Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 2nd of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start off in the Book of Exodus 3:2 ”And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.” An amazing sight, Moses saw that bush burning but it was never consumed. Then we go straight to the Gospel of Luke 5:26: ”And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”Have you seen any strange things lately? I have and I tell you what, it never ceases to amaze me. I think a couple of years ago, when we were called to go down to Jeffrey's Bay, we were at a Mighty Men Conference, and we were told that Port Elizabeth was running out of water. There was no water. People couldn't water their gardens, they had to use water very sparingly and on the Sunday morning, we had a prayer meeting and we said, “We are going to pray for rain, that the Lord will fill the Kouga Dam with water", and folks, I want to tell you as I was finishing off the message, people were pointing up into the sky and I looked up into the sky and I saw the sun. It was close to midday, and the sun was burning brightly, but there was a distinct ring around the sun. I have never seen that before in my life. Indeed, we have seen strange things, and we give all the glory to Jesus Christ. I want to say to you today, do not limit God. By the way, that Kouga Dam, to my understanding, is still flowing with water. It filled and it has been running non-stop for the last couple of years. Jesus bless you as you open your spiritual eyes and see the strange things which are happening on the earth at the moment. That's nothing to be afraid of. It is something to get very excited about. Jesus Christ is not coming soon, He is on His way I tell you!God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 1st of May, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Malachi 3:16: “So a book of remembrance was written before HimFor those who fear the LordAnd who meditate on His name.”Then we go straight to the Gospel of Mark 16:7: ”But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.” Jesus remembers your name, my dear friend. It doesn't matter what you have done or haven't done, He still knows you by name because He created you in His own image. There is nothing sweeter than to hear the mention of your own name. Come on now, be honest, it is lovely when somebody says, “Hello John, Hello Mary, how are you?” You think to yourself, “he remembered my name”, “she remembered my name”, and Jesus tells us this morning that He has got a book of remembrance. Your name is in that book, the Lamb's Book of Life - nothing sweeter!Peter, the big fisherman, was always changing feet. He was like a bull in a china shop. I tend to be a bit like that myself and get into trouble, but the Lord loved Peter so much. Even though Peter dropped the ball, even though Peter denied the Lord three times and he had just said a few hours before, “I will die for You” but he denied Him. He even blasphemed the Bible says, he swore, ‘I don't even know Him” and yet the Lord Jesus knew that when the disciples were told to go down to Galilee and there Jesus would meet them all, He knew that Peter would not come because he was so broken. He had let the Lord down. “Tell the disciples—and Peter, I will see them in Galilee.” The Lord is saying to you the very same thing. “Tell Joe, tell Barnabas, tell Mark, I will see them in Heaven.” Today is a great day. Jeremiah 1:5 in the Amplified Bible is even more confirmation: “Before I formed you in the womb (in other words, before you were conceived in your mother's womb, Jesus says) I knew you [and approved of you as My chosen instrument], And before you were born I consecrated you [to Myself as My own]; I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”That's how much He loves you. He knows you! Speak to Him today!Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 30th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 5:16: “So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.” Who am I talking about here? I am talking about the Son of God, I am talking about Jesus Christ, I am talking about Immanuel - God with us. Now, if He had to do that, how much more should you and I be doing that? He did it often, not now and again. Oh my dear friend, I think this message is aimed more at me than it is at you! Contemplation - when you contemplate something. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “contemplate”. It means to look at thoughtfully, to think about, to think deeply and at length. It says that to contemplate is to look at, gaze at, stare at, view, regard, examine, inspect, observe, (are you getting the story?) survey, study. He contemplated. We need to ponder, you and I, how many times are we taking time out to think about the way forward? We don't, do we? We just go for it, we wing it. It is one of my favourite things and I hate myself for it. There is no time left in the world to wing it. We need to concentrate on something called time management. Remember Jesus was never late, He was never early, He was always spot on time. We think about Lazarus, His friend in the grave. “Lord, if You had come, my brother would have lived,” but the Lord commanded him to be raised from the dead. You know, it is first the mountain, and then the ministry, or your work or whatever else. If you don't spend time up the mountain, not a literal mountain, but time in the morning, praying, reading the word of God, and contemplating about what you are going to do that day, you will make some very poor decisions. Now, let us start to think.I remember, very clearly, sitting at the banks of the mighty Zambezi River, which separates Zambia from Zimbabwe, about to go across that river on a pontoon with that 20-ton Mercedes Benz truck for six weeks, leaving my young wife and children back on the farm. I was contemplating things very seriously, crying out to God to protect my family and He did. We need to hear from God first before we make any decisions. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 29th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Malachi 3:3, the last book in the Old Testament:“He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;He will purify the sons of Levi,And purge them as gold and silver,That they may offer to the LordAn offering in righteousness.”Then we go straight to 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul says: “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.” Are you going through a rough time today? Are you saying, ”Angus, I can't take this anymore. I have come to the end of my tether.” Well, you are not alone. The Lord tells us very clearly that this has happened to all of God's people who have gone before us and who are walking on this very road with us at present. I looked up the refiner's fire. Do you know how hot that fire is? I have been in many bushfires, and the heat sometimes is incredible, almost unbearable, but in order to make glass, you use sand as one of your main ingredients, and they melt that sand to 1,500 degrees centigrade, and then it becomes molten glass. Now, the Lord is doing that very thing with you and me. He is perfecting us for the great day when Jesus will take us home so we must put our trust in the Lord, and we must understand, He will take all the impurities, the sin, out of our lives through fiery trials so that we will be pure before the Lord on that great day. But the scripture I love so much is that He says He will not allow you to take more than you can handle. He knows how much you can take.Trust Him, He is your creator, and out of this testing time that you are going through at the moment, you will be surprised how beautiful it will be when you come out of that testing. So today, trust Him and He will see you through.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 28th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Book of Isaiah 63:9:”In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old.” Then we go to Hebrews 13:5, where the Lord says:”I will never leave you or forsake you.” He says, ”I'll never let you down, never walk off and leave you.” I want to read a little story to you that you know very well, but I think it's worth listening to again because maybe I'm talking to somebody who says, “Lord, where are you? You promised me, Lord, You promised me that You would never leave me, You would never forsake me, but I am going through my deepest time of testing and I need Your help.” It is called Footprints In The Sand:“One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each, I noticed footprints in the sand, sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was only one.During the low periods of my life I could see only one set of footprints, so I said, ‘Lord, You promised me that You would walk with me always. Why then when I have needed You the most, You have not been there for me?The Lord replied, “The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried You."Father God,I want to pray for my dear friend listening to this message that they will realise that today you have promised us that You will carry us on Your shoulders when we can't walk any longer, and You will strengthen us and You will ensure that we get to our destination which is ultimately to be with You in Heaven, forever and ever, amen.God bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 27th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Luke 5:10: “And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” What a beautiful scripture! The Lord wants to make you and I fishers of men. Then we go to the Gospel of Mark 16:15: “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” The Lord is calling you and I today to be fishers of men, not just fishers of fish but men. Peter was a fisherman. He used all his secular skills to win souls for Christ once the Lord had called him into full-time service. I want to speak to young people this morning. A lot of young people are getting ready to write their final exams and then go into the world. I want to say one thing to you, get qualified! Get qualified. If you are qualified, you will be of more use to the Lord in the mission field than in anything else. The Lord is looking for doctors, nurses, engineers, farmers. He wants to teach people how to fish.Now, I remember clearly as a young boy, maybe 16 years old, I read about an organisation called VSO, Voluntary Service Overseas, and I wrote to them and I said I want to offer myself to help the poor in foreign nations, and I never even got a response. I was so disappointed but you know, they were quite correct. I had nothing to offer. We don't want to go to some underprivileged country and eat the food from poor people, and we have absolutely nothing to offer in return. Let us get qualified. If you want to be a motor mechanic, then be the best one for Jesus. If you want to be a farmer, then produce food for Jesus, and that will give you a passport into any nation on earth. When people know that you are qualified as a doctor, an engineer, and as a farmer and let us shine for the Lord so we will be fishers of men. And once we do that, people will ask us to please help them, pray for them and lead them to Christ.Have a wonderful day as a fisher of men,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 26th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to 2 Corinthians 6:2: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” Every day is a special day for you and me. When we wake up in the morning, we should rejoice, “Lord, we have been given the privilege of living one more day on this earth for you”, but we take it for granted, don't we? We must stop doing that. I read an article written by Ann Wells from the Los Angeles Times. She tells the story of a friend who was packing up all the clothes and personal possessions from a relative, and just the importance of using what we have. Today is a very special day for you and for me. God has given us the privilege to live it. Let's not waste this opportunity, let's not save that special dress for a special occasion. Put it on today, and you will look beautiful in it. That tool you have got in your toolbox, sir, that you are waiting to use on a special day - today is the day. Use it! Drive that motorbike, get in that car and go for a ride, take your wife out and buy her a special meal today, not tomorrow, because we only have today. Let us redeem the time. Then she finishes up by saying, “Everyday is that special day you have been waiting for. Seize it! Carpé Diem, seize the day!” Go out today and spoil somebody, go out today and give somebody that thing that you have been saving up to give them at Christmas. Do it today because we might be in Heaven by Christmas. