Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name!It is Saturday morning, the 27th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Exodus 14:13-14: “And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” What a scripture!The important part for me of that scripture this morning is, “Stand still.” Stand still and see what Jesus is going to do for you. I don’t know what situation you are in today, my dear friend. Maybe you’ve got a situation in the family where someone is very sick. The Lord says, ”Stand still (after you’ve prayed) and see what the Lord will do.” Do not panic and do not make a plan. I’ve tried many of them. None of them have worked for me. Stand still and see what the Lord will do! You know that old saying, caught between a rock and a hard place? That’s exactly where Moses and the Israelites were. They had the mighty ocean, the Red Sea in front of them, and they had the mightiest army in the world chasing them from behind because they had just lost the firstborn child in each one of their families. They wanted revenge, and this nation of Israel had no weapons of defence. All they could do was listen to Moses. He said, ”Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” I want to say to you today, stand still. I don’t know how many times in my own life, I’ve come to the end and I’ve said, ”Lord, I can’t do anymore.” He said, ”Stand still and see.” You know my story. You know that fire that was going out of control, heading towards the neighbours pine plantation. If it had got in there, we would have lost our farm because we were not insured and we never had anything like the money to pay for the damage.I prayed, I got on my knees and I stood still. There was nothing else I could do and the Lord changed the wind! The wind was coming from the north, fanning the fire. It turned, after those prayers and started coming from the south, and the fire went out because it started to rain. Stand still today. It might be a business deal, it might be a huge decision you have to make for your future. The Lord says, ”Do your best then stand still and wait and see what the Lord will do for you.”Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye 

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 26th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Matthew 27:32:”Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross.” Simon of Cyrene came from Africa. He was an African, just like me, but he wasn’t born in Southern Africa, he was born in North Africa. He came from Libya. Simon of Cyrene, just minding his own business, just walking in the streets of Jerusalem and all of a sudden the Roman soldiers got hold of him and said, ”You will carry this man’s cross to Golgotha.”I want to say to you today, we need to always be ready for whatever God allows to happen to us. What an honour to be able to carry the cross of the Son of God! Irrespective of whether Simon knew it at the time or not, is not the point. He was selected, and he was ready, and he did it. I was told as a young preacher, “Always have a sermon in your top pocket”. We need to be ready in season, and out of season. No good saying, “No, I can’t do it now.” We have to be ready. We are living in perilous times.I want to tell you a light-hearted story. Many, many years ago, my wife and I were invited to a wedding. We got there late and we just sneaked in the back of the service, and we found two seats right in the back row and we sat there quietly minding our own business, we didn’t want to disturb anything. All of a sudden one of the ushers spotted us, walked up to us and said, ”You need to come to the front, the groom and his party are expecting you.” They took us all the way down the aisle, right across the front row, and we were seated right next to the bridal family. I didn’t know what to expect. The service was beautiful. They said their marriage vows, they were proclaimed man and wife and then the MC, the master of ceremonies said, ”We are now going to hear the message, the word of God. Can I please ask Angus Buchan to come to the front and to preach the sermon?” My wife looked at me as if I’d had something to do with it. I looked at her and I said, ”I’ve never heard of this.” Well, I was ready, always ready in season, but what a challenge! I had to get up, congratulate them and then preach my heart out for half an hour. Always be ready. Simon of Cyrene was ready to carry the cross of the King of Glory. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 25th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of John 21:9: “Then as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it and bread.”Faith has got feet, faith is a doing word, not a noun. A noun is a table or a chair. It can’t move, it can’t do anything, but faith is active. Don’t tell people that you love them, show them that you love them. Now, the Master taught us very well. Remember, after He had been resurrected He was at a place called Peter’s Landing on the Sea of Galilee. It's actually a big lake. It is 21 km long and 13 km wide, and very, very deep and full of fish. The disciples had been fishing all night. Now they were coming to land, and there was the Master, but He wasn’t just standing there. He had already taken time to take flour to make