part I

my sickness runs deep
holding fast my very core
it flows through each vein
and seeps out every pore
a ferocious beast this tension
with claws that make flesh melt
ravaging my insides
regarding not my cries for help

torn in two
i am shredded to the seams
from the constant tugging at my threads
unraveling hopes and dreams
of everything that I thought
this life would surely be
a singing, dancing, flitting, fluttering
pair of butterfly wings

ever reaching for the sky
only to come up short and fall
tumbling down the rabbit hole
I awake to find it all
was yet another illusion
whisked away like a thin daydream
so it goes back floods the weight
of desperate enshrouding reality…

part II

yet from behind the clouds
broke a tiny ray of light
a promise long forgotten
a whisper in the night

JESUS I cried
it was you all along
guiding me through
the darkness and storm

you made me in your image
but for so long i believed
the lie that i was not your child
and that you had no love for me.

yet now that i’m back at home
i see much more clearly
how your heart aches for me all the time
whether i stray or walk with thee

the sickness yeah its still mean as ever
but your medicine tastes great
you never give me cherry dimetapp
cause you know i like the grape

i do still wrestle with the tension
in fact i bite my nails more than i’d like
but the peace and rest i’ve found in JESUS
blows that piddly stuff right outta sight

you see my hope was once invested
in this life alone
but now my life’s in JESUS
i know this world is not my home

but heaven glory glory hallelujah
is where i’ll spend eternity
singing with my brothers the saints
and worshipping GOD night and day

until then my joy is in JESUS
for no matter what here befalls
i will dwell secure and bask in his love
for truly his grace covers all

so i guess it’s high time for this question
what does it mean to be a Christian man
to live and love and serve the LORD
and dwell faithfully in the land.

Tripp Koon playing an original track “Song of the Redeemed” from Sights and Sounds, a full length music album featuring 7 Artists + 7 Musicians from St Andrew’s City Church, meeting weekly at the Music Farm in downtown Charleston, SC. For every record sold, $5 will be donated to provide meals for the afterschool program at Shaw Community Center.

Purchase Sights & Sounds: A City Church Record on iTunes at:
http://itunes.apple.com/album/sights-sounds-city-church/id522295542

In the still, quiet space of the thin morning light,
A glassy calm has conquered
The mighty wind and crashing sea
Yet more delightfully perhaps, sings my soul,
Are the slow, even waves rolling over the shore of my breast.

For once begun, the pounding momentum only seems to build
As it plays all the day long with no reprieve
Telling me there is no time for rest
If I ever hope to achieve
The highest and best for my life.

So today, rather than move, I punched mute on the tube
And curled up into a little ball on the floor
My mind told me to rise for surely it will be my demise
If I fail to get this machine into high gear.

On the floor did I lie and much to my surprise
I was met there with a most peculiar thing
It made not a sound yet our time together was profound
And I began to hear a tiny voice sing.

And as I listened, I learned the place
From whence that angelic chorus arose
Not without, but from the depth of my own heart
Poetry arose from the prose.

I began to gather up the pieces and the shards after the storm
My heart gets a start as the memories haunt and flood
And the beating palpitations thump away in my chest
Yet what a great opportunity to clean up this mess!

For as I look out over the wreckage, I notice common themes
That my life was continually chocked full of the most frivolous things
Time spent racing here, hours spent there
No time for meaningful conversation
No time at all to spare!

Only the language of business, the busy bee buzz,
As weather falls and stock markets rise
Like the ebb and flow of the tide.
Did you see the current this morning?
Oh, you really wouldn’t believe
How it was rushing and racing
And going out with such veracity.

Yet look at it now
Surely it’s coming in
What an unexpected turn of events
Let’s talk about it
Some more.

It was just over a year ago when first heard Jason and Katie Williams play at City Church. They were on stage during a testimony Sunday serenading us with an original song that they had written about our current sermon series, and I was blown away. Something in me leapt to see these two members of our community with such incredible gifts and talent. That song set into motion a string of recordings that would later become Sights & Sounds: A City Church Record, a compilation of 7 musicians + 7 artists contributing to an all original album, which was released yesterday during our Sunday service.

The vision for Sights & Sounds is two-fold. The first is to create a platform for artists and musicians who want to bless the community with their creative giftings. We have so many talented artists in our midst, and it benefits all of us when they are given an avenue to share their work. The second is to provide our congregation with a tool with which to engage the larger community in Charleston. City Church is a group of people who are passionate about following Jesus and, at the same time, creative and artistic and rebellious. We are not governed by rules and religion, but in seeking a close relationship with Jesus Christ. Our church is not a building or a service, but a community of people whose heart is to bring forth God’s Kingdom of love here in Charleston.

