Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life with Pastor Dave Cover
Christian Meditation can help refocus your mind and recalibrate your body to get the stress, anxiety and anger out of your heart and out of your body. Spend about 23 minutes to "be still" with God as each episode uses a different biblical image to e...
Recent Episodes
A Meditation on Envisioning and Feeling God’s Kindness and Love and Mercy Being Poured Out On You in Titus 3:4-6
00:19:35 | 03-28-2023
In Christian meditation, we are re-aligning ourselves vertically. We're remapping ourhorizontal realities with a vertical view/perspective. Enabling us to embody that vertical perspectivereplaces anxiety and tension with a calm confidence.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for thispodcast.Titus 3:4–6 NIV1But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteousthings we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewalby the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it onsocial media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecoverFollow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePodOur audio engineers are Matthew Matlack and Diego Huaman.This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where theflagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Meditation on Envisioning and Feeling Christ’s Righteousness As Your Righteousness in 1 Corinthians 1:30
00:17:58 | 03-23-2023
In Christian meditation, we are re-aligning ourselves vertically. We're remapping our horizontal realities with a vertical view/perspective. Enabling us to embody that vertical perspective replaces anxiety and tension with a calm confidence.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.Psalm 143:1–5 ESV1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! 2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. 3 For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.4 Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. 5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.2 Corinthians 5:17 ESVTherefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.2 Corinthians 5:21 NIVGod made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.1 Corinthians 1:30 NIVIt is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecoverFollow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePodOur audio engineers are Matthew Matlack and Diego Huaman.This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Meditation on Envisioning and Feeling Christ’s Righteousness As Your Righteousness in 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21
00:19:30 | 03-21-2023
In Christian meditation, we are re-aligning ourselves vertically. We're remapping our horizontal realities with a vertical view/perspective. Enabling us to embody that vertical perspective replaces anxiety and tension with a calm confidence.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.Psalm 143:1–5 ESV1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! 2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you. 3 For the enemy has pursued my soul; he has crushed my life to the ground; he has made me sit in darkness like those long dead.4 Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled. 5 I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.2 Corinthians 5:17 ESVTherefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.2 Corinthians 5:21 NIVGod made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecoverFollow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePodOur audio engineers are Matthew Matlack and Diego Huaman.This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Meditation on Connecting With God In His Mercy Instead of Your Righteousness In Psalm 143:1-2 and Luke 18:9-14
00:15:39 | 03-16-2023
In Christian meditation, we are re-aligning ourselves vertically. We're remapping our horizontal realities with a vertical view/perspective. Enabling us to embody that vertical perspective replaces anxiety and tension with a calm confidence.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.Psalm 143:1–2 ESV1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness! 2 Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.Luke 18:9–14 NIV9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecoverFollow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePodOur audio engineers are Matthew Matlack and Diego Huaman.This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Meditation on Re-Aligning Our Horizontal Circumstances With a Vertical View in Psalm 142
00:20:27 | 03-14-2023
In Christian meditation, we are re-aligning ourselves vertically. We're remapping our horizontal realities with a vertical view/perspective. Enabling us to embody that vertical perspective replaces anxiety and tension with a calm confidence.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.Psalm 142:1 ESVWith my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice I plead for mercy to the LORD.Psalm 142:4–5 ESV4 No refuge remains to me; no one cares for my soul. 5 I cry to you, O LORD; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”Psalm 142:7 ESVFor you will deal bountifully with me.Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecoverFollow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePodOur audio engineers are Matthew Matlack and Diego Huaman.This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Meditation on Envisioning Refuge in God from Psalm 141:8
00:17:30 | 03-09-2023
The purpose of Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life is to help 21st-century Christians in the always distracted digital age — to connect with God with your whole being — including your body — and to wire into your brain the reality of that embodied connection in each moment. And I think most of us as Christians are often living unconsciously anxious and tense lives with a kind of disconnection between our body and mind, and disconnection between our body and God’s Spirit. Where our “Christian faith” has become almost exclusively about certain beliefs rather than an embodied experience with God’s Spirit who is always 100% present with us and in us in the NOW.
A Prayerful Meditation with Scott Johnson
00:11:51 | 03-07-2023
The purpose of Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life is to help 21st-century Christians in the always distracted digital age — to connect with God with your whole being — including your body — and to wire into your brain the reality of that embodied connection in each moment. And I think most of us as Christians are often living unconsciously anxious and tense lives with a kind of disconnection between our body and mind, and disconnection between our body and God’s Spirit. Where our “Christian faith” has become almost exclusively about certain beliefs rather than an embodied experience with God’s Spirit who is always 100% present with us and in us in the NOW.
