Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 8th of October, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Job 28:28:

”Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil, is understanding.”

Then we go to the Gospel of John 17:17:

”Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.” 

The Bible is the truth. We don’t have to reinvent anything else. Everything you need to know, everything you need to stand by, is found in the Holy Word of God, the Bible. We cannot and we may not change anything. We’ve got to keep it simple. When you’re talking to your children, make it very simple and then they will understand what the truth means. 

If we look at John 18:38. Jesus was standing before Pontius Pilate when he was judging him, and Pontius Pilate asked Jesus a question, ”What is truth?” Folks, there are none so blind as those who cannot see or don’t want to see. Isn’t that a true saying? You see, Pontius Pilate was looking into the face of truth itself. He was looking into the face of God and he was asking a question, “What is truth?” I want to say to you today, we must keep it simple. The Gospel is not complicated. I remember somebody saying to me a long time ago, ”Educators complicate, communicators simplify.” Keep it simple. Keep to the Word of God. When somebody says to you, ”Show me the truth,” give them a Bible because that is truth.

You know the great automobile manufacturer Henry Ford? They came to him once and said, ”We want to paint the Model T Ford a different colour” (because in those days, they were all black). Henry Ford said, ”You can paint it any colour you like, as long as it stays black.” Folks, you can say what you like as long as you do not misinterpret the Bible. For those preachers that are listening to this word this morning, you have a tremendous responsibility when you get onto the platform, into the pulpit. You deliver the word of God because you will be judged accordingly. Just tell them what Jesus means to you! 

Have a wonderful day, 
God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 7th October, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Luke 24:32:

”And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the scriptures to us?” 

Two men walking towards Emmaus, which is approximately 7 miles from Jerusalem, 15 kilometres, probably the same distance from the farm Shalom to our little town, Greytown. These two men were walking along, minding their own business, speaking to one another about what had happened in Jerusalem, when another man came and joined them. 

He asked them a question, ”What are you talking about?” 

They said, ”Well, haven’t you heard what has happened?” 

“No, no. What has happened?” It was Jesus folks! It was Jesus and He walked with them and they just loved it. 

They said, ”Didn’t our heart burn within us?”,  because they persuaded Jesus to spend the night with them. He sat with them and when He had broken bread at the dinner table.

“Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.”
Luke 24:31

You and I have to be Jesus to many broken, hurting, lonely, desperate people. We must decrease, like John the Baptist said and He must increase within us. 

I was at a prayer meeting the other night, and a young girl who has just joined our fellowship is a schoolteacher in town. She said to us that her mother was so happy that she was at our church on the farm. Her mother, many, many years ago, went through tremendous trials, and there were two old ladies on the farm, Shalom, who ministered to her and helped her tremendously through her problems. I was able to say to the young school teacher, ”I knew them very well. One was Aunty Peggy, and the other was Aunty Moira. They were my intercessors on the farm. They travelled with me wherever I went. While I was preaching, they would be praying.” 

Oh yes. This young lady’s mother clearly saw Jesus in those two women, as I did too. I cannot wait to meet them in Heaven. Today, go out and be Jesus to those who are lost.

Have a wonderful day! Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 6th of October, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of John 8:59:

”Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple,…”

Folks, I want to speak to you today about contending with God. Do not fight with God. Contend means “put forward a view in an argument.”

Many of us, I’m including myself, when things don’t go well, we blame God. “Lord, where were You? Lord, You promised that You’d never leave me nor forsake me. Lord, why is this thing happening? Why am I faced with a divorce?” But if we are honest with ourselves, we know that we haven’t been doing things according to what God, through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, has told us to do. 

Stop having an affair with that woman and I’m talking about having an affair on the internet. Yes! I’m talking about making those phone calls to that girl. She’s not your wife, she’ll never be your wife and your own wife finds out about it. Things go wrong and you say, ”God, why have You done this to me?” God hasn’t done that to You, You’ve done it to yourself.

Pay your income tax. Don’t owe people money. “Well, I’m going down the tube now, I can’t pay my debt.” But you shouldn’t have bought that motor car, you know that because you didn’t have enough money. We’ve got to stop blaming God when things don’t go well in our own lives. To contend with God is as ludicrous as an ant trying to argue with a bull elephant. You’re laughing, I’m not laughing. You know a bull elephant stands ten feet tall. It weighs up to ten tons. It lives to sixty years old. Don’t contend with a bull elephant when you are a mere ant!