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Use it! God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 25th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Malachi 2:7:“For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge,And people should seek the law from his mouth;For he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.”Then we go to the Book of Galatians 4:14 in the New Testament:“And my trial (this is Paul speaking) which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.” Do you know the power there is in a spoken word, positive or even negative? If you go into the jungle and find a shaman, a witch doctor, and if he speaks a curse over the people, over a particular person, that man will go and sit under a tree and literally die because a curse has been spoken over his life, that is if he does not know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour.We need to be so careful what we say. You and I are representing the risen Lord Jesus Christ, therefore our opinion does not count, the only thing that counts when you are giving somebody advice, is what the Word of God says about the situation. I have just read a letter which concerned me a lot, written by a final year student, studying for a B.Com Degree. She told me in the letter, that she has been diagnosed with some medical condition which is hampering her studies, and I could hear that she was very stressed out. I want to tell you, that letter was so beautifully written and I could hear that it was written by an extremely intelligent young lady. But the diagnosis she got was that basically she was not going to make it. I spoke against it, I have prayed against it, and I have told her that I am looking forward to when she receives her degree. I will not listen to the lies, negative words of the devil, spoken over people, and you shouldn't either. We need to encourage people always in love but they need to hear the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Today, let your words be very carefully spoken and make sure that you are only talking things that the Lord, Himself, would say. Paul said to the people, “You treat me even like an angel or like the Lord Jesus, Himself“, and we need to do exactly the same.Jesus bless you and go and speak life over people, not death,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 24th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 2:6: “And turned many away from iniquity.” Then we go straight to the New Testament to the Book of James 5:20: ”…he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of visiting an older gentleman who was well into his nineties, a very fine older man. I went to have a cup of tea with him. His daughter was there as well and his daughter was concerned about his salvation. We sat and had a cup of tea and started to talk to him (he originated in bonny Scotland) and spoke to him about the old country, as it were, and we talked about lots of different things. Then slowly but surely I started to speak to him about his salvation, about the fact that Jesus loves sinners, about the fact that we need to put our trust and hope in Him. I was praying all the time in my heart, “Please Lord, open this man's heart to you” and I asked the old gentleman, “Sir, do you mind if we pray together?” He was actually quite open to it, together, we prayed the prayer of faith. That gentleman went to be with Jesus just a week or two ago. I want to say to you that when you go to speak to someone about his salvation, especially a man who is a proud man, a good man, but he has never made a commitment to Christ, you need to be gentle. You need to be forthright but you need to be gentle. You need to speak to that older gentleman, or that older lady, or that young person about something they are interested in and get their trust first and then once you have done that you broach the subject and you pray with them the Sinner's Prayer. Very rarely have I had anyone who refused to pray that prayer with me.I want to pray for you today. Maybe you have never actually made a public confession of your faith. Why don't you do it now? Pray this prayer after me please:Dear Lord Jesus,I acknowledge I am a sinner and I am in need of a saviour, please help me to put my trust in You completely.I will serve no other gods but You.I thank You for dying for me, a sinner,In Jesus' mighty name, amen.Have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 23rd of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Gospel of Luke 4:28-30: “So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff. Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.”Our Lord Jesus Christ told the people in the synagogue, that “this Scripture has come to pass”, where He said He would set the captives free, heal the broken-hearted and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers,For they shall be called sons of God.”I want to say to you today that we must move on. Sometimes we continue to ask people to forgive us, and they will not do it. Eventually, Jesus moved on. He went down to Galilee to Capernaum and performed many, many miracles there. We need to move on with our lives. You cannot keep holding back because people do not want to forgive you, they will not release you. Remember the prodigal son, what happened to him? He told his father he wanted all his inheritance, went off, and blew the whole lot. His father didn't run after him and say, “Come back son, let's talk about this.” He left him, and when he was completely at his wit's end, he came back to his dad. His dad loved him, forgave him and restored him. Today I might be speaking to someone who is dealing with that very issue. I have to move on, there is no change, they will not forgive me, they want to continue to persecute me. I am moving on with my life. The Lord says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” not “blessed are the peace-lovers." Sometimes, in order for reconciliation, there needs to be a time of moving on, and if that person wants to sincerely forgive you, they can come and visit you and forgive you, but in the meantime, you have got to get on with the calling on your life. Now, today move on just like Jesus did and leave that person whoever it might be. Maybe it is a member of your family, a loved one, or a workmate. Leave them in God's hands and He will deal with them in due course. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 22nd of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Luke 3 and I am not going to read that chapter. I would like you to read it, but that whole chapter is the family tree of our Lord Jesus Christ, starting from verse 23 - Luke 3:23. “Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi,…”Do you know that that family tree goes all the way back? You will see in verse 38: “… the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” That is the family tree of our beloved Lord Jesus Christ. If you go to the Book of John 15:5, the Lord says Himself: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit…” I am talking today about the family tree. Maybe you are sitting there and you are saying, “Angus, I am an orphan. I don't have any family. Maybe your family has rejected you, maybe your family has died and you feel that you have got nothing. I want to tell you that if you are a born-again Christian, you are not an orphan. You are a son or a daughter of the Living God. Family trees are important to people. I think I have told you before, my family comes from Scotland. My mother's mother was a Livingstone. Have you ever heard of David Livingstone? Of course you have. Well, she came from the West Coast of Scotland and that's where David Livingstone comes from. I would like to believe that I am related to that man who was partly responsible for abolishing the slave trade in Africa. My dad's mother was a Finney, her maiden name was Finney. Have you heard of Charles Finney, the great American revivalist who won many, many souls to Christ? That is my family. I don't know whether it is direct or not, it doesn't matter, but ultimately and more importantly, I am a child of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, my sins have been forgiven, I have got a family tree, a future that I can look forward to. What about you? Let's pray together.Dear Lord Jesus,Today, I am sorry that I think I am an orphan. I am not an orphan, I am a son of the Living God, I am a daughter of the Living God. That is my inheritance and when I get home, you are not going to say to me, “Welcome friend”, You are going to say, “Welcome home, son or daughter of the Living God.” That is something to look forward to.God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 21st of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Zechariah 13:9b: “They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people'; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.'”Then we just go to Zechariah 8:8:“They shall be My peopleAnd I will be their God,In truth and righteousness.”Then just the last verse for today, Matthew 16:24: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” The Lord says that we are going to go through fiery trials, oh yes, just like silver and gold, we are going to be purified in fiery trials. Then we will call Him our Father and He will call us His people. The Lord never promised you and me a bed of roses. No, no, there is nowhere in the Bible He said that. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”Psalm 34:19I want to tell you a little story. Many, many years ago, there were a group of actors, production people and producers and editors who came to Shalom, they came to make a movie called, “Faith like Potatoes” and the principle actor, a man that I love dearly, Frank Rautenbach, took the part of Angus in the movie. The night we met, we had to meet all the actors, Jeanne took the part of my wife Jill, did a beautiful job and all the support actors, not to mention the directors and producers, it was a wonderful time. We had an evening together and apparently, I don't remember this, Frank has told me I said “You are going to play my part but you are going to go through many fiery trials.” And he has.Oh but friends, I want to tell you that through that incredible little movie, and all the glory goes to Jesus Christ, the Lord used these actors and multitudes have come to Christ and are still coming to Christ when they watch that little movie. Yes, Frank has been through fiery trials but through it all, Jesus has been glorified. Today, don't be afraid of the fiery trials you are going through. The Lord will not allow you to be tempted more than you are able.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, Resurrection Day, the 20th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 24:17: “And He said to them…” (Jesus said to them) “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” Are you sad this morning? Are you believing that Jesus Christ is still in the grave, are you believing that there is no hope for you? Folks, listen to the next verse:”Then Jesus said to them: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” Luke 24:25It was prophesied the fact, that the Saviour of the world had to die for our sins but that He would live again and live forever. You and I need to understand, Jesus is gently rebuking us today, when we doubt. We look at the world. We see what's happening all over the world and our faith starts to fade away. He says everything is happening according to the Word. “I told you about these things", He says, ”In me you will have peace. In this world you will have tribulation. Be of good heart for I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).I want to say to you today, where do you stand? Are you waiting for the coming of the Lord? He is coming I'm telling you now. There is nothing more sure than the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back again for you and for me.Romans 8:31: ”If God is for us who can stand against us?” It's not over yet. It's not over. This is just the beginning. You and I have to die to self in order to live for Christ. We have to allow our physical bodies and our mental attitudes to change. Our Saviour is not in the tomb. I've been there folks. I've been to Israel, not once, many, many times, and every time I go to the tomb, I tell you it is empty. Why? Because He's alive. He has risen. Yes risen indeed. Jesus bless you on this resurrection Sunday and look forward to an incredible future with Him. God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 19th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Job 19:25: “For I know that my Redeemer lives,And He shall stand at last on the earth…”Do you know that your Redeemer lives this morning? Do you know that He will be standing on this earth at the last? We go straight to the Book of Romans 8:11:”But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,(thats the Holy Spirit) He (the Holy Spirit) who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” What an incredible scripture! Oh, my dear friends, we need to believe, we need to know He is not in the grave, He is alive. We need to believe that! We have a saying here at Shalom, “One genuine miracle equals a thousand sermons”. Jesus was known by His miracles that He performed, not so much by the sermons He preached, He preached very few that are recorded, but the signs and the wonders and the miracles - He is the Miracle-Worker!I just want to tell you again, you have heard my story more than once but it is worth telling again. It was down in Ein Gedi, the lowest point on earth. It was in 2012. It was so hot, we were drinking water that was coming out of our bodies as we were drinking it. I think it was well over 40 degrees. It must have been 8 o'clock at night. I was asked to bring the message. There were 5,000 delegates from all over the world, something like 80 nations gathered together. I was reading from the Book of Acts, the account of the disciples in the upper room when the Holy Spirit came upon them. I was so in love with the Lord that night and so full of faith. I said, “Lord, please do it again.” When I think back on it, what would have happened if He didn't? Well, He did, so I don't have to even think about all the egg that would have been on my face. I walked around the front of the lectern and a mighty rushing wind started blowing. Folks, it blew so hard, blowing the musical instruments off the platform and then it started to rain. It doesn't rain in that place, it is dry, it is like the moon, there is nothing there. Those palm trees are being irrigated from miles and miles away. The Lord visited us. And I want to tell you, I did not have to make an altar call, I didn't have to tell people to come forward to repent, they ran to the front. Some of those ladies were lying in the dust, just rejoicing in the faithfulness of God. Jesus is alive! Tomorrow, Resurrection Sunday, we will celebrate the fact that our God is not dead, He is not in the grave, He is alive!Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Good Friday, the 18th of April, 2025 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Gospel of John 12:24, and Jesus said: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain”. Yes, it's in dying that we live, and today, the Lord Jesus Christ, our beloved Saviour, has shown us by example what we need to do. If we want to live, we need to die to self. He did the same thing. It's in dying to self that we truly live. As a farmer, I can tell you it is only when you sow good seed into the ground and that seed dies, that it produces new life, new plants abundantly. Don't hoard it, don't stash it away, and don't put it in a container where there is no disease, insect damage, or any mould that can touch it. It will stay there forever, but it is when you take it out of that enclosure and put it into the ground it starts to live. We mustn't be selfish. Jesus, today, 2000 years ago, showed us that if you want life and you want it abundantly, you must be prepared to die to self. No one took His life, He gave His life freely. No-one can touch the Son of God, and you and I today need to do the same. We need to put the flesh down, we need to start to prefer one another, we need to start to live and to work for our fellowman, and then we will find the key to an abundant life and a life that is worth living, a life that has purpose, and then we will understand the principle of living for Christ.I want to encourage you today to sit quietly somewhere with your Bible, maybe in the garden, wherever, and just think about what the Lord did for you and me today. If He had not died for us and our sins, we would not be alive today. What a mighty gift He has given to you and me.Jesus bless you and have a peaceful day, thinking about what the Lord did for us,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 17th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Deuteronomy 8:3: “…man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.” Now, that was written 600 years before the birth of Jesus. Quite incredible! Now, we go straight to the Book of Luke 4:4:And Jesus answered him, (He answered the devil when He was tempted in the desert. He said): “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' ” Isn't that incredible? 600 years later, the Son of God, in the desert while being tempted by the devil said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.”You know, the holiest sacrament in the Christian faith is communion, Holy Communion, breaking of bread, yes, and this is the eve of the Last Supper, the last meal that our beloved Jesus had on earth, and He sat around the table with His disciples and He had Holy Communion. We read that in 1 Corinthians 11:23-25. Now this is Paul. He says that “the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” Now, listen to this, verse 26: “For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes”Very, very important. Maybe tonight, sit with your family around the table as you think about Good Friday, which is tomorrow, and have Holy Communion together. You know folks, when I travel, and sometimes I go into the poorest of poorest areas, maybe in Central Africa, maybe overseas, people always tend to give you the best they have, not necessarily the richest people, but the poorest people, and it is so important to eat it heartily and to give thanks because that is what they want.Now, tonight as we break bread together as a family, remember, Jesus says it is the Word of God that satisfies the soul, that gives you strength and healing and hope. Spend time reading your Bible. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 16th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 2:49: “And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?” This is a 12-year-old boy. I am talking about our Saviour - Jesus Christ. A 12 year old boy was lost, his mom and dad couldn't find him. He had been lost, not for three hours but for three days! Where was he? He was in the very place he was supposed to be. He was in the temple in His Father's house. He was found sitting quietly, debating, listening, asking questions and giving incredible answers and confounding the greatest minds in the world at that time, and they were astonished by His answers. Jesus says to you and me today that unless we become as little children, we will never see the Kingdom of God. Oh my dear friend, you and I must be so careful that we don't underestimate the young person's mind - they are open. I just love speaking to young people. They are unpolluted by the things of the world. They are soft, they cry easily, they are very emotional, they are pliable. Just like a young sapling, a young tree, they can bend in the storms of life. They are teachable, not like an old tree, set in its ways, and eventually, the big wind comes, and they cannot bend, and they break, they snap.We must not be like that. Jesus says we need to become like little children. I got an email a few days ago from a young 12-year-old boy by the name of Noah. I was so touched. Noah came to his very first Mighty Mens Conference at Jeffrey's Bay a few weeks ago. His life has been completely changed.Today, let us be gentle, loving and kind, and listen to what young people have to say!Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 15th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Gospel of Luke 2:25: “And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” You don't hear much about Simeon, do you? No, he is one of the ordinary people. There are millions of ordinary people in the world. He was not a high priest, he was not one of the inner circle. No, but I will tell you one thing, he saw and recognised Jesus before any of the high priests or the Pharisees did. The Lord showed him and he said, “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,…” You will see that in verse 29, when he recognised the baby Jesus, who had been brought to the temple. We need to understand something. It's not about education, and there is nothing wrong with that, by the way, it's a relationship with the Lord. I had a man working on the farm. You have probably seen him in the movie, Faith like Potatoes. Yes, his name is Simeon. Simeon is illiterate, he can't read, he can't write, but I want to tell you, he became one of my best friends when I was a young farmer. Some of the holiest times we used to have together were in the workshop early in the morning before the staff arrived. When I used to travel a lot and Jill was on the farm with the children and they were young, I used to call him in, we used to sit together and I would say, “Please look after the family till I get back”, and he would say to me, “Don't worry, I will look after them.” And he did - Jill said to me, often in the middle of the night, she would hear him walking around, just checking that everything was okay, and he was the one man that when he laid his hands on my head and prayed for me, he made me cry. I don't know why. Yes, like Simeon of the Bible. Let us not judge a book by it's cover. Let us be very slow to judge one another because I want to tell you, I have seen so many godly men in my life who don't hold any public office, but they have seen Jesus. Have a wonderful day, God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 14th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Acts 4:13: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.” Then we go to Zechariah 8:23: “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” People should want to be with us. We are not to Bible-punch people, we are not to threaten people with hell and damnation. We are to love people. I remember like yesterday, when I was a very young man trying to find my way. I was a rugby player. We would go down to the rugby club on a Saturday night with all the young guys and the young girls. There was one particular young man I used to admire, and I couldn't understand how the girls all clamoured around him, and us young guys who were spending time in the gym trying to get strong and look good, we had to struggle to get girlfriends, but this young guy the girls just flocked around him. Now, he was nothing to look at. He was a bit skinny, he had long hair, those were the days of the Beatles, if you remember. He had buck teeth but you see folks, the difference between him and us was that he cared for the young girls. He would be the first one to welcome them, he would pull the chair out for them to sit on, he would complement them on their dress, ”You're looking so pretty tonight.” He would make sure that they had something to drink. He would be more concerned about them than himself and they just loved him and they were flocking around him.I want to say to you today, let's try to stop forcing people into the Kingdom of God and let's start loving them into the Kingdom of God because when people see Jesus in you, they will be drawn to you, when they see the peace in your heart, the love, that you're not judgmental, that you're not angry, you're not bitter, for they see Jesus in you. Today, let's be like Jesus. Have a wonderful day, God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 13th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Zachariah 8:16:”These are the things you shall do; Speak each man the truth to his neighbour;” Then we go straight to the Gospel of John 17:17: ”Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” The Bible is the absolute truth. That's why when you go to a court of law they make you put your hand on top of the Bible and you have to say, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God”. If you and I truly love our neighbour then we have to tell them the whole truth.It's like that huge boil you've got on your arm, that tumour, that abscess. You can't keep on putting plaster over the top. There comes a time when it is ready to be lanced, and you have to take the plaster off and take a sharp scalpel to lance it so that all the rubbish can come out and there can be healing. You can't keep putting a plaster over it. You see there's no such thing as telling white lie in order to keep your neighbour happy. By the way, there's no such thing as a white lie. It's the truth.Henry Ford, the giant car manufacturer, was asked by his men if they could change the colour of his famous Model T Ford from black to another colour. He answered, ”You can change it any colour you like as long as it stays black.” Now that is how the Bible is. You cannot change the word of God.I remember like yesterday, officiating at a funeral service, many, many years ago. I knew this man very, very well. He made some very big mistakes in his life, I want to be honest with you, but one thing I do know for a fact - He loved the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart and at his funeral I said, ”Good people don't go to heaven, believers go to heaven.” Because that's what it says in the word of God in John 14:6, one of the most famous scripture verses in the Bible. Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” I said that at his funeral and afterwards a man came over. He was very upset with me. He said, “How can you say that good people don't go to Heaven?” I said, “Because that's the truth, it's what the Bible says. It's faith in Jesus Christ. You must be born again.” Now today, if you love your neighbour, you must tell him the truth! God bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 12th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of John 1:32:”And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.” The Holy Spirit coming down from heaven in the form of a dove and settling upon Jesus Christ. Oh, what a beautiful picture!Early this morning, it was still very dark and misty, we're having beautiful rain on the farm at the moment. I walked out of my house and into the prayer room, and in the shadow I saw a beautiful pair of turtle doves. There was such a peace about that picture, and you know they say that a turtle dove only mates once in his life. So if you kill his partner, he remains alone for the rest of his life.I looked up the meaning of the word turtle dove and its characteristics, and it says he is a harmless bird. He represents innocence, powerlessness, meekness and humility. Don't we need that in the world today, my dear friend? The sign of peace is the turtle dove.I remember like yesterday, as a very young man when we had just arrived on the farm, Shalom, I was just about to have my breakfast in the morning, in those days we had the old phone that you had to crank the handle and there were two signs, two shorts, one long, that was your call sign. The phone rang and I picked it up and it was the Deeds Office in Pretoria saying, “You have to give us the name of your new farm that you have just bought”, and I had no idea what we were going to call this farm. So I shouted through to the bedroom, Jill was doing something in the bedroom. I said, ”Jill, we need a name. We need a name for the farm.” And she shouted back, ”Shalom.” Well that's the name of this farm. Now Shalom means peace in Hebrew and of course the Prince of Peace is often represented by the Holy Spirit. I want to say to you today, let us go out and when people are