June 30, 2024 • 25 mins
What happens when an atheist finds faith? Reverend Corbiey Ouellette shares his powerful journey from unbelief to Christianity, and how it shaped the vision behind the Human Conservation Podcast. Discover why there’s been a steep decline in church attendance and how we can reignite spiritual conversations in a world that often feels disconnected from faith. With compelling metaphors and parables, Reverend Corbiey sets the foundation for future discussions, urging listeners to participate and share their own spiritual experiences.
Join us as we delve into themes of humility, personal responsibility, and kindness. Revisiting the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector, we explore the dangers of self-righteousness and the necessity of humility in our daily lives. Reverend Corbiey also shares fun anecdotes about his love for fishing and heavy metal music, including a memorable concert with his son that taught him valuable lessons about not judging others based on appearances. Lastly, get a sneak peek into next week's discussion on rediscovering Jesus in modern times, and hear about Reverend Corbiey's new YouTube channel, the Reverend of Rock, which promises a blend of metal music and positive values.
Information on Paralandra can be found at:
https://paralandrarocks.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you losing or lost faith in the world around
you?
Do you find yourselfquestioning why or how God could
let something happen, or whythings are allowed to continue
the way that they are?
Do you wonder about God, if heis real?
Maybe you're disillusioned withchurch, but you still feel a
calling on your heart, or maybeyou realize that there has to be
something more for you in thislife.
(00:21):
Pull up a chair and take a seat, because you've arrived at the
right place the HumanConservation Podcast, with your
host, reverend Corby Willett.
Restoring faith in humanity bydiscussing and searching for the
constant of God and JesusChrist in an unconstant and
(00:41):
changing world.
Promoting human conservationthrough human conversation.
Welcome back to the HumanConservation Podcast.
I'm your host, reverend CorbyWillett, and regardless of
whether you're listening to thispodcast as soon as it drops or
(01:02):
many, many years from now, Ihope the sun is shining on your
face and you are blessed on thisday.
The fact that you hear my voiceis an indication that it's most
certainly shining on my face.
It's been a while and it's goodto be back behind the
microphone Now.
Before I get started, I want tohave a candid moment with you
(01:23):
all.
I was going to end the podcast.
I had begun the last season inthe hopes that I would go
through the entire Bible, bookby book, but I kept coming up
empty.
There were a lot ofdistractions that had gotten in
the way.
I was working on a YouTubechannel with my son for a while,
which was quite enjoyable, andhe sort of outgrew it and that's
(01:45):
okay.
It was something that we haddone for COVID to get us through
.
But I hit a wall and I wasn'tseeing the numbers that I was
hoping to see and I was kind ofdowntrodden and, quite frankly,
it was in my mind just to bailout, accept failure and move on
to something else.
But the more distance I putbetween myself and any content,
(02:06):
the stronger the pull became forme to keep going.
Turns out I just think I neededa break.
I needed to regroup, get backin tune with God and relaunch.
So here I am.
So this isn't going to beSeason 4 or Season 5, wherever I
was when I left off in November, when I stopped the podcast.
(02:27):
This is season one of the HumanConservation Podcast.
So what's the podcast all about?
Well, first let me reintroducemyself.
I'm Reverend Corby Ouellette,I'm an independent minister and
I'm based out of Central Jersey.
I was an atheist for the first25 years of my life before
coming to know the Lord JesusChrist, and my progression as a
(02:49):
Christian was very, very slow.
I had many doubts early on.
I wrestled with God quite a bitover things that I didn't
understand.
Well, that's what the HumanConservation Podcast is all
about.
The story of Jesus is probablythe greatest story ever told.
Well, it's not.
Probably it is, but it's alsothe most misunderstood story
(03:10):
ever told.
The podcast is designed toincrease a better understanding
of the story of Jesus Christ andhow he works into our
day-to-day lives.
You know, we have a lot ofdifferent ways of coping with
situations that we don'tunderstand.
Sometimes, if we don'tunderstand something, we just
call it stupid.
(03:30):
If things are hard tounderstand or intimidating,
we'll just walk away from it.
We'll declare that, oh, it mustbe incorrect, it doesn't make
any sense, and we'll just castit aside as being false.
Perhaps, when something is saidor we read something that we
don't like, we'll bail on itbefore we hear the whole message
, because it convicts us or itchallenges our current belief
(03:53):
systems.
Whether church heads and churchleaders want to admit it or not,
christianity is on a sharpdecline.
People are falling away fromchurches in droves, and not just
one denomination, it's not justthe Catholics, it's not the
Methodists, even the born-agains, it's all denominations.
(04:14):
The waters of society havebecome so muddied, there is so
much garbage and junk thatlitters the ground of our
society that the message ofJesus no longer penetrates into
the hearts of people.
But it's not the people leavingthe church that the notion of
human conservation targets.
It's the people that areleaving God that are losing
(04:36):
faith.
That's who this podcast istrying to reach.
It's not the lack of faith butthe loss of faith that's
destroying our society, andhopefully this podcast can aid
in reversing that trend.
One other thing I want to sayreally quick.
This podcast is not intended tobe instructional.
I'm not telling you that.
(04:57):
I have it all figured out andI'm passing some sort of wisdom
on to you.
