Spiritual Advantage with Sam Stone

Recently, I started reading The Gulag Archipelago, the life inside the communist concentration camps in Russia, written by the Nobel Prize laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He said,
“One man who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny.” ~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
That stimulates my thoughts significantly because it’s so true. We have seen these people in our recent history, such as Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and Aung San Suu Kyi—unfortunately, Burma regressed. Solzhenitsyn himself triggered the collapse of the Soviet Union with his book.
It doesn’t have to be about bringing down a government but any form of tyranny. Martin Luther King, Jr. toppled the tyranny against civil rights. Abraham Lincoln toppled the tyranny of slavery. He achieved it through honesty and integrity, so people called him “Honest Abe.”
I read some Palms lately depicting we live in a world of liars. At first, I thought that sounded too cynical, but as I observed people around me, I discovered almost everyone lies. The longer they talk, the more lies they speak. Some tend to talk boldly and intimidatingly to cover up their deceit.
A Burmese proverb says, “Without lies, words are not smooth.” It means your words sound crude or boring without lies; you need a little lie to spice up your words. In English, we have “white lies.” These traditions hint at permission to lie, but gradually it becomes a habit, and we cross the fine line between what’s acceptable and what’s not.
I remember I felt particularly irritated when my children lied to me. Guess who they learned from?
Then I reflected on my words and found I tell no fewer lies than anyone else. You would expect someone in my position should tell fewer lies, if not none. It reminds me of Paul saying he was “the chief of all sinners.” Like Paul, I am the chief of all liars. Confession is the starting point of the road to recovery. Now, I am a recovering liar.
It all began with discovering Solzhenitsyn’s statement, “One man who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny.” Honest people are intimidating to tyrants. That’s why they imprison or eliminate them. Tyranny is sustained by people who join the lie for survival. If stopping lying can make you so powerful, what does it take to stop lying?
Solzhenitsyn received his enlightenment in the concentration camp, where starvation was one of the systematic tortures. Maybe the fasting state raised his consciousness. Similarly, Viktor Frankl also received his wisdom in the concentration camp and wrote his seminal book Men Search for Meaning.
I have been fasting for Lent, and I can see that fasting is like a self-imposed concentration camp. I hope something good can come out of it for me instead of starving to death. Let me tell you a story ...

Legend has it that a reporter asked Michelangelo, “How did you create this amazing sculpture from a block of marble?” His reply has fascinated everyone for hundreds of years.
“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block before I start my work. It is already there. I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” ~Michalangelo
I always wonder how the great artist knew the sculpture was in the marble block. I have discovered that art is the language of God. Michelangelo spoke the language of God.
My favorite sculpture of Michelangelo is The Pieta (Picture), Mary carrying Jesus’ body on her lap after the crucifixion. I can gaze at the picture of it for a long time and feel taken away in amazement, as if I see God’s fingerprints on it.
Sometimes people ask me to prove God’s existence. Art is evidence of God’s presence. All these great artists, Michelangelo, Leonardo DaVinci, Beethoven, Mozart, William Wordsworth, Robert Frost, and you name it, not to mention King David and Solomon, showed us God’s existence through art. They speak God’s language and give me a thirst to speak the language of God.
In fact, the entire Bible is a piece of art written by those who understood the language of God. That’s why it’s filled with poetry, psalms, parables, prophecies, proverbs, profiles, and philosophy. Art needs interpretation, and that’s why some parts of the Bible are hard to understand until we are fluent in the language of God.
One day I discovered a story in a book written 2,400 years ago by the Taoist sage Zhuangzi which reveals a secret to speaking the language of God.
The Woodcarver Qing received an assignment from the king to carve a bell stand for the courtyard (Picture). He did a marvelous job, and people everywhere came to admire the bell stand at the palace.
They said, “This bell stand is so stunningly beautiful. It looks like the work of God.” They visited the woodcarver’s home to interview him about his secret to reaching the pinnacle of artistry. Qing said, “I am a mere woodcarver, far from an artist. If you want to know how I carved it, here is what I did.
