I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 30th of December, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Gospel of John 12:43:

“for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”

When I read that Scripture I just think of one thing, the fear of man, and I want to say to each one of us as we are facing the new year of 2026, let us stop chasing the approval of man and start doing things for God’s glory alone. It will change our lives dramatically. I looked up the translation of this Bible verse in The Message Translation, and it is quite interesting. It says,

“They were afraid of getting kicked out of the meeting place. When push came to shove they cared more for human approval than for God’s glory.”

How true is that? Let us change our complete outlook this coming year. Let us start asking ourselves that question, “What would God do?” - before we do it.

I have spoken to men who got trapped in alcoholism, alcoholics, and I asked them, “Why did you do it?” And they have told me, “No, we didn’t do it because we wanted to. We did it because we wanted to stay in favour with the crowd”, and of course when you become an alcoholic, you are immediately chucked out of the crowd and you are on your own. I have spoken to drug addicts, and I said, “Why did you get into this hellish thing?” And they said, “We were just trying to keep in with the crowd, to be popular, and so we thought we would dabble in these drugs.” And now, they have been caught up in that horrible thing called addiction. The young girl, a virgin who loved the Lord, why did you sleep with that man? “No, not really, but I was just wanting to be popular with the crowd because all my friends were doing it.” And because you did it thinking it would be safe, you ended up getting pregnant and marrying the man you did not love.

Let us not go down that road this coming year. Let us start doing what the Lord Jesus Christ wants us to do for our own sake and for His glory. Let us start to walk in holiness and then we will have a life that is full of joy and purpose and victory!

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 29th of December, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to Hebrews 12:14:

“Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord…”

I remember years ago hearing this little saying: “Holiness is the end product of obedience.” So when you and I are obedient to the things of God, we automatically become holy people. The Lord is very clear as well that without holiness no man will see God.

I really want to encourage you as we are facing the end of the year, 2025, to really have a good, deep, hard look at yourself as I am, and ask yourself the question - where are we standing at the moment? A young person told me that they are so frustrated. They never, ever seem to make money to have possessions, no matter what they do. What we need to do is to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, then all these things will be added to us. (Matthew 6:33).

J.C. Ryle was a Bishop in the Church of England in the 1800’s, a very godly man. He made a quote which I want to read to you, that really startled me and challenged me, and I hope it is going to do the same for you as you get ready to face a new year and everything that it holds. He said, “Beware of manufacturing a God of your own:…” What does that mean? Well, it means we have to do things according to the Bible, not according to what suits us in the Bible. We have to take the Bible literally and walk according to its statutes, its laws. This same Bishop said, “… a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who has a heaven for everybody, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and broad in eternity.”

There is no such god, my dear friend, and you and I need to understand that, and if things are not going well with us we need to ask the Lord today to please show us those areas in our lives where we are not walking according to His desires for us, so that we can have a life of peace and joy and prosperity in Jesus Christ.

Have a wonderful day today!
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Sunday morning, the 28th of December, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We go straight to the Book of Proverbs 18:24:

”But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Then we go to the Gospel of John 15:14, Jesus says:

”You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”

Are you lonely today? Christmas is over. Some of your loved ones, your children, maybe your parents, have been to see you. Now they have to go back, back to work. Some have got to go back overseas, and you say you don’t know when you will see them again, and you are feeling lonely. Well, I want to share something with you today. What you sow is what you reap. If you sow no seed, you will reap no crop, so in order to have friends, you need to be friendly. (Proverbs 18:24).

I want to tell you a story about a rich woman. She was a godly woman but she was very wrapped up with herself, but there was a maid who worked and stayed in a little room in the back of the house. She was a friend of Jesus, and Jesus was her friend, and she spent lots of time with the Lord, praying and reading scripture. When she got old, she died. She went to Heaven and God gave her a beautiful home in Heaven because He was so fond of her.

