Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 15th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Matthew 10:14. This is Jesus speaking:

”And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.”

Then we go to the Book of Acts 18:6 and this is Paul speaking:

”But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them,“Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.” 

These are serious words. I am an evangelist. I’ll go to the other end of the world to see one soul saved, but there comes a time when a person does not want to hear from you any longer. What can you do then? There’s only one thing you can do and that is to pray for that person and move along. You’ve heard the old term, “It’s like flogging a dead horse”. What does that mean? That means beating a horse, trying to get it to stand up, but the animal is dead. It is a waste of time. 

It is like a farmer in a field, I saw a picture once, he’s in the wrong field. There is a beautiful field of ripe wheat waiting to be harvested, but he is in the next field, which is still green and still growing. He is making an absolute failure of the beautiful green field that is still growing. He needs to leave it until it matures and harvest the field next door, where it is golden and ready for reaping. It’s like going into an orchard and picking green apples before they are ripe. They are wasted.

You and I today need to really pray hard and we need to preach the Gospel to those who want to hear it and those who have no desire to turn their hearts to the Lord. That’s what happened with Paul, and Jesus told the disciples the same thing. Move along and you will find somebody that is desperate to hear the Good News.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 14th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Gospel of Luke 24:50-53:

“And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them.  Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.”

Wow, what a day! Forty days from the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb to the time that He went back to Heaven to be with His Father. 

Yes, I am talking about Ascension Day. It is a very important day in the Christian Calendar and it is a glorious and victorious day. I remember it so well. I have been there many times. You go from the Old City where the Temple was standing, down into the Kidron Valley, you go across the Kidron Valley, up the other side, you go passed the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus suffered so terribly for our sins, sweated drops of blood when He was thinking about the crucifixion the next day, then you go right up this hill, right to the very top. When you get to the top, if you carry on, you come to this little village called Bethany, a very special place for Jesus, where His friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha lived. He spent a lot of time there. But right up on the top of that hill is where the ascension took place, and if you look carefully you can look right across the valley to the other side. That is where the Old City of Jerusalem in situated.

Today, just remember one thing. Jesus is not in the grave. He is in Heaven. He is sitting at the right hand of our Heavenly Father and He is coming back very soon. I want to pray a prayer for somebody who is unsure about the future, somebody who says he loves God but he doesn’t really know Jesus. Jesus says unless you are born again, you will never see the Kingdom of Heaven. Why don’t you pray this simple prayer with me right now on Ascension Day:

Dear Lord Jesus,

Please forgive me for so often doubting You. Today I make a decision to believe what the Bible says about You and on Ascension Day, I surrender my life to You and I ask You to be my Lord and my Saviour and my soon-coming King. I ask this in Your precious name.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Ascension Day!
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 13th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Jeremiah 20:9:

“Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.”

Folks, Jeremiah had had enough. He was completely ridiculed and he said, “That’s enough Lord, no more, I am not preaching Your word anymore,” but then he said, “But I can’t help it, I have to.”

Then we go to the New Testament to the Book of Acts 17:32-33:

“And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” So Paul departed from among them.”

Have you ever felt like giving up? Have you ever felt like saying, “Lord, that is the last time I am preaching or speaking or talking to people about Jesus because they don’t listen and they mock me every single time”? That’s what they did with one of the greatest preachers of the whole Bible. I am talking about Paul, the Apostle. The same thing happened with Jeremiah. He said, ‘That’s enough. I am not doing it anymore. They are not listening to me.” Oh, I can identify with these two giants. As a young preacher, I went to a little town in the southern part of our little province. Everything went wrong. I was supposed to speak to a group of people in a hotel. The atmosphere was wrong. The people were waiting for their supper and the supper was late, so when they eventually got down to eating many of them were under the weather. They had been drinking too much alcohol. Then I got up and I preached my heart out. I made an altar call. Not one single person responded. I can laugh about it now, but not that day. I have never felt so naked in my life. 

