Welcome back to my blog. Thank you for taking time to read it.

We recently started a new series about the exciting research findings from Teleios! Our first evidence, presented over the last several weeks, was that peer-reviewed and Teleios sponsored scientific studies support improved wellbeing with Christianity!

Today let us continue this thrilling journey of the benefits of scripture by exploring what the medical literature states about religion and traditional man/woman based marriage. This a vital topic for our lives.

Remember, most all academic studies evaluating religion are performed in traditionally First World countries which are historically Christian. Although academic authors typically are shy to mention Christianity, the majority of subjects in these studies would have been de facto evangelical or social Christians.

Our review of the medical literature shows an overwhelming benefit of traditional marriage on both general wellbeing and specific parameters that might affect wellbeing, including: physical and mental health, sexual satisfaction, family income, and children’s outcomes. Of the numerous articles we evaluated, only three did not note a marriage benefit.

Further, although not all articles assessed the same subject groups, there is a progressive trend of enhanced wellbeing and its associated parameters, the stronger the relationship commitment; generally manifested by the following:

• Never married, widowed and divorced individuals show the lowest wellbeing.
• Individuals in a committed relationship, even unmarried, have improved wellbeing compared to uncommitted couples.
• Cohabitating couples demonstrate improved wellbeing compared to those not in a relationship.
• Cohabitating couples who are committed enjoy greater wellbeing than uncommitted cohabitating relationships.
• Married couples show the highest wellbeing ratings compared to other commitment levels and singles.

Why would traditional marriage relationships provide the strongest associated wellbeing with levels decreasing with less committed relationships? The answer is not completely clear, but we speculate marriage may:

• Help with income, reducing costs, household tasks, and raising children.
• Provide needed socialization and a potential source of personal enrichment, encouragement and empathy.
• Allow confidence and trust in a spouse in discussing sensitive issues and reaching personal as well as professional goals.
• Assist the marriage partner in maintaining good health such as in keeping medical appointments, taking medicines and achieving a healthy lifestyle.
• Facilitate sexual satisfaction by eliminating competing love interests.
• Build a healthy spiritual relationship by encouraging mutual adherence to the Christian faith and in studying God’s word. One past study indicated that marriage increased the probability for attending religious services. However, a cohabitation alone reduced the probability of attending church.

Our review suggests that traditional marriage generally provides numerous benefits to the relationship partners through enhanced measures of mental and physical wellbeing, and benefits to their children compared to other heterosexual partnership arrangements or single status.

We have a great God who has instituted marriage out of His wisdom and for our good. It works best in a committed, encouraging relationship which promotes many aspects of wellbeing including our Christian lifestyle, which as we’ve seen in recent past blogs, has its own positive impact on wellbeing.

Please join us again next week as we continue through exploring Teleios research that can help our daily lives.

We have started a new series about research supporting improved wellbeing with Christianity! Last week we discussed peer-reviewed scientific studies. Today let us continue the conversation of the benefits of scripture by exploring specific studies our foundation has performed.

Teleios’ data extends the information on Christianity and wellbeing found in the medical literature and might help you with your own life and Christian walk. Please consider the following results from Teleios:

• General good wellbeing – Both college students and adult Christians note high ratings for wellbeing. However, our data are more specific to Evangelical Christians¹ whereas the medical literature would include social Christians as well.
• Evangelicals – This group has better wellbeing than Social Christians² or Christians Seekers³.
• Evangelical and saved by grace – College students who self-describe as evangelical, but also saved by grace, profess better wellbeing than evangelicals alone.
• Evangelical, saved by grace and adherent – Evangelicals who indicate they are saved by grace, and adhere to their Christian faith (i.e., practice the 5 tools to maturity: prayer, praise, fellowship, Bible study and teaching others [Acts 2:42-47]) have even better wellbeing. In one of our college surveys, not a single student who was characterized by being evangelical, saved by grace and adherent, suffered poor wellbeing.
• Practicing the faith – In separate research, Teleios demonstrated those who practice the Christian faith according to Acts 2:42-47, as noted above, enjoy better wellbeing than those who do not.
  • Just a little helps – Even the practice of one to two of the measures in Acts provides better wellbeing.
  • More is better – Further, the more a person adheres to the five tools to maturity, the better generally is their wellbeing.
  • Looking outward – Those learning and teaching the Bible directly (verse by verse), and those serving in their church or community also possess enhanced wellbeing.
• Eternal security – Those who are confident in their salvation also note better wellbeing.

So how can we summarize the exciting information we have learned the past two weeks? Christians generally have better wellbeing. Further, those who identify as evangelicals, especially if they also indicate they are saved by grace, confident in their salvation and practice the Christian faith, possess even better wellbeing! Wow, great information for our lives.

We have such a wonderful God who cares and loves us and has given us such wise literature to help us navigate our time on earth. Join us again next week as we continue to investigate scientifically based findings from Teleios.

