a thread opens
If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall be.
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.
And now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees: therefore every tree which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
from Ecclesiastes 11:3
For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
from Matthew 3:10
If a man remain not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and has withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
from Luke 23:31
a thread opens
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.
I was mute, I opened not my mouth; because you did it.
from Leviticus 10:3
And the king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the LORD has said to him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Why have you done so?
from Psalms 39:9
No but, O man, who are you that reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?
from II Samuel 16:10
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
from Romans 9:20 · a strong link
Woe to him that strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashions it, What do you make? or your work, He has no hands?
from Isaiah 29:16
Shall the axe boast itself against him that hews with it? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shakes it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood.
from Isaiah 45:9
a thread opens
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,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
from Jude 1:24 · a strong link
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
from Ephesians 5:27
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
from Hebrews 9:14 · a strong link
Then he said, Look, I come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first, so that he may establish the second.
from Hebrews 9:12
Then said I, Look, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do your will, O God.
from Hebrews 10:9
a thread opens
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.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why he slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
An unjust man is an abomination to the just: and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.
from I John 3:12
Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hate you.
from Proverbs 29:27
If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.
from I John 3:13 · a strong link
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
from Luke 2:14 · a strong link
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now has he reconciled
from Colossians 1:20 · a strong link
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
from Colossians 1:21
a thread opens
And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.
from Luke 18:7
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
from Romans 8:33
Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.
from Romans 8:1
Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.
from Romans 7:20
Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
from Romans 7:17
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
from Romans 4:7
a thread opens
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.
Whom have I in heaven but you? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside you.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
from Psalms 73:25
Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all obscenity of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
from Matthew 5:8
To the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.
from II Corinthians 7:1
For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting? Are not even you in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
from I Thessalonians 3:13 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Ecclesiastes 11:3 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