Tony Perkins - No Fear: Real Stories of a Courageous New Generation Standing for Truth

N O F EAR
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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked ( NIV ) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
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Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-60142-741-0
eBook ISBN: 978-1-60142-743-4

Copyright 2015 by Anthony R. Perkins

Jacket design by Kristopher K. Orr

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Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Perkins, Tony.
No fear : real stories of a courageous new generation standing for truth / Tony Perkins. First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-60142-741-0 ISBN 978-1-60142-743-4 (electronic) 1. Courage Religious aspects Christianity. 2. Fear Religious aspects Christianity. 3. Witness bearing (Christianity) 4. Christian biography. I. Title.
BV4647.C75P47 2015
243 dc23
2015008739

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When my first child was born Anthony Richard Perkins I had no idea what it meant to be a father. My own father was killed in a railroad accident when I was just three years old, and while I had men I looked up to, I never had a father figure. My mother did her very best as a single mom, and I am grateful that she devoted her life to raising me and my older siblings. She had several opportunities for courtship, but she said protecting and raising me was her top priority. I never knew the full meaning of that until years later.

My wife and I were married at a little church in Cincinnati that she had attended while growing up. I attended with her a few times after we were married, but I didnt care much for the preacher because he seemed to yell a lot. So we quit attending. God was not a part of our lives or our home at the time, but thanks to our son Tony, that would soon change.

The summer before Tony was to start kindergarten, a new church in our town, Grace Bible Presbyterian Church, held a parade through our neighborhood, signing up kids for Vacation Bible School. We thought the interaction with other kids would be a great way to get him prepared for school, so we signed him up. Tony loved Vacation Bible School so much that for weeks afterward he would ask, Dad, when are you going to take me to Sunday school? I would always say, Next Sunday. That went on for several months, until one Sunday I finally gave in.

A five-year-old boy who had never gone to church didnt realize that no one sits in the front row. In fact, no one sat in the first five rows that morning except Tony and me, only because I was unable to catch him as he scooted down the center aisle. The Sunday school superintendent looked down at us and said, Looks like we have some visitors with us this morning. As an introvert, I hated being embarrassed like that. To this day I believe God stuck me to the seat or I would have gotten up and left.