Publications - Give Us This Day

Take This Cup: How God Transforms Suffering into Glory and Joy

Summary: Suffering is one of the few universals in life and something with which everyone who is reading this has struggled. I have written this book that you might believe that your suffering has a meaning and that God is good.

I have written this book that you might rejoice in your suffering because all Christian suffering unites us to Jesus Christ and, therefore, leads to glory and joy.

I make this audacious, and even offensive, claim because it is the good news of Jesus Christ proclaimed in a different way. It is the good news that God takes what men and devils mean for evil and transforms it into our glory and joy, through his Son.
Read this book if you want to know how and where God promises his people glory and joy through their suffering. Read it, and take the cup of suffering with your Lord. If you do, he promises you, he will unite himself to you through your suffering.

Orthodox Anglican Identity: The Quest for Unity in a Diverse Religious Tradition

Summary: While the postmodern world we inhabit is highly fragmented, contested, and conflicted, we all have one thing in common: we are experiencing identity crises. Religious traditions are not immune to these crises, and orthodox Anglicans have been experiencing their own issues with identity since the 2003 consecration of an openly homosexual man. Orthodox Anglicans want to say who they are as both orthodox and Anglican, but they are also finding it difficult to articulate a clear and coherent identity, especially an Anglican one. This orthodox Anglican pursuit of a renewed sense of self in a complex and fragmented world is a microcosm of our postmodern context, and an examination of their quest holds enticing clues to our own urgent searches for meaning and identity.

Think of this book as a kind of story: the story of a worldwide church who, when its identity was threatened, took counsel together to renew and revitalize its sense of self. In the process, it not only faced many dangers and difficulties but also learned much about who it was and who it wanted to be.

Love Me, Love My Wife: Ten Reasons Christians Must Join a Local Church

Summary: Have you ever thought that you can know and love God just as well without the church? Have you ever left a church because you felt it was filled with a bunch of hypocrites?

Good! Then this little book is for you.

In Love Me, Love My Wife, Rev. Charles Erlandson explains what God says in the Bible about what the church is and why he commands every Christian to be a part of the local church. (Hint: it’s about much, much more than just “going” to church!) In easily understood language, Rev. Erlandson explains the amazing truth about what God thinks of the church and what he has to say about Christians being members of local churches. Whether you have stopped going to church or know someone who has, Love Me, Love My Wife will give you the encouragement and confidence to know why God wants all Christians to be members of a local church.

Give Us This Day Devotionals: Volume 1: Matthew

Summary: Give Us This Day is a unique daily devotional commentary for the entire New Testament based on the ancient method called lectio divina. Lectio divina, or “divine reading,” is the method used by the early church and countless Christians through the centuries to read the Scriptures to form and transform the soul more than merely to inform the mind.

Give Us This Day deals in depth with entire passages and their contexts. Rather than selecting only certain portions of the New Testament to write about, Fr. Charles has written a devotional for each and every passage of the New Testament.

Fr. Charles writes for the whole person: he’s not afraid to use his sense of humor, and he carefully relates the Bible not only to the individual’s life but also to the life of the church. At the end of each day’s devotional, an appropriate prayer is offered, as well as “Points for Further Reflection” on the day’s lesson. Each devotional concludes with a suggested resolution to put into effect what the Spirit has stirred up in the heart of the reader during the course of his reading, meditation, and prayer.

Give Us This Day Devotionals: Volume 2: Mark

Fr. Charles writes for the whole person: he’s not afraid to use his sense of humor, and he carefully relates the Bible not only to the individual’s life but also to the life of the Church. At the end of each day’s devotional, an appropriate Prayer is offered, as well as Points for Further Reflection on the day’s lesson. Each devotional concludes with a suggested Resolution to put into effect what the Spirit has stirred up in the heart of the reader during the course of his reading, meditation, and prayer.