Now Starring: SUCCULENTS!

For Mirna, who I met in Trader Joe's today..

I don't know why or when I started my growing love affair with succulents, but I am indeed smitten by the seemingly endless variety of these flower like, cactus like plants. They are the perfect choice for our unclear weather and drought forecast so I thought I'd put a few of my garden's lovelies up for show…

This Escheveria is in a planter in the back yard patio.

Another type of Escheveria…one with ruffled leaves…this is my oldest having been

in a pot on my front porch for at least 20 years…I never watered it so it was very slow growing!

(above)These are planted in the ground in the front entry way where it gets baking sun all summer. I got them from Home Depot I think.

(above)Also planted in the ground in the entry way…they get more shade…I love the red

border and the gorgeous green.

A new grouping of plants that I transferred from other smaller pots…the contrast is wonderful I think.

(above) These two types of succulents are planted in pots in the back patio…I sheltered them from

the frost all winter long and they made it fine!

Back to the beginning…beautiful right???

The more water they get, the more they grow, but even with very little water, they do extremely well in our hot summer weather.

Pondering Galatians 2:20

note to myself

i was walking and thinking that i don’t see myself like Paul did in Galatians 2:20.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live.”

What does that mean? I don’t feel crucified. I feel like that never happened. I forget that. But Jesus never forgets he was crucified because he bears the scars on his body. All he has to do is look down at this hands and feet and ribs. He never forgets his sacrifice on the cross. Which means he never forgets us.

I have been crucified with Christ...It must mean that on the same day that Christ died to the world, I also died to the world. The day he was crucified is the day I was crucified. I died with my sins on the cross when he took the punishment for my sins and buried them with him. If this were not true, would he not have to be crucified again and again every time a lost person became a saved person so that each person could be crucified with Christ? No, he died once for all that all might live in him. Crucified once for all.

But since I am still alive, I easily 

forget that I have been crucified to the world.. I see the world and feel it’s influence every day. I need to think like this:

I have the same marks on my hands and feet as Christ as proof I was crucified.

I was nailed to the cross with him. My sins were nailed to the cross in him.

When he rose, he carried me with him. We are one person. I am walking around in his shoes. His skin.

My physical life is not my life. My spiritual life is my real life, my born again life is the only life that matters. ( “The only thing that counts is a new creation.”)

That way, my attitudes can be Christ’s attitudes because I am in him, walking around in him and what comes out of me is him. His attitudes about the world. And I know he is not moved by the world,...the money, the anger, the protests, the stupidity, the cruelty, the rage. Because he lives on the other side of those things. He has overcome those things. They cannot touch him.

And thus, they cannot touch me. In him, I am protected.

So I don’t need to engage in worldly arguments or folly or hate or defend any position other than this: talk about Jesus because that is what the world needs. Before you talk, stop and let God talk to you about what to say. Be confident in him.

You are walking around in his shoes, alive because he lives. The holy spirit is your mark...your tatoo ...your reminder...proof of his scars from the cross. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in Christ who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Jesus words:

You are in the world, not of the world.

Do not be surprised if the world hates you, it hated me first.

I am not of this world.