¹Evangelical Christian = An individual saved by grace having been forgiven their sins through faith in Christ; ²Social Christian = An individual who identifies mostly with Christian culture or society while not being overly religious; ³Christian Seeker = An individual seeking to know the truth about Christianity

Welcome back to my blog. Thank you for taking time to read it.

We just started a new series on the exciting research findings from Teleios! Last week we discussed the reasons for our passion at Teleios to explore the veracity of scripture. Today let us set off on a journey to discover the actual scientific data about how the Bible helps us. It is amazing!

Our first topic is perhaps the most vital: that Bible-based Christianity generally improves wellbeing. These data come from two main sources.

• Teleios – We have found through surveys and prospective studies that Christianity actually helps wellbeing both generally and for specific health measures. We will discuss these findings next week.
• The medical literature – Peer-reviewed scientific studies support improved wellbeing with Christianity! As we began our research at Teleios this was a surprise to us. We found many studies indicating wellbeing was improved by the practice of religion. Importantly, almost all these medical studies were performed in historically Christian countries. This indicates that most all the patients in the studies would have been either social or believing Christians. Many of these studies can be seen in our published papers available on our website. Otherwise, you can conduct your own search of the medical literature at PubMed.

So let’s examine the medical literature. The findings are impressive and have shown that wellbeing is improved with religion in:

• Demographics – All age groups (10 years and older), both genders, and African-American as well as Caucasian races.
• Broad wellbeing effect – Specific wellbeing related measures such as: sense of purpose, satisfaction, hope, stronger social relationships, and ability to forgive.
• Social measures – Vital areas of life such as the family, career, a sense of community and socialization.
• Physical health – Healthy and patient populations. Specific diseases include: glaucoma, rheumatoid arthritis, various cancers, chronic pain, fatigue, diabetes, diabetic eye disease, congestive heart failure, and HIV.

Religion has shown very few negative effects on wellbeing. Most commonly these have been related to the limited expression of one’s faith to either internal or external religious activities alone or to those who have an adversarial relationship with God. The latter type of person might be one who does not understand grace as a means to salvation, instead working to try to satisfy God.

Indeed, it is striking to see that so many researchers have found, through scientific studies, the benefit of religion on wellbeing in Christian countries. These data are extensive and consistent enough that perhaps no other proof is needed from a scientific standpoint. We have a great God who has benefited us with salvation through Christ by grace and provided scripture that through the power of the Holy Spirit we can live useful and joyful lives.

Join us again next week as we look at evidence from Teleios’ efforts demonstrating Christianity can improve wellbeing!

Welcome back to my blog. Thank you for taking time to read it.

We will soon start new series about exciting research findings from Teleios! However, before we begin this vital series I want to review briefly what pushes us at Teleios to explore the veracity of scripture.

My wonderful wife, Jeanette, and I have had the privilege over many years to teach the scriptures to college-age students and young adults. Interestingly, what we observed during these studies motivated us to demonstrate the exciting practical value of scripture. Below, I summarize our observations from these fun studies. I will discuss the research findings supporting many of the statements in subsequent blogs.

Our observations, in general!

• Young Christians almost always say they believe in the truth of scripture (yay!)
• Upon further discussion, they need to know more (we all do and therefore, we study the Bible!)
• Consequently, they usually base their decision-making upon precepts learned in: church or college groups, social Christian settings, or from their church denomination
• Accordingly, they lack confidence in the direct knowledge of God’s word
• They then do not test God’s word in their lives resulting in a failure to build confidence in His precepts
• Further, they suffer with a nagging doubt, that if they really faced a crisis, their scriptural knowledge could not supply an answer. This crisis appears usually in two forms:
  • An emotional crisis with themselves or a friend
  • A conversation with a non-believer about the Gospel.
• Consequently, the temptation exists, because of their insecurities about scripture, to avoid confronting internal or external spiritual conflicts and to simply survive within the social church setting
• And of course, there is the minority (16-20%) that want to do what they want to do, regardless of God’s Word!

It is like a security guard at the local shopping mall who might enjoy the comfortable job among the nice orderly shoppers. However, he knows deep inside he should learn how to fight in case a crisis ever occurred at the mall, such as armed robbers or an Islamic Jihadist attack. But he doesn’t, knowing that he could run away if a crisis ever came. Consequently, he has no opportunity to ever gain confidence in fighting techniques or his own abilities.

So, it is with many Christians in what I call the ‘cycle of failure’ (please see figure below). They enjoy the social Christian setting and do not learn God’s word. Therefore, they really never gain confidence in their biblical knowledge. Accordingly, they never test themselves and obtain a deep confidence in the Bible’s value for daily life.

The figure describes the ‘Cycle of Failure’ of those who do not learn or test God’s word, not building the confidence to act based on its precepts. Consequently, they never knowing its full power.

