Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 31st of July, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the first book in the Bible, the Book of Genesis 32:32:

”…He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip in the muscle that shrank.” 

The Lord touched the hip of Jacob and displaced his hip and for the rest of his life, he limped with a displaced hip. Then we go straight to 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, Paul says:

“Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

I want to speak to you today about pain. Are you in pain today? Have you just lost a loved one, someone very close to you? Have you just had an injury and the doctor says you will never play sport again? Have you had a situation where you are physically weak and the one you love the most has left you because he or she said they can’t live with you? Well, I want to tell you something now. The Lord says to you today and to me, “My grace, my undeserved loving kindness is enough for you.”

Folks, I know about healing. I pray for the sick. I have seen blind eyes open, I have seen deaf ears unstopped, I have seen people get out of wheelchairs and walk. I have seen it with my eyes. You have seen the movie, “Faith Like Potatoes”, where we prayed for a dead woman and God raised her up, but I want to speak to you today about pain.

My best example is a hero of mine. A Scottish preacher by the name of George Matheson. At the age of twenty years old, he started going blind and his fiancée left him. She said, ”I can’t live with a blind man for the rest of my life.” I want to tell you about that man. That man was tipped to be one of the greatest preachers in Scotland, but because he went blind, he was put on the side, but you know what he did? When he was sitting in the lounge, when his young sister was about to get married. They were doing all the preparations. She was his eyes, you see. She had dedicated her life to helping him, and now she had found her lover, and she was getting married and she was about to leave him. He was forty years old, he was all by himself. He sat in the corner and he wrote a hymn, probably one of the greatest hymns ever written, “Oh love that will not let me go, I hide myself in thee.”

You know, it’s only when an orange gets squeezed that you can taste the beautiful nectar. Today, maybe you’re going through a rough time. The Lord says to you, ”My Grace is sufficient for you.” Trust in Him and He will do the rest for you because He is more than you or I will ever need!

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, 
Goodbye. 

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

We go to the Gospel of Luke 14:3:

“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

That is what the Pharisees were asking Jesus. Jesus answered in verse 5. He says:

“Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” 

We are talking this morning about priorities. What is important in your life? Going to church on the Sabbath? Absolutely! You can ask any member of my family and they will tell you, if it is at all possible, that is where I will be on Sunday morning, but what Jesus is saying, “What about the ox or the donkey who has fallen into a hole on a Sunday?" Do you leave it there until after the church service then pull it out and probably find that it is dead? No, you have to stop. You have to take your jacket off, you have to roll up your sleeves, you have to get covered in mud, and pull that animal out to save its life, then go to church. Then, of course, the Pharisees in the church criticise you because they will say, “Look how dirty that person is coming into the house of the Lord.”

I want to say something to you, my dear friend. Many times it has happened to me. As we are driving out of the gate of the farm, what do we see? All the cows are on the district road. Now that is a huge danger for traffic. What do we do? We stop. We have to push all the cattle back into the paddock, close the gate and go to church. When we get to church, we are late, and the Pharisees are saying, ”Look at these people! They don’t even respect the house of God.” We need to be very careful that we don’t point fingers until we know the full story. 

I am an evangelist, you know that - my busiest day is on a Sunday, that’s right, when everybody is in church. So when do I go to church? I go to church every single day of the week. Every morning, I am a 4 o’clock man, you know that. That’s when I spend time in the presence of God, just like my Saviour did, but when the ox is in the hole, pull him out first. It might be somebody who just absolutely needs you. You say “But I can’t be late for church.” What is more important? To help who is destitute and stranded on the road, or to make sure that you get to church and you are all nice and tidy and clean? Let’s get our priorities in order.

God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

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

We go the Gospel of Luke 13:34. Jesus says:

”How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!”

So sad. If you ever have the privilege of going to Israel and you sit on the side of the Mount of Olives, you look straight across the Kidron valley, and you see the Temple Mount on the other side. Now Jesus sat there and He wept over Jerusalem. He said like a mother hen protects her brood of chicks, He wants to do the same for you and me today. Please let Him! There is a little chapel that is built there in the shape of a teardrop. Isn’t that beautiful? I’ve sat in that little chapel and there are pictures of little chickens and chicks inside the chapel to remind us of this statement that the Lord made.