Sights & Sounds is more than a music album. It is a way for us to engage the culture of our day with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a chance for us to challenge the harmfully small perception of church that has been implanted in the minds of our youth. It is an opportunity for us to show the world that Jesus is not dead, but alive and well, and that He still inspires his followers to do great things 2,000 years after He left this world to go be with the Father. I hope that you will consider supporting this endeavor by purchasing a copy and helping us to spread the word!

The album is $10, and for each copy sold, $5 will go to provide meals for the afterschool program at Shaw Community Center. Hard copies are exclusively available at City Church, but you can buy the full album on iTunes following the link below. Thanks for your support and to God be the glory!

http://itunes.apple.com/album/sights-sounds-city-church/id522295542

This is Peter’s cane. Well, it was his cane. We met Peter at God’s People this past Saturday when he approached the prayer blanket to get healing prayer for his knee. He had been hit by a car two months back and was still dependent on his cane to get around. Since he hasn’t been able to work since the accident, he has lost all source of income and has become homeless. His desperation was evident.

We had a large team this week, so there were about seven of us who laid hands on Peter. After praying our best prayer, we asked Peter to do something that he wasn’t able to do before. He told us that he hadn’t been able to sit Indian style since the accident. He immediately went to try it out and was amazed that his leg folded right underneath him. He lit up and assured us again that there was no way he could have done this before, boosting the faith of everyone present.

We asked Peter if he was willing to stand, and he declined, so our team continued to pray fervently as we coached Peter through further movement. After about five minutes of seeing supernatural muscle strength on top of the increase in flexibility, Jeremy once again invited Peter to stand. With new confidence, he agreed and was helped to his feet. Once standing, he immediately reached for his cane. We urged him to try a few steps without it, and to his own amazement, his legs held up. He began to walk away from the blanket towards the street, and we could see his strength build with every step.

By the time Peter reached the curb, he stepped up with no hesitation. Over the course of the next ten minutes, he walked two full laps around the God’s People picnic without his cane and with three prayer warriors praising God and continuing to intercess for Peter. It looked like the Israelite’s march around Jericho as the whole group looked on in amazement.

When it came time to leave the picnic, Peter told us to give his cane “to someone who needed it.” He walked off unaided with two friends headed for the library. As he disappeared around the corner, we stood in amazement at the power of God and thanked Him for His grace and mercy. We thanked Him for His love, that he cares so much for his precious children and that he continually meets us in our need.

Please pray with me today that the Lord will open new doors before Peter and restore to him the ability to work and sustain a home. And let us praise God for the word of the testimony and the blood of the Lamb that are our victory. To God be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

This past Sunday, I stood in front of the beach at Camp Saint Christopher and gave the sermon at Holy Trinity’s annual Breakfast by the Sea service. My talk ended a rigorous (for me at least) speaking tour that began last summer with the release of From Folly, and as I looked out over the rolling ocean waves following the service, I couldn’t imagine a more fitting and appropriate way to close this fabulous season of my life. Since the release of my book, I have spoken to 10 churches, 3 youth groups, 4 schools, 2 college ministries, 5 rotary clubs, a Sertoma Club, the Charleston Seafarer’s Society, MUSC and even a CofC Pyschology class. What an incredible gift from God! Thank you to everyone who has supported me, come out to hear me speak, and most of all, who have helped to make From Folly a success. May God bless you and return your good measure back to you!

P.S. For updates on my new projects that are in the works, you can follow me via my Facebook fan page:
http://www.facebook.com/Matthew.Lock.Pridgen

Two Saturdays ago, we met a man at a God’s People picnic named Irvin. He was a sweet man with a quiet, gentle spirit who initially turned down our offer of prayer because he didn’t want to bother us. Nicole finally coaxed him into letting us pray for him, and we laid hands on Irvin not knowing what his illness was. We spoke God’s love over him, rebuked the spirit of infirmity, and trusted that God would take care of the rest.

At the picnic this past Saturday, Irvin was the first person to approach us after the blessing. He was clearly excited. He began to tell us his story and why he didn’t give us any information about his condition. It turns out that he had been battling Leukemia and going to the hospital three times a week for chemotherapy treatment. The reason why he didn’t want to tell us was because he didn’t want our pity.

