Episodes
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I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 31st of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 19:30:
”…He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
“Tetelestai” - It means, “It is finished”. The job has been done, the mission has been accomplished, the obligation has been met, the debt has been paid in full!
You know, I went to a restaurant one day with my dear wife. We had a lovely meal together and then I called the waitress and said, ”Can you bring the bill?” She came up and said, ”Sir, it has already been fulfilled, it’s been paid.” I said, ”I don’t believe it!”, She said, ”Yes.” I said,” Well, who paid it?” She said, ”People who have left the restaurant twenty minutes ago.” I could hardly comprehend the goodness and the love of those folk. Paid - you don’t have to pay anything, and you keep wanting to put your hand into your pocket and bring out your wallet to pay but it’s paid!
It’s like a bird that’s been in a cage for some years. You open the gate of that cage to let that bird out and the bird just sits there for a long time trying to comprehend that it is free, and then when it eventually realises it’s free, it goes out of that cage and it flies away.
My dear friend, you are free. Jesus said it and He meant it. All we need to do today is two things: Number one is to believe it, and number two is to receive it and then walk out because your sins have been paid for in full by our beloved Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. The last thing He said was, ”It is finished!” He bowed His head and He gave up His spirit. What a beautiful, mighty, gracious, compassionate God we serve! Go free, your sins have been paid.
God bless you and goodbye.
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I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 30th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Gospel of Mark 9:40. Jesus says:
”For he who is not against us is on our side.”
Then we go to John 18:38:
”Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.”
In fact he said that twice. He said it again in John 19:4:
“I find no fault in Him”.
He who is not against us is on our side.
We need to be very careful that we don’t judge people. Pontius Pilate was an infidel. He was a Roman governor. He had more compassion for Jesus than the Pharisees and the Chief Priests. In fact, he tried to defend Him. Always keep the door wide open. I’m talking to a lady who’s stressing because her husband does not want to pray the sinner's prayer with her. Keep the door open. He will come through, just keep praying for him.
I’m praying for that young girl. Mom and dad are pulling their hair out. She just does not want to know about the Lord. Well, she’s not against the Lord. She just feels, she doesn’t need the Lord, at the moment. Keep the door wide open, she’ll come home just like the Prodigal Son. Never judge a book by it’s cover. What does that mean? Well, it might have a very nice cover on the outside and be quite boring on the inside. However, it might have a plain cover and be exciting inside.
I want to tell you a little story. A very good friend of mine, Allan Kruger, was the manager of the huge Kings Park Rugby Stadium. I approached him to book that stadium for the very first big event we ever had, and when I came into his office, he was flat out so busy organising Michael Jackson coming and all kinds of people and he didn’t seem to have too much time for me. He was trying to be kind but he was busy. Well, I want to tell you something now, eventually I persuaded him to hire it to us and then he said, ”Do you realise what’s involved? You’re going to have to have a disaster management committee.” He brought out a heap of forms. He said, ”But on second thoughts, I’ll handle that for you.” He said then, ”Do you realise that you have to have your lighting system?” I said, ”Yes.” He said, “Well, I’ll do that for you.” And he just went on and on. You know that that man organised everything for us. Yes, and he wasn’t a Christian, as per se, but on the big night when it was all over, I stood with Allan Kruger on the twenty-two metre line of that rugby field, and the two of us prayed the sinner’s prayer together. Never ever judge a book by its cover. Jesus says, ”He who is not against us is on our side.”
God bless you and goodbye.
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Missing episodes?
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I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 29th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 51:17:
”The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.”
Then we go to the Book of Joel 2:13:
”So rend your heart, and not your garments;…”
The Lord wants our heart, not our possessions. He wants us, not what we can do for Him. He doesn’t need anything from us. He formed the universe with one word. What can we give Him? He says, “a contrite heart”. Now “contrite” means sorry for something you have done. If you look at Psalm 51, that is the Psalm after Nathan, the prophet, came to David and exposed David for his adultery. He had an affair with Bathsheba, who was not his wife. She was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s choice generals, and then David killed him in order to try and cover up his tracks and it failed miserably. What is the difference between David and maybe you and me today? The difference is, David knew how to say, “sorry”. He knew how to rend his heart and not his garments.
