Which tree are you eating from?

"To put it another way, we are operationally still eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, rather than from the Tree of Life, which is Christ. We are trying to eat from the Good side of that Tree, trying to always maintain good thoughts and good feelings and, certainly, good behavior.

"Whether we are eating from the Good side or the Evil side, however, we are still eating from the wrong tree. We are still operating out of our own effort, which cannot produce God's life. Our self-effort is not originating above the line, from the union of our spirit with God's Spirit. It's not flowing from the life of Christ. It's originating blow the line, from our soul operating independently and trying to make us “good” Christians."— The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out, pages 71-72

<idle musing>
Self-effort = failure. Period. We can't do it. A few years ago, Debbie was reading from an Anne Graham Lotz book (I can't remember the title now) where Anne said that God only expects one thing from us: Failure. At first, that shocked me, but as she explained it, it made sense. If we are trying to do it on our own strength, we will fail. There is no other option; we can't do it! But, praise God!, he can.
</idle musing>