30/04/2024

Angus Buchan

30/04/2024

The Catcher

April 30, 2024 • Angus Buchan • Hebrews 13:6, Isaiah 41:13

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 30th of April, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

“For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.”

Isaiah 41:13

Then we go to the Book of Hebrews 13:6 in the New Testament.

So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

A famous old preacher from way back said, “Don’t try to hold God’s hand, let Him hold yours. Let Him do the holding, and you do the trusting.” I think that is a beautiful reminder, the Lord has got hold of us. We don’t have to be concerned about that. You know, when you look at those trapeze artists in the circus, the one that we are all concentrating on is the flyer who goes through the air, doing somersaults, but we forget that the most important part of the act is actually the catcher. He is the big one with the strong arms who is flying backwards and forwards on the actual swing, and he catches the flyer. If he misses, it’s a disaster. I want to say to you that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Catcher in our lives.

Have you ever seen a fireman’s lift? Do you know what that is? It is when someone takes a hold of your arm and they hold your forearm with their hand and you hold their forearm with your hand. It’s a double lift, and if you are tired and you are weary (I have been there by the way) and eventually you can’t hang on anymore and you let go. You don’t fall because the fireman has got you by his hand. The fireman is nobody else but Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, and today you might feel like letting go. You might say, “Lord, I just can’t anymore.” He says, “Rest, relax, I’ve got you. Together, we can do this and we will.”

Remember the Catcher, His name is Jesus Christ. He has never dropped anybody in His life before and He is not about to drop you.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,

Goodbye.

18/05/2024

Angus Buchan • Matthew 5:16

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 18th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” It is not so much what we say but rather who we are that makes an impact on the world. Isn’t that true? It is like that beautiful lighthouse standing on top of that cliff, with all the dangerous rocks behind it. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great preacher, said, “The lighthouse makes no noise, it makes no song and it is silent, but on a stormy night it shines through the noise of the waves that are crashing on the seashore, it helps that desperate sea captain, when he is trying to navigate his ship, with waves that are 3 metres high and he can’t see where he is going, and then all of a sudden he sees a little light in the distance, just a spark, that’s all he sees, and it speaks louder than a thousand choirs singing because now he knows where the danger is.” Many, many years ago, I had the privilege of going to speak at a men’s conference in the northern part of our beloved South Africa. I got letter in the post before I left, to say that “There is an old gentleman who would like to meet with you.” Well, I want to be honest with you, at the time I felt I didn’t have time to go and see him, but I felt the Holy Spirit say, “You must go and visit this old man on the way up to the conference”, which I duly did. As I walked into his house, I sensed the presence of God there. I saw a huge photograph on the wall of an old lady and an old man. I looked at that old man and I couldn’t believe it. It was a photo of the Yorkshire Plumber, Smith Wigglesworth, a man who had been used by God, mightily. In fact, something like 13 people had been raised from the dead through his ministry. I said to the old gentleman, Mr Harold Berry, “Sir, is this a friend of yours?” He said, ‘It is one of my relatives. It is my wife's grandfather.” I was amazed. I got on my knees, on the carpet, and I asked him to please anoint me. I said, “I want your mantle, Sir.” This old gentleman had started many churches up in the Congo. He was ninety years old. He walked into his room, got a bottle of healing oil and anointed my head with oil. Then he started praying undiluted scripture over me. It was impressive, very impressive, but the part that I remember, only one part, he said, “It won’t be so much what he says but who he is, that will make the impact,” And I have never forgotten that. It is not what you say, it is not how loud you can sing, it is how well you can shine for the Lord. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

17/05/2024

May 17, 2024 • Angus Buchan • Jeremiah 2:13, Proverbs 16:22

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 17th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Jeremiah 2:13: “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.” “Understanding is a wellspring of life to him who has it.” Proverbs 16:22 Exchanging a fountain of water for a broken cistern is short-sighted and short-lived. But why do we do that? We disregard the blessings of the Lord so often. A spring is a fountain that comes out of the ground. The Lord says we must guard our hearts because it is the wellspring of life. We must be careful that we don’t pollute and muddy the living water that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, in our hearts. We tend to build massive dams for holding huge volumes of water, and that is fine as long as it rains and the rain fills the dam, but when there is a dry cycle and a drought, the water in the dam dries up, it evaporates, but that little spring which draws it’s water from deep down in the ground, just keeps coming up. The springs from deep down in the earth never dry up. We need to guard our hearts, my dear friend, with everything we have. Do not allow the pollution of this world to muddy the waters of our hearts. In the Jordan River in Israel, if that river dried up, there would be no Israel. It is one river that runs from the top to the bottom of Israel. It starts in a spring, right up in the mountains in the northern part of Israel. Yes, we do have Mount Herman and it is covered with snow, and the snow melts and also fills the river, but it is the spring that comes out of the ground which is the life of Israel. No Jordan River, no Israel! The same thing in South Africa - we have a spring in a place called Kuruman, on the west side of our nation. I have been there; it is something to behold. Everything around is dry and desert-like but this spring just bubbles up out of the ground with beautiful crystal clear water. Today, the Lord is saying, “Do not fill your life and your purpose with broken cisterns, but rather draw on the fountain, the spring, the wellspring of life, which is Jesus Christ.” The Lord bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

16/05/2024

May 16, 2024 • Angus Buchan • 1 Samuel 1:27–28, 1 Samuel 2:21

I greet you in Jesus' precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 16th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in 1 Samuel 1:27-28: "For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of Him. Therefore I also have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord." This is Hannah, the woman who could not have a child and who wept in the temple, so much so that the High Priest, Eli, thought she was drunk. God heard her prayers and gave her the most beautiful little baby, Samuel, who some say was the greatest of all the prophets in the Bible, but she had to give him back, and she asked her husband, "Let me just nurse him until he is weaned." In those days, they would suckle a baby, probably until it was three years old. And then that little baby, that little boy, was given back to the temple, to the Lord, and he served the Lord all his life. Now, she used to go up every year, it brings a tear to my eye, I tell you what, and make a robe for the little boy and give it to him every year. Maybe you are struggling with something in your life today. The Lord gave you something and now the Lord wants it back. It might be your career, it might be a member of your family, it might be some vision, some expectation that you had, something that you were looking forward to, and the Lord says, "I want it back now." It's a very, very hard thing to do, but do you know something? Samuel's mommy, that's right, I am talking about Hannah, she gave her little boy, her only child, that she had waited for so long, back to the Lord. She said, "I lent him back to the Lord." But my dear friend, that is not the end of the story. If you go on a little bit further in the Bible to 1 Samuel 2:21, you will see that after she had done that, the Lord blessed her with three more sons and two more daughters! What a lovely awesome story - so she gave what she had back to the Lord and He blessed her with 5 more children. Do not be despondent today. Do not feel that the Lord has been unfair. Do not feel that you have been let down - not at all, my dear friend! Rather rejoice. You cannot out-give Jesus. Jesus is a giver by nature. He loves to give, so today, give freely and He will freely give back to you. Have a wonderful day, Jesus bless you and goodbye.