My vision is for this to be aconversation, wisdom onto you.
My vision is for this to be aconversation.
In the show notes there's anemail and my socials so you, the
listener, can participate.
If you've listened to earlierseasons of the podcast, then
you've always heard me say ifyou feel at any time that I say
(05:19):
anything that's in conflict withyour interpretation of the Word
of God, then always side withthe Word.
I don't mind my statementsbeing challenged.
I don't get offended if youdisagree with me or have a
different perspective onsomething that I do.
I ask that you share it with me.
If someone thinks that theyhave divinity all figured out,
(05:41):
then they're declaring that theyare as smart as God, and I
assure you that none of us arethat smart.
So what's the solution?
How do we get started here?
I love using metaphors whenillustrating points, and since
Jesus used the ancient cousin tothe metaphor, the parable, I
think I'm in pretty good shape.
So we're going to get startedby igniting a spiritual forest
(06:06):
fire.
Far more good comes out of await for it, a naturally
occurring forest fire, than badIn nature.
There are a lot of plants andanimals that rely on forest
fires to survive.
Believe it or not, dead ordecaying plants build up on the
ground, preventing new growthfrom popping up, and it also
(06:27):
prevents animals from having theability to access the soil.
It also helps to evict aninvasive species.
You see, native plants haveadapted to the conditions, uh.
Where fires occur regularlyover time, uh, and they're able
to thrive where the invasiveplants haven't developed those
(06:48):
protections yet, and it makes itvery difficult for the
intruders to recover.
So forest fires can actuallybenefit quite a great bit.
So that's what we're going todo.
We're going to start aspiritual wildfire.
Humanity is the native speciesand we're going to clear away
all the dead and decaying groundcover to expose that good soil,
(07:09):
and that good soil is a clearand open mind.
But before we begin to changeanything for the better, there's
a couple of important thingsthat we have to realize.
One God doesn't owe us a thing.
We are not entitled to any ofthe blessings that we receive.
Who's got kids?
(07:29):
Who's ever done something fortheir kids that they didn't
deserve?
I know I have.
Well, god kind of loves us thesame way, but then some we often
lose sight of it when we gothrough hardships.
But God loves us so much thathe gives us grace for the things
that we do wrong.
People make this so complicated, but it really is that simple,
(07:53):
a simple notion of we are notentitled to any of the good
things that we get.
We're not entitled to go toheaven, that it is given to us
out of grace, because he lovesus and looks past the things
that we do wrong.
As much as we think that welove our children, our mothers,
our spouses, he loves us thatway, but tenfold.
The other thing that we have torealize is our mothers, our
(08:13):
spouses, he loves us that way,but tenfold.
The other thing that we have torealize is that life is not fair
.
It never was, it never is andit never will be.
It wasn't designed by God to bethat way, and this is a theme
throughout the entire Bible, andit's a big reason why people
become disillusioned.
God never declared that he wasfair.
(08:35):
He did declare that he was just, and he is.
Life's not fair.
Let's be honest.
Who really wants to hear that?
Everywhere you look, people arelooking for society to be fair,
to be equal.
The pushing and the pullingwill never end, because that is
not what God designed life to beequal, the pushing and the
pulling will never end becausethat is not what God designed
(08:56):
life to be.
Now I want to be clear.
I'm not talking about overtracism, straight-up oppression,
bullying or abuse.
There are always exceptions andextenuating circumstances, but
when faced with challenges andhardships, instead of looking to
God for guidance, we look tothe government, we look to the
church, we look to our richUncle Billy to make things right
(09:19):
, when many of our problems intoday's world should be solved
at the individual level.
We've become lazy and ourvalues have declined to a point
that we've become suspicious ofone another.
We can't even hold a door forone another anymore.
That's not God's fault.
That's our fault.
If you're drinking and smokingpot with your teenage kids on a
(09:42):
Friday night and they end upface down in a ditch years later
with a needle sticking out oftheir arm, that's not God's
fault.
If you enable your child hiswhole life and he's still living
at home at 40, playing videogames and working part-time at
Walmart, that's not God's fault.
Next week we're going to bediscussing the Bible at length,
(10:03):
but I wanted to point out, forthe sake of being consistent,
when I use scripture in thepodcast, it's going to come from
the NIV translation of theBible.
I find it easier to read and alittle more clear for those
people that aren't well-versedin the Bible.
I hope nobody takes that thewrong way.
I've been reading the Bible foryears and I still read the NIV
(10:24):
because I feel like it shouldn'thave to be a struggle reading
all the thou is this of cometh,and a lot gets left unsaid
because we just sort of skipover the stuff that's hard to
understand.
Now that I've given you arickshaw explanation as to why I
use the niv translation, uh,we're going to read from the
(10:46):
gospel of luke in just a second,but I kind of wanted to paint a
picture, uh, for you.
That was going on At the timethat Jesus spoke the parable
that I'm about to read, he wassurrounded by the Jewish people,
who he saw as very arrogant andknow-it-alls, if you will.
They could recite the Biblebackwards and forwards, or at
(11:08):
least they could recite theTorah.
They were Jews, backwards andforwards and kind of had the
impression that that was enoughto get them by if they just
simply followed the rules.
