Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus' precious name. It is Tuesday morning, the 31st of October 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Isaiah 1:18: 

"Come now, and let us reason together,"
Says the Lord,
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool."

And then we go to the last book in the Bible, Revelation 7:13: 

"Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?"
And I said to him, "Sir, you know."
So he said to me, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

What powerful scriptures! Is it possible that Jesus could give a sinner like you and me a second chance in life? The answer is yes, most definitely! Not only that, but He is more than willing to do it. You know, we are dirty, and we look like we have been rolling around in the mud sometimes, don't we? You know, when you get a little dog, a little puppy, and he comes to the farm, especially the farm, where there is all kind of mud and cow patties around and all kinds of things lying around - What does he do? He goes straight into that mud. Even that cow manure, and he rolls around in it, then he comes running into the house and mother just about tears her hair out. Nobody wants anything to do with that little puppy, right? Well, sometimes you and I mess up so badly no one wants anything to do with us, either.

Many years ago, I used to show stud sheep at the show. I had Ile de France stud sheep. We used to take those beautiful rams and put them on a table, wash them down with soap and then we would even use shampoo. It would take a long time, but when we had finished, they looked magnificent, like they were coated with cotton wool. Lovely, soft, snow-white and not a mark on them, that is how we got the champion.  

I want to tell you today, "Don't roll around in the mud, in the cow patties of this world. Come to Jesus and let Him wash you so clean because He loves you so much. He is waiting for you in Heaven. 

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

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 30th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We go to the Book of Hebrews 8:10 in the New Testament:

"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."

How does the Lord speak to you? Well, the Lord speaks to me first and foremost through the Word of God. That's why I get up in the morning and have my quiet time before I do anything else. Then He speaks to me through my conscience. Now, what is a conscience? Well, according to the Oxford Dictionary, it is a moral sense of right or wrong. Standards, values, principles, ethics, and beliefs are what a conscience is. I believe the Holy Spirit is our conscience if we allow Him to be. 

For example, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you know when you are breaking the speed limit, don't you? I can see some smiles there. I can see some people's faces are going red. Ja, I know mine is too. You may not break the speed limit because that's against the law. You find when you are a follower of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will remind you to pay the full price. Don't go and shortchange somebody, and if you have, go back and say sorry and give them the full amount. Be courteous, especially to older people. Respect them, and stand back. Give them an opportunity. Some of them are in pain. They've got sore backs, they've got knees that are giving them trouble. Stand back and help them. What reminds you to do that - that's right, your conscience. The Holy Spirit is speaking to you. 

You know, when you don't know Jesus Christ you couldn't care less, isn't that right? You barge in. You push in. You muscle your way around. You shout. You perform. You scream. You blaspheme with no problem at all, but when Jesus Christ comes into your heart, and He is Lord and Saviour, the Word becomes a reality, and all of a sudden, you know when you are doing wrong. You know when you are being dishonest, and that's the Lord speaking. Don't allow your conscience to become seared. What does that mean? Don't harden your heart so that when the Holy Spirit talks to you, you don't listen to Him. You do that, and you'll get yourself into big trouble. Just do what the Lord says, and He says in His Word, "They shall be my people, and I will be their God."

What a promise! 

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

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 29th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We go to the Gospel of Mark 4:34: 

“And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.”

When we spend time in meditation, when we focus our minds and free our minds from uncontrolled thoughts, when we start carefully thinking about the situation, then the Lord can speak to us in our hearts very clearly. That wonderful Scottish preacher who was blind, George Matheson, wrote the following words:

“My soul, practice being alone with Christ. The scripture says that when He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything. Do not wonder about the truth of this verse for it can be true of your life as well. If you desire to have understanding, then dismiss the crowd, just as Jesus did. Let them go away one at a time until only Jesus is left.

Have you ever pictured yourself as the last remaining person on Earth or the only person left in the entire universe? If you were the only person remaining in the universe, your every thought would be, “God and I…! God and I…!” Yet He is already as close to you as that. He is as near as if no hearts but His and yours ever beat throughout the boundlessness of space.

