Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 14th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Gospel of John 19:26:”When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.” That is a very powerful statement.Do you know that the Lord was going through the most excruciating pain known to man? The crucifixion is truly one of the most savage ways to kill a man. He actually suffocates to death at the end because he cannot breathe, and in that time, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, looked down and He had compassion on His earthly mother and that very special disciple, John. He said to John, ”Look after my mother.” And He said to His mother, ”Look after John.” We need to look after each other unconditionally in these last days in which we are living. Remember charity, which is another word for love, begins at home. Young man, young lady, there’s no good saying, ”I want to go overseas and I want to preach the Gospel.” Or “I want to go up into the Congo and I want to take care of those who have got no idea of who the Lord is.” No, the Lord says, ”Charity begins at home.” We need to get our own household in order first before we go out into the world.When I travel, the first thing people ask me when I arrive at a new destination is not what my theological qualification is, it’s just as well, but the first thing they ask is, ”How is your wife?” “Oh no, she’s fine.” “That’s good. How are your children? How are your grandchildren? How are your great-grandchildren?” When we tell them they’re fine, ”and how are things on the farm?” Then they say, ”Right, now speak to us, we want to hear what you’ve got to say.” We need to make sure things are okay at home. It’s no good when the wheels are coming off back at the ranch and you're trying to tell people how to live. That is hypocrisy of the first degree. Let us follow in the footsteps of our beloved Master and let us love each other. Have a wonderful day, God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 13th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Psalms 34:19:”Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Then we go to 1 Corinthians 10:13:”No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” At the moment, in our beloved South Africa, we are facing many trials and tribulations, but God has a word for you and for me today. He says, ”Do not be afraid.”Folks, I am a farmer, I will die a farmer. My wife says you can put me in a three-piece suit and I’ll still look like a farmer, and I take that as a great compliment. But seriously, many farmers in our nation have been under the whip extreme. I’m talking about the drought, which in some areas has already broken, praise be to God, and I’m talking about the foot-and-mouth epidemic, which is raging right at our very doorsteps, but the Lord has promised us that he will make a way out.Now what I want to say to you, and I’m not just talking to farmers -  I’m talking to wives, children, students, I’m talking to school teachers, I’m talking to doctors, I’m talking to professional sportsmen -  It doesn’t matter what you’re going through as long as you do not give up.No man having put his hand to the plough (come on farmers know that) and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of Heaven - Luke 9:62. We need to press forward. You say to me, ”Angus, I can’t anymore.” You can and you must. Why am I bringing this message to you today?  Because I am getting letters from the public who are saying, ”I am at the end of my tether. I can’t anymore.” I’m telling you that you can and you must, and you will, and you will look back on this time in years to come and you will remember, these were the times when the Lord was the closest to you.Last of all, do not turn your back on God. Do not blame God for anything. Thank Him for His Son, Jesus Christ, who has been through temptations and pain and suffering like none of us even understand, and He came through, and by the way, He’s coming back soon one of these days to take us to be with Him in Paradise forever, but until that time, let us press on. Jesus bless you and goodbye.  

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 12th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Gospel of John 15:13. Jesus said:  “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” What a beautiful scripture! We need to invest in people, not in things. That man of God, Theodore Cuyler, said, “Marble and granite are perishable monuments, and their inscriptions may be seldom read. Carve your names on human hearts, for they alone are immortal.” Investing in people and not in things! I have been to some of the most beautiful churches and cathedrals, built for the glory of God, and I have walked through them. I am thinking of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, just as one example, but at the end of the day, we are called to invest in people’s lives because they last forever.Do you remember that song that was very popular years ago, about a man who lived, died, and went to Heaven? When he went to Heaven, he was standing with Jesus, and people started coming up to him, thanking him for what he had done for them on earth. He didn’t even remember them. First of all, there was that young man who said, “Thank you for what you did for me because you came to our Sunday School when I was only 8 years old and you spoke to us and I gave my life to the Lord, and that is why I am here today. Thank you for giving to the Lord.”Another man came up. He said, “Thank you. A missionary came to your church. He showed you pictures of the needs of people. It made you cry. You gave him money, and because of that money you gave him, I am here today.” A long line of people were lining up to give you thanks and Jesus took your hand, and He said, “Child,” with tears running down your face, “Look at your great reward!” Just a story, but a beautiful one - investing in people!The other day I got a beautiful letter. You see, a while before that, a young student in Central Africa sent me a letter and said, “I can’t go on anymore. I am studying to be a doctor, but the course is too hard. What should I do?” And I sent him a little note back, that’s all I did. I said, “Keep on pressing on.” And about a year later, I got a beautiful email from him saying that he pressed on and the letter was signed, Dr so and so - He had passed his exams and is now a qualified Christian doctor. Invest in people. It is worthwhile!Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 11th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in 1 John 2:6: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” Wow, a very powerful challenge! The writer here says the preaching this world needs most are “the sermons in shoes” that are walking with Jesus Christ - sermons in shoes.Don’t just tell people that Jesus loves them. The Lord says, “But show them that Jesus loves them by our actions.” We need to become Christ-like. It is no good just talking. There has got to be action. Don’t tell people that Jesus loves them. Show them that Jesus loves them. Faith is a doing word. It is a verb, it’s not a noun. A noun is like a table or a chair or a cupboard. Faith is an action word. So we cannot please God without faith, and he who believes must believe that He is and that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I think you will find that in Hebrews 11:6. To give you a practical example of what I am talking about, there is a group of men and women whom I admire greatly. They have a project called “Farming God’s Way”, and they are established all over Central and Southern Africa. So they don’t take food to the poorest of the poor. No, they teach the poorest of the poor how to grow food for themselves. You know the old story about if you give a person a fish, that’s right, he will have enough food for one day but if you teach him how to fish, he’ll be able to feed himself everyday. That is what God is looking for - practical, down to earth Christian action.Today, let us put our faith into action by walking the talk.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 10th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of John 18:31: “Then Pilate said to them, “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.” That is what you call “passing the buck”, compromising, and reneging on your authority. Do you know that Pontius Pilate was the representative of Caesar in Rome? He had the absolute authority to put the thumb up for life or to put it down which meant death. He actually said later on, “I find no fault in this man”. Yes, but they said, “We want you to kill Him.’ They wanted the Romans to do the dirty work for them. They protested and Pontius Pilate realised he was about to have a revolution on his hands, an uprising, and he had very few soldiers in Jerusalem at that time. So what did he do? He compromised. Don’t we do that, you and I? When the heat is on, and we think, “We are in trouble here”, we compromise. He got a basin, he washed his hands in front of all the Jews that were standing, waiting for judgement to be declared, and he said, ‘I wash my hands of this man. I have nothing more to do with him.” That is called the fear of man. Oh, folks, I want to tell you, it is a dangerous place to be, the fear of man. Because you are in a group of people who are blaspheming, people who mock God, a group of people who think they are just absolutely the best thing that ever happened, they are so brazen, so forthcoming that you just keep quiet. You know, there is a group of conservative followers of Christ where they have made Pontius Pilate a saint because they believe that he did nothing wrong. Well, maybe he didn’t do anything wrong but he didn’t do anything right either, did he? Remember, his wife had a dream the night before, and she came to her husband and said, “Have nothing to do with this man.” And he took her advice and he told the Jews, “You take Him away. You judge Him according to your law.” Today, people tell us that Jesus Christ is a fake. We can tell them, gently but firmly, “No, no. He is the Son of God.”Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 9th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, ’Says the Lord of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6What a powerful scripture. Then we go to Matthew 26:52:  But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” Remember what happened? The High Priest’s men came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, and Peter took out his sword to defend the Lord and actually cut one of the servant’s ears off. Jesus told him to put his sword away.Today, we want to speak about the battle. We need to lay down our swords, the battle belongs to the Lord. I am not talking about the war that is looming between Iran and America. No, I am not talking about a world war, I am talking about the home. I am talking about the war that is taking place between you and your husband. I am talking about the war that is happening at school between you and some of your friends. The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly (carnal) but mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. We have got to do it Jesus’ way.Jesus told His disciples, “I can call a legion of angels down from Heaven right now and they can destroy all of these enemies of ours, but the Lord did not do that. He said, “If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.” I heard somebody saying, “I have my rights. I am tired of the arguments. I am calling it a day. I am going to sign the divorce papers. We are out of here.” Then where are you going to go, and what are you going to do? Did you not make a promise on the day that you got married that you would stay together? Well, what has changed? I want to say to you that it takes two to fight. You cannot fight on your own. If you say to your husband, you say to your wife today, “Listen, I am not fighting anymore. I am putting my sword away and I am going to pray. I am going to