Thought For Today

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

We start in Mark 16:7:

“But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” 

Then we go to the Gospel of John 19:26:

“When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.”

Folks, Jesus was hanging on the cross. I believe it is probably the most painful torture before a man dies. He had nails pierced through His hands and feet, and yet He could still look down and with love and compassion ask John, His beloved disciple, to look after His earthly mother, Mary. That is love that we cannot comprehend. And what about Peter - Peter, the big fisherman? Peter, the one who said, “I will never leave you. I will die for you, Lord”, and yet he denied Him three times, not once, and actually swore that he did not know who Jesus was. And so when He told the disciples to go to Galilee, and He would find them there, He said, “Tell the disciples and Peter.” Why did He say that? Because He knew that Peter would never go to Galilee to meet with Jesus because of what he had done, but Jesus loved him so much.

Oh my dear friend, He loves you and I so much. There is nothing too big or too small that He doesn’t take notice of. Yes, He can part the Red Sea with one word, but He can also show that old lady who is desperately looking for a parking place at the supermarket, and I can see that old lady, whoever she is, maybe there is more than one. And what about that young boy who is trying to get to university, and he can’t find his car keys? “Where did I put them last night. I came home so late! And he prays and the Lord reminds him. I want to tell you, I love Jesus so much. Ask Him today to show you those things that you think are too trivial and He will do it. I know because He does it for me all the time.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.

Goodbye.

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

We go straight to the Old Testament to the Book of Job 5:13:

“He catches the wise in their own craftiness,…”

Then we go to 1 Corinthians 3:19:

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” 

Folks, we need to understand one thing this morning. God is in Heaven and we are on Earth. We need to be very careful how we stand and how we talk. God will not be mocked by any man nor any nation.

We go to Galatians 6:7. The Lord says:

“…for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” 

I have spoken to some people who are angry with God. They don’t really understand what they are even saying, never mind thinking, and they shake their fist at God, and they say, “I want some answers from God when I get to Heaven." I have got news for you. When you get to Heaven, you will not be shaking your fist at God. You will probably be lying prostrate on the ground and crying for mercy.

We need to respect God. We need to understand that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit love us but They are holy and They will not tolerate any sin of any kind. Our God is a merciful God and He has given us much grace, undeserved loving kindness, but we must not take it for granted. We must revere the Lord, we must treat Him with great reverence. He is our Creator. He is our soon-coming King, and we need to be ready for it. Don’t be casual in the way you talk to God. 

I want to pray for you this morning because there are people who have told me they are angry with God. Oh my dear friend, please, if you want to get angry, get angry with the devil or anybody else, but never God.

Father, 

I want to pray for my dear friends who faithfully listen to this little message every single morning. Some are confused, some are fearful, some are angry because they do not understand. Lord, how can we possibly understand the wisdom of God who created the universe? We ask You to forgive us today. We ask You, Lord, to show us in Your gentle divine way just who You are and who we are not. And we ask this in Your precious name! 

Amen.

God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Psalms 34:19:

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.” 

What a beautiful scripture! Then we go to the New Testament, Romans 8:31:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”  

So then, what the Lord is saying to us here is that because you have become a Christian, that does not mean that you are not going to be subject to tribulation and trials. But the good news is, He says He will never leave us, and He will never forsake us. He is not going to take us out of the fiery trial, no. He says He is going to walk with us through the fiery trial.

Opposition is actually a healthy thing because what it does, it strengthens us. So if you are going through a tough time at the moment and you are feeling that God has abandoned you, He hasn’t abandoned you at all. He is walking right next to you. He says, “If I am for you, there is no man that will stand against you.” Ultimately, you will have the victory. Now the best example that I can see anywhere in the Bible is the story of Moses bringing the Children of Israel, over a million people, out of Egypt and into the promised land. 