“Since this project was for the king, I realized I must concentrate my energy to get the job done well. So, I fasted for seven days. After three days of fasting, I stopped caring about my compensation; after five days, I could ignore my reputation; and after seven days, I had even forgotten my reservation—my ego had disappeared.
“By that time, I had lost all my distractions and became one with the Holy Spirit. Then I went up to the forest hill to look for the tree for the bell stand. I look for the one with the bell stand in it. When I found it, I cut it down and carved it out. The outcome was what you call the work of God.” (End of story.)
The woodcarver stayed humble and didn’t even think of himself as an artist because, like Michelangelo, he felt his art already existed in the tree. He just revealed it by chipping away the excess. His secret of seeing the sculpture in the raw material is setting aside his ego. He did it through fasting. Michelangelo did not disclose how he achieved that state, but this story gives us a clue,
Jesus fasted for forty days to set his ego aside even though he was the Son of God. In today’s scripture lesson, Jesus gives us more clues to speak the language of God. Let’s find out!

It has been a year since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, many people hoped some Russian leaders would stand up against him and remove the tyrant from office. So far, he is still standing strong after sacrificing so many lives. We might wonder when this will this end, or will it escalate to a world war?
History teaches us that dictators are symptoms but not the root cause because when a dictator is removed, the situation worsens, and the world could become more dangerous. Who knows what would replace the tyrant? A recent example would be that we removed Sadam Husein, but the country is still unstable after over a decade of effort, thousands of deaths, and billions of dollars.
In 1988, the democratic movement in Burma removed three presidents within a few months. After the last president resigned, the country went into chaos. The military junta stepped over and killed thousands of citizens in the name of enforcing law and order. It seems easier to fight for freedom but much harder to maintain it.
Dictators serve a purpose. They stabilize a weak society—repeat: a weak society. In other words, we have a government we deserve. It’s a hard pill to swallow. We might ask, “Can the United States fall into the hands of a dictatorship? How do we prevent it? What lesson have we learned from the history of dictatorships? Most importantly, what does the Bible reveal to us about handling tyrants?
The answer is that we need more butterflies than caterpillars. They are the same creature but have two different ways of life. Humans are born as caterpillars, but some of us metamorphose into butterflies, but some don’t. A country with more butterflies than caterpillars will sustain freedom. Otherwise, she is in trouble.
Two weeks ago, I shared a message titled “Listen to the Butterflies.” You can find it online. Today I would like to apply that truth in a real-life situation.
As Benjamin Franklin walked out of Independence Hall after the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, a lady asked, “Doctor Franklin, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin answered, “A republic, if you can keep it!” The wisdom is in that clause. “if you can keep it.”
It means the quality of the citizens determines the quality of the government. Many countries want to copy America without considering the quality of the Americans. I’m not saying we are superior humans, but we have more butterflies than caterpillars. If we have more caterpillars than butterflies one day, we will lose the republic.
Our founding fathers designed this republic that requires more citizens of butterflies to keep it. Butterflies have eyes and wings, but caterpillars are blind, so they must creep. A proverb says, “Among the blind, the one-eyed man becomes king.” Dictators can lead the caterpillars, but not the butterflies.
We see in the Bible that Jesus didn’t come to topple the dictators but to open our eyes so that the one-eyed man cannot become our king. In other words, Jesus came to show us the metamorphosis and turn us from blind caterpillars to seeing and flying butterflies so that no one could enslave us.
It applies to all situations, not just government. What enslaves you today—poverty, debts, relationships, employment, money, emotions, fear, or anger, you name it? Nothing can rule over you when you metamorphose into a butterfly life. Jesus calls it “being born of the spirit,” which gives us a strong ethos.
In today’s scripture lesson, Jesus reveals what is required for us to be born of the Spirit. Let’s begin!

According to the Global Agenda 2014 survey, 86 percent of people worldwide agree we have a leadership crisis around the world. Today this crisis continues to deepen. Even our own President Joe Biden is hampered by old age and an approval rating of just 38%. Why is the quality of global leadership plummeting?
