The Helper
So The One True God, who helps, freely chooses Israel to be His own special people through whom His redemptive plan for the world could be worked out. Jesus, the Messiah, as the focus of that plan, brings it to climax through His sacrifice on the cross and the vindication of the resurrection. After His resurrection and many appearances, He leaves. But He does not leave us alone.

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”
(Joh 14:16-21)

The Holy Spirit is given as our Helper. He is the one who comes along side to help.

In the Old Testament, we read of God’s relationship with Israel and see the clear contrast between their worship of The Living God and the polytheistic idolatry of the surrounding pagans. In our culture, polytheism is not the dominant worldview. How does our worship of the God of scripture compare with the current views of pantheism (everything is god) and deism (god is distant and uninvolved)? Once again, the culture has chosen convenient worldviews. In neither case do you have moral demands. If the seat your sitting in is god, then it is unlikely he/she/it will often point out your selfishness. If you yourself are god, just like the chair, it is perhaps even less likely. The Deists god, distant and uninvolved, will probably not notice moral failings and certainly will not meddle in your life.

These gods, however morally convenient they might be, offer nothing of substance to the human soul. What of an answer for evil, for the brokenness of creation? What of an answer for purpose, for meaning? What of a presence and help in time of need? They come up bankrupt every time. Not so the Living God.

God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
(Psa 46:1)

In our Christian journey, following Christ day by day, we are in no way called to a life of dry religion, of ritual void of grace. We are not trying to hold down the fort until He returns. Our lives are destined to be lived relationally and interactively with The Living God. In giving us the Holy Spirit, He gives us Himself, His presence. He is with us, accessible to us, alive in us. He is the God who will help us.

Where is the deist god, propped up by the enlightenment’s careful separation between material and spiritual? Where is the pantheist’s god? He’s everywhere and nowhere. He is simply a non-concrete version of pagan polytheistic idolatry.

I’m glad to have been found by The True and Living God. He chose me. He is with me. He will help me. He knocked and I opened up the doors.

Help!