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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | NOVEMBER 2025 21 By Steve Beno You may have noticed that last year I devoted half my columns to things Jewish. And among those things was the occasional app. I think it's only fair to mention apps for other religions. This month I'll cover Christian apps. Of course, I have no personal experience with Christian apps. But I do have Christian good friends. So, I queried them as to phone apps they may use. Alas, they don't use any. So, not to give up, I consulted that greatest source for things Christian – ChatGPT. Artificial intelligence is all the rage right now. ChatGPT is only one of many AI resources. Awhile back, when AI was first becoming known, I had AI write a pretty decent column on apps for seniors. Here are some of the apps recommended by ChatGPT – First shot out of the box I ran into trouble. I entered "bible" and got an app called "Bible" as the first listing. It looks like an extremely comprehensive bible app, perhaps the Christian equivalent of the Jewish Sefaria app I've mentioned in previous columns. According to the description in the Apple App Store, the app offers thousands of Bible versions in over 1,750 languages. By the way, there appear to be about 7,000 languages worldwide. There are plenty of audio versions available. There's a verse of the day. There are many guided scriptures. Frankly, it would take this entire column to fully describe the extent of this app. If you don't have a Bible app on your phone, this one looks like a good one to start with. So, here's my problem. Many of the recommended apps duplicate each other. I'll try to highlight some features that may be distinctive. Bible Gateway says, "learn more about any Bible passage with a library of trustworthy Bible commentaries and other references." Here's a unique feature if you have an iPad – "view three different translations side-by-side." (I'd like this feature for Jewish translations of the Hebrew Bible.) The description mentions a paid version; I don't know if the free versions come with endless offers to upgrade. When I searched the App Store for the third recommended app, Daily Bible, I couldn't find one with that exact name. Instead, there were many purporting to fulfill that daily need. So, enter that in the search bar and choose among the many offered. Some go beyond one offered verse. DailyBible Lite provides prayers for morning and night. Pray.com looks like an app based on a website. It offers prayer plans, bedtime bible stories, meditation, and audio bible stories. This app includes James Earl Jones Reads the Bible, Dr. Phil Prayer Therapy, Drew Brees 21 Days of Motivational Prayers, Brian Cox The Word of God, and many other suggests audio presentations. ChatGPT calls the next app Abide. But searching for that app brings up many choices and the AI description is so general as to not point one in any specific directions. However, one of the apps that comes up in the store search is Abide – Bible Meditation Sleep. But more than offering 2000 meditations and 365+ bedtime stories, this app says it will "deepen your Lenten journey with daily scripture, guided meditations, and prayer prompts. Transform the 40 days of ref lection into a powerful spiritual reset." Glorify – Prayer and Devotional offers the usual "daily devotionals, guided Christian meditation, and prayer." However, it also seems to stress using the app to "connect with friends, family, and church communities. Discuss devotionals, share prayer requests, and support each other." Aha, this app may be limited unless you pay monthly. Lastly, there are Christian podcasts. You can search for them on your podcast app of choice or get Edifi – Christian Podcasts. Pastor Rick Warren has an app which says it's "a powerful Christian app that brings together thousands of the best Christan podcasts for your listening enjoyment … You can access more than 2,000,000 pieces of Christian audio, including Bible study podcasts, sermons, news podcasts, women podcasts, leadership podcasts, lifestyle podcasts, and music podcasts." Lest I overlook other Christian apps, there are apps for Christian dating, mingling, hypnobirthing, games, and cupid. And this from the New York Times. Religious chatbots are becoming very popular. "Chatbot" defines chatbot as "a computer program designed to simulate a human conversation through text or voice." Sounds sacrilegious to me, but some think of this as "chatting with God." If you use an app you'd like to share with others, let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! Apps for Christians

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