a thread opens
And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
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.
And he said to them, Take heed, and beware of greed: for a man’s life consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.
from Mark 4:7
But your eyes and your heart are not but for your greed, and to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.
from Luke 12:15
Thus says the LORD; Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
from Jeremiah 22:17
In you have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of you have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in you have they troubled the fatherless and the widow.
from Jeremiah 22:3
a thread opens
Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love to all the saints,
from Acts 20:21
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
from Ephesians 1:15
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;
from Colossians 1:3 · a strong link
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
from I Thessalonians 1:2
We must thank God always for you, brothers, as is fitting, because that your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all toward each other abounds;
from Philippians 1:3
a thread opens
Be it known to you therefore, men and brothers, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins:
Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
from Acts 13:38
But what think you? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work today in my vineyard.
from Acts 2:38 · a strong link
Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it all around, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to farmers, and went into a far country:
from Matthew 21:28
Now will I sing to my beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
from Matthew 21:33
You have brought a vine out of Egypt: you have cast out the pagans, and planted it.
from Isaiah 5:1 · a strong link
I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.
from Psalms 80:8
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.
Before the LORD: for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
from Acts 17:31
Before the LORD; for he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
from Psalms 96:13
Say among the pagans that the LORD reigns: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.
from Psalms 98:9
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
And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
from I Timothy 6:13
For all the promises of God in him are yes, and in him Amen, to the glory of God by us.
from Revelation of John 3:14 · a strong link
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.
And that I also have walked contrary to them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
from Acts 7:51 · a strong link
To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? look, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot listen: look, the word of the LORD is to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
from Leviticus 26:41
Yet they listened not to me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
from Jeremiah 6:10
But they listened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
from Jeremiah 7:26
You have forsaken me, says the LORD, you have gone backward: therefore will I stretch out my hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting.
from Jeremiah 7:24
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
At my first defense no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
from Acts 9:15
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
from II Timothy 4:16 · a strong link
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
from Acts 7:60
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have first place.
from I Corinthians 15:20
For he must reign, till he has put all enemies under his feet.
from Colossians 1:18
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Mark 4:7 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