Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 11th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Luke 8:5. Jesus is talking about the parable of the seed and the sower. He says:

“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside;…”

Now I am going to stop there and I am going to explain something to you as an old farmer. The most important thing for a farmer to do is to plant the seed, sow the seed, and stop procrastinating! You don’t have to be a farmer, you might be a student at university. Keep on studying! You might be a sportsman who is trying to make it in the first team. Keep on playing that game! You might be looking for that wife or that husband. Keep on keeping on. That’s how you do it!

I have been farming from the age of 19 years old and I want to tell you, the secret is to keep on putting the seed in the ground. “Oh yes, but I have done that, but it hasn’t worked” Well, don’t stop. That is what Jesus is saying. Some of the seed fell by the wayside, okay?  So that seed was trampled down and birds devoured it. So what do you do? You go back and you plant again. Some fell on the rock and then it sprang up and because it lacked moisture, it shrivelled up. Oh yes, I have seen that. Some fell amongst thorns. Keep on planting!

I don’t know how many multi-millionaires I have read about that failed at least 3 times before they made it. You have got to keep on planting the seed. That’s our job, and the rest is in the Lord’s hands. And then verse 8:

”But others fell on good ground,…”

Unconditional sowing -  prepare the land properly, sow the seed, study hard, get your qualifications, step out on the water, go into that business, go for it and give it everything you have got. Don’t spare anything, and I tell you what - if you do not grow weary in doing good, in due season, you will reap if you do not lose heart.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. 

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 10th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Genesis 9:1:

“So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Philippians 4:13

David Livingstone is a man that I respect greatly. I have told you before, I like to think that there is a contact there. My mom’s mother was a Livingstone before she got married! But David Livingstone was a great explorer, remember he was instrumental in part for abolishing that hellish trade in human flesh, called slavery. He said, “I will go anywhere as long as it is forward.” Can you say that this morning? You say, “But things are tough for me and I don’t think I am winning.” Oh yes you are! God has already said to you and me, He is giving us domination over every creature on earth. Read on from Chapter 9 and you will see -  all the fish in the sea, all the animals in the field, He has given us domination. Go out and take it!

I love that story of John G Lake, the American evangelist who came out to South Africa and did a mighty work here. He said, when you get up in the morning and get dressed and wash your face and you comb your hair. You put on your best clothes to go to work, look in the mirror and the person you see in the mirror, speak to that person (yourself) and say that wherever that man goes today, God is going with him, and then go out and face the day, go out and take the future by the scruff of the neck and say, “I can and I will and God has given me the authority.” You will be surprised how the doors will open. 

Have a wonderful day, 
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 9th of June, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Luke 8:2:

“Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons,…”

Then we go on a bit further to Luke 19:8:

“Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” 

Wow! Now that is genuine repentance, that is genuine appreciation for what God has done for a person who is a sinner. Mary Magdalene, Mary of Magdala - I have been to Magdala, it is a little village on the shores of Lake Galilee in Israel - now Mary has been delivered from seven demons and yet, once forgiven, and healed and delivered, she became one of Jesus’ most faithful followers. I always say, if you get to Heaven before me, have a look and see who the most beautiful woman is in Heaven. I know many of us will say Mary, the mother of Jesus, but I beg to differ. I believe it will be Mary Magdalene, and I believe (I am getting emotional) she will be sitting at the feet of the Messiah, because she was forgiven much. Jesus didn’t patch her up; He made her into a brand-new, beautiful handmaiden. You know, after that time, she never left the Lord once. She was the first one down at the tomb in the morning after the Lord had been crucified and had been put in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb. She was the first one, not Peter, not the disciples, it was the woman who had been forgiven much, and that’s what I love about her. 

Jim Elliot, a missionary who went to the Amazon said, “It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” What is that? It is your life. John Newton, forgiven much, a slave ship captain - can you think of anything worse? He wrote probably the most famous hymn of all time:

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound 
In a believer’s ear,
I once was lost, but now am found;
I was blind, but now I see.

