LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces – Third Quarter 2024 newsletter

This issue of So Help Me God, the newsletter of LCMS Ministry to the Armed Forces, takes up two big questions: Who am I? Why am I here?

Who am I? To answer this question, we look to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. We are sinners and are condemned in the sight of God. Despite our skills and our talents, without the undeserved love of God, we are nothing. We are lost and condemned. But Jesus Christ has redeemed us for new life in Him and commissioned us with the task of “making disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). In Him alone we find our identity.

Why am I here? The story of creation in Genesis answers this question. Created in God’s own image, man and woman are designed to be fruitful and multiply, to have dominion over the earth and all God’s creatures. But since all mankind fell in Adam’s fall, we see the wreckage of sin to this day: death, disease, war, catastrophe. Now, we return to the first question: who am I? We remember that in Christ, we are a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2 Cor. 5:17).

Read the newsletter to contemplate these two questions further.

The newsletter also offers webpages and resources that can help individuals grow in Christ.