Start at Home

I greet you in Jesus’ precious name! It is Saturday morning, the 8th of February, 2025, and this is your friend, Angus Buchan, with a thought for the day.

We go to the Gospel of Mark 8:36:

“For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world [with all its pleasures], and forfeit his soul?”

I want to say something to you today. You can take that scripture and say, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his family? - Because that is his life, isn’t it? We must start at home base. 

John Wesley, the great revivalist, found that out. He went all the way to America to preach the Gospel to the First Nations people and he came all the way back home again, totally dejected. He never led one to Christ. But what happened? You see, he was looking in the wrong place. The revival must start in your own life and in your own home. In a little Bible study in London, in a place called Aldergate, he wrote: “A strange warmth came over my heart, the scales fell from my eyes.” I believe he met Jesus Christ in that little Bible study in a very personal way.

Remember charity is another word for love, charity begins at home. Some men and women want to save the whole world at the price of their very own marriages and their very own families. Be very careful folks, your enthusiasm, your excitement, your determination, can sometimes cost very dearly at home. Remember the order: First God, second your wife or your husband, thirdly your children, then your community and then your country, in that order. Remember, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and then the outer ends of the earth. Many of us are getting it the wrong way around. 

Now, I looked up the Oxford Dictionary to define the word “revival”. Well, it means restoration. Maybe that is going to start at home before we start telling others how to live. Resurrection - maybe you are feeling down and flat and you think by going out to the ends of the earth you will find it. No, it starts at home. Make strong again, bring back consciousness, a people saturated with God. That is what Wesley said revival was, but it has got to begin at home. Let’s roll up our sleeves, sort out our differences, love our families and then God will do the rest. 

Jesus bless you and goodbye.