I love reading books written by old people because they are packed with the wisdom of a lifetime. When I heard the 99-year-old Henry Kissinger published a new book, “Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy,” I immediately grabbed it and started reading it. If you think you are too old to contribute to the world, consider Kissinger writing his 20th book at 99. He will be 100 years old in May.
Whether you like him or not, his achievement is undeniable. A laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize, he has advised John F. Kennedy and every president after that except Joe Biden. Biden has not yet invited him to the White House. Kissinger is concerned about how our leaders have been handling the Ukraine war.   
The book is not just relevant to global leadership. The wisdom can apply to everyone. Whether you are a parent or president, you are called to lead your children, company, community, or country. Your leadership is seriously needed, especially at times like this.
Kissinger describes how the leaders led the world through times of transition. We are going through a similar transition today, not only in politics but also in more innovative machines with artificial intelligence. But we see no leaders today equal to those mentioned in Kissinger’s book.
In an interview, Kissinger was asked whether great leaders are born or made. To my surprise, his answer was, “They made themselves.” That means institutions cannot produce great leaders. Most of the great leaders are from ordinary families, so they are not born with a leadership silver spoon. “They made themselves” implies a personal spiritual formation that needs to develop from within.
I have discovered that leaders today lack the spiritual component that made great leaders like those in human history. We have lost the art of leadership spirituality that made us highly effective. Today we will learn from the greatest of all who led the world through a crisis.
First-century Israel and the world was going through a similar leadership crisis. King Herod was corrupt, and the religious leaders kowtow to the Roman occupation. A carpenter’s son named Jesus of Nazareth led the change and launched a tidal wave of leadership reflection and reformation not only in Israel and the Roman Empire but also all over the world for over 2000 years.
If you say, “Of course, Jesus could do it because he is the Son of God,” then you are wrong. He is also fully human, and most importantly, he came on earth not only to lead change but also to train leaders. When he left the earth, he had only 11 disciples and about 500 followers that continued his mission to lead the world through leadership evolution. But it seems to have stopped today. It’s time for us to reflect and renew what he has taught us.
Last week, we talked about Jesus calling us to change—metamorphosis. He also calls you to lead others to change and reconcile the world. I believe you can lead change by applying what Jesus taught us, whether you are a parent, president, or parish.
Today is the First Sunday in Lent, and we are given a scripture lesson that lays the spiritual foundation of great leadership. Let’s begin!

As a child, what small creatures scared you the most? I know most people fear spiders. I wasn’t afraid of spiders because my grandma loved them, and I learned to appreciate them from her. But I found caterpillars very scary and repulsive. They are poisonous, and the fuzzy tufts (tiny hairs) on caterpillars can cause an allergic reaction when they touch the skin.
However, our attitude toward caterpillars changed when we discovered their metamorphosis into beautiful butterflies. The potential of these creepy creatures earns our respect. They expand our imagination and demonstrate our own potential. If you believe God talks to us through nature, caterpillars and butterflies communicate who we are and what we can become—spiritually.
Caterpillars don’t have eyes. They use small antennas to feel their way on the trees and eat the leaves. It illustrates our spiritual blindness before salvation. Caterpillars crawl slowly, but the butterflies fly swiftly, representing two entirely different ways of living.
According to zoologists, all a caterpillar does is eat and secrete—very egocentric. But a butterfly beautifies the earth and pollinates plants to nurture nature. We can say caterpillars are takers, but butterflies are givers. The difference is heaven and earth.
It would be a shame if we lived all our lives as caterpillars and never experienced a butterfly life. Jesus calls the butterfly life “the kingdom of heaven,” and he wants us to strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness and promises all things to be given to us as well. He wants us to prioritize our spiritual metamorphosis. The entire teaching of Jesus Christ is revealed in his initial message,
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Mt 4:17 ESV).
