A Bigger Life: Episodes

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

Overcoming Anxiety By Lifting Up Your Eyes in Meditation from Psalm 121

24:18 | 09-22-2022

My goal in this podcast — 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.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.A good biblical image of what you’re trying to do in meditation…Psalm 16:8-9 NIVWith [the LORD] at my right hand, I will not be shaken. …My body…will rest secure.Your entire body resting secure in the love and care of your Father in heaven.Psalm 121:1–2 ESV1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.“I lift up my eyes…“Ethan Cross — psychologist and neuroscientist, writes in his book, Chatter on overcoming the voice in your head that is bringing anxiety, insecurity, anger, resentment, etc. Not a Christian from what I can tell from reading the book, but has an interesting point from his research…“Seek out awe-inspiring experiences. Feeling awe allows us to transcend our current concerns in ways that put our problems in perspective.”Just imagine being alone right now with the Lord of Heaven and Earth, who rules over every detail in your life. “Not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from the care of your Heavenly Father,” Jesus says in Matthew 10:29, “and he has numbered the very hairs of your head.” Jesus’s point was the same as Psalm 118:1, that you can trust in his goodness and his steadfast love for you right now. He rules over everything in his entire universe, and he is right there at your right hand — Imagine this.Psalm 121:8 ESVThe LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.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 engineer is 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.

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Using Mental Time Travel in Meditation from Psalm 73:23-26

27:05 | 09-20-2022

If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.A good biblical image of what you’re trying to do in meditation…Psalm 16:8-9 NIVYour entire body resting secure in the love and care of your Father in heaven.It’s important to use meditation to try to feel your whole body, bringing your mind and body back into a oneness where you embrace your whole entire body as part of your soul. Your body is an important part of who you are eternally. That’s why you will have a bodily resurrection in your salvation. Not a new body, but a transformed body without decay or sin or mortality. When we embrace our bodies as part of who we are, we are able to live as God intends. And we’re able to present our entire selves, including the members of our bodies, to God’s Spirit. So an effective way of feeling your body is to focus on breathing and relaxing the entirety of your body and at the same time focus on feeling your body relax. This is re-integrating your mind with your body in meditation. So take some time now to bring your mind’s awareness on relaxing your whole body with each breath. And feeling your body relax. A big reason we focus on getting good at learning how to feel your body from within is because that’s how you can feel biblical images into your body. When I ask God to fill me with his Spirit, I focus on feeling my whole body and imagining his Spirit filling every cell in my body as his holy temple. That my whole body would be filled with God’s Spirit. This is a much more biblical way to think of it than just limiting God’s Spirit to your spirit. You are an embodied temple of God’s Spirit. So think of your body this way, and use your imagination to feel this biblical image into your body.Try that now…Psalm 73:23–26 ESV“Mental time travel”— “Engage in mental time travel. …Think about how you’ll feel a month, a year, or even longer from now. Remind yourself that you’ll look back on whatever is upsetting you in the future and it’ll seem much less upsetting.”He’s talking about the importance of seeing your life and circumstances now as you would look upon them a month or year or five years from now. But we can do that even better!See yourself now as you will be in your resurrection. That’s who you really are! You’re NOT all the other things that tend to make you anxious and stressed. You will see ALL of your anxieties and tensions now very differently when you are “received into glory” in your body’s resurrection when Jesus returns to restore all things in this world. This is what this psalmist is doing.And now Imagine this — there will be a time in the future when your body will be transformed completely by resurrection into a body of glory, beauty, power, spiritual vitality and experience, with a perfect immune system that will never get sick, and some kind of perfect healing system that will never die, and a perfect logic in God’s universe that will never tempt you to sin. This is what the Bible calls being “glorified.” And now look at everything else on earth and see it in light of Jesus restoring all things on earth, including you and all those in him through resurrection. And he will wipe away every tear and you will visibly see him and all evil will melt away. And you will eat from the tree of life and drink from the spring of living water and everything that means forever. See everything now in light of then. 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 engineer is 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.