O my soul, practice that solitude, dismissing the crowd. Practice the stillness of your heart. Practice the majestic song, “God and I! God and I!” Let no one become between you and your wrestling angel. You will receive conviction, yet pardon when you meet with Jesus alone.”

Have a wonderful day as you come aside and meditate for a while with the Prince of Peace.

Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 28th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the book of Song of Songs 2:14, the book of love: 

"O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret places of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your face is lovely."

Then we go back a little bit to verse 10:

"My beloved spoke, and said to me:
"Rise up, my love, my fair one,
And come away." 

What beautiful words! Then we go to Psalm 35:9: 

"And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord; It shall rejoice in His salvation."

Do not become so very busy that we neglect our first love. You know, people come to see me from time to time because they have problems with their marriage, and I sit down, and I ask them, "Is there a third party? Is there someone else who is getting involved in your marriage?" And they say, "No," and I say, "Well, what is the problem?" They say, "We want to get divorced because we don't have anything in common anymore." So sad! What happened to your first love? You neglected it because of the busy schedule that you have, and you know, the excuse that many of us use as men is that "I was so busy working for my family." Come on now guys, let's get real. For a lot of us, it was for our own ego. We were building our own empire and it cost us our marriage. Don't go there.

Revelation 2:4, the Lord says, 

"… I have this against you, that you have left your first love." 

Now, that is tragic. It must not happen. That is exactly what the devil wants to do: to keep you and I so busy that we neglect our first love. "…I have this against you, that you have left your first love." What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? I want to say to you today, work on your first love. Jesus is waiting to talk with you this morning. As soon as this little message is finished, I want to challenge you to find a quiet place, sit down and start to talk to the Lord. Tell Him how much you love Him, and ask for forgiveness for how you have neglected to spend quality and quantity time with Him because if you neglect your first love, what have you got left? Absolutely nothing. 

So Jesus bless you today as you rekindle that first love and it will take care of all of your problems. 

"Come unto Me, all of you who labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:28

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 27th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start off in Isaiah 40:31:

"But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint."

Oh my dear friends, this morning, we must become more intentional regarding this race of life we are running in together. This is not the warm-up race. This is the final. We need to be more focused and keep our eye on the goal, the finish line. If we look at Philippians 3:14, the word of God says: 

"I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." 

We really need to get serious. This is not the dummy run. This race will lead us home to Heaven, and Jesus will be waiting for you and me at that finish line. What a day that will be. But until then, we need to keep on keeping on. You know, I remember so distinctly watching the Comrades Marathon on TV. I remember that small little man with the blonde hair, Bruce Fordyce. Do you know that he won the Comrades Marathon no less than nine times? Nine times! Runners come from all over the world, and there is a lot of money for the man who comes first.

The Russians and Americans were here - but one thing about Bruce Fordyce - he was focused. He was intentional, and he kept his eye on the goal. When the gun went off and the race started, I remember so clearly all the novices were coming out of the stalls there flat out, running like a hundred-metre race, and five kilometres down the road, they had blown out already. Bruce Fordyce kept his eyes on that watch. He was totally committed to what he was doing. He wasn't looking at the crowds around him. He wasn't worried about all the other runners that were way ahead of him, some of them five or ten kilometres ahead of him. People would probably ask him, "Do you realise your opponent is far ahead of you?" He was focused on his race. He was disciplined, committed, and knew exactly what he was doing. 

On the upward run, he would come up to Polly Shorts which was just outside Pietermaritzburg, that very, very ugly steep hill, and then he would just put on the pressure. He would come right past the runner who had probably been running ahead all the way, tap him on the shoulder and give him the "death-hand shake", and off he would go and come through the finish line because he knew where he was going. He had disciplined himself, he had done all the preparation work correctly and he was confident that he was going to win.