So here's what Jesus said outloud, knowing that they were in
earshot and in a sense he waskind of calling them out.
And starting at verse 9, itreads to some who are confident
(11:30):
of their own righteousness andlook down on everyone else,
jesus told this parable.
Two men went up to the temple topray, one a Pharisee and the
other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood by himselfand prayed God.
I thank you that I am not likeother people robbers, evildoers
and adulterers or even like thistax collector.
(11:52):
I fast twice a week and I givea tenth of all I get, but the
tax collector stood at adistance.
He would not even look up toheaven but beat his breast and
said God, have mercy on me, asinner.
I tell you that this man,rather than the other, went home
, justified before God For allthose who exalt themselves.
(12:16):
We have to become the taxcollector in this story.
This is where we have to get to.
No matter how good we think weare, no matter how many times we
go to church or how much we putin the collection plate, it's
(12:36):
not good enough.
But humanity has one greatcharacter flaw, and it's
illustrated perfectly in thisparable.
We love to point fingers.
We tend to point out othershortcomings to cover up our own
.
Very rarely do we come acrossthe tax collector in the story
in life, but we always comeacross the Pharisee.
(12:58):
Ultimately, what it means isthat we are in a perpetual state
of pointing fingers andbragging about ourselves.
We are great at identifyingwhere others need to change.
This way, we don't feel so badabout the things that we know we
need to change Humility.
Humility is almost non-existentnowadays.
(13:21):
Before we can make any changesoutside of ourselves, first we
have to make changes withinourselves.
Humility has to be the firststep in the right direction.
How many of us in ourday-to-day lives have ever blown
somebody off because we thoughtwe already knew what someone
was talking about, only to haveegg in our face later because we
(13:44):
didn't?
I have two great passions asidefrom Jesus Christ fishing and
heavy metal music.
Not just any metal either.
I love the female fronted vocal, like the female metal bands.
I really like the Hailstormsand Eva Under Fire Forever.
May Fall Eternal Frequency.
(14:05):
The list keeps going.
I love the sound of a femalevoice in rock music.
About a year and a half ago, myson and I were on our way to a
show for a band calledParalandra, a solid female
fronted act.
We were really looking forwardto the show, but I didn't know a
lot about them.
They were a newer band for me.
(14:26):
I'd heard a couple of songs.
It was at a local venue.
It only cost a few bucks, bucks.
So we found ourselves at thisshow and Paralandra takes the
stage and immediately the firstthing I noticed was that you had
a 20-something year old bassplayer, a 20-something year old
drummer, a 20-something year oldsinger and then a guy that
(14:48):
looked like he was 50 now I'm 51, so I don't know why that stood
out as a shock to me but he hadthe long, like flowing hair and
he looked like he belonged inlike Warrant or you know one of
the glam rock bands of the late80s, and he kind of had a
likeness to Fabio if you knowwho Fabio is, the guy from the
(15:10):
romance novel covers.
So I snapped off a picture andI sent it to my buddy and I said
hey, check it out.
We're in support of Fabio's newproject.
He, he ha ha.
The band was great and about Idon't know three quarters of the
way through the show the singerCassandra Carson, is her name.
The singer starts talking abouthow hard it was to break into
(15:35):
the business and how discouragedthat she had become because she
had been throwing herself atthe wall that is the music
business for years and couldn'tget anybody to take a chance on
her.
And she really believed in hermusic and she was passionate
about her music.
And then she was talking abouthow record labels would turn
(15:56):
them down for various reasons,including her weight, and she
was not overweight by any means,not that that's even important.
But in the music business,let's be honest, we can pretend
that it's wrong all we want, butit is what it is.
But many.
She was going over the manyreasons why record companies had
(16:17):
passed on them.
Then she mentioned that one ofthe reasons why record companies
had passed on them is becauseher father was in the band.
And then it hit me like a ton ofbricks, like my god, the 50
year old guy is the singer'sfather, that he is actually
touring the country with hisdaughter.
And then it was such abeautiful thing.
(16:38):
And then here I am, you knowthe schmuck, uh, you know giving
the guy to business and textingmy buddy and and and breaking
the guy's balls.
And the biggest problem isn'teven that I took the picture and
sent it to my buddy.
The biggest problem is the factthe thought never even crossed
my mind that he could be herfather.
(16:59):
I chatted with him.
His name's Paul Carson.
I chatted with him after theshow and it turns out that
Paul's a devout Christian manand I was really, really humbled
in that moment.
Humility is at the very core ofall things good.
Paul, if you ever listen to theHuman Conservation Podcast, I
(17:19):
am a jerk and I humbly apologize.
I can't wait till you guys comearound again, which is in
December in the New Jersey area.
But I will leave their websiteIf you like rock music they're
an incredible band.
I will leave their informationin the show notes, all right,
but I don't want to digress toomuch.
Once we humble ourselves, you'regoing to see immediate changes
(17:43):
take place.
You're going to realize thatthis thing that we call life,
it's way bigger than just youand me.
There are many other people inthis world too.
When we aren't solely thinkingabout ourselves, it's natural
for us to begin to think aboutothers, and that is the genesis
(18:04):
of something beautiful kindness.
