Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 10th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Galatians 3:27:
“For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
We must be seen by the world as being different, different people. They must see Jesus in us without us having to tell them. Do you remember that story? I think I told you years ago about a man who was sailing in the South Sea Islands, and he had a shipwreck. He was the only survivor, and the local inhabitants were going to kill him but they decided to leave him. They said, “We are going to see how you live, and we believe that you are one of those missionaries who are coming here. We don’t want to hear anything.” So the man never said a word, he just lived the life. He lived with them for many, many years. Eventually, he died and they buried him.
A few years later another sailing ship arrived at that island with missionaries, and when the missionaries came to the island they got the local people to sit and they were telling them about Jesus, but they noticed that these people weren’t surprised, they weren’t excited. They were nodding their heads in full agreement. When the missionaries had finished preaching they said, “Have you heard the Gospel before?” They said, “No”. “Well, we see that you are not surprised about the story of Jesus.” They said, “No, we are not surprised.” “Why?” And they said, “Come with us.” And they took these missionaries to a very special place, and there was a grave, and they said, “The man that you are speaking about used to live here with us, and he died and we buried him here.”
That man was living the life of Jesus Christ, without saying one word. They saw Jesus in him, in the way in which he acted, in the way in which he loved them, in the way in which he denied himself for their sakes. They had met Jesus through a man who lived there for many years and was not allowed to speak about the Lord.
Today, let you and I put on Jesus. Wherever we go, let people come to us and say to us, “We see there is something different about you. Can you please explain to us what it is?” Then we will be able to say to them with a nice smile, a gentle smile, humbly. “Maybe it is Jesus Christ. Would you like to meet Him as well?”
Father God,
I pray in Jesus’ name, that my dear friend who is listening to this message, will also put on Jesus Christ every single day.
I ask these things in Your precious name, amen.
God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 9th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Deuteronomy 18:22:
“when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”
Folks, I really want to say to you this morning, and I know men who have got a prophetic ministry, and they are very accurate, and they love the Lord, and you can see it in their conduct. They are men that you can trust, but we must be very careful. The Lord is warning us this morning, not to be misled by a presumptuous prophetic word. I have heard of people who have sold their homes and immigrated to another country because they felt that a prophetic word was spoken over them, only to find when they got to the other side that they had listened to a man who was speaking presumptuously. It was not the word. We really need to test the spirit. That is why it is so important to let the Holy Spirit give you His peace.
Now, we go to the Gospel of John 1:44-45. Now this is a prophetic word:
“Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Now that is a prophetic word you can believe. “We have found Him…” We need to use the Bible to confirm a prophetic word that has been spoken. If it is not in the Bible, I don’t care who it is, you cannot believe it. It must be confirmed through the word of God, and that gives you security, that gives you peace, and that shows you the difference between a prophetic word and a false prophecy. If that word cannot be confirmed with God’s Holy Word, do not listen or believe him.
So I want to say to you today, don’t be afraid, no, not at all. I have had many prophetic words spoken over my life and they have come to pass, but I have also had other words spoken over my life which I have cast aside because they are untrue and my spirit, the Spirit of God in me, does not witness with it. It is very, very important, especially for young people today.
If God has not told you what to do, then don’t do it. If God gives you a word, and then it is confirmed through somebody, sometimes a stranger, then you know it is not a coincidence, it is God.
Have a wonderful day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 8th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Acts 27:10: Paul speaking:
“Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives.”
Now Paul, the man of God, the apostle, gave them warning when they were at sea because the winds were getting very dangerous, and he suggested that they sit tight, but no, if you look at verse 11:
“Nevertheless the centurion was more persuaded by the helmsman and the owner of the ship than by the things spoken by Paul.”
So the so-called experts, the ship’s captain, the owner of the ship - of course they had ulterior motives - they didn’t listen to the man of God, and they carried on with their ways and we know what happened in the end. Everything that Paul said happened exactly like that. They lost everything, the cargo, the ship - they were totally lost.
