Spiritual Advantage with Sam Stone

A few years ago, I was at a gym on a Saturday, but I wasn’t aware that their closing time was different from the weekdays I used to go. As I took my shower, I wondered why there was no one there, and the attendant came to rush me. I wonder why he sounded so impatient and somewhat rude.
To make things worse, I could not open my locker after the shower. My glasses were inside it. Maybe I didn’t see the numbers on my combination lock clearly. I was sure I had the correct number, but it refused to open no matter how many times I tried.
The attendant got very impatient and rushed in with a bolt cutter and cut my lock off. Then, I was a little annoyed that he destroyed my favorite lock that I had had for years. As I left the gym, I saw the closing time posted at the front desk.
I felt sorry and told him, “All you needed to do was tell me that you close at this time, and I would have left sooner.” However, the experience left a bad taste in me, and I decided not to renew my membership. That gym is now closed permanently. Go figure!
Anyway, that was the first time I saw how easily you could break a lock using a bold cutter. No wonder many people got their bicycles stolen easily. Most chain locks cannot survive a powerful bolt cutter.
That reminds me of a fable about “The Crowbar and a Key.” Once upon a time, there was a treasure vault that contained gold and diamonds. A strong and sturdy lock secured the vault. The mighty Crowbar laughed at the lock, saying, “No lock has ever survived my power. I can take it apart in no time.”
Crowbar began prying the lock and soon found he had met a formidable contender. After using his full force against the lock with sparks flying all over the room, he was exhausted. Then a small Key entered the room, and she said, “Why are all the noises and smokes? I know how to open the vault.”
Crowbar laughed, “I have been trying all day long and couldn’t open it. Why do you think you can do a better job, a weak little piece of key?” Without saying a word, Ms. Key unlocked the vault gracefully and effortlessly. Then she said, “I can open the lock because I can feel what’s in his heart.”
This fable reveals an aspect of human nature. Many of our solutions to our problems are like using a crowbar to open a lock. An immediate example is how Russia uses a crowbar to break the lock of Ukraine. In relationships, we often use harsh words to get the point across. It’s a quick-fix mentality.
However, we forget that quick fixes are often not quick. They leave long-term destruction behind. The destruction of lives and properties in Ukraine or any war will take years to repair. In the same way, the destruction we make in our relationships will take a long time to heal because of a shortcut we take.
Back to my lock at the gym, the attendant could have offered to check the combination for me before cutting it off. I wouldn’t be mad if he cut it off after unsuccessfully helping me unlock it. He had a quick fix in his mind before thinking about saving the key or the customer relationship.
I want to compare the story of “The Crowbar and the Key” with Jesus’ teaching of being lambs among wolves. As the Lamb of God, Jesus revealed that the key to unlocking this fallen world is being lambs, not wolves. When we think about lambs, we think about vulnerable creatures, but they are, in fact, the key to the kingdom.
It’s like the Taoist philosophy of being like water. Water humbly seeks the lowly places but is powerful to overcome all hardships in the long run. Today let us explore how Jesus teaches us to be lambs among wolves and accomplish our mission effectively and effortlessly. So, let’s begin!

When I think about rejection, Colonel Harland Sanders often comes to mind. Most of you know him as the founder of KFC—Kentucky Fried Chicken. After the Second World War, he tried franchising his fried chicken recipe to restaurants, asking them to pay him only four cents for each piece of chicken they sold, but every restaurant rejected him.
He didn’t give up and kept going to one shop after another until the 1009th restaurant bought his recipe. Can you imagine getting over a thousand rejections? I would have given up after ten rejections. By then, I would think my recipe or the strategy must be useless. How many rejections can you handle?
There are many types of rejections. Of course, sales rejection might be the easiest to handle because you are proposing a transaction. Other rejections are hard to handle. Particularly it gets turned down when you offer a kind gesture to someone or after you work hard to make a presentation.
