Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 25th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of John 17:19, and this is the Lord Himself speaking:

”And for their sakes (that’s you and me) I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.” 

Sanctified - I looked up the Oxford dictionary, it means, “something holy”. 

“The only way that you and I can help them is by being the noblest and the best man or woman that it is possible for us to be.” That was spoken by a man named Phillips Brooks. You see it’s by example. That is how we help people. They won’t do what you tell them. I’m talking about your children; they will do what you do. So if you shout and swear, they’ll do exactly the same thing.

Never give a person a job you cannot do yourself. Show them, don’t just tell them. When you’ve got a new tractor driver and he’s ploughing and the plough is not set properly, and the front coulter’s going in too deep, and the back one’s sticking up in the air, and he’s driving it in the wrong gear, and there’s black smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe, don’t sit in your pickup at the headland and shout at him. Rather let him come to the end of the field and before he turns the tractor around, jump on the tractor, ask him to sit next to you and show him the right gear, then set the plough for him and then he’ll be very happy and he’ll listen to you, but if you don’t know how to do it then don’t try and tell him. We need to walk the talk. That’s what Jesus always did, and that’s why I love Him so much. Do you remember that old hymn: ”A new commandment I give unto you?” Should we sing it together.

A new commandment
I give unto you,
That you love one another
As I have loved you,
That you love one another
As I have loved you.

By this shall all men know
That you are My disciples,
If you have love one for another.
By this shall all know
That you are My disciples,
If you have love one for another.

Jesus said, ”A new commandment I give unto to you, that you love one another as I have loved you." He showed us how to do it. Let us go out into the world and make sure that we do not cause people to stumble but to love them in the noblest and the best way we can!

Jesus bless you and have a lovely day. 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning. The 24th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Acts 19:19-20:

“Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totalled fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.”

I just want to say to you this morning that we need to have a good hard look at ourselves and clean out the closet. What does that mean? Well, you know they talk about spring-cleaning. Normally at the end of a winter time, people will go through their homes and take out all the stuff that they don’t need and get rid of it. We need to clean out our closets, our wardrobes, our cupboards, our mantelpieces, things in our motorcars and boats that do not reflect the glory of Jesus. I am talking about burning horoscopes, folks. They are not acceptable. You don’t need a horoscope when you have the Holy Spirit. Tarot cards, statues of other gods - “Ja, but I got that from my granny and it’s an heirloom.” No, it’s not. It’s something you need to get rid of. Books and trinkets that have no bearing on your faith, get rid of it! You don’t need it. You see, it actually distracts us from worshipping the Living God, Jesus Christ.

Lucky charms - get rid of them. You don’t need them.  You have Jesus. He says, “I will never leave you. I will never forget you.” So why are you thinking about things that have no power or relevance in your life? These people were convicted by Paul’s preaching, by his signs and wonders and miracles. They took anything and everything out of their homes that did not glorify the Lord and burnt them publicly. So we need to do the same. We cannot serve two gods. 

Now, just to finish up - 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that if anyone is in Christ (that’s you and me) he or she is a new creation (brand-new). Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new. When Jill and I were convicted by the Holy Spirit to clean out our house, we took all those trinkets, and all those little statues, and those lucky charms and we took them to our donkey boiler. Now, for those of you in the big cities who do not understand what that is, it is a 44-gallon drum that we make as a little place for warming our water. We make a fire underneath it and we took all those things and we burnt them. And I want to tell you, it made us feel so good.

Today, show Jesus you love Him. Show Him physically in action that there is nothing in your life more important than Him.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day!
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 23rd of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Acts 19:16:

”Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”

Then we go back to the Gospel of Matthew 17:21. This is Jesus talking:

”However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” 

Now remember what happened, the sons of Sceva, seven of them by the way, saw what Paul was doing, casting out demons from people who were demon-possessed, and they thought to themselves, “Well, we can also do that”, and they went in to deliver a man from an evil spirit. But what did this man say? He says, ”Jesus I know, Paul I know, but I don’t know you!’ And with that he attacked all seven of them, stripped them naked and wounded them and they ran for their lives. What happened there? Well, the same thing that happened with Jesus when the disciples came to Him after He had cast out a demon from a young boy who kept on harming himself, and they said, “Why could we not do that?” Jesus said, “This kind only comes out by fasting and prayer.”

