The Olive Branch Markham • Audio Podcast

Jesus was very clear with those who followed Him that as intimidating and impossible as it seemed—He would leave and they would carry on His mission.  But they weren’t stranded; He told them that He would be with them to the end; that the Holy Spirit who had been with them—would now be in them—and He would give them awesome power. The disciples understood that Jesus’ call, Jesus’ promise...

Jesus once made the shocking statement, “If you try to save your life—you’ll lose it!” What He said is true; the drive for comfort is always downhill, down-stream.  To make comfort the goal of your life is to sabotage it—sometimes in the most profound of ways. Our problem is that we are led astray by our dreams of wealth, comfort, success and popularity—and we trade our heritage and call...

Jeremiah Vijey, TOB's Pastor of Youth and Young Adults, will unpack the love of Jesus that was shown in the middle of one family's grief. What Jesus did for them was amazing, but guess what? The same God is still here and He's showing up in our lives every day! Without a doubt, Jesus is more than able to do miraculous things in our lives right now... but there's a few questions we need to honestly...

The Church is not a building, an institution, a political movement, or an organization.  It’s people.  The true Church is people who have the Spirit of God living in them and working through them—or at least trying to.  We are flesh and blood people—who have just been through the first pandemic that has every affected every person on the planet—and shut down the world...

Some of you would describe your reboot—not in terms of a world-wide phenomena—but in terms of a very personal, very difficult—even shattering experience that you may still be healing from. And now you have to start-over. And you’re ANXIOUS to start over! There are some start-over three really important start-over lessons that I’d like you to meet.

In March 2020, we were handed the mother of all excuses. Know what the excuse is? COVID! It's become our go-to excuse for everything from not showing up, not keeping promises - to being angry, being late, being resentful, being rude, being difficult to get along with and on and on... and on. If we’re not careful, we could effectively blame COVID for the messes we've actually created... because we'...

We all know that some websites we visit leave 'cookies' on our devices. In our real-world lives we allow cookies (little bits of info, attitudes and habits) to seep into our hearts - and they shape the people we become…like entitlement, like prejudice, like the culture of complaint mentality, like greed, like the need for attention. When we allow this stuff to rule in our hearts, it thoroughly con...

There are some things in our lives that should not be shaping our future. Some events of our past we'd be better off without. Reputations... we'd be better off without and wish we could change. If only we could find a way to start over. Can you relate? The truth is, it's impossible to erase our past and the memories that go with it - but the really Good News is that God made a way so we can LIVE F...

If you read, or even skim, through the Bible, it is a quick history of the reboot—before that was even a word or a concept. The phrase we are familiar with is "starting over". The fascinating thing about God is that He seems to always engineer a reboot or a start-over for the persons who lead people through them.  In one major season of the redemptive history, He did that with an entire...

New series, “Reboot: Starting Over in a New Reality" Disorientation is the one thing we have in common with the 7.7 billion people coming out of this pandemic. We have new words to use, new common experiences to refer to like, “masked", "double-vaxxed", "social distancing”...  As the guard-rails come down and restrictions are dropped life seems more… normal!  Some think, the te...

In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us to not let the sun go down while we’re still angry; that if we let the devil—or the person who hurt us—camp there, it will create huge problems. So, the question is legitimate and really important: “How long will you drag your past into your future and let your bitterness taint and contaminate your life?”

All through the Bible we see stories of ordinary people who were called by God to do extraordinary things. Amazing feats. Acts of courage that seem incomprehensible to us today! But how did they do it? The Bible, simply put, tells us that their obedience, perseverance, boldness and fearless conviction was not something they found in themselves - but that it came straight from God Himself! But what...

This past year and a half has given us a lot to be afraid of, hasn't it? People often think that having courage means they have to find some kind of inner resolve to overcome fear or persevere through difficulty. But in GOD'S Kingdom - it's totally different! To have courage, to be bold, to have confidence is NOT about relying on ourselves - it's about remembering GOD'S truths, what HE has already...

There is a saying that you never really get to know or fully and deeply  experience love for someone unless they’ve  hurt  you!   And because God is a person—as expressed in Jesus—there will be a time when He will likely hurt you.  Not because He does something selfish or cruel; no, our hurt with God usually has to do with what He  doesn’t  do, wha...

Forgive yourself? Doesn’t it seem a little arrogant?  But, if we don’t…?  It’s possible to carry a lot of guilt and shame around. It doesn’t just hurt you—it hurts others, too!  Forgiving yourself is actually about humbling yourself to receive forgiveness!  Sometimes we fail where we want to succeed most—and to move on—we have to get up, get on our feet and...

One of the huge questions that always comes up on the issue of forgiveness is…does forgiving someone mean that you should be good friends again?  In our relationship with God, he offers us forgiveness, but there is no reconciliation without repentance.  And sometimes we are never restored, in this lifetime, to what we once enjoyed.  You could see it like this; forgive...

There are always some sticky questions around forgiveness. Most of us can agree on the generic, everyday kinds of forgiveness necessary. But, what about when an offense is so horrible you can’t just forget? What about justice being done—is forgiveness just rolling over? And shouldn’t people be held accountable? And, what if they never even come close to saying they’re sorry or even acknowledging t...

It’s interesting… God offers us forgiveness by paying for our debt with Jesus’ death. Then, it’s up to us. We can choose forgiveness–or not. But, once we choose forgiveness FROM Him, we also choose to BE forgivers, LIKE Him. And in some way, it seems that when we choose to forgive, we are pleasing God immensely – we choose health for ourselves, and we choose the path of growth.

Forgiveness. Most of us want it when we’ve screwed up, and most of us struggle to give it when someone has really hurt us. We find ourselves in this strange quandary. We crave relationships with people—and yet people sometimes hurt us deeply. What do we do with that? Well, that brings us back to forgiveness. If we want a heart that is healed of its pain, if we want a life cut free from our hurt, i...

You may feel that you’re sinking in fear. You may feel worried or that the weight of the world has been thrown at you, but after today’s quick crash course, we pray that you will have the little faith to call upon God. God will rescue you and in celebration, you will be able to worship and praise Him.

I want you to think of someone you love—more than you’ve loved  anyone  in your entire life.  They’re not just beautiful and attractive—they’re good, kind, loving—and they’re  powerful— so strong that  everywhere they go  things get better.  Would you want them to be honored?  Would you look forward to being with them? To  love  Jesu...

Jesus' clearest teaching about the end is for us to be alert, to watch, to not get lazy, complacent, and get tied to political movements that promise peace—when only God can bring that. You have to ask, 'Why do people want so badly to figure out WHEN it will all go down?' Is it maybe because we don’t think it will result in what is good and best—and could ruin all of our fun? Of course, that all b...

The  END  isn’t what you think it is—or what you’ve been perhaps frightened into.  Maybe the most  surprising  thing about  the End— that is, the end of time, the end of history, the end of things as we know them—is that Jesus said, “ I  don’t know when that will happen and neither do the angels; only the  Father! ”  Now, what’s surprising abo...

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Jochabed, Naomi and Mary. If we would have seen them in their cultural context, they probably didn't stand out... but God took their otherwise ordinary lives and wove their stories into the most important narrative ever written!

Technically, the Last Days began when Jesus, God the Son, was born.  Since that time, Jesus has been on the march, bringing life and hope and light—saving us and saving everything else.  According to Jesus and all of His prophets, there will be a final confrontation: a showdown between Satan’s corrupt kingdom of deception and darkness, and Jesus’ Kingdom of truth and light. Now...