Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 11th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Colossians 1:27: 

"Christ in you, the hope of glory." 

Who are you trusting this morning? Who am I putting my trust in? Is there anything in this earth that we can really trust? Not really. You can build yourself a castle but it won't take any fear out of your heart if you have a fear of the unknown. You can go to the highest mountain and think, "I will find peace there." You won't find it there if God is not in your heart. You can go into the most beautiful valley, but you won't find Him there either. You can get on a ship and go across the ocean. You won't find Him there because He is in your heart. 

I have read a beautiful poem I want to share with you. The author is unknown, obviously a very humble person, but what a beautiful poem. Please listen to this with me. It starts like this:

My home is God Himself; Christ brought me there,
I placed myself within His mighty arms,
He took me up and safe from all alarms
He bore me where no foot but His hath trod,
Within the holiest at home with God.

And had me dwell in Him rejoicing there.
O holy place! O home divinely fair!
And we, God's little ones, abiding there.
My home is God Himself; it was not so, 
A long, long road I travelled night and day,
And sought to find within myself some way.

Nothing I did or felt could bring me near
Self effort failed, and I was filled with fear,
And then I found Christ was the only way
That I must come to Him and in Him stay.
And God had told me so.

And now, my Home is God and sheltered there,
God meets the trials of my earthly life,
God compasses me round from the storm and strife,
God takes the burden of my daily care.
O wondrous place! O home divinely fair!
And I, God's little one, safe hidden there.

Lord, as I dwell in You and You in me,
So make me dead to everything but Thee;
That as I rest within my home most fair,
My soul may evermore and only see, 
My God in everything and everywhere. 
My Home is God.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 10th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the First Book of Timothy 6:6-8: 

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.”

We came into this world as newly-born babies with absolutely nothing, and when we have run our race on this earth, we will leave this world with absolutely nothing material that we have built up or gained. Food and clothing are all we really need for this part of our lives. We shall never need all that excess that we are working so hard to accumulate when we get to Heaven. Like the man who spent his whole life collecting gold and putting it in a suitcase, he said, “When I die, I am going to Heaven. I am taking gold with me.” And they laughed at him and said, “In Heaven, the very streets are made of gold!” Oh, we are so ridiculous sometimes.  

What did Jesus leave behind when He went up to Heaven? Nothing material. When they crucified him, He left one garment and even that garment was cut up and gambled over. The only thing the Master left when He went home to Heaven was His beautiful Holy Spirit, His word - our Bible, and His love. 

As you and I go out today, let us start to accumulate things which rust and moth cannot destroy. Let us work on being God’s ambassadors on earth. Let us sow things that nothing can destroy, and when we leave here, we leave this place better than when we arrived.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 9th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Zachariah 4:6: 

‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’
Says the Lord of hosts.”

You have often heard me say, “A good idea is not always a God idea.” In an emergency, we always want to make a plan, don’t we? And we hear people say, “Do something, do something!” Do you know that waiting on the Lord is doing something? Did you know that? Moses tried to help his people, the Israelites, by doing something, and it went badly wrong for him. It went from bad to worse. He tried to deliver his people out of slavery by his own influence, and when that didn’t work, he used violence. Remember, he killed a slave driver. I got that from “The Streams in the Desert”, that beautiful devotional. So Moses made a complete hash-up by trying to help people in his own strength, and he ended up having to flee for his life. He lived in the desert for 40 years, and for 40 years in the desert, the Lord changed his heart and completely changed his attitude of doing something to rather stopping and listening. And what happened? Yes, the Lord revealed Himself through the burning bush. Do you remember? And he gave instructions to Moses on what to do. When Moses approached Pharaoh, he came from a totally different viewpoint. He said, “Thus says the Lord, I AM has sent me to tell you to let my people go. 

When we allow the Holy Spirit to direct our path, then things start coming into line very quickly. That beautiful scripture found in Romans 8:28: 

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

That scripture is self-explanatory. When we stop making a plan, when we stop trying to do something and allow God to do it, all of a sudden, it works and becomes a beautiful plan. Today, stop doing something and start asking the Holy Spirit to direct you; you will find your life changed completely.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday, the 8th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of James 2:1-4: 

“My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?”

There are no favourites in the Kingdom of God. I don’t know if you remember that book, “In His Steps”? It was written in 1896. It has sold more than fifty million copies. It’s a fictitious story, written by Charles Sheldon. The story goes like this - there was a very up-tempo church with plush carpets, beautiful pews, and a lovely pulpit. It was a very posh church. All the congregation are seated on Sunday morning, and in staggers a poor man in rags. He walks right down the middle of the aisle, right to the front of the church, and he stands there in front of the pulpit and says he is out of work, he needs help, and then he collapses, and a few days later, he dies. 

