{"id":1090,"date":"2021-10-12T13:01:37","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T17:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1090"},"modified":"2021-10-12T13:01:37","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T17:01:37","slug":"rainbow-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/12\/rainbow-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainbow Man"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you watched TV sports during the 1980s, you\u2019ll probably remember the Rainbow Man. 

Rollen Stewart dreamed of becoming an actor.  When his Hollywood career flatlined, he decided the ultimate act of self-promotion would be to show up on camera during major sporting events. 

Stewart donned a multi-colored wig and somehow managed to seat himself behind home plate, a goal post, or a backboard \u2013 places where viewers were sure to see him waving his hands or doing his patented jig.  TV producers were amused.  If the game was dragging, they could always count on \u201cRockin Rollen\u201d to liven things up as a kind of crowd mascot.

Then Stewart got religion. 

It dawned on him that he could advertise his newfound faith in Jesus by holding up a sign or wearing a T-shirt that directed people to a Bible verse.  Stewart settled on John 3:16. 

During the 80s he lived out of his car, traveling 60,000 miles a year.  Churches supported him financially.  He begged, borrowed, or cajoled his way into highly visible seats at Super Bowls, World Series games, the Olympics, the Kentucky Derby, and even the Wedding of the Century.  Rainbow Man could be seen dancing in the background on the day Prince Charles married Diana. 

Highly visible preachers usually get one TV spot a week.  Stewart averaged two events a week for something like a dozen years. 

TV producers gradually became weary of his persona.  And behind the scenes his life was unraveling.  Stewart married and divorced four times.  He became angry, delusional, and increasingly certain that the Apocalypse was approaching.  In September 1991 he held three people against their will at gunpoint at the Hyatt Hotel near the Los Angeles airport.  During an eight-hour standoff with a SWAT team, he threatened to fire bullets at nearby commercial aircraft.

After his arrest and trial \u2013 during which he turned down a plea-bargain that would have sent him to prison for 12 years \u2013 Rollen Stewart was handed three consecutive life sentences for kidnapping.  He\u2019s been behind bars now for almost three decades. 

It\u2019s an unexpectedly sad finale to the life of America\u2019s \u201cendzone evangelist.\u201d 

Stewart\u2019s verse of choice, however, still gets plenty of play. 

University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow wrote \u201cJohn\u201d and \u201c3:16\u201d on his eye black when he took the field for the 2009 NCAA National Championship game.  He did so again in 2012 when he led the Denver Broncos to an overtime NFL playoff win.  During the game, \u201cJohn 3:16\u201d was Googled an incredible 90 million times and was the number one topic trending on Twitter.  In-N-Out Burger, the iconic West coast fast food joint, has printed the verse on the bottom of its drinking cups.

Genesis 1:1 is presumably the most famous sentence in the Bible: \u201cIn the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.\u201d  But John 3:16 isn\u2019t far behind:  \u201cFor God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life.\u201d  Let\u2019s break it down:         

For God<\/strong>\u2026 A statement that describes the basis of our spiritual security could never begin with our own names.  God is the primary actor in history.  

So loved<\/strong>\u2026 From cover to cover in Scripture, this is God\u2019s ultimate motivation. 

The world<\/strong>\u2026 The Bible isn\u2019t a love story written exclusively for good people or religious people or lucky people or Jews or Baptists or Catholics.  God\u2019s love is for everyone. 

That he gave<\/strong>\u2026 Real life is a gift, not an achievement. 

His One and Only Son<\/strong>\u2026 From the Bible\u2019s opening chapters, a promised person called the Messiah has been God\u2019s plan for restoring this broken world.  Jesus died on the cross to pay off the cumulative international sin debt, then rose again to unleash God’s own power to transform human lives. 

That whoever<\/strong>\u2026  We get an invitation, not a summons.  

Believes<\/strong>\u2026 This doesn\u2019t mean guesswork or hoping against hope.  Believing is not a leap into the dark, but an eyes-wide-open conviction of both the mind and the heart. 

In him<\/strong>\u2026 We don\u2019t shackle ourselves to a never-ending list of things to do nor to a sterile religious tradition.  Spiritual rebirth means abandoning ourselves to a living Person. 

Shall not perish<\/strong>\u2026 This is our other spiritual option.  We can either believe or perish.  All we have to do to live<\/em> is to surrender ourselves to Jesus.  All we have to do to perish<\/em> is to take no action at all.

But have eternal life<\/strong>\u2026 The Greeks had two different words for life:  bios<\/em> and zoe<\/em>.  Bios<\/em> is the root of the word biology.  Everybody born the first time experiences physical, organic life.  But the tragedy of a sin-marred world is that not everybody experiences zoe<\/em> \u2013 spiritual existence as it was meant to be.  Jesus declares that the reason we are here is not to improve our biological circumstances.  It is to be reborn into God\u2019s gift of zoe<\/em> through a relationship with him.

You might say that God puts the new software of the Holy Spirit into the old hardware of the bodies we\u2019ve been wearing since birth.

As with any systems upgrade, there will be plenty of struggles with start-up and compatibility.

You don\u2019t need to feel<\/em> something to know that God has become active in your life.  Most people never experience a supernatural rush.  Surrender yourself as best you can to as much of God as you currently understand.  Keep saying yes to the spiritual promptings that will come your way.

A number of people have had the sense that they were simply giving in to a love that was pursuing them.  Author Anne Lamott writes, \u201cI had the feeling that a little cat was following me, wanting me to reach down and pick it up, wanting me to open the door and let it in.  But I knew what would happen: you let a cat in one time, give it a little milk, and then it stays forever\u2026\u201d

The mind-bending news is that forever<\/em> in that sense really means forever.   

The Rainbow Man, like most of us, had a hard time proclaiming that message through the shape of his life.

But he definitely picked the right verse to wear on his T-shirt. 
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If you watched TV sports during the 1980s, you\u2019ll probably remember the Rainbow Man.  Rollen Stewart dreamed of becoming an actor.  When his Hollywood career flatlined, he decided the ultimate act of self-promotion would be to show up on camera during major sporting events.  Stewart donned a multi-colored wig and somehow managed to seat himself behind home plate, a goal… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[344,345],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-john-316","tag-salvation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1092,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions\/1092"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}