Then the rich old lady died and she went to Heaven and when she arrived in Heaven St. Peter took her down a street of gold and said, “I am going to show you your home.” She walked passed this beautiful palatial home, and Peter said to the rich old lady, “See that house? That belongs to your maid. That is where she stays.” The old lady was so excited, “Well, if my maid stays in a house like that, obviously I am going to stay in a palace.” But the golden road ran out, and then it was a silver road, and then it was a tarmac road, and then it was a dirt road, and then it was a path. No more houses, just little shacks with a few sheets of corrugated iron and some poles. And then eventually Peter said, “There is your home.” And the lady was shattered. She said, “How can you do this?” He said, ”You sent no material up for us to build your home.”

Folks, it’s just a story but I want to tell you, if you want to have friends and if you want to know Jesus Christ as your personal Friend, the secret is, you have got to spend time with Him, every single morning. 1 Timothy 6:6 says,

“Now godliness with contentment is great gain.”

Spend more time with Jesus and you won’t be so lonely!

God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 27th of December, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Mark 2:3:

”Then they came to Him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men.”

Remember what happened? They brought a paralysed man to Jesus. There were so many people in the house, they couldn’t get into the house. There were so many people outside, they couldn’t get near to the Lord. They took the paralysed man; they loved him so much. These four men carried him onto the roof of the house, started taking the tiles away, let him down from the roof with ropes, on his bed, and put him right in front of the Saviour. That’s commitment, isn’t it, hey? But think of the scripture. If that man had not been paralysed, he probably would never have had an opportunity of meeting Jesus Christ, face to face.

Paul says in the Book of Romans 5:3-4:

”And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

That’s why we can say we rejoice in our tribulation. Maybe today you are going through a tough time, and you think Lord, why is this happening to me? Why am I not being healed instantly? Why has this got to be my lot in life?

I want to tell a story. There was a very famous hymn writer. Her name was Fanny Crosby. Fanny Crosby was blind. She became a hymn writer. She wrote over 8,000 hymns, and you know that over 100 million copies of her hymns were printed. Most of the famous hymns that we sing today were written by her. They asked her, when she was very old, would she not have preferred to have been born with normal eyes like everybody else? And she said, “No,” because if she had, she probably would never have had the ability, the time, or the imagination to write such beautiful hymns for Jesus. And then what she said, which touched me very deeply, she said, ”When I get to heaven and my eyesight is completely restored, the first face that I will see will be the face of my beloved Jesus.”

Today folks, let us finish strong for the Lord.
God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 26th of December, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Book of John 12:3:

”Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard (thats perfume) anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.”

We’re talking about Mary, who was the sister of Lazarus and Martha.

Today is Boxing Day. Some people call it the Day of Goodwill. It is that day of being grateful for the birth of our beloved Saviour and friend, the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s the day that we go the extra mile for Jesus. Mary took a very precious investment that she had. According to my Bible, the equivalent in value of a pound of this expensive perfume equals a full year's wages for a worker. Think about how much money you bring home every month, times it by twelve and that is how much it was worth. She poured the whole container over Jesus feet and then she wiped His feet with her hair. That is love. Undiluted love, holding back nothing!

Now, I can hear somebody saying, ”But I would love to do that for Jesus as well but He’s not here now.” Well, if we go to Matthew 25:40, Jesus said: “

Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

So yes, we can do it. We can find someone that we love dearly, we can find someone who has nothing, someone who is lonely, and we can give them something which is very precious to us, and that is the equivalent of doing it for the Lord.

So this day let us go out and let us find somebody who is very lonely, somebody who is very poor in spirit, not necessarily financially, and give them something which will touch their hearts deeply, and Jesus will be very happy with us. Today is the Day of Goodwill, let us share the goodwill of Christ wherever we go!

God bless you and have a wonderful day.
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 25th of December, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, wishing you a very, very happy Christmas. Yes, we made it again - what a wonderful day, a very blessed Christmas! I want to thank you on behalf of our whole team whom I never mention. I’m talking about my producer, Gary, I’m talking about my editor, Candice, I’m talking about my beloved wife Gill and all our family at Shalom, and the Shalom fellowship. I want to wish you a very blessed Christmas Day!

