Author: Terry Wil Robinson

Learn about me at jonahzsong.blog.

Fill their faces with shame

◄ Psalm 83 ►

1O Elohim, do not remain silent! Do not be speechless, And do not be still, O Ěl!

2For look, Your enemies make an uproar, And those hating You have lifted up their head.

3They craftily plot against Your people, And conspire against Your treasured ones.

4They have said, “Come, And let us wipe them out as a nation, And let the name of Yisra’ĕl be remembered no more.”

5For they have conspired together with one heart; They have made a covenant against You –

6The tents of Eḏom and the Yishma‛ĕlites, Mo’aḇ and the Hag̅arites,

7Geḇal, and Ammon, and Amalĕq, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tsor,

8Ashshur also has joined with them, They have helped the children of Lot. Selah.

9Do to them as to Miḏyan, As to Sisera, As to Yaḇin at the wadi Qishon,

10Who perished at Ěndor, Who became as dung for the ground.

11Make their nobles like Orĕḇ and like Ze’ĕḇ, And all their princes like Zeḇaḥ and Tsalmunna,

12Who have said, “Let us take possession of the pastures of Elohim For ourselves.”

13O my Elohim, make them as whirling dust, As stubble before the wind!

14As a fire consumes a forest, And as a flame sets mountains on fire,

15So pursue them with Your whirlwind, And frighten them with Your storm.

16Fill their faces with shame, And let them seek Your Name, O יהוה.

17Let them be ashamed and alarmed forever; And let them become abashed and perish,

18And let them know that You, Whose Name is יהוה, You alone are the Most High over all the earth.

                  [Bible Version: The Scriptures (ISR 1998)]

Prime-Time Television & Inappropriate Content

In a recent post at Thinking Out Loud, Mr. Paul Wilkerson shares his dismay that a particular television show contains inappropriate material and is aired during television’s prime-time hours.

“U.S. network prime time begins when locally produced or locally acquired programming ends at 7:59 and runs to 10:59 before local news. The first hour, from 8:00 to 9:00 was once called ‘the family hour,’ ” he wrote in Superstore on NBC: Not a Family Shopping Experience.

Mr. Wilkerson says he’s “not the type of person to get into Moral Majority-styled rants about the filth on TV and calling for networks to cancel shows and everyone else to boycott sponsors.”

“I don’t understand how NBC continues to get away with showing this at 8:00 pm,” he wrote.

One comment Mr. Wilkinson received echoed the sentiment of “how can they get away with it.”

I agree with Mr. Wilkinson that these shows do not belong in a “family-time” slot, such as the 8 to 9 pm time.

My comment to Mr. Wilkinson’s column states:

Hum. Networks “get away with it” when we, the people, simply do nothing. What’s wrong with a little boycott? Not just “not watching” the program, but work to change all “prime-time” programs back to a more family-centered experience. Boycotting sponsors goes a long way toward making one’s voice heard. Yet how do we define “family-centered”? Perhaps the scenes described are the new family-centered experience.

Today the voice against immorality on television is but a small voice crying in a wilderness. Our current American culture is neither the culture of our fathers and mothers nor is it the culture of our grandfathers and grandmothers. The American culture has become degraded; the American culture is on the verge of falling.

“Father Knows Best” and “Leave it to Beaver” have made way for “Modern Family” and the altered reality of “Reality TV.” There is no longer a “moral majority” in America. There is only the immoral majority.

America can change, however. There is hope. The American people have to want to change, have to see the current situation as it is, that it is not what it ought to be, what it could be. Americans must turn to the G-D of Israel, through His Son YeshuaJesus.

When Jonah preached a country turned from its ways, turned to G-D, and was saved.

L-RD Bless, Keep, Shine. . .

 

What do you think?

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Numbers-6-24-26 – 1

 

Simchat Torah- 2018

Today is Simchat Torah ( שמחת†תורה†), Joy of the Torah, of which John Parson, writes,

“This holiday marks the completion of the Torah reading cycle for the year. Simchat Torah is based on the “hakhel gathering” ( הַקְהֵל†) commanded by God in the Torah: “At the end of every seven yearsat the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Sukkot ( בְּחַג†הַסֻּכּוֹת†), when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God … you shall read this Torah before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble ( הַקְהֵל†) the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this Torah” (Deut. 31:10-12).”