Many years ago, a pastor told me a story about something he saw on the slopes of the mighty Drakensberg Mountains in KwaZulu-Natal. They had been burning firebreaks, and those fires on the side of the mountain are vicious, and they run at a tremendous speed, and often people are overcome by the smoke and the fumes and even get burnt to death. They were walking over the ashes of a firebreak that they had made because it was winter time and there they found a little partridge, a Franklin, and this partridge was lying on the ground. It had been burnt. The fire had gone over it but it’s wings were stretched out and one of the men took that little partridge and turned it over and underneath that mother hen were four or five little partridge chicks. She had protected them with her very life.

Today, Jesus wants to do the same for you. He is weeping because He sees what you are doing to yourself and what you are doing to others. Repent today, say “Sorry Lord,” and turn from your wicked ways and start to follow Him with all of your heart.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 28th of July, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 32:6:

”Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you…”

Remember, Jacob and Esau fell out because Jacob robbed Esau of his inheritance. There was a tremendous amount of hatred involved. In fact Esau swore that he was going to kill his brother, Jacob. 

Then we go straight to 1 John 4:20. The Lord says:

”If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

A very stern word for you and me today from the Lord. The Lord basically says, 'Settle your differences.' Do not carry that grudge. Sort it out! We have to, for God’s sake, and I’m not swearing either, I mean it. How can we expect the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive us when we can’t forgive our brother? When you do forgive then all of a sudden there’s a peace that comes over your heart isn’t there? You can sleep better at night, can’t you? You know the word “restitution”? I looked it up in the Oxford dictionary, it means to restore, to pay for injury or loss that has been suffered. We need to deal with our differences.

If you’re a runner, you will understand what I’m going to say. When you are running a race, maybe 20, 30, 40 kilometres and there is a stone, a small stone, in your running shoe. Stop, take that shoe off, get rid of that little stone and then carry on running. If you don’t, you won’t finish the race. That little stone will cause a huge blister and you’ll end up not being able to complete your race. I’m talking about small things.

I remember, a man came to see me. He had come to one of the early Mighty Men Conferences and what he had done was, he wanted to take a memento back to his home. So he went into our maize field and picked a nice big mealie cob. It was dry by then, and he took it home as a reminder. You know that he was convicted by the Holy Spirit, and about twenty years later, he came to see me and he brought this old, old mealie and he said, ”I want to bring this back.” I laughed, but you know something? He was quite at peace after that.

We had a young man that we were looking after here. We used to look after young men from overseas, and he had came from another country. He stole my Leatherman. I didn’t even know it, I thought I’d lost it, and ten years later, he came back to see me on the farm and he brought that knife back. He said, ”I stole your knife. I am so sorry.”

Today, settle your differences, and you’ll be surprised how the Lord Jesus will bless you. 
God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 27th of July, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We go to the Gospel of Matthew 7:13-14. Jesus says:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

This Christian walk of ours is not easy. The Lord never promised us a rose garden but He did promise us that He would lead us if we will follow Him. When you go through that narrow gate, it is character-building stuff. We have to keep at it, no compromise, no bending the rules, no cheating because the way is narrow and it is steep and very difficult, but at the end of that road it is most rewarding. 

As a younger man, I used to love climbing to the mountain tops of the mighty Drakensberg Mountains, which lie about an hour and a half west of Shalom Farm. When you get out of the pick-up or out of the truck, everybody is excited. Put your rucksacks on, get your walking stick with you and off you go! The road is wide, it is smooth and there are many people that are walking on that road. But the amazing thing is, as you start to get higher, the oxygen is less, it’s much steeper, the weather is all over the place, it can get windy, it can rain - you can get four seasons in one day, and the road gets much narrower. No more road, just a path.  Eventually, the path gives up, there is no more path, and the only way you can get to the top, and it is quite perilous, is by following little cairns of stones that people have put in the way to show you the way to the top.

That is how it is in life. When we get serious with God, He gets serious with us, but oh my dear friend, it is so worthwhile because eventually, when you get to the top, sometimes on your hands and knees, and you turn around and look out, you see the whole of KwaZulu-Natal. On a clear day, you can see to the ocean. It is mighty! There are only certain birds up there, such as the Lämmegeier, the bearded vulture, which has a wing span of about two metres, very few eagles, and definitely no house birds. However, it is invigorating. 

Now, keep on the road. Keep going through the narrow gate. Don’t worry about the easy way that many people walk in, but that one does not lead to eternal life. 

