Thank you to a Vermont TGP team member for submitting today’s featured hobby!
Many genres of literature are written and enjoyed throughout the world. Today’s focus is on the area of fiction, which includes many sub-categories. Historical fiction is a unique intertwining of actual events / people with created characters / sub-plots. Science fiction is often futuristic, involving imagined inventions. Mystery / adventure, romance, fantasy, allegory, and literary fiction are also popular forms. From Winnie the Pooh to the works of Charles Dickens, children and adults alike enjoy reading fiction. Fictional pieces can range in length from short stories (such as those of O’Henry) to the longest novel ever published: In Search of Lost Time, a 7-volume book containing 1.3 million words.
1. Jesus used the genre of fiction when He told parables to illustrate spiritual truths by placing them in easily understood daily life settings. (The way to distinguish a parable from His references to actual events are that parables do not contain names of specific individuals.) One such parable is Matthew 13’s story of the farmer and the types of ground that received seed. Pray for someone who has heard the gospel but not yet believed to have a heart like the good ground Jesus described.
2. Pilgrim’s Progress, an allegory written by John Bunyan in 1678, has often been described as a book second only to the Bible. One part of the story depicts Christian and Hopeful locked in the dungeon of Giant Despair. They forget that they have the Key of Promise (indicative of the promises of Scripture). When they remember they have it three nights later, they are able to escape. Pray that Christians throughout the world today will remember, be strengthened by, and avail themselves of the hope that God’s promises give.
3. Pray for Christian students in secular universities not to be deceived by the false idea that the Bible is fictional. Pray for them instead to be wholeheartedly convinced of its complete historical veracity and inerrancy.
Matthew 13:43
