Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 13th of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening (discipline) of the Almighty.” Job 5:17
Then we go to Psalm 94:12:
”Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law,…”
I want you to focus on one word in both of those Scriptures, “happy”. Why is he happy? Because he has been disciplined? Because he or she is secure, safe, respectful, confident, trustworthy and polite. Discipline makes him or her obedient and so dependable. You’ll find that when those children grow up, they will climb the corporate ladder very, very quickly. Why? Because people can trust them, because they are respectful.
I want to tell you something, in the Afrikaans tradition. Any man who is older than you by ten years, you call him, ”Oom” which means “Uncle” or “Mister”. You treat him with respect. You take your hat off when you speak to him, and folks, I’m telling these things are serious because if you get someone who’s arrogant, a little child who comes up and calls you by your first name without you telling him to, straight away he’s losing brownie points big time.
We need to respect one another. We need to respect God. He is not “the man upstairs”. No, no, no. He’s the Saviour of the world, and this is what the Lord is saying. Happy is the man or woman who is disciplined and chastened, because then we respect other people, their property, and who they are, whether they’re black, white, coloured, or any other colour, old or young. It’s a wonderful way to live. I’ve always told the young preachers, ”When you preach from that platform, you preach up to people. You never preach down to people. Never think of people inferior to yourself because if you’re a minister, the word “minister” means servant. You are a foot-washer, you need to act like one.”
So today the Lord says, ”Happy are you when you are put straight.” So when somebody comes and gives you some good advice, don’t be proud, don’t be arrogant. Just say, ”Thank you very much, sir.” Eat the meat and spit the bones out.
Have a wonderful day.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 12th of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go straight to the Book of Psalms 32:8. The Lord says:
”I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.”
Then we go straight to the Book of Romans 5:3-4, in the New King James version:
”And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Jesus allows us to go through tough and difficult times. Why? Because He wants to teach you and me a lesson, because He has greater things for us to do as we achieve each and every one of those tests. I want to tell you a little story. Many, many years ago, I was twenty-three years old, actually, and I got a job in Central Africa. Two partners, two old gentlemen, had a huge farming operation. These men ran 1500 beef cattle, 1000 acres of commercial maize, 160 acres of seed maize, and 40 acres of vegetables. These men were operators. Two Englishmen, the one came from Yorkshire, he was tough and he was rough. The other man was an absolute gentleman. He was soft and he was gentle.
These men said to me at 06h05 in the morning (we started work at 06h00), “I don’t want to see one worker standing in the yard.” We had 150 workers. I was the only manager. We had to get the work done. He taught me to carry a notebook in my pocket, this gentleman, and he had a mind like a scalpel. He would ask me any question about the farm and I had to give him the right answer. Three times I tried to resign, walked into the office, said, ”I can’t take it anymore, sir, I’m leaving.” He took the resignation, tore it up, chucked it in the waste paper basket and said, ”Come on, my boy, you can do this. Get back to work.” But folks, I tell you what, that man taught me more about life and staff management.
He was an absolute blessing, but at the time - I could have killed him, but I want to say to you today, young man, young lady, you’re going through a tough time, don’t worry. God is teaching you a lesson through that situation, and when you overcome it, He’s going to take you to the next level.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 11th of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
Romans 12:4: “For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, …”
Then we go straight to 1 Corinthians 12:14:
“For in fact the body is not one member but many.”
In the Kingdom of God, there is no superstar, there are no one-man shows. Take a football team: there are 11 players. Each one has a specific job to do. A football team is not 11 defenders. If they were, no one would ever score against them, but they would never win a match because there would be no one to put the ball in the other net. They are not all strikers. Why? Because if they were strikers, the match would probably be about 20 goals, but the opposition would have 25 goals because there is no one to defend the team. They would lose on goal average.
I want to tell you a true story. Many years ago, I am not going to tell you which team, because they were so wealthy they bought all the best players they wanted, so they had 11 superstars, and each one had his own idea of what he wanted to do. It got so bad that, in desperation, the manager, a very brave and famous soccer player himself, did something drastic. He dropped the first team completely and brought in the youngsters, the under twenty’s. They were young men, full of talent but raw, and completely dedicated to whatever the manager said. With that young team, they won the triple crown. They won all the different competitions. Why? Because these young men listened first to the manager and only did what he told them to do.
Now we have a manager. His name is Jesus Christ. He has made us all differently. We need to start to pull together as a team and then the world will hear the Gospel.
Today, work in the area God has gifted you for, and you will see the difference.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day. Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 10th of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Psalms 90:10:
“The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years,…”
Then we go to James 4:14 which says:
“For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.”
Where are you and I spending all our time worrying? We worry so much about temporary things. We worry because somebody doesn’t like us, because somebody has decided not to speak to us, because we are not as popular now as we were a few weeks ago. Why are we crowding our minds and our thoughts all day long because we have been offended, because things are not going the way we think, and we neglect to concentrate on eternal things. The worldly things we can see, the eternal things we can’t see and maybe that is the reason.
So we can see that person there who doesn’t like us and we have to deal with it. We can see the situation around us. We can hear it, we can even smell it, sometimes we can taste it, but eternal things, things of great consequence, we are going to spend time with Jesus forever and ever and ever. How much time do we spend thinking about those things? If we do, it will make the things of this world become insignificant. They won’t count. They won’t mean a thing!
We are so worried about what we are going to eat tomorrow and we don’t think about spending millions and millions and millions of years in the presence of Almighty God, where there is joy, peace and hope and every good thing you can think of. If Christ is for you, the Bible tells us, there is no man that can stand against you.
Let us start to concentrate on things that have eternal value. Let us start to develop our prayer life, to talk with Jesus, to spend time with Him, because we are going to be spending time with Him forever and ever, and those silly little things and those accusations and those little words which are not true that are spoken about you, don’t worry about them! Just dust them off your shoulder like you would a little leaf or something that has fallen on your shoulder, just dust it off.
Today, let us concentrate on things worth praying about.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 9th of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Book of Judges 14:18:
“What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?”
That is a riddle.
I looked up the definition of what a riddle is in the Oxford Dictionary, it is a puzzling question, and that is what Samson, one of the strongest men in the Old Testament, asked the men at the wedding.
Then we go to Psalm 119:103:
”How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
Isn’t that beautiful? And then, of course, John 1:1:
”In the beginning was the Word…”
Oh yes, His name is Jesus!
I’m a honey-keeper. It’s a hobby of mine, and that honey, when it comes out of the comb, is so sweet and so strong, sweet to the mouth, and it lingers in your mouth all day long. That’s why honey-keepers enjoy their profession so much, but folks, I want to tell you: I used to work for a company in Swaziland many, many years ago, and they exported all their sugar to Great Britain. There was a company there called Tate and Lyle. Their syrup was in a green tin and on the cover of that tin was a picture of a lion lying dead and a swarm of bees coming out of that lion’s carcass. That is the story of Samson.
Samson was on his way to a wedding. He was a very strong man - he killed a lion! He left the lion there and carried on to the celebration and then on his way back he saw a swarm of bees inside the carcass of the lion. He took some honey out, ate it and it was sweet and then he said to the men, ”If you can work out this riddle, then I will give you some garments.” Of course they couldn’t, except his newlywed wife told them the secret, but I want to tell you today, there is something much sweeter than honey, and there is something much stronger than a lion. It is God’s Holy Word.
Please, every day, spend time in His Word. It will make you sweet and it will make you strong.
God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.