a thread opens
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in various places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
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.
We have heard its fame: our hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in labor.
from Mark 13:8
For I have heard a voice as of a woman in labor, and the anguish as of her that brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewails herself, that spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.
from Jeremiah 6:24
And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that labors: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
from Jeremiah 4:31
Like as a woman with child, that draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and cries out in her pangs; so have we been in your sight, O LORD.
from Isaiah 13:8
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
But showed first to them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, so that they should repent and turn to God, and do works worthy of repentance.
from Acts 20:21
Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance:
from Acts 26:20 · a strong link
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith,
from Matthew 3:8 · a strong link
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.
from Galatians 5:22 · a strong link
By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks.
from John 15:16
a thread opens
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
from Acts 13:38
To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins.
from I John 2:12 · a strong link
He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned.
from Acts 10:43
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on him, may have eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
from Mark 16:16 · a strong link
The LORD has made bore his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
from John 6:40
A Psalm. O sing to the LORD a new song; for he has done marvelous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, has gotten him the victory.
from Isaiah 52:10
a thread opens
Because he has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
from Acts 17:31
Look, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
from Matthew 25:31
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
from Revelation of John 1:7 · a strong link
a thread opens
For truly against your holy child Jesus, whom you have anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
from Acts 4:27 · a strong link
I give you charge in the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;
from Matthew 27:2
For as the Father raises up the dead, and gives them life; even so the Son gives life to whom he will.
from I Timothy 6:13
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.
from John 5:21
a thread opens
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you.
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
from Acts 7:51
In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
from Philippians 3:3 · a strong link
Knowing this, that our old self is crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so that from now on we should not serve sin.
from Colossians 2:11 · a strong link
And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with the passions and desires.
from Romans 6:6 · a strong link
But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if perhaps the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
from Galatians 5:24
a thread opens
And he said to me, Depart: for I will send you far hence to the Gentiles.
But the Lord said to him, Go your way: for he is a chosen vessel to me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
from Acts 22:21 · a strong link
To which I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
from Acts 9:15
Of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of his power.
from I Timothy 2:7
Now to him that is able to do immeasurably more than all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
from Ephesians 3:7 · a strong link
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
from Ephesians 3:20 · a strong link
The blessing of the LORD, it makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.
from II Corinthians 9:8 · a strong link
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Mark 13:8 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