You know that farmer, Job? Job 38:3-4. The Lord says to Job when he was complaining. Maybe like you and me:

”Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

It’s ridiculous. How can we even question God?

I want to say to you today and it’s a serious message, stop playing the fool. Start getting serious with the Lord, start obeying His commandments and your life will go a lot easier. Stop contending with God! 

You and I are not in a position to start thumping the table. I’ve heard people say to me, ”When I get to Heaven one day, there’s a few questions I need to ask God.” Oh, my friend, you’ve got no idea about what you’re talking about. When you get to Heaven, you will not say one word when you see the glory of God. You will just worship Him!

Have a good day today and remember, don’t contend with God,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 5th of October, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Philippians 4:19, out of the Amplified Version:

“And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need (I want you to remember that word) according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

The Lord has promised you today and He has promised me that He will supply every one of our needs, not our wants. What are your needs today? I can hear you sitting there, madam, and you are saying, “I don’t have any food for my children to eat tonight,” or “I don’t know how I am going to pay for a new uniform for my young child’s school next year.” Or maybe, sir, you are saying, “I don’t know how I am going to pay my accounts. I don’t even have enough money for petrol for the motor car.” You are in need. Now, we are both in this together. I am in there with you. “Lord, we need to pay the rent otherwise they are going to chuck us out.”

I want to encourage you with this: The Israelites, a whole nation, not a handful of people, over a million people in the desert, stranded, no food, and they are crying to Moses, “Why didn’t you just leave us in Egypt where we could have died at least with dignity?” And what happened? God sent manna. The literal translation of the word, “manna” is, “what is it?” So when they woke up in the morning, it was like frost on top of the grass, on the leaves of the bushes. The Hebrew writers called it, “Angel's bread.” Isn’t that beautiful? It has a delicious flavour, very nourishing, the Bible tells us, but the funny thing was, as soon as other food was available, it stopped. Yes, I am talking about a miracle. The experts say, there is no known food that resembles the description of manna. The famous poet, Asaf, called it “corn from Heaven.” Isn’t that beautiful? It was of a very delicious flavour. If you look at Exodus 16:31:

“and the house of Israel called it’s name, Manna, And it was like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.”

In the Book of Numbers it talks about pastries. But you know something? Only enough for one day at a time. On Saturday before the Sabbath, they were allowed to collect for two days otherwise it went bad.

Today, put your total trust in Jesus. If He can take care and feed a million people in the desert for forty years, every single day, He can take care of your needs and mine.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 4th of October, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Exodus 16:3:

“And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

Then we go to the Book of Job 38:4.

“The Lord said to Job: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”

Stop being ungrateful! We have very short memories, don't we, my dear friend? We forget where Jesus has brought us from. We are so quick to complain. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt but they forgot that very quickly when they were in the desert and they were hungry and thirsty. Of course the Lord supplied everything they needed, but they had short memories, forgetting where they had come from.

You and I need to stop complaining and we need to start becoming more grateful for what we have. I think of William and Catherine Booth, the founders of the Salvation Army. They took care of the hungry and the poor and the homeless. William Booth’s son was Bramwell Booth, that was his name. When he was about 16 years old, one night at maybe 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, William Booth took them to the poorest part of East London. He took his son into a pub, a drinking house. There were little children standing outside waiting for their parents, in rags. You can imagine the snow on the ground in the middle of winter. He took his son into the middle of this drinking house. There were people lying all over the place, drunk. The floor was full of rubbish where people had vomited. I am telling you the truth. It was like a pig sty! It was absolutely disgusting, and he said to his son, “Have a look around. What do you see? His son was so shocked at what he saw, the squalor, the poverty, the hunger, and then he said, “Bramwell, these are our people. We must help them.” And then they went out home. Bramwell Booth never forgot that sight as long as he lived. He was so grateful for what God had given to him and his family.

You too, remember from where we have come, lest we start to complain about our situation at the moment. 

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 3rd of October, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Book of Luke 23:50:

“Now behold, there was a man named Joseph, a council member, a good and just man.” 

We are talking here about Joseph of Arimathea. He was one of Jesus’ secret disciples. He was a member of the Sanhedrin yet he had the courage to go to Pontius Pilate and ask for the body of our beloved Saviour, and took the body down from the cross, you can read it yourself, and he wrapped it in linen. He laid it in his own personal tomb that had been hewn out of the rock, and where no-one had laid before, and he left Him there until the day of preparation.

