{"id":6199,"date":"2025-04-23T13:04:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T12:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/?p=6199"},"modified":"2025-04-23T13:04:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T12:04:38","slug":"pick-out-three-hymns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/?p=6199","title":{"rendered":"Pick out three hymns."},"content":{"rendered":"

One Sunday, a pastor told his congregation that the church needed some extra money.<\/h2>\n

He asked the people to consider donating a little more than usual into the offering plate.<\/p>\n

He said that whoever gave the most would be able to pick out three hymns.<\/p>\n

After the offering plates were passed, the pastor glanced down and noticed that someone had placed ten $100 bills in the offering.<\/p>\n

He was so excited that he immediately shared his joy with his congregation and said he\u2019d like to personally thank the person who placed the money in the plate.<\/p>\n

A very quiet, elderly, saintly-looking lady all the way in the back shyly raised her hand.<\/p>\n

The pastor asked her to come to the front.<\/p>\n

Slowly she made her way to the pastor. He told her how wonderful it was that she gave so much and in thanks asked her to pick out three hymns.<\/p>\n

Her eyes brightened as she looked over the congregation, pointed to the three most handsome men in the building and said,\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ll take him and him and him.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While working on a message the pastor heard a knock at his office door.<\/h2>\n

\u201cCome in,\u201d he invited.<\/p>\n

A contrite-looking man in threadbare clothes came in, pulling a goat on a rope, \u201cCan I talk to you for a minute?\u201d asked the man with his hat in his hand.<\/p>\n

Wordlessly, the pastor indicated the chair and the man sat down in it gingerly. The goat proceeded to sniff around the office.<\/p>\n

With one eye on the animal and one on the man, the pastor folded his hands on his desk and leaned forward, curious to hear the fellow\u2019s story, \u201cWhat can I do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family is hungry,\u201d started the man. \u201cSo I stole this goat. But I feel that I have sinned. Would you please take it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly not,\u201d said the minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen what should I do with it?\u201d asked the man.<\/p>\n

\u201cGive it back to the man you stole it from, of course!\u201d the pastor explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI offered it to him, but he refused to take it. Now what should I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn that case,\u201d the minister said, \u201cIt would be all right for you to keep it and feed your family.\u201d<\/p>\n

That seemed to settle things as far as the man was concerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for your help, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a lighter step, he walked out of the office, leading the goat on the rope behind him.<\/p>\n

Later that afternoon when the minister returned home, he said to his wife as he walked in, \u201cI have got a story to tell you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have something to tell you first,\u201d she exclaimed. \u201cSomeone has stolen your goat!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One Sunday, a pastor told his congregation that the church needed some extra money. He asked the people to consider donating a little more than usual into the offering plate. He said that whoever gave the most would be able to pick out three hymns. After the offering plates were passed, the pastor glanced down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-random-stuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6200,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199\/revisions\/6200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/buzzfeednews.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}