There is an old saying I learnt long, long time ago: I have yet to meet a man or a woman worth their salt who has not been through fiery trials. Any man or woman who has ever achieved anything, it is through fire that the Lord has brought them through and made them stronger. I want you to think of Moses for a moment. Moses was between a rock and a hard place, as the saying goes - between a rock and a hard place - are you there today? Well, listen to this. Now Moses is standing at the shores of the Red Sea. Behind him is coming this most powerful army of that time, and they are very angry because their oldest son in their families, each and every one of them, had died. They wanted revenge. What could Moses do? He couldn’t go forward and he couldn’t go back. He called upon the name of the Lord. The Lord opened the ocean and they walked through on dry, friend. That is a fact, my dear friend. The archeologists will tell you that at the bottom of the Red Sea at that particular place, there are chariot wheels from the time of Pharaoh that are still there. It happened!

Today, it doesn’t matter what you are going through. If Christ is for you, there is no one who will stand against you!

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day

Goodbye.

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

We go to 1 Corinthians 6:19:

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…?” 

Then we back up a little bit to 1 Corinthians 3:16:

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 

Some of us are not doing well, are we? No, we are sick in our bodies, we are sick in our minds, and we are very sick in our spirits. Your little boy, your little girl, driving to work with you or to school, ask them a question, “Can you put diesel into a petrol fuel motorcar?” Of course not! What will happen? It will stop immediately. Ask them if your motorcar needs to be serviced regularly or not? No, well we don’t have the money to service our car. Well, it won’t last. It is going to stop, it is going to break down. These are essentials. Now, why do we take care of our vehicles, but we don’t take care of our physical bodies? 

I want to say something very serious to the grown-ups. Pornography is not an option. You are pouring filth into your body every day, and then you are wondering why you are in a state of depression, anxiety, and fear. We need to destroy that thing today. Get rid of it. Some movies we are watching - let us ask ourselves a serious question. If you had to sit there on your own, in your flat, in your house and watch a movie, ask yourself a question. Would I be comfortable watching this movie with the filthy language and the suggestiveness, with Jesus Christ sitting next to me? Of course not. Well then we need to stop doing that.

We need to eat properly, sleep properly, but I am not talking so much about that. I am talking about the spiritual context. If you want the Holy Spirit to work in your life, He will not come into your life if you are living in sin. You have to deal with it today. That is the problem, and that spiritual sin turns into physical sickness and disease. You go to the doctor, you are asking him to help you, but you will not stop smoking, madam. It is killing you. You will not stop drinking, sir, but it is poisoning your system. Stop it today, and I am telling you, you will not have to go to the doctor because Jesus Christ will be dwelling within you. 

Have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

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

We start in 1 Corinthians 3:11:

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 

I want to speak today about foundational people. 

The Chief Engineer -  I have told you many times, my mother’s brother was a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy in the Second World War. They operate below sea level. No one sees them. Everyone sees the Captain on the bridge, but without that Chief Engineer and his men, that ship is going nowhere. He is vital. 

I want to speak to you about maybe the greatest men’s conference that met for a weekend at Shalom Farm, in the year 2010. I can’t tell you exactly the number of men, not women and children, only men, that came to this farm on that weekend which I will never, ever forget. We believe it was in excess of 450,000 men for a full weekend, starting on Friday and finishing on Sunday morning. Yes, I was the speaker but I want to tell you something now, without foundational men and women who organised that event, it would never have happened. I had the privilege of standing there, but without them who did all the work, before and after. It took us over 2 weeks to collect all the rubbish on the farm and deliver it to the rubbish dump. It was incredible. Do you know that Greytown, the little town that is 15 kms away, had nothing left in it. It was as if locusts had been through the town! Some say it was the biggest Christian men’s gathering in world history. 

I want to tell you about the greatest Foundation of all. Yes, I am talking about the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, my dear friend, you can do nothing. We need to give Him more place. Many of us never even mention His name. I want to tell you, He is part of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “It is beneficial for you that I go home so that I can send you a Helper.

Today, put some effort into your relationship with the Holy Spirit. He is the One who makes things happen. Without Him, nothing will ever happen. Speak to Him. Ask Him to help you, direct you, counsel you. He is everything you need, and He is all over the world at the same time. What a Foundation!