What about Peter, the big fisherman? He said, “Lord, I will die for you,” and yet when the test came before the cock crowed, he denied his beloved Saviour three times, but God forgave him, restored him and eventually he was crucified, by his own request, upside-down, for the love of Christ. Today, love the One who has forgiven you much.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

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

We start in Genesis 12:1: 

Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.”

Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 12:1:

”… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, …” 

I want to say to you right at the outset so you get it loud and clear, we are not talking this morning about immigration, we are not necessarily talking about changing our country or our residence, but what we are talking about is the journey of life. Maybe today you are starting a new journey because you have just been newly married, and what a blessing that is, but it comes with a lot of challenges: two people from two different backgrounds, two different homes, two different habits, and now you have got to work together! That is a journey, one that I walked on for over 50 years, and I remember the day I made the pledge to my beloved Jill, like it was yesterday. 

Maybe you are on a journey, you are just starting a family, your first baby is about to be born - so exciting, so scary! “I don’t know if I can handle it. I don’t know if I am cut out for it!” Yes, you are and yes, you can, but you see, the ingredient here is one word, “faith”. You see faith is the substance of things hoped for, it is the evidence of things not yet seen. (Hebrews 11:1). By faith you can do it. 

Maybe it’s a new business you are starting. That’s a new journey, the first time in your life, now you have left employment, and now you are stepping out into the unknown and you are starting your own business. A lot of people are saying to you, “Go for it”, others are saying, “Don’t be a fool.” Hear from God and step out by faith! Maybe you are just about to get your degree and now you are starting your career. It’s a journey, young man, young lady and it is one you cannot afford to go on by yourself. 

Maybe it is home time. Yes, maybe as you are listening to this message, the doctors have said you have three months and then that is it. Well, it depends on what God says, but we need to be prepared for this journey. We need to make sure that everything is settled at home, nothing outstanding. Write those letters, contact those people. Make sure that when you leave you are not carrying any baggage when you go to Heaven. 

Then most important, your spiritual journey. Some of you have just met Jesus very recently, maybe some through this very message that I send you every day. Some of you may be walking with the Lord for a long time. It doesn’t matter. Make sure your spiritual journey is intact so that when the Master calls you, you can say, “I am ready Lord, and I am ready for home time.”

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful journey,
Goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Isaiah 53:5:

”And by His stripes we are healed.” 

Then we go to 1 Peter 2:24:

“…by whose stripes you were healed.”

Jesus Christ did not heal us sitting in His palace in Heaven. No, he came down to earth and was crucified for our sins on the tree, the Cross. He was severely beaten, humiliated, and thrashed with a whip that made His back look like a ploughed field, the Bible tells us, and by the blood that came out of His back, by the stripes that He received, you and I have received our healing. 

Now I want to share two testimonies with you. Now, the first happened in Bethesda in the Old City in Jerusalem, a couple of years ago when I took a large group of pilgrims to Israel. We were at the swirling pool where the man who was paralysed was healed by Jesus. Remember, he couldn’t get into that pool because it only stirred up once a year. The angel would stir it up, and the first person that got into that pool of water was healed, but because he was paralysed, he couldn’t get there, but Jesus healed him right in that position. He took up his bed and he walked. That is the power of the healing of Jesus Christ. 

Now, I was praying for the sick at that same place. There was a man who came forward for healing. He and his dear wife are farmers at the base of the mighty Drakensberg mountains. They had a coal stove. They had stoked the coal at night. They had gone to bed, and during the night, the chimney in the stove had fallen and jammed so that the smoke could not get out, and so what happened, the fumes, the carbon monoxide, the same sort of fumes that come out of a motorcar, went through the house and they were both unconscious and only found a long time afterwards. The gentleman was in a coma for a number of days. He did recover, as did his wife, but he had brain damage. He couldn’t remember things and he had no balance. I want to tell you that he was healed at Bethesda, at the healing pool, when we prayed for him. 