Jesus bless you today as you keep your eyes fixed on the top of the mountain.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 26th of July, 2025, and this is your friend Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of John 15:16, and this is Jesus Himself speaking. He says:

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”

I want to talk to you about fruit today. The Lord says we must bear fruit. Yes, we are talking about the fruit of the Spirit. When we bought the farm, one of the first things I did was plant a little orchard of fruit trees. I remember I put in 500 trees. I remember marking them out, getting the holes dug. I had all kinds of fruit but there was one fruit tree in that orchard that I always used to go to. It was one of the smallest trees, it had really struggled to make it through but it had come through strong. It never produced the quantity of fruit that some of the other trees produced, but one thing it did do, it produced quality. I would go to that plum tree and I would take one of those plums off the tree and when I bit into it, the flesh was blood red and it was the sweetest plum that I have ever tasted, and every year it gave me those beautiful plums, not many of them, but very tasty. You know, it’s not about how much we produce. It is the quality of the fruit that we produce. 

We had a young lady in our congregation here on the farm. Her name is Sarah and she is with Jesus today. She was always very sickly, she had many operations, but I want to tell you, Sarah had the most beautiful smile that I think I have ever seen, and right up till the time that the Lord took her home, she never complained. She was always quick to greet everyone. She used to come over to me,  I used to wait for it, and she would give me a big hug and ask how I was. She never complained about herself. She was one of God’s choicest fruits. 

Don’t be concerned today about how much fruit you are producing, rather work on the quality of the fruit that you are producing. We have a lady in our congregation who makes rusks. Now, if you don’t come from South Africa, you don’t know what a rusk is! It is a very hard biscuit that you dunk in your tea or coffee, early in the morning. It is a must for every farmer, and this lady makes the nicest rusks I have ever eaten in my life, and when Amanda brings me a packet of rusks, I tell you what - my face just lights up. Remember, produce fruit! Don’t be so concerned about the quantity, make sure the quality is top-class.

God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 25th of July, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the book of Proverbs 20:7:

“The righteous man walks in his integrity;
His children are blessed after him.”

Integrity means honesty. I want to speak to you today about dads. It's not Father’s Day, but I just feel I need to share this with you. We really need to appreciate our dads. My dad was a blue collar worker. He was a trader, a blacksmith, but he was also a very honest man. My dad never owed anybody anything. We didn’t have a lot at home, but everything we had, we owned. 

I remember when my dad was just about to meet the Lord, we had him in a very special place. I used to visit him every single day at a home in Greytown where he had special care. Every time I went in to see him, every single day, he would always ask me one question, “Angus, is there enough money in my account.”  You see, I was looking after his finances in the last months of his life, and I always said, “Dad, there is plenty there.” He was an honest man. He was a man that I respected. He taught me a lot of things that I also try to pass on to my children and grandchildren, but I want to tell you something now, honesty is a great thing and I want to tell you something now, our children will be blessed by us if we set the standard. 

One day, my dad was getting ready to go to work and I was moaning and saying to mom, “Mom, I don’t have a watch to wear, I don’t have a wrist watch. All the other boys in my class have got watches. I don’t have one.” My old dad took the watch off his wrist (this makes me emotional) and he gave it to me. He said, “Son, take this one”, and he gave it to me and went to work without a watch. 

I remember very clearly, my foreman on the farm, Simeon Bhengu, telling me after my dad had gone to be with the Lord. He said, “Every time my dad left the farm to go up and spend some time with my brother in Johannesburg, he would call the induna in. Now, my dad was a pensioner, he wasn’t running the farm, he was staying on the farm, and he would say to Bhengu, ”Bhengu, Ngifuna ukunakekela umfana wami” (I want you to look after my boy). Now this boy was already forty years old and my dad was in his seventies. We thank God for dads. Today, tell your dad that you love him, that is all he wants to hear, nothing else.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 24th of July, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to that well-known scripture in the Book of Philippians 4:6 (Amplified Version)

“Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God.”

The Lord wants to tell you and me this morning that He wants us to climb our mountain. What does that mean? Fulfil our vision, run the race, attempt great things for God and expect great things from God. That is what William Carey said. 

You know, I want to tell you a story about one of the greatest evangelists of our modern age - yes, I am talking about DL Moody. Dwight Lymon Moody was in the UK. He had been preaching, something like 2 million decisions for Christ, he was extremely tired, and they persuaded him to go and see a heart specialist in Harley Street, the Main Street in London, where all the medical fraternity were. The heart specialist said to him, “If you don’t slow down, if you don’t ease up, you are going to die.” After he had been told that and got on the ship to go back to America, the ship got into trouble and the ship was in a storm and it nearly sank. That day Dwight Lymon Moody realised that his future was in God’s hands, that he could have drowned, the ship could have sunk. It didn’t sink as it turned out, another ship came along and rescued it but it made him realise that every day he has belongs to God, and he decided there was no way he was pulling back. He would keep going until such time that the Lord saw fit to take him home.

