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