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Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God.
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.
If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god;
from Psalms 68:31
If you prepare your heart, and stretch out your hands toward him;
from Psalms 44:20
And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
from Job 11:13 · a strong link
And be not you like your fathers, and like your brothers, which trespassed against the LORD God of their fathers, who therefore gave them up to desolation, as you see.
from Psalms 78:8
Therefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has delivered them to trouble, to astonishment, and to hissing, as you see with your eyes.
from II Chronicles 30:7
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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 the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
from I Corinthians 8:4
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
from Isaiah 44:6 · a strong link
Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What you see, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches in Asia; to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
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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.
But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
from I John 3:16 · a strong link
To the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has made us accepted in the beloved.
from Romans 5:8 · a strong link
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
from Ephesians 1:6
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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 the truth’s sake, which dwells in us, and shall be with us for ever.
from I John 2:27
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
from II John 1:2
Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
from I John 1:8
If they sin against you, (for there is no man that sins not,) and you be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives to the land of the enemy, far or near;
from Proverbs 20:9 · a strong link
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
from I Kings 8:46
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
from Romans 3:23
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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.
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone;
from I Corinthians 12:28
And he saw them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the cornerstone?
from Ephesians 2:20
And when he had looked around on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, Stretch forth your hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
from Luke 20:17
Then he said to the man, Stretch forth your hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.
from Mark 3:5
And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
from Matthew 12:13
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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.
For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conduct in the world, and more abundantly toward you.
from I Chronicles 29:17
But he knows the way that I take: when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
from II Corinthians 1:12
My brothers, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations;
from Job 23:10 · a strong link
Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.
from James 1:2 · a strong link
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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:
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 I Corinthians 5:7
But the man that is clean, and is not in a journey, and forbears to keep the Passover, even the same soul shall be cut off from among his people: because he brought not the offering of the LORD in his appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.
from Exodus 12:15 · a strong link
Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.
from Numbers 9:13
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Psalms 68:31 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