Thought For Today

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

We start in the Book of Isaiah 53:1-3:

“Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

Oh, my dear friend, that is a description of our Lord Jesus Christ, written 700 years before He was even born. We want to thank our dear Lord Jesus this morning. Remember, this is the night before Good Friday. Tomorrow is the day we traditionally remember that Jesus Christ was crucified for your and my sins. When I think of the example that You set for us on earth, Lord, Your humility, a Man who was acquainted with sorrow and with pain, so much so that we even cannot look upon your face, a man who was despised by the world system because everything You ever said and did was the total opposite of the things of this world - but oh Lord, I love You. I love You because you were such an incredible example to us.  

I think of the Baobab tree, the San Bushman tell you it is called the upside-down-tree because the roots look like they are sticking up into the sky and the top of the tree is underground. Well, I want to tell you, our beloved Jesus preaches the upside-down Gospel according to the world system because everything that the world says we must do and be, He seems to teach the exact opposite. When the world says you must get to the top, no matter how many people you trample on to get to the top, Jesus says, “Turn the other cheek”. When the world says you must be the greatest, Jesus says you must be the least. When the world says, “Let’s have a party and be happy”, you are found with those who are weeping, those who are mourning, and those who are sorrowful.

Thank You, Master, for leading the way for us, for teaching us, not so much by words, but by action and by lifestyle. Our desires are to become more like You everyday. We love You very, very much. Thank you for being our ultimate example and champion here on earth, Amen.

God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 27th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today. 

We go straight to the book of Romans 5:3: 

“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

Just yesterday I had a very severe lesson taught to me in patience, in humility and character building. I had to go and get a document from an institution that was full of people from every walk of life. I got there early in the morning. I waited in the queue and then by about nine or ten o’clock, I asked the lady at the counter, “What is the holdup?” She said that the internet is down and they cannot do anything. That’s right, my patience was starting to get a little bit tested, a bit ragged. I said, ”Well, should I come back?” She said, ”I think that might be a good idea.” “What time should I come back?” I came back at one o’clock. 

When I got there at one o’clock, the place was packed out. There were queues everywhere. I had to sit and wait and you know, during that time of waiting, God started talking to me in my heart. First of all, I saw people from every walk of life and I realised how fortunate I was. An older lady was wheeled in a wheelchair because she had to sign the document. There was a man who walked in afterwards. He had obviously had a stroke. He was walking on one crutch, his wife was trying to keep him balanced and he was waiting for a document. There was a young man and a young woman with two little babies, obviously getting the babies registered. The babies were very hot and not comfortable at all and mom and dad were trying to hold the babies and sign all the documents.

I sat there quietly looking at all of this and the Lord showed me very clearly, just the tremendous need that there is in society. Sometimes, we are so busy doing things we don’t observe what is happening in the everyday lives of ordinary people. Yes, indeed, it was a character-building day.

Eventually, by about half past three in the afternoon, I managed to get to the counter again to collect my document, but only to be told that my fingerprints were not registering on the computer. The poor lady was trying her best to help me but she was failing. I said I’d come back again the next day. She said, ”Please sir, If you don’t mind, I would appreciate that.” 

I walked out, and I thought, “I have achieved nothing today,” but just in my quiet time room this morning, I’m realising I had achieved plenty. God showed me just how little patience I have, just how little compassion I have for others, and God taught me a lesson in humility. 

Today, don’t be afraid of tribulation. It will make a man or a woman out of you.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 26th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the 3rd Epistle of John -

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”
3 John 4  

Now, this is a letter that the Apostle John wrote to the people and his friend, Gaius, and he says, “I have no greater joy…” 

I want to say to young people listening to the Thought For Today, if you want to bring real joy to your mom and your dad, to your parents, maybe even your grandparents, walk in the ways of God, walk in truth, because you see if you walk in truth, then you will succeed in anything you tackle in this life. Matthew 6:33 says: 

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

You shall meet the right person in your life because that person will be a follower of Jesus Christ as well. You will pursue a career that will bless others and you will succeed in it. You will make godly decisions. You will do the right thing. Why? Because you are walking in the truth. I know that I can hear moms and dads saying, “If I only knew when I was young what I know now, I wouldn’t have caused myself so much pain and suffering. You see, young person, when you commit a sin, and you repent of it, and you say sorry to the Lord, He forgives you, but the scar of that sin often remains in your heart when you do something you should not have done. You end up in jail. You didn’t mean to do it and you end up in jail. You made that girl pregnant - you didn’t mean to do it but you did it. God will forgive you but the consequences of your actions remain.  

