I wonder what Thomas Edison, George Eastman, and Alexander Graham Bell would think if they could see an iPhone or Android phone.

The three famous inventors of a movie camera, Kodak camera, and the telephone would be surprised to see a hand-held electronic device that can record videos, take digital photos, and make phone calls.

Imagine the men’s amazement to learn how many applications can be downloaded into a cell phone. By some published reports, there are between 60,000 and 100,000 kinds of applications to download from the internet in categories such as music, cooking, games, work, students, traveling, stocks, and managing money.

If you are cooking, there’s an app to set a timer or compile a grocery list. Thousands of recipes can be found via links to websites. You can play scrabble and other educational and entertainment games.

If you enjoy the great outdoors, apps can be downloaded for bird-watching, star-gazing, hiking, biking, running and skiing. You can find maps, a compass, a GPS, and send a panoramic photo of the scenery.

On the small, rectangular screen of a cellular telephone you can “tickle the ivories” on a full 88-key piano with authentic sound. Learn the chords to play a guitar using another app. If you are traveling and do not know the language, there’s an app for that, too. You can subscribe to apps to stay informed about business, sports, fashion, and much more.

“Apps for everything,” Apple advertises on its website. I’ve read about new apps available such as a church offering an app for people to download and listen to their services anywhere, anytime. Talk about preaching the Gospel outside the four walls of the sanctuary.

Several publishers have introduced apps to download the Bible, study helps, commentaries, and Bible quizzes. I see more and more people during worship services reading the Scripture on their cell phones as the pastor reads his sermon text. There’s no other book like the Bible with “apps for everything.” In God’s inspired Word with its 31,103 verses, you can find applications for everything you need to know.

The Bible provides a moral compass and GPS (God’s Plan for Salvation). Need a map? “The Bible is God’s chart for you to steer by,” Henry Ward Beecher once wrote. Planning a budget? Read Mark 4 and Luke 19. Participating in sports? Turn to 2 Timothy 2:5. If you’re starting a new job, go to Psalm 1, Proverbs 16, and Philippians 3:7-21.

Want to know the recipe for a good marriage and parenting children? You’ll find apps for every relationship. The Bible has been called food for the soul. Are you sick or in pain? Read Psalms 6, 29, 41, 67; and Isaiah 26. Are you lonely or fearful? Search for Psalm 27, Psalm 91, Luke 8 and 1 John 3.

Author Keith Miller has written, “The Bible can change not only a life, but an entire lifestyle.” Read it again and again to find the Truth to apply to your life!

 

Jan White is an national award-winning religion columnist. She can be reached at jwhite@andycable.com