It’s Official, Solar Cycle 25 is Here

This split image shows the difference between an active Sun during solar maximum (on the left, captured in April 2014) and a quiet Sun during solar minimum (on the right, captured in December 2019). December 2019 marks the beginning of Solar Cycle 25, and the Sun’s activity will once again ramp up until solar maximum, predicted for 2025. Credits: NASA/SDO

“Solar Cycle 25 has begun. During a media event on Tuesday, experts from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discussed their analysis and predictions about the new solar cycle – and how the coming upswing in space weather will impact our lives and technology on Earth, as well as astronauts in space.” — NASA

While people might think of some negative impact or other, to Amateur Radio Operators it’s a good thing. The greater the number of sunspots, the better radio waves propagate in the High Frequency (HF) bands.

The sunspot maximum is predicted for July 2025, according to the Press Release.

Page Two

It was during the minimum sunspot activity of Solar Cycle 21 that I was licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and given the call sign N6BVZ. While learning Morse Code for the exam, I built a low-power transceiver—a HeathKit HW-8. I set up a vertical antenna on top of my trailer. I listened a lot as I waited.

When my license came in the mail, I got on the air. I had no idea the bands were not suppose to be good, that it would be hard to make any contacts. I tuned around on a band that had some noise on it, indicating that some activity might be present.

Finally the moment came. A fellow in Texas was sending CQ (which is an invitation to anyone to answer and “talk.” Talk meant using Morse Code and a key to send dits and dots. My speed then was about 5+ words per minute.

I didn’t hesitate to send my call. I heard him reply with my call. He’d heard me. The signal was a bit off from where I was tuned, and I started to retune as I readied to reply. Calamity! I managed to slip and push the dial way off. I tried to get back to the spot, but couldn’t find him again.

After a bit I found another station calling CQ, answered, and we had a short QSO (conversation or contact). Despite my initial blunder, I got off to a pretty good start, making a lot of contacts over the next few years.

Eventually the Solar Cycle got really good, as it hit maximum. I made contacts in Europe and even Australia, as well as all over the United States.

Those first years were my best years in Ham Radio (a nickname for Amateur Radio).

L-RD Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Dreams. . .

Mike Gainor lets a curious woman see what it’s like to carry his cross.
Big Sur, CA
by Wil Robinson, 1988

Awakening from a dream a few days ago, the details totally escaped me. I did, however, have a sense it was so earth bound; every thing I’d been doing was limited by natural science laws. I wondered why.

In some dreams I’ve flown like an eagle, soaring above Earth. In those dreams there was a wire mesh high up that I couldn’t get through. Those dreams went on for a number of years until the last one, in which I was able to slip by the wire. I know those dreams were symbolic, and were stuff in my unconscious mind trying to speak in images to my conscious mind.

The last few days I’ve pondered just why my unconscious mind would obey natural laws. In a dream I could do anything, right?

As I thought about it, I know the difference between dreams that are symbolic and those that are more reality based, with normal Earthly limits.

That started me thinking about limits that my mind imposes on me when I’m not asleep.

Science, as taught in school, taught me certain things about the natural world. I believe them. I obey them. Other things I just somehow learned, and accepted, that were just a part of living. Cultural Norms.

In the 1950s and 60s, like others, I learned to question things. My generation wasn’t the first to question “common sense.” The truth is that the Earth is not flat, and the Sun doesn’t revolve around Earth.

Yet there persists some nagging questions about things learned.

Over two thousand years ago, Yeshua warned we’d been taught wrong, and set about to teach Truth. Check out His “Sermon on the Mount,” for instance.

But, one might point out, parts of the Bible are like my dreams, filed with parables, symbolic imagery. Other parts of the Bible are based on historical fact, though some people dispute even that. Which parts are meant literally? Which are symbolic? Which parts could be either, or both?

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That brings me to Mike, pictured in the photo. We met early one foggy morning. He was walking along California’s Coastal Highway, Highway 1, near Morro Bay. When I saw him carrying a cross, I stopped We talked for a moment, then he headed north while I went on to work. We stayed in touch, and eventually got together in Big Sur.

Mike had carried the cross from the East Coast. He had an interesting story. Well, a lot of them. It started in church one day when he heard a simple scripture.

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. "
Matthew 16:24

Mike thought about it. I forget how long he thought about it, but eventually he made a wooden cross and hit the road. Just like that.

