Episódios
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I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Tuesday morning, the 31st of December, 2024. It is the last day of this year - for some of us, we're saying, "Wow, we made it," Others are saying, "Man, it's been tough!"
But I want to speak to you about something very special today if we go to John 11:35 - two words:
"Jesus wept."
Jesus cried - I want to say today that we must feel free to cry. Some of you listening to this have lost a loved one in 2024. You are going into 2025 very shortly without that person. Others are facing unemployment; maybe your business is going bankrupt, yes, and I encourage you to feel free to cry tears. Graham Lacey, a man I respect a lot, said: "Tears are words that the heart cannot say." Isn't that beautiful? When a person is struggling, put your arm around them and weep with them. That will minister to them more than a big sermon, I can tell you right now.
"Tears are the silent language of grief." - Voltaire.
I've been through some tough times myself, and the people who have ministered to me the most when I've been in the deepest depths of despair are those who sit and look at me with tears running down their faces. They don't have to say anything more. "Tears can be trusted more than a smile." You know, you can smile and people say: "How are you?" "No, I'm fine, thank you..." But you're not okay. When the tears flow, then you make your feelings evident.
"Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning."
Psalm 30:5Share tears with other people. Lastly, Graham was saying that God harvests our tears; he keeps them in a bottle. As you face the new year, I encourage you to be honest with yourself and others. I also want to remind you there will be no tears in Heaven, none at all. The Lord will wipe away every tear we've ever cried (Revelation 21:4). Remember the founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth when his soldiers wrote back to him and said, "We're having no joy." He sent back a letter with two words on it: Try tears. That great evangelist, Charles Finney, said that where there are no tears and no amens, there will be no revival. Peter went out and wept bitterly, as the Bible says in Luke 22:62 after he betrayed his Master no less than three times. Yes, we all make mistakes. We've made plenty in 2024. Let's attempt not to do so in 2025. Let's shed a tear instead of making a noise. Let us rather put our arms around those suffering and learn to weep with them sincerely.
God bless you, and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Monday morning, the 30th of December 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today. We go to Mark 4:34:
"And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples."
It is vital to spend time alone with our Lord Jesus Christ. As we look forward now, in a day or so, we will be facing 2025. Now, I'm looking forward to it with great excitement, but I know some people are looking forward to it with trepidation, not knowing what the future holds. But if you spend time alone with the Lord Jesus Christ, He will comfort you, direct your path, give instructions, show you which way to go, and show you what to do and what not to do. He is the ultimate Council; my dear friend, it is vital that we spend time alone with the Lord Jesus Christ every morning.
I want to tell you a simple story; many of you were there. I'm talking about the big tent we hired in 2008 for The Mighty Men Conference at Shalom. That tent was gigantic! It was the biggest tent in the world at that time. It could seat 30,000 people inside, and we filled it with men. 30,000 men inside, but we had 30,000 men outside - Making a total of 60,000 men. Can you believe it? I find it hard to believe myself! Do you know that it took three weeks to erect with professional riggers? No farmers were allowed to touch it, and between 15 and 17, 40-tonne trucks brought it here to the farm. It even had a built-in weather station because those guy ropes, about an inch thick steel cable, had to be tensioned according to the weather. It was the size of 4 rugby fields, end-to-end. It was amazing.
The event was incredible, and we gave God all the glory. We saw men changed forever - maybe you were one of them. Now, this is where it's very important to hear God's voice and be alone with the Lord: After the event, a group of businessmen, well-meaning, godly businessmen from Johannesburg, contacted our office and said they wanted to buy the tent for us. Now, who has to pray about that? Well, I did. I asked if I could get back to them. It's very kind of you, but I need to pray and be alone with Jesus. When I went before the Lord, I was quite shocked; He said, do not touch it. I said thank you so much for the kind offer, but I can't accept it. They said well, that's up to you.
But you see, folks, that tent cost a million Rand just to erect, and then it would cost another million Rand to take it to the next destination. The following year, 2009, we had over 120,000 men at the Mighty Men Conference. That tent wouldn't have even housed a quarter of them.
Today, listen to the word of the Lord and obey only Him.
Jesus blessed you and goodbye.
