I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 30th of July, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Luke 14:3:

“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

That is what the Pharisees were asking Jesus. Jesus answered in verse 5. He says:

“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?” 

We are talking this morning about priorities. What is important in your life? Going to church on the Sabbath? Absolutely! You can ask any member of my family and they will tell you, if it is at all possible, that is where I will be on Sunday morning, but what Jesus is saying, “What about the ox or the donkey who has fallen into a hole on a Sunday?" Do you leave it there until after the church service then pull it out and probably find that it is dead? No, you have to stop. You have to take your jacket off, you have to roll up your sleeves, you have to get covered in mud, and pull that animal out to save its life, then go to church. Then, of course, the Pharisees in the church criticise you because they will say, “Look how dirty that person is coming into the house of the Lord.”

I want to say something to you, my dear friend. Many times it has happened to me. As we are driving out of the gate of the farm, what do we see? All the cows are on the district road. Now that is a huge danger for traffic. What do we do? We stop. We have to push all the cattle back into the paddock, close the gate and go to church. When we get to church, we are late, and the Pharisees are saying, ”Look at these people! They don’t even respect the house of God.” We need to be very careful that we don’t point fingers until we know the full story. 

I am an evangelist, you know that - my busiest day is on a Sunday, that’s right, when everybody is in church. So when do I go to church? I go to church every single day of the week. Every morning, I am a 4 o’clock man, you know that. That’s when I spend time in the presence of God, just like my Saviour did, but when the ox is in the hole, pull him out first. It might be somebody who just absolutely needs you. You say “But I can’t be late for church.” What is more important? To help who is destitute and stranded on the road, or to make sure that you get to church and you are all nice and tidy and clean? Let’s get our priorities in order.

God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.