bread, to catch fish, to prepare them on the fire, and He was waiting for them. That is what I love about our beloved Jesus. He is not just a talker, He is actually a doer. Now, what about you and I, today. Why don’t we do something and especially for someone who can’t repay us, then we know that our motive is pure. I want to say to the men, why don’t you cook supper tonight? You say, “I don’t cook!” Well you better learn. If Jesus can cook, you can cook too! Why don’t you wash the dishes? Get up a bit earlier and do something for your family. Mow the grass! Now ladies, I am not letting you off the hook either. Why don’t you sit down and watch that rugby match with your husband? “I don’t like rugby.” No, he knows you don’t like rugby and that is why I am saying, why don’t you do it? Then he knows you are doing it because you love him and do it joyfully, and don’t forget to shout for the correct team! But jokes aside, let’s start to put our faith into practice, let’s start doing what Jesus would have done. Let’s start helping people physically, not just with a word of encouragement but following up by action.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye. 

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 24th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Gospel of Matthew 26:63-64:”Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God!” “ Jesus said to him,’ It is as you said.” Then we go to Mark 14:61-62:”Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus said,” I am.” Then lastly, Luke 22:70: ”Then they all said,” Are You then, the Son of God?”  So He said to them,” You rightly say that I am.” I think like never before, my dear friends, we need to be outspoken when it comes to the question, ”Who do you say that He is?”If you look at Matthew 1:23, Jesus is Immanuel, which translates to “God with us.” He is not, “the man upstairs”, He’s not my mate, He’s not one of many gods. He is the Way. There is no other way. The early Christians were not known as “Christians”. They were known as, “followers of the Way.”In John 14:6, Jesus says: ”I am the way…” He goes on to say, ”No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Now, that’s a very controversial statement, but if you do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you cannot be a Christian. We need to be very definite about that, and it could cost you a lot. It could cost you your job, it could cost you your popularity, it could cost you a position in a team, just by saying, ”I believe that Jesus Christ is God made flesh.” Folks, when you do say that, that is when the power of God is within you. I can tell you that for a fact. The more outspoken I get about the love of Christ, the more powerful He is within me.We are not here to criticise other faiths. We don’t have time for that. We are here to speak about our beloved Jesus, who died for us. There is no other faith where their god, that they are following, has professed to be God Almighty, not one. They talk about the son of god. They talk about a disciple of god but Jesus says; “I am the Son of the living God.”Go out today and comfort people, and tell them that Jesus is your Lord and Saviour and He can be theirs as well. All they have to do is to acknowledge it. God bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 23rd of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Job 13:15: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Now that is ultimate trust, isn’t it? Then we go to the Book of 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.”  - not ashamed of the Gospel.Early on a Wednesday at 5 am, we meet. In the winter in South Africa, it is dark, and we have a group of men who come faithfully and pray every single week. When we were having a prayer meeting, a young man prayed and thanked God for giving him the courage to stand up for Jesus. He said, “I took my family out to a restaurant and we sat together in a large group of people.”  He said, some of the people in that group, he wasn’t sure whether they were Christians or not, so he was debating if they should just eat their food when it arrived or whether they should do what they always do at home, and that is to hold hands and thank the Lord for the food. Well, praise God, he was bold and he said very gently and very respectfully, “Can we give thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ for our meal?” They all held hands and they prayed in that restaurant a beautiful, gentle, respectful prayer, and the people in that group were very pleased.We need to be outspoken. There comes a time when we cannot hold it in anymore. On the farm here at Shalom, we have a 30-foot cross to tell the world that we are Christians and we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. At night, it comes on with a time switch and it shines brightly, right through the night until the early morning when the sun comes up. Then the lights go out, but the cross remains. Very near to this farm, there is a tarmac airstrip where a lot of planes land. Many a time, a pilot has told me that on a stormy night when they were struggling to find the airstrip, they saw this cross shining on the hill, and it gave them their bearings, and I think it gave them a lot of strength and courage as well. You and I need to shine brightly in a world at the moment that is totally lost and has no direction.