a thread opens
You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, so that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
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.
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, so that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
from John 15:16
For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
from Isaiah 55:10
Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
from Isaiah 61:11
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
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.
from Psalms 65:4 · a strong link
Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yes, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD.
from Psalms 33:12 · a strong link
Happy are you, O Israel: who is like you, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and who is the sword of your excellence! and your enemies shall be found liars to you; and you shall tread upon their high places.
from Psalms 144:15
For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe.
from Deuteronomy 33:29
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
You have heard how I said to you, I go away, and come again to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go to the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
from John 10:29 · a strong link
Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with inexpressible joy and full of glory:
from John 14:28
By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
from I Peter 1:8
And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and indeed, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were greatly afraid: and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
from Hebrews 11:27
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.
And in process of time it happened, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the LORD.
from Jude 1:11
All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they shall offer to the LORD, them have I given you.
from Genesis 4:3
The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in his mother’s milk.
from Numbers 18:12
That you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which you shall bring of your land that the LORD your God gives you, and shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose to place his name there.
from Exodus 23:19
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and its fullness.
from Luke 2:14
The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be its glad.
from Psalms 96:11
The LORD reigns, he is clothed with majesty; the LORD is clothed with strength, with which he has girded himself: the world also is established, that it cannot be moved.
from Psalms 97:1
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 make you to this people a fenced bronze wall: and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you: for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says the LORD.
from Jeremiah 20:11 · a strong link
A Song of Ascents. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:
from Jeremiah 15:20
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
from Psalms 129:1
And you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
from Hosea 11:1 · a strong link
Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
from Exodus 4:22
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 his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
For whoever will save his life shall lose it: and whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
from John 12:25 · a strong link
He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.
from Matthew 16:25 · a strong link
According to my eager expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
from Matthew 10:39
For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
from Philippians 1:20
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from John 15:16 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