sure, when they build a wall, that it is completely straight - a direction finder. And on my table, I have a compass. A gift, given to me by some very dear people... it shows me True North. Nothing can change that.
Like never before people are confused. People are writing to our office and asking us questions like: Do we or don’t we? What does the word say about this and what is your opinion about that? I want to say to you never take notice of my opinion or anybody else’s opinion for that matter. It is what the Word of God says.
Meshach, Shadrack and Abednego were told to bow the knee to Nebuchadnezzar. They said, “We will not bow the knee to Nebuchadnezzar or to any other god. And by the way, even if our God does not save us we are still not going to bow the knee to you!” Now that is the kind of faith that Jesus is looking for in these last days.
“But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
Daniel 3:18
That is the kind of faith that we need today because many people are confused. Our answer, when they write to us at the office to “What should we do?” is, “Go to the Word of God." That’s right - the compass, the plumb line, the direction finder... you will find your answer in the Bible.
You know, one of Jesus’s disciples, Thomas asked Jesus the very same question. “Lord, where are you going? and “We don’t know how to find the way.” And Jesus used that beautiful scripture, John 14:6:
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
What I love about the Lord Jesus Christ is His answers are always definite. They are straightforward and they are confident.
I have a very special memory of when my oldest son got married. On his wedding day, at the reception, everybody was seated and it was time for the bridegroom to make his speech. He stood up and he quoted Joshua 24:15, where Joshua says,
“You serve whoever you want to serve but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Have a wonderful day as you go out today, confidently knowing that Jesus is the answer to every single question that you have.
God bless you and goodbye.
Luke 14:34, Jesus says:
“Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its flavour, how shall it be seasoned?”
Don’t lose your flavour! Wherever Jesus went, He caused either a riot or a revival but He was never in-between. You and I must remain salty. People don’t have to like us but they must respect us - and they will if we remain salty. Even Jesus said in Revelation 3:16: “Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
Strong words, spoken by the Master. Jesus put a fire back into Peter when he had lost all hope and had gone back fishing. He can do the same for us today. Father God desires to put new salt back into our very souls today... Giving us something to live for, to get up in the morning for and to die for - if necessary. He wants us to live, not merely exist. He wants us to realize our dreams, He wants us to complete that course. We must be salty.
Let’s make a difference in this tired and flavourless world we live in today.
You know, being of Scottish roots, our national dish in Scotland is porridge... And I want to say something to you, I mean this from the bottom of my heart - If you ever invite me into your home and offer me a nice plate of porridge but don’t put any salt in it, I will never come back to your house again. Don’t offer me a cup of tea (by the way, I love tea) that is lukewarm because I won’t drink it. The tea needs to be red-hot and that porridge must be salty.
Have a lovely day today as you make a difference in somebody’s life.
God bless you and goodbye.
Matthew 5:3, Jesus says:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
That great preacher, F.B. Meyer, says: “To be vacant of self” - that’s right, to be emptied of self-reliance. We need to be totally dependent on Jesus today to realise and to be brutally honest with ourselves that we can do absolutely nothing without God. We cannot even help others. How can the blind lead the blind - It’s impossible.
When we die to self we empty ourselves, we become vacant, then God can use us to assist others. You can’t help a drowning man if you don’t know how to swim. You know, our foundation verse here at Shalom is 2 Corinthians 9:8:
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
For every good work... Having more than we need so that we can bless others.
When Jill and I first got saved, I wanted to sell the farm - not sell it but give it away. And I wanted to go to Bible College and I wanted to become a pastor. God said to me clearly in my heart: “Stay on the farm and make a place for others, which is what we are doing.
William Duma, a Zulu herdsman, up in the mountains in Zululand, met Jesus in a special way and he emptied himself completely. He would do nothing without God’s permission. One day he was invited to go to Israel, he and a group of other ministers. All of them jumped at the opportunity and said, “Thank you very much, we are willing to go.” Not William Duma! He said, “Can I let you know tomorrow? I need to ask permission from my Lord today.”
We need to empty ourselves. We need to become vacant inside so that God can fill us with His goodness so that we can be a blessing to others. Have a wonderful day today as you look to Jesus to be a blessing to others.
Goodbye.
“The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”
2 Chronicles 15:2
And then we go to the New Testament, Luke 19:10 Jesus says:
“…for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
And of course, one of my favourite scriptures, Matthew 7:7:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “
You know folks, there are none so blind as those who do not want to see. Don’t you want to see, don’t you want to live today?
Helen Keller was born on 27th June 1880. When she was a little baby of 19 months old she got sick and when she recovered she was left blind and deaf... Can you possibly think of anything worse? It must be like being put in a cell with no windows and no doors. No contact with the outside world but her carer took hold of her hands and started to spell words on her hand and managed to break through and start a conversation with her, purely by impressing on her hands with her fingers.
Do you know that Helen Keller eventually went to university? She got a BA degree at university. She travelled to 35 countries around the world, speaking on behalf of the blind and the deaf. You and I need to seek after Jesus today with our hearts and not with our heads. Helen Keller said something I have never forgotten, words to this effect: “There are none so blind as those who can see and hear but who have no vision.” Do you have a vision today?
“Where there is no vision the people perish.”
Proverbs 29:18:
The New King James Version says: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint” Ask the Lord today, to give you new vision... It will make you get up in the morning, it will make you get on with the work. It will take your eyes off yourself and put your eyes on Jesus and on other people.
God bless you and have a lovely day.
Goodbye.
“Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.”
Luke 10:2
The Lord Jesus is looking for workers, that is right! He is looking for a labour force to do the greatest work that will ever have been done in the history of the world. We are talking about the greatest revival that will come amongst God’s people in these last days.
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary... A labourer is a person doing unskilled manual work. That is right, we have got to roll up our sleeves and we have got to get to work. He is not talking about theologians, Jesus is not talking about doctors of divinity or even professors of the faith. No, he is talking about ordinary workers, people like you and me. This worldwide revival that is coming, is going to happen through ordinary people just like you and me. Shopkeepers, housewives, school children, coal miners, farmers, businessmen, doctors, nurses, policemen, artisans, etc.
I remember as a new Christian, my minister said to me one day, he said: “You know, Angus, the day I put on my dog collar, I lost 95% of my witness with the people in the world.” You see, they see you coming from a long way off and they change completely - Don’t lose your identity.
Just last week, a group of young farmers and businessmen came to see me. They have a burning desire to see their community changed and saved and they said, “What can we do?”
I said, “Don’t lose your identity.” If you are a farmer then live and act like a farmer and tell people about Jesus in your own way. If you are a businessman, do exactly the same. Why do you want to be different? The Lord is calling for labourers, unskilled, manual workers.
You know, William Booth started the biggest army in the history of the world. At one stage, there were more members of the Salvation Army than any other secular army on earth and do you know what he said? He said: “My best soldiers are women.” I remember hearing Yonggi Cho, who had the biggest church in the world, something like a million members, he said: “The people in the West are losing out because they are not using their women as labourers for the Gospel. The women pray longer and they can work very hard and they love Jesus."
I want to say to you today, it doesn’t matter what you are, you go out there and you just tell people about the soon-coming king. That is all they want to hear about. Lay your hands on the sick and they will be healed.
This is the time of ordinary people. Have a wonderful Sunday as you go out and witness for Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it.“ Luke 14:28
We need to count the cost - Preparation is vital in these times that we are living. There is no room in the Kingdom of God for people who are just winging it... Just going for it, just taking a chance.
You know, I just watched a documentary yesterday about three men. One was Scott of the Antarctic, the other Ernest Shackleton and the other one was Roald Amundsen a Norwegian. You know, Scott was a passionate man. He had a desire to be the first one to reach the South Pole, the Antarctic. The most unforgiving, treacherous continent on earth, the coldest place in the world. But you see, he did not prepare correctly... he got to the South Pole but at tremendous cost. On his way back he lost all his men, every single one of them died. They perished.
Shackleton was an extremely brave man. He got to within 100 kilometres of the South Pole but he had to turn back because he had not made sufficient preparation. He went back defeated because he did not prepare correctly. But that Norwegian, Roald Amundsen he was prepared. He went and he lived with the Eskimos first of all, the Inuit people and he learned their ways. He put on the correct dress, he took a very small group of men with him. These men were experts in their field, one was the Scandinavian skiing champion, another was an expert in working with dogs. They used huskies. They didn’t pull those sledges physically like the other men.
On his way to the South Pole Amundsen put deposits of supplies for the way back, that’s right - He got to the South Pole with hardly any effort and he got all his men right back. He was the first man in the world to conquer the South Pole. Folks, that wasn’t just luck. How can you define luck anyway, how can you define that word? That wasn’t just a lucky chance, no, no! He prepared himself.
You and I need to prepare ourselves better. Whether you are going to get married, going into business or whether you want to be a professional sportsman, you need to prepare yourself. And most of all, we need to prepare for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to tell you, He is not coming soon... He is on His way!
We need to be prepared and we need to be ready for His coming. Have a wonderful Saturday!
God bless you and goodbye.
One of my favourite scriptures in the Bible is Luke 9:62:
“But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
There is no turning back for us. Why do we want to go back to Egypt - To eat melons and cucumbers, to have a place to bury our dead? That is what the people of Israel wanted to do when it got tough in the desert. They wanted Moses to take them back to the old places. We cannot possibly plough a straight line if we keep on looking back.
You know, the Bible tells us in John 8:36:
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”
Why do you want to go back to Egypt?
We need to press forward... We really need to keep our eyes fixed on heaven, eternity.
Years ago, I heard a story of a muscovy duck, a big fat plump muscovy duck with small little wings. He had never flown in all his life, running up and down that chicken run in all the mud, flapping his little wings... as much food as he wanted to eat. He looked up to the sky and he heard the cry of a flock of spur-winged geese flying in that V-formation. They weren’t fat, no. They were actually quite lean and thin. They had a few holes in their wings by some farmer’s shotgun but they were free, free indeed. We really need to keep our focus on the goal - the destination!
A couple of days ago, I was flown to the Northern Cape and folks, I want to tell you, I saw something I will never forget as long as I live. No, there weren’t hundreds of thousands of people there but there were farmers and businessmen, there were boys and girls. There were old people, there were policemen, there were all kinds of people with resilience in their hearts who are destined to finish the race. I have never been so moved in my life. They flew me and some faithful men from the farm, in an aeroplane, to the Northern Cape and then in a helicopter right into the middle of the bush where it has been burnt. There is nothing left, only wind and dust.
I tell you what, the people were sitting underneath thorn trees trying to keep out of the sun, this was at 12 o’clock - midday. They had been waiting from 9 in the morning. When I started preaching, at times I couldn’t see them for that red dust that was getting blown, the whirlwinds of dust and heat and wind. They never moved, they sat there. I want to tell you I saw young children, it made me cry, come running up to hug me. They were determined that they were going to pray for rain and we are believing that the rain is on its way.
I saw a 92-year-old man get out of a wheelchair, that’s right, and walk with the assistance of two young men to the altar to recommit his life to Christ. I saw something that I will never forget as long as I live - These people are ploughing in a straight line. They are not going back to Egypt, no, no, no! They are waiting for the rain to come and it will come because our Rainmaker is faithful and true. His Name is Jesus!
Today, keep your focus on the goal and do not look behind you.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“Then He said to His disciples.”Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on.” Luke 12:22
Folks, Jesus is telling us this morning to stop worrying. It doesn’t help us at all - It just makes you sick. It makes you confused, it makes you go the wrong way and make bad decisions. Do not worry about tomorrow... The Lord says today has enough problems of its own. Why are you worrying about tomorrow? We need to start to take one day at a time.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these (other) things (tomorrow) shall be added to you” Matthew 6:33
Do your best and then leave the rest to Jesus. When travelling, I have to drive out of this little farm, I have to get on an aeroplane and I have to go to the other side of the world. Now I am a farmer - I am used to, when the sun goes down, I come back to my little house, to my wife and my family... But that is not always possible anymore. Often I will end up in a hotel room on the other side of the world with a bit of jet lag and a lot of other things and then the battle is on. The battle is not on when I get onto the platform or behind the pulpit. No, it is when I am in that hotel room on my own. This battle that I am talking about, we are all facing it. It is not a physical battle, it is a spiritual battle.
I lie in that bed and the devil says to me, “You are irresponsible. You have left your wife on her own in that little house, on the other side of the world. You can’t get to her even if you wanted to if she had a problem.” And then that cold sweat comes on my brow and I start to worry. Then the Holy Spirit comes in like a beautiful fresh early morning breeze and He starts to speak to me in my heart. He says, “Angus, I called you. I appointed you and I anointed you for this work. Angus, let us reason together.” I get quite emotional, just telling you this. “Am I not better able to take care of your wife, your family, your children and your grandchildren and the farms?”
I say, “Yes Lord.”
“Well Angus, you do your work and then let Me do My work.”
And then I just turn over and I go to sleep. And of course, the first thing in the morning, I phone my wife and I hear that lovely voice on the other side, “Good morning, Angie!”
“How you Jill?”
“I had a good sleep.”
“How are the horses, the dogs, the kids, everything... the chickens?”
“No, they are fine.”
And then I go to work, and we see the power of God come down. We are in a battle. Don’t worry - It won’t do anything for you.
Maybe this morning I am speaking to a young student who is worried about their exams - Study hard. Do your best and leave the rest to God. You will be surprised at how those answers will come to you when you are writing your exam. Maybe it is a businessman this morning who just does not know what to do tomorrow. Just do what you can today... the Lord will take care of the rest. Maybe it is a medical problem and you don’t know whether you should do it or not. Ask God, leave it to Him and carry on living. You will probably find you won’t even have to have that operation.
Let us start to trust God and stop worrying. Have a wonderful day today as you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and the Perfecter of your faith.
God bless you.
“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5
And you will find that exact scripture again in James 4:6. I think the Lord is trying to impress something upon us this morning - Always remember, pride always comes before a fall. Our Lord Jesus Christ was the most humble man who has ever walked on the face of this earth. We must remember - to be humble does not mean to be weak, not at all. A beautiful definition of the word humble is controlled strength... That is what a humble man is.
Moses was not a weak man, by any standards and yet the Bible tells us clearly in Numbers 12:3 (in The Old Testament) that he was the most humble of any man on the face of the earth in those days. There was nothing soft about a man who could lead an entire nation through the desert for forty years. And who could stretch out his rod, by faith, and see an ocean separated so that his people could walk through it.
As the adage goes: “The softest part of him was his teeth!”
We need to be more gentle in these stressful times that we are living. We need to prefer one another, we need to love one another. The lowliest Christian is the loveliest Christian. Augustine said it was pride that changed angels into devils. It is humility that makes men as angels.
I just want to say to the young men today, treat those young girls that you take out, with great respect and gentleness and God will honour you. It makes them feel like beautiful maidens... the way God created them to be. I want to say to a young man: Don’t be afraid to stand up and give an old lady your seat, son. That is not being a sissy, that is being a humble man of God. Walk that old person across the street. Take time out to speak to a lonely old person sitting on a bench. These are the factors that make you a humble man or woman of God. It is not so much what we say but who we are that impacts people.
Have a wonderful day today as you walk in the power of God and the humility of Jesus!
God bless you and goodbye.
‘“For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” Luke 9:56
You see folks, Jesus is not here to condemn people. He is here to save us - He has come to save the lost. Now the Sons of Thunder, an appropriate name for James and John, got it the wrong way around. They got very angry, you see, because they had come to a village and wanted to prepare a place for the Master to sleep that night and they were chased out of the village.
They were so angry, they said, “Lord, let's just bring down fire from Heaven.” Have you ever felt like that? You will find that in Luke 9:54:
“Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”
And then the Lord rebuked them and said, “No”, He said, “I came to save them.” You and I need to be patient - We need to remember from whence we came.
I often sit and I smile and I wonder what people must have thought when Jill and I and our children, walked into that little church, forty-odd years ago for the first time on that Sunday morning. They must have looked around and said, “Look what the cat brought in!” But the Lord never ever writes off people. He came to save us. Never write off anybody, always keep the door wide open. Just like the prodigal son’s father, that farmer... remember? His son wanted his inheritance. He went off and he wasted it but the door was always open. And you know, that father never compromised, no, no. He didn’t try and make a deal. He let his son go but he always kept the door open... And what happened? Eventually, his son came back home and became a faithful son.
I want to say to you today that maybe there is somebody who is going to come to their senses today and come back home and say, “Listen, mom, dad - I am sorry. I have made a terrible mistake. Please give me another chance.” Jesus came to offer us the Gospel, freely, not by threat or through fear. In Matthew 11:28 He says:
“Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
Today, ask the Lord to show you someone who needs help. Go to them by faith and save them in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have a wonderful day and remember, if Christ is for you, there is no man will ever stand against you!
God bless you and goodbye.
If we go to Ephesians 2:8 the Bible says that we have been saved by grace through faith and that, not of ourselves for it was a gift from God. I want to speak to you about mercy - What does mercy mean? Well, the Oxford Dictionary says it is something to be grateful for.
Yes, it is an opportunity to say sorry. It is an opportunity to make amends and that is why, as an evangelist, the altar call is so critical - And to me the most important part of the whole service. It is where the battle is at its fiercest. The devil says, “Don’t move. Don’t make a fool of yourself. Don’t go up there and say sorry to Jesus.” The Lord says, “Repent and be saved.”
If you look at those old videos of Billy Graham, when tens of thousands of people come forward and bow the knee at the altar and ask for forgiveness, it warms my heart. I have seen it time and time again and it never ceases to amaze me.
In the early years, we used to sing that hymn, just as Billy Graham always did with his men:
Just as I am without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee
Oh Lamb of God, I come, I come
I want to tell you, my dear friend, just singing that little chorus... that verse brings tears to my eyes. I have seen husbands and wives, arm in arm, coming forward, tears streaming down their faces, asking for forgiveness. I have seen young men and their dads coming to the front and kneeling arm in arm. I have seen mothers and daughters coming forward, asking God for forgiveness. I have seen old people with walking sticks, some in wheelchairs, coming forward to say, “Lord, I am sorry!” God wants to say to you today, you too can say sorry.
God says:
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5
I heard a preacher say once, “You can never do anything to make God love you any more and you can never do anything to make God love you any less.” He just loves you - Why don’t you call upon Him today?
I Peter 5:7 says: Cast your cares, your burdens upon Jesus because He cares for you.
He will take that burden that is crushing you. He will give you that forgiveness that you are looking for and He will give you new life.
Jesus bless you as you have a wonderful week.
God bless you and goodbye.
“My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist!”
2 Chronicles 10:10
That was spoken by a foolish young king. He had taken over from his father, who was none other than the wisest man who had ever lived, King Solomon himself and he went for counsel because the people came and said, “Lighten our burden and we will serve you.” The old elders said, “Listen to the people” but the young king went and listened to his friends, and they said, “Make it harder for them.” As a result of that foolish counsel, that young king lost his kingdom.
Do not disregard priceless advice, it is often given freely and in love. Here at Shalom, we have four elders - They are my personal advisors. They give me godly counsel. They are not 'yes men'. Often they ask me to reconsider my proposals. They make me go back to the drawing board and think about it before we make the final decision.
Many years ago, some young go-ahead bright farmers decided to grow a crop that had never been grown before in this area. We live, by the way, in a very misty area - It is called the mist-belt. That means that it is always damp and rainy in the summertime. The older farmers in the area said that the particular crop would not grow in this area but the young dynamic farmers did not take notice - They did not take heed.
They planted that crop. Initially, the fields looked beautiful. They were rich and golden and heavy for yielding but when it came time to harvest the field the crop fell over. It lay on the ground, became mouldy and the combine harvesters could not take it off. We need to listen to the counsel of men and women who have been there before.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:29:
”…learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Go out today and listen to the counsel of experienced people who have been there before. They will save you a lot of pain and a lot of tears.
God bless you and have a lovely Sunday.
“Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Matthew 17:4
The mountain-top experience, always a beautiful place to be! Peter, James, and John had seen the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ and had experienced the presence of Almighty God on the mountain-top. He wanted them to stay there, he wanted to build three little buildings for them to stay in. But the Lord said “No, we cannot stay there. We cannot stay in that nice, secure, and peaceful place. We have to go down into the valley where the people are. We have to roll up our sleeves and be prepared to get dirty, if necessary... to help the poor, the needy, the widow and the orphan - those who use and even abuse you.”
That’s right, it's not easy but why can’t we just stay secluded and safe from all the ugliness that goes on in this tired old world? Well, because Jesus loves the prostitute, He loves the drug addict, He loves the thief... not that He loves what they are doing but He loves them and He wants you and me to help them. The very first thing that happened when Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration was that He was confronted by a multitude of people. A desperate father came to Him and said, “Please help, my little son is an epileptic,” and Jesus cured the boy that very hour. We need to get involved.
I remember like yesterday, the very first time I ever preached the Gospel. It was an evening service in the little Methodist Church on the Main Street of Greytown. I was so nervous. I was in the back of the church in the vestry, the elders had come and laid their hands on me, they were praying for me and said, “Get out there, Angus and go and tell them about Jesus.” But one thing disturbed me that I have never forgotten. There was one old gentleman there who said, “Get out there and do it,” he said, “I have done my bit.” I will never forget that. I had only known the Lord for about three months and something in my heart was heavy. We can never 'do our bit'. We have always got to be available.
We have never lost any blood, we have never been crucified... How can we say we have done our bit?
Now, remember - first the mountain and then the ministry. We have to get the balance right. First, spend time with the Lord and then get down into the valley and help the people.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye!
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels.” Luke 9:26
Wow - That is quite a scripture... Followed up with Romans 1:16 which says:
“I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”
We have got to stand up and be counted in these days - It is not optional. The hardest place to be a Christian is in your own hometown or environment, isn't it? It is much easier to be a Christian out there in the world where nobody knows you.
This morning while praying before recording this message, my heart is really for the younger generation. In my age group, people have already made up their minds what they think of us and we have made our stance. But for the younger generation, it is a struggle, in an unforgiving and sometimes ruthless society, especially at school or at university. The easiest thing to do, to make your stand for Christ, is to make it crystal clear the first day you go to school or university - right from the start.
They used to tell the young soldiers when they went to the army, the first night you arrive - get on your knees. Even if you do not do it at home and pray before you go to bed, and that will show the young men in that particular barracks, who you are following. The worst thing for that young person to do is to be lukewarm and to blow hot and cold. No one will like you for that. One day you are hunting with the hounds and the next day you are running with the hares... It doesn’t work.
Jesus Himself said, “I would rather you be cold or hot, but if you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16.
You and I today, let us be red-hot for the Lord Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
“How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! “
Matthew 23:37
You know, when a hen gathers her chicks underneath her to protect them and they are not willing, that is a major problem. I just love to watch a young mother when she has bathed her beautiful baby... And when she's bathed that baby, she wraps that baby tightly up and it looks so snug and so secure.
I looked up, Hemmed in - You and I need to be hemmed in by the Lord today. Hemmed in means to be surrounded or restricted, a restricted movement of someone... and that just makes you feel so secure, doesn’t it?
People are so distressed today, they are so loose - There is just nothing secure, nothing sure. When I go to Israel, there is a little church on the Mount of Olives, a small little church that overlooks the Kidron Valley and you can see the Temple Mount from there - where Solomon’s Temple was. Jesus sat there and that is where He said, “I would just love to gather you together but you are not willing.” I want to say to you today, let the Lord hem you in. Let Him look after you like a mother hen looks after her little chicks - Don’t push away from Him.
You know, a couple of nights ago, we were driving home. It was a rough road, it had been raining, it was dark, the traffic was hectic and there were potholes everywhere. You couldn’t ask for a worse night... The road was extremely busy. People were trying to get home, lights flashing everywhere - it was a terrible scenario to be in. We didn’t really know where we were going because there were these massive signboards, “Pull over to the left”, “Stop!” We didn’t know what to do but there was a huge 30-ton pantechnicon, a big lorry in front of us. We decided we were going to tuck in behind him. He had massive red brake lights and every time he came up against a pothole, he put his brakes on and we knew there was a pothole coming and we slowed down. That driver, I wish I could have shaken him by the hand but it wasn’t possible. You know we just settled in behind him and he took us safely to our destination.
I want to say to you today, why don’t you and I allow Jesus to guide us, He wants to. Let’s just allow Him to look after us and wrap us up, nice and tight, and take us to our destination.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
Mark 8:27 Jesus said:
“Who do men say that I am?”
And then we go a bit further to Mark 8:29:
“Peter answered and said to Him, “You are the Christ.”
You know, when I gave my life to Jesus Christ, I did not give my life to an ideology or a certain denomination. I gave my life to a person, His name: Jesus Christ - my best friend! Do you know that there is more evidence that Jesus walked on this earth 2000 years ago than there is that Julius Caesar lived on this earth? And yet why do we always question that fact? Why is it that we always doubt the fact that Jesus is God, made flesh?
If we go to Isaiah 7:14 and this was written hundreds of years ago before Jesus was born in Bethlehem:
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”
Foretold hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ on earth and yet we still seem to doubt Him. But today we need to let our faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ, do the talking. Don’t just tell folks that Jesus is your friend, show them that He is your friend by your action.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” Matthew 7:21
I remember years ago when I was living in my little pole and daga house with my wife and children, a man came to visit me. He was a school teacher - His name was Piet Uys. He came with a group of his students, he was traveling around South Africa and he said to them, "I am going to prove to you that Jesus Christ is alive and that He is the Son of God - We are not going to take one cent with us. We are not going to beg. We are not going to ask for anything and the Lord is going to take us for a holiday, right around South Africa for a month.”
He arrived in Greytown with his whole class. One of my Christian friends introduced me to him and what an amazing man. He sat in the little house of ours one night, with a guitar and he started to sing. Then he started to prophesy over Jill and I. Now we had just given our lives to the Lord. I hadn’t even started preaching and he started telling me things that would happen. You know that every single one of those things that he prophesied has taken place?! And I just want to say to you that there is more evidence today, in my life, that Jesus is alive than the day I met Him and gave my life to Him.
Today remember He is the Christ. He is the soon-coming King. He loves you and He died for you.
God bless you and have a wonderful day!
“However I did not believe their words until I came and saw with my own eyes, and indeed the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You exceed the fame of which I heard.” 2 Chronicles 9:6
Those were the words of the Queen of Sheba from Ethiopia. She had travelled for probably three months from Ethiopia to Israel, to meet King Solomon. You see, Romans 8:31 says if Christ be for you, there is no man can stand against you. She met the wisest, richest man walking on the earth in those days and she came to hear from him. When she arrived, she could not believe what she saw. The wealth, the organization, the wisdom that she had heard about. She said, “It’s only half of what I heard!”
I want to say to you today, why is it that you and I, we run to and fro all over the place to seek man’s counsel and advice, when Jesus our Lord is sitting quietly, waiting for us to come to Him. He wants to help us and He wants to guide us?
“Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28
The Lord says: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
You and I have all the counsel, the power and all the protection at our very disposal - All we have to do is just to ask Him for it. That is exactly what King Solomon did and God granted it to him. Please, today, don’t run all over the place. I think what we do, sometimes, is we hurt God you know. We run everywhere and He is waiting for us. He says, “Call upon Me and I will answer you and I will show you great and mighty things of which you do not know.” You will find that in Jeremiah Chapter 33:3 - That is Jesus’s telephone number.
Call upon Him today and He will answer you. Have a wonderful day.
May God bless you and goodbye.
“And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”
Matthew 8:20
You and I need to keep short accounts with men and with God. This is not our permanent home. We really need to 'cut our cloth according to our pockets'... What does that mean? It means simply: get out of debt. Don’t owe anybody anything - We really need to get prepared. This home is not our home, we are just passing through. Heaven is our home. You know, some of us have got ourselves so bogged down and so entangled with the things of this worldly system, that if Jesus were to return tomorrow, we couldn’t go home with Him. We owe too much!
We need to cut our costs - How much is enough by the way?
That’s right, think about that!
You know, when Jesus sent the disciples out to preach and to heal the sick, He told them clearly in Luke 9:3:
“Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.”
In other words, we need to move lightly. Now, I am not suggesting for a minute that we must become irresponsible, not at all. We have to make provision for our families and our loved ones.
I just love watching those documentaries of those reindeer herders, right up in the frozen Northern part of the world. They travel with their animals and they live in tents. You will see them one day and the next day there is nothing to be seen... just vast white snow plains. They have moved on, following the seasons with their animals.
You and I today need to get ready for the coming of the Lord. Keep watching the clouds because one of these beautiful, glorious mornings, we will see Him coming in the clouds. He has promised us, with a mighty trumpet call and He will be saying, “It is time to come home children, to your permanent abode.”
Have a wonderful week as you keep your eyes on Jesus.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” Luke 9:1-2
The Lord has given us a job to do. If we go to Acts 3:6 - what a beautiful scripture:
“Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
The Lord has called you and me to go out into all the world, to preach the Gospel to the poor, lay hands upon the sick and watch them recover. To drive out demons and to give people the love of God. If ever this world needed love, it is now. What about you and me today? You might say, “Well, Angus, I am not qualified. I don’t have a degree in theology.” - Neither do I.
“I am not a pastor!” Neither am I.
But what have you got? You see, Peter and John said to the poor man, “We don’t have any money but what we do have is the power of God”, and laid their hands on the lame man and he got up and walked.
I believe in miracles. Do you know, yesterday I saw three miracles here at Shalom. In the morning, I had to meet a couple at 10 o’clock. They walked into the room and they were looking quite bashful. They were both engaged, a middle-aged couple - They had lost their spouses and they sat there and they spoke for a while. I said to the gentleman, “Are you engaged to this lady.” He said, “Yes, I am.” I said, “Are you intending to get married?” He said, “Of course, I am.” I said, “When?” He said, “Soon”.
I said, “How about now?” And they looked at each other and the lady blushed. And he said, “Well, why not?” I said, “Go and sit in the chapel and I will be with you in about half an hour, and I want you to pray together and seek the Face of the Lord.”
And then another family came to see me, they have the most beautiful son. His name is Jarrod, and Jarrod has got all the Snowy books and Jarrod loves Uncle Angus, he came to see me. He is autistic. I saw this little boy, what a lovely child, what a godly child! His mother and dad love him so much. They have got so much patience for him and his mother said in a very emotional way, “Uncle Angus, do you know that Jarrod can recite the complete Psalm 91?”
I said, “What?” And he started - Folks, I want to tell you without a slip, he recited the whole of Psalm 91. And she said, “ And Psalm 23”, and we prayed together.
And then just after that, another miracle happened. An old couple came in who are missionaries in India. They are Indians, they live in South Africa and they go over every year. This man is well into his seventies. He had a stroke but he is going back to preach the Gospel.
Go out today and God will use you.
Have a wonderful day, God bless you.
“But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14
God’s kingdom will be made up of little people like these. It is the simplicity of the Gospel, it is so beautiful and so innocent when you hear the Gospel come out of the mouths of babes. I just love children, as I am getting older. I get those little pictures sent to me in the post of a little three or four year old, drawing a picture of Snowy and Oom Angus (Uncle Angus) - It makes me cry.
Jesus never wants anyone to interfere with little children when they want to come to Him. You see, the disciples thought that they were protecting Jesus but He was adamant that they must let them come to Him. He said Heaven will be composed of little ones like these.
I want to just share a gentle word with some dads. Don’t discourage your children from entering into God’s Kingdom. I can hear Dads saying very clearly, “No, Angus, I would never do that!” But why does mom have to take them to church alone? Why do you sit in the car park reading the newspaper until the service is over? Don’t you know that your little child will do exactly what you do when they are older, because you are their absolute hero?
Don’t prevent them from coming to Jesus. You have to lead from the front. You need to read Bible stories to them before they go to sleep - That is not mom’s job. You know, we have a prayer meeting every Monday afternoon in the little chapel on the farm, it is open for anybody. I have several little grandsons, ageing from about 5/6 to about 14 years old. They come up on their bicycles and they come into the prayer room with all the adults. They get involved in praying.
And sometimes I can’t help but laugh - they are so keen to talk to Jesus. They are kind of jockeying for position, one after the other and I sit there sometimes and I quietly open my eyes... and I see that the adults, they don’t even get a chance to pray. These little guys are praying one after the other. They are reading Bible scriptures, it is so beautiful. It brings tears to my eyes. It must make Jesus stand up in Heaven and say to His Father, “Listen to them Dad, listen to them - They are talking to Us.”
Please don’t, in any way, stand in the way when your little boy or your little girl wants to go to church. Go with them - Lead from the front, Dad.
Have a blessed Saturday!
God bless you and goodbye.
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:11
Yes, I am talking about the power of the spoken Word of God.
You see, Jesus is the Word - John 1:1:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Smith-Wigglesworth, that English plumber who lived many years ago, said: “God said it, I believe it and that settles it.”
Years ago, I got an invitation from an old gentleman called Harold Berry. He was married to Smith Wigglesworth's daughter, I didn’t know that at the time. He asked me if he could meet me and I was very busy - like most young people feel that they are. Anyway, I was going to a conference north of Johannesburg and I said I would pop in and see him on my way up. It was one of the most defining moments of my life. You see, as I walked into his house I saw a photograph of Smith Wigglesworth and his dear wife, Polly Wigglesworth.
I said, “My Berry, do you know these people?”
He said, “Yes, they are my family.”
Straight away I realized I was in the presence of God. He told me he was very sad as his dear wife had passed away not so long ago. He was immaculately dressed, he had laid out a tray of tea and biscuits. He said he had made them himself... with a twinkle in his eye! I don’t think he did.
He told me about all the mini churches that they had started in the Congo, about all the miracles that had been performed and I asked him at the end of the tea, “Mr. Berry, can you please pray for me? I want the anointing of God on my life - I want your mantle.”
He said, “Yes, Angus.” He went into his bedroom and got a bottle of oil. I got on my knees in the lounge and he anointed me with oil. But do you know what amazed me about that old gentleman? He spoke pure, undiluted scripture from memory! I remember one thing that he said, “It is not so much what Angus says that will make the impact but rather who he is.” Well, I want to tell you that Smith Wigglesworth only ever read one book and that was the Bible. He never prayed for longer than 30 minutes but he never let 30 minutes go by without praying. He broke bread, he had Holy Communion with God every day and that is why there were a number of people (documented) raised from the dead when he laid his hands on them and prayed.
I went on my way, rejoicing, to that men's conference but I want to tell you, I never preached much that weekend. I spent most of my time crying from the pulpit... but I have never seen the power of God move like it did that weekend. Men on their knees, broken, weeping, restored, healed, set free.
Go out today and use the Word of God for everything. Read it! Memorize it and most of all believe it - Jesus is the Word!
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you.
“And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.
Luke 8:39
The power of personal testimony!
You know that is what bought Jill and me to Christ. It wasn’t a great preacher. It was ordinary people, getting up into the pulpit and sharing about what Jesus had done to change their lives. You see, you can’t argue with a testimony. Either you believe it or you reject it because you weren’t there. There is something so innocent, so pure about an honest, simple testimony. No, no so-called professionalism about it. No weeping, shock, words that are all back to front but there is something so beautiful about it. “I once was lost but now I am found”. That is what John Newton said when he wrote Amazing Grace.
Can you imagine this man - His name was Legion because he had so many demons in him and Jesus set him free. And here he was in the town, telling the people that he was free. People were petrified of this man, he was a mad man. They had even tried to chain him and he broke the chains. He lived in the hills alone on the other side of Lake Galilee. I have been to that place - it is barren, even today. Now, here he was, perfectly dressed. Normal, clothed in his right mind - what a testimony!
You know just after that day that Jill and I gave our lives to Christ - the next morning my neighbour and I, Ian, were on our way to a cattle sale. He was the commandant of the local commandos, he was a big tough boy. He was a wonderful man. I think we had probably been in the pub on Saturday night together and we were driving down the road in the pick-up and The Holy Spirit tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Testify - Tell him what has happened to you!”
I was stuttering and I was nervous and I said
“Ian, something happened to me yesterday.” And he said, “What happened to you Angus?
I said: ”Yesterday, Jesus touched my life and He has given me freedom.”
I looked at Ian. He had gone a bit grey and he said, “Angus, I am so pleased for you.”
I said, “What about you Ian?”
“No”, he said, “Not for me Angus. Not yet.”
You know, two years later, I was sitting in my farm office on a Saturday afternoon, I will never forget it... It was Ian, He said: “Angus, I need help.” I said, “Ian, I am on my way.” I came across to his house and on the carpet in the lounge, in front of his family, Ian and I prayed the sinner's prayer together.
Go out today and tell someone what Jesus has done for you.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple; then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel…”
2 Chronicles 6:32
What a beautiful promise - And then, of course, we go to Romans 10:13... one of my favourite scriptures:
“For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Maybe as I am speaking to you this morning, my dear friend, you have been in the far country and you are not sure whether Jesus will welcome you back again. I have good news for you! He is waiting for you with outstretched arms just like the prodigal son - which means the one who has been wastefully extravagant, who has lost everything but wants to come home. The Lord says in Revelation 3:20:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”
He is waiting for you. It doesn’t matter what you have done, who you are, what colour you are or what nation you come from. If you sincerely repent (say sorry) and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved.
Why not do it today? I can hear somebody saying, “Is there any hope for me, Angus?” Well, remember that old story of the man who had fallen?
He went to jail and he wrote a letter back home and he said to his mom and dad, “I am coming back home on a steam engine at 5 o’clock, tomorrow afternoon. If you really want me home, please tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree.” Remember the song?
Well, he was sitting on that train. He was so nervous with his little suitcase, being released from prison... as he was coming around the corner, he knew where the old oak tree was, there were a couple of kids in the compartment with him. And he said, “Please look out the window and tell me if you see a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree and then I will know I will be able to go home.”
As the steam engine came around the corner, the old oak tree was standing there. The ex-prisoner didn’t have the heart to look out the window. He said to the children, “What do you see? Do you see a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree?” They said, “No sir, there is no ribbon around the old oak tree but there is a sheet (I get emotional telling you this) and there are clothes hanging from the tree of all different colours. They are waiting for you!”
Oh, folks, today let Jesus wipe away your tears. Say “sorry”, come home and start a new relationship with Him.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Romans 12:21 the Lord says:
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Don’t allow evil to drown you because it will rob you of your joy. It will actually make you sick - rather overcome evil with good. Let us today show kindness to all men and trust God for the results. That is what F.B. Meyer said. Remember, revenge belongs to God and He will set the record straight. That is why we are called to pray for our enemies and for those who oppress us. Remember, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. You know, the Bible tells us, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But Jesus says in Matthew 5:38:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”
Wow! That is a powerful statement but why? Because that is where you get the victory. Today, give those difficult relationships and those situations to the Lord Jesus Christ and He will carry your burdens for you.
“…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7.
That challenge might even be in your very own house. It is very easy to be a Christian out there but back at the ranch it takes some doing, doesn’t it?
Nothing on this earth is more powerful than unconditional love. Now, if you and I forgive, then it stops. But if we say, “No, I want to have my own revenge” well, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth... Half the world would be walking around toothless and blind. We need to forgive and remember that it takes two to tango, it takes two to dance.
If you say, “I am not going to fight anymore. I am not going to repay evil with evil”, then it will stop. Get ready today for your miracle. It might be at work, it might be in school and it might even be in your own home. Jesus will do it for us.
Go out today and have a wonderful day and expect a miracle in your life.
God bless you and goodbye.
“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
John 8:1
Now early in the morning, my text says: “very early in the morning”, He came again into the temple and all the people came to Him, and He sat down and taught them.”