The congregation was shocked and the pastor, Henry Maxwell, didn’t know what to do either. They all just stood there in amazement, looking at this poor man, lying on the carpet in rags. After that event, that pastor had many sleepless nights, and he came back to his congregation and said to them, “We are going to ask ourselves a question, “What would Jesus do?” And from that, there was a complete change in that congregation and that church. People started to roll up their sleeves and get into the reality of life. 

God has no favourites. God loves you, Sir. He loves you, Madam, little boy, little girl, just as you are. He doesn’t love one more than the other. He died for all men. He said, 

“Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Romans 10:13. 

Have a wonderful day today as you go out and love your fellowman as yourself because God loves him as much as He loves you.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 7th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the First Book of Timothy 5:8: 

“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” 

I didn’t think there could be anything worse than an unbeliever, but we hear very clearly in the word of God that we need to take full responsibility for those God has given us to watch over. You know, mom, dad - that small little child actually belongs to Jesus. He is just allowing us to watch over those children for Him. He loves them so much. If we look at the word of God in Matthew 18:6, Jesus said: 

“But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone (that weighs about 5 tons by the way) were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (bold comment added)

We need to put our family first before anything else, before our career, before our ambition, even before our ministry. We need to look after our loved ones first. I will never forget as a young boy, just going into my teenage years, when the peer pressure is at it’s worst, so competitive, everyone checking out to see what the other person’s got, I told my mom one morning before I went to school, “You know mom, I am one of the only boys in my class who don’t have a wrist-watch. All the other boys have got one.” She said, “Angus, we just don’t have enough money to buy one at the moment.” You know, we came from a middle-class family. My dad was a blacksmith, he worked very hard but we didn’t have a lot of money. My dad was just getting ready for work, I will never forget it, he walked up to me and he took his wrist-watch off his big, strong, muscular arm and he gave it to me and said, “There son, you put that on.” I have never forgotten that act of love in all those years.

You know, it’s not how much we give, its how much we love our family that counts. Go out today and do something special for your family.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 6th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

If we go straight to the Gospel of Philippians 1:6, Paul says: "…

Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;…"

I want to ask you a question this morning. Do you feel like giving up? Ja, I know that feeling. Do you feel like, "Lord, this journey is just too long, this mountain is just too high and I don't think I am going to make it." I have got good news for you. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, who is affirming this morning that He is the one who will complete the task He has given you to do. Our confidence is not in ourselves but rather in Jesus Christ, our beloved Lord and Saviour. You see, this truth takes all the pressure off you and me from the things we are trying to accomplish on our own. So often, we give it to the Lord and we take it back, and we give it to the Lord and take it back. Don't do that, that is what is making us tired.

We must never be afraid of the storm when Jesus Christ is in the vessel. Christ said to us, "Let's go over to the other side, not to the middle of the lake - and be drowned." No, He is taking us to the other shore, and you and I need to remember that. I don't know how many times I have said to the Lord, especially as a young farmer, "Lord, I am just not going to make it. It's not raining, the crops are failing, we owe money to people, I have got a young family", and I go on and on." And the Lord says, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you must be confident of this very thing, that I, who have called you, will also do it."

Now, today, keep your eyes fixed on the Captain of the ship and don't try and sail it yourself. You handed over your life to the Lord, now let Him take control. You work hard, do your best and leave the rest to Him, and we will see you on the other side.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 5th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We go to the First Book of Timothy 5:1-2: 

“Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity.”

We have got to show respect to one another as Christians. It is very, very important. Our actions and manners are so important, especially in public and especially when we call ourselves followers of Jesus. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “Respect,” which says: “It is a feeling of admiration for someone because of their qualities or achievements.”

Now, it is very easy to respect someone you admire, who you look up to a great sportsman, maybe a great leader, maybe an intellectual, somebody who has written lots of books, maybe somebody who has been very successful in business, but sometimes it is hard to respect an old gentleman who is sitting in the gutter and he has made a complete mess of his life - but he is still an older man. Young men, we still have to honour older people. Do you know that the first promise in the Ten Commandments, the first commandment with a promise added to it, is number 5: 

“Honour your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land...”
Exodus 20:12

It is a promise from God. We need to honour people who are older than us. So sometimes you have to sit next to that old man and put your arm around him. He might be a bit smelly and reeking from alcohol or drug abuse, but respect him, and that is all he needs. You know, he made a mistake, didn’t he? He took a wrong turn in the road and he has walked a long road and paid for it. Just look at the wrinkles on his face. You have still got to respect him. That old lady, carry her shopping basket to the motor car. If she says she will do it, say, “No, I insist.” It will make her feel so good. Protect that young girl. She might not be your sister but if she is a fellow believer and the guys are giving her a rough time, step up, boys, step up and tell the guys to back off otherwise, they are in trouble. 

I want to say to you, it is such a wonderful thing for me to sit and watch how young people respect older people, to see how young boys respect girls and don’t treat them cheaply. I want to say to you that those are the signs, those are the fruits of the Spirit that will draw people closer to Jesus. 

