Central Canada Wesleyan, 3545 County Road 27, RR2, Brockville, ON (2026)

06/07/2026

Sunday June 7th is the Second Sunday after Pentecost. The Gospel passage is Matthew 9:9–13, 18–26.

This passage highlights three “healings”. In each case, the presence of Jesus combined with a person humbly recognizing their own need leads to a glorious transformation.

Matthew the tax collector is the first one to experience healing. Jesus saw him and invited him to become a disciple. Matthew got up and followed him. We can imagine that Matthew was possibly ill not with a physical malady but with a troubled mind and spirit. He was in a business that required him to take advantage of his own people. He was most likely wealthy outwardly but inwardly in poverty.

Jesus threw Matthew a lifeline by inviting him to discipleship. He would no longer worship wealth or status. He was made new as a follower of Christ.

Jesus affirmed that we can be ill inwardly when he answered the Pharisees question about eating with tax collectors and sinners. He told them that “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.”
Matthew was healed inwardly.

Just after asserting his role as a physician of souls, Jesus demonstrated his life giving power in two healings. A leader came to Jesus and begged him to come and heal his daughter who had died. In the midst of departing with the man, a woman with a bleeding disorder came and touched the garment of Jesus. She came and didn’t want to disturb Jesus but she knew his power could heal her. When Jesus turned to see her, he pronounced her healed and she was fully restored.

Finally, the great physician confronted the greatest enemy in death itself. The mourners actually turned from mourning to laughing at the thought of the little girl living again. This is when Jesus proved he was Lord over everything, including the power of death. He took her by the hand and the girl got up.

We serve a Savior who heals. Jesus invites us to come to him in faith, to follow him and experience divine healing. The moment we come to Jesus, his life enters us and our healing begins. Sometimes the healing is dramatic and fast like the woman and the girl and sometimes, it is the beginning of a healing journey like Matthew experienced as a follower.

Please pray for our Wesleyan Churches across Canada today as this message of healing is proclaimed so we can experience the life giving power of God through Christ.

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Christ heals a woman and raises a girl
9:9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him.
9:10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples.
9:11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
9:12But when he heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
9:13Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners."
9:18While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."
9:19And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.
9:20Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak,
9:21for she was saying to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well."
9:22Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." and the woman was made well from that moment.
9:23When Jesus came to the leader's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,
9:24he said, "Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him.
9:25But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.
9:26And the report of this spread through all of that district.

05/31/2026

Sunday May 31 is Trinity Sunday. The Gospel passage is Matthew 28:16-20.

In the passage we know as the “Great Commission”, Jesus instructed his followers to baptize new disciples in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

As Wesleyan Christians, we are trinitarian. One God in three persons. Almost any attempt to explain the Trinity leaves a person in danger of theological error. The trinity is a mystery but it is also a reality. Three in One.

John Wesley famously emphasized that the doctrine of the Trinity "lies at the root of all vital religion". He argued that Christians don't just believe in the Trinity; they experience the Trinity. In Wesleyan theology, you can have a conscious awareness of the Father accepting you, through the merit of the Son, confirmed by the witness of the Holy Spirit in your heart.

In the Father we understand that God Is Bigger Than We Imagine
God the Father oversees Creation in relationship with the Son and the Holy Spirit.
(Genesis 1 / Psalm 8)

In the Son, God Comes Closer Than We Expect
The New Testament calls Jesus “The image of the invisible God”. The Son is God incarnate.

In the Holy Spirit, God Sends and Accompanies Us Into His Mission
Life baptized into Father, Son, and Spirit.

As the body of Christ, we are invited into the love of the Trinity through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the son of God.

Please pray for Wesleyan Churches, Church Plants, Camps and Mission Locations where the Trinity will be proclaimed today.

Text: Matthew 28:16-20
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

05/25/2026

Sunday May 24th is Pentecost Sunday. The Gospel Scriptures are from John 20:19-23 and John 7:37-39.

