Young men tend to want to change the world. Eventually they come to realise that if they can just change themselves, they’ve accomplished more than most people do in a lifetime. I have to admit that InFocus was born more out of a desire to change the world than to change myself, but the older I get, the more I realise that God meant InFocus to change me.

I understand that not everyone sees eye to eye with me in what I write. I also understand that most people don’t care what I write. And frankly, that doesn’t bother me too much. InFocus has been an opportunity for me to grow and challenge my own thinking on so many things. It’s been a catalyst for serious study. It’s a discipline that has benefited me greatly.

Every now and then I hear a testimony of how God has used something I’ve written in the life of someone else. I’m glad when that happens. One thing I’ve realised is that it’s not what we say and do that influences others the most. It’s who we are that influences other people in the greatest way. Becoming what God intends us to become is a long, hard journey, but it is a journey that God has promised to take us on and He will not leave us half-way to the destination.

So thanks to those of you who check in here along your journey to see what is coming out of the lives of our writers on their journey. The purpose of InFocus is still to develop readers, thinkers, and theologians among Australia’s younger fundamentalists. We’ve got some great changes in the works over at GMT and some of those changes will carry over here to InFocus so stay tuned and may God bless you and keep you.

I asked Farid Wardan, head admin at givemetruth.net, to put together some thoughts about InFocus as part of our third anniversary celebration. His thoughts are below:

I remember our conversation as clear as day. Jason and I were sitting in the car outside SBBC, we’d only known each other for a few weeks at that point but the lengthy discussions we had on a regular basis had clearly revealed our like-mindedness on many issues, and our similar visions for the future of our movement in Australia.

GMT was in its infancy and Jason expressed a desire to have an online, Australian resource for articles by and for fundamentalists. We spent a good portion of that day (and many more thereafter!) working through the requirements of getting something like that happening, and shortly after the “Fundamentalist Resource Centre” was born.

From day one Jason has proved a capable editor and writer, and last year saw the transition to the current name and format in use for the site. Yesterday marked the third anniversary of InFocus and looking back at what InFocus has come through and achieved, I’m thankful for the encouragement and helpful resource that it’s been to me. I’m thankful for Jason’s perseverance and diligence in making it what it is. Above all I’m thankful for God’s grace which empowers us to serve him.

As we plan and prepare for the future it’s our hope and prayer that this place be a blessing, and our desire to see InFocus expand to a broader audience and larger writing team! If you have any suggestions or would like to share how InFocus has been a blessing to you, then please direct your comments to Jason.

Well, today marks three years since our first post here at InFocus. It’s been a great experience in many ways and a difficult one in some ways, but I’m thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to be involved in this and look forward to what will come in the future.

I thought I’d give you some ranking stats for the last year just for fun. Our top five stories in the last twelve months were:

1. The Worst Job in the World - This is the first of a four part series Steven Mock put together for InFocus.
2. InFocus in Focus - A good post to read if you want to know what we are about.
3. Insecurity, Part Three: Understanding God’s Love for You - Part of a four part series.
4. With Regard to Essential Doctrines - Guest post by Spurgeon… bet he never thought he’d be blogging!
5. The Light That Shines Farthest - This is the summary post from when we live blogged the NBF last year. We’ll have to talk to Alen and see if we can do it again this year.

Over the next couple of days I’m planning to put up some reflections by myself and Farid Wardan. Thanks to those of you who have read, commented, or written over the last three years. I appreciate you!

The hiatus is over. I’m looking forward to getting back in the groove and am excited about what lies ahead. The last several months have given me a chance to think and re-focus and I wanted to share a little of what’s come out of that. First, a purpose statement. It’s nothing deep, but it does give an idea of who we are and what we’re trying to do.

Our purpose is to develop the Australian blogosphere, to cultivate serious and useful discussion, and to develop a generation of readers, thinkers, and theologians.

Notice I didn’t say “pastors.” That’s because the Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve just made the final post in the series on insecurity. I trust you’ll read the whole series and listen to the podcasts too. It’s been very helpful to me and I trust it will be helpful to others.

I appreciate those of you who regularly read InFocus. I will be taking a several month hiatus. If you want to be notified when the posting starts again, just subscribe to the RSS feed. We may get someone on the team to update the BlogWatch periodically so feel free to keep checking in for that.

Part two of the three-part Insecurity series is now available. See here.

We’ve been meaning for almost a year now to change the name of the FRC to something more accessible. Finally, after much deliberation on the part of the GMT Leadership Team, we’ve decided on InFocus. Old links should work for a while, but our new address is www.givemetruth.net/infocus.

Along with the name change, we’ve recently released the BlogWatch and a brand new home page at givemetruth.net. We’re also putting plans in place for more frequent posts on InFocus. All up there are some excellent new features which we believe can be a benefit to believers.

The FRC is undergoing a series of changes that we think will make it more useful to our readers. Farid, who is the brains behind the place, has done an excellent job getting the new BlogWatch format up. Our goal is to update the BlogWatch at least once a day during the week. If you see something out there that you think is BlogWatch material, please drop us an email at the link on the top of the BlogWatch section.

Other changes to the FRC will include a name change and more frequent posts. These changes will be accompanied by a pile of changes on givemetruth.net but I’ll let Farid keep you updated on that stuff.

Monday marked the launch of the GMT Podcast! This new feature of Givemetruth.net is designed to further the overall purpose of Givemetruth.net by helping young people to saturate their minds with God’s truth in yet another powerful medium. Many Christian podcasts consist of sermon tapes that are formatted for podcast, but the GMT Podcast is unique in that the weekly segments will be recorded specifically for Givemetruth.net. Features will include devotionals and discussion segments. Now is a great time to click here and subscribe to the GMT Podcast!