"All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness to those who keep his covanant and his testimonies."

Sadly, today, obedience to God's way, as shown in his word, seems to have been relegated to a position of almost unimportance in our relationship with him. it has been replaced with that very misleading phrase, which so many love to use, i.e., 'God's unconditional love'. Yet that little scripture in Ps 25:10 clearly shows us that there are conditions, and that those conditions are vitally important, if we are to have a meaningful relationship with him.

But that scripture is by no means an isolated one, for this basic, vital element in our relationship with our God is restated in varying ways throughout the whole bible, and probabely nowhere more clearly than in the words of Jesus in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever." And John 14:21 "He who has my commandments, and keep them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."