Pope vs Pope 
“Will the World Cup final become a ‘Holy War’?” asks this sensational CNN headline. Because, of course, the current Pope Francis is from Argentina, while the former Pope Benedict is German. Where will Catholics’ alliances lie? “At the very least, Sunday’s match could put millions of Catholics – not to mention Vatican employees – in a bit of a bind,” they write. Worth reading just for the fantastic collection of memes at the bottom. See more here.

Well it’s official… This is SOOO happening in #Rome on Sunday! #B16 #PopeFrancis #WorldCup2014 #PopeVsPope pic.twitter.com/BrFRq0zGVJ

— The Jesuit Post (@TheJesuitPost) July 9, 2014

World Cup evangelism
Meanwhile, thousands of gospels tracts have been handed out on the beaches of Brazil during the World Cup by Bible Society, while the Child Evangelical Fellowship of Brazil made up thousands of soccer balls with colors symbolic of the main points of the gospel, and Brazilian Baptist Home Mission Board developed a strategy for handing out yellow cards to fans as a way to begin conversations about what they’ve done wrong and how they can be made right through the gospel. Read more here.

Get a dog for Jesus!
Perhaps you already have one, and you know the power of it. Or perhaps you have a baby, and you too know what we’re talking about. No, not cleaning up after them, but the amount of conversations you have with strangers as a result. On Life Lived Forward John Cavanough suggests it’s not that strange to think of getting a dog to increase your interaction with people in your community–to get a dog for Jesus.

Got a favourite three books of the Bible?
Do you have go-to books of the Bible that you keep coming back to? And if you had to choose three books of the Bible that you could only read from, which would you choose? It’s an interesting question to reflect upon in order to understand more about your own Bible reading practices, and also a challenge to branch out. But, as this writer suggests, “the truth is that most Christians operate based on a canon within the canon. Read the fully story on the Jesus Creed blog.