Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 9th of November, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in 1 Samuel 7:12: ”Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” It literally means “stone of help”, and then we go to 1 Corinthians 11:25. Jesus says: ”This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” When they won the battle, to remember how gracious the Lord had been to the children of Israel, Samuel set up a stone, a rock, as a reminder of God’s help and how He had delivered the enemy into Israel's hands. And the same way, Jesus Himself, on the night of His betrayal, when He had broken bread and given thanks, and He had drunk from the cup, He said, "Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me.” It’s so important to remember where the Lord has brought us from.Just outside our little chapel on the farm, we have a big cairn of stones and we put them up there as a remembrance of how the Lord has helped us. I’m talking well over twenty years ago. The Lord has brought us through tremendous droughts. He has grown a crop of maize when there was no hope. He has raised up a crop of maize that has been pummelled to the ground by hail. It is a place also where we remember our loved ones, tragedies and also great successes, funerals and weddings. It is a special place, and even now, I often walk past there before church, and I remember how the Lord has delivered us in times of extreme pressure. Maybe today somewhere in your garden, maybe in your churchyard, maybe in a very special place, you can put up a big stone or a cairn of stones to remember that the Lord has been with us and delivered us.Jesus died for you and me so that we can have eternal life. Break bread, have communion as often as you can, wherever it might be. God bless you as you remember how the Lord has delivered us.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 8th of November, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Colossians 4:2:”Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;” Then we go a little bit further on to 1 Thessalonians 5:17:”…pray without ceasing,…” It is a lifestyle. It is a habit, yes, and a very good one to develop. We need to pray more and speak less. Early this morning, I read something very special by a man of God, and this is what he wrote: “Our prayers often resemble the mischievous tricks of town children who knock at their neighbour's houses and then run away. We often knock at heaven’s door and then run off into the spirit of the world instead of waiting for entrance to be granted. We act as if we were afraid of having our prayers answered.”Isn’t that so true? We pray but we don’t even believe that we’re going to get it, do we? Oh, my dear friend, I want to say to you today, we need to pray intentionally. We need to pray expecting an answer from God because the Lord is waiting for you and me so that He can answer our prayers.We should pray when we go out. I was visiting a grandson of mine at university and we sat down in the restaurant, where we took him out for a meal, and as the waitress brought the food, we automatically held hands and prayed earnestly. We’d pray before we get in the motorcar to go on a trip. We pray all the time. It is a way of life. Jill and I will never go to sleep without praying. We pray in the morning. It’s the first thing we do when we open our eyes. We don’t run away like those naughty children knocking on the door. We wait at the entrance so that the Lord can answer our prayers.Today, we need to start to pray, continually and earnestly. Not for other people to see us, but not afraid either. We pray in the marketplace; we pray in church; we pray at home; we pray when we are our own. I pray when I ride my horse, I pray when I ride my mountain bike, I pray for others.Many a time, I’ve stopped at a garage to put in petrol and the Lord’s told me that lady sitting in that car is battling. I walk over and ask if I can have a word of prayer with her. Her eyes fill with tears and she says, ”Yes please.” Let us pray. God will answer every single one of our prayers. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 7th of November, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Psalms 34:19:”Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Then we go to 2 Corinthians 1:4: ”(God) who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” You might be asking yourself a question today, ”Lord, why am I going through such deep waters? Lord, don’t you care? Lord, why do you allow me to suffer like this?” Folks, unless you have been through the fire, you can’t comfort other people. Unless you have been there, you don’t really understand what they are going through. I read somewhere a while back that most millionaires, men who have made it, have gone bankrupt at least three times before they make it!  