Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 19th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We go to 1 Peter 3:8: 

"Finally," - I like that word, "Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; …"

Folks, I want to say to you, thats it, that's finally what Jesus is saying - a friendly smile, a wave. Do you know what that does for somebody? In my younger days I used to do a few marathon runs and I want to tell you I have seen love in those marathons like I haven't seen anywhere else and unfortunately, sometimes I don't even see it in a church, and especially towards the end of the race when everyone has got blisters, they are tired, they are exhausted, and then to see somebody smile at you, pass you a piece of orange just to help you along your way, give you a bottle of water because they see you are thirsty. I want to say, that love is unprecedented.  

You know, when we watch the mighty Comrades Marathon which takes place in South Africa every year, we are looking at almost 90 kms, and it is hot and mountainous. The thing that really brings me to tears when I watch it every year, and I say this with the greatest respect, is not the man who comes through with the gold medal. No look, we admire him and we honour him. It's right before the final gun is going to go off to close the gate; anybody else coming through after that is disqualified, and to see people, arms around each other and running together, sometimes crawling, that love is amazing and I believe it touches the heart of Jesus.  

Now we are not all Comrades runners but you know something, we can all say to somebody when they are trying to get into a queue, stand back a bit and let them go ahead of you, and somebody screaming past you, instead of shaking your fist, have a bit of compassion, you never know, it might be an emergency - maybe they have to get a loved one to hospital. Most of all, let's be Jesus to the people in the street. The love of God will bring them to Christ quicker than any Bible-punching or verse-quoting.

Let's smile for Jesus today,
Have a wonderful day.
God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 18th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We kick off with Isaiah 31:1:

“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
And rely on horses,
Who trust in chariots because they are many,
And in horsemen because they are very strong,
But who do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
Nor seek the Lord!”

Then we go to that very well-known scripture in Psalm 20:7: 

’Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.`’

I want to tell you about the Wall Street crash in 1929. The stock market in America, which affected the whole world, crashed, and they lost around 14 billion dollars in one single day! Now, remember, we are talking about a hundred years ago, so I don’t know what it would be worth today, in a single day, and that was the start of the Great Depression that went right around the world. They say that there were men who literally jumped out of their building windows and committed suicide - an absolute crash which has been unprecedented - people putting in their faith, their trust, their blood, sweat and tears in the stock market, in their investments - it crashed in one day!

Look what the Lord says in Isaiah 55:1, He says:

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.”

I want to say to you today, yes, we have got to work hard, we have got to be clever, we have got to invest our money, but our trust must be in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us concentrate today on things that money cannot buy. How about starting to love our family, and how about trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for our health? What about working on our friendships? That will bring us peace of mind that no investment can ever bring us in this world, and lastly, to be content.

Have a wonderful day today,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 17th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Gospel of John 15:8: 

"By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."  

We glorify our Heavenly Father by bearing much fruit. Now you are asking me what kind of fruit? Well, that fruit is found in Galatians 5:22-23. This is the fruit we are talking about - love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  

You know folks, I am a farmer and I can tell you now, when we plant a crop and that crop does not produce fruit, whether it is a mealie stalk and it has got no cob, whether it is a cabbage that is just not forming, whether it be a fruit tree that is just not bearing fruit, we take it out. We take it out; I tell you why - because it is taking up space, it's using up fertiliser, and it is bearing absolutely nothing. We get nothing back from that. We are ruthless. We actually send workers through with cane knives and machetes, and anything that is not performing is taken out. This year, 2024, let's start producing fruit. I am not talking about walking around Bible-bashing people. I am not talking about walking around and quoting scripture and condemning people because they are not going to church. No, I am talking about loving people.  

I remember at one of the Mighty Men Conferences on a Sunday morning, I was walking down the sawdust trail going up to the platform to preach the last message. The tent was packed. It was a small one before the big one in 2008. It was a 5000-seater tent, and as I walked down the sawdust trail, I felt the Holy Spirit say, "Put your hand on this man's shoulder and tell Him that I love him." I stopped, put my hand on his shoulder and I said, "Sir, I want to tell you something, Jesus loves you", and I walked up to the platform and preached the message. About two weeks later, we got an email from that same man. He said, "I had been at that conference from Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Sunday morning when you walked in." He said, "The music was wonderful, the message was good, but I don't remember any of them, not even the message on Sunday morning. I remember only one thing - you touched me on my shoulder, you looked into my face and you told me that God loves me, and at that moment, I committed my life to Christ."

Let us bear fruit this year,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 16th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.  

We start in the Book of Isaiah 30:21: 

“Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.”

Then we go to the Book of Joshua 1:7: 

“Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.” 

