Humble

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Monday morning, the 25th of August, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for today.

We start in the Gospel of Matthew 23:12:

“And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Then we go to Luke 18:14:

”…everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

The same scripture in two different gospels. I think the Lord is telling us something this morning. If you want to be first, you must be prepared to be last. If you want to be the greatest, you must be prepared to be the least. You see, it is the Lord that does the promotion, not you, not me. 

I want to tell you a little story. Many years ago, I had the privilege of doing a tour of Great Britain. I was preaching all over the place. I was a young man. I was full of energy. I would do Sunday services, mid-week services, and I was invited to this tea party on a weekday morning. I wasn’t too keen to go. I don’t like cucumber sandwiches and tea and making small talk, but you see, I was about to be humbled. That’s right! I arrived at this place. It was very special. There were a lot of senior people there. They were well dressed, and the man that had invited me said, “I want to introduce you to someone”, and he introduced me to this man. We will call this man John, and that is how he was introduced.

“This is John and John, this is Angus.” And John was a man who held himself very upright, very fit, very disciplined. I would put him at a man probably in his seventies. He was wearing gumboots so I presumed he was a farmer. I said to him, “Sir, what is your profession?”

And he said to me in the King’s English, “I am a soldier.” 

“A soldier?” 

“Yes Angus, and I have come specially today to listen to you, but I might have to pop out before the end of the meeting, so please forgive me, but I am very excited.”

Anyway, the service started and the meeting started. I got up and I preached and just towards the end of the meeting, he was standing at the back of the hall, a big tall man with his gumboots on, and he waved to me, so he didn’t cause any trouble and he slipped out of the back door. After the meeting was over, a gentleman came up to me. He said, “Angus, you see that man that left just before the end of the meeting?” I said, “Yes”., He said, “Do you know who he was?” I said, “No, he told me he was a soldier.” He said, “That man is the Commander General of the NATO armed forces of Europe and he reports directly to the Queen of England.”

Oh my friend, today be very careful who you speak to. Don’t be too quick to sprout off what you can do and what you have done. Just keep humble.

God bless you and goodbye.