Sitting on the deck yesterday as I began writing this post, looking out into the wooded area where the pines are beginning to shed their inner needles, preparing for winter, I thought over this entire season. It begins with a shofar blast on New Year, which is a call to us all. The shofar is a rams horn, that reminds us of the ram that took the place of Issac. (Click link for reference.)

This season calls to us to pray, to look within ourselves, to be prepared for the Day of Atonement. Are we to be found among the goats or the sheep? Are we in a right relationship with G-D? Are we in a right relationship with our other people? It is a season of repentance and rejuvenation. It is a season that concludes with the Feast of Succoth, in which we are called to remember that we, during our lives on Earth, live but a temporal life. It reminds us of the time Israel spent in the desert after its exodus from Egypt.

The last day of Sukkoth is Simchat Torah. YeshuaJesus celebrated this Feast, as described by Apostle John in chapter seven.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, asf the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37,38)

YeshuaJesus would have heard read the last two chapters of Deuteronomy and Genesis chapter one through chapter 2, verse 3. (Click on link to read this Simchat Torah reading.)

The first section of the reading is Moses’s final blessing upon the children of Israel. Deuteronomy concludes with Moses going to “Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho.” There G-D shows him the land Israel is being given, the land that Joshua will lead Israel into as its possession. Moses is only allowed to see the land, but not cross the Jordan, not enter the land of Israel. Moses sinned against the Lord. He “broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of Meribah-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the people of Israel.For you shall see the land before you, but you shall not go there, into the land that I am giving to the people of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 32:51,51)

As John Parson puts it, the scroll is rewound and we begin reading from Genesis, the story of G-D creating the world, and all that is in it.

Early this morning two cats were creating havoc, making noise in the living room. I got up to see what the commotion was about, only to find them chasing a mouse. I sat for a while drinking a cup of tea and thinking about Creation. After a creative event, the passages state that “G-D saw that it was good.” Once G-D created the first humans, He “saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”

I began to think how many times I’d sit in the garden and look out over the ponds, to the yard and into the woods and think of all the things that still need to be done. Trimming, tending, fertilizing. And there’s the pile of tree limbs I trimmed late last Spring that I still need to burn. . . If I don’t ignore it, it consumes by prayer time, my Garden Time. Contrast that attitude with G-D’s who surveyed all He’d done and saw that “It Was Very Good.” Didn’t G-D know there’d be more that needed doing? Didn’t G-D know the fragility of that pair of humans He’d created? They’d need a lot of care to be able to survive in the world outside of the Garden. G-D knew He kick them out for their rebellion against Him. He had a plan. Yet He looked out over the expanse of the world and saw its goodness, its rightness.

When I came back to bed, walking through the living room, I looked with a different set of eyes at some photographs on the wall. I’d walked by them thousands of time, but ignored them. They are of houses with blue shutters, taken on a trip to Siberia twenty years ago. They are beautiful. I looked around the dimly lite room, and though how lovely the room is. I didn’t see the dust on the furniture, the pillows pushed of the sofa–our ill mannered dog thinks she needs to stretch out the whole length of the couch.

It seems I can get so caught up in all that “needs” to be done, and simply not be grateful for the blessings that are around me.

 

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Numbers-6-24-26 – 1

Pigs and Wild Boars; Worms and Butterflies

Not long ago I read an article about Texas’s efforts to eradicate, or at least reduce, the wild boar population. It’d gotten way out of hand, and regular hunter-led efforts had not worked. Primarily, hogs root and destroy the landscape. Their rooting also creates hazards to people and other animals. Hogs are also not native to Texas.

Here in Georgia, I’m told many of the wild hogs were at one time domesticated pigs that got loose. Once a pig gets back into its nature environment, it grows its tusk back, and returns to its viral, wild nature.

“We have found tht hog rings are usually the only thing that will stop a hog from rooting,” wrote Linn in a post on the Homesteading Today forum.

A ring in the snout prevents rooting. It restrains the natural inclinations of a pig. Remove the ring. . . Yup! It roots. A pig is just a better-behaved wild thing.