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I greet you in Jesus' precious Name. It is Sunday morning, the 29th of December, 2024, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today. We start with Daniel 10:19:
"And he said, "O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!"
Then we go to Ephesians 6:10:
"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might."
Be strong in the Lord! Things are very tough; I'm not gonna tell you a lie. We have been experiencing a terrible drought everywhere we look in South Africa. Things are really not looking good with the naked eye. We look at the wars that have taken place in the Middle East, Russia, and Ukraine. We look at the immorality, which is at an all-time high, and we say, "Lord, where are you?" and the Lord says: "Be strong." The Lord says: "Stand, the battle is the Lord's." You'll see that in Ephesians 6:14 (& 2 Chronicles 20:15). We are not to do the fighting; the Lord is fighting for you, young lady and young man. No, the fight is not yours. You cannot make this your battle. It's God's battle, and He wants you to stand. You know those two words, "But God." When people say there's no future for this country, you say: "But God." When they say, "These young people will never amount to anything." You say: "But God."
I want to encourage you as we come to the close of 2024 and look forward to 2025; we need to understand the battle is the Lord's. He has promised us with that beautiful word in Daniel that we need to stand. Folks, when God confronted Moses at the Burning Bush, Moses was a broken man. He had fled from Egypt. He had murdered a slave driver and was at an all-time low. The Lord said to him, "I want you to go and tell my people that I'm going to set them free", and God said to Moses in Exodus 3:14:
"I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you."
That was it. I want you to say today when you look at that mountain and think, "I'll never get over it..." I AM says: "You will." and I AM says: "I'll be with you for the whole of 2025." All you need to do is to stand and be strong. The Lord will do it!
Jesus bless you, and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 28th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Daniel 9:4:
“O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments,…”
Then we go to the Gospel of John 14:14-15. The Lord says:
“If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
Wow! Did you hear that? But this is a condition involved here. Verse 15:
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
You see folks, if we are going to be serious about God and we are going to keep the covenant that we have made with the Lord, then He says He will do whatever you ask Him to do, but He will not do it if we are not keeping His covenant with us and His commandments. What am I saying? What I am saying is that if you are married and your husband leaves you or has an affair, he has broken his side of the covenant, the covenant he made on your wedding day, therefore the covenant is no longer valid. You can’t keep half a covenant. When you promise the Lord Jesus Christ that you are going to serve Him and walk in His ways, He will keep His side of the covenant because He never breaks His side of the covenant but the covenant will not be fulfilled if we break our side. That is why when it comes to a thing like marriage which is sacred, we need to understand, He will never break His side of the deal as long as you keep your side of the deal.
When we walk with the Lord and we obey His commandments, He will give us whatever we ask. I have experienced it in my own life. But when we disobey Him, we go our own way and then we cry out, “Lord, where are You?” He says, “I am here but I cannot honour My side of the covenant if you continue to wilfully sin when you know it is wrong." Today, come on, let’s repent, let us say sorry. Come on, let’s do it!
Father,
In Jesus’ name, we want to ask You to forgive us for always crying out, “Lord, where are You? Why are You not keeping Your side of the covenant?” when we know wilfully, we are going against what You called us to. We repent of that today and we start afresh.
In Jesus name, Amen.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 27th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 4:14:
“The sower sows the word.”
That is what Jesus said. The seed of life, but it is not the responsibility of the sower for the growth. No, he plants the seed but the seed must do the rest of the work. Now, the Lord doesn’t say, “the sower sows the seed”. He says, “The sower sows the word.” He plants the word into our hearts, but it is not the preacher’s responsibility to see that word grow, that is our responsibility. So, today, as we draw near to the end of the year, 2024, we have a responsibility. Are we going to receive the word of life that the Lord has been sowing into our hearts for many, many years, or are we going to reject it? That is quite simply the difference between life and death. We are going to go into a new year in a few day’s time, and how are we going to approach the new year? Are we going to live it the same as we did last year or are we going to draw a line in the sand and say, “This far, devil, and no further.”?