I remember the story of William Duma, a wonderful, powerful man of God. He lived in the Umkomaas area of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He was coming home one night in his little motorcar, driving towards the township. He was on a dirt road and, all of a sudden, out of the bush came some robbers. He had had to stop his car because they had put logs across the road. As he got out of his car they came running to him with knives and clubs and they were going to attack him. He looked at them and he said, “Do you know who I am?” And they stopped in their tracks. He said, “I am the son of God. If you touch me, you touch God.” And with that, they dropped their knives and their clubs and their steel pipes, and they ran for their lives, and he moved the logs out the way, got in his little motorcar and proceeded to his destination.

Do not attempt to do things for God if you are not prepared to do them. You see, William Duma spent hours in prayer and fasting, in reading the scriptures and spending time with God. They recognised Christ in him, but you and I, if we are not going to spend time with the Lord, we must not try and take on those things which God has prepared for those who are equipped, but if you are, if you are a prayer warrior, if you are one who spends time in fasting and time with the Lord, you can do the very thing that Paul, the apostle, did.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 22nd of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Deuteronomy 8:3:

”…you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”

Then we go to the Gospel of John 6:35:

”And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger…”

Jesus is the one who satisfies your hunger today, no one else and nothing else! Oh, I can tell you from the bottom of my heart, as a young man, I tried everything. I thought that I would be fulfilled when I became a successful sportsman. I thought that I would make it if I just owned my own farm, then I would never hunger again for anything. Then I met my dear wife and I thought, “That is it, now I have everything I need in life!” Then came along the children, even an extra blessing -  but still an emptiness in my heart.

Are you there today, my dear friend? Are you feeling that way? ”Angus, I’ve tried everything, I’ve done everything, I’ve succeeded in so many ways and I am still not satisfied.” This message is for you today. You see, Mark 8:36 says:

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

Our hunger is satisfied only when we eat the Bread of Life and His name is Jesus Christ. The wisest man that ever lived was Solomon, and what did he say after he had achieved everything? “Vanity, vanity,” he said, “it’s like chasing the wind. I’ve done it all and I’ve got nothing to show for it.” We need the meat. We need the Word of God. I want to pray for you today because maybe you’re in that position. 

Father God, 

I pray for my friend listening to this message today, that you will show them the only time that they will be satisfied and filled up is when they seek You first.  I pray Lord, that they will start to get up early in the morning, spend time in Your presence, in prayer, Bible-reading and in thinking about the things which have eternal value, and Your peace, Your shalom, Your satisfaction will be all they need. 

In Jesus name, amen. 

God bless you and have a wonderful day. 
Goodbye

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 21st of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Acts 19:11:

“Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.” 

Oh, I want to ask you a question today. Do you believe in miracles? I really do and I have seen too many of them to doubt the hand of God. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to get the definition of the word “Miracle”, and this is what it says: A miracle is a welcome event that is so extraordinary that it is thought to be the work of God or a saint. It is a wonder, it is a marvel, it is unbelievable. 

Now, I want to tell you about another miracle that happened in my life. Many years ago, there was a farmer. His name was Job. He was going through a terrible drought in the north-west of our country. He reached out and said, “Please pray. We need rain. My boreholes are drying up. We don’t have enough water.” He had a dairy farm and his cows were really battling, no food, no water. So we flew up to the farm and before we went up there I had read the account of Elisha and the salt. If we look at 2 Kings 2:22, and this is what it says: “So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.”  So I took a bag of coarse salt with us, about 5 kilos, and we flew up in the aeroplane. I got to his farm. I wanted to know, “Where is his main borehole?” and I walked up and all the staff got around. We poured the coarse salt down into the borehole and we prayed a prayer.

Well, it wasn’t a week later, we got a report that there was a flood in that area and there was so much rain that it actually washed the road away. God answered prayer. 