Today, my dear friend, I don’t know what is troubling you. Maybe there is something in your life which you are so ashamed of, you’ve made a mistake and you don’t know the way out. Quite simply, go to the Lord today and say, “Lord I am terribly sorry for what I have done”. He will forgive you. He has promised us that 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. Just say, “sorry”.
A lot of suicides take place because a young person has made a mistake and they have no one to go and confide in, and they are too ashamed to go to their parents, and so they take their lives. Please don’t do that. Go and speak to somebody and say, ”Listen, I’ve made a terrible mistake. What must I do?” And you know, confession frees us. The devil doesn’t want you to do that. He wants to hold you captive. He doesn’t want you to tell anybody about the mistake you made, but the Lord says, “Rend your heart”. Open your heart and don’t try and cover it up with other things.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 28th of January 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 8:2:
”I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat.”
Jesus was a kind person, Jesus is a kind person. Then we go to the Gospel of John 21:9:
”Then, as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread.”
Jesus had prepared a meal for His disciples on the shores of Lake Galilee, after His resurrection. He was concerned for the well-being of His disciples, even though they had run away and left Him - a kind man. “Compassion” means sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings of other people. Oh, my dear friend, we need to become kinder in this world. You know it’s one of the fruits of the Spirit. Yes, you’ll find that in Galatians 5:22. Kindness is one of the fruits of the Spirit.
Just the other night, I was watching the news on the television. BBC World News said that when they interviewed little children all over Britain, the watchword for 2025 was kindness. “Little children, what is the most important word for you?” Kindness, I wonder why? Oh man, my eyes filled with tears. Why would the little child say kindness? Maybe because there’s a lack of kindness in the world we live in today.
You know, I love horses, I think you know that. Horses are beautiful animals. I can look into the eye of a horse and I can tell you whether that horse is a kind horse, and I’m very serious about it, or maybe he’s impatient, angry, uptight, self-centred, but a soft, kind eye in a horse is something that I look for very carefully before I will ride him.
I want to tell you a little story, maybe you’ve heard it before but it’s worth listening to again. A young pastor, many years ago, told me here in Greytown that he was studying theology in Scotland. He and his young wife were walking down the high street on a very cold, windy, wintry day, and they saw this beautiful little home, and the door was wide open. There was a bunch of flowers on the table and they walked in and this kind old lady walked out and said, ”Can I help you?” “Yes please, can I have some tea and scones?” She said, ”No problem. Please be seated.” And she started to prepare them. They were fresh and they could smell them cooking. They did get a bit impatient because she took such a long time. Eventually, she came out with fresh tea, hot scones buttered with strawberry jam and cream and when they’d finished their meal they stood up and they said to her, ”Madam, how much do we owe you?” And she looked surprised. She said, ”No, this is a private home. You don’t owe me anything.” That is kindness.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
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I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 27th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 9:5:
”Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”
That was the Mount of Transfiguration when the Lord spoke to His Heavenly Father and also to Moses and Elijah. Peter, James and John must have stood there with their mouths wide open, not believing what they were seeing. It was so amazing that they did not want to go back down into the valley, where all the trouble is, and the pain and all the suffering and the misunderstanding. Have you ever had a mountain-top experience? Oh yes, I have as well, and you just don’t want to come back down, do you? You just want to stay up there. You know, I am a mountain man, I love the mountains. My dear wife, Jill, loves the sea, and often we have a little giggle together. I say, “Jill, I love the mountains”, and she says, “Oh, but I love the sea.” And then I say, “Jill, Jesus never went down to the sea to pray!” But we cannot live on top of the mountain. We have got to go back down to the valley. We have got to roll up our sleeves. We have got to deal with things in our home, in our workplace. We have got to get involved.
Moses went up the mountain, that’s right, he went to Mount Sinai and he got orders from the Lord. He got the Ten Commandments and then he came back down again into the valley to deliver Jesus’ message to the people. That mountain doesn’t literally have to be a physical mountain. It’s your closet, it is your quiet time place, it is where you spend time with Jesus every day.