I went to the minister’s home where I was sleeping and I said to the Lord, “Lord, that’s the last time. I am not doing this again. They have a church on every street corner in this town. They don’t need me. I am a farmer. I will go back and farm. The Lord spoke to me in my heart and said, “Are you going to do this or aren’t you?” Reluctantly, the next day I got up, and I started to preach again, then the dam burst. Aah, what a harvest we had! And I have never stopped since. 

The same thing happened to Robert Moffatt, the Scottish missionary who founded a missionary station in Kuruman. He was in Scotland trying to recruit missionaries. It was a midweek evening, a handful of white-haired ladies sat in the front row. He was so disillusioned, but you see, what he didn’t realise was that there was a young 14-year-old boy who was working the pump organ, standing behind the organ. What was his name? David Livingstone - one of the giants of Africa! Don’t give up. Jesus is in control!

God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 12th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of John 14:6. Remember, Thomas said to Jesus, “We do not know the way,”  and

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Then we go to the Book of Acts 17:22:

“Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;…”

That was because they were seeking to find the truth. They had many different gods but there was one inscription and it is found in verse 23, and this inscription says,

”TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.”

Now Paul was speaking to these learned wise men, and he was telling them about Jesus. Of course, when he saw this inscription, he said to them, “This is the Unknown God that you are seeking. His name is Jesus Christ and He is the One that you are worshipping, even if you do not know it.” I want to say to you today, there is no other god, there never was and there never will be. We need to tell people. There are many confused people, good people, and wonderful people, and they believe that all roads lead to Heaven. They do not all lead to Heaven. There is only one God and He has only one Son. His Son is Jesus Christ.

Folks, it will make you unpopular. I know that because I have become very unpopular often when I say in love, “there is no other god”. You see, if you say to a person, “I love God”, they will not mind it because God is who you perceive him to be. Some people worship the trees, some people worship the stars, but when you say, “There is only One God and His name is Jesus Christ”, then all Heaven breaks loose! People say, “How can you say that?”  “How can you be so self-righteous?” You say, “No, it's what the word of God says. It is what the Bible says, and we believe He is the Word, as it says in John 1:1. In the beginning was the Word and His name is Jesus.

I am so proud to tell people that, and I tell them that He died for all men, not just some men, of different ages, different colours, different creeds.

So today, do not be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ! 

Have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 11th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Deuteronomy 4:24: 

“For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

Then we go to the New Testament, to the Book of Matthew 22:37:

“Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ” 

This is straightforward, and it is very serious. The Lord says, “There is no other God but Me.” We cannot serve any other god and expect to serve the Lord Jesus Christ as well. I want to say something very seriously this morning. We must never tease God. Do you know what I mean? I mean if you get a young man and a young lady and they go out, and the young lady thinks that if she teases her boyfriend, then he will love her more, or even more seriously, a husband and wife - if the husband starts to look around and play the fool with another woman and then think that his wife will love him more, it actually works in the opposite. It puts a wedge and a division of mistrust in their relationship.

Now, the same thing applies with the Lord. The Lord says, “There will be no other gods but Me.” And we need to understand that. I want to ask you a question. Is there any other god that you know of who has died for his people? No, there is no other god, only Jesus Christ who came to earth, He died for our sins that we might be saved. Now, the least we can do is put Him as the most important Person in our lives.

I want to tell you, as I am getting older, each day I love Him more intensely. When I think of what He has done for a wretched soul like me. That is why John Newton could write that wonderful hymn,  Amazing Grace: “I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see.” 

Today, understand one thing. There is no second, third or fourth god in your life. It has to be Jesus Christ, Him, first and foremost, and then secondly, your loved one, your wife, your husband, your child, but Jesus first.

God bless you as you put Him first in your life today.
Goodbye

I greet you in Jesus’ name! It is Sunday morning, the 10th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Acts 17:6:

“…These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”

Folks, wherever the Holy Spirit moves, wherever the presence of God is, there is either a riot or a revival! That’s what I’ve experienced in my life, and we must be prepared for it and not be afraid of it, because the Bible tells us clearly in Romans 8:31 that if Christ is for us, then who can be against us? 

