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.

21/05/2024

May 21, 2024 • Angus Buchan • Revelation 19:1

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 21st of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Revelation 19:1: “After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honour and power belong to the Lord our God! “ A victory shout, a singing in Heaven, the devil has been defeated, his demons will never rule again! I want to say to you today, you might be feeling a little bit sad, you might be feeling a bit angry actually and you might be saying, “How is it that evil people seem to get the victory?” and “Where is the justice? How do these people just carry on doing their own thing and nobody apprehends them?” My dear friend, I want to tell you that vengeance belongs to the Lord. Leave it, put them in prayer before the Lord, and you and I need to start praising God for the victory He has given us already in Christ Jesus. You see that Babylon has fallen, the powers of darkness will never, ever overcome the Lord. That is good news, that is worth singing about, isn’t it? It is worth singing about because the end of the story is not yet written. It is still coming, and I want to tell you, every unrighteous deed will be dealt with, and every person who feels they have been short-changed, will be dealt with by the Lord. He will overcome, He has overcome, and the victory is ours! Do you remember that old song, that beautiful worship song? I am sitting in my prayer room here, it is still dark outside, and I just wanted to sing with you. Remember that chorus, Alleluia? Let’s sing it together: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Thank You, Jesus, Oh thank You, Jesus, Thank You Jesus, Thank You Jesus, And we thank You, Jesus, Thank You, Jesus, Alleluia, Alleluia! Go out today and thank Him because you have got the victory in Him, and nothing else will overcome you. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

20/05/2024

May 20, 2024 • Angus Buchan • Psalm 145:8, Psalm 85:2

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 20th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Psalm 145:8: “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy.” Isn’t that beautiful to know? Then we go to Psalm 85:2: “You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; You have covered all their sin.” Praise God that you and I serve a merciful saviour! Peter asked the Lord Jesus, “How many times must I forgive my brother? Seven times?” And remember what Jesus said to Peter? “Seven times seventy.” Wow! I thank God that our Lord is slow to anger and He is quick to forgive. He is a merciful God. I want to tell you a little story about when I was looking for forgiveness, mercy, and grace from my neighbours. Many years ago, I was burning firebreaks on our farm. We have a huge wetland right on the boundary of our farm. It is the sponge which supplies the water to the Umvoti River, which goes all the way down to the Indian Ocean. I was burning away there. Fortunately, I had contacted everybody and all of a sudden, a gust of wind came up and took the fire straight into the huge swamp. Now, inside that swamp are 12-foot-high reeds; it is like an ocean inside there, and the most massive fire got going, where the clouds were black and literally covering the sun. I felt so terribly embarrassed. I had to get on my radio on my pick-up and radio all my neighbours who were on the boundary of this massive wetland on the other side. This was in the middle of winter, when those those reeds were snow white. Fortunately none of the farms were affected, but that day I needed mercy and grace and you know, my neighbours were so kind, they were more understanding and gracious to me than I could ever have imagined. Today, remember, Jesus Christ loves you, He is not here to condemn you. He is not here to cast you away. No - He wants you to grow. Sometimes we have to be chastised a little bit, we have to be disciplined through the mistakes we make but He is always quick to pick us up, dust us off and say, “Come on now, you can do this.” Jesus bless you today as you are also understanding and forgiving to others. Goodbye.

19/05/2024

May 19, 2024 • Angus Buchan • Proverbs 30:8–9

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 19th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Proverbs 30:8-9: “Give me neither poverty nor riches— Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, And say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God.” To be full and to be hungry, to be successful and sometimes to fail. I think it is harder to deal with success than it is to deal with failure. When you are successful, you can start to think that you don’t need God, and that is a terrible place to be in, and when you are on your knees, you can’t fall any further, can you? When you are on that pedestal you can get knocked off so easily. We need to pray for those who succeed, whether it be in sport, whether it be in business, whether it be at university, we need to understand one thing, when we are conscious of our Lord Jesus Christ then things go well, but when we get so busy because we become so successful, the tendency is to say, “No, I can handle this myself.” How the mighty fall! Remember The Titanic ship? They said it was unsinkable and yet on it’s maiden voyage, because people didn’t take note of God, it hit an iceberg and went down to the bottom of the sea within a few minutes, with thousands of people dying in the process. We need to keep humble, we need to thank God for everything that we have and we need to walk very carefully before God and before our fellowman, especially when the Lord is blessing us. Today, remember, if you are going through a hard time, stick close to the Lord. He will teach you lessons in those hard times that you will never learn in times of prosperity and success. If I look back on my life, the highlights of my life have been when I have said, “Lord, I just can’t do it anymore, You have to do it for me”, and He has brought me through. Do not be afraid of success, do not be afraid of failure, just walk humbly before your God. Jesus bless you and goodbye.