Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 5th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Jeremiah 9:23-24:

”Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me…”

Then we go to 1 Corinthians 1:31:

“He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” 

We’ve got a little pet saying here at Shalom. It goes something like this,”You must attempt something that is so big, if it’s not of God, it is doomed to fail.” Why, you might ask? Because if it works, God gets all the glory. People say, ”He could never have done that in his own strength. It must be God.” We need to give all the glory to God for everything that we achieve, everything that we do. Whether we pass our exams, whether we don’t, whether the business works or it fails, give the glory to God.

I remember like it was yesterday, standing on the platform at King’s Park Rugby Stadium, when everybody said el Nino is coming, told the poor farmers, ”Don’t plant maize this year because it won’t grow.” I said, ”To hell with el Nino. I’m going home and I’m going to plant potatoes.” Now I’d never planted potatoes before on this farm and I had no irrigation. When my neighbours heard what I was going to do, they came over and said, ”Don’t do that Angus because If you do that, you are going to go bankrupt. You need water for potatoes.” 

Well, I planted the potatoes and I sweated, let me tell you something right now because many a day, I said, ”Lord, what have I done, but whatever I’ve done, I’m doing it for You.” Well, needless to say, we reaped a crop of potatoes out of dry ground. Everybody knew that was nothing to do with me and everybody gave the glory to God. Today, whatever you do, make sure that the Lord Jesus Christ gets all the praise, honour and glory.

Goodbye and God bless you and keep on planting potatoes. 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 4th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in 1 Corinthians 1:17. Paul says:

“For Christ did not send me to baptise, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.”

Then we go ahead to 1 Corinthians 3:6. Paul again:

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.”

It is so important to know what your role is in this life. Moses was chosen by God to take the Children of Israel out of slavery and out of Egypt. He did that for forty years, he completed his task, and then Joshua took the Children of Israel across the Jordan River into the Land of Milk and Honey. Each one of us has got a specific work to do. That is why Paul said, “I was not called to baptise but to preach the Gospel.”

It is so nice to see a man or a woman operating in the calling God has given them. Let me use an example. Bruce Fordyce, one of our champions in South Africa, has won the Comrades Marathon 9 times. He has won it 8 times consecutively. There is no-one else in the world who has done that folks. Then you get another man by the name of Usain Bolt. He is the fastest human being who has ever run the hundred metres. He ran it in 9.58 seconds. Now I want to tell you something. There is no way Usain Bolt could have run the Comrades. He is not built for that. And there is no way that Bruce Fordyce could run the hundred metres in under 10 seconds. Each one has a specific talent and gift, and I believe it has been given to them by God. 

Now, an evangelist is called by God to open the eyes of the blind and to lead people to Jesus. A teacher is one who is called by God to expose the scriptures, open the Bible and explain the finer points of the Bible. A teacher is not an evangelist. Oh yes, he can lead someone to Christ, but he can’t run a campaign with thousands of people and call them to the front. And the same thing applies with an evangelist. He can’t teach. He is not gifted in that area to open the Bible of understanding for people.

Today, ask the Lord to show you what the gift and the calling in your life is, and then stick to it. God will use you powerfully.

Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 3rd of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Hebrews 12:1-2 and I’m reading two verses:

”Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Oh folks, we really need to run this race to the end. We need to finish strong! There’s nothing more sad for me to see than half-built building, where someone has obviously had a vision, put their money and their effort into building a house and halfway through, run out of money, run out of strength and left it derelict. It is an eyesore to the surrounding land. We need to finish the job.

As a farmer, when I look at crops, especially farmers who are so intense. They start so well, they do the land preparation, they put the seed in, the fertiliser, they spray the herbicide, weedicide and then they give up. The crop grows to a metre high and then the weeds take over and the crop is absolutely drowned in the weeds and eventually dies. 