I want to say to you today, if you want to make mom and dad happy, and I know you do, then walk in the truth.  

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 25th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Proverbs 24:30-34: 

“I went by the field of the lazy man,
And by the vineyard of the man devoid of understanding;
And there it was, all overgrown with thorns;
Its surface was covered with nettles;
Its stone wall was broken down.
When I saw it, I considered it well;
I looked on it and received instruction:
A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest;
So shall your poverty come like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man.”

My dear friend, we need to be careful, all of us, that we don’t become lazy. We need to be disciplined. As Christians, we have a responsibility, first of all to the Lord, and then to our families and then to our fellowmen. The Lord Jesus was never found lying, sleeping in His bed. The opposite was the case. Often, the disciples had to go into the mountains early in the morning to find the Lord. “Lord, the people are waiting for you! The crowds have gathered, come and speak to them, Lord.” But He was busy talking to His Father, getting instructions from the Lord.

Because a man is poor, that does not mean that he is lazy, not at all. Maybe that man has come against hard times, his business has failed, not because of any doing of his own, maybe because of the Coronavirus, maybe because the bottom has fallen out of his market, whatever it might be. Never judge a man because he is poor and regard him as being lazy. 

Just the other day, I went into town to get something from the Builders Express, the hardware company, and as I arrived there, there was a security guard who walked over to me to greet me. I was so impressed by the way in which he was dressed. He had a real handlebar moustache, nicely waxed, his clothes were spotlessly clean, and what really impressed me was the state of his boots. His boots were shining so brightly, you could almost see your face in them and straight away I was warmed towards that man, and I greeted him, and he was so pleased to see me and he was on the ball. 

Folks, remember, we are walking advertisements for Jesus Christ. Please, let us get up in the morning, let us get ready for work because we don’t know, maybe the Lord will be coming for us today, and what a day it would be!

Jesus bless you and goodbye. 

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 24th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We go to that very well-known scripture in the Book of Romans 8:28 in the New Testament: 

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”  

I read a beautiful little quotation early this morning and this is what it says: “If our circumstances find us in God, we shall find God in all our circumstances.” That is really special, isn’t it? I will read it again, “If our circumstances find us in God, we shall find God in all our circumstances.” 

We need to ask ourselves a question this morning - where do we spend most of our time? If we spend our time in bad company; if we are undisciplined and lazy, we don’t get out of bed in the morning; if we are always watching ungodly material, we will not find God there, but if we get up early in the morning and we spend time in prayer, every day, meditation - what does that mean? - just spending time quietly in the presence of the Lord; reading our Bible systematically every day; if our social life is with people who have the same interests as ourselves, wholesome, godly interests, then we will succeed.

Gary Player is probably South Africa’s greatest sportsman ever, and somebody came to him one day and said, “You are so lucky, you can hit that golf ball so straight.” And I can just imagine Gary Player with a smile on his face, he said, “Yes, it is funny, you know, the harder I practice, the luckier I seem to get.”

Folks, there is no such thing as luck. Luck is just a useless word. We are talking about the blessing of God. Now, if our circumstances find us in the presence of God, then God will be found in all our circumstances.

Today, let us concentrate on spending our time with the Lord and He will ensure that our circumstances change for the better.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 23rd of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Gospel of Luke 24:31: 

“Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.” 

The two men walking on the road to Emmaus were joined up by a Man they didn’t recognise. They walked with Him, they talked with Him, they even invited Him in for the evening. He broke bread with them and then they recognised that it was Jesus. He had been raised from the dead! And with that, He vanished from their sight. They didn’t even recognise Him. What about you and I? How many times do we fail to recognise that the Lord is actually walking with us, and we don’t see it? ‘Lord, where were You?’ ‘I was with you all the time.’ My dear friend, Jesus Christ promised you, and He has promised me He would never leave us and He would never forsake us. Hebrews 13:5. 

