Holy Communion

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Friday morning, the 23rd of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start with 1 Corinthians 15:22: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” Isn’t that beautiful? And then John 3:16: ”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Praise be to God. Through Adam we have death. Through Christ we have life, as simple as that. Just the other day we were at the little church on the farm, Shalom, and a visitor came to join the congregation and afterwards I spoke to him. I said, ”Where do you come from?” He said, "I come from Iran.” I said, ”Are you a muslim?” He said, ”No.” I said, ”Are you a Christian?” He said, ”No” I said, ”What are you?” He said, ”I’m searching, I don’t know.” Straight away I felt the Spirit of the Lord say to me, “Ask him if he’d like to give his life to Jesus Christ?” I said, ”Would you like to be born again? Would you like to give your life to Jesus Christ?” He said, "Yes please, sir.” And right there and then I prayed the sinner’s prayer over that man and straight away another man walked over, and he came from another town and he was a muslim. He said, ”I too want to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and saviour.” Isn’t that Wonderful? It’s the name above every other name folks, and we must not be shy or slow to introduce our beloved Jesus to people. It’s not a case of, ”Oh well, I don’t want to embarrass him.” If that man does not know Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour, he will go to hell. That’s what the Bible tells us, so who cares whether he’s embarrassed or not. This man is in the Kingdom of God today, and by the way, the Lord impressed upon me to give him a Christian name. I said, ”I’m going to give you a new name.” I haven’t done this before, and his face lit up. I said, ”Your name is going to be Daniel. Daniel in the lions' den. Daniel was in Babylon when the Lord touched him and saved him from ravenous lions killing him.” And so we have a Daniel now, and we are so excited, but I want to ask you a question. You have been listening to the thought for the day, maybe for a long time, maybe not so long. Have you ever given your life to Jesus Christ? The Lord says we must be born again. You’ll find that in John 3:3. Please pray this prayer after me if you would like to be born again. Dear Lord Jesus, I acknowledge I am a sinner and I need a saviour. Please come into my life. I am sorry and repent for all of my sins and today I ask you to be my soon-coming King and Saviour, and I pray this in Your precious name. Amen. Jesus bless you and go out and tell the first three people that you meet what you did today! Have a wonderful day, God bless you and goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Thursday morning, the 22nd of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Book of Psalms 37:5: “Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.” Then we go to Psalm 55:22: “Cast your burden on the Lord, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.” Then the last scripture, 1 Peter 5:7: "…casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” Today, cast your cares upon Jesus because He will carry your burden and because He cares for you. In Numbers 22:23, we read that the donkey is a burden carrier, but he is also highly intelligent. We think a donkey is stupid. A donkey is not stupid, my dear friend, he is extremely clever. Balaam’s donkey was carrying Balaam along the path, remember? And she stopped dead. Balaam started to hit her with a stick and told her to move. She wouldn’t move. Why? Because Balaam’s donkey saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the road with a big sword. So she went off into the field. A donkey is an animal of peace, and that is why I love donkeys so much. A donkey carried Jesus into Jerusalem, when all the people laid palm leaves on the roads and their clothes, and the donkey walked over them all. He is the burden-carrier. They say in the olden days, when a king came into a neighbouring kingdom, he would ride a donkey if he meant he wanted peace. If he rode a horse, a war horse, that was indicative of war. I want to tell you a little story. An old man I loved dearly, named Johannes Nel. He used to ride with me in my truck when I went down into the low-veld, into the homelands, when I went to collect people to come and work on the farm, and every time we went past a group of donkeys that were standing under a thorn tree, the old man would raise his hat and tears would fill his eyes. And I said to him once, “Oom Hannes, why do you do that?” “Oh”, he said, “Angus, that is the animal that carried my Master into Jerusalem”. Yes, I have never forgotten that. Do you know that a donkey has got a cross on his back? Every donkey - it goes down his spine and across his shoulders. Cast your cares upon Jesus, the Burden Carrier, the Prince of Peace, and He will give you the strength and the ability to complete your task. God bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 21st of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go to the Gospel of John 13:4-5: “He rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.” I am talking about an act by the Son of God. I am talking about the great I AM. I am talking about the greatest Man who has ever walked on the face of this earth. He took a basin, He filled it with water, He took His coat off and put a towel around His waist and He started to wash His disciples dirty feet. I want to ask you a question today. Do you feel like you are living a meaningless life? Do you feel like you are living a life of no significance? I want to speak to that mother who is looking after her three children, her husband is a blue-collar worker. He is bringing very little money and she has to make things work. She has