God has granted us a sure and quality Bible text upon which we can base not only our great salvation but the guidance for our lives! The Bible tells us to test God‘s Word to build confidence (Romans 12:2; Greek word ‘dokimazo’) and utilize its power to live our lives with surety and maturity (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 5:14).

Therefore, the name of our foundation is Teleios…

Original Word: τέλειος, α, ον
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: teleios
Phonetic Spelling: (tel’-i-os)
Definition: having reached its end, complete, perfect
Usage: perfect, (a) complete in all its parts, (b) full grown, of full age, (c) specially of the completeness of Christian character

Let us help you reach your spiritual maturity!

Thanks for reading my blog. Please join us as we explore in the next few weeks the compelling findings from Teleios’ research that demonstrates the overwhelming power of the Bible to salvation and living a fruitful life.

Welcome again to my blog. I am delighted you have come to visit.

Teleios and other authors have shown Christian belief actually can improve personal wellbeing! Therefore, we are examining the Christian life in more detail to see if we can uncover some of the potential underlying causes for improved wellbeing.

We are discussing currently the practice of Christianity based in Acts 2:42-47. These wonderful verses describe the practice of the Christian walk within the early church. They are repeated throughout the Epistles and so are vital to us today. I call them the ‘5 tools to maturity’: prayer, fellowship/community, outreach, Bible study and praise.

Last week we covered Bible study. This week let’s explore praise!

Definition of ‘praise’

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘praise’ as:

• To express a favorable judgment of: commend
• To glorify (a god or saint) especially by the attribution of perfections

Content of praise

Therefore, as a Christian what should be the content of biblical praise? The Bible gives some hints:

• Acknowledgement of God’s perfect character (Ephesians 1:6)
• Acknowledgement of God’s righteous actions (Psalm 139:14, Psalm 148)
• Thankfulness (Hebrews 13:15)

Reason we praise

Why do we praise God? The reasons are vital to our Christian life and are listed below:

• The Bible commands us to praise – It is our duty to praise God. However, God does not give us commands without reason, so several potential explanations follow below. (Psalm 150, Romans 15:11, Hebrews 13:15)
• He deserves praise – Our Father in Heaven is the almighty God who has provided for us salvation through his Son, Jesus Christ, as a free gift through faith that we could have eternal life. This salvation is a sure hope and anchor for our souls. Surely, He deserves glory, thanks, and praise. (1 Peter 4:11, Hebrews 6:19)
• It is good for us to praise – God made us! Therefore, He knows what is good for us. It is good for us to praise at least for the following reasons:
  • God ordained order – Praise reminds us of the order of the universe. We are not the most important thing in creation. God’s goals and priorities are above, and better than, ours.
  • Humility – Realizing that God’s plans are more important than ours might limit our complaining and remind us that we are here to serve our great God.
  • Attitude – Praise teaches us thankfulness in realizing God’s gifts to us in creation, in Christ and His benefits in this life as our Father. These should promote an attitude of thankfulness and reduce expectations (Philippians 4:8).

We do indeed have a great God who is worthy of all praise! Thank you for joining me today.

Welcome again to my blog. I am so happy you can visit.

Teleios and other authors have shown Christian belief can improve personal wellbeing! Therefore, we are examining the Christian life in more detail to see if we can uncover in the Bible some of the underlying causes of the improved wellbeing.

We are discussing currently the practice of Christianity for which we are using Acts 2:42-47 as a basis. These dynamic verses describe the activities involved in the Christian lifestyle within the early church. These descriptions are repeated throughout the Epistles and so are vital to us today. I call them the ‘5 tools to maturity’ and can be summarized conveniently as: prayer, fellowship/community, outreach, Bible study and praise. Last week we discussed outreach. Today’s tool for overview is Bible study.

We need to know the Bible! Why? Can we just not memorize the most important verses and follow the style of Christianity we learned in our college group or Sunday school and live a good Christian social life? Social Christianity brings some good things to us and our culture, no doubt. However, it is like settling for crackers when you could be enjoying steak. Let’s examine what the Bible says.

The Bible is an authoritative source as it comes from God through the Holy Spirit by way of the apostles (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:21, 3:16).

We are told to know and understand God’s word (Ephesians 1:15). There are several reasons for this:

• It is a command (Colossians 1:9)
• We cannot bear fruit or know what to do without first knowing and understanding the Bible (Colossians 1:10). Accordingly, to function as a Christian, like anything in life, we need to follow the manual.
• When we know the manual and know what to do, then the process bears much fruit in our lives. We have better wellbeing from a confident relationship with God. Teleios research has actually shown that those who have more knowledge have better well-being and less guilt than those who don’t!

