Resurrected Life Evangelistic Church

182 Anderson Ave. Morrisville PA 19067 (215) 295-3086

www.resurrectedlife.com

Sunday Service: 11:15 AM

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♫  “ Melodies from Heaven, rain down on me, rain down on me.

Take me in your arms and hold me close, rain down on me, rain down on me.”

Elder Ronald W. Dunston, Pastor

Quarterly Newsletter, 5^th Edition (1^st Anniversary)

January 2008 A A A A A

Mission Statement: As empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are a committed congregation united to communicate, educate and celebrate the resurrected life of Jesus Christ. Our desire is to reach as many people as possible, so that they will come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.

Vision Statement: We are a committed congregation united to love God and one another; to accomplish this end: encourage, equip and empower people to discover the God-intended purpose for their lives.

FEATURES:

P 3 Pastor’s Message

Pastor Dunston

P 4 The Journey

Dr Phil (aka Phil Solomon)

P 6 You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me

Mary Mary (aka Maryann Covello)

P 9 Peace in the Midst of The Storm

Sister Monica (aka Monica Thompson)

P 11 RLEC Special Events and People

Mama Col (aka Nicki Fields)

PHOTOS: Ronald Dunston II

We welcome any creative and inspired church family writers to contribute to our newsletter.

PASTOR’S MESSAGE

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ;

Let me begin by welcoming you to 2008, the Year of Abundant Release. We at Resurrected Life are experiencing a glorious transformation. Over the next 6 months we will see great things from the hand of our Lord. This will cause us to experience a closeness to the Lord like never before and we will achieve greater sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.

I am encouraging you to continue to bring in the lost, broken and hurting as the Lord releases the abundance of his Spirit to lead the lost, mend the broken and heal the hurting. You will be blessed as a result of your obedience.

Join us as we look forward to February, which is our month of Fasting and Prayer. The Daughters of the Most High God Women’s Fellowship continues to grow and started the year off with a powerful fast and All Night Prayer in January. We also are excited about our church’s Leadership expansion as well as the formulation of our Young Adult Ministry. The Media Ministry is also expanding, and DVDs and CDs of church services will now be available. The Lord has continued to bless the Purging Word Television Broadcast and the S.O.A.R. Children Ministry is doing just that, SOARING in the Lord. Show yourself mighty Lord!

To the new members and many visitors, I say welcome to a Resurrected Life. To our readers, please enjoy our anointed writers and the things that are going on at Resurrected Life Evangelistic Church. My prayer is that the Presence of God will continue to challenge you to share His message of love.

Because of Christ,

Pastor Dunston

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the real life I now have with this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am NOT one of those who treats Christ’s death as meaningless.

For if keeping Jewish laws could save us, then there was not need for Christ to die. Gal 2:20-21”

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THE JOURNEY

-Dr Phil

Applications Class of December 2007

The last several articles that I have written for our newsletter have been somewhat of a biography of my life’s ups and downs. It has also been a message of the struggles and the many mistakes that I have made along the way.

As a young man baptized in the Episcopalian faith, I was covered by the blood and knew that Jesus Christ was my Lord and Savior. But living the message was another thing. The inclination to live for self is very strong. But God had always had his hand on me and guided me through many difficult and rebellious years in my life- …though being spiritual uneducated I didn’t realize this.

However fourteen months ago the real journey began. By chance I met up with Pastor Dunston whom I had known in earlier years from the work world, and he invited me to his church. I was curious, and for curiosity sake I first came to Resurrected Life Church.

Proverbs 2 reflects on the search for true wisdom. “So that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding: Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your vice for understanding, If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures: Then you will understand the fear of the Lord”. (Prov 2:2-5)

After attending the first service and hearing Pastor Dunston speak, something touched me like never before. It was good, it was powerful, it was the Spirit of God calling me, and I wanted to learn more. This was the beginning of my spiritual journey. Week after week I learned more about the Word of God and began studying the Bible more and increasing my prayer life. Soon this became my only focus. If you remember from past articles I have written, after a bad experience with my health 13 years ago, my doctor gave me a prognosis of only a year to live if I didn’t have major surgery. However that time has come and passed (without the surgery), and I am feeling strong and healthy, able to be of service to the Lord through several things I do for his church, and grateful to God that I had the chance to learn more about him through Jesus Christ, now my strong and personal Lord and Savior.

