"Whores and Bastards!" (The Etymology of a People)

by Amber Rogers

As Christians, many of us need to go back and digest a tall glass of retrospection as to who we were before we received salvation and juxtapose that against the trajectory of that fate. We really need to take a pause for that cause and marinate in the reality that we were destined for Hell, in need of a lifeline and appreciate the fact that our Savior extended that line to us and lifted us out of our darkness and placed us into His family of light... "I'll wait!" You see, we were not just "good people" hanging around the opposes of life, and made a conscious decision to stop by the local church to pick up a can of salvation to aide us in our journey! No! We were desperate, wretches, our souls lost and displaced; in need of shelter, the food of His Word and the clothing of His vestments!

In Etymology, a bastard was usually the child of a passing traveler, (or anyone who snuck into bed with a woman out of wedlock and left his seed behind.) This child, this bastard, was governed by legal effects that dictated his life without any claim to patriarchal lineage. He was seen as an outcast, one to be ridiculed, scorned, and shunned; a victim of his existence and his destiny was bleak. In scripture, we have learned of a spiritual Father who bridged that gap. He took into consideration, before the foundation of the world was laid, our plight and made recompense for it! Through His laws and ordinances of the Old Testament and ultimately, through the blood shed by His Son at Calvary, we who were without Christ, were claimed!! He ushered us into the Royal Family by way of adoption and we were bestowed the birthrights of an heir.

As believers, we have been given a bird's eye view throughout the history of scripture of the hardness of man's heart, his backslidden ways, and the love, forgiveness, and long-suffering of the Lord. "And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord." Judges 2:17 So, my question to you today is: "why have YOU gone whoring?" There is a price to be paid when we take the world's system over God's system. You have taken on this world’s current “movement” and taken to the streets in masses shouting their cries at the peril of the ordinances of God! You have laid down His rules and His commission, and cast them to the now beaten and battered streets of protest, and taken up the enemy of distraction! Never mind the salient facts apparent that you are unequally yoked together (with or without your face masks) and you now sing a song outside of Zion. The cry of “Black Lives Matter” is a righteous cry, but the distraction is in the “Movement,” its fundamentals, and its roots! However, you have become so distracted by your Blackness, and your melanin that it in and of itself has become your God! Forgiveness and the laws of God have been so overpowered by your ‘black power’ that it has jumped ship. There is no room in your life for true holiness nor sanctification because her rooms are now jammed packed with the slick banter of your truth, your oppression, and your “vibrations of freedom” as it pertains to your now convoluted sense of freedom! Was our savior not wounded? Was He not chastised? Was He not lied on and betrayed? Did the justice systems not fail Him?- then who are you?!! You lied when you said that you would be ‘willing to be a partaker in His suffering,’ you lied when you said ‘nothing would ever separate you from the love of Christ,’- you lied when you preached from John 15:18-19; “ if the world hates you, remember that it hated me first! You are a liar and you are accursed.

Listening to the world as it continues to tell us that we are Kings and Queens, that our entitlements supersede all, urges us to put ourselves and our comforts first but God says: "you are a servant." This identity crisis for many is why our homes, our children and our lives have fallen out of sync. We have begun to listen to what the world says we are as opposed to who the Word says that we are. The world says: "I need 'me' time," when God says you need "knee" time. The women of God no longer look to their husbands for spiritual cover; they seek out gurus and life coaches for their witty repartee and validation. These unscriptural points of view plays to the flesh which is always seeking validation. They interfere with the flow of the God-centered home by usurping the divine order put in place for the family! Women of God- "you are a cheater!" When you have turned your back on your God and sought the face of another, when you have replaced His ordinances with the soothing, tantalizing dictations of His enemy, then you have played the whore.

Additionally, When the men of God throw down the 'Word' and pick up a foreign doctrine or system of beliefs that does not line-up with His ordinances, then you have walked away from your first love! You, my friend, are a whore and a cheat! You are in an adulterous relationship outside of Christ, and you are fornicating against Him. Your open marriage (your union with God) is now ripe for any and all manner of sickness and disease. As with any relationship, be it physical or spiritual when betrayal is in the midst, that relationship suffers and has no strength. Fortunately for us, unlike man, God is a forgiving God and awaits our repentance. Go to your father, confess your shortcomings and turn from your ways. Again unlike the last love, you cheated on He will not hold your transgressions against you. There will be no baby-mama-drama in his house! However, like the father of the prodigal son, God will not do it for us. We must realize our breaches, turn away from them, and spend the needed time necessary in fortifying our homes and our relationship with our true love. He is ready with open arms. "But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then ye are bastards and not sons." Hebrews 12:8