aggressive and when people are fearful and when people are ugly, let us represent the Holy Spirit. Let there be peace in our hearts. Oft times people come to Shalom to visit us and as we greet them, sometimes they burst into tears and we say, ”Why are you crying?” They say, ”We don't know why we are crying,” and I'm hoping that they also can feel the peace of Jesus Christ in this place.Today, let's go out and represent the Prince of Peace, the soon coming King, Jesus Christ. God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 11th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 1:80: “The child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel [as John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah]. (AMP version)I want to speak to you about that desert time. Are you in a desert time at the moment? Does it seem like nothing is happening young lady? Do you think you will never get married, yes? Young man, do you feel there's never going to be a lady for you to marry? Do you feel that you are studying all the time - when is this going to end? When am I going to realise my potential and my dream?Well, there is a preparation time. John the Baptist spent time in the desert until God called him to proclaim the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It took Jesus thirty years of preparation before His ministry started. It took Moses forty years in the desert before the Lord saw he was ready to take the Israelites out of Egypt. Don't rush.Now, as a farmer, I can tell you it takes nine months before a cow will produce a baby calf. It takes the calf six months before it is weaned from it's mother. It takes a young heifer eighteen months before she is ready to go to the bull and to produce a calf herself. A crop of maize takes one year, approximately one year to produce from the time you start preparing the soil. A good artisan, a tradesman - takes five years of apprenticeship before he is qualified as a tradesman, and it takes a lifetime for us to be prepared for entry into Heaven. Don't rush, there is plenty of time.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 10th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Genesis 18:14:”Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Wow, that's a good question. I hope you can answer that one, and then we go straight to the Gospel of John 14:14:”If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” That is a promise from God, folks, not to be argued. I want to ask you a question this morning. How big is God? Well, the answer is simple. He is as big as you allow Him to be. Some people keep Him in a matchbox. That's true. I preached in Scandinavia many, many years ago. What a beautiful part of the world. Everything works there. They build the biggest trucks in the world. Their water is so clean and clear you can almost drink it out of the lakes. As I was preaching, a lady came up and she was weeping. I said, ”What is the problem?” She said, ”Please pray for us. You see, we keep Jesus in a matchbox and every now and again we just let Him out just a little bit.”Folks, we must depend on God, not on the works of our hands. You see, some people think they don't need God but I want to tell you, He is a miracle-working God and He's asking you today, what is it that you need? Remember the story of Sarah? Sarah was in her nineties, and God said He would give her a baby boy, but she laughed. She didn't believe it because she was in her nineties. How can a ninety-year-old woman conceive and bear a child? How can a man of a hundred years old be the father of many nations? I'm talking about Abraham and yet that's exactly what happened. You and I today need to think outside of the box. We hired the biggest tent in the whole world in 2008. We had five hundred rand which is about thirty US dollars in our pocket, and we booked it. A thirty thousand-seater tent, and we were expecting about twenty thousand men. Sixty thousand men arrived on this farm - many are listening to this message this morning! We fed them. Do you know we had to kill forty oxen to feed these men for one meal? We fed them for a whole weekend. How big is God? He's as big as you allow Him to be in your life.William Carey, the man that took the Gospel to India said, ”We must attempt great things for God and we must expect great things from God.” Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 9th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Luke 1:76:”And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; For you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways,…” Zacharias was talking about his son, John the Baptist. Jesus said there has never been a man born from the womb of a woman, greater than John the Baptist. (Matthew 11:11)John the Baptist was a scout. Yes, a forerunner. I looked up the meaning of the word, “scout” in the Oxford Dictionary. It says “a person who is sent ahead to gather information about the enemy. Now when you are going into a new country, you always send your best man ahead. He prepares the way. That is what John the Baptist did for Jesus. He finds out the best route. He also finds out about the danger in that area and comes back and reports it. The Lord Jesus Christ has called you today, my dear friend, to be a scout, to be a forerunner, to be one who prepares the way for the people. We have an obligation. Our obligation is to lead the way. How do we do it? By our conduct, by our lifestyle, by our love and by warning people of the dangers ahead.Do you remember that old song? I think we have sung it before:I have decided to follow Jesus,I have decided to follow Jesus,I have decided to follow JesusNo turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.The cross before me and the world behind me,The cross before me and the world behind me, The cross before me and the world behind me, No turning back, praise the Lord, no turning back.You and I are not turning back. Where are we going to go to? Back to Egypt? No, we are going forward. Where are we going? Our destination is Heaven. You and I are just travellers in this world, sojourners. Pick up your head and remember people are following you. Do not lead them down a dead-end alley, a cul-de-sac. Do not lead them into the enemy camp, but lead them in a place which is safe, a place where Jesus inhabits and they will thank you for that, and most of all Our Heavenly Father will be most proud of you.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 8th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Isaiah 6:8: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:“Whom shall I send,And who will go for Us?”Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”Then we go straight to the Book of Zechariah 4:10: “For who has despised the day of small things?”Are you feeling this morning that you are not good enough, that you will never make it? Are you feeling that you are not equipped? Well, you are in good company! That's exactly how I feel so many times - never despise small beginnings. Remember, God chose King David, the smallest and youngest of all of Jesse's sons. There were eight of them all together, but God chose the youngest. It's never too late to put your hand up. Remember Gideon's army? He had 32,000 fighting men. The Lord said, “Send them all back”, and he ended up with 300 fighting men, and defeated the enemy. You will find that in Judges 7:7.We ask ourselves a question. Why? Why does God choose the youngest, the most ill-equipped, the most uneducated? Why? Because He will not share His glory with any man. You see, when God does a miracle through an ordinary person's life, God gets all the glory because people say there is no way that that man could have done that. God doesn't need our expertise, He doesn't need our intellect. He doesn't even need our effort. All He wants is one thing, He wants our obedience. Yes, He wants us to love and to dedicate ourselves to Him alone. Jesus told the fisherman right down at the Sea of Galilee, to leave their nets and follow after Him and He would make them fishers of men and look what happened with those twelve men. They changed the world. I want to tell you very quickly about a dairy farmer who lived in America. His name was Demos Shakarian. He came from an Armenian background. That man was saved, he thought he was going to be an evangelist. He bought a big tent and held a few meetings and he was fairly successful, but that wasn't what God wanted him to do. Then God showed him to start the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International. Do you know that that movement touched tens of thousands of key businessmen around the whole world? A book was written called, “The Happiest People on Earth.”I want to say to you today, put your hand up and say, “Lord, I don't have much but I am going to give You what I have got,” and you will be surprised how He will use you. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 7th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Zachariah 3:4: “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” A beautiful promise from the Lord, to take away all of our sin. Then we go to the Book of Revelation 19:8: “And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” Yes, we are talking about the marriage day, that wonderful, wonderful occasion when you and I will meet our beloved Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom. The Lord is preparing a great marriage feast for you and me when we meet Him in Heaven. You and I are the church and the bride, and Jesus is the Bridegroom. I want to ask you a question. Are you ready? Am I ready? You know, I love weddings. I have had the privilege of marrying off my children and my grandchildren. What an occasion it is! The excitement when the mothers are getting the food ready, the bride and the bridesmaids are getting their dresses ready, the bridegrooms are cleaned up. These boys have had a nice shave. They are ready with their beautiful suits on. It is an incredible occasion, the flowers in the church are magnificent. It is a joyous occasion and lots of fun.I remember, my very dear brother in Christ - his son was getting married to my youngest daughter, and he offered his vintage tractor. Yes, it was an inheritance he got from his grandfather and I want to say to you, this tractor was imported from England and was working up in Central Africa. He brought it to the farm and said he would drive my daughter and me to the chapel in this tractor. What a wonderful machine. Pop, pop, pop as it went up the hill, but it did have a little bit of a problem with the exhaust. There was a lot of black smoke and maybe even the occasional drop of oil. Now, my daughter had a beautiful white dress on! Aah, but we sorted that out because we gave her a lovely umbrella, but I want to say to you today there must be no oil, there must be nothing in our garments that will tarnish the wedding day. The Lord said He has given us new garments and we need to go to church, we need to go to the wedding day, clean. Are we ready for that great and wonderful day when we meet our beloved Jesus face to face?Prepare yourself because that day is coming very soon. Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 6th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Book of Romans 10:17 (the Amplified)”So faith comes from hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the [preaching of the] message concerning Christ.” I got a most beautiful encouraging message just yesterday and I want to read it to you. This is what it says: Hi all, Ralph here. I would like to share my affirmation and scientifically proven miracle that the Lord healed me at the pools of Bethesda. That was where the swirling pool was with the man who couldn't get into the pool. Jesus healed him and told him to take up his bed and walk. That's where we were. This is where Uncle Angus prayed over me for healing for brain damage which was a result of the carbon monoxide poisoning incident that Kath (his wife) and I had a year before our Israel trip. The MRI scan I had in the hospital showed clearly that I had brain damage. Theo may remember that I thought Angus was ill after he had prayed for me. I said to Kath, Theo, Sandra and Gary that Uncle Angus' hand was burning hot and something must be wrong with Uncle Angus. It was the Holy Spirit touching my head and tangibly healing my brain from the brain damage. After this I was able to stop taking my tray of pills and believed I was totally healed. I didn't feel I needed any proof or to go for another MRI scan. I knew I was healed.Recently, I was booked for an MRI body scan as a precautionary check-up. The radiologist is a good friend of ours who knew our story and was one of the multitude of people praying for our recovery and asked if I would mind if he could scan my head. He explained later that most people do not allow this to be done as a result of the MRI showing the brain damage clearly. It can be very upsetting for most patients to see. I said he can do the scan feeling confident of my healing and miracle in Israel. The scan results scientifically proved the miracle is real and showed all signs of the brain damage previously seen had miraculously disappeared. “This is scientifically impossible,” said our radiologist friend. He was so emotional and in awe when he could see that my brain was perfectly healthy and normal after 22 hours of carbon monoxide exposure and being in a coma for five days. This is a pure miracle. But God. Amen and Amen.”God bless you. Jesus is the healer!

