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

A Meditation on Transforming Your Life by Rewiring Your Brain

21:41 | 02-07-2023

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.Romans 11:36 - 12:2 (NIV)We now know that that verse is neurologically true.Neuroplasticity. Neurons that fire together wire together. 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 rewiring of your brain. The Bible has been telling us this all along even if neuroscience is only recently discovering it.“Being transformed by the renewing of your mind” is literally, physiologically, rewiring your brain — which in part happens through the practice of Christian meditation — to see each moment in your life through the lens of the reality of who God is and what it really means that he is always 100% present in each moment you face.And the fundamental truth with which to renew your mind is Romans 11:36, “From him, through him, and for him are all things.”Vs. the pattern of this age — “My life is my own. Living for ME.” Almost every cultural influencer in this age is going to try to convince you to shape/form yourself and your life after that pattern.But is it true? Is it real? Are you the creator of yourself? Is your life really from you and through you and for you?If you’re a follower of Jesus, deep inside you know the answer to that. And you need to actively renew your mind by meditation on the true answer — and if you do you will experience transformation instead of conformity. The other passages we’ve looked at:Revelation 4:11Hebrews 2:10 (NIV)Acts 17:25 (NIV)Acts 17:281 Corinthians 8:6 (NIV)Colossians 1:16-17 (NIV)Psalms 119:73 (NIV)Daniel 5:23 NIVWho 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 How Surrendering Your Body to God in Worship Transforms You

23:56 | 02-02-2023

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.Romans 11:36 - 12:2 (NIV)“For from him and through him and for him are all things. …Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.““Conform” — to shape your self according to a “scheme” — a model, pattern.“Be transformed” — to be changed into another form. Metamorphoses. It’s “passive” in the Greek, which means it’s something being do TO you. In 8:29-30, God is “conforming” (Greek: forming WITH) the image of Christ — glory, righteousness, beauty, power, eternal. So, Romans 12:2 is saying, “Don’t shape your self/life according to the model/pattern of this world (Greek: “age”), but let God re-shape you to what you were ultimately created to be — what Jesus came and died and rose from death to re-shape you into — his glory and righteousness and beauty and power and eternal transcendence. One is a downward spiral into a dead end. The other is an upward metamorphosis of eternal, glorious transcendence.“For from him and through him and for him are all things. …Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.“So even though being transformed is something done to us, we’re not totally passive in our transformation. We DO two things: 1) offer our body to God in worship, and 2) renew our mind. (We’ll meditate on the second one in our next episode).A huge part of transformation happens when you offer your body to God as your true worship. Your body even now is part of this transformation.The redemption of your body is the hope for which you have been saved (8:23-24).Feel this imagery — using your biblically guided imagination — into your body now.God’s Spirit even now transforming you as you’re offering your body to him as true worship. Feel that into 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.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 How Surrendering Your Body to God in Worship Overcomes Anxiety

13:23 | 01-31-2023

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.Romans 11:36-12:1 NIVFor from him and through him and for him are all things. …Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.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 Surrendering Your Body to God in Worship

11:53 | 01-26-2023

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.Hebrews 2:10 (NIV) Romans 11:36-12:1 NIVThe Bible often uses synonyms and associated words with overlapping meaning to describe the “parts” of personhood. Heart. Mind. Body. Spirit. Strength. Soul. “Heart” and “Spirit” are often synonymous parallel in biblical poetry.In other places various aspects are listed separately to give the idea of our entire self. Quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Jesus says…Mark 12:30 (NIV)But that doesn’t really mean these are completely separate “parts” of who you are. They eacj just emphasize a certain aspect of our personhood. But the clear idea is to “Love God with your whole being.” But it is interesting that when the apostle Paul says to “offer your bodies,” he’s repeating the same thing as he said earlier in chapter 6…Romans 6:13 (NIV)— “offer yourselves to God…every part of yourself to him.” This is another example of how the Bible uses the word YOU or YOURSELVES and YOUR BODY/BODIES interchangeably.In other words YOU are your body. You are more than your body, but not less. Your body is YOU just as much as your heart and mind and spirit and soul is YOU. Your body will be “brought from death to life,” and so in some sense that’s already true of YOU now. “The redemption of your body is the hope for which you are saved” (Paul says in Rom. 8:23-24).So he says the way you truly worship God NOW is by thinking of it, at least in part, as “offering your body” as your total sacrifice to him. Of course your body is already God’s. So you’re not actually giving your body to God. But “offering” your body in “worship” is a mindset of submission and surrender. And mentally imagining that — feeling that image — into 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.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 Seeing Your Life Inside God’s Life

12:07 | 01-24-2023

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.Revelation 4:11 (NIV)“You are worthy, our Lord and God,to receive glory and honor and power,for you created all things,and by your will they were createdand have their being.”Hebrews 2:10 says it much simpler…Hebrews 2:10 (NIV) “…God [is the one] for whom and through whom everything exists.”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 Keeping God in Your Mental Foreground Instead of Background

22:51 | 01-19-2023

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A Meditation on Envisioning Christ Creating and Sustaining Your Body

20:35 | 01-17-2023

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A Meditation on Envisioning God’s Infinite Thoughts Toward You in Psalm 139:17-18

23:15 | 01-12-2023

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.John Mark Comer (Ruthless Elimination of Hurry)“…In the chronic problem of human beings’ felt experience of distance from God, God isn’t usually the culprit. …Our awareness of God is the problem… …So many people live without a sense of God’s presence through the day. …But could it be that … we’re the ones who are absent, not God? We sit around sucked into our phones or TV or to-do lists, oblivious to the God who is around us, with us, in us, even more desirous than we are for relationship.”Psalms 139:17-18 (NIV) How precious to me are your thoughts, God!How vast is the sum of them!Were I to count them,they would outnumber the grains of sand —when I awake, I am still with you.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 Envisioning Christ As the Source of Your Being

17:54 | 01-10-2023

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.C. S. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, has the demons protesting against silence as a great danger to their destructive cause in a Christian’s life. In it, senior demon Screwtape calls the devil’s realm a “Kingdom of Noise” and claims, “We will make the whole universe a noise in the end.” Blaise Pascal“All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”It makes you think again of Jesus’s words in…Matthew 6:6 (NIV)“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”Remember the quote from the apostle Paul in… Acts 17:28“In him we live and move and have our being.”Acts 17:25 (NIV)“…He himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”1 Corinthians 8:6 (NIV)“…There is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.”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 Infinite Intentional Intimate and Intricate Connection with Your Body in Psalm 139:13-14

26:22 | 01-05-2023

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.Psalm 139:13–15 ESV13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.2 Corinthians 4:16–18 NIV16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. …18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.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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