If we all assume the role ofthe tax collector in that
parable we just heard, and notthe Pharisee, then we all end up
in the same boat Sinful peoplethat need God's mercy to get by.
And when we're all in the sameboat, we begin to work together.
(18:26):
We accept each other'sshortcomings and we lend our
strengths against others'weaknesses without judgment,
because we begin to realize thatsomeone else's strength is
covering our weaknesses and,believe me, we all have them.
I don't care what your politicalaffiliation is, I don't care
what race you are, what yoursexual orientation is or what
(18:49):
you identify, as I don't evencare what religion you are.
No one can stand on firm groundand tell me that they like what
they see going on in the worldaround them today.
There are problems in everycorner of society that keep us
separated, but instead of takingaccountability for ourselves,
we point the fingers at oneanother.
(19:10):
We blame the institutions thatwe created.
It's the government's fault,it's the church's fault, it's
our fault.
We think that we can solveissues like racism and abortion
when we can't even hold a doorfor one another or let someone
merge onto the highway.
It's time to stop pointingfingers and screaming about the
(19:30):
problems in this world and startto lead society back to a good
place.
How many people have sat in achurch and heard the term the
good news of Jesus Christ andever wonder what they meant by
that?
Well, the good news is thatthere is only one solution to
all of these problems, to everysingle one.
(19:51):
There's one solution, and thatsolution is Jesus Christ.
I'm going to give you a fewseconds to react to what I just
said.
Some of you may have pumpedyour fist or given me an amen,
some of you may have laughed orchuckled, some may have gotten
angry and probably more than afew people just clicked off the
(20:12):
podcast when I said that.
But Jesus is the solution toevery problem we face.
Now I'm not going to make themistake that 90% of ministers
and pastors and evangelists makeand I'm not going to throw all
kinds of Bible quotes at you insupport of some idea that I
think sounds good.
I don't need to.
(20:34):
The reality of why Christianityworks is simple.
It's based on sacrifice for thesake of others.
The entire thing is based onthe sacrifice for us, the
sacrifice for us.
There is no other religion inthe world that leads by example
of sacrificing for one another.
(20:55):
If we look to Jesus to makethings right instead of people
meaning the government, churchesetc.
That's when things are going tostart to fall into place.
But Jesus can only put thingsright if we are willing
participants.
When asked what the greatestcommandment was, jesus said love
(21:17):
thy God with all your heart.
Then he added the second islike it Love thy neighbor as I
have loved you.
Jesus wasn't asked what the twogreatest commandments were.
He added the second one becauseit was just as important.
And he didn't say love thosewho love you.
He didn't say anyone wasexcluded from this commandment.
(21:40):
He didn't say not to lovesomeone because they were a
non-believer.
He simply said love thyneighbor as I have loved you.
If we are picking and choosing,it doesn't work.
It really is as simple as justbeing kind to everybody that
crosses your path, kind toanyone and everyone that you
(22:00):
meet, and be willing to helpthose that you can and how you
can.
Maybe you don't have the moneyto spare that's not what I'm
talking about.
But if you're a good mason,well, maybe you could help your
neighbor fix his broken stairs.
Maybe you can coach youthsports.
Even though you don't have anykids or grandkids, there's
(22:21):
always something that somebodycould do.
That's the whole reason we werecreated uniquely.
I mean honestly, is thereanything that makes more sense
than that that we all haveindividual skill sets that work
together for the greater good ofall?
To me, that makes perfect sense.
So this is our starting pointfor the Human Conservation
(22:43):
Project Humble people willing tohelp each other.
Forget all about the technicalthings that you heard about God
and Jesus, what it means to be afollower and all that jazz.
I want you to think about twothings privately this week
before the next episode.
One are you content with whereyou are right now?
(23:06):
Are you happy with how thingsare in your life?
And the other thing I want youto think about is how do you
feel about God?
There is no right or wronganswer.
Everybody has their ownindividual ideals and beliefs,
and I'm not trying to impressmine on you.
I just want you to ask yourselfwhat do you think about God?
(23:27):
Before I end with a closingprayer, I want to say this think
about God.
Before I end with a closingprayer, I want to say this
Whether you have a doctorate intheological studies or you have
never read a single verse in theBible, god can still use you
where you're at.
Let us pray, lord.
Many of us are tired and weary,but we aren't worn completely
(23:50):
out.
We have all shown up on thedoorstep with the desire to be
better people.
Help us to first find the wayand then help others to find it,
with your help.
In Jesus' name, I pray Amen,all right, that's it for this
week.
It's been an absolute pleasuregetting back at it.
(24:11):
Next week, we're going to have afresh discussion about Jesus
himself who he was, what he didand how and what he can still do
for us each and every day.
We're going to touch on some ofthe misconceptions about him
and why he's falling out offashion in today's world.
You're not going to want tomiss it.
As always, thank you forstopping by to give me a listen.
(24:33):
If you like what you heard andyou want to help out the show,
please give us a like andsubscribe to the podcast.
If you feel compelled, pleaseleave a review.
This will help others find thepodcast and help to get the word
out.
If you're a fan of hard rock orheavy metal music, don't forget
to check out my other project,the Reverend of Rock YouTube
channel airing later this summer.
