Specifics on the whole Spending topic will come.  For now, let’s listen to our mentor, Richard Foster:

“We simply must understand that the writers of the New Testament did not intend to give us a new set of laws.  The limit inherent in all these teachings is built into the simple principle of love of God and neighbor.

Dallas Willard has said, “Love is a well-reasoned concern for the good of all.”

Love does not have tunnel vision.

If I bring the needy into my home and destroy my own family in the process, I am driven by something other than love.

The commands of Jesus must be understood within the broader context of the law of love.  The biblical instruction is not meant to destroy us, but to set us free.  It is the glad trumpet call of liberation to all who are oppressed by reputation, wealth, and power…

What we discover from the New Testament witness is the combination of a penetrating criticism of wealth with a carefree, almost lighthearted attitude toward possessions.  It is a combination seldom found today…

Until Pentecost the disciples were a motley crew – bickering, backbiting, jockeying for position, always squabbling over who was to receive top billing. 

Unfocused, they did not know simplicity of life.  But in the course of time Jesus had formed a community of people who would live in holy obedience (always the most distinguishing characteristic of simplicity). 

Finally a people had been gathered who, when God said, ‘Wait,’ would wait, when God said, ‘Go,’ would go, when God said, ‘Give,’ would give.

Rugged men and women who had been seasoned by many failures and some successes, imperfect and ignorant of many things, they were nevertheless a prepared people. 

And God said, ‘Wait.’

Disciplined, obedient, simple, they waited.

And the fire fell.”

The Freedom of Simplicity, pgs 49, 50, 51