Thought For Today

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 18th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Gospel of Matthew 27:57-58:
“Now when evening had come, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be given to him.”
I want to speak to you today about being doers of the word.
Today is a special day today in our lives! My wife, Jill and I and our family, on this day, 47 years ago, we bowed the knee, and we gave our lives to Jesus Christ, a wonderful day for us. We were in a little church in the Main Street of Greytown, the little town which is 15 kms away from the farm, but that day, the minister didn’t preach, there were laymen and women preaching the Gospel, just like Joseph of Arimathea. He wasn’t a priest - no, he was a businessman, and that day we saw businessmen, housewives, builders, mechanics come forward and tell the congregation what Christ had done for them, and for the first time in my life I saw tears running down their faces.
Our marriage was in a mess, and we came to Jesus and He restored us. My relationship with my children was shattered, and we came to Jesus, and He changed our lives. After we had finished, it was a wonderful sermon. I didn’t see any shots of lightning, I didn’t hear any thunder, but I knew in my heart that I had given my life to Christ. We came home, Jill and I, and sat in the garden to have a cup of tea together, a car rolled up and out came an electrician, and he said, “I was in the service today, and I saw that you went forward and gave your lives to Christ. I said, “Yes, I did.” He said, “I want to challenge you to tell the first three people you meet and tell them what you did today”. I said, “I will,” and I did the next day. On the way to a stock sale, myself and Ian Walls, I said, “Ian, something happened to me yesterday.” He said, “What?” I said, “I gave my life to Christ.” That was the beginning of my work for Jesus Christ which I have never stopped since then.
What about you? When was the last time you told a person that you gave your life to Christ? Maybe you say, “Angus, I never have. I have always loved God but I have never had the opportunity. Why don’t you do it now? Pray this prayer after me:
Dear Lord Jesus,
Just like Joseph of Arimathea, I am an ordinary working man and today I surrender my life to You. I give You everything.
Forgive me for my sinful life, but from today and onwards, I want to put You first and foremost in my life.
In Jesus name, amen.
God bless you, and go out and tell the first three people that you meet.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 17th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Numbers 9:23:
”At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed…”
Then we go to the Gospel of Mark 6:31:
”And He said to them ”Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.”
I think the Lord is speaking to somebody very specifically today and saying, ”It is time to come aside and rest. You don’t even have time to eat.”
Timing is so very important in life. There’s a time that you must work, and you must work very hard, and there’s a time that you must rest, and you must rest correctly. The children of Israel in the wilderness were told by the Lord, you see, when the cloud moved, they packed up all their tents and they followed the cloud. When the cloud stopped, they stopped, and they set up camp. This happened night and day. Remember a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day, and that is how they lived for forty years.
Now I want to tell you about South Africa’s all-time champion marathon runner, Bruce Fordyce. Bruce Fordyce won the gruelling Comrades Marathon no less than nine times consecutively, and why was that? It was all because of timing. I used to love watching him on television, when they all started, all the youngsters were sprinting out of the blocks as they say, and Bruce Fordyce was nowhere to be seen, and then slowly but surely, as the race carried on the young men started falling out, one after the other. I always remember Bruce Fordyce running at his own speed and looking at his watch. He was running according to his time, not according to what everybody else was doing, and he paced himself so perfectly that he won that race consistently.
Now we need to take a leaf out of his book. If you and I are going to finish strong for the Lord Jesus Christ, we really need to be sure that we are resting and that we are working, but we need to do it God’s way.
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 16th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We go to the Book of Numbers 8:14:
”Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine.”
Then we go straight to the Gospel of Luke 6:22 (Amplified Version):
”Blessed [morally courageous and spiritually alive with life-joy in God’s goodness] are you when people hate you, and exclude you [from their fellowship], and insult you, and scorn your name as evil because of [your association with] the Son of Man.”
Wow, now that is quite something to think about!