(24:54):
We take a look at the lighterside of metal music and we get
up to some other antics likeproduct reviews, concert reviews
, small adventures all in thename of God and good values.
All of this can be found atwwwcorbycom, spelled
C-O-R-B-I-E-Y.
You can also find informationon booking me for weddings and
(25:16):
other public speaking events.
That's the episode for thisweek.
Remember to be kind to oneanother, look out for one
another and check in with oneanother.
Often it can make a difference.
If you're the one hurting,please dial 988 for support.
I hope everyone has a blessedweek and remember that human
(25:37):
conservation can only come aboutthrough human conversation.
Are you losing or lost faith in the world around
you?
Do you find yourselfquestioning why or how God could
let something happen, or whythings are allowed to continue
the way that they are?
Do you wonder about God, if heis real?
Maybe you're disillusioned withchurch, but you still feel a
calling on your heart, or maybeyou realize that there has to be
something more for you in thislife.
(00:21):
Pull up a chair and take a seat, because you've arrived at the
right place the HumanConservation Podcast, with your
host, reverend Corby Willett.
Restoring faith in humanity bydiscussing and searching for the
constant of God and JesusChrist in an unconstant and
(00:41):
changing world.
Promoting human conservationthrough human conversation.
Welcome back to the HumanConservation Podcast.
I'm your host, reverend CorbyWillett, and regardless of
whether you're listening to thispodcast as soon as it drops or
(01:02):
many, many years from now, Ihope the sun is shining on your
face and you are blessed on thisday.
The fact that you hear my voiceis an indication that it's most
certainly shining on my face.
It's been a while and it's goodto be back behind the
microphone Now.
Before I get started, I want tohave a candid moment with you
(01:23):
all.
I was going to end the podcast.
I had begun the last season inthe hopes that I would go
through the entire Bible, bookby book, but I kept coming up
empty.
There were a lot ofdistractions that had gotten in
the way.
I was working on a YouTubechannel with my son for a while,
which was quite enjoyable, andhe sort of outgrew it and that's
(01:45):
okay.
It was something that we haddone for COVID to get us through
.
But I hit a wall and I wasn'tseeing the numbers that I was
hoping to see and I was kind ofdowntrodden and, quite frankly,
it was in my mind just to bailout, accept failure and move on
to something else.
But the more distance I putbetween myself and any content,
(02:06):
the stronger the pull became forme to keep going.
Turns out I just think I neededa break.
I needed to regroup, get backin tune with God and relaunch.
So here I am.
So this isn't going to beSeason 4 or Season 5, wherever I
was when I left off in November, when I stopped the podcast.
(02:27):
This is season one of the HumanConservation Podcast.
So what's the podcast all about?
Well, first let me reintroducemyself.
I'm Reverend Corby Ouellette,I'm an independent minister and
I'm based out of Central Jersey.
I was an atheist for the first25 years of my life before
coming to know the Lord JesusChrist, and my progression as a
(02:49):
Christian was very, very slow.
I had many doubts early on.
I wrestled with God quite a bitover things that I didn't
understand.
Well, that's what the HumanConservation Podcast is all
about.
The story of Jesus is probablythe greatest story ever told.
Well, it's not.
Probably it is, but it's alsothe most misunderstood story
(03:10):
ever told.
The podcast is designed toincrease a better understanding
of the story of Jesus Christ andhow he works into our
day-to-day lives.
You know, we have a lot ofdifferent ways of coping with
situations that we don'tunderstand.
Sometimes, if we don'tunderstand something, we just
call it stupid.
(03:30):
If things are hard tounderstand or intimidating,
we'll just walk away from it.
We'll declare that, oh, it mustbe incorrect, it doesn't make
any sense, and we'll just castit aside as being false.
Perhaps, when something is saidor we read something that we
don't like, we'll bail on itbefore we hear the whole message
, because it convicts us or itchallenges our current belief
(03:53):
systems.
Whether church heads and churchleaders want to admit it or not,
christianity is on a sharpdecline.
People are falling away fromchurches in droves, and not just
one denomination, it's not justthe Catholics, it's not the
Methodists, even the born-agains, it's all denominations.
(04:14):
The waters of society havebecome so muddied, there is so
much garbage and junk thatlitters the ground of our
society that the message ofJesus no longer penetrates into
the hearts of people.
But it's not the people leavingthe church that the notion of
human conservation targets.
It's the people that areleaving God that are losing
(04:36):
faith.
That's who this podcast istrying to reach.
It's not the lack of faith butthe loss of faith that's
destroying our society, andhopefully this podcast can aid
in reversing that trend.
One other thing I want to sayreally quick.
This podcast is not intended tobe instructional.
I'm not telling you that.
(04:57):
I have it all figured out andI'm passing some sort of wisdom
on to you.
My vision is for this to be aconversation, wisdom onto you.
My vision is for this to be aconversation.
In the show notes there's anemail and my socials so you, the
listener, can participate.
If you've listened to earlierseasons of the podcast, then
you've always heard me say ifyou feel at any time that I say
(05:19):
anything that's in conflict withyour interpretation of the Word
of God, then always side withthe Word.
I don't mind my statementsbeing challenged.
I don't get offended if youdisagree with me or have a
different perspective onsomething that I do.
I ask that you share it with me.