If you understand this verse, you have cracked the code of the entire Bible. John the Baptist preached the same message, and Jesus continued proclaiming it. Many scholars and theologians have tried to summarize the Bible. Some say that the entire message of the Bible is “Love” or “God is love.” Some say the Great Commandment summarizes the Bible, “Love God and love people.”
I agreed with them in the past, but after twenty-seven years of preaching, teaching, and studying the Bible, I have discovered this verse the be the most accurate representation of Jesus’ message because it has the keyword “repent.” Both in Hebrew and Greek, “repent” means “change.” It’s changing from living like a caterpillar to flying like a butterfly. In other words, “repent” means “metamorphose.”
In the entire Old Testament, we read about God asking the Israelites to change. In the New Testament, Jesus shows us the way to change. The only thing consistent on earth is change. If you are not changing for the better, you are changing for the worse. Jesus shows us how to change for the best. God loves you the way you are, but God loves you too much to leave you the way you are.
Without change, the gospel is incomplete. The Bible is the book of change, the alchemy of the spirit. From that perspective, studying the Bible is super exciting and ultra important because you will fly through life like a butterfly instead of crawling like a caterpillar.
One of the problems with the Reformed Protestants is that we over-emphasize grace and under-emphasize change to the point that it becomes cheap grace. Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned us that grace is free but not cheap. The costly part of grace is that we must change—from a caterpillar to a butterfly, from a pheasant to a phoenix.
God’s grace compels you to change instead of keeping complacent. How do we change? The way to change begins by appreciating the butterfly life. Until you appreciate the value of the butterfly life, you will continue to crawl like a caterpillar. In one of his parables, Jesus wants you to be like a smart pearl merchant who knows the value of a top-quality pearl and is willing to sell everything we own to get it. He said,
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Mt 13:45–46).
Can you imagine what it is like to discover something so valuable that you would give up everything to get it? That’s what the kingdom of heaven is like. Just as a caterpillar would give up everything to become a butterfly, Jesus wants us to risk everything for our metamorphosis.
Today is Transfiguration Sunday. A more precise translation from Greek would be “Metamorphosis Sunday.” On this day in history, Jesus showed three of his disciples a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven—a glimpse of the butterfly life in the caterpillars’ world. The passage also reveals what we must do to live in heaven on earth. Let’s begin!

I wonder if you have ever seen a golden pheasant. It’s one of the most beautiful birds in the world. They are native to Western China, but you can also find them in the Western United States. There are many breeders nowadays because they are beautiful, and people are willing to pay a good price to buy them. The Chinese regard them as a symbol of good luck because they look like the Chinese mythological phoenix, especially when they fly.
As beautiful as they are, they are still far from the status of a phoenix in the Chinese mind because a pheasant is, after all, a hillbilly bird, unlike the divine phoenix. Pheasants love fighting with one another to show who’s the boss; they have huge egos. That’s why they are regarded as rustic despite their beauty.
A Chinese metaphor describes a spiritual person or a person of high intellectual and moral status as a “phoenix.” Like the resurrection of Christ, a phoenix can rise from ashes. They are immune to adversity and are symbols of peace and resilience.
That gives us a good allegory for living our new identity as risen people. The Bible says,
“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Co 5:17).
Many similar verses in the Bible tell us that we used to be pheasants, but now we are phoenixes. The pheasant life represents a life of ego, full of greed, anger, and ignorance, but the phoenix is a life of love, joy, and peace.
In other words, to cultivate inner peace, you need an identity shift—from a pheasant to a phoenix, from being worldly to being divine. The Bible repeatedly encourages us to shift our identity—from the old self to the new self, from a barren life to a fruitful life, from being born of the flesh to that of the spirit, from living under the law to living under grace, and so on.
That’s what “repentance” means, as we discussed previously.
According to psychology, some people cannot quit smoking because they identify themselves as smokers consciously or unconsciously. The moment they shift their identity, they are set free from the old habits. If I say I have a sweet tooth, I will never recover from sugar addiction.
Many years ago, after I was diagnosed with depression, a friend told me to join his support group for depressive personality. I refused to join because I didn’t like the name of the group, “depressive personality support group.” It made me depressed just to hear the name. How could I ever recover from depression if I identified myself as a depressive personality?
