Thought For Today

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

We start in the Book of Matthew 28:20. I am reading the last part in the last verse in the Gospel of Matthew, and Jesus said:

"…I am with you always, even to the end of the age." 

What a beautiful, comforting promise from our Master! I want to ask you a question this morning - How big is God and how close is God to you? Well, a very dear friend of mine sent me a little story that I want to read to you. I want to adapt it, and it goes something like this:

A little boy was asking his dad one day, "How big is God, dad?" 

So Dad took the little boy out into the open, and they looked up into the sky. They saw a huge airliner, an international plane, going from one continent to another. It was minute, like a little dot in the sky. His dad said, "God's size depends on how close or how far you are from Him." 

And with that, the little boy said, "I can hardly see that aeroplane. It is just a speck in the sky." 

So Dad took the little boy to the airport, they got out and walked up to a massive plane, a huge Jumbo 747, and the little boy said, "Dad, that plane is massive!" 

He said, "That is the same plane that you saw in the sky," he said, "You see, son, the closer that you are to God, the greater He becomes in your life." That is so true, isn't it, for you and I? The more time we spend with the Master, the bigger He becomes in our lives. 

When a person says to you, "Show me this Jesus," give them a Bible because that Bible is Jesus Christ in print.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:1

Jesus bless you and have a special day with your dear friend,
Goodbye.

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

We go to the Book of Jeremiah 23:6:

“In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called:
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

Oh, isn’t that a beautiful title for our beloved Saviour? THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! Then we go straight to Matthew 1:21:

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 

You see, it is His righteousness in you and I, my dear friend, that will save us, no good works of our own, it’s no efforts of our own. In fact, the more we try, the more we mess up. Jesus will save His people and no-one else can save them. 

Luther tried it and then he found a little scripture, Romans 1:17:

“The just shall live by faith.”

His eyes were opened. He saw that it was actually Jesus who was his righteousness, not him, not his fasting, not his praying, not his beating himself up. No, it was Jesus. Wesley found the same thing. He said, “A strange warmth came over my heart, scales fell from my eyes.” I believe he was born again and filled with the Spirit on that memorable Bible study that took place in Aldersgate in London, and then of course, the revival broke out. John Newton, the slave ship captain: “I once was blind but now I see, I was lost but now I am saved.”

You know, there is a beautiful song written by Jack Campbell and Jimmie Davis and this is how it goes: 

“I can't take a heart that's broken make it over again
But I know a man who can
I can't take a soul that's sin sick wash it whiter than snow
But I know a man who can

Some call Him Saviour the Redeemer of all men
But I call Him Jesus for He's my dearest friend
If you think that no one loves you and your life is out of hand
I know a man who can

I can't walk upon the water and I can't calm a raging sea
But I know a man who can
I can't cause blinded eyes to be opened or the lame get up and walk again Oh, but I know a man who can”

Today, call upon that Man. His name is Jesus Christ and He will undertake for you, my dear friend. I don’t know what battle you are fighting at the moment but give it to Him because He can!

Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.

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

We go to the Book of Acts 1:3

“…being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” 

Jesus was seen for forty days before He finally departed and went home to Heaven to be with His Heavenly Father. He was not in a rush to leave, He wanted to make sure everything was in order before He went home. He reassured His disciples, He strengthened them. He lingered with them for forty days before He finally went home to be with His Father. What amazing love! That’s how much Jesus loves you today, my dear friend, and He loves me. He really didn’t want to go, but his work on earth had been completed, and He had to go back home to Heaven to be with His Father, and He wants to make sure that nothing is left undone and that we are not left as orphans. He sent His Holy Spirit to come and to be our Helper. 

The other day, I was asked to take a funeral service, and there was an opportunity for the family to come up and pay tribute to their dad and grandfather and just thank the Lord for what he meant to them. I was so deeply touched when his son came up and paid tribute to his dad. He said that his dad had made sure that his mother was settled comfortably in a nice home, and when everything had been completed then he closed his eyes. He went home to be with the Lord Jesus Christ peacefully, but he had made sure that everything was in order for his dear wife before he left. 

Jesus has gone home but He has put everything in order for you and I. He has first of all promised us that He is coming back again, to take us to be with Him in paradise, but in the meantime, He has given us His Holy Spirit to be a Friend and a Helper to each one of us. What amazing love! 

Today, go out and love somebody who has got no father, no mother and reassure them that there is a God in Heaven who loves us so very much. 

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Exodus 21:24:

“…eye for eye, tooth for tooth,…” 

Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 5:38-39. Jesus says:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”

I want to tell you a story that touched me very deeply. There was a dairy farmer in the USA. He was born in 1913. His name was Demos Shakarian and he came from an Armenian background. He was the biggest dairy farmer in America in those days, and he met the Lord Jesus Christ, fell in love with Him and he thought the Lord was calling him to be an evangelist. So he bought a massive tent and started preaching but it was not his calling. So what he realised was that he was an instrument by God to set up meetings for other people to preach at. He formed the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International. It went right around the world touching businessmen. But he tells the story that he set up his tent and had a visiting evangelist - a crooked evangelist. After this man had preached the Gospel, he made the appeal for money and people came forward and they gave lots of money, and he made another altar call and he did it again.