You and I cannot extend our lives one minute, never mind one day, without God’s permission. Remember God is in Heaven and we are not, so why, my dear friend, this morning, are you anxious, why are you fearful? You know, if you look at the word of God in John 14:1, Jesus Himself said: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.” The Lord is in full control of your life. Before you were conceived in your mother’s womb the Lord had already allotted the number of days that you were going to live on this earth, not one day longer, not one day shorter, so let’s do it.

I remember a story of a man who went to see a doctor, I think it was in Australia. They said “You have three months to live, your heart is packing up. Go and just sit quietly at home”. So he thought, “I have got nothing to lose.” So he got on a ship and he came to South Africa, and he climbed some of the most treacherous mountains in the Drakensberg, and you know what happened? That man lived until he was in his eighties.

I want to say to you today, climb your mountain!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 23rd of July, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Matthew 18:22: 

Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Remember, Peter says, ”How many times must I forgive my brother, seven times?” Jesus said, ”No, not seven times, seventy times seven.”

What is the Lord saying to you and me this morning? He is saying to us that forgiveness is a lifestyle. It’s not a one-off thing. We have to continue to forgive one another. You say, “But I cannot forgive that person for what they did to me”. I understand that because people have done some terrible things to me as well, but for the sake of the Gospel, we have to forgive. How can you expect Christ to forgive you and me for what we’ve done if we cannot forgive the person that’s done something against us. 

You know, the person whom you have something against doesn’t feel anything. He doesn’t even know you have any unforgiveness towards him. So who is suffering? Only you and me, because we will not forgive and actually it can make you sick, physically, mentally and most of all spiritually. We have to forgive. What did Jesus say on the cross when He was crucified,

”Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34

Now that’s forgiveness.

I remember many, many years ago we had a healing meeting. We were praying for the sick and this one dear soul came up and I could see she was very troubled. I said to her, ”What can I pray for?” And she said, ”Angus, I get terrible migraine headaches. Please could you pray that these headaches would leave me.” I looked at her and I felt the Holy Spirit prompt me and I said, ”Do you have unforgiveness in your heart towards someone?” She got quite indignant, quite upset. She said, "I didn’t come here to speak about my personal affairs. I came here because I am sick.” I said, ”Well, if you can forgive that person, God will heal you of those migraines.” And with that she burst into tears and she was able to forgive that person, and maybe it had been for many, many years. Well, the next time I saw that lady she was radiant. I said, “And how are you keeping?” She said, ”I have never had another migraine headache since we had that prayer time.” 

Today, forgive first of all for God’s sake because He told us to, and also for our own sakes.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 22nd of July, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to 1 John 5:7:

“For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.” 

Then we go forward to the Gospel of John 1:1-3:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” 

Wow! Who is the Word? Yes, you got it right. The Word is Jesus. 

We as believers believe in the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t say there are three that bear witness in Heaven, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. No, it says, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. Now we can understand how important it is to know our Bibles. I’ve always said if somebody says to you, ”Show me this Jesus you’re always talking about.” Give them a Bible. 

When I travel to disadvantaged countries, where there’s very little finance, people are very poor, we take food, we take clothes and we take Bibles and I want to tell you, they’re not interested in the food, even though they may be hungry. They’re not interested in the clothes, even though they may be clothed in rags. What they want is the Bible. I have seen grown men fighting for a Bible. I really mean that, fisticuffs, because the Bible is Jesus Christ in print.

When I get letters sent to our office with very difficult questions, I have to go to the Word, and sometimes the people don’t like the answers but I have to tell them, “This is what the Bible says.” When I have to settle differences, I’ve seen fathers and sons come to me who are having a dispute on the farm for example. I can’t take the one side of the one party because I like them, no. What does the Word say? And then we go by the word and then there’s nothing to argue about. That’s why you put your hand on the Bible in court and you pray that you will tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God. The Bible is my direction finder. 

You know the thought for the day that you are listening to right now, I’m in my sixth year. I have not missed one single day, all the glory to God, and people say, ”How do you do it?” I do it through the Bible, the Word of God.

Today Jesus bless you as you cherish and love the Word, who is the soon coming Saviour of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ.

God bless you and goodbye