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.