HELPER: How Christ Fulfills God's First Promise

By Shane M. Anderson

In today’s world, Christian leaders are being exposed to the public through sex scandals or abuse, gender wars fill social media feeds, and religious institutions are viewed with distrust, disgust, and disenchantment. Thankfully, everlasting hope and the answers we seek are always found within a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Shane Anderson relies on his experience as a lay-theologian to explore and connect biblical concepts to reveal how Jesus Christ is at the center of human relationships and how the first promise of God in Genesis 2:18—that God will make for man a suitable helper—is fulfilled in Christ. While offering believers a fresh understanding of the transformative power of the Spirit of truth, Anderson reframes the ancient story of man and woman in the garden to rediscover the mystery of God’s radiant love, embrace the timeless truths clearly laid out in the scripture, and repent, restore, and find new hope while fulfilling Christ’s mission to save a hurting and lonely world.

Helper is a groundbreaking narrative of how Jesus Christ fulfills God’s first promise, found in Genesis 2:18, to make for humanity a mutual helper.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 18, 2024
• ISBN: 9798385014576

Shane M. Anderson

Shane Anderson is a lay-theologian, writer, poet, and songwriter who began leading worship in his home church when he was seventeen. He has served in lay-pastoral roles, led worship, and taught in Christian fellowships. Today, Shane and his wife are members of the Anglican Church of North America. He is the Director of Logistics at a technology company and resides with his wife in Houston.

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HELPER

How Christ Fulfills

God’s First Promise

SHANE M. ANDERSON

Copyright © 2024 Shane M. Anderson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture quotations marked HCSB®, are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. HCSB® is a federally registered trademark of Holman Bible Publishers

Scripture quotations marked CSB are taken from The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV Bible® (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked YLT are taken from The Young’s Literal Translation Bible.

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1455-2 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1456-9 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-3850-1457-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023923856

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/18/2024

To Jessica, my wife and dearest friend

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1 Help! (I Need Somebody)

2 What a Wonderful World

3 Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For

4 If I Ever Lose My Faith In You

5 With a Little Help from My Friends

6 Waiting for a Girl like You

7 Let’s Dance

8 Owner of a Lonely Heart

9 Up Where We Belong

10 We Are the Champions

11 Stairway to Heaven

12 Joy to the World

13 The End (Conclusion)

Endnotes

Preface

The basic concept of this book began with a simple Bible study I began circa 2008. It is important to explain the background for my prayer that morning, and the many things that had been happening in our community of believers, before I opened my Bible that morning.

At that time, my wife and I had the privilege of being part of a sweet fellowship of believers gathering weekly for a meal, praise, worship, and teaching from the Word of God in a meetinghouse in downtown Conroe called the Conroe House of Prayer, aka the CHOP. We called the weekly meeting the Love Feast. We invited everyone we could think of— rich and poor, young and old, and homeless people from all over the city.

A friend of mine named Kevin Copeland frequently taught at the CHOP, and whatever he taught seemed to either center on or in some way circle around to a connection with the love of God. Kevin taught a whole multipart series on repentance that pointed to the love of God. Transformation of believers happens by way of the love of God. The fruit of the Spirit begins with love, the love of God. But the first and most impactful of all the teachings Kevin ever gave at Love Feast was from 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. It shook the room the first night he taught it at the CHOP.

Kevin slowly walked us through the passage verse by verse, showing how love is central to all things within the believer’s life, echoing most teachings on 1 Corinthians 13. Christians need to love more! And then, Kevin said this: "If we take what John tells us in 1 John 4:8—that whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love—then, we need to return to 1 Corinthians 13 and reread it putting God, or Jesus rather, in place of love." Then Kevin walked us verse by verse through the chapter again, reframing everything through the centrality of knowing Jesus.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not Jesus …

If I have prophetic powers, understand mysteries, and all knowledge, but have not Jesus …

If I have all faith, but have not Jesus …

If I give away all I have, and my body to be burned, but have not Jesus …

Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind, Jesus is not arrogant or rude.

Kevin lit a spark in the room that night. He never taught without being moved to tears—we used to call him the weeping teacher—but that night there was not a dry eye in the place. The text of 1 Corinthians 13 was no longer a burden; it was a call to know Jesus. Loving one another was no longer a duty; it was an expression of our knowledge and love of Jesus.