And then we go to Proverbs 6:10:
“A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep—
So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler,…”
We have got to get up in the morning! What do they say - The early bird catches the worm, that’s right! Do you know, I have never, ever conceived in my mind or my heart or my spirit that our beloved Jesus slept in or overslept... or didn’t get up in the morning. I don’t think there is one place that you will find in the whole Bible where the Lord had to be woken up, apart from the time He was sleeping in the ship, but that was for a different reason. He was an early riser.
One of my trustees, Eric, gets up at 1.30 am every morning. That is when he does his work and he has his quiet time. He has done it his whole life. You might say, “Well, Angus, I am a pensioner now.” Well, this man is 87 years young, that’s right! And it is no coincidence that he opened the Wimpy Franchise, right throughout the world. We have got to get up in the morning.
When I was actively farming, I got most of my work done before 9 o’clock in the morning - That was my most effective time. I would come back and have breakfast with Jill at 9 o’clock, but we got all the work going, everything was running smoothly before the sun even came up... many a time.
You know, Jesus always conferred with His Father before He conferred with the people and that is why you and I need to spend time early in the morning with the Lord. Otherwise, poverty, as it says in Proverbs, will come upon you. Have you noticed how many things always seem to go so much smoother when you get up in the morning and you do them straight away?
Now, why I am sharing this with you is because yesterday my one son said to me: "Dad, I have just found a swarm of bees in the tree.” And so I went along and I captured that swarm of bees and took them to one of my beehives and I put them in there. And then early this morning, yes this very morning, when I was lying, praying with my wife in the bed, I realized those little bees have got no food to eat. You see, we have just come out of winter. So what did I do? I got in my pick-up. I put my bee suit on and off I went to the forest with the lights on in my pick-up. But you know - it went so smoothly. I was able to put honey in there for the bees. They were quiet, they were still just totally restful.
I want to say to you today, try it and see. Get up in the morning. Discipline yourself and your day will go so much smoother - Speak to Jesus first!
God bless you and have a wonderful week.
“Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Genesis 4:9
That is a serious question and the answer is a resounding, “Yes, I am actually!”
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
Matthew 25:40
You and I, this Sunday morning, have a responsibility to take care of one another. And it is so easy, isn’t it - to give to those who appreciate what you are doing for them and who also can respond in like manner? Not so easy when you do it for those, first of all, who don’t even know that you did it, and then secondly when you help them, they don’t appreciate it.
My dear son in the Lord, Anton Stoltz, one of my intercessors, sent me a little clip that is attached to this message and it touched my heart deeply. It is just a little lighthearted clip but it speaks volumes.
It describes a man who has broken down with his motorcar on the side of the road. He has got the bonnet lifted and there is smoke coming out of the engine. And he is standing by and just looking at it and the motorcars are just going past him, one after the other. Then all of a sudden, some good samaritan, that’s right - just like the good samaritan that helped the man who was robbed on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem - stopped to see if he could help. When he walked up to the motorcar, the man was braaing. He was barbecuing some beautiful food under the bonnet.
I just want to say to you today, you can’t out-bless the Lord Jesus Christ, I found that in my own life. The more you give to Him, the more He gives back to you. Today, go out and bless somebody and in doing so, the Lord has told us that we will be blessing Him. It is a far greater pleasure and a gift to give than to receive. I love giving out gifts and see people’s face’s shining. I also love to receive but it is far more rewarding to give, isn’t it?
Go out today and do something for someone who can’t ever repay you and the Lord, your God in Heaven, will reward you greatly.
Have a wonderful Sunday,
God bless you.
2 Chronicles 6:18 and Solomon said:
“But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!”
That was the word of Solomon after he had completed building the most incredible, majestic, mighty and glorious structure that has been built on the face of the earth. And yet he said, “Can God dwell in a man-made place.” You know I looked up the Bible to see that Solomon used 80,000 stone-cutters, 70,000 bearers of burdens, 3,600 overseers and tons of gold and silver.
He built the most expensive, most glorious structure that has ever been built on the face of the earth and when he completed it, he said, “There is nothing on earth, Lord, that can contain You!”
What a God you and I serve! How often do we forget that? And then if we go to John 1:1, the Gospel of John - a beautiful scripture:
“ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
This God that Solomon is speaking about said one word and everything that you can conceive and see was made in an instant.
Oh yes! And by the way, that Word is Jesus - Majestic and glorious! Oh, folks, we need to respect Him so much more, don’t we? He is indeed the Saviour of the world and if it weren’t for God’s only Son, we would be on our way to a lost eternity. John 3:16, the most famous scripture in the Bible:
“For God (that same God that Solomon is talking about) so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
And that is why believers, me included, so often weep with joy and with reverence when we hear the name of our Beloved mentioned.
My best temple ever are the outdoor meetings. I just love them. The stars in the sky, the clouds. He writes His name in the clouds... We have seen crosses in the clouds, we have seen all kinds of things happening in the clouds. That sweet scent of the early morning, the flash of lightning, the roll of thunder, the sweet smell of new rain on dry, dusty soil.
No, He can never be housed in a building but He can be housed, and wants to live in our hearts!
Jesus bless you as you have a glorious day.
Goodbye.
“…we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age…”
Titus 2:12
And then we go straight to Luke 17 and I am reading verse 17:
“So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?”
Well folks, there were ten lepers that Jesus healed. Only one came back to say thank you and he wasn’t even a Jew - He was a Samaritan. So often, unfortunately, many unbelievers can put us Christians to shame when it comes to good manners, integrity and just plain honestly. I want to say to you today - we need to let our walking do the talking. We need godly integrity, it is badly needed in these days that we are living.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of going to meet Pat Robertson who hosts the 700 Club, the large CBN Network, in the USA. I also saw his magnificent Christian university - It is called Regent University. Students from all over the world queue up to go to that university. And I heard an interesting story. A young student applied for a bursary to attend this very prestigious house of learning and he was told by post, that he had been accepted. Needless to say, he was ecstatic, he was so full of joy. Well, he packed up all his gear and he arrived at the massive campus. (And it is huge - I jogged around that campus.) It is kilometres long and he went into the registration department to register, the lady asked his name. He told her his name. She looked up the list and said, “Unfortunately, you have been turned down.”
He was devastated. He said, “How come? I was accepted.”
She said, “No, you have been declined.”
“Why?” the young man asked.
“Because you didn’t say thank you”.
Ja, that is a true story. He didn’t think to write back and say: “Thank you for giving me the opportunity of studying at this university.”
Folks, we have really got to watch our manners. We have got to watch the way we act. There are many people who don’t even know Jesus, who can put us to shame when it comes to good, basic manners.
Go out today and let your walking do the talking.
God bless you.
“And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Genesis 2:18
And then we go to Luke 8:3:
“and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.”
Jesus had many women who travelled with Him and the disciples and they took care of them. You don’t hear much about them but I want to tell you, they wouldn’t have made it without those women. They supplied the needs of the disciples and The Master from their very own finances and personal substance. I just want to praise God this morning for the women-folk. Come on boys, where would we be without them.
You know when I travel overseas, Jill always packs my suitcase. She puts stuff in and I take it out! I always tell her, “I won’t need that” and “I won’t need this”, and she says, “Take it, just in case.” And every single time it is a winner! Just when I need that extra shirt because the other one got messed up or got messed up in the rain… there it is and I say, “Thank You, Lord for a good wife.”
You know that a woman can make or break a man, by the way she takes care of him or by how she neglects him. We really need to appreciate our women-folk… And ladies I want to tell you, you have a very, very seriously responsible duty to God. You know beauty, as they say, is only skin deep. They say, and this is a bit rough but they say, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. That is right. Once the honeymoon is over the hard-working man, when he comes home at night, he wants to come home to a place that is full of love and caring. Where the children are nicely bathed and in their pajamas, and there is a hot meal on the table… Man, that makes a man keep going.
You know, you can look like a beauty queen but if there is no food on the table, it doesn’t last long, it really doesn’t. I just want to thank Jesus today for creating our help-meets, our friends - My confidante, my helper and the one who gives me godly counsel all the time.
Have a wonderful day, ladies - We love you and we appreciate you!
“And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” Luke 8:48
If ever you and I needed faith, it is in these times, not so? We really need to exercise our faith. Not having faith in faith but rather having faith in God. Mark 11:22 is a good memory verse to start with if you struggle with memorizing scripture. It simply says:
“Have faith in God.”
We wrote a book many years ago called, “Faith like Potatoes” and a movie was made of it as well. Often, when people hear the title for the first time, they laugh and say, “What does it mean?” Well, I didn’t come up with that title - There was a great preacher by the name of Peter Marshall who was the chaplain to the United States Senate. He had a great ability with words and he actually said it. You see, he was stressing the point that we must have simple faith. Real faith, faith that you can see, that you can touch, faith that you can eat - Faith like potatoes. Okay? Not that airy-fairy faith - practical faith!
Like the old lady driving down the road, looking for a parking place on a busy shopping day and because it is her life, she just says “Lord Jesus, please, I need a parking place. I am desperate for a place.” And there comes a motorcar reversing out and in she goes - “Thank You, Lord!”
It becomes a lifestyle, it must be a way of life. But you know, we have also got to speak it out, not just think it. We have got to verbalize what we are trusting God for. Are you facing an impossible situation in your life today?
Well, why don’t you exercise your faith? You see, the woman that we are speaking about in the Bible - she had spent all her money. Maybe you have got no money left today. She went to all the doctors and they couldn’t help her. She was bleeding, literally, to death. So she went and she pushed her way through the crowd. She got to the Lord Jesus and she said, “If I can just touch the hem of His garment, I will be healed.” And she did, immediately she was healed. Jesus said to her,
“Woman go in peace. Your faith has made you well.”
I want to pray for you this morning. I just feel, in my heart, I need to pray for you. Maybe you would like to pray this little prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Please forgive me for trying to make a plan.
Lord, I have run out of plans. I don’t have any left.
I need you today more than ever before.
Please increase my faith.
In Jesus Name,
Amen.
And one or two of you might be saying, “But Angus, you can’t say that!” Of course, you can. The disciples said to Jesus, in Luke 17:5:
“Please increase our faith.”
Have a wonderful day today as you walk, not by sight but by faith.
Goodbye
“Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. “
Ephesians 6:11
We are in a war. We are in a full-scale war like never before in the history of the earth. We need to be prepared each day. John 15:7 says very clearly:
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
The devil and all his demons are afraid of the soldiers of the cross. Do not be slack by not putting on your armour each morning. Do you know, when I wake up in the morning before I get out of bed, Jill and I put on the armour of God. That’s right!
The helmet of salvation;
the breastplate of righteousness;
the belt of truth around our waist,
clad our feet with the shoes of the Gospel of peace;
take up the shield of faith to war off the fiery darts of the evil one;
and take up the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, the Bible.
And then we go out with the joy of the Lord, which is our strength, every single day.
Good soldiers of the cross do not keep bad company. Don’t spend time fraternizing with the enemy. Remember, before you speak to people about God, be sure that you have first spoken to God about those people. That is what an intercessor told me many years ago - Bradley Stuart.
I am a beekeeper. I love bee-keeping, I love my bees - I do not fear them but I do respect them. There are certain times of the day, that I will work with my bees and there are other times that I won’t. When I put on that bee suit, (remember African bees are also known as the killer bees, not by accident), I make sure that there are no openings that the bees can penetrate, otherwise, they will sting me. Do not give the devil a foothold in your life my dear friend. Don’t be lazy, don’t compromise - Don’t turn your back on the enemy.
You know, personal character is so important. Let it slip and the devil with laugh at you. You can’t serve two masters. Matthew 12:30:
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
Remember, by being inconsistent we water down our effectiveness and our reputation and this makes us very weak on the battlefield. When we are properly kitted out, every morning before we go out, the devil knows it and he backs right off. He is afraid of us... He knows that he has met with someone who is more of a match than he is.
Go out today and tell people about Jesus Christ but be sure that you have prepared yourself first. Have a wonderful day.
God bless you.
The wisest man who ever lived said:
“Now give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people; for who can judge this great people of Yours?”
2 Chronicles 1:10
Solomon asked God to give him wisdom and knowledge. And then we go to Job 28:28 and Job the farmer said:
"Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
And to depart from evil is understanding."
We really need to be more practical in our daily lives. I remember an agricultural expert, he came to the farm to show us how to do it... He couldn’t start the tractor because he never drove a tractor before, you see it was all theory. He didn’t realize that you had to put the tractor into neutral before you can turn the ignition and start the engine.
Theory is one thing but to make it work is quite something else, isn’t it?
Wisdom and knowledge is a gift from God, and you can ask for it simply, just like Solomon did. Jesus said in Matthew 7:7:
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
We need to concentrate more on people skills - They are vital if you want to succeed in life. Always see people as better than yourself, never speak down to people. Always speak up to people. I would often ask my staff when I was actively farming, I would sit down on a contour bank and say, “I don’t know what to do.” And you know something, they would slowly but surely start telling me of experiences that they had had on other farms, and they were pearls of wisdom. You know, just because a man is poor and just because he has a limited education, that does not make him stupid.
My late dad’s brother struggled with asthma his whole life. He did not have much of an education, he was always in the hospital. When he left school eventually, he became a shepherd in Scotland. He was extremely sought after by the wealthy farming community. Do you know why? Because he had a team of border collies, sheepdogs and he had trained them himself, they were incredible - I saw them myself. I had never seen a man work with a flock of sheep. I am talking about hundreds and hundreds of sheep, all by himself with his dogs. Other companies around about had to employ many, many men to do the same job.
Wisdom and knowledge don’t come from university alone. They come from the school of life - from experience. Ask Jesus today to help you, just like Solomon did.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
John 8:12
What a beautiful assurance we have through this scripture when we are walking in such dark times in the world today. Just the other day, I woke up early in the morning, told my wife that I loved her and said, “I am going to make you a nice cup of tea”, but the lights were out. There was a power failure and I had to grope around in the dark in that farmhouse of ours.
Living in the dark slows you down. You see, what I do is I go and make a nice fire in the woodstove in the kitchen, to warm up the house. That is the first thing I do but I had to try and find the matches. I couldn’t find the kindling or the newspaper and the firewood - It took me twice as long.
When you walk in the dark you must remember you have to do the same thing, sometimes twice or three times over and then when you are in the darkness, you stumble and fall and you break things. Fortunately, I did not break any of Jill’s crockery but I did bumble around... a bit like a bull in a china shop.
When you can’t see where you are going you make bad mistakes and of course, first thing in the morning, it makes you irritable. You can’t find what you are looking for, can you? You become impatient with yourself and you make a poor fire and you need to start again.
Today, on this Sunday, we need to start to walk in the light of God. You know, when you see where you are going, first of all, you can see the job in half the time and it is a pleasant thing to do because everything is there for you and it all works out beautifully. You don’t have to wait for half an hour while the stove gets hot so that you can boil the water and you also work much more efficiently because you can see what you are doing - Then, of course, ultimately you are successful. I want to say to you today and this is especially for the older people, there are none so blind as those who don’t want to see. We need to listen up when people give us good advice, good counsel, we need to hear what they are saying.
Your children come to you and say, “Dad or mom, you need to cut back on those cigarettes. They are not doing you any good, they are affecting your lungs.” “Dad you need to cut back on that alcohol. It is destroying your life.”
“No, I know what I am doing! I know where I am going. I have been doing this for years.”
I want to tell you something now - If you don’t listen, you are going to fall into a hole. Today, put your hand in the Hand of God and He will lead you through the darkness. It is not the time to take the wrong road. We have to invest in the right things and we have to do the right things.
And then lastly, remember, you have got people who are following you. That’s right - your children, your husband, your wife. People are following you and they are doing exactly what you are doing. If you are walking in the darkness you are going to lead them down the wrong road.
Now today, let's look to Jesus because He is the Light of the world.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
God bless you.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
Matthew 7:21
A man of God came to visit me a couple of weeks ago, he said something I will never forget... He said, “Delayed obedience is disobedience.” That is right. Jesus likens this attitude to the man who built his house on the sand, then, of course, the other man who was obedient built his house on the rock.
You can read that in Luke 6:48.
Just the other day I was in a television interview, hosted by a young Nigerian missionary. His name is Chim, he asked if he could tell me something that was bothering him - Why is it that there are so many men and women, called by God and doing mighty works, who just do not finish their walk with God. I said to the young man, two words only, “Quiet time.”
You see, it is impossible to speak with Jesus every day if we are living a double lifestyle.
You know, the Holy Spirit sometimes is referred to as the Hound from Heaven. My wife does not like that terminology but that Hound from Heaven will track you down. He will not let you go. You will not fool Him. You will not be able, and neither will I, to live an immoral life, a dishonest life and continue having a quiet time daily with Jesus, reading the Bible, praying, meditating. We can’t do it - One must go.
Where are we building our house today - Is it on the rock or is it in the sand? You know you can ask any top sportsperson and they will tell you that three weeks without training and he will lose the cutting edge. He will lose the gold medal and he will end up winning nothing at all. Please don’t compromise your time, each day, spent with Jesus because I can tell you from experience, He is the only one who will keep you safe. When the storms of life come and I can tell you they will come, many at the moment - He will be your rock. And if you are building your house upon the rock, it will stand. It will not fall.
If you are not having a quiet time, why don’t you start today? Spend time with Jesus every day and He will strengthen you, encourage you and give you His joy.
Have a wonderful weekend.
God bless you.
“Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.”
Matthew 7:17-18
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
The Lord says to us in verse 20:
“…by their fruits, you will know them.”
So we have got to stop telling people, all the time, that we love them and maybe start showing them that we love them. I remember looking at a cartoon in a magazine many years ago, I have never forgotten it - there was a drawing of a little boy holding a begging bowl and asking the minister who was standing, preaching to him with a big black Bible and a big fat stomach, “Sir, will there be food in Heaven?”
You and I have got to put our money where our mouth is sometimes, don’t we? Some of us have short arms and long pockets.
It is not about the quantity by the way - It is about the quality of the fruit. I had an orchard, a fruit orchard, on the farm years ago and we had all types of fruit in that orchard. Some of those trees bore a lot of fruit but there was one small little plum tree - It produced the sweetest, most delicious plums in the whole orchard, I will never forget it. The juice was sweet, the flesh was blood-red and it was delightful to the taste.
A few years ago a very dear friend of mine drove, in a motorcar with his friend, 600km from Johannesburg to the farm. He got out of the car and He said, “I want to pray over you.” He anointed me with oil and prayed over me just before a major meeting we were having on the farm. Then he got back in the car and drove 600km back home. Now that is fruit I will never forget.
Another time, a young man and a few students from his church got in an aeroplane in Cape Town and flew all the way to Durban, hired a motorcar and drove up to the farm. He came and spent 15 minutes with me, that was all. I was going through one of the darkest times of my life and he just loved and prayed for me - I have never forgotten that. This is the fruit that you and I must produce.
When Jill and I first arrived on the farm, we had built that little mud and wattle house... a very rich man from Greytown came to visit us one Sunday afternoon. He sat in our little one-roomed house. After we had given him a cup of tea, my wife Jill came out and said, “We want to just give you half a bag of potatoes” - just as a gift. The man got quite emotional, he said, “I have not been given a gift for a long time.” It touched his heart. It's not the quantity, it is the quality and it's the heart!
Go and do so today. Jesus bless you as you produce good fruit.
Goodbye.
“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?” Luke 6:41
Yes, we have got to get the plank out before we can see the speck. Remember, charity (which is another word for love) begins at home. We must earn the right to speak into someone’s life. Can you and I honestly say with Paul the Apostle:
“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1
Wow! Now, remember your children will never do what you tell them to do - isn’t that right? But what they will do is, they will imitate you and that is quite scary. The best form of influence is by example.
I remember reading a story that John, the Lord’s disciple the last one to die, would often say... He was a very, very old man. He was carried into the meetings on a stretcher and he would say: “Little children, love one another.” And sometimes they would say, “But John, you always say that,” and tears would well up in his eyes and he would say, “Yes because that is what the Lord Jesus always used to say.”
Don’t tell your son that he must love his wife. Show him how he must love his wife by the way you love his mother. That’s right and the same for the girls. Don’t tell your daughter that she must take care of her husband, show her by the way you take care of her dad. I really want to say to you today, we really need to lead by example. We need to take that plank out of our own eyes so that we can see clearly to take the speck out of our brother’s eye.
Have a wonderful day today as you imitate Christ just as Paul imitated Him.
God bless you.
“For the Lord God will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore I have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed.”
Isaiah 50:7
You and I need to set our faces like a flint on the vision that God has given us - We need to remain focused. Do not allow the devil to distract you from your calling and from what He has called you to. Do not become distracted!
Remember, it is not how you start that counts but how you finish. Ask any sportsman and he will tell you, he is only as good as his last game. We need to keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ alone.
To be falsely accused can be very painful. Jesus set His face to Jerusalem and He knew what was waiting for Him there - The cross, the crucifixion but He did not turn away from the vision. Paul went to Rome. He was told by many of his friends, “Please don’t go there because they will kill you!” And he did not change - He set his face like a flint towards his calling.
“…unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” John 12:24
Many years ago, a good old friend of mine, Lukey, picked me up at the airport in Johannesburg. We were going to a meeting. As we were driving, I was told by my son-in-law, “Did you see the newspapers this morning?”
I said, “No”
He said, “They are accusing a mighty man, in the Western Cape, in the Sandveld area, of shooting dogs and terrorising children.”
Now, of course, it was a lie from beginning to end. He shot the dogs because his people asked him to please shoot them because they were killing their sheep. It had nothing to do with terrorising children. But the thing that really upset me was that there was a picture of myself on the front cover. This man was in the distance with a small little caption at the back, “Mighty man shoots dogs and terrorises children.”
I said to Lukey, “What should I do Lukey, shall I sue the newspapers?”
And do you know what he said to me? He said something in Latin that I have never forgotten. In fact, it is printed on a piece of wood and as I am recording this, I am reading it:
“Aquila Non Capit Muscas”
What does it mean? It means, “Eagles do not chase mosquitoes.”
He said, “Leave it - It is not even worth following up. You will never see an eagle chasing a mosquito. An eagle chases the big game, up in the high craggy mountain tops. It is the little house birds, the little mossies that eat the mosquitoes.”
Go out today and set your face like a flint, complete the task God has given you!
God bless you,
Have a wonderful day!
Luke 6:31, and Jesus said:
“And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.”
In other words, never ask a man to do a job that you are not prepared to do yourself... or you can’t do. Always lead from the front. Hypocrisy is the thing that keeps so many from following after Jesus. Double standards, that’s right!
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary, another word for hypocrisy is to pretend. You pretend that you can do the job and you are shouting at the other man but you cannot do it yourself. We need to be honest and to treat folk as we would have them treat us. Always put yourself in their shoes and then ask yourself a question - if you were in that situation, how would you like people to treat you?
Don’t tell people how to do the job, rather show them how to do it.
Like a farmer driving along the headland in his pickup and the tractor driver is driving or ploughing in the wrong gear. Instead of shouting at the man, stop the pick-up, get out, get on the tractor and show him how to plough. That is how he learns and that is how he has respect for you.
Often we have riding instructors coming out from the USA and they show us the finer points in training horses and they are excellent. Treating an old lady or an old man with respect, always esteeming others better than yourself - I want to say to the preachers, you don’t preach down to people. You always preach up to people, always see them as better than yourself.
I remember watching a movie, many, many years ago of an old gentleman. He was in his working clothes, sitting in a roadhouse and he was about to get stuck into a lovely hot meal of potatoes and sausages.
He had a big mug of steaming coffee next to him. He looked pretty tired and then the door swung open and in came a bunch of young guys who had just got off their motorbikes - a whole line of big Harley Davidsons and they walked in. They had had a bit too much to drink. They walked up to the old man. They ruffled up his hair and started making a bit of a fool of him.
The one guy got his cigarette and stuck it in the mashed potatoes and somebody else put his cigarette in his coffee, and said, “What are you going to do about it old man?” And they all laughed. They went up to the counter to order another beer. The old man got up and he just walked out... He paid his account and walked out and as they were laughing and talking to each other, these young guys heard the engine of a massive truck start-up outside, a huge truck. Then all of a sudden they heard the most incredible noise as the truck rode over all their Harley Davidsons and carried on out of the driveway.
Treat people like you would like them to treat you.
God bless you.
“Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from3them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles” Luke 6:12-13
I want to say to you right now we need to spend more time in prayer before we make major decisions. Jesus spent all night in prayer before He chose the twelve. Never be pressed into making a decision or a choice. Remember, if in doubt, don’t - Anything done in haste is not of God.
And I am talking particularly maybe to a young lady who has had a marriage proposal. That man will wait for you, as long as it takes if he truly loves you. If he is pushing you into a corner, then you need to ask yourself a serious question, “Why?”
That business deal that you have been offered... if the man is pressing you maybe you need to decline. Why is there such a rush? Whether you are going to leave or whether you are going to stay. Emigrate or remain right where you are - take your time and hear from God.
In 2008, we had the biggest tent in the world on this farm. It seated 30,000 men inside and there was an overflow of men of 30,000 on the outside. It was one of the highlights of my life, I will never forget it. We killed 40 oxen for one meal - It was amazing!
That was a state-of-the-art tent. It was built in Britain, enlarged in Europe, and brought out to South Africa for the World Earth Summit. It took four fields - four rugby fields, that is right, the area. It had its own weather station and took three weeks to erect. A qualified team of riggers had to put it up headed by Attie van Staden. It took more than fifteen 30 ton trucks to bring it to the farm.
After the event, we were contacted by some businessmen from Johannesburg. They said they saw we were doing a good work for the Lord and the nation and they offered to buy it for us. Initially, I was overwhelmed by their kind offer but I asked if I could pray about it and then I came back and I said, “God says I can’t take it.” They couldn’t believe it. You see, it cost a million rand to erect it. I would need a fleet of trucks to move it from one place to another and of course the next year, we had a crowd that that tent could never have contained.
Pray about your decision!
Have a wonderful week, God bless you.
“So when David was old and full of days, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.” 1 Chronicles 23:1
Yes, David handed over the reins to his son, Solomon. And then we go to John 21:16, when Jesus said to Simon Bar-Jonah, that’s right, Peter:
“He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”
Jesus handed over the responsibility to Peter. Today, we have to hand over to our young people - our children. What is so sad, so distasteful to me is someone who will just not release the reins. I want to say to mothers and I am very serious about this, love your teenage daughters. You have taught them, now hand over to them. Don’t try and compete with them. Don’t try and get dressed up like your daughter. You won’t look like her ever again. She is coming into the fullness of her beauty but be content to handover to her.
Same thing, dad. You know, to see a man trying to play rugby with his son is quite pathetic sometimes. And I am not even laughing... Dad, you are not going to get faster. You are going to get slower and your son is going to get faster because you taught him. Enjoy him! Handover to your son.
You know, I travel a lot and I sometimes go to a small church with maybe 50 people and I will hear a dynamic sermon and I will say to myself, “Why is this church not full of thousands of people, then I meet the pastor afterwards and his fist is closed. He won’t let anybody do anything in that church, except him, that is why it is so small. He will not hand over.
I watched a documentary a few years back of the life story of Henry Ford, the man who basically invented the motor car. He was an absolute icon in his time and one day his young son, probably in his early thirties said, “Dad, I want to show you something.” He brought him into the workshop and he pulled back a beautiful canvas sheet and underneath it was the most magnificent motor car that his son had made himself. Well, Henry Ford looked around and he found a huge fourteen-pound hammer, lying against the wall. He picked it up and he started to break that car into pieces - He trashed the car. He broke the windows, the bonnet... because he was jealous. But what he didn’t realize was he also broke his son’s heart.
We need to hand over and not only hand over... You see, David wanted to build the greatest temple in the world. The Lord said: “You are not going to do that. Your son is going to do that.” So David equipped him, He put in the money. He got the wood, he got the timber, he got the artisans, he got it all set up for Solomon and he let Solomon do the job. I want to say to you today, we need to hand over.
Just a couple of days ago an old friend came to see me, of my age group. A very successful farmer in South Africa but he came to see me with his son. It was so nice to meet him. They are talking about a huge project they are going to do, a citrus project. But you know, we only spoke about the project for a couple of minutes and then we started talking about our children. He told me about his son and his other son and his daughter, and his grandchildren. We just sat there and we were so thankful to God for what He has done through our children.
Hand over today and enjoy it!
Have a wonderful Sunday and God bless you.
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” Ephesians 5:8
“When the heart is pure, the eye is single-focused.” I will say that again. “When the heart is focused the eye is single-focused.” - That is what F.B. Meyer said. But then again when the heart is muddy, the eye is blurred.
Our eyes are darkened when our hearts are not pure. Once we shut the door to God’s truth in our hearts, we cannot see where we are going.
If we walk in the light of God, then we ought to shine and resemble God, and reflect His light in the darkness. We must walk with Him daily if we are going to walk in His light. People are drawn to those who walk in the light of God, just like moths are drawn to a security lamp in the middle of the night. We need our "Yes" to be yes and we need to let our "No" be no.
If we look at James 1:6
“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”
We need to be definite and then we will shine with the light of God.
I remember a story of a young girl from a very strong Christian home. She came home one day and she said, “I am going to marry a communist.”
Now, communists don’t even believe that there is a God. Her folks were absolutely shattered. They said, “How can you do that?” And with tears in her eyes, she said, “Dad, mom, I have met the first man in my life who knows where he is going and he believes in what he is doing.” - A communist.
We, as Christians, need to be definite and then we will shine in the light and we will not walk in the darkness. Today, go out and shine because people are in darkness everywhere. People are undecided, people don’t know how to make decisions... They are going with the flow and they are getting themselves into trouble.
We need to walk according to the Word of God.
Have a wonderful day. God bless you.
“Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.”
1 Chronicles 21:1
Then we go to verse 3:
“But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why then does my lord require this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt in Israel?”
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
Psalm 20:7
Who are you trusting in today?
You see, David became the greatest warrior in the history of Israel and after God had given him all those victories, then, he decided not to trust in God, but to trust in his own strength. He wanted to count how many fighting men he had in Israel. He started in The Spirit and he finished in the flesh, that was why God was so angry with him.
“Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” Galatians 3:3
We cannot trust in our own ability. We started off trusting God... Why are we not trusting God today?
It seems like yesterday, we had a healing meeting in Durban many years ago. When we made the call for people who were sick to come forward a man came forward and he wanted prayer for healing. He could not hear, I was very bold and very excited. There was a large crowd waiting in anticipation to see what God was going to do but I got the shock of my life... before I prayed he took out, not one, but two hearing aids - one from each ear. They were flesh-coloured, I couldn’t see them. Anyway, I had already committed myself. I anointed him with oil, prayed the prayer of faith and then asked him to walk a few paces away and face the crowd. I called his name out quietly: “John” and he spun around. We were all so excited. I said, “Walk another fifty paces and face the crowd.”
He walked amongst the crowd, everybody was quiet. I called his name. He spun around and we were ecstatic. I then told him to walk to the other side of the auditorium and face the wall. I called his name extra quietly and he spun around - He was healed! Everybody was so excited. I remember taking those hearing aids, he left them in my pocket. I took them home to show Jill, she said, “I don’t want those in my house please.”
So I took them and threw them in the boiler. We had a wood-heated boiler for hot water in those days.
The next morning I got a very excited phone call from my young pastor, Mark. He said to me, “Uncle Angus, have you still got those hearing aids from yesterday. I said, “Why?” He said, “There is a man who has just phoned us and he wants them back.” I said, “Well, he won’t get them back because I have burnt them.” He said, “What are we going to do?”
I said, “I will phone him.”
I phoned the man. I said to him, “Why do you want them back?”
He said, “They are worth over R20,000.”
I said, “But God has healed you.”
He said, “No, but I want them for a friend of mine.” And then he broke down and said: “No, I wanted to keep them just in case.”
I said to him, “Sir, if you had kept those, you would have lost your hearing...” and with that, we prayed on the phone and he went off happily.
I want to say to you today, “Why did you start in The Spirit and now why are you are finishing in your own strength?” Let's look to Jesus today. He is our healer, He is our deliverer and He is everything we need.
God bless you and have a wonderful day today.
“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint” - What does that mean?
Proverbs 29:18
It means if you have got nothing to get up for in the morning, you become very slack. If we go to Habakkuk 2:2:
Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.”
We need to keep the vision. I looked up the word vision in the Oxford Dictionary. One of the meanings is The ability to think about or to plan for the future, with imagination or wisdom.
What is your vision, young man? Do you want to play rugby for your country? Well then, you better get up in the morning! You better start doing some training before you go to school or to university. You better cut back on the hamburgers and the cokes and start eating meat and training hard.
You see, if you have got nothing to get up for, then you start to give up. At Shalom we say: "If your vision doesn’t scare you, then it is not big enough.” Why do we say that? We say that because when it works, God gets all the glory. People will say, “There is no ways they could have done that!” And that is so wonderful, isn’t it? You see, to cast off restraint literally means, “You have nothing to look forward to.” We really need to keep that vision sharp today, otherwise, we have nothing to study for, nothing to train for and you have nothing to live for in fact.
Now, I want to say to you that there are people in the world right now that are dying. They are going to a lost eternity because they have never met the Man from Galilee. They have never heard the Word of Jesus. And we, are the letter that the Lord is giving to tell the world that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. You will find that in John 14:6.
Remember, there is more than one way to preach the Gospel, In fact, behind the pulpit is maybe the least effective. If you are a sportsman, you have got an instant congregation. You can play your heart out and then tell people about Jesus because you have got a platform. A businessman, maybe you have got money. Make more money and put it into the Kingdom because we need money in the Kingdom of God, to get the word out there. Maybe you are a school teacher or a lecturer at university. You have got a captive audience - young people who are looking for something to do which is constructive.
Don’t wander away. Keep the vision and have a wonderful day.
God bless you.
You say, “Why are you so excited today, Angus?”
Well, because there is music on the roof. It is raining on this tin roof - I hope you can hear it. If we go straight to John 17:22, this is the Lord Jesus speaking:
“And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.”
The Lord Jesus Christ has given us (through the Holy Spirit) the same power that His Father gave Him when He walked on this earth. If ever people needed Jesus - they need Him today.
I remember that wonderful old evangelist, T.L. Osborn, once said, “Some people are dead, even when their hearts are still pumping.” - That's quite sad, isn’t it? I think that is the case at the moment. A lot of people are just down. We really need to encourage them. We need to portray the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ wherever we go today.
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead ( that is the Holy Spirit) will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Romans 8:11
We have no excuses. If Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour, we need to go out there and encourage people in every sphere of life. When we go into the presence of people, they should see Jesus in us. They should see the peace, confidence and joy - And we should be praying for the sick because God told us to do that. It was the last thing He said before He went to Heaven in Mark 16:15:
“Go into all the world and preach the gospel…”
Lay your hands upon the sick - we need to do it today. Let us show the love of Jesus. Now, what makes us do that? It is what He did for us. People need love, people are desperate for love. That is all that Mother Theresa did. She went into the streets of Calcutta. People who were dying, lying in the gutter, their bodies moving with maggots, she would go and lay her hands upon them. And they would say: “But why are you doing this?” and she would say because this is what Jesus told her to do.
Go out today, love people, and the power of God will go before you.
Have a wonderful and exciting day.
God bless you.
“Do you think that David really honours your father because he has sent comforters to you? Did his servants not come to you to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land?”
1 Chronicles 19:3
Just that verse... You see, what had happened was the King of Ammon had died and his son took his place. David loved the people of Ammon because they showed kindness to him and so he sent his servants just to comfort the people but the young king got very poor counsel from his leaders. King David meant well but his servants were treated disgracefully because they misunderstood what David was wanting to do. They humiliated David’s servants, the Bible tells us. They actually shaved half of their hair off and they cut their garments so their buttocks were exposed and they sent them away in humiliation.
Now, obviously, that really angered the King of Israel, David and as a result, it cost the whole nation of Ammon severely and dearly because they were totally defeated. David turned on them and conquered them.
Never judge a book by its cover. Have you heard that saying before? Well you know, the people who publish my books... they had a workshop up in their head office. I will never forget that one of their chief executives, Mrs Sua Du Plessis, who I have very high regard for, said in the meeting: “Never judge a book by its cover.” She said the cover of a book has a tremendous impact. As a test, they got a beautiful cover of a book and filled the middle of the book with empty blank pages and put it on the shelf to prove how important it is to understand presentation. And people would come in, buy the book, take it to the counter and as they were about to pay for it, the assistant would say, “Have you looked inside the book?” There was nothing inside that book. You see, what they had done, they had misunderstood the whole purpose of the book.
Now David’s servants went to say we want to show our commiseration because of the death of your father and what happened as a result? Well, they misunderstood them - They thought that they were coming to spy.
I want to say to you, be careful that you don’t judge people unintentionally because it can cost you dearly.
Today, always think the best of people and their best intentions and you will find that the day will go so much easier for you.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you.
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Romans 8:31
Today, if we have got the Lord on our side, we have the majority. The Lord Holy Spirit is available to help us with our battles here on earth at this very time. He is actually called 'The Helper' because Jesus has sent Him to help us. You will find that in John 16:7 He is our Guide, He is our Counsellor, He is our Protector, and even our Advocate... He speaks up for us. But we must call upon Him.
You see, David that little shepherd boy was truly a mighty warrior of God. He called upon the Lord and then he literally subdued and conquered the whole of the Middle East - a mere shepherd boy! Why, because he knew if God was for him there was no man who could stand against him. If you look at 1 Chronicles 18 the whole chapter, every single battle that David fought, he won.
Now for you and me this week, who are we going to trust? Are we going to trust ourselves or are we going to call upon the Holy Spirit, our Helper, to help us? What is going to hold us back... Only one thing: pride. Pride always comes before a fall. Do you remember Frank Sinatra, 'Old Blue Eyes' - He sang that song, “I did it My Way.” Well, that song didn’t help him too much, did it?
I remember years ago when I had just arrived from Zambia, I had two little tractors. I bought the one and I brought the other one with me... My tractor broke down right in the middle of the planting season. I was planting a critical crop, seed maize. Timing is of the essence... And he heard about it, He was my next-door neighbour, Irwin. The next thing I saw was this whole fleet of red tractors coming up the road and he started helping me to plant that crop. We stood on the headland together, I was so humbled. You see, he was my friend and he helped me... I knew the Lord had sent him.
Call on The Helper today. Don’t do it your way or by yourself, He will help you!
God bless you and have a wonderful week.
“Now in the synagogue, there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
Luke 4:33
Even the demons recognise Jesus as the Holy One of God. In fact, that is the first person who acknowledged Jesus Christ as the Son of God and yet, just before that he was in Nazareth, His home town, and everyone rejected Him... they even tried to murder Him.
Jesus is known by many titles. The one I love the most is: “The Friend of sinners.” Jesus came for the sick, He did not come for the righteous. Jesus says:
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Mark 2:17
That is why I love Him so much... because He came to save an unrighteous man like me! I just love the story of Mary Magdalene - Mary, out of whom seven demons were cast, that's right! You can read it in Luke 8:2.
Maybe somebody listening to this message this morning is saying, “Is there any hope for a sinner like me?” Well, I want to tell you, with joy in my heart, that Jesus specializes in taking nobodies and making them into somebodies. I remember a preacher coming from overseas, many years ago. I was a new Christian and he said, “You will never turn a donkey into a racehorse.” I said, “No, no, no - You have got that wrong! I am the donkey and He has made me into a racehorse!”