It’s a time of mixed emotions, isn’t it? Some of our loved ones have already gone home to be with Jesus and they won’t be sharing Christmas Day with you, but I want to tell you something, by the Grace of God, they are waiting for you in Heaven and that’s something to look forward to. So there is only one scripture verse today which in my humble opinion is appropriate for Christmas Day, which sums up the whole Bible, which consists of no less than 66 books, and I’m going to read it to you out of the Amplified Version. Yes, I am talking about John 3:16.

“For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son…”

Dads, how would you like to give your only son to die for the sins of others, even while they are still sinners? It’s hard enough to give your son up for fellow believers, but to give him up for other sinners. That’s what our Heavenly Father did. I cannot even comprehend the pain that must have taken place when they said farewell to each other and Jesus came down from Heaven to Earth in the form of a little baby. We carry on:

”… so that whoever (now whoever means whoever) believes and trusts in Him (in God) [as Savior] shall not perish (shall not die) but have eternal life.”

That’s what Christmas Day is all about! We are remembering the tremendous price that was paid for you and me so that we could have eternal life.

Today, let us do that to one another: ”Greater love has no one than this,” the Bible says ”than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13, and that’s exactly what took place 2000 years ago in a little town called Bethlehem. Jesus bless you today as you have a peaceful and a happy Christmas.

Merry Christmas!
God bless you and goodbye

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 24th of December, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

Yes indeed, it is Christmas Eve, a very special birthday. It’s the birthday of the greatest human being that has ever lived, but I’ve got a very interesting thought for today for you. God put it on my heart early this morning. Psalm 19:14:

”Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”

Now, those of you who know me well know that I will not start preaching until I have prayed that prayer and preferably on my knees. “Why?” You say because it is a wonderful but great responsibility to bring God’s word to people. This tongue of ours over this Christmas period must be harnessed correctly and that’s not a joke. I belong to a very big family myself and I want to tell you there are people that are coming from very far. You’ve got members of your family coming from overseas, they have been waiting for this time. Be careful what you say.

If you go to the Book of James 3:6, this is what it says:

”And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell.”

Wow!

How many world wars have started because of something that has been said? How many families are in divorce because of words spoken that you wish you’d never said them? How many disasters have taken place, bad business deals, broken relationships because of a word said in anger? Don’t do it. Today, count to ten before you say it and then you probably won’t say it. You can’t bring words back once they are out. They are like that pillow full of feathers. You take it out into the wind, you open up that pillow, the feathers go all over the place. You will never put those feathers back in that pillowcase.

We need to speak Jesus. He is all that counts and if you speak Jesus today, you cannot make a mistake. Let’s be gentle, let’s be loving with each other. Let us not be part of an unruly fire that can destroy a relationship. Today, let us be as gentle and as kind as we can to each other.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful Christmas Eve,
Goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 23rd of December, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start off in the Book of Isaiah 9:6:

“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Then we go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 1:21:

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Yes, we are talking about the Prince of Peace, we are talking about the Darling of Heaven. As we approach Christmas Day, the Lord has laid this beautiful song on my heart that I want to read to you. It was written by Mark Lowry, a Gospel singer from America. I am sure you have heard it but I want you to listen very carefully to the words that he has written, because they always bring me to tears every time. This is how it starts:

Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?

This child that you've delivered will soon deliver you

Mary, did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?

Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?

When you kissed your little baby you've kissed the face of God

The blind will see, the deaf will hear and the dead will live again

The lame will leap, the dumb will speak the praises of the Lamb

Mary, did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your baby boy is Heaven's perfect Lamb?

This sleeping child you're holding is the great 'I Am'

Maybe you have listened to this and your heart is touched, and you say, “But Angus, I am really struggling sometimes to believe that that baby is God made flesh, Immanuel.” Well, I want to pray for you.

Father,

I pray for my dear friend. Maybe she is lonely, maybe he is missing his wife, maybe they are in hospital and they are struggling to believe. Please increase their faith today and let them know about the Babe who was born in Bethlehem, who is soon coming again to take us to be with Him, in glory forever, Amen.

Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day,

Goodbye.