I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 25th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan with a thought for today.

We start with the Book of Luke 6:46:

"But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?"

It is not about doing, it's about being. It's about a personal relationship with Jesus. We cannot earn our way to Heaven. If that was the case, people from other religions would get there long before us! In Isaiah 64:6, the Lord says all our righteousness is like filthy rags in the sight of God. That is quite a statement. I want to say to you this morning, dad, your son wants you to spend more time with him, he doesn't want what you can buy for him, he doesn't want all the fancy goodies that you can get him, he wants you, he wants to spend time with you. Mom, your daughter wants to spend time with you. It's not what you can do for her, but she wants to spend time with you because she loves you and she needs you. And so is it with Jesus Christ - He created us to have fellowship with Him. He doesn't need us, He wants us. Remember, the whole of creation took place with one word. He doesn't need any man, but He desires to have fellowship with us.

We really need to spend more time with the Lord every morning. We need to sit and talk with Him and let Him talk to us in our spirit. You say, "I can't hear Him." No, you can't hear Him because you are too busy doing things, maybe even for Him. So sit down, be quiet, and let's have fellowship together. "Let's have a cup of tea together," the Lord says.

So today, make a point to spend quality and quantity time with Jesus, and you will find everything else will start to fall into line.

God bless you richly and have a wonderful day with your personal Saviour,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 24th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Luke 19:8:

"Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold."

Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 7:20, Jesus says:

"Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

Zacchaeus was a scoundrel. He was a thief. He was like the mafia; he and his friends were stealing money from their own people. You couldn't get anybody worse than that. But what happened? Salvation came to his house.

"Today salvation has come to this house,…"
Luke 19:9

We need to bear fruits worthy of repentance. What does that mean? Well mother, if your husband has had an affair with another woman and he comes back and asks forgiveness of you and says he made a terrible mistake, you must forgive him, but that man must bear fruit worthy of repentance. He must never be seen with any other woman, he must never ever be seen to text another woman, to phone - no! There must be fruits. He must repent completely.

That man who has become a Christian but was a thief, yes, he stole from his partner, he stole from the company, but now he has given his life to the Lord, there must be restitution. Now, what does "restitution" mean? According to the Oxford Dictionary, it means "The restoration of something lost or stolen, back to its proper owner." That's what it means. When He had healed or forgiven somebody, Jesus often said, "Go and sin no more, your sins are forgiven." In other words, "Go and bear fruits worthy of repentance."

Remember Charles Colson? He was called "the hatchet man." He was President Nixon's righthand man. He went to jail in the place of Richard Nixon. He was such an otherwise kind of a person, Colson. They said he would walk over his own mother's grave to get what he wanted. But what happened? - 180 degree turn around in prison. He became a born-again Christian. He started the Prison Fellowship. For the rest of his life, he was one of God's greatest ambassadors. There has got to be a change. Yes, we must forgive; of course, we must, but there also must be a complete turn-around.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It’s Tuesday morning, the 23rd of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start off in the Book of Matthew 7:13-14:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

There is no shortcut into the kingdom of God. There’s no quick fix, there’s no bending the rules. It’s not a case of, “Well I’ll just wing it.” You can’t wing it and you can’t cheat when it comes to the things of God. It’s like an engineer who bribed somebody to forge his qualifications, then all of a sudden he has got a degree in engineering. He gets the job but he can’t produce because he doesn’t know what he’s doing and he ends up jobless. I really want to encourage that young student who is studying. Do not cheat, but work hard and get a degree that is worthwhile, and then go into the world; you’ll be sought after.

Like that young lady who’s trying to buy her driving license. There are many people that will give you a forged driving license if you pay them enough money, but what happens when you get into the motorcar and you don’t know how to drive it? Disaster!

Titus 1:16 says:

“They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him,…”

They say they love Jesus but by their actions, they deny Him. We need to go through the narrow gate because thats the one that will lead us eventually to eternal life.

Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,

Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Monday morning, the 22nd of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Song of Solomon 4:16:

"Awake, O north wind, And come, O south! Blow upon my garden,
That its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come to his garden
And eat its pleasant fruits."