Sometimes, criticisms are a form of rejection also. Some people are good at dumping criticism at you egotistically. Handling rejection used to be hard for me. A desire for retaliation could brew inside me for days. Sometimes, it explodes after suppressing for a long time, but I am improving!
Sometimes, an unanswered prayer can make you feel rejected by God. Worse yet, a tragedy can make you feel rejected by the Holy One. I know of a pastor who led a thriving church. His wife played the piano, and their children sang in the children’s choir. The entire family was faithful and devoted.
However, one day a car accident tragically killed the son. The father couldn’t handle it and suddenly disappeared, leaving the church without a pastor, the wife without the husband, and the children without the father when they needed him most. He never returned.
Surprisingly, years later, the daughter grew up and became a pastor. She told this story in heart-wrenching humor. There was not a single dried eye in the crowd. In the same tragedy, the father lost faith, feeling rejected by God, but the daughter gained resilience and got closer to God.
We live in a fallen world where we must deal with fallen people and tragedies. God’s will is not always done here on earth, and that’s why Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done.” If God’s will is done here, it will be heaven already.
How do you live in this fallen world? Jesus taught us resilience. Don’t forget that our Lord has been rejected all the time by his own folks in his hometown to eventually being crucified on the cross. He was rejected from birth, having no place to be born, and his king tried to hunt for him to kill him.
He was even rejected by his Heavenly Father at the time he needed him most. He cried on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Did he deserve it? Throughout the Bible, we read about his faithful service to God. He had every right to ask that question. He knows rejection!
No one in this world understands you more than Jesus. So, if you feel rejected, Jesus is the one you need to learn from. He taught his disciples to handle rejection through resilience because that’s the only way to live through this fallen world. You need resilience not only to survive but also to serve.
So, today we will learn how Jesus taught us to be resilient so that we can stop reacting to rejection, facing unnecessary stress, anxiety, depression, and broken relationships. Let’s begin!

Have you ever heard of a Rent-a-Sister program? Like a Rent-a-Car business, Rent-a-Sister is where you can rent a female person who accompanies you like a sister. The program was created in Japan to address the growing issue of men withdrawing from society and refusing to leave their rooms. They are known as Hikikomori (引きこもり). It translates to “pulling inward, being confined,” also known as “Acute Social Withdrawal” syndrome.
About a million young men have this condition in Japan. They don’t leave home. Many of them still live with their parents, but they don’t leave their bedrooms. Some of them haven’t left home for a decade. Some were violent against their parents when they persuaded them to go out. The parents in this situation would go to the Rent-a-Sister company to hire a sister for their son.
These sisters for hire are not social workers or psychologists. All they do is talk to their client like a sister for a few hours a week. They are not cheap. It costs the parents about $1,000 a month. Since they don’t see it as a mental illness, Rent-a-Sister is a great alternative to seeing a psychologist. In America, we might treat it as a mental health problem. That’s a different topic.
I discovered this on BBC News. As of 2019, this program has helped about 3,000 young men come out of their hiding places. When asked, they revealed they have social anxiety caused by shame, failure, confusion, rejection, fear, bullying, not fitting in, and many other reasons.
Most of us are not in such extreme conditions, but I believe we all are on the spectrum of social anxiety and a tendency to isolate ourselves. In America, we live in comparatively big houses with big yards. We can isolate ourselves in the name of privacy.
Each one is different in terms of social anxiety. Some people don’t want to attend school alumni gatherings because they don’t want to see their old classmates doing better than them. Do you have a specific social group that you avoid?
Our quality of life depends on relationships. Last week, I discussed God as the author of love and healthy relationship. The Trinity reveals that God is not a lone ranger but a fellowship of love between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God’s present mission is to restore broken relationships in this fallen world.
Today I want to talk about the opposite spirits known as “demons.” I have never seen demons, but I have discovered that the Hebrew word Satan (sataan) is a verb made noun (gerund) meaning “to oppose,” “to entice,” or “to be in adversarial.” It’s more of behavior rather than a creature.