If someone thinks that theyhave divinity all figured out,
(05:41):
then they're declaring that theyare as smart as God, and I
assure you that none of us arethat smart.
So what's the solution?
How do we get started here?
I love using metaphors whenillustrating points, and since
Jesus used the ancient cousin tothe metaphor, the parable, I
think I'm in pretty good shape.
So we're going to get startedby igniting a spiritual forest
(06:06):
fire.
Far more good comes out of await for it, a naturally
occurring forest fire, than badIn nature.
There are a lot of plants andanimals that rely on forest
fires to survive.
Believe it or not, dead ordecaying plants build up on the
ground, preventing new growthfrom popping up, and it also
(06:27):
prevents animals from having theability to access the soil.
It also helps to evict aninvasive species.
You see, native plants haveadapted to the conditions, uh.
Where fires occur regularlyover time, uh, and they're able
to thrive where the invasiveplants haven't developed those
(06:48):
protections yet, and it makes itvery difficult for the
intruders to recover.
So forest fires can actuallybenefit quite a great bit.
So that's what we're going todo.
We're going to start aspiritual wildfire.
Humanity is the native speciesand we're going to clear away
all the dead and decaying groundcover to expose that good soil,
(07:09):
and that good soil is a clearand open mind.
But before we begin to changeanything for the better, there's
a couple of important thingsthat we have to realize.
One God doesn't owe us a thing.
We are not entitled to any ofthe blessings that we receive.
Who's got kids?
(07:29):
Who's ever done something fortheir kids that they didn't
deserve?
I know I have.
Well, god kind of loves us thesame way, but then some we often
lose sight of it when we gothrough hardships.
But God loves us so much thathe gives us grace for the things
that we do wrong.
People make this so complicated, but it really is that simple,
(07:53):
a simple notion of we are notentitled to any of the good
things that we get.
We're not entitled to go toheaven, that it is given to us
out of grace, because he lovesus and looks past the things
that we do wrong.
As much as we think that welove our children, our mothers,
our spouses, he loves us thatway, but tenfold.
The other thing that we have torealize is our mothers, our
(08:13):
spouses, he loves us that way,but tenfold.
The other thing that we have torealize is that life is not fair
.
It never was, it never is andit never will be.
It wasn't designed by God to bethat way, and this is a theme
throughout the entire Bible, andit's a big reason why people
become disillusioned.
God never declared that he wasfair.
(08:35):
He did declare that he was just, and he is.
Life's not fair.
Let's be honest.
Who really wants to hear that?
Everywhere you look, people arelooking for society to be fair,
to be equal.
The pushing and the pullingwill never end, because that is
not what God designed life to beequal, the pushing and the
pulling will never end becausethat is not what God designed
(08:56):
life to be.
Now I want to be clear.
I'm not talking about overtracism, straight-up oppression,
bullying or abuse.
There are always exceptions andextenuating circumstances, but
when faced with challenges andhardships, instead of looking to
God for guidance, we look tothe government, we look to the
church, we look to our richUncle Billy to make things right
(09:19):
, when many of our problems intoday's world should be solved
at the individual level.
We've become lazy and ourvalues have declined to a point
that we've become suspicious ofone another.
We can't even hold a door forone another anymore.
That's not God's fault.
That's our fault.
If you're drinking and smokingpot with your teenage kids on a
(09:42):
Friday night and they end upface down in a ditch years later
with a needle sticking out oftheir arm, that's not God's
fault.
If you enable your child hiswhole life and he's still living
at home at 40, playing videogames and working part-time at
Walmart, that's not God's fault.
Next week we're going to bediscussing the Bible at length,
(10:03):
but I wanted to point out, forthe sake of being consistent,
when I use scripture in thepodcast, it's going to come from
the NIV translation of theBible.
I find it easier to read and alittle more clear for those
people that aren't well-versedin the Bible.
I hope nobody takes that thewrong way.
I've been reading the Bible foryears and I still read the NIV
(10:24):
because I feel like it shouldn'thave to be a struggle reading
all the thou is this of cometh,and a lot gets left unsaid
because we just sort of skipover the stuff that's hard to
understand.
Now that I've given you arickshaw explanation as to why I
use the niv translation, uh,we're going to read from the
(10:46):
gospel of luke in just a second,but I kind of wanted to paint a
picture, uh, for you.
That was going on At the timethat Jesus spoke the parable
that I'm about to read, he wassurrounded by the Jewish people,
who he saw as very arrogant andknow-it-alls, if you will.
They could recite the Biblebackwards and forwards, or at
(11:08):
least they could recite theTorah.
They were Jews, backwards andforwards and kind of had the
impression that that was enoughto get them by if they just
simply followed the rules.
So here's what Jesus said outloud, knowing that they were in
earshot and in a sense he waskind of calling them out.
And starting at verse 9, itreads to some who are confident
(11:30):
of their own righteousness andlook down on everyone else,
jesus told this parable.
Two men went up to the temple topray, one a Pharisee and the
other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood by himselfand prayed God.
I thank you that I am not likeother people robbers, evildoers
and adulterers or even like thistax collector.
(11:52):
I fast twice a week and I givea tenth of all I get, but the
tax collector stood at adistance.