After that teaching—and I am not exaggerating in the slightest— many people were healed. Many people returned to the Lord. Relationships were restored. The homeless ministry expanded in the local community. Songs were written. Churches were planted. An atheist friend whom I went to visit and pray for who was terminally ill from a strange disease that doctors could find no cure for was healed. A band was reunited to record and release a new album. And I’m sure there are countless other events that took place in the lives of other people, brought about in the wake of us all coming to understand better the transformative power of the love of Jesus Christ.

All of this was culminating in our community the morning I began my Bible study on Genesis 2. I prayed, Father, I’ve been walking with you now for many years. I have dedicated my life to you, and I’ve been studying your Word since I was twelve years old. If there is a fresh word you have for me, like Kevin’s word on 1 Corinthians 13, please open my eyes to see it; tune my ears to hear it.

As I began my Bible study, I came to Genesis 2:18 and read, I will make a helper suitable for him, and a thought occurred to me: Read it "I, Jesus, will make a helper suitable for him." Ah, wow—that’s different.

Then, I remembered how Jesus spoke to His disciples about the helper in John’s gospel. I read all the places where Jesus spoke of the helper, and then the words another helper leapt off the page. It really struck my mind, and I’m sure a bolt of lightning (the biological event where an influx of dopamine surges into the brain) occurred. Jesus was promising to send another helper, like how Yahweh promised to send the first helper in Genesis 2:18. That single idea propelled me into deep biblical study. I began talking more of how Jesus wants to be our friend, like God gave Adam and Eve to one another as companions, as counterparts, and how Jesus wants the Holy Spirit to be our real helper.

As the one tandem idea—Jesus as the helper-friend and the Holy Spirit as another helper—met against theology and sound biblical doctrine, I was forced, at times, to dig deeper and reform some of my earlier conclusions to better align with more mature theological underpinnings; but in finding a new plumb line to measure against, my studies seem to be propelled to another depth found in scripture of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

That this book has taken fifteen or more years to complete is no exaggeration. Since 2008, the fulfillment of the Genesis 2:18 promise in Christ has been a passionate pursuit of mine, bordering on obsession at times. What began as a personal Bible study turned into a small blog. The blog was short-lived, but many of the posts became the basis for several chapters included in this book. Full of self-doubt at times, I would try to leave alone the notion of Jesus and the Holy Spirit being sent to fulfill Genesis 2:18; but somehow the concept would be resurrected.

Along the way, it became a conviction that my inspiration for this study lay somewhere with my personal experience of the Lord Jesus, as I have come to know him. Certainly, I call him Lord, but he led me in my early understanding of him to know him as Friend. In a little, quiet town in Central Texas where my father pastored a church in the midst of my awkward teenage years, full of loneliness and discontentment, I got down on my knees one afternoon beside my bed and asked the person I already knew as Savior, the Lord Jesus, if He could cure my loneliness.

It was my simple hope that Jesus might ease the unrest and ache in my soul, but little did I know how sweet His friendship could be and how eager He was and still is to reveal His love to me. That prayer is still being answered to this day. I have known Jesus since I was six years old, more than forty years, and I have never known a truer friend than He. I have not always been faithful to Him, but He has never let me down. I love Him more today than I certainly knew to love Him as a child, but I have no doubt He loves me today with the same love that He always has.

Concerning this book and the complex and nuanced nature of its subject matter, I am fully aware of my inability to have stayed the course, but the Lord’s hand has been present and His encouragement and admonishment, at times, have pushed me in this endeavor. For instance, when I first decided to gather all my obscure writings and partial research to begin formulating and outlining an actual book, as I put my hands on the keyboard to begin writing a friend of mine sent me a message through my social media account at the time. Lauri wrote:

Luke 5:5—Put out into the deep water … Don’t be afraid to launch into the deep. God has something special to reveal to you.

What transpired as I continued studying and writing, and researching and writing, was so deep that I was overwhelmed. My professional career has not been associated with biblical academia. The Word of God has always been part of our households. My father was a pastor and very devoted to reading and encouraging us as kids to memorize and meditate on scripture. As I grew older, I devoted myself to studying the Bible, using my father’s library in my teenage years, studying his Greek