The Olive Branch Markham • Audio Podcast

Jesus was very clear in telling his Disciples that His new over-arching command for his gathered people, his congregation, was 'Love one another as I have loved you'! Those were his marching orders. In doing this—in exposing and turning away from selfishness, self-interest, self-preoccupation and self-preservation—we take a narrow path, especially as we live in a culture that pushes in the opposit...

Jesus intended His gathered people to be a life-giving flow of love, life, grace and hope. His point, first, was that His Kingdom would change everything. The old rules, categories, bottles and containers wouldn’t fit any more. His Kingdom wasn't about a set of laws we keep to make God happy and get something from Him. Do you get it? The whole thing was flipped... and Jesus turned the world upside...

There’s a saying that if we don’t learn from history, we’re doomed to repeat it. To really understand Jesus’ coming and why He HAD to come to earth, we really need to understand how God’s mission to bless the nations, make all things new started with Abraham, led to creating a nation and a covenant. But as we go along, see Israel’s history, how God led them for hundreds of years and then the hope...

Matthew 16:13-20  Jesus wants His gathered people back—back to their first love, back on mission—to BE the Church...not to DO church! It’s no secret that the Church at large has gotten off track, but why?

So, you ask all these great questions, and then you make some truly great decisions — some stunning moves that get you where you want to go. But the question that underpins the 5 that we’ve been asking is SO WHAT? What is YOUR what? Or worse, do we have the WRONG what? God has given us all this ‘what’ and we need to define it.

Most of the other questions we've talked about, bring immediate results in our lives. But, this question – the one Jesus specifically calls us to – usually has a delayed reaction to it. Eternal results. Legacy results. Loving is a long term thing – and is always about SOMEONE.

Sometimes we hit our 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and we’re still making decisions like a little kid. We’re chasing what catches our eye, we’re retaliating like we’re still inside the chain-link fence around the playground, we’re calling people names, trying to prove we’re better!  We need to ask ourselves: Is this WISE? Am I being responsible, am I thinking clearly, am I making a mature, wise decision?...

Every once in a while – before we decide, make a move, choose a direction – there is an inner STOP sign in our conscience. Sometimes what we’re planning is clearly outside the lines of God’s plan and will, but we do what WE want to do... and then, as an after-thought we ask God to come in and bless what we’ve done. No decision we make is ever totally irredeemable, but most can’t be unmade... not w...

Someday, those who follow in our legacy will remember the life we led — some of which may affect them. Most of what we are facing right now will one day be just a story we tell. And the questions we need to ask ourselves are: What story do I want to tell? What story will be retold about me? Do I leave out chapters because they're too embarrassing? Too shameful? The truth is we see events and the d...

We are suckers for our own story lines (and outright lies) as they serve for justifications for what we do and why we’re doing it. When we really want something, despite our best wisdom, we tell bald-faced lies to ourselves; things that if told to us by someone else, we’d laugh in their faces and say, "Give me a break! What do you think I am, stupid? Naïve?” Yet, we all do this! We tell the lie —...

Today, we are start our new message series, “Before You Jump: Great Questions = Better Decisions”. One at a time, they create our life and write our story. They’re one of God’s most precious gifts — and a single one of them will decide your eternity. We all want to make great decisions and yet, at times, make really bad decisions even when we know better. As we stand on the edge, the brink, of a b...

Scripture: Luke 7:30-50, 1 Corinthians 13, Philippians 2:1-11 At some point, most of us have been the divisive person. And we actually felt quite okay about it — because, after all, we were biblical, we were being truthful, we had convictions, we were simply RIGHT. Of course we were! But, maybe we were a little disruptive, difficult, stubborn, proud and rude. But it is okay to act like that when y...

Ephesians 4:1-7; John 17 Jesus prayed that the people who believe in Him or claim to belong to Him - would be ONE. Thousands of denominations make it crystal clear that His prayer wasn’t answered. Couldn’t Jesus just mash us all together into a lump of pieces-parts? Like, often we can't even be friends! But, why not?