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 22nd of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Matthew 26:75: “So he went out and wept bitterly.” Oh, what a sad verse that is! The man that Jesus was grooming to take over the leading of the church promised the Master that he would stay with Him to the end and never let Him down. The Lord said, “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” You and I need to be very, very careful before we make that statement or that decision. Young man, don’t make idle promises. Don’t promise that young lady that you will marry her and then, at the last moment, change your mind. It can destroy a woman. Young lady, don’t lead on that man and make all kinds of promises only to leave him and marry someone else. When you make a decision with your partner to go into business, make sure you don’t drop the ball. Yes, Jesus forgives, we know that, praise God. I know that maybe better than most of you, and if we repent and say sorry He forgives us, but the scar remains. That is a fact. If we go to the Book of Colossians 1:9, this is what Paul says: “For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;…”We need to ask the Lord to give us direction before we make a commitment. My brother was a golf professional when he was a young man. He is actually a preacher today, and he couldn’t get to church on a Sunday morning because that was his busiest day playing golf, but every now and again, if it was a rainy day or whatever, he would go to church with his family, and the minister, when he left the church would shake hands and say to him, “Oh, so good to see you. I am going to come and have a cup of tea with you one of these days”. And he never ever came, and that upset my brother a lot and disappointed him. Rather don’t say it, than say like Peter said, “I will be with you till the end”, only to deny Him three times. Peter loved Jesus. That is why he was there. He didn’t run away but when the crunch came he didn’t come through with it. Don’t do that today!Father God,I want to pray for my friend who is listening to this message right now, Lord, that they would think before they speak, Lord, that they would really think it over before they make a decision, and once they have made that decision, Lord, give them the courage to fulfil it.In Jesus name, amen.God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 21st of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Proverbs 27:17:”As iron sharpens iron, So a friend sharpens a friend.” Then we go straight to the New Testament, to the Book of Hebrews 10:25: “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.”  It is so important for Christians to meet on a Sunday at church, if it is at all possible. Now I have got a little message from a dear man just the other day, saying he is so concerned. There are many churches in his area that, since the COVID-19 epidemic, have not started again. People are just not going to church. We need to go to church. The Lord is telling us that it’s very important that we meet together, and I think the devil will try everything in his power to separate us because he knows what happens when two or three are gathered together in Jesus’ name. Yes - there He is in the midst of them, iron sharpening iron! Do not neglect the gathering of the brethren.I am talking about a church on Sunday, and I'm talking about prayer groups. We need to meet in the church, outside the church, on sports days, on camping trips, we need to fellowship together, and that is what makes us sharp because we learn from each other, encourage each other and sometimes, if necessary, rebuke each other if a man or a woman is going off on a tangent. Jesus bless you as you continue to meet together,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 20th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Gospel of Luke 23:4: “So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no fault in this Man.”  Oh folks, Jesus is known as the Friend of sinners. Pontius Pilate was an unbeliever. He was not of the Jewish faith. In fact, he was a gentile, and yet he identified that Jesus Christ was an innocent man. When all the religious people were accusing Him and wanted to put Him to death, it took an unbeliever to speak up for Jesus!If we go to Matthew 11:19, Jesus said, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ’Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ” I want to say to you today, be careful before you start throwing stones because you might have a very big surprise one day when you get to Heaven. Jesus came to heal the sick, not the healthy. He says, “A doctor heals sick people, not healthy people.” That is why He was always found with outcasts, tax collectors, prostitutes - those that society cast aside. I want to say to you and I am speaking from my heart today, I love people, irrespective of who they are, because Jesus loves them too, and I have had more response while I am doing a massive campaign from unbelievers than I do from the so-called, I said, “so-called” righteous. When a man realises what he has done and he needs a Saviour, he does a 180-degree turn around immediately. I have seen it with my own eyes. We need to understand one thing. God has put eternity in the heart of a man. Every man knows deep down in his heart what is right, what is wrong, even Pontius Pilate. Today, let us love people, never compromise our stand as Christians, but give people an opportunity to meet the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and He will save them.