Blog

Andrew Comiskey

Feb 21, 2010
3 min

Drinking Water

After Europe, I moved into a UCLA fraternity house crammed with conservative Christian men. They were Republicans, I was the on the lunatic fringe of the Democratic party, as was my hair, which resembled a Benjamin Franklin fright wig; their crew cuts and manner were clipped and practical while I was emotional and spontaneous (remember, I used to be fun), tending toward the absurd. A match made in heaven? Precisely. I needed the limits imposed by a tight community of guys who

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 21, 2010
2 min

The Pool at Piccadilly Circus

Soon after the French party, I moved home and determined to grow with the Christian friends I had. Fun or not, they were my people. My parents asked me if I wanted to save my shekels and go with them on a short trip to Europe the next summer. I did and I went. London was a blast. I loved the roar of it. I would find a busy street and get lost for hours in the waves of people pouring like currents from every square, park, and avenue. I met a smart young coupled from Manchester

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 18, 2010
3 min

Reflection 3

What is your desert? It could be several things: harsh and severe circumstances, or personal distress–physical, emotional, or moral. Maybe you are wrestling with heightened sexual temptation, or the temptation to hate yourself or another due to a conflicted relationship. You are probably discovering that there is a link between external hardships and personal distress. In other words, fragile areas in the soul get inflamed by severe circumstances outside of you. That can also

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 17, 2010
3 min

Reflection 2

Jesus’ 40 days in the desert came immediately after His baptism. Filled with the Spirit, just named by the Father as His beloved Son, Jesus was ready to endure the weakness of fasting. Taken his advantage, as he always does with the weak, Satan made three efforts to tempt Jesus into satisfying His hunger falsely. Jesus faced two hardships–weakness from hunger and the impact of a severe environment. The desert can be cruel. It offers little respite from heat and thirst. Jesus’

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 16, 2010
2 min

Reflection 1

Lent prepares us for Easter by leading us to the cross: 40 days, 40 steps to Calvary. It is the downward ascent to God’s mercy. Lent break ground in us for fresh mercies. It exposes what in us is merciless–stingy, resistant to grace. Lent is the desert in which we in our hunger and thirst are tempted to forsake the Source for pretty poisons. Lent is the desert in which we can discover the stream that rumbles beneath the valley of death, ready to surface and transform the burn

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 9, 2010
2 min

Together, We Discovered Mercy

30-years ago, ‘Living Waters’ surfaced in West Hollywood. The burning ground of lust and sexual confusion became a pool of God’s mercy. Every Wednesday night for two years, we met in the home of a well-known interior designer. Charlie, along with many of his friends, was riding the first popular wave of gay activity on the West Coast. But after the disco and drug-induced orgies, these men and women cried out for mercy. The Vineyard Christian Fellowship had just sprung up on t

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Andrew Comiskey

Apr 11, 2009
3 min

Unholy Week? Crucifying Christ Afresh through ‘ Gay Marriage ’

On the week that centers on Christ Crucified for millions around the globe, the USA has acted in a most unholy manner. Palm Sunday to Good Friday was marked by daily advances of ‘gay marriage’ forces in our land. Our Bridegroom King, whose very image is manifest in male and female, and who is returning for a Bride, spotless and true, is being crucified afresh. Consider this: I read on Palm Sunday that Iowa’s unanimous Supreme Court decision to legalize ‘gay marriage’ delibera

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Andrew Comiskey

Apr 4, 2009
3 min

‘Gay Marriage’ in The Heartland

While we were sleeping, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously overturned the state’s ban on ‘gay marriage’ on grounds that it was unconstitutional. Most believers I spoke with in and around Iowa knew little if anything about the Court’s deliberation. Those who did seemed sleepy in their response. And uncertain. Even getting information about the case was difficult and yielded little. To most, ‘gay marriage’ seemed outside the realm of possibility in Iowa.Time to wake up. Marriag

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Andrew Comiskey

Nov 5, 2008
2 min

Humbled by Victory

After a sleepless night, I can say with joy and relief: ‘gay marriage’ is no longer in CA.The people arose and went to the polls. They took back marriage from the Supreme Court and rightly defined it as one man pledged to one woman. For the sake of kids. For the good of all. By a slim 4-point margin, the citizens of CA turned San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and an activist court on its ear. Now marriage as heterosexual is written in stone into the CA state constitution. Than

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Andrew Comiskey

Nov 3, 2008
3 min

The True Image

During these forty days, I had the privilege of battling for Proposition 8 in several churches in CA, including my home church, St. Gregory’s Episcopal of Long Beach. Seated before the altar, I observed with new eyes the 40-foot representation of Jesus emerging in stained glass above the cross. His image, composed of thousands of pieces of exquisitely colored glass, blazed like fire as the sun shone through it. Alone in that church, I encountered the living Christ.His tendern

