I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 8th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Matthew 12:30:

”He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”

Very strong words spoken by the Master Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we go straight to James 4:4, out of the Message translation:

”You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way.”

Very strong scripture. Folks, we cannot serve two masters. Either we are for Him, or we are against Him. We cannot be undecided.

The Lord says in Revelation 3:16,

”I’d rather you were ice cold than lukewarm, but if you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth.”

I really believe that we need to stand up and be counted. We cannot be undecided. Do you know why? Because if we are hunting with the hounds one day, and running with the hares another day, then we’ll be nowhere at all!

I read a little illustration by a man of God, which I thought was very special. What he is saying is like the ivy creeper and the oak tree. “The ivy may give the oak a grand and beautiful appearance but all the while it is feeding on the vitals of the oak tree.” He says, ”Are we compromising with the enemies of God? Are we being embraced by the world, it’s honours, it’s pleasures, it’s applause? And in the meantime, this may add to us in the world’s estimation, but our strength becomes lost.” 

We have to make up our mind, are we going to be for God or not? You see, if everybody is your friend, then you don’t have any friends. We’ve got to be salty. We’ve got to call sin by it’s name and we’ve got to walk according to the word of God if we are going to be effective for Him and not swallowed up eventually by the system of the world.

Today, the Lord wants to encourage you and I to stand tall so that people know who we are.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.