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Church
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 21st of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Proverbs 27:17:”As iron sharpens iron, So a friend sharpens a friend.” Then we go straight to the New Testament, to the Book of Hebrews 10:25: “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.” It is so important for Christians to meet on a Sunday at church, if it is at all possible. Now I have got a little message from a dear man just the other day, saying he is so concerned. There are many churches in his area that, since the COVID-19 epidemic, have not started again. People are just not going to church. We need to go to church. The Lord is telling us that it’s very important that we meet together, and I think the devil will try everything in his power to separate us because he knows what happens when two or three are gathered together in Jesus’ name. Yes - there He is in the midst of them, iron sharpening iron! Do not neglect the gathering of the brethren.I am talking about a church on Sunday, and I'm talking about prayer groups. We need to meet in the church, outside the church, on sports days, on camping trips, we need to fellowship together, and that is what makes us sharp because we learn from each other, encourage each other and sometimes, if necessary, rebuke each other if a man or a woman is going off on a tangent. Jesus bless you as you continue to meet together,Goodbye.
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2:24
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2:24
Friend of Sinners
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 20th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Gospel of Luke 23:4: “So Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no fault in this Man.” Oh folks, Jesus is known as the Friend of sinners. Pontius Pilate was an unbeliever. He was not of the Jewish faith. In fact, he was a gentile, and yet he identified that Jesus Christ was an innocent man. When all the religious people were accusing Him and wanted to put Him to death, it took an unbeliever to speak up for Jesus!If we go to Matthew 11:19, Jesus said, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ’Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ ” I want to say to you today, be careful before you start throwing stones because you might have a very big surprise one day when you get to Heaven. Jesus came to heal the sick, not the healthy. He says, “A doctor heals sick people, not healthy people.” That is why He was always found with outcasts, tax collectors, prostitutes - those that society cast aside. I want to say to you and I am speaking from my heart today, I love people, irrespective of who they are, because Jesus loves them too, and I have had more response while I am doing a massive campaign from unbelievers than I do from the so-called, I said, “so-called” righteous. When a man realises what he has done and he needs a Saviour, he does a 180-degree turn around immediately. I have seen it with my own eyes. We need to understand one thing. God has put eternity in the heart of a man. Every man knows deep down in his heart what is right, what is wrong, even Pontius Pilate. Today, let us love people, never compromise our stand as Christians, but give people an opportunity to meet the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and He will save them.Jesus bless you and goodbye.
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2:48
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2:48
Soften Your Heart
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 19th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Psalms 51:10-11: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”Then we go to the Book of Exodus 8:15: “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them, as the Lord had said.” This morning, I believe the Lord wants to speak to you and me about a hardened heart. It is such a sad thing to see, isn’t it, somebody who has a hard heart? It makes that person angry, self-righteous, and makes them self-centred, causing them to lose out. Pharaoh lost out badly. The Lord gave him many opportunities to soften his heart but he did not. Eventually, it cost Pharaoh his whole nation. Do not harden your heart. I want to tell you a little story. When I was a young man and farming, I would come home for breakfast like most farmers do. We’d get up early in the morning, get the work started, everybody going, and then come in and have our breakfast. I would sit at the kitchen table in our little house and I could see out the door, and there was a little path that went up to the gate, and I would often see a salesman coming through the gate and I would observe his attitude. If he had a hardened heart, he would walk past our animals, our dogs and our cats, and push them out of the way with his foot. He wouldn’t acknowledge our little children playing in the garden. Obviously, he had a lot of responsibilities and problems in his heart, but he got very little business from me. Then there would be a salesman who would come through the gate and he would see my dog and my cat. He would stop, put his briefcase down, and pat the dog. He didn’t see that I was watching him, and then he would see one of my little children playing in the garden. He would go and greet them, get down on his knees, say, “What is your name, son?” Then he would say, “Where is your daddy?” “No, he is in the house.” Then he would walk into the house, and obviously, he got all of the business. Today, soften your heart. I know you have been through a lot of tests. People have let you down, people have hurt you, but Jesus hasn’t. Don’t be like Pharaoh and throw it all away because of your hardened heart. Today soften your heart and the Lord bless you immensely.God bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.
