Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 11th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of John 13:15-16: ”For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master”. Folks, that word, ”minister” actually means, “One who cares for others, one who looks after.” A minister is not a title to sit up in the front and to have people running after you. No, the minister is the one who serves the congregation. The same thing applies for any child of God. We are a band of feet-washers. Jesus says no servant is greater than his master. Now, if Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, then how much more do we have to do the same. We are called to be a band of feet-washers.Now I want to tell you a story about a servant. A few years back, I was in America. I had the privilege of going to the state of Arkansas. They set up a meeting for me, a campaign, in a rodeo arena. That’s right - where they ride bulls and horses. It is a most beautiful place and there is no other place that I desire to preach in, than a rodeo centre because those men, those bull riders, I have the highest respect for them. You know the bull weighs about a ton and you’ve got to stay on his back for eight seconds. That eight seconds must seem like eight hours to that bull rider and that bull is angry and he wants to hurt you.I went down to the arena, they were building a wooden platform for me in the middle of the arena, and I was asking the guys, ”Do you know any rodeo, any successful bull riders?” They looked up and they said, ”You see the old man standing over there.” I think he was sweeping with a broom. I said, ”Ja, I can see him, the old man with the glasses on.” They said, ”Yes, that’s the one. He is a former world champion bull rider.” This man was just carrying on with his business. He had been impaled by the horn of a bull when he was still going to the top. He ran out of the ring, holding his stomach to keep everything inside. He just happened to meet a doctor coming up the ramp and the doctor sewed him up standing right there. Three weeks later, that man won the Championship of the World.Oh folks, I had to go and shake his hand and then I noticed he was wearing a beautiful belt buckle. It just happened to say, ’The Champion of the World’ but what a servant! What a humble man!Today, let us serve,Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 10th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the New Testament, to 1 Timothy 1:15-16: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.“ And then he goes on in verse 16 to say: ”…for this reason I obtained mercy,…” Saul of Tarsus was the chief of all sinners. Remember, his objective was to kill Christians. He was an enemy of Jesus Christ and Jesus’ people, but God had mercy on him on the road to Damascus. Remember? He knocked him off his horse and said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” “Who are You, Lord?” “I am Jesus”. Paul himself says, “I am the chief of all sinners.” We need to understand one thing. None of us can earn our way to Heaven, none of us can try and live good lives. We are sinners saved by grace and grace alone. We have to understand that it is by mercy and mercy alone that we have eternal life. Now, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to define the word, “mercy” and this is what it says. It says, “it is kindness, or forgiveness shown towards someone who is in your power.” Now, when you are given mercy, it’s at the expense of someone else. They decide to forgive you and to give you another chance, and to be lenient with you, and not to prosecute you, but to act in charity and sympathy and kindness and tolerance. Now we have to do the same. You know the story of John Newton. I have told you many times. John Newton was a captain of a slave ship. I cannot think of a worse occupation in the world and yet he was forgiven and shown mercy by God, and he wrote that beautiful hymn called Amazing Grace. Now his favourite quote was, and I am going to read it to you. He says: “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God, I am what I am. Although my memory is fading,” he says, “I remember two things: First, I am a great sinner, and secondly, Christ is a great Saviour”. Now, He saved you and me through mercy alone. Go and show mercy to others!Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 9th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in that well-known Psalm, Psalm 23:2: He leads me beside the still waters.” Jesus leads us. Then we go to John 14:6. ”Jesus said to him, “I am the way…” Jesus is the way. He is the one who is leading us. Now, as we look at the new year, 2026, maybe you are walking on a new road. The Lord says to you today, ”Keep on walking.” “Lord, I don’t know where to go.” Don’t sit down, keep on walking. You know the story of the big sailing ship. As long as it is in the harbour, it cannot go anywhere, but when it is put out into the big seas, the wind will take it to it’s destination. Even if the wind is blowing the wrong way, a good mariner will know how to tack against the wind and still get the ship to it’s destination. Do not sit in that harbour.I want to ask you a question. Have you ever been lost in the bush? Now, where I come from, there are tropical forests, and you know, you can walk and walk and walk for miles, and the