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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 15, 2020
2 min

Prophetic Love: Day 3

‘Some within the Church…claim that the homosexual condition is an expression of the variety in creation that God intended. “Why–if God made them this way—should their right to genital intimacy be considered immoral?”…In all this I sense the presence of the phallic god…Bright Chastity and the joys of celibacy cannot be talked about in such company. Sweet Reason also hangs her head and exits. I feel a revulsion, not in the presence of one who needs release from the homosexual c

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Andrew Comiskey

Jun 7, 2020
2 min

Holy Resistance

‘In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood’ (Heb. 12:4). Guys tend to be soft these days, orbited by helicopter parents and overly self-aware, as if sensitivity to one’s ‘needs’ means feeding time. Now. Forgive me, but I cannot empathize for long with dudes committed to Jesus but pixelated, poisoned by porn, who regret that they are not ‘free’ to cave into sexual sin with either gender. They may even fall into self-pity over t

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Andrew Comiskey

May 10, 2020
2 min

Resounding Authority

‘I pray that you would know…His incomparably great power toward those who believe’ (Eph. 1: 18, 19). Not a big surprise that sexual temptation has increased in the pandemic. But this Easter, with Pentecost right around the bend, I am fighting for a ‘yes’ to chastity that surpasses concession to moral sloppiness. Might our God-breathed resolve rise! Like a prayer, may our authority for purity resound and empower fellow strugglers around the world. Doesn’t matter the season; w

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 22, 2020
3 min

Overcoming False Intimacy

I became a man through confronting my pastor for partaking of his sheep, e.g. emotionally and sexually manipulating a host of single women. My efforts were unwelcomed: the pastor duped his overseer, blamed us for being overly rigorous, and turned our colleagues on the pastoral staff against us. For the first time in our lives together, Annette and I (and Desert Stream Ministries) were homeless. I loved this man but he refused to see the power of his position, the misuse of hi

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 13, 2019
2 min

Clearing a Path

‘And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness’ (Is. 35:8). Most efforts to pursue sexual wholeness are blocked by the media today. Gone are the days when some journalists honestly explored Christians who claimed to have found a way out of gender confusion through Jesus-centered community. Instead, the press obscures our pathway to chastity with laughable debris—fake charges that we abuse and manipulate, accrue millions, and prayerfully electroshock the ‘

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Andrew Comiskey

Sep 29, 2019
3 min

Surrounded 1: Chariots of Fire

It can be tough to burn with hope for some LGBT+ persons; allergic to chastity, alive to sensational new ‘sexualities’, they frame us as ‘haters’ and our fire dims. As we prayerfully ‘Become Good News’ (starting Oct. 16th), it may help us to recall that God is igniting a global army of persons—each one divinely commissioned to do his or her part to liberate loved ones from enslaving ‘freedoms’. Like a station in a relay, every one of us can help a vulnerable pilgrim take the

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Andrew Comiskey

Aug 6, 2017
2 min

Courage for Chaste Sex

At the Courage conference last week in Chicago, Annette and I had the privilege to testify on the glorious challenge of forging a marriage in light of my same-sex attraction and her sexual abuse—two gifts that keep on giving! Actually, we are gifts to each other who through the grace of Jesus’ cross have delighted in our co-humanity for nearly 40 years now. We spoke candidly on our intimate life. We wanted to break the false yet common assumption that chastity always involves

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Andrew Comiskey

Nov 14, 2016
3 min

Contending for the Bride

‘Zeal for His House has Consumed Me.’ (JN 2:17) In order ‘to contend for the faith entrusted to all the saints’ (Jude 3), we must follow Jesus into the House of His Father and purge ourselves of what divides us. Yes, we must come into the light of fellowship and enlist the help of others, and yes, no-one can cast out our personal temple robbers but us. Our decision to refuse every altar but Christ Crucified is nothing short of a miracle of God’s mercy—His fiery kindness (mirr

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Andrew Comiskey

Jun 27, 2016
3 min

Annette

Love has a name. I discovered its meaning only when I chose to offer myself 35-years-ago to this person named Annette. What I thought I knew about love meant little as I bumped up against my selfishness. (I prided myself on a kind of reflective, poetic awareness of love but actually knew next to nothing about it.) In joy and especially in her tears, Annette invited me to love her because she was worth it. I wanted to do so. Though desire spurs us onto discipline, they are not

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 21, 2016
3 min

Chastity and Mercy 6: River Rising

‘…Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, in order to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.’ (Eph. 5:25-27) Jesus reveals His self-giving to the church and world through a host of icons—relationships whose chastity makes Him known in ordered, exuberant love. St. Paul in the above passage uses the whole-enough love

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 14, 2016
3 min

Chastity and Mercy 5: River Here

God calls each of us to be a river of life for others. Chastity liberates that flow; sourced in Christ and no longer sidelined by fear and lust, we grow into channels of pure, creative energy. The river’s end? To build up Christ’s body, one member to another. It is radically simple, as anyone who attends a Living Waters-like group can attest. We gather in order to overcome sins against chastity then discover that the light of Love is routing dark motives and acts. Forgiven by

