Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 18th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Isaiah 41:13:

“For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand,
Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’ 

What a beautiful promise! Then we go straight to the Gospel of John 16:7: 

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”  

We need to understand we have nothing to fear. The Lord is with us always, He is in our very heart so we have nothing whatsoever to be afraid of today. 

You know, that little Zulu preacher, William Duma, who has since gone to be with the Lord, he had an incredible relationship with the Holy Spirit. The story goes that one day, he was travelling on a bus, going to an appointment, driving through the sugar cane fields of Kwazulu Natal. The bus was full of people. He was sitting in the front seat, just behind the driver and he felt the Holy Spirit tell him to get off the bus immediately. So he did not hesitate. He stood up and told the driver, “You must stop the bus, I have to get off.” The bus driver was very angry with him, “Why do you want to stop in the middle of nowhere?” “I have to get off the bus immediately.” The bus driver stopped the bus, the people were quite irate, they wanted to get to their destination. They let the little preacher get off the bus with his small suitcase and away the bus roared, down the road, clouds of dust following it. And he stood alone in the sugarcane fields wondering, “Lord, why do You want me here?”. That bus only went one or two kilometres down the road and had a head-on collision with another vehicle. The very place where William Duma was sitting was crushed. He would have been killed.  

The Holy Spirit is with us always. He is our Helper. We need to listen to His inner voice speaking to us on a day-to-day basis. When He speaks to you in your heart, listen to Him, He is here to help you.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.  

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

We go straight to the Book of Hebrews 8:10: 

“…write them on their hearts:…” 

I read a beautiful little inscription written by a man named Theodore Cuyler; it goes like this, “Marble and granite are perishable monuments, and their inscriptions may be seldom read. Carve your names on human hearts for they alone are immortal.” 

We have got to spend more time with people. We have to realise that they are the trophies of God, not on monuments of granite and stone, even though they might be very beautiful and very meaningful. I think of the “Its Time” prayer meetings we had in our beloved South Africa. The one in Bloemfontein has got three massive crosses on a hill and it is a commemoration of what took place when over a million people came together and prayed for our country. I remember the beautiful cross put up at Krugersdorp when we had a “Speak Jesus” event. I remember the cross put up in Pretoria, Tswane, where countless numbers came to pray, and of course I remember the protea, the South African flower, made in concrete with a dam wall, commemorating the Theewaterskloof Dam which was bone dry and the hand of Elijah, the prophet who spoke about rain and then withheld the rain, and then God brought the rain. That monument is made in Mitchell’s Plain. You can go and see it. We call Mitchell’s Plain the flower of Cape Town. Two hundred fifty thousand-plus people prayed. There had been no water and no rain in Cape Town for over two years and in the middle of the meeting, it started raining, and it hasn’t stopped since. 

But the monuments that people will never forget is the folks that got saved, the folks who met Jesus Christ, the people who were healed, relationships restored - those are the monuments that are immortal. I often meet people, even now, and they say, “Do you remember when we were at that big rugby stadium in Pretoria, Loftus Versveld? That is the day that Jesus Christ met me and my heart was changed forever.” We need to spend time with humans, the greatest monuments and trophies of all, and those are the ones that God wants us to spend time on.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

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

We start in 2 Peter 2:21: 

"For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them."  

Better to have never known the truth than to have known Jesus Christ and then to have betrayed Him and walked away from Him. Peter, the big fisherman who wrote this very letter, did it himself no less than three times. He denied the Lord and it broke him completely. Matthew 26:75: 

"So he went out and wept bitterly." 

Young man, do not do it; it's not worth it! You want to go and sow your wild oats, as they say. You want to go and have a bit of fun and then you will come back and serve the Lord. It can become very costly indeed. Yes, I agree - if we really repent, Jesus will forgive us like He did with Peter, but remember, the scar remains. That illegitimate child walking around because you decided one night to have a bit of fun and you made that girl pregnant. That prison record, you went to jail because you chose not to pay your income tax. Yes, you have served your sentence but you have a record that will stay with you.

One of the saddest books I have ever read about a man named Jim Bakker. He was heading up one of the biggest Christian Channels in the world, but in a moment of weakness, he committed adultery, and it cost him severely. He eventually landed up in jail and lost his ministry, his wife and his family. Yes, he has repented, and we trust and believe that he is going on, but it comes at a tremendous price. It's really not worth it. 

A lady wrote me a letter just the other day, breaking my heart. In one of the main cities in our country, she said, the young men are leaving their families and going out and having affairs. They don't realise the debt that they are getting into. It will cost them everything. It's really not worth it - the pain, the hurt our selfishness causes to other people. My grandson said to me one day, "Grandad, what about all the people in the desert, the people in the jungles who never hear the Gospel? How do they get judged?" I said, "Son, they will be judged according to their works."