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Isaiah 48:10, the Lord speaking:

”I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” 

Then we go to John 15:16. Jesus says:

”You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit…”

There’s somebody listening to this message this morning who is going through a tremendous fiery trial. You are saying, ”I can’t take this. I can’t go through with this, it’s too much for me.” The Lord has said to you, ”I have chosen you for this. I have made a way for you.” I’m not saying that the Lord has put it on you. What I am saying is that the Lord has allowed you, because He sees that you are fit and you are strong enough, to go through this.

It was just like yesterday that we had one of the biggest tragedies that I’ve ever had in my life on the farm here, where we lost our little nephew who fell off that tractor that I was driving. I cried out to God, I’ll never forget it. ”Lord, I don’t think I can take this, I can’t go through with this.” The Lord said,

”My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect through weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9.

A very kind farmer drove over in his pickup to come and visit me. We sat in my farm office together. He said to me, ”Do you have a firearm?” I said, ”Yes, I do. I have a shotgun.” He said, ”Could I have it for a while?” And then I realised what he was doing. He was trying to protect me. I said, ”No, don’t worry Gordon, the Lord has got me in His hand.” And we wept together and he left and the Lord took me through that fiery trial.

My friends, I want to tell you, it can be lonely. I would drive down the main street in town, people would see me coming and they’d step into a shop or make out that they’re looking at their phone or something, not because they didn’t love me, they did love me, but they didn’t know how to face me. Jesus was there right there through the fiery trial and He has brought me out the other side and I have been in a position to help many others in this situation.

We know one thing, and at the end of the day all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. Today, keep your eyes on Jesus and He will see you through this time of testing. 

God bless you and goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Joshua 24:15. This is now Joshua speaking:

“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

He stood up in front of the whole nation of Israel and said, “Who are you going to serve today? Are you going to serve foreign gods or are you going to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We need to be verbal. We cannot sit on the fence. It is a very uncomfortable place to be, especially if it is a barbed wire fence!

Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 12:30. Jesus says:

“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”

In other words, you cannot serve two masters. There is no neutral place in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are going to serve the Lord, you have to serve Him with all of your heart. That is why God blessed Joshua so much. He was a single-minded man. He stood up in front of the whole nation and publicly declared that he and his family were going to serve the Lord. 

I remember when our first child got married. He stood up in the reception area and declared, “As for me and my house (that was he and his young wife), we will serve the Lord.” And he has done that for many, many years. He himself is now a grandfather and his grandchildren and my great-grandchildren are all serving the Lord. 

There comes a time when we have got to be vocal. We cannot be indifferent. We cannot be lukewarm. Jesus said, “I will vomit you out of my mouth if you are lukewarm. I would rather you be ice cold than lukewarm.” We really need to stand up in these last days. You see, people don’t have to like you, but they must respect you, and you know the amazing thing is, when the going gets really rough, people will come to those of us who are standing tall for Jesus, for help, for counsel, for advice. We need to be solid. “If everybody has got something good to say about you,” one famous evangelist said, “be sure that Jesus has got nothing good to say about you!” Oh folks, you don’t even have to speak, you just have to live it. I want to pray for you this morning. 

Father, 

I pray for my dear friend listening to this message, who is afraid, who is shy, who says, “I can’t do it”. Please help them, Holy Spirit, to be outspoken at work, on the rugby field, at school. When they open their mouths, Lord, give them the strength to say, “No, we follow Jesus and Him alone.”

God bless you and goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Exodus 14:21:

”Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.”

Then we go to 1 Corinthians 2:5. This is Paul speaking:

”…that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” 

We’ve got a saying here at Shalom and it goes like this, ”One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons.” And it’s so true. You can forget a message but never a miracle. I’m talking about a genuine miracle. I remember like yesterday, having been invited to go to Israel to preach the Gospel at the Feast of Tabernacles. We were down at En Gedi, the lowest point on earth. That’s right next to the Dead Sea. It was a sweltering evening, over 40 degrees at night. I was the speaker that night and as I was up on the platform, I was reading from Acts 2, the account of the rushing mighty wind that went through the upper room where all the disciples were huddled together to escape the Romans that were hunting them down, and that wind came through and changed everything forever.