pray for our relationship, I am going to pray for our children, our wayward children. I am going to pray for the job situation. I am not fighting anymore. The way I am going to fight from today onwards is on my knees. I am going to  pray. I am going to use the word of God which is the sword of the Spirit, just like Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He will give me the victory.”It has happened in my own life. I want to ask you to please put the sword away, because that same sword will be the end of you if you don’t, and do it Jesus’ way. He will bring healing, He will bring forgiveness and He will bring reconciliation in your family. In Jesus’ name I pray this. Have a wonderful day, God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 8th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of John 18:5-6: “They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Now when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.”  Then we go right down to verse 8, the same thing again: “Jesus answered, “I have told you that I am He. Therefore, if you seek Me, let these go their way,…” What an incredible Saviour you and I serve, always standing in the gap, always letting others go and Jesus taking the full brunt of any accusation! Jesus said three times, “I am the One you are looking for.” You and I need to start speaking out. We too need to start saying, “Yes, and also am a follower of Jesus Christ.” “Are you one of them?” “Yes, I am.”Speak it out! Let the people know! There is nothing whatsoever to be ashamed of. Remember what the Lord said in the Bible. He said, “If you are ashamed of Me, I will be ashamed of you when I stand before My Father in Heaven.” There is nothing to be ashamed of. Jesus has never let us down, He has never, ever sinned, He has never, ever hurt a child, or a widow, or an orphan, or an older person. No, He has never committed adultery, He has never stolen. We need to speak it out. We need to become more vocal. When people ask us, we need to speak up and say, “Yes, I am a follower of Jesus Christ. He is my Lord and my Saviour. He is my best Friend, He is the One I meet early, every single morning. He is indeed a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”I want to say to you today, like never before, you and I need to speak out when people ask us, “And who do you follow?” Then we need to say, “Aah, the Darling of Heaven, the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the Lion of Judah, the Holy One, the soon-coming Saviour of the world. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Sunday,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 7th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Matthew 26:36: “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane,…”Gethsemane is a garden. I have been there myself many times. There are olive trees there that they say are thousands of years old, and I sit there often and I think of what the Master went through. Gethsemane actually means, “the oil press”, yes, the place of intense spiritual struggle. Oh my dear friend, are you there this morning? Are you in an intense spiritual struggle? You see, it is the place where Jesus endured profound agony and emotional pressure. Are you emotionally under pressure at the moment? It was so much for the Lord that he sweated drops of blood when He was praying, but what did He say? He could have said, “Lord, I can’t take this. Please send a legion of angels down to take Me home.” No, if you look at verse 39, while He was praying He said, “My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from Me, nevertheless not as I will but as You will.”So if you are suffering, that does not mean that you are not walking with the Lord. It does not mean that you are backsliding or that you haven’t got any courage. It means that you are in the garden, you are in the time in the oil press, in a time of exceedingly great pressure. Now, what is the answer? Well, the answer is to do exactly what Jesus did. What did He do? He prayed and He prayed, and then God, through the power of His Holy Spirit and His angels, gave Jesus the strength to do what He had to do for you and for me. Now this morning I want to pray for you. I just sense as I am sitting in my prayer room, that many people are in the garden, in the place called Gethsemane, and you are sorely pressurised on both sides and you don’t know what to do. Well, I am going to pray for you, and I want you also to pray this prayer with me:Heavenly Father,In the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of Your Holy Spirit, I bring before Your throne, my problems.They are many, Lord, I cannot even find a way out, but Lord, I appeal to You now and I ask You to undertake for me.I pray for strength for the strain. Lord, I know that this time will pass by, but at the moment, it seems like there is no way out.I ask You in Jesus name to strengthen me Lord, so that I can endure that which has been put before me, and I will give You all the glory, all the praise and all the honour.In Jesus’ name, amen.God bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 6th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of John 17:21. And this is Jesus speaking to His Father: ”that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” I want to speak to you this morning about relationships, and I want to speak to you about probably the hardest place to keep a relationship. Where is it? It’s at home. Oh yes, I can see you smiling, and some of you aren’t. It’s not easy. The first murder in the Bible after the creation of the earth was between two brothers, Cain and Abel. Cain killed his brother, Abel. Look at the dispute that Abraham had with his nephew, Lot, when they argued about who was going to have the high land and who was going to have the low land. What about Moses and his brother, Aaron and his sister, Miriam? What an argument they had! If God hadn’t intervened there, there would have been big trouble because of family.What about David