We need to finish the job. It doesn’t matter how old or how young you are. Finish the degree, finish your education, finish the job, and then, most importantly, work on that marriage. Do not throw the towel in. Don’t give up. Work on the marriage. Sit down, talk to each other, love each other. God will strengthen the marriage and your children will rejoice when they see mom and dad falling in love again. Yes, it is possible, but it requires commitment. It requires a definite decision to fulfil the commitment that we made on our wedding day.

Let us run that race for Jesus.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 2nd of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to that very well-known scripture, Isaiah 40:31:

”But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” 

The Lord often uses the eagle as an example of how you and I should live. The eagle is a solitary bird, he is an amazing bird. He doesn’t hang around on the power lines with the crows and gossip and talk about all the unsavoury things. No, no, no! He is a solitary bird. You will never see a flock of eagles flying around. No, they are solitary birds. He is majestic in his habits. Yes, he flies alone, and he flies at a very high altitude. They tell me that the eagle has incredibly powerful vision. He can see something like 3 miles away, that is over 5 kms, from where he is flying, and I am just thinking of Proverbs 29:18 - where there is no vision, the people perish. 

Some of us need to lift up our eyes. We are looking too low, folks. We really need a vision from God. If you have no vision, that means you have nothing to look forward to, nothing to get up for in the morning, nothing to study about, nothing to work on. We need to be like the eagle. He has got vision. He is also a bird that has got freedom. He is not confined in a space. If you put an eagle in a cage, he will die. He was not designed to be in a cage, neither were you and I. The Lord has set us free. If the Lord sets you free, you will be free indeed. 

He has also got incredible strength for his size. I have seen some of those eagles. They will tackle a fox, pick it up with their talons, and destroy it. They have got power and are very bold. He doesn’t spend time eating dead, rotten prey. We, as Christians, we must have a faith that is alive and healthy. 

He loves storms. The other birds have to shelter in the storms. He loves the storms. He locks his wings, he catches those thermals in the air and he screams out when the storms get bigger. He doesn’t fly away. As Christians, we need to know that Jesus is with us. He continually renews himself, pulls out his old feathers and allows new ones to grow. He has a personality, leadership abilities, mental habits, sharp focus, and emotional resilience.

Today, let us be like that eagle and make the Lord Jesus proud that we are His children. 

God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 31st of August, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, …”

Then we go a little bit further to John 15:13:

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

Oh friends, we need to be givers. Our Heavenly Father gave His only Son so that we might have eternal life. I was thinking about that mighty ship called the Titanic. They said it was unsinkable - big mistake. Never say anything like that to God. “It can’t be done”. It went down like a lead weight when it hit an iceberg while going across to America. 

But I want to speak to you about a couple of people who were on that ship that we never think about, the real heroes, the givers, and the first one I am thinking about is Chief Engineer, Joseph Bell and his crew. They were working below the waterline. My mother’s brother was a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy in the Second World War. These were the brave men. They knew that if they got hit by a torpedo, they would sink. They couldn’t get out. They had to keep the ship sailing. Joseph Bell and his crew kept power and the pumps going to the end. They drowned giving their lives for their fellowmen.

The wireless operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, kept transmitting, they kept on sending out signals, S.O.S. (Save Our Souls); they also drowned. The band kept playing music right up until the ship went down to keep the folks calm and to keep their spirits up. These are just a few of the people who gave their lives willingly so that others might be saved. 

Today, think about somebody you can help and especially somebody who cannot give you anything back, because that is what our Father in heaven did. He gave His Son. We cannot possibly repay Him. All we can say is thank You, Father, for allowing Your Son to die for sinners like us.

Go out today and be Jesus to those who have nothing. 
God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 30th of August, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Gospel of Mark 8:36. Jesus says:

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

Then we go to the Book of Romans 14:17:

“for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” 

Life is just so much more than eating and drinking. Years ago, we took a 20-ton Mercedes-Benz truck, we called it The Seed Sower.  We took that truck from Cape Town as far as Kampala, Uganda, over a number of years, spending most of our time in the rural areas where there are very poor people, people who don’t have much clothing to wear, people who don’t have a lot of food to eat. We filled up that truck with food, clothes and Bibles. 

