Thought For Today

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

We start in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 3:9:

“Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” He could not find Adam.

Then we go to Proverbs 18:24:

“…there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” But if you want to have a friend, you have to be friendly!

I want to say to you today that the reason why God created us, man and woman, is not because He needed us. God doesn’t need anybody nor anything because He is God. Go outside today and look around at the clouds in the sky, the moon at night, the sun during the day, the stars - He made them all by saying one word. In the beginning was the Word, so He doesn’t need us, but He created us because He wants to have you as His personal friend. 

Now, to me, it is one of the saddest scripture verses in the Bible. “Adam, Adam, where are you? I am looking for you.” What was Adam doing? Adam and Eve were hiding. Why were they hiding? Because they had been disobedient and had eaten of the forbidden fruit. God knew that, of course, because He knows everything, and He was so heartsore because His friends had actually disobeyed Him. Let’s not do that today.

You see, God didn’t run away from Adam and Eve, they ran away from Him. Jesus never ran away from the disciples or blamed any of them. The disciples ran away from the only Man on earth who could help them, Jesus Christ. It is so precious to have a dear friend and another mistake that we make so often - “I want to go and see my old friend but I just don’t have the time”. Then eventually you get to it. You pick up the phone or you go and visit him and they say, “He died last week. He has gone home to Heaven.” What a tragedy, and you didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye.

Today, do not hide from God and be obedient to what the Lord tells you. Go and visit your friend because if you are lonely, the best way to overcome loneliness is to go and be a friend to someone else. 

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 21st of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Gospel of Luke 6:38. Jesus says:

”Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”  

We are talking about giving, and I want to clarify something here this morning. We are not just talking about money, although money is also a factor. What you give is what you get. If you give nothing, you get nothing. It’s very simple, and this is what the Lord is saying but, you cannot out bless God. I love Him so much. I want you to know that. The more you give Him the more He gives you back. You see, because He is a giver by nature. He’s not a taker. He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to you and me so that we might have eternal life.

We started a little children’s home many years ago on the farm. I think you may be aware of that. I'll never forget, at one stage we had 18 cots, little cots in our children’s home with babies in it that were all a couple of months old. We didn’t do it for any return. We did it because Jesus said that we must take care of them. These children were abandoned and they were found in different places -  abandoned in hospitals, abandoned walking down the road, and we took them in. Twenty-seven of them, plus a number that went to be with the Lord because they died in our little children’s home, but they were loved up until the day they died, but I want to tell you, you can’t out bless the Lord. The Lord says: ”For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Just yesterday, I went into town to watch one of my little grandsons playing rugby. There was another school playing against the school my grandson goes to, and I looked up and I saw one of the coaches that was coaching the opposition team, and I looked and I saw that it was one of my sons that had grown up in our children’s home. He has grown into a fine, handsome young man. I shouted across the field to him and he shouted back, ”Hello Dad, how are you?” I was so proud. I didn’t have to tell anybody else, and I have many, many sons and daughters. Some are professional rugby coaches, others are international singers, others are farm managers, others are cordon bleu chefs. We have many that have done so well and we give all the praise, honour and glory to Jesus Christ.

Today, start sowing intentionally and you will reap.
God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 20th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in 2 Corinthians 11:3:

“But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus.”  

We have got to keep it simple, very simple. When the devil tempted Eve in the garden, he didn’t say, “God said this…” No, he asked her the question in Genesis 3:1:

“Has God  (really, has He) indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

You see, that is how the devil works, he doesn’t attack you straight on. He plays with your mind. He says, “It’s not that bad, is it?” We need to keep the Gospel simple. There is nothing difficult about the Gospel.

I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “simplicity” and one of the meanings is “clean lines”. Keep it clean, don’t let it get congested. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith you cannot please God, and he who believes must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. God said it, we believe it, that settles it. We must be careful that we are not too clever for our own good because the devil will help you along.