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 19th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Psalms 51:10-11: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”Then we go to the Book of Exodus 8:15: “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the Lord had said.” This morning, I believe the Lord wants to speak to you and me about a hardened heart. It is such a sad thing to see, isn’t it, somebody who has a hard heart? It makes that person angry, self-righteous, and makes them self-centred, causing them to lose out. Pharaoh lost out badly. The Lord gave him many opportunities to soften his heart but he did not. Eventually, it cost Pharaoh his whole nation. Do not harden your heart. I want to tell you a little story. When I was a young man and farming, I would come home for breakfast like most farmers do. We’d get up early in the morning, get the work started, everybody going, and then come in and have our breakfast. I would sit at the kitchen table in our little house and I could see out the door, and there was a little path that went up to the gate, and I would often see a salesman coming through the gate and I would observe his attitude. If he had a hardened heart, he would walk past our animals, our dogs and our cats, and push them out of the way with his foot. He wouldn’t acknowledge our little children playing in the garden. Obviously, he had a lot of responsibilities and problems in his heart, but he got very little business from me. Then there would be a salesman who would come through the gate and he would see my dog and my cat. He would stop, put his briefcase down, and pat the dog. He didn’t see that I was watching him, and then he would see one of my little children playing in the garden. He would go and greet them, get down on his knees, say, “What is your name, son?” Then he would say, “Where is your daddy?” “No, he is in the house.” Then he would walk into the house, and obviously, he got all of the business. Today, soften your heart. I know you have been through a lot of tests. People have let you down, people have hurt you, but Jesus hasn’t. Don’t be like Pharaoh and throw it all away because of your hardened heart. Today soften your heart and the Lord bless you immensely.God bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 18th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.  We start in the Gospel of Matthew 26:14-16:”Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said,” What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.” This morning the Lord has laid on my heart to share with us the word, ”Betrayal.” I don’t think there’s anything worse, is there? I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the meaning of this word. It says, “To be disloyal to someone, to be unfaithful, to breach trust. Deception, double-dealing, stab in the back, sell out, double cross.”I left my prayer room and I went through to the house, and my wife, Jill, was making the bed, and I said to Jill, out of the blue, ”What is the worst kind of betrayal do you think there is for a woman?” She looked at me, she said to me, ”Angus, unfaithfulness is the worst kind of betrayal,” she thinks for a woman, when a man is unfaithful to his wife. It must have really hurt the Lord Jesus Christ when the soldiers came into the garden and arrested Jesus but what was even worse was that Judas Iscariot said, ”I will tell you which one it is, out of the disciples, when I kiss Him.” He came and he kissed Jesus on the neck, the utmost betrayal. That’s a very hard thing to come back from.Now you might be saying, ”But how can we counteract that? How can prevent that from happening?” Well, I want to tell you a couple of simple things that we employ here at Shalom Ministries. Number one is accountability. There are no lone rangers in the Kingdom of God. There are no one-man shows. We are a team. I have got five men that I am responsible to. I have asked them to mentor me, to guide me and to watch over me. I cannot make my own decisions. I can go to them and say, ”This is what I believe the Lord has said”, and they will pray about it and give me their counsel. It gives me a lot of peace in my heart.When you go out, young man, young lady, to go out and tell people about the Lord, you go out two by two. “Why?” You ask - because that’s the way the Lord did it. He sent the disciples out two by two so the one could watch the other one’s back. I want to say to young people, when you’re dating, don’t go out on your own, go out with a group of people. The devil is a liar and a thief. That’s what he did to Judas Iscariot. Judas went on his own and betrayed the Lord. If you’re in business, always have a double signature. Be prepared for someone else to stand up for you when you make a decision and ultimately ask yourself the question, "What would Jesus do?" and then do it.God bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 