He would not even look up toheaven but beat his breast and
said God, have mercy on me, asinner.
I tell you that this man,rather than the other, went home
, justified before God For allthose who exalt themselves.
(12:16):
We have to become the taxcollector in this story.
This is where we have to get to.
No matter how good we think weare, no matter how many times we
go to church or how much we putin the collection plate, it's
(12:36):
not good enough.
But humanity has one greatcharacter flaw, and it's
illustrated perfectly in thisparable.
We love to point fingers.
We tend to point out othershortcomings to cover up our own
.
Very rarely do we come acrossthe tax collector in the story
in life, but we always comeacross the Pharisee.
(12:58):
Ultimately, what it means isthat we are in a perpetual state
of pointing fingers andbragging about ourselves.
We are great at identifyingwhere others need to change.
This way, we don't feel so badabout the things that we know we
need to change Humility.
Humility is almost non-existentnowadays.
(13:21):
Before we can make any changesoutside of ourselves, first we
have to make changes withinourselves.
Humility has to be the firststep in the right direction.
How many of us in ourday-to-day lives have ever blown
somebody off because we thoughtwe already knew what someone
was talking about, only to haveegg in our face later because we
(13:44):
didn't?
I have two great passions asidefrom Jesus Christ fishing and
heavy metal music.
Not just any metal either.
I love the female fronted vocal, like the female metal bands.
I really like the Hailstormsand Eva Under Fire Forever.
May Fall Eternal Frequency.
(14:05):
The list keeps going.
I love the sound of a femalevoice in rock music.
About a year and a half ago, myson and I were on our way to a
show for a band calledParalandra, a solid female
fronted act.
We were really looking forwardto the show, but I didn't know a
lot about them.
They were a newer band for me.
(14:26):
I'd heard a couple of songs.
It was at a local venue.
It only cost a few bucks, bucks.
So we found ourselves at thisshow and Paralandra takes the
stage and immediately the firstthing I noticed was that you had
a 20-something year old bassplayer, a 20-something year old
drummer, a 20-something year oldsinger and then a guy that
(14:48):
looked like he was 50 now I'm 51, so I don't know why that stood
out as a shock to me but he hadthe long, like flowing hair and
he looked like he belonged inlike Warrant or you know one of
the glam rock bands of the late80s, and he kind of had a
likeness to Fabio if you knowwho Fabio is, the guy from the
(15:10):
romance novel covers.
So I snapped off a picture andI sent it to my buddy and I said
hey, check it out.
We're in support of Fabio's newproject.
He, he ha ha.
The band was great and about Idon't know three quarters of the
way through the show the singerCassandra Carson, is her name.
The singer starts talking abouthow hard it was to break into
(15:35):
the business and how discouragedthat she had become because she
had been throwing herself atthe wall that is the music
business for years and couldn'tget anybody to take a chance on
her.
And she really believed in hermusic and she was passionate
about her music.
And then she was talking abouthow record labels would turn
(15:56):
them down for various reasons,including her weight, and she
was not overweight by any means,not that that's even important.
But in the music business,let's be honest, we can pretend
that it's wrong all we want, butit is what it is.
But many.
She was going over the manyreasons why record companies had
(16:17):
passed on them.
Then she mentioned that one ofthe reasons why record companies
had passed on them is becauseher father was in the band.
And then it hit me like a ton ofbricks, like my god, the 50
year old guy is the singer'sfather, that he is actually
touring the country with hisdaughter.
And then it was such abeautiful thing.
(16:38):
And then here I am, you knowthe schmuck, uh, you know giving
the guy to business and textingmy buddy and and and breaking
the guy's balls.
And the biggest problem isn'teven that I took the picture and
sent it to my buddy.
The biggest problem is the factthe thought never even crossed
my mind that he could be herfather.
(16:59):
I chatted with him.
His name's Paul Carson.
I chatted with him after theshow and it turns out that
Paul's a devout Christian manand I was really, really humbled
in that moment.
Humility is at the very core ofall things good.
Paul, if you ever listen to theHuman Conservation Podcast, I
(17:19):
am a jerk and I humbly apologize.
I can't wait till you guys comearound again, which is in
December in the New Jersey area.
But I will leave their websiteIf you like rock music they're
an incredible band.
I will leave their informationin the show notes, all right,
but I don't want to digress toomuch.
Once we humble ourselves, you'regoing to see immediate changes
(17:43):
take place.
You're going to realize thatthis thing that we call life,
it's way bigger than just youand me.
There are many other people inthis world too.
When we aren't solely thinkingabout ourselves, it's natural
for us to begin to think aboutothers, and that is the genesis
(18:04):
of something beautiful kindness.
If we all assume the role ofthe tax collector in that
parable we just heard, and notthe Pharisee, then we all end up
in the same boat Sinful peoplethat need God's mercy to get by.
And when we're all in the sameboat, we begin to work together.
(18:26):
We accept each other'sshortcomings and we lend our
strengths against others'weaknesses without judgment,
because we begin to realize thatsomeone else's strength is
covering our weaknesses and,believe me, we all have them.
I don't care what your politicalaffiliation is, I don't care
what race you are, what yoursexual orientation is or what
(18:49):
you identify, as I don't evencare what religion you are.