I struggled with the decision for a while because he kept inviting me. Later I realized I made the right decision by refusing to claim that identity. It makes me understand why Jesus keeps calling us positive names: you are the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the children of God, the children of light, born of the spirit, not of the flesh, etc.
Jesus gives us a new identity to live a new way of life. Today, I want to remind you that you are no longer pheasants but phoenixes. It’s essential to claim that new identity, and you will find it easier to quit the old habits and have peace within.
This fallen world is a world of fighting pheasants, and we will never find peace living like pheasants. It’s their nature to fight, just as it’s human nature to sin. You may be trying hard to brace yourself against the temptations of the flesh, but it doesn’t last.
Why? It’s because you still hold the pheasant identity. Pheasants do what pheasants do. Resisting your nature is stressful, and you will give in sooner or later. The only solution is to shift your identity from the earthly pheasant to the heavenly phoenix. Then peace becomes you!
For the past four weeks, we have been studying Cultivating PEACE Within. I have identified five pillars of peace forming the acrostic PEACE. Previously we have talked about,
P – Presence: Protect God’s Presence in Us
E – Emptiness: Empty Myself (as Jesus Did)
A – Atonement: Atone with Forgiveness (nothing else works)
C – Community: Concert with the Community
E – Entertainment: Entertain Beauty
So, today we are on the fifth pillar of cultivating peace: Entertainment. The Bible reveals that the quality of our entertainment can enforce our identity and enrich our lives. With that, the God of peace and the peace of God is with us. Let’s find out!

There’s a human paradox. We all know we are social creatures, but at the same time, we often get hurt by social interactions. When I look at my emotional wounds, most of them are caused by people. Of course, there are self-inflicted wounds due to my own mistakes and stupidity, but there are many wounds inflicted by others—sometimes by strangers, sometimes by friends, and sometimes even by family members.
On the other hand, we cannot just cut ourselves off from society and expect to have peace. We all know being alone is unhealthy mentally, emotionally, and spiritually because we are social creatures. Then how do we solve this human problem? How do we be part of a community and not get hurt? I have discovered the secret based on what Jesus taught.
The secret is that “life is not a journey.” If life is a journey, the destination is the focus, and the faster we get there, the better. We want to get on the fastest vehicle in the fastest lane and rush to the end. If you treat life as a journey, your mind will concentrate on “tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow,” and you will not be able to enjoy the present moment. You cannot rush life because it has to be lived one day at a time. Jesus taught us to live for today in his Sermon on the Mount.
If life is not a journey, what is it? Life is a piece of music. Unlike a journey, you cannot rush to the end of the music, or it won’t sound pleasant. Just like living one day at a time, you must play every beat and every bar with proper timing and rhythm. There are high notes and low notes, happy moments and sad moments, but when you play it right, they all work together to make your life a masterpiece. Paul said,
“We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28).
Life is a series of peaks and valleys, high seasons and low ones. A friend said that he loves New Jersey because he loves the four distinct seasons—spring, summer, fall, and winter. They all are beautiful in their own ways because one season makes us appreciate another. We are in the middle of a cold winter right now, but it will make spring taste so delicious when it comes. It’s like a change of movements in a concerto.
I have also discovered that life is not solo music but an orchestra with God as our Conductor. As Paul said, “God makes all things work together for good,” like a magnificent concerto. I call it “life is a masterpeace,” (PEACE). So, your life is most peaceful when you play with a community that focuses on the same Conductor.
Notice the word “play.” You play through life like playing music. If life is a journey, you compete with people to get ahead. Since life is music, you play with people. When you compete with people, someone will lose, but when you play with people, everyone wins.
To cultivate peace within, you must learn to play with people. For the past three weeks, we have focused on cultivating PEACE within. We all have been through some rough three years, and we don’t know what the future holds, but if we have peace within, we can handle whatever comes ahead and make the rest of our lives the best of our lives.