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 5th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Luke 1:46-55, but before I read it, I just want to say something to you. This is a beautiful, beautiful scripture spoken by Mary the mother of Jesus. I want to tell you the thing that I love about Mary more than anything else is her faith in God, truly, a giant in the faith. You see, Mary was not divine, no, no, no. She didn't come down from heaven like an angel. She was born of an ordinary mother, an ordinary father, just like you and me, but God looked right through the world to find one maiden, a virgin, who He could trust with His only beloved son, Jesus Christ, and He found Mary from Nazareth. He saw this young virgin and He said, ”She will look after My Son while He lives on earth.” What an honour, what a privilege! But what I want to stress is the faith that Mary had, to believe the message that the archangel Gabriel brought from our Heavenly Father down to her, and when he told her that she was going to bear the Son of God in her womb - a Baby, nine months in your womb, and then you are going to bring Him up to age. What a responsibility, what an honour! This is her response, verse 46: And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; (You see, she didn't think of herself as anything special at all) for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty (our Heavenly Father) has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm;He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy,As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.” You see, no doubt at all. Accepted the call. Said, “Yes Lord, I'll do it.” And by faith she did it. Today, start to trust God by faith with the things that He has promised you that maybe haven't come to pass just yet. I can tell you, they will come to pass if you continue by faith. Remember faith can't see. Faith is to believe what you cannot see. God will bring it to pass.Jesus bless you richly today and goodbye!

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 4th of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Gospel of John 14:9: Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father'?” Oh, I just love that scripture. You see, Jesus is God made flesh. Jesus has a distinct personality. He has a beautiful heart. He has an incredible character and His viewpoint is “yea and amen”. That is exactly what God is like. We do not have to ask ourselves the question, ”I wonder what God is going to be like.” All we have to do is study the life of Jesus and then we know exactly what God is like. I have 8 grandsons. They know me and they know me very well. I've heard them sometimes when they were younger, they bring their little friends to the farm to play and I've heard them talking outside and their little friends are a bit nervous to meet me and they say, ”He's a bit gruff isn't he? He's a bit loud with his voice? I see he takes no nonsense. I also notice, he doesn't talk twice, he only asks you to do something once.“ Then the little grandsons who know me, who have heard me, speak up and they say, ”No, Khulu (that's the Zulu word for grandfather), no, he's kind, he's very kind to us. He's gentle with us. He says we must be kind to the girls we must be gentle with the animals and just one important thing, when you go into the house, whatever food gets dished up for you on the plate, make sure you eat all of it, because you see Khulu's father, my great grandfather, was in the war and he told Khulu how the people used to starve because there was no food. Don't waste food.” So my grandsons know my character because they spend time with me. Today, if you spend time praying, meditating, and reading your Bible, Jesus will become such a reality to you that on the great day when you meet our Heavenly Father face to face, it will not come as a surprise to you. Jesus bless you richly as you get to know Him better. God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 3rd of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Zechariah 1:10 in the Old Testament,“These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth.” Then we go straight to Hebrews 1:14: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” What are we talking here about this morning? We are talking about angels. Do you believe in angels? Well, you better otherwise you can't believe the Bible. It was the angel Gabriel that came and spoke to Mary and said she was going to be the mother of Jesus. There are angels written all over the Bible, ministering spirits. You see, this life that you and I have been called to walk through is tough enough as it is. This is not a one-man show, oh no, not at all! The Lord has sent angels to minister to you and me. I want to tell you a little story. My wife and I went to Ethiopia a few years ago. We went to see something that is absolutely miraculous. There are eleven churches built out of solid rock. Now this is the interesting fact - They are not built from the bottom upwards. No, they were built from the top, downwards, a solid rock, with a hammer and chisel, and those eleven churches were created, most beautiful churches. I have walked in them, out of solid rock, no tin, no supports, standing on their own and they were built by a king by the name of King Lalibela. He had a dream because the Ethiopians couldn't go to Jerusalem in Israel because the muslims were stopping them. So he said, he was going to build a new Jerusalem right there in Ethiopia. This was in the 12th century, which was 800 years ago. He had a dream. He started building it with his people from the top down in solid rock. Folks, it is an amazing thing to see but the point I want to make, it's very important. They say that every night, ministering angels came and took all the rubble away so when they started carving out of the rock the next morning, it was clean and tidy. No people did that, the angels. I want to tell you today, don't pray to the angels, no, no. We pray to our Heavenly Father, through the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we ask the Lord to send His ministering angels to help us.Father, I pray for my friends that are listening to this message, that even today they will know that they are never, ever alone. You have sent angels to be with them wherever they go, and we thank You for that beautiful angelic company that surrounds us today.In Jesus name, Amen.God bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 2nd April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Gospel of Luke 1:37, and a very special verse for you today. It says: “For with God nothing will be impossible.” What are you trusting the Lord for today? Nothing? Well then, you will get nothing! I am trusting the Lord today for a miracle. Oh yes, every morning is a miracle.Now, Mary was told by the angel that she was going to have a baby and she said in verse 34 of the same chapter, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” “I have never slept with a man and you are telling me I am going to have a baby?” The angel of the Lord said in verse 37: “For with God nothing will be impossible.” I want to ask you a very serious thing today. Do you believe in miracles?Don't ever write off a promise that the Lord Jesus Christ has given to you and stop calling miracles coincidences. There is no such thing as a coincidence. It is so sad that people struggle to believe in a miracle from God. They are always trying to explain it away instead of simply believing it. You know, many of you listening to this message were maybe there, but a few years ago I had the privilege of speaking at the Feast of Tabernacles, down at the Dead Sea at a place called Ein Gedi. It was a hot, humid night. I read the account of the visitation of the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room. Just as we are thinking about the approach of Easter, and the disciples were gathered together and they were petrified. They were hiding because they were being sought by the Romans and being slaughtered, and a rushing mighty wind came through the Upper Room and tongues of fire settled on each one's head and they began to speak in other languages and the power of God came upon them. As I finished reading that incredible incident, I walked around the front of the lectern and I said, “Please Jesus, do it again.” And He did it! Oh yes, He did it. Now some people said that was a coincidence that that wind came at that time because the wind does blow from time to time down in the lowest part of the earth, but folks, the timing at that time, and then it started raining. It never rains there. Some people will tell you it does rain occasionally but at that very moment, let's stop calling a miracle a coincidence. Let's start praising God and thanking Him for answered prayer.What is it that you want today? Lord, I pray for my friend who is listening to this message right now, who is depending on a mighty miracle in their lives. Lord, as they would put their trust in You, we thank You for answered prayer and for that miracle to take place. In Jesus name, amen.God bless you and believe it, it is on it's way,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 1st of April, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Romans 3:23:”for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,…” All of us! You see we are faced with temptation. I want to say to you that the sin is not temptation. No, no. Jesus Himself was tempted in the desert, remember? He came up against the devil with the word of God - “It is written…” Temptation is not sin but when you look at somebody first maybe a beautiful young girl, maybe a very handsome man, the first time you see them they are very beautiful. We are created to appreciate beauty but if you turn around and you look at them a second time, as it were, then lust starts to come in and sin, that seed is born. King David who was the apple of the Lord's eye, a man after God's own heart, stood on the verandah that one evening and looked down and saw Bathsheba, a very, very beautiful woman. She was bathing. Now he could have turned around and walked away, but he didn't and he looked the second time, he lusted after her and that was the beginning of the end of his wonderful career because that sin, that temptation, caused him to commit adultery and then murder and we know the end of the sad story. We need to be so careful.I can hear a young man or a young lady say, “No, no, I can handle this!” I want to say to you that human willpower will only last for a certain time, and then after that, it will crumble. We need Jesus Christ to help us. You know that even one of the giants of our faith, Paul, the Apostle, says in the Book of Romans 7:19, he says: “…for the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” Then we go down to verse 24: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Now, here is the key - he says in verse 25: “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” We can only do it through the power of the Holy Spirit in us. You don't just wake up one morning and decide, "Today I am going to steal some money” or “Today I am going to have an affair with my secretary in the office.” No, it starts off with a thought and then you start to feed that thought, it germinates and it grows into a tree until you can't contain it and then you fall. Yes, God will forgive us, nobody knows that better than me, that is what grace is about - undeserved loving kindness. We have been saved by grace by faith and not of ourselves - but the scar remains. Please don't do it. Stop it today. Cancel that text. Say “no more!” and look to the Helper, the Holy Spirit (John 16:7) and He will help you overcome.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 31st of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Malachi 4:6:”And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers…” Then the very same verse, you can read in Luke 1:17:”He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah (The lord is talking about John the baptist) ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children'…What a command that is to fathers and also to the children. I had the privilege of being at a Mighty Men Conference in Jeffrey's Bay, on the eastern side of South Africa, just a short while ago, and what an incredible time we had together. One of the highlights for me always is to see fathers and their young boys together, to see them worshipping God, and you will see a big, strong father with his young boy on his shoulders, worshipping the Lord. At the end of one of the meetings, a young man came up to me with his little boy. I think he could have only been about seven years old, and this man was weeping. He said, “Uncle Angus, I went up to the cross to pray with my little boy (there was a cross on a hill just behind the conference), and I got on my knees, and I broke down, and I wept.” You see mom, that is why the men need to get together sometimes because they cannot always expose their feelings in front of the girls and the mothers because it appears like a sign of weakness, when we know it is the opposite. As he was weeping and repenting before God, he felt that little boy put his arm around his dad's neck, and he said, “Dad, don't worry I am going to help you.” It brings a tear to my eyes.We need to have patience with one another. We need to love one another unconditionally, and that is how we will bring reconciliation in the home between dad and his little girl and his little boy, and mom will be so proud of that. Men, we need to stand up and take our rightful place because the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back very soon to take us to be with Him in Heaven, forever.Have a wonderful day,God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 30th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Haggai 2:5 and the Lord says: ”According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!” Did you hear that, mother? Did you hear that, dad? Did you hear that, young boy? The Lord says, ”Do not fear.” Then we go straight to the Book of Hebrews 13:6. So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” What a beautiful promise! The Lord promised the Israelites, when He took them out of Egypt, He said that, ”My Spirit remains with you,” and it is still with His children, even today. So do not fear. The only thing we need to fear actually is fear itself. That's absolutely true. In Philippians 1:21, Paul says,”For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Now, I think you've heard me say this before, but you cannot frighten a Christian with heaven. So if we live, we live for Jesus and with the Holy Spirit, and if we die we go home to be with Jesus. It's a win-win situation.I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the meaning of the word “fear”. It says, “an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger”. Not danger, the threat of danger. You know the story of the cobra, that big snake, and the little mouse. Well, what happens is the cobra hypnotises that little mouse with fear. He gets totally paralysed and he can't move and the cobra just slides up and just eats him. That little mouse could just turn around and run away, the cobra would never catch him, but he's paralysed with fear.You see the opposite fear is faith. Fear paralyses a person but faith strengthens that person, and the Lord says without faith, you cannot please Him, and he who believes must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6). So today, let's walk by faith and not by fear. