Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 13th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start off in the Book of Job 13:15. And Job says: (Even)

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

Unconditional surrender! It’s not a case of, “Lord, I will serve You if You give me that.” No, unconditional surrender! Then we go to the Book of Daniel and this is when the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was threatening Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego, and saying, “If you do not worship the god that I made out of gold, we will put you in a fiery furnace and this was their response in Daniel 3:18:

“But if not, (if the Lord will not rescue us)…”But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

Oh folks, that is boldness! 

The Coptic Church in Egypt, those people are so in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, that they take it as a great honour if they die a martyr’s death. Remember those 22 Coptic Christians that were working in Libya, when they were caught by ISIS? They were marched down to the Mediterranean Sea in orange uniforms with one man behind each one of them in a black suit with a sword, and they were told to deny their faith in Jesus Christ, and they could live. Not one of them relented. Not one of them said, “Okay, I won’t, I will go back to Islam or whatever it was.” No - they said, “We love Jesus.” They weren’t bishops, they weren’t reverends or evangelists. They were working men. They died for their faith. When we get to Heaven, they will be sitting very close to the throne of Jesus Christ. 

Then one of my favourites, an old father of the church, you have heard of him before - Polykarp. Polykarp, was the Bishop of Smyrna. He was 86 years old. They took him to the theatre where they were going to burn him at the stake and the soldiers who came to arrest him said, “Look, just deny the name of Christ and we will let you live old man, and you can live peacefully in your old age.” He said, “Never,” He said, ”For 86 years the Lord has never once failed me. How can I betray Him now?” And they took him to the Proconsul, who was the representative of Caesar of Rome, and the Proconsul said to him, “Do you know who I am?” He said, “Yes, I know exactly who you are. You are a son of the devil!” How is that for boldness? And they burned him at the stake. 

I want to say to you today, you and I need to serve Jesus Christ unconditionally. 

Jesus bless you, have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. 

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 12th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Book of Acts 11:26:

“And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”

Another translation says, “the anointed ones.” This means that if we say we are Christians, we belong to Jesus. Isn’t that beautiful, folks? He should mean everything to us. Believers - some of the early Christians were called “The men” or “The people of the way.”  

There is a secret sign for the early Christians, because in Rome, when they were being hunted by the Romans, two Christians would meet each other in the street with a stick and they would draw a fish in the sand. And that was the sign to say, “I am a Christian.” We should be known by our fruit. Christians are full of love, the love of Jesus - power, patience, loving-kindness, faithfulness. By the way, there is no such thing as a secret agent Christian. Oh, folks, we have got to be a little bit more outspoken, hey? Romans 1:16:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”

What an honour to be called a follower of the most high God! It’s not something to be ashamed of. Oh, I love it if they say to you, “Are you one of those Christians?” Yes, I am indeed. You see, that is the name where the power lies! Folks, there is power in the name of Jesus Christ, power for healing. When I pray I don’t say, “In the name of God, be healed” - no, I say, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, be healed.” There is power in the name of Jesus. 

The important thing about a name, if you take the Zulu people, I love what they do. Many of them will not name their child until he is maybe a few months old, because they want to look at him, study his personality, his character, and then they give him a name according to the way in which he looks and acts, and I think that is fair, and he normally lives up to his name. Mom, dad - be very careful when you give a name to your child. It has a tremendous significance.

So today, do not be ashamed to call yourself a follower of Christ, a child of the Lord Jesus Christ, because when He comes back, He will know you by your name. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious Name. It is 11th December 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.  We start with 2 Corinthians 12:10:

“For when I am weak, then I am strong.”  

God’s way is different to the way of the world. With God’s way, we advance by going backwards. Oh yes, we become strong by becoming weak!  We become wise by being fools. You know, the San Bushman call the Baobab Tree the Upside-down Tree. Why? Because in the winter, it loses all its leaves, and the branches look like their roots. So it seems as if its head is buried in the sand, and the roots are in the air - like it has been planted upside-down.