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Apostle Paul wrote to the Roman, 1:24-32)

There are a type of worm that grows on a leaf, surrounded by a crusty shell. Eventually, it hatches and begins to eat the leaf to which it was attached. It eats. It eats. It eats. Once the leaf is nearly destroyed, it gets sleepy, gathers about it a slimy covering, and rests for a while. The worm changes. It breaks through its cocoon, eats it, and spreads its gorgeous wings, pumps them up, and flies away. It is now a beautiful butterfly.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born againbhe cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Gospel of John 3:3-8)

 

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Numbers-6-24-26 – 1

Notes from Garden Times

Coffee in a Cup of Strength

It is the world in which we live that slowly dies. We live and we live on beyond all we now see, as beautiful or corrupt as it may be. And yet there are these things I hold dear. Things like mugs and items procured for their looks or comfort or utility, that I don’t want to part with as the world dies. These I hold as if holding on I may prevent the death of the known as I move toward an unknown no matter how wonderful and beautiful it may be beyond this day.

Destroyed section of Jerusalem's Old City (c) Wil Robinson 1986
Destroyed section of Jerusalem’s Old City
(c) Wil Robinson 1986

Relics of a world that is for me passing away. For I am just passing through on my way to another world another place beyond time and space. Yet here I am wandering as a stranger in this world, in this time, in this piece of space. I wait.

While this is not my home, as Apostle Paul said, I am content in all situations as I await my destiny, my life in another Home, which is a Heavenly Home with Messiah YeshuaJesus.  I wait for You, L-RD.
In the Garden, it is like Ham Radio and not always talking but listening, and listening carefully. Listening with openness and intent to the Words Spirit speaks to my heart.
O how I love Thee, L-RD!
Avinu Malkeinu
Our Father; Our King!

Contemplation

On the glorious splendor of your majesty,

and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

(Ps 145:7)

A Deck with a View

The word for which I’m looking is Contemplation. Yesterday evening, on the way to Cutter’s, a local lounge, to listen to a jazz ensemble, I struggled with a word that is more acceptable than meditate and yet more adequately describes what I’ve come to refer to as my Garden Times. Earlier in the day I’d sat on the deck staring at the trees in the woods. I thought that if I were to awaken with no knowledge of G-D, I’d look at the trees and they would point to Him. Apostle Paul said as much.

This “thinking” on the deck is more than mere thought, however. But meditating is a word with connotations of emptying oneself and opening oneself up to some Universe Power. Meditating is occasionally referred to as letting go of one’s “monkey mind” and of “becoming one with the Universe.” Neither is my intent, nor is simply thinking.

Perhaps this deep thought might be called prayer in a Christian Church. Yet prayer is so ambiguous. It can mean so many different things. Reading a Psalm is considered prayer to a Jewish man praying Psalm 145 in the morning. Then there are the “Prayers of the People” in an Episcopal and a Roman Catholic Church service in which the priest reads a list of items and the congregation speaks a liturgical response after each item on the list. Prayer is often just humans speaking to G-D as children recite the Pledge of Allegiance at school.

Neither meditation nor prayer do justice to experiencing G-D’s presence in contemplation. That’s the best word for my Garden Times. “On the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works, I will contemplate.” I will contemplate the glorious splendor of G-D’s majesty. I will contemplate G-D’s wondrous works. I will hear G-D’s response and prompting and perhaps catch a glimpse of Him. I shall be as the women who sought to but touch the hem of Yeshua’s garment. I will, like Job, hear G-d say He will ask a question and require my response. I might hear G-D say something to which I might, like Abraham, respond boldly with “don’t be angry, but might Your servant ask just one thing more?” I want to cry aloud, as King David:

We have thought on your steadfast love, O G-d,

in the midst of your temple.

As your name, O G-d,

so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.

Your right hand is filled with righteousness.

Let Mount Zion be glad!

Let the daughters of Judah rejoice

because of your judgments!