17th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.We start in the Book of Exodus 7:1: “So the Lord said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to pharaoh,…” What a responsibility to be God’s mouthpiece, but oh, friends, isn’t that the case with you and me today? When we speak to people in a fallen world, people who see us as followers of Jesus, when we speak they perceive that the words you and I are speaking are from God. What a great responsibility we have!Then we go to the Book of John 8:10-11:”When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no-one but the woman , He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no-one condemned you?” She said, “No-one Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; Go and sin no more.” - The words of our beloved Saviour. Now, you and I need to speak the same way. We are not here to condemn people because people who live in glass houses don’t throw stones, do they? That’s a fact, but our counsel, our words, must be sweet because one day we might have to eat them, and that’s not a joke, is it? I want to tell you a little story about a dental student from Central Africa. This happened a few years ago. He wrote me a heartbreaking letter to say, “Uncle Angus, I have been studying at university. I am in my final year but I can’t take it anymore. It is too much for me, I am not getting through it. I am really wanting to give up. What should I do?” I wrote back to him. I said, “Young man, press on. The Bible tells you in Philippians 4:13, that you can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens you.” I never heard from him again for another six months and then I got a beautiful email written and it was the dental student. “Uncle Angus, I want to tell you that I took your advice (God’s advice) and I pressed through and I passed my degree.” Signed Dr…, and he put his name there.Oh folks, this is an opportunity that you and I have to be God’s mouthpiece. It is a very, very serious responsibility. You cannot condone sin. If there is a couple living together out of wedlock, tell them they must get married if they want a blessing on their marriage. Tell a young man not to get into debt. If you are borrowing more than you own, you’re in debt. Don’t do that. God doesn’t want you to do that. Sometimes we are unpopular for that kind of advice, but we need to do it if we are going to be God’s mouthpiece, for the sake of those who Jesus died for. God bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 16th of September, 2025 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Isaiah 40:8:“The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that authority? Isn’t that direction? In this troubled world we need direction. We need the comfort of authority. Then we confirm the Word in the New Testament in the Book of Mark 13:31: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”  The Lord puts His word above His name. There is nothing in the universe that is more powerful than the Word of God. You know what it says in John 1:1: ”In the beginning was the Word…” Jesus puts His word above everything else. You can bank on it. You can’t bank on much else, can you? But the sad thing is that some theologians will tell us that the Word of God is just a book, a guideline on how to live life. So sad, but those same people have no authority in their lives, nothing. They have no vision, they have no definite opinion. When young people come and ask them a question, like for example, “Can we sleep together before we get married?” According to the Bible, we can’t and if we do, we are fornicators, and (unrepentant) fornicators are not going to Heaven. We need direction like never before. It needs to be critical. You see, when we take the word of God literally as coming from the Lord, that brings law and order into the home. So when mom and dad are having an argument about something, and we all do, don’t we? Go to the word. What does the Bible say about the issue? And you stand on that. It is not about opinions, it is about the Bible. The Bible gives us moral principles. The Bible tells us what we can do and what we can’t do. Now, we are not talking about being bound by the law. If anybody knows about the freedom of grace, it is me. Undeserved loving kindness, unmerited favour - that is what grace is, but we need the word of God for our security, our comfort. You will never see me in a photo without my Bible. It is Jesus in print! How many times have I told you, when somebody asks you, “Where is this Jesus you are always talking about?” Give them a Bible. Oh folks, people love the word. It brings security. So, today spend time reading your Bible and that will give you direction for your future. