Amazing what you find when you clean up

This is from my pastor friend, Alan Smith. I found it in my archives while transfering files to my new laptop computer.

The following are ads from a real-life newspaper (so I've been told) which appeared four days in a row - the last three hopelessly trying to correct the first day's mistake.

MONDAY: For sale: R.D. Jones has one sewing machine for sale. Phone 948-0707 after 7 P.M.. and ask for Mrs. Kelly who lives with him cheap.

TUESDAY: Notice: We regret having erred in R.D. Jones' ad yesterday. It should have read "One sewing machine for sale cheap. Phone 948-0707 and ask for Mrs. Kelly, who lives with him after 7 P.M."

WEDNESDAY: Notice: R.D. Jones has informed us that he has received several annoying telephone calls because of the error we made in the classified ad yesterday. The ad stands correct as follows: "For sale -- R.D. Jones has one sewing machine for sale. Cheap. Phone
948-0707 after 7 P.M. and ask for Mrs. Kelly who loves with him."

THURSDAY: Notice: I, R.D. Jones, have no sewing machine for sale. I smashed it. Don't call 948-0707 as I have had the phone disconnected. I have not been carrying on with Mrs. Kelly. Until yesterday she was my housekeeper but she quit!

It's so frustrating when we're misunderstood. It's even more frustrating when people purposefully twist what we're trying to say. The early Christians struggled with this very problem. When they talked about the connection of the Lord's Supper with the body and
blood of Christ, they were called cannibals. When they talked about their "love feasts", others accused them of having orgies. That doesn't seem fair, but Jesus said to expect it.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in
heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
(Matthew 5:10-12).