There is Something Other than Common

Not Like Anyone Else – Part 1

Let’s pretend I’ve been invited into your home, your church, or your office to share this message called “Something Other Than Common.”

Where do I start with this tough subject?
You may be wondering what’s so tough about it?  It sounds pretty simple.  However, I struggle to deliver this message because of what “common” thinking has done to us.  Where I need to take you will rock some of our religious beliefs.  It may even damage some of our religious foundations.  While I enjoy turning over the sacred stones in your life, I sympathize with you.  It feels pretty unsettling when your beliefs get shaken.  Trust me; I’ve been there.  Later I will discuss how to deal with that in what I call “Start with a Blank Sheet of Paper.”

A Primary Message of The Bible
I need to get you somewhere and very quickly.  So, let’s dig right in.
The major message of the Bible is not what you think it is.  It’s not what’s normally taught.  It’s not meant nor was it ever meant to teach us right from wrong.  Ouch!  Let me start with an example.  We were taught that eating from a tree was the first sin.  But what was “wrong” with Adam and Eve eating fruit from a tree God gave them?  Absolutely nothing.  Here’s a better example.  The Bible says specifically “thou shall not kill”.  Later on, God gives David (and a bunch of others) permission to take territories and to destroy (kill) all of its inhabitants.  Right or wrong?

Thinking of it in terms of right and wrong isn’t wrong, but it is certainly limited thinking if you consider the examples above.  Now the point, I wish to make.  Right and wrong are conclusions we make on our own.  Depending on who you talk to, the definition changes.

If not right and wrong, then what?
I remember the day I read the one versus of scripture that changed my life forever.  It’s the actual scripture that lead me to creating NoLongerCommon.com.  I was reading through the One Year Bible and read these instructions God gave to the priests of that day, “…teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is common…”

At that moment I saw this word, “holy” in a different light for the 1st time. I understood my purpose in life was to teach people the difference between common and what’s not common, what the Bible calls “holy”.  Notice it didn’t say teach the people the difference between right and wrong nor good and bad.  The problem we face is a difference between “common” and “holy”.

Now what’s that…what’s “holy”?
I’m glad you asked.  Erase everything you know or have ever been taught about the word.  Just go with me for a moment (and we will get into it more in future posts), but for now let’s take a broad brush to paint this picture.

The scriptures instruct us to teach people that “common” exists, but there is also a way or ways that aren’t “common”.  They’re not normal or ordinary.  In other words, there is “common” and something else.  There’s something other than common.  If this is so and it is, we need to know more about what that is…