I want to say to you, that is exactly what Jesus does. I believe this is just my personal opinion - the most beautiful woman in Heaven will be Mary Magdalene, that is right - She will be the most beautiful woman in Heaven. Why, because God does not make junk! God takes sinners and turns them into saints. You see, she never abandoned him, did she? She was the first one that went down to the tomb on the day that Jesus was resurrected.
You can read it in John 20:1... the very first one there. He who I have forgiven much, loves Me the most. Luke 7:47
Be encouraged today. Jesus loves you! All He wants you to do is to say sorry, repent, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get back in the race.
Have a beautiful Sunday.
God bless you.
“A merry heart does good, like medicine,
But a broken spirit dries the bones.”
Proverbs 17:22
And then, of course, we know that very famous scripture, Nehemiah 8:10:
“…the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
You know, laughter is like medicine and today, we need to start laughing - We need to start being joyful. Another translation says: “A cheerful heart brings healing to both body and soul but the one whose heart is crushed, struggles with sickness and depression.”
We really need to concentrate on what Jesus has done for us. You see, joy is the keynote because God, through His Son Jesus, has saved us. When I am on a campaign and I am preaching, the highlight of every meeting we have (and this is the honest truth) is not people getting out of wheelchairs and walking, it is not people getting off those sick stretchers. and blind eyes opening and deaf ears being unstopped. It is not that. It is when we make the altar call and people come forward! Old people, young people, men and women, husbands and wives and they kneel at the altar and they repent and ask Jesus to come into their hearts.
We see the tears of gratitude and thankfulness. We see those spiritual chains of addiction and oppression falling off their shoulders, they get up and they are weeping with joy. Some are dancing, some are in a state of almost shock... I have been forgiven, my sins are washed away! That to me is the greatest miracle that I ever see.
I look at a large crowd, very sombre sometimes, very quiet, some not even trusting. By the end when the Holy Spirit moves upon those people and they come forward and they ask Jesus Christ to be their saviour - it is like a different crowd in an instant. It is absolutely amazing. That is what I live for, that is why that wicked old slave ship captain, that's right - I am talking about John Newton... Could write those amazing words, probably the most famous of all the hymns, Amazing Grace.
Remember the words he wrote:
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
In the times that we are living there is so much pain, suffering and confusion. It is time to realize that the Lord is coming back soon and that's enough to be joyful about, isn’t it?
John G Lake that amazing, famous American healing evangelist said, “When you get up in the morning, go and look in that mirror. When you are putting on your tie or doing up your hair, putting on your lipstick - what you have got to do is say, to the person you are looking at in the mirror, “Wherever that person goes today, God is going with them.” And then go out there and face the world.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
1 Thessalonians 5:24
God is faithful - it’s in His character. It is in His makeup - that is who He is, a faithful God. And therefore, faithfulness in His people is very important to Him. If we go to Mathew 25:21, Jesus telling a parable says:
“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”
We need to be faithful to God and we need to trust the Faithful One. Early this morning I was riding my mountain bike past an airstrip. It was absolutely dark and very, very misty. An aeroplane started up those engines and those pilots flew that aeroplane into something that they couldn’t see - just a sheet of darkness. I thought, “Lord, these men are trusting that little box of instruments on the panel” because I couldn’t even see where I was going and they are flying that aeroplane full of passengers, into the unknown. But you see they had faith in that instrument panel and it took them out safely. I was praying for them too - but faithfulness is very important.
If you look at the Oxford dictionary, the definition of the word faithfulness is: remaining loyal and steadfast. It ranks very high in God’s agenda when it comes to a man of God. If we look at 1 Corinthians 13, that’s the chapter of love in the bible... the last verse says:
“…and now these three remain, faith, hope and love.”
So the Lord really wants us to be faithful because He is faithful to us.
I got a letter, just the other day, from a young man. He wrote and said, "I’m very happily married, I am married to a beautiful girl but we keep having a problem”. He says, “I like talking to young girls on the phone and in the office and every time I do that it upsets my young wife terribly”.
Well, I want to say to you young man, maybe you’re listening to this message as well - stop doing that because that is not a faithful thing. You are married to a woman, that is your wife, nobody else. If it’s upsetting her, don’t speak to them. You see God is wanting us to be faithful, just like that young wife is wanting her husband to be faithful to her - It’s very simple.
One of my favourite movies is Braveheart, probably because of my Scottish roots... If you remember in the movie, William Wallace was defeating the enemy, the English and one of the knights got knocked off his horse and William Wallace walked up to him and took his helmet off his head and who was it? It was someone who was unfaithful. It was the future king of Scotland, Robert the Bruce, who had defected to the enemy, and at that point, Braveheart just sat down and he gave up.
Do not be unfaithful today. Be faithful because God is faithful to us.
“He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.”
1 Thessalonians 5:24
God is faithful - it’s in His character. It is in His makeup - that is who He is, a faithful God. And therefore, faithfulness in His people is very important to Him. If we go to Mathew 25:21, Jesus telling a parable says:
“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”
We need to be faithful to God and we need to trust the Faithful One. Early this morning I was riding my mountain bike past an airstrip. It was absolutely dark and very, very misty. An aeroplane started up those engines and those pilots flew that aeroplane into something that they couldn’t see - just a sheet of darkness. I thought, “Lord, these men are trusting that little box of instruments on the panel” because I couldn’t even see where I was going and they are flying that aeroplane full of passengers, into the unknown. But you see they had faith in that instrument panel and it took them out safely. I was praying for them too - but faithfulness is very important.
If you look at the Oxford dictionary, the definition of the word faithfulness is: remaining loyal and steadfast. It ranks very high in God’s agenda when it comes to a man of God. If we look at 1 Corinthians 13, that’s the chapter of love in the bible... the last verse says:
“…and now these three remain, faith, hope and love.”
So the Lord really wants us to be faithful because He is faithful to us.
I got a letter, just the other day, from a young man. He wrote and said, "I’m very happily married, I am married to a beautiful girl but we keep having a problem”. He says, “I like talking to young girls on the phone and in the office and every time I do that it upsets my young wife terribly”.
Well, I want to say to you young man, maybe you’re listening to this message as well - stop doing that because that is not a faithful thing. You are married to a woman, that is your wife, nobody else. If it’s upsetting her, don’t speak to them. You see God is wanting us to be faithful, just like that young wife is wanting her husband to be faithful to her - It’s very simple.
One of my favourite movies is Braveheart, probably because of my Scottish roots... If you remember in the movie, William Wallace was defeating the enemy, the English and one of the knights got knocked off his horse and William Wallace walked up to him and took his helmet off his head and who was it? It was someone who was unfaithful. It was the future king of Scotland, Robert the Bruce, who had defected to the enemy, and at that point, Braveheart just sat down and he gave up.
Do not be unfaithful today. Be faithful because God is faithful to us.
In South Africa it is springtime - it is the time of new beginnings. As a farmer, I can go and look at the trees and they are pushing out brand new leaves... There is a time of newness. In Matthew 7:7 the Lord says: “Seek and you will find.” What are you looking for today?
My dear friend, we need to look up and see that our Redeemer is coming very soon. It is a wonderful day and we need to look at it through the eyes of God. Do you remember that beautiful old song that was sung by Louis Armstrong? It was called, “What a wonderful world.”
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For you and me
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
The colours of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying
"I love you"
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They'll learn much more
Than I'll never know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Yes, I think to myself… What a wonderful world.
Go out today and look at the wonderful world that the Lord has created for you and me. Don’t look through the eyes of negativity, don’t allow yourself to be tied into negative talking and thoughts but look up and see. What a wonderful day, who knows... Maybe the Lord Jesus Christ Himself will return today. I can’t wait to see what God has got in store for me today. You know, He gave me His only begotten Son and said, “Angus, if you believe in Him, you will never die - You will have eternal life!”
Go out today and bless somebody. Maybe take them a bunch of flowers and tell them, “It is springtime, a new beginning!”
God bless you!
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the peoples!
Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!”
1 Chronicles 16:8
And then we go to the New Testament, to John 12:32:
“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
We have got to talk of all His wondrous works. You and I have to speak up today and tell people what Jesus has done for us. James Hudson Taylor took the Gospel to China hundreds of years ago and one of the Chinese converts came to him after he had been converted for a few months.
James Hudson Taylor said to him, “How is it going?”
“No”, he said, “It is wonderful! It is wonderful, I have found the answer to eternal life!”
He said to James Hudson Taylor, ”But I want to ask you a question. What took you so long to come to China and to tell us about the Saviour of the world? You see, my old dad searched for the truth all his life. He studied different religions and he died, having never found it.”
James Hudson Taylor never forgot that.
I want to ask you a question this morning. What person lying in a hospital ward with other patients dying, on his deathbed - having received a tablet, a miraculous tablet that healed him instantly would get up, get dressed, say goodbye to all his dying friends without telling him about the miracle cure? Not one of us! And yet, when we keep quiet when people are seeking the truth, that is exactly what is happening.
One of my heroes was a man by the name of Rodney Smith. His actual name was Gipsy Smith, he was a Romani Gypsy. He lived in one of those painted caravans and he was a great evangelist. He preached in the open-air off the back of his horse-drawn caravan to crowds of folk... up to 10,000 at a time. He had no formal education.
One day, a burnt-out lay preacher came to the caravan after one of the meetings and he said, “I have preached everything in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and I just don’t have anything more to say. I am totally worn out, what can I do? I see that you have such fire in your preaching.” And Gipsy said, “Just keep on telling folk what Jesus means to you.
You see, that is what preaching is all about, one hungry beggar showing another hungry beggar where to find bread. Let's go out today and talk of all His wondrous works and make known His deeds among the people.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you!
“Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.”
Psalm 30:5
And then we go onto Psalm 126:5-6:
“Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.”
The Lord is saying to us today: “Do not give up!” Hebrews 13:6, one of my favourite scriptures:
“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Maybe this Monday morning you have lost a loved one over the weekend... maybe you don’t have a business to go to this week because you have gone bankrupt or maybe you are just sitting there struggling to breathe, working through this treacherous COVID-19 virus.
The Lord says to us this morning, “Stand” for the battle is the Lord’s. Ephesians 6:14. He will see us through this hard and relentless time that we are experiencing. Over this past weekend, we experienced a snowstorm on Shalom Farm, indeed the whole of Kwazulu-Natal, as we have never ever seen before... in 44 years of farming at Shalom.
You see, we are not geared for snow, we live in Africa. The day before, it was 39 degrees and as I am talking to you now, it must be minus something. The snow started falling, it got dark and it carried on falling. It was fell at a tremendous rate and it got darker. The plastic tunnels housing the fruit ready for picking started sagging. There were reports of other farmers whose Kiwi Fruit under structures, starting to collapse under the weight of the snow pushing down on it.
I was sitting here praying for the poor, the hungry and the homeless. “Lord, where are they going to go...” While I was praying I felt the Holy Spirit say, “Joy will come in the morning.” Well, my dear friend, as I am recording this message, I got up early this morning, it was pitch black outside. I was making Jill a cup of tea and making a fire in our wood stove because it is freezing cold. I went outside and I heard the doves singing. There was not a single cloud in the sky. The sun started peeking over the horizon and I saw a most glorious sight - Everything was at peace. It was like God had washed the earth. It was snow-white... excuse the pun.
In the fields, the calves were calling their mothers for milk. The guinea fowl were looking for maize kernels and chirping as they were calling their little ones to follow them. Most of all, the Holy Spirit was affirming: It is going to be all right - I am coming back very soon to wipe away every tear. Joy will come in the morning.
Have a wonderful week and if Christ is for you, you have nothing to fear.
God bless you.
“Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance…”
Matthew 3:8
In other words, faith has got 'feet' - That's right!
If we go to James 1:22, this is clearly what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying to us:
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
In other words, don’t just tell folk that you love them, show them that you love them by your lifestyle... that you are changed. There has got to be a change in a person’s life when they meet that Carpenter from Galilee, the Lord Jesus Christ. I would go so far as to say it is impossible to carry on with your lifestyle like before once you have met the Lord.
When you meet Him there is heart surgery that takes place. Just like the chief tax collector, that short little man Zacchaeus, remember? He climbed up the tree so that he could see Jesus? We go to Luke 19, we will see that he was a very rich tax collector but Jesus said, “I am coming to your house today to have a meal with you.”
“Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” (Four hundred percent of anything that I have taken from anyone.)
Luke 19:8
Now you see, there has been a change from being chief tax collector... He was now giving his money to the poor. And what did Jesus say, What was the Lord’s response?
If you look at verse 9 He said: “Today salvation has come to this house…”
I remember many years ago as a new Christian, Jill and I were invited to the minister’s house to have Bible Study. After one or two weeks I was quite confused because this minister, Errol, wasn’t very kind to me. One night when we were having tea after Bible Study I said, “Can I speak to you for a minute?” He said, “Yes.”
I said, “Can I ask you a question, why are you so unkind to me?”
He looked at me and he said, “Angus, I have to confess, I thought you were acting. I didn’t really think that there was a change in your life because I knew about you before. I thought maybe you were coming to the Bible Study for your wife’s sake.” And of course, after that, we became very close friends.
Just like Paul, possibly the greatest of all apostles, even the disciples didn’t trust the change in his life - They couldn’t believe it. It took years before they accepted him.
What about you today? I would like to pray a little prayer with you in closing this Sunday morning... Please pray this prayer after me if you feel you want to:
Dear Lord,
Please forgive me for so often not showing fruits worthy of repentance. Forgive me for doubting you, for giving a spirit of fear to those people round about me, Lord, for speaking negative words.
Lord, please let there be a change in my life.
Let the love of Christ flow from me to those around me,
starting with my own family.
I ask this in Jesus Name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
“And David inquired of God, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?”
1 Chronicles 14:10
The Lord said to him, “Go up, for I will deliver them into your hand.” That is why King David was such a great leader in Israel... still regarded as the greatest king that ever lived next to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself - Why?
Because he sought God’s instruction before anything or anyone else.
Now, we always say here at Shalom, “A good idea is not always a God idea and a need never justifies a call.”
What does that mean? It means that when the Lord Jesus Christ walked the earth, He didn’t heal all the sick and He didn’t feed all the hungry. He only did what His Father in Heaven instructed Him to do.
You know, often people come to me and they cry and say, “How can a God of love allow me to suffer so much?” And then when they start to share their story... it turns out it wasn’t God at all - It was their own idea and their own plan. It wasn’t God who said you must marry an unbeliever. It wasn’t God who told you to go into business with a man who does not serve God... an unscrupulous businessman.
A while back a young man came to see me who had worked with me for many, many years - out of the blue he said, “I am leaving.” Needless to say, I was quite shaken because he was one of my key men in the ministry, a godly man. I asked him only one question - “Did you hear from God?” His answer was, “Yes.” and that was the end of the story. I said, “Go in peace.” I can hear some of you saying to me today, “But how do you enquire of God?”
Well, first of all, you pray. Jesus says, “I open a door for you that no man can close.” Revelation 3:8
When the door is closed, don’t try and break it down. When the door opens, then you go through it.
Secondly, the Word - you must read the Bible.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Psalm 119:105
And then, you must seek counsel. Have you got Jesus’ telephone number? Jeremiah 333 (Jeremiah 33:3). He says:
“Call unto me and I will answer you”.
And then you must have peace in your heart. Jesus says:
“My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.”
John 14:27
And then you need faith, confident faith. Abraham was known as a friend of God, not because he was a good man but because he believed and he obeyed. James 2:23
I remember many years ago, it was the fashion for Christians to wear a band around their wrist with “WWJD” printed on it. I had one of those -
What Would Jesus Do... It was a reminder. I want to say to you today, ask yourself one question. “Would Jesus do it?” If the answer is “Yes,” well then go and do it.
If there is no answer, that means, “No”, if He says, “No”, definitely don’t go there.
Have a wonderful day. God bless you.
“Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.”
Luke 2:46
Jesus was 12 years old and He was sitting in the midst of the teachers of the word of God. You and I need to spend time in good company. Jesus was only 12 years old and He was already spending time with the men of God. So much so that His mom and dad couldn’t even find him.
Now, remember bad company corrupts but good company builds up good character. We need to spend time with positive people who have got a vision, who are going somewhere, who are full of life and who are full of the love of God. You will never find an eagle flying with a flock of turkeys! That British prime minister, Lloyd George said once, “Education without Christ makes clever little devils.”
Remember, it is the company that you keep. On the farm we breed the famous American Quarter Horse which specializes in working with cattle. The Association in South Africa often imports horse trainers from the USA, where the Quarter Horse originates from, to teach our men and women the fine art of herding and cutting cattle on horseback. So we bring in the best because we want to learn from the best.
What is it that you are requiring from your children today? Do you want them to grow up as wholesome godly Christians? Well, then you need to make sure that they are learning godly principles at an early age. The school that they attend must be a school that believes in the ethos of Jesus Christ. Their friends, the company they keep, must be young people who love God. Their role models are most important - They must look up to people who are serving Jesus Christ in every aspect of society.
Today, spend time with those who love the Lord Jesus Christ and you will find peace, hope and the love of God growing in your heart.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you!
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33
We are talking about priorities.
Many years ago, my wife, Jill and I, had a little Christian coffee bar in Greytown. We used to meet every Friday night with all the young people in the town - It was a wonderful time. During the evening when we all sat back and reclined, drinking our coffee and hot chocolate, there was a wonderful camaraderie. These young people really started to open up and they started to trust us and trust one another, in the presence of God.
We would start off every Friday night with worship and praise. The young folk would have their guitars and keyboards. We sang all the popular Christian songs and even had a weight-lifting club there - That’s right!
I took the young guys and taught them how to build themselves up, they would get a lot of self-assurance from that without any peer pressure.
One night while we were sitting having our coffee and hot chocolate, one of the young ladies, a leader named Madeleine, stood up to share her testimony. She said, “I woke up early one morning and on the table next to my bed was my Bible.” She had taken off her wristwatch and put it on the Bible and she had obviously found a five rand coin in her pocket and she had put that on top of the Bible as well. Then she looked at it and she said to the Lord: “Please, never allow me to put time and money in preference to spending time with You.” Well, years later her brother told me when, I met him, “That young sister of mine, well, she went on to be a very successful businesswoman in the banking world.” I can only assume that was because she kept her priorities close to her heart - First Jesus and then time and money... very much after that.
Have a wonderful day today as you also seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these other things will fall into place.
God bless you and goodbye.
“The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man.”
Isaiah 42:13
And then 1 Corinthians, Paul the Apostle says:
“Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”
1 Corinthians 11:1
I want to speak to you this morning about being a mighty man of valour.
You know folks, God has done amazing work among Christian men and He is still busy doing it all over the whole earth. I want to say to the ladies right at the outset, Mighty Men is something that God laid on our hearts and it is not actually for men. The amazing thing is it is actually for women - That’s right!
It is to teach a man of God to be a mighty man. Now, I can hear maybe some people say, “But to be a Christian aren’t you supposed to be humble?” Yes, of course, but we are mighty in the Lord, not in our own strength. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ is the strongest, most powerful and mightiest Man who has ever walked on the face of the earth. Yet, if you look in Isaiah 42:3 it describes the Lord:
“A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax, He will not quench.”
That is how gentle He is. By the way, that description is spoken about, no less than 16 times in 4 chapters of 1 Chronicles.
1 Chronicles 7, 8, 11 and 12 - you can go and look it up yourself.
A mighty man of God must be selfless. He must be honourable. He must be disciplined, committed, fearless, gentle and caring. His mentor is nobody else, no one less than Jesus Christ alone. He must be humble and he must be tender.
I will never forget hearing a report written by the Dominee, Jan De Wet, from the NG Church, a wonderful man of God and a personal friend of mine with a beautiful music ministry. He came to the Mighty Men Conference when we had the big tent and there were 60,000 men here.
He said as he sat in the back, he watched all these men sitting there with their arms folded. He said, "I was so glad that I was not the preacher that night..." But then he said he saw the Holy Spirit starting to move as the men started worshipping God. They started unfolding their arms, their hands went down - Then they started wiping their eyes and then they lifted their hands up to heaven and started worshipping God.
A mighty man is a man who opens the door for his wife when they go out.
He pays for all the meals when they go to a restaurant - That's the mighty man we are talking about. He pulls out a chair for his wife to sit on, it doesn’t matter how long they have been married. He loves their children and he leads a godly life.
Today, I want to say to the ladies, look after your mighty men because they are taking major strain and they need you to stand with them today.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.“
Luke 2:19
She kept all these things in her heart. You and I need to be careful what we say. The Oxford Dictionary says, to ponder is to consider carefully.
We must not be frivolous in these times. Frivolous means to be superficial and carefree. To just let it go and not consider what you are saying. People are suffering everywhere. People are nervous, fearful and are extremely sensitive. You and I need to count to ten before we say something and then we won’t say it.
You know the adage: “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me”? That's not true, It is the opposite. You can heal from a wound but a word said in the moment, not meant... you can never bring it back. We need to be very careful and ponder, that's right - to ponder, consider very carefully, like Mary did before we actually say it.
I want to say to moms, I know what kids are like - I have had many. Jill and I have had many and I want to tell you, sometimes, you are in a fluster and in the moment and you say something, “You little devils!”
What are you saying, mom? That is a curse that you are putting on your kids - Don’t say that. Or, “I wish you would just go away and die somewhere.” You don’t mean it but these kinds of words cut deep.
Now Jesus never ever did that. If we look at John 8:6:
“This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.”
He was pondering. Remember, they wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery... He never said anything. He was just quiet. Remember when He was facing Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate couldn’t believe that He wasn’t defending Himself.
“But He answered him not one word so that the governor marvelled greatly.” Matthew 27:14
That's why God gave you and me two ears and one mouth... This message, I think, is for me this morning! We need to listen twice as much as we speak.
I remember like yesterday, a farmer, father and his son, a young farmer, come to see me - They were very upset with each other. They were talking about the farm and inheritance, etc. I just sat there and I listened and I pondered. And they went on and on about the cattle and the maize and the tractors and what they should buy and who should have what and then eventually, right at the end of the meeting they broke down and wept. You see, what had happened was the dad just wasn’t spending time with his son and wanted fellowship with his dad. They stood up from the table, they hugged each other. They asked forgiveness and then they went out rejoicing.
Today, let us consider carefully what we say and listen to people.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.“
Luke 2:19
She kept all these things in her heart. You and I need to be careful what we say. The Oxford Dictionary says, to ponder is to consider carefully.
We must not be frivolous in these times. Frivolous means to be superficial and carefree. To just let it go and not consider what you are saying. People are suffering everywhere. People are nervous, fearful and are extremely sensitive. You and I need to count to ten before we say something and then we won’t say it.
You know the adage: “Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never harm me”? That's not true, It is the opposite. You can heal from a wound but a word said in the moment, not meant... you can never bring it back. We need to be very careful and ponder, that's right - to ponder, consider very carefully, like Mary did before we actually say it.
I want to say to moms, I know what kids are like - I have had many. Jill and I have had many and I want to tell you, sometimes, you are in a fluster and in the moment and you say something, “You little devils!”
What are you saying, mom? That is a curse that you are putting on your kids - Don’t say that. Or, “I wish you would just go away and die somewhere.” You don’t mean it but these kinds of words cut deep.
Now Jesus never ever did that. If we look at John 8:6:
“This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.”
He was pondering. Remember, they wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery... He never said anything. He was just quiet. Remember when He was facing Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate couldn’t believe that He wasn’t defending Himself.
“But He answered him not one word so that the governor marvelled greatly.” Matthew 27:14
That's why God gave you and me two ears and one mouth... This message, I think, is for me this morning! We need to listen twice as much as we speak.
I remember like yesterday, a farmer, father and his son, a young farmer, come to see me - They were very upset with each other. They were talking about the farm and inheritance, etc. I just sat there and I listened and I pondered. And they went on and on about the cattle and the maize and the tractors and what they should buy and who should have what and then eventually, right at the end of the meeting they broke down and wept. You see, what had happened was the dad just wasn’t spending time with his son and wanted fellowship with his dad. They stood up from the table, they hugged each other. They asked forgiveness and then they went out rejoicing.
Today, let us consider carefully what we say and listen to people.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray…”
Luke 11:1
When we pray, it is not about the length of the prayer, or about the repetition that counts. God is wanting simple prayer, He is wanting reverent prayer.
Do you know, even the angels veil their faces in the presence of God.
The Lord is wanting unselfish prayer and that is why I love intercessors so very much. My wife is one of them. We have a large team of intercessors all over the world who are praying for you and me.
You see, they are unselfish people. It is not a case of 'give me, give me, give me'... It's a case of praying for others and we need to pray the prayer of faith.
Mark 11:24, the Lord says clearly:
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”
And then lastly, we have got to have a simple prayer, okay? It's not about the length of the prayer, it is about the heart of the prayer. When we pray, we have got to get real and we have got to pray literally for our daily bread, especially now in this terrible COVID-19 season in which we are living.
Now one of my favourite prayers is the old farmer's prayer... I am sure you have heard it before but I want to read it to you again this morning because it always touches my heart. It goes like this:
While resting the other evening by the side of the road
I saw an old farmer in the field that he just sowed.
His face was all brown and wrinkled from the sun and the wind
And he was talking to the Lord just like he'd be talking to a friend.
Well sir, (I am getting emotional here!) he said with his voice calm and quiet. Them corn tassels need stackin' I got no strength to tie it,
Had no rain in so long that the fields are mighty dusty.
And it's been so unbearably hot that the kids were even gettin' fussy.
Now that grass down and the pasture it should be knee-high
If we could just have a little shower Lord,
it might keep the calf from going dry.
Oh but listen to me talking you'd think I wasn't grateful
Why if you didn't know me so well Lord,
You'd think I was downright hateful.
You'd think I forgot about that new calf that you sent
And the money in the mail that took care of the rent.
Mama's cough's better and Johnny's home from the navy
And that good Sunday dinner of chicken and dumplings and gravy.
And that new preacher you sent us Lord he's sure a fine young man
Why he's just convertin' them sinners to beat the band.
Well guess I'll mosey on home now Lord,
I won't take no more your time.
Guess there's plenty folks here about waitin' to ring your line
Evening to you Lord and watch us over tonight.
And don't you worry about us now Lord
'Cause everything is gonna be all right...
We need to pray simple prayers - have a wonderful Sunday.
God bless you and goodbye.
“His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.”
Luke 1:60
That was the name that Elizabeth gave her son, John (the Baptist).
Remember, Jesus said: “There has never been a man born from the womb of a woman, greater than John the Baptist.” Names are so very important... If we go to Isaiah this is what the Word of God says:
“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” - which means, “God with us.”
Isaiah 7:14
We need to take note of the importance of names. Do you know the orthodox Jews, when they write the name of God, they will not write it completely? They write 'G-d' because of the reverence that they have for the name of Almighty God. We need to remember who we are addressing when we speak the name of God. He is not 'the man upstairs' or 'my mate' - He is the Creator of all heaven and earth, He is the Word!
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
He must be respected at all costs... Not only respected but loved and cherished. Yes indeed, this Carpenter’s Son from Nazareth died for you and me. He gave us new life.
He has many names: Lover of my soul, The Lily of the Valley, The Bright Morning Star, Vinedresser, The Great Ploughman, The Shepherd of the sheep, Fairest of ten thousand and many, many others. My favorite is: Friend of sinners!
I read a story about Alexander the Great. He conquered the known world in those days, he was a mighty general. He was in the field inspecting a field hospital where some of his soldiers were wounded. Some had lost arms, some legs... He walked down the passage, addressing them.
He was encouraged them and to the end of the tent a young man was sitting on the bed. There was nothing wrong with him. He had suffered a mental breakdown and the great general said to him: “What is your name, son?” He said, “My name is Alexander, sir.” So he said, “Well, either change your attitude or change your name.”
You and I have a name, we are followers of Jesus Christ - We are christians... We need to live up to that name.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints!`
There is no want to those who fear Him.”
Psalms 34:9
The Lord is our provider. He is our provider alone… I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to look up the word, Provider: It means to attend to.
He will attend to your needs, He will take care of all your wants. You know, as a farmer we say often “'n Boer maak 'n plan." Now that is Afrikaans and it means, a farmer makes a plan. I want to tell you not one of my plans has ever worked - Not one! But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. Often, it takes a lot of humility to get on your knees and say: “Please help me Jesus because I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Maybe you are listening to this message and are feeling that way today. Remember the old hymn “Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.”
Just do it in God’s way and He will withhold no good thing from you.
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness then all these (other) things will be added to us.”
Matthew 6:33
If we 'duck and dive' in our business we will get nothing. 'Fear the Lord' means to respect and to treat God with reverence. As a very new Christian and a young farmer, I read in the Bible in Leviticus:
“Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit; but in the seventh year, there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord. You shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard.”
Leviticus 25:3
Now, I was an arable farmer and all we grew was crops. I had a really nice chat with the Lord... I said: "Lord, I want to do the right thing but if I leave my whole farm fallow (that means you don’t plant anything), I will go bankrupt.” I felt the Lord say, “Well why don’t you leave a seventh of your farm fallow and then after seven years, the whole farm will have rested for a year.” And that is exactly what I did. I want to tell you something now, God honoured His word - I had amazing crops, I think, just because I obeyed Him. In fact one day, an agricultural representative came to see me, an extension officer. He saw in the corner of the farm, weeds growing shoulder height. He said, “What is going on there?”
And I was a little bit embarrassed as a young Christian. I said, “No, I am just resting that land.” He said, “Can we go and have a look?” He said, “But it is full of weeds!” I said, “Ja, but The Lord has told me to rest it.”
And you know with that we started to talk about heavenly things and I had the privilege of praying the sinner’s prayer with that young man.
Just do what He tells you today and He will withhold no good thing from you.
Jesus bless you.
“You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?”
Galatians 5:7
You ran well - Who has deceived you? You were running superbly - Who cut you off? You were leading, doing an excellent job, who led you off the course, causing you to take your eyes off Jesus and put your eyes on something else? Just a little yeast turns the whole loaf of bread.
If we look at 1 Corinthians Paul says:
“But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:27
We must walk the talk. We must hold the course... You and I must not deviate to the left nor the right. I was watching the Olympic Games and I was watching those gymnasts. I love to see the absolute focus and discipline these young men and women have, is quite superb.
Our salvation is not in social distancing, our salvation is not in wearing masks, it is not even the vaccine - Our salvation is in Jesus Christ alone!
Now, before you think I am going down the wrong road, I want to reassure you Romans 13 says we must obey the authorities. We must obey them but our concentration, our hope, our peace is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ - in Him alone!
My brother was a professional golfer, he told me a story once about a major championship. The golfer was on the 18th green, he was putting for one of the biggest trophies in the world. As he lined up that ball and was about to strike, a train went passed and the driver of the train blew the hooter so loud. The golfer putted the ball and it went straight into the hole. Afterwards, when he received his trophy in front of all the people, the organizers came to him and said, “We are so sorry and we want to apologize for distracting you as you were going to put the final ball to win the championship”. The bemused golfer looked up and he said, “What distraction?” He never even heard the hooter going off because he was focused.
We need to discipline ourselves today, we need to focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and He will see us home.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you.
“For with God nothing will be impossible.” Luke 1:37
Do you believe in miracles - Yes you do? So do I!
Remember, a young maiden who had never known a man fell pregnant. You say it is impossible but the Archangel Gabriel disagrees, he says that all things are possible with God.
What are you trusting the Lord for today? You see, any doctor will tell you it is impossible for a woman to fall pregnant without knowing a man. What about that 90-year-old woman conceiving and having a beautiful baby? Her husband was 100 years old, you say: “That is impossible.” No, it is not. The baby’s name was Isaac, his mother’s name was Sarah and her husband was Abraham. That is a documented fact with evidence to follow... You see, Mary’s baby was Jesus and Sarah’s baby was Isaac.
What are you trusting God for today? What do you expect Him to do for you? You know, He is a miracle-working God and He has never changed.
Hebrews 13:8, says He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore.
There is hope for you and me.
I remember that huge prayer meeting we had in Bloemfontein in 2017, when they were taking the platform down, one of the guys who was working on the scaffolding started to weep. His friend said, “Why are you crying?” He said, “Come and look here!” There was a huge optic cable that was taking the sound and the picture out to the stations, 17 of them by the way... Almost 2 kilometres long, to the huge screens and banks of speakers. But when they had erected the platform which was about three storeys high, a beam had fallen on top of this optic fibre cable which cannot be bent. It was formed in the form of an “S” totally destroyed and yet the picture and the sound was perfect. Oh yes, I believe in miracles!
I want to say to you today again, there is nothing impossible for God. Trust the Lord for your miracle today and He will come through for you. He will not disappoint you. I can promise you that.
Have a wonderful day, God bless you.
“Pray without ceasing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:17
Let prayer become a lifestyle for you and me... It has to be a mental attitude of prayerfulness, that’s right! Continued, personal fellowship with God, being conscious of His presence in our lives, throughout the whole day. That is what will make us strong. I never judge a person on how well they can preach or how successful they might be in business, or even their giftings. Whether it be music, sport or whatever, what I want to hear is them pray. When I meet somebody, I normally ask them to have a word of prayer please, and I can judge by that prayer just how close they are with God.
Many years ago, I used to do weight-lifting. When we came into the gym and we wanted to greet each other, we never shook hands. I used to take a hold of that muscle on his shoulder and determining the thickness of that muscle, would tell me how strong my opponent was!
Prayer is what we need. We need to be steadfast in these times because we don’t know what the future holds. There is extreme uncertainty. Last week a little band of believers came to see me at the farm. They came from the Netherlands, Holland - boys and girls, moms and dads. They are believing for a revival in their nation of Holland. They gave me a little gift, a book, The History of the Moravian Church. It is about a revival that started hundreds of years ago and it started by prayer - That's right! They started to have a prayer watch. They decided to pray every single hour of the day, taking shifts one hour at a time. That prayer meeting lasted, listen, wait for it... 100 years! If we want to see change, we have got to get on our knees and we have got to pray without ceasing.
We have got to pray in our pick-ups; we have got to pray in our motorcars; we have got to pray on the way to school, on the way to church; we have got to pray in the fields, in the mines, in the business and houses. Then we will see a change, first of all in our families, then our government, and then in the nation. I want to encourage you today to become a praying man, woman, boy and a praying girl. Moms and dads we need to pray.
Businessmen - you need to start with prayer in the morning if you want your business to succeed. Farmers, we need to pray before we start working in the early morning.
We need to pray for revival, a people saturated with God.
Have a wonderful week - God bless you.
“Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.”
Mark 16:14
The only time in the Bible that we read that Jesus really rebuked His disciples was when they would not believe, He says:
“O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?" Matthew 17:17
Remember He said: “Bring the boy to Me” and the demon was cast out immediately.
But I can hear some of us saying this morning, “How do we get more faith Lord?” The answer is quite simple and found in Romans 10:17:
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” - The Bible.
You and I need to start spending more time reading the Good News - The Bible and less time hanging around negative people. Remember, faith is contagious, that’s right - It is catchy! Spend time with men and women of faith and then you will get more faith
I remember a story of John Wesley when he was really struggling with his ministry... He met a German by the name of Peter Boehler who was a Moravian. Peter Boehler said to him: “Preach faith till you have it and when you have it, then you will preach faith."
Luke 17:5, even the disciples said, “Lord, please increase our faith.”
Folks, we need faith today like never before. St Augustine said, "Faith is to believe what you cannot see. But the reward of that faith is to see what you believe.” I want to do something this morning - I want to pray for you.
I believe that there are many people who are listening to this message this Monday morning who are feeling down and dejected. Maybe you have got a loved one in the hospital who is sick, maybe you have lost a loved one or maybe your business is taking strain. By faith let us speak life into that situation. Maybe you would like to pray after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
This morning, I make a decision to walk by faith and not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7),
and I thank You Lord for a positive answer.
I thank You, Lord, that you will turn my situation around because I choose to believe You.
In Jesus Name
Amen.
Have a wonderful week as you walk by faith and not by sight.
“Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.”
1 Chronicles 4:10
A powerful prayer!
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman) avails much.”
James 5:16
This prayer wasn’t selfish, it wasn’t a case of asking for personal gain, no! “Lord, keep me from doing evil. Lord, do not allow me to cause pain.”
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7
Jabez asked and God granted his request. If we do not ask with faith, we will not receive. God always answers heartfelt prayers. You see, his mother must have had a difficult childbirth because she said she bore him in pain, hence his name. He clearly didn’t want to cause any more pain.
Luke 7:47, Jesus says (basically) those whose sins are many that I have forgiven, love me the most - I can say “Amen” to that! I remember going into a church up in Johannesburg many years ago and there was a big sign on the front of the church: "Missionary work is gratitude for Calvary”.
John Newton wrote that beautiful hymn Amazing Grace after God had forgiven him for many sins.
Years ago, I was in the Eastern Cape and was preaching to some farmers. At half time we went to the bathroom and an old gentleman walked in and he said to me, “Son when you preach, you don’t have to sweat so much.”
I said to him, “Sir, you haven’t seen anything yet - Wait for the second half!”
What is it today that you are requiring from the Lord?
Well, simply by faith, ask Him and then start thanking Him in advance for the answered request. The Lord loves us so much. He wants to bless us and all we need to do is say, “Lord,” in an unselfish way, “ these are my prayer needs. Please help me.” And He will... I am a testimony of that.
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
“Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:42
You see, according to the law, that criminal on the cross who was being crucified next to Jesus, deserved to die. Yet because he acknowledged, admitted and confessed, that Jesus Christ is Lord, he was given eternal life - Good people don’t go to heaven, believers go to heaven. Now, some people don’t like that term that I use but I really believe it with all of my heart. In this life, we have heard the old saying, “It is not what you know that counts, but who you know.”
I have got a picture in my mind, of the great day of judgement, where every single one of us will bow the knee and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). Each one of us is going to give an account of our lives, here on earth - of what we did and of what we didn’t do. Just like the parable Jesus spoke about regarding the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25), I believe that on that day of judgement, the great judge will be our Heavenly Father. Jesus, His Son, will be the defence attorney and the accuser of the brethren will be the devil himself.
When we come forward to give an account, Father God will not be concerned about the good works we did on earth, all the good deeds, how much we tithed to the church, how often we went to church or how much we gave to the poor, no. I believe that Father God will turn to His Beloved Son, Jesus and ask Him one question: “Do You know this person?” If Jesus says, “Yes, Father, I know him. We talk together, he has never been ashamed of Me, even when other people have mocked him in public because he knew Me and he stood up for Me.”
And Father God will answer, “Let him in!”
But if Jesus says, “I don’t know this man”, irrespective of what he has done the Father will say to satan, “Take him away!”
I believe we need to spend time with Jesus. We need to confess Him as Lord and Saviour. We need to confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts, that He has been raised from the dead and we shall be saved.
That is found in Romans 10:9-10. God bless you and have a wonderful Saturday.
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.” John 16:7
The Lord is speaking about the Holy Spirit. Do you have some big decisions to make today? Do you have a friend that you can confide in?
You see, Proverbs 18:24 says there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. We need to lean heavily on the Holy Spirit in the days that we are living. Because if He is for you, no man can stand against you. That's what the Bible says in Romans 8:31. But we need to get rid of self - We need to get rid of the 'me, mine' selfishness, self-preservation, greed, etc. We need to develop our friendship with the Lord, The Holy Spirit - He is the One who can give us godly counsel.