Mike walked all day, and slept where he stopped. Along the way, he met a lot of wonderful people.

Mike learned about their lives, their stories, and made many friends. Many offered him food, many a place to sleep out of bad weather. When Mike got sick, a person gave him a place to stay. One man gave him a pickup truck and a travel trailer. From that point he’d walk carrying his cross, then hitch-hike back to get his truck.

Mile also ruffled more than a few feathers. He told me he’d been laughed at many times. Ridiculed. Harassed. He’d been beaten. One town actually ran him out.

Throughout Mike’s journey, G-D provided what he needed, when he needed it. It’s not a journey for everyone. But it was Mike’s journey, and it was his story.

More important than Mike’s story was the Truth shared along the way. Mike shared Jesus’s Story.

Modern science imposes limits. Religion imposes limits, too. It seems to me True Faith leaps beyond Earthly limits and the self-imposted limits of dreams.

L-RD Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Another Song

Enjoy!

L-RD Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

Pilgrim Songs

In the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, Jerusalem, this arch commemorated a many-times destroyed Synagogue. It’s last destruction was in 1948 during the Arab-Israel War. After retaking the Old City in 1967, plans were made to build a new synagogue. The arch was erected in 1977. Finally, in 2010 a new synagogue was built and dedicated.
*by Wil Robinson. 1987*

For the last fifteen days, JonahzSong has looked at Psalms 120-134 collectively as the Songs of Ascent. In doing so, each has been seen from the perspective of The Temple service and Levites ascending the steps that led from the Court of the Gentiles upward toward The Temple, where Gentiles are not allowed.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary on Psalm 134 references this collection as the Pilgrim Psalms. Prior to the destruction of The Temple, Jews were to come up the Jerusalem for three Appointed Times. These are Pesach (Passover), Shavuot (Weeks or Pentecost), and Sukkot (Tabernacles, Tents or Booths)

I infer from the JFB commentary that the Pilgrims would be singing these Psalms as they made there way to Jerusalem.

How wonderful such a pilgrimage would have been, too. The words of Psalm 133, “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell in unity!” would echo through the hills. So marvelous!

I expect one day to make a final pilgrimage Jerusalem—to a New Jerusalem where King Yeshua reigns. Oh, to sing those song with Brethren, to come The Feast, to dine with our L-RD, our King. Oh, how good it will be, how pleasant it will be, to truly dwell together in UNITY with King Yeshua.

Song of Ascent: Fifteenth Step

At the Western Wall, upon which The Temple once stood, people gather to listen to a man’s prayers.
*by Wil Robinson. 1987*

Song of Ascent. Psalm 130

1 Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD!

2 Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD!

3 May the LORD bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!

The final step, what a wonderful and joyous call! It’s an invitation. The call is for me. The call is for you. Are we not grateful we are called? Jew and Gentile alike. A call by our Heavenly Father made possible by His Son, our Savior, Yeshua Jesus! Blessed be His Name forever!

The pilgrim bands arriving at the sanctuary call on the priests, who stand in the house of the Lord—at the time of the evening sacrifice, to unite in praising God in their name and that of the people, using appropriate gestures, to which the priests reply, pronouncing the Mosaic blessing which they alone could pronounce. A fit epilogue to the whole pilgrim-book, Psalms 120-134. —Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Song of Ascent: Fourteenth Step

At The Western Wall, Jews and Christians gather during The Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles).
*by Wil Robinson. 1987*

Song of Ascents.
Of David. Psalm 133

1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brethern dwell in unity!

2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!

3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

The first verse is beloved by many, and contained in favorite praise songs.

How lovely if we could hear the joyous voices of Levites on this fourteenth step of their ascent.

“. . .unity among brethren, whether civil or religious, is productive both of profit and pleasure. Of profit, because therein consists the welfare and security of every society; of pleasure, because mutual love is the source of delight, and the happiness of one becomes, in that case, the happiness of all. It is unity alone which gives beauty, as well as strength, to the state; which renders the church, at the same time, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners, Song of Solomon 6:10.” — Horne, as quoted in Benson Commentary.

Song of Ascent: Thirteenth Step

A blocked doorway. Temple Mount.
*by Wil Robinson. 1987*

Song of Ascents. Psalm 132
1 Remember, O LORD, in David’s favor, all the hardships he endured,
2 how he swore to the LORD and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob,
3 “I will not enter my house or get into my bed,
4 I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids,
5 until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
6 Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar.
7 “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool!”
8Arise, O LORD, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might.
9 Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy.
10 For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one.
11 The LORD swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
12 If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne.”
13 For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place:
14 “This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
15 I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.
16 Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy.
17 There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.
18 His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine.”

