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

Experiencing the Peace of God in Your Body

27:33 | 08-18-2022

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.All your life you’ve been wiring your brain. Unfortunately a lot of that wiring is dysfunctional because it is merely horizontal. A lot of times our narrative of reality is based upon our very limited finite perception of our circumstances, and it’s missing the biggest reality in reality — God. The source of all reality. The source of all that exists. In him all things hold together the Bible says in Colossians 1. Colossians 1:16-17 (NIV)For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.So much of our life has been spent wiring our brain to see reality in an unreal way. A lot of it is based on the pseudo narratives of entertainment we watch.So the Scriptures say in Romans 12:2 not to be conformed any longer to the patterns of this world (just culture) but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Rewiring of your brain.) Biblical Meditation and praying through Scripture is teaching/wiring our brain to see reality vertically. Not just horizontally. Philippians 4:5-8 (NIV)The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. …Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.In other words replace the low ceiling and small room of your own understanding of reality with the awe and the wonder and the transcendence of the reality of who God is and his nearness to you and his presence with you and his Lordship overall circumstances in the entire universe and in every detail of your life. You are finite but God is infinite.So let’s take some time to replace all the reasons your mind imagines why you should be anxious — replace that imagination with the better image of God‘s nearness and presence. As you’re lying or sitting there, imagine presenting your body — your whole self — and everything in your life that is causing you to be anxious or stressed or angry — imagine submitting that now before God. His presence.God is present. He is in this with me. And I can trust him.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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What If You Imagined Your Body Washed Pure from All Shame?

28:38 | 08-16-2022

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What If You Imagined God Being Right at Your Side?

30:58 | 08-11-2022

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What If You Imagined Your Body Filled with the Glory of Christ?

20:39 | 08-09-2022

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Imagine the Love and Joy and Peace of God’s Spirit in Your Life

27:37 | 08-04-2022

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.This episode is a reload of a previous episode with some editing/cuts.If your podcast app is set to skip the silent sections, disable that in your podcast app for this podcast.Christian meditation focuses you on biblical imagery showing how you — your body — utterly depend upon God’s life-giving Spirit at every moment. Paul says, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Act 17:28). Of course most people don’t realize this or think of themselves this way, and even WE live our lives often ignoring God. But regardless whether we acknowledge it or not, it’s God who gives us life at every moment we’re alive. Every cell in our body.Continue to focus on breathing deeply and being aware of and relaxing your whole body with each exhale…Let’s recalibrate our mind and body to reality by imagining this reality and experiencing it in meditation. Imagine every cell in your body being given its life by God’s Spirit.This imagery can bring relaxation and relieve stress from your body.Let’s meditate on the imagery of…Ephesians 5:18 — “Be filled with the Spirit.”It’s an amazing thing to think – the God that created this universe is in me! In my body. The life-giving, universe-creating power of the Spirit of God is in me! I want his power to fill me! Fill every cell in my body!Continue to focus on breathing deeply and being aware of and relaxing your whole body with each exhale…Let’s imagine that now as we focus on a few more areas where we typically hold our tension and anxiety in our body.Your body is filled with God’s Spirit — No fear. No insecurity. No threat.Let’s meditate on the imagery of…Galatians 5:22-23 ESV…The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control.(This is what true holiness is.)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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Can You Imagine Being Held By the Eternal Arms of the Eternal God?

32:47 | 08-02-2022

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Imagine the One Who Inhabits Eternity Setting His Steadfast Love on You Forever

25:30 | 07-28-2022

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.To begin, lie flat on your back or sit comfortably in a chair. Uncross your legs and arms. And close your eyes if you can. And just take a deep breath and begin to put your mind’s focus on relaxing your body. 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. And the more you practice this kind of intentional relaxation in your body, the more your brain will be wired to be able to do it. And you will be able to do it quicker and easier. (You can do shorter versions of this kind of relaxation if you notice tension or anxiety coming on, or you’re trying to fall asleep at night.)Christian meditation uses biblically guided imagination to experience your utter dependence upon God’s life-giving Spirit even at the cellular level. Remember the apostle Paul’s quote in Acts 17:28, “In him we live and move and have our being.” Imagine this right now in this moment — In him you live and move and have your being!Listen to Paul’s phrase in…Ephesians 3:16 (ESV)“…That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”Imagine God’s Spirit in your inner being right now — 100% focused on YOU right now with his infinite and intimate love and care. Psalm 107:1“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”Endures forever. Remember Isaiah 57:15 says that Yahweh — the I AM — is the One who inhabits eternity. And when the One who inhabits eternity inhabits you and sets his steadfast love on YOU — that means his love is steadfast on YOU for eternity!God‘s steadfast love endures forever — it is infinite and abundant. The more you receive the more abundant it is available. So imagine this — imagine God‘s infinite and abundant steadfast love entering into your body right now through his Spirit in your inner being. The more you receive the more that’s available. “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!”Meditate on what this promise from God’s Spirit is telling you. “I can rest in the goodness of the I AM — who is 100% with me/focused on me right now.”“I can rest in his steadfast love for me in this moment.”“God’s steadfast love for ME will endure forever.”In every moment you can always say to yourself…God is present. He is in this moment. And I can trust him.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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Imagining the One Who Inhabits Eternity Inhabiting You Part 2