Since God is love and healthy relationships, Satan is to create broken relationships. This force or spirit is also called the “unclean spirit,” as opposed to the “Holy Spirit,” which is the “Clean Spirit.” Sometimes they are called “demons,” “devils,” or “evil spirits.”
No matter how you call it, their job is to make you unable to relate with others. The demons instill excuses in people, giving them reasons to stay away from one another. You won’t see demons as creatures with horns and fangs, but you see them everywhere where broken relationships exist.
There is a man in the Bible who had 6000 demons or 6000 excuses to stay away from people. In fact, he lived in the tombs instead of a house. Even though this is an extreme case, it teaches us some important lessons about how we can fall into the opposite side of love and relationships.
Mencius, the great philosopher, said that relationship is the fundamental requirement for success. If you want to succeed in life, you cannot let demons possess you. Demons are everywhere in this fallen world. If you don’t pay attention, you can easily fall into their traps and unconsciously become a recluse.
On the other hand, if you have healthy relationships, God has a mission for you to be a peacemaker, restore broken relationships, and bear witness to the joy of love and harmony. Today, we will study the story of Jesus driving out 6000 demons from a man who lost his ability to relate. So, let’s begin!

A few years ago, Facebook sent me an Oculus Quest (now it’s called Meta Qeust), a virtual reality headset, to review. I love it because it takes you to another world. Among many apps and games in there, I enjoy the National Geographic Explore VR because it takes you to exotic places as if you are there in-person.
I am sure many of you have played some VR games, or your kids might have let you try it out. It’s somewhat like a 3D movie, but you can interact with what you see. That’s just the infancy of what you hear in the news these days—metaverse.
In the future, you will be able to attend church without leaving your home but will get the same experience and feel as if you are sitting in the pew. You might even be able to appear in two or three places simultaneously because your avatar is there for you. You might be at the gym, classroom, and church at the same time, exercising your body, mind, and spirit simultaneously. You can become a trinity.
So, when I tell the younger generation that God is a Trinity, they say, “Cool!” They don’t argue with me because it’s not hard for them to imagine God being a Trinity. But if I talked about Trinity with the baby boomers or older, they thought it was absurd. Some would even argue with me.
A while back, someone commented on one of my sermon videos, saying the concept of “Trinity” is unbiblical and that the Bible never mentioned the term Trinity. Growing up, I have heard various arguments against Trinity. Some say, “You Christians are bad and math. How can one plus one plus one be one?”
I understand the difficulty of describing and explaining Trinity, but I am glad I didn’t dismiss it just because it’s hard to understand. Mysteries like this humble us and make us even more curious to explore the wonders of God’s nature, which pays off because it helps you understand life.
Contemporary science also has proven that the more we discover, the more we realize that we know so little about the universe. Quantum physics also has opened a can of worms against linear thinking. As we enter the age of metaverse, Trinty becomes even easier to imagine.
What’s most valuable about decoding the mysteries about God’s trinitarian nature is it enriches our lives. The more we understand God, the more we understand ourselves. The more we understand the Creator, the more we understand the creation, vise-versa.
Today is Trinity Sunday, the only Sunday in the year designated to discuss a doctrine. Other Sundays focus on the stories of God’s salvation process through Jesus Christ. The good news is I have discovered that understanding Trinity can help us enjoy life even at a greater level. So, let’s begin!

As the weather gets warmer, many people are throwing poolside parties. It reminds me of a story about a Texas billionaire who threw a poolside party on a hot summer day. He had a couple of pet sharks in his pool swimming back and forth, so the guests were fascinated by the sharks and, at the same time, tried to stay away from the poolside.
After all the guests had arrived, the host picked up the microphone and announced,
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have a special announcement to make. Here’s my beautiful daughter, you all know. She is now at the age to choose a partner for life. I want my future son-in-law to be a man of courage. So, today, I have a challenge for all the men in the crowd. Anyone who dares to swim across the pool and get to the other side alive will get my daughter’s hands. But, don’t worry! If either of you thinks you are not a good match, I will give him a million dollars in cash for his courage to swim with the sharks.”