(Psalm 48:9, 10, 11)

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Numbers-6-24-26 – 1

The World is a Beautiful Place

In high school I read a lot of books and poetry. Two of my favorite poets were Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsburg. In Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Poet-at-Large, author Larry Smith noted that the author “writes truly memorable poetry, poems that lodge themselves in the consciousness of the reader and generate awareness and change. And his writing sings, with the sad and comic music of the streets.” (Source: Lawrence Ferlinghetti Poetry Foundation)

One verse embedded itself into my consciousness, “goosing statues.” Any time I thought of it, a visual image popped into my mind of me running around a park goosing statues. One thing that strikes me about this particular poem, in rereading it this morning, is its timelessness. It was as appropriate in the 1950s and 60s as it is today.

Here’s Mr. Ferlinghetti’s poem:

The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don’t mind happiness
not always being
so very much fun
if you don’t mind a touch of hell
now and then
just when everything is fine
because even in heaven
they don’t sing
all the time

The world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don’t mind some people dying
all the time
or maybe only starving
some of the time
which isn’t half bad
if it isn’t you

Oh the world is a beautiful place
to be born into
if you don’t much mind
a few dead minds
in the higher places
or a bomb or two
now and then
in your upturned faces
or such other improprieties
as our Name Brand society
is prey to
with its men of distinction
and its men of extinction
and its priests
and other patrolmen

and its various segregations
and congressional investigations
and other constipations
that our fool flesh
is heir to

Yes the world is the best place of all
for a lot of such things as
making the fun scene
and making the love scene
and making the sad scene
and singing low songs and having inspirations
and walking around
looking at everything
and smelling flowers
and goosing statues
and even thinking
and kissing people and
making babies and wearing pants
and waving hats and
dancing
and going swimming in rivers
on picnics
in the middle of the summer
and just generally
‘living it up’
Yes
but then right in the middle of it
comes the smiling

mortician

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Numbers-6-24-26 – 1

The Life and Times of James T. Orwell

James T. Orwell, born sometime in 1963, isn’t real. Google him. Perhaps another James T. Orwell will appear in the search results. But not THIS James T. Orwell. He’s not called Jim or Jamie. He’s not called James, either. When I think of him, he’s always James T. Orwell. What’s the middle name, indicated by the “T”? I don’t know. I never figured that one out.

  1. Gasoline was about $0.29 a gallon. And Major News Stories include Start of Beatlemania, Zip codes implemented, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers his “I have a dream” speech, Members of Ku Klux Klan dynamite Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, Sabin oral Polio Vaccine which is taken with a lump of sugar is given nationwide in US and UK, The Profumo Crisis in the UK, President John F Kennedy assassinated

One Terrence William Robinson, yours truly, had graduated valedictorian from Brown Military Academy in Glendora, California. I spent a pensive summer thinking about. . . I haven’t the foggiest notion what I was thinking. But I do know that I told my Dad I’d love to go to Northwestern Military and Navel Academy, the high school from where he’d graduated in 1942. I thought at the time I was destine to follow in his military marching footsteps. I had know clue. . . He’d graduated then gone directly into the Army, jump school, and assignment with the 327th Glider Regiment, 101st Airborne. Eventually, he went with the 101st from France all the way to the Germany, by way of Bastogne, the well-known Battle of the Bulge in which the division commander refused surrender with the words, “Nuts.” My father went on to serve, and serve well, fought in two wars, and finally retiring in the 1980s as a Colonel.

But eventually I knew what I wanted to do. I remember finally coming to terms and telling Dad that I wanted to major in English in college.

“An English degree and a dime will get you a cup of coffee,” was his only comment. I took it that he wasn’t pleased, thought it highly unlikely that his son would amount to anything, and dismissed my idea. The pen name, James T. Orwell, took a back seat. Oh, James T. Orwell resurfaced no and again. Especially when, as an adult I took night classes in writing and poetry and such.

My days at Northwestern were miserable. It wasn’t the wonderful experience Dad had there. It certainly was far different from the experience I had at Brown Military. There I’d seemed to fit in, did well in both academics and military subjects. Except for one fatal weekend, I excelled. I felt I was headed for great things, a wonderful future.

President Eisenhower, having served the military faithfully, and served America in the highest office, came to Brown one day. The cadet corps assembled on the football/parade field and passed in review. I was called forward and promoted in his presence. Such an honor. I revered both Generals and Priests. I also feared them.