I had the privilege of speaking to a group of people just a short while ago. These people have been through a very rough time in their lives. Many of them are struggling with addictions in their lives. I asked them a question. “Are you going to make a difference? Are you going to change? Are you going to receive God’s Holy Word, what He says about you, or are you going to continue to listen to the lies of the devil over your life? It’s your choice." With my cowboy boot, I drew a line in the sand and I said, “I want to encourage you, get up out of your seat and come and step across the line and say, “This day I am going to receive the word that the Lord Jesus Christ has sown in my life, and I am no longer going to listen to the accusations of the devil and of other people who have no love for me. I am a child of God and I am starting again.”
I would encourage you to do the same today. The sower sows the word, we must receive it.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 26th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of James 4:14:
“For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
Oh folks, we are coming to the end of 2024. Can you believe it? You know, it is not just older people I am talking to. When I speak to young people they say, “Where is the time going?” Just the other day I had the privilege of going to an old age home, and I sat there and I spoke to the old folk and I greeted them one by one. Some were smiling, some were tearful, some seemed to be in another place - they were daydreaming, and I just thought, “Lord, each one of these precious souls has got such a story to tell.” They have walked such a long road. The one old lady was about to celebrate her 90th birthday.
This life is so short, it is like a vapour. I sat there and I remembered all the people that have gone home to be with Jesus, and were in that old age home that I visited, wonderful people with incredible testimonies and stories. Then this morning, I read this beautiful reading that I want to share with you. You have probably heard it before. It goes like this: “Only one life, it will soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Isn’t that so profound?
I was telling them that story of an old man who came to me many years ago and I now am also becoming an old man. I know! It’s a fact, you cannot get away from it. He said to me with tears in his eyes, “Angus, I cannot go down the well anymore, I am too old, but I can stand at the top and hold the rope for you.” So precious, and that rope is prayer. And I encouraged those old folks, some of them can’t walk, some of them need to be assisted, “You can still participate, you can still serve Christ, and probably in the most valuable way of all, and that is by praying and interceding for others, especially for the young people who have still got to run the race and walk the road that they are walking."
Today, let us not waste any more time.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Christmas Day, 25th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. I want to wish every single one of you, my dear friends, a very blessed Christmas.
We start today in the Book of Isaiah 7:14:
”Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel”
What a beautiful word! I went to school with a young man named Emanuel, who was from a Portuguese background - Emanuel Da Silva. Maybe he’s listening to this message on this Christmas Day. That was about 60 years ago. Folks, I want to say to you that that Scripture was prophesied about Jesus about 700 years before it took place because if we go to Matthew 1:23, it’s the exact same Scripture. What a day Christmas Day is for us as believers all over the world.
Jesus Christ said to His Father, ”My people are struggling, Father. I’m going down to earth and I’m going to help them.” And because of that little innocent helpless baby born in that little manger, a feed trough in that stable in Bethlehem, you and I have hope. We have hope to get up again, dust ourselves off and keep up the good work for the Lord. We have hope in Jesus!
Folks, you know we used to do a lot of campaigns in the early days, in the 1980’s and we called it, “Hope in Jesus”. I want to encourage you today, whatever you do, wherever you go, encourage people and tell them there is hope in a hopeless situation because the Babe from the little manger in Bethlehem has told us it’s going to be alright. I have come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly.
I want to pray for you as we close:
Heavenly Father,
I thank you for my dear friends who have been with me this past year, 2024. I pray that they’ll have a blessed day today with their loved ones, with their children, their grandchildren, and their families, and they will celebrate the birth of the greatest Person who has ever walked on the face of the earth, our beloved Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.
God bless you and happy, prosperous and peaceful Christmas be to you and yours,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Christmas Eve, the 24th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Now folks, it is probably the most important evening of the whole year! This is the night that we celebrate the birth of our beloved Saviour, dearest Friend, Jesus Christ. We go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 1:21:
“And she (Mary) will bring forth a Son (Jesus), and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.”
I want us to have just a little bit of a cautious thought about things. I know it is very hectic, especially for mothers in the home, making sure that the food is all prepared; the decorations have been put up; the extra beds have been made because Aunty and Uncle are coming to spend Christmas Eve with you; and the Christmas presents for the children for tomorrow, are all being wrapped up. In the hectic attitude of this season, do not forget the baby! Do not forget that beloved baby - it makes me want to cry. You know, behind me in my prayer room, I have a beautiful picture of the nativity, of Joseph, of Mary and of that little Darling, from Heaven, Jesus Christ. In the busyness of our lives, let us never forget the main thing. The main thing is, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. It is so easy to get so busy that we forget the main reason for Christmas Eve.
