Settle Your Differences

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

We start in the first book of the Bible, Genesis 32:6:

”Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you…”

Remember, Jacob and Esau fell out because Jacob robbed Esau of his inheritance. There was a tremendous amount of hatred involved. In fact Esau swore that he was going to kill his brother, Jacob. 

Then we go straight to 1 John 4:20. The Lord says:

”If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

A very stern word for you and me today from the Lord. The Lord basically says, 'Settle your differences.' Do not carry that grudge. Sort it out! We have to, for God’s sake, and I’m not swearing either, I mean it. How can we expect the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive us when we can’t forgive our brother? When you do forgive then all of a sudden there’s a peace that comes over your heart isn’t there? You can sleep better at night, can’t you? You know the word “restitution”? I looked it up in the Oxford dictionary, it means to restore, to pay for injury or loss that has been suffered. We need to deal with our differences.

If you’re a runner, you will understand what I’m going to say. When you are running a race, maybe 20, 30, 40 kilometres and there is a stone, a small stone, in your running shoe. Stop, take that shoe off, get rid of that little stone and then carry on running. If you don’t, you won’t finish the race. That little stone will cause a huge blister and you’ll end up not being able to complete your race. I’m talking about small things.

I remember, a man came to see me. He had come to one of the early Mighty Men Conferences and what he had done was, he wanted to take a memento back to his home. So he went into our maize field and picked a nice big mealie cob. It was dry by then, and he took it home as a reminder. You know that he was convicted by the Holy Spirit, and about twenty years later, he came to see me and he brought this old, old mealie and he said, ”I want to bring this back.” I laughed, but you know something? He was quite at peace after that.

We had a young man that we were looking after here. We used to look after young men from overseas, and he had came from another country. He stole my Leatherman. I didn’t even know it, I thought I’d lost it, and ten years later, he came back to see me on the farm and he brought that knife back. He said, ”I stole your knife. I am so sorry.”

Today, settle your differences, and you’ll be surprised how the Lord Jesus will bless you. 
God bless you and goodbye.