For many years, I was on the other team. I was the one who was trying to make a way for myself. I was the one who was always negative, and these guys that are over the top, I had no time for them, but you know when God touched me, He turned my life upside down, inside out, and I can tell you today that wherever I am with the Lord, He is there before me and I am ready for whatever happens.

Just the other day, we had a prayer meeting. When I arrived, I saw two strange men there, fine-looking young men, and I said, ”Welcome to our prayer meeting. Where have you come from?” They said, ”We’ve come from the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal.” I said, ”What time did you get up this morning to come to the meeting?” They said, ”Quarter to three in the morning.” They want to hear from God. They want to receive from the Lord and that is good news! Do not be surprised when you see things happening that you actually had nothing to do with because God does it.

God sent Paul and Silas to preach the Gospel and what happened? Well, absolute chaos and absolute Holy Spirit power, and I want to say to you today that you and I need to be ready for whatever the Lord has got in store for us because I can tell you right now it will not be like it was before. We are living in the last days and the Lord is moving very powerfully. We don’t have to make things happen, not at all. All we have to do is be available, open our mouths and tell people about Jesus. That’s all that Paul and Silas did and they were accused of turning the world upside down. Of course, they were quite right, weren’t they? Because that’s exactly what is happening now.

Jesus bless you today as you turn the world upside down simply by telling people who the Son of God is. He is the soon-coming Saviour of the world.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 9th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Book of Acts 16:37:

”But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us openly, uncondemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison. And now do they put us out secretly? No indeed! Let them come themselves and get us out.” 

What had happened was, Paul and Silas had been preaching the Gospel. They had been falsely accused. They had been stripped down, beaten, humiliated and put into prison, but once they had been put into prison, the magistrates realised that actually Paul and Silas were Roman citizens. It was forbidden for them to beat citizens of Rome openly and humiliate them. So the magistrates tried to get out of it and told the jailers, ”Let them go secretly.” But Paul, that’s why I love him so much, he said, ”I’m not having this. They must come, those magistrates, apologise and let us out of prison themselves.” Which, of course, they did, they apologised profusely.

We need to be careful that we, as believers, are not intimidated by bullies, wherever they may be. Because a man is wearing a uniform, that does not give him the right to do what he pleases to you or me, and I’ll give you an example. If you are going down the highway and a Traffic Officer pulls you over and he walks up to your car and says, ”You have been speeding, breaking the speed limit and you need to pay a fine.” You can say to him, ”Yes Officer, I’m quite prepared to do that, but can you show me evidence on your machine that I was actually speeding?” If he says, ”No, I can’t.” Then you are not obliged to pay anything because it’s his word against yours. He needs to give you evidence.

Many years ago I and my young wife Gill, we were just newly married, we were in another country, we were going through the Immigration and Customs and this one officer, quite an otherwise type of person, I don’t know why he didn’t take a liking to me, he pushed a form in front of me and said, "Sign this form so that you can leave the country.” I was about to sign it and this little voice behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, ”Angus, what are you doing?” I said, ”He’s told me I must sign the forms.” She said, ”No, we are not signing any forms unless we can first read them.” And this man changed his tune all of a sudden and said, ”Yes ok, you can go.” Be careful, you don’t sign your life away, folks. Remember, because we are Christians, we don’t have to be doormats to everybody. 

Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 8th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Deuteronomy 4:2:

”You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it,…”

Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 5:18:

“For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

Spoken by the Master, Himself. By the way, a jot and a tittle is literally a stroke of a pen or one dot. Nothing is to be changed or compromised. Why? It is for our own good. The Lord did not write the Ten Commandments and the Bible for His good. He is God. He doesn’t have to obey the law. He is the law. We need to be obedient. It is for our own sake. Why? Because it keeps us safe. You see, the Bible is our compass. If you are going through the bush, all by yourself, and you get lost and you have a compass, the compass will lead you out of that jungle - north, south, east, west. It sees us through stormy nights when you can’t sleep at night and you need comfort. The word of God is a comfort. It really is. It is a light unto our feet and it shows us the way. It brings peace and harmony in the home.