I want to say something to you today. There are many good and just men like Joseph of Arimathea in the Kingdom of God. It’s just that you never hear about them. They work quietly, but they are the backbone of the church of Jesus Christ. 

Now, I want to tell you a little story. My mother only had one brother, his name was George. He was a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy during the Second World War. They used to take food to Britain because Britain was completely surrounded by the sea, and the ships that they sailed in had no defence system to speak of. They were very slow, but they brought food from America and from all over the world. When the siren went and there was an announcement that there were German U-boats in the sea, and their objective was to sink these ships, the Chief Engineer went down into the engine room, which was below water level. He closed a big steel door, he stood by the door and he told the workers to stoke the boilers, coal-fired ships in those days, and they had to keep on stoking that fire to keep the ship running. If those men had abandoned their positions and run on top, the ship would have come to a standstill and would have been torpedoed to the bottom of the sea. He would stand there, sometimes armed with a revolver, and said, “The first man that is going to leave his post, I will shoot!” He had to do that, and they would continue to keep the ship going.

There are many of those engineers in God’s army. This ministry has been going for 47 years and I want to tell you, it is the Josephs of Arimathea’s that have kept this ministry going, no one else, and we thank God for every single member, men and women, who are continually supporting the work of the Lord, unseen. But God, through Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, sees everything.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 2nd of October, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of John 19:30:

“So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” 

It is finished!  We have to finish our race, my dearest friends. I was on a radio programme and when I said, “We have to finish our race just like Jesus finished His race on the Cross of Calvary, she said, “But Uncle Angus, we are so tired. There are many of us that are so weary and tired.” I said, “My dear lady, I couldn’t agree with you more. I too am tired but we have to finish.” I said, “The road that leads to hell and damnation is wide, it is smooth, it is easy to walk on, and there are many who are walking on that road, but the road that leads to eternal life, to Heaven, is very narrow, very steep and rocky and there are very few on that road. That is the road that you and I are on at the moment and we need to finish strong. So to be tired is quite understandable. 

I looked up an Olympic marathon runner from the 1984 Olympic Games, Gabriella Anderson-Schiess. She was running the marathon, she got dehydrated and she finished that race. She was wondering all over the track but she would not sit down because she said she knew if she sat down she would never get up again, and by law, none of the assistants could touch her. She had to finish herself, but the crowd went wild. It is not whether you finish first or second, it’s whether you finish your race, and even as Gabriella finished her race, you and I need to do exactly the same. But the good news is, the Lord has not asked us to finish our race on our own.

If we look at Philippians 1:6:

“For we are confident of this very thing that He who has begun a good work in us shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.“

Now, that is a promise that we can hang onto. The Lord never promised us that we had to do it on our own, but what He did say is that we need to finish the race.

God bless you! Run your race. I am running with you!
Bye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 1st of October, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in 1 Corinthians 15:55:

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, (that’s hell) where is your victory?” 

Then we go straight to Luke 23:43:

”And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” 

Today, you will be with Me in heaven. O Death, where is your sting? I want to say to you, today I have no fear of dying, and I really mean that because even Paul said, “For me to live is Christ and to die is but gain.” You cannot frighten a Christian with heaven, can you? Death has lost it’s sting. Remember the two criminals were hanging on the cross, either side of Jesus? The one was negative, ‘If you are the Son of God, why don’t You save Yourself and us too?” But the other one said, “Why do you pick on this Man? He has done nothing wrong. Lord, please remember me in paradise.” He said, “Today you will be with me in heaven.”

I want to really say to you today, if you are doubting, please do not doubt, because the word of God is accurate. A very dear family friend of ours, a nursing sister and a wonderful woman of God, her name is Daphne, and she told my wife, Jill and I, that she can go into a ward where there is somebody lying there dying and they are unbelievers. That ward is full of fear, of anger, of gnashing of teeth, of blasphemy as that person dies, going literally to hell, because they do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Way. 

She said then she can go into another ward where one of the children of God is starting to breathe their last, she said it is like a fragrance in that room. It is peaceful, it is full of love and that person has got a nice smile on their face and saying, “Soon and very soon, I am going to dine with the King of Glory.

