Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 9th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Joshua 24:15. This is now Joshua speaking:
“But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
He stood up in front of the whole nation of Israel and said, “Who are you going to serve today? Are you going to serve foreign gods or are you going to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We need to be verbal. We cannot sit on the fence. It is a very uncomfortable place to be, especially if it is a barbed wire fence!
Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 12:30. Jesus says:
“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
In other words, you cannot serve two masters. There is no neutral place in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are going to serve the Lord, you have to serve Him with all of your heart. That is why God blessed Joshua so much. He was a single-minded man. He stood up in front of the whole nation and publicly declared that he and his family were going to serve the Lord.
I remember when our first child got married. He stood up in the reception area and declared, “As for me and my house (that was he and his young wife), we will serve the Lord.” And he has done that for many, many years. He himself is now a grandfather and his grandchildren and my great-grandchildren are all serving the Lord.
There comes a time when we have got to be vocal. We cannot be indifferent. We cannot be lukewarm. Jesus said, “I will vomit you out of my mouth if you are lukewarm. I would rather you be ice cold than lukewarm.” We really need to stand up in these last days. You see, people don’t have to like you, but they must respect you, and you know the amazing thing is, when the going gets really rough, people will come to those of us who are standing tall for Jesus, for help, for counsel, for advice. We need to be solid. “If everybody has got something good to say about you,” one famous evangelist said, “be sure that Jesus has got nothing good to say about you!” Oh folks, you don’t even have to speak, you just have to live it. I want to pray for you this morning.
Father,
I pray for my dear friend listening to this message, who is afraid, who is shy, who says, “I can’t do it”. Please help them, Holy Spirit, to be outspoken at work, on the rugby field, at school. When they open their mouths, Lord, give them the strength to say, “No, we follow Jesus and Him alone.”
God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 8th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Exodus 14:21:
”Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.”
Then we go to 1 Corinthians 2:5. This is Paul speaking:
”…that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
We’ve got a saying here at Shalom and it goes like this, ”One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons.” And it’s so true. You can forget a message but never a miracle. I’m talking about a genuine miracle. I remember like yesterday, having been invited to go to Israel to preach the Gospel at the Feast of Tabernacles. We were down at En Gedi, the lowest point on earth. That’s right next to the Dead Sea. It was a sweltering evening, over 40 degrees at night. I was the speaker that night and as I was up on the platform, I was reading from Acts 2, the account of the rushing mighty wind that went through the upper room where all the disciples were huddled together to escape the Romans that were hunting them down, and that wind came through and changed everything forever.
When I’d finished reading that scripture, I was so overwhelmed, I did something I don’t think I’ll ever do again. After I’d finished, I closed the Bible, I said, ’Lord, please do it again.” And oh folks, He did it again. Many of you listening to this podcast right now were there, and a rushing mighty wind started blowing the equipment off stage, and then it started to rain. It never rains there, hardly ever does it rain there. The people started running forward to meet with Jesus. I didn’t have to preach a sermon. I couldn’t preach a sermon! I was trying to stand up and hold onto my hat. Oh folks, one genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 7th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.
We start in the Old Testament in the Book of Zechariah 4:6:
“The Lord says, Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.”
Then we go to the New Testament, to 1 Corinthians 2:1-2:
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
Folks, it is the anointing of the Holy Spirit that moves people to hear the Gospel. Now I want to tell you an embarrassing story. Many, many years ago, I had been preaching maybe for 5 or 10 years, and a very dear friend of mine - this man was a qualified theologian. He had been to university, studied for seven years, and was a great preacher as well. So one Sunday night, I was preaching in his church and he said, “Angus, I am going to do a “crit” on you tonight. I said, “What do you mean?” “No, I am going to sit at the back of the church and I am going to write up how you are preaching and then I will tell you afterwards.”
