All right, all right, join the Journey family, friends, and guests. You're listening to Join the Journey

podcast with your host, Emma, daughter. Thanks for joining. Today, we are reading John 4-36, and I am in the

podcast studio with Faithful Watermark member, Alfred Abraham. Hey, thank you guys for having me. Good to have you. It's been about a year

and a half since you were last year. Alfred, for those who don't know you, would you share just a

little bit about what God's done in your life and what you're up to today? Sure, yeah. I was born and raised in

Houston, Texas, to parents who immigrated from India in the late 1980s. And my parents, they came from

Christian backgrounds. I grew up going to church, being heavily involved in church-related activities, understanding and believing the gospel to be true from a very early age. A lot of my formative years growing up, however, I mean, they were pretty broken. Did a lot of fractured relationships in my life, especially within my immediate family and

sin manifested in my life in various ways. And with the addition of these broken relationships,

I say I failed to behold the beauty of God's grace and his love to the extent I do now. I say that I

was merely going through the motions, doing the work of maintaining the seemingly devout relationship

with God, because that was what I felt I was supposed to do. doing the work of maintaining the seemingly devout relationship with God,

because that was what I felt I was supposed to do. So the importance of getting a good education was emphasized by my parents. This became an idol in my life as a result, and one in which I found

my purpose. And after I finished high school, I decided to pursue medicine as a career from a desire

to quote-unquote help people that really stem from self-gratification

and pride. I remained in Houston from my undergrad graduate studies and moved to the DFW area for

medical school. However, during my first year of medical school, I hit rock bottom. No church community,

no family support, and the rigors and challenges of school itself exposed a lot of the false comforts I had previously confided in. And this was because I had a false sense of love and identity. But praise God, a close friend of mine, the faithful follower of Christ, saw me drowning and poured life into me through the power of the gospel. Praise God. Yep. Yeah. And then that season in my life, I've referred to this in the past, but it's, I call it

my second Corinthians chapter 3, verse 16 to 18 moments.

It's a long. For those who don't know that passage, give us like the summary. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed, Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of Lord is, there's freedom. and we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

And so I felt like I was able to behold God's glory and presence in a deeper way.

I felt like I could sense his love, his grace in a way that lifted the burdens of my past and even present.

So during that season, I can say that I experienced transformation through church

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