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

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.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 16th of September, 2025 and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Isaiah 40:8:

“The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.”

Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that authority? Isn’t that direction? In this troubled world we need direction. We need the comfort of authority.

Then we confirm the Word in the New Testament in the Book of Mark 13:31:

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.”

The Lord puts His word above His name. There is nothing in the universe that is more powerful than the Word of God. You know what it says in John 1:1:

”In the beginning was the Word…”

Jesus puts His word above everything else. You can bank on it. You can’t bank on much else, can you? But the sad thing is that some theologians will tell us that the Word of God is just a book, a guideline on how to live life. So sad, but those same people have no authority in their lives, nothing. They have no vision, they have no definite opinion. When young people come and ask them a question, like for example, “Can we sleep together before we get married?” According to the Bible, we can’t and if we do, we are fornicators, and (unrepentant) fornicators are not going to Heaven. We need direction like never before. It needs to be critical. You see, when we take the word of God literally as coming from the Lord, that brings law and order into the home. So when mom and dad are having an argument about something, and we all do, don’t we? Go to the word. What does the Bible say about the issue? And you stand on that. It is not about opinions, it is about the Bible. The Bible gives us moral principles. The Bible tells us what we can do and what we can’t do.

Now, we are not talking about being bound by the law. If anybody knows about the freedom of grace, it is me. Undeserved loving kindness, unmerited favour - that is what grace is, but we need the word of God for our security, our comfort. You will never see me in a photo without my Bible. It is Jesus in print! How many times have I told you, when somebody asks you, “Where is this Jesus you are always talking about?” Give them a Bible.

Oh folks, people love the word. It brings security. So, today spend time reading your Bible and that will give you direction for your future.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 15th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Luke 21:28. Jesus says:

”Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

Then we go to Revelation 1:7:

”Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.”

This morning, the Lord says to you and me, “Lift up your heads because I am coming back and I’m coming back very soon.” The signs are all around us, folks. How much more terrible must it become on this earth before the Lord returns? He has promised us He’s coming. He goes on to say in verse 29. He says:

”Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near.”

In South Africa, summer is near. Outside the window of my little prayer room, I have a beautiful fig tree that my young daughter gave me a couple of years ago as a gift. We have planted it. I want to tell you, it is budding. What is it telling me? It’s telling me that summer is coming. Now the Lord says, when you see all these terrible things happening on the earth, be prepared for My second coming because these are the signs that I’m coming back for my people.

All those young mothers will tell you that when they are pregnant for the first time and dad is so excited and waiting for their first baby to be born, they have everything ready. Everything is in place. They’ve got the room prepared. They’ve got the cot, the special blankets, the special colours. I don’t know whether it’s blue or pink, it doesn’t matter, but I want to tell you one thing, when that baby says, ”I’m coming”, you'd better be ready because that baby is coming irrespective of what you say. That is how it is with the Lord. He’s coming in the clouds. We must be ready. Prepare yourselves, prepare your hearts, prepare your children, prepare your family, prepare your friends. Tell them, Jesus is on His way.

God bless you and have a wonderful day as you lift up your heads and wait because He’s coming in the clouds, and we can’t wait for that day!

Have a lovely day,
Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 14th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Book of Malachi 3:8:

”Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me! But you say,’ In what way have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings.”

Then we go down to verse 10,

”Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house…” (The Lord says),”… and try me now in this if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.”

We’re talking about a tithe. A tithe is ten percent of your income. It’s a serious one and it’s a very sensitive one, and I’m just going to share my heart with you. It is not money that you have to even think about. It belongs to God. The first ten percent is His. I’m not talking about tithing on money that you’ve borrowed. That’s not your money. I’m talking about money that belongs to you, and then after the tithe comes the gifts and the offerings.

Robert Le Tourneau, the man who started those big yellow machines, was one of the wealthiest men in the world. He loved God with a passion. He used to tithe ninety per cent of his income and keep ten per cent, and he was a multi-millionaire, and he supported Christian missions all over the world. He used to say, ”When you go to church and you put your hand in your pocket when the offering plate comes around, don’t ask yourself the question, ”How much of my money am I going to give to the Lord today?” Ask yourself, ”How much of the Lord’s money am I going to keep to myself today?”

The mindset for that man was, it all belongs to Him anyway, and God prospered him because he was generous. Now, I can hear someone saying to me, ”But I don’t go to church. I live in the bush. There’s no churches anywhere near me. Where do I send my tithe?” You send your tithe to the storehouse where you get your bread, where you get your food from the Lord. That’s where you send your tithe so that the Lord can use it to expand the work He’s given us to do.

The Lord also likes a cheerful giver. He doesn’t want you to tithe if you hate doing that or if you don’t like giving money to the Lord’s work. Don’t do that, He doesn’t like that at all. You must do it willingly and joyfully and God who has told us here. He says, “Will not I open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it?” That’s what we do.