I remember in 2008, when we hired the biggest tent in the world - That is a fact. It was built in the UK and was extended in Europe, then brought out for the World Earth Summit in Johannesburg. It took three weeks to erect on the farm. It had its own weather station and took approximately 15 30-ton trucks to transport to the farm - It was amazing! It was the size of four rugby fields, end to end. Many of the men listening to this message can remember it.
After the meetings were finished I was approached by good, well-meaning Christian businessmen from Johannesburg. They said, “We are going to get together and we want to buy the tent for you Angus, then you can preach all over Africa. I said, "Please can I come back to you, I need to pray about it." Now, somebody listening to this might think, “You are mad Angus. They want to give it to you for nothing!”
I went and I prayed, I asked the Holy Spirit to show me. And you know, after spending time in prayer, I got a clear answer - "Don’t accept the kind offer." I said to them, “Sorry boys, I can’t accept it.” They were confounded. They said, “ No problem. If God has told you that, it is fine.”
You know, I realized afterwards, God saved me. It would have become a millstone around my neck. You see, that tent cost a million rand to erect... every single time. It needed constant maintenance and I would have had to find a fleet of trucks to move it - It would have become impractical. You see, two years after that in 2009/2010, the crowds that came to those Mighty Men Conferences would never have fitted in to that tent. We had to go open-air.
What is the point?
The point is today, ask The Paraclete (that is the Greek word for The Helper) - Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and then you won’t make a poor decision.
God bless you.
If we go to 1Chronicles chapter 1 and you can go on for a few chapters... It is the family tree of the Jewish people. And of the believer, the Christian, starting with Adam. But what is more important than that is to have our roots firmly planted in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
If we look at 2 Corinthians 5:17:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
I have the privilege of speaking, often, at the Feast of Tabernacles in Israel. It is hosted by the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem and Christian believers from all over the world attend.
I am talking about places like Mainland China, Russia, Nigeria, Argentina, Brazil, Finland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the USA, Germany and we could go on and on... They are all one family, united in Jesus.
I remember the one night preaching at Ein Gedi - the Dead Sea (the lowest point on earth, 400 meters below the sea, can you believe it?) and I think there were eighteen interpreters. You could hear a buzz in the air... all united in the love of Christ - one family! A few years ago Jill and I were visiting Israel and we went to the Mount of Beatitudes. It overlooks the Sea of Galilee where Jesus preached his famous and wonderful sermon in Matthew 5.
There were vendors with little stalls outside the church, which commemorates the sermon, selling fruit and curios. There was one fine-looking old gentleman with swarthy coloured skin and a beautiful white beard selling fruit. Jill and I bought some fruit from him. I asked him, “Sir, do you love Jesus?” And he said, “Yes, I am a believer.” And then I asked him if he was an Arab believer, or was he a Jewish believer. He looked at me with those lovely brown eyes and he said, “I am a believer.” I then got a bit of a knock in the ribs from Jill and realized that it doesn’t matter whether he is an Arab or a Jew - If he loves Jesus, he is part of the family of God.
Today, go out and love people - bring them into the saving knowledge of Jesus. It doesn’t matter what colour your skin is. Black, white or brown, if we love Jesus, we belong to one family - those are our roots!
Have a lovely day. God bless you and goodbye.
“Then they all forsook Him and fled.” Mark 14:50
This after Peter had clearly said to Jesus in verse 31:
“If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”
Truly, it must be one of the saddest verses in the whole Bible. They all forsook Him, that is every single one of the disciples. Maybe this morning, you are feeling disappointed. Maybe you are going through a painful divorce or a broken friendship. Perhaps a business partner has let you down and you feel deserted. Just when you needed your brothers in the faith to stand with you, they seemed to have vanished into the mist.
Oh, I know that feeling very well... But the Good News today is that Jesus Christ will never desert you. He has put His money where His mouth is - so to speak. You see, He has holes in His hands and a hole in His side to prove it - He has never and will never desert you. He is not like the fair-weather Christian... When everything is going well, he is standing with you but when the sea becomes dark and stormy, he is nowhere to be seen. In these perilous times that we are living, we need to be loyal. We need to be faithful, steadfast - immovable like the Rock of Gibraltar.
Many years ago when I had just started farming here at Shalom, we had a bush fire - It was an ugly one! I went on my little tractor that I had, a small fire-fighter on the back (a small tank of water) and my oldest son. He was only seven years old at the time. He sat next to me on the tractor and we were busy, with lots of others, trying to put the fire out. The wind turned, and the fire came straight at us! As I was battling to get the tractor into reverse, the next thing I looked around and we were engulfed by flames. By the grace of God we managed to get out of that scrape!
We sat down on a rock, me and my little son and I said, “Andy, you had a chance to get away, why didn’t you do it?” He said, “No dad, I am with you all the way!”
Don’t forsake the only one who can pull you out of that fiery trial today.
God bless you and goodbye.
“He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.” Mark 14:35
You see, when Jesus walked on this earth, yes, He is God, but He was also very much man. That is why I love Him and I can identify with Him so very easily. He understands when you and I cry out to Him for help because He has been there Himself.
I was talking to a young university student just last week, about holiness. The Bible says without it we shall not see God, Hebrews 12:14. And we said that holiness is the end product of obedience - In other words, when we obey the will of God, automatically we become holy men and women. Now, Jesus did not want to drink of the cup of suffering, pain and eventually, crucifixion but He did it... not My will but Your will, Father be done.
In 1989 I drove into the little town of Ladysmith in my farm clothes and with a flask of coffee. I drove down that road to book the town hall by faith for our very first-ever campaign. I remember like yesterday, Father God asking me, almost audibly, three questions:
Number One: “Are you prepared to be a fool for me?”
Well, I said, “Lord, that is easy. I am a fool anyway.”
The second question, “Are you prepared for people to speak all manner of evil about you for My name’s sake?”
I hesitated and then said, “Lord, I think I can handle that one.”
And then He asked me the third question and the tears started to run down my face: “Are you prepared to see less of your family for My name’s sake?”
And I had to answer, “Lord, only by Your grace and by Your strength.”
I made those decisions and I did it. I am so pleased that I did because I have had the most amazing and exciting life. It is not finished yet by the way!
Go out today and obey what the Lord has told you to do. It doesn’t matter how painful it is. It doesn’t matter how confusing it is, you don’t have to understand - Just obey Him and He will see you through.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you.
And Mary said:
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” Luke 1:46-48
The prayer of Mary, the mother of Jesus... Today we want to honour women. It is Woman’s Day today and we thank God for the women in our lives. You see it was a woman who carried the Son of God in her womb for nine months, who loved and cherished Him right into manhood. Her faithfulness and loyalty towards Jesus never once was shaky or weak. To the very end of his 33 years here on earth, she remained steadfast and faithful to Him. We honour and we praise God Almighty for women today.
General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army which was at one stage the most numerous army in the whole world, said that women were his best soldiers. Almost all successful men in the world will give the women in their lives - their mothers, wives, daughters or sisters all the honour for their success. Never underestimate the influence that a woman has in a man’s life.
In Genesis the Lord said:
“It is not good that man should be alone” Genesis 2:18
I remember as a young farmer, I would take Jill (my wife) and all my children in our pick-up and we would drive around the farm on a Sunday afternoon. We would speak about the work regarding the week that was coming up and what the priorities would be, the decisions to be made. Yes, she was my number one confidante, and chief advisor, and by the way - she still is!
Have a wonderful day today - Ladies, we love you, we honour you and we cherish you!
God bless you.
“Josiah was eight years old when he became king… “And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.”
2 Kings Chapter 22:1-2
And then we go to the Gospel of Matthew:
“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” The Lord then says: “Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “ Matthew 18:3
I have a grandson by the name of Josiah. The Lord is looking today for child-like faith, not childish faith, no - child-like faith. Jesus says whoever humbles himself like a little child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The Lord is simply looking for men and women who will obey His written word with no arguments and no questions. It must hurt the Lord when He sees His children always questioning the authority of the Bible.
You see, King Josiah did exactly what the Book said and that is why He is one of the greatest kings who has ever lived. We believe the lies and the exaggerations of the news and media without question but we are always questioning the Bible.
You know, I remember when my son was a small boy he would trust me completely, because he loved me and he knew that I would never allow anything or anyone to hurt him. If I said to him, “The moon was made out of cheddar cheese”, he believed me! If Neil Armstrong had said, “Fergie, I’ve actually walked on the moon and it is just made of rock and dust”, he would have innocently said, “No sir, my dad said that it is made of cheese.” It all comes down to one word at the end of the day, doesn’t it? Faith... to have faith.
Today are you going to have child-like faith in the word of Jesus or are you going to doubt the love of God, the love that He has for you? Remember, He died for you and me on the Cross of Calvary so that we, if we believe, will have eternal life with Him.
God bless you this Sunday, as you take the Word of God literally... as it is written.
“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.
Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.” Mark 14:22
Yes indeed, the holiest of all Christian sacraments - Holy Communion, to remember the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for you and me on the Cross of Calvary.
I remember in the early years when the Mighty Men Conferences were very small and on the farm, we would have maybe 500 or 600 men together. When we finished the weekend we would order some fresh bread. Big loaves of bread, put on a table and then we would have cups, full of grape juice. The men would get up, they had been ministered to by the Holy Spirit the whole weekend. They were soft, they were pliable.
They had been seeking forgiveness from God. God had purified them and then they would come up to the table and take a big chunk of bread and a cup of grape juice. Then they would start walking around towards each other and they would start breaking bread with each other. Seeking forgiveness, weeping openly... Bonds of friendship being renewed to one another - What an amazing spectacle it was. I would stand there and just watch in amazement as these big, strong men broke down and wept when they remembered what the Master had done for them on the Cross of Calvary.
You know, I want to say to you, Smith Wigglesworth that Yorkshireman, that plumber from England, a man who God used mightily in miracles, signs and wonders. He would take a miniature Communion set with him wherever he went. He would sit on the trains when he was going to pray for the sick and he would break bread and remember what the Lord had done for him and it would strengthen him. Are you doing that today?
And then he would get off the train and go to the houses and pray for the sick and miracles would happen.
Do you know that every morning, Jill and I, after we have had breakfast together, we break bread. It is a very special time for us, it keeps our commitment to God and to one another, very pure. You cannot honestly partake of the Holy Communion if you are bearing a grudge against someone or a disagreement. You have to confess it first. There is a wonderful sense of cleansing and freedom, once we partake in Holy Communion.
Who can take it? All who love Jesus Christ can take it... Don’t neglect it.
Have a wonderful day. God bless you.
“…just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4
You and I must not be concerned about the murmurings of the world. It should not effect us - No! It is only what God thinks about us that really should count. We are not to focus on the dead but on life, and life everlasting. Our King is not dead - He is very much alive... One of my favourite verses in the Bible:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he (or she) is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
We are new creations, we have come out of slavery. We have come out of Egypt and you and I are not going back there ever again. We are now homeward bound.
You know Billy Graham, that great evangelist - He wrote: "You know, one day you will read in the newspapers that the evangelist, Billy Graham has died.” He said, “Don’t believe a word of it. I won’t be dead, I will simply have changed address!” Oh wonderful!
I went the other day to visit the dearest old lady. We sat on the verandah of her farmhouse and we had a cup of tea. I asked her if I could pray with her and she said she has got lots of questions - we were talking about Heaven. And I said to her, ”I don’t have all the answers about Heaven but one thing I know - I know the one who has gone ahead to prepare a mansion for me in Heaven and for those who love Him.”
John 14:1 -6
I said to her, “Good people don’t go to Heaven. Believers go to Heaven.” And so I took her precious hands in mine and we started praying the sinners prayer together. She stopped me right in the middle of the prayer and with a sparkle in her eyes, she said to me, “Angus, I have done this before, you know.” I smiled and said, “I know... so have I, many times, but lets do it again.” And we prayed together.
You see, my dear friends, Romans 10:9 says that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart, that He has been raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. Maybe you would also like to pray that little prayer with me this morning? If you would, please pray after me:
Dear Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that I am a sinner but I thank You Lord that You died for all my sins on the Cross of Calvary. And Lord, I also acknowledge that You are not dead. You are not in a tomb. You are alive and You are in Heaven and You are coming back one of these fine days, to take me to be with you forever in Paradise. In Jesus’ mighty name,
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”
Matthew 7:6
Very, very strong words spoken by the Lord, Himself - The Lord Jesus Christ. And then we go to Proverbs:
“Do not speak in the hearing of a fool,
For he will despise the wisdom of your words.”
Proverbs 23:9
Today, we need to guard our hearts. We need to be very careful who we share intimate things with. Remember, familiarity breeds contempt. Don’t share the precious pearls of the gospel with someone who has no intention of changing or even listening to what you have to say. Remember, timing is very, very important. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and His very life, yes, they are for free, but they are not cheap - Remember, it cost Him everything.
Many years ago, I was holding a campaign at the Orient Theatre, just on the shores of the Indian Ocean at East London, South Africa. It was a wonderful evening. We had a packed-out house and I was preaching my heart out. Then there was a heckler sitting in the back row and he was shouting the odds. Every time I would say something he would say: “Can you prove it... Show me where it says that in the Bible."
He had a bottle of beer in his hand, a cowboy hat on and his feet were on the back of the seat in front of him and he was causing trouble. But of course, we are familiar with that type of situation because we like to preach to the 'whosoevers'. Some of our ushers came quietly and just escorted him out of the building and I continued preaching the precious Gospel of Christ.
After the meeting was finished we had prayed for salvation and the sick. I was leaving the auditorium and this man was sitting outside, waiting for me. He said to me, “Preacher, I want to debate with you about the Bible and Jesus!” I said to him: “Sir, I will not speak to you now because you are drunk. Come back tomorrow, when you are sober and then we will speak about the precious pearls of the Gospel.” Needless to say, the next day he never came back but you know, the wonderful news is I got a report some weeks later after we had returned to the farm, to say that that heckler had bowed the knee and given his life to Jesus Christ.
Go out today and share the precious Word of the Lord to the 'whosoevers'.
“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:13
Have a wonderful day but be sensitive about who you share the precious pearls of the Gospel with. God bless you.
“So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that, before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel.” Joshua 10:13-14
Our Heavenly Father is the Miracle Worker.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1.
St Augustines said faith is to believe what you cannot see and the reward of that faith is to see what you believed. Joshua believed and he saw his miracle. A miracle of cosmic proportion, when the earth 'ceased rotating' for a time. Since God created Heaven and Earth with a mere word, John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word…” This is quite possible and there has been no day like it before or since. (See Joshua 10:14)
Can this same God not answer our requests too? Definitely.
I remember being asked to speak to some farmers in the Kroomie area of the Eastern Cape. There had been a devastating time of drought and they had asked me to come down to encourage the farmers. When I arrived, on the first day, I felt the Lord, Holy Spirit, tell me to tell the farmers that the rain would come before the end of this campaign; which is going to be a series of meetings on different farms. We had wonderful services. The folk were so excited, full of anticipation for the forthcoming rain.
As time went on, there was no rain in sight. The farmers kept asking me: “Where is this rain you are talking about, Angus?” I retorted, "It is coming." It came down to the last night - I will never forget it, in a little place called Kroomie... We were meeting in a tin shed. The cars came driving in. I was so distraught, so tired and homesick, sitting on my own around the back of the shed in a cow stall. As I got up to go into the meeting to start the service, I thought I saw a flash of lightning on the vast, flat horizon but I went in anyway. The crowd wasn’t very warm towards me, understandably so... still no rain.
Last night, last message, last meeting!
I got up to preach and as I started to preach I heard drops of rain falling on the tin roof. Pitter-patter, pitter-patter! I started getting excited and I started speaking louder. The heavier the rain fell, the louder I started shouting. We saw 32mm of rain that night, how could I ever forget? I stood at the doorway watching the cars trying to get out after the meeting - stuck in the mud! Oh, we went home rejoicing, my Miracle Working Weather Man!
If He can make the sun stand still for a whole day, He can answer your miracle. God bless you.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Mark 8:36
If we go to John 12 we will see a lady who had the right idea:
“Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.” John 12:3-
That’s right, she spent all of her precious possessions (her costly oil) on the Lord Jesus Christ - They say approximately a year’s wages, for a worker. Why you might ask, was it because she was investing in heavenly things? I do not think so, it was quite simply because she loved her Saviour, Jesus.
We have a band of young and dynamic men, 21 of them - lead by one of my spiritual sons - all the way from Stellenbosch in the Cape. They have arrived on our farm to work in our church. They are university students and they are here for two weeks. They are working with the needy, the poor, the old and the young. I am sure their fellow students back at university are studying hard for the upcoming exams but these young men have taken precious time out, to tell others what they have found - Precious, costly oil and they are pouring it out liberally, on the hurting and fearful folk of our little town of Greytown. It will not go unnoticed.
I can hear some dear old lady saying, “But that is being irresponsible.”
Remember, that is what they said about the woman who poured the oil over Jesus’s head. She will say that these young men will possibly fail their exams. I don’t think so, Madam! There might be a little bit of divine cheating taking place... Jesus might just give them the answers!
Have a wonderful day and spend what you have for the Lord because He is coming soon. God bless you.
‘Thus says the Lord: “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.’
2 Kings 19:6
You see, the king of Assyria had sent his servants to tell lies to the people of Israel that he was going to defeat them.
But if we go to the Gospel of John 10:10 (one of my favourite scriptures) -The thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy but Jesus said, “I came to give you abundant life.” The devil is a master of lies. Do not listen to the lies he speaks over you and me today. If you do, he will literally kill you with his untruths. John 8:44 - he is known as the father of all lies, he is the deceiver of the brethren.
So today as you go out to face the new week, you have a very simple choice to make. Either believe the promises of God over your life or believe the lies of the devil.
I come from Central Africa and I remember there was a worker who would come to me and he would say he is going home to his village to die. He was perfectly healthy but when I would ask him why, he would say “The witch doctor was paid by somebody to put a spell on my life and I am going to die.” And he would literally go home to his village, he would sit underneath a tree, and we would never see him again. He would die.
The power of words spoken over your life... what are you going to face this week? Have you got some difficult exams at school or university? Are you going out to look for a new job maybe? Or are you trying to resurrect a business that has been destroyed? Maybe you are working on your marriage? Maybe you are trying to recover from this deadly COVID-19?
Even as I am speaking to you now, I can hear the devil telling you, “You will never make it” - What is your response going to be?
It must be, “Get behind me satan!” Say two words, “But God!” God can help me against the evil one, just like Jesus did when he was tempted in the desert. He said, “It is written…”
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” our Lord. Philippians 4:19
“I will never leave you nor forsake you,” the Lord says. Hebrews 13:5:
"If the Lord is for me, who can stand against me?" Romans 8:31
Go out today and believe the promises of God over your life.
Have a wonderful week - God bless you.
“Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near—at the doors!” Mark 13:28
The signs of the times! When is Jesus returning on the clouds to gather His children to Him? No one knows, not even Jesus... Only our Heavenly Father knows the day and the hour but we must not be foolish - all the signs of the second coming of Christ are right in front of our very eyes. The Lord uses the example of the fig tree... When it starts putting out new leaves, we know that summertime is on its way.
What can you and I do to be ready for his soon return? Well, we need to settle our accounts with man and God. Get rid of all our debt, spiritual debt, particularly. Say sorry to those that you have offended. Ask forgiveness from those that you have hurt because when Jesus comes back it will be too late then. You see, the Bible tells us in Revelation 3:3 that the Lord is coming back, like a thief in the night - He will not give us any warning.
I remember, as a young farmer many years ago, I didn’t have very much money and very few farming implements. And I knew that the rain was coming. I didn’t know the exact date and I had a large crop to plant. I prayed earnestly, I got ready and I started planting our crop into dry ground, into the dust because the rain was going to come. We didn’t know when. Some of my neighbours thought I had lost my marbles because you don’t plant a crop into dry land. The seed swells up and it dies if the rain doesn’t come but by faith, I planted it in the dust.
Do you know what happened? After a couple of weeks, the rain came and it came with vengeance, it just did not stop. It was so wet that farmers couldn’t get in to plant. Eventually, when the rain broke and the sun came out, our maize was already standing waist-high.
We need to be ready and not afraid - Some people are so afraid of the Lord coming back... He loves you, He loves me! He is coming back to take us home to be with Him, in glory, forever. He is also coming back to settle the score. Pray earnestly for the doubters, the procrastinators and the unbelievers, because it is going to be a terrible day for them, if they do not know the Lord.
God bless you as you continue to sow good seed.
“…do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.” Mark 13:11
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” says the Lord.
Psalm 81, verse 10
And then the last scripture:
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:7
I want to speak to you about extempore preaching... What does that mean? Well, the great Evangelists and Revivalists would use one verse from the Bible and then go on to speak and preach for up to three hours from that one verse. For example:
“The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:17
They would take that little verse and they would speak on that verse for a long time. But you see, what a lot of the young preachers don’t understand is that these mighty men of God would do their homework before they stood in the pulpit. I remember like yesterday, the very first time I preached a sermon in the main church in our little town of Greytown, I had spent six weeks preparing that sermon - fifteen pages long! Lord, have mercy on the congregation!
Anyway, I got to the church very early in my pick-up with my wife and my children and eventually got up into the pulpit. I was petrified. My dear wife Jill, was sitting right at the back of the church and the minister was sitting next to me. He introduced me and he said, “Okay, Angus, over to you.” Well, I opened my Bible and took my notes out and take a guess what - I had page one and I had page fifteen! I don’t know what happened to the other pages, they were gone!
I looked up at my wife. She was standing in the back of the church and you know when you have been married for a long time, you don’t have to use words. I just signalled to her that I had nothing, she ran out the back of the church and had a look in the pick-up. She ran back, stood in the back of the church, I will never forget it... Put her hands up in the air: “I don’t know where they are!”
Well, that was my defining moment. I either had to preach from the heart or hand it over to the minister. He was sitting right next to me. But I had a little band from our coffee bar, our youth club, and they were singing a song for me. “Here comes Jesus. See Him walking on the water.”
Tears filled my eyes and I realized (my message by the way was on faith), I am either going to preach this by faith or not at all. Well, I went on to preach the sermon. Most of my preaching is outdoors and my friends will tell you that nine times out of ten I open my Bible and wind will come up and blow my notes all over the place. I think the Lord has a plan there, what do you think?
Maybe you have to go to court and deliver something, maybe you have got to make a speech at school, maybe you have to speak at an interview for a job... Just remember - Jesus Christ will speak for you.
God bless you and have a wonderful day!
“Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:5-6
A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to leave the examination room and said, “Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side.”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? You are a Christian man and you don’t know what is on the other side?”
The doctor was holding the handle of the door. On the other side came a sound of scratching and whining. As he opened the door a dog sprang into the room and leapt onto him with an eager show of gladness. Turning to the patient the doctor said, “Did you notice my dog? He’s never been in this room before. He didn’t know what was on the inside. He knew nothing except that his master was there. When the door opened he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death but I know one thing - I know my Master is there, that is enough.”
What a beautiful story. Maybe today you are mourning the loss of a loved one who has died from this terrible Coronavirus. Maybe as you are listening to this message, you are lying in a sickbed. I want to encourage you that Jesus Christ is on the other side and He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. He will never leave you and He will never forsake you. Remember He said,
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3
Have a wonderful day and remember:
If Christ is for you no one or nothing can stand against you. Romans 8:31.
God bless you, have a wonderful day.
“For they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had her whole livelihood.” Mark 12:44
And then we go to John 6:9:
“There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”
Jesus sees everything. He was sitting at the treasury in the temple, He saw the rich people come in - and they gave plenty but out of their abundance. Then the widow came in. She gave little she - gave two mites.
I looked that up in the Bible Dictionary: Two mites - a mite is half a farthing. Now for the young people, four farthings equals a penny and a penny is about the worth of a cent. It is the smallest currency there was and she put in two mites. But Jesus said she gave more because she gave all that she had. Then in the Gospel of John the young boy, I am sure his mommy made his lunch for him - two little sardines and five small barley loaves but you know something? He went and he gave it to Jesus.
Are you going to tell me out of 5,000 men that nobody had any food. Of course they did, they just didn’t want to give it away. You know, the Lord is not impressed by the amount that we give Him. He is impressed by the heart and the heart that we give it with.
I have had meals, literally in castles - that is right, lavish meals. And then I have had meals in Central Africa, in the bush, in a little hut, that is right... With just one plate of food that we had to share but you know, it is the love that makes the difference. Sometimes in those rich places when given food because it is the duty of the people because they are part of the church but in that little hut its the love of God that impresses one.
I remember like yesterday, when I was a young boy, going with my dad once, he was on a job up in Zambia. We were driving on this country road and my dad had a 5 ton truck. We were going to do a job and there was a farmer broken down with his old truck on the side of the road. I will never forget it... My dad stopped and said: “Can we help you?”. He said, “Ja, please” and we towed him back to his farm which might have been twenty, thirty, forty kilometers away. When we got to the farm, we could see that the man had fallen on hard times. He didn’t have much at all. He said, “I can’t pay you for what you have done.” My dad said, “I don’t want any payment.”
And then he went into his house and he came out with a bundle of dry biltong, the most delicious biltong. He had obviously shot a buck and dried out that meat. Then he gave us a container full of fresh milk that he had milked from his single cow that morning. I have never forgotten that gesture as long as I have lived.
Today remember, do good to somebody. It doesn’t matter how much it is - Do it with a good heart.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30
Wow - More important than sacrifices and burnt offerings!
It's like your family... You know, your family don’t want all your gifts, they actually want you. If you love someone then you spend valuable time with them, not just quality time but quantity time as well. Don’t keep on telling someone that you love them - Show them that you love them by spending time with them... And that is what God is requiring from you and me. To spend time with Him each day. If He is the most important person in our lives, not just on Sunday morning or at a midweek Bible study but continually. In the motorcar going to work, at school, on the sports field - It is a lifestyle. He must live in our hearts.
I want to tell you a sad story. There was a little boy, his name was Johnny and there was a maid that worked at the house, her name was Florence. Johnny was left with Florence all day long. Dad and mom were both career people. They loved their little baby boy and they wanted the best for him so they both went out to work and Florence stayed at home with little Johnny.
They left early in the morning for work. They came back late at night. Florence took care of Johnny - Took him to school, watched him play sport, clapped for him when he did well, made his sandwiches for him every day, read Bible stories to him before he went to bed, put a plaster on his knee when he fell and hurt himself. Florence loved little Johnny.
Well, Johnny grew up and he became a very successful businessman. Later on, mom and dad when they got old, they went onto pension and one day they were a little bit short of money so they asked Johnny if he could give them a deposit to put down on a small flat. Johnny said, “Dad, Mom, I would love to help you but I don’t have any spare money. I have just bought a house for Florence.”
Folks, don’t tell God that you love Him. Spend time with Him, get to know Him - He desperately wants to spend time with you... It is the most important commandment in the Bible.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“And Jesus answered and said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at Him.” Mark 12:17
You see, the Pharisees were trying to catch the Lord out. They said: “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?” That is verses 14 - 15. And Jesus said that we need to pay. You see, Caesar was the oppressor. They were oppressing the jews and yet the Lord said, “Obey the law.” We cannot each do our own thing, otherwise we will be faced with total anarchy. It will be a complete state of disorder.
As Christians, we must set the bar, we must set the standard. If we disregard authority then chaos will rule and that is exactly what the devil wants to happen. For example, breaking the speed limit... You say, “But everybody else does, Angus.” - That doesn’t make it right.
We need to pay our income taxes. We need to obey the law.
We have seen with our own eyes, just recently, what happens when people disregard the law... Violence, looting, and arson take place. Every man for himself - Greed, selfishness... No respect for our fellow man, complete disaster! But you and I, we shall obey the law. We shall be good examples and uphold the law, not for any other reason but because God said so.
Many years ago, I was preaching in a rural community amongst a group of farmers on a Saturday night with moms, dads, boys and girls, all together in the farm hall... But there had been unrest and breaking of the law in that district. One angry farmer stood up and said, “Doesn’t it say in the Bible, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? I would like some of that sweet revenge.” I looked at him and I said to him in front of everybody, “Sir, you are a very selfish man, aren’t you? For a little bit of self-revenge, you are prepared to put the lives of your family on the altar.” He became very quiet.
We must obey the law, we must pray and we must love one another and we must let God deal with revenge. Jesus says:
“Vengeance is Mine. I will repay.” Romans 12:19
Go out today and be a good follower of Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.”
Matthew 5:9
Not the peace-lovers... no, no - Because peace-lovers are often compromisers but rather peace-makers. Oh, there is so much turmoil in the world today, isn’t there? But where does the peace-maker start? With the president and the government? No, not at all. it starts with mom and dad, yes - brother and sister - that is where it starts!
We shall be called the sons of God if we are peace-makers. Jesus says we shall be known by our fruit. If you go to Matthew 7:16, the Lord says very clearly;
“You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?”
Not at all. How do we bear the fruit of peace?
It is quite simple - by spending time each day with the Prince of Peace.
Jesus said:
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
John 14:27
When we take our eyes off Jesus, you and I are filled with selfishness, greed, lust, jealousy, hatred and with suspicion - this robs us of peace.
Today, let's go out to the highways of life and bring peace to the troubled souls of people. Do you remember that beautiful poem that is attributed to St Francis of Assisi? He says:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Go out today and be a peace-maker in this world.
God bless you and goodbye.
“…bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” Colossians 3:13
It’s not easy but for Jesus’ sake, we must do it... Also for our freedom and peace of mind, we must forgive one another. Remember to forgive is to forget. You cannot forgive someone today and then two days later say: “Remember that thing that you did against me?” We cannot afford to carry the burden of unforgiveness around for the rest of our lives. It is too heavy and it will eventually destroy us. We say: “Ja, but that’s not fair.”
Maybe so but is it fair that the Son of God, who was totally pure and without sin, had to die a criminals death on a cross for something that He never did? You see, un-forgiveness turns, eventually to bitterness, to hatred, which eventually if not dealt with severely, will actually kill you.
If we go to Acts 7:60 we see that Stephen, the first martyr in the New Testament, when he was being stoned for nothing, said in a loud voice,
“Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” - That is forgiveness! Then of course the best example of all was our blessed Lord Jesus Christ... in Luke 23:34 when He said:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
You and I need to forgive. You know, often Jesus would say to a sick person, “Your sins are forgiven, be healed.” You see, unforgiveness can make you very sick, it can eventually kill you. I want to say to you this Sunday - Please forgive that person. You say to me, “I can’t. He was unfaithful to me, he committed adultery!” or, “That partner stole my money,” or even something worse. You need to leave them in God’s hands so that you can get up and carry on with your life.
Now, I want to do something I haven’t done before. I want to lead you in a simple prayer of forgiveness - Please pray this prayer after me, for the Lord’s sake and your sake. And I want you to name that person when we pray this prayer. Let us pray together:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I don’t feel like it... I am angry, I am disappointed, I am hurt but today I choose to forgive (name that person or those people) in Jesus’s Name.
I forgive them and Lord, I close the door - say it! I throw it into that pool and I put up a big sign there, “No fishing.”
And Lord, I am carrying on with my life today.
In Jesus Name. Amen.”
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:24
Don’t be like the old lady, who before she went to bed, opened the curtains, looked out the window and there was a mountain there. She said: "In the Name of Jesus, let that mountain be moved by tomorrow morning." She closed the curtains, got into her bed and went sound asleep. The next morning she woke up and the first thing she did was open the curtains... the mountain was still there and she said, “No, I didn’t believe that it would happen.”
God answers prayers of faith. He doesn’t answer prayers of presumption. He answers the prayers of faith. We need to be specific with our prayer requests and we need to be faithful in prayer. There are instant prayers that are answered immediately, and there are also progressive prayers that take time sometimes to be fulfilled.
George Müller was a German who went to England in the 1800s and he is one of my heroes. He was led by the Lord to start a children’s home and he made an agreement with the Lord: “I will do it Lord but I am never going to ask for any money from anyone." His favourite verse was Psalm 37:4, which has become my favourite verse as well:
“Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
So he started that children’s home by faith. He had a small boarding house and he had a couple of dozen children to start with - He trusted God completely. Do you know that more than 10,000 orphans went through his children’s homes by the end of his life? And God provided every single cent that he needed. A beautiful story that I really love and hope encourages you today and increases your faith is one night they ate the last meal that there was in the cupboard, there was nothing left... The next morning, he told the children to lay the table for breakfast - They thought Uncle George had maybe lost his marbles. They all sat down at the table and he prayed the prayer that many of us pray: “For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful.” And they knew there was nothing in the cupboard.
Then there was a knock on the door. He said to one of the children, “Go and answer the door”... There was a red-faced man, a baker, who said the Lord had woken him up in the middle of the night and told him to bake fresh bread. Not only was it fresh but it was piping hot - The children couldn’t believe it! They had no sooner sat down and there was another knock at the door. He sent another child to open the door and there was an embarrassed dairyman standing outside. He said, “I was riding past in my wagon and horse and the axel broke and I cannot get this milk to the dairy in time, could you use it?” And they had fresh milk and fresh bread again for breakfast.
You and I need to trust Jesus for everything but also to believe.
“Have faith in God.” Not in man, not in your ability, but in God alone.
Mark 11:22
Have a beautiful day!
God bless you.
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”
Isaiah 56:7
And then we see it again in Mark... And the Lord Jesus said:
“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations
Mark 11:17
The most powerful weapon in the Christian’s arsenal is prayer. That is why Jesus chased the money changers out of God’s temple. Jesus understands the power and the value of a praying people.
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
Psalm 20:7
Remember, when men work, they work, but when men pray, hallelujah, God works. Pastor Bill Mantel in one of his devotionals tells the following story, he entitled it: “The Secret Weapon”.
“Big Ben struck 9 pm. These were the war years. World War 2 fell over England as the constant air bombardment by Germany, of British cities, took place. These were dire moments in the history of the Empire and that is when an advisor named, Tudor Pole set Big Ben as a new weapon against the Nazis. Pole asked all the British to pray for England, the troops and the people, pray at 9pm every evening with silent prayer - one minute. England became unified behind the sound of 9pm, as that clock, Big Ben, reverberated throughout the city of London.
What happened? The tide turned. America entered into the war and the rest as they say was history. I have heard it said after the war Germany’s records were found that England had a secret weapon related to Big Ben. They never found out that the secret weapon was prayer.”
You and I need to pray and everyone is welcome to pray in the house of the Lord, the house of Isaac, the house of Abraham and the house of Jacob. We will remember, very carefully, that South Africa came together to pray... over a million people. And what happened after that prayer meeting? A government was changed, corruption exposed, nuclear power stations shelved as unconstitutional - it would have bankrupted the country, a bumper maize crop, praying and singing in parliament. What results from corporate prayer!
Tomorrow afternoon, between 1 and 2 pm (South African Time) the nations of the world will be praying for South Africa via Zoom. And you can join in the prayer meeting on YouTube or Facebook. The details are on the Angus Buchan App. Please join us for one hour and let us pray together and see what God is going to do when we exercise our secret weapon.
God bless you and have a lovely day.
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Romans 8:11
Wow! What a promise from God. Then Philippians 4... I think we all know it:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13
We have got to keep in abiding fellowship with God. We have got to remember the power that is available to us. William Carey said, “Attempt great things for God and expect great things from God.”
Like the little boy who says: “I can’t see! I can’t see!” When he is standing in the dark, right next to a switch. All he has to do is turn the switch on and he will have all the light and the power that he needs.
I love that Nike logo, “Just do it!” Stop talking about it and use the power of God available to you - Get out of that boat. The boat is sinking anyway so start walking on the water, Jesus will never let you drown. Remember, God feeds every little bird, He doesn’t throw the food into the nest - That bird has got to go and find it.
I remember, a couple of years ago, reading a beautiful story of a cattle king who lived in Australia, in the 1800s. His name was Sydney Kidman - The queen even knighted him, Sir Sydney Kidman. He started breeding cattle in the outback of Australia. He started with nothing. He was a little boy that ran away from home, actually. He amassed a herd, I will say it slowly, of a hundred and seventy six thousand head of cattle!
He had land that was bigger than some countries but then an horrific drought hit Australia that lasted for five years. The interior literally became a desert and he nearly lost the whole lot but he did not give up. He carried on and he carried on with a few head of cattle that he had and then the rain came. The grass grew and the cattle started breeding again and he made an amazing comeback.
Today, you and I have all the power of Heaven and Earth at our disposal. The Holy Spirit, who raised Jesus from the dead, abides in you and I... Stand up my dear friend, wipe off that dust. Shake it off your shoulders, put your head back and keep on, keeping on - Jesus will see you through!
Have a wonderful day.
Proverbs 18:24 says there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Isn’t that beautiful? And of course, we know His name... His name is Jesus, the friend of the lonely and of the sinner.
“Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”
2 Corinthians 13:11-14
You know with the devil’s propaganda machine going all over the place... Talking negatively - talking about farm attacks, about a possible second wave, about farms being burnt out, there is a tremendous amount of anxiety and fear. Now, what do we need? We need a friend - That is right!
Now, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find the definition of the word, friend: It is a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection. I want to ask you this morning, do you have a friend?
You say: “Angus, I don’t have a friend.”
Well, to have a friend you need to be friendly. That is what the Bible says. We need to love one another like never before in the times in which we are living. Do you remember that old movie Crocodile Dundee? Do you remember when they were talking about psychologists? He said, “Where I come from in the outback, we don’t have psychologists, we have friends.” You know, it is possible to be lonely in a crowd. We really need to reach out to one another, loneliness is a killer.
This little message I send out to you every day - I got a report back - it saved one man’s life that I know of!
He was contemplating suicide, having lost his farm and his business and he listened to this message in the morning and he changed his mind, so we thank God for friends. So today, why don’t you phone somebody and just ask them, “How are you?” Send a text, a WhatsApp or pray for them. Make it personal, not a generalized message, call them by their name. People love to hear their names. Just say, “John, I have got your back.” “Susan, don’t worry. It is going to be all right!” People are mourning the loss of loved ones from COVID-19, some are still in the hospital. Just give them that phone call, tell them, “I am praying for you.”
You know, a couple of days ago on Sunday morning, I felt led just to call my immediate family together in the chapel because obviously, we cannot meet as a church at this point. At eight o’clock in the morning it was freezing, frost on the ground... still, we came together in the little chapel that my late dad and I built, in 1980.
Boys and girls, old people, young people and we had a prayer meeting. Well, I want to tell you that I have been to many prayer meetings in my life but that was one of the sweetest prayer meetings I have ever had the privilege of attending.
“How are you?
Do you have enough food?
Have you got firewood?
Do you have petrol for your motor car?”
Being concerned and loving one another!
Have a wonderful day as you become a friend to somebody.
God bless you and goodbye.
Proverbs 18:24 says there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Isn’t that beautiful? And of course, we know His name... His name is Jesus, the friend of the lonely and of the sinner.
“Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”
2 Corinthians 13:11-14
You know with the devil’s propaganda machine going all over the place... Talking negatively - talking about farm attacks, about a possible second wave, about farms being burnt out, there is a tremendous amount of anxiety and fear. Now, what do we need? We need a friend - That is right!
Now, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find the definition of the word, friend: It is a person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection. I want to ask you this morning, do you have a friend?
You say: “Angus, I don’t have a friend.”
Well, to have a friend you need to be friendly. That is what the Bible says. We need to love one another like never before in the times in which we are living. Do you remember that old movie Crocodile Dundee? Do you remember when they were talking about psychologists? He said, “Where I come from in the outback, we don’t have psychologists, we have friends.” You know, it is possible to be lonely in a crowd. We really need to reach out to one another, loneliness is a killer.
This little message I send out to you every day - I got a report back - it saved one man’s life that I know of!