When we become children of the Lord, we don’t work according to the system of this world. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, was a foot-washer. He washed the feet of His disciples, remember? They were arguing about who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of God. What did He do? He went, got a towel and tied it around His waist. He got a basin full of water and started to wash their dirty feet because they had been arguing about who would sit next to the Lord in the Kingdom of God. 

If we want to be good servants of the Lord, we must understand that we must take a backseat. We have to prefer our fellow man. That goes for our children and our parents. God will promote us when He sees fit, but until then, let us remain humble and work hard. Let us give all the glory to Jesus Christ and let Him be the One who promotes us. Remember, if you want to go forward or advance in the Kingdom, you must be prepared to go backwards. 

Jesus bless you richly as you start to live according to the principles of our Lord and not the principles of this world, which is to stand on everybody until you get to the top. That never works, folks. Let’s do it God’s way, and He will promote us in His good time.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious Name. It is Tuesday morning, 10th December 2024 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day. We go to Psalm 119:105:

”Your Word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” 

My most precious possession on this earth is Jesus Christ in print. Yes, I’m talking about my Bible. You know, some scribes might know God’s Word better than me. Some may even be theology professors at a university, but unless they have met the author of this book, they are merely history teachers. You will rarely see a photo of me without me holding my Bible. Why? Because my Bible has Jesus in print. When somebody says to you,” Show me this Jesus you’re always talking about.” Give them the Bible.

I call it my Agricultural Manual, and I get criticism from many people. They say I’m making a mockery of God’s Holy Word. No, not at all, not at all, my friend! This book has instructed me how to farm for over fifty years. It teaches me to love my wife, respect my elders, and not antagonise my children. It teaches me to pay a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. It’s the book that comforts me when I am in distress. It’s the book that lightens up my life every morning when I open it and read it.

Oh, my dear friend, if you have never read this book, you have never lived. I want to tell you, according to John 1:1:

”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  

I really want to encourage you to start reading your Bible in the first person. You see when I read the Bible, I make it very personal. Let’s take Psalm 23:1:

”The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” 

I read it differently: “The Lord is Angus’ shepherd, and Angus shall not want.” 

Go out today with the book that changed the world. Start to read it - eat it, digest it, and enjoy it because the Lord is coming back very soon to take you and me home to glory forever. His Name is Jesus, the Author of the Bible.

God bless you, and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 9th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Mark 2:5:

”When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven you.”

Determination! Those four friends of that paralysed man were determined at all costs to make sure that Jesus was able to pray for him. The crowd was immense. They couldn’t get anywhere near the front door. So what did they do? Yes, they made a plan. They climbed up onto the roof of the house, removed the tiles and let the paralysed man down with ropes and placed him right in front of the Master. You talk about persistence! There’s no ways they were going to let the Lord leave without praying for their dear friend. I looked up the meaning of the word, “determination”. This is what it says: “Persistence in continuing to do something even when it is difficult.” Now that event touched Jesus tremendously. So much so that Jesus healed the paralysed man immediately and forgave his sins.

I want to tell you the story of a determined young man. He lived in my house. He is a son of mine in the faith. He joined the elite Parabat Regiment, one of the elite regiments in the South African Defence Force. He was on his last event when he jumped out of an aeroplane with all the other soldiers and something went terribly wrong, some of the ropes of the parachute caught his fingers and amputated a couple of them. It was just before he was going to graduate and get his purple beret with his wings. But he did not give up. He went to the officers in charge and said to them, ”I want to do the course again.” This course is an extremely hard course. Many men don’t finish -  and that young man did the whole course twice. You talk about determination! That’s the kind of man that I would like to go to war with. Oh, by the way, he’s now fully committed into God’s army.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, 
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Sunday morning, the 8th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start off in 1 Samuel 16:11:

”Then he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.”