Often, Jesus is busy working in our circumstances, and we are blind; we just don’t see it until much later on in our lives. Never write off the education that you are getting at this moment from the school of life, the school of hard knocks. Jesus loves to show His hand through the unexpected. That is what A.B Simpson said, that great preacher. 

There He was, walking alongside these two men and they didn’t even know it. Folks, many a time, when I look back in my life, I realise how God was working with me before I even knew Him. I will give you an example - my dear old mother, that Scottish lassie, was a great storyteller. She would sit there with her cup of tea and my brother and I and my sister would gather around her, because my dad had already gone to work, and in the school holidays she would tell us incredible stories. My mom could tell you what we were going to have for lunch and have you hanging on each word! That’s the honest truth: she was an extraordinary storyteller! I didn’t realise it, but even in those early days when I was a young boy, my mom was coaching me to be a storyteller. Now, that is exactly what I am. I am busy telling you a story right now and I never even knew it. 

I want to say to you today, if you are feeling lonely, don’t worry, Jesus is walking next to you. Talk to Him and He will talk back to you through your circumstances, through nature, through a good friend. He will encourage you because He loves you. 

Lord, I pray that you will open the eyes of my friends today so that they will see that you have been with them right from the beginning.

God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Friday morning, the 22nd of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in 1 John 5:14-15:  

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” 

He hears our prayers. We need to just leave it there. I want to tell you that it is a wonderful thing when you know in your heart that the Lord knows what your needs are, not your wants but your needs. Don’t try and tell Him what is good for you or for me. He knows what is good for us. So what we need to do is take our petitions, our requests to God, we need to pray earnestly, we need to have the confidence that we know He hears our prayer requests and then leave it there. I am talking about that relationship, I am talking about that business deal.

I remember like yesterday, many, many years ago when we had that big yellow truck, The Seed-Sower, and we were in Central Africa, and sometimes out of complete communication with anyone. We couldn’t afford a satellite telephone in those days, cell phones weren’t working, and sometimes I would get quite concerned about things at home. I hadn’t heard from my wife, Jill, and the kids for maybe three or four weeks, and then I would stumble into a little village and I would be able to make a phone call to my wife in South Africa. Just to hear her voice, just to hear that she was well, the children were well, the farm was going well, was more than I needed. I didn’t need anything else.  

I want to say to you that that confidence, that assurance that someone hears your requests, is massive. Now, when you pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, we know the Word tells us that He hears our petitions. That should be more than sufficient for you and I, because He knows what is good for us. 

So today, when you pray, pray the prayer of faith, pray the prayer, “Lord, you hear my prayers and now I am going to leave it there at the foot of the Cross and allow You, Lord, to do the best for me, whatever that is." That gives you absolute assurance and peace of mind.

Have a lovely day as you continue to talk with your beloved Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name. It is Thursday morning, the 21st of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today. 

We start in the book of Isaiah 51:12:

“I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you should be afraid…” 

We’ll just stop there. We go straight from there 2 Corinthians 1:4. We are talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest Comforter of all.

”…who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we”, here’s the key: ”may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
2 Corinthians 1:4 

We can only really comfort other people when we truly understand what they are going through, and the only way to really understand is when we ourselves have been through that very trial or hardship, and then to comfort them through it all by the love of Christ. You see, Jesus knows my dear friend, what it means to be lonely. Remember in the Garden of Gethsemane when the disciples were with Him? He asked them to pray and then they went to sleep and He was left by Himself? Have you ever felt like that? Of course. When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, the disciples didn’t stand with Him, they ran away—all of them.

He also understands what it’s like to be betrayed. This morning, maybe someone has let you down badly, someone who said, “I’ll be with you till the end,” and they have left you. Betrayal is a terrible thing. Jesus knows what it feels like because His disciples did the same. Remember, Judas Iscariot. He sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, but Jesus still washed his feet. It’s incredible love that, folks.

Thomas said, ”I’ll believe it when I see it.” He doubted the Lord, and Peter, the one He was really relying upon, let Him down and denied Him three times. Jesus understands what you’re going through this morning. What about lies? Has anybody told any lies about you? ”Oh, Angus, plenty.” Jesus understands. He was falsely accused of all kinds of things in front of Pontius Pilate, and He is more than able to comfort you and I. Why? Because He has been there Himself before. 