He was contemplating suicide, having lost his farm and his business and he listened to this message in the morning and he changed his mind, so we thank God for friends. So today, why don’t you phone somebody and just ask them, “How are you?” Send a text, a WhatsApp or pray for them. Make it personal, not a generalized message, call them by their name. People love to hear their names. Just say, “John, I have got your back.” “Susan, don’t worry. It is going to be all right!” People are mourning the loss of loved ones from COVID-19, some are still in the hospital. Just give them that phone call, tell them, “I am praying for you.”
You know, a couple of days ago on Sunday morning, I felt led just to call my immediate family together in the chapel because obviously, we cannot meet as a church at this point. At eight o’clock in the morning it was freezing, frost on the ground... still, we came together in the little chapel that my late dad and I built, in 1980.
Boys and girls, old people, young people and we had a prayer meeting. Well, I want to tell you that I have been to many prayer meetings in my life but that was one of the sweetest prayer meetings I have ever had the privilege of attending.
“How are you?
Do you have enough food?
Have you got firewood?
Do you have petrol for your motor car?”
Being concerned and loving one another!
Have a wonderful day as you become a friend to somebody.
God bless you and goodbye.
“…with all lowliness and gentleness, with long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Ephesians 4:2-3
We don’t have to manufacture peace, we only have to maintain it. Now remember the Prince of Peace John 14:27, the Lord Jesus said very clearly:
“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
You know with the extreme pressure that everyone around the world is under at the moment with this COVID-19 lockdown: wearing masks, sanitizing... One gets to feel that one is a prisoner even in his own home and of course with the unrest everywhere, what may the future hold, people are extremely tense and sensitive.
You and I need to be very careful how we talk to one another and to keep the unity, to bear with one another. We have got to prefer each other and try to understand the other person’s position.
You know, I remember with fondness, my late dad.
He lived in a little cottage behind our house - He was a heavy smoker, as was most of his generation. He was also very lonely after the early death of our mother, I would spend as much time as I could with him each day and go up and have a cup of tea with him in the cottage. When he couldn’t drive his car any longer, he depended on me to get his grocery shopping for him.
Early one morning, while I was in the field trying desperately to calibrate my seed planter for the new season (I was really struggling, by the way), I got a message from my dad that he had run out of cigarettes and he needed a packet right now!
Now, the town is 15 km away... I sent a message back to say: “Dad, I will get to town at lunchtime, I am just battling at the moment with a critical situation.” Of course, a message came straight back: “Well then, I will just walk to town.” Oh dear! Needless to say, I had to drop everything, jump into the pick-up, shoot into town to get a packet of cigarettes for my old dad... trying to keep the peace. By the way, on returning, when I gave him his packet of cigarettes, I managed to sort out the problem with the planter immediately - I wonder why... Maybe a bit of divine intervention, do you think?
Have a wonderful day and remember, be gentle with one another.
God bless you and goodbye.
If we go to probably the most well-loved Psalm in the Bible, Psalm 23;
“The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.”
Psalm 23:1
And then if we go to Philippians in the New Testament:
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19
Friends, the flock of sheep trust the Good Shepherd.
“Be still, and know that I am God”
Psalm 46:10
Somebody said that they saw that sign on the side of a building but the word 'God' had fallen off and it read, “Be still and know that I am…” Remember, Moses said, “Lord, who shall I tell Pharaoh sent me?” He said, “Tell him I AM has sent you.”He is everything that you and I need today.
We need to quietly get on with the job at hand... that is what my wife keeps telling me, listening to the Holy Spirit. You see, nothing has changed in the heavens. Jesus is still firmly seated on His throne. Do what you have to do and what you can do and then leave the rest to God - That’s right! There is nothing more restful to me than to see a shepherd with his flock of sheep grazing peacefully and contentedly on a hillside. There is nothing more frustrating than sheep who will not obey the shepherd, running to and fro, all over the place, totally out of control. That is a dangerous place to be because the wolf, that’s right - he waits for that disobedient sheep, that straggler and he takes him out.
We really need to listen today to the voice of the Good Shepherd.
Sit down quietly on this Sunday with your family. Have that cup of tea or coffee with the family and meditate on the goodness of Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd. Chew the cud... I can hear some of the townies saying, “What does that mean?” Well, the old cow has got three stomachs. He goes out early in the morning and eats the grass. When he has got a full stomach he goes and finds a shady place, lies down, puts his head up in the air - I love to watch it - and he regurgitates his grass and he enjoys it and chews it a second time.
Chew the cud with your family today and spend time with Almighty God and He will strengthen you and fortify you.
God bless you and goodbye.
“But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now, therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”
Genesis 50:20-21
You see Joseph’s brothers were very jealous of him. They sold him into slavery and then God promoted him to be the Prime Minister of the most powerful nation on earth at the time, Egypt. God used that office to save the people of Israel, to save the very people who were trying to kill Joseph. The Bible tells us clearly in Romans:
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28
My dear friends, never before in all my Christian walk with Jesus Christ have I ever seen such love and sincere kindness among ordinary folk. You see this insidious thing, the devil and all his demons have tried to do, to cripple our beloved South Africa is failing miserably. He started with COVID-19 and now with this looting and arson... Ordinary folk are banding together to help the police protect their homes, making roadblocks to stop the wickedness of looting of private property. We are seeing the singing of hymns spontaneously in the shops, phone-calls (obviously when the comms are up) to encourage people, from all over the world.
They are saying, “We are praying for you.”
I heard a report of the local baker, who managed to get some flour together, he baked piping hot bread rolls and brought them out to give to the men who were guarding the roads in and out of the towns... Farmers wives exchanging food with one another, vegetables for milk and so on. I have also heard of farmers wives making peanut butter sandwiches, beautiful, for their staff because they had nothing to eat. I heard and saw a lone piper playing the bagpipes to encourage the residents at a roadblock intersection in Umhlanga Rocks, Durban.
My dear friends, Joseph said again, “What was meant for evil, God turned for good.” Let us continue to confound the devil today. Let us love one another unconditionally so that the whole world can see that Jesus Christ is Lord.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“For His anger is but for a moment,
His favor is for life;
Weeping may endure for a night,
But joy comes in the morning.”
Psalm 30:5
And then we go to Psalm 126:5-6:
“Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.”
My dear friends, it is with great sadness and even shame that I must report to you that our beloved South Africa is severely wounded. It is bleeding, not from the outside, not from foreign enemies but rather from the inside, self-inflicted. Please continue to pray for us. We shall recover - We are a Christian nation, we are tenacious and we are robust. Some have had to flee their homes, they are even coming to stay with us at Shalom Farm.
There are shop owners who have stood by and watched the work of their hands go up in flames; businessmen watching the work of their lives destroyed in front of them, burnt up. Farmers failing to take their produce to market; dairy farmers pouring tens of thousands of litres of milk onto the ground because they cannot get it to market.
Fruit, beautiful fruit, ripe for the picking with nobody to pick it, absolutely going over and rotting in the fields... Forest fires all over are being put in by arsonists. And I am saying, “Lord, what is going on here?”
Yesterday afternoon I called my little grandsons. I asked them to come with me up to the chapel where we could pray together. The oldest one is 13 years old and the youngest about 4 years old, I sat there and I looked at these little boys, all of them boys... about 9 of them actually - some of my granddaughters couldn’t be there.
And I looked at these little faces, big smiles on their faces... I get quite emotional even telling you this. I said, “Boys, are you afraid?” They said, “No Khulu, we are not afraid!”
I said, “Why aren’t you afraid, boys?”
They said, “Because Jesus is here and He is with us.”
You know, we read the Bible together, we prayed together... They got on their bikes afterwards. All of them rode off together, laughing, shouting to each other: “See you tomorrow!”
I thought, “Lord, what faith - What simplistic childlike faith!”
You might be sitting there listening to this and saying to me, “Well, Angus, what are you going to be doing today?” Well, today I am going to get on a tractor, I haven’t been on one for a while. One of my sons has got no tractor drivers so I am going to take that tractor, and I am going to load up bales of hay and bring them into a central place where the cattle can be fed. In other words, I am going to carry on carrying on. We are going to clean up this mess and we are going to look up to Jesus, we are going to keep up the good work. Why? Because Jesus is going with us and those tears will be wiped away and we will face a new day.
God bless you and keep strong - Keep your eyes on The King. He will not fail us.
Goodbye.
Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23
And then we go to John 4:14, Jesus says:
“But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
We must not, in these troubled times, allow our hearts to become muddied by the issues of this world. What am I talking about? We are talking about the issues of anger, bitterness, un-forgiveness, fear, disappointment and revenge. These attitudes towards the issues of life will do us no good at all - In fact, it will probably make us very sick. We will stop the flow of life-giving water from that very delicate spring in the desert of life. If not managed correctly we will stop the flow of life-giving water into our hearts. We need to manage the well-spring of life.
I had a good friend, many, many years ago whose name was Vic Schutte. He worked for World Vision and he would go into arid areas in rural areas where there was no water. He would help restore outlets of water where cattle, sheep and goats had trampled the trickling spring into a mud-hole and stopped the flow of water.
Vic would fence off the area when he arrived so that the animals couldn’t get close to that muddy place. Then he would dig away and find the eye of the spring. Then gently remove the mud from around it and build a cement basin... a holding basin, then the water would start to flow slowly and get stronger. Then he would attach a pipe to that basin and take the water a long way away, maybe 20 or 50 meters, to a drinking trough - Then the water would flow with no interference from anything, night and day.
Let your flow be opened up today. Let your beautiful heart not be obstructed whatsoever by the evil one and by what is happening around you today. Spend time with Jesus and He will continue to refresh you.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you.
Goodbye.
“When the enemy comes in like a flood,
The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.”
Isaiah 59:19
And then we go to Hebrews:
“So we may boldly say:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
I want to say to you that the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane ran away from the only person in the whole world who could have protected them. The Bible tells us that they all fled and forsook the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you look at the armour of God that the Lord tells us to put on... Starting with the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, shoes of peace, taking up the shield of faith to ward off the fiery darts of the evil one and the sword of the Spirit, the word of God (the Bible), you will see that there is nothing that covers the back of the soldier. Why - Because the soldier never turns his back on the enemy.
My dear friend, in this perilous time which we are living in, we need to face the enemy. We need to face the devil - He is a liar and he is a thief and all he wants to do is break you down with fear. We stand! The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly or carnal but mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. I think you will find that in 2 Corinthians 10:4 - That’s right.
I heard a wonderful story just the other day, of a young man and his family that I am mentoring. He told me that he took his family to the Botswana Game Reserve and he was camping away from everybody in the middle of the bush. During the night he heard the noise of lions around their tenting place. He got up early in the morning and he saw the spoor of 16 lions that had gone around that camp during the night. So he got up very early and he took his cell phone and he wanted to take a photograph of the spoor to make a little video of it to send it to his family in South Africa.
As he was walking along with his brother in law he looked up and standing 50 meters away from him, was a huge male lion - I saw it because he took a photograph of it. They were both absolutely transfixed when they looked at this lion he said to his friend: “Stand and don’t move, look at the lion.” The lion was getting ready to charge them but did not turn their back on the lion. They did not run away - They kept their eyes on the lion and slowly but surely, step by step, they retreated to the camp. The lion walked around the camp and then walked off.
Today, we need to face the enemy and the Lord will give us the victory.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“For with God, nothing will be impossible.”
Luke 1:37
At Shalom, we say one genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons. Why - Because you can’t argue with a miracle, you can see it.
“So the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” And he showed him the place. So he cut off a stick, and threw it in there; and he made the iron float. Therefore he said, “Pick it up for yourself.” So he reached out his hand and took it.” 2 Kings 6:6-7
Can iron float? No, but with God nothing is impossible. You see, the man was cutting a tree down and the axe head flew off and landed in the middle of the Jordan River, and he was very concerned because it wasn’t his axe. He asked Elisha, the great man of faith to please help him and Elisha made the axe head float on the top of the water.
What are you believing Jesus to do for you today?
You say: “Not very much.” - Well, then you won’t get very much. We have got to exercise our faith. A few years back, we got a distressing phone call that there was a farmer in the North West of South Africa. His first name is Job and he asked if we could pray for him because he was losing his farm because of a persistent drought. We were kindly flown up in a private plane to his farm... The dairy cattle were in a bad shape. There was dust everywhere, the dams were bone dry. I want to say to you there is nothing worse than a drought.
So we agreed to go up and pray for rain, otherwise, that man would have lost his beautiful farm. I remember the story, in fact, I shared it with you just a while ago... Where Elijah took salt and sweetened the water of Jericho.
I took a couple of kilos of course salt in a bag with me on the plane and when we got to his farm, I asked him if we could pray with all his staff, his family and his neighbours. I took that salt and I poured it down the windmill. We then had tea and tasty food - You know what farmers are like, very gracious people. It was a beautiful set-up!
We flew back home and a short while later we got a phone call. A few days later and there had been a flood on that farm - We have got the photographs to show you... Part of the road was washed away. That beautiful empty dam was overflowing with God-given rain. Jesus never changes!
Trust Him today for your miracle and He will not fail you.
God bless you and goodbye.
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Timothy 6:10
It is not money but rather the love of money, which is the root of all kinds of evil. If we look at Psalm 37 the word of God says:
“A little that a righteous man has
Is better than the riches of many wicked.”
Psalm 37:16
To have a simple meal with love is much better is tastier than a banquet where there is none. And you will find that in Proverbs:
“Better is a dinner of herbs where love is,
Than a fatted calf with hatred.”
Proverbs 15:17
Mother taught me, when I was a small boy, that when you are invited to a celebrity’s house, when you sit at the dining room table and are confronted with a huge display of knives, forks and spoons... If you don’t know where to start and you don’t want to embarrass yourself: “Always remember Angus, start from the outside and work inwards. Work from the outside inwards. But when you are invited to a poor man’s house, if he eats with his bare hands then you heartily follow.” And by the way, I always think that food tastes so much better when eaten with your hands.
You know, a good definition of the word greed, my wife told me the other day: “Greed is to want more than you need.” The Oxford Dictionary says, “Greed is an intense and selfish desire for wealth, power or food.” You see, the Lord says to us in Philippians 4:19, that He will supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus our Lord. Not your wants but your needs!
But always remember, it was a rich man who took our Lord Jesus’s precious body off the cross, embalmed it and put that precious body in his own personal tomb.
Have a wonderful day and go out today and bless somebody with the love of Christ.
“And he returned to the man of God, he and all his aides, and came and stood before him; and he said, “Indeed, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel; now therefore, please take a gift from your servant.” But he said, “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive nothing.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused.” 2 Kings 5:15-
Do not ever touch God’s glory. The Gospel is for free - It is not for sale! Jesus said:
“Freely you have received, freely give.”
Matthew 10:8
Jesus said of John the Baptist, “There has never been a man born from the womb of a woman as great as John the Baptist.” And he said (John the Baptist) that he was not even worthy to untie the sandal straps of Jesus. Mark 1:7.
You see the prophet Elisha never even came out of his hut to greet the commander of the entire Syrian army, Naaman. He would take no gifts from him and that is why God used Elisha, the prophet, so powerfully - He could not be bought. He could not be intimidated by money or fame, he wasn’t a hireling. He was a son of God. You know that Naaman had bought 6,000 shekels of gold, 10 talents of silver, 10 outfits of clothing to give the man of God as a gift because the Lord had healed Naaman of the dreaded disease, leprosy.
I heard this story of Francis of Assisi: He was asked one day to pray for a baby who was completely deformed, physically deformed from birth but he declined. They asked him, “Why not?” knowing that he was a gentle and a compassionate man. He said, “Because if I pray for him and he is healed then you will worship me and not the healer, Jesus.” They begged him... They said: “Please!”
Reluctantly, he said, “Okay, I will pray for the child” and of course when he prayed in the Name of Jesus Christ the child was healed, instantly and lay there gurgling, quite normal. The people were ecstatic and crying with joy and thanksgiving. After a short while, they turned around looking for the man of God. He was nowhere to be found - He had run for his life out of town, lest he touch the glory of God.
Do not touch God’s glory. He alone is our healer.
Have a wonderful Sunday,
God bless you, and goodbye.
"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.” Mark 10:7-8
The beauty and the joy of marriage - It is forever!
We need to work on it. There is no such thing as a perfect marriage, we have got to give and we have got to take. Don’t let the sun go down without saying sorry. Remember, in the home it is God first. Then your husband or your wife, then the children and then everything else after that.
I read once Ruth Graham, the wife of the famous evangelist Dr Billy Graham, was asked a question. Did she ever contemplate divorcing Billy? Her reply was: “Divorce, never... Murder, often!”
Don’t waste your marriage arguing with one another - Love one another unconditionally. You know, the children just love to see mom and dad loving each other, it brings such security in their young lives. And by the way, so does the whole world.
I remember listening to a most beautiful country and western song, it goes something like this:
An old man was standing in front of his little house that had been absolutely destroyed, flattened by a twister, a tornado that had gone through the town, and a reporter from the local TV station was interviewing the old man.
And the old boy was standing in front of his destroyed house.
The reporter was maybe trying to get him to get emotional and the old man said, “You think you are going to make me cry, Mister?” He says, “You are totally wrong. This ain’t nothing.”
He said, “Sitting in hospital, holding the hand of the woman, that I had loved, my wife for fifty years, with her heart of gold, stopped pumping, slowly passing away,” He said, “Now Mister, that is something.”
I want to say to you today, don’t take your marriage for granted. Love one another, time is short - Jesus is coming soon! Love one another.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
“She extends her hand to the poor,
Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of snow for her household,
For all her household is clothed with scarlet.
She makes tapestry for herself;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates,
When he sits among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them,
And supplies sashes for the merchants.
Strength and honour are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.”
Proverbs 31:20-25
And then verse 28 says:
“Her children rise up and call her blessed”
It is time for practical Christianity. As churches continue to be closed and gatherings cannot take place because of COVID-19, it is time for the working man and woman to stand up because there is no church on Sunday... So we can have church every single day in the workplace.
You see, this woman gave her husband tremendous honour because she worked hard with her hands. I want to say to the young ladies who are getting ready to marry, make yourself look beautiful for the young man but remember, beauty is only skin deep. After the first six months of marriage when he comes home, what he wants is a nice warm home with a nice, hot plate of food made by a beautiful Christian wife. We need to be practical. Luke, who wrote the Gospel of Luke was a doctor. Jesus, the King of Kings, was a carpenter. Peter was a fisherman, Paul a tentmaker, Dorcas a dressmaker and Joseph of Arimathea, a businessman. We have got to get into the workplace.
They asked me to do cowboy church... What does that mean?
On a Sunday morning, that’s right. And lots of you say they should be in church, those cowboys but they are having a rodeo. But you know what they do - They ask me to come and preach the Gospel in the rodeo arena.
When Jesus used His illustrations, He spoke to the farmers about a sower and seed... They understand that. The talents - Businessmen can understand how you can use your money effectively.
You know, I remember a man driving down the road, many years ago, from Cedarberg to KZN and he was coming to invite me to speak to his farmers. He wasn’t a Christian and by the way, he got converted himself in those meetings. He wanted to check me out, he didn’t want to find out what my theological qualifications were. He drove onto the farm and told me, with his own mouth (his name was Mike Francis, he has gone to be with Jesus now) he checked my fences - He saw that they were straight and they were tight. He saw that the cattle were fat and the maize was looking good. Then he said, “Come and speak to the men” because he wasn’t going to invite me if the farm was in a mess.
Today you must understand one thing... Talk the language of the layman and he will come to Christ.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
“So he went out and wept bitterly.”
Matthew 26:75
Probably one of the saddest scriptures in the whole Bible - We are talking about the apostle, Peter, the leader of the pack. He denied his Master three times. I want to ask you a question this morning. Is it possible for God to restore us, once we have let Him down? Peter was restored but not before he was totally broken.
You see, he had taken the Lord aside... He had rebuked the Lord when he heard the story that Jesus told the disciples: “I am going to be crucified.”
And the Lord said, “Get behind me Satan!” Then he denied the Lord three times. I want to say to you, maybe you have let the Lord down. Maybe you have not fulfilled what the Lord has asked you to do but the Lord never gives up on His children. Right at the end of the Gospel of John, you can read it yourself, you will see when Peter was totally destitute with the disciples - They had gone back fishing, their Hero had been crucified. A man was standing on the shore who said: “Boys, have you caught anything?”
“No, we have been fishing all night.”
“Throw the net on the other side”
And they pulled in 153 of St Peter’s fish.
And then the Lord asked Peter three times, “Peter, do you love me?”
“Yes Lord, you know I love You.”
“Feed my sheep.”
Paraphrasing John 21:15-17
You see, Peter started as a worldly Christian and he ended up as a spiritual Christian. We really need to seek the Lord in these last days. You know, in the first sermon that Peter preached 3,000 souls came to Christ - the same man that went out and wept bitterly because he had let the Lord down. The Lord Jesus loves you so much today. He says, “Confess your sins.”
If we confess our sins is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
And then go out... Go out and throw the net out and tell people about the soon-coming King because He loves you so much. You know I want to say to you in closing, the thing I love about the Lord Jesus Christ more than anything else is that He has a bad memory. That’s right - You see, when He forgives, He forgets. He didn’t bring it up and say to Peter: “You know Peter, you denied me three times and you said you would die for me.” No - He said:
“Peter, do you love me?”
“Yes Lord, You know I love you.”
“Feed My sheep.”
And the Lord has done that for me, not once but many times and He wants to do it for you today. Get up, dust yourself off - get back in the race, the Master is going to run with you all the way to the finish line.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
Cast your burden on the Lord,
And He shall sustain you;
He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 55:22
The word of God says very clearly to us that we need to cast our burdens on the Lord and He shall sustain us. Jesus can be trusted, therefore take your burden to Him, He will sustain you until His good timing.
Remember Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus? When Lazarus died, they thought that Jesus had come too late, remember? But as always, the Lord is never early and never late - He is always on time.
“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
- Mary speaking to Jesus in John 11:32
I want to say to you this morning, in the midst of this Coronavirus - this COVID-19 where many people have died: Our days have been allotted to us even before we were conceived in our mother’s womb. We cannot prolong our lives one day longer or shorter. Maybe somebody this morning is thinking: “If I had only looked after him/her a little bit better, then maybe they would have made it.” Not at all.
The Lord gives life and the Lord takes away life.
If we look at Psalm 139, this is what the Lord says, very clearly, to us this morning - and we need to listen. The Lord says:
“Your eyes (the Lord’s eyes) saw my substance being yet unformed (In other words He saw us even before we were formed) and in Your book, they all were written (in Your book). Psalm 139:16
I am just going to say that again.
“Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.”
That is pretty clear. And then in Job:
“Since his days are determined,
The number of his months is with You;
You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass.”
Job 14:5
The Lord is in complete control of your life today - You have nothing to fear. Live life to the full, live it to your best and leave the rest to God. Let's start living one day at a time and that loved one that has gone ahead of you remember, the Lord says clearly in Psalm 116:
“Precious in the sight of the Lord
Is the death of His saints.”
Psalm 116:15
Your loved ones are waiting for you in Heaven and you and I need to be ready because maybe today, who knows, He might come back to take us to be with Him in Paradise.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:4
If we want to be the greatest, we must be prepared to become the least, in God’s kingdom. Father God works in the opposite way to the world’s system.
The world is looking for the strongest, most powerful, most talented and the most intelligent person for their leader. But Jesus said to his disciples, as they were arguing amongst themselves about who was the greatest in the kingdom of God: “Unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom.” Not to become childish but rather to become childlike: loving, trusting, believing.
I looked up in the English Standard Version Translation, The Study Bible, for an explanation, it says: “You must have the humility of a child because it consists of childlike trust, vulnerability, the inability to advance his or her own cause apart from the help, the direction and the resources of a parent.”
You see, Jesus wants us to be completely trusting in Him. That little child can do nothing on its own. It has to depend on its parent, just like that flying trapeze artist going through the air, doing somersaults - relying completely on the ability of the catcher’s strong arms to catch her in midair. We must be the same. We must trust Jesus, He will not drop us.
As you go out today, be like that little child - Be totally trusting in the Lord. He will not fail us and He will never let us down.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
“And he said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Make this valley full of ditches.’ For thus says the Lord: ‘You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink.” 2 Kings 3:16
Then we go on a little bit to chapter 4 and I am reading from verse 2:
“And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.” Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbours—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”
You see, the Lord wants us to work hard with our hands. He told the Israelites when they said, “We have no water for our cattle to drink” - He said: “Dig ditches and I will fill those ditches with water.”
He said to that lady, that widow, she said, “All I have got is just one jar of oil, and they are coming - the debtors are coming to take my sons away as part payment.” He said, “Go and borrow all the empty vessels you can find and keep pouring one jar of oil into every vessel and they will all be full.”
Father God will fill them for us. We must throw the nets into the water and God will fill them with fish. He will not throw the fish into the boat.
Remember, Jesus said the disciples, “Throw the net onto the right-hand side and the net was filled with fish." John 21:6
One of South Africa’s greatest sportsmen, golfer Gary Player, when he was told by someone: “You are so lucky. You hit the ball so straight.”
He said, “Well, it’s funny - The harder I practice, the luckier I seem to be!”
There is no substitute for hard work. In fact, work is good for the soul. God created you and me to work. It is the devil who finds work for idle hands - If you don’t put the seed into the ground, you will not reap a crop.
And I want to say to the young people today, it is no good asking the Lord to help you with your exams but you are not doing any studying.
Let's work hard today and let's see God undertake for us, have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” Mark 9:5
We are talking about the Mount of Transfiguration where our Heavenly Father came down and met with His Son, Jesus. Moses and Elijah were also standing by. Peter wanted to stay up on the mountain with Jesus in a safe place but after Jesus had spoken with Elijah and Moses and His Heavenly Father, He took the three disciples, Peter, James and John back down the mountain into the valley again.
Now, in the valley, that is where all the sick people were, the fearful people - that is where all the challenges of this tired old world are to be found, not on the mountain. So what we say is - First the mountain and then the ministry. Yes, we need to get away and we need to rest but we cannot stay there forever. The lost and the hurting, the sick and the weary, the widows and orphans are in the valley. That is where we are needed.
After Jesus’s resurrection, He met Peter on the shores of Lake Galilee and He asked Peter three questions. Three times He said: “Peter do you love me?” And three times Peter said to Jesus: “Lord, You know I love you.”
And then the Lord said to Peter:
“Feed My sheep.” John 21:17
You and I need to roll up our sleeves and we need to get dirty and get back in the fight and to help the poor. You say, “But, Angus, I am tired. I have been let down, I have been misunderstood - I am tired of the church.” We are the church, you and me, and we do make mistakes. It does get dirty but that is where God has put us. We need to shine in the darkness - It is very easy to go up that mountain and to sit in the presence of God, It is a beautiful place. It’s my favourite place but that is not where the people are. The people are in the world and they need you and me to love them, to wash their dirty feet and to walk with them in the darkness.
God bless you as you have a good rest today up on the mountain - that’s right and get ready for Monday morning.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the ground barren.” And he said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’ ” So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.” 2 Kings 2:19-22
Now a miracle of kindness is what we need in the world today. I have been to Jericho - It is one of the oldest cities in the world, it is thousands of years old. I have been to that fountain, to that spring, the water is still sweet even today, thousands of years later.
An act of kindness is what we need to do as believers for the world today.
I know a young couple who I am mentoring, actually - They come from Pretoria. Together with a group of young people, they have designed a street shower. It is a portable machine that they park on the side of the street, and for the poor, homeless and the needy, they give them a beautiful hot shower. Then they give them clothes to wear, new shoes, new clothes and then they preach the Gospel to them, break bread with them and have Holy Communion - Practical Christianity!
Now, I can hear somebody saying, “Oh but Angus, you can’t get to Heaven by good works.” - Nobody knows that better than me but we have got to put our faith into action. Faith has got feet, it is a doing word.
You know, I get little pictures sent to me in the post from small children, some of them only seven or eight years old, pictures of a cowboy and an Appalachian horse called Snowy. Do you know that those little pictures touch my heart more deeply than if somebody had sent me an amazing painting from Rembrandt or Picasso because those little children have done it out of a heart of love.
Jesus says:
“Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Matthew 25:40
We have a group of young people on the farm who have taken it upon themselves to take hot soup and food to old pensioners in town who are queuing up at the Post Office from about 3am in the morning because they don’t want to lose their place. They are freezing cold and they have hardly any clothes to wear. These young people take hot soup and food and telling them about the love of Jesus.
Go out today and do a miracle of kindness for the poor and the needy.
God bless you and goodbye.
I woke up very early this morning with a tremendous burden on my heart for those who are struggling today. We are getting so many prayer requests - People who are struggling with sickness, unemployment, people who are battling with fear, depression, stress and with suicidal intentions. This morning I have been really praying: “Lord, please undertake for us.”
I remember that beautiful scripture in the Gospel of Luke, when the disciples asked the Lord Jesus Christ:
“Please increase our faith.” Luke 17:5
I want to share with you today Mark 11:24, where the Lord tells us very, very clearly, the following... He says to us:
“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:24
God does not answer prayer - God answers the prayer of faith. You see, if you pray and you don’t even believe what you are praying, you will get nothing. That is why the disciples asked the Lord to please increase their faith.
Now, this morning I have been sitting quietly in my prayer room and I have been praying for you. I want to do something that I haven’t done on Thought For The Day - I want to pray for you today and I ask that if you are:
Sick;
If you are fearful;
If you are depressed;
If you are stressed out;
You don’t know what the future holds;
You don’t know where you are going to get money to feed your children or pay for your electricity;
You don’t have groceries to put on the table,
I want you today to join me in the following prayer. I am going to pray very slowly and very sincerely and I am going to believe with you, for a miracle in your life. That is right, The Lord says: “Have faith in God, not in your situation, not even in your neighbour, not even in the medicine but in God. God will undertake for you - I have got so many testimonies to prove that. Jesus says:
“If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
Mark 9:23
Please pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
I believe that You are the same yesterday, today and forever.
Lord, You know my situation. (Please name it)
I am praying by faith today, Lord, that you will undertake for me because I am at the end of anything that I can do in my own strength, and I appeal to you today to take care of my situation and help me to resolve it.
In Jesus Name.
Amen
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.
“And so it was when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”
2 Kings 2:9
Persistence pays off. The Oxford Dictionary defines Persist: "to continue to exist." Elisha got no encouragement from the brethren. The prophets told him to leave Elijah, let him go. In fact, he got no encouragement from the man of God, himself - He kept on saying, “Leave me, I am busy.” But Elisha would not give up and that is the attitude that we need in the world today.
Do not throw the towel in when you are on the brink of a great miracle.
In the sport of boxing when a fighter is taking terrible punishment, his trainer will take the towel and throw it into the middle of the ring, signifying they concede that their man cannot go on any longer and automatically the fight is cancelled and he is defeated. Don’t ever throw the towel in! With Jesus in your corner, you will eventually win the fight... if you persist. The man who always wins a boxing match is not the fighter who can deliver the knock-out blow but rather the man who can take a punch on his chin and keep on getting up.
Not only was Elisha persistent, but he was also greedy - That’s right! He asked for a double portion of Elijah’s mantle and God gave it to him. And you know something - Elisha performed double the miracles that Elijah performed in his ministry.
Stand up today. Dust yourself off - Get back in the fight because Jesus has guaranteed our victory.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”. Philippians 4:19
Why do we have such short memories?
If we go back to Mark 8:21 the Lord said to His disciples:
“How is it you do not understand?”
You see, Jesus is our supplier and no one else. Jesus is our healer. Jesus is our protector. You see, twice He had fed the multitudes with just a couple of little fish and a few loaves of bread and after they collected baskets of leftovers. Now the disciples are in the boat and they were concerned because they had only brought one loaf of bread with them.
Jesus says to them, “How is it that you just don’t get it? You just don’t understand? I have just fed 4000 people and then I fed another 5000 people, now you are complaining and arguing because you only brought one loaf of bread with you for the journey?”
You know, it is pathetic when you think about it but don’t we do that all the time? How would you like it, dad, if your little boy of 8 or 10 years old came to you and said, “Dad, will we have food for supper tonight? Will there be something for us to eat?”
“Son, have you ever gone to bed without food without food in this house?”
“No, dad.”
“Well, how can you doubt me?”
Well, I am sure that our Lord Jesus must often feel the same way when He sees us, His children, scurrying about trying to make our survival plans. Remember, He says to us in Hebrews
“I will never leave you and I will never forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
Folks, we need to get our memories into action and to remember how many times God has pulled us through times of difficulty. I know, as a farmer, I can’t tell you how many droughts we have survived yet every time the rain goes away, we start to complain and worry. It must really hurt the Lord. Today, let us start to thank God, by faith, in anticipation for what He is going to give us, how He is going to protect us, how He is going to heal us and how He is going to take care of us.
Have a wonderful day today as you put your trust, not in the bread but in the baker - Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
Malachi 4:5-6
Well, I want to say I think the curse on the earth today is that we are facing a fatherless generation. And that is so serious.
We really need to take up our positions as fathers in the home. I want to qualify something right at the outset - We thank God for mothers! What would we do without Mom? But this is a directive to fathers.
Elijah the prophet, the hairy man with a leather belt around his waist and another prophet, John the Baptist (in the New Testament), clothed in camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, were both were called by God to call people to repentance - to call people to say sorry.
“Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.”
Matthew 3:8
Dads, when you become a father you cannot continue to live the life of a bachelor. You have got to put your personal priorities aside and you have got to start living for your children and for your wife. You have got to take up your responsibilities of prophet, priest and king in your home. What does that mean?
Well, a prophet is one who directs you - He shows you the way... You have got to direct your family.
A priest: You have got to get up in the morning before anybody else and your children must see that you are spending time in the presence of God before you go to work. You have to read those Bible stories to the children before they go to bed... and king? Well, the king is the one who produces the food - You have got to put the food on the table.
You say: “I can’t get a job at the moment.” That’s okay, the family understands that but you really need to try. Remember your children won’t do what you tell them to do - They will do what you do. I looked up the word 'Holy'. It means morally and spiritually excellent. You and I need to lead from the front.
Now to the children. You have got to honour dad - Yes, you have. Commandment number five is the first commandment in the Bible with a promise added to it: "Honour your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land."
The biggest challenge we have at the moment is to teach men to be fathers in their home. It will make a difference, not only in your house but in the nation. Let us really love our children and may God bless you as you stand up to be counted. Remember, the Lord gave you the broad shoulders, not your wife. You must take responsibility.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
Luke 22:31-32
Jesus is doing that very thing right now in Heaven as I speak to you. That's right, His ministry is intercession - standing in the gap for you and me. There is nothing more powerful on earth than intercessory prayer.
You see, I am not an intercessor, I am a prayer warrior but an intercessor is a specific ministry and I hold intercessors in the highest regard. My dear wife Jill is an intercessor and many a time she will bring me a word that is right on-line. I have a team of intercessors who are praying for Shalom Ministries, 24-7. A young man called Anton is heading them up.
We have hundreds and hundreds of intercessors praying for this ministry right around the world. When people come to me and say, “What can we do to help?” I only have one answer - Please pray for us, because I know that "The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman avails much." That is what it says in James 5:16
So mom, don’t worry about your children - Intercede for them. Young people, don’t worry about your old folks at this time with this horrible, ugly COVID-19, pray for them. You see, Jesus prayed for Peter that the devil would not sift him but that he would not fail in his ministry, that his strength would be kept and that his faith would continue.
If Christ Himself is interceding on our behalf today, surely that tells you and me just how vital prayer is in these troublesome times that we are living. You see, this Intercessor of ours, the Lord Jesus Christ - Hebrews 4:14 tells us that He understands what we are going through because He has walked this road before us. He knows them all, He knows every pitfall - He is not interceding blindly. He is praying that today you and I will not get sifted. We must trust in the faithfulness of God.
An old gentleman, who has since gone to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, phoned me many years ago and He said: “Angus, I am too old. I can’t go down that well anymore but what I can do is stand at the top of the well as you go down and I will hold the rope."
We need to hold the rope - We need to pray and God will do the rest.
Have a wonderful week.
God bless you and goodbye.
“As the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak.”
1 Kings 22:14
Now that was a courageous man... That was one prophet who told King Ahab: “If you go into battle you are going to die!” But 400 men had told King Ahab, “Go into battle and the victory is yours!” That takes a lot of courage. You and I cannot go with the flow, we have got to tell the truth.
“…and the truth shall make you free.”
John 8:32
What is right is right and what is wrong is wrong. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have got to speak the truth.
Do you know that 42 years ago the Lord called me to preach the Gospel with the following scripture, a very special scripture to me:
“…..Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent;
for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you;
for I have many people in this city.”
Acts 18:9-10 (NKJV)
And that is exactly what has happened. As long as you tell the truth, you cannot go wrong. You see, that prophet told Ahab that if he went into battle he would die and what happened? That’s right - King Ahab died. But he paid a price, that prophet - They put him in prison and they hardly fed him any food but he stood for the truth.
Folk do not have to like you and me but they must respect us. You see, everyone likes to be popular but to be popular you have to tell people things that they like to hear because then we find favour with people but it is the undiluted truth that sets the captive free. And then of course, when you speak the truth, Jesus will be proud of you.
Do you remember that movie (I watched a movie, I can’t remember the name of it clearly) where this man went in for an interview and there was a whole lot of other men all in line for the interview for this job and his family had nothing to eat and he was down and out?
And he sat in front of the management and they said: "Look we are going to give you the job but there are just a couple of things that you have to do. We want you to, you know, turn a blind eye and bend the truth a little bit and then you’ll get the job.” He stood up and he said: "I’m sorry I can’t do that I’m a Christian." And as he walked out of the door they stopped him, remember, and said to him: "You are the one who’s got the job. We did that on purpose. All the other men agreed to bend the rules a bit to get the job but you wouldn’t and as a result, you've got the job.”
The Lord doesn’t want yes-men. He wants men and women who will be prepared to speak the truth in these last days. People don’t like to hear what they don’t want to hear but sometimes you need to tell them anyway. You don’t have to be controversial in this day and age - You just need to speak the word of God and you will automatically become controversial. Jesus says:
"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6
Today, stand up for righteousness and the Lord will give you the victory.
God bless you and have a lovely Sunday.
“Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” Matthew 15:11
You see, the Pharisees were criticizing Jesus and they said:
“Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.” Matthew 15:2
And that is when Jesus said it is not what goes into the mouth, it is what comes out of the mouth that counts. Today, we need to make sure that our words are sweet because we might have to eat them one day. Count to ten before you say something you may regret later on in life. It is not what goes into the mouth remember, that causes harm, but rather what comes out of the mouth which can break or make a person.
The power of life and death in the tongue!
You know, every morning when I wake up the first thing I say, I turn over and I say to my wife Jill: “Jill, I love you!” I have been saying that for close to fifty years and she loves it because I mean it.
The power of praise.
Thank God for the new day, thank Him that the sun came up today. The first thing we do when we wake up - that’s right! I have a friend and I love phoning him, do you know why? Because every time I phone him I say to him: “How are you today, Tommy?”
And he says, “Angus, I am just so well.”
And I don’t think he is always well but that is what he says - such a positive person to speak to. Remember, it doesn’t matter what happens. God is in control!
I remember reading an article about a mountain climber from Australasia. He had been told by the doctors that he only had months to live so he thought to himself, “What do I have to lose?” - So he got on a ship and he came to South Arica, he climbed some of the most dangerous peaks in the mighty Drakensberg mountains and he conquered them. And do you know that that man had nothing to fear because he thought if he fell off the mountain he was going to die anyway... but that man lived to over 80 years old I believe.