A lot of people in South Africa are starting to write exams, whether it be for your final year in school or university, and I want to tell you about something called cheating. Cheating is a sin. You cannot cheat. “Aah”, you say, “but Uncle Angus, it is not going to hurt anybody else. It is just going to help me along.” No, what it is going to do, it is going to open the door for the devil to come in and play havoc with your life. Remember, there is nothing new under the sun - the wisest man who ever lived said that. “Did God really say...?” That is how the devil works. “Is it really going to hurt anybody? No - well, then do it!” 

I want to say to you today, you need to watch out for the slyness of the devil. I was taught when I was a new Christian, “Look out for the 3 “P’s”. What are the 3 “P’s”? It is not a joke. The first P is power. When you get power, you want more power because people listen to you and you start thinking that you are something when you are not. That is the first “P”. 

The second one is petticoats. I am talking to the men. Look out for the temptation of the devil. You shouldn’t go anywhere with a woman who is not your wife by yourself, because of the temptation of the devil. “Aah, but it is just a one-night stand. No-one will find out.” Do you know how many letters I get from men who are broken because they let their wives down? It has destroyed their marriage. 

Then the pennies, chasing the money. Chasing the money, you don’t pay your income tax. You think you are clever? I want to tell you something now, you will be caught out. That is exactly what happened to Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Today, let’s sharpen up our act and let’s not give the devil a chance to move in. 

God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 19th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

Genesis 2:18, yes, the first book in the Bible, says:

“And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 

He didn’t want the men to be lonely. Then we go straight to Matthew 19:5:

‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’.

Women are so different to men. I can hear all the men saying, “Hallelujah”! Do you remember that movie? Many of you don’t, but I am sure you have all heard of it, it was made in 1964, called My Fair Lady? The punchline from the movie is, “I said I’d make a woman and indeed I did. I knew that I could do it! I knew it! I knew it! I said I would make a woman and succeed, and I did.” Remember, the actor when he and his friend were in the street in London? They saw this illiterate young girl selling flowers on the street, and he said to his friend, “I will bet you that I can change that street urchin”, as it were, “into a refined lady”, and they took a bet. That was the theme of the movie. A common woman, uneducated, selling flowers on the street to try and make some money and he educated her into a beautiful, sophisticated young woman, and that is exactly what God did for you and me.

My best friend is my wife. There is no doubt about it. I don’t have to go out with ten other people to enjoy myself. I can spend time with Jill, on my own, as long as I need to and hopefully she will say the same about me. Why? Because God has made and created you and I for each other. I read you the scripture just now. For this reason, a man will leave his mom and dad, and I love my mother and father, be joined to his wife and the two will become one flesh. Such a beautiful union, made in Heaven!

Look after your wives today, gentlemen. Treat them gently. They are not rough like us. They are gentle and refined, they are beautiful, and they are very strong, and they are also made in the image of God. 

Have a wonderful day!
Jesus bless you and goodbye. 

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 18th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Luke 14:2-6:

”And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. (He was sick) And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him, and let him go.  Then He answered them, saying, “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?” And they could not answer Him regarding these things.” 

Jesus didn’t come down from heaven to earth to break the law. No, He came to fulfil the law. In fact, He is the law. He fulfilled everything His Father told Him to do and He’s told you and I to do exactly the same thing. The Sabbath was not made for man to worship. No, the Sabbath was made by God so that we can rest. You can read that in Genesis 2, where God Himself, after working for six days, rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath. Man is not created for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is created for man. Mark 2:27.

I’m a farmer and I can tell you if I get up early on a Sunday morning to go to church and I love going to church, ask my family, it’s the favourite time of the week for me. We have a church on the farm. We have a congregation. We have two resident pastors here and elders. I am not the preacher. I go there and I sit in the congregation and listen to the word of God every Sabbath. But as a farmer, I want to tell you something. If there is an animal that is caught in a snare, trapped in a dam, I will unfortunately have to leave going to church to save the life of the animal. How much more for a person? Do not get confused. Do not throw the baby out with the water, as they say. 

The Lord created us so that we could worship Him and part of worshipping Him is obeying Him. If somebody is sick, if somebody’s hungry, feed them. He says if you do that, you’re doing it unto Me. Today, remember, keep the whole law and the whole law is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your fellow man as yourself.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sabbath. 
Goodbye.