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Andrew Comiskey

Nov 1, 2008
4 min

Repenting unto Mercy

In the battle for marriage, I am inclined toward the sin of the Church at Ephesus (Rev. 2:1-7). Working hard, persevering, identifying falsehood (the church’s strengths; vs.2, 3) mean little if one loses his first love. And that has been my challenge in this battle. In fighting for God’s honor in defending marriage as one man for one woman, have I lost touch with God? The other day, I felt that familiar conviction: ‘Are my works for Him overtaking my devotion to Him? Is a pol

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 31, 2008
3 min

Cheap versus Costly Grace

It would be wrong to assume that all if not most churches overreact to homosexuality as if it were a landmine, ready to explode. In truth, the churches most influential in our land today seem to have detonated the issue altogether. How? By avoiding it. Rick Warren, arguably one if not the most powerful Christian leaders in the USA, was recently described in a Time magazine cover story as avoiding ‘sin issues’ like homosexuality for less controversial ones like poverty and AID

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 30, 2008
3 min

Exposing True Lies

I scoured the obituary of the well-known lawyer, a Christian who in the sixties and seventies had successfully defending laws protecting Christianity and prohibiting rights for gays. Had he lived today, he would have fought hard for Prop. 8. What stunned me was a small note at the end of his story. Toward the end of his life, he had been arrested in a public park for soliciting an undercover male cop. Have we seen this before? More than we would like to admit: a Republican se

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 28, 2008
3 min

God Honors Righteousness in the Land

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.” (Pr.14:34) When we uphold marriage, we uphold His image and the boundaries that protect that image. As we have seen, marriage represents Him in the duality of male and female. Boundaries that protect marriage guard the integrity of that whole image, as well as the children produced by it. We are a people in a particular place and land. To protect marriage where we live is to guard righteousness in the land.

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 27, 2008
3 min

Restraint and Refuge

As our culture embraces perversion as normal, we as the church must provide a sure path for those seeking the better way. That involves clear teaching on God’s design and redemption for those with same-sex attraction; more practically, it means opening our arms and hearts. The church must become the refuge for gays plucked from the fire. We must grant them a fighting chance to become reoriented around Jesus. “Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of t

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 26, 2008
4 min

God’s Fast for His Justice

A couple of weeks ago my good friend Peter Kockelman and I had the privilege of proclaiming the truth of God’s mercy to transform His broken image in humanity—right in the middle of the Castro, arguably San Francisco’s (and the country’s) most notorious gay district. After the church service, we ate in a restaurant of mostly gay clientele. Among them was a young man, sitting alone, desperately seeking the attention of other men. He looked in earnest, awaiting some masculine s

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 24, 2008
2 min

Turning toward Jesus Christ

Clearly we have witnessed a momentum to evil. One desecrating act begets another, broken boundaries fan out like myriad wildfires on dry forest. But the momentum of repentance is more powerful still. As we turn back to Him, the Author and Redeemer of who we actually are, our spirits resound with the music of Heaven. We discover quickly that the enemy’s design for humanity is infinitely less satisfying and secure than God’s original design for His creation. Budziszewski writes

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 12, 2008
2 min

Raising Kids Requires the Grace of Marriage

The most rewarding and difficult task Annette and I have undertaken is raising children. Without each other’s support, and the unique grace God gives to man and woman who yield to each other in the heartache of parenting, we might not have made it. And had we not, our kids would have lost the witness that in spite of their extremes, love prevails. One cannot grasp this until (s)he lives it. I recall family photos when my siblings and I were teen-agers. My brother and I put my

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 7, 2008
2 min

How Jesus Restores Marriage

Marriage matters. The quality of care between spouses matters. Generations to come are impacted by that quality, or the lack thereof. To paraphrase John Paul II, how husband and wife care for each other impacts the dignity and destiny of those they influence. Especially their children. Kids are those most impacted and least heard in battles surrounding marriage. Jesus loves kids. He hates it when they are stumbled by broken, selfish parents. So He acts to restore marriage for

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Andrew Comiskey

Oct 3, 2008
3 min

Otherness and Sacrifice

Opposites are designed to attract; many can attest to the powerful pull of the other’s appeal that initially drew him/her into the marital relationship. But chemistry alone cannot sustain the covenant. In truth, the precise differences that intrigued us in the other also expose, provoke and annoy us. Mike Mason writes: “It is a shock for a couple to discover how quickly romantic love is exhausted, how little they really know and understand one another, how deeply estranged it

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