Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 17th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Matthew 6:33:

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."

What a beautiful promise from the Lord! Just before that, in the same chapter He says, "Why are you worried, my dear friend?" Why are you and I worried? He says, "Look at the beautiful little birds in the field and look at the beautiful lilies in the valleys, look at the beautiful grass and the flowers", the Lord takes care of every single one of them. Why, then, do we worry about food tomorrow, about clothes to wear when the Lord is already supplying it for His creation?

When I have to travel overseas, Jill, my wife, stays at home. She looks after things at homebase and often I will be in a hotel room somewhere on the other side of the world. It does get rather lonely, I must confess, especially after the meeting is finished and everyone has gone home, and I go to my hotel room on my own and I sit there sometimes and I tend to worry a little bit. Is Jill okay on the farm back home? Then the Lord reminds me, "Angus, what are you concerned about? You are doing the thing I told you to do, so why are you being concerned? You seek first My kingdom and I will take care of the family and of every need that they have."

I want to say to you today, cast your cares upon the Lord Jesus Christ, for truly, He does care for you and me. He has cared for me for over 40 years and every time I come home, I find that everything is in order - in fact, sometimes it is better than when I left it because God has promised me, "If you do what I have told you to do I will take care of the rest." You and I need to do the same thing today.

Do you remember that beautiful old hymn, 'His eye is on the sparrow'? It goes something like this:

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

So let us live for the moment - carpe diem, seize the day, and leave the future in God’s capable hands.

Jesus bless you! Have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 16th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Luke 16:13:

“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” 

Then we go to the last book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation 3:15. The Lord Jesus says:

“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.”

We cannot afford to be fence-sitters. Sitting on a fence is a very uncomfortable place to be, especially if it is a barbed wire fence! People despise folk who cannot make up their minds. 

Have you ever tried to drink a cup of tea that is lukewarm. Now, I am a tea drinker, I love tea. I want to tell you, there is nothing worse than a cup of tea that is neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm. I don’t mind drinking iced tea on a hot day, it is very refreshing, the Americans do that, I love iced tea. But on a freezing winter’s day while sitting by the fire, when someone gives you a strong, hot, steaming cup of tea - wow! You can’t beat it. People never respect a man or a woman who cannot make up their minds because they don’t want to offend anyone. 

If you need to follow Jesus, you need to follow Him all the way, or you need to disregard Him completely, which I would strongly advise you never to even think of doing. You see, people don’t have to like us but they must respect us. Lets be those who make up their minds. You are either black or white, no grey area. We are going to go on for Jesus. You know the old saying, “A faint heart never gained fair maiden”? If you love that girl, tell her. Don't let her have to guess it. Be determined. Young lady, if you have an affection for that young man, let him know, because the devil will try and keep you apart and then you will end up losing that person. 

It is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. Today let us be definite, let people know that we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation, for those who believe, first the Jew and then the Gentile. You will find that in Romans 1:16. 

God bless you and have a decisive day today. Make some good solid Christian decisions.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 15th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of 1 Corinthians 3:10:

"…as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it."

" There is no quick fix drop, there is no building on the sand. Matthew 7:26 tells us:

"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

We cannot wing it, we cannot just quickly make a plan. Everything done today seems to be done instantly but it doesn't last. You see, when the storms of life come the building won't stand. We must build on the rock. Who is The Rock? His name is Jesus Christ. Especially for those who are coming after us. You see, when a building collapses it doesn't just destroy the builder but it destroys many other lives as well. 

As Christians, we have an obligation to others. I can hear somebody saying, "Well, it is my life, I can do as I please." No, you can't. When you gave your life to Christ, you surrendered all your personal privileges. We are now living for the Lord and we are living for each other. 

I remember a story of a young missionary that went to the Congo. This young man worked night and day. He was so passionate for the Lord, but you see, he wasn't spending time with God. He was building a hospital, he was building a school, he built a beautiful church. He never rested, he never spent time putting down foundations in the Lord. He was literally working himself to a standstill and the villagers were coming to church and they were serving the Lord and were so excited about what was happening. 

One Sunday morning they arrived at church. The young missionary lived in a little hut but the door was closed, and they thought, "What is wrong, he is normally up early, he is normally the first there?" Then they knocked on the door. There was no answer. They broke the door down and they found that the young man had taken his life. He had committed suicide. They were devastated, that whole congregation went out, they closed the door and they nailed a sign on the door, "There is no god," and they went back to their former lifestyle.

Be careful that we don't upset and chase other people from God because we are not building on The Rock. Jesus is The Rock, first the Lord and then the ministry, first the Lord and then your family and your future.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 14th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Proverbs 23:4:

“Do not overwork to be rich; Because of your own understanding, cease!”

In other words, stop it. Then we go straight to Matthew 6:21:

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” 

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Mark 8:36

I don’t know if you remember reading about the famous Wall Street financial crash. It happened in 1929, the Stock Market Crash. Overnight, share prices collapsed to nothing. That triggered the worldwide Great Depression, where there was starvation and hunger all over the world. That Wall Street Crash caused businessmen to commit suicide, literally jumping out of the windows of their business houses in their skyscrapers. 