After the meeting, they went around the back of the tent and they were sorting out the finances and Demos Shakarian was going to give the evangelist a generous gift and he said, “I just need to square up all the debt and then I will give you the money that is left.” He said, “No ways! I want all of it, the whole lot!” Demos Shakarian turned the other cheek, didn’t he? He gave him the bag of money and the evangelist disappeared. A few years later, Demos Shakarian was sitting in town in his pick-up and he saw a tramp walking up the road in rags. He looked at that tramp from a distance and he thought, “I recognise that face”  - it was the evangelist. 

I want to say something to you: Don’t worry if someone has short-changed you or done you down. Pray for that person, commit them to the Lord, and move on with your life. The Lord is the one who will do justice. 

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 3rd of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Matthew 5:37, the Lord Jesus says:

“But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” 

We must not make promises that we cannot keep. We must be honest, come clean, and say, “We cannot do it” rather than try to pacify people. If you have made a mistake, just go and ask the person to forgive you. I am thinking of that relationship, that young couple who are contemplating marriage, and maybe she has realised at the last minute that this is not the man for her. You need to let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’ for your sake, for his sake, and most of all for the Lord’s sake. The Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the peace-makers”, not “blessed are the peace-lovers” and sometimes to bring peace in your family you have got to make decisions. You have got to say to your children, “No, you are not going to do that, we are going to do this” and eventually your children will come and thank you for that. We have to become more decisive.

When I left Zambia, and I came down to South Africa, we had signed up to purchase a farm, and I had to go to the lawyers to sign the papers, but there was something in me that was not really at peace, and I had to cancel the farm sale, and I bought another farm. At the time, I was very, very embarrassed and the gentleman who was selling me the farm was extremely disappointed, but I had to say to him, “This is not the farm that we are going to buy because I want to grow seed maise on this farm and I don’t have isolation distance from other commercial crops of maise, and it just wouldn’t work.” 

I made the right decision. It was very difficult and as a result, we bought the farm, “Shalom” and God has blessed us on this farm with many, many good things, but I can tell you right now, if I had purchased the other farm, just to make the seller happy, we would have gone bankrupt. Today, let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and let your ‘no’ be ‘no’ and anything else, the Lord says, is evil. Don’t keep on doing things you know you shouldn’t do because you will not get the victory in that situation. Be decisive and then you will be at peace. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 2nd of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start off in the Book of Acts 17:6:

“These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”

Pascal, the great French philosopher, mathematician, etc. said something that is so special. He said, “The serene beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world next to the might of God” -  a holy life. You see, that is what happened. Paul was preaching Jesus and said, “He is the Christ, He is the coming Messiah, He is the hope of the world”. The Greeks were persuaded to follow after the Lord Jesus Christ, but some were envious, some were evil, some went to the marketplace and got a whole lot of rabble-rousers and they attacked the house of Jason, where Paul and the apostles were staying - those who have turned the world upside down! 

Now, they did not turn the world upside down with a mighty army - no! They did not turn the world upside down by a great invention - no!  Well, how did they turn the world upside-down? By telling people that there is a God, that His name is Jesus Christ, that there is eternal life, that after we die in this world, we don’t go to a lost eternity. If we believe in Him, we have life eternal. 

That great English evangelist, George Whitefield, said, “We are immortal (in other words, we can’t die), on this earth until our work has been completed.” I want to encourage you today to stop worrying about things that are not even going to happen. I want to encourage you today to focus on the Lord and that will bring more people to Christ than anything else.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 1st of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Matthew 5:22 and Jesus says:

“But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”

That’s quite a statement. Don’t call any man or woman “a fool.” You know, years ago when children were taught at school, they all had to write with their right hand, and little children who were born left-handed would get punished if they tried to write with their left hand. As a result, many left-handers from that era are very poor writers, (I happen to be a left-hander), but we cannot presume that people are foolish because they don’t do things the way other people do. Mother, be very careful how you talk to your children. Some people learn slower than others but they are not fools. No, in fact, often the ones who learn slower, when they get it, they are brilliant. 

I read the life story of a woman called Helen Roseveare. She was a missionary doctor who went right up into the Congo. She built a hospital, literally out of the jungle, and she even taught her clearners, the people who swept out the wards where the patients were lying and made the beds and took the rubbish out - she taught them how to be surgeons. Now they couldn’t even read or write. She taught them how to deliver babies by operating on that mother when she couldn’t give birth naturally, delivering the baby, then stitching up the mother’s wound and making sure that mom and baby were both perfectly healthy, a miracle! 

We need to dream our dream. Don’t call anybody foolish. As Christians, we need to encourage one another, to dream our dreams. Speak it into being - have patience with each other because we all operate at different paces and different levels.

Let's be encouragers today and not critics.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 30th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in 2 Timothy 2:3:

"You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."  