I’ve been to that very spring which Elisha poured the salt into the bitter water and I can tell you it is sweet even to this day. Please do not limit God!

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 20th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Luke 19:13. This is a parable of Jesus:

"So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’ 

I want to speak this morning about stewardship. I looked up the Oxford dictionary to try and find out the definition of the word “stewardship” - a person who is employed to look after or manage a large estate or a home. Now, I want to speak to you specifically about the stewardship of resources entrusted to servants to look after. For example, silver, gold, but also about giftings and abilities and opportunities that God gives us to develop and to tell people about the Kingdom of God, faithful investments.

Many of us say, ”What can we do? You know, I’m an old-age pensioner now. There’s nothing else I can do.” There is plenty that you can do. The first thing you can do is to start praying for others. Yes, using what you’ve got for the Lord. There’s a man, he is 90 years old, his name is Bill Gaither. He was being interviewed, and the man interviewing him said, ”You have lived a long time, and you have done many, many wonderful things.” This man has written over 700 songs. He has been the father to many of the greatest performers and Christian singers of the era.

He got the award for the Christian songwriter of the century, oh yes. Him and his wife have won six Grammy awards, twenty Dove awards. He is an absolute giant in the Christian music industry, and he was asked by the man who was interviewing him, ”What is the most important thing that you think a man should concentrate on?” And you know what he said? He said, ”Stewardship. Looking after what you have been given.”

Now, we go back to the scripture today that the Lord has given us and the nobleman said to his servants, ”Do business till I come.” I want to say to you today. The Lord is speaking to somebody specifically. He says, ”Do not stop. Complete what you started and the Lord will give you more.” Don’t be concerned about yesterday, it’s gone, we haven’t got tomorrow, it’s only today to be concerned about, and we need to do business until He comes because He could come at any time, and when He comes, it is good that He finds you and me working hard for the Kingdom.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 19th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of John 2:5:

“His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” 

I want to tell you about a lady who did just that, and she lived many years ago. Her name was Florence Nightingale. She is known as the founder of modern nursing. She reduced the death rates by simply improving hygiene and living standards. She was known as the “Lady with the Lamp” because she used to make her rounds every night to check on the wounded soldiers during the war. I have a daughter who studied nursing and it is wonderful to see the heart of compassion that these kind of people have. Now we’re not talking about great preachers or people that have done great things. We are talking about people who simply obey the Word of the Lord.

You might be saying today, ”Well you know, I have had very little education. I have had very little opportunity to serve the Lord.” You can serve the Lord wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Now I want to read a quotation from this woman of God, Florence Nightingale. She said, “If I could give you information of my life, it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do in His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing. I have worked hard, very hard, that is all; and I have never refused God anything.” Isn’t that beautiful?

I want to say to you today, whatever it is that God has told you to do, do it with all your heart. Because the servants filled up the water vats with water, Jesus turned the water into wine. The first miracle that took place in the marriage feast in Cana. Now, maybe God has called you to be a school teacher, maybe God has called you to be a farmer, maybe God has called you to be an airline pilot, or maybe God has called you to be a housewife. Do it with all of your heart, and the Lord will use that to change the lives of many.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 18th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in Psalm 37:31:

”The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.”

Then we go to 1 Corinthians 11:25. Jesus says:

“This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

I am talking about Holy Communion. It’s very important for us to remember the ordinances, commandments, and laws of God. That is what keeps you and me on the straight road, on the right road. Do you know what a phylactery is? A phylactery is something that the Orthodox Jews use when they have time with the Lord. Many years ago, I was flying in an Israeli airline to Jerusalem, and an Orthodox Jew was sitting across the aisle from me, and during the night, I saw him get up and put a shawl around his head. He took a leather band and he put it around his left hand with a little box on it. He took another leather band, put it around his head, with a little box on his forehead, and inside those two little boxes are Holy Scriptures. He does it during his quiet time. Why? Because he wants to remember the Lord, his God. 