We need to understand something. If we are going to be of any use to our fellow man, we must be able to identify ourselves with their suffering, and we can only do that if we’ve been through it ourselves.I remember a church service that took place. The man who was speaking gave his testimony. He had come from the Eastern Bloc, from Russia, some place where Christians were terribly oppressed. He was trying to tell the people about how God had helped him, but the people were not listening to him. He got no response at all, until eventually he stopped preaching and he started undoing the buttons of his shirt and then he took his shirt off and he turned around and he showed the congregation his back. His back looked like a ploughed field. He had been thrashed with a whip and he had scars right down his back. He was trying to say to the people that, ”I understand the suffering of the Christians that are in prison. We must pray for them,” and he had instant attention. Straight away, everybody was watching and listening to himToday, do not be concerned about the hardship you are going through. God is going to use this trial, He will pull you through. He’ll definitely pull you through if you keep your eyes on Him, and you will have a story to tell others who are going through the same thing.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 6th of November, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to 1 Samuel 3:19: “So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.”  Then we go straight to the Gospel of John 8:32, and Jesus says: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”How are you feeling this morning? Are you feeling like you are tied up? Do you feel you are in bondage? Do you feel that maybe you are not trustworthy? I want to tell you a story. This little boy, named Samuel and the Lord told him what was going to happen to the High Priest, Eli.  Now, Samuel was being brought up by Eli. Hannah, Samuel’s mother, had taken the little boy, because she promised the Lord she would, and gave him to the High Priest and their sons, and he was going to serve all the days of his life in the Temple. But he had a dream, and he saw exactly what was going to happen to Eli.Now Eli knew that God was speaking to Samuel, and he said to Samuel, “Tell me the truth. What did God tell you?” That little boy had the courage, and this is the punchline. You and I have to have the courage to stand up and tell the truth because the truth will set us free. That is exactly what Jesus is saying to you and me this morning. And because that little boy told him the truth. He didn’t know what was going to happen to him but he told him all about Eli. Everything he told Eli and his two sons happened to them, because they were living in sin. But I want to tell you that God was with that little boy, Samuel. He grew up to be one of the greatest prophets that Israel has ever had. He never defaulted once. Why? Because the truth shall set you free. I want to say to that gentleman, sir, this is a tough one. You need to go and tell your wife the truth. You have had an affair. She knows it but you have always denied it. Go and sit down and tell her the truth. Repent and God will set you free. Tell the truth, even if it is going to get you into trouble. Go and tell your boss that you have been dishonest. Ask for forgiveness, and I tell you what, he will forgive you, and he will trust you and God will promote you. Even if it makes you unpopular at school, young lady, you tell the girls, “I am a virgin. I am staying that way until the night I marry my husband.” You will be very unpopular, but I want to tell you something now. You will help a lot of young girls to do the same. Close the door on the lies of the devil. He is the one who keeps holding you. Don’t say, you'll go to join, don't say that or she will divorce you. It is a lie. Tell the truth, just like Samuel did to Eli. God used him to be one of the greatest prophets to Israel. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 5th of November, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to 1 Samuel 3:10: “Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.”  The other scripture is Psalm 46:10: Be still, and know that I am God;…”You and I need to start to listen to the word of the Lord, and once we have listened like the little boy Samuel did, then we can speak. Unfortunately, the age in which we are living now - everything is instant. That’s right, instant coffee, instant noodles, fast foods. So we programme ourselves to do everything on the run. I have seen it. I have seen young people trying to eat while they are running, walking. No-one is sitting and listening. We need to understand, with Jesus we must wait. I had the privilege of travelling the world, and I want to tell you the one thing that would really distress me. I would go to New Zealand or maybe to Australia, or maybe Canada, maybe the USA, and I would speak to groups of people and often I would see people sitting there with the tears running down their faces, and they would come up to me afterwards and say, we just love to hear that beautiful South African accent when you speak. Then they will say, “Well, you know, we left South Africa, and we didn’t pray about it, and we didn’t wait to hear the voice of the Lord confirm what we should do and we made a bad decision. God did not want us here. What we have done is, we have burnt our bridges. We have sold up everything, we can’t go back. Now the Lord does undertake, please hear me clearly. He does compensate, He does make a way but it is not His best for you.The little boy, Samuel listened to the voice of God. Three times the Lord spoke to him. Three times, he went to Eli, the High Priest, thinking he was calling him. “No, I am not calling you, son.” Then Eli realised God was calling him. He said, “Go and listen.” And then the Lord started to speak to Samuel. Samuel was one of the greatest prophets who ever lived. He never once faltered. He did exactly what God told him to do, and as a result, he had an extremely close relationship with God. Today, start to learn to slow down. Start to learn to listen to the voice of the Lord, and He will speak to you in your heart and He will confirm whatever it is that you are asking Him. If He tells you nothing, that means you stay where you are. If He tells you to go, you go. If He tells you to come back, you come back. You do exactly what He tells you, and your life will be much more peaceful and successful. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 4th of November, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in 1 Corinthians 16:9: ”For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” Then we go to the Book of Colossians 4:3: ”…meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains,” A great door of opportunity open, but much opposition, many adversaries. There’s a cost involved if you really want to serve Jesus Christ. Whether it be in the pulpit, whether it be in the workplace, whether it be at school, university. Great doors of opportunity will be opened, but they always come at a price, and I want to suggest to you today it’s more spiritual than physical.For over forty years, I have driven out of this little farm called Shalom. With tears often running down my face as I have just said goodbye to my dear wife once again and all my little children, a hard price to pay. Are you prepared to do it, and do it with all your heart or not? I would have many a conversation driving down the road to go and catch that aeroplane and fly overseas to another continent for a few weeks. “Lord, I really don’t want to do this. I am a farmer, Lord. I’m a happy farmer, I love farming. Oh, but Jesus, You have seen fit to open a huge door for me, a wonderful opportunity to speak to many multitudes of people, but I miss my wife, I miss my children. I miss the farm.” - many adversaries.For me, I love telling people about Jesus, but then I’ve got to go to that hotel room again and sit there on the other side of the world and trust that the Lord is looking after my dear wife and my children. It is a price, folks, but it is a spiritual price. You must understand that when Paul wrote the letter in Colossians, he was actually in chains in the dungeon but he still regarded it as a great opportunity to tell people about Jesus. We must do the same and there is no retirement, there is no slowing down, there is no stopping. We must do it till the end by His grace.Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 3rd of November, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in 1 Samuel 1:28. This is Hannah speaking: ”Therefore I also have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord.” Then, of course, we go to John 3:16: ”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to find out the exact meaning of the word, ”lent.” It means, allow someone to use something on the understanding that they will return it. Now Hannah had been waiting for a baby for how long? Many years. She was mocked by the people in the community. She went up to the Temple. She cried before the Lord. Eventually the Lord heard her. He gave her the most beautiful baby. Yes, I’m talking about Samuel. Samuel is one of the few prophets who never faltered. He was steadfast from the day he was born until the day he went home to be Jesus. Hannah made an agreement. She said, “Lord, if You give me that child I will give him back to You.” Now the time came. I mean, can you imagine how this woman felt? She was suckling this baby on her breast. I believe in those days it would have been maybe three years until he was weaned. And then she had to go up to the temple and then she gave him back to God, but what she said was that he shall be lent to the Lord all the days of his life. I want to say that God, our Heavenly Father, understood the heart of Hannah because He gave, not lent, His only begotten Son so that you and I could have eternal life.There might be a mother, a younger mother, an older mother, a granny, who is now in a position that she has to lend her child to the world. They have completed their educational studies, they are going to university or they are going to take a trade or they are immigrating and you have got to lend your child back to God. Today, do it. I am going to pray for you:Father,I pray for strength, for courage, for that mother. Only she understands the pain of being able to say goodbye and trust her loved one into Your capable hands. Lord, give that mother, give that granny, give that single mother courage and strength to do it and to do it joyfully, knowing that You will watch over them.In Jesus’ name, amen.God bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus precious name! It is Monday morning, the 2nd of November, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Genesis 18:14. God asks Sarah: ”Is anything too hard for the Lord? “ Oh, I want to speak to mothers, potential mothers. I want to talk especially to ladies today who cannot have a baby. That’s what God has laid on my heart. Matthew 7:7: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.