Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 29th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Genesis 32:25:

”…,He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him., ”

Then we go down to verse 31

”…,the sun rose on him, (he had been wrestling with God all night) and he limped on his hip. Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip in the muscle that shrank.”

A touch from God, a touch from The Angel. Then we go to the 2 Corinthians 12:9. Jesus says:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Maybe today as I am talking to you, you are saying, “Lord, where are You? Lord, You promised to heal me and I have not yet been healed.” Folks, I want to say to you that I have prayed for many people, I have seen many signs, wonders and miracles - many, but there are some people who God touches and He leaves them in that situation for a reason. I want to tell you that Jacob was a changed man from the day he started to walk with a limp. Always follow a man who walks with a limp. “Why?” you ask. Because that man understands the principles of life, that man has been through many trials. He is slow to speak, he is quick to listen, he is a man full of counsel, experience and wisdom. Remember Saul of Tarsus was very arrogant. He was on his way to kill the Christians in Damascus and the Lord knocked him off his horse and when he recovered he was stone blind. He never, I don’t believe, I might be wrong, he never fully regained his sight. You will see in many of the letters, he said, “Look, you see, I sign this letter with my own hand, in big hand writing.” He talks about eyes but I want to tell you that spiritually, Paul became a giant in the faith. 

Do not be afraid when you get a touch from God because sometimes it is there to strengthen us spiritually. Trust the Lord for total healing, of course, but what is total healing? For me, total healing is to know Him more. The same Paul said, “Oh that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.”

Today, let us not be afraid of the angel that will touch us because it will only bring us closer to God. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 28th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start off in the Book of Psalms 1:3:

“He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.”

What a beautiful promise for the children of God from our Heavenly Father! Then just to confirm that we go to the Book of Ezekiel 47:12:

“They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”

What a beautiful promise from Jesus Christ for you, my dear friend and for me, today. When I think of rivers of living water, I think of the mighty Victoria Falls, one of the wonders of the world. Maybe you have never had the privilege of being there. I want to describe something to you. I want you to think of Dr David Livingstone, the missionary, who was walking through the bush for days if not weeks - flat, dry land, no mountains, no valleys, just flat, with a lot of thorn bush. He must have woken up one day and as he was walking he saw a column of smoke going right out of the ground and into the sky. He must have seen it many, many miles away. As he got closer, he realised it wasn’t smoke, it was mist. It was coming from a river, the mighty Zambezi River, and then he saw the wonder of God, the Victoria Falls. 

There is a depression in the ground. There is no mountain, there are no waterfalls, the river is running and it disappears into a crevice. The Africans call it Most-Oa-Tunya, The Smoke That Thunders. The ground literally trembles under your feet in the rainy season. You can hardly see anything with this beautiful water. There is a forest there, a green lush forest that looks like a tropical jungle, walking out of those dry wastelands. Now I want to say to you today, that is what Jesus is to you and I, but you need to be thirsty. He was very thirsty, I am thirsty and I am sure you are. That water brings healing to your body. It is a soothing feeling in your very innermost being. It is food, it is life, it’s cleansing, it’s restoring and it is for every season of life. 

Today, put your feet in the beautiful, cool water and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will soothe you, refresh you and take away all your fears and all your doubts. 

In Jesus’ name, amen. 

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 27th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Joshua 24:15:

“…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,…”

Then we go straight to the New Testament, to the Gospel of Matthew 12:30. Jesus says:

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

I read a beautiful comment made by Mark Hopkins, he said: “Choice and service, these were demanded of the Israelites, these are demanded of you and I. These only, choice and service. In these, are the whole of life.” There is something very powerful about a public declaration, isn’t there, a public declaration of your faith and service towards God?