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A Meditation on God’s Spirit Filling Your Body from 2 Chronicles 5:13-14

24:52 | 09-15-2022

My goal in this podcast — 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.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.In previous episodes we’ve been looking at an often-repeated phrase in the Bible — The LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever.This is one of those powerful, mind-renewing, life transforming phrases to meditate on in the Bible. And we looked at a great image/picture in the Bible of its transforming power…2 Chronicles 5:13–14 NIV“The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: ‘He is good; his love endures forever.’Then the temple of the LORD was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.”The cloud was the visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit. When the people praised God with those words, “For he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever” (ESV), THEN God’s Spirit filled the temple with the glory of his presence.“Then the temple of the LORD was filled with the cloud, and…the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.”Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:19…“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.”I think Paul is thinking of this image in 2 Chronicles 5 when he writes…Ephesians 5:18 NIV“…Be filled with the Spirit.”So just as the Spirit of God filled the temple with God’s presence and glory, so too the Spirit fills us — our body — with his presence and glory when we are “filled with the Spirit.”This is a powerful image/picture God’s Spirit is giving you to use your biblically guided imagination to experience this unseen reality! Your body is a physical temple of God’s Holy Spirit. He is IN your body. This is a mystery we’re not going to fully understand, and we don’t have to. But we can still experience it by using the power of our God-given imagination in order to envision it in some way. So envision it now and feel this image into your body — God’s Holy Spirit filling your entire body as his holy temple with the glory of his presence. Feel this image into your entire body by imaging every cell in your body being filled with the glory of God’s presence and power. 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 engineer is 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.

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A Meditation on Being Transformed Into Ever-Increasing Glory from 2 Corinthians 3:18

25:50 | 09-13-2022

My goal in this podcast — 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.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.Just imagine being alone right now with the Lord of Heaven and Earth, who rules over every detail in your life. “Not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from the care of your Heavenly Father,” Jesus says in Matthew 10:29, “and he has numbered the very hairs of your head.” Jesus’s point was the same as Psalm 118:1, that you can trust in his goodness and his steadfast love for you right now. He rules over everything in his entire universe, and he is right there at your right hand. Imagine this – your entire body resting secure in the love and care of your Father in heaven.Meditation is focused, intentional thought. Using your imagination to better see/envision unseen realities. Using your biblically guided imagination to experience God in a way that replaces built-up tension and stress and anxiety in your mind and body with a renewing and calming awareness of and experience of God’s presence in all his goodness and his steadfast love for you. We now know through recent neuroscience and advanced imaging technology that our brains are constantly re-wiring to match our experiences and our environment. And what we do, what we see, what we say, what we think, how we react or respond to perceived threats is always changing our brain in our neurons and connections between neurons. This is why we can get good at a new skill like typing on a keyboard or playing scales quickly on an instrument or playing a sport. And we can change our brains to get better and better at responding to perceived threats with stress and anxiety. Or we can get better and better at perceiving God’s presence in all his ruling power and goodness and steadfast love in those situations instead. All by being transformed by the renewing of your mind — the re-wiring of your brain. The Bible has been telling us this all along even if neuroscience is only recently discovering it.This is why Christian meditation is so important for you to learn how to do. To train your brain to do. It’s a discipline that is hard to do at first but gets easier and much more enjoyable with practice. It’s easy to feel too busy for it and want to move on to the next thing. That’s a big mistake if you want to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Because not only does this kind of meditation transform how you see and think of reality, but it will also transform your body in so many ways by removing stress and anxiety and insecurity and anger from your 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 engineer is Diego Huaman.

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A Meditation on Feeling God’s Goodness and Steadfast Love In Your Body from Psalm 118:1

27:33 | 09-08-2022

My goal in this podcast — 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.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.This is a time for you to meditate. To be quiet — free from all the noise and digital distractions in your life. This is a time for you to be alone. This is a quiet time to re-integrate your body with the rest of your soul, and re-calibrate your body and soul with God’s presence. This is an ancient discipline. A time to be intentional with your mind’s focus so that you can find a moment of rest. Of quiet. Of calm. Renewal. Christian Meditation is an ancient practice God’s people have been doing for thousands of years.A biblical synonym for contemplate is to meditate. Biblical meditation is a focused imagination that “contemplates the LORD’s glory,” and brings transformation by recalibrating your whole self, including your body, with God’s Spirit. It’s a daily discipline that’s part of what Romans 12:2 refers to as being transformed by the renewing of your mind.2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)When you think of God’s glory, what do you think of? The night sky? Photos of the universe? A mountain range of some kind? A sunset over the ocean? Or maybe you think of God being God forever.Often when the biblical authors thought of God’s glory, they thought of his trustworthiness. That his glory and his trustworthiness went hand-in-hand.Psalm 118:1 ESVThe Hebrew word translated as thanks could just as easily be translated with the word praise. That’s what the Hebrew word meant. To praise God’s glory is to recognize his complete goodness and his steadfast love that is forever.Jesus quoted from this Psalm at least twice on two different occasions. He believed it was words given to us by God’s Spirit. No doubt Jesus meditated often on this first verse. It’s the basis for so much of his teaching about trusting in the love and goodness of God as your intimately present Father.Jesus tied God’s glory and love directly together in his prayer to God the night before he was crucified.John 17:24 NIVSo to contemplate the LORD’s glory is to contemplate his goodness and his unique, steadfast love for YOU.Psalm 118:1 ESVThis is one of the most often repeated phrases in the OT.2 Chronicles 5:13–14 NIVThis praise of YAHWEH — he is good; his love endures forever — is directly tied to the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God. It’s an image of how when we are trusting in God’s presence and his goodness and his steadfast love for us, feeling that trust in the moment, then there is no room in that same moment for anxiety and tension and insecurity and self-protective reflexes and anger at the same time. One will replace the other.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 engineer is 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.