He went on to tell us that this past Friday after we prayed for him, he was sitting in the library in his normal spot, and his doctor walked in. Irvin’s blood work had come back clean, and the doctor didn’t want to wait until Monday to tell him. We praised God for the healing and debated which was the greater miracle, that Irvin was healed of Leukemia or that his doctor took the time out to tell him in person. To God be the glory!

In light of Easter Sunday, what an awesome reminder that Jesus is alive and well. He is risen indeed!

Two weeks ago, I gave a talk at Holy Trinity Church called ‘Faith in the Storm’ as a part of their Lenten supper series. My goal was to contrast the uncertainty of the systems of this world with the unchanging rock of Christ. The talk is posted on the Holy Trinity site, and the link is below. Blessings and happy Monday!

http://holytrinitycharleston.podbean.com/

When CJ first showed up at the God’s People picnic a month ago, I immediately wrote him off. We were there to minister healing to the sick and broken, and he simply didn’t fit that bill. A healthy, vibrant 10-year-old boy, CJ was giving out palmetto roses and winning the hearts of everyone he talked to. From the outside looking in, he seemed like just another normal 4th grader.

Yet when Nicole told me his story, my heart towards CJ shifted. Apparently he had been living with his aunt and uncle in the projects behind the cross town, a place where drugs and prostitution were an everyday reality, when they became the victims of a drive-by shooting. That night, he and his little brother watched their uncle die before their very eyes. They were quickly uprooted and moved across town to a different housing project on the east side.

Ravi Zacharias once said that the true measure of any society is how we treat our children. This week at God’s People, I took the time to share the gospel with CJ and watched as he trusted in Jesus as his Lord and Savior. After leading him in the prayer of salvation, a group of four of us spent half an hour speaking truth into his life and helping him understand what living for Christ might look like for him. We even gave him his very own Bible! Despite his age, we knew that the angels were rejoicing over CJ in heaven. Hallelujah!

What struck me about CJ was his simple response to the gospel message. He recognized immediately that the good news of Jesus Christ is just that…good news. Now he can have peace over his eternal destiny, and what a precious gift for a boy who has no security in any other realm of his life. Praise God, now he has Jesus. Now his life will never be in want again.

Yesterday morning, I preached at Old St Andrew’s Parish Church out Hwy 61 in West Ashley. When I first glanced at the lectionary for the morning (Revised Common Lectionary | March 18, 2012), the readings were so fitting and perfect that I couldn’t imagine using just one of the texts. Instead, I chose to tell my story using all four of the daily scriptures, which came together so nicely that it felt like a lectionary slow pitch from God It went a little something like this:

Ephesians 2:1-3
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air…following the desires of flesh and senses.

The summer before my senior year at Duke, I took 27 hits of LSD in 18 days. I came to the conclusion that I was the second coming of Jesus Christ and that I was supposed to die in the ocean to usher in God’s eternal Kingdom.

Psalms 107:17
Some were fools and took to rebellious ways.

On May 29, 2005, I swam out from Folly Beach into the Atlantic Ocean to drown myself.

John 3:18
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

When I sobered up I realized that I was not Jesus, and what’s worse that I was separated from God in my sin. I saw that outside of Jesus, I was doomed to spend eternity away from God in hell. I knew it was all over for me.

Psalms 107:19-20
Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
He sent forth his word and healed them and saved them from the grave.

After watching the sun rise and set on the water, I finally prayed to God and asked him to save me. I made a vow that I would change my ways if only he would have mercy on me.

Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

I swam ashore at the Sanctuary Hotel on Kiawah Island 18 hours after leaving Folly. I knew that my survival was a miracle and that I could in no way attribute this feat to my own strength. I was and am still to this day saved purely by the grace of God.

Numbers 21:9
So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

John 3:14-15
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

After my swim, I gazed upon the cross of Christ and found salvation in him. I surrendered my life to Jesus and received his gift of forgiveness and eternal life. I had spent my whole life cowering in fear over where I would spend eternity, and now for the first time, I knew – and still know – that I will live forever with God in Heaven.

Psalms 107:21-22
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy and the wonders he does for his children.
Let them offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and tell of his acts with shouts of joy.

Since I finally realized that life is a gift, I was filled with simple joy over being alive. I still to this day rejoice in the ground underneath my feet and the breath that it is in my lungs – two things I never thought I would have again.

John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

For almost seven years, I have been walking with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I realized that he did not come to condemn me, but to rescue me from sin and death. He brought me from death to life, from darkness to light, and from Folly into his perfect Sanctuary. Truly, how great is our God!!!