Jesus bless you as you pray about this because it’s between you and God, no one else.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 13th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to 1 Corinthians 9:27:

”But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

I want to say to you, my dear friend, today, and this applies to me equally, as believers and followers of Jesus Christ, we have to live disciplined lives. Undeserved loving kindness, unmerited favour, that’s what grace is. We have been saved by grace through faith and that not of ourselves, for it was a gift from God. (Ephesians 2:8) but the Lord requires us to be good examples. Do not drop the ball, so to speak, by being a poor example to other believers and leading them astray.

The other night, I was watching an interview on television for an upcoming international rugby match, a really important one between the All Blacks of New Zealand and the Springboks of South Africa. It was a very serious and intense discussion by rugby experts, and it was a panel of New Zealanders. The one interviewer asked one of the great All Black players, ”What is it that you think the team needs to concentrate on, when the Springboks come across to New Zealand because it’s going to be a very critical match?” I was quite interested to hear what this man said. He said one word, ”Discipline.” He said,“We’ve got the players, the talent, but if we do not discipline ourselves we can lose the match.” Because when you get a yellow card, the player has to go off the field for ten minutes, and if you get two players off the field, you are now down from fifteen to thirteen players and the opposition has a distinct advantage and you can lose the match just by the lack of discipline.

I want to say to you today as believers, we need to watch how we are living because we can give the opposition, I’m talking about the devil, a chance to get the upper hand in our lives. We need to get up in the morning. We need to eat correctly. We need to exercise. We need to spend time in the Word. We need to pray. This is Paul speaking when he says, ”I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.” It means it must come into submission, so that you become a good example of what a Christian should be like.

Today, let’s go out and discipline ourselves, and we will enjoy life a lot more as well.

Jesus bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 12th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go to the Gospel of Luke 20:38. Jesus says,

“For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.”

You and I do not worship a god made of stone or wood, which is carved by human hands. Oh no! He is alive, He is well and He wants to talk with you and me today.

I have been to Israel many, many times. I love that place. I always go to the Old City and I go to the tomb to see where the Lord Jesus Christ was buried, and I want to tell you, my dear friend, there is nothing in that tomb. It is empty! “Why?” you might say. Because Jesus rose from the dead. He is not there. Even when Mary Magdalene went down early in the morning, to find the body of Christ, He was not there. He was alive, He was risen, and He is well, and He wants to talk with you and me even today. You can go to David’s tomb, also in the Old City, and his remains are there, that’s right, his bones are still there, but Jesus is not dead, He is alive.

I see Him so often as a farmer. I see Him in the early morning sunrise as the sun comes over. I see Him in the evening, in the sunset when the sun is starting to set. I can see Him in the face of a newly born baby. I can smell the Lord when there has been rain after a period of dryness. You can smell that perfume. He is alive, He is your God, He is my God and the good news is, He is coming back very soon to take you and me to be with Him in His house forever.

So today, worship the Lord, praise His name, speak with Him because He wants to have fellowship with you, and open your spiritual eyes and you will see Him all over the place.

Jesus bless you and have a great day,

God bless,
Bye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 11th of September, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in Psalm 81:10. The Lord says,

“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

Then we go to Jeremiah 1:6:

“Then I said “Ah, Lord God! Behold I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”

God equips the men and women that He calls to do His work for Him. I don’t often give a Thought For Today a title, but today I believe the Lord wants me to do that, and we would call this particular Thought For Today, “Speak Up”. Like never before, we need to, as believers, speak up. We need to tell people about Jesus Christ.

That’s exactly what happened with Moses. The Lord told Moses to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let His people go. He said, “But I can’t speak. I am not a man of eloquent speech.” He had a stutter; he couldn’t speak properly, but the Lord said that He would give him the ability to speak and what a statesman he became! Many people say the greatest statesman that has ever walked on the earth was Moses, greater than any president of any country, because he opened his mouth and God filled it.

The key for you and me is found in John 15:7, which says:

”If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”

It’s God’s words in our mouths that will do the job. We are only a conduit pipe. That’s all we are, and the Lord uses us and speaks through us.

Robert Murray McShane, that wonderful Scottish preacher. A young man who died at the age of about 29 years old. He said, ”Rather than have been an instrument of the Lord, all I was, was an adoring spectator.” I can tell you and confirm that. Many a time I’ve stood on the platform and looked out at a massive crowd of tens of thousands of people and I felt myself standing next to myself, if that makes any sense, and God speaking through me.

The first sermon I ever preached in my life was in the main street of Greytown. I had prepared that message for about six weeks. I stood up there for the first time in my life. The minister was standing next to me. He said, ”Don’t worry, Angus, if you can’t finish it off, I’ll do it for you.” But he didn’t have to. I opened my Bible, page one, said good morning to everybody, and I turned over page one and there was nothing there! I had left the notes somewhere. I had lost them and I had page fifteen (which was the benediction). That was the day that the Lord said, ”Are you going to do this by faith or not?” Well, I said, ”Yes Lord, by faith.” And the rest is history. Today, remember if God has called you, He will equip you.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.