You and I today need to do exactly the same.
Jesus bless you as you run for the finish line,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 26th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Isaiah 49:15-16:

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;…”

Now folks, the Book of Isaiah was written hundreds of years before Jesus Christ died on the Cross of Calvary for your sins and my sins. I want to ask you a question this morning. Are you feeling lonely today? Do you feel that no one really cares for you? Do you feel that you have no friends? Well, there is One who cares for you and me so much that He was prepared to die for you on that ugly cross. Jesus loves you so much that the holes in his hands made by those crude nails proves just how much He loves us both. 

If you look at the word of God in John 15:13, Jesus says: 

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”  

The greatest thing that you can give somebody is your life. There is nothing more that you can give. I remember sitting in a little Bible study many years ago, and a gentleman explained the pruning process and how God prunes us so that we can bear much fruit. I can hear you and me saying, “But it is so painful sometimes.” This gentleman said, “Yes, but the Man who is holding the secateurs, the pruning tool, is pruning you, but He has holes in His hands, so the pain that you are suffering, and I am suffering by being pruned, is not as much as the Man who is doing the pruning, because of the pain in His hands.  

Today, remember, you never need to be lonely because He cares for you more than a nursing woman cares for her baby.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 25th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of 2 Corinthians 5:17: 

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 

What a beautiful promise. Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 8:13: 

"A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away."

Obsolete is old fashioned, it is no longer relevant, it is no longer valid like your passport when it runs out, you have to get a new one. You might as well throw the old one away because it is no longer valid. You cannot travel on a passport that is redundant. You and I cannot earn our way to Heaven by our own efforts. Jesus has paid in full - all our debt. All we have to do is to say thank You! That's very hard to comprehend, isn't it? Especially when you are from the old school. Some of us struggle with this free gift of eternal life. We always want to earn it or pay for it. Why? Probably because of pride. If I cannot pay for it, then I do not want it. Many of us, including myself, struggle to accept a gift from someone.

A couple of times, more than once, I have been sitting in a restaurant with my wife and my family, and we have just had a lovely meal. I call the waitress and ask if she could please bring us the bill because we want to pay for the meal, and she looks at us and says, "Your meal has already been paid for in full." Now, it is very humbling, but it is so special and so touching. You see, you can't even pay it back; You can't even say thank to the person who has paid for your meal because they have already left the restaurant and gone. That is what grace means. It means un-deserved, loving kindness. Now, that is exactly what the new covenant is all about. Father God has given us His Son, Jesus, who has paid in full for all our debts. What must we do? We must say, "Thank You, Lord," and go out and sin no more. 

Have a beautiful day and remember, if Christ is for you, there is no man that will ever stand against you. (Romans 8:31).

Jesus bless you and goodbye.   

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 24th of October, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Ephesians 2:8: 

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,…"  

Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 7:22. 

"…by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant." 

A surety means "a person who guarantees that somebody else will do something or pay a debt." Now, that is exactly what Jesus Christ has done for us who believe; therefore, we cannot let Him down or disappoint Him. We cannot get to Heaven by trying to live a better life, by earning "brownie points" because we fail miserably every single time, don't we? Jesus Himself has become our guarantee! Isn't that beautiful? A guarantee that we will make it.

I remember a story that I heard so many years ago. It was one of my favourite stories about a cowboy preacher. He was a circuit preacher, riding his horse, going to all the small towns in the prairies in North America. He was a seasoned old man, and as he was riding along on his horse one day, a big dust storm came up from the horizon and he knew what he had to do. He stopped immediately, hobbled his horse, put his saddle down, took his saddle blanket, put it on the ground, got underneath it, pulled his cowboy stetson hat over his head and waited out the sand storm, and he went to sleep. He had a dream that a huge angel was standing in front of him. The angel was holding a book, and the cowboy said, "What is in that book?"  

He said, "This is the Book of Life, and everyone who's name is in this book goes to Heaven."  

