Difficult for some of us on this earth is the prolonged separation we sometimes endure between ourselves and those we love -- whether due to geography or otherwise. Even in the same city, because many cities are sprawling multi-suburbs covering many miles, connecting with someone in person can be a challenge. There are days we long to see or be with another but must resort to telephone, letters, or the internet. Those methods of communication, of course, became available to us only recently, so we're fortunate to live in a time when we can use them to keep connected with others.

But how exhilarating it to know that separation will be a nonissue in heaven! We will always be intimately connected with those we love in the most wonderful ways. And because it is impossible for anything negative to exist in heaven, all the good things we'll experience in interpersonal and community relationships will be far more profound than anything we've ever enjoyed on earth. Just thinking about this causes more than an uptick my heart rate.

Conversely, because it is impossible for anything good to exist in heaven's alternative (knowing that all good things come from God alone), it therefore seems probable that the ability to fellowship with anyone will also not exist. Wow. The mere thought of this stark reality weighs heavy, as it is difficult to imagine a situation more dispiriting. But we are all given free will, and God wants those who freely choose to believe in Him with sincerity and reverent humbleness to be part of his magnificent bride whom He will treasure forever.

I post the following excerpts by select authors and web sites not to alarm, but to inform. Everyone needs to be aware of certain things that have been taking place in our world in the last decade. Thankfully, there are dozens of vigilant bloggers and authors monitoring events and reporting them for the rest of us, most doing so through the lenses of Scripture that helps make sense of it all. As an aside, this will likely be a very interesting week with Netanyahu scheduled to speak before Congress on March 3rd - amidst much animosity from the White House and other D.C. officials. Knowing Netanyahu, he will give a strongly worded speech that is blunt and compelling, and he is not afraid to call anyone out. I will be watching closely.

Anyone who is awake can see that the Globalists are actively dismantling the government of the United States so their totalitarian New World Order, headed by the Beast/Antichrist, can rise. They know they must subdue the American people because we won’t give up our freedoms without a fight, but every time they pull a false-flag attack to persuade us to give up our weapons, it backfires. Much to their consternation, we stubbornly run out and buy more guns and ammo.

Knowing this, the U.S. Army is preparing for what seems to be an inevitable showdown with the American people. In February 2014, Infowars.com reported that a 300 acre ‘fake city’ was built in Virginia, complete with a sports stadium, school, underground subway, bank, churches and road signs written in English, designed to train troops for future combat scenarios.

This complex, which cost $96 million dollars and took two years to complete, was supposedly built to prepare troops to occupy foreign cities and train for house-to-house combat. In 2013, former Navy SEAL Ben Smith warned that the Obama administration asked top military commanders if they would be comfortable with disarming U.S. citizens, a litmus test that included firing on fellow Americans. Those who refused were forced out, resulting in the most prolific purge of top military officers from every branch of service in this nation’s history.

-- Donna Wasson (http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=31231)

FBI admits that ISIS is active in all 50 states in American right now.

The POTUS has close ties and very good friends in the Muslim Brotherhood organization. These terrorists come to the White House on a regular basis. At one event recently, the press was banned!

But he still will NOT say Islamic Terrorist. As long as the narrative reads that we are not in a war with Islam, we are DONE.

Obama is an enemy of the state, and it’s up to the American people to do something about this.

-- Geri Ungurean (http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=31227)

If you don’t stand up now, you’re not going to have a country left to stand up for. We’re being bullied into accepting certain things. This president is so inept he makes Jimmy Carter look like Chuck Norris.

-- Glenn Beck

ISIS wants to build a caliphate. Iran wants to build The Bomb. ISIS is committing genocide now. Iran is preparing to commit genocide later.

-- Joel C. Rosenberg

He wants the American people in the dark about the secret correspondence he’s had for years with Iran’s supreme leader. He wants John Boehner to be mindful of protocol. And most of all, he wants Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop questioning his accommodationist approach to Tehran.

Obama has demonstrated repeatedly that his instinct is to ignore, dismiss, or downplay threats to the United States and its interests and allies. The record over six years is a long list of mistaken judgments, awkward euphemisms, and false assurances.

-- Geoffrey Grider (http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=31269)

He doesn’t even attempt to hide this hatred [toward Netanyahu]. My words here pale in comparison to God’s Holy Word:

“And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3 (KJV)

The United States of America is now cursed by God because of this president.

-- Geri Ungurean (http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=31202)

It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.

-- Revelations 9:14-16

We live in days of accelerated global transformation and social unrest, yet You remain the rock of our salvation and the anchor of our hope.

-- Tom Doyle, author

Early spring: when you embrace glorious 35-degree sunshine when just a few months ago you disdained the 55-degree version in October.

It is probably wise to read on a regular basis the instruction manual inspired and authored by the Deity who created you and me and all things of nature and all things in the heavens.

It is infinitely preferable to be one of average intelligence holding belief in both the creator God and science than to be a genius who believes science governs all.

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."

- A. W. Tozer

After shivering in the teens and 20s in November, did we really hit 68 degrees in Seattle yesterday -- smack in the middle of December? Indeed, but there's no need to fret that the earth may be tilting, madly sending Seattle into the the crosshairs of the equator. Did you not notice whiffs of pineapple, coconut, papaya, and mai tias while walking to your car? Well, that's the Pineapple Express for you.

Go figure.

After many months of the mouse malfunctioning doing weird things like double-clicking when I only single-clicked and not dragging things compliantly, and knowing that the buttons in my particular mouse is known for wearing out and exhibiting these symptoms, I finally order a new one.

It hasn't arrived yet, and for some reason, my current mouse is now behaving like a champ -- not once failing to do what it is supposed to do.

Argh.

I feel like I'm just helping the rich get richer when I see my real estate agent drive an expensive European car. A funny feeling knowing 6% of the sale of my home will go straight to his pocket. All the more power to him, I guess!