“ Early this morning, while I was praying, I remembered Hannah, that godly woman, couldn’t have a child. She went to the temple, she was weeping, she was praying under her breath, just her lips were moving. Eli, the priest thought she was drunk. No, no. She was wailing because she couldn’t have a baby, but God gave Hannah the most beautiful child. His name was Samuel. He was one of the only prophets who never faulted to the end of his life.What about Sarah, ninety years old, and God asked her a question, ”Is there anything too hard for me?” What about Elizabeth, well advanced in age? She gave birth to a man who made the roads straight for Jesus Christ, John the Baptist. What about Samson? Probably the strongest man in the Old Testament physically, we don’t even know what his mother’s name was. His father’s name was Manoah. God gave them a child. I want to say to you today, and I’m saying, “Mother”. You say, ”But Angus, I don’t have a child.” “But you want a child.” “Yes, I desperately do.” Well I’m calling you “Mother” by faith. What is required is persistence. Yes, asking, seeking, knocking. Now I want to pray a simple prayer for you and I want to pray this prayer after me:Dear Lord Jesus, Today I am desperate for a baby. Lord, I have been waiting for so long. Today, by faith, I receive that child which is coming and Lord, I promise, I promise to dedicate that child to You, to bring that child up in the fear of God and I thank You Lord, for the soon-coming baby. In Jesus name. Amen.I want you to cling on to this promise of God and the day that you conceive, please let us know.God bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye. 

I greet you in Jesus precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 1st of November, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Isaiah 25:8:”He will swallow up death forever, And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces;” Then we go to 1 Corinthians 15:55: "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”Death, where is your sting? Now where is your victory? Who's afraid of you now? No, we are not afraid of you. I want to say to you today, death is the beginning of life, life eternal. Many, many years ago on this farm, Shalom, we had a terrible tragedy. We lost my little four-year-old nephew, my brother's son, when he fell off the tractor that I was driving. Probably the darkest day of my life, but Jesus Christ never leaves us and He never forsakes us. Maybe you’re going through the same thing. I want to tell you some good news. Your loved one, as long as they know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, is not dead. They are in Heaven and they are waiting for you and me.About three months after that tragedy, my dear brother had a vision at night, he had a dream. He said, as clear as day, and he dreamt that his little son Alastair, blonde hair, blue eyes, was running through an emerald green field of grass, and when he called out to him, he said, "Daddy, I am in Heaven. I am with Jesus. I’m not afraid. I am very happy and I don’t want to come back to earth, but I am waiting for you in Heaven.” And my brother knows that, and his dear wife and his family and I know that too and that is the hope that we have.So today, if you are mourning, if you are weeping for a lost one, that’s okay. You can do that, in fact you have to do that, but please never forget the fact that death has lost its sting. When Jesus Christ said, ”It is finished.” When He was hanging on the cross, He meant it. Jesus is not dead, He’s alive. Your loved one is alive, and we need to be ready. You know, if your loved one could speak to me today, they would say, "Angus, please tell my mother, tell my wife, tell my child that I’m not dead but I want to see them in Heaven one day.”We need to run the race, we need to finish it strong, and we need to finish it with Jesus Christ holding our hand.Have a wonderful day. God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 31st of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in Ephesians 1:7:”In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” Then the next one, a little bit further on in the Book of Colossians 1:14:”in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Jesus Christ has paid the price for you and me. We are sinful people. We can try as long as we like to justify our sins, but we can’t. In the Old Testament, they were continually offering up sacrifices for their sins, but it didn’t work. Father God sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross to pay the ultimate price for your sin, young man, for your sin, young lady.I looked up the meaning. “Redeemer” means that He pays the price to rescue humanity from the bondage of sin, spiritual death and separation from God. The Lord has paid a tremendous price for you and me, and He has paid it in full. When He died on the cross He said, ”It is finished.” Hallelujah! And He meant it. That means you can walk free. Repent of your sin, ask the the Lord to forgive you and He will do it. It is something that is very hard to understand. You say, ”Every sin I’ve ever committed, Angus?” Yes, every single sin that you have ever committed.I was at a prayer meeting this morning, and I heard a very sad story of a man who is busy dying at the moment because he will not accept the fact that Jesus Christ has paid for his sin. He said that his sins are too terrible for God to forgive. That’s a lie, and it comes from the pit of hell.You know that old song, I think we have sung it before haven’t we?He paid a debt He did not oweI owed a debt I could not payI needed someone to wash my sins awayAnd now I sing a brand new songAmazing graceChrist Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.Pray this prayer after me.Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for dying on the cross of Calvary for a sinner like me. I confess all of my sins to You today, and by faith I believe that You have forgiven me. Amen.God bless you and Goodbye.