a thread opens
Look, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
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.
But he knows the way that I take: when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
from Isaiah 48:10
I beg you, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
from Job 23:10
And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember me, O my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to the greatness of your mercy.
from II Kings 20:3 · a strong link
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.
They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.
from Leviticus 10:3
And you shall not let any of your seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am the LORD.
from Leviticus 21:6 · a strong link
But you have profaned it, in that you say, The table of the LORD is polluted; and its fruit, even his food, is contemptible.
from Leviticus 18:21
That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in to the same maid, to profane my holy name:
from Malachi 1:12
The women of my people have you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have you taken away my glory for ever.
from Amos 2:7
And I will set my glory among the pagans, and all the pagans shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
from Micah 2:9
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,
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
from Jude 1:24
As you have given him power over all flesh, so that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.
from John 10:29
All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.
from John 17:2 · a strong link
Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
from John 6:37
Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s controversy, and you strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD has a charge against his people, and he will plead with Israel.
from Isaiah 1:18
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
And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, reveling with their own deceivings while they feast with you;
from II Peter 2:15
But to them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
from II Peter 2:13
But avoid foolish controversies, and genealogies, and quarrels and disputes about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
from Romans 2:8
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moves in it.
from Luke 2:14
For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
from Psalms 69:34
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, to all patience and patience with joyfulness;
from Isaiah 55:12
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?
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
And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
from Jeremiah 20:11 · a strong link
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As my anger and my fury has been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when you shall enter into Egypt: and you shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.
from Jeremiah 23:40
But to the land to which they desire to return, there shall they not return.
from Jeremiah 42:18
So that none of the remnant of Judah, which have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, so that they should return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as shall escape.
from Jeremiah 22:27
And I will cast you out, and your mother that bore you, into another country, where you were not born; and there shall you die.
from Jeremiah 44:14
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.
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
And this is life eternal, so that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
from Philippians 3:8 · a strong link
O righteous Father, the world has not known you: but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me.
from John 17:3 · a strong link
For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
from John 17:25
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 John 16:27
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Isaiah 48:10 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