Read by Russell Moore

Do not be afraid We live in a fearful and cowardly time. Some are anxious and withdrawn, seeking to escape the notice of whatever scares them. Others mask their fear with fighting and quarrelsomeness. The root of all of this fear is the fear that we might lose our belonging in whatever tribe in which we seek safety, the fear that we might have to stand alone. The crisis we face is not a crisis of clarity but a crisis of courage. Our problem is not so much a lack of knowledge as a lack of nerve. And yet, Jesus told us that we are to stand with courage. That doesn't mean that we will be fearless but that we will know how to face our fear and keep walking toward the voice that calls us homeward. Gospel courage is nothing like the bravado of this anxious age. The call to courage is terrifying because the call to courage is a call to be crucified. In The Courage to Stand, best-selling and award-winning author Russell Moore calls listeners to a Christ-empowered courage by pointing the way to real freedom from fear - the way of the cross. That way means integrity through brokenness, community through loneliness, power through weakness, and a future through irrelevance. On the other side of fear is freedom: the freedom to stand. Russell Moore is president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination. The Wall Street Journal called him "vigorous, cheerful, and fiercely articulate." He is the author of several books, including Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches, and the bestselling and Christianity Today Beautiful Orthodoxy books of the year Onward: Engaging the Culture without Losing the Gospel and The Storm-Tossed Family: How the Cross Reshapes the Home. He and his wife Maria are the parents of five sons

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