What was his name? Oh yes, that was David, the Champion of Israel. When Samuel wanted to anoint the future king of Israel, Jesse called his oldest son in first, then the second one and then seven sons later, the prophet Samuel said, ”Do you have anymore sons?” “Oh yes, I have one. Right at the back looking after the sheep.” He said, ”Bring him.”  Yes, he was the one!

Then we go straight to the gospel of Luke 14:11:

”For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”  

I read a beautiful reading this morning by a man named Thomas Champness, and this is what it says: “He who is willing to take the lowest place will always find sitting room. It won’t be crowded. There is no great crush for the worst places. There is nothing like the jostling at the back that there is at the front. So if we would be comfortable we shall do well to keep behind.” Isn’t that true?

No jostling for the back jobs, the jobs that are not seen or heard. No, all the jostling and the competition is in the front but I want to tell you, if you know Jesus Christ, you don’t have to jostle because He will take care of you. Psalm 37:4:

”Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

Don’t be in a rush young Lady. Don’t be in a rush young man. Spend time with God and your time will come. I used to love watching the Comrades Marathon, that long race, from Pietermaritzburg to Durban and then the next year from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. Two standard marathons, back to back, with an extra few kilometres - and that little blonde-headed man by the name of Bruce Fordyce. I used to study him. You know, when that gun went off it was very, very busy in  the front, jostling, pushing - where was he? No, he was hanging in the back. You see, he knew what he had to do. He worked with a watch. He didn’t worry about the crowds and he won nine gold medals, eight of them consecutively, unheard of before.

Today, don’t be in a rush to always get to the front. Don’t be in a rush to always make yourself known or seen. God will promote you like he did with David. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Saturday morning, the 7th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Daniel 2:28:

“But there is a God in heaven…”

That is what Daniel was telling Nebuchadnezzar when he interpreted his complete dream for him. 

Then we go to the Book of Acts 17:23:

“TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:..”

That was Paul, the Apostle, speaking to the academics in Athens, where they made an altar to the Unknown God. He said, “I know Him, oh yes, I know His name.” In this sad and fearful world people are desperately wanting to meet Him, just like Nebuchadnezzar,  just like the wise men in Athens did, but they never knew His beautiful name, Jesus Christ. The Lord used Daniel to reveal God to Nebuchadnezzar, and God used Paul, the Apostle, to confound the academics of Athens and to tell them the name of the Unknown God. 

What about you and I? We need to get out there folks, and we need to tell them. You know, there was a mighty man of God by the name of Sadhu Sundar Singh. He was a Sikh, a man who met Jesus Christ, and I want to read something to you out of this book: “I remember a story told to us and a conversation that this man had with a Professor of Comparative Religions in the University of Cambridge in England: “Tell me“ said the Professor, “What have you found in Christianity that you did not find in your old religion?” And the Sadhu replied, ”Oh Professor, I found the dear Lord Jesus.” ”Oh yes,” he said, ”I quite understand but what particular principle or doctrine, tell me what new philosophy in Christianity did you find that you did not find in your old religion?” And again the Sikh replied, ”Oh Professor, I found the dear Lord Jesus.” You see, his witness was to a person and not to a principle, to a life and not to a philosophy. Christ was real. Folks, go out today and make Him real to our dying world. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 6th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Daniel 2:19:

”Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So Daniel blessed the God of heaven.” 

Then we go straight to the Gospel of Mark 4:41:

”And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” 

-  Jesus, speaking to the weather and calming the storm, a physical impossibility. Here at Shalom, we’ve got a favourite saying, and it goes like this: ”One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons.” 

