Roll Away Your Stone: Living in the Power of the Risen Christ

Dutch Sheets
Bethany House (2007)
ISBN 0764201735
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (2/07)

When we ask Jesus Christ into our hearts our life has new definition.  We’re excited.  We’re on fire.  Then something happens, a setback; it could be a divorce, illness, job loss.  We weaken, often in the same place over and over again.  “And, eventually, we felt like a hopeless cause—an inept, ineffective Christian.”  We begin to feel far from God, like we’re letting him down.  This book is about “finding a full, lasting solution.  Throughout history God has always provided a way to overcome.  He is the Great Physician and deliverer.  And despite your frustrations with what you thought was His way to fix your problems turns out, it wasn’t His solution brings complete, permanent results.”   “God did not intend for you to live a defeated Existence that always loses its battle.”

First, we must come to recognize who we are.  We usually look to ourselves for who we are instead of looking to God.  Since God created us, we cannot define ourselves.  Second, we must “know our enemy.”  Third, we must know “the specific principles God communicates to us through His Word.”

This book arrived at a timely moment.  I was at a weak point, once again facing back surgery.  I’d prayed for a healing.  My church had anointed me and still the pain was there and the test showed a ruptured disc.  I’d assured my congregation I knew the Lord was with me.  He had answered our prayers - after all I saw a surgeon within days, not weeks, and the surgeon is a Christian.  Still, I was frightened.  I didn’t doubt God’s existence or that He loved me, but I needed a boost and received it from this book.  I needed a reminder not to look inside myself, but to God. We all face times of weakness and doubt, and try to depend upon ourselves instead of God.  Thank you, Pastor Dutch, for the reminder that ultimately the Lord is in control.  It is not the mind God speaks to, but the spirit.  It is with great honor that I highly recommend “Roll Away Your Stone” to all, for we all have weakness and fall short of the “Glory of the Lord.”

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