Look at that honey badger - I saw a beautiful documentary of the little African honey badger, what a brave little animal! He took on a rinkhals, a cobra. The cobra bit him and he killed the cobra, then he lay down next to the cobra and he cuddled himself up and he went to sleep. When he woke up the next morning he was 100 percent - The venom had not penetrated him because he was totally relaxed and at peace... and do you know what he did then? He ate the cobra, from the head right down to the tail.
Today, be careful what you say because you can really hurt a person or you can really make their day.
Tell your son you love him and you are proud of him.
Tell your wife that she is the most beautiful woman in the world.
Tell your husband that you feel so secure when you are with him.
Tell people that Jesus Christ is coming back very soon and we have nothing whatsoever to fear - Be like Paul who said:
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is but gain.”
Philippians 1:21
How can you frighten a Christian with Heaven - It's impossible!
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
“But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
Matthew 6:6
We need to take our burdens to Jesus and not to other people because they have got enough problems of their own, haven’t they?
“…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
1 Peter 5:7
Take it to Jesus and leave it there, then we will portray a radiant face of peace and assurance that all people will see. Go and have a little talk with Jesus today and tell Him all your troubles - Remember that wonderful chorus?
I remember just before I gave my life to Christ, I used to grow seed maize. It is an expensive crop, I put all my money into it - that’s right, all my eggs in one basket! I would work as hard as I could and the crop would grow beautifully - nice and dark in colour. We were growing under contract for a big agricultural company but around about December/ January time when the crop was standing 8 or 9 ft tall and beautiful in colour, there would be the potential of hail storms in our area.
At about 4 pm one afternoon, heavy black clouds would come over the farm from the west side, over the mountains and I started to stress and sweat and think: “Are there stones inside those clouds that would destroy the crop, literally within minutes. I would often speak to my bank manager, my friends and my wife and burden other people instead of taking it to the Lord. Then, after I gave my life to the Lord, one day I was walking through my green cathedral and I was having a heart to heart talk with the Lord and it was like the penny dropped, you know?
I said: “Lord, I have given You everything, my life, my family and my business, so this crop does not belong to me. It is actually Yours, Lord and if You desire to wipe it out with a hailstorm then obviously you have got another plan for me. I lay in those mealies, in those tram-lines and I laughed and I cried and I cast my cares upon the Lord. I left that maize crop that day and walked out free as an eagle.
I want to say to you today, take your anxieties, your fear and your stress to Jesus. Have a good heart to heart talk with Him and leave it there. You will be surprised how much lighter and how much more full of joy you will be.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye!
“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31
Just the other day I was sitting watching a group of surfers mastering the mighty waves of the Indian Ocean - truly fascinating for an old cowboy like me! I noticed that these surfers waited for the big wave.
There were two groups of surfers - The one group obviously, beginners were in the shallows. They were catching every single wave that was coming in, tiring themselves as the small waves were coming in. They also seemed to be chatting away (there is nothing wrong with that by the way) and laughing but they were getting tired.
And then there were the pros and you could see it clearly. Even a farmer like me could appreciate it, no wasting energy, properly kitted out with their wetsuits on and focused on the waves. They would wait and wait and wait for the big one. And when the big wave came in these surfers mounted their surfboards, they caught the crest of the wave, mastered it and with apparently effortless ease, they danced on the waves, God’s creation. I must admit as I was watching, I was fascinated and even got a bit emotional, to be honest with you, at their ability, their gracefulness and their strength. It was so good to watch.
Now, you and I, as followers of Jesus Christ, in these treacherous times when there are mighty waves of fear and despair, we need to show this tired old world how to ride the waves... How to ride the waves of depression, anxiety and fear - How to trust the Lord. Remember, like the pros, those surfers, we need to wait upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He will give us strength, He will give us direction.
We must not be put off by what is happening around us - He will bring us in safely.
Jesus bless you today as you have a wonderful time with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Goodbye.
“The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”
Psalm 34:18-19
I was sitting, listening last night to a beautiful song, the words go something like this:
“Sometimes it takes a mountain... to get a hold of me...
Sometimes it takes a mountain
To trust You and believe..”
Sometimes it takes a mountain to get our attention - These are defining moments. The defining moments in my Christian walk have not been all the successes but they have been the really tough ones. Are you facing 'Mount Everest' in your life today? Those are the times when we really grow in our faith. We have got to get close to Jesus because he needs us to lose all our natural efforts, all our natural abilities and all our game plans.
You see, that mountain becomes so big for us, we just can’t handle it and that is the time when you and I say: “Lord Jesus, I just can’t handle it anymore...” and He responds and says: “Let go and let me!” You see, the Lord never said to us that He would take us out of the fire but what he did say, is that He will walk with us through our fiery trials.
If we go to Daniel 3:18 we see three amazing men of God: Meshach, Shadrach and Abed-Nego - Three young Jewish men who refused to bow their knee to the gods of Nebuchadnezzar, in Persia. Now, what I really love is their unconditional trust in God, they say:
"But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up. Daniel 3:18
'Even if He does not deliver us, we still will not serve you'... That is what God is looking for today from you and me - unconditional surrender. But you see, that is not the end of the story... They threw these three men into a furnace that had been made seven times hotter than ever before. And when Nebuchadnezzar looked into the fiery furnace he didn’t see three men walking around, he saw four men walking around!
“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”
Daniel 3:25
You see, Jesus told you and me that He will never leave us, He will never forsake us - He walks with us through the fire. The only thing that you and I need to fear today is fear itself. Jesus says:
“I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
2 Timothy 1:7
Set your eyes on Jesus today and the mountain will become a mere molehill. Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.” 1 Kings 19:11
Then we go to Psalms, The Lord says:
“Be still, and know that I am God”
Psalm 36:10
The Lord was not found in the strong wind, He was not found in the earthquake and He was not found in the fire but rather in a still, small voice. You never know who you are talking to - It might even be an angel.
That little old lady that you don’t listen to, too often - she might have a message for you from the Lord. That young boy who loves Jesus very much might just have the scripture you need to make that massive decision. That old man who sits on the bench who has all those wrinkles, those war maps on his face, might just have the message you need to hear today.
“Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels.” Hebrews 13:2
That’s right! I want to say to you today, that I remember very clearly, that I took my young son to university to try to get him admitted for a degree in agriculture. There were a lot of people standing around and eventually the secretary of the professor asked us to come in and sit down. My son is very well-mannered, he is a humble boy and he is very respectful of elders. He sat down and the lady started to ask him questions.
“Why do you want to study agriculture?”
“Do you think that you will be able to pass? Your marks are not too good you know.”
And “Do you realize that you only have one chance?”
“Yes Madam, I do. I want to study agriculture because I come from a farming family.”
And she carried on questioning him and when the interview was over she said, “ Now I will let the professor know and we will give you an answer in the next week or so.” And he said, “Thank you very much", he shook her hand respectfully and out we walked together. When we walked down the path of the university campus, I put my arm around his shoulder and shook his hand and said, “Well done Andy. You have been accepted.” He looked at me quite surprised and said, “What do you mean, dad?” I said, “My boy, the professor doesn’t have time to interview 200 students. That lady is the one who is going to make the decision.” And what happened - A couple of days later he got a letter in the post to say he had been accepted.
Today, listen to the small, still voice.
God bless you and goodbye.
“And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”
So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God”.
1 Kings 19:7
The angel came to the prophet Elijah and said: “You must eat and you must drink because you have a long journey ahead of you.” The Lord Jesus is calling you and me this morning to strengthen ourselves for the journey ahead. Don’t carry too much or it will tire you out. Don’t carry too little otherwise, you will not make it - Just take enough for the journey. I am speaking mostly here about our way home to Heaven.
I don’t know if you have heard of that very famous book, they say only second to the Bible itself, The Pilgrim’s Progress? It was written by John Bunyan hundreds of years ago and is still popular today. I remember when we lived in that little wattle and daub house with my children, all still small, Jill and I used to take that book out every night and I would read one chapter to the children - they couldn’t wait for it. They would say, “Dad, read us one chapter.” And I would say, “No, tomorrow night we will read the next one.”
The most interesting story of Christian, a young man who was making his way on a journey to the Celestial City which is, of course, Heaven. It is an all-time favourite - If you haven’t read that to your family, I would encourage you to get that book and to read it, it is a paradox of our journey home.
There are many characters in that story and it is beautifully written. I remember the character of Faithful. He strengthened Christian on his journey but there were other characters like, Despond who just said, “Give up and just don’t go any further.” There was the Hill of Difficulty where Christian thought, “I am just not going to make it!”. There was the Valley of Humiliation. Have you ever been humiliated? Hey, ask me about it...
Some good friends went with him right to the end of the journey, like Faith, Hope and Charity.
I want to encourage you to take enough for the journey. Fortify yourself because this journey is the final journey home and you'll have probably noticed, it is getting more and more difficult. There is more and more difficulty as we carry on but The Lord has promised that He will never allow you and I to be tempted above that which we can handle.
Have a wonderful week as you continue with your journey - Remember, we are walking this journey together.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
Matthew 6:9-13
I just want to say right at the outset, a very Happy Father's Day to all the fathers who are listening to this message. And indeed, more so to all the families who are going to spoil dad today! We trust that you are going to be really spoilt, Why? Because you deserve it!
“Oh, but Uncle Angus my dad is always so grumpy. Often when I talk to him, I know he is not even listening to me.”
“My dad is always so strict with me. He doesn’t let me go out with all the others.”
That is because he loves you and he wants to protect you. He is grumpy sometimes and maybe he is concerned. He is the one who is putting the bread on the table and has got to pay the accounts at the end of the month... Mom is helping him but it is ultimately his responsibility. He is concerned because the company has told him that they have to let him go or maybe the farm or the business is in dire straits. Give him lots of love and grace today.
You say, “My dad is always working, we hardly ever see him.” That’s right... He is trying to pay the bills so that you will receive a good education and that you will be able to go to bed at night with a full tummy of food. That is why you have nice clothes to wear - because your dad is trying to hold down that job so that he can give you maybe something that he never had.
I always remember very fondly, my late dad who was a blacksmith, he was a tradesman. We didn’t have much money but we always had food to eat, we always had a nice warm bed to sleep in - but we didn’t have any extras. One day I was complaining to my dad: “Dad, you know, I am the only boy in my class that doesn’t have a watch, a wristwatch.”
And I will never forget that old Scotsman, taking his watch off his wrist, and giving it to me, and saying, “You take that, son.” And you know, when you are a little boy, sometimes you don’t understand and you don’t appreciate what your dad does for you.
I can hear someone saying, “But I don’t have a dad, Uncle Angus.” Oh yes, you do - All of us do, every single one of us! We have a Heavenly Father and do you know how much He loves us? He loves us so much that He gave us His most precious gift. What was that - It was His only Begotten Son. The most famous scripture verse in the whole Bible:
“For God so loved the world (He loved you) that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 3:16
Enjoy spoiling your dad today. He is worth it!
God bless you.
“Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.” But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.” Mark 6:36-37
“And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Acts 3:4-6
People are starving - They are starving all over the globe, they are starving because they have no spiritual food. Jesus is the Bread of Life.
Do you know that some of the poorest, starving souls that I have ever met have been rich people whose trust and hope are in their worldly possessions, and they are literally falling away.
Like never before in the history of this tired old world, people need food but not so much physical bread but rather the Bread of Life Himself - They need Jesus. You know, when we took that 20-ton Mercedes Benz truck called The Seed Sower into Central Africa, bright yellow, to the unreached people groups in the most Northern parts of Zambia and Tanzania, we took three things with us: We took food, we took clothes and we took Bibles to the poorest of the poor.
I remember at those meetings, preaching at night with floodlights up, there was such expectancy. These little children, some of them hardly had any clothes on, they would hang on every word that was spoken out of the Bible through our interpreters. At the end of the meetings we would bring out the food and they were so grateful. We would bring out the clothing, they loved the clothes... And then lastly, we would bring out boxes and boxes of Bibles - I want to tell you the people went into a literal frenzy, I will never forget it. That 20-ton Mercedes Benz truck was rocked to and fro.
At the one meeting, I said to my nephew, Fraser: “Take a box of Bibles and go to the other side of the field to get the crowd away from the truck.” The last I saw was him disappearing into a cloud of dust with people running after him - The Bread of Life! People need food and you and I have the answer, His Name is Jesus Christ!
Today, let us feed the hungry with the good news of the soon-coming King of Glory!
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
“And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.”
Mark 6:31
We must be so careful that we don’t get so busy that we don’t spend time with our Heavenly Father. Do not even let the work of the Lord Jesus become more important to us than the Lord Jesus Himself. Speaking to a large group of ministers of the Gospel, dynamic young men in a very big church in Durban a few years back, I asked them a question?
“If the Lord said to you today: “I never want you to preach another sermon in your life, would you still serve Him with the same passion?”
Well, the auditorium went quiet...
Jesus must be our first priority, always! Spending time with our Heavenly Father in a quiet place, then later on with the masses of people who desperately want to hear the good news. Otherwise, we have nothing to say! We must be careful that good works do not keep us from God works.
What do we always say - A good idea is not always a God idea!
First the mountain and then the ministry. First, time spent hearing from Father God, then the work of the Lord.
Do you remember that amazing Christian writer, C.S. Lewis? He wrote a book called “The Screw Tape Letters.” It is a fictional book about a senior devil or demon, talking to a junior demon, instructing him how to destroy the Christians. He says: “Keep them busy, take their minds off God. Let them go to church, let them praise and worship but don’t let them get involved with Jesus. Get them living a compromised life, don’t allow them to make commitments... Water down the Gospel, take their minds off God.”
Folks, we have got to be so careful these days, that Jesus Christ is our priority. That is why the Lord took the disciples away up the mountain. He saw they were so busy doing good works that they didn’t even have time to eat.
A very good friend of mine, Juergen Buehler, who is the President of the Christian Embassy in Jerusalem told me once, that he was 'shattered' when he asked a prominent speaker: “Are you having good quiet times?” and this man said, “I don’t have time anymore to have quiet times. I am too busy preaching the Gospel.” That is a dangerous sign, that man will never complete his task because he is going to 'run out of petrol', as they say. That engine will not run without the Holy Spirit.
Spend time up the mountain today and you will see that your day will go so much better.
God bless you and goodbye.
“And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.” 1 Kings 18:21
We cannot be indecisive in these perilous times in which we are living. Either Jesus is Lord or Jesus is not Lord at all! It is very uncomfortable to be a fence-sitter, especially if it is a barbed-wire fence. In these perilous times, we cannot afford to be wishy-washy! People are running to and fro, not knowing which way to run or what to believe. Jesus says:
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” Matthew 12:30
Once a person makes a decision, there is a tremendous peace that comes upon him. Jesus says:
“My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
John 14:27
That is why the prophet Elijah had such authority from God - He was a decisive man. The world stands aside for a man or woman who knows where they are going. Do not allow the devil to push you around with his lies. Stand up to him today - He is a liar and a coward. Draw a line in the sand and say: “This far devil and no further.”
I want to read something that stirred me, it was written by President Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt... He said:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Today, you and I need to make a decision - Are we going to believe the promises of God or are we going to run to and fro after every kind of man’s opinion. Once a person makes a decision there is tremendous peace that comes upon them. I would say to you, let's stand up and say: “We are with the Lord!”
Have a wonderful day and God bless you!
“He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24
What a beautiful promise for you and me this morning from the Lord Jesus Christ! The faithfulness of God - You see, God cannot be unfaithful because it is against His nature. One of my favourite scriptures:
“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
Numbers 23:19
God is dependable, we can depend on Him!
In these terrible days in which we are living, we must concentrate on the faithfulness of God and not on ourselves or our own plans. You know the old saying: The farmer makes a plan - In Afrikaans, they say: 'n boer maak ’n plan.
Well, I want to tell you, not one of my plans has ever worked out. But the amazing thing is, if your heart is right, your motives are pure and your eyes are fixed on the Lord - He will come through for you. Even if you have made an honest mistake or you have made a decision, you’ve gone the wrong way, you have gone down the wrong street... He will turn you around and He will make it work out for good.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Romans 8:28
Our faithfulness today is not in our ability but it is in God’s ability. Do you know what the fireman’s lift is?
Okay, you are in a tight spot - Maybe you are hanging off the edge of a building, I don’t know. Maybe your house is on fire and that faithful man comes through the roof and he says: “Take a hold of my arm.” You put your hand on his arm and you hold it and he holds your arm with his hand.
Even when you say, “I can’t anymore, I can’t hold on anymore.” He says, “Don’t worry! I have got you!” - Jesus has got you and me! Let us be anxious for nothing but in all things with prayer and supplication, make our requests known to God. God never changes.
Have a wonderful day today as you take your eyes off your ability and you start putting your eyes on the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will pull you through - He has pulled me through many, many times.
Over the last fifty years of farming, he has never failed me once. He is not going to fail you today.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13
Have you ever tried to measure the enormity of the love that Jesus has for us? It is amazing!
There is a beautiful hymn that I heard yesterday.
It was written by a man by the name of Frederick Lehman and he lived a couple of hundred years ago... I just want to read this one verse to you and try to imagine how great the love of God is for His people, for you and me.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made;
were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill,
and ev’ryone a scribe by trade;
to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry;
nor could the scroll contain the whole,
though stretched from sky to sky.
It cannot be compared - What amazing love!
Now, for the younger people who don’t understand some of those older terms, he says if the whole ocean was filled with ink and the skies were of one big sheet of paper... If every stalk in the field and every stalk of grass was made into a pen, and every person on earth was a scribe, a writer by trade. They would not be able to write enough about the love of God because it would drain the whole ocean. And that scroll, the parchment, could not contain all the love of Christ even though it would stretch literally from sky to sky!
Oh my dear friend, remember today that Jesus Christ loves you unconditionally. He would ask you now to go out today and to love, even the unlovely, with the love of Christ, because that love is more powerful than any other force on earth. God bless you as you start by loving your husband, your wife, children, neighbours and friends; the people you work with at the office and the people that you go to school with. Tell them about the love of Christ.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah” 1 Kings 17:15-16
God is looking for obedient and faithful children in these turbulent times that we are living in.
"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added unto you." Mathew 6:33
You see the widow only had enough food for one more meal, then she and her little son would die of starvation. She had a choice to make - Was she going to obey the word of the Lord or was she going to make a plan. She decided to obey the word of the Lord. And what happened, she and Elijah had enough food for many, many days.
Today, you and I have to make that same decision. Are we going to obey the word of the Lord in our lives or are we going to try and do it in our own strength? We need to be obedient, but you say: "But I don’t have enough." No, you don’t but He does - He has more than enough and we need to obey Him.
You know I remember so clearly like it was yesterday, in 2008 when we had the Mighty Men Conference here on the Shalom farm. We hired the biggest tent in the world, we had hardly any money. I remember we had R500 in our savings account and it cost millions to hire that tent. Well, we stretched our faith and eventually, the mighty tent arrived. I think seventeen pantechnicons (30-ton rigs) brought it onto the farm.
When they erected it and we put the chairs inside we had 30 000 chairs inside, I know because my son-in-law cable-tied each chair. Then my son came to me, another son, and said: "Dad, we need more money." I said we don’t have any more budget. He said: "Dad, we need more speakers." I said: "But you’ve got hundreds of speakers."
He said, "The sound team engineers have said there’s only enough sound to go to a certain row of chairs, after that there is no more sound."
I said we can’t.
He said, "Dad if you don’t those men will hear nothing."
I had a choice to make, just like you have a choice to make today and like the widow had to make.
I said,” Ok, let’s continue to trust God - Go for it.”
He ordered more banks of speakers, right to the end of the tent on both sides. But you know what was happening at the very same moment, a farmer was woken up by the Lord, a sheep farmer, and God told him to sell a flock of his sheep and to put the money in the campaign account. Which he duly did. You know something, it was the exact amount that we needed to cover the cost of the speakers!
I want to say to you today, just do what the Lord tells you to do, He will undertake for you as He did for that widow and her little boy.
God bless you and have a wonderful week.
“If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”
“Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” Mark 5:28 & 34
Now remember, in Hebrews 13:8 Jesus says, "I am the same yesterday, today and forever." He never changes - He is the same. Maybe you can hear a slight wind blowing, I am sitting on top of a hill overlooking the mighty blue Indian Ocean. What a beautiful morning!
And you know, there is one thought that comes to my mind it is:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
God said one word and everything that I am looking at came to pass. Is He not able to heal your affliction today my dear friend? You see, that woman had spent all her money, she had no money left. For twelve years she had been bleeding. She heard the King of Kings was walking past - Jesus of Nazareth. There was a crowd that just thronged Him. She said to herself: "If I can just touch the hem of his garment, I will be healed."
She must have crept through the legs of the people. She got to the bottom of that crowd, she stretched out her hand and she touched the hem of His garment. And instantly, the Bible says she was healed. The flow of blood stopped. Jesus swung around and said: “Who touched me?”
The disciples said, "Lord, people are pushing in from all sides", but you see Jesus knew that a woman of faith had touched Him. She put up her little hand and He said, "Woman, go in peace. Your faith has made you well."
This morning maybe I am talking to somebody who the doctors say: “Well, there is no more we can do for you. Go home and make yourself comfortable." I want to say to you today: "Reach out to the Son of God, the Miracle-worker - reach out to Jesus and say: "Lord, please heal me!"
Maybe it is a physical ailment, a mental ailment or maybe it is an emotional one - He is closer to you than you realise.
In fact, He lives within you, He says:
“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3
Have a blessed Sunday as you look upon The Healer, not upon your situation. He will undertake for you as He has done for me, many, many times. God bless you and have a blessed Sunday.
“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4.
What a beautiful promise from God! Then we go to Luke 8:28 - the story of that man who was demon-possessed:
“When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!”
You see folks, I think the first person in the New Testament to acknowledge that Jesus Christ was the Son of God was a demon - That’s right. He knew straight away that he had no chance. There was a legion of demons inside that man and when they saw the Son of God coming, they trembled with fear and asked if they could be cast into a herd of pigs on the side of the hill.
I remember reading the life story of Smith Wigglesworth, the master plumber from England who had an incredible relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a man of great faith and God used him to heal many people, even raise the dead!
On a tour, I think he was in South Africa actually, he was sleeping at a farmhouse in the outback somewhere and in the middle of the night he heard a horrible growling noise in the corner of his room. He reached out for a candle and struck a match, he held the candle up to where the horrible noise was coming from and there was the most grotesque demon in the corner of the room. He looked at him and said,” Oh, it’s only you,” and with that, he blew the candle out and turned over and went back to sleep.
I want to say to you today that if Jesus Christ is in you, you have the majority. Romans 8:31 says if Christ is for us, who can possibly stand against us. Today with the spirit of fear that is prevailing all over the world, through this dreaded COVID-19, we need to remember one thing -
Ultimately, our Lord Jesus Christ has the authority and the power to overcome all evil. What you need to do is to recognize that you have that power and you need to speak up against the devil and tell him: ”No, not in this place, not in this home - Not in this life.” And you need to press on because the Lord has given you and me the authority to cast out demons and to take the victory that is for us. When Jesus died on the cross He said: "It is finished!" and He meant it.
Have a wonderful day today and remember if Christ is for you there’s nothing that will stand against you!
God bless you and goodbye.
“But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” Mark 4:38-39
Why are we so fearful?
There can only be one reason for that and that is that we do not know Him well enough. The disciples themselves said to each other: “Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” What is it that we are afraid of in our lives today? What storm is rocking our boat?
Cast your cares upon Jesus because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
You know that farmer, Job... They say that Job is the oldest book in the whole Bible... I love him so much, probably because I can identify with him. He literally lost everything in his life. Everything went wrong and yet he could still say with great boldness: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Job 13:15. Even his wife said to him: “Why don’t you just curse God and die?” Job 2:9 That is the kind of faith that Jesus is looking for in you and me today. Do your best and then leave the rest to Him.
“For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Philippians 1:21
You can’t frighten a Christian with Heaven!
I remember standing on the platform at Kings Park Rugby Stadium in Durban and they had forecast a terrible drought - El Nino was coming. I got up there, I was so full of the love of Christ that day, and I said: “To hell with El Nino! We are going back to the farm and we are going to plant potatoes.” I made that statement and then of course with my big mouth, I had to follow through.
The rural farmers were asked to plant their crops because it wasn’t going to rain. We planted those potatoes and we even leased some of the neighbour’s fields and planted them up with maize as well - God gave us potatoes and maize that year.
Take your eyes off the storm today and put your eyes on the Weatherman - His name is Jesus!
God bless you.
“Then He said, To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.” Mark 4:30-32
God always honours faith. You know faith is contagious, that is right! It is catchy, not faith in faith, but rather faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God always honours that act - He doesn’t want our effort or even our good deeds, he wants us to have faith in Him.
A simple memory verse for someone who has trouble memorising God’s word:
“Have faith in God.”
Mark 11:22
Why we might ask... Because when we plant the seed of faith, Jesus makes it grow and our Heavenly Father receives all the praise, all the honour and all the glory. People will say, “He could never have done that in his own strength.” Do you remember in the Bible how God used a young teenager, a shepherd boy maybe 13 or 14 years old, to kill a battle-hardened, 9-foot tall warrior? Not using a weapon but just using a slingshot and a stone? Do you remember how God used a stick in the hand of a mere mortal by the name of Moses to part, not a lake, but an ocean and to make an entire nation pass through on dry land to the other side?
I believe that today Jesus is asking you and me to plant our mustard seed of faith and then not to dig it up but to sit back and watch it grow. When it becomes the largest tree in the garden don’t forget to give God the glory.
Go out today by faith and be a blessing to this dying world.
Goodbye and God Bless.
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38
You know, in rugby I used to play in the scrum and we would wrestle over that rugby ball for ages. I played rugby what seems like about 100 years ago - It doesn’t happen like that these days does it? Ask the young men and they will tell you. You use it or you use it, when you get that ball in a loose scrum you have to get it out as soon as you can otherwise the referee blows the whistle and the ball goes to the other side. We have got to use what God has given us. The Lord says very clearly:
“...and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”
Matthew 7:2
Remember the parable in the Bible about the talents - where the businessman goes on a journey... Before he leaves he calls his men together. He gave one ten talents, the other five and to the other, he gave one talent. Just before he leaves he says:
"Do business till I come". Luke 19:13
He comes back and the man to who he had given ten had doubled it up. The man who had five had doubled it and the one who had one talent never used it - He hid it because he was afraid. And what did the businessman do? He took the one talent from the man and he gave it to the man who had ten talents. Even the workers themselves protested - They said: “Lord, he has got so much already.” I must be honest with you, I also said: "Lord, that doesn’t seem fair." But that is how God works. We need to use what we have if we want anything more from God.
I heard a beautiful illustration once: In Israel, there is the Jordan River, it is the life-spring of the nation. No Jordan River - no Israel. It starts on Mount Hermon, right up on the snowy mountain tops and it flows down the boundary of Israel and into the beautiful sea of Galilee. It is my favourite place in all of Israel, I love to sit on the shores of Galilee - That is where Jesus operated and most of his ministry took place.
It is vibrant, it is full of fish, full of life, irrigating fruit and produce along its shores. Then the river flows out of Galilee and carries on and flows into another lake that is called The Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is where nothing lives, nothing happens - It is salty. There is no life, there is nothing there.
Why? Because you see, with the first lake the river flows in and it flows out - and it produces. With the second lake, the river flows in but nothing flows out... We must give in order to receive.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you.
One of my favourite verses:
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” John 15:7
“But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” Mark 4:8
Good fertile ground is what we need to be investing in. Yes, we are talking about God’s holy word, the Bible. You see, it doesn’t matter how hard the farmer works. If he is planting seed into average or poor soil, he will not harvest a good crop -He will not harvest a bountiful crop of grain. But if he spends time in the word, in godly, upright things investing in worthwhile things like family, helping the aged, poor and those who cannot repay him or give him a monetary return, Jesus who sees everything, will.
I remember arriving in South Africa, wanting to purchase a farm with very limited funds. The first farm we visited was very appealing - A nice little cottage with oak trees planted in the front and the back. The owner offered us an irrigation system and even a tractor if we bought the farm.
He had a lovely river running down the bottom boundary of the farm but there was one problem, the soil - I saw that the soil was very shallow and rocky.
Then we went to the second option: It was overgrown and completely neglected - Overgrown bush, no house, no water, no roads. But we dug six-foot sinkholes into the ground all over that farm and all we dug up was beautiful deep, rich soil - no rocks... We bought the second farm.
And you know something, we have never looked back! Every year God has given us a good crop on that farm. Invest in rich soil today - Invest in the things of God and He will reward you a hundredfold.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You.”
But He answered them, saying, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?” And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.” Mark 3:32
God has got no grandchildren - What does that mean?
It means that every single one of us, old and young, male and female alike need to find Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. You don’t get to Heaven because your grandfather was a great preacher, your grandmother was a great intercessor or your father and mother are pastors in a church. That does not give you a ticket, an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. You have to find Jesus for yourself. And that is why James 5 is such an important scripture.
“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman) avails much.”
James 5:16
You and I need to pray fervently for our loved ones, especially those who do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We have a saying here at Shalom: "Good people don’t go to Heaven, believers go to Heaven." That’s right!
If good people went to Heaven, I am firmly convinced that there would be a lot of people from other faiths who would enter the Kingdom of God before us. It's not about doing good works, it is about a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. We need to pray the effective prayer and God will bring them in.
I don’t know how many mighty men and women of God, I have read about (I am talking about preachers who have shaken the world), that entered the Kingdom of God because they had a praying granny, a praying mother, praying father or grandfather. Some of them, their parents prayed for them for years and years and even as I am recording this message today, I know that many of you are praying for your loved ones who are in the far country... Do not stop because God will answer your prayers. He is a faithful God. He doesn’t want one single person to be lost but all to be saved.
As you go out on this Monday morning, please remember - People need to know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
Have a wonderful week.
“Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows”. Matthew 10:29
I want to ask you this Sunday morning - are you feeling lonely? Do you feel that maybe nobody cares about you? Are you crying out this morning to the Lord... Where are you, Lord? Maybe you are like Peter and the disciples who were in the boat on the Lake of Galilee when the storm arose.
“Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying,“Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
Matthew 8:25
My wife and I have gone camping and a cold front has unexpectedly come over South Africa, with wind, rain, snow and frost. The young lady at the campsite office told me that the temperature plummeted down to minus five degrees during the night... and I was wondering why we were feeling so cold! Early this morning I got up, while it was still dark, to make a cup of hot tea for Jill. I walked outside in two balaclavas, two pairs of tracksuit bottoms, two jackets... in the early morning darkness I heard the sound of a little small bird, singing his heart out. Speaking to Jesus, I said, “Lord, how does that little sparrow keep so happy or even alive through this treacherous weather?”
And I felt the Lord Jesus say: “I look after him Angus, and I will look after you too!” And that is what the Lord is saying to every one of us this morning: "Just trust Me!"
Have a blessed Sunday and remember, He will never leave you. He will never forsake you! Hebrews 13:5.
God bless you and have a restful Sunday.
Cast your burdens on the Lord,
And He shall sustain you;
He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.
Psalm 55:22
What a beautiful promise! And if we go to Exodus 14:13
“And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.”
What a promise from the Lord! The key here today, I believe is not to panic, but rather wait upon the Lord. That is what Moses told the children of Israel to do. They had the Red Sea in front of them and behind them, the most powerful army in the world coming down upon them. What were they to do? Moses said: "Do not panic. Stand still because the Lord will fight for you."
Nothing has changed today. With this COVID-19 threat, this spirit of fear pervading the world, we need to stand still and not panic because He will deliver us from whatever we are going through at present. The absolute worst thing to do when the pressure is on is to run - Do not do it! Let the storm that you are experiencing at the moment, subside - and by the way, it will, and then you can make a calculated godly decision.
You know, I am an impulsive man by nature, ask my wife she will tell you. Before I met Jesus I made many foolish decisions on the spur of the moment... Don’t do it - Wait upon the Lord.
One of my favourite scriptures is Isaiah 40:31
“But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.”
Look at God’s creation. You see a flock of geese migrating from the north to the south, then when they see a huge black storm coming up on the horizon what do they do? They don’t panic, they find a little pond. They go and land there and they shelter in that place. They tuck in their wings, they face the storm and they wait... wait for the storm to pass. When the sun comes out and the clouds part, they continue on their journey, safely to their destination.
Do not panic today, wait upon the Lord. Don’t just follow the crowd - Do what the Lord tells you to do. And, mostly today, He’s telling you to, one word: “Wait!”
God bless you and goodbye.
‘Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent.”
Mark 3:4
As Christians, we are under obligation to speak up. Our lives are not just about salvation but also righteousness. Some of us say that we have given our lives to Jesus but there is no power in our lives. Maybe it is because we are too fearful, or even ashamed to be identified with Jesus Christ and His principles, to stand up and be counted.
A beautiful scripture and one of my favourites:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” Romans 1:16
You see, Jesus asked the people in the synagogue a question and they would not answer because they were afraid of repercussions from the people. You and I need to start to speak up and then we will see the power of God manifest through our lives.
One of my heroes is an early church father by the name of Polycarp. Polycarp was not afraid to speak up for Jesus. At 86 years old, he was arrested for his faith and was to be burned at the stake, in front of all the people on a Saturday afternoon, in the Colosseum by the Roman oppressors.
He was given an opportunity, by the governor, to live. The governor said: “If you reject Jesus Christ and you follow our gods, the gods of Rome, we will let you live.” His answer was, “He has never once failed me in all of these 86 years of my life. How can I deny Him now?” And as a result, they burned Polycarp at the stake in front of all the people. But he was not cringing, he did not moan - he rejoiced because he was about to meet his risen Lord and Savior.
Today, you and I must also speak up for the truth. We must live righteous lives and people must see Jesus through us. We are not ashamed of the Gospel because the Lord Jesus Christ has saved us to the uttermost.
As you go out today, witness to somebody - Maybe in the office, your workplace, at school or in the university and say: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ and I will speak up, I will not keep quiet.”
Have a wonderful day. You will experience the power of Christ in your life, through the Holy Spirit. God bless you.
“Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, and he said, “How do you advise me to answer these people?”
“Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him…”
1 Kings 12:6&10
We need godly counsel.
King Rehoboam was Solomon’s son and he took counsel from the young men that he had grown up with. Inexperienced men, men who had never done much and he disregarded the counsel of the elders who were with his father, Solomon. As a result, King Rehoboam lost his kingdom.
There is no substitute for experience, listen to your father and your mother - I am talking to young people.
You say: "But they are always spoiling my fun Uncle Angus." They love you and they don’t want you to get hurt. If they tell you not to go out with that crowd, don’t do it. They love you and they don’t want you to get hurt there is also no shortcut to life, okay... The quickest way is not normally the way home, the way home is slow and sure. The school of life is where the elders have been. It’s tough and they have been there, they have got the scars but they know how to trust and obey the Lord.
The quick fix does not always last, all of us need a mentor - what is a mentor? "An experienced and trusted adviser", according to the Oxford Dictionary. I have four men who advise me, two are older than me and two are younger than me. We call them our trustees and I will not make an important decision without first consulting them. Most times they tell me to just go ahead but sometimes they might advise me to wait and sometimes even say to me: "No Angus, you have not heard the right way. Refrain from what you are doing."
Of course, the greatest adviser of all is our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He is the greatest mentor of all. If we look at Matthew 11:29 He says: "Come unto me and learn from me." Learn from the Lord. He says: “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)
Everything that you and I are going through at the moment, pain, confusion, frustration and fear - He has been through it all, just call on Him today. You say, “But He is not answering me.” Then do not move until He does. Remember, silence is also an answer.
Have a wonderful day, God bless you as you put your trust in Jesus.
“Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” Mark 11:22-23
“Have faith in God." - This is a nice memory verse for anyone who says: “I struggle to memorize the word of God.”
Oh my dear friend, if ever we needed faith, we need it now in the times we are living. Our trust must be in God and God alone. “What is faith?” you might say. Well, Hebrews 11:1 says:
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
How do you get faith, Angus?
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17
Remember, without it, you cannot please God. Hebrews 11:6 - You can hear by how I am speaking, I am talking about my favourite subject today. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him and he who believes must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of those who trust in Him.
Many years ago, I was sitting quietly in my prayer room and the Lord said to me, “I want you to take the word of God into Africa.” And I say: “Lord, I am listening.” Now, He has never spoken to me audibly, but in my heart.
And I saw a picture of this big truck - an 80 meters long, 20 ton Mercedes Benz truck. 4x4 with a 40KVA lighting plant on the back which could light up a small village and a platform that wound down from the side. This truck had no less than 32 gears... That’s right, 16 high and 16 low range!
You must have a dream because if there is no dream, the people perish. You have to have a vision, and that was the vision God gave me. At Shalom, we have a saying: You must attempt something so big that if it is not of God it is doomed to fail. Why you might ask - Because when it works, people will say: "that wasn’t Angus or that wasn’t 'that person', that was God!”, God gets all the glory. I want to say to you this morning: follow your dream!
"For with God nothing will be impossible." Luke 1:37
So that is exactly what we did!
I think we had R500 in our account when we started and by grace and faith alone, not faith in faith but faith in Jesus, the dream came to pass.
Follow your dream today. Take the word of God out, speak faith, eat faith and dream faith, then you will have it.
Have a wonderful day. God bless you.
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” Philippians 3:12
You know I have been reading the life story of King Solomon - the wisest man who ever lived, also the richest man who ever existed and yet he finished so poorly. He started well but he finished poorly.
You know, they will tell you, in any kind of sport you are only as good as your last game. People have got short memories, they only remember the last game. Father God is not looking for good starters but rather, for good finishers. Never take the blessings of God for granted - He blesses you and me for a reason: So that we can be a good example and bless others, as we run the race together. Paul admits that he had not acquired the absolute fullness that he was after but he runs with everything in him to finish strong.
It's not so much about finishing in 1st place but rather about just completing the race. Not to say that we have got it all together or that we have arrived - not at all! But we are reaching out to Jesus, as He is reaching out to us.
The best part of the Comrades Marathon (that ultra-marathon of over 90km), I have been watching for many years, is not the man or the woman who comes through first to get the gold medal. It is those men and women who stagger, arm-in-arm helping each other, over the finish line. That is what brings a tear to my eyes, they refuse to give up.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
2 Timothy 4:7
That is what you and I have to do today and that is what the Lord is looking for today - good finishers. The last words that Jesus spoke on the cross before He died were:
“It is finished”. John 19:30.
Maybe you have gone down, get up, dust yourself off and get back in the race.
The Lord is running with us. Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.
“For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Matthew 9:13
You know the Master is known by many names.
He is known as the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Mighty God, the Lily of the Valley, the Bright Morning Star, the Shepherd of the Sheep, the Great Ploughman and many others, but the name that I love the most is, Friend of Sinners.
When everybody else gives up on you and me, Jesus never gives does. The Lord looks at the heart of a person and not the outward appearance.
Jesus offers salvation to sinners and that often threatens the pharisees’ way of life. Some church-goers don’t like sinners coming into their church, it upsets them but Jesus has come for the outcasts of society, not those who think they are on the right road.
I remember years ago, two young ladies came into our church here at Shalom one Sunday morning. They had dressed very poorly - very suggestively actually. A visiting Christian came up to us after the service to complain. He said: “How can you allow your congregation to be dressed so badly?” We said, “Sir, we have never seen them before. This is the first time these two ladies have come to church.”
