a thread opens
For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance, because you had a favor to them.
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.
The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all people:
from Psalms 44:3 · a strong link
And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it is of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
from Deuteronomy 7:7
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? No: but by the law of faith.
from Romans 11:6
Look, you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast of God,
from Romans 3:27
You that make your boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonor you God?
from Romans 2:17 · a strong link
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.
Thus says the LORD, your redeemer, and he that formed you from the womb, I am the LORD that makes all things; that stretches forth the heavens alone; that spreads abroad the earth by myself;
from I Corinthians 8:4
He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by his understanding.
from Isaiah 44:24
And saying, Sirs, why do you these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach to you that you should turn from these vanities to the living God, who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things in it:
from Jeremiah 51:15
But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.
from Acts 14:15 · a strong link
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.
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ;
from I John 3:16
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained equally precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ:
from Titus 2:13
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
from II Peter 1:1
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.
For we have not followed cleverly devised myths, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
from I John 2:27
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
from II Peter 1:16
And I, brothers, when I came to you, came not with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God.
from I Corinthians 2:4
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void.
from I Corinthians 2:1 · a strong link
For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.
from I Corinthians 1:17
You know how through weakness of the flesh I preached the gospel to you at the first.
from II Corinthians 10:10
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.
Obey your leaders, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.
from I Corinthians 12:28 · a strong link
Shepherd the flock of God among you, taking its oversight, not by constraint, but willingly; not for dishonest gain, but of a ready mind;
from Hebrews 13:17 · a strong link
Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain;
from I Peter 5:2 · a strong link
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for your stomach’s sake and your often weaknesses.
from I Timothy 3:8
And wine that makes glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengthens man’s heart.
from I Timothy 5:23
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.
I the LORD search the heart, I try the inmost thoughts, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
from I Chronicles 29:17 · a strong link
But, O LORD of hosts, that try the righteous, and see the inmost thoughts and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for to you have I opened my cause.
from Jeremiah 17:10 · a strong link
But, O LORD of hosts, that judge righteously, that try the inmost thoughts and the heart, let me see your vengeance on them: for to you have I revealed my cause.
from Jeremiah 20:12 · a strong link
Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
from Jeremiah 11:20
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:
And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover, his disciples said to him, Where will you that we go and prepare that you may eat the Passover?
from I Corinthians 5:7
In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at even.
from Mark 14:12
Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; even the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.
from Exodus 12:18
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Psalms 44:3 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