When Jesus appears to his frightened disciples between his resurrection and ascension, John’s Gospel recounts that he appeared, spoke peace over them, showed them his wounds and then breathed on them saying “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Why was breathing on the disciples a part of the story? It was because this moment indicated something cosmic in scope. The word “breathed” was the same word used to describe how God animated Adam (the human) in Genesis 2:7. God breathed life into Adam at creation and now the second Adam, Jesus as truly God and truly human was now breathing life into these followers. This was the re-creation of humanity. The miracle of this is almost too much to fully grasp.

The life, death and resurrection of Jesus opened up the way to everlasting life again. When Adam sinned, the way to the tree of life had been blocked and now through Jesus, the way to life was open again. Humanity was made new in Christ.
For Wesleyans, sin is more than a juridical matter, sin is primarily a wound and a death that requires healing. This healing is now available through the second Adam. Jesus restores the imago dei (image of God) in every believer who belongs to his body, the church.

So today, we pray for this message of re-creation proclaimed across Canada by our Wesleyan Churches. We celebrate the risen Christ who breathes life into us, the Holy Spirit of God that enlivens our sick and dying selves and renews us from the inside out.

John 20:19-23
The spirit poured out
20:19When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
20:20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
20:21Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
20:22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
20:23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

John 7:37-39
Jesus, the true living water
7:37On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me,
7:38and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water.'"
7:39Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive, for as yet there was no Spirit because Jesus was not yet glorified.

05/18/2026

Sunday May 17th is the Seventh Sunday after Easter. The Gospel passage is John 17:1-11.

Jesus prays for his disciples and by extension, all disciples for all time. He is praying for God the Father to glorify the Son so the Son can glorify the father. This glory was enacted through Christ defeating death and being resurrected. This prayer is priestly in that Jesus is the mediator between heaven and earth. He is the center of all creation and through Him, all humanity is redeemed.

Jesus in his earthly life made the Father's name known to those given to him from the world. The disciples would now make the name of the Father known to the world through following Jesus. In Jesus, we are protected from the world, not in the sense of avoiding death, but in that we can be protected in the midst of trials and pain and storms to wonderfully make the name of the Father known. The church is the body of Christ in the world representing the name of the God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Mr. Wesley called this process entire sanctification. It is more than a mental ascent to doctrine, it is a lived experience of the eternal life of God flowing in and through us as believers (with belief meaning participation as disciples).

Please join me in praying for Wesleyan Churches all over Canada today proclaiming this "High Priestly Prayer" of Jesus not only that it is heard, but that we experience it.

John 17:1-11
Christ’s prayer for his disciples

After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

05/11/2026

Sunday May 10th is the Sixth Sunday of Easter. The Gospel Passage is John 14:15-21.

I am so grateful that I know that when I pull into certain driveways, I know I am home. It could be my wife’s parents’ home in Michigan, the homes of my children in various states, my parents’ home in New Brunswick or my home for the past 17 years on the outskirts of Brockville. I know I belong in those places, I have a family and I am accepted.

Jesus told his disciples that he would not leave them as orphans. To be an orphan in any era is deeply challenging and troubling. It signals no sense of belonging. No status, no place to land, no one to count on. Jesus wanted his disciples to know that despite worldly difficulties that were inevitable, they were His and He would be with them through the Holy Spirit.

"Another Advocate" was God the Holy Spirit. God incarnate, the Son, would reign and return at the word of the Father. In the meantime, every disciple of Christ receives the Holy Spirit through baptism and participation in the body of Christ. We are never alone. We are at home in the church. The Holy Spirit is with us, forever.

The Spirit of Christ is with us and in us and his love overflows in us as we participate in his life through his church. We obey not out of our strength or will but out of overflowing love from God.

So go to church and know you are home. The Spirit of Christ is in us.

Pray today as this message is proclaimed across Canada in our Wesleyan Churches.

John 14:15-21
14:15"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
14:16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.
14:17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
14:18"I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
14:19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.
14:20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
14:21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."

05/04/2026

Sunday May 3rd is the Fifth Sunday of Easter. The Gospel Passage is John 14:1-14.

People are hurting. This is not a surprise to you because you are aware of the world around you. But it seems that despite living in a prosperous nation with overflowing resources, somehow we are starving emotionally and spiritually and in some cases, people are starving physically. I came across a study this week that outlined how loneliness is increasing despite the fact that we have multiplied means of communication available to reach out to family, friends, and even strangers.

