Callback Method - Cross Thread Operation Not Valid Exception?

I have a windows form that gets data from a scale via the serial port. Since I need the operator to be able to cancel the process I do the get data process on a second thread. The data collection process gets multiple readings from the scale one at a time. The form has a label that needs to be updated with information specific to each reading.

I call the method to get the data from the scale with this code.
Dim ad As New readALine(AddressOf thisScale.readALine)
Dim ac As New AsyncCallback(AddressOf Me.GetDataCallback)
Dim iar As IAsyncResult = ad.BeginInvoke("", ac, ad)

The delegate for the readALine method is defined in the UI code.
Delegate Function readALine(ByVal toSend As String) As String

The GetDataCallback method:
Private Sub GetDataCallback(ByVal ia As IAsyncResult)
.
.
.
lblInstructions.Text = _thisMeasure.dt.Rows(_currRow - 1).Item("cnt") & ":"
lblInstructions.Refresh()
.
.
.
End Sub

I get the exception on the "lblInstructions.Text =" statement. I thought the GetDataCallback method was part of the UI thread so don't understand why I'm getting the exception. I know this could probably be rewritten using a BackgroundWorker and it's appropriate events but for now would like to understand why this isn't working as expected. The application was written originally in VS2003 and just recently upgraded to VS2008.