I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 10th of November, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

The Book of Acts 7:51 - this is Steven speaking just before they stoned him to death.

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.” 

I want to speak about being stiff-necked. Folks, we must be so careful about that one. To be stiff-necked is to be stubborn, to be rebellious, to be disobedient, refusing to listen, not obeying the word of God. To be rigid and obstinate sounds terrible, doesn’t it? That’s what a stiff-necked person is like.

I’ve got a son on the farm here and he specialises in training horses that are a trouble to their riders. They send the horse here for three or four months, and he schools them correctly, and one of the hardest things that he has to deal with is a horse that has got a stiff neck. The horse refuses to bend its neck. Now he has to teach it to bend its neck and basically to humble itself so that it can respond to instructions. I don’t know how much you know about a horse, but I want to tell you that if a horse has got a stiff neck and it starts to gallop away with you, and it gets the bit in its mouth, it is totally out of control. It cannot see where it is going because its head is in the air. It is a danger to itself and to the rider, and by the way to any passersby, any pedestrians. That horse will run over the edge of a cliff, no problem, run through a barbed wire fence. I’ve seen it myself because it refuses to listen. I know people like that, people who have hurt themselves terribly because they refuse to say sorry, they refuse to change, and they refuse to listen. The children of Israel were like that. Our Father God in heaven spoke about them as being a stiff-necked people and it cost them severely.

Today, you and I, let us start to become soft, pliable, teachable, people who are pleasant to be around. Those are the people who have lots of friends. Don’t be standing in the corner like that stiff-necked horse that refuses to change. By the way, if it doesn’t change, it has to be put down because it becomes a danger to all those around it. Do not be like that. Today, be a child of God and then God will use you. 

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, 
Goodbye.