The Olive Branch Markham • Audio Podcast

It’s fascinating to look through this this pathway to happiness Jesus lays out—and see the common denominator.  Think about it...  1) knowing that God is the One who gives you all you need; 2) not allowing the reality of death to steal the joy of life; 3) being at peace with who you are; 4) being committed to doing the right thing—no regrets; 5) living with a generous heart toward others...

Pastor Blair shares with us the idea that a good life isn't built on luck. A blessed, a truly happy life, is built on three things. Without trying to move towards these three, we will simply hope that we will luck into a good life.

Is it possible that God wants all of creation to be happy? Not in the up-and-down-based-on-circumstances kind of way, but the kind of happy that is based on the deep stream that flows beneath the surface of every person. What is even more shocking is God's plan to use us, His people, as part of His plan to draw in, redeem, and bless all of creation. Are you willing to take your part in that plan?&...

It's easy to want to just move into protective mode so we can live a happy, safe life and enjoy what we've worked so hard to achieve with our lives. But... that's just 'first mile' living... 

If an expert on happiness, the good life, how to have an excellent future, were to give a talk, what would he or she say? Most of us would say it would have something to do with prosperity, health, peace of mind, relational intelligence – and staying away from short-cuts that lead to regret. And that all makes sense. However, what we don’t suspect is what Jesus says about who is blessed: the poor...

One of the strangest things in the world is people who spend their lives investing in chaos, and expect peace; or people who spend their lives contaminating things, and expect purity; or people who spend their lives sabotaging their health - and expect to be healthy at the age of 50.  Happiness – like purity, peace and health – doesn’t just spring up from the ground or pop out of a closet one...

Crazy question, I know. It would be safe to say most of the people in our world are engaged in a lifelong quest for happiness! For some, happiness is seen simply as survival - because that’s what life has boiled down to. But for those of us in the west, happiness would be right up there as one of the major things we’re looking for.  It sometimes comes as a surprise to people in the Jesus trad...

The word that best describes what God wants for this planet, for our relationship with Him, with each other, and with ourselves, is shalom. Shalom is what happens when we love God with all we are and love others as we love ourselves. It goes deeper than just peace and brings us to a place of wholeness, of happiness, of relational intelligence, and into the way things are SUPPOSED to be – the way t...

Thousands of curious people crowded onto a primitive hillside 2000 years ago to hear the message of someone who was clearly a prophet - and had the power of God on His life. They saw stuff they’d never seen in their lives. Some suspected that He could be the Anointed King the Jewish Scriptures foretold – but time would tell.  We now know who He was! Those who follow Him in 2019 now know that...

Right in the middle of his message on The Second Mile Jesus tells His followers to pray a prayer no one would ever think of praying. It’s an outrageous prayer! It seems to make no sense. Yet Jesus prayed it in His most agonizing moment—as His enemies were driving nails through His hands and feet. I’m guessing that He’d been praying it all along - practicing for this moment. Jesus put it like this;...

To give up praying is to give up hope in the character of God, in the intimacy of our relationship with Him--and to miss what God wants to do, both in us and in the situation that seems so hopeless.

When we fast, we do it for God--not as a form of bribery to get what we want.  And something changes deep within us in those hidden moments. This message is a part of a series entitled, "Talking with God". 

A message about prayer from the heart of our youth pastor, Blair Malfara. This message is part of a series entitled, "Talking with God".