Outspoken

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Wednesday morning, the 9th of September, 2026, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today. We start in the Book of Joshua 24:15. This is now Joshua speaking: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” He stood up in front of the whole nation of Israel and said, “Who are you going to serve today? Are you going to serve foreign gods or are you going to serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We need to be verbal. We cannot sit on the fence. It is a very uncomfortable place to be, especially if it is a barbed wire fence! Then we go to the Gospel of Matthew 12:30. Jesus says: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” In other words, you cannot serve two masters. There is no neutral place in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are going to serve the Lord, you have to serve Him with all of your heart. That is why God blessed Joshua so much. He was a single-minded man. He stood up in front of the whole nation and publicly declared that he and his family were going to serve the Lord. I remember when our first child got married. He stood up in the reception area and declared, “As for me and my house (that was he and his young wife), we will serve the Lord.” And he has done that for many, many years. He himself is now a grandfather and his grandchildren and my great-grandchildren are all serving the Lord. There comes a time when we have got to be vocal. We cannot be indifferent. We cannot be lukewarm. Jesus said, “I will vomit you out of my mouth if you are lukewarm. I would rather you be ice cold than lukewarm.” We really need to stand up in these last days. You see, people don’t have to like you, but they must respect you, and you know the amazing thing is, when the going gets really rough, people will come to those of us who are standing tall for Jesus, for help, for counsel, for advice. We need to be solid. “If everybody has got something good to say about you,” one famous evangelist said, “be sure that Jesus has got nothing good to say about you!” Oh folks, you don’t even have to speak, you just have to live it. I want to pray for you this morning. Father, I pray for my dear friend listening to this message, who is afraid, who is shy, who says, “I can’t do it”. Please help them, Holy Spirit, to be outspoken at work, on the rugby field, at school. When they open their mouths, Lord, give them the strength to say, “No, we follow Jesus and Him alone.” God bless you and goodbye.