There are five pillars of peace based on what the Bible teaches us, and I have put them together into an acrostic using the word PEACE. Previously we talked about,
P – Presence: Protect God’s Presence in Us
E – Emptiness: Empty Myself (as Jesus Did)
A – Atonement: Atone with Forgiveness
C – Community: Concert with the Community
E –
Today we will learn how to concert with the community to cultivate peace within based on Jesus’ word in today’s scripture lesson. Let’s begin!

The other day, I was with a group of parents and grandparents talking about the mistakes we made raising our children. Each of us shared our experiences and laughed our “guilt” out—we were laughing at one another’s stories but at the same time feeling so guilty for those mistakes. After hearing everyone’s stories, I felt relieved that I was not the only parent who made mistakes!
To err is human. However, some mistakes were not laughing matters because they caused permanent damage. We could brush off the small mistakes, but some big ones leave permanent scars and make us feel guilty for life, consciously or unconsciously. Even the small ones could accumulate and weigh our hearts down. The older we grow, the bigger burden of guilt we carry.
Even though we believe in a forgiving God, we just can’t seem to forgive ourselves for some regrettable issues in life. Have you wondered why it is? Even though we confess our sins to God frequently, some guilt still haunts us. You might say it’s because God has forgiven us, but we haven’t forgiven ourselves. If so, what does it take to forgive ourselves?
We cannot maintain peace within unless we resolve the guilt issue. The worse way to deal with guilt is denial—sweeping it under the rug and ignoring the role it plays in our daily life. Guilt doesn’t just disappear if we pretend it does not exist.
Guilt is an obstacle to peace. Internally guilt makes us depressed and stirs up anxiety. Externally it ruins relationships because guilty people tend to be angry. You feel like walking on eggshells around them. Guilt makes us defensive because we fear making more mistakes that might worsen our weight. We think the anger comes from the desire for justice, but the underlying guilt also triggers anger.
So, one of the ways to deal with an unreasonably angry person is to realize that it’s not you that they are attacking but the baggage of guilt they carry. Otherwise, you might retaliate and make things worse. Then you feel guilty and become an angry person—a domino effect.
Remember, “hurt people, hurt people.” This concept turns on our empathy. If someone tries to hurt you, you realize that person could be hurting inside.
Conversely, each time we get angry or snap at others, it reveals that we have something hurting inside us. All over the world, most people walk with hunched back, weighed down by the burden of guilt. Guilt triggers discords and even wars.
Throughout history, people invented many ways to atone for their sins. There’s an ethnic tribe in Western Burma nicked named “Headhunters” because they hunt for human heads seasonally to offer to their gods as a sacrifice. That’s a primitive way of atonement.
Nowadays, people go to temples to burn incents and offer alms for atonement. Some cultures sacrifice a lamb, a goat, or a calf for atonement. Some rich people give away their money for charity to atone for their guilt. A rich man in Thailand has a garden of statues, including Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, and all kinds of gods imaginable. He waters them every morning and prays to them, hoping that at least one of them will save him.
Humans do the weirdest things to cleanse their conscience. Guilt is a universal problem in this fallen world, but none of the solutions above work because they are more like bandages than cures. It’s like Lady Macbeth washing her hands. The spot never goes away.
The good news is God knows our plights and has provided a solution through Jesus Christ. John the Baptist said,
“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29b).
The Lamb of God is true atonement, so today, let’s examine how the Lamb of God takes away our sins and why some Christians still feel guilty and cannot have peace. This is the third message in the series of Cultivating PEACE Within. There are five pillars of peace forming a mnemonic acrostic PEACE. Previously, we talked about,
P – Presence: Protect God’s Presence in You
E – Emptiness: Empty My Ego
A – Atonement: Atone with Forgiveness
C –
E –
As I said above, guilt is a big obstacle in cultivating PEACE. It’s at the center of it and not so easy to get rid of because it keeps accumulating, but Jesus has revealed the secret. So, let’s look at how the Lamb of God teaches us to rid our guilt and cultivate peace.