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.