a thread opens
How can I myself alone bear your cumbrance, and your burden, and your strife?
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.
Then you spoke in vision to your holy one, and said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
from Deuteronomy 1:12
However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand: but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my servant’s sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes:
from Psalms 89:19
O LORD, I have heard your speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.
from I Kings 11:34
Will you not revive us again: that your people may rejoice in you?
from Habakkuk 3:2 · a strong link
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Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is the testimony, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
from Acts 20:21
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
from I John 5:11
Then he said to Thomas, Reach here your finger, and see my hands; and reach here your hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
from I John 1:1 · a strong link
And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.
from John 20:27
a thread opens
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
from Acts 13:38
As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD; My spirit upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seed’s seed, says the LORD, from now on and for ever.
from Acts 2:38 · a strong link
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
from Isaiah 59:21 · a strong link
In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and beautiful for them that have escaped of Israel.
from Isaiah 11:1 · a strong link
There shall be a handful of grain in the earth upon the top of the mountains; its fruit shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.
from Isaiah 4:2
After this I saw, and, look, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
from Psalms 72:16
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Because he has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
from Acts 17:31
Whoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
from Matthew 25:31
The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus; for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:
from Mark 8:38
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For truly against your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
from Acts 4:27 · a strong link
I give you charge in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;
from Matthew 27:2
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from here.
from I Timothy 6:13
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them, The kingdom of God comes not with observation:
from John 18:36 · a strong link
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You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.
For circumcision truly profits, if you keep the law: but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.
from Acts 7:51
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
from Romans 2:25
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
from Jeremiah 4:4 · a strong link
Not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
from Romans 2:28
God is not a man, so that he should lie; neither the son of man, so that he should repent: has he said, and shall he not do it? or has he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
from Romans 9:6
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And he said to me, Depart: for I will send you far hence to the Gentiles.
But the Lord said to him, Go your way: for he is a chosen vessel to me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
from Acts 22:21 · a strong link
At my first defense no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
from Acts 9:15
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
from II Timothy 4:16 · a strong link
For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption:
from Acts 7:60
Men and brothers, let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
from Acts 13:36 · a strong link
So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.
from Acts 2:29
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Deuteronomy 1:12 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