“To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment and equity…” . This passage from Proverbs 1:2-4 establishes the wisdom I was so earnestly seeking. Pastor Dunston who was the only one I knew when I first came to Resurrected Life Church, he pointed me in the right direction and the right road. Pastor Dunston also took the time and had the patience (he needed a lot with me!), to search the Word with me and explain it, so I had a cleaner understanding of God’s deliverance, his expectations, his teachings, and the strength and the joy he gives us through the Holy Spirit.

As the weeks I spend in RLEC became months, my journey was beginning to have more clarity to me. It was no longer about me, it was about Christ -and me living the best I could in the Christian lifestyle and being of service to Christ. To be able to bring more people to God through the abilities and attributes the Lord gave me. This was my goal now. I was moving to the next level in my Christian walk.

My journey is now at a point with the increasing enlightenment of knowing that my purpose and reason for being here is to worship and praise God, and to grow in peace with him. In studying the Word and growing in my prayer life, I also have learned to reach out to as many people as possible by being a better witness. Also hopefully some of my articles the past year on the stories of my life have touched some readers into thoughtful considerations on God’s guidance and plans for us, even when we don’t know he’s there. As Brother Blackshire stated so eloquently at our New Year’s Eve service, remember to ALWAYS keep God first in our journey, in the good times, in the bad times, in the rich or poor times, in the lonely times, in the crowded times. Without God there is nothing. And as Brother Adkins’s prayer over the offering that same night, “Take us dear Lord, from where we are, to where need to be”. Finally also on New Years Eve, the Sisters Choir closed our service with the moving song “Never Would have Made it Without You”.

The New Year arrives and hopefully I’ll be at this good church giving service and all praises to our Lord for another blessed year. Another year, which so many years ago, the doctors said, I wouldn’t have. Isn’t God great?

So on that note may: God bless and heal our world.

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You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me

-Mary Mary

“I am the Lord your God, who bought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other Gods before Me.” Exodus 20:1-3

In the beginning of December, the Pastor spoke on Psalm 23 (-You Can Count on God-). He gave us descriptive, clear illustrations of how a Shepard takes care of his sheep, leading them on safe paths, protecting them from their enemies with his rod and leading them through low, still waters. This psalm of course is an illustration of Christ the Good Shepard and how he loves us and will take care of us if we let him. But part of letting God take care of us is in being obedient to the first Commandment which says “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before me.”

What? many of you might say? -of course I have no other Gods before Jehovah God. I worship Jesus Christ as my Savior, and believe in the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit. I do not pray to or believe in any other religious faiths, or to pray to any other Supernatural beings. That’s sounds ridiculous.

However… many of us unconsciously put human beings in the place of God. We get so wrapped up in our husbands or wives, our children, our friends, ourselves, even inanimate things like reputation or pride. Many good people do not realize that they are putting these things first and God second or third. –And the devil is hard at work keeping a veil over our eyes, keeping us deceived so that we don’t work on change. We may not want to see, because we don’t want to change. Our old nature is very comfortable. But God sees very clearly. And we will continue to be in some kind of turmoil, some kind of rut because we aren’t putting first things first -or having proper priorities.

Other people may or may not see our choices, anyway it’s easy to fool people. But God sees our inner actions and choices, and knows what is in our heart, who we put first. We should love and respect other human beings of course; they are our brothers and sisters. And ideally we should deeply love our families. But love them, not worship them. If we have an abnormal devotion for a person that should be reserved for God alone, that human being (or beings) will continually disappoint and hurt us, because no human being is capable of taking the place of God, no human being is perfect. Only God is perfect, only God is deserving of worship, and only God wants the best for us all the time. If we place another human being before God, eventually we will be miserable, and may not understand why things didn’t go as we planned, or went so wrong for us when we tried so hard, sacrificed so much. If we are a person that accepts a lot of abuse or disrespect from another person, or continually gets involved in another person’s crisis’s or bad decisions because of an unhealthy devotion towards that person, or are depressed all the time because of another person’s actions we have to ask ourselves not what is wrong with the other person, but what is wrong with us?

What’s wrong is that we are placing another human being in the place of God.

Putting another human being ahead of God is not always so obvious to the outside world, as it is with an addict who puts his habit of choice ahead of God, and the outside world can clearly see his world falling apart. It is also not always so obvious to the outside world when people, or leaders, put inanimate things like reputation and pride ahead of humbly coming to God. (However this type of pride is more like haughtiness than healthy pride- and that’s another subject). But God sees all things plainly and knows the hearts of all. The Lord looks at the heart.