Suddenly, splash! A young man dove into the pool and swam across the pool swiftly. He got to the other side safely, jumped out of the pool, and looked at the crowd as if he was searching for someone. 
The crowd cheered for his courage, and the host asked him, “Young man, you are a true hero. Tell me what you want—the hands of my daughter or a million dollars in cash?”
The man kept scanning the crowd with a stern face without paying attention to the host. So, he asked again, “Young man, what do you want?”
He said in an angry tone, “I want … I want to know who pushed me into the pool!”
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Life is somewhat like a shark tank. The moment we are born, we are in this pool. The only way to survive is to swim to the other end swiftly and safely. There’s no use finding out who pushed you into this pool. The best attitude is to treat life as an opportunity and enjoy the swim.
Of course, life is not as dramatic as swimming in a shark tank. This story tries to depict a truth about life: the only way to find happiness in this life is to move forward and make progress. Don’t just take my word for it, but you can experiment with this truth. When are you really happy: during stagnation or progress?
Life is also like a stream of water. A flowing stream carries clean water, and a stagnant pool becomes stinky. So, don’t ask who pushed you into the water, but ask if you are making progress. Maybe the sharks are not there to eat you as long as you are moving forward.
Of course, not all progress makes you happy. Only meaningful progress brings true satisfaction. In fact, Jesus revealed that he wants us to make progress doing the meaningful works as he did. He says,
“Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12).
Doing “greater works” than he did might sound challenging, but not so if you understand that he means progress. The word “greater” is translated from Greek, “μείζονα,” meaning “greater, farther, growing, expanding, progressing.” So, Jesus is not talking about you will do mightier work than he did, but you will proliferate or propagate what he has started.
If this verse makes you anxious, you interpret it wrong because, in the context, he said he left peace with you. Progress will bring you peace. Progress is also the nature of a believer. He says, if you are a believer, you will do the works he did.
His life is also a progression of works, from teaching a small audience to a large crowd, from small miracles to raising Lazarus from the dead, from making small sacrifices to giving his life on the cross. It’s always growing, expanding, and progressing.
Jesus gave many parables revealing the kingdom of God is a progress. He said that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that germinates and grows into a fruitful tree. He gave many parables like this. The kingdom of God is the place of ultimate happiness, and only progress will take you there.
So, he expects you to make progress in doing meaningful works as he did. Today, we have over two billion believers around the world. Believers have fed more homeless than ever before. Believers have built more hospitals than ever before. Believers have built more schools than ever before. We can go on and on to see how believers have made progress.
How about you? Are you part of this progress? Progress glorifies God, and when God is glorified, you are satisfied. That’s how we are created. In other words, like it or not, you are in the shark tank. Swim or die! Don’t ask who pushed you in; you are already in. Enjoy the swim and focus on the great prize you have been promised.
The good news is Jesus does not just reveal to us that progress brings you happiness, but he promises to give you a hand to make sure you get to the other end of the pool safely. So, today, let’s explore how Jesus planned to help you make progress by doing greater works based on this week’s scripture lesson. Let’s begin!

Life can be miserable for three reasons: guilts from the past, worries about the future, and anxieties about the present. On the other hand, life can be a great joy to live once these three problems are solved. I have a favorite fable that depicts life precisely.
I have shared this story with you several times, but I am telling it again because the truth must be told and reviewed frequently, or we forget and get sidetracked. I myself get sidetracked if I don’t reconsider these course-correcting parables. Here’s the story:
A man is taking a walk in the wilderness. Suddenly he hears some sneaky footsteps behind him, so he turns around expecting to see a fellow stroller, but it turns out to be a tiger trying to sneak up on him. So, he runs for his life, but soon, he reaches the edge of a cliff, leaving him no more room to run.