I want to tell you a little story. I was sitting right here in the same chair in my prayer room, and I heard little footsteps coming through the door of my prayer room, where nobody comes except my immediate family, and I looked around and there was my little granddaughter, she is only about five or six years old. She looked very shy because she knew I was busy, but praise God, she felt she could come and approach her grandfather, and she said, “Kulu”, with those big eyes. She was holding a tube, a bicycle tube in her hand, and I said, “What’s wrong?” She said, “My bicycle has got a puncture, and my cousin (who lives over the road) is coming to see me and we are going to go for a ride but my bicycle is not working. Could you help me?” (I am getting emotional!) I said, “Of course.” I stopped everything. I went out, I fixed the puncture at the back but there was also a puncture at the front. I fixed that. Then she had no oil for her chain, so we put oil on the chain. Then the seat was just a little bit high because it used to belong to her big brother, so I adjusted the seat. Then her cousin arrived and that little thing, if I had bought her a Lear Jet, it would not have meant the same, and off they went cycling together.
Please look after your children, especially the smallest ones. Do not neglect them at this time. Jesus loves the little children.
Have a very precious Christmas Eve,
God bless you and goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 23rd of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 3:35, Jesus says:
“For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”
Do you remember the story? Jesus was speaking to the multitude and they came and interrupted Him. They said, “Your mother and Your brothers are outside and they are waiting for You.” And that is when He said, “Who is my mother and my brothers?”
You know, I read a beautiful testimony of a young Muslim schoolgirl. She must have been a teenager, and she found Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Saviour. She was absolutely elated, but she came from a strong, devout Muslim family. She was given a little Gideon’s Bible, a little blue one, and she used to hide it under her pillow. At night, before she went to sleep, she would read it and pray to her Jesus, and in the morning, early before the family got up, she would have her devotions again and then hide the Bible under her pillow when she went to school.
One day, her dad came home in the middle of the day, he needed something and went into her room and found her Bible. When she came home from school, he was furious and told her that unless she repented and stopped this nonsense and started to follow Allah and become a good Muslim girl, he would disown her. She said, “I cannot because I am part of His family now.” So her father threw her into the street, literally, with nothing and she had an extremely tough time. Eventually, Christians brought her into their family, and she grew up and went to Bible College. I believe she is even a teacher of the Word at this time. But you know, the amazing thing is, she never, ever denied Christ. Her mother used to meet her under a bridge somewhere quietly where none of the family knew about it and they used to cry together, and she would bring her some food and she would bring her clothes. After many years, her father saw that she was not turning her back on Jesus and she definitely was part of His family, and by her lifestyle, eventually, she was allowed to come home and visit her father. She had the privilege of leading her dad and her mother and siblings to Jesus Christ.
I want to say to you today, my dear friend, your father, your brother and your sister, are those who worship and live according to the principles of Jesus Christ. There is no doubt about that! Yes, we have got to love our biological family, but we must not be restricted because they do not want to follow Jesus. Every single one of us need to meet Him in a personal way. Why don’t we do what that beautiful Muslim lady has done? By her lifestyle, she introduced her whole family to Jesus Christ.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 22nd of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Psalms 19:14:
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”Yes, a very special scripture to me personally, I pray it every time before I preach, whether it be a large gathering or a small one. On that point, I want to tell you, folks, I am so proud of my grandson, 17 years old, yes - he has been on missions with a spiritual son of mine who is 50 years old, and their small team. They walked along the foothills of the mighty Himalaya Mountains, where Mount Everest is situated. Over 5000 metres above sea-level they walked. They walked sometimes up to 20 km a day, eating very, very meagre diets, maybe a little plate of rice if they were blessed to get that from some small cottage. And what were they doing? They were taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost.
