a thread opens
Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer every man.
The Vigil
Today’s scroll, one verse at a time — each linked to the last by the cross-references rather than by any model of you. The same vigil for everyone, and a different one tomorrow.
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.
from Colossians 4:6
A man has joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!
from Proverbs 25:11 · a strong link
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, so that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakens morning by morning, he wakens my ear to hear as the learned.
from Proverbs 15:23 · a strong link
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Then Moses said to Aaron, This is it that the LORD spoke, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.
Speak to Aaron, saying, Whoever he be of your seed in their generations that has any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
from Leviticus 10:3
And he spoke to Korah and to all his company, saying, Even tomorrow the LORD will show who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near to him: even him whom he has chosen will he cause to come near to him.
from Leviticus 21:17
But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister to me, and they shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood, says the Lord GOD:
from Numbers 16:5
And you shall give to the priests the Levites that are of the seed of Zadok, which approach to me, to minister to me, says the Lord GOD, a young bull for a sin offering.
from Ezekiel 44:15
To be a memorial to the children of Israel, that no stranger, which is not of the seed of Aaron, come near to offer incense before the LORD; that he be not as Korah, and as his company: as the LORD said to him by the hand of Moses.
from Ezekiel 43:19
And you shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait on their priest’s office: and the stranger that comes near shall be put to death.
from Numbers 16:40
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Now to him that is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
from Jude 1:24
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
from II Timothy 4:18
We know that whoever is born of God sins not; but he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one touches him not.
from Matthew 6:13
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
from I John 5:18 · a strong link
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives to the death.
from Jude 1:21
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Woe to them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
And the sons of Eliab; Nemuel, and Dathan, and Abiram. This is that Dathan and Abiram, which were famous in the congregation, who strove against Moses and against Aaron in the company of Korah, when they strove against the LORD:
from Jude 1:11
These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.
from Numbers 26:9 · a strong link
And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
from Numbers 1:16 · a strong link
So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes.
from Exodus 18:25 · a strong link
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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Surely his salvation is near them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.
from Luke 2:14
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
from Psalms 85:9
Jesus says to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.
from John 1:14
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And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
from Luke 18:7
Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
from Jeremiah 20:11 · a strong link
But, O LORD of hosts, that judge righteously, that try the inmost thoughts and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for to you have I revealed my cause.
from Jeremiah 17:18
Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God tries the hearts and inmost thoughts.
from Jeremiah 11:20 · a strong link
But the LORD said to Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD sees not as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.
from Psalms 7:9
But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not perishable, even the ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
from I Samuel 16:7 · a strong link
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If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Yes doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them as rubbish, so that I may win Christ,
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
He shall see of the toil of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
from Philippians 3:8
Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, struck of God, and afflicted.
from Isaiah 53:11
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
from Isaiah 53:4 · a strong link
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
from I John 2:2 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Colossians 4:6 along this chain. Today’s own vigil is laid separately.
Each verse follows the one before it along the chain a study Bible draws — a century old, public, and compiled by people arguing about Scripture rather than about how long you stay. Every card says which verse it came from and opens the chapter it belongs to. Today’s vigil is the same for every reader and is worked out from the date alone, so there is no account, no counter, and nothing stored in your browser or ours.
The text is the Lantern Modern Standard. The links are openbible.info’s cross-reference set (CC BY), the same apparatus behind the reader’s Echoes drawer. Read a whole book · Today’s table