I remember my oldest son standing up the day he got married at the reception, and telling all the guests that, “Today, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” I have never forgotten that. It was many, many years ago. It cements things, doesn’t it? You know the Fiji Rugby Sevens Team, a beautiful sport to watch, these huge men from Fiji are so often the world champions but I know why, I really do! It’s because they are not ashamed to thank the Lord Jesus for their victory. Often I sit and I chuckle when I see the interviewer stretching out his arm with the mic to give it to the Fijian players, these huge men with the sweat pouring down their faces, some of them bleeding, cut by the match, they take hold of the mic - big mistake for the interviewer! And then they say, “We want to give God the glory! We want to thank Jesus for giving us the strength to be able to play rugby for Him.” And the interviewer is trying to rescue the mic back but he can’t get it back. And then they greet all their families back in Fiji and then they start to sing hymns, that’s right, they are not ashamed of the Gospel.  And I believe that is where the power is. 

Why don’t you and I do it today? Why don’t we tell the first person we meet today what Jesus Christ means to us.

God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 26th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start off in 1 Kings 19:5:

“Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 

That was Elijah in the desert and the Lord fed him through the angel. Then we go straight to the Book of Mark 1:13:

“And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.”  

Oh my dear friend, nothing has changed, Jesus still wants to do it for you today! I don’t know what situation you are in. Still, He is telling you loudly and clearly, “If I can do it for my prophet, Elijah, feed him in the desert by using an angel, and if I can look after My Son, My beloved Son, for forty days and nights in the most extreme and hostile environment”. He can do it for you and for me!

I really do believe in angels. I want to tell you that Jesus is God made flesh, but He was very much man, and the experts will tell you, after three days the human body closes down if it doesn’t get water, and then forty days without food, any sort of food, is basically physically impossible. So how did it happen? Yes, our beloved Father sent His angels to minister to His Son in the desert to keep His Son from being attacked by wild beasts and by the lies of the devil. He never abandons His children, no matter how desperate the situation might be. I want to say to you today, I don’t know where you are at, but I want to tell you if you allow the angels to minister to you, they will take you on their wings through your situation and bring you out the other side. 

George Müller is one of my heroes. Now, George Müller started the children’s homes in Bristol, England a couple of hundred years ago and what a man of faith! He had taken in a whole lot of street urchins, they were in this big boarding house and they had had their last meal that night. The next morning there was nothing to eat and yet when George Müller got up, he said to the children, “Lay the table...” They thought the old man had lost his marbles! “…and let us say our grace, “For what we are about to receive,…” There was a knock at the door. He said to one of the children, “Go and see who is at the door.” There was a dairyman who had been passing by with his wagon, to take his milk, cheese, butter, cream to town to sell and the trailer had broken down. He said, “Can you use this food?” They said, “Thank you”, closed the door and when they had sat down, there was another knock on the door. He opened the door and there was a baker with a red face, very embarrassed and he said, ”The Lord woke me up in the middle of the night and asked me to bake bread for you.”

Folks, I want to tell you, those were angels! Today, trust God for your angel.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 25th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in Job 38:1-4:

"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

"Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"

We are not to question God, folks. We must remember who we are and we must remember who He is! I listened to the most beautiful song last night, sung by a young lady named Phillipa Hanna. It's called: 'You're still God', the words go something like this:

"When all foundations have been shaken
When I'm left standing in the dark
And all I feel is my heart breaking
You still reign, and You're still God

And when it feels all hope has faded
The heavy questions hit so hard
And though my soul may feel forsaken
You still reign and You're still God

Though I can't see what's before me
I know that I can trust Your heart
And this one truth will be my story
You still reign, and You're still God."

You know folks, I remember, like yesterday, my old dad came to stay with us for the last few years of his life because my mother passed away before him. He lived in the little cottage behind us, and then he took sick, and eventually, we had to put him in a home for the frail because my wife couldn't take care of him. He's just such a big man that she couldn't turn him over and handle him. I used to visit him every single day, sometimes twice a day. I'd go to town to get spares for fixing my tractors, and I'd pop in and see Dad. I was so close to him.

