a thread opens
And exchanged the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to perishable man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping creatures.
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.
Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
from Romans 1:23 · a strong link
And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
from Jeremiah 2:11 · a strong link
Bel bows down, Nebo stoops, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.
from Isaiah 37:19
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.
No man that has a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come near to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he has a blemish; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.
from Leviticus 10:3
They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God: for the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and the bread of their God, they do offer: therefore they shall be holy.
from Leviticus 21:21
And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire to the LORD.
from Leviticus 21:6 · a strong link
And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a pleasing aroma: all the fat is the LORD’s.
from Leviticus 3:11
Also before they burnt the fat, the priest’s servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have boiled flesh of you, but raw.
from Leviticus 3:16
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
from I Samuel 2:15
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
As you have given him power over all flesh, so that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him.
from John 10:29
And I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
from John 17:2
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies.
from John 10:28
And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
from Romans 8:33
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.
Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And why he slew him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.
from Jude 1:11 · 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 I John 3:12 · a strong link
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
from Hebrews 11:4
A Prayer of David. Hear the right, O LORD, attend to my cry, give ear to my prayer, that goes not out of feigned lips.
from Proverbs 15:8
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
from Luke 2:14 · a strong link
Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.
from Luke 1:79
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
from Psalms 23:4 · a strong link
a thread opens
But those my enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring here, and slay them before me.
But if the LORD make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that pertain to them, and they go down quick into the pit; then you shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD.
from Luke 19:27
Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.
from Numbers 16:30 · a strong link
And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule under him went away.
from Psalms 55:15
And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year’s end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king’s weight.
from II Samuel 18:9 · a strong link
Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads.
from II Samuel 14:26
All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in which he separates himself to the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
from Ezekiel 44:20 · a strong link
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 father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
from Luke 14:26 · a strong link
For the love of Christ compels us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
from Matthew 10:37
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name, in that you have served the saints, and do minister.
from II Corinthians 5:14
And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said to him, Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.
from Hebrews 6:10
And he said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you persecute: it is hard for you to kick against the goads.
from Acts 10:4
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Romans 1:23 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