Nevermind. I got this working with the help of http://docs.spark.io/#/firmware/communication-spi
Another question: I have a board that has multiple MAX31855 chips on it that are on the same SPI line, but have different Chip Select lines (SS in your code)
I saw that you had problems in another post with using SPI on the core when you were not using the SS line. I would like to eventually be able to put this into a library or a function so that I can call it multiple times in a row using different pins for SS to read multiple thermocouples.
If you can help me with that it would be awesome!
Dave