to wash her children’s clothes the night before so they're dry, ironed, and ready to put on the next day because they don’t have another set of clothes, and she feels like this life is worthless. I want to say to you mother, I esteem you and I salute you. I want to say to that man who has got a very menial job, you don’t think that anyone is even interested in you and that you are making no contribution to the world. Don’t be fooled. Look what the Son of God did! I want to tell you a story. Maybe you have heard it before. Many years ago, I was in Central Africa with that big truck, the Seed-sower. We were preaching the Gospel to an unreached people, and we were very far into the bush. There was a pastor, a very humble man and his dear wife with a very small flock of people. We were tired, we were wary, we had been travelling for days. We were dusty. Anyway, after preaching the Gospel, we eventually went to bed. I was in a one-man tent. And during the night, I thought I was dreaming, I kept hearing water pouring. I would have given anything to have a basin of water. When I woke up the next morning, there was a forty four gallon drum right next to my tent and it was filled to overflowing with beautiful fresh, clean water. That pastor’s wife walked back and forth from the river, about half a kilometre away, all night, carrying a bucket balanced on her head, and she brought forty-four gallons of water for us as a team, so we could drink and wash. God saw her heart. Make no mistake, I want to meet her in Heaven one day. Do not think you are of no significance, just do what God has told you to do and do it with much joy, and your reward is awaiting you in Heaven. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Tuesday morning, the 20th of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Galatians 1:12: “For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” That is a very powerful word, an encouraging word for many lay-preachers, men who tell people about Jesus without having gone to Bible College or university. Then we go to Exodus 3:14: “And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ” What a beautiful confirmation! The last one is 2 Corinthians 3:6. Paul says: “…for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” I want to say to you today, my dear friend, that we need the Holy Spirit like never before. I want to qualify something right at the beginning. I have no problem with education. I have no problem with Bible College, with university or studying Theology. In fact, I wish I could have done it myself, but it was not possible, but for those who have not been to university, those who have been to the school of life, that is my teacher. It was the same teacher of the great preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He never had any Bible instruction at all and he was regarded as the “Prince of Preachers”. What about Dwight Lyman Moody? A shoe salesman, a farm boy. He went to Britain on a crusade and came back a couple of years later having led over 2 million people to Christ. His teacher was the Holy Spirit. Today, do not despise small beginnings. Do not sell yourself short. Tell people what Jesus has told you. Where do you find that? In the quiet time place, in the closet, early in the morning. You do your preparation before you get on the platform or into the pulpit. That is why I never use notes in the pulpit because I do my preparation at home and I keep my eye on the people to hold their attention. Let the Holy Spirit direct you today. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 19th of October, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We go straight to the Gospel of Matthew 5:22: ”But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” Those are strong words, spoken by the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We need to be very careful when we use those words! There was a famous Scottish poet. His name was Robert Burns, and he lived a long time ago. He said, “A man is a man for all that.” What does that mean, Angus? Well, it means that he is not an animal. He is a man, a creation of God, therefore, treat him as such. We need to be careful how we speak. Why am I speaking to you this morning about this very fact? Because a very dear friend of mine has just passed away. He gave his life to Jesus in our little Christian coffee bar in Greytown, many, many years ago. He died in his sixties. I think he gave his life to the Lord when he was a young teenager, maybe 14 or 15, and he became a friend of mine over the years. But he struggled. He struggled with mental illness and was very often mistaken for the things he said and did. He was an immensely strong man, very powerfully built, but I loved him dearly. I can tell you right now that today, he is in the presence of Jesus Christ. Why? Because he loved God with a passion. I have not met many men who could memorise scripture verses like he could. What an incredible man. He used to love going up the mountains with me. We used to walk the mountains together. We need to really be careful that we don’t judge a book by it’s cover. We make that mistake too often, don’t we? He knew my birthday. I didn’t know his. He never, ever forgot to wish me happy birthday, and he knew the birthdays of every single member of my family, oh yes. Have you heard of a man named John Nash? He won the Nobel Prize for mathematics, but he struggled with mental illness all his life. They made a movie about him called, “A Beautiful Mind.” Folks, I want to tell you something now, that movie and my dear friend have taught me one thing - to be kind, gracious and gentle with people who struggle with mental illness, because I want to tell you, they are definitely not fools. Let us love our fellowman, because he is a creation of God. Jesus bless you and have a wonderful day, goodbye.