Two Trees Revealed: How Our Knowledge of Good and Evil Keeps Us from Life Through Christ

By Carolyn Côté

Two Trees Revealed exposes in stunning clarity what drives us. Each and every day, we choose to do things based on which has the final say in our lives: life or death. Just as Adam and Eve had a choice between the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so we too make that choice. Will we be a slave to our knowledge of good and evil or will we serve Christ?

Two Trees Revealed takes each and every person who has chosen life through Christ on an enlightening journey back to their beginnings. Many started out well only to find themselves depressed, anxious and burned-out. Some who entered full-time ministry would leave if they could. Others find sin has power over them in ways they would have never imagined possible.

In her heart-to-heart, contemplative style, Carolyn Ct takes her readers on an unlearning path through three gardens. Garden One reveals why our knowledge of good and evil leads to death. Garden Two takes us through the Bible in search of others who have relied on their knowledge of good and evil over Christ. Finally, Garden Three settles us at the feet of Christ, the Tree of Life, where we can truly find life.

So Jesus said to them again, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:10 NASB

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 20, 2009
• ISBN: 9781456740306

Carolyn Côté

Carolyn Côté, author and teacher, has great love and vision for the Body of Christ. She and her husband Tim founded Two Trees Ministries in 2009 with Christ-centered Bible study and retreat materials as their focus. Known for her clear-sighted, devotional style writing, Carolyn has published several pieces in literary compilations and Christian periodicals.   Carolyn resides with her husband Tim on California’s central coast and is so grateful that their four grown children reside close by.   Please correspond with Carolyn Côté through www.twotreesministries.com

Book preview

TWO TREES REVEALED

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How Our Knowledge of Good and Evil Keeps Us from Life Through Christ

Carolyn Cote

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AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2009 Carolyn Cote. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 8/18/2009

ISBN: 978-1-4389-3229-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4389-3230-9 (hc)

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,

Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,

1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Dedicated to my children’s generation:

You will endure and you will overcome because you will know and obey the Tree of Life

Introduction

I lay there that winter afternoon in 1987, without strength. Leaving the house for church that morning had taken great courage and I now felt drained and depressed. To be honest, getting through an average Sunday had become too much for me. Unexplained anxiety complicated my every thought. The busy, confident and brave woman I’d known myself to be had vanished in a matter of weeks.

Four years earlier I‘d started a ministry for women and teens with unwanted pregnancies that had grown into a community recognized service. My thirty volunteers staffed both a 24-hour hotline and office space downtown. I fielded phone calls from dedicated volunteers day and night and frequently spoke at churches throughout town to raise awareness and financial support. I was proud of my ability to communicate and get things accomplished and often judged other Christians who appeared inactive. Now, this super Christian I’d become had vanished and in her place was a weak, scared and pouty one. I didn’t know then but I was in the midst of something called, burnout.

It’s not fair, I told God. After all I’ve done for You, I shouldn’t be suffering this way. You’re not supposed to treat Your saints this way. I’ve given You my all - my every minute - and this is the way You’re repaying me? I thought You would protect me!

I didn’t expect an answer. Nevertheless, an answer came, and quickly - like a punch to my spirit:

Both the knowledge of good and evil lead to death.

Over the next twenty years the mystery of that word from the Lord has been progressively unveiled before my spiritual eyes. It’s simple and yet, not easy. The knowledge of good and evil is so woven into our Christian culture and human experience that the fabric will take some careful unraveling. But in its loosing lies something much preferred: the Tree of Life who is Christ.

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The following teaching is intended as unlearning for all who serve Christ. Most Christians have an excellent grasp of how the choosing of evil leads to death. Tragically though, the doctrine of how the choosing of what is good also leading to death is not well understood. I’m very sympathetic to how Christians have succumbed to the subtle deception of doing our own will as long as it’s labeled good. We often carry on and on even when our good works are spiritually exhausting and ineffective as though this is what God requires. We sense something is wrong but then ignore the whispers of the Holy Spirit. Discouraged, we may assume we have to work even harder. Only when a serious depression, anxiety and burnout result, are we forced to look at the how and why. It is during this time of questioning and introspection that long-held beliefs will suffer and be called into question. This is what I call, unlearning.

For me, the first of several periods of unlearning began over 20 years ago during a time of intense, personal trial when the Lord didn’t seem to be acting as I had been taught He would and should. I began to unlearn many long-held beliefs. Unlearning is humbling but it is gloriously freeing. Expecting God to act in ways He won’t invariably leads to confusion and frustration and if we have a spirited nature - the accusing of God. Thankfully, He is continually merciful.

In the midst of my confusion and pain, the Lord led me back to the Garden of Eden where I found the grace to unlearn and move forward. It was there that I discovered the Father heart of God and how the choice to eat of a certain tree set in motion knowledge that brings pain and the accusing of God.

From our dusty beginnings in Eden and even now, we all prefer the tree of the knowledge of good and evil over the Tree of Life. The fruit of the infamous tree of knowledge still looks like food and is pleasant to the eye. It appeals to our pride in that we think we can become independently wise, like God. We touch, we eat, and our eyes are opened; the knowledge of good and evil is now in charge and will taint with death everything we think and everything we do.

The first tainting effect of this eye-opening is shame. In the presence of our Holy God, we can’t ignore our nakedness. Shame is a powerful and untiring taskmaster. It demands action, but no matter how extensive are our efforts to right or run from our nakedness, we still feel the need to hide. And so begins the vicious cycle: the knowledge of good and evil, shame and then the drive toward evil or good works intended to bring relief. Ultimately, with either choice our will is done and the end is not relationship with the Father but spiritual death. Many good Christians are mired in this death-giving cycle. I was, for many years of my Christian life.

Jesus came to deliver us from this death-giving cycle:

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. John 1:4

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom He wishes. John 5:21

For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; John 5:26

…and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. John 5:40

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, John 11:25

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6

…but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. John 20:31

What a glorious mercy is offered to us through Christ! The death-giving cycle of the knowledge of good and evil is trumped by the Tree of Life becoming the Lamb of God that we may have a second opportunity to choose life. Only then can the power of the eye-opening knowledge we were not meant to gain be swallowed up by the renewing of our minds through the more powerful Holy Spirit.

My Dear Brother and Sister: Do not assume that your knowledge of good and evil can be erased in this life. Only through the renewing of your mind through the Holy Spirit, can the power it has to inform and drive you be trumped. Once you are born-again and filled with the Holy Spirit you must present yourself before God as a living sacrifice. Once your independence has suffered a sacrificial death, your knowledge of good and evil has lost its power to be your sole informer. It