Questions About Your Personal Finances? Read the Bible

"Our spending before Crown [Financial Ministries], there was no rhyme or reason," Kristen said. "If we wanted something, we'd go out and get it."

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Before they took Dayton's course, the Pruitts said they were in credit card debt and financial disarray. Following Dayton's tough-love, tighten-the-belt advice, made them financially secure enough to adopt three young children ... expanding their family to seven people.

Dayton asked them to keep cash in envelopes meant for specific expenses, such as groceries.

"And when the money's gone, you know we wait for pay day, eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!" Kristin said.

Combating Impulse Spending

"I think prayer is part of it. I really do," Dayton said.

He claims to practice what he preaches. Dayton and his wife Bev have paid off their home and cars. They keep one credit card, and pay it off immediately after using it.

But Dayton hasn't always been this way — certainly not when he was an aggressive young deal-maker in the restaurant and real estate businesses.

At one point, he said, money was his God.

"It was my total focus in life," he said. "I literally didn't care about people. I just wanted to make as much money as I could."

Dayton got himself into some serious debt before he found God. That's when he started to comb through the Bible for financial wisdom.

He found more than 2,350 mentions of money and possessions, and typed them up. He and his wife started to live by what those passages had to say.

You're Not the Owner: God Is

"Bev drove the same car for 17 years. We used to call it Puff because of the smoke that would come out of the exhaust when it took off," he said. "One of the things that the Bible teaches is that of contentment ... not that we are to be lazy and not try to improve our lives. But what you have at the moment, be content with it. And that was a huge concept for me, particularly coming from a place where I had just wanted to get filthy rich."

The basics of Dayton's message sound similar to that of a secular person: Live within your means, and stay out of debt. But Dayton said his message is different.