There is a thing called “extempore preaching”. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary. The word “extempore” means done without preparation, and to extemporise means to make something up as you go along. Now I am not arguing with the Oxford Dictionary but the great preachers would preach extempore preaching. In other words, they would take one verse out of the Bible, like Romans 1:17: “The just shall live by faith” - and they would preach on that for up to an hour and even longer. The young people would admire them and think they could do the same but what they didn’t realise was that these great preachers had spent hours in their quiet time room getting the message into their spirit man and then simply go out into the open and deliver it to the people.
Today, spend time up the mountain and then you will not make so many mistakes when you have to buy that new motorcar, or you have to sell that house, or you have to go to university, or go to trade school, or get married. Spend time on the mountain first.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 26th of January, 2025 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 9:26. This is Jesus speaking:
“For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels.”
Are you ashamed to tell people that you are a Christian? Well, the Lord says very clearly, “If you are ashamed of Me, I will be ashamed of you.” You see, when Jesus died on the Cross of Calvary for your sins and my sins, He hung on that tree, He was naked but He was not ashamed to die for you, young lady. Why are you so secretive of the One that you love? It is time for us to speak out about our faith. He has never made you ashamed of Him, He has never done anything to bring any disrespect to you. He is the only one who is pure, without spot or blemish, has never, ever sinned for the whole time He walked on this earth, for 33 years.
Many years ago, I was privileged to go to that beautiful Emerald Isle. Yes, I am talking about Ireland, and my dear friend, Andy, took me to a maximum security prison. These are very sad places. There were men who were put into that jail for life, and they called the prisoners out into an open area. I remember it was tarmac and I had plenty of room to speak to them. They were standing on the one side of this huge wall and I was standing in the middle, and after I had finished preaching, I said, “I want to give you the opportunity and the privilege of acknowledging Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour publicly, not secretively. I want you to walk across this wall, (it was about maybe 20 or 30 metres) and I want you to come across here and get on your knees, and repent before God. And I don’t want anybody to close their eyes or slip their finger up, acknowledging the Lord.”
I waited and waited and then they started coming. Some of these were tough, hardened men, some of them weeping, and they knelt on that tarmac floor and they gave their lives to Christ openly. But what shook me more than anything, there was a man there. I don’t know if he was a resident pastor, a man of the cloth, a clergyman. He had been to university and studied theology. He started to walk on his own, right across that floor, and got on his knees and repented before God. He said to me afterwards, when I said, “I was so impressed by what you did”, he said, “That was the first time in my life that I made a public confession of my faith in front of everybody. Thank you.”
Go out today and tell three people that you are not ashamed of Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.
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I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday, the 25th of January, 2025 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Hosea 8:14:
“For Israel has forgotten his Maker,…”
Then we go straight to the Book of Ephesians 2:10:
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
God does not make junk! No, He doesn’t. It does not matter what you feel about yourself today. You might feel that you are no good, you are not going to make it, you messed up and that is over - not at all! God made you, Himself. That is what He says. He says that you are His handiwork. He has created you and I beforehand, that we should walk in that. We really need to understand something - we are not created by ourselves. God created us. Colossians 1:27:
“…Christ in you, (and in me) the hope of glory.”
It is Christ in us - that is why we can say Philippians 4:13 says:
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Now, I can hear what you are saying. You are saying, “No, but I made a mistake and I am done.” No, not at all. If you look at the history in the Bible, you will see that God had a habit of using men and women who blew it, who messed up, but what they did was, they repented, they said sorry and got back into the fight.
I am talking about Moses. Moses was a murderer. He killed the slave-driver in Egypt. King David, he did the same thing. He messed up, he took another man’s wife. He was an adulterer and then he murdered her husband to try and cover his tracks. He wasn’t a good man. Peter, the big fisherman, he was a foul-mouthed man, he was arrogant. God used him and God uses ordinary people right through history to do His work for Him. God loves you and He wants to use you.