It is time for you and me to do a heart check today. Where are our priorities? Where are we spending all our time? What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul? I remember watching a programme on television many years ago, the history of the great motorcar manufacturer, Henry Ford. He had an affair with another woman and when he came home to confess to his wife that he had had an affair, he noticed she wasn’t surprised at all, and he asked why not, and she said, “You have been having an affair with your business for years and I have always come second.” 

We must not do that, ladies and gentlemen. We must spend more time with Jesus, more time with our families. We must apply Matthew 6:33 which says:

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

God bless you and have a wonderful day, and think about this, because I think it is very important to some people listening to this message, 

Goodbye.

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

We go to the book of Mathew 6:18, from the Amplified Version of the Bible:

“… your Father who sees [what is done] in secret will reward you.”

Now, I don’t know about you, I want my reward in heaven, I do not want my reward here on earth. In Mathew 6, you will see the Lord says when you are fasting, you are going without food because you want to deal with an issue in your life or you want to grow closer to the Lord, don’t walk around looking like you are half dead but comb your hair, wash your face and don’t let anyone know what you’re doing and then you’ll be rewarded by the Lord.

Jesus said in Mathew 11:11 about John the Baptist,

“among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist”

Why? Because John the Baptist never touched God’s glory. In John 3:30, John says:

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” 

We’ve got to remain humble and I want to tell you, I don’t know if you’re like me but sometimes I get so disappointed in myself. We love the applause of men, don’t we? The thing is, the Lord says if we get our applause here, or your reward here, there’s nothing for you in heaven. I remember one Sunday after Jill and I had preached in a church in Durban, we were on our way home and we went into a little restaurant and we had a meal together quietly. There were other people in the restaurant and when it came time for us to leave, we said to the waitress, ”Can you bring us the bill please.” She said, ”The bill has already been paid.” We said, ”There must be some mistake, we haven’t paid yet.” She said, ”No, the couple that was sitting across the way from you have paid for your meal.” And they got up and quietly left. Folks, that touched me so deeply. We couldn’t get out of the restaurant quick enough to see if we could find them. They were gone; they didn’t want their reward from us. They were just doing what they believed God wanted them to do.

Today, don’t be so concerned about getting your reward here on earth, but be more concerned about obedience to God and the Lord is going to reward you on the great day when you meet Him in Heaven.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

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

We start off in that well-known scripture found in 2 Timothy 1:7:

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

They say that the twilight time of the day is probably the most dangerous time to drive a vehicle. I looked up the Oxford dictionary to define the word, 'twilight". It means scarcely visible, it means half-light, it means gloom - the most dangerous time to drive a vehicle. It's not light and it's not dark. You cannot distinguish things.

Are you confused today? Confusion is uncertainty. It is when you are in a state of doubt or even bewilderment. Do you know where you are going? Do you know what you are doing? Do you know what you believe in?

My one son is a horse trainer. He trains horses on the farm and we breed them as well, and he often tells me," Dad, the problem is not the horse, the problem is the rider." Some of these people get on a horse and they want to ride a horse, but they are pulling on the reins and they're kicking the poor horse to go forward. It's like trying to drive a motorcar with the handbrake on and you're putting your foot on the accelerator. It is totally confusing. The animal doesn't know what to do.

I want to say to you today, there are some people who are confused about what they actually believe and we have got to back to basics. By faith, I said by faith, we need to take the Word of God, the Bible, and we need to believe it from cover to cover. As soon as you start pulling out parts of the Bible that you think are not accurate, you are in trouble. You are now becoming your own Saviour, your own god, because you are determining what you think the future holds. Don't do that - the Bible is accurate, I can tell you right now! I don't understand everything in the Bible, but by faith I choose to believe it and that gives me peace and calm in my spirit.

Jesus Christ is the son of God. That's it! Jesus is the only way to the Father - John 14:6:

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

That is a fact. If you don't believe that, you are not a Christian. The Bible tells us that if we confess our sins, He will forgive us (1 John 1:9). That is a fact. He says that there is another life after death; that is a fact. When you start to believe the word and you start to live it, then confusion goes out the window.

Today, let's get back to basics.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 11th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Mathew 6:8-13:

”Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye:”

Let’s pray this together, you and I:

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, 
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: 

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”  

That is the Lord’s Prayer that our Lord Jesus taught His disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray. We need to teach that prayer to our children, moms and dads, as young as they are. We need to teach that prayer to our staff at work. Young people, you need to teach it to your friends at school. Farmers, you need to teach that prayer to your farm workers. We need to teach that prayer in the office. It is the complete prayer which Jesus taught His disciples to pray.

Maybe you are struggling with your memory at the moment. I want to tell you that, that beautiful prayer will sharpen your memory. Maybe someone catches you in the street, in a restaurant, or somewhere else, and he’s desperate and says, ”Please pray for me,” and you don’t really know what to pray at that particular time. Ask them to pray with you and pray the Lord’s prayer. It is complete. It is the most beautiful prayer ever.