I want to tell you about something that happened to me, many years ago. The Lord led us to hire the biggest tent in the world at that time. It was built in the UK, it was enlarged in Europe, and it was shipped out to Johannesburg, South Africa, for the first Earth Summit meeting. We heard about it. We hired it - seventeen 40-ton rigs brought down to the farm, and it took three weeks to erect it. It was a magnificent tent, but we had 30,000 men inside, that was the capacity of the tent, and 30,000 men outside. It was an amazing event. Many of you listening to this message today were there. But the interesting thing that I want to share with you is that after the event was finished, and it was wonderful, God moved powerfully, a group of businessmen contacted our office and said, “We want to buy the tent and give it to you so that you can carry on preaching the Gospel”. Well, I mean that is amazing. This tent was worth millions and millions of dollars.
So I went into my closet. We went into prayer and I sought the Lord, and I felt the Lord say, “Do not touch the tent.” I mean, I couldn’t believe it. So I went back to the men and I said, “Thank you very much for your very kind offer but we feel the Lord does not want us to take the tent.” I only found out later that the tent, on average, cost a million rand to erect each time, then had to be taken down and shipped to the next place, and we would have to hire a whole fleet of trucks. Of course, needless to say, the very next year we had that next conference with 120,000 men and counting, who would never have fitted into the tent.
Today, listen to the word of God and not to man’s opinion, and things will go better for you.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 7th of July, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of John 11:21-25:
”Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”
You see what happened there? Martha was one of Jesus’ best friends. Martha, Mary and Lazarus, he used to stay at their house many times. Now she asked, ”Lord, I’m praying for my brother.” He was dead. Jesus said to her, ”Your brother will not die, he will live.” Now she misunderstood him, she thought He was talking about the resurrection. No, He was talking about the fact that he was about be raised from the dead immediately. Do not limit God!
So often, we ask the wrong things. See, after that, Jesus went to the tomb, called Lazarus out of the tomb, and he was raised from the dead. Martha thought that the Lord was speaking about the day of resurrection when we are all going to be raised up. No, we need to listen to God and we must not ever limit God. He can do anything. I know. I’ve experienced it in my own life. I had an experience on this very farm where a woman was struck by lightening and all her friends told me she was dead. I prayed for her and God raised her up. That is a fact. Do not limit God!
That wonderful missionary, William Carey, who took the gospel to India said, ”Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.” I heard one old faithful man of God say, ”He who aims for the stars, aims too low.” We must aim above the stars because God is not limited in anything. Do not limit God today. I don’t know what it is that you are trusting Him for, but I’m going to pray for you that God will open your spiritual eyes just to get a glimpse of how big and how great your God is!
Father,
I pray for my friend listening to this message right now, who has been limiting You, Lord. Their expectation of You is so low and yet Lord You want to give them so much. Lord, give them spiritual eyes to see well above anything that they can even dream of, and we thank You Lord that You will answer that prayer of faith.
In Jesus precious name.
Amen.
God bless you and remember, aim high and never limit God!
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 6th of July 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Acts 27:1 and I’m reading one verse:
”And when it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustan Regiment.”
Are you on a journey today? Of course you are. All of us are on a journey, and just like Paul, the Apostle, we are trusting the Lord Jesus Christ to get us to our destination safely, but if you read on from this from this story, you’ll see that Paul went through a lot. Eventually, the ship he was sailing on actually sank, but no one drowned. Paul was trusting the Lord and encouraging the people.
This journey that you and I are on is not a bed of roses, not at all. God never promised us a bed of roses, but He did promise us that He would never, leave us and that He would never forsake us. Hebrews 13:5. So where about are you on the journey at the moment? Are you starting your journey? Are you completing your journey? Well, only God knows, but what we do need to do is to take one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time, it’s all we can manage, but we must be sure of our destination.
Remember, if you aim at nothing, you’re going to hit it. If you’ve got no port of call to aim for, then you’re going to be wandering in the sea. Paul knew he had to go to Rome. He knew that he was going to suffer and he knew that he was going to die for the Lord, but he could still be steadfast, encourage other people and run his race. What a man of God! The men here at Shalom, we have a prayer meeting on a Wednesday morning at five o’clock and one of our favourite songs is the following one:
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
I have decided to follow Jesus
No 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.
Amen. Let’s set our sights, like Paul, on the destination which is ultimately heaven itself.
Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you and goodbye.