I work with Pastors on a daily basis and they are not exempt from hurting. School teachers are hurting, retirees are hurting, young people, middle aged, the very rich and the very poor.

Into the midst of 2026, the words of Christ ring out with hope, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”
Jesus is the bridge between heaven and earth. He is the conduit for the love and joy of heaven to become available to our hurting world. When Jesus speaks of many dwelling places, he isn’t just talking about a distant place or time, he is declaring a present reality. The Kingdom of heaven is available Right Now through Him.
Jesus goes on to invite his disciples to follow him and walk in his way.

Thomas then raised his hand and asked the human question. We don’t know where you are going so how can we know the way? Jesus then located all goodness, hope, love and joy in himself. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Moses knew the Father through the incarnate Son unbound by time, David knew the Father through the incarnate Son, Samuel heard the voice of the Lord Jesus and knew the will of God through Him.

We know the will of our heavenly Father through the Son. Believing in the Son means we follow him in his life death and resurrection by participating in his body, the church.

When Jesus tells the disciples they will do greater works, he is not saying that we will do greater works as there can be none greater than the Son of Man, our Messiah. He is saying that the works will be “greater in scope” through his body the church. The church carries his work into all the world. The work belongs to Jesus and we in the church are privileged to participate in carrying his works to all the world.

So we get to ask Jesus for help in any trouble. This troubled world will be healed as we share Jesus with everyone in our lives. This is Good News.
Let’s pray for every Wesleyan Church proclaiming this message today across Canada!

John 14:1-14
Christ the way, truth, life
14:1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
14:2In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
14:3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
14:4And you know the way to the place where I am going."
14:5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"
14:6Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
14:7If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
14:8Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."
14:9Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
14:10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
14:11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves.
14:12Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
14:13I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14:14If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it

05/03/2026

Sunday May 3rd is the Fifth Sunday of Easter. The Gospel Passage is John 14:1-14.

People are hurting. This is not a surprise to you because you are aware of the world around you. But it seems that despite living in a prosperous nation with overflowing resources, somehow we are starving emotionally and spiritually and in some cases, people are starving physically. I came across a study this week that outlined how loneliness is increasing despite the fact that we have multiplied means of communication available to reach out to family, friends, and even strangers.

I work with Pastors on a daily basis and they are not exempt from hurting. School teachers are hurting, retirees are hurting, young people, middle aged, the very rich and the very poor.

Into the midst of 2026, the words of Christ ring out with hope, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.”

Jesus is the bridge between heaven and earth. He is the conduit for the love and joy of heaven to become available to our hurting world. When Jesus speaks of many dwelling places, he isn’t just talking about a distant place or time, he is declaring a present reality. The Kingdom of heaven is available Right Now through Him.
Jesus goes on to invite his disciples to follow him and walk in his way.

Thomas then raised his hand and asked the human question. We don’t know where you are going so how can we know the way? Jesus then located all goodness, hope, love and joy in himself. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Moses knew the Father through the incarnate Son unbound by time, David knew the Father through the incarnate Son, Samuel heard the voice of the Lord Jesus and knew the will of God through Him.
We know the will of our heavenly Father through the Son. Believing in the Son means we follow him in his life death and resurrection by participating in his body, the church.

When Jesus tells the disciples they will do greater works, he is not saying that we will do greater works as there can be none greater than the Son of Man, our Messiah. He is saying that the works will be “greater in scope” through his body the church. The church carries his work into all the world. The work belongs to Jesus and we in the church are privileged to participate in carrying his works to all the world.

So we get to ask Jesus for help in any trouble. This troubled world will be healed as we share Jesus with everyone in our lives. This is Good News.
Let’s pray for every Wesleyan Church proclaiming this message today across Canada!

John 14:1-14
Christ the way, truth, life
14:1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
14:2In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
14:3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
14:4And you know the way to the place where I am going."
14:5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"
14:6Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
14:7If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
14:8Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied."
14:9Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
14:10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
14:11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, but if you do not, then believe because of the works themselves.
14:12Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
14:13I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14:14If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it

04/27/2026

Sunday April 26th is the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The Gospel passage is John 10:1-10.