bush looks exactly the same. You can climb up a tree and when you look out from the top of that huge tree all you see is a green cover of tree tops. So you’ve got no idea where you are going and then you start to panic, and that’s the worst thing you can ever do, and you start walking faster and faster and the worst thing is, after you’ve been walking for a few miles, you find that you are back at the same place. Desperation kicks in.Are you desperate today? Are you my friend, not sure of what you’re going to do this coming year? Where you are going to work? Where the food is coming from? Where are you going to stay? You’re in a panic mode. The Lord says, ”Do not panic.” He says, ”I am sending someone to help you.”Now you know, when you’ve been walking in that bush for a few hours and all of a sudden a local tribesman happens to walk up and you greet him and say, ”I am lost.” And he says, ”No problem, I’ll show you the way.” And he takes you straight to the main road. It is an incredible feeling of relief! Maybe you’re there today. Well, the Holy Spirit knows the way, oh yes! And Jesus says in Hebrews 13:5: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We need to slow down today. We mustn’t panic. We must keep walking forward and the Lord will open and close doors for us and don’t force the issue. He has got you in the palm of His hand.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 8th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Gospel of Matthew 12:30: ”He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” Very strong words spoken by the Master Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we go straight to James 4:4, out of the Message translation: ”You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and his way.” Very strong scripture. Folks, we cannot serve two masters. Either we are for Him, or we are against Him. We cannot be undecided.The Lord says in Revelation 3:16, ”I’d rather you were ice cold than lukewarm, but if you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth.” I really believe that we need to stand up and be counted. We cannot be undecided. Do you know why? Because if we are hunting with the hounds one day, and running with the hares another day, then we’ll be nowhere at all!I read a little illustration by a man of God, which I thought was very special. What he is saying is like the ivy creeper and the oak tree. “The ivy may give the oak a grand and beautiful appearance but all the while it is feeding on the vitals of the oak tree.” He says, ”Are we compromising with the enemies of God? Are we being embraced by the world, it’s honours, it’s pleasures, it’s applause? And in the meantime, this may add to us in the world’s estimation, but our strength becomes lost.” We have to make up our mind, are we going to be for God or not? You see, if everybody is your friend, then you don’t have any friends. We’ve got to be salty. We’ve got to call sin by it’s name and we’ve got to walk according to the word of God if we are going to be effective for Him and not swallowed up eventually by the system of the world.Today, the Lord wants to encourage you and I to stand tall so that people know who we are.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, 7th January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Leviticus 19:32: “You shall rise before the gray headed and honour the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord.” Then we go to the Book of Proverbs 20:29:”The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendour of old men is their gray head.” Then the last scripture is in 1 Timothy 5:1:”Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father…” I want to speak about respecting older people. Do you know it’s the first commandment in the Bible with a promise added to it? “Honour your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land…” and I want to say to young parents, please teach your children to respect senior citizens, not for the sake of the senior citizens but so that their children will have an easier passage through life. There is nothing worse than to see a badly mannered young child who refuses to stand up when an old person walks into the room, who refuses to greet an old person with respect, who refuses to take their hat off when an old person comes into the room. Why? Because when they go out into the world, they will suffer because they have no respect for age. So for the sake of your children, please teach them.Just before Christmas, we went to the old age home in Greytown and I had a tremendous honour of meeting an old couple. The gentleman is 103 years old and his dear old wife is in her mid nineties. They have been married for 74 years. Amazing! I said, “You make me feel like a teenager.” Aah folks, but to honour them was not hard for me. I greeted him with the greatest of respect, and his dear wife, because they have walked the road. Now, I am only quoting scripture this morning. This is what the Lord has laid on my heart. Please, I know that somebody is saying, ”Ja, but you don’t know what this old mother or father of mine are like.” Yes, they might be grumpy, but they also might be in pain, having suffered a lot of things in their lives, physically and even mentally and spiritually, but honour them because Jesus said so. Have a wonderful day.God bless you and goodbye.