No one can stand on firm groundand tell me that they like what
they see going on in the worldaround them today.
There are problems in everycorner of society that keep us
separated, but instead of takingaccountability for ourselves,
we point the fingers at oneanother.
(19:10):
We blame the institutions thatwe created.
It's the government's fault,it's the church's fault, it's
our fault.
We think that we can solveissues like racism and abortion
when we can't even hold a doorfor one another or let someone
merge onto the highway.
It's time to stop pointingfingers and screaming about the
(19:30):
problems in this world and startto lead society back to a good
place.
How many people have sat in achurch and heard the term the
good news of Jesus Christ andever wonder what they meant by
that?
Well, the good news is thatthere is only one solution to
all of these problems, to everysingle one.
(19:51):
There's one solution, and thatsolution is Jesus Christ.
I'm going to give you a fewseconds to react to what I just
said.
Some of you may have pumpedyour fist or given me an amen,
some of you may have laughed orchuckled, some may have gotten
angry and probably more than afew people just clicked off the
(20:12):
podcast when I said that.
But Jesus is the solution toevery problem we face.
Now I'm not going to make themistake that 90% of ministers
and pastors and evangelists makeand I'm not going to throw all
kinds of Bible quotes at you insupport of some idea that I
think sounds good.
I don't need to.
(20:34):
The reality of why Christianityworks is simple.
It's based on sacrifice for thesake of others.
The entire thing is based onthe sacrifice for us, the
sacrifice for us.
There is no other religion inthe world that leads by example
of sacrificing for one another.
(20:55):
If we look to Jesus to makethings right instead of people
meaning the government, churchesetc.
That's when things are going tostart to fall into place.
But Jesus can only put thingsright if we are willing
participants.
When asked what the greatestcommandment was, jesus said love
(21:17):
thy God with all your heart.
Then he added the second islike it Love thy neighbor as I
have loved you.
Jesus wasn't asked what the twogreatest commandments were.
He added the second one becauseit was just as important.
And he didn't say love thosewho love you.
He didn't say anyone wasexcluded from this commandment.
(21:40):
He didn't say not to lovesomeone because they were a
non-believer.
He simply said love thyneighbor as I have loved you.
If we are picking and choosing,it doesn't work.
It really is as simple as justbeing kind to everybody that
crosses your path, kind toanyone and everyone that you
(22:00):
meet, and be willing to helpthose that you can and how you
can.
Maybe you don't have the moneyto spare that's not what I'm
talking about.
But if you're a good mason,well, maybe you could help your
neighbor fix his broken stairs.
Maybe you can coach youthsports.
Even though you don't have anykids or grandkids, there's
(22:21):
always something that somebodycould do.
That's the whole reason we werecreated uniquely.
I mean honestly, is thereanything that makes more sense
than that that we all haveindividual skill sets that work
together for the greater good ofall?
To me, that makes perfect sense.
So this is our starting pointfor the Human Conservation
(22:43):
Project Humble people willing tohelp each other.
Forget all about the technicalthings that you heard about God
and Jesus, what it means to be afollower and all that jazz.
I want you to think about twothings privately this week
before the next episode.
One are you content with whereyou are right now?
(23:06):
Are you happy with how thingsare in your life?
And the other thing I want youto think about is how do you
feel about God?
There is no right or wronganswer.
Everybody has their ownindividual ideals and beliefs,
and I'm not trying to impressmine on you.
I just want you to ask yourselfwhat do you think about God?
(23:27):
Before I end with a closingprayer, I want to say this think
about God.
Before I end with a closingprayer, I want to say this
Whether you have a doctorate intheological studies or you have
never read a single verse in theBible, god can still use you
where you're at.
Let us pray, lord.
Many of us are tired and weary,but we aren't worn completely
(23:50):
out.
We have all shown up on thedoorstep with the desire to be
better people.
Help us to first find the wayand then help others to find it,
with your help.
In Jesus' name, I pray Amen,all right, that's it for this
week.
It's been an absolute pleasuregetting back at it.
(24:11):
Next week, we're going to have afresh discussion about Jesus
himself who he was, what he didand how and what he can still do
for us each and every day.
We're going to touch on some ofthe misconceptions about him
and why he's falling out offashion in today's world.
You're not going to want tomiss it.
As always, thank you forstopping by to give me a listen.
(24:33):
If you like what you heard andyou want to help out the show,
please give us a like andsubscribe to the podcast.
If you feel compelled, pleaseleave a review.
This will help others find thepodcast and help to get the word
out.
If you're a fan of hard rock orheavy metal music, don't forget
to check out my other project,the Reverend of Rock YouTube
channel airing later this summer.
(24:54):
We take a look at the lighterside of metal music and we get
up to some other antics likeproduct reviews, concert reviews
, small adventures all in thename of God and good values.
All of this can be found atwwwcorbycom, spelled
C-O-R-B-I-E-Y.
You can also find informationon booking me for weddings and
(25:16):
other public speaking events.
That's the episode for thisweek.
Remember to be kind to oneanother, look out for one
another and check in with oneanother.
Often it can make a difference.
If you're the one hurting,please dial 988 for support.
I hope everyone has a blessedweek and remember that human
(25:37):
conservation can only come aboutthrough human conversation.
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