It’s an introductory prayer. You can pray that prayer before you start preaching or before you start delivering your message to whoever has asked you to speak to them. I want to say to you today that that prayer comforts you when you’ve lost a loved one. That prayer gives you direction when you do not know which way to go. When you pray, pray carefully and listen to the words, and Jesus will comfort you by them.

Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 10th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Jeremiah 23:29, in the Old Testament

“Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” 

The Bible is the strongest weapon that we have as Christians to stand against the evils of our time. If we read just before this verse, we see that the Lord told Jeremiah that He has no time for false prophets. Now, how do you judge whether a man is telling the truth when he says he has had a dream and God has shown him something? How do you test the prophet? Only one way, and that is by the word of God, the Bible. If his prophecy lines up with God’s word, then we believe him. If it does not then we cast it aside. Now, fire burns up dross and rubbish. If you have seen a rubbish heap that people set on fire, all that rubbish gets burnt up and there is just ash afterwards, but it is clean. It purifies. You see, the word of God exposes lies and people who tell lies. 

On the farm, we fight fire with fire. It’s the best weapon that we have at the end of the day to protect our precious crops and animals. Yes, we have water carts, we have firefighters, we have even got aeroplanes that drop water onto fire, but the ultimate weapon is to put a fire in and backburn against the on-coming fire, and eventually it meets in the middle and the fire is put out. Fire also breaks the hardest of hearts. “Is not My word like fire, like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” I have seen it so many times in my life. The word of God softens the hearts of the hardest of criminals. Yes, it sets the captives free, the spoken word of God, the Bible. It also frees men from all kinds of hellish vices, like alcohol, drugs, hatred, and unforgiveness. 

If we go to the word of God in Luke 8:30-31, we see that Jesus cast out the demons from the Legion.

Jesus asked him, saying, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion” because many demons had entered him. And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss.”

My dear friend, today, start using the word of God and stop reasoning so much, and start using and believing God’s word. I can tell you, it works every single time. 

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

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

We go straight to the word of God, to 2 Timothy 4:2:

“Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching.” 

I want to read you a story that was sent to me a couple of hours ago from a dear young man that I am mentoring. 

“Robert Schuller’s teenage daughter, Cindy, was in a motorcycle accident and had to have her leg amputated. John Wayne was a big fan of Robert Schuller. He heard Dr Schuller say on one of his programmes that his daughter had been in an accident and had to have her leg amputated. John Wayne wrote a note to her saying:

“Dear Cindy, 
Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you will be all right.” 

Signed, John Wayne.

The note was delivered to her and she decided she wanted to write John Wayne a note in reply. She wrote: 

Dear Mr Wayne,

I got your note. Thanks for writing to me. I like you very much. I am going to be all right because Jesus is going to help me. Mr Wayne, do you know Jesus? I sure hope you know Jesus, Mr Wayne, because I can’t imagine Heaven being complete without John Wayne being there. I hope if you don’t know Jesus, that you will give your heart to Jesus right now. 

See you in Heaven,
(and she signed her name).

She had just put that letter in an envelope and sealed it and written across the front of it, “John Wayne”, when a visitor came into her hospital room to see her. He said to her, “What are you doing?”  She said, “I have just written a letter to John Wayne, but I don’t know how to get it to him. He said, “That’s funny. I am going to have dinner tonight with John Wayne at the Newport Club down at Newport Beach. Give it to me and I will give it to him.” She gave him the letter and he put it in his coat pocket. 

There were twelve of them that night, sitting around a table for dinner. They were all laughing and joking and the guy happened to reach into his pocket and felt the letter, and he remembered. John Wayne was seated at the end of the table and the guy took the letter out and said, “Hey Duke, I was in Schuller’s daughter’s room today in the hospital and she wrote you a letter and wanted me to give it to you and here it is.” They passed the letter down to John Wayne and he opened it, and someone happened to notice, looking down at John Wayne, he was crying. One of them said, “Duke, what is the matter?” And he said, “I want to read you this letter.”  He read the letter then he began to weep again. He folded it up, put it in his pocket and he pointed to the man who had delivered the letter to him and said, “You go and tell that little girl that in this restaurant, right here, John Wayne gives his heart to Jesus Christ and I will see her in Heaven." John Wayne died three weeks later.

May God bless you richly. Tell somebody today about Jesus, 
Goodbye.

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

We start in 1 Corinthians 13, and it is the chapter on love. I am going to read the whole chapter to you and I would like you to be very careful to listen to every single word because this is Jesus in print. You see 1 John 4:8 says:

"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." 

I was at a prayer meeting, a mens' prayer meeting early in the morning and the one gentleman shared a testimony. He said, "I have got a man staying at our place. He is now a committed Christian, he has given his life to Jesus, he's been baptised and he gets up every morning at 4 o'clock and prays with some of his friends, and he prays again at 8pm at night. He said he used to be a Muslim and has changed. What is the reason? He says, "love". He has never known or experienced love like he has experienced among Christians. That is out of his mouth." I want to tell you that Muslims need Jesus. Listen to this beautiful chapter:

"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known."

And now listen to this, verse 13:

"And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day and go and tell somebody that God loves them.
Goodbye.