When I’d finished reading that scripture, I was so overwhelmed, I did something I don’t think I’ll ever do again. After I’d finished, I closed the Bible, I said, ’Lord, please do it again.” And oh folks, He did it again. Many of you listening to this podcast right now were there, and a rushing mighty wind started blowing the equipment off stage, and then it started to rain. It never rains there, hardly ever does it rain there. The people started running forward to meet with Jesus. I didn’t have to preach a sermon. I couldn’t preach a sermon! I was trying to stand up and hold onto my hat. Oh folks, one genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. 
Goodbye

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 7th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.

We start in the Old Testament in the Book of Zechariah 4:6:

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

Then we go to the New Testament, to 1 Corinthians 2:1-2:

“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” 

Folks, it is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that moves people to hear the Gospel. Now I want to tell you an embarrassing story. Many, many years ago, I had been preaching maybe for 5 or 10 years, and a very dear friend of mine - this man was a qualified theologian. He had been to university, studied for seven years, and was a great preacher as well. So one Sunday night, I was preaching in his church and he said, “Angus, I am going to do a “crit” on you tonight. I said, “What do you mean?” “No, I am going to sit at the back of the church and I am going to write up how you are preaching and then I will tell you afterwards.”

Well, I wasn’t so keen on that. Anyway, he said he would do it.  At the end of the service, he came to me, and he said, “Okay, are you ready for the answers?” I said, “Well, I suppose so.” He said, “Well, your introduction was about 3/10” I said, “Okay”. “And your scripture reading about 2/10 and your theme was about 3/10 and your message was about 5/10.”  By this time I was crestfallen. He said, “and of course, your conclusion and the end of the service was about 2/10.” He said, “But the presence of the Holy Spirit in your message was about 12/10!” I was so elated. 

D L Moody, one of the greatest evangelist that has ever lived. He was in England one time, and he had a very broad accent. He was also a farm boy and a shoe salesman. When he had finished preaching, an English noblewoman came up to him and said, “Mr Moody, I want to tell you that that was the most atrocious English I have ever heard spoken. And him, not to be let down he said, “Well Ma’am, I am using what English I have for Jesus. Tell me, what are you doing with your English?” 

Then the last little story: Gypsy Smith, that great English preacher who used to preach to up to 10,000 people in the open. A worn-out lay preacher came to see him and said, “I have preached everything from Genesis to Revelation. I am worn out. What can I tell them?” And Gypsy said, “Keep telling them what Jesus means to you.”

God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye. 

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

We go to the Book of Joshua 23:6. Joshua says:

“Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left,…” 

Keep the faith! Joshua was a very old man when he told the children of Israel that they must be very courageous and do everything that is written in the Book. We are talking about the Bible. The Lord will grip us tightly, He will hold us fast. Do you remember that hymn, a beautiful hymn? He will hold me fast.

We need to grip tightly onto Him. This life is very rough at the moment. He must be our Lifeline. We must cling to Jesus with unwavering loyalty. The best example I can give you is that old farmer, Job, in the Book of Job 13:15. He says:

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” 

I want to read a couple of verses from that wonderful hymn: 

When I fear my faith will fail,
Christ will hold me fast;
I could never keep my hold,
Through life’s fearful path
For my love is often cold,
He must hold me fast.

He will hold me fast,
He will hold me fast;
For my Saviour loves me so,
He will hold me fast.

Just visualise somebody hanging over the edge of a cliff. They have slipped and they are falling. People call the Fire Brigade. They come rushing in with that big red truck. The fireman gets out. He leans over, he is very brave, he is very strong. He just manages to get hold of your hand. He says, “Hold me fast”, and then he starts to pull you up slowly but steadily. Eventually you say, “I can’t, I can’t anymore” and you let go. But he has still got you. He is still holding you fast and he pulls you up. Jesus is that fireman. He says, “Hold onto My arm, hold on tightly, and I will pull you through this problem you are struggling with.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.