From the Editor Jan/Feb 2021
Many years ago, my husband’s friend Ken Campbell lost his 18-year-old daughter in a car accident. Ken pastored a church here in South Jersey, and Gwendolyn was a student at Word of Life Bible Institute in New York.
She had come home for the wedding of a friend who worked at The Friends of Israel (FOI) headquarters and had gone to Walmart to pick up a few things. As the car she was riding in emerged from the parking lot, another car slammed into it and killed her.
My husband visited Ken. Understandably, everyone was extremely upset. But Ken told Tom something I’ll never forget. “I teach the sovereignty of God,” he said. “I believe in the sovereignty of God. But now I’ve come to love the sovereignty of God.”
Nothing can give an individual more peace than wholly trusting in God, who is in absolute control of everything. This issue of Israel My Glory is devoted to a small yet important portion of the wonderful book of Isaiah that emphasizes God’s sovereignty.
We live in troubled times. But God holds the world in the palm of His hand, and He isn’t dropping it. He tells us, “I appointed the ancient people. And the things that are coming and shall come. . . . Do not fear, nor be afraid” (Isa. 44:7–8). “I am the LORD, and there is no other” (45:5). “I have made the earth, and created man on it. I—My hands—stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded” (v. 12). “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!” (v. 22). “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure” (46:10). “And I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory” (v. 13).
We hope this issue encourages you—and inspires you to worship and pray to the sovereign God of the universe who loves us so much He sent His Son to pay for our sin so that we can live with Him eternally through faith in Jesus, the Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world.
With this issue, we also inaugurate a new feature, “The Friends of Israel in Action.” Many of you may not realize all we do here at FOI. For example, we run a free medical clinic in Argentina, Bible camps in Eastern Europe, churches in Israel, and so much more.
We hope you enjoy this issue and that it will kindle within you a love for the sovereignty of God.
Waiting for His Appearing,
Lorna Simcox
Editor-in-Chief