I heard that there was an old person, I can’t remember whether it was a lady or a gentleman, something like over 80 years old and they wanted to hear the Gospel. These boys walked 20 kms to go to this little cottage to pray the sinner’s prayer. I can just imagine them as they were walking along those steep paths, struggling for oxygen, probably praying this prayer:
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”Can you imagine them praying the sinner’s prayer with that older person? They came from the other side of the world to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and by the way, no - they were not speaking in any big stadiums, no - they were not on television, not at all, but I want to tell you they were surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. We find that in Hebrews 12, and I want to tell you something now folks, they have totally humbled me.
Thank You, Lord, for faithful people who are prepared to take the Gospel to the ends of the world. Maybe today you need to go next door. That’s right, 50 metres, and knock on the door and say, “I want to speak to you. Can I have a cup of tea with you?” And tell them about the Saviour of the world!
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
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I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 21st of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 25:40:
“And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”
We want to speak today about the microscope of little things. I want to read something to you from that wonderful hymn-writer, by the name of Frances Ridley Havergal. She said: ”We talk about the telescope of faith but I think we want even more the microscope of watchful and grateful love. Apply the little bits of our daily lives in the light of the Spirit, and how wonderfully they will come out.” We need to remember the little things.
Now, I have had the privilege, and it has been a great privilege, to meet many great leaders, kings - yes, prime ministers - absolutely, leaders of great companies, international sportsmen, I have met wonderful people all of them, but I want to tell you, and I honestly mean this, in my little prayer room, I have got some momentoes, and one of them is a sucker stick. I am telling you, a little sucker stick with little writing saying, “Jesus bless you”, given to me by a little boy. This little boy can hardly read or write, he is probably 3 or 4 years old. He came to me one day, very bashfully, at church, and he gave me this as a book marker. Well, I want to tell you, it is up on the wall. Oh yes!
I have a photo of a little boy kneeling in the sand, his little bare feet put carefully behind him, his little hat off his head, his head bowed, and he is praying to Jesus. That brought many tears to my eyes. I have framed that photograph, someone sent it to me. It was taken at one of our large meetings where we were praying for the nation and there were thousands and thousands of people there, but that little photograph touched me so deeply, more than all the dignitaries who attended that great meeting, Governors of the different provinces, Representatives of the President, but that little boy touched me.
Today, remember, it is the microscope of little things that will touch Jesus’ heart.
God bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 20th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Mark 14:50 - It says that all of His disciples abandoned Him and fled. They all deserted Him, all of them.
James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, was a wonderful man of God who took the Gospel to China in the early days. He lived with the Chinese people and brought a revival which I think has been unparalleled. Even today, China is a communist country, it is not a friend of Jesus Christ, and yet the underground church is flourishing like never before. They say there is something like over 60 million believers in China! James Hudson Taylor said, ”Separation never comes from His side”. Separation never comes from Jesus’ side. We are the ones that leave Him, He never leaves us. He said that to us: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5), and He means it, my dear friend. Many a time, people write to me and they say, “Where is God? Angus, when I was calling for Him, He wasn’t there.” Oh yes, He was, my dear friend. He will never leave you and He will never separate Himself from you. That is why I love Him so much.
I have been through many things in my life as I am sure you have as well, but I want to tell you, when the going gets really tough, He gets in even closer with us. Remember the story of the footsteps in the sand? Lord, every time things got tough, there were only one set of footsteps in the sand. Where were You, Lord?”
“Oh My son, oh My daughter, I was carrying you on My shoulders.”
Yes, Jesus Christ will never leave you and that is good news for you today. Go out and tell the world that many may betray you but Jesus, never.
“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”.
John 15:13Does that sound like betrayal? Does that sound like separation, my dear friend? No! Today, draw close to Him and He will walk with you through the fire.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 19th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Gospel of Matthew 16:24:
”Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
Then we go to the Gospel of John 3:3:
”Jesus answered and said to him (to Nicodemus) ”Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
What are we talking about today? We are talking about dying to self; we are talking about denying ourselves. You see the symbol of the Christian is the cross. I love to see young ladies with beautiful crosses hanging around their necks. It looks beautiful, but I wonder if many of them know what it actually stands for. It stands for dying to self and following Jesus. Jesus never promised you or me a bed of roses. No, but He did promise that He would walk with us, right through all our trials and our hardships.