Now, this is very interesting because when we got there, we would take a big open area, advertise properly, and the crowds would come, because there was nothing else to do when you are in a rural area where no one goes. They would come in their numbers, I am talking about thousands. Some of these little children were dressed almost in rags and you could see that they were very hungry, and the women and the men had very sparse clothes. Their clothes were old and tattered. We would bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We had a platform that came down the side of that truck and with my good friend, Peter Motale, as my interpreter, we would preach the undiluted, simple Gospel. We would make the altar call and the whole crowd would come to the front every single time. Now these people, were not interested in the food. They were not interested in the clothes. They wanted the word of God, the Bible. Now how did they know that? These were uneducated people. They knew because of the Spirit of God in them. There was a hunger for the truth, so much more than eating and drinking. 

I saw it with my own eyes. Sometimes they were concerned they might lose out and wouldn’t get a Bible. They ended up having fisticuffs, now that is the honest truth,  because they wanted a Bible. The one time, I thought that they were going to turn this massive truck that was 18 metres long, that they were going to turn it over. They were scuffling so much. I got my young nephew, who was with me, to take a box of Bibles on his head and move away from the truck and distribute the Bibles there. Well, I just saw a cloud of dust and then I never saw my nephew again for a while until he came out, but the Bibles were given out!

Today, remember this life is so much more than eating and drinking. It is about life eternal. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 29th of August, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Malachi 3:6:

“For I am the Lord, I do not change…”

Isn’t that amazing? When you think of the world we are living in at the moment, I mean it’s changing by the minute and here’s another scripture, Numbers 23:19:

“God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

A sure thing. Oh yes, that’s one thing we can take for granted and of course the Master Himself, Jesus, in Matthew 24:35 said:

”Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” 

I want to really encourage you, as I’m encouraging myself today, to start taking God’s Holy Word literally. You can count on it. It is for sure. If God has promised you, young lady, that He has a husband for you, you can be sure that husband is coming. Do not make a big mistake and run ahead of God and marry somebody because you think that you’re becoming too old. Don’t do that. God has got the man for you.

I want to say to that young boy at school, who is struggling to get his finals. He’s about to sit down and write them anyway, and he doesn’t think he’s going to pass. You call out to the Lord. The Lord says,

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5.

Do your best and leave the rest to the Lord. God is faithful! We need to understand that. 

The only thing that can upset the Lord is our doubt. When we say, ”No Lord, You can’t do that. It’s too big.” No, don’t do that. I can tell you by experience that the Lord that I am serving, the Lord that we are serving, if He says it, He’ll do it. 

He promised me that He’d bring the biggest tent in the world to this farm. He did it. He promised me that He would bring a million people to one place in one day with six weeks to organise it. He did it. He promised me that if I am faithful, He will give me the strength to bring you a message every single morning. We are well over two thousand messages, different scriptures, different illustrations, every single morning without fail thus far. We are pressing towards three thousand Thoughts for Today. I think we should have a big party when that anniversary comes along.

Folks, I can’t encourage you enough today. Take your eyes off your situation. Put your eyes on Jesus, and He will do the rest. 

Have a wonderful day and God bless you.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 28th of August, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Romans 14:3. This is Paul speaking, he says:

”Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; …” 

When you go to somebody’s house, you eat whatever they give you. There are some people who are so foolish, they will go to a primitive village somewhere in Central Africa, they will preach a fiery sermon, the local people will be deeply touched in their hearts and they will pray the sinner's prayer. They will invite you to their humble home. They have very little food to eat but what they’ve got they will offer you, and they might bring in a nice big leaf and on it are some big, fat, juicy worms. 

You’re a missionary, you are trying to bring the Gospel of Jesus to these people now. What are you going to do? You are going to do exactly what they do. You are going to pray, “Sanctify this food to my body, Lord,” and then you are going to eat those worms heartily, and they will be so appreciative of what you have done. But if you preach a wonderful sermon, they give their lives to the Lord, you go to their home, they offer you the food that they’ve got and you turn it away - you say, ”No, I can’t eat that” or “I don’t eat that” -  that will do more harm because you are judging them.