A Meditation on Trusting God with Your Enemies in Psalm 140
00:16:45 | 03-02-2023
The purpose of Christian Meditation for A Bigger Life is to help 21st-century Christians in the always distracted digital age — to connect with God with your whole being — including your body — and to wire into your brain the reality of that embodied connection in each moment. And I think most of us as Christians are often living unconsciously anxious and tense lives with a kind of disconnection between our body and mind, and disconnection between our body and God’s Spirit. Where our “Christian faith” has become almost exclusively about certain beliefs rather than an embodied experience with God’s Spirit who is always 100% present with us and in us in the NOW. So this is not a podcast where you can multitask while you listen. I’m not trying to give you new information or things to consider like other podcasts. I love those kinds of podcasts. But in this podcast I’m wanting to give you an experience. I want you to learn to reintegrate your body with your mind’s awareness so that you can notice the “red flag” when you feel tension or anxiety in your body. It’s a red flag that you’re experiencing a vertical disconnect with God. And I want you to experience what a vertical connection feels like through envisioning the unseen reality of God’s presence in this moment and his presence in your body by his Holy Spirit.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.We know from the Gospels that Jesus was a morning person.That’s why it was Jesus’ practice in…Mark 1:35 (NIV)Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.Whenever you get up in the morning, it’s a good practice to set aside some time to enter a kind of solitary place – maybe you’re doing this meditation in the morning. This is a solitary time for you to meditate — to become aware and sensitive to spiritual realities and impressions — to re-integrate your body with your mind and spirit, and re-calibrate your soul — mind, body and spirit — with the reality and the presence of God’s Spirit. In his book the ruthless elimination of hurry, John Mark Comer writes…“I can’t think of a worse way to start my day then a text from my work, a glance at email, a quick scroll through social media, and a news alert about that day’s outrage. What I’m saying is, let prayer set your emotional equilibrium and scripture set your view of the world. Begin your day in the spirit of God‘s presence and the truth of his scriptures.“ That’s what we’re doing now in this meditation.Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecoverFollow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePodOur audio engineers are Matthew Matlack and Diego Huaman.This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Meditation on Developing a Transcendent Imagination with Colossians 3 1-4
00:18:05 | 02-23-2023
So this is not a podcast where you can multitask while you listen. I’m not trying to give you new information or things to consider like other podcasts. I love those kinds of podcasts. But in this podcast I’m wanting to give you an experience. I want you to learn to reintegrate your body with your mind’s awareness so that you can notice the “red flag” when you feel tension or anxiety in your body. It’s a red flag that you’re experiencing a vertical disconnect with God. And I want you to experience what a vertical connection feels like through envisioning the unseen reality of God’s presence in this moment and his presence in your body by his Holy Spirit. If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast. Many Christians don’t have an information problem when it comes to God. They have an imagination problem. Imagination is always how your life works. This is how we were created — to be people with powerful imaginations that can actually see unseen realities and then create them or experience them. Anxiety and insecurity always appeals to your imagination. This is what ultimately creates your anxieties. Stress. Worries. Insecurities. Fears. You’re trying to live inside an unreal imagination. But you live inside God’s universe. These hijacked imaginations enter and affect your body in real ways because it causes your life to be incongruent with reality. But Christian meditation allows us to recalibrate our lives with Reality by giving us powerful images and imaginations of God's word given to us by his Holy Spirit. By learning to use our biblically guided imagination we can experience unseen realities and actually feel these realities into our bodies and into our lives in a way that powerfully shapes our desires and our decisions in life-changing ways. Notice to the imagination in… Colossians 3:1, 3-4 (NIV) “…You have been raised with Christ…3 For you died (remember Paul said I’ve been crucified with Christ), and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Your life — your identity — the real and eternal YOU — has already died and has been risen with Christ and is safe and secure and kept hidden with Christ in God. Using your biblically-guided imagination, feel these realities into your body right now: You have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. You have been raised with Christ. Christ is your life. You will appear with Christ in glory when he returns and brings Heaven back to Earth. Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it. Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecover Follow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePod Our audio engineers are Matthew Matlack and Diego Huaman. This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.
A Meditation on Developing a Transcendent Imagination
00:25:32 | 02-21-2023
So this is not a podcast where you can multitask while you listen. I’m not trying to give you new information or things to consider like other podcasts. I love those kinds of podcasts. But in this podcast I’m wanting to give you an experience. I want you to learn to reintegrate your body with your mind’s awareness so that you can notice the “red flag” when you feel tension or anxiety in your body. It’s a red flag that you’re experiencing a vertical disconnect with God. And I want you to experience what a vertical connection feels like through envisioning the unseen reality of God’s presence in this moment and his presence in your body by his Holy Spirit.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.Matt Labash: “I miss what it feels like to not be overstimulated or provoked or moved to outrage, which we are constantly prompted to be. There is not much our society won’t ingest these days. We like at least two of everything, and supersized. But one thing we seem to have no appetite for is being bored even for a second. Letting our minds sit still, instead of wandering around in our pathology-driven media hellscape. …For the last decade or so, we’ve been too over-excited, over-provoked, and overstimulated.” With all our overstimulation — social media, news, movies, shows, even watching sports — it’s so easy to get stuck in a limbic state where we’re always in a kind of defensive or anxious mindset (even unconsciously). Without even being aware of it, our bodies are stuck in a low-grade tension, with our muscles tight, adrenalin flowing, our central nervous system on alert. Headaches, body aches, our mental health is kind of fragile. We’re a comment away from anger, feeling threatened, disrespected, getting into conflict. Christian Meditation is a time to quiet all that over-stimulating chatter and enter into a time of calm. A moment of Shalom. Learning to refocus your mind away from the crazy and into the truer reality that God is 100% present and 100% in control. And learning to use that refocus to recalibrate your mind and body with God’s Shalom. God’s calming, loving, peace-giving Presence. Notice to the imagination used in…Colossians 3:1-2 (NIV)“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”This is talking about heaven and earth as realms, not places.So…Colossians 3:5 NIV“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature (same exact Greek word construction as v. 2): sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”These are earthly-realm as opposed to Heavenly-realm desires (imaginations).Set your hearts… Seeing with the eyes of your heart (Eph 1:18) – your imagination. Envision with your imagination a heavenly, transcendent reality so that you can experience this reality in your heart and mind and body. Who can you share this podcast with? If you found this episode helpful, consider sharing it on social media or texting it to a friend you think might benefit from it.Follow Dave Cover on Twitter @davecoverFollow A Bigger Life on Twitter @ABiggerLifePodOur audio engineers are Matthew Matlack and Diego Huaman.This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.