a thread opens
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for your love is better than wine.
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.
Because your loving devotion is better than life, my lips shall praise you.
from Song of Solomon 1:2
For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
from Psalms 63:3
Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood.
from I Corinthians 6:20 · a strong link
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.
Speak to Aaron, saying, Whoever he be of your seed in their generations that has any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
from Leviticus 10:3
Blessed is the man whom you choose, and cause to approach to you, so that he may dwell in your courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, even of your holy temple.
from Leviticus 21:17
But know that the LORD has set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call to him.
from Psalms 65:4
The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished:
from Psalms 4:3
The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
from II Peter 2:9 · a strong link
This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
from Psalms 34:15 · a strong link
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,
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
from Jude 1:24
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.
from Hebrews 13:20
Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord GOD.
from Jeremiah 32:40
But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: you shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
from Ezekiel 39:29
Therefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Look, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious: and he that believes on him shall not be put to shame.
from Isaiah 45:17 · a strong link
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.
But I have a few things against you, because you have there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
from Jude 1:11
That you abstain from foods offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from sexual immorality: from which if you keep yourselves, you shall do well. Farewell.
from Revelation of John 2:14 · a strong link
But that we write to them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from sexual immorality, and from things strangled, and from blood.
from Acts 15:29 · a strong link
Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! look, my soul has not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
from Acts 15:20
a thread opens
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)
from Luke 2:14
And he has on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
from Acts 10:36
Yes, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
a thread opens
And shall not God give justice to his own elect, which cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them?
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
from Luke 18:7
And she was a widow of about eighty and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
from I Timothy 5:5 · a strong link
And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.
from Luke 2:37
The elders among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:
from Acts 14:23
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
from I Peter 5:1
For as the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them; even so the Son quickens whom he will.
from Colossians 3:3
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.
Who said to his father and to his mother, I have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brothers, nor knew his own children: for they have observed your word, and kept your covenant.
from Luke 14:26
I charge you before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that you observe these things without favoritism, doing nothing by partiality.
from Deuteronomy 33:9
Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they not quarrel about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
from I Timothy 5:21
I give you charge in the sight of God, who quickens all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;
from II Timothy 2:14
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
That is the whole thread.
Every verse the cross-references reach from Song of Solomon 1:2 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