The same thing happened to me on Easter Sunday of this very year, 2025. I prayed for a young man who had cancer of the brain. God healed him, but the amazing thing was that when I was praying for the sick, I myself was sick, and God has healed me as well. He is the Healer and He wants to heal you today. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Genesis 7:16: 

“…and the Lord shut him in.”

Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 11:7: 

“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, …” 

Noah is rated as one of the great giants of the faith in the Bible. Noah and his whole family were saved by faith in God. Remember, it never rained on the earth until Noah had built the ark, and all the animals and his family (there were eight of them, three sons and their wives plus Noah and his wife) had gone into the ark, and the Lord shut the door. Then it started raining for 40 days and 40 nights. Hebrews 11:6 says,

“But without faith 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.”

Many, many years ago, when I was a brand-new Christian, my wife, Jill and I, invited some Indian ladies to come and visit us at Shalom. They were beautifully dressed in saris, I just love those saris, and they said, “Brother Angus, we want to be baptised. Please baptise us.” The only place I had in those days was the dam in front of my little house. They said, “That will do fine.” It was so cold that morning, there was ice around the edge of our little dam. Some of those ladies were senior citizens. They walked into that water, freezing cold, in their beautiful saris and I had the privilege of baptising them, and as they came out of the water they started to prophesy over Jill and I. They said many people would be saved in this place and this place, Shalom, would become an ark, like Noah’s ark, a sanctuary for the lost, and I want to say to you today, my dear friend, that the Lord honours faith.

You see, the rain only started coming after Noah was in the ark and the door was closed. It didn’t start raining, and then he built the ark. You need to walk by faith and not by sight, and by the way, that prophetic word came to pass because many of you listening to this message have been on this farm, where we have seen tens of thousands of people come to Christ, and into a renewal of their faith, and into a first time commitment. 

Today, just do what God tells you to do.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Jeremiah 1:5. The Lord says:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

Then we go to the New Testament to the Gospel of Luke 12:6-7. Jesus says:

“Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

Are you feeling lonely today? Are you feeling that no-one cares about you? Are you feeling totally isolated? Oh yes, we all understand that, but I want to tell you something now. There is One who really loves you and today you need to know that. Many years ago, when we had our little children’s home, here on the farm, the social welfare people arrived with a beautiful little bundle, a little baby girl. I don’t think she could have been more than a month old. They brought her to us to look after her. They had absolutely no details. She was left on the front doorstep of a pastor’s house. And so, we called her Pretty because she was a very beautiful, pretty little baby, but I want to tell you, there wasn’t a soul who knew where she was born or where she came from. 

Little Pretty didn’t stay with us long and she was obviously born prematurely. I think she could have been maybe only four or five months old when Jesus decided to call His little one home, and little Pretty is with Jesus today. I want to tell you, Jesus knows all about her because He says to you today, “Before you were conceived in your mother’s womb, He knew you.” He says that five sparrows will fall to the ground, he knows each one of them. He says He even knows how many hairs are on your head. So He knows all about Pretty. Maybe nobody on earth knows who she was, where she came from, who her mother was, her grandfather, who her dad was, but Jesus knew her and He died for her and I can’t wait to see Pretty when I get to Heaven. 

So today, do not feel lonely, do not feel abandoned. Call to Jesus because He wants to be not only your Friend, but your Saviour. 

God bless you and goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Philippians 4:11. Paul says:

“Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content…”

I looked up the word “contentment” in the Oxford Dictionary. It is a state of peaceful happiness or satisfaction. Are you content today? Am I content today? I want to ask you a question, and the Lord has asked me the same question this very morning - how much is enough? As a young man, my dream was to own my own farm, and I thought that would bring me total contentment in life. Well, I worked myself to a standstill and eventually I owned my own farm. But I have got news for you young man. That did not bring contentment to me. I was still not satisfied! 