The other day I was listening to a song, a beautiful country and western song. I love country music, oh yes, I am a cowboy, and I really love American Country Western music. I heard this song and some of the lyrics go like this: “Everyone wants to go to heaven but no-one wants to die”. Wow, what does that mean? Well, it means you can’t have your cake and eat it. It means is you want to follow Jesus Christ you have to walk the Christian road. It means you cannot live like the devil and expect to go to heaven, it doesn’t work like that. If you’ve given your life to Christ, Jesus says you must be born again and if you do not give your life to Christ you are not going to heaven. It’s very simple.
Now, I want to say to you today, we need to check ourselves and we need to say, “Lord,” like Paul said, ”For me to live is Christ and to die is but gain.”
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 18th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Psalms 91:2:
”I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; …”
What a beautiful promise! Then of course, we go to the Book of Hebrews 13:6:
“The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
What a beautiful promise again from the Lord! At this time when we’re living in dangerous, fearful times, this is the time that we need to take the promises of God’s Holy Word and hide them in our hearts. I read a beautiful reading this morning. The little bird that builds his nest goes deep into the dark forest and looks for a leafy tree and then he builds his little nest there, where no one else can see it, and then he flies out and gets all the food he needs, and when he sees the big black clouds of a storm coming up, then he flies to his little nest, and he hides there until the storm is over.
J R Miller said, ”There we should fly in any danger or alarm hiding there in our soul's nest until the storm is past. There are no castles in this world which are so impregnable as the words of Christ.”
Today, make sure you’ve got a nest, you’ve got promises from God, Scriptures the Lord has given you over the years, and when those storms of life come up against you, you shelter yourself in your soul with the living word of God. Jesus says: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5. The Lord says, ”I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.” The Lord says “I will protect you”. Yes, He says, ”I will hide you in the cleft of the rock.”
Today, let us hide in the promises of God when the storms of life try to upset us.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 17th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Proverbs 18:24:
“A man who has friends must himself be friendly,…”
Then we go to Daniel 6:3:
“…because an excellent spirit was in him;…”
Another version says, “an extraordinary spirit within him, it distinguished him amongst all the others.”
Do we have that spirit in us today? You see, that is what King Darius found in Daniel. He was different to the others. He was a man of an excellent spirit, and that is what we have to do, folks.
So often I have heard young people say, “Ja, but I have no friends.” Well, maybe because you are not friendly. Maybe you are always argumentative, maybe you are always critical, maybe you are sarcastic. They say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. It always comes at the expense of somebody else. We have got to stop that. We have got to start affirming people. We have got to start having a godly spirit within us. We have got to be known as trustworthy, honest, level-headed people.
I remember when I was a young man and I am not proud of it. I was a wild man, I had gone into the far country, and on a Friday night, after work, we were exhausted, all the boys working on the farms. I am talking about overseas, and when we went out to a party, we were going to have a real time of fun. You know what we did? We looked for the man who first of all was levelheaded. He didn’t drink, he didn’t smoke, he didn’t swear, he was a bit of a corny kind of a guy. We didn’t think too much of him, but he had an excellent spirit. So we would give him the keys of the motorcar because we knew that when it came to coming home we would be under the weather but he would be sober because he didn’t drink alcohol. And I want to say to you, when I look back, he was an honourable man, a man who we might not have liked, but I want to tell you, we respected him.
Now today, let us be level-headed. Somebody said to me, “That Angus, he is just a Jesus man.” Folks, I want to tell you, that is probably one of the greatest compliments I have had in my life: “He is a Jesus man.” Of course I am! What other man would I love to follow than the One who had an extraordinary Spirit? His name is Jesus.