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 15th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 21:28. Jesus says:”Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”Then we go to Revelation 1:7:”Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.”This morning, the Lord says to you and me, “Lift up your heads because I am coming back and I’m coming back very soon.” The signs are all around us, folks. How much more terrible must it become on this earth before the Lord returns? He has promised us He’s coming. He goes on to say in verse 29. He says: ”Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.” In South Africa, summer is near. Outside the window of my little prayer room, I have a beautiful fig tree that my young daughter gave me a couple of years ago as a gift. We have planted it. I want to tell you, it is budding. What is it telling me? It’s telling me that summer is coming. Now the Lord says, when you see all these terrible things happening on the earth, be prepared for My second coming because these are the signs that I’m coming back for my people.All those young mothers will tell you that when they are pregnant for the first time and dad is so excited and waiting for their first baby to be born, they have everything ready. Everything is in place. They’ve got the room prepared. They’ve got the cot, the special blankets, the special colours. I don’t know whether it’s blue or pink, it doesn’t matter, but I want to tell you one thing, when that baby says, ”I’m coming”, you'd better be ready because that baby is coming irrespective of what you say. That is how it is with the Lord. He’s coming in the clouds. We must be ready. Prepare yourselves, prepare your hearts, prepare your children, prepare your family, prepare your friends. Tell them, Jesus is on His way.God bless you and have a wonderful day as you lift up your heads and wait because He’s coming in the clouds, and we can’t wait for that day!Have a lovely day, Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 14th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Malachi 3:8: ”Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me! But you say,’ In what way have we robbed you?’  In tithes and offerings.” Then we go down to verse 10,”Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house…” (The Lord says),”… and try me now in this if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”  We’re talking about a tithe. A tithe is ten percent of your income. It’s a serious one and it’s a very sensitive one, and I’m just going to share my heart with you. It is not money that you have to even think about. It belongs to God. The first ten percent is His. I’m not talking about tithing on money that you’ve borrowed. That’s not your money. I’m talking about money that belongs to you, and then after the tithe comes the gifts and the offerings. Robert Le Tourneau, the man who started those big yellow machines, was one of the wealthiest men in the world. He loved God with a passion. He used to tithe ninety per cent of his income and keep ten per cent, and he was a multi-millionaire, and he supported Christian missions all over the world. He used to say, ”When you go to church and you put your hand in your pocket when the offering plate comes around, don’t ask yourself the question, ”How much of my money am I going to give to the Lord today?” Ask yourself, ”How much of the Lord’s money am I going to keep to myself today?”The mindset for that man was, it all belongs to Him anyway, and God prospered him because he was generous. Now, I can hear someone saying to me, ”But I don’t go to church. I live in the bush. There’s no churches anywhere near me. Where do I send my tithe?” You send your tithe to the storehouse where you get your bread, where you get your food from the Lord. That’s where you send your tithe so that the Lord can use it to expand the work He’s given us to do.The Lord also likes a cheerful giver. He doesn’t want you to tithe if you hate doing that or if you don’t like giving money to the Lord’s work. Don’t do that, He doesn’t like that at all. You must do it willingly and joyfully and God who has told us here. He says, “Will not I open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it?” That’s what we do.Jesus bless you as you pray about this because it’s between you and God, no one else.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 13th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to 1 Corinthians 9:27:”But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” I want to say to you, my dear friend, today, and this applies to me equally, as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we have to live disciplined lives. Undeserved loving kindness, unmerited favour, that’s what grace is. We have been saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves, for it was a gift from God. (Ephesians 2:8) but the Lord requires us to be good examples. Do not drop the ball, so to speak, by being a poor example to other believers and leading them astray.The other night, I was watching an interview on television for an upcoming international rugby match, a really important one between the All Blacks of New Zealand and the Springboks of South Africa. It was a very serious and intense discussion by rugby experts, and it was a panel of New Zealanders. The one interviewer asked one of the great All Black players, ”What is it that you think the team needs to concentrate on, when the Springboks come across to New Zealand because it’s going to be a very critical match?” I was quite interested to hear what this man said. He said one word, ”Discipline.” He said,“We’ve got the players, the talent, but if we do not discipline ourselves we can lose the match.” Because when you get a yellow card, the player has to go off the field for ten minutes, and if you get two players off the field, you are now down from fifteen to thirteen players and the opposition has a distinct advantage and you can lose the match just by the lack of discipline.I want to say to you today as believers, we need to watch how we are living because we can give the opposition, I’m talking about the devil, a chance to get the upper hand in our lives. We need to get up in the morning. We need to eat correctly. We need to exercise. We need to spend time in the Word. We need to pray. This is Paul speaking when he says, ”I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.” It means it must come into submission, so that you become a good example of what a Christian should be like.Today, let’s go out and discipline ourselves, and we will enjoy life a lot more as well.