Now, stand up, dust yourself off and say sorry and get back into the fight.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
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I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 24th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to 2 Corinthians 10:4 (Amplified Version):
“The weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood]. Our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”
Folks, we need to understand something. We are in a war. We are in a full-scale war and it’s not a physical war. It’s a war raging in the mind, and we need to use the weapons God has given us to combat this war. “What weapons?” You say. I am talking about prayer, the power of prayer. We’ve got to pray more and speak less. The Bible - that is our weapon. It’s the sword of the Spirit. The word of God says we’ve got to use it. We’ve got to watch what we read, what we watch on TV and especially social media. This very message you are listening to now is coming to you on social media, and thank you very much for praying for me and for listening and watching it, because there is so much rubbish that can be watched even by a small child, ten, fourteen years old - things like pornography which is poisoning people, causing people to be depressed, and causing people to stress and to even contemplate suicide.
Now I want to read something to you that I’ve heard from a lady named Cindy McGarvie. She is an Australian lady, and I want you to listen to the power of social media. Iran attacked America and they were expecting the Americans to retaliate with bombs and guns. Listen to this. “The US could have ordered air strikes on Iran’s military bases where the missiles were launched, but instead they used both soundless and formless computer technology to achieve a similar end. This is called Cyber Warfare. Cyber Warfare is the use of computer technology to destruct activities of a state or organisation.” They didn’t even send a missile or anything. They destructed the whole thing by social media.
We need to be careful what we allow our children to watch and what we are watching and we need to use it for the benefit of the Kingdom of God. Remember the Bible tells us in 1 John 4:4: “…greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world.” And that is the whole purpose of thought for today, to bring to your attention, every morning, the importance of God’s Holy Word which He has given us to stand against the lies of the devil.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 23rd of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 2 Peter 3:18. The Lord tells us to,
“grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
What is grace? Well, grace is undeserved loving-kindness. It’s unmerited favour. We don’t deserve it, but because of God’s love for us, He has given us His grace. We are saved, not by our own efforts but by His grace. Ephesians 2:8 says we have been saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; for it was a gift from God. So let us not become too harsh with others who are, at this point in time, still trying to find the Lord. Some of them are in a bad place and maybe they say some ugly things to you. Just extend grace to them, just like the Lord extended grace to you and me.
The Lord says, “Before you try and take the speck out of your brother’s eye, rather take the log out of your own eye first.” (Matthew 7:5). When you start to realise what Jesus Christ has done for you, then it's very easy to extend that grace towards others. I was cycling on my mountain bike early this morning before the sun came up, using a light, and as I was riding and talking to the Lord, it was as if I remembered all the things that I had done before I met Him as my Lord and Saviour, and I was overwhelmed by His kindness and the fact that He has forgiven me of every one of those sins, because I confessed them. You will find that in 1 John 1:9.
Let’s you and I today extend the grace and the love of Christ to those who are struggling and even to those who are our supposed enemies so that they too might meet the King of Glory.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
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I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 22nd of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to Mark 8:32-33: “Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He (that’s Jesus) rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
Peter rebuked the Master. We must never, ever get familiar with Jesus Christ. You know, I have a big problem when people talk about, “the man upstairs”, “the good man”, “the big man”, “my china”, “my friend”. Those comments are totally unacceptable when we speak about the Creator of Heaven and Earth. You know that old saying, “familiarity breeds contempt”? And it really does! When we forget our station in life, all of a sudden things turn pear-shaped, don’t they?
You see, if you look at Philippians 2:10-11, the Bible tells us that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. We need to respect our God. Peter overstepped the mark, clearly, and the Lord rebuked him in front of the disciples. Respect, by the way, is learned at home. I want to say something very seriously to moms and dads. You might not like what I am going to tell you, but I am going to tell you because I believe it is the truth. You must teach your children to respect you when they are young at home. Don’t allow them to become familiar with you. Yes, you must roll on the grass and play ball with them, you must swim with them, you must shout, but there must be a mark of respect.
