ASSEMBLIES OF GOD
Naked Surrender
Coming Home to Our True Sexuality
by Jim Harris
Naked Surrender presents sexuality as no secret to God. He already knows us as His originally whole creatures, which includes our sexuality.
The words coming home in the title denote a previous departure. Was sex ever understood different from its understanding in today’s culture? Yes. Originally sex was a gift from God reflecting the oneness of the Godhead, minus unrestrained lust’s influence and its contrast with societal distortions.
In Naked Surrender’s nine chapters, the author makes poignant use of story because stories sell. The author is selling a healthy balance of Christian sexuality by reiterating the truth that human sexuality is God’s gift to celebrate, qualified by the lordship of Christ. The foundation for this balance is love, both God’s love and human love.
The author emphasizes sexual expression as self-giving. The world fights what it sees as puritanical repression of sexuality. As the author points out in chapter 5, however, appropriate limits on sexual expression liberate rather than deprive. Putting sexuality in its proper place will set the true self free, rather than restrict it. Comisky, like other authors, addresses sexual idolatry. Over-ascribing to sex makes sex an idol.
Naked Surrender: Coming Home to Our True Sexuality is about balance, truth, and godliness in our expression of maleness and femaleness. Further, it displays our sexual expression as a gift from God, emphasizing liberty and the freedom it creates.
Pastors will profit from reading Comiskey as they counsel and disciple others. It would be a good read for undergraduates as well.
Jim Harris Ph.D., LPC is an ordained minister. He owns Insight Counseling Associates, LLC, Springfield, Missouri.