You know, when mom and dad are arguing, boys and girls, when mom and dad are arguing, boys and girls, you can say, “Dad, mom, what does the Bible say about the situation? And that is the final answer. It brings security when you are feeling unsure of yourself. What does the Bible say. Do what the Bible says. And accountability - when you go on that long trip, sir, and you get tempted, you are lonely and you are by yourself at night, and this beautiful young lady comes and starts to speak to you, the Lord, through the word of God, reminds you that you have a wife and children back at home and they belong to you, not this woman.

It is a wonderful friend. Do not change it. It has been there since the beginning of time and this is not a time to try and take one thing away from it or add one thing to it.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name!

It is Thursday morning, the 7th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Proverbs 6:10-11:

”A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep—So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler, …”

Then we go to the New Testament to 1 Corinthians 15:58:

”Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 

It’s so important for us, as believers, to keep up the good work. It keeps the soul of a man or woman in good health. We’re talking this morning about spiritual exercise. We need to keep spiritually fit. Bishop Ryle said, ”Activity in doing good is one recipe for being cheerful Christians. It is like exercise to the body and it keeps the soul in good health.”

Did you get up early this morning? I trained many, many years ago for the Comrades Marathon, which is held in South Africa every year. It is a gruelling race - two standard marathons plus a few extra kilometres thrown in, but these serious competitors are extremely disciplined. They get up in the morning and they run. They run with lights before the sun comes up. Some of them run in the afternoon or even in the evening but they are disciplined because they know, if they are going to get that medal, whichever medal it might be, they have to be fit.

I want to say to you today, spiritually, you and I need to be fit! We need to get up, get out of our beds, go through and have our quiet time with the Lord, read the Bible systematically. We need to pray, read a nice devotional, listen to Christian music, and, most of all, speak to Jesus. When you do that regularly, you get stronger and stronger daily, even as you grow older, not weaker, stronger in the faith.

Let’s do it today. Let’s discipline ourselves physically, but more importantly, spiritually, so that God can talk to us!

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 6th of May, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Acts 16:9:

“And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 

The one thing I loved about Paul, the Apostle, when I read all those letters, was that he was an obedient man. He was not interested in a good idea because he knew that a good idea is not always a God-idea! When he and Silas were travelling, they were going to go to Phrygia, and the Holy Spirit said, “Don’t go to Phrygia”, then to Mysia, “Don’t go to Mysia, don’t go to Bithynia, don’t go to Troas.” He never went to any of those places in Asia, but he crossed the sea and went to Macedonia, where the Lord Holy Spirit had told him to go. It is very important to do what the Holy Spirit tells you to do, not what other people tell you to do, not to accept every invitation that comes from all over. Only do what God tells you to do. 

Now, I can really identify with this Macedonian call. Many of you will remember a few years back, I had a Macedonian call, and it was to Cape Town. Cape Town had had no rain for two years. They were in a terrible state, but that is not what called me. It was a Macedonian call, a young man by the name of Ashley, a very dear son in the Lord, whom I did not know. Through a daily reading of Scripture Union I was reading, I got the Macedonian call. I phoned him. He didn’t even know who I was, he thought it was someone playing a trick on him, but when I convinced him that it was me, I said, “I am coming to Mitchell’s Plain.”

Now, folks, as soon as people heard we were going to Mitchell’s Plain, they said, “You are mad. You mustn’t go there because those people will hurt you.” I said, “They will not hurt me. God has told me to go there.” And they said to me, ‘But no one will come and support you because no one will go to that area.” Well, we had over 250,000 people there, and by the way, it started raining in the middle of the meeting, and I don’t think it stopped since. Signs, miracles, wonders - the first time in my life, the Holy Spirit again told me to take my clothes off and give them to the young gang leaders who had come forward to give their lives, to change their guns for Bibles. It was an amazing event, probably one of the highlights of my preaching career. 

Today, listen to the Macedonian call! When God tells you to do something, do it. If God tells you not to do it, don’t do it, and you will succeed in everything you do.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.