I’m not talking about someone who is worried about their sick or injured or disabled friend or parent or child, and nursing them back to health. I’m not talking about someone who’s trying to stick out temporary bad times in a marriage, and at the same time working on change. I’m talking about someone who lives a life of constantly jealousy, unequal sacrifice, always thinking about someone else’s life instead of fixing up their own life, complaining or depressed all the time because of other people’s choices, and always finding reasons not to change.

However many people have painful experiences that they have to work on with God’s help, and this makes progress harder and slower, and old habits are more difficult to change. It is true that previous cruel or insensitive experiences leave lasting memories and distorted beliefs about God, others, and self, and for some people are extremely difficult to unlearn. We must continue to work on ourselves, and through the actions of our church family, must help prove to our brothers and sisters that they are loved and valued, in spite of their experiences. We are the representatives of God in this painfully dangerous world. We are the arms that our Lord Jesus wants to use to touch and hug the ones who come for help. We must speak the truth in love. “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Furthermore as it says in 1Corinthians 14:16 “Do everything in Love”. So we cannot stop trying. As Sister Monica says in her article about Peace, “as long as you are with God, you are always going forward”.

By putting God first, and loving other people in healthy relationships, we should be happy, feel strong, be useful, and have a healthy self-respect for ourselves most of the time. Working on painful experiences within ourselves means asking God for the strength and guidance to make changes. Because if you don’t take care of your issues, your issues will take care of you, to restate a quotation said during one of our fine, hit it home Sunday sermons.

By letting another person take the consequences of their actions, by not automatically blowing up at a teacher who disciplines your child, by not allowing another person to treat you wrongly, or not blowing out of proportion a disagreement, is all part of putting God first (among many others). In putting God first we will get the wisdom to deal more correctly with other people and issues in our life, and be more capable of making the right choices. But if we don’t put God first, we will continue to suffer, to stay in bondage, make a lot of wrong choices and miss God’s joy. Only Jesus Christ is our good shepherd who will lead us along still waters, who will use his rod to comfort and protect us and lay us down to peaceful rest times. Jesus is the only one we can worship that will not fail. He is our good shepherd, our teacher and our King, and with our decision to say yes to him, he will lead us on the right path. And then you can be a stronger, more positive testimony for Him.

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (II Timothy 1:7

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder, Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed,

Then sings my soul, My Savior God to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou Art

THE BATTLE FOR VICTORIOUS LIFE & RELATIONSHIPS

”Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the methods of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:11-12)

PEACE IN THE MIDST OF THE STORM

-Sister Monica

“O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandment, then thy peace would have been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the Sea” (Isaiah 48:18)

“A Time to love, and a Time to hate; A time of war, and a Time of Peace” (Ecc 3: 8)

PEACE: freedom from mental disturbance, serenity of mind; to achieve reconciliation for oneself or for another person to stop harassment. Harmony, calm, quiet and tranquility.

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Peace, there’s nothing like it.

God’s peace holds our every being together. His peace gives us the calm and the assurance that we can carry ourselves with, even when things are not looking good. This is because a Christian should know that despite what they see or are going through, they can enter into the peace of God and relax in his loving arms and presence. We can receive fullness of Joy in Him that will help us get through hard times. Sometimes its hard to remember when we are down and out, that God hears our every cry, our every pray. Jesus who knows our worries, who sees our every teardrop, who sits at the right hand the Father, -he is constantly making intercessions on our behalf, even in times of wrong. There is no one like Him.

As I begin to go into more detail about this peace that we can have, please know that I first had to experience what it was like to NOT have this peace in operation. So my prayer is that you can rest in our Lordship and know in your heart, that with Jehovah Shalom, who gives us this peace that transcends all understanding, he will strengthen and guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

When we experience doubt, worry, anxiety and fear, we must learn to turn to our Maker and Creator. When anything disrupts the God given peace we have in Christ, we must take the time to concentrates on Jesus, who is our Prince of Peace, who is the author and finisher of our faith. –Who knows everything.

Sometimes this can be very challenging, because when we are in a place of discomfort it easy to think negatively. Try to pray and have faith, standing strong against the temptations of the devil who wants us to fail, and understand that the things we go through is a part of our making and maturity, in order to get to the prize. God is working with us, directing our paths towards greater Christian maturity. Becoming a mature Christian, we will indeed experience hardship and confusion. The devil will try to throw you off course. But Jesus said “Peace I leave with you. My Peace I give unto you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Jesus also said in John 16:33 “ These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” He promises us this peace and we must- Be still and quiet, calm down, believe and listen to the still small voice. Jesus is our peace, no matter what happens in our outside world. The outside world, the values and false promises it holds will not give us peace, and most of us have to learn this the hard way. Jesus is the only way to real and everlasting peace.