I have a major problem when I see young children treating grown-ups as equals. You see, it is not for the sake of the grown-up, it is for the sake of the child because when he goes into the big world and he doesn’t understand respect, he is going to get hurt badly. I remember reading a very sad story about tourists who came from a far-off country to the game reserve. They did not respect the laws and rules in the game park, and they saw a pride of lions, beautiful, big, massive lions, lying underneath a tree, resting. They got out of their vehicles and walked up close to them to take photos. Well, they got badly, badly mauled I think some of them got killed. Why? Because they had no respect.
I want to say to you, Jesus Christ is my Lord, He is my Saviour, He is my personal Friend, but more than all of that, He is my God.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 21st of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 8:15. This is Jesus speaking to the disciples:
“Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, (be careful) beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
Leaven is another word for yeast. Now I looked up in the Oxford dictionary the literal meaning of the word “yeast”. What is it? It is a microscopic, single-celled fungus capable of converting sugar into alcohol. That is what yeast is. The Lord says to you and me this morning, be careful of the influence of the world system in your life. Look out for the Pharisees. They are not serving God, they are actually agents of the world system. I spoke to an alcoholic, you can speak to any alcoholic and say how did you start and they’ll tell you, this one drink.
Many, many men and women, some listening to this message now are hooked on pornography. How did it start? Well somebody said I want to show you something on my device, and it was exciting and that is where it started, now you can’t stop. What about adultery? A man doesn’t just wake up in the morning and say, “I am going to have an affair today.” No, he starts off with a relationship that appears to be innocent but that woman is not your wife, sir. She belongs to somebody else. You have no right at all to get involved with her. And madam, that man is not your husband, he belongs to another lady. You have no right at all to get involved with that man.
Gambling - gambling is on the increase, and it starts off innocently. You normally start off by winning but you always end up losing. I know men who are hooked on gambling who have gambled away their very homes and their wives’ jewellery, hoping to make it just with one more spin of the dice. Let us not do it today. I want to pray for you this morning:
Father God,
I am praying for somebody this morning, maybe a young person who is tempted to experiment with something that they know is not of God. Lord, please help them turn away and walk away from that thing and never to go back again. I am praying for those who already are involved. Lord Jesus, set them free today, because if the Lord sets them free, they shall be free indeed.
I ask this is Jesus name,
Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 20th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Psalms 37:7:
”Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; …”
Then we go straight to the Book of Hosea 12:6:
“And wait on your God continually.”
Continually - we must wait on the Lord patiently this year as we start 2025. No more rushing around. That’s what gets us into trouble. You see, King Saul, the first king of Israel, would not wait for the prophet Samuel to come and offer up a sacrifice to God before the battle started, and what happened? He lost his kingship. He lost his kingdom because he would not wait.
This is not a quick-fix religion that you and I are involved in. No, no, no. This is a lifestyle. Wait continually, not a one-off thing, it’s a lifestyle. You know, that’s one thing farming has taught me, is to be patient because the farmer that’s rushing around never reaps anything that’s worth anything. We need to be patient. Remember Jesus, when they called Him, His best friend Lazarus was sick and dying. He came four days late but what happened? Oh, one of the greatest miracles in the New Testament - Lazarus was raised from the dead! Jesus was never early, Jesus was never late, Jesus was always spot on time. We need to get into that habit.
My late dad was involved in the 2nd world war and was up in North Africa with the South African troops when he was caught by Rommel and the Germans. They put him in a prisoner-of-war camp for three and a half years, but my mother was back in Britain and she was in the Air Force. Those two were going to get married. My dad said, ”I’ll come out to Africa. I’ll make some money and then I’ll come back to Scotland and I’ll marry you.” But of course the war got in between them. Do you know that they waited patiently for each other for no less than six years? And I want to tell you that it was the most beautiful marriage. I am so blessed to have been raised in a family of love.
Today, wait for that thing that God is going to give you. Do not rush ahead and He will give it to you in His time.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 19th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Proverbs 27:20:
“Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.”
Wow! Powerful words. Then we go to the Book of Ecclesiastes 5:10:
“He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; Nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.”
