Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 8th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Acts 27:10: Paul speaking:
“Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives.”
Now Paul, the man of God, the apostle, gave them warning when they were at sea because the winds were getting very dangerous, and he suggested that they sit tight, but no, if you look at verse 11:
“Nevertheless the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul.”
So the so-called experts, the ship’s captain, the owner of the ship - of course they had ulterior motives - they didn’t listen to the man of God, and they carried on with their ways and we know what happened in the end. Everything that Paul said happened exactly like that. They lost everything, the cargo, the ship - they were totally lost.
I want to tell you about something that happened to me, many years ago. The Lord led us to hire the biggest tent in the world at that time. It was built in the UK, it was enlarged in Europe, and it was shipped out to Johannesburg, South Africa, for the first Earth Summit meeting. We heard about it. We hired it - seventeen 40-ton rigs brought down to the farm, and it took three weeks to erect it. It was a magnificent tent, but we had 30,000 men inside, that was the capacity of the tent, and 30,000 men outside. It was an amazing event. Many of you listening to this message today were there. But the interesting thing that I want to share with you is that after the event was finished, and it was wonderful, God moved powerfully, a group of businessmen contacted our office and said, “We want to buy the tent and give it to you so that you can carry on preaching the Gospel”. Well, I mean that is amazing. This tent was worth millions and millions of dollars.
So I went into my closet. We went into prayer and I sought the Lord, and I felt the Lord say, “Do not touch the tent.” I mean, I couldn’t believe it. So I went back to the men and I said, “Thank you very much for your very kind offer but we feel the Lord does not want us to take the tent.” I only found out later that the tent, on average, cost a million rand to erect each time, then had to be taken down and shipped to the next place, and we would have to hire a whole fleet of trucks. Of course, needless to say, the very next year we had that next conference with 120,000 men and counting, who would never have fitted into the tent.
Today, listen to the word of God and not to man’s opinion, and things will go better for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 7th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 11:21-25:
”Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”
You see what happened there? Martha was one of Jesus’ best friends. Martha, Mary and Lazarus, he used to stay at their house many times. Now she asked, ”Lord, I’m praying for my brother.” He was dead. Jesus said to her, ”Your brother will not die, he will live.” Now she misunderstood him, she thought He was talking about the resurrection. No, He was talking about the fact that he was about be raised from the dead immediately. Do not limit God!
So often, we ask the wrong things. See, after that, Jesus went to the tomb, called Lazarus out of the tomb, and he was raised from the dead. Martha thought that the Lord was speaking about the day of resurrection when we are all going to be raised up. No, we need to listen to God and we must not ever limit God. He can do anything. I know. I’ve experienced it in my own life. I had an experience on this very farm where a woman was struck by lightening and all her friends told me she was dead. I prayed for her and God raised her up. That is a fact. Do not limit God!
That wonderful missionary, William Carey, who took the gospel to India said, ”Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.” I heard one old faithful man of God say, ”He who aims for the stars, aims too low.” We must aim above the stars because God is not limited in anything. Do not limit God today. I don’t know what it is that you are trusting Him for, but I’m going to pray for you that God will open your spiritual eyes just to get a glimpse of how big and how great your God is!
Father,
I pray for my friend listening to this message right now, who has been limiting You, Lord. Their expectation of You is so low and yet Lord You want to give them so much. Lord, give them spiritual eyes to see well above anything that they can even dream of, and we thank You Lord that You will answer that prayer of faith.
In Jesus precious name.
Amen.
God bless you and remember, aim high and never limit God!
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 6th of July 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Acts 27:1 and I’m reading one verse:
”And when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustan Regiment.”
Are you on a journey today? Of course you are. All of us are on a journey, and just like Paul, the Apostle, we are trusting the Lord Jesus Christ to get us to our destination safely, but if you read on from this from this story, you’ll see that Paul went through a lot. Eventually, the ship he was sailing on actually sank, but no one drowned. Paul was trusting the Lord and encouraging the people.
This journey that you and I are on is not a bed of roses, not at all. God never promised us a bed of roses, but He did promise us that He would never, leave us and that He would never forsake us. Hebrews 13:5. So where about are you on the journey at the moment? Are you starting your journey? Are you completing your journey? Well, only God knows, but what we do need to do is to take one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time, it’s all we can manage, but we must be sure of our destination.
