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.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 15th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Revelation 14:13:

“‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labours, and their works follow them.”

We need to run our race, and once we get close to the end, there is sheer joy in knowing that we have completed our task here on earth. Paul, the great Apostle, in 2 Timothy 4:7 said:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

You see, it is not about all the trophies, it's not about all the goals that we achieve, no - its about finishing strong. Just recently, I have met a number of people who are dying, who are coming to the end of their race. They know it, they have told me, and the amazing thing is that they are looking forward to home time. I haven’t met one yet, I am talking about strong Christian men and women, who are fearful of dying. Some of them have accomplished great awards, great trophies. They have achieved the goals that they set before them, but you know, the funny thing is, not one of them speaks to me about their achievements here on earth. No, they speak about home time, they speak about having finished their race, completed their task, and now they are looking forward to going home.

I want to say to you today, yes - we need to live the life that God has called us to, we need to be an example to others, especially unbelievers, but we must focus on the finish line.

“No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

We need to plough the field, we need to complete the task, and then we need to look forward to home time. The older I am getting, the more I am looking forward to meeting the Lord one day, face to face, and the more I am walking on this road, the things of this world are becoming less interesting to me and less desirable. I am looking forward to eternity, to spending the time with my beloved Jesus. You should be the same. We are not here forever; we are simply passing through, but we need to live the day that God has given us; we need to live it to the full, but our eyes must always be on the finish line.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 14th of May, 2024, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of Isaiah 66:4:

“when I called, no one answered,…”

And then we go straight to the Matthew 26:40:

“Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”

Without a doubt, one of the hardest things to deal with in life is loneliness, don’t you agree? You know, our Heavenly Father desires fellowship with you and me. That is the main reason why He created us. He created us for His own good pleasure. He loves us so much and He desires to spend time with us. He didn’t create us because we had to do something for Him. There is nothing we can do for God, He did it all. He created the whole universe with one word. In the beginning was the Word, but loneliness,…I really believe our Heavenly Father gets lonely and desires fellowship with His people, but so often you and I are so busy doing other things that we don’t get a chance to speak with Him.

Remember, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus really needed His disciples, more than ever before - they were fast asleep. Don’t you and I do the same thing? We really need to understand that we have to spend time with the Lord, not just for our sake but also for His sake.

I have learnt what loneliness is. Over the years I have travelled all over the world, preaching the Gospel, and it sounds very glamorous and it sounds very exciting, but I can tell you something now, after the evening is finished and we have preached to multitudes of people, and we have seen the power of God moving, and people are so excited, they are born again, Spirit-filled, they are healed physically and mentally, then I get ushered back to my hotel, and I walk up those stairs or catch that elevator, I go to my room and I sit there all by myself. Oh yes, and that is the time when I think of Jill and the children back home, and my grandchildren, and I might be on the other side of the world, and I wonder, are they safe? Are things good there? It is the middle of the night there because we have big time changes as well. That is the time that I have to lock in with God, and He becomes a friend to me, that sticks closer than any brother.

You need to do the same. We really need to spend time with Him and then we won’t be lonely like that again. After I have had a good chat with Him, I turn over on my side, and I go sound asleep.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, and remember, you don’t have to be lonely!