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 7, 2016
3 min

Chastity and Mercy 4: River Near

‘She who has been forgiven of much will love much’ (LK 7:47). Turning from our unchaste ways becomes beautiful when we turn toward Jesus. It’s not only family and friends we violated with our jagged divides; we pierced Him too. He retaliates by releasing a fountain of affection for us (Zech. 12:10-13:2) that cleanses and feeds us like the best mother and confirms us like the best father. St. Augustine said that the Church herself was born from Christ’s wounds– the blood and w

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 29, 2016
4 min

Chastity and Mercy 3: Just Love

‘We seek to be chaste because someone we love needs us to be chaste.’ Heather King Justice means giving to another what is due him or her. In the sexual realm, chastity serves justice by freeing humanity to be good and faithful gifts to others; that involves keeping our sexual promises with those we most love. Therein lays our happiness, and another’s. The person undivided by lust of any kind exercises justice by employing one’s self-gift to confirm, not confuse or diminish a

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 22, 2016
3 min

Chastity and Mercy 2: United We Stand

The Samaritan woman of John 4 represents many Christians today; you could say she is a ‘type’ of the Church in the 21st century. Her Jewish roots inspired a ‘holiness’ tradition of which she was proud. At the same time, her heritage was also sourced in the intermingling of the Jews with the Canaanites, a nation that worshiped many gods through a variety of sexual practices. She too is divided–a woman of faith (“I know that Messiah is coming” v.25) fractured by a series of fai

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Chastity and Mercy 1: Beauty Trumps Brokenness

Andrew Comiskey

Feb 15, 2016
3 min

Chastity and Mercy 1: Beauty Trumps Brokenness

A tough woman careful to avoid the gaze of others hears a man asking for her help. She turns toward Him. Jesus needs water, yes, but more than that He wants to give her what she needs—mercy that will well up from her depths and satisfy her forever. We discover her morally broken state later on in JN 4; all that matters now is that Love has come to her and that Love alone can make her whole. Chastity is all about wholeness. Far from the pale and passive face we ascribe to it,

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Ashes for Beauty: Five Reasons to Pray for Chastity this Lent

Andrew Comiskey

Feb 10, 2016
2 min

Ashes for Beauty: Five Reasons to Pray for Chastity this Lent

‘We don’t merely want to see beauty…we want to become beautiful.’ CS Lewis Join us during Lent; each week we will consider a different facet of chastity and how God’s mercy frees us to realize its beauty. Perhaps this Ash Wednesday would be a good time to consider: do I know what chastity is? Have I realized it? What must I do to become chaste? Let’s explore this together for the next 47 days. Consider: 1. Chastity is Beautiful: I love chastity! I discovered its meaning in th

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Andrew Comiskey

Dec 7, 2015
2 min

Turn and Burn

‘John was a lamp that burned and gave light.’ (JN 6:35) I could hardly believe my ears. Surrounded by a host of earnest men, most cradle Catholics, the priest raged like a street fighter as he implored us to turn from what sickened, divided and ultimately would kill us. ‘Repent unto the love of Jesus! The love that woos you will only make you new if you turn from your sin!’ Pow. Right between the eyes. The priest mediated the spirit of John the Baptist unlike any other, fitti

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Heading for Rome 1: Passion for a Chaste Bride

Andrew Comiskey

Sep 28, 2015
3 min

Heading for Rome 1: Passion for a Chaste Bride

‘Always Go Forward, Never Turn Back’ (St. Junipero Serra) This Wednesday I shall depart for Rome, site of the Roman Catholic Synod on the Family. On Friday Oct. 2nd, I have the privilege to speak (alongside others far more qualified than me) at a conference designed for synod leaders who shall deliberate on family matters, including homosexuality. The synod’s pastoral recommendations will not change church teaching but will influence its pastoral application for years to come

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Andrew Comiskey

Apr 23, 2015
2 min

Human Beauty, Divine Mercy

St. John Paul ll said that we discover our true selves only by sincerely giving ourselves to others. We the fallen know also that we can offer ourselves badly; we grasp, we grope, we withhold. To bridge the gap between the original beauty of God’s purposes for our sexuality and the brokenness we behold today, we need divine mercy. How blessed am I to have served the saints in both Lithuania and Poland, two lands which have ‘housed’ and honored St. John Paul ll and St. Faustin

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 27, 2014
1 min

Join us for a Prayerful Lent

Starting next week, we at Desert Stream Ministries begin an 8-part prayer/intercession series designed to prepare us for Easter. Entitled ‘Downward Ascent,’ this series will focus each week on one of the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1-12). We will explore the conditions of heart that free us to welcome Jesus afresh. At a time when gender and sexuality have never been more muddled, we need His clarity. Light will dawn as we apply a biblical understanding of the Beatitudes to His Cross.

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