Page 8 - Mark Tronson News Today

Photo  -    Liana Monaghan, Delma Tronson and Jo Fuller young writer conference -  realistic considerations In recent months on social media has been an enormous amount of chatter on the perils of political correctness. Even our politicians have been on this band wagon claiming this or that was political correctness gone mad. Christian writers including me over recent years have waxed lyrical on this subject. The problem is that it gets locked in with bureaucracies. Once that happens the ...

Photo  -   Rev Simon Manchester, a hero of the faith Who are heroes of the faith? I can name two. There are oodles of people such as these two who might be referred to as such. In my life time these are two of them. My wife Delma and I initiated our faith financed sports ministry in 1982 in association with Heads of Churches, and like many other Missions, we raised our own funding for our living needs and ministry expenses. In an interview on the Australian Missionary News IPTV, Delma Trons...

Photo  -   “The Song of Australia” being sung by Delma Tronson and three others at ANZAC Cove, 1999 A question in recent weeks leading up to last Saturday’s Federal election related to veterans and considering the succour for those loved ones who died in service and those who returned with a whole different perspective. Way back in 2012  -  I wrote of this in Christian Today - "Is there a true value or a relative value of our servicemen and women" – it was rated as one of the Best...

Photo - International’s editor Josh Robbie 1 January 2021 spells out a new year for Well-Being Australia and this would be a good idea for a new year article. The first thing to note is the excitement of any church who plants a new congregation and to witness that new Christian work develop, expand and become established on its own two feet. This happened mid year at the church we worship – Living Temple Christian Church (Tugun Baptist) (lower Gold Coast) who planted a new church at Coolan...

Photo  -    Tales of the Footplate Revised by the Footplate Padre One of the articles I wrote as Footplate Padre for the On Track railway e-magazine was driving a freight train from Port Kembla to Sydneys Enfield goods yard. Enfield railway freight yard in the heart of Sydneys west saw trains come in, their wagons shunted into trains for various Sydney freight yard destinations and other trains made up for external trips either inter-state or to the various regional destinations. It was im...

Photo  -   Tronson du Coudray art “Middle of Spring” Recently I was reading Dr Joseph Parker, one of the recognised great English preachers of the second half of the 1800s in London. A fascinating comment Joseph Parker made when relating to ministers was as follows: "An un-tempted minister will never do us any good, and an untried one will talk over our heads." I have often reflected on this as I for one would have been greatly blessed and enhanced in ministry to have sat under Joseph P...

Yesterday I concluded with a question  -  Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath Now there’s a technicality behind that question, and Jewish scribes used to debate it: is it lawful for a physician to heal on the sabbath? If the answer’s ‘yes’ how about someone else, like a prophet? The Shammaite Pharisees did not allow praying for the sick on the sabbath, but the followers of Hillel allowed it. Arguments, arguments: ‘arguments by extension’ to which Jesus answers with an ‘argument ...

Dr Mark Tronson 2000 in Hamilton NZ A Minister of Religion gets asked many questions. He is supposed to be modest in response and not be outrageous or volatile, and so when asked a question, the answer should seemingly be sensible and even galvanising. However, that was somewhat an implausible situation, when as my youngest daughter some years ago now, came home from school, telling us that her friend said that all ministers are fuddy duddies. I have thought about that image a great deal, so wh...

Photo  -    Submarine art "Clandestine Submarine landing party" a painting by Tronson du Coudray“ the missionary painter - is the basis of my first Anzac reflections. The art work was specifically painted for Anzac Day and is a portrayal of the Japanese landing party that, according to the Moruya Examiner Newspaper, silently slipped onto Australian soil near Browlee, Moruya on the south coast of New South Wales in 1942. We lived in Moruya between 1992 and 2006. During those years the loc...

Rev Dr Rowland Croucher the Pastor’s Pastor writes Being an itinerant (‘hit-run’) preacher has some advantages. I remember a Sunday evening service in a conservative church in rural Victoria, Australia. They had big black Bibles and severe expressions… And they knew their Bibles, and were proud of that. It was a smallish group, so I decided to engage them in dialogue: ‘Who knows who the Pharisees were?’ They did. ‘The Pharisees got a pretty nasty press in the New Testament – par...