I Trust When Dark My Road

(This is a copy of the  article on my church’s web site.)

Messiah Lutheran Church is pleased to announce its first speaker in the IMPACT series. The IMPACT series is a series of presentations available to the community in conjunction with our fiftieth anniversary.

Our first presentation is entitled, I Trust When Dark My Road: A Lutheran View of Depression.  Our speaker is Pastor Todd A. Peperkorn, pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church.  The title of the presentation comes from Pastor Peperkorn’s book of the same title, published in 2009.

Please consider joining us for this important topic.  It is free of charge.  You may follow updates on the IMPACT series through our Facebook page:

Messiah’s Facebook Page

You may also indicate if you will be attending by going to the Facebook event:

Facebook IMPACT event: I Trust When Dark My Road

We hope to see you there!

Healthy brain gene linked to depression – Telegraph

I had a reader pass this link along for your interest in benefit.  What this means for those of us who suffer from depression is that there may very well come a time (sooner rather than later) when the medication to treat clinical depression will be much more specific and more more effective than it is right now.  How great would that be?

Read this article and let me know what you think.  Is this a pipe dream on my part?

-P

Through the gracious energies of the Lutheran Catechetical Society, I am now happy to report that there is a video of my presentation that I gave to the LCS last weekend at Christ Lutheran Church in Normal, Illinois.

The LCS has been in existence for around five years, and they have high quality videos of a number of their presentations available.  The video of my presentation is essentially a shortened version and commentary on my book, I Trust When Dark My Road: A Lutheran View of Depression, available from LCMS World Relief and Human Care.  I receive requests for videos from time to time, and this is now where I will be pointing them.

If you are interested in having me come and speak to your congregation, circuit, women’s group, etc., about depression and the hope we have in Christ, please email me here.

Thank you to all of my friends in Indiana and Illinois!  It was a wonderful weekend.  God bless you!

-Pastor Todd Peperkorn

This coming week I will be speaking to the Concordia Deaconess Conference about the topic of depression and mental illness.  I’ll have about four hours with these fine ladies, and I am really looking forward to the opportunity.

My plan right now is to divide the presentation into two parts.  The first part will be on living with depression.  This section will be an overview of the book, and trying to provide some insight into the mind of the depressed and/or mentally ill.  The second part will be on how to serve those who suffer with depression and/or mental illnesses of various types, and how to serve their families.

So my question for you today is this: if you had this opportunity, what would you want to teach about and why?  How do you see the role of deaconesses and others in your congregations when it comes to serving those in need, especially with mental illnesses?  Do they have a place?  What is the place?  Are they better suited to serve the family, or the person directly?  I have my own ideas on these subjects, but I would love to hear yours as well.

-DMR

darkmyroad08.mp3

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.” (2 Corinthians 12:7 ESV)

Why do pastors go through the “SuperPastor” complex?

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darkmyroad07.mp3

“My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.”
(Psalms 25:15 ESV)

Don’t forget to order a free copy of the book!

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darkmyroad06.mp3

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)

Why is it so hard to believe that things can get better?

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Episode 5 – When God doesn’t seem to care

“And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.” But he did not answer her a word.” (Matthew 15:22–23 ESV)

What happens when you pray and God doesn’t answer, or at least doesn’t answer the way you want?

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I Trust When Dark My Road – Episode 4 – Letting Others Help You

The easiest way for you to hear and get these consistently is to subscribe in iTunes.  Try this link from iTunes.

I am trying to send this one out in MP3 format. Let’s see if this is a little more generally accessible.

Again, I would appreciate any comments on the quality, accessibility, etc., of getting this audio.  Thanks very much!

-DMR

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I Trust When Dark My Road – Episode #3 – Selfcare

The easiest way for you to hear and get these consistently is to subscribe in iTunes.  Try this link from iTunes.

Here’s the Luther quotation:

“The Christian takes care of his own body in order that, through its health, he is able to work and to acquire and preserve property in order to help those who are in need.” Martin Luther, “How to Live a Christian Life,” p. 68.

Again, I would appreciate any comments on the quality, accessibility, etc., of getting this audio.  Thanks very much!

-DMR

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