The Lord says, ”You are blessed when people don’t like you because of your stand for Me.” In fact, if you look at verse 23, He says, “Jump for joy because of your reward that you are going to get in heaven.”
Now, this morning, I particularly want to dedicate this little message to the young people. I’m talking about school children, I’m talking about university students, I’m talking about young people who are starting out in life, because some of you are taking a lot of strain, I know that, because you are not sleeping around with other people, you are not drugging and drinking, you are not blaspheming. You are not telling filthy stories, and you are not involved with pornography, so the people, the crowd, think that there’s something wrong with you.
Oh, no - there is nothing wrong with you. The Lord Jesus Christ has separated you unto Himself. He set you aside. He said, ”I’ve got a special work for you to do. You are very special to me. Keep yourself pure. I have your husband for you. I have your wife for you. You must be patient.” You say, ”How long must we wait, Uncle Angus?” As long as it takes because those other people that seem to be in the flavour of the month, they are going to fall horribly short, and when they do they are coming to you for help.
Make yourself strong! Spend time with the Lord, and He has got a very specific and exciting life for you. That goes for all of us, by the way, but the older people have already been through the mill and we have been identified. They don’t want us around them because we are salty and we upset their party as it were. So don’t be upset because you are lonely, Jesus understands that, but He is a friend who sticks closer than any brother!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 15th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of Mark 15:37,
”And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.”
Then we go to John 19:30:
”So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”
Mission accomplished. The job is done.
What an amazing Saviour we have! He didn’t stop halfway. He didn’t say to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane, ”Lord, I can’t do this.” No, he finished the job. You and I must finish what we have started. You know an unfinished job is very ugly, like a half-built building. Rather don’t start than stop halfway through. I looked up how long it took for King Solomon to build the first temple. It took approximately seven years and he finished it. What about the second temple? That took almost twenty to twenty-one years to build. We really need to work hard and finish what we have started.
Michelangelo, that wonderful artist, when he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, it took him four years, folks. He had to build his own scaffold. Can you imagine climbing up there? It is very, very high, and then he did it upside down, but he finished that work of art for the glory of God.
That young student who’s thinking of dropping out of university, don’t do it, finish your degree. That marriage that you are working through, ”Angus, we just can’t get it right.” Ask God to help you. Philippians 1:6 says:
”being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”
When you start something, you must finish. It’s no good saying you started, rather don’t start. Finish the job!
Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 14th of February, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.
We start in the Gospel of John 19:26:
”When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.”
That is a very powerful statement.
Do you know that the Lord was going through the most excruciating pain known to man? The crucifixion is truly one of the most savage ways to kill a man. He actually suffocates to death at the end because he cannot breathe, and in that time, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour, looked down and He had compassion on His earthly mother and that very special disciple, John. He said to John, ”Look after my mother.” And He said to His mother, ”Look after John.”
We need to look after each other unconditionally in these last days in which we are living. Remember charity, which is another word for love, begins at home. Young man, young lady, there’s no good saying, ”I want to go overseas and I want to preach the Gospel.” Or “I want to go up into the Congo and I want to take care of those who have got no idea of who the Lord is.” No, the Lord says, ”Charity begins at home.” We need to get our own household in order first before we go out into the world.
When I travel, the first thing people ask me when I arrive at a new destination is not what my theological qualification is, it’s just as well, but the first thing they ask is, ”How is your wife?”
“Oh no, she’s fine.”
“That’s good. How are your children? How are your grandchildren? How are your great-grandchildren?”
When we tell them they’re fine, ”and how are things on the farm?” Then they say, ”Right, now speak to us, we want to hear what you’ve got to say.”
We need to make sure things are okay at home. It’s no good when the wheels are coming off back at the ranch and you're trying to tell people how to live. That is hypocrisy of the first degree. Let us follow in the footsteps of our beloved Master and let us love each other.
Have a wonderful day, God bless you and goodbye.