Have you noticed that the internet has a plentiful supply of ways to enhance your life? In a system replete with mathematics I do not comprehend, each of use experience algorithms adapted to our age and stage of life along with our personal interests.

As a man of advancing age, I receive tips on how to do “chair yoga” or morning “tai chi” workouts that promise six pack abs and energy renewal. For a while, I was receiving messages about intermittent fasting and now I get all kinds of messages about planning for retirement.

The voices are numerous and persistent. You can have a great life if……

In John 10, Jesus makes the ultimate claim that relativizes every other voice and every claim promising a better life.

The voices of this world only understand the world as it is but is it possible that there may be a better world available to us? A world where all the current limits are transcended. This is the world or better yet, the “life” Jesus is revealing when he says that “anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.”

Jesus was inviting his followers to understand that he was the both the “gateway” to life and the pathway to life through participation in his flock. Only one voice, like the voice of the shepherd trusted by the sheep leads to “abundant life”.
Any voice that isn’t echoing the voice of Christ our shepherd is leading away from life but following the voice of Christ leads us into life everlasting.

Today, we pray for Wesleyan Churches all over Canada as the voice of Christ our shepherd is proclaimed through the Scriptures.

Lord Jesus Christ, true Shepherd and living Door,
teach us to hear Your voice above all others.
Lead us into the life You promise,
and keep us within the safety of Your presence.
For in You is our salvation and our peace. Amen.

John 10:1-10
Christ the shepherd
10:1Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.
10:2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
10:3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
10:4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
10:5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers."
10:6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
10:7So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
10:8All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them.
10:9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.
10:10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."

04/20/2026

Sunday April 19th is the Third Sunday of Easter. The Gospel passage is Luke 24:13-35.
Is it possible that Jesus is always with us, even when we don’t recognize his presence?

Luke 24:13-35 is the story of disciples who were grappling with the heartbreak of the death of Jesus on the cross. They believed he was the one who would save and restore Israel and now they were confused and wondering what was going to happen next.

Travelling to a village called Emmaus by foot, they encountered a stranger and struck up a conversation around what had happened to Jesus. They didn’t realize they were to talking to Jesus about his death and the initial report of his resurrection.

Jesus then went into teaching mode and interpreted the Scriptures in order to show them that his life, death and resurrection had always been the plan from the formation of the people of Israel. He was the fulfillment of a plan to defeat death and save not only Israel, but all humanity and the entire cosmos.

These followers of Jesus still didn’t know who they were walking with but they invited him to supper. It was in the moment Jesus broke the bread and gave thanks that their physical and spiritual eyes were opened and they knew Jesus was with them, resurrected, fully alive and proclaiming the good news.
In that moment, Jesus disappeared and they knew it was the risen Lord.

There are times in our lives we are hurting and desperate and wonder if there is any hope. This story of Jesus being present serves an encouragement to every one of us that we are never alone and that we are called to participate in Holy Communion knowing that the bread and wine are his body and blood and that the risen Jesus is revealed to his people in this act of worship.

All over Canada today, this message of the risen Christ as with us will be proclaimed in Wesleyan Churches. May all of us be like the two disciples from Emmaus who immediately understood that they needed to witness to the other disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead! May we share this news with everyone we know and invite them to be baptized so they can receive the body and blood of Christ and recognize his presence in all of our lives.

Luke 24:13-35
Eating with the risen Christ
24:13Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem,
24:14and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
24:15While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,
24:16but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
24:17And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad.
24:18Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?"
24:19He asked them, "What things?" They replied, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people,
24:20and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.
24:21But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.
24:22Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning,
24:23and when they did not find his body there they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.
24:24Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see him."
24:25Then he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared!
24:26Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?"
24:27Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.
24:28As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on.
24:29But they urged him strongly, saying, "Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over." So he went in to stay with them.
24:30When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
24:31Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.
24:32They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?"
24:33That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.
24:34They were saying, "The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!"
24:35Then they told what had happened on the road and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

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