Chasing the wind, folks, chasing the wind, and then lastly we go to the Book of Hosea 12:1:
“Ephraim feeds on the wind, And pursues the east wind; …”
Now we as farmers know there is nothing good that comes out of the East wind. There’s no rain that comes from the East wind, not to speak of. We need to be careful what we are chasing today. People who are chasing money. I want to tell you about a man by the name of Howard Hughes. He was worth, by today’s standards, $55 Billion US dollars. He died as a recluse and he was just an absolute shell of a man. What about fame? Marilyn Monroe was probably the most famous woman when it came to modelling and acting in the world. She died at 36 years old from an overdose. What about power? Wall Street collapse, men jumping out of windows and committing suicide? Chasing the wind.
Young people, don’t wait and wait and wait before you get married. I’ve spoken to many couples.“ No, as soon as we pay for our house we’ll get married.” Don’t do that. It’s easier for two people to live than for one person to live on their own and you might lose your first love if you wait too long. That young successful farmer, he’s doing very well but he’s getting greedy, he wants to buy the farm next door. That farm could sink you completely. Don’t do it. The young evangelist just keeps on getting sought after, can’t say no and eventually he’s never at home. He’s all over the place. He says he’s doing the Lord’s work but he’s fooling himself because it’s for his own ego and what happens? He loses his family in the end.
Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14:
“Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
Let us rather obey 1 Timothy 6:6:
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
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I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 18th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 2 Corinthians 5:20:
”Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us:…”
Isn’t that a beautiful scripture, the Lord speaking to the lost through you and I? Then we go straight to the Book of Revelation 1:11, and Jesus says to John:
“What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches… “
You and I have been called to be representatives of Jesus Christ. We have been called to be ambassadors for the Lord. Now, I’ve just spoken to you about two great ambassadors. One was Paul, the Apostle, and the other was John, the blessed disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both of these men wrote the word of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. You and I have a responsibility to tell the world about the soon-coming King. Now I can hear someone saying, ”Ja, well I haven’t got much education, I can’t write a book,” or somebody saying, ”I’m in an old age home. I can’t do much anymore.” Or someone is maybe in a hospital and cannot move around. What can I do?”
The most important thing to do, of course, is to pray, pray and pray! That is the most important thing for any believer to do, but I want to tell you about John Bunyan. Now John Bunyan wrote a book called The Pilgrims Progress, probably the most powerful and well-known book next to the Bible itself. Where did he write it? He wrote it in jail! He was in jail for 12 years off and on. He was a tinker by trade and yet that book, to this day, has impacted lives all over the world. What about C S Lewis, C S Lewis who wrote the book, Chronicles of Narnia? He wrote the Screw Tape Letters. He wrote many books.
Folks, what I’m trying to say to you is, we don’t need to travel around the world in order to get the Gospel out. Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, you might be a farmer; you might be a businessman; you might be a teacher or a nurse; you might be a professional sportsman. You can be an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Today let’s start standing up and start shouting out from the rooftops that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He loves sinners, that He’s coming soon to take us home to be with Him in heaven forever!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 17th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Hosea 11:7, a very sad verse:
“My people are bent on backsliding from Me.”
Then we go to Matthew 21:29:
“He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went.”
Remember, the Lord told the story of the farmer who had two sons. He told the one son to go and do a certain job. The son said, “I will not,” but later on, he regretted saying that, and he went. The other son said he will go but he never went. Which one will the father prefer? The Lord said the first one. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “backslider” - a return to bad behaviour after an attempt to improve. It is plain selfishness, folks. That is all it is, and it is a dangerous place to be. Having known the truth and then turned your back on it and gone back, like the pig goes back to it’s own muck.
I read an article once of a man who walked out of the divorce courts. He had just divorced his sixth wife, and when they spoke to him he said, “She tried so hard to please me.” That is the ultimate in selfishness. He had six wives, but he never could see the log in his own eye. He was always busy taking the speck out of everybody else’s eye but never looking at himself. You know, it is better for us never to have known our beloved Lord Jesus, than to have known Him and to walk away from Him.
