May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 NIV
Through and Through
From a Canadian perspective the Northwest Passage is internal waters and Canadian through and through. From our point of view this fact is non-negotiable, giving the Canadian government full control over the laws and what happens in the area. In 2009, the Canadian government even renamed the Northwest Passage to the Canadian Northwest Passage, just to highlight that the passage is Canadian. It has declared that “All of the waters within the Canadian Arctic Archipelago are Canadian historic internal waters over which Canada exercises full sovereignty.”
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Over the past couple of days, we have been speaking of God’s holiness and His compassion. His holiness drives us to our knees as we are overwhelmed, and His compassion drives us to reflect His love and grace. God wants to make us holy, as He is holy. The Bible tells us that without that holiness, no one will see the Lord. God wants to do a work of complete sanctification in our lives. Paul puts it this way in 1 Thessalonians 5:23: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus said that no one can serve two masters. We can’t have one foot in the world and one foot in Jesus. The Lord wants to cleanse us completely, to do a complete work of making us like Jesus. He does this as we yield to Him our sin, our desires, our willfulness, laying it down before Him so that the Holy Spirit can do a deeper work of cleansing, filling, empowering. He wants to sanctify you, through and through.
These have been words from the heart.
Bob Beasley