When we have enemies around us that try and take away the gifts that God has given us, or that try to through us off course, we must use the sword of the Spirit, “…And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” (Eph 6:17). The proper use of our “Sword” requires -training, -practice and -more practice. So it is important to study the Word regularly at home or in a Bible group.

Also to have true peace we must desire to be in harmony and peace with all God’s people, and ask the Spirit to lead us that way as much as possible. “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14). However physically this can be very hard to do sometimes, and we may not be able to do this in our own flesh (strength). But it is the mighty, magnificent Spirit of God that lives inside of us that will give us the strength we need to walk in this path. It can be done. We can do all things through Christ who gives us the strength (if you work on it). We have the power of God to use the tools he has given us to work on change, to be open to truths he is trying to teach us, and to turn our fear, worry, doubt into peace, love and joy.

Our God given power supply is Jesus, the Word and our Sword. So again, it is a good thing to read and study your Bible regularly, because there will be some hard times when you can’t get to a Bible. But if you have studied and memorized lessons, stories, verses etc, your faith and strength will grow through the wisdom you have acquired. Then when the devil starts attacking you through bad events in your life, you can fall back on your “Sword”, that you have on the inside and fight off the enemy.

We can also PRAISE our way to peace. “Let them praise the name of the Lord; for His Name alone is excellent; His glory is above the earth and heaven. (Psalm 148:13). The enemy doesn’t want to stay where praise of God is spoken. He has to flee, and as we continue to experience this walk with God, know that you are moving forward, even if sometimes it feels that you are only crawling forward. But know with assurance that as long as we are with God, it is always forward. God also knows exactly where we are in Him. God knew we needed this peace to give us strength in the world, that’s why he sent the Holy Spirit. He knew the obstacles and trials that we would endure. Understand that whatever we go through, it will soon pass. Trouble does not last “and the Peace that passeth all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7).

God who is Yahweh, Jehovah, El Ely on, the most high God, who is the first cause of everything, the possessor and highest sovereign of heaven and earth, who is the everlasting God. The Great God, the living God, the all powerful, the most merciful, the faithful and almighty God. He is Truth, He is Justice, righteousness, perfection and protection. He is Life.

God bless you my sisters and brothers. He does not forsake you in times of trouble, stay encouraged. God bless and the Lord’s Peace be with you.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. (Isaiah 26:3)

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RLEC SPECIAL EVENTS AND PEOPLE

-Mama Col

~ Oh What a Night ~

To God be the Glory-

In my short lifetime I’ve been to a few “shut ins”, “all night prayers” and overnight prayer, but I must say never before have I been to all night anointing like I was last Friday, January 11 at the Women’s All Night Prayer Night. Our first Lady who organized this event is a prayerful woman and a role model for us all, young and old. Just the fact that she had a format for the Women’s All Night Prayer Night, was the first thing that struck me as awesome, and let me know that this was not going to be any ordinary shut in.

Well I was totally right. There were 12 women members of RLEC and 2 visitors who came to the all night event that began at 10 pm. During the night 2 members and 1 visitor left early, so it was 11 of us all nighters that made it through the whole night. Before the event we had started fasting beginning on Wednesday with only 1 meal on that day, then the next day Thursday only water and juice. On Friday we were to have only water.

Friday night between 10-11 pm, we opened up with a hymn, and then moved on to scripture and discussion of the theme, which was being Spirit Led Women. “Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God for to You I will pray. My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord: in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up (Psalm 5:1-3).

11-1am was Hour of Agreement and Testimony Hour. “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt 18:18). 2-3am was Intercessory Hour where we prayed for our Pastor, Church, Community, family, friend, co-workers etc. Thank you Jesus for all these blessings. 3-4am was our submission hour. During this hour like all others we began by reading scripture (John 13:3-9), about how Jesus washed the feet of his disciplines. After that we sang and prayed, and shared feelings and situations in our lives with each other. But this was so special to me, my First Lady washed my feet and at that moment I felt a bond and that God gave me the true feeling and meaning of what it is to be submissive. This was one of my most blessed hours.