If you imagine Nebuchadnezzar telling his wise men, ”I want you to interpret a dream I had last night because I cannot sleep and I’m very anxious and fearful.” And they said to him, ”Well King, tell us what you dreamt and we’ll interpret it.” “No, no, no, no. You must tell me what I dreamt and then interpret it.” They said, ”There’s nobody on earth that can do that.” And the king started to kill the wise men, the sorcerers and the magicians, until the soldiers came to Daniel, Meshack, Shadrack and Abednigo. Daniel said, ”Give us time and we will interpret it.” Folks, you see, that’s a genuine miracle, and of course, we know that when Daniel interpreted the dream, everything changed.

I want to tell you a little story, a few years ago, I’m sure many of you in South Africa remember it, we had a prayer meeting in Bloemfontein, in the middle of our country. Our country was in dire straits. Over one million people arrived at that meeting, an open-air meeting. It was an incredible occasion. One of my sons brought his friend, a professional rugby player, an unbeliever, to the meeting and he told me afterwards that the young man was very impressed by the beautiful music. He was impressed by the massive crowd and he was interested in the message that I brought, but that didn’t change anything. Then out of the blue, a whirlwind started at the back of the crowd and it came right forward taking up into the air, blankets, deckchairs, cooler boxes, never to be seen again, and hovered over the stage for a while, in a perfectly calm day with not a breath of wind. This young man was so amazed by this event that he gave his life to Christ.

Today, let us not underestimate the miracle-working power of our God.
Jesus bless you and goodbye. 

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 5th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Mark 1:16-17:

”And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.” Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

I want to say to you this morning that possibly the least effective way of preaching the Gospel is through the pulpit or the platform. It’s ordinary working people like you who are making the difference in the kingdom of God.

I’ve just read the scripture, Simon Peter and Andrew, his brother, were fishermen, they weren’t preachers, they weren’t professors of theology. What about the farmer, Job? They say Job is probably the oldest book in the Bible. He was a farmer and if you’ve been through a rough time today, my dear friend, and you’re looking for some encouragement, read the Book of Job. Job lost everything but he did not deny the Lord. He said in Job 13:15:

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

And what happened at the end of his life?  The Lord recovered everything for him and he had exactly twice as much as he had at the beginning.

David, the darling of Israel, the hero of the Jews, King David, he was a shepherd, he wasn’t a priest, and of course, our biggest and best example of all, our beloved Master, Jesus Christ. He was a tradesmen. He was a carpenter. For thirty years He was on the bench and then for three years, into ministry. What about the man who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, Paul. Paul was a tentmaker by trade. I want to say to you today, don’t despise small beginnings. Use what you’ve got.

Remember, Moses said to the Lord in the burning bush, ”What can I do, I’ve got nothing?” When the Lord said, ”Go and tell pharaoh to let my people go.” 

The Lord said to him, ”What have you got in your hand?” 

He said, ”I’ve got a stick, a staff.” 

“Well, use it.” And the rest is history.

Today, don’t despise small beginnings. Don’t put yourself down. God uses anyone who will put up their hand today. Go out today and tell people what Jesus means to you because that’s what preaching actually is all about.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious Name! It is Wednesday morning, the 4th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Daniel 1:7:

”…he gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abed-Nego.”

Then we go to John 1:42:

“Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).”

Lastly we go to the Book of Acts 13:9:

”Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit…”  -  the power in a name. 

Now when the Name of Jesus is spoken there is either a riot or a revival. You know people have died for that Name, they have been burnt alive; they have been fed to the lions; they have been disowned by their families. Yes, it’s the Name above every other name on earth or in heaven. At the very mention of that Name blind eyes are opened, deaf ears unstopped, the dead have been raised, sins have been forgiven and brand new life is born.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says:

”Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 

We need to be very careful when we choose a name for our newborn baby because that name has tremendous significance. Today folks, when you go out, mention the Name of Jesus. When people ask you: ”Who do you believe in?” Don’t say, ”I believe in God.” Because that is generic, God is whoever you presume him to be, he might be the trees that you are worshipping. When you say the Name Jesus, that’s when there is power in the Name. Oh, I love that Name so much. Treat that Name with the utmost care.

God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.