Jesus on Display
Greetings and good morning, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series
where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years,
the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them
with you. This morning we seek to understand the meaning of Jesus being on display.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Jesus on Display
"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to
hear, let him hear." Matthew, Chapter 13, Verse 43
Brothers and sisters, in today’’s broadcast, we share some insights concerning the display of Jesus.
When we say Jesus, we are of course referring to his victorious spirit, the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit
of Truth is the spirit of Jesus that envelops the soul of all of his children. It is the purpose of this
spirit to elevate the soul to those spiritual levels so that it can allow the Father’’s character to be
displayed. In helping us to understand this display we shall again resort to the use of a material
analogy. This time we shall press into service the use of colors to illustrate this display.
Light contains all colors. If we pass light through a prism, it will separate into the colors of the
rainbow. The particular color of light that we see is the color that is reflected. The color black does
not reflect any of the colors of light but absorbs them all. This can be demonstrated with the
phenomenon of light absorption. If you wear a black garment on a sunny day, you will become
increasingly hot as the sun shines on you since this color absorbs all the colors of light and reflects
none on them. If you wear something white, you will be considerably cooler since this color reflects
all the colors, and thus the heat that would otherwise be absorbed along with the light.
There are three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. Secondary colors result from the primary
colors interacting. Thus blending red and yellow gives rise to orange. Yellow and blue gives rise to
green, and blue and red makes purple. These colors can be arranged in a circle so that they gradually
blend. And this is not strange since they were all blended together before they were separated. Some
color combinations are more harmonious than others. A straight line connected to a color that is
directly opposite will give a harmonious color, as will forming a triangle of lines of opposite colors.
The most harmonious colors will be those that form an equilateral triangle, where each angle is
exactly 60 degrees. Thus for example, purple and yellow lie exactly opposite each other on the color
wheel; yellow forming the apex of a triangle and blue and purple forming the base of the triangle
form harmonious colors. And the primary colors yellow, red, and blue form an equilateral triangle
and are very harmonious. In our color selections we want to form a harmonious blend that will be
aesthetically pleasing.
Having laid the foundation, we can now analyze the display of Jesus. Our primary spiritual purpose
in this life is to display the Spirit of Jesus in our personal relationships. This display of the spiritual
character of Jesus is purposed to overthrow error and ignorance with goodness, to vanquish error
with truth, and to replace ugliness with beauty, and then to synthesize truth, beauty, and goodness
into love. In practice, since all truth, beauty, and goodness are contained in love, are in fact derived
from it, the display of divine love is the display of the Jesus.
Let us consider some scenarios for illustration. A young person has become discouraged as a result
of a severe disappointment. He has lost his drive and feels that he will never be successful. Here are
his suggested options: (1) It could have been worse, some might say. Look at those who are worse
off than you. (2) Some will encourage him to get back on track with the so-called tough love
approach. Get over it, they state. (3) Others are more sympathetic. They encourage him to keep
trying. You will overcome this failure, they insist.
What is needed is not only the positive injunction to move forward, but some insight into life’’s
adversities: we admonish him that sometimes our greatest disappointments are our greatest blessings.
And as we look at the color wheel of reality, we see that these various suggestions when lined up
properly are very closely related. Let us see how this is by assigning a color to each one of the
suggestions. The first suggestion is given the color yellow; the second suggestion is given the color
yellow-orange; the third suggestion is assigned the color orange, and the fourth suggestion is
assigned the color red-orange. All of these color suggestions represent various levels of achievement
in displaying the Spirit of Truth. The shading repre
Now let’’s consider a situation that requires great patience in order to bring about an acceptable
solution. Now, a person’’s first response when confronted with a barrier is to be impatient. He tries
with brute force to conquer this barrier, but he soon learns that no amount of impatience will unlock
the door preventing him from achieving his goal. As he continues to try and circumvent the delays
of time and the handicaps of space (that is, force his will) he exhausts himself and flounders on the
road of disappointed hope. Finally he sees the light and recognizes that patience is the key that
unlocks the door. We see that patience is the exact opposite of impatience, and on our color wheel
of light we can use purple to represent impatience and yellow to represent patience. And we can use
similar colors to represent hope and despair; fear and courage, faith and doubt, peace and turmoil,
joy and sadness; trust and mistrust. We see that negative qualities represent qualities of the animal
nature, of ignorance; positive qualities represent the qualities of the spiritual nature, goodness. All
these values can be represented on the color wheel.
The greatest display of the Spirit of Truth occurs when there is the greatest contrast. So that the
various situations of life with their closely related situations all provide for some measure of the
display of Jesus; but the greatest display of Jesus is when all the divine qualities and their derivatives
are combined and reflected as pure light. And this light shines in the darkness, displaying the Spirit
of Truth in the sharpest contrast and thus being clearly discernable, even as white contrasts with
black. Love is the greatest spiritual reality in existence. It eventually vanquishes all hate, even as the
rising sun vanquishes night.
So brothers and sisters, as we struggle with the never-ending adversities of life, as we strain against
the barriers of growth, remember that not only are those barriers the very stimuli that causes growth,
they provide for a very effective contrast to reveal the Spirit of Truth. The greater the contrast
between what is and what should be, the more we appreciate the values and meanings of the
Father’’s divine character that Jesus revealed and continues to reveal.
As someone said the other day: ““And now that he had finished praying, Jesus said to him, ‘‘get off
your knees and get out there and do the work. I came not to relieve you of the work, but to empower
you to do the work with loving mercy.’’" We must not shrink from the daunting challenges ahead;
they must be met as we are. We must go into this spiritual battle as we are. Nothing can conquer us
if we fight with the weapons of love. We shall overcome every dark, unrighteous foe on whom we
shine the brilliant and merciful light of love. And as we fight this spiritual battle, our spiritual
energies are constantly renewed for we are connected to an endless source of power. This spiritual
battle constantly imparts spiritual joy and peace to our souls.
This concludes today's message on understanding the meaning of Jesus being on display. We hope
you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Inspirational Messages
By Dr. James Perry
Your Kingdom Come, Your Will Be Done!
Jesus on Display
