Green Box: Refresh. Renew. Rejoice. 100% Online.

The green box is a new place for you to go to go to REFRESH your soul. To RENEW your faith. To REJOICE with others. New on www.hourofpower.org, the green box is your 100% online resource for
refreshment, renewal, and joy!

In the green box, among many other positive resources, you'll find:

The Prayer Community, where Pastor Sheila, ministry staff, and loving Hour of Power friends lift prayers to God every day! Become a part of this
vibrant community that believes in prayer to revitalize your life and the lives of
those you love.

The "Positive Minute," a dynamic daily e-devotional filled with encouragement and inspiration written by Dr. Schuller, Pastor Sheila, and other ministry leaders.

The weekly Hour of Power messages you love, available by podcast, so when you're on the move, you can take a message with you to receive a spiritual lift that only the Hour of Power can provide.

Social media networks, where you can sign up, for example, to be a fan of Hour of Power or friend of Pastor Sheila on Facebook, and receive video updates and encouraging words to share with your friends.

So, visit the green box today to refresh your spirit and renew your soul as we rejoice together in all the positive good that God is doing in our lives. The new green box is your 100% online resource, twenty-four seven, at www.hourofpower.org.

You Are God's Dream!

By Dr. Robert H. Schuller

I really believe that God is before me, behind me, and around me. One thing I know—I never asked to be born. I did not choose my father or mother. I did not choose my race, the color of my skin, or the language that I learned as a child. I did not choose the community in which I was born and raised. I did not choose the school I attended from the first grade through high school.

I have become increasingly aware throughout my life of one sentence that God has whispered to me time and time again: "You have not chosen me... I have chosen YOU!"

I believe powerfully in God's sense of destiny for our lives. You are God's glorious idea. You are God's wondrous dream! What miracle will He perform with and through you and me TODAY and TOMORROW?

The poet Louise Fletcher once wrote, "I wish that there were some wonderful place called the Land of Beginning Again, where all our mistakes and all our heartaches and all of our grief could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door and never put on again." Well, there is such a place. It is called NOW. In His mercy, God has granted each of us a new beginning at the dawn of each new day. When God is present within us, all things become new! Hallelujah!

Wake-up Call!

By Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman

Who needs an alarm clock when you have a brand new baby? As a new mother, I was stunned at how the cry of a newborn baby could awaken my husband and I no matter how tired we were. There is no snooze button to hit when a baby cries. You get up and care for your infant and then, hopefully, get back to sleep. As new parents, you begin to long for the time when the baby will sleep through the night.

But, oh, the first time we heard the cry of each of our sons. The birth of our child-that first cry-he is born! Our child is born! A new life! After waiting and expecting and hoping and praying, finally the birth day arrived and the first breaths were heralded by the cry-a cry that made me and my husband cry-with joy.

The world was in desperate need of a Savior. The Messiah had been foretold and eagerly awaited. God's dream for His children was that they would be saved and redeemed from dead-end lives. And God did not keep His dream a secret. He gave us hints, hundreds of them through the prophets so we would recognize with certainty His only begotten Son.

So, for hundreds of years The Jewish nation eagerly anticipated, waiting, hoping, and expecting the arrival of the Messiah. I am sure they thought He would be born as the previous sons of kings had been born-with much heraldry and fanfare and in a palace, wrapped in silks.

Jesus-born to a teenage, unwed, virgin mother in a cave surrounded not by palace guards, but lowly beasts, cried out and awakened God's dream. This wake up call was accompanied by a heavenly host announcing that God's Son had been born. The Messiah had come. And as a result-we could have everlasting life.

May you celebrate God's wake-up call-the cry of a newborn baby-His Son. May His redemptive love awaken God's dream in your life today.

God Turns a Dream into a Miracle!

By Dr. Robert H. Schuller

The fear of failure keeps most people from believing that God can and will make their dreams come true. They are afraid to try. I often think of Christy Wilson, that great missionary to Kabul, Afghanistan. The major industry in Kabul was raising sheep, and the major problem in raising sheep was a disease caused by a worm that gets in the intestines of the sheep when they eat snails.

Now ducks love to eat these snails, but Christy noticed there were no ducks in Afghanistan. He wrote to a friend in the states and asked for some fertilized duck eggs. Twenty-four fertilized duck eggs were sent. His friend said, "They will hatch, provided the eggs are not dropped, they get there on time, and the temperature stays warm. In other words, it will take a miracle."

By the time they arrived in Kabul, some were broken; they were cracked and smelly. Christy said, "We'll just have to pray that we get at least one male and one female."