You see, they were enquiring sinners looking for a saving Christ. Mary Magdalene, if we go to the Gospel of Luke it is very, very clear that she was a woman of ill-repute as they say. She had a poor reputation.
“…And certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities- Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons…”
Luke 8:2
You see, Jesus makes everything beautiful. I believe that when we get to Heaven one day, you are going to see, in my humble opinion - the most beautiful woman shall be sitting right at the feet of Jesus. I am talking about Mary Magdalene. You know, when she had had those demons cast out of her and she was given new life, God made her very beautiful, and she never left the Lord after that. When all the disciples ran away after Jesus had been crucified, she remained with Him.
Go out today and bless somebody. They might not look too good, they might not speak well, they might not even dress too good but they are people who Jesus died for.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you.
“I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
Genesis 32:26
That is what he said to the Lord. Remember, he was wrestling with God.
“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
Genesis 32:28
The word “Israel” literally means prince with God. God changed Jacob’s name from Jacob to Israel - Why? Because he had tenacity and perseverance. I looked up the word 'tenacity', it means: not readily relinquishing something, keeping a firm hold.
In the Zulu language, we call it 'isibindi' - which means stainless steel backbone. Persistence - that is what God is requiring from you and me in our lives today. We need to continue firmly or obstinately in an opinion or a course of action, despite difficulty or opposition... That is what persistence means.
Remember the friends of the paralytic who tried to get their friend to Jesus. They couldn’t get through because of the crowds. So what did they do? They took him up onto the roof of the house and they removed the tiles of the roof and let him down. And look what Jesus says in Mark Chapter 2:5:
“When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”
And he was healed immediately. A young man that has made a tremendous impact in my life when it comes to not giving up, perseverance and tenacity, is a young Australian. He is 38 years old and his name is Nick Vujicic, he is an evangelist. He came to visit me on the farm, I will never forget that day as long as I live.
Two or three pickups came driving up the driveway on the farm and out came this man. This man has no legs and no arms. He is a very small man, remembering your legs and your arms are the most of your body, yet I have never seen a man so positive and so determined. A massive smile on his face and with a strong Australian accent he said: “Angus, I just wanted to come and greet you.” We put him on the table so that he could be eye-level with me sitting on a chair and he told me about the love of Christ.
Do you know that that man is happily married? Do you know that he has four children - two little boys and two little girls? He told me about what the Lord meant to him. He was waited upon by a group of young people who adored him, I could see that. This man cannot take a fly off his nose. If he has to go to the bathroom, they have to assist him and yet he is so positive.
He gave me a book as a gift, and he said, “Angus would you like me to sign the book?” And I looked at him with big eyes and I said: “Yes please.”
He took the pen between his teeth and he wrote in beautiful writing, better than I could ever write and he blessed me and he prayed for me then he went on with his entourage and I thought: “Lord, what a man of God!”
Go out today and don’t give up.
God bless you.
Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him.” Luke 5:12-13
One genuine miracle is worth a thousand sermons - That is what we say at Shalom. You know Jesus is still the same today.
He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus was known more for His incredible miracles than what He preached. I only know of one sermon - the sermon on the mount. It was His miracle-working power that drew the multitudes to Him. I remember right here on this farm, Shalom, many years ago, one evening there was a tremendous thunder and lightning storm. The rain was pouring down as we were having supper in our little house. All of a sudden, I looked out of the window and there were a whole crowd of women with blankets over them and they were shouting. I ran outside: “What is wrong?”
And they said, “There is a woman who has been struck by lightning, she is lying in the hut and she is dead. Please come and help.”
I took the pick-up and we drove as quickly as we could up to that hut, a genuine old Zulu thatched hut. Lying there in the middle of the floor was a blanket covering a corpse. Now I don’t know whether she was dead or not but they told me she was dead, she had been struck by lightning.
Now, you know I used to speak to them and preach to these people about the miracle-working power of Jesus, they were very sceptical but now you see, they were desperate and they knew there was no other way. They asked me to please pray that Jesus would raise her. I wasn’t too keen to do that, I will be honest with you, I said: “Let’s just take the body to the mortuary.” They said: “No, we want you to pray. You keep telling us about this miracle-working God of yours.”
Well, I went in and I laid my hands on the body. I prayed a simple prayer.
I said, “Please Lord, show Your glory!” And I stood up and nothing happened. I felt the Holy Spirit say, “Pray once more.” I laid my hands on her. I prayed a second time and then I lifted her by her wrists and stood her on her feet and she was totally and completely healed.
Well, I want to tell you after that day I didn’t have to do any more preaching. They were singing hymns in the fields. They were praising the name of Jesus Christ, the Miracle-worker! No more questions after that - just praising the Lord!
Go out today and lay your hands upon the sick and pray the prayer of faith and trust God for a miracle.
God bless you.
“And it happened when He was in a certain city, that behold, a man who was full of leprosy saw Jesus; and he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
Then He put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately the leprosy left him.” Luke 5:12-13
One genuine miracle is worth a thousand sermons - That is what we say at Shalom. You know Jesus is still the same today.
He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore.
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus was known more for His incredible miracles than what He preached. I only know of one sermon - the sermon on the mount. It was His miracle-working power that drew the multitudes to Him. I remember right here on this farm, Shalom, many years ago, one evening there was a tremendous thunder and lightning storm. The rain was pouring down as we were having supper in our little house. All of a sudden, I looked out of the window and there were a whole crowd of women with blankets over them and they were shouting. I ran outside: “What is wrong?”
And they said, “There is a woman who has been struck by lightning, she is lying in the hut and she is dead. Please come and help.”
I took the pick-up and we drove as quickly as we could up to that hut, a genuine old Zulu thatched hut. Lying there in the middle of the floor was a blanket covering a corpse. Now I don’t know whether she was dead or not but they told me she was dead, she had been struck by lightning.
Now, you know I used to speak to them and preach to these people about the miracle-working power of Jesus, they were very sceptical but now you see, they were desperate and they knew there was no other way. They asked me to please pray that Jesus would raise her. I wasn’t too keen to do that, I will be honest with you, I said: “Let’s just take the body to the mortuary.” They said: “No, we want you to pray. You keep telling us about this miracle-working God of yours.”
Well, I went in and I laid my hands on the body. I prayed a simple prayer.
I said, “Please Lord, show Your glory!” And I stood up and nothing happened. I felt the Holy Spirit say, “Pray once more.” I laid my hands on her. I prayed a second time and then I lifted her by her wrists and stood her on her feet and she was totally and completely healed.
Well, I want to tell you after that day I didn’t have to do any more preaching. They were singing hymns in the fields. They were praising the name of Jesus Christ, the Miracle-worker! No more questions after that - just praising the Lord!
Go out today and lay your hands upon the sick and pray the prayer of faith and trust God for a miracle.
God bless you.
“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said to Him, “Everyone is looking for You.”
But He said to them, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also...”
Mark 1:35-38
The fear of man is a terrible thing. Jesus had his priorities in order - The Father first, always because He knew from where His strength came... That is why He was an early riser, that is why He spent time with His Father every single morning. He was never impressed by man’s position in life. It didn’t matter who it was - old or young people, rich or poor, Jesus would only do what His Father told Him to do. He was never chasing after popularity.
I looked up in the Oxford Dictionary the definition of the word popular, it is to be liked or admired by many. That was not His concern, not in the slightest. When the disciples found Jesus, they said, “Lord, the crowds are waiting for you.” What was His response? “Let us go to the next towns.” In other words: they have heard the message, we are going on to other people now. It is the fear of man that is a terrible thing and it puts great pressure on people to try and perform to make people like you. Jesus had none of that.
I remember reading about Evan Roberts, who was used by God to start a huge revival in Wales, he was a coal miner’s son. He walked into a meeting one night, the hall was packed with miners who had just come up from underground. They had been working in the depths of the mines and they were packed together in this hall, shoulder to shoulder, waiting with great expectancy to hear the preaching of the man of God.
He walked in and took his jacket off, he had to walk across the shoulders of the men because he couldn’t get into the hall. He said: “Do you believe in the word of God?”
They all said, “Yes”, in unity.
Do you believe the word of God says, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them.”?
They all shouted out in unison, “Yes, we believe that.”
And then he said, “Well, you don’t need me.”
And he put on his jacket and he walked off. He walked out of the hall, went down the street and went to find a couple of other people he could speak to... no fear of man!
Be careful today that we are not impressed by the demands of men on our lives.
Have a wonderful day. God bless you.
And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 17 Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
Mark 1:16-17
Jesus didn’t go up to the temple and recruit the priests to come and win souls for the Kingdom of God - No, He used ordinary working folk like you and me. Those are the men that Jesus called to do the work of saving the lost. Remember, the big shoals of fish are found not in the harbour but out in the deep waters of the stormy seas of life, the Lord chose men of experience to go out there and to catch those fish. God needs men and women, boys and girls who have been out there before.
You know, my family roots originate from the northeast of Scotland and the fishermen there go into the most dangerous seas on earth, right up by the North Arctic Circle - Very cold indeed.
These trawlers will go out for up to two weeks at a time to catch fish. They put their lives on the line every time they sail but you see, they are experienced, 'salted' sailors. They know the job... They know the lay of that sea and very rarely do they come back empty-handed. You and I need to do the same - We need to get out into the deep seas and fish for souls. Practical experience cannot be duplicated by anything.
Precious souls - Dying men and women, boys and girls are waiting for you and me today. Whether you are an electrician, a mechanic, teacher, farmer, housewife, computer technician, doctor or schoolboy, we need to get out there and cast our nets into the deep waters. You might say: "Well, what do we do?" Just tell them what Jesus means to you!
God bless you and have a wonderful day today as the Lord shows you where to find the fish.
God bless you.
“…walk worthy of the calling with which you were called…”
Ephesians 4:1
The Lord is asking us today to walk the talk - Don’t tell people that you love them, show people that you love them by what you do. Remember, actions speak much louder than words. Faith is a doing word, it is not just talking.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."
James 1:22
We are Jesus' ambassadors here on earth and we need to show people gentleness and humility. We need to keep the unity of the Spirit, in peace.
I remember a story I heard a long time ago about a lone missionary. This man went out with a group of other missionaries on a sailing boat to the South Sea Islands to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the cannibals.
The ship sank and everybody drowned except one missionary, he managed to make it to an island. When the islanders found him they took him in but they gave him one condition... They said: “We do not want to hear you speak about this God of yours. You can stay with us but we don’t want to hear any words spoken about your God.”
This man had to obey them obviously and he lived there among them and he lived a godly life. Eventually, he grew old and died and they buried him on the island. Many years later another group of missionaries came on a sailing boat to the same island to preach the gospel. When they landed on the island they gathered all the islanders together. They sat them down and they started to tell them the salvation story of Jesus Christ. When they had finished, the missionaries were quite surprised because these islanders didn’t look like they were caught in any way by surprise. They showed no change at all and it almost appeared that they had heard this story before. And they said to the islanders, “Have you heard the salvation story before?”
And they said, "No, never."
"But you don’t seem that this is new to you.” They said
"It is not new to us."
The missionary said, "Why?"
"Because He used to live here amongst us." They took the missionaries to the other side of the island and there was a little grave. They said, "The man you are talking about used to live here with us."
That missionary, he lived the life - he walked the talk. You and I today need to walk worthy of our calling. Go out today and bless somebody.
Give some lonely person a phone call, maybe buy a meal for someone who is hungry. Maybe give somebody a gift, not for anything in return, just because Jesus told us to.
God bless you.
“When Your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever You send them, and when they pray to the Lord toward the city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name,…”
1 Kings 8:44
A place of peace and quiet where the people of Israel might worship their God. You know, I went to Ethiopia with Jill a few years back and we went to see an amazing series of churches. They were built by a king called Lalibela in Ethiopia. They are built of stone and he built them from the top downwards, solid blocks of stone. A king who loved God and he wanted his people to have a safe place for them to worship Him, Jesus.
Solomon knew that God could not be housed in a building.
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!” 1 Kings 8:27
But He wanted a place where His people could worship Him and His presence could be felt by His people.
In Russia, folks have a little building at the bottom of their garden called a poustinia - It is where they go and have their quiet time with the Lord. I also have a quiet time room on the farm where no one can contact me, apart from Jill and my immediate family. You might say: “I don’t have such a luxury.” Maybe you are always on the move - Maybe you are a truck driver or an airline pilot and you just don’t have that place where you can be quiet before the Lord.
Well, before the lockdown arrived in this country, I would fly very extensively all over the world, my second home was an aeroplane. I believe the Holy Spirit showed me that I could have a temple in my mind... A quiet place where I could get away from the noise and the interruptions of this world and speak and worship God. I am not talking about positive thinking, I am talking about the Kingdom of God which is within you - That is what Jesus said in Luke Chapter 17:21.
I will describe it to you. In Zambia, Central Africa there is a place where they buried David Livingstone’s heart, under a tree, when he died and it is the most peaceful place. You walk down a little path and go into a wetland. Huge reeds are blowing gently on both sides of the path, massive indigenous trees flanking the wetland and on the edge of that wetland, there are birds - beautiful African doves singing in the trees. It is so special... That is the place where I sit in a busy airport departure lounge. I just close off for a moment and I just have a quiet time with God and it just refreshes me.
Try it today - Have that quiet time with the Master and He will be there to meet you. God bless you.
“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”
Psalm 119:105
You might say, "There are certain parts of the Bible that I don’t understand." That’s okay, eat the meat and spit the bones out as they say.
You don’t have to understand everything at one moment. God reveals His holy word to us step by step but the Bible is sacred.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1
Jesus is the Word, so we cannot switch Him off and on like a light switch. We cannot become a law unto ourselves and say: "I only believe certain parts of the Bible and the other parts are just old wive’s tales." You can’t do that. If we only believe certain parts of the Bible and not all of it, we are now making ourselves God and He will not tolerate that.
You see, you can’t bend the law.
“The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes”
Psalm 19:8
Our Father will not tolerate anybody bending the law - It is either all or it’s nothing, otherwise you and I are going to get lost. We either believe the word or we reject the word. You see, Billy Graham had that problem, the great evangelist.
One day he went into a forest and he opened the Bible. He put it on a tree stump and he got on his knees and he said: “Lord, I don’t understand everything in this Word but I choose by faith to believe the whole Bible from Genesis right through to Revelation... And look what happened, the Lord used him mightily.
As soon as you start to doubt the way, you lose the way. It's alright to say, “I don’t know” when someone asks us a question. We are not supposed to know everything - You and I are not God.
I have used the word of God for no less than forty years and I want to tell you, every time, He has directed me down the right path - not once has He taken me down the wrong road. Jesus, when He was in the desert and the devil attacked him with accusations, what did He do? He used the word. He said, "It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone." - It is written!
Now, if Jesus used the word of God, you and I need to use the word of God. Have a great week as you use the Bible as your compass, He will lead you all the way home.
God bless you.
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Acts 2:1-4
And then just one other very special scripture:
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Romans 8:11
What a promise from God, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. One of the most amazing encounters I have ever experienced in my entire life happened at the lowest point on earth, 400 meters below sea level, at a place called Ein Gedi, at the Dead Sea in Israel on 30th September 2012, at about 8 p.m. The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem had asked me, very kindly, to be their speaker. They were having a Feast of Tabernacles conference. Approximately 5,000 delegates were present from all the nations of the world - 18 interpreters, I believe, that very night.
It was extremely hot. I was called up onto the platform and I spoke from the very scripture that I have just read to you now. There was a visitation of the Holy Spirit like I have never ever experienced before. As I finished speaking, I walked around the front of the lectern and I said, “Lord, Holy Spirit, please do it again.” And a huge wind arose from nowhere, blowing so hard that the very musical instruments were starting to get blown off the platform. I remember the musicians running up to try and save their equipment, it was amazing. Then it started raining - Now it never rains in that place. Then the crowd started running to the front to worship God.
The stage crew, Orthodox Jews, who were lashing the structure to try and hold it from falling, shouted to me, “Tell the crowd to go back. Go back! The stage is going to collapse!” I have never done that in my life before. I have never told anyone to return from an altar call, a night I shall never, ever forget in my life. The Holy Spirit is as real to me right now as you are listening to this message.
He is more real, in fact. He is called The Paracletus - It's a Greek word, it means, “Helper”. Please read John 16:7 and you will see Jesus sent Him to help us. Call on Him today - He will help you.
Have a wonderful Pentecost Sunday.
God bless you!
“So Solomon built the temple and finished it.” 1 Kings 6:14
I want to say to you today, we need to finish what we start. We need to complete the work because it is no testimony to any Christian if we do not finish the job.
“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ ” Philippians 1:6
The Lord will help you and me to finish the job. If we allow Him to, Jesus will complete that work. You know there is a word, 'procrastination'. Procrastination means to delay or postpone action, or to defer till morning. The other word is 'Tomorrow'. In Zulu, we have a word: “Kusasa”, Kusasa sizokwenza lokhu noma lokho - Tomorrow, I will do this and I will do that…
I want to say to you do it immediately when you get an opportunity. Finish that degree - There is a word for a young student! You say, “I can’t”. You can and you must! Finish the job you have started. Finish building that house, "I don’t have the money" - Just take it one block at a time... Finish the house!
Commitment is very important in a Christian's life. You have committed to marrying that girl - follow through! You have committed to marrying that man - follow through!
“A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep—
So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler…”
Proverbs 6:10-11
We need to work hard, The Lord has got no time for lazy people.
My example is that beautiful little honey bee, I am now a bee-keeper. I love it as a hobby and what a hard-working little creature the bee is.
They are unbelievably hard-working. Do you know that it will visit up to 2000 flowers in a day! Do you know that 1 Kilo, which is just over 2 lbs of honey, takes up to 145,000 km to produce? Over 60,000 bees are in one hive at the height of the honey-making time. They are a most incredible little creature and I love them so much. I want to say to you, dad, let’s finish the job. Let's go and finish that fused light bulb for your wife.
Go and mow that grass - finish the job, I am not joking. Finish the painting job. Build that wendy house for your little girl. Mom, mend that favourite shirt for your husband. You say, it's old and you want to chuck it out. It’s his favourite shirt man, fix it! Make that batch of rusks. (By the way, rusks are biscuits, for those who don’t t live in South Africa.)
What about cooking your husband that special meal this weekend?
You know, my wife would prefer me to fix that dripping tap than to buy her a bouquet of flowers.
Let's finish the job and you will be surprised how pleasant your home will become.
God bless you and have a wonderful weekend.
“He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Matthew 28:6
Jesus Christ is alive He is not dead. I have been to Jerusalem and I have been to the tomb - It is empty because He has risen from the dead! I have also been to the tomb of King David, one of the heroes of Israel, his remains are still there in that holy place. The sacred shrines of many other gods can still be seen, their bones and graves are still there but not the Savior of the world because He is not dead. He has gone ahead of us to prepare a place, an eternal home for you and for me.
“I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2
And what a home that will be! That gospel singer, Keith Green, who died at the age of 29 years old, was an incredible ambassador for Jesus. At one of his concerts, he said: “If the Lord created the world and everything in it in six days and He has been preparing our home in Heaven for 2000 years... Man, we are living in a garbage can!”
I heard a lovely story once about a rich lady. She lived in this mansion and she had a servant - The servant was very poor but this servant lady loved Jesus. She spent hours in prayer, she was an intercessor and she would take care of the poor and the needy on her days off. She'd often spend all night in prayer.
She gave as much as she could to the church and then she died and she went to Heaven. Not long after, the rich lady also died and went to Heaven, when she got to the pearly gates St Peter was waiting for her, to take her to her home. She was so excited and she started walking down those streets of pure gold. There were incredible homes on both sides of the street and as they walked St Peter said, “Do you see this beautiful mansion?” And the rich lady said, “Yes”, he said, “That is where your servant stays.” The rich lady got so excited, she thought: “Well, I must have one incredible home waiting for me!”
As they kept walking the road stopped and it turned into silver - no more gold streets, now silver streets. She carried on walking and the street turned from silver to tarmac, from tarmac to dirt and they were walking along this dirt road. There were not very many houses, just small little shacks and eventually Peter said, “This is your home.” It was a little shack made with a couple of sticks and a couple of sheets of corrugated iron. The lady said, “There must be a mistake, what has happened?” St Peter said, “Well this is the only material that you sent us to build your home with...”
Now, that is just a story but you and I need to invest in heavenly things! Have a wonderful day.
God bless you.
If we go to the Gospel of John, Chapter 15 and verse 16, Jesus says:“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” You and I have been chosen by God. We have been called by the Lord Jesus Christ to walk the talk. That’s right. We did not choose Him. He chose us, not just to have our sins forgiven, but so that we might be fruitful and productive.
We have been commissioned into this world to bear fruit.“What kind of fruit?” you might ask. Well, fruit that will not spoil, fruit that is lasting. What kind of fruit? Well, Galatians, Chapter 5 and verses 22 and 23 tell us nine fruits: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
One of my sons, Andy, is a fruit farmer. He grows strawberries and kiwi fruit. The shelf life is critical when you are a fruit farmer. The fruit needs to be picked at the right time. It needs to be put straight into a cool room and then it needs to be sent to market in a refrigerated truck. Now you and me, too, need to be sure that our spiritual fruit lasts. We cannot afford to blow hot or cold.
We have got to be the same, continually the same. We have got to bear that fruit, It doesn’t matter what our circumstances are, especially in these troubled days in which we are living, where everybody is looking for something substantial to hang onto. And you and I can show them the way and we really need to produce that fruit, to help that old lady when she is crossing the street, to go the extra mile for someone.
I remember, many years ago, watching a documentary of a young boy in South America in one of the slums, I think it was in Columbia. This little boy could only have been about ten or eleven years old. He was going into these little shacks where these old people were just lying in the corner of the room. He was getting them up, getting them washed, washing their hair. I will never forget it, giving them food, making them do exercises, making them do dance classes. They called him “the angel” of that particular area.
I want to say to you today, let’s go out and produce the fruit that the Lord Jesus Christ has called us to. Have a wonderful day as you go and bless somebody today, that car guard, that waitress, that person in the street. Give them a smile and produce the fruit of the Spirit. That is the best way to preach the Gospel.
God bless you and goodbye.
“Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man.” Luke 23:50
Yes, I am speaking about Joseph of Arimathea - The man who took the body of Jesus Christ off the cross and buried it. He was a council member. A member of the Sanhedrin, the governing body of Israel in those days. He was also a businessman, he was also a rich man.
But he was a quiet man who just got on with the work... No noise, no fanfare - a worker! He didn’t even want to be noticed or receive any accolades. He just did the job and he put his money where his mouth was.
These men and women of God are literally worth their weight in gold to the ministry.
“But be doers of the word.”
James 1:22
He was an unknown man and yet he is recorded in all the four gospels but I guarantee that you will see him, very clearly, when you get to Heaven.
I know a man who built toilets, with his machinery and his team of workers, for the Mighty Men Conferences on our farm. I am talking about toilets to accommodate up to 400,000 men. Nobody knows his name but Jesus knows his name. I know a young businessman, very young, who put one million rand in the kitty for a National Prayer Meeting in South Africa. His father did not even know that he had done that. I know a man who flies me all around this country in his aeroplanes and helicopters and he does not want to be known by anyone. I know of two old ladies, pensioners who have gone to be with Jesus, who travelled with me for years. Sitting quietly in the background, in the back of those halls and stadiums, just praying for the Lord to use me.
I want to say to you that there are a lot of people who you and I don’t even know about but we will know about them in Heaven, one day. There is a very successful businessman who has taken it upon himself to accompany me wherever I preach in the world, at his own expense and there are countless others who have made these gigantic meetings possible.
I am thinking especially of my very own family - my wife and my children... Their reward, just like that of Joseph, waits for them in Heaven.
Go out today and be a doer of God’s Holy Word!
God bless you.
“And the chief priests accused Him of many things, but He answered nothing. Then Pilate asked Him again, saying, “Do You answer nothing? See how many things they testify against You!” But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate marvelled.” Mark 15:3-5
Jesus never wasted His words, if we go to Proverbs 10:19 the Bible says:
“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking,
But he who restrains his lips is wise.”
Restraining our lips is wise - Sometimes by saying little or nothing has more impact than spouting off. What do they say... A barking dog does not bite. Unfortunately, I am not very good at keeping quiet - I have got myself into lots of trouble over the years but every time Jesus spoke, it was worth hearing.
The Bible tells us that Pontius Pilate was impressed that Jesus had nothing to say about the barrage of accusations that were levelled against Him. The Bible says that he marvelled at the Master’s response.
Our lifestyle should speak much louder than our words.
I remember when I was young, my brother and I - not my little sister, she was a good girl - but my brother and I, when my mom would call us in to come and bath in the evening... She would call once and we would say, “No, mom is still happy.” She would call a second time, then I could hear that mom was becoming a bit agitated... The third time we'd say: “Boys, we had better go!” But when that old blacksmith came home from work, my dad, he would only speak once and we would jump because we knew what would happen if we didn’t!
Remember, if you have got nothing good to say about somebody, rather say nothing. The last words that Jesus said in John 19:30 before He died on the Cross of Calvary for our sins, were: "It is finished." Those were His last words and with that, He opened a way for you and me to have eternal life.
Go out today and say something good to someone. If you have nothing good to say about them, don’t say anything at all but go out and share the love of Jesus Christ through an encouraging word.
God bless you and have a lovely day.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8
We don’t have to be clever, we just have to be obedient. God has all the wisdom that we need. Remember, Solomon asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him. If you go to 1 Kings 3 you can read the story of two women who lived together. They were both pregnant and they both had babies a couple of days apart.
One woman rolled over on her baby during the night and it suffocated and died, so she got up and switched the babies around. She gave her dead baby to the other lady and took the live one. When the mother of the live baby woke in the morning she realized that the dead baby was not hers, and a huge argument broke out. So they both went to Solomon, who had asked God for wisdom, remember... Both said the live baby was theirs.
So Solomon said: "Bring me a sword and let us cut the live baby in half and then they will both have an equal portion.” The woman who had the dead baby said, “That’s fair.” The woman who had the live baby said, “Oh no, give it to the woman who had the dead baby.” Solomon then said, "The woman who desired to spare the live baby, is the real mother."
That is incredible wisdom - godly wisdom.
Many years ago on our farm, Shalom, we were going through a very difficult patch financially. We decided to sell our herd of cattle to meet our debts - They were climbing by the day. Then we were advised to hold on for a couple of weeks because the price of beef would increase. But we felt God impress upon us to settle our debts ASAP, so we sold the herd and squared up the money we owed. Two weeks later the dreaded foot and mouth disease broke out in our district and we would not have been able to sell our cattle - that would have been the end of the farm.
Listen to God. Just ask him and that incredible simplistic wisdom will be yours today. Have a wonderful week as you go out and listen to the word of God.
God bless you.
“Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
1 Kings 3:9
That was the request of Solomon to the Lord when the Lord said to him in verse 5:
“Ask, what shall I give you?” “I will give you anything you ask”
because He was so pleased with Solomon’s response. Because Solomon was not greedy, God gave him even more than he asked for. God appeared to Solomon in that dream and he could have had anything he wanted.
What about you and me today?
You see, because Solomon asked unselfishly, God gave him wisdom, riches and honour. The Bible tells us that the Queen of Sheba travelled from Ethiopia, 1 Kings 10:1 - That would have been about three months travel to meet this man that she had heard so much about. She tested him with some very hard questions and he answered them all. And then she said that the account that she had heard about Solomon was only half true because his wisdom and the prosperity exceeded what she had been told.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33
And one of my favourite scriptures is found in 2 Chronicles 16:9 says:
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”
Father God is looking for trustworthy men and women who He can rely upon to be His agents here on earth.
A story: A very rich man died, leaving a large art collection for auction.
Well, the day arrived and before the bidding started the auctioneer said that according to the will, there was one painting that had to be auctioned first. It was a painting of his late wife... a very average painting indeed.
No one bid for that painting but there was one godly man there, he put his hand up and he felt sorry for that deceased old art collector. He bid for it and he got it because no one else bid.
But there was a little letter attached to that painting. The auctioneer opened the letter and the letter stated, “Whoever buys this painting, can have the whole collection for free.”
Today, ask correctly. God will give you the desires of your heart.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Goodbye.
“Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.”
Matthew 5:4
The Oxford Dictionary defines the word, 'sorrow' as a feeling of deep distress caused by loss. For me, it has always been a time when I have felt closer to Jesus than ever before - emotionally closer to the Master.
Grieve, is another word for mourning. To grieve is a time to wait upon the Lord so that He may bring healing upon you. Maybe today you are grieving the loss of a member of your family who has died through COVID-19 or some other death... I want to say to you, my dear friend, do not tell them to stand up, pull themselves together, start reading the Bible and it will be fine - There has got to be a time, God has made a time for us to mourn so that healing can take place.
It is when you have lost a dear one that you can truly be embraced by Jesus. That painful sorrow draws you even closer to the Lover of your soul. Maybe you are saying today, “But I miss him so much”, “I miss her so much.” Yes, it makes us think even more fondly of home time, doesn’t it?
Do you remember that little chorus:
“Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of the world
Will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.”
Little Alistair was four years old - the darkest moment of my life when my little nephew fell off the tractor, that I was driving, and he was tragically killed. His mom and dad were so very gracious and kind to me... I will never forget that. My dear wife Jill would sit up with me until the early hours of the morning. She would tell me it was an accident, eventually, she would drop off to sleep, exhausted. But I was still wide awake, then Jesus would put His loving arms around me and comfort me. Please, my dear friend, let Him comfort you today.
You know, three or four months after the death my brother phoned me. He said he had a clear vision of Alistair running through an emerald green field so happy, not wanting to come back but waiting for his daddy in Heaven.
I want to say to you today, your loved one is not dead. They have just changed address and very, very soon - sooner than you think, we will be meeting together again.
God bless you and have a wonderful Saturday.
Goodbye.
“Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” But he spoke more vehemently, “If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!”
Mark 14:30
One of the most terrible feelings that a person has, is to have denied and disappointed a loved one. I am sure you understand what I am saying... Maybe you have let your wife down, maybe you have disappointed your husband. Maybe your child was waiting for you to come to that sports day and you just couldn’t make it... You feel terrible.
Now, remember Peter, chosen by God to lead the disciples, blew it badly.
If we look at Matthew 26:75 - after he had denied the Lord Jesus three times the Bible says he went out and he wept bitterly. Have you ever let someone down? You promised that you would be there for them but when the time came you did not pitch. “No, no - I am not getting involved.” Well, that is exactly what happened to Peter and that is exactly what he did.
But my dear friend, the wonderful news, the loving outcome was that Jesus did not give up on Peter and He won’t give up on you and me today. If we remember, the angel said to the woman at the tomb: “Tell the disciples and Peter to go to Galilee.” Mark 16:7. Why did he say, “Tell the disciples and Peter?” - Because he knew that Peter would never go. He felt so wretched that he had let the Lord down. That is why I love Jesus so much. He continually picks me up, dusts me off, forgives me and says, “Get back into the race.”
So what have you and I got to do this morning?
Just say: "Sorry Lord. We disappointed you, we disappointed our loved ones but we are not going to do it again..." and get back into the race. Remember, Jesus always backs the jockey and not the horse. You know, Peter never let the Lord down again after that. Legend has it that when Peter got crucified, he asked them to crucify him upside down. He said he was not fit to be crucified like his Lord and Savior.
Today, go out and remember it doesn’t matter what you have done. It doesn’t matter what you haven’t done - Jesus still loves you. Dust yourself off. Get back in the race!
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you.
“Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:9-10
By the way, today is Ascension Day!
Saying goodbye can be so very sad and even painful at times. When the Lord called me to preach the Gospel many years ago He asked me, in my heart, three questions. The first one was:
“Are you prepared to be a fool for me?”
Well, I said, “Lord, that is easy. I am a fool anyway.”
Then the second question:
“Are you prepared for people to say all manner of evil about you, for My Name’s sake?”
I said, “Yes, Lord, I am prepared to do that.”
Then the third question I struggled with:
“Are you prepared to see less of your family for My Name’s sake?” (Because He was calling me to go into all the world and preach the Gospel).
I said, “Lord, only by Your grace.”
I struggled with that one - You see as a farmer, every night when the sun went down I came home to the same house and the same bed and to be with my family. Now, I am sleeping in strange beds, eating different food, dealing with jet lag, sitting in departure lounges waiting for the plane to come. But the good news is that Jesus Christ has promised us that He is coming back. He has not abandoned us. He hasn’t left us for good and in fact, His return is very soon. The signs are evident everywhere and He is coming back the way He left. That is what the Bible tells us - On the clouds. That is why we as believers are known as cloud-watchers... It may be today, who knows?
Hebrews 13:5 is a beautiful scripture:
Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
He has given us His Holy Spirt, the Comforter, to be with us until His return. But I want to say to you, look up because our redemption draws very near.
Have a blessed and precious Ascension Day.
“And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.”
Matthew 6:12
That is right - it is part of the Lord’s Prayer... Unforgiveness is something that you and I have to deal with. If we don’t, it is like a cancer that will eventually consume us. It is like rust in a motorcar, unless it is completely cut out, it will eat up the whole car. You say and I say, “Well, we can’t!” Jesus says we have to - and not for His sake but ours.
Unforgiveness, according to the Oxford Dictionary means: "Not willing to forgive or excuse faults." We have got to get that plank out of our eye first so that we can take that speck out of our brother’s eye. Luke 6:41
A very good friend of mine gave me a very good illustration the other day... He said, "Getting stabbed in the back is not the most painful thing - Turning around to see who did it is.” Remember, the only people who can get close enough to stab us in the back are those who we trust and love. Jesus knows about that. Remember what happened with Judas Iscariot when he betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver?
But you know folks, once we have been forgiven by God for our sins, we are so moved with gratitude towards the Lord that we eagerly forgive those who have sinned against us. Just like Zacchaeus did in Luke 19:8. He was so overwhelmed that the Lord had forgiven him that he said, "I will give back to all of those who I have taken from unjustly." Jesus says to him in verse 9: "Salvation has come to this house today."
I had a phone call a few days back from a very distraught man who lives in another city. He was emotional on the phone... He was actually weeping. He said: “Angus, please forgive me. I have held a grudge against you for fourteen years - I was jealous of you. I was bitter against you and that turned into hatred. I saw the number of men that were coming to the Mighty Men Conferences and I was very, very jealous." That unforgiveness destroyed his home. He ended up in divorce from his family, he had to move to another city, but you know, when I said to him: "I gladly forgive you. I didn’t even know that you had anything against me..." there were shackles that fell from his ankles, like a bag of cement off his back, as he was freed. I could hear it on the phone and we were able to pray. He is coming to see me and have a cup of tea with me one of these days. Forgive so that you can be forgiven.
Have a wonderful day and make sure there is nothing else in your heart against anyone else.
God bless you.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Is that the case in your life - Is that the case in my life?
There has got to be evidence of a change, it has got to show. We have got to display love, peace, joy, hope, purpose and gratitude. Let that helmet of salvation that you wear today shine. You will find that in Ephesians 6:17 - the helmet of salvation.
Speak out what you know. Declare to the world what you have heard. The power of personal testimony is incredible. You know, seeing is believing, the world says - They must see a difference in our lives. If it is not reflected in our lives then it's a lie and that confuses the world system. There has to be a defining moment, like Paul on the road to Damascus - One moment he was trying to kill Christians and then the next he was telling people that they need to be born again. Enough of listening to the lies of the devil! Let’s start believing the promises of God today.
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, he had met with God face to face. The Bible tells us that he had to wear a veil over his face for three weeks... The people couldn’t even look upon him.
The thing that encourages me concerning the Mighty Men Phenomenon that has gone right around that world, are the results after that weekend. We get reports from the family: "My son has changed completely, My brother who went to Mighty Men - He is not the same man, he is a new man. He is not so grumpy, he is not bad-tempered anymore, he is not swearing anymore. He is caring and he is soft."
To get those letters from little children - A new daddy came home after that weekend. A wife writing a letter of thanks, "Thank you for holding Mighty Men because the man that I fell in love with twenty years ago came back home, after that weekend." Folks, there has got to be evidence of a change. If any man or woman be in Christ, they are new creations.
Go out today and shine for Jesus. Let people come to you and say: "What has happened to you? There has been a change in your life." And then, of course, you can tell them why. "Jesus has come into my heart and He has made the difference."
Have a wonderful day, God bless you.
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” Matthew 25:40
Those are Jesus’ words - You know, sometimes the true test of our love for Jesus is to serve people who can give you nothing back in return. It is from a transformed heart that we serve the very least of our brethren. It is the way of a truly grateful Christian because Jesus said, “inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”
Straight away I think of the Bible translators. I have such huge respect for these wonderful people. They go to a foreign country, often they can’t speak the language and they sit in the jungle, the bush with no running water or lights and they translate the Bible into the local language. There is no physical reward for their work but they are doing it "as unto the Lord."
I clearly remember, going to the maximum-security prison in Pretoria, our capital, not knowing what to expect but what a surprise we got. We had a reception that was so warm - These men were waiting with great anticipation to meet us. The response to the Gospel was incredible.
These men wanted to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. And they also knew that we had no ulterior motive because we had nothing that we could give them apart from the Good News of Jesus Christ and a Bible. They had absolutely nothing to give us back in terms of material possessions. But wow - Did God bless us that day... I will never forget it as long as I live!
As we walked into that huge room the prisoners were all sitting in their orange uniforms, waiting to hear the Gospel. Then a male choir, maybe forty or fifty men strong, came to the front. With no instruments, they started to sing hymns as I have very rarely ever heard before in my life. I have been to Nashville Tennessee in the USA, I have heard top Gospel singers, wonderful men and women of God but never had I been moved to tears like I was that day when these men sang from their hearts. Jesus was there in Spirit and I will never forget it!
Go out today and bless somebody who can’t pay you back. Go and bless a person who really needs your love.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you.
“Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.”
Proverbs 31:30
I just want to take this opportunity to wish all mothers a very happy Mother's day. Mothers are the heart of the home.
Yes, the father might be the head of the home but the mother is undisputedly the heart of the home. You know, just like when I drive onto a farm I can tell you what that farmer is like in no time at all, so too when I am invited to a home, I can tell you what kind of mother lives there. She doesn’t have to be wealthy - It doesn’t have to be a fancy home but if that home is clean, warm, cosy, full of love, the children happy and dad well-cared for, that makes for a godly home.
Mothers, you have a huge responsibility, not only in the home but in society - And indeed, in the very nation itself. I have noticed that men are always drawn towards their mothers and women towards dad.
My children will tell you that when they were young and they wanted something from dad and they knew they wouldn’t get it, they would go and ask mom to ask dad... and they always got it.
John Wesley always said it was his mother who influenced him more than all the great theologians of that time. Jesus’ earthly mother never once abandoned him, right to the very end. All the disciples ran away but Mary - never! I want to say to all the people out there, make a fuss of your mom today. She is worth it - I would give a million rand to have a cup of tea with my mother today!
I will have to wait until I see her in Heaven. Mothers are very, very special and we thank God for them!
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday as you spoil your mom.
“Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Therefore stand.”
Ephesians 6:13-14
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, stand. It means: Remain stationary. This is not a time for you and me to run to and fro and to make a plan. None of my plans has ever worked. It is God’s plans that we need now. We need to remain stationary... stand.
It also means to remain on a specified course. Don’t be like a chicken, with its head chopped off, running to and fro. Keep the course that the Lord has given you and don’t move off it. Stand means to be in a specified state or condition, it means to be steadfast - That is right! Don’t allow COVID-19 to take you off your course - stand.