Unless you have been there yourself, never say to a person who is going through a difficult time, ”I understand,” because you actually don’t, do you? Rather love them as Jesus loved us. Weep with them as Jesus wept with us and remind them, very importantly, that weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5)

Jesus bless you and keep your eyes fixed on Him. He will walk with you right through that fire.

God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 20th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Isaiah 50:9:

“Surely the Lord God will help Me;
Who is he who will condemn Me?”

There is no more condemnation, my dear friend, in you, if Jesus Christ has forgiven you for all your sins. That is fantastic news. Romans 8:1, we all know it. It says: 

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” 

Wow, wonderful news! No more condemnation for you and I if we love Jesus Christ and we are walking in His ways. Remember, it is the devil who is the accuser, no one else, and he is very good at it, and he only accuses the Christians. He doesn’t have to accuse those who already belong to him. But it is Jesus who has come to give us life abundantly. (John 10:10)

Many of us just need that reassurance, don’t we? - That our sins are forgiven, especially when we are growing closer and closer to home time. Not one of us listening to this programme is without sin, no, not one. Romans 3:23: 

“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, …” 

Jesus Christ is the only One, by the way, who is qualified to forgive us and set us free. 

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 
1 John 1:9

Yes, when we ask Him to forgive us, He pays the account in full. Paid, paid, paid! Its wonderful news, and then the better news, even than that, is when He forgives, He forgets.

“Lord, remember what I did last week?”

“No, I don’t remember because I have forgiven you, so go and sin no more.” How many times did He say that to people in the New Testament when He walked on the Earth, “Your sins are forgiven.” Oh folks, it is wonderful news, and don’t forget, it is very important, He has forgiven you your sins, don’t forget to say, “Thank you”. “Thank You Jesus for forgiving us our sins.”  

Do you remember that old hymn? I am going to try and sing it. I want you to sing along with me, “I had a debt that I could not pay” - it goes something like this:

He paid the debt He did not owe,
I had a debt I could not pay,
I needed someone,
To wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song,
“Amazing grace” all day long,
Christ Jesus paid the debt,
That I could never pay.

Well, there we have it. He has paid the debt that you and I could never pay. Go out today and tell somebody who is confused and sad that Jesus can pay all of your debts. All you have to do is to repent and believe it.

Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 19th of March, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We go to Isaiah 50:7:

"For the Lord God will help Me;
Therefore I will not be disgraced;
Therefore I have set My face like a flint,
And I know that I will not be ashamed."

The Lord Jesus will help you and me to succeed; we will not be disgraced; we will set our faces like a flint. Verse 6 tells you, just before that, that He gave His back to those who struck Him,

 …"And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting." 
Isaiah 50:6

Even though the Lord Jesus Christ was absolutely, shamefully treated, it did not stop Him from going to Jerusalem and completing the task that the Lord set before Him. He did not retaliate; no, He pressed on to the goal of His high calling. A flint is a very hard rock—a hard, grey rock. It's used to produce a spark. If you take two flints and knock them together, it causes a spark. Now, giving up is not in Jesus' vocabulary. 

David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer-missionary who discovered Victoria Falls in Central Africa, was instrumental in abolishing the slave trade. He said, "I will go anywhere as long as it is forward." The Lord Jesus Christ set His sights on Jerusalem, He knew what was waiting for Him but He never looked back once. 

Paul, the apostle, knew he had to go to Rome; he knew he would die in Rome; even his dear friends tried to persuade him not to go, but he went and he got his head cut off in Rome for his faith.  

A young German, by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was able to escape from the Nazis and go to the USA. He was 39 years old. He had only been there about three months when he said, "No, I have to go back; I have to go back and help my friends." The Nazis caught him and hanged him at the end of the war.  

You and I, too, must follow the example of Christ and not be led by our circumstances but rather by the calling that the Lord has put in our lives. Then we shall succeed in whatever we are doing, whether it is that degree you need to get, whether it is that sporting achievement that you are desiring, as long as it is for God's glory, whether it's that business proposition, keep your eyes on the ball, keep your eyes on Heaven and you will succeed. 

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.