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A Meditation on Transforming Your Body Into Ever-Increasing Glory

31:11 | 09-06-2022

My goal in this podcast — 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.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.Psalm 16:8-9 NIVMeditation — a very broad word, but basically it’s focused, intentional thought. And it involves using your imagination to better see/envision reality. Sometimes it’s zooming out. Sometimes zooming in. Almost always in some way it’s talking to yourself.Christian Meditation uses your biblically guided imagination to experience God in your whole being — your entire soul — which biblically includes your body — in a way that replaces built-up tension and stress and anxiety with a rejuvenating and renewing experience of God’s Spirit with you and in you. This kind of Christian Meditation is an ancient practice God’s people have been doing for thousands of years. Often a biblical synonym for meditate is to contemplate.2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)Biblical meditation is a focused imagination that in some way “contemplates the LORD’s glory,” and brings transformation by recalibrating your whole self, including your body, with God’s Spirit. It’s a repeated discipline that’s part of what Romans 12:2 refers to as being transformed by the renewing of your mind.Biblical meditation is a discipline that rewires your brain circuitry more and more in line with the spiritual realities you can’t see, but that the Bible describes through imagery. Christian Meditation uses your biblically guided imagination to bring the calm confidence and sense of peace and well-being reflective of a body and mind that is integrated with and calibrated with a trust in God‘s presence, love and care.When you contemplate/meditate/imagine/envision the reality of God’s glory — his power — his beauty — his love — his mercy and grace — the wisdom of his will for us — that discipline/practice brings transformation into your soul — into your mind and body and spirit — with ever increasing glory. Transformation at work in you by God’s Spirit in you. We become people whose body and mind and spirit — our disposition — is integrated and calibrated with the character of God and his Spirit in us. We become transformed more and more into a calm confidence in trusting God in every moment. And we become less driven by the common hidden motivators of insecurity and anxiety and self protection and anger, but people who are more and more able to trust in the presence and love and care of God in every moment. And this affects our bodies more than we realize. Psalm 38:8-10Who 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 engineer is 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.

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A Meditation on Freeing Your Body from the Weight of Guilt