Have a wonderful day,
God bless you and goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 16th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Daniel 5:27:
“You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting…”
Now, this Guest was not even invited to the king’s palace, to his celebration, but He wrote on the wall. This was the One who was not invited but He came and He wrote with His finger upon the wall. What did He write? “You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting…”
How is it with you this morning? I know with me, without God, I’ve got no chance. Without the Lord Jesus Christ, I am in terrible debt. I remember as a young farmer and I’m sure this applies to businessmen, it applies to everybody. We put in a beautiful crop, oh what a crop it was that year! It was golden unto harvest. We had two months to go and then we’d reap that crop, pay all our debt and we’d carry on living. Then we got the phone call from the bank. Oh dear! The lady said, “The Bank Manager wants to see you urgently.” Now I knew that my time was up, I had to pay. The crop was there it was on the ground but he wanted his money obviously. So I got in the pickup, I asked Jill - I said, “Please just pray for me," and off I went to town. I gingerly walked into his office. Of course, you take your hat off, especially when you owe money. I walked into his office, I sat down at that beautiful big oak desk and he sat at the other side of the desk. He had his glasses on and he looked at me over the top off his glasses. He said, ”Angus, I’ve called you here today with regard to your overdraft.” I said, ”Yes Sir, I understand and Sir, I’ve got a wonderful crop and I’ll be able to pay you.” He said, ”Hang on minute, I haven’t finished.” He said, ”Yesterday, somebody walked into this office and paid the whole overdraft, cash. He’s anonymous. He doesn’t want to be known.” I couldn’t believe it. I think I maybe broke into tears. I said, ”Thank you very much.” I went out rejoicing. As I was walking out the door, I said, ”Sir, who is he?” He said, ”He’s a Carpenter.” It’s just a story - but so true is it not?
Do you remember that beautiful old hymn we used to sing? I want you to sing it with me, it goes something like this:
He paid the debt, He did not own.
I owed the debt, I could not pay.
I needed someone to wash my sins away,
and now I sing a brand new song
Amazing Grace.
Christ Jesus paid the debt I could never pay.Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 15th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start off in Proverbs 16:18:
“Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall.”Then we go straight to the Book of Daniel 4:31 and:
“…the kingdom has departed from you! “
Oh my dear friend, we need to be careful of that terrible thing called pride. Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful man on earth. He was the King of Babylon. That is modern-day Iran. He ruled the whole world in those days and yet he fell in a moment. He ended up grazing grass in the field like an ox. The Bible tells us his hair grew long, his nails like claws of a bird. For seven seasons he did that until he humbled himself and acknowledged that Father God was the Ruler of the earth and everything in it.
We need to put men and women around us that can advise us and then we need to be humble enough to take their godly counsel. It’s safe to have men and women around you to guide you. Listen to your wife, young man. She loves you and will tell you the truth. Be careful of flatterers, those who guide you and tell you what you want to hear. Yes-men around you are very dangerous. You don’t need them. I have no less than five advisers. These are men of substance. They are from different churches, different walks of life, and we meet every year regularly and they advise me on what to do. They don’t tell me what to do, they advise me, and they don’t necessarily agree with me because they are trying to look after me and the Word of God.
When Nebuchadnezzar finally had understanding, the Bible says, 'reason', he realised he could do nothing without God and when he did that, his kingdom was restored to him. Today, take good counsel from people who love you and don’t tell you what you want to hear but tell you the truth and then you will succeed and God will get all the glory through your life.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
-
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 14th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Mark 2:17:
When Jesus heard it, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
Oh folks, He came for the whosoever’s. He came for you and He came for me, and that is why we love Him so much. Isn’t that so? He came for the tax collector, the prostitute, the drunkard, the so-called untouchables. And you know, the amazing thing is, when people like this get saved, when they meet Jesus Christ, they change and they change forever, and they have an incredible witness to the world for what Jesus Christ has done for them. Like overnight, after being an absolute waster, becoming a follower of Christ.
Remember Zacchaeus, that little man who climbed up the sycamore tree because he wanted to see Jesus? When Jesus came past, the Lord looked up, and He saw Zacchaeus. I don’t think He had ever seen him before in His life and He said, “Zacchaeus, I am coming to your house today to have lunch with you!” Zacchaeus must have gotten such a fright, he probably nearly fell out of the tree. He went and called all his friends, all the thieves, the prostitutes, all the tax-collectors, and they had a huge banquet, and Jesus was seated right in the middle of them.
