The last time I heard the Church of God telling members to put up charts to mark off days it was when the WCG was preparing to flee to Petra. We had some idiot minister come out to Columbus Ohio and proceed to illustrate for us how to make a chart and mark off the days till we were to flee. My mother had this in the kitchen cupboard and faithfully marked the days off one by one for a couple of years.
UCG has now moved into the charting business where they suggest that you make a chart to see how well you are working towards your salvation.
How may commandments did you keep today? How many did you break?
Did you keep all 613 of them?
Did you cuss today? If you did it is a black mark on your chart.
If you failed to be on your knees for one hour straight another black mark.
Did you raise your voice at your kids? Another black mark.
Did you go out to eat out on the Sabbath after church? Another black mark.............oops.........I forgot, UCG allows for its members ot make other people work on their behalf. That will earn UCG members a gold star!
Chart Your Way on the Road to Eternal Life
Sometimes it is not just our children who need help keeping track of how they are doing. We all are working on certain areas of our life—diet, exercise, prayer, Bible study. We should be keeping track of our accomplishments and also what areas we can develop ourselves in order to continue in our goal of building godly character and growing in the fruit of the spirit (Galatians:5:22-23
).-------------Christians are evaluated during their time on this earth and in their behavior each day. God has given us a chart to measure ourselves against—the Ten Commandments (Exodus:20:1-17
; Deuteronomy:5:6-21
). We are to keep the Ten Commandments in their physical and spiritual intent. Remember, if a man even looked on a woman with wrong intent, it was considered a sin (Matthew:5:28). As we keep our mind from thinking evil things as well as stopping our hand from doing them, we are supposed to be thinking on whatever is pure and noble while using our bodies as vessels for good works (Philippians 4:8, 2 Timothy:2:21).-------------If we want to chart our progress on our road to eternal life, we should be as the saints in Revelation:14:12. It reads, “Here is the patience of the saints: here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” The saints are those who check off their chart daily. Also, if we want to make sure we are on the path to eternal life, Jesus said, “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew:19:17).
Remember these hideous things?
God tells us to post the Commandments around our house and write them on the tablet of our heart. Visualize what it would look like when we walk in all of His ways. Visualize what it will be like in the Kingdom of God when the whole earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord and the law of the Kingdom will be God’s Commandments (Ezekiel:44:24, Zechariah:14:16). When we picture it, it helps motivate us and focus better on achieving our goals.
As a Christian working towards building godly character and the reward of eternal life, choose goals that resonate with you and a more immediate reward to receive after your dedicated efforts. Possible rewards could be going to a park for your Bible study instead of just at home, going for a nice meal with a friend to share your experience of working towards your goal, getting yourself a pocket Bible with your name engraved on it, or buying a special Bible study pen to write in your Bible.Really???????
One reader took the author to task for writing such drivel:
Gal 2:16-21 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
She responds that "striving" to obey the law is a condition of salvation.
The law cannot save us, but our striving to obey it is a condition of our salvation.