Do not the Levites step up and view The Temple and sing of a time when the The Ark was lost, and when found, remained in a tent?

They sing, too, of King David’s guilt at himself having a palace but no lasting House for Adonai.

Jewish commentators believe this is a “prayer David composed upon discovering the future site of the Bet Ha’mikdash (The Temple). As we read in the Book of [Samuel II (chapter 24) and the Book of Chronicles I (chapter 21), G-D delivered a deadly plague upon the Jewish people, and the prophet instructed David that he could end the plague by offering sacrifices in the granary of a Jerusalemite named Aravna (who was also known as Arnan). David purchased the land, built an altar and offered sacrifices, and the plague immediately came to an end. Thereupon David declared, “This is the House of the L-RD G-D, and this is Israel’s altar for burnt offerings!” [Chronicles I 22:1]. Indeed, that spot became the site on which the Bet Ha’mikdash was built during the time of David’s son and successor, King Solomon.”—Daily Tehillim.

In verse 14, according to Expositors Bible Commentary, “the psalmist asked for favor to the anointed, and God replies by expanded and magnificent promises. The “horn” is an emblem of power.”

And “Victory will attend the living representative of David, his foes being clothed by [G-D] with shame-i.e., being foiled in their hostile attempts-while their confusion is as a dark background, against which the radiance of his diadem sparkles the more brightly. These large promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, of the seed of David; and the psalm is Messianic, as presenting the ideal which it is sure shall be realized. and which is so in Him alone.

Song of Ascent: Twelfth Step

Child in Old City Jerusalem.
Photo by *Wil Robinson. 198*8

Psalm of Ascent. Psalm 131

1 O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.

2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.

3 O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.

On this step, we hear the Levites sing a song of David in which he “briefly testifies that he did not conduct himself with the kind of arrogance and egotism that are generally associated with leadership and author.” (Daily Tehillim)

All who govern are under the ultimate authority of G-D. Israel’s King David modeled the proper relationship of a governor, which is one of being a dependent subject to the G-D of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the Father of Yeshua our Messiah and King.

Song of Ascent: Eleventh Step

Looking down, 2500-year-old stones in an excavated area of Old City Jerusalem.
*Self-Portrait. Wil Robinson. 1987*

Song of Ascent. Psalm 130
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3 If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
7 O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

In their ascent from the Court of the Gentiles, the Levites step now onto the eleventh step. They enter the last section of five steps.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary begins:
“In a very emphatic sense this is a song of ascents, for it climbs steadily from the abyss of penitence to the summits of hope. It falls into two divisions of four verses each, of which the former breathes the prayer of a soul penetrated by the consciousness of sin, and the latter the peaceful expectance of one that has tasted God’s forgiving mercy. These two parts are again divided into two groups of two verses, so that there are four stages in the psalmist’s progress from the depths to the sunny heights.”

Song of Ascent: Tenth Step

Sign pointing the way. Outside the Old City Jerusalem. Photo by Wil Robinson, 1988

A Song of Ascent. Psalm 129.

1 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”— let Israel now say—
2 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows.”
4 The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward!
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up,
7 with which the reaper does not fill his hand nor the binder of sheaves his arms,
8 nor do those who pass by say, “The blessing of the LORD be upon you! We bless you in the name of the LORD!”

“There is nothing in [this Psalm] which would forbid us to suppose that it was composed on the return from the Babylonian exile, but there is nothing to fix it definitely to that event. Why it was made one of the “Songs of Degrees” is equally unknown. It merely refers to the fact that Israel had often been roughly and severely treated; and it contains a prayer that those who were the enemies of Zion might be punished in a proper manner.”
—Barnes’s Notes

Despite Rev. Barnes’s statement regarding not knowing why this Psalm is included among the Psalms of Ascent, it has been included. Therefore, G-D sees it as fitting, and fitting for the tenth step in the Levites ascent. They’ve climbed two thirds of the way from the lower section of the Court, the Court of the Gentiles. They are leaving behind the worldly, ascending toward the divine. Yet they also have in their minds where they’ve been and how it has been the L-RD Who has enabled every step.

L-RD Bless, Keep, Shine. . .