33:22 | 09-01-2022

Christian Meditation is a quiet time for you to re-integrate and re-calibrate your mind with your body. And re-integrate and re-calibrate your mind and body with God‘s presence with you and in you. Remember the quote from the apostle Paul in Acts 17:28 – In him you live and move and have your being.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.This is a time set aside to experience God in a way that reintegrates your mind, heart, and body connection and replaces stress and anxiety and worry and insecurity with the peace and joy and assurance of God’s love and promises for you in Christ. We’re carving out a quiet time to be alone with God. Using meditation to reintegrate and recalibrate your mind and heart AND your body with the vertical reality of God’s presence with YOU, and God’s promises for YOU. Our body is an important part of who we are. And it is a common place where we store our stress and anxiety and insecurity. In Psalm 38 David talks about how being out of sync with God affected his body.Psalms 38:3-10 (NIV)3 Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin.4 My guilt has overwhelmed melike a burden too heavy to bear.5 My wounds fester and are loathsomebecause of my sinful folly.6 I am bowed down and brought very low;all day long I go about mourning.7 My back is filled with searing pain;there is no health in my body.8 I am feeble and utterly crushed;I groan in anguish of heart. (Stress, anxiety)…10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me;even the light has gone from my eyes.Sin is when we live out of sync with the reality of who God is and the world that he has made and his purpose for our lives in it.God‘s wrath is when he lets us experience the consequences of that that are real and painful. In this case the consequences show up in David’s body. Guilt is the torment of our conscience that it feels the weight of our accountability and responsibility for that.Our body is just as much a part of our soul as our spirit is. It is constantly integrated with our relationship with God. For better or for worse. In David’s case here it is for the worse and he is using meditation to become aware and re-submit himself to God.Psalms 38:18 NIVI confess my iniquity;I am troubled by my sin.Psalms 38:21-22 ESVO my God, be not far from me!Make haste to help me,O Lord, my salvation!Meditation is a powerful way to focus on feeling your whole self — including your body — offered before YHWH as your God. Using your biblically guided imagination to feel God’s presence in and with you right now. And you are offering your whole self to him in submission. You may notice thoughts trying to sneak in saying you don’t really mean it. Just ignore that. You mean it right now. And even if you have a conflicted heart like we all do, you mean it enough to say it.So say it quietly now…I offer my whole self to you, my God. My whole body is yours. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Every cell in my body.Nothing is ever 100% in this Genesis 3 world and in your Genesis 3 body. But God’s Spirit is in you. And each time you can come before him in meditation and offer your whole self — your whole body — to him, that will re-wire your brain just a little bit more to make this a greater, deeper reality in your life.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 engineer is 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.

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Feeling Into Your Body God’s Wonderful Works of the Universe and Wonderful Works of Your Body

30:34 | 08-30-2022

Christian Meditation is a quiet time for you to re-integrate and re-calibrate your mind with your body. And re-integrate and re-calibrate your mind and body with God‘s presence with you and in you. Remember the quote from the apostle Paul in Acts 17:28 – In him you live and move and have your being.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.It’s important to use meditation to try to feel your whole body, bringing your mind and body back into an integration where you embrace your whole entire body as part of your soul. Your body is an important part of who you are eternally. That’s why you will have a bodily resurrection in your salvation. Not a new body, but a transformed body without decay or sin or mortality. When we embrace our bodies as part of who we are, we are able to live as God intends. And we’re able to present our entire selves, including the members of our bodies, to God’s Spirit. So an effective way of feeling your body is to focus on breathing and relaxing the entirety of your body and at the same time focus on feeling your body relax. This is re-integrating your mind with your body in meditation. So take some time now to bring your mind’s awareness on relaxing your whole body with each breath. And focus on feeling your body relax. Try to imagine your mind feeling your body from within. As if your mind is going inside your body and feeling your whole body.A big reason we focus on getting good at learning how to feel your body from within is because that’s how you can feel biblical images into your body. So before I get up to preach on Sunday, I ask God to fill me with his Spirit, and I focus on feeling my whole body and imagining his Spirit filling every cell in my body as his holy temple. Imagining my whole body being filled with God’s Spirit. This is a much more biblical way to think of it than just limiting God’s Spirit to your “spiritual” self. You are an embodied temple of God’s Spirit. So think of your body this way, and use your imagination to feel this biblical image into your body.Psalms 19:14 ESVPsalm 19:1–4 NIVThe universe is an accurate picture of God in some ways. A finite picture that significantly “declares the glory of God” by “proclaiming the work of his hands.”Psalm 139:13–14 NIVPaul Davies (The Goldilocks Enigma)“Biological organisms are immensely complex... To a physicist they look nothing short of miraculous. …The living cell contains minuscule pumps, levers, motors, rotors, turbines, propellers, scissors, and many other instruments familiar from a human workshop…. The command and control functions of the cell are encoded in its DNA database, which implements instructions through intermediary molecules using an optimal mathematical code to convert software instructions into hardware products with customized functionality. And this is just one cell. In a larger organism, vastly many cells get together and cooperate to form organs such as eyes, ears, brains, livers, and kidneys, many of them immensely elaborate in their structure and function. The human brain alone has more cells than there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy. So it all adds up to a package of marvels that boggles the mind.”Psalm 19:1Psalm 139:14Psalms 119:27 (ESV)Psalms 19:14 ESVWho 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 engineer is 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.

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Experiencing the Goodness of God in Your Body from Psalm 16:1-2

28:14 | 08-25-2022

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Experiencing the Presence of God in Your Body from Psalm 73:23

20:37 | 08-23-2022

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