It takes a little work and time but the benefits are huge. We can have the joy of:

• Bearing fruit in our lives such as: joy and peace, etc. (Galatians 5:22).
• Seeing God work through us in others’ lives (Colossians 1:10).
• Proving His Word and knowing Him better (Romans 12:1-2, Colossians 1:10).
• Loving others in a more accurate and useful fashion (Philippians 1:9, 1 John 5:1-3).
• Judging (i.e., assessing) what’s good and bad in situations and people very quickly (Hebrews 5:14) thus keeping ourselves out of life’s difficult situations.
• Not having to rely on our emotions so our life becomes more stable and predictable (Hebrews 5:9-14). The Bible does not state that we have a religion based in emotions and actually warns against it (Ephesians 4:12-16, James 1:5-8).

You may be thinking ‘But isn’t listening to my pastor’s great sermons and watching an effective video enough?’ As good as these learning experiences may be, we need to study the Bible itself in some detail to fully understand and receive its benefits.

How then do we effectively study Scripture? There are plenty of Bible study resources on Amazon.com or on line that might be effective. Make sure they are Bible and Christian based. In addition, someone in your church also may be able to help you.

You can start with these basic steps:

• Download a web-based Bible study tool such as eSword. It’s free and has multiple exciting resources to help understand Scripture (www.e-sword.net).
• Start with a power-packed epistle such as Ephesians or Colossians that will give you essential information about Christ and our Christian life in a concise manner.
• Slow down! Take your time and follow these four basic study steps:
  • Observation – Ask questions about the verse.
  • Interpretation – Use resources on eSword to answer your questions.
  • Application – How should the first specifically change your life?
  • Integration – What are other verses that support your interpretation so you can confidently build what you know about the topic discussed in the verse (e.g. salvation, the Spirit, etc.)?

That’s all for today. The Bible is so rich and exciting! Join us next week as we discuss praise!

Welcome again to my blog. I am delighted you have taken the time to visit.

Teleios and other authors have shown Christian belief actually can improve personal wellbeing! Therefore, we are examining the Christian life in more detail to uncover some of the potential underlying causes of the improved wellbeing. We have spent the past few weeks discussing the convincing biblical truths which explain why your salvation is forever secure. Today we begin to discuss what scripture teaches about our Christian lifestyle.

As a biblical basis for the Christian life we are using 1 Thessalonians 1:5-7.

Let’s now consider verse 6:

1 Thessalonians 1:6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:

Let’s take the 2^nd half of the verse first, the importance of accepting God’s word in our lives.

In Paul’s informative prayer in Colossians 1:9-14, he indicates the importance of approaching our Christian walk in a knowledgeable way (verse 9). Accordingly, to act correctly (verse 10) we first must know how to think. We do this first by knowing God’s Word, especially the Epistles in the New Testament (Romans to Revelation 3). This is the section meant specifically to provide directions for the church age.

How do we come to understand the importance of the New Testament epistles in our lives? There is a process by which it develops:

• Jesus Christ – He came and spoke to us in the Gospels so people would believe in Him as Messiah. Upon the rejection of His message (Matthew 12), He taught the disciples about the coming age (Matthew 13-18; Matthew 24-25; John 14-17) and later the Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
• The Apostles – To the apostles it was given to teach God’s truth to the church (Matthew 28:19-20, apostolic authority). It was the listener’s duty to obey what they heard from the apostles, not yet having the written Scriptures. Importantly, the authority of the Scriptures themselves are established not by just direct statements that they are Scripture (2 Peter 1:21; 2 Peter 3:16; 2 Timothy 3:16) but also by verses that indicate the authority of the apostles (2 Thessalonians 3:4,6; 1 Thessalonians 6:12; Colossians 1:25). To them God gave the charge to teach His truth and later to write the epistles, because they were taught by Christ Himself.
• Second generation Christians – These received the Word from the apostles and taught new believers under their authority (e.g., Timothy in the Pastoral Epistles).
• The Biblical canon – The true Word of God was written down as Epistles with guidance by the Holy Spirit. These letters were circulated probably in the early church period when apparently an informal canon of Scriptures was formed. A generally accepted canon existed in the 2^nd century. The New Testament in its current form was finalized at the Synod of Hippo in 393 AD. The late finalization occurred probably due to Christians could not openly meet until Constantine legalized Christianity after he became the Roman emperor in 313 AD.
• Biblical authority for the Christian walk – The Bible speaks of accepting God’s Word and using it as a basis for how we live our lives. Consequently, we receive not only the will of God and the benefits of the Spirit but also a healthy mind and good wellbeing through the Christian life as outlined in the Bible.

Far from being restrictive, the Bible liberates us by teaching us wisdom and what is true … with very few commands! It allows us to live a life of faith without being deceived by damaging practices in the world.

That’s all for today; thank you for joining me. Next week we’ll begin a series of blogs on how to apply this Word to our lives to receive its benefits.