Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 22nd of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 2 Timothy 1:12:
”… I know whom I have believed…”
We are talking this morning about personal friendship with Jesus Christ. It is a very real thing.
I read a beautiful reading by an anonymous writer who said, ”Personal experience and friendship with Jesus is a very real thing. It’s like a tree. A tree uses up every hour of sunshine for it’s growth, it thrives in the sunshine and then it is refreshed by the rain. Then storms come, and the storms make it fasten on its grip firmly to the earth for its support, pushing the roots right down deep. So if we are troubled in heart today in all our experiences we are going through, these things happen so that you and I might grow closer in intensity with Jesus Christ as our Lord and saviour.” I really want to encourage you in that area.
If you look at those thorn trees in the dry, arid areas, you’ll see those trees are very, very slow in growing, but the wood is very dense and very heavy because it goes through much tribulation, drought, fire, floods, and yet it grows from strength to strength. The other tree however, the poplar tree, is more like Balsa wood, it’s light, it’s soft, it’s very easy to cut down, it burns very easily but there is no depth in it.
We as believers need to understand that our personal relationship with Jesus Christ needs all the things the tree needs. We’re talking about the sunshine for growth. We’re talking about the rain for refreshing. We’re talking about the storms of life which put our roots right down deep, so that we can take it when it comes. Today, let you and I not be afraid to trust in the Lord because He will never leave us nor forsake us. He says that clearly in Hebrews 13:5.
May the Lord bless you as you have a fair day today, knowing that the King of Glory is right next to you.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 21st of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Genesis 4:9:
”Then the Lord said to Cain,” Where is your brother, Abel?” And he said, ”I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Oh yes folks, indeed we are! We are responsible for each other. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 22:1. The Lord says:
“You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep going astray, and hide yourself from them; you shall certainly bring them back to your brother.”
You and I have a responsibility, first of all to God and then to our fellow man. If we see something is not right, we have an obligation to help him. If somebody has lost something precious and you find it, it is not a case of finders keepers, losers weepers. Remember, we used to say that when we were young? No, go and find out who it belongs to and return it because this is what God requires of us.
I remember many years ago, we had a wonderful meeting on the farm. We had many, many men coming to Shalom. I had a beautiful maize crop standing, and the maize was just about ready for reaping. It was nice and golden in colour, and one of the men who came to the meeting decided he was going to take home a souvenir, so he took one of my maize cobs, a full maize cob, and he put it in his vehicle, and when it was over, it was a wonderful meeting we had, he went home with that cob.
Do you know, many years later, I am talking maybe 20 years later, I got this phone call, and he is probably listening to this message - and bless you, my dear friend - he said “I took it and it wasn’t mine and it has been bugging me ever since”. And he sent back that maize cob in a package to me on the farm. Obviously, I would have said to him, “Keep it, man. What is one mealie cob?” But there is a principle. It was not his, and he knew it, and so he returned it, and that brings peace to you.
Sometimes you might be a Comrades runner and a stone gets into your shoe. The best thing is to stop immediately. Take the stone out and then you will be able to finish that race properly. If you don't, eventually that stone will eat away and you will have a massive blister and probably won’t even be able to finish the race. Sort things out. If there is something that belongs to your brother, take it back to him so that you can have peace and joy in your heart.
Until next time, Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 20th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to 2 Timothy 2:15:
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
A man by the name of Charles Kinsley said, ”Have your tools ready. God will find you work.” I like that! We are in such a rush to do things, but we don’t take time to prepare them. I remember my late father-in-law, who was a perfectionist when it came to his equipment and his tools. He was a steam engineer by profession, in those days before diesel came into the fore, everything was run by steam. I used to admire his workshop. When you went into his workshop, it was spick and span, it was clean, and all the tools were in the right place. He knew where everything was, right down to the last bolt or nut. As a farmer, I would go in often and say, “Dad, I need help here. Can you help me with a certain spanner?” He would walk straight to his tool-kit and bring it out and by the way, it was shining and sparkling clean, and I had to return it the same way!
