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.