Jesus says in Matthew 15:11:

”Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” 

When in Rome, do what the Romans do! You’ve heard that said as well. In South Africa, we eat something called biltong. It is dried meat. No, it has not been cooked. It is delicious. It is one of my favourite dishes. We also eat something called dry wors, it’s a sausage that has been dried and hasn’t been cooked. We eat it heartily, and if you want to win a soul to Christ, don’t judge him, just eat heartily, and he will probably be more impressed by the way you treat his wife and his home than by any fancy talking.

Jesus bless you and eat it heartily. 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 27th of August, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in 1 Corinthians 11:1. Paul says:

”Imitate me, just also as I imitate Christ.”

Then we go to the Book of Ephesians 5:1:

“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.”

Then the last one, Philippians 3:17:

“Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.”

Ooh, that’s a tough one today, isn’t it? We have got to be examples. Lead by example - follow me even as I follow Jesus. Don’t tell people how to live. Rather, show them how to live. Dad, your children are watching all the time how you treat their mother, and this is very serious. If you just get out of the car and walk into the shop and mother has to run after you, that’s disgraceful. It actually brings a tear to my eye. That is not what Christ did. Remember, Jesus was known as the One who washed feet. He washed the dirty feet of His disciples as an example. Your son, dad, will not do what you tell him. He will do exactly what you do. If you are a drunkard, he will become a drunkard, even though he hates himself for it, because he doesn’t know any other way. We need to lead by example.

On the aeroplane, coming back from a big event we had in Namibia many years ago, I was on the platform, it was a capacity crowd, and it was amazing. We got on the plane flying home and there was a rugby team on the same plane. These boys had obviously had a wonderful weekend, and they were all having a few beers and I was sitting towards the back of the plane and I noticed a young man who I think had been at the event. He was sitting in the aisle seat in the front, and he kept on looking at me, and I didn’t take any more notice. 

The air hostess came up to me. She said, “Would you like to have a drink?” I said, “Yes, thank you. I will have a coke. She brought me a Coke, and as I popped that Coke open, I looked up, and there was this young man, and he had a smile on his face, and he gave me a thumbs up. Now folks, we need to lead by example. I was probably speaking about lifestyle on that platform.

If I was sitting there putting the beers back and this young man is looking to me as an example, what would that have done to him? It might have destroyed his faith. We need to walk the talk. We need to do what Jesus said and not tell other people what to do and then do the opposite.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 26th of August, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go first of all to the Book of Joshua 14:7. This is Caleb speaking:

”I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me…”

I’ll stop right there and then we go down to verse 10. He continues and he says:

”…these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old.” 

Oh folks, what a man, hey? We’re talking about Caleb. He was sent by Moses, by the Lord, to go and spy out the land. He was only forty years old. He came back with a good report, and then we see that only he and Joshua were the two who survived from the whole nation of Israel that was set free from Egypt as slaves.

Now Joshua said to him, ”You can choose any part of the promised land for your home because of your good service.” What did he say? ”Give me the big mountain where the big giants live.” It says he was as strong when he was eighty-five years old as he was when he was forty. What a miracle but we haven’t finished there.

Then we go to Luke 3:23.

“Now Jesus began His ministry at about He was thirty years of age…”

and we know that He died on the cross for our sins, three years later. His whole ministry spanned a mere three years.

I want to speak to you about age. Age is just a number. There’s that old song, I can’t remember exactly who sang it. He said, ”How old would you feel if you did not know the year you were born.” That’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? You’ll feel as old as you feel because you’re walking with the Lord.

You see, the faithfulness of God to Caleb was because Caleb lived a holy life. Numbers 14:24:

”But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land…” (which was of course the promised land.)

An amazing man! Through holiness and spending time with the Lord and dedicating his life to the Lord, and what about Jesus? His ministry only lasted three years and He changed the whole world.

Today, use this day as if it were the last day you were going to live and live it to the full, and God will do the rest.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. 
Goodbye.