a thread opens
For you had compassion of me in my chains, and took joyfully the plundering of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring substance.
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.
To an inheritance imperishable, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you,
from Hebrews 10:34
The eyes of your heart being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
from I Peter 1:4
But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions;
from Ephesians 1:18
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.
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
Blessed is the man whom you choose, and cause to approach to you, so that he may dwell in your courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, even of your holy temple.
from Leviticus 21:17
They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of your house; and you shall make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
from Psalms 65:4 · a strong link
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
from Psalms 36:8 · a strong link
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
from Jeremiah 2:13
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,
And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.
from Jude 1:24
The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
from Revelation of John 14:5 · a strong link
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
from Zephaniah 3:13
And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.
from Jeremiah 31:33 · a strong link
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
from Deuteronomy 30:6 · a strong link
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.
Which have forsaken the right way, and have gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
from Jude 1:11 · a strong link
O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Acacia to Gilgal; that you may know the righteousness of the LORD.
from II Peter 2:15
And Israel remained in Acacia, and the people began to commit prostitution with the daughters of Moab.
from Micah 6:5 · a strong link
Neither let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
from Numbers 25:1
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do.
from Luke 2:14
Jesus says to them, My food is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
from John 17:4 · a strong link
But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know not of.
from John 4:34
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?
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
from Luke 18:7
And she was a widow of about eighty and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
from I Timothy 5:5 · a strong link
And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
from Luke 2:37
Which also they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.
from Acts 14:23 · a strong link
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
from Acts 11:30
Obey your leaders, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
from I Timothy 5:17 · a strong link
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.
He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
from Matthew 10:37 · a strong link
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
from Matthew 22:37
But whoever keeps his word, in him truly is the love of God perfected: by this we know that we are in him.
from I John 5:2 · a strong link
He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
from I John 2:5 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Hebrews 10:34 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