Do you remember hearing a Bible story about a prophet and a gigantic fish? Yup, you got it - the story of Jonah and the Whale! It's a story of hide and seek... but this wasn't a game. Jonah was running - trying to hide from God, forever. You may think you know how it all ended, but God is not done with the story of Jonah. There's a message in it for us right now. The choices we make and our willin...

Scripture: Matthew 5:33-34 We sometimes do this funny thing when it comes to making promises: it may feel or look like we're making promises to God and others, but in actuality, we are the hidden beneficiary of those commitments; looking for an angle or how a promise will benefit ourselves in some way. Without a doubt, we know that God's promises are absolutely pure and they never fail. He gave Hi...

There’s a reason why Jesus took such a tough stand on marriage vows. Keeping them, even when life is hard - pays huge dividends. Breaking them or ignoring them, carries an ongoing price tag you may never pay off. Marriage vows are very serious. Really know who you’re making your promises to. Know yourself and decide if you can pay for it - and then make plans to do that. This is never based on how...

Here’s the question we all have to ask ourselves: Based on your track record, would YOU trust you? If your promise was a plane, would you fly in it? We trust that the airline industry will do all the things necessary to get us safely where we need to go. But there are times, as Jesus made clear, when we make promises and then spend our lives looking for loopholes when it gets inconvenient. Now, if...

If there is no God, if we all just climbed off a pond and out-lived the other germs, if there is no center line down the highway and morality is "enlightened self-interest", then promises and vows don’t really matter, right? After all, we're just making it up as we go, aren't we? But... if there is a PromiseKeeper behind it all and if we are made in His image, then everything changes - and our pro...

I think we would all acknowledge that the last couple of years have been a unique experience for most of us. COVID has up-ended the world and an unknown future is creating all kinds of fears, suspicions and disagreements. It's hard for anyone not to be swayed by the all the negative rhetoric we've been exposed to. It's more contagious than COVID. As we face a new year in this uncertain time, it's...

Most of us, on the day after Christmas, have a MESS to clean up. (Some of us just ignore it and go shopping—Hey, it’s BOXING DAY! And after Christmas, we all need more stuff, right?!) Truth is, the messes after Christmas vary in size and shape. For some it’s just wrapping paper and leftovers; involves bills we need to pay for the presents we gave. For others—it’s emotional; there’s a build-up to C...

Merry Christmas! Hope came quietly on the night before Christmas.  Well, quietly compared to the way rescues usually sound.  No one close to Jesus’ entry would’ve ever guessed that the ultimate Saviour and Hero—had come for good—would change everything for good--even though He started small.  As in, about 6 pounds, wet, wrinkled, vulnerable and helpless. The Night bef...

My wife, Lori, has an idea for a book—and has been gathering material and thinking about it—planning it—for a long time. It’s about all the pieces—sometimes broken pieces—that make up our lives. And they just look like a shattered glass—or the junkpile from a pottery factory—until you connect the dots. Most of us never find all the dots—but we begin to see a pattern. And that pattern says that God...

It’s surprising, in the Christmas story, that there are no flashy entrances. Only ordinary people living unspectacular lives—who choose greatness by choosing to serve. Some of the leading roles are played by people you’d never expect, and some of the most spectacular, bigger-than-life people play almost invisible roles. Only God could gather a cast like this!  And that gives HOPE to unsp...

In most great stories, hope has been totally extinguished—when something flickers in the corner...a tiny candle of hope appears.  In the great story of God—of which we are a part, the problem was, quite literally NIGHT.  Darkness.  Life and light was being crushed out of existence by the weight of evil, sadness, pain, injustice—and the arrogance and over-confidence of...

Toward the end of His mission here—and right before His death, Jesus' disciples—they ones who had laid their lives on the line to follow Him—were still hoping for the kind of greatness held by Herod, Caesar Augustus—and all the other kings and conquerors who have ever lived. Jesus’ shocking revelation was, “That’s your plan—not mine”. Now, which path to greatness are we taking? Our path of our own...