The Four Words of Christmas

Enjoy this four-part series 
on the words of Christmas.


Hope ~ The First Word of Christmas

Joy ~ The Second Word of Christmas

Peace ~ The Third Word of Christmas

Love ~ The Fourth Word of Christmas


Wishing you a wonder-filled Merry Christmas!


P Michael Biggs

Love ~ The Fourth Word of Christmas

Love – The Fourth Word of Christmas

Let’s talk about love – especially love at Christmas.  And the love we will consider is Agape love – the highest form of love.  It speaks of God’s love for man and man’s love for God.

Love, to be experienced, needs someone to receive it.  God placed a special value on mankind.  He made man just a little lower than His angels.  Mankind was formed in the image of God.  God wanted communion with man.  He wanted to express love and to receive love in return from man.

And so, He put within man the ability to express emotions – laugher, sorrow, happiness, joy, and of course love. 

And mankind still didn’t get it. 

~God offered the eternal.  Man wanted the immediate.

~God offered deep joy.  Man wanted thrills.

~God offered freedom.  Man wanted license.

~God offered communion with Himself.  Man wanted to worship at the shrine of his own mind.

~God offered peace.  Man wanted approval for his wars and fighting.*

Even so, God continued to reach out to mankind with love.  Simple, unadorned love.

When man kept rejecting His advances, God chose another way.  He gave up the Crown Jewel of Heaven – His son, as a baby in a manger.

Jesus was the bundle of love that God offered.  He dared to take on humanity in the form of a child, with an ultimate plan of redemption for all mankind.  He wanted to end the separation once and for all. 

And so, Christ was born. 

God’s love was reaching out to us from the manger, from the cries and tiny hands of this baby. 

That is what the great God of this universe chose to do.  He became one of us.  What He wanted to say all along was this … “I REALLY LOVE YOU.”

Christmas is a lot of things. 

Beautiful lights

Lovely decorations

Gifts given and received

Gathering times for family and those we cherish

Activities galore, stage plays, musicals, concerts

Music to take your breath away

Food in excess

But the overriding aspect we must grasp … Christmas is a great love story.

And that love reaches all the way to where you and I are living. 

It is for us!  FOR US! 

Unto us a Child is born.

Unto us a Son is given!

(*This portion of today’s blog is based on a small segment from His Love Reaching, by Bill and Gloria Gaither)

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope Encouragement Inspiration

Peace - The Third Word of Christmas

Peace – The Third Word of Christmas

Peace at Christmas.  A fantasy?  A dream never to come true?  Life for some is anything but peace. 

~My friend, just yesterday, lost her husband after an extended illness.  That’s not peace. 

~Another might be dreading THE Christmas gathering because of an estranged family situation.  Will we fight again this year?

~A few will fight the financial strain at Christmas.  “There’s just not enough money to do everything we want to do for a proper Christmas,” they say.

~And don’t forget the world situation.  Peace does not exactly invade all lands.  There are threats, wars and rumors of wars, … you name it, it’s happening somewhere in our world this very moment.

Oh my.  We long for peace.  We desire it.  We seek peace.  Where is peace found, exactly?

Perhaps this “peace” we speak of starts as an inside job.  Christ came to give peace to each of us.  It is a personal and individual peace.  Peace within ourselves, peace with God.  It is a relationship peace that we most need, a kindred peace with God at the center of our focus.  And when we get there, it is amazing how all else comes into focus.  It’s amazing how this elusive “peace” will flood our hearts and settle our minds. 

“Shalom” is a word you have heard, perhaps.  It is a Hebrew word signifying “peace” or “more than well.”

What might “more than well” look like?  I am at peace at this moment as I write these thoughts.  Yet, I am “more than well”?  Wow!  Let’s think about that for a moment.  This time last year I was facing surgery.  I survived.  I’m better.  To use the above thought I’m “More than better.”  I am at peace and I can truly say “All is well.  All is very well.”

While we wait for peace on earth to arrive, perhaps, we should open ourselves up to peace, and as the song I once sang says, “And let it begin in me.”

Wow!  You and I might just be the agents of “peace on earth, good will to men”

~Maybe we show a touch more grace in sticky relationship situations.

~Maybe we let the driver move into place in front of us instead of honking and waving a less-than-honorable finger of dishonor.

~Maybe we forgive a slight, a misstep, a harsh tone.

~Maybe we give a helping hand instead of an angry exchange.

Maybe we are to help “PEACE” break out across our land.

Now wouldn’t that be something?

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope Encouragement Inspiration

Joy ~ The Second Word of Christmas

Joy ~ The Second Word of Christmas

Who can’t use a little joy at Christmas? 

Seems this whole season is designed for one reason … to bring us joy.  The lights surely sparkle.  The music is lively, lovely, and adds a spring to our steps.  The decorations make us ‘ooh and aah’, and sometimes take our breath away.

 The angels’ words to the shepherds on the

hillside said it.  “Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy.”

One of the great messages of the Christmas story is indeed JOY.  Not just joy, but GREAT JOY. 

Have you ever experienced ‘great joy’?

I came close when I got my new bike in 1958 for Christmas.

And when I bought my first house in 1976 in Albuquerque.

And especially when CB said ‘Yes” to my proposal.

But GREAT JOY!  What is that all about?  I can imagine my heart feeling as though it might burst with such a feeling as ‘great joy’. 

I can only imagine the times in which this announcement was given.  They were joyless times, oppressive times, poor times, hopeless times.  And shepherds lived a joyless life much of the time.

And yet, the announcement came to them on that lonely hill near Bethlehem.  They surely need a spark of joy, and on this night, they were told of unbounding, highly excellent joy. 

And it wasn’t a personal gift.  It was for the world.  JOY to the world.

May we lift our sights a bit higher this year.  May our joy exceed our problems and woes.  May joy be the expression as we see the lights, hear the songs, express the delights that Christmas brings.

And remember the little phrase tossed in at the beginning – Joy TO THE WORLD.

It was a joy for all mankind.  A Savior is born.  One who brings healing, comfort, peace and love for ALL mankind.

Rejoice!  Joy has come.

Enjoy this celebrative moment. 

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Joy to the World - Michael Bolton

Internet Church Blog Site

P Michael Biggs

Hope Encouragement Inspiration