It is such a pleasure to see an artisan working with his tools, whether he is a carpenter, whether he is a boiler-maker, whether he is a mechanic, especially when he arrives on the farm with his pick-up, and he opens up the side, and he has all his tools in front of him. There’s nothing that he needs to look for. You take him the problem with the tractor or whatever it might be, and he gets to work, and in no time at all, he has fixed it. Why? Because his tools are ready.
As a preacher, I can tell you, when I started off, I used to spend hours, if not days, preparing a sermon. Now I don’t do that anymore. I spend hours and days in prayer and waiting on the Lord and speaking to Jesus, and then, when my tools are ready, I can deliver the message with simplicity and clarity so that people can understand it.
Today, we need to understand that people need us desperately, but they want the truth, they want it in love, and they want to know that what you are telling them can be backed up every single time with the word of God. So today, as you go into the field, make sure that you have approved yourself to God as a good workman.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 19th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Zechariah 4:10:
“For who has despised the day of small things?”
I read a beautiful reading by an anonymous writer that goes like this: “It is the little words you speak, the little thoughts you think, the little things you do or leave undone, the little moments you waste or use wisely, the little temptations which you yield to or overcome, the little things of everyday that are making or messing up your future life.”
Don’t forget the little things. They mean so much, don’t they? When somebody brings you a nice little bunch of flowers, especially if it is a little child, I tell you that it touches my wife’s heart and my heart as well, or something small.
I had an old gentleman who used to live on the farm with us with his dear wife. His name was Jimmy. We called him Uncle Jimmy. Uncle Jimmy had a very bad chest, he didn’t sleep a lot at night. He contracted some sickness when he was in the Royal Navy in the Second World War, and he came and retired on our farm and stayed in a little cottage, and do you know something? Every single day, Uncle Jimmy would come down to see me and he would bring me a little scripture verse, carefully written out on a piece of paper, and everyday that scripture would mean something so special to me, more than if I had got a letter from an international speaker or some well-known person - but Jimmy, every single day, that impacted my life, especially as a young preacher.
We need to be careful not to overlook the small things in life because they are the things that will determine our future. So maybe today God is impressing upon your heart to phone somebody or write a little letter. Do you know how nice it is to get a handwritten note? It means that somebody took time out to get a piece of paper and a pen and write it out and then send it to you. It means the world to me, I can tell you right now because it took effort.
Today, let us take time out to concentrate not just on the big things in life but the small things too.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 18th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Acts 28:30-31:
“Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.
I want to talk to you about commitment. In the Kingdom of God, there is no such word as “retirement.” I can’t find it. I have looked from Genesis to Revelation. Promotion - yes, retirement - nothing. God needs you and me to preach the Gospel until the very end. That is what Paul did to the end. He had to rent his own house. The people just came to him and he taught them about salvation and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I remember a story told about the great evangelist, Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday was a professional baseball player. He would slide in to the platform like a baseball player slides into base, and he would sometimes preach even on top of his pulpit. He had a passion for Christ. He met the Lord in a very special way. He spoke against alcoholism, drug addiction and all these evils. He was very, very controversial but very popular and used greatly by God. He would build a trapdoor on the edge of the platform where he was preaching, and when he would make the altar call and ask the people to come forward and give their lives to Christ, he would lift the trapdoor and go into the trapdoor and that would bring him level with the people in the crowd. Then he would shake hands with each one of them as they prayed the sinner’s prayer.
The one day, he had a heart attack on the platform, he never died but he was in a serious state. One of the helpers, one of his assistants, came up and took him by the hand and said, “Are you ok, Billy?” And Billy said, “Listen, just pray this prayer after me.” He thought it was one of the people coming forward to give their lives to Christ and he was totally oblivious to the fact that he was actually dying and he would lead him in the sinner’s prayer. Totally committed to the very, very end.
I want to say to you today, I don’t care how old you are, how young you are, preach the Gospel at all costs.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.