The wind of hardship, the wind of pain and suffering. When an orange is on a tree it looks beautiful, it's got a lovely colour, but that's as far as it goes. You take that orange, and you squeeze it, and you crush it into a glass, and then and only then, can you taste its delicious flavour. When you go into a rose garden, those beautiful magnificent roses are so pretty to look at, but it's only when you take the leaf, and you break that leaf, that you can smell the beautiful perfume that comes from that rose. Oftentimes, suffering and pain bring a man or a woman into the fullness of what God created them for. I'm not suggesting a minute that God causes it but God works through it.

A man came to see me a couple of months ago and he shared his story. He was a hugely successful man. He lived in a country north of our borders. He had everything that he wanted. He was a wonderful sportsman, he had plenty of money. He had achieved lots of wonderful things - wine, women and song as they say. Then one day he was falsely accused of murdering somebody, and they put him in a maximum security jail for no less than ten years, but he told me that through it all he found the true meaning of life. Yes, he found Jesus Christ as a result of that hardship, that pain and that suffering.

Today maybe you are going through a hard time, you cannot even understand why. I want to encourage you my dear friend just to hang in there and to trust the Lord because something beautiful will come out of it.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 21st of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Mathew 7:7-8:

”Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

I want to ask you a question this morning, have you given up? Have you given up asking? Have you given up seeking? Have you given up knocking? Please don’t do that. I looked up the Oxford dictionary to find out the literal meaning of the word “persistence”. It means to continue doing something in spite of difficulty. Now, I want to tell you a little story. Many, many years ago, maybe 1993, I came back from preaching in Scotland. I had been there for three months, preaching with my oldest daughter, Lindy. When I got home, I felt the Holy Spirit tell me to take an A4 pad and a pencil and to write a book. I had no formal education and I started writing the book. When I’d finished writing the book, I published it myself because no one else would look at it.

I then took the book to a little bookstore in Pietermaritzburg, very close to us. I asked the owner if he would mind selling my book for me. He was reluctant. He said, “Local authors don’t do very well”. I persisted. Eventually, I think to get rid of me he said, ”Ok, give me one copy.” One copy that’s all, the last of the big spenders! He put that on the shelf and he said, ”I will phone you as soon as it gets sold.” I was so excited, I went home, told my family and we waited, and we waited, and we waited and we waited. After about three weeks I thought, “Why is he not phoning me?”

Now listen carefully to the crux of the matter. You see, if I hadn’t persisted nothing would have happened. Eventually, I put my pride in my pocket and I phoned the gentleman and I said, ”Did you sell the book?” He said, ”Angus, I sold it the next day but I lost your phone number and I couldn’t get hold of you.” If I hadn’t persisted, that book, “Faith like Potatoes”, would have never got onto the market. I can tell you it’s in 17 languages today, and a movie’s been made from it. Persistence - ask, seek and knock!

Jesus bless you and have a lovely day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 20th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start with the Book of Jeremiah 29:13. The Lord says:

"And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."

Then we go to the Book of Revelation 3:20. Jesus says:

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."

The handle of the door is on the inside. There's no handle on the outside. The Lord expects you and me to search for Him but He says open the door and I will come in and sup with you and you with me. How many times have you heard the story of the young man searching for the girl of his life and he gets on the aeroplane and he flies all over the world looking for this girl and comes all the way back home and she is living next door and she's been there all the time for him. It's the same thing for the young girl who wants to have a career and meet the man of her dreams only to come all the way back and find out that he's the farmer that lives down the road.

You know, Elijah was seeking for the Lord, (1 Kings 19:12), and he stood in the mouth of the cave, and a mighty wind went past and the Lord wasn't in that, then there was a massive earthquake, the Lord wasn't in that. Then there was a huge fire, the Lord wasn't in that, and then the still small voice spoke and the Lord was there. So often we search for the Lord in the wrong places, don't we? We go with great excitement and anticipation to a massive conference expecting to hear from God or we go to a huge stadium meeting and we expect to hear from the Lord, but we don't. He's not found in the overseas trips, He's not found in that latest book or that movie, no. He's often found in the quietness of the closet.