Now, Jesus said every time you and I have Holy Communion, we do it and we remember what Christ has done for us. Gill and I have communion often, on our own, in the house. Maybe after breakfast, sometimes maybe after lunch, depending on our situation, just the two of us. And we take bread, we break it, and we remember the body of Christ broken for us, and then we take the cup, a little glass of grape juice, and we remember the blood of Jesus shed so that our sins would be washed away. We need to remember and not forget what the Lord has done for us.

Many years ago when I was a man of twenty years old, I was a cowboy. I was in Australia. When we knocked off work, these were rough and tough men, but the salt of the earth, we would go into the local pub and there’d be a lot of chatting and talking and smoking, etc. Then all of a sudden, six o’clock every single night, everybody would become quiet, and there would be a little light in one corner of the pub, and then a voice would come over, ”Lest we forget. Let us remember.”  We would stand there for, I don’t know how long it was, maybe a minute or two, and remember all the fallen soldiers that had died for the Australian people, and they would stand there. Not one person would say a word (because if anybody did it could probably cost him his life), but they remembered those that had given their lives for their country.

You and I need to remember that Jesus Christ died for us on the cross of Calvary so that we might have everlasting life.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day and don’t forget. 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 17th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Psalms - Psalm 34:10:

”…But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.”

Then the other scripture. Matthew 6:33:

”But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” 

I want to ask you a question this morning. Are you satisfied with where you are at in your life at the moment? I can hear somebody say, ”No, I’m not. I’m still seeking and I don’t even know what I’m looking for but I’m not happy with where I am at right now.” Well, I have got good news for you! The Lord says, ”Seek me first and my righteousness and then all these other things that you are seeking, you will receive.”

As a young man, my one desire was to be a farmer. I wanted to be a farmer. My dad was a blacksmith. Oh yes, a blue collar worker and what a hard-working man he was. I never had an opportunity to even get a job on a farm, but you know something, I got that farm and I got another one after that, and another one after that, and didn’t find any peace and fulfilment. I was looking in the wrong place. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  I’ve met many men, very successful, in business, in sport, in careers, and every one of them have told me. ”It was only when I met the man from Galilee that I was totally fulfilled.” It’s as the Psalmist says, ”Those who seek the Lord shall lack no good thing.” 

So maybe it’s your career today. You need to say, ”Lord, I have enjoyed my work but there is something missing.” I’ll tell you what it is, it’s fellowship with God. You see, the Lord created you and me for Himself so that He could have fellowship with us. That’s why He created us. He doesn’t need us, He wants us because He loves us! He doesn’t need anybody. He can do whatever He wants at any time but He really desires that we have fellowship with Him. The purpose of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Now today, start to enjoy the Lord and that career that ambition will come automatically.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 16th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Acts 18:9:

”Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”

Oh, that is probably my most special scripture verse in the Bible. That is the verse which the Lord Jesus Christ Himself called me to preach the Gospel. On the 18th of February, 1979, I got saved, but this scripture was the one where He sent me to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. It changed my life completely. I have never been the same since I received that call from the Lord. For me personally, my dear friend, it was a direct instruction from Jesus Himself. Even as He spoke to Paul, He spoke into my heart, exactly the same two verses. Now the same thing happened to the disciples. Matthew stood up, left his money table, he was tax collector, and walked away following Jesus. Peter, Andrew, James, and John left their fishing nets immediately and walked away to follow Jesus. Paul, the tent-maker, exactly the same, left his tent-making business and followed Jesus.  It was a crystal-clear calling!

Now I want to say to you today, maybe there’s a young man, a young lady, that’s listening to this message and they say, ”I too want to do the same.” But you need to have a clear scripture from God, and He will speak to you if you give Him the time. It’s no good thinking it’s a good idea because it won’t last, I can tell you right now. I have had more challenges since I have been preaching the Gospel than I ever had in my entire farming career. 

It is not something you do because you think it’s a good idea. It has to be a call from God because it could cost you every single thing you have. It cost the disciples their very lives, all of them, but there is no other way to live. If you want to live a life full of purpose and meaning, then preach the Gospel. Ask the Lord to give you a clear word and He will do that and then you will do exactly what I have done. I am not farming anymore. I haven’t been farming for over forty years. My sons are farming. I am preaching the Gospel and living my dream.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. 
Goodbye.