You know that King David had everything that he needed. He was the hero of Israel. As a young teenager, he slaughtered a giant with one stone. Oh yes! When he went to war, he came back with victories, the people used to worship him, praise him, sing songs to him. He had as many wives as he needed and he was still not content. If you look at Psalm 51:10, he says: 

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”

So David had everything, but he still was not content, then he went back to the Lord and he said, “Oh Lord, renew in me a clean heart”.

I received a beautiful letter from a wife who is so grateful, sent to me just last night. Her husband was very sick and went into a coma. When he was in that coma, he heard a conversation with God, and God says he was never content with what he had, but God would give him one more chance, not because of anything that he had done but because of people who had prayed for him. That young man, I can tell you right now, has been given a second chance and he is totally content with his lot in life.

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”

1 Timothy 6:6

Be content with what you have, God will take care of everything else.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

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

I want to speak to you today about the unsung heroes, the people who no one knows about, but they just get on and do the job. I want to speak to you about Joseph. No, not Joseph, the Prime Minister of Egypt who became the second most powerful man on earth, next to Pharaoh himself, not that Joseph. No, no, no! I want to speak to you about Joseph who was the earthly father of Jesus. If we look at Matthew 1:20-21, this is what the Bible says:

“But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you (Joseph, yes -the carpenter, I am talking about, and you) shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

I asked my wife this morning, “If you had to tell me about one unsung hero in the Bible…?” and she immediately said, “Joseph.” Joseph - we don’t hear much about Joseph, do we? He is just a carpenter but I want to tell you that he was the earthly father of Jesus Christ, my beloved and your beloved Saviour. I want to say to you today, I know of two unsung heroes that I want to tell you about. The first one was and old man and his wife that came to live with us, and he stayed here with us on this farm, Shalom, until the day he died. He was a wonderful old man. He forged his mother’s signature when he was underage to join the Royal Navy so that he could go fight in the 2nd World War. He had chest problems, caught while he was in the navy but he came and spent his latter days with me. He used to come down every morning with a little piece of paper and on there was a scripture reading and he used to say to me, “Angus, there is a scripture for you today.” He used to take all our children that lived at Shalom to school everyday. But I want to tell you, that man impacted my life more than many.

There is another man. This man is one of the top businessmen in South Africa. He is the man that started the whole Wimpy Fast Food Franchise for the Southern Hemisphere. He was a director of numerous companies. He laid it all down for one reason, so that he could go home and nurse his wife, which he is still doing and enjoying it immensely. That man has impacted my life more than many of the giants that we read about or hear about of the faith.

Today, just be faithful to God and He will do the rest. 
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Micah 6:8:

”He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?“

Then we go to the Book of Isaiah 1:17:

”Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.” 

If we look at Genesis 5:27, we see that Methuselah lived on this earth for 969 years. That’s a long life but Jesus, He lived on this earth, the Son of God, only for 33 years and then He died. He rose again on the third day, on the Sunday. So, what am I saying? I believe the Lord is saying to you and me this morning, it’s not about how long you want to try and live on this earth but rather how you spend your days here on earth, which really counts. It’s obedience that the Lord Jesus wants.

You know God used Moses to divide an ocean. God used a young shepherd boy of maybe 13 or 14 years old to kill a giant who stood about 7, 8 foot tall. God used Gideon to defeat a mighty army with just 300 men.

Oh, but it’s not how long you live, it’s what you do with the life that God’s given you and me. Matthew 26:13 - a woman came in and washed Jesus' feet, and dried His feet with her hair after having anointed Him with oil, and the disciples were not impressed. In fact, Judas Iscariot, the thief said, ”We could have given that money to the poor.” But Jesus said that what this woman has done will be a memorial to her for the whole world to see.  So she used what she had for the Lord and I want to tell you to this day, what that woman did is known throughout the Christian world. So it’s not how big you do it, it’s about how well you do it and it’s about using your time wisely.

Today, just do what He tells you to do and you’ll be surprised how He will use you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.