quote for today

Richard Foster rocks my face off. We're studying this chapter Sunday. It's a tough one. Tough Tough Tough. and i'm sure that there could be many objections to the material.... but still.... I wish I had the patience to type out the whole chapter. _____ "Simplicity" in Celebration of Discipline "Jesus speaks to the question of economics more than an other single social issue. If, in a comparatively simple society, our Lord lays such strong emphasis upon the spiritual dangers of wealth, how much more should we who live in a highly affluent culture take seriously the economic question." ... "Simplicity is the only thing that sufficiently reorients our lives so that possessions can be genuinely enjoyed without destroying us. Without simplicity we will either capitulate to the 'mammon' spirit of this present evil age, or we will fall into an un-Christian legalistic asceticism. Both lead to idolatry. Both are spiritually lethal. "Descriptions of the abundant material provision God gives his people abound in Scripture. 'For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land...a land...in which you will lack nothing' (Deut. 8.7-9). Warnings about the danger of provisions that are not kept in proper perspective also abound. 'Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth' (Deut. 8.17)." --Richard Foster. Celebration of Discipline (3rd ed., 1998). pp. 83-85.