Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 30th of June, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Luke 12:12:
“For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Now that is a beautiful scripture. I am thinking particularly this morning of young students at university or at school; I am thinking of CEO’s of large companies who have to deliver a critical speech. I am thinking of employers who have to come up with the right answer for their employees today.
From that Scripture, we go straight to the Book of Acts 24:1:
“Now after five days Ananias the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator (that is a specialised speaker) named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul.”
So they brought in the professionals to accuse Paul of something, of course, which he did not do. Then the last Scripture, I want to share with you today, found in the Book of Psalms 81:10:
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
It doesn’t matter who is standing against you. Paul defended himself. He never got a defence counsel. He spoke up himself. When you speak the truth, when you speak the word of God, no one can stand against it because the Holy Spirit is speaking through you, the truth. When you speak the truth, no one will contest the truth. Lies never hold any water. When you make your defence, keep it simple and let the Holy Spirit speak through you.
Many a time, when I am about to get on the platform to speak to a large crowd, I will be walking up the steps, it’s quite a frightening thing, by the way, and as I am walking up, the Lord will say to me, in my heart, “I do not want you to speak about this subject. I want you to speak about marriages.” Now, I haven’t prepared a thing, but God gives me a Scripture, and when I am obedient, and by the grace of God, I do exactly what He said, because I am too afraid to do anything else, we hit the bullseye.
Today, it doesn’t matter what you are doing, what court you are going into, remember, if Christ is for you, there is no man that will stand against you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 29th of June, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Deuteronomy 24:15:
“Each day you shall give him his wages, and not let the sun go down on it, for he is poor and has set his heart on it; lest he cry out against you to the Lord, and it be sin to you.”
Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 20:2:
“Now when he had agreed with the labourers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.”
Now, it is not in the Bible, but you know the old saying, “a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay”? But that is so true. We really need to be careful. If you are an employer and you are listening to this message, a word from the Lord for you: if you try to underpay your staff and steal their wages, the Lord will not be pleased with you, and things will not go well in your business. I also want to say to the employees, if you are abusing your boss, your employer, by stealing his time, using his equipment for personal gain or profit, the Lord will not be pleased with you. I can tell you right now, the work will not go well, and you will probably eventually be caught and fired. We really need to honour what the Lord has put in place. We need to work hard, we need to work diligently, then our employer will treat us, hopefully, in a godly manner.
You know, when I started farming, I was in a new area. I didn’t know many people here. In fact, I hardly knew anyone, and the only people I would speak to were the people who would come to the farm and ask for work, and I built up some wonderful relationships with my staff. My one foreman, you might have heard of him - Simeon Bhengu, he became, not only my employee but a very good personal friend to me. Many a time we would sit together and talk about the day’s work. Should I plant this crop or shouldn’t I? Should I buy those animals or shouldn’t I? And he would give me godly wisdom. Now, he is not a very well-educated man but of course, neither am I, but together, we would sit and make a plan and it would work, and he would be happy and I would be happy.
If a man comes to work for you and he is stealing from you, you need to dismiss him because he does not honour you, especially if you give him a warning and he still carries on with his abuse of the responsibility that you have given him. Today, pay well, work hard and God will do the rest.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 28th of June, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Zachariah 13:1:
“In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.”
Then we go to 1 John 1:9. The Bible says:
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Isn’t that beautiful?
We don’t have to carry that weight around with us, just breaking us. Just go to the Lord and ask Him to forgive you, and He will cleanse you with that blood that comes from Jesus Christ, the blood which covers a multitude of sin. There is no sin that is too great for the Lord not to forgive, and there is no sin which is too small for the Lord not to forgive. I really want to encourage you to address those small sins because I know people say, “We don’t want to bother the Lord. We know how busy He is.” No, deal with it while it is still in the bud. If you leave it, what happens? It grows and grows, and eventually becomes a huge problem in your life that you cannot handle. I am talking particularly in the area of your life, things like immorality, I am talking about things like pornography. I am talking about things like getting involved in immoral relationships. It starts very innocently and eventually it can ruin your marriage, it can ruin your career, it can ruin your life. Don’t let it happen! And that great sin that you think God cannot forgive - there is no sin that Jesus Christ cannot forgive.
When He said to His Father, when He was dying on the cross, just before He died, He said, “It is finished!” - which means He had completed the work that Father had called Him to do. Now, do not disregard that beautiful promise from God and start to live free like an eagle that has got nothing to hold it back, and catch those thermals and fly up into the high places, and talk with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
May Jesus bless you as you walk in truth and righteousness.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 27th of June, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in Proverbs 14:23:
“In all labour there is profit,…”
Then we go to Mark 6:3:
“Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary,...?”
Yes, Jesus was a carpenter. He was a blue-collar worker. By the way, my late dad was a blacksmith, and my grandfather was a master blacksmith - working men, hard-working men as Jesus was. They say maybe He was more of a stone mason than a carpenter, because in those days there were not a lot of trees around the area of Nazareth, and they used a lot of stone to build their houses.
I want to talk to you about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He wrote a poem in 1842 called “The Village Blacksmith”, and this poem is all about honesty, satisfaction, and hard work. If ever we needed to work hard, it is now. It is a beautiful poem, and for the young people listening to this, please listen carefully. This is how it goes:
Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.
His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate’er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face
For he owes not any man.
Week in, week out, from morn to night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton
ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.
And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing floor.
He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter’s voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.
It sounds to him like her mother’s voice,
Singing in paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.
Toiling,-rejoicing,-sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night’s repose.
Thanks, thanks to thee my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 26th of June, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Acts 23:26-30:
”To the most excellent governor Felix: Greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them. Coming with the troops I rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman. And when I wanted to know the reason they accused him, I brought him before their council. I found out that he was accused concerning questions of their law, but had nothing charged against him deserving of death or chains. And when it was told me that the Jews lay in wait for the man, I sent him immediately to you, and also commanded his accusers to state before you the charges against him. Farewell.”
This is a letter written by an unbeliever, we’re assuming, a Roman commander to his Governor, Felix. This man actually saved one of Christianity’s greatest ambassadors, the Apostle Paul. You know what the Lord laid on my heart this morning? I really want to share it with you. As Christians, we must learn to speak up, and we must learn to get involved with the things of this world. Now you’ve heard me say many times before, we are sojourners, we are travellers through a foreign land. This is not our home, our home is in Heaven, but this man is an example to us. He got involved and as a result saved the life of Paul, the Apostle. If he hadn’t got involved and sent this letter with his soldiers to Caesarea, to the Governor Felix, Paul would have been killed.
I don’t know how many times unbelievers have put us to shame when it comes to doing the right thing. We walk past, we look the other way. We must not do that. We are not of this world, but we are representatives of Jesus Christ in the world. He could have just turned the other way and said, ”Look, it’s got nothing to do with me. Do what you like with him.” They would have killed him. Today, you and I, as ambassadors of Christ have a responsibility in society to speak up and say, “Hey, that’s not right” or to defend an innocent man.
Jesus bless you and let’s stand up for the king.
Goodbye.