John Wesley went all the way to America to find God. He came all the way back disheartened and he met Him in a little Bible study in Aldersgate in London. Charles Finney met with God in the forest. The love of God was going through him so strongly he said, "Lord, if you don't stop, You'll kill me."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, slipped into a little country chapel just to get out of a snow storm, and heard a farm worker bringing the Gospel because the pastor wasn't there. "Look unto Me and be saved" - that was the scripture he heard and changed his life.

Today, you don't have to go overseas, you don't have to go to that big meeting. Go into the quiet place and He will speak to you there.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Friday morning, the 19th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Psalms 37:25:

"I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread."

Wow! What a beautiful promise from the Lord. Maybe today you are worried, worried about the future; worried about your family; maybe you have got a sick member in your family; maybe you are financially strapped, and you don't know how it's going to work out for tomorrow. Well, the Lord is telling us very clearly not to worry about tomorrow, He says, for tomorrow has enough worries of its own. Do you remember that beautiful old Gospel song that goes like this: "One day at a time, sweet Jesus"? Do you remember that? I am going to read you the words of that beautiful song. This is how it goes:

I'm only human
I am just a man
Help me believe in what I could be
And all that I am

Show me the stairway
That I have to climb
Lord, for my sake, please teach me to take
One day at a time

One day at a time, sweet Jesus
That's all I am asking of You
Just give me the strength to do everyday
What I have to do

Yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Lord, help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time

Do you remember
When You walked among men?
Well, Jesus, You know
If You're looking below
That it's worse now than then

Oh, there's pushing and shoving
And it's crowding my mind
So, Lord, for my sake
Teach me to take
One day at a time

One day at a time, sweet Jesus
That's all I'm asking of You
Just give me the strength to do everyday
What I have to do

Yesterday's gone, sweet Jesus
And tomorrow may never be mine
Lord, help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time

Lord, help me today
Show me the way
One day at a time

Listen carefully to the words of that beautiful song and apply them to your life today.
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, it’s the 18th of July, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Isaiah 55:8, the Lord says:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.”

Then we go to Jeremiah 29:11, a very well-known verse in the Bible. The Lord says:

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

What a beautiful promise from our Lord! Oh, my dear friend, maybe you feel forsaken today, maybe you feel the Lord has left you, maybe you feel He has got nothing for you. I want to tell you some good news! God has got plans for you and me, well-being and not disaster. You know, the farmer makes a plan. Well, I have got news for you - not one of my plans have ever worked! I have never heard God speak to me audibly, but in my heart, and one morning many years while having my quiet time, the Lord said to me in my heart, “Your busyness, Angus, is making me tired.” I shared that with Jill, my wife, and she reminds me often about that one. The Lord has peace for you and I, not evil. He has a future for you and I, a hope, and it is all found in Christ alone.

Last week we had the AGM of the movie, “Faith like Potatoes”. Do you know that that movie was made 18 years ago and it is still going strong? Sony, the film-makers have just signed a contract for another 15 years for that movie. Isn’t that incredible? Now, I want to tell you very quickly what happened. I was standing on the platform at Kings Park Rugby Stadium in Durban, South Africa, and I made an outrageous statement, because a terrible drought was predicted - el Nino was coming. I said, “To hell with el Nino, I am going home and I am going to plant potatoes." I had never planted potatoes in my life before, I had no irrigation. You know the story very well, but you see, that wasn’t the plan. The plan that the Lord had was, out of that statement of faith, because that is what it was, raw undiluted faith, a little book was born called “Faith like Potatoes”, and then the movie was born. That was God’s plan, that wasn’t my plan.

I want to say to you in closing, that little book and that movie have touched more people than any bit of preaching I have ever done in 46 years. Now, today slow down, listen and do only what God tells you to do and you will be amazed at the plans He has for you.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.