and Absalom? David was so blinded by the love that he had for his son, that he couldn’t see that his son was plotting to kill him. If it wasn’t for David’s men, his own son would have killed him. What about Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark? They had a terrible fallout because of John Mark, and Paul said, ”I’m not going with him again. He let us down once before and that’s it.” Barnabas said, ”No, well I am taking him.” And they split up.Now, this is not a negative message, my dear friend, it’s a challenging message. Jesus says that you and I must love one another in the family so that the world can believe that the Father sent Jesus down to the earth. “A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love, one for another.”John 13:34-35A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you. That you love one another as I have loved you. By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love, one for another.By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love, one for another.Let’s love each other. Let’s sit down after this message and say, ”Dad, I forgive you”; ”Mom, I forgive you”; “Son, I forgive you.”; “ Daughter, I forgive you.” For Christ’s sake, let’s do it. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 5th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Daniel 6:20:” …the living God…” Now, who said that? That was the king when he came to the dungeon, where Daniel was put with all those ravenous lions, and they hadn’t touched him all night.I’ve got a beautiful reading I just want to read you from that wonderful man of God, George Müller, the German who got saved in Bristol, England, in a little Bible study and then proceeded to build one of the biggest orphanages in the world. Something like over ten thousand children went through that orphanage, but you know the amazing thing was, he never asked for a penny. He went into his closet and he prayed and Jesus sent the money. I’ve been to that orphanage, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. It’s not an orphanage anymore, it’s a technical college but those beautiful buildings are still standing as a legacy that was left by this man of God.Now this is what he says: "How many times we find this expression in the Scriptures, 'the living God,' and yet it is just this very thing that we are so prone to lose sight of. We know that it is written 'the living God,' but in our daily life there is scarcely anything we practically so much lose sight of as the fact that God is the living God; that He is now whatever He was three or four thousand years ago; that He has the same sovereign power, the same saving love towards those who love and serve Him as ever He had, and that He will do for them now what He did for others two, three, or four thousand years ago, simply because He is the living God, the Unchanging One. Oh, how therefore we should confide in Him and in our darkest moments never lose sight of the fact that He is still and ever will be a living God.”Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye. 

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 4th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in 1 Peter 1:16, where God says we must be holy for He is holy: “Be holy, for I am holy.” What is holiness? It’s the end-product of obedience. We must become obedient followers of Christ.Then we go to the Gospel of John 17:19-20: ”And for their sakes (Jesus says) I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;” The Lord wants you and me to be holy so that the people we come into contact with will know and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are talking here today about walking the talk. People will believe in Jesus because of the lives and the lifestyle that we live, that is what the Lord is saying.Now you know, as soon as I tell you this, I go way back, ten years ago, to February, this very month, and I think of that brutal, hellish massacre that took place when twenty Coptic Christians were martyred for their faith. Now all they had to do was to deny Christ and they would have lived, but they would not deny Him and their heads were cut off. But one thing we forget sometimes, there weren’t twenty, no, there were twenty-one. The man who was number twenty-one was not one of them. He was an African. He came from Ghana. He had only been with them a few weeks when ISIS caught them, but within those couple of weeks, these Coptic Christians, by example, by living sanctified lives, won him through for Christ, and he too died the martyr's death with them.I want to say to you today, it’s not what we say, it’s who we are that will draw people to Christ. Let us be living examples today, like those Christians who are sitting around the throne of God because they are martyrs.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 3rd of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”  What a powerful scripture! Do you believe that? I do, and I am going to prove it to you in a minute. If we go to Luke 7, and I want you to read it in your own time, from verse 1 to 10, you will see the Roman officer sent some of his people to Jesus to ask Him to please come and heal his servant who was very sick. Jesus was on His way, but halfway there, the Roman centurion sent a message, “Don’t come to my house. I am not worthy. Just say the word.” If we go to Matthew 8:13: “And his servant was healed that same hour.” Jesus was not even there. He said the word because that Roman officer had the faith.Now, something quite amazing happened to us here at Shalom. Last week, a man came to see me. I will call his name, William (that is not his name). He came and shared a testimony with me that encouraged my faith no-end. He said a few years back, His father was very ill. He was in the ICU, and he was basically dying. He had been there for ninety days, 3 months, and they had said to him, they can’t keep him there much longer, and they had to take some of the machinery off him that was keeping him alive because other people needed it, and in desperation, he came up to the farm. We prayed for him, that God would heal him. He went back to Durban. He went straight to ICU. He walked straight to his dad’s room, he knew exactly where he was, he had been visiting him daily, and the bed was empty. He called the nurses. He said, “Where is my father?”, thinking that he had passed away. They said, “He is sitting in the garden, eating an ice cream.”Oh folks, what a Saviour! He was totally healed. But listen to the miracle. He said to his dad, “When did it happen to you, dad?’ He told him the exact time, let's just say, half past ten, and at half past ten, William and all of us were praying for his dad and his dad was healed. Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow - a modern day miracle, but a replica of what happened with the Roman officer and his sick servant. Totally healed!Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 2nd of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Joshua 24:15:”…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” That’s Joshua speaking to the children of Israel. He says,”… But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  What a powerful declaration by the leader who took over from Moses! Then we go to the New Testament, Matthew 3:11:”He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.” Then lastly, 1 Corinthians 3:11, which says:”For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.“ - spoken by Paul, when some people who were saying that, ”We are following Apollos,” and some saying they were following Paul. Paul stopped them in their tracks.I want to say to you today there is only one person who you can follow and be very careful. I’m talking particularly today to ministers and leaders. Be careful that you are not drawing people to yourself rather than leading them to Christ. It’s very easy to happen, especially when people gather around you and they say, ”We love you and we’re going to follow you,” and “you’ve got the answers”. That’s a dangerous place to be.I remember a long time ago, we had a little coffee bar in Greytown and it was thriving. We had all the denominations there. Up to two, three hundred children on a Friday night. So much so that I couldn’t cope because I was farming at that time, so we got a man to come and join us. A wonderful man and he had an amazing way with children, and he continued the good work. Then one day he got a call from another church in another city, and he had to leave. Before he left, I said to him, “You know, the true worth of your ministry is now going to be tested.” He said. ”How can you say that?” I said, ”If you leave and the children don’t come back to the coffee bar, you have been leading them to yourself, and if they continue to come back, then you know you’ve done your job.” Of course, they did come back. He had done a good job.Today do not draw people to yourself, draw them to Jesus.God bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 1st of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day. We go straight to the Book of John 11:9:”Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day?“  Now I listened to a beautiful little reading from a Scottish preacher who lived in the 1800’s. His name, William Arnot. Now, William Arnot said something profound. He said, ”The very fact of a Christian still being here, and not in heaven, is the proof that some work awaits him.” Yes, if we are not in heaven, then the Lord still has work for you and me to do; otherwise, he would have taken us home. I remember hearing a man of God say that we are immortal until our work on earth is completed. What does that mean, young person? Immortal - it means you can’t die. You cannot die until you have completed the work which God has ordained you to do while you are here, and that’s very encouraging for me.Now, as a farmer we get up in the morning, we milk the cows, we feed the pigs, we tend the crops and we do it every single day. Oh yes, everyday you’ve got to feed those animals, every day, and do it joyfully as unto the Lord, whatever you do, and enjoy your brief time here on earth. Yes, maybe the person I’m talking to now has only got twelve hours left on this earth, so what must you do? You must be sure that you do not have any unforgiveness in your heart, that you don’t have any unsettled issues you need to deal with someone.  Maybe you’ve had an argument, whatever, deal with it while you are still here because when the Lord calls you, you are going home immediately.For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Paul, the apostle, said that. So let us live today as if it were the last day we had on earth, but let us continue to prepare as if we were going to live here for a thousand years.  Most of all let us not waste the precious twelve hours that the Lord has given us today!Jesus bless you and have a wonderful, fruitful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 31st of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Isaiah 59:19:”When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” Are you lifting up your standard today, am I lifting up my standard today? Does the enemy recognise who we are? I hope so. Then we go to Romans 1:16:”For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” When we stand up for the Lord, He stands up for us. I really want to say, especially to young people who are starting out in a new career, maybe this year you are going to university for the first time, maybe you’re starting an apprenticeship in a company, maybe you have just become a professional sportsman or woman. I want to say to you today, please listen to me, it is vitally important that you start the right way. Yes, you lift up your standard!In the Book of Numbers, when the Children of Israel were travelling to the promised land, they marched in their different clans, following an order. We are Christians, we need to make sure that people know who we are. We must not be ashamed of the Gospel, in fact I want to go one stage further. I have found in my life that a man or a woman who is not really prepared to lift up the standard of Jesus Christ. In other words, they are believers, they say they love Jesus, but depending on which company they are found in. So if they are found in the pub where the boys are getting drunk and they are speaking about immoral things, and then if you want to join with them, then they look at you sideways, but you’re the person that’s in church on Sunday with your hands raised up shouting, “Hallelujah”, and they despise you for that.  