10/05/2024

Angus Buchan

10/05/2024

Be Wise

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.

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.

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.