Remember, if you aim at nothing, you’re going to hit it. If you’ve got no port of call to aim for, then you’re going to be wandering in the sea. Paul knew he had to go to Rome. He knew that he was going to suffer and he knew that he was going to die for the Lord, but he could still be steadfast, encourage other people and run his race. What a man of God! The men here at Shalom, we have a prayer meeting on a Wednesday morning at five o’clock and one of our favourite songs is the following one:
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
No turning back. Praise the Lord, no turning back.
The cross before me and the world behind me
The cross before me and the world behind me
The cross before me and the world behind me
No turning back. Praise the Lord, no turning back.
Amen. Let’s set our sights, like Paul, on the destination which is ultimately heaven itself.
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 5th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Deuteronomy 17:19:
”And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes,…“
Then we go straight to Psalm 119:105:
”Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
We have it all there, the Lord has put it before us. The Israelites wanted a king like all the other nations, and so reluctantly God gave them a king, but the statute was that the king must obey the law of the Lord. The fear of the Lord - that’s not to be afraid of God, but it is to respect God, to treat the Lord with reverence, to obey His laws, and then things will go well for him, and you’ll see that right through history. When a leader uses God’s Holy Word, the Bible, as his compass and direction finder, that man, that woman, will be used mightily of God to lead their people.
I think of a school today. The school that opens every morning with prayer and scripture reading, that school is going to go well. I’m telling you folks, I know it. The same thing happens in the business. I’ve seen it, men are doing it all over the place and woman, they start their day, whether it be a garage where they are fixing motor vehicles, whether it be in a mine, where they are going down underground, before they go down they pray and they read the word of God. On the farm, all my farm workers coming together and hearing the word of God for that day. It brings unity, it brings peace, and it brings joy. What about the home? That’s the real place. You see, when we use the word of God at home, it settles all arguments and disputes. In the morning, moms and dads, pray for your children before they go to school, before they go to university, every day.
We think of a court of law. When that person is called up in a court of law, he has to put his hand on the Bible, and he’s got to say, ”I promise to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.” These are statutes that have been put in place so that we might live lives of peace, of prosperity, and of hope, giving Jesus Christ first place every single morning in your life, and you will be amazed at how well things will go!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 4th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 1 Samuel 15:22: “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.”
Now, every single time the Israelites disobeyed God, they had to bring a sacrifice, an offering to ask God to forgive them, but now the man of God, Samuel, a wonderful prophet of God, said it is better to obey rather than keep on saying sorry, to keep on making a sacrifice, taking the fat of rams, which was very choice, and using it as an offering.
I want to say to you three things: True faith in God (number 1) brings obedience, (number 2) and the obedience eventually brings blessing. What do I mean by that? Well, many, many years ago we had a big campaign in King’s Park Rugby Stadium in Durban, South Africa. When I was preaching my heart out in my Scottish kilt, they had said on the radio that El Niño, that horrible, horrific drought, was coming to South Africa. The rural small-time farmers must not plant any crops because it will be a failure. I said clearly, “To hell with El Niño, I am going home. I am going to plant a crop of potatoes. Now, I had never grown potatoes in my life, and I had no form of watering them, no irrigation. I was going to do it on dry land. Even my neighbour came over and said, “Angus, are you committing suicide? You can never reap anything out of that, and El Niño is coming. I said, “I am going to do it by faith.” So, by faith, I went home and planted my first crop of potatoes, and, of course, the rest is history.
What a blessing! Oh yes, they did grow in spite of what all the naysayers said, and I reaped a crop of potatoes, and that was the beginning of an abundant blessing that God has given to me, because I wrote a book called “Faith like Potatoes.” Do you know, that book is in 17 different languages? Do you know there is a movie? And it is still available to this day. Sony, the big picture movie giants have signed us up for another 15 years. Why is that? It is because obedience brings blessing.
Today, I don’t know what it is that you are struggling with. Hear clearly from God, then by faith, do it. Sometimes it won’t even make sense. By faith do it, so that God will receive all the glory. May the Lord bless you as you step out into the unknown by faith, with your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the waters, Jesus Christ.
God bless you and goodbye.