Amos and Micah prophesied in the 8th century BC, and for this reason are considered contemporary prophets though their focuses and locations were separate. Due to being in a similar time period, we can find many parallels in the messages that these men bring, while also seeing a few very evident differences. While Amos can be seen exhibiting a microstructure of sort1, Micah has no real structural theme2. This makes sense when we consider that the bulk, if not all, of Micah’s words were directed to the people of Judah, Amos prophesied oracles to much of the surrounding area.      In viewing the similarities of Amos and Micah, we can first see that they both focus on those that oppress the poor. Both books take focus early in the writings to speak God’s hatred against oppression and those that are doing the oppressing. Micah speaks of those that spend their “down time” laying in their beds, plotting and thinking of ways that they can carry out their oppression. (Micah 2:1-2...

No matter what way you slice it, our definition of success is different than God’s definition of success. The problem that we run into with success, as with many other areas, is that we seem to lay our definitions over God’s Word. As churches, we often turn to different gimmicks to get some type of visible results, while the scriptures are clear that God will and is building His church. (Matthew 16:18) As individuals, we are constantly seeking steps into a so called ‘victorious’ Christian life, and quickly forget how Christ measures success in this life. CS Lewis emphasized this when he said, “It is not [our] business to succeed.” 1 This increasingly true with those that would proclaim that we can live a “victorious Christian life” over sin and become what is deemed a Spirit-filled Christian. While the fact of the matter is that this concept is not only foreign to scripture but has disastrous effects on the lives of believers. This mindset will inevitably lead to one of two desti...