Today, let us have a good look at our lifestyle. Let us change, start afresh like Peter, and walk away from that sin which so easily ensnares us. (Hebrews 12:1) and let us continue with our love affair with the Master who saved us from so much.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

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

We start in 1 John 2:6: 

"He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." 

We have got to walk the talk. It is not good enough to tell people that you love them, but you have to show them that you love them. I read this beautiful little reading in a devotional by an anonymous writer and this is what it says: "The preaching that this world needs most is the sermon in shoes that are walking with Jesus Christ." Isn't that beautiful?  

Arthur Blessitt - I have never heard him preach but I don't think there are too many people in the world who have not heard of Arthur Blessitt. He is the man who literally carries the cross on his shoulder, not only from city to city but from country to country. He is walking the talk. Then we get Mother Theresa. I have never heard any sermon spoken by Mother Theresa or even recorded, but I don't think there is a more famous woman in the world than Mother Theresa, and what did she do? She took care of the poor and the needy. All she did was take people who were dying on the streets of Calcutta, lying in open sewers and, washed them and put their fragile bodies in between two clean sheets, and let them die in dignity after praying for them.

You and I need to walk the talk. We really do. It's all very well telling people that Jesus loves them, but if you show them that Jesus loves them, it has so much impact on their lives. Go out today and be a blessing to someone. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 14th of February, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 

We start in the Book of Isaiah 40:28:

“Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.”

Wow! He doesn’t rest - He is awake, and He is waiting to hear you this morning, my dear friend. Then we go straight to the Book of Romans 11:34-35:

“For who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has become His counselor?”
“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”

We can’t give Him anything; He is God! No one, not even Albert Einstein, can know the mind of Christ. Now this Lord, this God, our God, He has a plan for you, and He has a plan for me. He says in 1 Corinthians 2:9:

 “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 

What a beautiful promise! As a 15-year-old boy, in Central Zambia, a place called Kitwe, I remember sitting on an ant hill as a young boy, and I used to dream of preaching to multitudes of people about my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Oh, folks, it has happened. Yes, more than once. Please today, do not limit God. Dream your dream. He did it and He still is doing it for me, and He can do it for you too. 

Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of 2 Peter 2:1:

”But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.” 

False prophets, false teachers misleading God’s people and bringing in destructive heresies - we really need to be very wise when we are listening to people teaching the word. When I was a young man, and Jill and I were new Christians, we were so zealous for the Lord, so excited to serve Him. There were a group of people who came from overseas, they were extremely convincing, they spoke beautifully and they came to visit us on the farm. The one man said, “You know, this farm of yours does not belong to you; it belongs to God.” I agreed wholeheartedly. I said, “I want to do whatever God wants me to do.” He said, “You need to sell this farm, and you need to give the proceeds to our ministry.” I had an uneasy feeling in my heart and he was quite upset with me when I didn’t respond immediately. I said, “I am going to pray about it, and I will come back to you.” Jill and I went and we prayed because we felt very uneasy. You see, the Lord had given us a foundational Scripture when we gave our lives to Him.

I was wanting to go to Bible College and become a pastor. I got up in the mountains and prayed about it and the Lord had shown us very clearly that we needed to remain on Shalom because He had a work to do through us on this farm. The Scripture He gave us was 2 Corinthians 9:8, which says: 

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” 

In other words, stay on the farm; God will supply your needs and more than you need so that you can give to others and use this place as a witness for God. I went back to him and said, “Sorry, I am not selling this farm. God has told me to keep it because He wants to use it.” He was extremely upset with me and I want to tell you folks, if I had listened to that false teaching, I don’t know where we would be today. Whatever people tell you, make sure it lines up with the word of God, if it does, not disregard it immediately.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

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

We go to the Book of Isaiah 40:12-14 in the Old Testament,

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
Measured heaven with a span
And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?
Weighed the mountains in scales
And the hills in a balance?
Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or as His counselor has taught Him?
With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him,
And taught Him in the path of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge,
And showed Him the way of understanding?”

I want to say to you this morning that God is massive. He is not big, He is massive! This same God came down from Heaven to Earth and He actually walked on water. (Matthew 14:25). Who is like You, oh God? There is no one who is like our mighty God. I want to ask you a question this morning, and also myself. How big is God? Well, the answer is quite simple - He is as big as you allow Him to be.

Many years ago, I had the privilege of preaching in Scandinavia. What a beautiful part of the world. You can drink the water out of those lakes, it is so clean. They build the biggest trucks in the world and everything works and everything is clean and tidy. I was speaking in the vestry of a church before a service and we were praying. One man said, “Why do you come here to tell us about God? Why don’t you stay in Africa and look after your own people? They need more help than we do.” Then one lady started to weep. I couldn’t understand why she was weeping. She said, “Please pray for us because the suicide rate amongst the young people is escalating.” She said to me, “You see, we keep God in a box, a matchbox, and every now and again we just let Him out, just a little bit.” Folks, that is so sad when we think we are so clever we don’t need God. Without God we are nothing and we can do nothing, but with God on our side we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us. Philippians 4:13.