The Way - now, who is The Way? Well, in John 14:6, Jesus said very clearly, “I am the way…” This year, let us start following the right way and stop going down one-way streets and cul-de-sacs so that when we get to the bottom, we just have to turn around and come back again. I was speaking to an old friend of mine yesterday. We were reminiscing a little bit, and we were talking about the Mighty Men Conferences that we had at Shalom Farm; he was one of the directors of the traffic, and he was an usher. He had a bright yellow bib on him and said he was standing in the main road approaching the farm and trying to direct the drivers into a certain entrance but the drivers were so intent on following their Garmins, that they literally drove right past him! He says he was standing in the middle of the road, literally doing star jumps, trying to catch the drivers’ attention and they would drive straight past him, all the way up to the church and of course to be told, “You took the wrong turning. You have to go back. There is a man with a yellow vest on and he will direct you” and they had to come back again. 

Don’t do that this year - this year, let us hear the voice of the Lord and He will show us the way.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 15th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.  

We start in the Book of Isaiah 53:5:

“But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.”  

What beautiful words! Then we go straight to 1 Peter 2:24: 

“…by whose stripes you were healed.”  

Healed! I want to say to you today, so often we forget and we neglect the mere fact that Jesus Christ has paid for it all on the tree when He was crucified, and as He was dying He said, “It is finished!” - and He meant it. I want to say to you my dear friend, please receive the promise of God that you are healed, you are forgiven and you are set free. Healed physically, healed mentally and more importantly, healed emotionally. Jesus has done it all. What is our part in this? To simply, by faith, believe. Now I want to pray for you, a very special prayer, and I really mean it because I have also been praying for you before I recorded this message. Please listen to this prayer and receive it for yourself:

Dear Lord Jesus,

I want to thank You for what You have done for me, not only for me but for my loved ones and my friends. Lord, You said that by the stripes that You received from the beating that You got, we have been healed. We have been healed of that sickness, we have been healed from disease, we have been healed from fear, we have been set free from evil thoughts and we have been given new life. Today, we want to simply say, thank You Lord, for healing me.

In Jesus name,
Amen.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 14th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.  

We start in the Book of Psalms 34:8:

"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!"

Then we go to the Book of Isaiah 30:18,

"Blessed are all those who wait for Him." 

The last one is in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke 10:41-42: 

And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." 

Wait on the Lord. Do not rush into things this year. You know the old saying, "The farmer makes a plan"? Well, I want to tell you, not one of mine has ever worked. We need to wait and the Lord will show us His plan. I knew a farmer who had a farm, not too far from here, and his farm looked like a scrap heap. It was half full of used agricultural equipment, and it must have been worth a fortune. He was always trying to make a plan, never, never giving it an opportunity to work. He would plant potatoes, buy equipment for that, then he would change. He would start putting in maize, and then he would change again and he would put in a wheat crop and then he would change again and that is how a man goes bankrupt. He would then be planting tomatoes, then he would try cabbages. He was a very hard-working man but too impatient. So was Martha, remember? But Jesus said Mary has chosen a much better way. 

Let us sit down today and taste and see that the Lord is good. Let's take time with the Lord Jesus today and enjoy what He has prepared for us. Don't rush. I want to say something to dads and young men. Please enjoy the meal that mom has prepared for you. Taste it. Don't just gobble it down because you have got to go. Sit down and enjoy the meal, and it will do you a lot more good, by the way. You won't get any reflux or heartburn, will you? And by the way and very importantly, don't forget to say, "Thank you, mom", "Thank you, my darling, that was a beautiful meal." 

Take time to wait on the Lord. 
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 13th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.  

We go to the Book of James 1:2-3:  

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." 

Are you going through a tough time today? Are you saying, "Lord, why? What's happening?" Sometimes, it is our biggest opportunity to be witnesses for Jesus. If I look back on my own life, the things which I remember clearly are not all the victories I have had. No, they are actually the tough times I went through because that is when the Lord Jesus Christ was closest to me. Through these trials and hardships we learn to grow strong in the Lord Jesus Christ.  

That gnarled thorn tree you find growing in the desert has taken years and years to grow. It has gone through droughts, years of no rain, no water, and it is strong. It has gone through wind and persecution. It is gnarled, but that wood is very dense. If you cut one of those branches, you will see the pith - thats the centre part. It is strong and very, very big. When you try to pick up one of those branches, you feel like you are picking up a railway line. It is very, very heavy. It is very hard to pick up a 2-metre length of that hard thorn tree or wood. When you make a fire on a cold night with that wood, that fire burns for the whole night, but not so with the poplar tree.  

The poplar tree is planted in the wetland. That tree never struggles for water, it's a very fast-growing tree, and it grows very tall. It is a beautiful tree but when you harvest it, it is very light. It weighs nothing, a paperweight. You pick up a 2-metre length of that wood and you can hardly feel it. It is not used for very much. It does not have much use. They make matches out of poplar wood but it does not give you much warmth when you make a fire and the fire goes out and burns up very quickly. 