Having been raised in the Episcopal Church, America’s version of the Anglican Church of England, I didn’t learn a lot of things about the Bible as did others who were raised in Bible-based Churches. But at Brown I had several teachers that were Christians, and we had religion classes that were Bible-based. That led to a weekend retreat in the mountains, and Church services that were new and very different to what I was accustom. It was at that Retreat I first encountered the alter call. The Big Decision. That was my “Fatal Weekend.” At least for many years that is how I looked at it.

It was the last day of the Retreat. A Sunday. The Church was filled. The service rousing. Praise songs instead of hymns. A sermon preached with assurance and with a power I’d never experienced. And an Alter Call.

“Everyone close your eyes,” the pastor cried out. And we all did.

“Raise your hands if you want to accept Jesus as your savior,” he went on. I wanted to raise my hand. I was afraid.

“Now come forward,” the pastor cried out. I sat there paralyzed. Others went forward. I stayed back. I held back. I was frozen in my seat. I didn’t know what it meant to accept Jesus. I thought I knew Jesus, having been in Church all my life. I wanted to know more. But fear of the unknown grasped me like chains about my ankles. Then the service was over, and soon I, and the guys I came with, were headed back to Brown. I’d missed my opportunity.

For years I thought that was my big chance and I’d missed it. When things got hard for me over the years, and I made poor choices, or no choices, I thought back to that Alter Call with regret.

Northwestern Military and Navel Academy was an Episcopal school. While my time there was miserable, at least in Church I was comfortable in the ritual and routine. I served as an Alter Boy. I retained my faith. But I lost something, too. At least that’s what I thought when I looked back at what I’d been offered at Brown. I blamed my misery on indecision.

When I thought of that Alter Call, I wished I’d have run, not walked, forward to the Alter. Forward to receive Jesus in the way that pastor had cried out to us. I stopped going to Episcopal Church after I graduated high school. I meandered forward, yet longed to have a greater faith, a true walk with Jesus. I was now bound with guilt of what I thought was my “chance.” It seemed like a lost opportunity.

That was wrong, of course. Opportunities abound. I just didn’t think so.

1973. Major News Stories include Skylab Launched, Cod War UK and Iceland, Secretariat Wins Triple Crown on June 9th , Three-Day Week put in place in the UK, Sydney Opera House is opened, Yom Kippur War and Oil Embargo, Watergate Hearings Begin, Supreme Court rules on Roe v. Wade.

One Terrence William Robinson, yours truly, had been infantry with the 40th Infantry Division of the California Army National Guard. I’d accepted a full-time position at Camp Roberts, and began working in communications systems, armament and small arms, and worked hard. I was not an officer, as my Grandfather and my Dad. I’d joined the National Guard simple doing what my Dad thought best. I’d trained at Fort Ord, California, along with 283 Army Infantry guys, who all went on to Viet Nam. After training, I went home. And for years I felt guilty about that, too.

It was in a barracks, at Fort Irwin, California, that a guy started talking about Jesus. And I started thinking again about my walk, my faith. And I enrolled in a Bible Study course, a correspondence course, to learn more.

As I look back, having dealt with the guilt of that “Fatal” Weekend of indecision, I now know that G-D had a call upon my life. I just didn’t realize it for too many years.

Lessons Learned.

The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The LORD is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made. Psalm 145: 9, 10.

It seems to me, now so many years later, that even had I run to that Alter, did what that pastor cried out to do, I’d have still faced all the same difficult times that I faced. I’d have been the same me. Accepting Jesus isn’t the answer to some ideal life of ease. Accepting Jesus is assurance of Peace within one’s soul and an assurance of eternal life. I’d have still made some good decisions, and some that weren’t so good. Life is simply life. I’d have avoided the guilt, however. And, yes, it may just have presented some opportunities that were not available to me. Perhaps.

Realize, I have, that G-D has had a call on my life since I was conceived. For G-D has known me.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.a
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139: 13-16

Jesus promises life, and life of abundantly. It’s not too late to commit, to choose that life, either. For YeshuaJesus calls and is patient. When He calls, He continues to call. Our response is a response of the heart. A response of the soul. I know now that I responded in my heart as a child. I just needed to come to the mental awareness, the intellectual knowledge of that decision.

L-RD Bless, Keep, Shine. . .