It means to be upright, what does that mean?
Do not be involved in things that are ungodly but be upright. Pay your debt, be a good father, be a good mother, be a good Christian. It also means to remain unaltered... Don’t change your ways just to make things go easy, remain steadfast. It also means to adopt a particular attitude towards an issue. Stop changing your mind all the time, that is why you are so fearful - You keep on changing your mind. God is God and He will undertake for you. He has never, ever let you down yet, has he? Well, be steadfast and stand and allow Him to look after you.
It means to be determined, have a determined effort to hold one’s ground. When everyone else is running around, stand and hold your ground. Keep your faith, remain loyal to God. And then lastly, it means to stand up and be counted. In other words, to state publicly one’s support for someone. In our case his name is Jesus and He will see us through!
Have a great Saturday today as you stand fast, and watch what the Lord is going to do for you and your loved ones.
God bless you.
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31
This is not a time for you and me to be hasty, to do things on the spur of the moment... I must confess, one of my failures is that I am too impulsive.
I am too quick off the mark and then I regret the decisions I have made afterwards. We need to wait upon the Lord.
You know, if you think about it Abraham waited a hundred years for the birth of his son Isaac and that is why God loved him so much. The Bible says:
“Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.”
James 2:23
Now all of us want to be God’s friend, even the devil himself will not come up against God. God loved Abraham because Abraham waited patiently for the promise of God - that is what you and I need to do today.
The Lord Jesus Himself spent thirty years waiting for the moment when His ministry, which lasted a mere three years, was launched. He impacted the world and the universe like no one else has ever done. You and I need to discipline ourselves, and we need to wait on the Lord.
I have a word, maybe for a young lady who is not too sure if she should marry that young man or not. When in doubt - don’t.
Remember, haste is not of the Lord.
Now, if he is the right man - give it a bit of time and the Lord will show you very clearly. The same thing goes for the young man. If you not sure about the young lady, don’t do it because you think it is the right thing to do. We really need to hear from God because we make decisions that we have to live with for the rest of our lives. Do not be in a rush. You know, the Lord is never early, He is never late, He is always on time!
Remember, Lazarus was in the tomb for four days. Mary and Martha said, “Lord, where have you been, you could have saved our brother.”
But you know, the Lord was there. He went and he called Lazarus out of the tomb - one of the greatest miracles that the Bible has written about took place at that time. God’s timing is always perfect!
Now today, ask the Lord to show you, to give you confirmation before you make a decision that can impact, not only your life but your family as well.
God bless you and have a wonderful day as you hear from the Lord!
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
Acts 1:8
I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to define the word: Power. It means, to be able, it means the ability to do something. Now if you remember, the disciples were all crouched together in the Upper Room... I have been there many times, in the Old City of Jerusalem, and they were absolutely petrified - Their Hero, their Saviour, our Saviour had been crucified. Their dreams had been dashed and broken. Maybe you are feeling like that today with this COVID-19. Maybe your aspirations, your dream has been broken. I want to tell you today: look to the Lord. Don’t ever doubt what Christ can do in and through us. He can, and is willing to do more than our greatest request, through His miraculous power. It is available to you and me today.
Remember, Peter, after he had been filled with the Holy Spirit, went out into the streets and the very first sermon that he preached, 3000 converts came to Christ. And that was just after he had denied the Lord three times a short while before.
The power of God gives us the strength to keep going. Remember, it is not us but it is Christ in us.
"Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:27
The more you allow Jesus into your life, the more authority you will have.
In the early 1990s, we had probably the most devastating drought in this district that I have ever seen, we were really on our knees. My partner and I were in the chapel on the farm. We didn’t know which way to turn, just like the disciples in the Upper Room and maybe just like you today. Our production loan was full, there was no more money available. Our overdraft was at its maximum at the bank and there was no crop to reap.
We had between 80 and 100 ladies who had arrived for work and we had nothing to give them to do. Then something happened that I will never forget... I saw something I had never seen then and I have never seen since - We had a massive snowstorm in this district! It destroyed plantations for miles and miles, these were Eucalyptus trees, the gum trees that come from the Southern Hemisphere. They can’t handle large massive snowstorms and wattle trees. And we had these ladies available. I went to the General Manager of one of the big international timber companies and I said: "Can we do some work for you? Can we clean these plantations out?"
And he gave us the job, and you know something, that kept us going. Slowly but surely we paid all our debt - we came back to square one and then we carried on farming.
Don’t despair, the power is available. Just ask the Lord to help you.
God bless you.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
Philippians 4:8
You can go to any town and you will find a flourishing health centre or a gym. Everybody is concerned about their physical status: What they eat, what they drink and what they wear. But I want to ask you a question this morning because God has been asking me the same question...
What about our mental and spiritual state of mind?
You see, we must start working inwardly and then work outwardly - It has got to start on the inside, not on the outside.
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Mark 8:36
It is what you read, see on television and time spent on that cell phone that influences the inward man. We have got to be careful we are not living in an imaginary world. You and I have to discipline ourselves - We have to discipline ourselves if we are going to stay on course.
A lot of people are struggling with guilt, depression, stress, anxiety and fear - it is all tied up in the mind. What you look at and what you say affects you. We need to meditate on godly things, things that are pure, wholesome and uplifting. For example, what does the Lord say about your situation?
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13
“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
If Christ is for me, who can stand against me?
Romans 8:31
We have got to be real, honest and truthful. You know folks, watching pornography is unacceptable. Reading books that have a status that is evil - unacceptable.
We have got to discipline ourselves, just as we do in the gym.
Smith Wigglesworth was a plumber and God used him mightily. He never used to pray for longer than thirty minutes but he never let thirty minutes go by without praying. John Wesley started one of the biggest revivals the world has ever seen. He said to his preachers: “If you are not spending a minimum of five hours a day in the things of God, change your trade.”
Let us discipline ourselves today to get our minds and our spirits physically and spiritually fit.
God bless you.
“…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…”
Ephesians 6:17
That is the only weapon that the Lord gave us to defend ourselves with because it is the only weapon we need. In a time when fear and uncertainty is going around the world like a cancer - now is the time to use the word of God. Jesus Himself, when He was tempted in the desert, said to the devil: "It is written…" That is how He defended Himself. He puts the word above everything, “It is written…” Any doubter that says to you, "Show me this Jesus you are always talking about" - give him a Bible.
I remember visiting a Muslim house a while back and I sat in his beautiful lounge. I had my Bible with me, I put it on the carpet next to my chair and he came in with the tea and he said: “Please don’t put that book on the floor, put it on the coffee table.” The word of God! It is alive, it is a compass, it is bread, it is the Good News - Indeed, it is life itself!
Jesus Christ in print!
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1
I don’t know how many times in the last forty years I have read this Bible from cover to cover, yet every single time it tells me something completely different. It is alive, this book, I tell you!
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” Matthew 24:35
In the 1700s there was a little Welsh girl, her name was Mary Jones. Mary Jones loved the word of God. She was very poor, she didn’t have any money. Her dad died when she was young and her mother tried to eke out a living by just being ordinary servants. She would go up to the church and ask the minister if she could please read the Bible, it used to be chained to the pulpit. She worked hard and she saved up all her pennies, she wanted to buy her own Bible. When Mary Jones was about 15 or 16 years old she walked barefoot for 26 miles through the Welsh Hills to the next town, where a minister was selling Bibles. She was so excited. When she got there, she was overwhelmed. She said, “I have brought my money to buy my Bible.”
The man looked at her and said: “I am so sorry, I have just sold the last Bible.” Well, the girl broke down, she broke down and she wept... She couldn’t believe it. He was so overwhelmed by her desire to own her own Bible that the minister gave her his own Bible. But do you know, out of that incident The Bible Society was born because these men realized that people need the Word of God. They said: "If for Wales, why not for the Kingdom? And if for the Kingdom, why not for the world?"
Use the Word of God - It will give you strength and power and peace of mind.
Have a wonderful day. God bless you.
So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
“Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. “
Mark 16:19 & Matthew 24:30
Jesus is coming back very soon - The signs are all evident all over the world! If we just read the word, the Lord has already warned us. You and I are a band of cloud watchers, that is right!
“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
Luke 21:28
What a day that will be!
Jesus says when the fig tree produces new leaves then you know that summer is near. Well, when you see these signs on the earth, be sure the Lord is coming very, very soon.
You know the good farmer - he gets ready to put in his new crop in the offseason, okay. He services his tractors, he prepares his land, he makes sure that his seed and fertilizer are safely stored away in the shed, ready for the day when the rain comes. His implements are well-oiled and ready for action. The foolish farmer waits for the first rains to start falling and then he scrambles to try to get prepared but it is already too late because the first rains are always the best. You and I must be ready because Jesus is not coming soon - He is on His way I tell you!
We need to keep short accounts with men and with God... I have written that in my Bible, in the last chapter, under the last verse in the Book of Revelation. Keep watching the clouds because maybe today, we will see the coming of The Master!
God bless you.
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.” James 1:2
If ever we needed patience it is in these days, which we are living at the moment. Of course, patience comes through hardship.
As a young man, I watched a cowboy movie. I love those movies and I will never forget them as long as I live... There was the cowboy, I think it was Clint Eastwood, sitting at an eating house with his friend. They had been riding for days. They were dusty, they were tired and they had a big plate of food in front of them. As they were tucking into their food the saloon door swung open and in walked a young gun-slinger.
And he had two guns, one on either side. He shouted out to Clint Eastwood: “Stand up, I want to take you on.” These two old men just carried on eating their food, eventually, after a lot of persistence by this young man the old cowboy looked up from his food, pushed his hat back on his head and said: “Boy, you see these wrinkles? They ain’t wrinkles... They are war maps.” And with that, he carried on eating his food and the youngster just ran out of that saloon as quick as he could.
You might be listening this morning, saying: “Lord, I am serving you with everything that I have and I am just not getting the breakthrough. Why?”
Well, you know the gardener, when he prunes back the trees, he prunes the ones that are bearing the most fruit, the most severely. “But,” you say, “it is so painful.” Yes, it is but The Gardener has got holes in his hands because He has been crucified for you and me. He is pruning all that dead wood off you and Me... it's more painful for Him than it is for us. God walks with us through the fire - He doesn’t take us out of the fire.
If we go to Daniel and the story of Meshach, Shadrach and Abed-Nego -
Remember, they would not bow the knee to Nebuchadnezzar and he was so angry he threw them into a furnace. But look what it says:
“Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Daniel 3:25
Remember Jesus says He will not take us out of the fire, but He will walk with you and me through the fire. If you know the Lord, you don’t have to ask why you are going through what you are going through. Just trust Him. If I look back on my spiritual journey thus far, the times that I have been the closest to Jesus have been the times when I have been the most severely challenged.
His grace is sufficient for you and me. Have a wonderful Sunday.
God bless you.
“Although my house is not so with God, (not in order)
Yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant,
Ordered in all things and secure.
For this is all my salvation and all my desire;
Will He not make it increase?
2 Samuel 23:5
That’s right, you can hear it... It is rain on the roof again - Faithful God! Isn’t He faithful? I love Him so much.
At the very end of his life, King David could still make this statement, “Although my house is not in order, I have repented and I know that He will not fail me.” David messed up very badly towards the end of his life but he repented. He said sorry and he was confident that God still loved him. You see, it is because David knew the Heart of God.
God has guaranteed His covenant with me and with you. He has made it plain and He has made it clear. He has kept every promised word that He has given to us. Yes, my entire salvation and my desire are secure in the knowledge that Jesus Christ never changes.
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5:
He is the one who stands as security for me and you. Jesus vouches for me, He believes in me.
You know, when a young man tries to get started in farming or business and he has no collateral (By the way collateral means no one together with him) it is very hard for him to get started in life. The businessman who is going to lend him the money will say: “Well, what guarantee have you if it doesn’t work out?” So, if he has no collateral he will not get the loan.
We needed someone to stand up for us and back us and you know something - Jesus did it for both you and me.
We need to say sorry. We need to stand up, dust ourselves off and get back into the race. He will not forsake us and when we stand before our Heavenly Father on the day of judgment, our Father is going look to His Son and say, “Why should I let him in?”
“Why should I let him in?”
“Oh Lord, because I know him and I died for him.” And The Father will say, “Let him in! Let her in!”
Have a wonderful day today knowing that we have collateral.
We have Jesus backing us all the way. God bless you.
“When the enemy comes in like a flood,
The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.”
Isaiah 59:19
The battle that you and I are fighting today is in the mind - It is not in the flesh. And how do we overcome it? Well, just a few chapters before that the Lord says:
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,”
Says the Lord.”
Isaiah 54:17
The words of the devil are harmful. He is a liar, a thief and he is a bully. Don’t listen to him. He is the accuser of the brethren, not the accuser of the unbeliever - He is the accuser of those who love Jesus. Remember that old saying that we learned at school: “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me.” That is quite untrue, actually, it's the opposite way around. When you get beaten physically you recover but words can sometimes stay with you for the rest of your life unless Jesus helps you to get rid of them.
Remember the story of Elijah? Elijah was a very, very powerful man. I stand to be corrected but I think the Israeli army still regards Elijah as their patron saint. Elijah, on Mount Carmel, defeated and killed four hundred and fifty prophets of the devil - an unbelievable warrior of God.
And then we read in the next chapter that he is sitting in the desert, in deep depression, because one woman said: “I am going to get you.”
Can you believe that?
I can believe that. Often when we have had a successful event in the ministry the devil will come against us with accusations and lies. I remember like yesterday having a very wonderful campaign down in East London, in the eastern part of South Africa and as I was organizing the campaign my dad got very sick and died. My mom had died before him and I used to go up to him, in the little cottage behind our house that he stayed in, every afternoon and just sit there and talk with him.
He had a dog called Patches, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and he loved his dog. He was lonely but he gave his life to Christ and the Lord took him home.
Now, I was so busy organizing the campaign that I put the actual mourning part aside and then I went down to East London. (We have to mourn for our loved ones, we have to deal with our bereavement.)
We had an amazing campaign, I saw many people come to Christ. I saw a packed hall every single night. It was amazing but when I came home, instead of coming home victoriously as I drove into the farm, I will never forget it, and I looked up at my dad’s little cottage behind my house and sitting on the steps was his little Staffordshire Bull Terrier, waiting patiently for him to come home. And that really hit me, very, very hard. I want to tell you, for the next three months I had to really rest in the promises of God.
It was heavy spiritual warfare but we came through it. So today, it doesn’t matter what you are going through - Remember, the Lord is with you and He will see you through. Remember His promises! “But God…”
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you.
“Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies;
Make Your way straight before my face.” Psalm 5:8
Our Guide... He leads us. Jesus doesn’t direct us, He leads us. He leads you and me through the rough times and through the good times. He carries us through the hard times. Remember that old story about footsteps in the sand?
“Lord, over time the going got rough there were only one set of footprints. Where were you?”
He said, “I was carrying you, my son.”
One of my favourite hymns is:
Trust and Obey,
For there is no other way
To be happy in Jesus,
Than to trust and obey.
There are so many voices calling in these last days. People telling us to go this way or to go that way. They are telling us to stop, they are telling us to hurry and they are normally telling us from behind. But the Good Shepherd, He leads from the front. He knows where He is going because He has been there before. Our leader is not sitting in His ivory tower shouting out directions to us, no, no! He is walking directly in front of us because He is The Word of God. You see, the Bible is our compass:
“As for God, His way is perfect;
The word of the Lord is proven”
2 Samuel 22:3
It has been proved!
You know, the shortcut is very rarely the quickest way home - Isn’t that right? I have learned that the hard way so many times. I am very reluctant to follow a guide that is all full of theory, I want to follow a practical man. I want to follow a guide who has walked the talk and who bears the scars of many hard journeys. Jesus has scars on His Hands, His Feet and in His Side from many a hard journey.
He knows the way home - In fact, He has gone ahead for you and me to prepare a place for us in Heaven. Our guide says:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
John 14:6
Have a wonderful day today as you are directed by the Guide who will take you home.
God bless you.
“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” James 5:16
In other words, the Lord is saying to you and me this morning: “Just say sorry!” Not such an easy thing is it?
I remember a lovely old couple who mentored Jill and me years ago, they told us, when I asked them the secret of their successful marriage: Every Sunday afternoon after lunch, they would go and lie on the bed together and ask forgiveness for any words they had spoken - maybe in anger or with a bad attitude in the last week. In other words, clear the board.
You know, often people come to me and they say they want to get divorced. I say to them: “Why do you want to get divorced?”
They say: “Well, we are not compatible - We just don’t get on.”
I want to say to you, that is unacceptable... When you made that vow on your wedding day, you prayed a prayer in front of the Lord. When you talk things through then they get sorted out. If you don’t, that little attitude festers and becomes bigger and bigger and bigger. Eventually, you don’t know why there is a problem. You have forgotten the original issue that you had and things have gone right out of control.
Do you remember President Richard Nixon of the USA? Some say had the potential to be the greatest president of all time! But he refused to confess and he refused to say sorry - I am talking about the Watergate Crisis, where they had bugged the offices of the opposition. Then when he was confronted, he said he didn’t do it. And he did do it... He eventually swore on the Bible that he didn’t do it but his lies got him taken right out of office.
Today, say sorry to your loved one, just say sorry. You say: "It was is my fault.", it doesn’t matter. It takes two to tango and you can’t fight by yourself. Say sorry to your loved one, your husband, wife, child, mom or your dad. You will feel a weight fall off your shoulders and you will be able to go out and face the day.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you.
“Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.” Matthew 19:13
Little children are very, very important to our Lord Jesus Christ. Just these last few days I have been so blessed by the little people. I have had the privilege of dedicating a little two-and-a-half-month-old baby girl and what a beauty she is! Her name is Indiana Rose and she is a miracle baby.
We had that virtual Mighty Men Global Conference if you remember and her mom and dad took the Word of God that day literally and God blessed them with a baby nine months later. I had the privilege of holding that little one in my hands. Children are such a blessing.
Now, I want to tell you about my two youngest grandchildren: a little boy, six years old and a little girl of three... They came to stay with us. They call me 'Kulu' which is Zulu for grandfather and they call my wife 'Gogo' which is Zulu for granny.
Well, they are an absolute blessing but you know I say this tongue in cheek! The King James Version says, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
They came to me early this morning and said: "Kulu, we found your reading glasses.” Needless to say, they must have stood on them because my reading glasses are very, very expanded and they don’t fit so well...
My little grandson likes to fiddle with things and I am an early riser, as you know, 4 o clock is my time. But I got up and I was about to go and make tea for Jill because the alarm clock had gone off and I looked at the clock and it was 02:30 in the morning. So we had a very early start.
By 3 o’clock, my little granddaughter (her first time sleeping away from home) and my little grandson were nicely cuddled up with Gogo, drinking hot chocolate and tea in the bed. Folks, I want to tell you they are such a blessing and I want to say to you today: take time out to speak to the little ones. They need love so much. Oh by the way, at 7 o’clock this morning, my suffering will be over because they will be returned to their parents.
Have a wonderful day!
“You will save the humble people; But Your eyes are on the haughty, that You may bring them down.” 2 Samuel 22:28
God saves humble people but He brings down the proud and the arrogant. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the meaning of the word, Humility: It is having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s importance.
“Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.” Numbers 12:3
Another definition of humility is controlled strength. Moses was not a weak man by any means. He took a nation of people, a grumbling nation, through the wilderness for forty years - There is no weak man who could do that.
I heard a story once about the heavyweight boxing champion of the whole world, Muhammed Ali. He was flying in an aeroplane, in business class, and the plane got into a little bit of turbulence. There was a message from the pilot to say: “Can everybody please buckle up,” a petite little air hostess was walking down the aisle checking that everyone had buckled up. She came to Muhammed Ali and he wasn’t buckled up, she said, “Please Sir, can you buckle up.” He says, “Superman - he don’t buckle up!” And she looked at him with that little face of hers and said: “But Supermen don’t fly in aeroplanes - Please buckle up!”
But folks... the humblest Man who ever lived on earth was our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
“After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.”
John 13:5
Go out today and bless somebody by your humble appearance and love them - That’s all they want, they just want to be loved.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“Owe no one anything except to love one another…”
Romans 13:8
We don’t want to get ourselves into unnecessary debt. When you owe somebody something, you have got to adhere to what they demand.
Now, I want to say to you as a farmer, we borrow money every season to put the crop in. When the crop comes off, we pay our debt and whatever is left over we keep for ourselves. Of course, we have to tithe as well.
If we go to the Book of Matthew 22:21, this is what the Bible says:
“They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” And He said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
We have to pay our debts - If you cannot afford it, please don’t buy it.
That is why some people can’t sleep at night, they owe so much money. Do you know this old joke - The old cowboy who said “The quickest way to double your money is to take that $10 note out of your pocket, fold it in two and put it straight back in your pocket again.” Folks, this is a serious subject. I don’t know how many people I have had to help and pray for who have got themselves into terrible, unnecessary debt.
I remember speaking on a panel - A group of farmers had invited us to a farmers day. In the afternoon some prominent farmers were sitting at the panel and the rest of the farmers were asking them questions and they put me on that panel. By the way, I don’t like that at all, I don’t do very well on those panels. One farmer pointed out to me and he said: “Is it okay not to pay your income tax if you do not believe in the Government?”
Of course, I had to answer the question and everybody was looking around. I said, “Do you have some currency in your wallet?”
He said, “Yes.”
I said: "Can you bring me that ten rand note?” And he brought it up to the table.
I said, “Whose name is on the ten rand note?”
He said: “The South African Government.”
And then I said to him, just like Jesus said, “Therefore render unto Caesar what is Caesars and unto God what is God’s.”
I want to say you will sleep much better at night if you pay cash. Try to get out of debt as quick as you can - just owe one thing and that is to love your neighbour as yourself.
Have a lovely Sunday as you sit down with a cup of tea and speak to your wife, speak to your husband and say: “How are we going to cut our costs down so that we can live freely?”
God bless you and have a wonderful Sunday.
“Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.” Matthew 22:9
This is a parable that the Lord spoke about - Remember, the marriage was organized by the king for his son. He sent his servants into the highways and the by-ways to invite the 'whosoevers' because the honoured guests did not pitch up... They were too busy with their business.
Jesus is no respecter of men, that is why I love Him so much. I want to be honest with you, my favourite place to preach the gospel is not in a church. No, it is at a businessman’s breakfast, at a group of farmers, some sportsmen or maybe at a school presentation - that is where I enjoy telling people about the marriage feast.
You see, anyone who will answer the call, Jesus will never turn away. He will never turn away, not even the good or the bad. Romans 10:13 says:
“For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
I remember being asked to go down to Durban to a very prestigious hotel and speak to the Blue Bulls Rugby Team who had arrived from Pretoria the night before the Cup Final. I walked into that lounge and I felt like an absolute dwarf - Those men are huge! But you know, behind those big frames were some young schoolboys, they had just left school. They were incredible sportsmen... You could see how nervous they were.
The next day they were going to play in front of the nation and possibly be selected to play for the national side. They were very tense and I was able to tell them about the marriage feast and make the invitation. It touched my heart deeply to see those huge men bowing their heads and praying the sinners' prayer. A few years later I was asked to go down again, this time to the Shark Tank, to speak to the Sharks Team who were in the final that year. They were going to play the next afternoon on that huge field.
I walked into the change rooms and I could smell that smell of linament - Deep Heat. The young men were putting on their rugby boots, putting on their jerseys. They were about to have the last practice before the final the next day. I will never forget, speaking to them again about the marriage feast and making the invitation, those big strong men all bowed the knee. These boys got on their knees and I remember looking at the size of their backs. They were about a metre across, strong men bowing the knee and every one of them accepting the invitation.
The strange thing is that the Bulls lost their final and a few years later, the Sharks lost their final - The strange thing is I have never been invited back again, to pray for a team in the final ever since!
So go out today and tell people, invite them to the marriage feast.
God bless you.
“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20
You and I have been not been called to preach division but rather to bring reconciliation between man and Jesus. An ambassador is a diplomat sent by a state as a permanent representative in a foreign country - that is you and me.
We are not called to be troublemakers but rather peacemakers:
“Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.”
Matthew 5:9
We carry the message of Christ to the world, tenderly pleading with them to come back to Jesus. You and I are Christ’s representatives, telling people to become friends with God because He is already our Friend.
Now, we are not talking about peace-lovers - a peace-lover will compromise, they will do anything for peace. Okay?
Just think about it in the home... Okay just let them do it, keep them quiet. No, we are called to be peacemakers and peacemakers speak the truth in love. Always be prepared to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile. Jesus knows how hard that is. We are not here to chase folk away but rather to give them what we have found, what is that? That is love!
I remember being asked to speak in Jerusalem at a very prestigious conference but I was given a list before I left South Africa. On that list, I was told about certain things I was not allowed to speak about because there were many Orthodox Jews there and the Jews have been persecuted for so long, by people who say they are Christians... going way back in history. So I got up on that platform, and you know what Jesus means to me... My friend Tommy said to me: “Angus, I don’t know how you are going to do this because you can’t help but speak about the Name of Jesus”.
Well, I want to tell you the love of Christ overwhelmed me. I saw these beautiful people sitting there and I thought, “Lord, you died for these people.” And I started to share my heart and told them how Jesus saved a wretch like me. Then right at the end of the meeting, we prayed for them and saw an incredible response. I remember walking down from the platform and a huge red-haired Jewish man walked up to me. Apparently, he was a former mayor of Jerusalem - I didn’t know if he was going to punch me or what he was going to do. He put his arms around me and he squeezed me and he loved me and he said: “Tonight touched me deeply.”
I want to tell you we have an obligation to tell this dying world about a Living Saviour.
Have a good day today. Go out and bless somebody - be God’s ambassador.
“And Joab (he was King David’s general) was told, “Behold the king (that is David) is weeping and mourning for Absalom. So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people. For the people heard it and said that day, “The king is grieved for his son.” 2 Samuel:19:1-2
I want to say to you there is no future in the past, you and I have to move along.
Remember, Absalom was killed by David’s army who were protecting him because Absalom was trying to kill his father. When David got the news that his son had been killed he was deeply grieved, he shouted out: "My son, my son, Absalom." The very people who had protected David went going into mourning as well, it took the general, Joab, to come to the king and say: “How long is this going to go on? The very people who have protected you, you are ignoring and the one who tried to kill you, you are mourning for... Then, of course, David realized his mistake.
You see, you can’t plough a straight line if you keep looking back. Ask anybody who knows how to plough a field. Luke 9:62 is one of my favourite verses: “But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."
Now, I don’t know what it is that is bothering you this morning. It might be a family problem - Maybe there is somebody in your family who is causing you heartache and it is consuming you and your family is suffering because of it. Maybe it is a business problem - Maybe you have a business partner who is giving you so much trouble, it is upsetting you. You can’t see straight and it is affecting everybody. It has got to stop today. Remember, there is no future in the past, you can’t keep looking back.
Maybe you have got a health challenge in your own life. Well you know, sometimes the best thing to do is to put it aside. Kathryn Kuhlman was a woman who was used by God tremendously in the area of faith healing. She would often say: "If you are feeling sick, go and find somebody else who is sicker than you and pray for them and you will feel a lot better." That is taking your eyes off yourself. You see, this life is not just about ourselves. We owe it to so many others, our family, loved ones - even the nation. David’s mourning was affecting the whole nation of Israel.
Now today, let us dust off all that pain and suffering. Let's go and have a good shower. Let's get cleaned up, get dressed up and look ahead - God has got a wonderful plan for the rest of your life!
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Matthew 7:21
Remember, we don’t judge a book by its cover, Jesus says in Matthew 21:28:
“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterwards he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first.”
You know, our book publishers told us a story once about how they did a study, they carried out this study to show the importance of the presentation of a book cover. They took a beautiful book, bright and shiny and colourful and put it on the shelf. They watched how many of their customers came into the shop, looked at the book, took it off the shelf, went straight to the counter to pay for it. Then the assistant said to them, “Please open the book”, when they opened the book there was nothing inside except blank white pages. Remember, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Not all nice looking puddings taste nice do they, children?
Don’t tell people that you love them and then don’t show them that you love them, rather show them by the way you love Jesus.
In the 90’s we were doing a campaign in East London at the Orion Theatre right on the beachfront. It was a beautiful evening, the waves of the sea wash right up, underneath that magnificent stadium. There was a great expectancy and I got up and started preaching. There was a man sitting right in the back - He had a beer bottle in his hand. He had his cowboy boots on the seat in front of him, with his cowboy hat on and he started heckling me. He said, “Where does it say that in the Bible?”, making a big noise and trying to get everybody to look at him.
I was trained as a young preacher to never entertain or engage a heckler. You ignore them - You carry on preaching the sermon. We had a nice team of trained young men who just quietly came up and gently and firmly, took the heckler out of the stadium. After the meeting as we were walking out, this same man who was very drunk was sitting in the corner. He said to me: "Hey preacher, I want to talk to you!"
I said to him firmly and in love: "I don’t speak to people about my Jesus when they are drunk."
We left but you know, about two weeks later we had a phone call from East London. The organisers of that event said: “We just wanted to tell you that two weeks ago that man gave his life to Jesus Christ.”
You never judge a book by its cover.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you.
And a very good morning to you!
It is Tuesday morning, 20th April 2021 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day!
“I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.”
Psalm 121:1-2
Just the other day my dear wife Jill and I drove up to the mighty majestic Drakensberg Mountains, about an hour and a half drive, west from our farm, Shalom. There is so much uncertainty in the world today with COVID-19 and the possibility of a third wave:
Do we take the vaccination or don’t we?
The wearing of masks, being seated a metre apart... When will the travel ban be lifted and when will we be able to see our loved ones again? Most unsettling!
As we drove closer to the mountains they became larger and much more imposing, truly majestic. Solid, like a mighty fortress, like nothing has changed for years and years. It brought such a sense of security upon our souls and reminded us once again, that our beloved Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. Hebrews 13:8.
I remember, like yesterday, when I was a younger man I would drive up to those mountains and I would fast, pray and seek direction from the Lord. I remember very clearly one day walking up the footpaths of those enormous mountains - I was wearing a pair of shorts, running shoes, a vest and a small rucksack with my Bible and my bottle of water... It was extremely hot. Then in the afternoon, like normally happens in summer, a huge thunderstorm broke. Lightning, thunder and torrents of rain bucketing down while I was bone dry, sitting on a rock and watching this incredible storm pass beneath me. After an hour or so the sun came out, the clouds parted and I walked back down to the campsite. People were looking - They were in their raincoats wondering where I had come from. I had been with the Lord. I had been in the mountain, I had been in the cleft of the rock.
That is where you and I need to start spending more time, not necessarily on the physical mountain but the spiritual mountain, spending time every morning waiting on the Lord. He will bring a sense of security and sanity to you... These things will pass away, just like that thunderstorm but Jesus Christ remains firm and steadfast.
Have a wonderful day. God bless you and goodbye.
Out of the eater came something to eat,
And out of the strong came something sweet.
Judges 14:14
That was a riddle that Samson put forward to the men and said: "if you can explain this riddle within seven days then I will give you thirty linen garments."
What is a riddle?
Well, a riddle according to the Oxford Dictionary is a question or statement, phrased so as to require ingenuity in ascertaining its answer or meaning - and that is exactly what Samson posed.
Now what had happened was Samson was walking down the road and a young lion came out to attack him. He killed the lion with his bare hands. Remember, Samson was the strongest man who had ever lived. He came back a while later and a swarm of bees had gone into the carcass of the lion. He put his hand in there and took out some sweet honey and he was eating the honey on the way home. So that was the riddle - Out of strength comes forth sweetness.
Now I want to tell you a most incredible miracle that has taken place. Do you remember the wonderful, incredible prayer meeting that took place in 2017? It took six weeks to organize and over a million people came to Bloemfontein, South Africa to pray for the nation. Remember the scripture, Isaiah 66:8:
“Can a nation be born in a day?”
Well, we saw it with our own eyes didn’t we - That was the 22nd of April, (2017) in literally three days. Folks I want to tell you what has happened...
In 2 Corinthians 6:9, Paul said: “As dying, and behold we live”.
That sounds like a riddle, doesn’t it? We are dying but we live, what does that mean? I want to tell you - on that hill just outside Bloemfontein, where that incredible meeting took place, three gigantic crosses were put up by men, who choose to remain anonymous because their reward is still coming in Heaven. Inside one of those crosses, bees have made a hive. Beekeepers have taken no less than 16 kilos of honey out of the cross.
Remember, out of death comes life, out of pain comes forth, sweetness.
I just want to say thank you Lord Jesus for dying for a sinner like me and sinners like us.
Remember, He loves you. And as you would look at the cross, hope, love, life and sweetness will emanate.
God bless you and goodbye.
Cast your cares upon me because I care for you.
1 Peter 5:7
We want to speak about affliction, poverty and about broken relationships - You and I cannot carry them on our own. Jesus knows... He knows the pain and the suffering that we are going through at the moment, He has been there Himself. So how do you and I deal with such painful and delicate matters, especially broken relationships?
"Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." Psalm 37:5
Have we forgotten the main reason that Jesus came down from Heaven to earth? It was for the very purpose of helping you and I carry our burdens.
You know, without a doubt, I believe that King David’s greatest burden and challenge in his life was when his very own son, whom he loved so much, betrayed him - Absalom... and tried to murder him. David had to flee in the middle of the night, barefoot through the Kidron valley. You know that is where the sewerage went from Jerusalem in those days. He had to flee for his very life but God was with David, his anointed one, and God saved him.
I remember a story that has stuck in my mind for many, many years: I was preaching in a church in a nearby city and we had prayed for the salvation of souls. We then prayed for people who were sick and an old couple came to the front, I will never forget it.
The dearest old couple, he had his tweed jacket on, a red-faced man with his deer-stalker on. His old wife had those round glasses, her rosy cheeks shining and they were holding each other’s hands but they looked so sad.
And when they came to the front, I said, “What can I pray for?”
And they said, “Angus, there is somebody on our farm who has betrayed us and is stealing our money.” I said, “Well, who could it be?” And then the tears welled up in their eyes, they said: "Our very own son is stealing from us..." and I had to pray for them for strength that night.
God redeems His own always. God will never betray His own. He will never forget us. In Isaiah 49:15, the Lord says:
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.”
The Lord will never forget you!
So today, cast your cares upon Him and He will bring it to pass.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
“Go into the village opposite you, and as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here.” Luke 19:30
Jesus is the absolute miracle worker. We think of Him often don’t we? Walking on top of the water. No one has ever done that before and ever will do it because He is God. We think of Him turning water into wine. We think of Him raising a dead man, who had been dead for four days, from the tomb.
But there are many other miracles that our precious Lord performs daily that we do not even take note of - One of them was taking the property of a stranger, a colt, a young stallion, a donkey that had never been ridden before, then riding that donkey through a huge cheering rowdy crowd and the young animal being perfectly calm and well-behaved. You know, on Shalom Farm we train young horses and I want to tell you it is not an easy thing to do - that is for sure. They can be extremely 'flighty' and extremely nervous, especially when it comes to putting on a saddle... Yet the disciples threw their clothes onto the back of the colt and set Jesus on it. (Luke 19:35)
Do you know that every donkey has a cross on its back - That’s right! From the neck, right down to the tail and across the shoulders, have a look next time. Did you know that a donkey can be quite obstinate and otherwise? Quite stubborn in fact, refusing to change - yet Jesus rode that donkey. Oh folks, what a Lord we serve!
I remember many years ago an old gentleman by the name of Oom Johannes Nel - He used to come out to the farm and would get into the truck with me and we would go down into the villages. We would pick up seasonal workers to come and work on the farm. Often we would be driving down the road and there would be donkeys standing on the side of the road. Every time we passed the donkeys Oom Johannes would tip his hat, taking his hat off as a sign of respect for the little animal, I would ask him: “Oom Johannes, why do you do that?” And tears would fill his eyes and he would answer, “Because he carried the Lord Jesus on his back.”
Let's go out and do the same today,
God bless you, have a wonderful day.
“Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him
For the help of His countenance”.
Psalm 42:5
We need to praise God - We need to praise Him unconditionally!
We need to praise Him, not just because things are going right or even if things are going wrong - we just need to praise Him.
Why? Because He is worthy of our praise.
"But Angus, how can I praise Him when I am suffering from illness or I have lost a loved one, my business has gone bankrupt or I am without work.?" You don’t praise Him because of the tragedy, you praise Him through it because He is able to bring you and me out of it... He will bring us out of it.
Praise Him - Praise is to express respect and gratitude towards the Lord Jesus. You see, there is power in praise. Remember what you say is what you get.
Remember Job, that old farmer? They say the book of Job is the oldest in the world. His wife said to him when he was going through his hard times: "Why don’t you curse God and die?" (Job 2:9)
But Job said to her: "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." (Job 13:15)
But folks, look how it all ended up at the end:
“Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, (how would you like to own that?) six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys." Job 42:12
God also blessed him... He had seven sons and three daughters at the end of his life and by the way, Job lived to one hundred and forty years.
So we need to praise the Lord.
Often in the morning early I take my bicycle, sometimes even before the sun comes up (I have a light on my bike) and I ride down the road and I praise the Lord at the top of my voice. I think some of the locals must think I have lost my mind but I praise Him because I love Him and because He is praise-worthy! Don’t be like that old farmer, when the sun comes up in the morning, he says: "Here comes the drought." and when the clouds come up at midday, he says: "Here come the floods." He is never, ever happy... but praise the Lord.
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
You know, I just think of David Livingstone, one of my heroes and probably the most famous missionary ever to set foot in Africa... He had walked from Cape Town, right into Central Africa and then he decided to walk west towards Luanda, to the Atlantic Ocean and catch a ship back to Britain - But you know, because of hardship, fever, the bush and the jungle, he missed his ship. He was devastated. He had been walking for months but only to find out later that that ship just outside Madeira and all were lost.
You see, we don’t know what God is doing in our lives but we know one thing - we need to praise Him unconditionally.
Have a lovely day - Praise the Lord!
“To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
“For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth.”
John 18:37
Jesus told Pontius Pilate that He came into this world for a purpose. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary - The definition of the word Purpose: the reason for which something is done or for which something exists.
If you are not sure of your purpose here on earth today you need to ask our Heavenly Father. You and I were not born into this world by accident - There was a purpose for being born. We want to ask the Lord to make it very clear and show us what our purpose is. He does not want your life or mine to remain a mystery, God does not want us to walk through this life aimlessly.
What makes you get up in the morning?
You know what they say - if you aim at nothing, you are sure to hit it.
When you lead the life story of a successful person they normally only tell you about the exciting times in their lives and their victories. They don’t bore you with the years and years when nothing happened, years spent in mundane daily chores.
Remember, Moses spent forty years in the desert looking after his father-in-law’s sheep before his mission was called. Jesus Himself spent thirty years as a carpenter before His incredible purpose on this earth was highlighted.
I want to tell you about a lady - Her name was Amy Carmichael. She went to India as a young Irish lass to work amongst the poorest of the poor. She never had a holiday in fifty-six years and never went back to Ireland. She had a terrible fall when she was middle-aged and was bedridden for the last twenty years of her life. She must have often lain there and said, "Lord, what is my purpose?"
But you know, she wrote forty books during those twenty years in confinement and those books and her life have inspired millions of people around the world.
Ask the Lord Jesus today to show you what your purpose is, for Him, here on earth and then live your life to the full.
Have a wonderful day and God bless you!