Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 12th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 1 Corinthians 6:19:
“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…?”
Then we back up a little bit to 1 Corinthians 3:16:
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
Some of us are not doing well, are we? No, we are sick in our bodies, we are sick in our minds, and we are very sick in our spirits. Your little boy, your little girl, driving to work with you or to school, ask them a question, “Can you put diesel into a petrol fuel motorcar?” Of course not! What will happen? It will stop immediately. Ask them if your motorcar needs to be serviced regularly or not? No, well we don’t have the money to service our car. Well, it won’t last. It is going to stop, it is going to break down. These are essentials. Now, why do we take care of our vehicles, but we don’t take care of our physical bodies?
I want to say something very serious to the grown-ups. Pornography is not an option. You are pouring filth into your body every day, and then you are wondering why you are in a state of depression, anxiety, and fear. We need to destroy that thing today. Get rid of it. Some movies we are watching - let us ask ourselves a serious question. If you had to sit there on your own, in your flat, in your house and watch a movie, ask yourself a question. Would I be comfortable watching this movie with the filthy language and the suggestiveness, with Jesus Christ sitting next to me? Of course not. Well then we need to stop doing that.
We need to eat properly, sleep properly, but I am not talking so much about that. I am talking about the spiritual context. If you want the Holy Spirit to work in your life, He will not come into your life if you are living in sin. You have to deal with it today. That is the problem, and that spiritual sin turns into physical sickness and disease. You go to the doctor, you are asking him to help you, but you will not stop smoking, madam. It is killing you. You will not stop drinking, sir, but it is poisoning your system. Stop it today, and I am telling you, you will not have to go to the doctor because Jesus Christ will be dwelling within you.
Have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 11th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in 1 Corinthians 3:11:
“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
I want to speak today about foundational people.
The Chief Engineer - I have told you many times, my mother’s brother was a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy in the Second World War. They operate below sea level. No one sees them. Everyone sees the Captain on the bridge, but without that Chief Engineer and his men, that ship is going nowhere. He is vital.
I want to speak to you about maybe the greatest men’s conference that met for a weekend at Shalom Farm, in the year 2010. I can’t tell you exactly the number of men, not women and children, only men, that came to this farm on that weekend which I will never, ever forget. We believe it was in excess of 450,000 men for a full weekend, starting on Friday and finishing on Sunday morning. Yes, I was the speaker but I want to tell you something now, without foundational men and women who organised that event, it would never have happened. I had the privilege of standing there, but without them who did all the work, before and after. It took us over 2 weeks to collect all the rubbish on the farm and deliver it to the rubbish dump. It was incredible. Do you know that Greytown, the little town that is 15 kms away, had nothing left in it. It was as if locusts had been through the town! Some say it was the biggest Christian men’s gathering in world history.
I want to tell you about the greatest Foundation of all. Yes, I am talking about the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, my dear friend, you can do nothing. We need to give Him more place. Many of us never even mention His name. I want to tell you, He is part of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “It is beneficial for you that I go home so that I can send you a Helper.
Today, put some effort into your relationship with the Holy Spirit. He is the One who makes things happen. Without Him, nothing will ever happen. Speak to Him. Ask Him to help you, direct you, counsel you. He is everything you need, and He is all over the world at the same time. What a Foundation!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 10th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Isaiah 48:10, the Lord speaking:
”I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”
Then we go to John 15:16. Jesus says:
”You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit…”
There’s somebody listening to this message this morning who is going through a tremendous fiery trial. You are saying, ”I can’t take this. I can’t go through with this, it’s too much for me.” The Lord has said to you, ”I have chosen you for this. I have made a way for you.” I’m not saying that the Lord has put it on you. What I am saying is that the Lord has allowed you, because He sees that you are fit and you are strong enough, to go through this.
It was just like yesterday that we had one of the biggest tragedies that I’ve ever had in my life on the farm here, where we lost our little nephew who fell off that tractor that I was driving. I cried out to God, I’ll never forget it. ”Lord, I don’t think I can take this, I can’t go through with this.” The Lord said,
”My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect through weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9.
A very kind farmer drove over in his pickup to come and visit me. We sat in my farm office together. He said to me, ”Do you have a firearm?” I said, ”Yes, I do. I have a shotgun.” He said, ”Could I have it for a while?” And then I realised what he was doing. He was trying to protect me. I said, ”No, don’t worry Gordon, the Lord has got me in His hand.” And we wept together and he left and the Lord took me through that fiery trial.
My friends, I want to tell you, it can be lonely. I would drive down the main street in town, people would see me coming and they’d step into a shop or make out that they’re looking at their phone or something, not because they didn’t love me, they did love me, but they didn’t know how to face me. Jesus was there right there through the fiery trial and He has brought me out the other side and I have been in a position to help many others in this situation.
We know one thing, and at the end of the day all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord. Today, keep your eyes on Jesus and He will see you through this time of testing.
God bless you and goodbye.

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