Have a wonderful day and be respectful, 
Goodbye.  

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 4th of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Hebrews 11:8:

“By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.”

Now, Abraham was a farmer. I am a farmer, and I want to tell you when you have to leave your farm, it is not just like leaving another job. Farming is a way of life; it is actually a culture, and when you have been on a farm for many generations, it is a huge step to leave your farm. Not only to leave your farm but to go to an unknown destination. You see, Abraham didn’t even know where he was going. All he knew was that his Father, our Lord, told him to leave. That is why, in the Book of James 2:23, Abraham is known as the friend of God. Why? Because he believed God.

God is not interested in our plans. The farmer makes a plan. Well, not one of mine have ever worked. It has to be God’s plan. He has so much more to offer you and me, my dear friend, if we would only trust Him and obey Him. 

The captain of a large aeroplane flying overseas in huge planes flies at over 38,000 feet above sea level. That pilot cannot see where he is going. He has no idea where he is going. What he does is, he relies entirely on his instruments on his computer. He sets his course, he does all his preparation correctly and then he flies off into the unknown, as it were. But the secret is, and this is the key - he prepares correctly beforehand.

Now, you and I need to really put our total reliance on the faithfulness of God, but in order to do that we have to do our homework. We have to do our preparation. We have to hear directly from God. That comes from having a good quiet time every morning, reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, reading your devotional, spending time with Christians, and God will give you your instructions, slowly but surely. Sometimes you have to wait. Waiting is a very important part of the Christian’s life, but if you do that and put it into motion, you will find that you are going exactly where God wants you and you will succeed, and you will prosper and you will have a life worth living.

Today, do your work by faith and then move because faith has got feet!

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 3rd of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the First Book of Timothy 6:12: 

"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."  

We have to follow through. Paul said to Timothy, "You have made a confession of your faith and now you have to complete it." There is nowhere in the Bible where it says, "Come to Jesus and all your problems will be over." I will tell you why - because it is not in the Bible. No, not at all. Paul says we have to fight the good fight. That means it is a continual ongoing battle, but when we have made that confession, the Lord Jesus Christ is in our corner! So we are going to win that fight if we keep on. We need to run this race to the end. You only get the prize at the finish line. If you don't finish the race, you don't get the prize. I know that. I ran the Comrades Marathon. I did not finish and I never got the medal. We need to finish the race that the Lord has put us in. Jesus never promised you and me a bed of roses, but He did promise us that He would never leave us or forsake us. 

Now remember, it is not the fighter that can deliver the punch that becomes the champion. No, it is the boxer who keeps getting up when he has been knocked down. Eventually, his opponent is totally overwhelmed by the man's determination and gives up and loses the fight. There is only one heavyweight boxing champion in the world who was totally undefeated. Rocky Marciano was a small man by today's standards. He weighed about 170lbs, he stood 5ft 9 inches tall, and he was undefeated. He was fighting men who were 6ft 3" and weighed 230 lbs. What was the secret? The secret was that this man could take pain. He just never, ever gave up and eventually he wore his opponent down. 

Now, you and I are in the fight of our lives. We need to stand. The Lord is in our corner, He will give us directions but we need to keep on fighting, and remember what a reward awaits you and me in Heaven. One day when we have finished our race, when we have fought our good fight, and the Lord says, "Well done, good and faithful servant, come and enter into your rest."

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 2nd of September, 2023, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Gospel of John 4:35: 

“Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” 

You and I need to seize the day. In Latin, it says “Carpe Diem” - seize the day! We cannot wait. Jesus says the harvest is white and the workers are few. I want to say to a young man who has fallen in love - you are so in love with that young lady, that beautiful fair maiden, but young man, you need to propose to her. She won’t propose to you! Remember, he who hesitates is lost. Yes, it takes a lot of courage. Believe me, I remember the day I did it. Yes, but you need to do it, and if she is the right lady for you and you believe God has called you together, what are you waiting for? Carpe Diem, seize the day! 

As believers, we need to walk the road of faith. We have to take a step into the unknown. 

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” 
Hebrews 11:1 

Remember what St. Augustine said? Faith is to believe what you cannot see, but the reward of that faith is to see what you believe. You know, I remember when we ordered the big tent for the Mighty Men Conference in 2008, we had to seize the moment. We had to take the step of faith. If we had hesitated we would have lost. As we took the step by faith, the Lord Jesus Christ honoured every step. The event was fully paid for. We didn’t have to beg for money, we took the initiative. Carpe Diem - seize the day! We saw 60,000 men plus, coming to an experience with our beloved Lord Jesus.

Today, I encourage you to make the most of this day. It might be the greatest day of your life. Do not hesitate. Once God has given you a clear green light then don’t hold back.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.