It's all about the wordplay

This past Sunday, my sermon was titled, "Truth Never Changes." One of my two main Scriptures was Proverbs 12.

The final verse of that chapter says this, "In the way of righteousness there is life; along that path is immortality."

Unfortunately for me, I skipped one letter "t" as I read that verse which completely changed its meaning. The end result was that instead of encouraging my congregation to live righteously, I mistakenly stated that "along that path is immorality."

Very big difference.

Even better was the fact that I didn't catch what I had done, and continued preaching. After greeting people as they left, I was informed of my error by my youth group. Needless to say they loved to witness the shocked expression on my face when I realized what I said.

This reminds me of a copy of the Old Testament that briefly circulated some time ago. When printing the portion of Exodus that included the Ten Commandments, the printer accidentally omitted the word "not" from the seventh commandment which then mistakenly read, "Thou shalt commit adultery."

Maybe that should be next week's text.