People say "Come to Jesus and all your problems will be over." Now, I have been looking for that scripture in the Bible for quite a few years and I just can't find it because it is not there. There is nowhere where Jesus says, "Come to Me and I will give you a bed of roses" - not at all! He says, "Come to me and I will give you rest," and He says, "Take My cross up and follow Me daily." If we look at Hebrews 12:12-13, the Lord says:

"Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed."

We are in the fight of our lives. Yes, we have the victory, I know that so well, but nevertheless, it is still a fight. I read a little article the other day that says, "This life is not victory but a battle." We need to be patient for a little longer and then we will have the victory. Do you remember that beautiful hymn, "I have decided to follow Jesus?"

I remember a few years ago when we were going to Cape Town. They had had no rain for two years and we went to parliament. We were praying that the Lord would undertake for us, and I got an opportunity to stand up and to speak up, and I felt the Lord say, "I want you to sing. I want you to sing that you have decided to follow Me." Please sing it with me because as a soldier of the Cross, it gives us strength to run the race and to finish it. Of course, we have the victory but we need to be good soldiers. We need to disciplined. We need to get up every morning and face the day until that wonderful day when Jesus comes to take us home to be with Him in glory forever. The song goes like this:

I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
Oh, no turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.

The second verse goes like this:

Tho' none go with me, I still will follow,
Tho' none go with me I still will follow,
Tho' none go with me, I still will follow;
No turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.

As good soldiers, let's press on towards the mark of our high calling.

Jesus bless you, have a wonderful day,
Goodbye

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 29th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

That is the whole Bible in one verse. Sixty-six books in the Bible, the whole Bible summed up in one verse, for God so loved you today, my dear friend. I listened to a Gospel song last night. I love country and western music and this young cowboy was saying something before he started his song. He said when he was a young boy, his grandfather was a preacher and he said, “Son, are you coming to church today?” And the young boy said, “No, grandfather, I don’t think I will go to church today.” And then his grandfather said to him, “Well son, I wouldn’t go to church either if Jesus Christ had done nothing for me.” Very profound. 

Why do we go to church? “Well”, you say, “I go to church because it is the right thing to do.” No, that is not good enough. “No, it is a tradition in our family.” That’s not good enough either. “Well, my parents expect me to.” That’s not a good enough reason. “My boss expects me to go.” That’s not a good enough reason. “My girlfriend goes to church.” Son, that’s not a good enough reason either. None of those reasons are good enough.

We look at Jeremiah, the Prophet. Jeremiah had been made a fool of. They put him in the stocks and he was the laughing stock of the city, and he says in Jeremiah 20:9:

Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, (in other words, I will not speak about Him anymore.) 
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not. (I could not hold it back, I had to keep telling people about the Lord)

I want to tell you today, I go to church to meet with the Man who saved my very life. He did everything for me. I go to church every Sunday to say, “Thank You,”. I go to church to learn from Jesus, I go to church to be with His family, my friends. You might say to me, “I get nothing out of church.” Well then you need to find a church that is preaching the Gospel and your life will be transformed. Go to church because He loves you and He wants to meet with you.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 28th of June, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Acts 18:9:

“Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”  

Now, that was a message that the Lord gave to me personally, many, many years ago. That was my calling to go out and to do the work of the evangelist, but up until then, I had, had no experience whatsoever. I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to go to a little town, about an hour’s drive west of our farm, Shalom. I drove into that town, I will never forget it and I felt the Lord say, “Book the town hall and have a campaign for a week.” 

Well, I want to tell you, my dear friend, it doesn’t come easy. I started knocking on doors, and I got no response at all. I went to each and every church in that town almost, knocking on the doors, saying, “I am coming, we are going to have a campaign, bring your people. We are not trying to start our own church and we want to support what you are doing in the town.” I got very little, if any support at all. But you see, I think, the Lord was testing me, because there was one minister who was out of town. I knocked on his door, there was no answer. I left a little note underneath his door with my phone number and said I had been to see him and what we intended to do. I came home and I said to my wife, Jill, “I think I have missed it, they don’t really want me there, they don’t know who I am, they have got no need for me. That’s what it appears to be like.”

But you know, the next morning, at about 6am, I got a phone call from that town. That minister had come home that night. He said, “You won’t believe this - we have been praying for six months on top of the hills around this town, and we have been asking the Lord to send a revival. We are waiting for you and you are most welcome.” And the rest is history, as they say. That was the beginning.

But I want to read something to you that is very interesting. It was written by a man by the name of F B Meyer, a great man of God. This is what he said, he said: “Obedience to a divine prompting transforms it into a permanent acquisition.” Now for the young people, what does that mean? It means the Holy Spirit puts something on your heart, and you are obedient to what the Lord has placed on your heart. Maybe He said, “I want you to go to university, I want you to become a doctor so that you can help poor people; I wanted you to start a business so that you can support the work of God; I want you to play good sport so that you can be a witness for Me,” and you don’t feel that you can do it, but you are obedient to it. Listen to this: “Obedience to a divine prompting transforms it into a permanent acquisition.” 

Once you are obedient to what you feel the Lord told you to do, it becomes a reality. Now go out and do it!

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.