About the Guest
Dan Dumas
Gary Chapman
He has degrees from some of the most respected colleges and seminaries. He’s written some of the best-selling books of the past decade and appeared on numerous radio and television programs across the country. But Dr. Gary Chapman knows more than just a lot of scholarly theories and practical advice—he knows people. He knows how to relate to people, how to have fun and how to make people laugh, all the while giving practical tools to help improve relationships. Chapman is an experienced and well-respected family counselor, and a well-known author. He hosts a nationally syndicated radio program, A Love Language Minute, and a Saturday morning program, Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, that air on more than 400 stations. The 5 Love Languages, one of Chapman’s most popular titles, topped various bestseller charts for years. It has been published in more than 50 languages, sold more than 12 million copies and is currently on the New York Times best-seller list. 2017 marked the 25th anniversary of The 5 Love Languages book. Chapman has been directly involved in real-life family counseling for more almost 40 years. Dr. Chapman also serves as senior associate pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Chapman is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in anthropology from Wheaton College and Wake Forest University, respectively. He has received M.R.E. and Ph.D. degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and taken postgraduate work at the University of North Carolina and Duke University. Chapman and his wife, Karolyn, have been married for more than 45 years and reside in Winston-Salem, N.C. The Chapmans have two grown children, Shelley and Derek.
Gary Rosberg
Jerry Bridges
Jerry Bridges was a longtime staff member of the Navigators and served with their collegiate ministry. In addition to his international speaking ministry, he authored numerous books and devotionals; among them The Pursuit of Holiness, which has sold well over a million copies, and the award-winning The Discipline of Grace and I Will Follow You, O God.
Jerry Bridges died on March 6, 2016. He was 86 years old.
Priscilla Shirer
About the Host
Michelle Hill
Radio has been ingrained in Michelle for most of her life. This love for radio has taken her to various radio stations and ministries in places like Chicago, Alaska and other snow covered terrains like her hometown in north central Iowa. In 2005 she landed on staff with Cru/FamilyLife®. While at FamilyLife she has overseen the expansion of FamilyLife Today® internationally, assisted with the creation of Passport2Identity™-Womanhood and is now the host of FamilyLife This Week®.
For the last 15+ years Michelle has been mentoring young women and is passionate about helping them find their identity in God. She also has a fascination for snowflakes and the color yellow. Michelle makes her home in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Episode Transcript
Bob: Right.
Dan: We say: “Yes, you’re right; you’re right. I see your vantage/I see your view now. I see where you’re coming from.” But they never go back and fix it with everybody in the room.
I said, “I want you to have that experience. I want you to do the hard thing.” Even when we left/we drove back, I said, “How do you feel?” He said, “It feels like a burden’s been lifted. It feels lighter than it did before”; because you’ve got this awkwardness that fully wasn’t cleared/the air wasn’t cleared.
Now, we could have—I mean, as far as everybody was concerned/because the people were not believers—and so they were quick with: “Oh no! You don’t need to say anything, son! We forgive you. It’s no big deal.” They were just minimizing; I said, “No, he has to do this.” I made him come into their dining room; everybody drops the fork—kind of—it was thick air, you know?
Bob: Yes.
Dan: He did it; he owned it and made it right.
I noticed, later in the day, they were all playing basketball again. I’m not so sure they would have if I had not chosen the harder path for him to go reconcile with the whole family. I think he would have taken easy street and just gone and played with some other kids at another house.
[Studio]
Michelle: Dan Dumas, beautifully sharing the gospel in how he helped his son successfully close the loop in communication with the friend. Not only does it build a better relationship/a deeper relationship, it also shows God in their lives and how He wants to restore people.
Remember, at the beginning of today’s broadcast, when Dr. Jerry Bridges was helping us to understand what sin really is? He shared part of Simon Peter’s introduction to Jesus. This was when Jesus was calling His disciples. Simon Peter—he fell to his face, and he said, “Depart from me, God, for I am a sinful man! I’m not fit to be in Your presence.”
That line that Jerry quoted—that actually comes from Luke 5. You see, Simon Peter was a fisherman: that was his job; that was his bread and butter. He had been fishing all night long, and he came in without a fish/without a catch. He’s exhausted from all this strenuous work. And thiswas when he meets Jesus—when he’s empty, and he’s exhausted—and Jesus says, “Hey! Try the other side of the boat. Try the deeper water.”
I’m not going to finish this story; actually, I’m going to let Priscilla Shirer finish the story. Here she is, talking about those deep waters that Jesus sent Peter back into.
[Previous FamilyLife Today Broadcast]
Priscilla: Simon said, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night long! We’ve caught nothing.” In other words, “You know, we’ve already done this, right Jesus? But at Your bidding, I’m going to do it anyway.” What a good word: “At Your bidding, I’m going to do it anyway.”
“So when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish.” So much so, y’all, that their nets started breaking!—that’s a lot of fish. Verse 7 says, “They signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them, and they came and filled both the boats, so that both of them began to sink.” I bet you Simon has never seen a fishing trip like this one before in his life. [Laughter]
Simon was called out into deep water. Shallow water is so much easier, isn’t it?—the place where we can stand on our own two feet; we can keep our head above water. But oftentimes, for many of you, you already know He is calling you to the deep—the deep water—the risky place of just trusting Him/of full abandoning, where you cannot catch your feet onto the ground for anything. You just don’t have what it takes to not be in over your head. You are in the deep, risky place of faith.
It’s safer/seems safer and easier to stand in the shallow waters and to stay there. But listen; you are better off in the deep water with Jesus than in the shallow water without Him, my friend. [Applause] If He’s calling you deep—if He’s saying, “Stay; stick in the towel. Don’t give up! Come with Me into the deep, risky place of faith,”—it is in deep waters where miracles happen!
Listen; the shallow water was to teach all those people. The deep water—that was to teach Simon. The shallow water—that’s for everybody else, y’all! The deep stuff—that’s for you! It’s in the deep water that you and I get to see God be who He is!
[Studio]
Michelle: You know, we serve a grace-filled God who knows us. He knows our weaknesses; He knows our faults and our flaws; He knows those big sins in our lives; and He knows those respectable pet sins. And He still asks us to drop those respectable sins/to drop those bigger sins at His feet, and to find rest in Him.
You know, when He gives us this gift of going into that deep water, He gives us the gift of a deeper relationship with Him. That’s a really good thing that I hope you’ll think about this weekend.
Next week, we’re going to talk about just how you share about that gift of salvation with your friends, and neighbors, and family members. Holly Melton is going to join me for a very special conversation about Christ and about sharing Him with the world. That’s next week on FamilyLife This Week.
Thanks for listening. I want to thank the president of FamilyLife®, David Robbins, along with our station partners around the country. A big “Thank you!” to our engineer today, Keith Lynch. Thanks to our producers, Marques Holt and Bruce Goff. Justin Adams is our mastering engineer, and Megan Martin is our production coordinator.
Our program is a production of FamilyLife Today, and our mission is to effectively develop godly families who change the world one home at a time.
I’m Michelle Hill, inviting you to join us again next time for another edition of FamilyLife This Week.
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