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 12th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 20:38. Jesus says, “For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.” You and I do not worship a god made of stone or wood, which is carved by human hands. Oh no! He is alive, He is well and He wants to talk with you and me today. I have been to Israel many, many times. I love that place. I always go to the Old City and I go to the tomb to see where the Lord Jesus Christ was buried, and I want to tell you, my dear friend, there is nothing in that tomb. It is empty! “Why?” you might say. Because Jesus rose from the dead. He is not there. Even when Mary Magdalene went down early in the morning, to find the body of Christ, He was not there. He was alive, He was risen, and He is well, and He wants to talk with you and me even today. You can go to David’s tomb, also in the Old City, and his remains are there, that’s right, his bones are still there, but Jesus is not dead, He is alive. I see Him so often as a farmer. I see Him in the early morning sunrise as the sun comes over. I see Him in the evening, in the sunset when the sun is starting to set. I can see Him in the face of a newly born baby. I can smell the Lord when there has been rain after a period of dryness. You can smell that perfume. He is alive, He is your God, He is my God and the good news is, He is coming back very soon to take you and me to be with Him in His house forever. So today, worship the Lord, praise His name, speak with Him because He wants to have fellowship with you, and open your spiritual eyes and you will see Him all over the place.Jesus bless you and have a great day,God bless,Bye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 11th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Psalm 81:10. The Lord says, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”  Then we go to Jeremiah 1:6: “Then I said “Ah, Lord God! Behold I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”God equips the men and women that He calls to do His work for Him. I don’t often give a Thought For Today a title, but today I believe the Lord wants me to do that, and we would call this particular Thought For Today, “Speak Up”. Like never before, we need to, as believers, speak up. We need to tell people about Jesus Christ. That’s exactly what happened with Moses. The Lord told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let His people go. He said, “But I can’t speak. I am not a man of eloquent speech.” He had a stutter; he couldn’t speak properly, but the Lord said that He would give him the ability to speak and what a statesman he became! Many people say the greatest statesman that has ever walked on the earth was Moses, greater than any president of any country, because he opened his mouth and God filled it.The key for you and me is found in John 15:7, which 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.” It’s God’s words in our mouths that will do the job. We are only a conduit pipe. That’s all we are, and the Lord uses us and speaks through us.Robert Murray McShane, that wonderful Scottish preacher. A young man who died at the age of about 29 years old. He said, ”Rather than have been an instrument of the Lord, all I was, was an adoring spectator.” I can tell you and confirm that. Many a time I’ve stood on the platform and looked out at a massive crowd of tens of thousands of people and I felt myself standing next to myself, if that makes any sense, and God speaking through me. The first sermon I ever preached in my life was in the main street of Greytown. I had prepared that message for about six weeks. I stood up there for the first time in my life. The minister was standing next to me. He said, ”Don’t worry, Angus, if you can’t finish it off, I’ll do it for you.” But he didn’t have to. I opened my Bible, page one, said good morning to everybody, and I turned over page one and there was nothing there! I had left the notes somewhere. I had lost them and I had page fifteen (which was the benediction). That was the day that the Lord said, ”Are you going to do this by faith or not?” Well, I said, ”Yes Lord, by faith.”  And the rest is history. Today, remember if God has called you, He will equip you.