The old cowboy said, "Well, my name must be in that book because I am a preacher of the Gospel."  

The angel looked it up in the book, and he said, "No, sorry, your name is not in this book."  

The old cowboy was angry. He said, "It must be!"  

He said, "It's not here. What is your name?"  

"My name is John Smith."  

He looked it up, but he couldn't find the name there. 

"I demand to go to Heaven. I want to speak to God and find out why my name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life." 

The angel said, "Okay, jump on my back, hold tight, and let's go."  

So they flew into the universe, in through the blackness, twice the speed of sound. Eventually, they saw a little light in the distance. The angel said, "That is Heaven. Get ready, we are going to be landing shortly." The light got brighter and brighter and brighter until they arrived in Heaven. The angel landed on a floor of pure gold. He let the cowboy down gently. The cowboy was absolutely petrified by this time. He was lying on his face on this floor of gold, and he heard a voice like a thousand rivers saying, "Who are you? What do you want here?" The cowboy was petrified. He couldn't move. A second time, this voice came. "Who are you? What do you want here?" At that time, he heard footsteps coming from behind him. A beautiful robe was swishing back and forth. He could hardly lift his head. Feet that wore sandals walked up next to him, and big, strong arms bent down and picked the cowboy up from underneath his chest and stood him to his feet, and the voice said, "It's okay, Father, he's with Me. He is My friend."

I want to say to you today, make sure that Jesus Christ is your friend. He is the only guarantee you will ever have. 

Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 23rd of October 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We start with Galatians 4:9 

"But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?"

Why do we always want to go back to Egypt - Back to slavery, when the Lord has set us free? John 8:36 says:

"Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."

 My dear friend, the Lord has set us free; why do we continually want  to go back, as it were, to our former lives? 'No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.' You and I need to press forward, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. 

You know you can hear my voice. I'm so happy this morning. Why? Because it's raining! Beautiful rain is falling on my tin roof, and there is thunder and lightning, and we are rejoicing. Malachi 4:2 

"And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves."

When I was a very young man, 19 years old, I was in bonnie Scotland. There, the calves are put into stalls for months and months during the extremely cold winters. There is snow outside. It is freezing cold. When Spring comes, they open the stalls and let those young calves out. Oh, my dear friend, you've never seen anything like it in your life - They go running around the field eating the new green grass, tails up, prancing around. There's no way you can get them back into the stalls. An old cowboy saying - once you let a cat out of a bag, try and put him back in that bag again... He is not going back in the back!

I want to say to you today: don't return to Egypt. Enjoy your liberty and your freedom in Christ. Remember, good people don't go to heaven. Believers go to heaven. Have a wonderful Monday; Jesus bless you, and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Saturday morning, the 22nd of October 2023, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a thought for today. We go straight to Hebrews 6:19:

"This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast..."

I'll stop right there - an anchor in the storms of life. Now remember, our hope for the future is in none other than our anchor. His Name is Jesus, absolutely. Faith is for the present, but hope is for the future - Who are you and I hoping for in the future? It has to be our anchor, and his Name is Jesus.

Now, I looked up the Oxford dictionary to define the word anchor, and it says: "A heavy object that is attached to a boat by a rope or a chain and is dropped onto the seabed to stop the boat from drifting." We need to stop drifting. Many of us today are drifting aimlessly. We are going nowhere fast; it is dangerous. Any sailor will tell you that - Especially when a storm is on the horizon. Now, remember, when all else fails, we drop the anchor. The anchor slows the boat down so it does not hit the rocks. Yes, His Name is Jesus - He is our strong anchor; He will keep us from hitting the rocks and destroying the boat. Today, let your anchor down; let Him take control of your situation.

They say that when a flock of geese fly over a lake and they see a storm approaching, they land on the lake, tuck their wings in, and face the storm. They stay there on that lake until the storm passes. Today, you and I, let us put our anchor down, face the storm, and put our hope in Jesus Christ alone.

God bless you, and have a wonderful Sunday.