He turns around to face the tiger. Like a house cat, the tiger stops chasing when its prey stops running. Then, it tries to position itself to pounce on the man. Suddenly, he sees a vine dangling down the edge of the cliff, so he quickly grabs the vine and slides down the cliff.
When he reaches the middle of the cliff, he looks down to make sure it’s safe to keep sliding down. To his disappointment, he sees several crocodiles on the river bank with their jaw wide open, waiting to eat him for lunch. Now he is stuck in the middle of the cliff.
He looks up and sees the tiger still roaming up there, trying to find a way to catch him. He looks down and sees the hungry crocodiles waiting for their lunch. He looks up again, and shockingly, he discovers two mice—a black and a white—gnawing on the vine right below the tiger.
His anxiety shoots to the roof when he realizes the vine he is hanging on will break sooner or later. He tries to shoo the mice away, but they stop and stare at him for a moment and go back to gnawing. Then he tries to reach for something nearby that he may throw at the mice, but he sees nothing except a big red juicy sun-ripen strawberry in his arms reach.
He loves strawberries and knows that one must be incredibly delicious. Still, he can’t enjoy the strawberry because he is preoccupied with the tiger on the top, the crocodiles below, and the mice gnawing on his lifeline. Helplessly, he looks up at the tiger, down at the crocodiles, and then the mice.
After a long period of looking up and down, he decides to close his eyes, stretch out his arm, unplug the strawberry, and savor it as if nothing is happening. (End of the story.)
That is one of the most famous fables that depicts life. Once, a young lady asked me after I told this story, “What happened to that man after eating the strawberry?” That’s a good question we will answer today, but let’s look at the allegory first.
The vine represents our lifeline. We all slide on our lifeline from our past down to our future or gave. We are heading to the grave from birth, and we fear what lies beyond the grave.
The tiger represents our guilt from our past. Many people live their lives haunted by their past guilt, and that’s why they can’t enjoy life to the fullest.
Some people live with fear for the future. The crocodiles down the line represent the uncertain future. The current pandemic has made us even more insecure about what’s to come next. Fear or worry about the future can cripple our ability to enjoy life to the fullest.
The third common killer of joy is the present anxiety. The mice represent the annoyances that raise our concerns. The black and white mice represent day and night. They stress you out during the day and keep you awake at night. They also represent the time that doesn’t wait for us. Day and night gnaw on our lifeline like clockwork, but no one can stop it.
As a result, we can’t enjoy the juicy strawberry, which represents the gift from God for us to savor.
Some people may deny they have a tiger of their past, crocodiles of their future, or mice of the present. Like the man in the story, some religions teach you to numb your mind by clearing your thoughts and savor the strawberry in denial of the existence of guilt, fear, and anxiety. Denial doesn’t make things disappear, but it will still kill your joy from the inside.
We must solve these common human problems to enjoy life to the fullest. The good news is, in today’s scripture lesson, Jesus reveals the secrets to getting rid of the tiger, the crocodiles, and the mice. With these secrets, you will be able to enjoy life to the fullest. So, let’s begin!

Here’s one of my favorite childhood folk tales:
A farmer went to the town to sell his produce and returned with a large pot of treasures. His family gathered around him to hear the story of his windfall of fortune. He said, “As I walked through the forest on my way back, I heard someone groaning in a cave. I entered the cave and saw a dying tiger with a massive infected wound on his arm.
“I had pity on him, so I used my first aid kit to bind his wound and gave him water to drink. Since it was getting dark, I stayed with him overnight. The next day, he got better and gave me this pot of treasures to express his gratitude.”
Feeling envious, his brother’s wife inquired about the cave’s location and asked her husband to find the place and try his luck. The next day, he went and found the cave. Surprisingly, he heard the tiger groaning inside, so he went in and saw the dying tiger just like his brother had told them.
