Isn't it amazing how sometimes we get all tangled up with the words we speak and end up not being clear about what we're trying to say? One poster read, "I know you think you understand what I said, but what you don't understand is that what I said wasn't what I meant." Are you ever misunderstood? It happens everywhere--at work, at home, at school. Believe it or not, it even happens at church.

Every now and then, Abigail Van Buren in her column, Dear Abby, would run a list of church bulletin misprints and church sign bloopers that prove that we in the church occasionally have problems saying what we mean. Here were some of them:

The bulletin of a church in Iowa announced: The Low Self-Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday from 7 to 8:30p.m. Please use the back door.

Another church's bulletin carried this announcement: Due to the Pastor's illness, Wednesday's healing services will be discontinued until further notice.

During a service one preacher made this announcement: "This being Easter Sunday, we will now ask Mr. Vassilas to come forward and lay an egg on the altar.

Another church newsletter had this: At the evening service tonight, the topic will be "What is Hell?" Come early and hear our choir practice.

Not to pick on the choir, but an announcement in one church read: Eight new choir robes are currently needed, due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

In today's Scripture we find that even Jesus sometimes had trouble speaking clearly enough for people to get what he was saying. Did you notice? Jesus is trying to make a point using symbolic figures of speech that his listeners just don't get. The images he uses of sheepfolds, thieves, gates and gatekeepers were very familiar to these people, and yet, they didn't understand.