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 29th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of Luke 1:6-7: “And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.Zacharias and Elizabeth had no child, they were getting old but they loved God so much. They served Him faithfully in the Temple, patiently, not complaining, patiently waiting for their miracle. And what happened, yes - they had a baby and what was his name, John the Baptist. You know Jesus said there has never been a man born from the womb of a woman greater than John the Baptist. He was an incredible man of God. I have noticed in the Bible that most of the women who had to wait for a baby gave birth to incredible children.We think of Samson's mother, we think of Hannah's baby, Samuel, and it goes on and on. I want to say to you today, there might be someone listening to this little message who has been waiting to fall pregnant, you and your husband, for a long time. You have been faithful and you just felt, “Well Lord, whatever it is, I am prepared to accept it", but maybe God has got a surprise for you. It will be a huge surprise, I know!It brings back to memory a story that took place when Covid broke out. I had to do a Mighty Men Conference, one right around the world and I had to do it on Zoom. When I was preaching, I was saying to the people watching all over, and there was a very big turnout because no-one could go anywhere. I said, “There is a young girl who is unable to have a child. Her and her husband are waiting for a baby and I believe if you can just continue to trust God, He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). I got a report from my very good friend, Tommy. He said to me that his granddaughter had tested herself to see if she was pregnant, and she was not pregnant. A couple of days later, they listened to this broadcast and after the programme had finished, I am talking about a couple of days, she went and tested herself again and she was pregnant. They now have two beautiful children. Today, continue to serve God faithfully, love Him with all of your heart and believe for the impossible. Father,I pray in Jesus' name, that that woman will fall pregnant.In Jesus' name and we give You all the glory.Amen.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 28th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Haggai 1:7:”Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways!” Think about where you are, what you are doing, and then we go on a bit further to verse 9: The Lord says: “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house.”The Lord says, “My house is in ruins but you are looking after your own houses.”I want to tell you a little story I heard many, many years ago. I have never forgotten it. It is the story of two ladies. The one lady was extremely rich. She was a lovely lady, she was a very fine lady but all her attention was focused on her own mansion. She lived in a beautiful mansion, and the other lady was her maid. She worked in the kitchen, looked after the house, made sure the dogs were fed, made sure the gardener mowed the lawns and everything was done properly. That maid had nothing on this earth. She lived in a little room at the back of the mansion, and that is where she served her mistress from.They were both Christians, they both loved the Lord, but the maid spent hours in prayer. She was an intercessor, she was sending prayers to Heaven all the time. She was praying for her mistress, she was praying for her friends, and she was a godly woman. One day she got sick and died, and the lady of the house was devastated because not only was she a maid, but she was her personal friend, and she went home to Heaven. A few years went by, and the rich old lady also died and went to Heaven, and when she arrived in Heaven, St Peter was waiting for her at the pearly gates. He said, “Welcome home” and they started walking down the main street, paved with gold, and there were huge mansions on either side of the road. There was that river running down the middle with trees that bear fruit every month of the year. As they walked on a little bit further, St Peter stopped and said, “You see that mansion on the other side of the road?” The old lady said, “Yes.” “That is where your maid lives”, “Wow, that is incredible.” The old lady thought, “Well if that is where my maid lives, imagine what my house must look like.”They carried on walking and walking. Then the street of gold stopped and there was a street of silver and the houses were getting smaller, and she carried on walking and then eventually, the road of silver turned into tarmac, and they kept walking, and the rich old lady started getting a bit worried. She said, “Peter, where is my house?” He said, “It's coming.” Then they went on to a dirt road and they carried on walking and eventually came to a little shack and Peter said to the rich lady, “There is your house.” She said, “Well, why am I living in a house like this?” He said, “Well, this is all you sent up from earth for me to build your house.”Today, concentrate on the things of God. He will take care of the rest.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 27th of March, 2025, and this is your friend Angus Buchan with a Thought for Today. We start with Luke 1:3-4:"It seemed good to me also having had Perfect understanding of all things it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed."Then we go to Hebrews 2:3: "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him."Perfect understanding. Orderly account. Certainty. Our faith is not based on old wives' tales; our faith is not based on fables. A fable is a legend; it's a story that is not true, like Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan. Like Narnia, they are stories, but they are not factual. Do you know there is more evidence that Jesus Christ walked on this earth than there is about Julius Caesar, the emperor of Rome? No one questions the existence of Julius Caesar, but many doubt the existence of Jesus Christ. We need to build our faith up. How, you might ask - by reading the Word of God, the Bible. Romans 10:17 says:"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."Mums and Dads read the Bible to your children. Read the Bible to your workers. Read the Bible to your students, why because it is true! Have a wonderful day!Jesus bless you, and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 26th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Gospel of Mark 16:15: “And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Then we go to the Gospel of 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.”What are we talking about this morning? We are talking about the Great Commission. The Lord has called us. The last thing He said before He arose and went back to Heaven to be with His Father, was to go into all the world. Now remember, He has gone before us and He is waiting for us in Heaven. He has called you and me to be soldiers of the cross.You say, “Well, I am not a theologian, I have never been to Bible college”. No, you don't have to - you just have to meet the Man from Galilee. That is quite sufficient. “Ja, but I don't have a congregation to speak to.” Oh yes, you do. It starts at home, in your home dad, in your home mom, with your children. Then after that it starts at work. Some of you have got bigger congregations than any church. I know one of my sons is employing over 400 men. What an opportunity every morning, to bring the good news to those men, before they go to work. There are others who are professional sportsmen. I just love it when these men kneel on the field before they play the game. They signify that Jesus Christ is their Lord. What about in the marketplace, yes, the people in business? When you are in the marketplace you can still preach the Gospel by the way in which you act. I want to say something to you. I really believe this with all my heart. It is the layman's time, the laymen. Do you know that not one of the disciples was a priest, a pastor, an evangelist? Not one. They were ordinary working men and women like you and I. They were laymen. John Wesley's secret, I believe, nobody has told me, but I studied his life, that little man from England was responsible for starting one of the greatest revivals the world has ever seen, and you know what he did? He used ordinary laymen and women to do the preaching. Count Zinzendorf was a wonderful man. He started the Moravian Church in Germany. He used laymen. He sent two grave diggers to Greenland to preach the Gospel. Can you believe it? That is where the secret is. I want to say from my heart because you know I love people, the harvest is too great just for one or two pastors to take it on. All of us need to be involved.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 25th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in 2 Corinthians 9:8:”And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” We're talking about sowing seed, good seed. The Lord says that we must be cheerful givers. You don't give to the Lord reluctantly. He doesn't want your money or your effort if it burdens you. He wants you to give cheerfully and He also wants you to give bountifully. Now, any farmer will tell you that if you sow your seed in the ground bountifully, you will reap a bountiful crop, but if you hold back on your seed and you sow it sparingly, you will reap a very average to poor crop.Young farmers, I want to tell you something, when the going gets tough and it does, the one thing you don't hold back on is your seed. You always plant the best seed you can buy and you always plant generously. You know, if you have to cut back, rather cut back on your fertiliser, rather cut back on your land preparation, rather cut back on your spraying program but never, ever cut back on your seed. If you start sowing sparingly, you're going to reap sparingly. If you start sowing inferior seed the chances are you'll get a poor crop but if you sow generously, you'll reap generously. The Lord also likes a consistent giver. Farmers, you can't go for it and then pull back, then go for it again. You'll end up with nothing. If you're going to go for it, put everything in that you can and expect a good return and you'll get it and be a cheerful giver. It's a blessing to give to people isn't it. I love giving to people. I love to see the smile on their face when I give them one of my little Snowy books. Those little children's faces light up. It is such a privilege and such an honour.This Scripture is a particularly special scripture for Jill and I. When we got saved, I was going to give the farm away. That's right. I was going to Bible College, I was going to become a pastor but I said to Jill, "I'm going to pray about it.“ I went up the mountains and I fasted and prayed. I came back and God gave me this Scripture, but listen to this! Jill was having her own quiet time and God gave her the exact same Scripture. So we kept the farm and we have sowed and I think we have been more successful than if I'd given the farm away because we've used the farm for the Gospel. Remember, Jesus was given to us by our Father in Heaven. He is the ultimate giver. He gave us His only beloved Son. Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 24th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Romans 13:10:”Love does no harm to a neighbour; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Then we go on to Galatians 5:14:”For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”Love fulfils the law. You see folks, we can't work our way to heaven. No. We've got to understand something. If we love God, then we will do the right thing. Love keeps the marriage pure. You don't have to try and obey the law and not have an affair with another woman or with another man. No, you love your wife so much that you could never bring yourself to having an affair with another woman. That's what love does. Love is so powerful. Love keeps a man honest. A man cannot love God and steal. You can't do it. Your conscience will not allow it. Love keeps a man honest. It makes it very easy to obey the Ten Commandments because you don't want to break them. Love covers a multitude of sins. I want to say to you today, how about just saying sorry to someone. “Aah but I've got my rights.” No, you don't have any rights. When you gave your life to Jesus, you surrendered all your rights. Go to the person and say, ”I'm sorry if I offended you. I'm sorry if I took that thing from you. I'm giving it back to you.” Most of all, say to your loved one, ”I am sorry for shouting or being selfish.” You see, there's no more condemnation when you are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1. Love brings freedom. Yes, freedom from yourself, most of all. Okay, you don't have to work so hard, it's all been paid for. Grace means undeserved loving-kindness.I loved my old mom. When I came home with my school report, she would only ask me one question before she even opened the report, ”Angus, did you do your best?” I'd say, “Mom, honestly I did my best.” And if it was 40% or 50%, it was good enough for mom. She took the pressure off me. Now, when Jesus said, ”It is finished,” He meant you don't have to work at it; you just have to receive it! Now go out in freedom today, knowing that the Lord goes before you.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 23rd of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Psalms 18:33: “He makes my feet like the feet of deer,And sets me on my high places.”Then we go straight to the Book of Habakkuk 3:19:“The Lord God is my strength;He will make my feet like deer's feet,…”I looked up that animal that climbs the high mountains, the mountain goat from North America. Do you know, his feet have been designed by God for climbing steep rocky slopes? They have inner pads on their feet to stop them from slipping, they have cloven hooves that can spread apart to stop them from slipping. They can live in high altitudes, up to 4000 metres above sea level. Well, the Lord has made Christians like that too. He has given us the ability to access the high places where no unbeliever can go. The Christian can take pressure that the world is fearful of, he can exist where no other can exist. Look at the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in Daniel 3, where they were thrown into a fiery furnace and they did not burn. In fact, there was a fourth Person in the fiery furnace with them who had a likeness unto the Son of God. Yes, Jesus was in the fire with them and they never even got burnt! There was no smell of fire on their clothes. Often we say, “Lord Jesus, I can't do it, it is too hard, it is too high, it is too scary.” He says, “Take my hand and I will lead you all the way home.”I remember like yesterday, taking a group of young men from a children's home in Durban, up into the high places of the Drakensberg Mountains. When we were two-thirds to the top, the path got so narrow. It was so steep; on the one side was a sheer cliff wall, and on the other side, a fall that went down hundreds of metres, and they froze. I said, “You can do it and you must. We can't go back, there is only one way - forward.” Christian, today let's keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and He will take us through that high place that you are struggling with at the moment, that scary challenge that you have got at work or school. He will do it. He has given you the ability, all you have to do is keep your eyes fixed on Him, don't even look around you and keep walking forward and you will get there.Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 22nd of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Gospel of Matthew 5:10: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” What a beautiful reward awaits those who have been persecuted for their faith. I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word, “persecuted” - it means that they are abused, they are victimised, they are ill-treated, they are tormented for their faith. Yes, they are intimidated. At the moment, we are so sad when we see in the news what is happening around the world, where Christian churches are being burned down in India and Christians are being martyred, and what have they done wrong? Nothing at all. Just because they say they are followers of Jesus Christ, they have to pay the ultimate price. We see in the DRC, people getting beheaded for their faith, hands tied behind their backs, a horrific thing. We see the Christians being martyred in Syria. Lord, please have mercy on Your people. But you know, I want to talk about a different kind of persecution which is maybe even worse. It happens sometimes in your home, oh yes, it happens at work, it happens at school, young girl, when your friends start to victimise you because you will not do what they do. You will not sleep around, you say, “I will wait for my husband until my wedding day” and they torment you and they persecute you when you will not partake of drugs and alcohol because you say it is against your faith. The young men make a fool of you, they say, “You are weak, you are a sissy.” That is persecution. What about when it happens in your very home? I knew a young boy who used to love going to church, but his family actually tormented him, they mocked him every time he got on his bicycle to go to church. “Where are you going? Off to church again?” He stood alone, he would get on his bicycle and even go to the evening services with a little light on the front of his bike, but he kept on going. He was persecuted in his own home but it made him strong, and I want to tell you that through his standpoint and because he never wavered, his whole family came to Christ.We need to understand that there is a price for our faith. It cost Jesus Christ His life on the Cross of Calvary. So you are asking me a question, “What do we do about it?” Well, there is only one thing we can do about it and it is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Pray without ceasing.Pray for your persecutors, pray for those who torment you because they are blind. When Jesus died on the Cross, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” When they stoned Steven outside the city gate, he said, “Do not hold this sin against them today.” Let us pray for the persecuted church.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 21st of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We are approaching Easter, and I have a special message of encouragement for the ladies today. If we go to Matthew 27:55-56:”And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.” I really want to pay tribute to the ladies. You know, it was a woman who was the first one to go down to the tomb early on Sunday morning to visit the Lord. Not the men, no. You know, dad might be the head of the home but mom is the heart of the home. The biggest scourge we have facing our beloved nation of South Africa, is that we are faced with a fatherless generation. Yes, I'm not talking about young children that don't have a father. Many of those fathers are present but they are not operating in their position. I praise God today for the mothers. John Wesley said his biggest influence in his life was not John Calvin or Count Zinzendorf or any of the great theologians. The biggest influence in his life was his mother. Her name was Susanna. We really need to honour our womanfolk. I want to say to the men, we need to step up boys. We need to be the prophet, the priest and the king of the home. The prophet is the one who leads the way. The priest is the one who gets up in the morning, by example, and has a quiet time with Jesus before anyone else rises, and the king is the one who brings home food to feed his family.Today, let's honour our mothers, our wives, our sisters. Let's honour the women of God who are so courageous, who are always there at the end. Thank you Lord for the womenfolk.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 20th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Gospel of Matthew 27:54: “Truly this was the Son of God!” Then if you go to Mark 15:39, the very same comment: “Truly this Man was the Son of God!”It took gentiles, unbelievers, to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You see when they saw what was happening, the earthquakes; the rocks splitting; the graves opening; the saints walking around; a terrible reverence came over them. What saddens me so much at this Easter season, is that there are some churches that do not even celebrate Good Friday. Oh, they celebrate Easter Sunday, The Resurrection, and so do I by the way, but there is a lack of reverence shown for the incredible price that our Lord Jesus Christ paid for our debt and our sin. There is a lack of respect and reverence shown. No crucifixion, no resurrection! I remember Michael Cassidy saying that once and I have never forgotten it. Without the crucifixion there can be no resurrection. Jill and I as new believers, we would come home from church on Good Friday and quietly sit in the garden, maybe with a cup of tea, and just humbly reflect on the gigantic price that Jesus paid for our sinful lives. There is much more reverence required in the church today. I am even talking about dress code. When you go to a special meeting, you get dressed up, don't you? - A wedding or maybe a funeral, but what about coming to church?I always remember one particular Good Friday, we decided at Shalom, to show the movie, The Passion of the Christ. Yes, it is very graphic and maybe for younger children it is not even appropriate, but I want to tell you, I watched that movie and when the movie was finished and the people quietly started leaving our church, I was riveted to my chair. I could not get out of my chair. I was the only one left in the church and I wept and I wept.I went to Israel with my wife, Jill. We went to the Old City and I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As I walked in through those big doors, there are massive doors, there is a little bench inside and on the right-hand side are steps up to where they say was Golgotha. There are two places in Israel, the other one is the garden tomb, which is very special as well, but that particular time, I sat down on that bench and I just broke down. I started to weep uncontrollably. My dear wife had to try and comfort me when I realised what our beloved Master had done for us. This Easter time, please, spend time in the presence of God. Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 19th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Psalms 50:23: “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;…” Then we go straight to the Book of Acts 16:25-26: “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed.”Oh, this morning how are you feeling? Are you feeling bound with chains of fear, stress, depression, anxiety? Why don't you try praising the Lord? You know, there is incredible power in praising the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ inhabits the praise and the worship of His people. One of the strengths of the Salvation Army is their singing and their brass band as they march down the streets, singing the praises of God. We have a boy's school not far from us, up in the beautiful Drakensberg Mountains. They major in music and singing, and before their voices break, they sing. Aah, I want to tell you, ladies I love listening to you singing but when these little boys sing, they reach pitches that no woman can reach as high, and I really feel the presence of Almighty God when these little boys praise and worship the Lord with their instruments and their voices. With the Mighty Men Conferences all over the world, the highlight for me is the praise and worship. It absolutely melts the hearts of hardened men, men who come there who are angry, men who come there who are fighting the good fight and they are down and out, and when the music starts, you want to really see it, it is incredible. You know, they say they can hear us singing from 15 kms away, that's about 8 miles away, when you get tens of thousands of men entering into praise and worship. No wonder the prison gates flew open and the chains fell off the prisoners!I love to watch them. I get a bird's eye view from the platform, tens of thousands. When the music starts they stand there with their arms folded, they are shy maybe, embarrassed, maybe some angry and then as the music proceeds, their arms drop down by their sides, and then after a few more minutes, their hands start wiping tears away from their faces, and then eventually their hands are raised up into the sky, worshipping their King, totally unaware and unconcerned of anybody around them. Then of course that “Amen”, that war cry. “Amen” by the way means, “so be it” and the devil runs for his life.Jesus bless you. Today go out and praise and sing to the glory of God!Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 18th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to 1 Thessalonians 5:24:”Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.Folks, I am so excited today. Do you know that it is the anniversary of 5 years of doing the Thought for The Day, without missing one single day! All the glory, honour and praise go to our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we have not missed a single day, not me, or the team, or the producers, or the editors. We have not missed one single day - not when it has been raining, not when the sun has been beating down, not when there has been wind and ice and heat, not one single day. You know, we have tried very hard not to tell the same story twice in 5 years and it can only be God. I have many friends who are preachers, good preachers and they do say it can only be God if you have not repeated yourself once in 5 years. We are reaching out to the ends of the world every single day. I am talking about Christmas Day, Easter, I am talking about seven days of the week, to the end of the world, in the city, in the bush. I have done it from Israel, I have done it from Namibia, I have done it from all over, wherever we go, literally in sickness and in health. Now a lot of you remember, it wasn't that long ago that I could hardly speak. My voice actually went, but by the grace of God, we managed to get those programmes out to you. I want to take this opportunity to thank our team and to thank our producer, our editors. I want to thank those who have done the pictures faithfully, the music. I want to thank the people who are sending it out every single day. I have a gentleman who is one of my spiritual sons, Anton, he sends it out from Cape Town. I think he has over a hundred broadcast groups that he sends out himself. We don't even know how many people are getting this because we can't find out in any way, but there must be millions of people all over the world, so thank you for listening. Old people, young people, children, women - listen carefully, babies! I am talking about soldiers, I am talking about police stations that have all their soldiers and their policemen standing at ease when they get the Thought for The Day, every single morning. I am talking about schools that play it every morning before school, at school assembly, for doctors, prisoners in jail, many, many, many - people in hospitals, in ICU, getting Thought for The Day every single morning. Folks, babies - I have seen! Mothers have sent me clips which made me cry, babies that are crawling around. They put them on the chair and they play the Thought for The Day and the children don't move. It is God!Cats and dogs, I kid you not. I have got Snowy standing right next to me here, you can see him. Parrots - parrots listening to the Thought for the Day! Jesus Christ's word is going throughout the whole world and I want to say thank you very much for supporting us. Please continue to do so and we will continue to put this out every single morning until the day that the Lord says, “Okay, that's it” and I will stop on that very same day. Thank you for praying for me, most of all and praying for my family and for my loved ones and for our team.Jesus bless you richly as you continue to be faithful in what God has called you to do, whatever that might be!God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 17th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start off in the Book of Habakkuk 2:3:”For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Wait for it today. Oh, my dear friend, wait for it, do not become impatient. That is the message from the Lord Jesus Christ for you and me today. You know, Moses had to wait for forty years before the Lord used him to take the Jews out of Egypt, out of slavery. Joseph was imprisoned and forgotten about before becoming Prime Minister of Egypt. David was hunted like a wild animal by King Saul, for years, but he waited for his time. What about Paul? In my humble opinion probably the greatest of all the apostles. He went out into the unknown for three years, Arabia. Then after fourteen years living in obscurity, he was accepted by the disciples in Jerusalem. Then he went on to write two thirds of the New Testament and performed signs and wonders and miracles, unparalleled. I want to tell you not to give up today. I really believe this message is for somebody who is tired, who has been unnoticed and unappreciated and who has just given up. Don't give up.Alexander Fleming, a farmer's son from Scotland, discovered antibiotics. The single greatest victory ever achieved over disease. Yes, he and some scientists invented penicillin and started antibiotics. He was a very modest man. He did not give up even when for a number of years, when he brought his discovery to the medical board, they barely noticed him and did not give him any time at all, and yet that man changed the course of history. In the year 2000, it was regarded as the greatest and most important discovery of the millennium, the discovery of antibiotics that has saved the lives of millions of people. Why? Well, because he waited for it.Today, I don't know what it is that you're struggling with but take it to Jesus, wait for it and it will come to pass. God bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 16th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. If we go to the New Testament to the Gospel of Mark 14:72: ”A second time the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And when he thought about it, he wept.“ What a sad scripture. To stand up in public for Jesus Christ is not an easy thing, especially when you are in a hostile environment. What do I mean by that? Well, maybe when all your workmates are blaspheming and telling dirty stories, and you stand up and say, ”Sorry boys, I can't take that,” and you get mocked for that. It takes a lot of courage. You see, it's easy to praise the Lord in church when everybody else has got their hands raised and worshipping God, but to do it in a work environment, especially a tough one, whether it be underground mining, whether it be in the workshop, wherever it might be, it can be in the business sector, yes it could even cost you your job if you say the wrong thing at the wrong time.If you tell people you are a Christian when they are enjoying their time of totally disrespecting their wives or their husbands and you stand up and say, ”I love my husband or I love my wife and I will not be unfaithful to them for anything because it's what Jesus requires of me,” you will be shunned and excluded from that group. I think one of the hardest places to stand up for the Lord is probably at school. When all the young people are trying to make a name for themselves and you will not be part of it. Yes, they totally disregard you, and sometimes there is the temptation of compromising your stand for Christ just a little bit so that you can get that promotion at work or get that work opportunity, please do not do it.You know, eventually, Peter repented. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he had a complete 180-degree turnaround. The next thing we read in the Book of Acts is that he preached his first sermon, and no less than 3000 people came to Christ.The world stands aside for a man or a woman who knows where they are going. Make your decision clear today.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 15th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Old Testament, in the Book of Habakkuk 2:2:“Then the Lord answered me and said:“Write the visionAnd make it plain on tablets,That he may run who reads it.”Write the vision down - do you have a vision? You know what they say, “If you are aiming at nothing, you are sure to hit it!” We need a vision. We need a short-term vision, and we need a long-term vision. A short-term vision is to live day by day for Jesus, and the long-term vision is to reach that goal which you believe the Lord has called you to. Proverbs 29:18 says: “Where there is no vision, the people perish;…” The New King James Version says: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint;…” What does that mean? It means if you have no vision, then you have nothing to get up for in the morning. If somebody phoned you and said, “I have heard that you have been selected to play for the national team", whether it be rugby or soccer or cricket, you are not going to be eating hamburgers and drinking Cokes. No, you are going to be up in the morning. You are going to be training and getting ready for the call. Many years ago, I used to get up in my pick-up, (yes, there is a a movie made of it, that's right. It is called Ordinary People), get up early in the morning, drive my pick-up into my maize fields and preach to the maize plants. That is no word of a lie. I had a vision. My vision was to be able to tell multitudes of people about the love of Christ, to tell them that Jesus loves them and has got a plan for them, and I would preach to those maize plants, and then a gentle wind would come and I would pray the prayer of commitment and all the maize plants would bow their heads! But you know, the beautiful thing about that in that movie was, those maize plants, slowly but surely formed into people, and of course we know about what has happened in the Mighty Men phenomenon around the world. Over 20 Mighty Men conferences this year, in places like France, New Zealand, Australia, Canada - all over the world. And I had a vision to preach to the multitudes. Well, it has happened!What is your vision today? Ask Jesus to give you a clear-cut vision. Aim for it and go for it, and He in His time will bring it to pass.Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 14th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to that well-known scripture, 2 Timothy 1:7, Jesus says, “I have not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”I want to tell you a little story about the strongest man in the world. Well, we are going back a little bit to 1956. Yes, his name was Paul Anderson. Paul Anderson went to the Olympic Games in Australia. It was a given that he was going to get the gold medal in the heavyweight division, but when he got to Australia, he got sick. He had a terrible fever. He lost 30 lbs and the doctor said he couldn't participate, but he tried. He came all that way. Apparently, when he walked onto the platform, everyone could see that it was a given, this man weighed over 350lbs. Well, he started the first lift (you only get three chances). He failed miserably. The second one, he failed again. The third one, the last one to make him the gold medalist, he prayed in his heart, “Lord, if You give me the strength to get this bar and this weight over my head, I will serve You for the rest of my life', and at that very moment, he said this himself, God gave him the strength and he pushed that weight over his head and he became the world champion. One lift!What are you struggling with today? What is the lift in your life? What is the challenge that you are struggling with? Folks, I want to tell you, Paul Anderson said, “If I, the strongest man cannot make it through one day without Jesus Christ, how can you?” You know, often God puts us through a test and He gives us an opportunity to call upon Him. You have probably heard this story before, but there was a year on this farm when we had a devastating drought. I had all my money in the crop. I had a young family, everything was at maximum. My overdraft was full, my production loan at the Co-Op was full, I had no money left and there was no rain and the crop was dying in front of my eyes. I said a similar thing as Paul Anderson. I said, “Lord, if you take me through this crop, I will preach the Gospel for the rest of my life.” That's exactly what I am doing at the moment.You know that Paul Anderson went back home and started a youth movement. He started a home for young men. To help young, underprivileged boys, he brought them to his home. They looked up to him, and they respected him. You see, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Today, trust the Lord. He will pull you through.Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 13th of March, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Proverbs 10:19: “In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise.”Then we go to the New Testament to the Gospel of Mark 14:61:”But He kept silent and answered nothing.” That was Jesus Christ when He was being interviewed and He responded by saying nothing. You know, this message probably applies to me more than it applies to you but we need to sometimes keep silent. Jesus never wasted His words. His speech was always “yes” or “no”, but nothing in between. He was decisive. You and I need to become more like that; it will cost us much less pain and confusion. We need to learn to measure our words. Do you know that international wars have started through foolish words? I know of marriages that have been destroyed by men and women who cannot control their tongues. We need to be careful. Many marriages have been destroyed through foolish words. If we haven't got anything good to say about someone, then we'd rather not say a word. The Wesley brothers, John and Charles Wesley, were instrumental by God to start one of the biggest revivals the world has ever known. Charles was the hymn-writer. Some of the most beautiful hymns that we sing were written by Charles Wesley, and John was the evangelist. Charles used to often say about his brother, “If you want to keep a secret then don't tell my brother.” I hope my wife is not listening to this message today.Billy Graham is an evangelist that I have a great respect for. He has literally touched millions and millions of lives all over the world. He wrote his autobiography called, “Just as I am.” It is a very heart-wrenching book because he kept nothing back. He said it all. Right at the back of his book he has a chapter that speaks about regrets. He said, “I have a few regrets”, he said, “one of them is, if I had to do it again I would speak less, I would study more, I would pray more.”I want to say to you today, “Let's keep silent and only speak when we really have to.”Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.