You can guess what happened: only two eggs hatched, a male and a female. They multiplied and eventually wiped out the snails and the sheep industry boomed. God took Christy's dream and worked a miracle because he decided to try.

- EXCERPTED FROM 365 Power Thoughts: Hope for Today and Tomorrow

I Am With You Always

"And surely I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS to the very end of the age"
-Matthew 28:20, The words of Jesus Christ

We've read or heard the words so many times..."I am with you always." But, do we EVER really stop to think about it, embrace it, or totally take in what Jesus is REALLY saying to us in this incredible five-word phrase? He IS with you "always." ALWAYS. Wow! The Creator of the Universe, with YOU, ALWAYS. Almost unbelievable- but, profoundly true.

Beginning Sunday, September 12, and continuing for three Sundays, Dr. Schuller and Sheila, on Hour of Power, will once again offer to you the beautiful porcelain cross box with these powerful words from Jesus in golden letters on its lid: "I am with you always." Inside the porcelain box (3-3/4" wide, 5" long, 1" deep) are five glistening "pocket crosses" (each one etched with these same five words) for you to give away to those you know or love.

Watch the Hour of Power beginning Sunday, September 12 for more details. A tax-deductable gift of only $25 is requested for each porcelain cross box you request.

Awaken the Dream!

By Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman

God has placed a dream in the heart of every one of His children-and that means YOU! You have the seed of a God-given dream in your soul. It may have been lying dormant for your entire life.

Today God is saying, "It's time! Wake up that dream! I need that dream to become reality! I need you to get to work on living that dream in your waking hours! This dream is going to save lives - and it's not too early, it's not too late - it's right on time. The alarm is sounding."

Wake up! Get going! You can do it!

Don't let the fear of failure keep your dream asleep.

Don't let the excuses of too old, not educated enough, not experienced enough, keep your dream from becoming reality.

Don't let past mistakes or failures be a sedative that keeps your dream dormant.

Let the fires in your life spark new life in your dream.

Let the breath of God fan the spark until it bursts into a passion that nothing can squelch-not setbacks, not naysayers, not even lack of resources.

Where there's a will there's a way! If God wants you to do something and you say "Yes" to His call, then nothing is impossible!

How do you know if it's God's dream? Easy. Is it positive? Will it help others? Has your heart been broken-then start looking there for God's dream for you. God doesn't allow our hearts to be broken unless it is really necessary and "In love's service only broken hearts will do."

Where has your heart been broken? Is that the seed of a dream that is lying dormant? Is this a dream that could help others whose lives are breaking in the same way? Is this something you cannot stop thinking about, cannot stop dreaming about?

Then-wake it up-today! What can you do today to wake up God's dream in you? If you ask yourself this question every day, if you do something every day toward waking up His dream for you-maybe it's checking into a college course (there are scholarships and tuition assistance programs!)-maybe it's talking about it-letting others know!

In fact, do it today-tell someone before the day is over, "I have this dream I think is of God. What do you think?"

Hasn't it been asleep too long? What are you waiting for? Don't you dare press that snooze button. It's time! Wake up!

Three new Hour of Power opportunities to reach ’round the world!

The reach of this positive televised church service is EXPANDING! In an ever-changing television market and even during an economic recession, recent miraculous developments are reversing a downward trend in ways only God could imagine and initiate.

The Hour of Power is now more widely available on Lifetime Network nationally, Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) around the world, and other international, self-supporting broadcast outlets. And now—there’s more!

In an increased effort to provide more programming in native languages, at no cost to our ministry, TBN is collaborating with us to televise:

1. Our Spanish-language church service with Pastor Dante Gebel on the new Enlace TBN network.
2. Our Arabic-language church service with Pastor Emeel Shenoda on a new network reaching the Middle East with the gospel of Jesus Christ. A third exciting development occurred when a friend of a Crystal Cathedral member approached the ministry with an amazing opportunity.
3. Rev. Joseph C. Nguyen, Chairman and CEO of Vietnamese Broadcasting Services—a TV network reaching millions of Vietnamese and Americans throughout the U.S., Canada, Saigon, and beyond—stepped forward with free television airtime for our English-language church service with Dr. Robert H. Schuller and Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman every Sunday, 11 AM to noon.

Now reaching more of the world than ever before at a fraction of the cost, your gifts are essential in maintaining the English language Hour of Power base. Like loaves and fishes, your gifts multiply beyond measure as the Lord sustains, increases, and creates new possibilities bigger than our minds can even imagine! Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the apples in the seeds you sow into this ministry. God bless you for your fruitfulness.