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3:09
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3:09
Betrayal
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 18th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Gospel of Matthew 26:14-16:”Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said,” What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?” And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver. So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.” This morning the Lord has laid on my heart to share with us the word, ”Betrayal.” I don’t think there’s anything worse, is there? I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the meaning of this word. It says, “To be disloyal to someone, to be unfaithful, to breach trust. Deception, double-dealing, stab in the back, sell out, double cross.”I left my prayer room and I went through to the house, and my wife, Jill, was making the bed, and I said to Jill, out of the blue, ”What is the worst kind of betrayal do you think there is for a woman?” She looked at me, she said to me, ”Angus, unfaithfulness is the worst kind of betrayal,” she thinks for a woman, when a man is unfaithful to his wife. It must have really hurt the Lord Jesus Christ when the soldiers came into the garden and arrested Jesus but what was even worse was that Judas Iscariot said, ”I will tell you which one it is, out of the disciples, when I kiss Him.” He came and he kissed Jesus on the neck, the utmost betrayal. That’s a very hard thing to come back from.Now you might be saying, ”But how can we counteract that? How can prevent that from happening?” Well, I want to tell you a couple of simple things that we employ here at Shalom Ministries. Number one is accountability. There are no lone rangers in the Kingdom of God. There are no one-man shows. We are a team. I have got five men that I am responsible to. I have asked them to mentor me, to guide me and to watch over me. I cannot make my own decisions. I can go to them and say, ”This is what I believe the Lord has said”, and they will pray about it and give me their counsel. It gives me a lot of peace in my heart.When you go out, young man, young lady, to go out and tell people about the Lord, you go out two by two. “Why?” You ask - because that’s the way the Lord did it. He sent the disciples out two by two so the one could watch the other one’s back. I want to say to young people, when you’re dating, don’t go out on your own, go out with a group of people. The devil is a liar and a thief. That’s what he did to Judas Iscariot. Judas went on his own and betrayed the Lord. If you’re in business, always have a double signature. Be prepared for someone else to stand up for you when you make a decision and ultimately ask yourself the question, "What would Jesus do?" and then do it.God bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye
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3:33
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3:33
God's Mouthpiece
I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 17th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.We start in the Book of Exodus 7:1: “So the Lord said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to pharaoh,…” What a responsibility to be God’s mouthpiece, but oh, friends, isn’t that the case with you and me today? When we speak to people in a fallen world, people who see us as followers of Jesus, when we speak they perceive that the words you and I are speaking are from God. What a great responsibility we have!Then we go to the Book of John 8:10-11:”When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no-one but the woman , He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no-one condemned you?” She said, “No-one Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; Go and sin no more.” - The words of our beloved Saviour. Now, you and I need to speak the same way. We are not here to condemn people because people who live in glass houses don’t throw stones, do they? That’s a fact, but our counsel, our words, must be sweet because one day we might have to eat them, and that’s not a joke, is it? I want to tell you a little story about a dental student from Central Africa. This happened a few years ago. He wrote me a heartbreaking letter to say, “Uncle Angus, I have been studying at university. I am in my final year but I can’t take it anymore. It is too much for me, I am not getting through it. I am really wanting to give up. What should I do?” I wrote back to him. I said, “Young man, press on. The Bible tells you in Philippians 4:13, that you can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens you.” I never heard from him again for another six months and then I got a beautiful email written and it was the dental student. “Uncle Angus, I want to tell you that I took your advice (God’s advice) and I pressed through and I passed my degree.” Signed Dr…, and he put his name there.Oh folks, this is an opportunity that you and I have to be God’s mouthpiece. It is a very, very serious responsibility. You cannot condone sin. If there is a couple living together out of wedlock, tell them they must get married if they want a blessing on their marriage. Tell a young man not to get into debt. If you are borrowing more than you own, you’re in debt. Don’t do that. God doesn’t want you to do that. Sometimes we are unpopular for that kind of advice, but we need to do it if we are going to be God’s mouthpiece, for the sake of those who Jesus died for. God bless you and have a wonderful day,Goodbye.
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3:23
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3:23