Now, if we're honest, reading the Bible consistently can be a challenge, but know that it's never too late to start and we're in this together.

Thanks for journeying with us. And here's your host, Emma, daughter.

Thanks for joining. Today, we are reading Jeremiah 48 through 49 and I am in the podcast studio with one of our Watermarked students, Perry Howell. Hi, it's good to be here. Perry, so glad to have you here. First time making an appearance on the podcast. I think your older brother was on the podcast maybe a couple years ago. Yes, he was. But it's good to have you. And I would love for our listeners to get to know you a little bit better. So would you share how you came to know Jesus and what's going on in your life these days?

Yeah, of course. So from a young age, I grew up learning a lot about God, going to church on Sundays here at Watermark and attending small groups on Wednesday nights. I love learning about God and I always knew how the stories went and all of the right answers in class. I knew everything about God,

but I didn't really know him personally or intimately. So what I thought was my faith was never on the

front of my mind, and I generally just pulled it out when I was supposed to in certain settings.

I didn't revere the Lord for who he was, and so I didn't understand the severity of the gospel that I had always known.

And so as a result, I wasn't living it out and my life was not marked by a changed heart at all.

I thought that being a Christian meant being a good kid who didn't do bad things. I never drank. I didn't

cuss. I made good grades. And I think I always had wanted to keep up an image of myself

so that others would perceive me as a good question. But that just caused a lot of struggle with my

identity and seeking validation and things that were really fleeting. And so the things that I did

or didn't do, how well I performed in school and sports, and how others viewed me started to define who I was.

And so I put them ahead of trying to pursue my relationship with Christ.

And I let them become sort of like excuses for not chasing after him because I believe they made me right with him.

I also struggled with a lot of self-centeredness because everything

I did was to make others think of me how I wanted. I was constantly focused on drawing attention to

and bringing glory to myself to control this image. And so I had a lot of pride because I still

considered myself to be Christian and yet judged others who made those bad choices. I believe

that I was better than them when really I was not walking with him, so I was just as in need of

his grace. In that season, my heart was so far from the Lord. So this was a source of a lot of doubt

and it exposed the instability of my faith. As I got older, I began to think and question the truth of everything that I had blindly believed growing up,

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