*Uncle Angus is aware that according to Jewish tradition, the Sabbath falls on a Saturday, however he is referring to the Sabbath meaning a day of rest in this message.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 17th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Hebrews 12:1-2:

”Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus finished His race! 

I want to speak to you today about one of the most gruelling marathon races on the planet. Yes, I am talking about the Comrades Marathon which is going to take place in a few weeks time. It is the Mount Everest of marathon races. In fact, it is two standard marathons, back to back, plus a few kilometres extra. I ran that race once, the downhill one from Pietermaritzburg to Durban but 14 kms from the end, I could view the Indian Ocean, I was on the outskirts of Durban, I collapsed, and was taken to hospital by ambulance and they put a drip in my arm. That happened because I did not eat and I did not drink sufficiently and, so I dehydrated.

I want to tell you about a little bird. Yes, I am talking about the swallow. He is currently leaving South Africa and heading north to Europe for summer. That little bird, I don’t know how much he weighs. He eats and drinks on the wing. He hardly ever stops. He catnaps on the wing, he is disciplined, and that little bird will fly all the way to Europe and then when the winter comes in Europe, he will fly all the way back down to South Africa. 

You and I must also be disciplined. We must spend time with Jesus Christ every single day if we are going to finish our race, and it is not a sporting race. It is a race of life and death. Many people start so well but they don’t spend time with Jesus on the route and in the end they collapse and they fall by the way. Let’s not do that today. Let’s be disciplined like the swallow. Let’s spend time with Jesus Christ. He is the source of all we need to eat and drink and we will finish the race strong!

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 16th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to Genesis 2:2:

”And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” 

Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Gospel of Mark 6:31:

And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” 

This is Jesus speaking. Now, if God rested on the seventh day, I’m talking about the Creator of heaven and earth, who created everything that you can see with one word (In the beginning was the Word), if He rested on the seventh day, how much more should we mere mortals also rest? C. H. Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, wrote a letter back to his congregation when he was resting and recovering, probably from exhaustion; he said, ”By doing less, I hope to accomplish more.” Are you listening to this message my dear friend? Well I am, because I think it applies to me maybe more than some of you. That is not a joke actually. It’s very serious. It’s time to smell the roses. What does that mean? Some of us are so busy that we don’t even see the roses, never mind smell them.

They say - don’t quote me -  but when the French Revolution took place in France and the whole metric system came into being, they decided to work for ten days and then rest, but it didn’t last long because the very draught animals, the horses, were dropping down in the streets and dying from exhaustion, because we have been designed to work for six days and then to rest for one day.

I really want to encourage you to look at your own lives very carefully because I’ve had to do the very same thing myself. We can make many excuses. You know, I know men that are holding down two and three jobs at one time. They are working themselves to death and your children want you, not what you can give them. They want you to spend time with them.  So today, let’s re-evaluate how we are living our lives and give God first place, then your family second place, then your work, your vision, your ministry, third place.

Jesus bless you and have a restful day, 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 15th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis 1:27:

”So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

Then we go to the Book of Colossians 1:27 which says:

”…Christ in you, the hope of glory.” 

I don’t care what anybody says, the Bible tells me very clearly, we did not evolve from animals, from monkeys. We were created specifically by God, and you and I have a free choice today, whether we want to serve Him or not. He’s given us the freedom to choose. You see I’ve got cattle on this farm. They don’t get any choice. Those cattle do not have a spirit in them. We have a spirit in us. That’s why we are different to the creation of the world. 

We were made in three parts - body, soul and spirit. The body is your physical appearance. The soul is your character, your personality. There are no two people who have the same character or the same personality or the same set of fingerprints. Each and everyone, can you believe that? I don’t how many billion people there are on the world today but there’s not two people who have the same fingerprints because God made us, and that is why you and I need to be born again. Who said that? Jesus said that. He says, ”Unless you are born again, you’ll never see the Kingdom of Heaven.”

You know, this is a very important thing I want to say to you today, my dear friend. The spirit of a man never, ever dies. His body dies, it goes from dust to dust, but his spirit lives forever. Now we need to be sure that when we die we are going to heaven and not going to hell, and that is why we preach with such passion to people. I used to say it myself, I want to be honest with you, ”Let’s eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow we die.” No we don’t die. You either go to heaven to be with Jesus forever or  to hell.

