Positive words actually improve your brain chemistry. They trigger the release of endorphins in your brain. They create positive emotions and make you feel better.

So think, say, read, hear, repeat some wonderful words today -- JOY, PEACE, LOVE, HAPPINESS, COMPASSION, VICTORY, CONFIDENCE, ENTHUSIASM, EXCELLENCE, SUCCESS, and my favorite word, JESUS!

"Under all circumstances, there is but one honest course; and that is do right and trust the consequences to Divine Providence." --Lydia Marie Child

"To be free one needs constant and unrelenting vigilance over one's weaknesses." --Robyn Davidson

"I don't want everyone to like me. I should think less of myself if some people did." --Henry James

One of the world's most courageous men of all time is finally getting some of the recognition he deserves. William Wilberforce was a member of the British Parliament who stood up and spoke up boldly against the international slave trade and against slavery in the British Empire. His efforts and those of others ended slavery in the British Empire during his lifetime.

A new movie is coming out about Wilberforce called: "Amazing Grace". It comes out February 23, 2006.

Wilberforce was a bold Christian who believed both in the reality of the Living Jesus Christ and in social justice. He wrote a wonderful book called "Real Christianity". Here are a few quotes from it:

"The very tendency that we feel to hide our faith from the world's view confirms that we are more influenced by the world's opinion than we are by God's." --William Wilberforce

"Always turn away from the dangerous false wisdom that says, 'I will do evil so that good will come.'" --William Wilberforce

"When our humility grows, our faith will also flourish; but when our humility begins to fail, so will our faith." --William Wilberforce

"Nominal Christians are nothing like the real thing. Their lives are cold copies of the reality, faint lines traced by a dull pencil, conveying nothing of faith's force and grace." --William Wilberforce

"Unless we bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, we have no reason to say we have received that Spirit of Christ -- and without it we are not His." --William Wilberforce

Watchman Nee was a great Chinese Christian leader in the first half of the 20th Century. He preached across China and started house churches. His sermons were written down by his followers and published as books.

Watchman Nee's books had a great influence on me. As a young Christian, I read everything I could find by him. When the communists took over China, they put Watchman Nee in prison for about 20 years where he finally died for his faith in Jesus Christ in a Chinese prison.

Some of his books are: "The Spiritual Man", "Sit, Walk, Stand", "What Shall This Man Do?", "The Normal Christian Life", and "Spiritual Authority".

"One encounters no difficulty in accepting that truth which is agreeable; but it is not easy at all to take in a truth which blasts one's ego." --Watchman Nee

"Lies bind but truth unshackles." --Watchman Nee

"To descend a mountain is always easier than to ascend it; in like manner, to become passive is easy but to regain freedom is painstaking." --Watchman Nee

"Christianity always involves a personal knowledge of God through His Spirit, and not merely the knowing of His will through the medium of a man or a book." --Watchman Nee

"Perhaps our greatest service to the Lord would be to make way for Him to do the unprecedented with us, and so make possible a new enrichment of life for the entire Body of Christ." --Watchman Nee

If you want to be inspired, read "Letters From A Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King inspired millions to take a stand for liberty and justice for all.

Remember all the heroes who risked their lives to stand up for equality and civil rights. Some people even died in the protest. America could have easily had a second civil war, but Dr. King led the Civil Rights movement to practice non-violence and brotherly love. And it worked. It changed America.

Not so many years ago it was illegal for whites and blacks to meet together in public. Segregation was forced on people by unjust laws and those who tried to overcome those laws were abused. They say that at least 4,000 black Americans were murdered by white mobs during the days of forced segregation.

I am so glad America changed. We've got a long way to go, but we have already come a long way. Remember the Dream! Let freedom ring.

Stand up for racial harmony and justice. Speak out. Intentionally cross the color line. If Dr. King and the Civil Rights heroes could do it in their day when it cost them persecution and violence, surely we can do it in our day. We are not there yet. Please don't let the Dream die!

Merry Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Everybody!