Where do you stand today? You might say, “Angus, is there any hope for me?” Oh yes, there is! “What do I have to do to have eternal life?” Simply the same thing as the one criminal did. “Lord, remember me when You get to heaven.” He acknowledged Jesus Christ as the King of Kings. Pray this prayer after me:

Lord, 

Today I acknowledge You as the only true and living God,

Amen.

Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 30th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the word of God, 1 Corinthians 16:9:

“For a great effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”

The Lord never promised you or me a rose garden - no, no, not at all. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we must take the full package, and that sometimes involves a lot of adversity. "A great and effective door has been opened to you." Now that happened to me in 2009, here on the Shalom Farm for the first time in my life, I saw with my own eyes over 120,000 men gathered to worship God, not people, men!

I will never forget, we had a rotary platform so that I could walk full circle and the men were seated all the way around the platform. It was an amazing event, a great and effective door, something I had been praying for, for many, many years - but with it came adversaries, hard times. I was severely challenged on the Saturday morning, I had preached my heart out, it was very warm and after I had finished the message, I went down the steps, underneath the platform. My older son was finishing up the praise and worship, I was praying for a group of 50 Australian farmers, and then I felt a bit light-headed. I walked out and I collapsed. I had a heart attack. They took me to the house. I never knew that at the time. I came around, they sat me in the garden. My dear wife, Jill, brought me a nice hot cup of sweet tea. I drank half the cup and I collapsed a second time, a second heart attack. With that, they called the helicopter 911, and they cut the fence open. I was lying there, I will never forget, I had an oxygen mask on me and I am saying, “Lord, what is happening?” The greatest moment in my life up to then, and I now can’t even speak. They put me on a stretcher, put me in the helicopter and as the helicopter took off, the pilot just tilted the helicopter a little bit and I could see tens of thousands of hands raised into the sky and the men were praying for me. 

Well, the good news is that when I got to the helipad in Pietermaritzburg, a ten minutes flight but an hour’s drive, the specialist was there to see me. He put me on a treadmill and then after I had been on the treadmill for a while, he took me off the treadmill. He said, “Mr Buchan, there is nothing wrong with you. You can go home.” The next morning, I was preaching my heart out again. Oh look, I had to stop and sit down a few times. I felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck but I fully recovered. 

So today, open your heart for the Lord. He has got great and effective doors for you but be prepared for the fight, but remember greater is He who is within you and I than he who is in the world. (1 John 4:4)

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 29th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Exodus 14:15:

“And the Lord said to Moses,’”Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward.”

There’s no reverse gear in the kingdom of God, we are only going forward. There is no future in the past, we are not about to go backwards. Jesus Christ is coming back soon and we need to be going forward when He comes back. No more talking about it. No more double-guessing. Maybe I’m talking to someone today who is between a rock and a hard place. Oh, my dear friend, I know the feeling so well, by the way, so did Moses. Moses was looking at an ocean, the Red Sea before him, and behind him was the most powerful army in the world coming down upon him, and they were very bitter and angry. They had lost the oldest boy in each one of their families. They wanted revenge. 

What could they do? The people cried out to Moses, ”Why have you brought us here? It would have been easier if we’d remained in Egypt as slaves.” Maybe you’re saying that today, ”I shouldn’t have done this. I’ve got myself into a position now. If I’d just stayed the way I was before, I would have been alright.” That’s not the truth and you know it, we’ve got to go forward!

Now we’ve got to do it by two things: Number one, by faith, and number two, by obedience. You see, by faith Moses stretched out his arm with his staff, and the ocean parted, and they walked through it. What you need to do is hear clearly what it is God told you to do at the beginning, and then follow through. Go forward, and then do it by faith and obedience, and the Lord will do the rest.

Hebrews 11:1:

”Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen.” 

That is what we’ve got to do. We can’t please God without faith, folks. He doesn’t want our good works. He wants us simply to obey Him. 

Verse 6 says:

”But without faith it, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

That’s why the Lord loved Peter so much. There were twelve disciples in the boat. Jesus came walking on the water and Peter said, ”Lord, call me and I’ll come.” The Lord said, “Come!” He stepped out of the boat and he walked on top of the lake of Galilee. Folks, there’s no man in the world that has ever walked on water. Peter did, through faith and obedience. Yes, he started sinking but the Lord was there to pick him out.

Today, look to the Lord and go forward. 
Jesus bless you and goodbye.