My dear old mother, I loved her so much, and I’m going to see her one day in heaven. Just after I had given my life to the Lord, I went to visit her one day, and she was crying. I said, ”Why are you crying mom?” She said, ”Because it’s different, Angus. It’s not the same anymore.” I said, ”Why?” And then I realised my mom had recognised that I had changed. The Spirit of God was within me. Today, tell people about Jesus. 

God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 14th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Genesis 1:19:

”So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”

Then we go to Psalm 74:16:

”The day is Yours, the night also is Yours; You have prepared the light and the sun.” 

The Lord has made night and day for you and me. I want to say something to you this morning, I am a morning person, my day starts at 4 o’clock in the morning. It always has as far back as I can remember, especially when I was farming full time and my children were still young. I found that in the morning was always the best time for me. It still is by the way. That is when I do this very thought for the day for you. I have breakfast at 9 o’clock with my dear wife, Jill, on the farm because that’s what I used to do when I was farming. I would start work early and come in for breakfast at 9 o’clock and I want to be honest with you, the bulk of my work would be done on the farm by that time. They were the most critical times of the day for me.

I believe Jesus Himself was an early morning person because often the disciples would say, ”Lord, where have You been? The people are in the valley, they have been waiting for you.” But He had been getting instructions from His Heavenly Father on the mountain, early in the morning. I am talking about a quiet time aren’t I? -  Giving the Lord the first fruits of the day - Isaiah 40:31:

”But those who wait on the Lord…” Those who spend time with the Lord, ”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.” 

If you put the Lord first in your life and I’m talking about in every area, that will give you the strength to see the day through. The great reformer, Martin Luther was asked, ”When you get very busy, what do you do in the morning?” Expecting him probably to say, ”Well, I have to cut back on my quiet time.” He says, ”No, I get up even earlier.” I want to say to you today. Start getting up earlier and spending time in the presence of the Lord when no one else can disturb you, and you’ll be surprised at how well your day will go. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 13th of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Luke 6:12-13:

”Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve…”  

When was the last time you spent a whole night in prayer, on your own, with the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you ever done it? We really need to spend time with the Lord and we need to make quality decisions. We are living in perilous times and we cannot afford just to wing it, as they say. We need to spend time in prayer, especially when it comes to major decisions.

The Son of God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, spent a whole night in prayer before He made a very serious decision and chose the twelve disciples, who literally changed the world. If the Son of God, Jesus Christ, spent a whole night in prayer, how much more should we be doing that? Many of us don’t even give Jesus a time to answer us when we pray about something and we end up just doing a thumb suck and saying, ”Well, let’s see which way the wind is going to blow and I’ll take that as a decision from the Lord.” You can’t do that anymore because we are living in times that are so dangerous. We really need to hear from God.

Many of the men listening to this message, and the women, will remember in 2008, that we booked the biggest tent in the world by raw faith. It was made in Britain, enlarged in Europe and it was shipped out to Johannesburg, South Africa, for the World Earth Summit. We booked it and they brought it down to the farm. Seventeen 40-ton trucks brought that tent down. It took three weeks to erect it. 

We had an amazing time. We had 30,000 men seated inside and about another 30,000 men seated outside. The tent was too small! After that amazing event, some very kind, godly businessmen from Johannesburg wrote to me and said they wanted to buy the tent for me, no strings attached. I mean, this is a tent that is worth millions and millions of rand and I said, ”Can I pray about it and I will come back to you?” And I did pray and I prayed hard and the Lord gave me this message. He said, ”Do not receive that tent,” because that tent would have become a millstone around my neck. It would have killed me. 

You see, just to erect that tent cost R1,000,000 every time, never mind transporting it to the next venue and so very, very humbly I said to them, ”Thank you. I’m so touched that you want to do this but I’ve got instructions from the Lord. I spent  time in prayer, lots of time, and He told me I won’t need it.” You know the next year, we had 120,000 men on this farm. 

Spend time in prayer and God will give you correct answers.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.