He became more than a father to me; in those senior years, he became my friend. One day, I came in, and he didn't look so good, and I said: "Dad, I'll see you this afternoon." I came back to the farm; in those days, we had the old party line - two shorts, one long, that was your call sign or one long and two shorts. Now, the young people with cell phones won't understand that. You had to pick that receiver up and crank that thing to get the operator to answer. We were all connected together.

When I returned to the farm, I walked up to my farm office. I had a telephone there and one down at our little house. As I walked in the door, I heard the phone ringing. I picked it up and didn't say anything; my wife Jill picked up the phone at the house. It was the old age home saying: "We just wanted to tell you, please give a message to Angus; his old dad has passed away and gone home to be with Jesus."

When all your foundations have been shaken, remember He is still God. You know, Job could say, right at the end in Job 13:15:

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."

Maybe you are there today. Lean hard on the Lord and He will take care of you because He knows all things and He has a plan for your life.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 24th of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Book of James 1:22:

”But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” 

Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 27:58:

”This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.”

Yes, we are talking of Joseph of Arimathea, a very rich man. So often, rich people get condemned because they are rich, and I want to tell you something now, some of the most generous people I’ve ever met in my life are rich people, and they are rich because they are hard-working. It’s not a sin to be rich folks. The sin comes when we love money more than God. It’s the love of money that is the sin, not money itself.

Ephesians 2:8 says we have been saved by grace, through faith, and even that, not of ourselves, for it was a gift from God. I know better than anybody that I am saved by grace, there’s nothing good about me that will get me to Heaven. However, we must remember, that once we’ve had an encounter with the Lord, there must be fruit available. Joseph risked his very life asking for the body of Christ from Pontius Pilate. He exposed himself - he could have been killed for that but Pontius Pilate gave him the body of our beloved darling, Jesus Christ. He took that precious body, washed it clean, wrapped it in clean linen cloth and laid it in his own tomb, which he had dug out of solid rock. Remember, faith is a doing word. It’s not just talking, my dear friend. 

I remember seeing a cartoon once in a Christian magazine which made me cry. There was a picture of a very big, overfed minister with a dog collar on, and he had a big black Bible in his hand, and with his other hand, he was pointing down at a small little child who was suffering from malnutrition. He also had a big stomach but it was because he was hungry. He was holding a little begging bowl in his hand and the caption under the cartoon said, ”Tell me preacher, will there be food in heaven?”

Today, go out and bless somebody who cannot repay you and you will be blessing God.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 23rd of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Jeremiah 18:4:

”And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.”

Then we go to the Gospel of John 12:24:

”Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”

"Heaven will be filled with broken vessels, broken upon the wheel of earth." Campbell Morgan said it, and I think it is so true. Yes, we will be made into new creatures. There is no doubt about it but it’s men and women who have been broken on the wheel of earth, the potter’s wheel of earth, that will fill heaven. You see, it’s in dying that we live. Even as our beloved Christ was broken on the cross, so too we must be prepared to be broken. Maybe this morning you feel that your dream, your vision, has failed miserably. It’s all been a waste of time. Oh no, oh no! Take heart Christians, many of those who have gone before us must have felt exactly the same way. Get up now, dust yourself off and get back into the fight.

I want to give you an example, Jim Elliot, I think he must have been 29 years old, he must have felt the same way when he was being murdered in the Amazon jungle. What a waste - but I want to tell you folks that through his death and through his friend's death, thousands of young men and women have gone to the mission fields to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and are still going even today. That same young man said, ”It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Today, you and I, let us keep on. You might feel broken, you might feel that you have disappointed others. Get up and keep going because heaven is filled with people who have been broken on the wheel of earth.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 22nd of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the last Book of the Bible, Revelation 22:12-13. This is Jesus speaking:

”And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”

Then we go right down to verse 20 and the Lord says:

“Surely I am coming quickly.”