But you see, what happened was, there was such repentance in that place that Zacchaeus got up and he said in the midst of all his friends, “Lord, if I have taken anything away from anyone, I will repay them four-fold, 400%.” Some of us think we are doing well because we give the Lord our tithes of 10%. This man who had been saved, this sick man, this sinner, who had been set free by Jesus Christ, said, “I will pay any man that I have taken anything away from, 400% in return." And what did Jesus say? He said, “Today, salvation has come to this house.”
We really need to understand what The Friend of sinners means. I love all the titles that are given to the Lord, make no mistake - The Alpha and the Omega: The Beginning and the End; The Bright Morning Star; The Lily of the Valley; The Great Ploughman; The Shepherd of the sheep; but the title that I love and brings tears to my eyes, more than any other is when He is known as The Friend of sinners.
Oh today, speak to Him. He wants to meet with you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 13th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start off in the Book of Job 13:15. And Job says: (Even)
”Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
Unconditional surrender! It’s not a case of, “Lord, I will serve You if You give me that.” No, unconditional surrender! Then we go to the Book of Daniel and this is when the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was threatening Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego, and saying, “If you do not worship the god that I made out of gold, we will put you in a fiery furnace and this was their response in Daniel 3:18:
“But if not, (if the Lord will not rescue us)…”But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
Oh folks, that is boldness!
The Coptic Church in Egypt, those people are so in love with the Lord Jesus Christ, that they take it as a great honour if they die a martyr’s death. Remember those 22 Coptic Christians that were working in Libya, when they were caught by ISIS? They were marched down to the Mediterranean Sea in orange uniforms with one man behind each one of them in a black suit with a sword, and they were told to deny their faith in Jesus Christ, and they could live. Not one of them relented. Not one of them said, “Okay, I won’t, I will go back to Islam or whatever it was.” No - they said, “We love Jesus.” They weren’t bishops, they weren’t reverends or evangelists. They were working men. They died for their faith. When we get to Heaven, they will be sitting very close to the throne of Jesus Christ.
Then one of my favourites, an old father of the church, you have heard of him before - Polykarp. Polykarp, was the Bishop of Smyrna. He was 86 years old. They took him to the theatre where they were going to burn him at the stake and the soldiers who came to arrest him said, “Look, just deny the name of Christ and we will let you live old man, and you can live peacefully in your old age.” He said, “Never,” He said, ”For 86 years the Lord has never once failed me. How can I betray Him now?” And they took him to the Proconsul, who was the representative of Caesar of Rome, and the Proconsul said to him, “Do you know who I am?” He said, “Yes, I know exactly who you are. You are a son of the devil!” How is that for boldness? And they burned him at the stake.
I want to say to you today, you and I need to serve Jesus Christ unconditionally.
Jesus bless you, have a wonderful day,
Goodbye. -
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 12th of December, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Acts 11:26:
“And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.”
Another translation says, “the anointed ones.” This means that if we say we are Christians, we belong to Jesus. Isn’t that beautiful, folks? He should mean everything to us. Believers - some of the early Christians were called “The men” or “The people of the way.”
There is a secret sign for the early Christians, because in Rome, when they were being hunted by the Romans, two Christians would meet each other in the street with a stick and they would draw a fish in the sand. And that was the sign to say, “I am a Christian.” We should be known by our fruit. Christians are full of love, the love of Jesus - power, patience, loving-kindness, faithfulness. By the way, there is no such thing as a secret agent Christian. Oh, folks, we have got to be a little bit more outspoken, hey? Romans 1:16:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”
What an honour to be called a follower of the most high God! It’s not something to be ashamed of. Oh, I love it if they say to you, “Are you one of those Christians?” Yes, I am indeed. You see, that is the name where the power lies! Folks, there is power in the name of Jesus Christ, power for healing. When I pray I don’t say, “In the name of God, be healed” - no, I say, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, be healed.” There is power in the name of Jesus.
The important thing about a name, if you take the Zulu people, I love what they do. Many of them will not name their child until he is maybe a few months old, because they want to look at him, study his personality, his character, and then they give him a name according to the way in which he looks and acts, and I think that is fair, and he normally lives up to his name. Mom, dad - be very careful when you give a name to your child. It has a tremendous significance.
So today, do not be ashamed to call yourself a follower of Christ, a child of the Lord Jesus Christ, because when He comes back, He will know you by your name.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.
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