Go out today and look up into the sky and look at the glory of God and you will realise we have nothing to worry about. If God is for us, there is no man who will ever stand against us. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

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

We start in the Gospel of John 1:41:

“He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah.”

We have found the Messiah! Then we go to the Book of Acts 7:2 - and I would like you to read this if you get a chance - reading from verse 2 where Stephen, who was a waiter - that’s right, he waited on tables - told the story of his people.

This morning, I want to speak to you about the power of personal testimony. Tell your story. There was a lady by the name of Fanny Crosby, her real name was Frances. She was blind. She loved Jesus Christ with a passion. She wrote over 6000 hymns in her lifetime. She lived till 94 years old. Because she was blind, by the age of 15 years old, she had memorised the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and many other Books of the Bible. She wrote probably one of the most famous hymns that has ever been written. That’s right, we are talking about Blessed Assurance. I want to tell you, it is a personal testimony. She says, “Tell your story.”

Many of you listening to this message know the hymn from when you were small, right from when you were at Sunday School. I want you to join with me and I want you to sing this song please.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
O what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood

This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Saviour all the day long
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Saviour all the day long

The Lord Jesus Christ bless you today as you go out and you tell a dying world your story because that story of yours will save somebody today. Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world!

Have a wonderful day, goodbye.

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

We start in the Book of Psalms 89:37:

“It shall be established forever like the moon,
Even like the faithful witness in the sky.” 

Then we go straight to Isaiah 40:8: 

“But the word of our God stands forever.”

Then the last scripture, the Gospel of John 12:34: 

“Who is this Son of Man?” 

Oh, friends, you know who we are talking about. He is the faithful one; He is the One who never changes, He is the One who said, “I will never leave you, and I will never forsake you.” Yes, He is a sure thing.

Many, many years ago, when I started farming, I was a farm manager on a dairy farm up in Central Zambia, and I worked for a very gracious man; he also bred racehorses and was a very keen gambler. I had never gambled in my life before, and I never will again after this incident. He came to me one day and said, “Angus, I have the fastest horse on this track. I want to tell you, son, take half your wages…” (I think I was only getting about fifty pounds a month in those days). He said, “…take half your wages and put them on my horse, and you will win a lot of money because he is running at 10 to 1. You can’t lose, I am telling you; it is a sure thing.”  

So, I did it, and take a guess what happened? Yes, that beautiful horse got beaten at the finish line by a nose, just a nose, and I lost half of my wages. Never, ever have I bet since then. If you are a betting man, stop it today because there is nothing sure about gambling. But one thing you can be sure of is that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. (Hebrews 13:8.)

God bless you, have a wonderful day and remember, when that moon comes up, the Lord’s word is as sure as that moon that comes up every night.

God bless you and goodbye.

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

We go to the Book of Exodus 20:12, to the second book in the Bible,

“Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”  

Commandment Number 5 is the first commandment in the Bible with a promise added to it - that your days may be long in the land.

Early this morning, I went into our little town of Greytown, about 15 km from Shalom Farm, and I had to get a few things for the farm. I was amazed - it was pension day, and the town was full of pensioners. Of course, I never see myself as a pensioner because I never look at my face in the mirror. But I was so deeply touched, there was such a serene atmosphere in our little town. The people were coming up from the rural areas, some of them coming up to collect their pensions and then go back home. I went to the chemist to get something and sat on a bench next to an old Zulu lady. I saw this dear old soul take her purse out of her bag, she opened it up and took her money out of the purse and I saw her publicly counting it very carefully and I said to her, “Mama, please don’t let everybody see how much money you have got. Keep it safe just in case they want to steal it.” She thanked me profusely, put her money back in her little wallet and put it away in her bag.

As I went out, I saw an older man and the pick-up he had was probably as old as him. He could not start it, but he knew what to do. He had to get out, open the bonnet, connect a couple of wires to the starter and he got the engine started then he quietly walked back, got into his car and off her drove. I was deeply touched. I saw older women walking with walking sticks. They obviously have problems with their knees or hips but were quite happy walking along. I saw huge queues of people waiting to collect their pension money, quite happy, nobody arguing, nobody complaining, because you see old age teaches you things like patience, teaches you things like gratitude, gratitude for another day, an opportunity to get some money so that you can buy some groceries to go home with you.

Let us be very kind to people. Sometimes young people get impatient - “Come on, hurry up!” But young man, young lady, please understand one thing: that older person is probably in pain; they probably have back trouble. Maybe they can’t see too well, they have got cataracts in their eyes, maybe they can’t hear so well, but you know something? They are very patient, and it costs nothing to give them a smile, take them under the arm and help them across the road, count their money for them so that they don’t get fleeced by somebody, and I tell you, God will honour that good deed every time.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.