a thread opens
And turn you not aside: for then should you go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.
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.
Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? are you not he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon you: for you have made all these things.
from I Samuel 12:21
The LORD is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
from Jeremiah 14:22
With my soul have I desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you early: for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
from Lamentations 3:25
By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loves: I sought him, but I found him not.
from Isaiah 26:9
Tell me, O you whom my soul loves, where you feed, where you make your flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of your companions?
from Song of Solomon 3:1
a thread opens
As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
Look, you are of nothing, and your work of nothing: an abomination is he that chooses you.
from I Corinthians 8:4
They that make them are like to them; so is every one that trusts in them.
from Isaiah 41:24 · a strong link
They that make them are like to them: so is every one that trusts in them.
from Psalms 115:8
But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
from Psalms 135:18
a thread opens
By this we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
For Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit:
from I John 3:16
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin to salvation.
from I Peter 3:18 · a strong link
And you shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal: yes, you shall flee, like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with you.
from Hebrews 9:28
a thread opens
But the anointing which you have received of him remains in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall remain in him.
Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it remain in the vine; no more can you, except you remain in me.
from I John 2:27
Let that therefore remain in you, which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
from John 15:4 · a strong link
And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.
from I John 2:24
He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.
from I John 4:16
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, patience, and abundant in goodness and truth,
from I John 4:8
To the upright there arises light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
from Exodus 34:6
a thread opens
And God has set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, varieties of tongues.
Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine.
from I Corinthians 12:28
Remember your leaders, who have spoken to you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conduct.
from I Timothy 5:17
Therefore I beg you, be imitators of me.
from Hebrews 13:7
Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example to you to follow us.
from I Corinthians 4:16 · a strong link
For yourselves know how you ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;
from II Thessalonians 3:9
a thread opens
I know also, my God, that you try the heart, and have pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy your people, who are present here, to offer willingly to you.
And you, Solomon my son, know you the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts: if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off for ever.
from I Chronicles 29:17 · a strong link
For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way: because we had spoken to the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them for good that seek him; but his power and his wrath is against all them that forsake him.
from I Chronicles 28:9
And has extended mercy to me before the king, and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty princes. And I was strengthened as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, and I gathered together out of Israel chief men to go up with me.
from Ezra 8:22 · a strong link
But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius: and then they returned answer by letter concerning this matter.
from Ezra 7:28
a thread opens
Clean out therefore the old leaven, so that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
from I Corinthians 5:7
And I saw, and, look, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
from John 1:29 · a strong link
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
from Revelation of John 5:6 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from I Samuel 12:21 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