M: Hey everyone, and welcome to the Uninvited Online Bible Study!
I'm Melissa Taylor, joined right here with Nicki Koziarz!
N: Hey everyone!
M: And we are going to be your host..
N: Hostess with the mostest!
M: Hostess with the very mostest, for the Uninvited Online Bible Study.
Okay, and we're going to do something a little bit different this time.
Nicki and I are going to be joining you via video every Tuesday and Thursday to have some
discussion about what we're learning as we go through Uninvited.
We think you're really gonna enjoy it and we want you to join us for that.
And we're also gonna be on social media doing some Facebook live videos, as well as some
Periscope – all about Uninvited.
N: We are gonna be everywhere!
M: We are gonna be everywhere!
It's gonna be like we really are all together doing Bible study, and that's what we want
it to feel like.
N: Absolutely, absolutely!
So, there are so many reasons why you guys should be excited about this study, but I
think one of the greatest things is that we don't have to walk through this alone.
Melissa and I and the rest of the team, we want you to feel like you really are walking
through this with someone else.
Because, hello – what's the title of our study?
Both: Uninvited!
N: We don't want anyone to feel left out, less than, or lonely through this.
We are a team walking through this with you.
M: Right, and you know what?
Probably some of you signed up for an Online Bible Study because you don't have a group
that you're a part of, or maybe you can't make it to a group.
Maybe you feel uninvited, I don't know.
But you ARE invited here, and we have a team of leaders.
N: Amazing leaders!
M: Look what we do, we love our leaders so much.
We put them all on a stick so we can all be here together.
Because guess what?
They live all over the country!
We can't always be together to do study except for right here at Proverbs 31 Online Bible
Study, we can.
So us – your team of leaders – we're gonna go through this WITH you.
We're not here to teach you, we're not here to preach at you.
We're here to share this journey with you.
N: Yes, absolutely, absolutely.
Well Melissa, why don't you tell us about our verse of the week this week?
M: Alright, I would love to!
It's Colossians 3:12.
And Colossians 3:12 says, “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved,
clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
N: I love this, and hey I just had this thought.
Okay, so you know how when you've been invited to go somewhere?
One of the first things that you do is you go to your closet and you think “what am
I gonna where?”
right?
And I love that this verse is telling us to go ahead and get dressed with this compassion,
kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
What a beautiful picture for us to have as we start walking through this study together.
M: That's right.
That should be what we're concerned with - clothing ourselves - instead of what color shirt I'm
wearing, do I look fat in this?
Those kind of things.
N: Does this make me look washed out?
True story.
M: But, also the beginning of this verse – you're holy and dearly loved by God!
N: I love how Lysa said it in the book.
She said “I am one of God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved.”
M: That's right.
And you know what?
That's why we're wearing these “Live Loved” t-shirts!
Mm-hmm.
Because we need that reminder that we are indeed lived loved.
And these are on our website Proverbs31.org.
But absolutely, I love them because that's what Uninvited is all about, is learning to
live loved.
Which we are.
N: Yes.
And speaking of living loved.
So, I heard that you and Lysa TerKeurst are sitting down and doing a very special segment
for this Bible study called “Ask Lysa”.
So let's go check out that segment, and then you're going to come back later and introduce
everyone to our Bible study leaders.
M: Yes.
M: Hey everyone!
So excited to be sitting here with Lysa TerKeurst!
L: Well, thank you.
Always a joy to be with you too, Melissa.
M: Well we love having this time with you.
We are getting ready to get into Week 1 of Uninvited, and we asked some ladies who signed
up for this Online Bible Study if they had some questions for you, and we got SO many
questions!
L: And I love questions!
M: I know!
We have one for you today.
Okay, this is from Kim, and this is a great question.
I love this, I can't wait to hear your answer.
Kim asks, “When the enemy begins whispering lies to you” - and he does - “what Bible
verses do you turn to?”
L: I love this question.
Because first, before I give you the Bible verse, there are many we could talk about
right now, but there's one specific one I really want to unpack today with this question
in mind.
But the first thing I want to say is remember – the enemy's voice of condemnation, shame
and rejection – it can come AT you, but it doesn't have to reside IN you.
That's our choice.
We can't control the voice that comes at us.
We can't control the lies that the enemy speaks at us, but we can control what resides in
us.
So keeping that in mind, the verse I want to talk about today is 2 Corinthians 10:5.
And I think that oftentimes we'll throw this verse out – “take every thought captive
to the obedience of Christ”.
So, here's what it says in the NIV.
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge
of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
So, I love that in the NIV.
But I actually want to read it and study it for just a second in the King James Version.
And the King James Version says, “Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ.”
So instead of taking every thought captive, and really I think we get that.
I think we understand it's like our choice whether we let it in, or we take it captive.
But I think it's the first part of the verse that tells us what to DO with those captive
thoughts.
The first part of the verse which says “cast down” - so there's two things we're supposed
to cast down.
When the voice of shame, condemnation, the lies of the enemy – when that comes at us,
we are to cast down two things.
Number 1 is imaginations.