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 10th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Exodus 4:3: And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” That was the rod that Moses was holding. The Lord said, “Cast it on the ground” and it became a serpent. That, my dear friend, is a miracle. Then we go right to the New Testament to the Gospel of John 2:11:”This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.” Jesus turned the water into wine at the marriage feast of Cana. The Bible says, “and His disciples believed in Him.”We have a saying at Shalom, it goes like this: “One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons.” Isn’t that true? The Lord said to Moses, “Cast the stick onto the ground” and it turned into a snake, then the Lord said, “Put your hand in your breast under your clothes, and then pull it out,” and it was leprous, white with leprosy. Then the Lord said, “Put your hand back into your clothes, to your breast, and pull it out a second time”, and it was clean and clear. Then the third thing He said, “Take some water, pour it on the ground and it turned into blood.”Folks, I want to say today that I believe in miracles. There are three miracles that the Lord gave Moses to prove to Pharaoh that God had sent him. What about you today? Do you believe in miracles? I want to pray today for an alcoholic who is listening to this message. I want to pray for a drug addict caught in substance abuse, and I want to pray for a miracle in your life today, and I want you to write to me and tell me what has happened. There is an old song that I heard the other day, an old Country and Western song, the type that I really love and this old man was singing a beautiful song from his heart and he said that God turned the wine back into water for him. Isn’t that beautiful?Father, I want to pray today for that man, that woman, who is suffering from alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse. In Jesus’ name, I am believing for a miracle in their lives. Lord, turn it around, set them free, give them a new life.Until next time, Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 9th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Psalms 118:22:”The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 21:42: “Have you never read in the Scriptures” (Jesus said) “the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.” Jesus is the cornerstone in our lives. Without Him, we will not stand. When you build a house or any building, look at any builder, he will always put up the corners first and then fill in the flat walls joining to the corners. If he tries to build a flat wall first, it will fall over. It cannot stand. Jesus is our chief cornerstone!I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “cornerstone”, and this is what it says: a stone that forms the base of a corner of a building joining two walls. Another explanation is: an important quality or feature on which something is based. If your faith is not based on Jesus Christ, it will not stand, it will fall and that is a fact.Your marriage, young lady, young man. If Jesus Christ is not going to be the cornerstone of your marriage, it will fall over, it will not last. Your future, young person, if it’s not based on the Chief Cornerstone, which is Jesus Christ it will fail. It will be rejected, it will fall, because as soon as the winds come, the tribulation, the hardship, the stress, the blood, the sweat, the tears  - as soon as that comes, it will collapse if it is not based on a strong cornerstone which is Jesus Christ.Today, make Him the cornerstone of everything you do. He must be your very hope and then you’ve got something you can build on.God bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 8th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Exodus 3:14: ”And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ “ Wow, what a title! I’m so excited this morning. “I AM who I AM.” I AM is the name of God, and then we go to John 14:10:”Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? “You see, Phillip said, ”Show us the Father.” “I am the Father. I am in Him and He is in me.” I can hear somebody say, ”Oh, are you sure about that?” Don’t be like Phillip. Just believe, folks. Our faith is all about believing in the fact that Jesus is God. How can I prove that? Well, Matthew 1:23 is very specific, and His name is Immanuel, which is translated, God with us.Oh folks, today I want to tell you, we need to open our eyes, and we need to ask the Holy Spirit to show us Jesus in this world. You know, I’m a farmer. When I get up early in the morning, as the sun rises. I can see Him in the sunrise, I can see Him in the sunset, I can see Him in the face of a newly born baby. Oh yes I can. I can smell Him when the first rains after a long dry winter start falling onto the dry ground. I can feel Him in my Spirit!Do you remember that beautiful old hymn, “All over the world the Spirit is moving?” If you know it please sing it with me:All over the world the Spirit is moving,All over the world as the Prophet said it would be, Hallelujah! All over the world, there’s a mighty revelation,Of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.Oh, deep down in my heart the Spirit is moving,Deep down in my heart as the Prophet said it would be, Hallelujah!Deep down in my heart, there’s a mighty revelation,Of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.Jesus bless you. Open your spiritual eyes and you’ll see Him today,God bless you and goodbye