You see, my dear young friend, people don’t have to like you, but they must respect you, and they will respect you if you stand firm in what you believe. I’m not saying you must point fingers. I’m not saying you must judge or criticise. I mean, who are we to criticise any man, but our standard must be clear. People must understand who we are and who we stand for and you know, when we get into trouble and we all get into trouble, all of us, they will come to you for help. Today, raise the standard! Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 30th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in John 16:8-9:”And when He has come (that’s the Holy Spirit) He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment of sin, because they do not believe in Me; …“ We want to speak this morning about the Holy Spirit. Oh, I love Him so much and the last thing I want to do is to offend Him because He has done so much for me. He is also the One who convicts me when I step out of line. He is like a proverbial heat-seeking missile. He’ll find you out. It doesn’t matter where you go. You can go into the deepest mine, He’s there. You can go to the top of the highest mountain, yes He’s there.He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Now if He’s a friend, then He’s going to tell you the truth because that’s what friends do. So what He’s saying to you and me this morning is for example, if you owe money, pay your debt. You say, ”I can’t, I don’t have the money.” Well, then go and speak to the debtor and explain it to him. Say, ”I’m not leaving the country. I’m not running away. I will pay you as soon as I can. Even if it’s just a couple of dollars a month, I will pay you. I’ll pay you interest as well.” Then he’ll be happy, otherwise, he will throw you into jail.Watch out for familiarity. What does that mean? You have to work in an office with another lady, make sure it stays a business arrangement. Do not become familiar! My son told me a long time ago, he said, ”Dad, an affair doesn’t just happen in an instant. No, it takes lots of time. You start to know each other, then you start to have a cup of coffee together, then you take each other home, saving petrol, and then you don’t go home for lunch because you can just have lunch at the canteen and then the next thing, you are having an affair and that is tragic.Accountability is so important. What does that mean? I will not go on a campaign overseas or even in the country on my own. Why? Because if I go with someone else, they can always hold me accountable, so it doesn’t matter where I go they go with me. Into the restaurant, when we’re waiting at the gate to board the aeroplane, at least one man because the devil is a thief and a liar. If you get yourself into a compromised position with another person, there is no-one to stand up for you. It’s her word against yours, or it’s his word against yours, but if there’s two of you the other person can say, ”No, he didn’t do anything wrong. That person threw themselves at him.” Beware of a seared conscience that gets you used to breaking the law a little bit, then a little bit more, until you end up in jail. Don’t do that. Listen to the Holy Spirit! He will convict you and then you listen to what He is saying.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 29th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. John 15:26, and I am reading it to you from the Amplified Version: “But when the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby) comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of Truth who comes from the Father, He will testify and bear witness about Me.” Jesus is saying He is going to send us the Parakletos, and He has. That’s a beautiful word. I love to say that word. It is the only Greek word I know, the Helper, and He will tell you the truth because He is the Spirit of Truth!We are talking about the Holy Spirit here today. It’s so very important in these days to be able to identify the truth from the fake. There are so many fake things on the go at the moment. With this AI sweeping all over the world, you don’t know who is who. How are we going to know what is genuine? There are even people who can impersonate me, they can impersonate my voice and that can be quite scary. How are we, as believers, going to be able to discern the truth from the fake?If we look at the word of God in John 17:17, He says,“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” That is how the believer will be able to identify the truth from the fake. When they made the movie, “Faith like Potatoes”, the lady who took the part of my wife Jill, a beautiful young lady, was on the set one day, and her sister had come to visit her. Now, they are identical twins. I can’t tell them apart, both lovely young ladies. Just for a bit of fun, they decided to swop their clothes and Jeanne’s sister came onto the set and they were going to start filming, but straight away the Director, a very wonderful man of God, Regardt van den Berg, spotted her straight away. He said, “You are not Jeanne.” None of us knew. Now, how did he manage to do that? I am telling you why. He knew because he knew Jeanne so well. He was spending time with her every day, shooting the movie. When you spend time in the Word of God, you will identify the truth from the fake.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 28th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. 