Well, I wasn’t so keen on that. Anyway, he said he would do it. At the end of the service, he came to me, and he said, “Okay, are you ready for the answers?” I said, “Well, I suppose so.” He said, “Well, your introduction was about 3/10” I said, “Okay”. “And your scripture reading about 2/10 and your theme was about 3/10 and your message was about 5/10.” By this time I was crestfallen. He said, “and of course, your conclusion and the end of the service was about 2/10.” He said, “But the presence of the Holy Spirit in your message was about 12/10!” I was so elated.
D L Moody, one of the greatest evangelist that has ever lived. He was in England one time, and he had a very broad accent. He was also a farm boy and a shoe salesman. When he had finished preaching, an English noblewoman came up to him and said, “Mr Moody, I want to tell you that that was the most atrocious English I have ever heard spoken. And him, not to be let down he said, “Well Ma’am, I am using what English I have for Jesus. Tell me, what are you doing with your English?”
Then the last little story: Gypsy Smith, that great English preacher who used to preach to up to 10,000 people in the open. A worn-out lay preacher came to see him and said, “I have preached everything from Genesis to Revelation. I am worn out. What can I tell them?” And Gypsy said, “Keep telling them what Jesus means to you.”
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 6th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Joshua 23:6. Joshua says:
“Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left,…”
Keep the faith! Joshua was a very old man when he told the children of Israel that they must be very courageous and do everything that is written in the Book. We are talking about the Bible. The Lord will grip us tightly, He will hold us fast. Do you remember that hymn, a beautiful hymn? He will hold me fast.
We need to grip tightly onto Him. This life is very rough at the moment. He must be our Lifeline. We must cling to Jesus with unwavering loyalty. The best example I can give you is that old farmer, Job, in the Book of Job 13:15. He says:
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
I want to read a couple of verses from that wonderful hymn:
When I fear my faith will fail,
Christ will hold me fast;
I could never keep my hold,
Through life’s fearful path
For my love is often cold,
He must hold me fast.
He will hold me fast,
He will hold me fast;
For my Saviour loves me so,
He will hold me fast.
Just visualise somebody hanging over the edge of a cliff. They have slipped and they are falling. People call the Fire Brigade. They come rushing in with that big red truck. The fireman gets out. He leans over, he is very brave, he is very strong. He just manages to get hold of your hand. He says, “Hold me fast”, and then he starts to pull you up slowly but steadily. Eventually you say, “I can’t, I can’t anymore” and you let go. But he has still got you. He is still holding you fast and he pulls you up. Jesus is that fireman. He says, “Hold onto My arm, hold on tightly, and I will pull you through this problem you are struggling with.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 5th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Jeremiah 9:23-24:
”Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me…”
Then we go to 1 Corinthians 1:31:
“He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
We’ve got a little pet saying here at Shalom. It goes something like this,”You must attempt something that is so big, if it’s not of God, it is doomed to fail.” Why, you might ask? Because if it works, God gets all the glory. People say, ”He could never have done that in his own strength. It must be God.” We need to give all the glory to God for everything that we achieve, everything that we do. Whether we pass our exams, whether we don’t, whether the business works or it fails, give the glory to God.
I remember like it was yesterday, standing on the platform at King’s Park Rugby Stadium, when everybody said el Nino is coming, told the poor farmers, ”Don’t plant maize this year because it won’t grow.” I said, ”To hell with el Nino. I’m going home and I’m going to plant potatoes.” Now I’d never planted potatoes before on this farm and I had no irrigation. When my neighbours heard what I was going to do, they came over and said, ”Don’t do that Angus because If you do that, you are going to go bankrupt. You need water for potatoes.”
Well, I planted the potatoes and I sweated, let me tell you something right now because many a day, I said, ”Lord, what have I done, but whatever I’ve done, I’m doing it for You.” Well, needless to say, we reaped a crop of potatoes out of dry ground. Everybody knew that was nothing to do with me and everybody gave the glory to God. Today, whatever you do, make sure that the Lord Jesus Christ gets all the praise, honour and glory.
Goodbye and God bless you and keep on planting potatoes.
Goodbye.