The ultimate example, of course, is Judas Iscariot. For three years, he walked with the Lord, saw Him walk on water, saw Him multiply food, He saw miracles, signs and wonders, and still he denied the Lord and betrayed Him. You and I need to understand we cannot live like that today. I want to pray today. Maybe you have a loved one, a son, a daughter, or a father, a mother, who purposely will not walk with the Lord. We need to pray for them because it will be a perilous thing for them to stand in front of the Lord one day, knowing the truth, no excuses and still turning their back on God.
Father,
I pray today for that backslider. Whatever it takes Lord, bring him home, whatever it is, let it happen so that he can repent and come home.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 16th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 8:36:
”Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed”.
What a beautiful scripture verse!
Just the other day I had the privilege of attending a funeral service. I walked in and I could feel the presence of the Lord in that place, a beautiful church. The pastor was waiting, the coffin was positioned in front of the altar. It was a very plain and simple pine box, not even varnished. The handles consisted of sisal rope handles, but some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen at any funeral. The dear sister who had passed on had organised her own funeral before she died. She kindly asked me to bring the message of salvation and to give the people an opportunity to accept Christ. The music was glorious and triumphant, the tributes from the family were warm, loving and even humorous at times, and most of all, the freedom and the love of Christ, our Lord Jesus, was tangible. At the altar call there was not one person who did not respond. Indeed, the whole congregation prayed the sinner’s prayer together.
Now, the order of service was beautifully printed with lovely photos, but this beautiful poem I want to read you was written on the fly-leaf. I want to say, well done my dearest sister in Christ, go and rest in peace, all your desires have been fulfilled. And this is how the poem goes. It is titled, “I Am Free”:
Don’t grieve for me for now I’m free,
I’m following the path God laid for me
I took his hand when I heard him call,
I turned my back and left it all
I could not stay another day,
To laugh, to love, to work or play
Tasks left undone must stay that way,
I’ve found that peace at the close of the day
If my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joy
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss,
Ah yes, these things I too will miss
Be not burdened with times of sorrow,
I wish for you the sunshine of tomorrow
My life’s been full, I’ve savoured much,
Good friends, good times, a loved one’s touch
If my time seemed all too brief,
Don’t lengthen it now with undue grief
Lift up your heart and share with me,
God wanted me now and He has set me free.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
-
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 15th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Micah 6:8:
“…But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?”
This year we are going to keep short lists. Yes, I am talking about New Year’s resolutions. They never work, do they? Maybe some of us have already broken resolutions we made on the 1st of this month. We need to keep them short and we need to execute them. Short lists - don’t just talk about it, but do them. Do justly, starting in your own home with your own wife and your own husband and your own children. Do justly to those people who you work with and that you work for. Honour them. Do justly as if you were doing it unto the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself.
Be merciful, love mercy. Folks, people are suffering. We get letters every single day of the week, hundreds of them. People are suffering. They are sick physically, spiritually and mentally, and they need mercy, they need love. People make mistakes, all of us. Be merciful to them because it is only by the grace of God that you are standing today. And then, walk humbly with your God. Oh, He is a beautiful friend who sticks closer than a brother. We are saved by grace and grace alone. We are not saved by any good works, by any effort. It is just because He loves us. Let us not become arrogant. Arrogance, I think is one of the things that keep people away from the Lord because they see the way we strut around and they say, “Well, if that is how a Christian is going to behave, I don’t want to be a Christian.” Let’s be humble, let’s prefer one another, let’s get to the back of the queue. If somebody wants to push in, take a step back. Let him go through, let her go through.
If somebody overtakes you on the highway and pushes in, one gets so angry sometimes but you don’t know why that person is in such a rush. Maybe they have a sick child in the car, you never know. Just put your hand up and bless them rather than shake your fist at them. Let’s walk the talk. This year, let’s be Jesus to a dying world.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 14th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Hosea 8:2:
“Israel will cry to me, “My God, we know you!”
But the children of Israel did not know God at that time. They thought they did but they were playing the harlot. They were building things they said were for God but it wasn’t for God, it was for them.
