So, I've been considering the grief of the Spirit... How I have sensed the grief of the Holy Spirit in my life, over the last 15 to 18 years of following Jesus... There is a battle in my history that I have experienced numerous times...the fight to hold to Scripture's command for my speech.
It isn't that I struggle with cussing... I don't, really. I don't like to cuss. I have had the habit on and off, but my times of regular cussing are directly associated with times of bitterness and folly--painful times of my life. For those of you who know me, those were days where I lost a good chunk of the Hope and Confidence that we are to hold onto... 
It is that I struggle with being in community when I believe that foul, profane talk, foolish joking, and the like, are not good. I struggle with community around that because I am a leader, and don't want to answer "guilty" to a charge of legalism...and because the anger that I have seen in response to this (consistently over the years) has proven to me that Satan really has a foothold in us when we are cussers... really. he does.
i think cussing and profanity, and folly, and the like are signs that satan has a hold in our lives. Why else would we break with the outright authority of the Word, which says:
"...No rotten talk should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need, in order to give grace to those who hear. And don't grieve God's Holy spirit, who sealed you for the day of redemption. All bitterness, anger and wrath, insult and slander must be removed from you, along with all wickedness. And be kind and compassionate..." --Ephesians 4:29...
"...the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. But sexual immorality and any impurity of greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. And coarse and foolish talking, or crude joking are not suitable, gut rather giving thanks. For know and recoginze this: no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, who is an idolater, has an ingeriatnce in the kingdom of the Messiah and of God." --Ephesians 5:2...
"...How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. A good man produces good things from his storeroom of good, and an evil man produces evil things from his storeroom of evil. I tell you that ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT PEOPLE WILL HAVE TO ACCOUNT FOR EVERY CARELESS WORD THEY SPEAK. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." --Matt. 12:33...
I know that the last one wasn't about cussing only. It's also about the confession and denial of Christ through our daily speech and conduct, as well as some other things. But bear with this old fundamentalist...
"Are even you sitll lacking in understanding?" He asked. Don't you realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminatied? But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a man. For from th eheart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man..." --Matt. 15:16
And there is more. But the top thing in all this is that feeling I get, as I struggle to obey the Spirit's call to heavenward living--that feeling I get as I so often fall back into speaking from my "sarx", whether it be about using a "cussword", or saying something about someone that doesn't reflect well. I cringe to think of just last night. That's why i'm posting this, so all the brothers and sisters are ready when I say, humbly, "don't grieve the Spirit" hoping that we can all help each other be a holy family, not speaking amiss.
...speaking amiss... the bottom line is: I'm realizing that it's going to take a strong effort to clean up my life, for God's glory, in response to GRACE, by His sheer gift that I'm even wanting to do it... it's going to take DOING to have purity of speech, freedom from slander, and an end to malicious talk... as well as cussing.
it's a heart issue, and behaviors that i have exhibited will cue me in on it... so i'm doing cleanup, personally, finishing up with the Lord on this issue...
AND--I'm going to be here to teach and preach and admonish and instruct all of my brothers and sisters about this,because we have a corporate heart fungus, here... now you may not, but your brothers and sisters do...
I know that some of you may read this and think that I'm being mean. i love you. tough. peace.