He thought, “Yuck! My brother didn’t tell me that the wound was so stinky.” He reluctantly bound the wound, hoping to get the reward like his brother. He slept in the cave dreaming about returning home with a treasure pot. The next day, the tiger got better and ate him for breakfast.
This story is based on Taoist philosophy calling for multilayers of interpretations. On the surface, it teaches people that you cannot copy someone’s success by superficially duplicating what they do. At a deeper level, the elder brother’s action stems from his sincere love for the wounded and suffering. Motive matters!
Then if we reach even deeper, it teaches us that nature reads your motive and rewards your heart over your action.
Chinese adults tell fables like these to teach children to cultivate morality. However, for those who love to think deeper, these stories serve as tools for spiritual development, much like Jesus’ parables.
We can look at the story as a lesson on how love can transform nature. It’s natural for people to fear a tiger, and it’s natural for the tiger to eat a human. If we are authentic, we cannot naturally love our enemies. When Jesus asked us to love our enemies, he asked us to rise above authenticity.
The culture today glorifies authenticity. In the name of expressing themselves, they gratify their authentic feelings. They can be rude and say, “I am just being authentic.” Paul said, we are to tell the truth in love. Telling the truth sounds authentic, but without love, the truth becomes a weapon to hurt rather than to heal.
The Bible says that our authentic nature is a fallen nature. If I am authentic, I rather eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If we are authentic, we cannot love the way Jesus wants us to love. The way Jesus wants us to love is not transactional but transformational. It requires us to sacrifice our authenticity.
In the story, the younger brother is authentic. His love for the tiger is a pretense—a transactional deed. The tiger was also authentic when he ate the low-hanging fruit. His elder brother was not authentic. He went beyond his instinct to love the tiger. The tiger was not authentic when he rewarded his prey. Touched by love, he has risen above his authenticity.
In this week’s scripture lesson, Jesus gave us a new commandment to love one another. If you read the Old Testament, you would find that to love one another is not something new. So, why did Jesus call it a new commandment? He said this the night before he went to the cross, and he prayed that night:
“My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” (Mat 26:39).
This prayer shows that if Jesus were authentic, he wouldn’t go to the cross—he would rather not drink this bitter cup. Yet, he went to the cross to fulfill God’s will—not his own will. Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done,” because God’s will is not just a high road but a higher road that requires us to rise above authenticity.
Today, we will explore how to take a higher road of “Thy will be done” in our cultural norm of “My will be done.” Let’s begin!

I’ve discovered that preaching to the choir is one of the best ways to free yourself from stress. I know preaching to the choir has a negative connotation because it means you are trying to convince someone who is already convinced, thus wasting your time and energy.
However, contrary to the conventional wisdom, Jesus wants us to preach only to the choir when he says, “feed my sheep.” That means he has already chosen an audience for you to serve. He wants you to focus on the sheep, not the goats or pigs.
The opposite of preaching to the choir is “throwing pearls to the pigs.” Jesus said if you throw pearls to the pigs, they do not only unappreciative of your pearls but also attack you for giving them. That would be a formula for stress. How many of us try to feed the pigs and not the sheep?
In his book “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us,” Seth Godin presents the idea that each of us has a tribe waiting for us to lead. A tribe is like a flock connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. Our life is best used and meaningful when we find our tribe and serve them.
Godin asserts that your tribe is waiting for you to lead them. The problem is, how do you identify and find your tribe so that you don’t waste your lives on unfruitful enterprises? Don’t waste your life whistling in the wind. God has a target market for you to distribute your pearls.
I know, out of kindness, we don’t want to leave anyone out. We want to feed every animal, not just the sheep. We want to force-feed the pigs with pearls and complain about fruitlessness. Elbert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Let’s be wise.
The good news is that Jesus has taught us how to find the flock so that we can be fruitful by preaching to the choir and not wasting our lives throwing pearls to the pigs. So, let’s explore from today’s scripture lesson how to identify the flock we are called to serve. Let’s begin!