26:26 | 07-26-2022

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.The Only One who inhabits eternityIsaiah 57:15 (ESV)“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”Try to imagine eternity! Eternity past. Eternity future. The I AM is the only One who inhabits eternity.Isaiah 44:6 (NIV)“This is what the LORD says…I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.”The first and the last — there is nothing outside of him!Forever there is no one else but the I AM. He is the source of all existence. The giver of all life. Forever. There is nowhere else for you to go for life. there is nothing apart from him that gives you your existence. Your life. Your ultimate joy. There is nothing outside of him. He is the first and the last.In John’s revelation when he saw Jesus…Revelation 1:17-18 (NIV)When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”Jesus is repeating the exact same words about himself that Yahweh says in Isaiah 44:6. He is the one who inhabits eternity. And there is nothing that exists outside of him!John said when he saw Jesus as he truly is he fell at his feet as though dead. The sight of the one who inhabits eternity was overwhelming to him. But Jesus‘s first words were Do not be afraid.“Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”Tim Keller writes:“Christianity may be the most body-positive religion in the world…God made matter and physical bodies, and saw that it was all good…In Jesus Christ, God himself took on a human body which he still has…and someday he is going to give us resurrected bodies.”So when Jesus says he died and is now alive forever and ever and holds the keys of death — he’s talking to you — he’s talking about your body. He’s talking about more than your body. But not less. Your body matters to God. So much so that Jesus died bodily and rose from the dead bodily so that he could do the same for your body forever. He has already destroyed all the ways that death affects your body even now.Think of Jesus‘ words as they apply to you in your life right now…Do not be afraid — do not be anxious — do not be insecure — do not worry — the one who died and rose from the dead has destroyed death for you and is bringing you into the eternal story of his resurrection. He is the Living One — the eternal one. And he holds all the keys. He holds all the keys to everything the real you — including your body — longs for forever. Whatever circumstance that is bringing you anxiety or fear or insecurity or hopelessness — Jesus holds the keys.

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Imagining the One Who Inhabits Eternity Inhabiting You Part 1

32:45 | 07-21-2022

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.Almost every desire you have and decision you make is activated by your imagination. This is why advertisers give you imagination more than information in their ads — because they know that it’s your imagination that drives your desires and your decisions. This is what it means to be human. We are created in the image of God. And in Genesis one, over and over, we see how God first imagined a reality and then made it so. We are beings of amazing imagination where we can create realities by first imagining.But we also experience unseen realities through our imagination as well. A parent away on a trip can imagine times with their young child, and imagine their faces when joyful or sleeping, and feel and experience the joy and love of that even while away. In the same way we can feel and experience the realities of an unseen God using the biblical images God gives us. When we don’t do that, then we are doing the opposite with our imagination. Using our imagination to see certain things as reality that are not reality. Like that God is not with you and that you are alone in every uncertain or anxious situation. We are using our imagination to see a current or a future narrative as real that’s not real, and it drives our anxieties and fears and our self-protective decisions.So today let’s meditate on…Isaiah 57:15 (ESV)“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”“High and lifted up“ is a poetic synonym/parallelism to the word “holy.“ Holy means ultimate. The I AM is the most ultimate glory and power and beauty and goodness and love that there is. Holy is often in parallel in the Bible with words like radiant, splendor, glory.The way we live inside the reality of God‘s holiness is by having a contrite and humble spirit. We connect most with the one who inhabits eternity and whose name is Holy when we have a spirit that is humble and a heart that is contrite. Imagine being in the presence of the One who inhabits eternity — the One who has no beginning and no end — the One who is God forever in the past and the One who is God forever in the future. And he says you connect with him in this moment when your spirit is humble and your heart is contrite. So imagine your utter dependence and need of his life giving presence and power and renewal in you — the One who inhabits eternity reviving your body and spirit by his eternal and holy presence inhabiting you.. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you. Deuteronomy 33:27 (NIV)The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.Psalms 90:2 (NIV)

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Imagining Your Constant Dependence on God’s Spirit for Your Life

27:14 | 07-19-2022

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.Remember the reality of what’s called neural plasticity – your brain is always rewiring itself constantly based upon how you use it — what you see, what you say, what you do, what you think and feel — neurons that fire together wire together — so if certain neurons have fired together a lot then they have wired together a lot and made what’s like a worn path in the snow where your brain gets really good at something that you repeat a lot — like playing the piano or playing guitar or typing on a keyboard — like we discussed in the last episode — sometimes your brain gets really good at feeling pain in a part of your body even though there’s no longer damage or harm there, or sometimes your brain gets really good at responding with anxiety or insecurity or fear or anger in certain situations or feeling threatened in certain situations because you have trained your brain through repeatedly responding that way in those situations. So certain kinds of meditation or mindfulness are a way of remapping your brain to your whole body to help it re-integrate and re-calibrate to your mind and soul. So when you focus on specific areas of your body you are remapping your brain to your body. And when you focus on relaxing and feeling (becoming aware of) your entire body like we do in this kind of meditation, every brain and pain specialist and psychologist I’ve read says it is calming and even resetting to your central nervous system. But in Christian meditation we go even further than that and also focus on experiencing, through our imagination, the reality of God‘s presence in your body as the Bible emphasizes in so many places. Remember — neurons that fire together wire together — and so your brain will get really good at remembering to feel your body and associating that also with remembering God‘s presence in your body and presence with you always. So that in times where you might usually feel threatened or typically get anxious or angry or stressed – doing a quick meditation to feel your body will also associate in your brain a remembrance of God‘s presence in you and his love and control in every situation. So in typical situations where you would normally worry or become anxious or insecure or angry or frustrated or even hopeless, instead you are reminded that God is present, he is in this, and you can trust him.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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