Oh, how many of us can say, “Lord, today would not be soon enough.” Jesus is our measuring staff. When we look at the chaos in the world today, we just see how things are disintegrating and we cry out, “Lord come, please come Lord. End these double standards, the dishonesty. Shatter the long nights of sin and of sorrow, of tears, of pain, despair and death.” We are to look up folks. Many of us are looking too low. We must look up because Jesus is coming back very soon. He who aims beneath the stars, aims too low. We must aim above the stars - we as followers of Christ. We’re not going back to Egypt. We’ve got no reverse gear in our motor cars. We are refusing to lower our standards for anyone. We are going to remain fearless and expectant for our soon-coming King.  

One of the heroes of the early fathers of the church was Polycarp. Polycarp was a martyr, he died for his faith. He was the Bishop of Smyrna. He was 86 years old when they arrested him. The Roman soldiers that arrested him said, ”Listen old man, we don’t want to kill you. Just renounce the name of Jesus, follow after the gods of Rome and we’ll let you die in peace.” He said, ”No ways.” And so they took him to the arena and the crowds were waiting in anticipation to see a child of God be burned at the stake.

The Proconsul, the representative of Caesar, said to him, ”Do you know who I am? I have the power of life and death over you. Do you  know who I am?” And the old gentleman said, ”Oh yes, I know who you are. You are the son of the devil!” Folks, we need some men like that who fear nothing but sin and desire no one but God.

Today, lift up your eyes. Get rid of all that sin in your life, and get ready for the coming of the King.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 21st of November, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We go to the Book of Ephesians 4:15:

”…speaking the truth in love,…”

It is the truth that will set you and me free today. The truth cancels out all our mistakes. In other words, just own up and apologise and say sorry, and it sets us free. But as long as you and I continue to tell untruths - yes, that little white lie…there is no such thing as a white lie, we are held prisoner by the devil himself. You see, one lie leads to another lie. As they say, when you tell lies, you have to have a good memory because you have to remember what you said the last time, and slowly but surely, what happens is we get trapped in a spider’s web until we cannot escape. We need today to speak the truth in love. 

That is what happened to Richard Nixon. He had the potential to be America’s greatest president. I mean, he made peace with China, he was a great diplomat. He had incredible natural abilities, but he told an untruth, he told a lie and then to cover that lie, he told another lie, then eventually he put his hand on the Bible and swore over the Bible that he had not made the mistake, and he was found out and it toppled him completely until he had to leave office. 

Tell the truth today in love and Jesus Christ will back us up all the way and we will walk free because the devil will have no more hold over us. Folks, today Jesus Christ is saying to you and to me, ”Let us walk in honesty and the purity of God’s word.” And if we do make a mistake, and by the way, every single one of us have  - Peter made three mistakes, he denied the Lord three times, he didn’t know him when he knew him very well, but he repented, he said sorry and what did Jesus do? He forgave him and used him to head up the church.

Today, let’s walk in truth and let’s be free. The Lord shall set you free - you shall be free indeed.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 20th of November, 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Proverbs 10:19. The word of God says:

“In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.”

Then we go to Matthew 27:14:

“But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.” 

Now the Message translation says: “Do you hear that long list of accusations? Aren’t you going to say something?” Jesus kept silence—not a word from His mouth. The governor was impressed, really impressed.”  

We need to watch what we say. We need to make sure that our words are sweet because one day we might have to eat them! The longer you speak, the more you dilute your point. Speak less, listen more and we will become mighty wiser people. Mom, those children don’t listen to you maybe because you talk too much all the time. Let your words be shorter and to the point. 

I love the story of Sir Winston Churchill, the famous British Prime Minister, the “bulldog of Britain”. He went to Harrow School in 1941, in the middle of the Second World War and all the students were there, probably hanging on each word he was going to say. One of the greatest speakers ever to live, got up, walked up to the podium, looked at those young men and said, “Never, never, never give up!” And then he went and sat down. That was it. Do you know that that speech is the shortest speech he ever made, yet everybody knows it. 

Today, be like Jesus. Let your words be few but let each one count. 
Jesus bless you and goodbye.