Then we go straight to the Book of Titus 1:16:
“They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him,…”
You know, the Westminster Confession was a group of men of God who many, many years ago got together and they wanted to seek the main purpose for God’s creation for man on earth and this is the conclusion that they came to: “The main purpose of man is to glorify God (number one) and to enjoy Him forever.” That’s it. You see, God doesn’t need us. He really doesn’t need you and I. He wants us, He created us so that we could have fellowship with Him. He wants us but He doesn’t need us. He said one word and everything you and I can see came into being immediately. A few years back, quite a few years back now actually, I virtually heard God speak to me audibly. Now, He has never spoken to me audibly but He spoke to me in my heart so clearly one day. It is laughable but it is actually very serious and this is basically what He said, “Angus, your busyness is making Me tired.” Oh folks! It was a rebuke - “Your busyness is even making Me tired!” You see, it is not what we can do for God, its fellowship that He is wanting, folks.
Now, moms and dads, it is like your children. Please hear what I am saying, I have walked this road. Your children want you. They don’t want what you can do for them. What does it say in the Book of Mark 8:36:
“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”
Well you can change that a little bit to, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his family?” Remember, a good idea is not always a God-idea. We don’t need to help God, we need to obey God. Now, if it is not working for you today, stop it. I really mean that. Stop it. Stop chasing around, wearing yourself out and wearing everybody else out, building things that you say are for God, but they are not. They are idols. Lay them down, spend time with God, spend time with your children, and your life will be much more successful.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
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I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 13th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Luke 19:40, Jesus said:
“I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
Oh folks. The Pharisees said to the Lord, ”Listen to these people; they’re worshipping you. Tell them to keep quiet.” And the Lord said the very stones would praise Him if the people didn’t. You know, we go to an early morning men's prayer group, and we gather together when it is still dark. We have been doing it for years, and these men are working men but they come out to pray and to worship the Lord, and we pray before the sun rises, just ordinary men, we pray for our families, we pray for the countries of the world, we pray for the lost, we pray for revival but before that, we sing! No, no, no, we are not opera singers. No, no, we are not famous singers, we are not on the hit list, but you know something? We praise the Lord.
Folks, I want to tell you that when we go into that little chapel on the farm, men come in there with all kinds of burdens, but when you praise the Lord you can feel the burdens literally lifting and there is an openness that comes and a joy, and laughter, and faith and expectancy. I want to sing a little song. You all know it, and I want you to sing it with me. It goes like this:
And He is Lord, He is Lord,
He has risen from the dead
And He is Lord.Every knee shall bow,
Every tongue confess,
That Jesus Christ is Lord.Come on, you in your pick-up, you are driving, you are getting the kids ready for school, I don’t know where you are - come on, sing it with me!
And He is Lord, He is Lord,
He has risen from the dead
And He is Lord,Every knee shall bow,
Every tongue confess,
That Jesus Christ is Lord.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 12th of January, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Habakkuk 2:2-3:
“Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.”I want to ask you today, have you written down any areas of your life that you want to clean up, that you want to do better for the year 2025? We are right into it already. We are almost halfway through January. Can you believe it? But you know, if you don’t write it down, you have got nothing to aim for. What do they say? If you aim at nothing you are sure to hit it. You have got to get that journal. Write down your vision and make it plain, so that others can run with it as well. I have been looking at a devotional and this is what it said, “Think it over.” Now, I wrote in this devotional, you won’t believe it, in the year 2003, 22 years ago! This is what I wrote: “I intend to read my Bible more, to pray more, to have more Christian fellowship, to become a better husband, to become a better dad, to become a better grandad and to work harder for the Kingdom of God.” That is what I wrote in the year 2003, and I stumbled upon that reading this very morning.
I want to say to you, write down the thing that you are aiming for. 22 years ago that is what I was aiming for and I can tell you from my heart that that is still my vision even today. I am not saying that I achieved it by any means, but that is what I am aiming for. And I want to say to you as well, take a notebook, take a diary and write it down, what you are wanting to do and accomplish and then work towards it, and then the Lord says that we must wait for it, He says because it will speak in due course.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye. - Show more
