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02/06/2021

Faith in God

June 2, 2021 • Angus Buchan

“Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.” Mark 11:22-23

“Have faith in God." - This is a nice memory verse for anyone who says: “I struggle to memorize the word of God.”

Oh my dear friend, if ever we needed faith, we need it now in the times we are living. Our trust must be in God and God alone. “What is faith?” you might say. Well, Hebrews 11:1 says:

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

How do you get faith, Angus?

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17

Remember, without it, you cannot please God. Hebrews 11:6 - You can hear by how I am speaking, I am talking about my favourite subject today. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him and he who believes must believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of those who trust in Him.

Many years ago, I was sitting quietly in my prayer room and the Lord said to me, “I want you to take the word of God into Africa.” And I say: “Lord, I am listening.” Now, He has never spoken to me audibly, but in my heart.
And I saw a picture of this big truck - an 80 meters long, 20 ton Mercedes Benz truck. 4x4 with a 40KVA lighting plant on the back which could light up a small village and a platform that wound down from the side. This truck had no less than 32 gears... That’s right, 16 high and 16 low range!

You must have a dream because if there is no dream, the people perish. You have to have a vision, and that was the vision God gave me. At Shalom, we have a saying: You must attempt something so big that if it is not of God it is doomed to fail. Why you might ask - Because when it works, people will say: "that wasn’t Angus or that wasn’t 'that person', that was God!”, God gets all the glory. I want to say to you this morning: follow your dream!

"For with God nothing will be impossible." Luke 1:37

So that is exactly what we did!
I think we had R500 in our account when we started and by grace and faith alone, not faith in faith but faith in Jesus, the dream came to pass.

Follow your dream today.
Take the word of God out, speak faith, eat faith and dream faith, then you will have it.

Have a wonderful day.
God bless you.

10/05/2024

May 10, 2024 • Angus Buchan • Genesis 46:34, Matthew 7:6

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 10th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.  We start in the Book of Genesis 46:34 - This is Joseph speaking to his brothers:   “…that you shall say, ‘Your servants’ occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,’ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; (Now, listen to this) for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.”  “Every shepherd is repulsive to the Egyptians.” The Amplified Version says.  Then we go to Matthew 7:6, this is Jesus speaking: “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”   Very, very strong words. They are spoken by the Lord, Himself, and the Old Testament reading spoken by Joseph to his brothers, when they came to Egypt. This really shocked me when I read this scripture initially from Genesis. You and I need to be very careful. Joseph was a very wise man and he told his brothers, “Don’t say you are shepherds”, because actually that is what they were. In fact, God said to Peter, on the shores of Lake Galilee, “Do you love Me?” He said, “I love You, Lord.” He said, ”Feed My sheep.” So Peter was a shepherd, a shepherd of the flock. We need to be very sensitive when we share our faith with people in the world. Some don’t understand, some don’t want to understand and some will actually get quite aggressive towards you.  We need to pick the time. Often I say, “Tell the first three people you meet, after you give your life to Christ, what you have done, and I still maintain that, but we need to be clever. The Bible says we must be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves. So when we share our testimony with somebody, we must pick the right time and the right place, otherwise we will be rejected severely. That’s why it wasn’t a lie that Joseph was telling his brothers not to tell the Egyptians. He said, “Tell them that we are keepers of livestock and not shepherds.”  I want to say to you today, we never apologise for our faith, we are never ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, but we need to be very, very wise if we want to lead people to Christ. So today, when you go out, just be very careful who you share with and when you share it, but never hold back on the truth. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.  

09/05/2024

May 9, 2024 • Angus Buchan • Isaiah 66:2, Job 38, Job 40:2

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 9th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.   We go to the Book of Isaiah 66:2. The Lord says:  “For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,” Says the Lord. “But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.” There is absolutely nothing that you and I can do for God. Earlier on, He says, “Heaven is my throne”. He says, “The earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you can build for Me?” We can do nothing for Him, He has done everything for us. What He requires of you and me is a contrite (which is a repentant), a broken spirit that trembles at His word. The Lord wants us to be simple, plain and reverently responsive to what He says. You will find that out of the Message in Isaiah 66:2. We need to be so careful, and maybe I am speaking more to myself today, my dear friend, than I am to you. We need to be so careful that the work of the Lord does not become more important to us than the Lord of the work, if you know what that means. You see, Jesus actually doesn’t need anything from you and I. He has made it all, He has done it all, there is nothing that we can do for Him.  Now, there was another farmer and he was having a conversation with the Lord. He was quite upset with the Lord, and maybe you are today, but if you look at Job 38 - yes, I am talking about the farmer Job, and you can read that whole chapter from verse 1, the Lord takes him and brings him to attention and says, “Listen, sit down a minute. I want to ask you a few questions. Where were you when I made the earth? Where were you when I did this? Where were you when I did that?” How dare we question our creator! He says in Job 40:2: “Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?” I mean, it’s ridiculous isn’t it? It’s absolutely ridiculous. What we have got to start doing now is to be plain and simple in front of God and go to the Lord like a little boy goes to his dad and sits on his lap and asks him, “Please help me, dad, to fix my bicycle, please help me dad, to do this.” And dad loves doing it! Don’t argue with God, love God and appreciate what He has done for you and me.  Have a wonderful day. Jesus bless you and goodbye.

08/05/2024

May 8, 2024 • Angus Buchan • Psalm 32:5, Daniel 9:23

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 8th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.  We start in the Book of Psalms 32:5:  “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden.(in other words, I have confessed my sins) I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Then we go to the Book of Daniel 9:23:  ‘At the beginning of your supplications (your prayers) the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; …”   That was the angel, Gabriel, who brought a message to Daniel from the Lord. I want to say to you today that the Lord hears and knows your prayers, even before you speak them. Isn’t that wonderful news? You might say, “What is the point in us praying?” Well, mother, that little boy of yours, he comes into the kitchen. You know that he is ravenous, you know that he is so hungry but you want to hear him say, “Mom, could I please have something to eat?” And then you give him that lovely sandwich or whatever it is that he needs. I remember going down to Cape Town like yesterday. They had no rain for two years, and the people were literally about to start dying of thirst. We had a prayer meeting on the sand dunes of Mitchell’s Plain, one of the most dangerous places on the Continent of Africa. Something like a quarter of a million people cried out to the Lord, asking God to send life-giving rain. I want to tell you, it makes me want to weep when I think of it. In the middle of the service, we hadn’t even finished the service, it started raining and it hasn’t stopped since. That huge dam that supplies water to the city of Cape Town was dry. It was like a desert. They said it would take seven years to fill if it started raining. Well, it was overflowing in 4 months. God knows what we are asking before we even ask and yet He still wants to hear us praying and saying, “Lord, please help.” Today, let us ask the Lord with faith, believing, and then we start to thank Him for what is coming. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.