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, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”  Wow! What an incredible privilege to be chosen by God for a work to perform on this earth! It is a huge responsibility. With it goes the requirement of bearing good fruit. We have to make a difference in this world - people need to meet the Lord! Remember whatever we ask Father, in Jesus name by the power of His Holy Spirit, Father will give to you and to me.I remember watching a clip, I can’t look it up but I remember it as clear as day. I think it was in the time of the Civil War in America, and there was a wounded soldier from the war. He was standing looking through the fence to the White House and he was trying to get in. He asked the sentry at the gate, ”I need to see President Abraham Lincoln.” And the soldier at the gate said, ”Sorry, you can’t go in unless you have an introduction, a letter of pass.” And he was standing there looking very forlorn. All of a sudden, a little boy walked up and asked the soldier what his name was and what had happened to him. He was wounded in the war and wanted to meet the President because he had something to ask him. So the little boy said, ”Follow me.” And the wounded soldier walked behind this little boy. He got to the sentry, he said. ”Please let me in.” And the sentry stood back. This little boy, maybe eight, ten years old, carried on walking up the road. When they got to the front door of the White House there were soldiers there as well and he greeted them warmly. They all knew him. He said, ”This soldier needs to see the President of the United States of America.” They all stood back, and in this little boy walked. The wounded soldier was walking behind him. He climbed the steps and came to the door of the Oval Office. He knocked on the door and then walked in with the wounded soldier and there sitting behind this massive desk was the President of America and he said, ”Good morning Father. This soldier would like to meet you.” With that, he got the introduction. He knew his father.Now Jesus knows His Father. Ask Him today!Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 27th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Zechariah 4:6: "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.” Then we go to John 15:7. Jesus says: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” What a beautiful promise from the Lord! But it is very clear, if we stay in Him and He stays in us, then we can ask whatever we want and He will give it to us. Why? Because we will ask correctly, not in a selfish way but in a godly way. Folks, I want to say to you today, we really need to start to live God’s way, for our sakes, and for the sakes of our family, our loved ones and the people we live and work with. Do you remember that very famous American actor and singer, Frank Sinatra? They called him, “Old Blue Eyes”, I am sure he was a very fine man. I know he did have a serious drinking problem but you know, one of the saddest songs, his words, “I did it my way”. Do you know, there is no other way but God’s way, and I know, I am speaking from experience myself. My way never, ever works. I looked up the lyrics of that song, and this is what they say. Listen to the words:And now, the end is nearAnd so I face the final curtainMy friend, I'll say it clearI'll state my case, of which I'm certainI've lived a life that's fullI travelled each and every highwayAnd more, much more than this, I did it my wayIt didn’t help him. You know the last words he said before he died were, “I am losing it, I am losing it.” What about you today? Are you losing it? I want to pray that will stop today, and that you will start doing it God’s way and doing what Jesus said. Let us pray:Heavenly Father,I want to thank You for my friend, listening to this early morning message, my friend, who has being trying to do it genuinely in their own way and it is failing badly. Today Lord, we want to ask You to please live in us, and we want to live in You so that You will take care of every one of our needs, and give us hope for the future, so that when we die we can say, “I am doing it Jesus’ way!” I ask this in Your precious name, amen.God bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 26th of January, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5:”For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly), but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,” It’s a spiritual war that we’re in and we need to fight it with spiritual weapons. I’m talking about the sword of the Spirit. We go to Ephesians 6:17:”…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; You and I need to keep our swords sharpened. Abraham Lincoln, that great American president who basically abolished the slave trade in America. He was a country boy from Kentucky. He had very little education, I think less than three years. They asked him a question, ”If you had to cut down a large tree and they gave you six hours to drop that tree, how would you go about it?” That wise country boy said, ”I would take four hours to sharpen the axe.” You and I need to keep our swords sharpened. I’m talking about the Bible, the Word of God.We need to memorise scripture. We need to apply the Word of God into everything we do, every plan we make, and every thought we think. The Word of God is final. When you truly believe what Jesus says and you take the Word of God literally, then you apply it. There’s no more discussing after that. What does the word say? Does the Word hate divorce? Yes, so work through your marriage. What does the Bible say about honesty? If you owe a man something, pay him. ”No, but we’ll wait until 120 days until they’re going to take us to court, and then we’ll pay, but we’ll use his money in the meantime.” No, No, No, No. You pay that money that you owe as soon as you get it. We’re talking here about a sharpened sword and that is what will give you the victory. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.