I want to say to you today, we need to be like that thorn tree. We need to stand on the Word of God; we need to grow through our hardships and trials. He is teaching us to be strong believers in our faith. Today, remember the thorn tree. The thorn tree is the one that brings warmth, security and it is strong because its roots are deep and they are deep in the Word of God. Jesus Christ is our only support.

God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 12th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Isaiah 45:9: 

“Woe to him who strives with his Maker!” 

Do not strive with God! He is too big for us, don’t even go there. The next scripture is Isaiah 64:8: 

“But now, O Lord,
You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand.”

He is the potter, and we are merely the clay. Oh, we must never forget that. The Lord spoke to Job very clearly in Job 38:4: He said: 

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” 

It says earlier, “Stand up like a man now and answer me.” Who do we actually think we are, questioning God? Some people say to me, “When I meet with the Lord one day, He will have to give me some answers.” No. No, you have got it wrong, my dear friend. It would be like an ant walking down a path in the forest and a bull-elephant coming from the other side and the ant telling the bull elephant to move out of the way because he is coming through. It is ludicrous! Now, I like that word, “ludicrous”. I looked it up in the Oxford Dictionary. It means absurd, ridiculous, laughable, insane, mad, stupid!  

But seriously, it is like Pontius Pilate telling Jesus that he has the authority of life or death over Him.

“Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”
John 19:10

Absolutely ridiculous! Those of us who are thumping the table and saying, “When I meet with God, with Jesus, in Heaven one day, He is going to have to give me some answers” - Oh, we don’t even know what we are talking about! We can be very grateful that we have a Lord who is slow to anger and quick to forgive. Today, let us be grateful that we have a loving God who loved us so much that He died for us so that you and I could have eternal life.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 11th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day. 

Nehemiah 8:10, in the Old Testament: 

“Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” 

Then we go to the Gospel of John 10:10: 

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  

This morning, you and I have a choice to make. It is a very serious decision we are going to make. Are we going to allow the devil to steal our joy or not? Are we going to take and live the life of abundance that Jesus has freely given to you and me? The choice does not belong to the devil. The choice is ours. We are not speaking here about material things; we are speaking more importantly about spiritual things, which are of much more serious importance. 

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and he loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36

We can’t buy joy. We can’t earn happiness. It is found within our very soul. At all costs, do not lose it. 

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
1 Timothy 6:6

Now, why am I sharing this thought with you today? Because my daughter and her husband bought my wife and me a little gift, a six-week-old puppy. I can tell you this puppy is enjoying an abundant life. It is a miniature tornado! It is not concerned about tomorrow; it is just enjoying everything its little eyes see, whatever it eats and touches until it is totally exhausted, and then it lies down on its blanket, goes to sleep for about an hour and then gets up and it is ready again! I looked at this and I thought, “Lord, look how happy and full of joy and excitement this puppy is.”

Today my dear friend, let us go and enjoy this abundant life that Jesus has created for you and I.

God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 10th of January, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Isaiah 28:29: 

“This also comes from the Lord of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.” 

The greatest Councillor that you and I will ever find is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the greatest Guide to lead us through the wilderness we are living in now is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no better guide in the bush than a local who lives in that area. There are no better councillors in the world than the grey beards, the men and women who have walked the road for many, many years.

When I was a young man and I started farming with seed maize, I had very limited machinery. I had a little two-row planter, and I could only plant two rows of maize at a time. Today, I see these amazing machines - they plant up to twenty rows at a time. These men will plant 50, 100 hectares of maize in one day. It would take me literally three weeks and longer. One year the rain just wasn’t coming and the time was passing by and I felt that my Councillor was telling me to hitch up that machine and start planting in the dust. Now any farmer listening to this would tell you that that would be suicide because what happens is, there is enough moisture in the soil to germinate the seed but not enough to get it out of the ground. It dies and rots in the ground, but I really felt strongly that I had to get started otherwise I would never get the crop in and I started planting in the dust. I think my neighbours were looking over the fence and saying, “He has lost his marbles completely this time,” but I carried on. I felt that the Lord was guiding me. I planted and it was so dusty that the drivers had to ask for goggles because they couldn’t see where they were going but I kept on planting. I got in more than half the crop and then eventually the rain came, but when it came, it came with a vengeance, it did not stop. It rained night and day for weeks but I had got my crop in, in time, and as a result we had a beautiful crop that year. 

Your Councillor is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you read just a little bit before in this very chapter of Isaiah, He will tell you that the ploughman doesn’t plough all day long, and there are certain crops that you plant in a certain way, and there are certain ways of reaping those plants. Listen to Jesus, He will tell you what to do, when to do it and when not to do it. 

God bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.