Hours 4-5 was Break through hour. We prayed to God for breakthrough (deliverance) in specific areas in our lives. And as the hour passed by, I felt closer to God and felt I grew spiritually. I felt myself actually lifted to another level of praise and worship. “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:13-14).

Hours 5-6 was Victory Hour. Our hymn was “There is Power in the Blood”. We then had communion, and you know at this point I knew that Jesus was definitely in the room because of the sweet anointing that have filled the sanctuary. “As they walked along they were talking of Jesus’ death, when suddenly Jesus himself came along and began walking beside them. But they didn’t recognize him, for God kept them from it” (Luke 24:14-15).

As always to God be the Glory. These are just some of the things that God has blessed Resurrected Life Church with. It’s wonderful to have a place to worship. But the blessing is to have an anointed Pastor and First Lady to lead you and be there for you in spirit and in truth and always prayful.

High School Graduation Announcements Home Page Signature College Graduation Announcements Home Page

I would next like to write about our own Evangelist Stella Leggett who graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Philadelphia College of Bible last 12/08/07. Sister Leggett is a wonderful example of a woman who didn’t give up and kept pushing herself and other people around her to excel and better their situations. She is a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, a foster mother and auntie. Yet she returned part time to school in 1993-1994 to pursue a degree she had always wanted, and worked just as hard or harder than the many younger students around her. Although she had to put her education on hold for several years to take care of her large family, she also stayed involved in community affairs such as being a Trenton Family Services and Daycare Administration volunteer, participating in gospel music events, being a foster parent, but always hoping to finish her degree, which she had made up her mind to do and after returning to school in 2005, she finally finished in 2007. That alone fills me with awe, and silences all my excuses and complaints about the hardships I have about having no energy or time to do things. The fact that Sister Leggett still plans on furthering her education one day in the future shows me the love she has for her subject matter. But love of family and struggling with term papers, exams, midterms, taking 16 or more credits isn’t all Sister Leggett was doing during these last two years. She also enthusiastically participates in all RLEC church activities, is involved in the Praise and Worship team, is a member of the Sister’s Choir, “LIFTS HIM UP” at church, participates in many key roles for the Women’s Group, assists with arranging transportation for church guests and visitors, takes senior members from various churches to Christian events, is also a community activist, reads to the blind, is a church intercessor and a Sunday School teacher. The list could go on and on, but let me finish by saying she is just a gracious lady all around with encouragement and a positive role model for everybody, and the first to say, “to God be the glory”.

Sister Leggett is truly the proof of a woman who trusted and is obedient to the Lord and is testimony to God’s promise of the strength and joy taught in Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, temperance, meekness, goodness, longsuffering” and John 15:8 “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples”. She lives by her favorite psalm “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). Happy Graduation Evangelist Leggett, you have truly been an inspiration to me and a blessing to everybody around you.

RLEC

The second person I would like to acknowledge is our own David Ponton who is a graduate of Trenton High School now attending Princeton University. He was recently asked by Trenton High to give a tribute about Dr Martin Luther King at a recent talent and celebration show held January 17 at the school for Dr King. David will be leaving for Africa soon to spend time there studying, learning and helping. What a great experience that will be! However Africa’s gain is our loss. We’ll miss David and his loving energy and warm personality, but wish him the best in this exciting time.

I would also like to mention the wonderful SOAR Christmas celebration on 12/23/07. The SOAR Children’s Ministry consisting of Sydney Galloway, Tyashia Davis, Kiara Ponton, Biquaysha Thompson, Jabree Funchers, Augustus Powell, Najee Ponton, Myashia Davis and Ronald Dunston put on a fun night consisting of prayer, scripture, song and the play “Is it Really Christmas”. It was a fun time for everyone.

Ù Ù Extra! Extra! Did I mention??? Sister Jesse Jones also got her Bachelor of Arts degree in December. God is blessing these great women. Congratulations to another special woman who didn’t let detours and difficulties stop her!

Also as a FYI to our church family about Tameka Blackshire, who we are know, love and miss. After her exciting year as a student in England last seminar doing an intern in theatre along with her other studies, she returned to the U.S in December and is now continuing her education at a university in Pittsburgh. -I think pursuing a secondary degree as a renowned National and Foreign Affairs expert, which she’ll certainly have the qualifications for! ☺

Lastly, I would like to include a copy of a letter on from a recent visitor to our church. Sister Kelly, a woman that lives in Brother Phil Solomon’s housing complex came to RLEC last December, and this is the letter she wrote to him afterwards about her experience.