I think that's so fascinating.
Because sometimes the enemy will whisper a lie to us and we add our own imagination,
our own thoughts, our own dialogue.
M: We add to the story.
L: We do.
We add it in conjunction.
And so it's like as soon as we start adding to it, in a way we're agreeing with it, we
open the door and it comes right in.
It's interesting, the Greek word for that word imaginations is spelled l-o-g-i-s-m-o-s.
I don't know the way to pronounce that word.
M: We won't try.
L: We will not try.
Lo-gis-mos or something – I don't know.
But l-o-g-i-s-m-o-s.
And that word, what it means is, we get to decide what weight we put on what word.
So we can either put the weight on the lie that the enemy is speaking to us and let that
fall deeply into our soul, or we can put weight on God's word and let our soul be grounded
in truth.
So we have to remember that – what weight are we gonna put on what word – the lie
or the truth.
And we want to put the weight, the validity on God's word so that it sinks down into the
depths of our soul and becomes part of our foundation, not the enemy's lie.
M: And that's a choice.
We can make that choice.
L: That's right.
So we want to cast down the enemy's lies and our own imagination dialogue that we add to
these lies.
The second thing we are to cast down is “every high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God.”
In other words, we want to bring low the elevated thing that sets itself up against what God
says.
God says we are holy and dearly loved children.
God says we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Anything that tries to exalt itself over that truth, we're to flip it.
And we're to bring that thing low so that God's word can be elevated.
Because where we put our focus and where we put our attention is what's gonna suddenly
grab our, become the foundation of our soul.
So I think that we have to really really watch both of those things.
M: That is so good.
Especially this week we're gonna be reading about self-rejection.
And a lot of that self-rejection comes because we're believing those lies.
And then we add to them with our own imagination, and then it just gets bigger and bigger and
bigger.
However – God's word, our truth, our verse of the week this week, this verse from 2 Corinthians
10:5 – let's hold onto those this week and remember to make that choice to believe God's
word and not the lies of the enemy.
L: That's right.
Great question.
M: Lysa thank you so much for being with us this week!
L: You're welcome.
M: Alright everyone!
I'm so excited this week because I'm gonna introduce you to the ladies who are gonna
be leading YOU through this study.
And let me just tell you a little bit about our leaders – they're just like you.
They have felt uninvited.
They've felt alone, lonely, less than, rejected.
And they want to live loved just like you do.
And so let me introduce you to week 1's leaders.
We have Anna Currin, Stacy Lowe.
And you know what when you can't be here live what do we do with our leaders?
We put 'em on a stick!
Yeah!
We have Katrina Wylie, she lives in Washington and she couldn't get here for our time together
here, but she'll be leading you this week as well.
So okay ladies, we've read Uninvited right?
A and S: Yes M: Love it.
I can not wait for you guys to get into this study.
So tell me what are you most looking forward for our OBSers?
What are you looking forward to them to get out of the study?
S: Well I think for me, you know I think that rejection is something we can ALL relate to,
we've all experienced, and so I'm really looking forward to becoming equipped to handle it
and face it from a Godly perspective instead of a worldly one.
M: That's right because we're all gonna face rejection.
If you haven't, you will.
Most of you will probably say “yeah, I have”.
But when you can look at it with a Godly perspective it makes it possible to get through it.
S: Yes, absolutely.
M: What about you, Anna?
A: Well, yes to everything Stacy just said.
And I'm just mostly looking forward to seeing God work in the hearts of so many women, including
myself.
And just being able to dig into this study with an incredible community of women.
M: Wow.
And that's us!
We are your community of women, so rely on that cuz it's great.
And Stacy you talked to Katrina too.
S: I sure did!
And so, this is what Katrina had to say.
She says, “Uninvited helps us see that we are not alone in our struggles with rejection,
all the while giving us practical steps and biblical truth we can learn to apply and stand
on.
That's a good answer Katrina.
M: Very good Katrina!
And you know what, when we put practical application with the biblical knowledge that we're learning,
that's how God wants us to live our lives.
So that's really good.
Alright, we have a great week planned for you ladies, we sure do!
Guess what?
This week we're reading chapters 1, 2, and 3.
And then this Thursday night at 8 pm eastern time on Facebook, we have what's called Bible
Study Live.
Anna here is going to be leading you through Bible Study Live this week on our Facebook
page at 8 pm.
And you know what?
There will be something on the blog every single day.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we're going to be writing to you.
We're going to be leading you through the study.
And then on Tuesday and Thursday, Nicki Koziarz will be with me, and we're going to be doing
some Bible study Uninvited discussion.
So, and we'll also have a video from Lysa TerKeurst every week as well.
Alright you guys!
We are gonna have a great week, and oh!
I almost forgot!
If you forget everything I just said guess what?
We have the weekly lowdown for you!
You can find it every Monday on the blog.
It has ALL that you need to know for this Bible study.
So make sure – I always print mine and put it on the fridge or in my Bible or something.
Okay you guys, we're going to have a great week!
And we know it – your life is crazy but..
All: Your Bible study doesn't have to be!