LOOK, IT'S A CLERIC GISH THREAD!
IT MEANS LOST IS GOING TO POST THAT PALADIN REPLACEMENT HE LIKES SO MUCH. ...AGAIN!
SURPRISE!
I'm not. No Fist of Raziel allowed. It's a shame, FoR and RKV are awesome.
Anyway, Persist is well worth it. In two levels your one buff spell can be Divine Power giving you full BAB. For now, it will probably be Enlarge Person due to the +2 str, die upgrade in your weapon, and reach so you can AoO everyone moving to you.
Also, you may hate undead but take Mother Cyst. Samus hates Phazon but look at her PED Suit. Not only would it let you cast Persist Necromantic Empowerment for +100hp and a nice +8 enchantment on dex/wis/int while boosting your reflex save up some but you can whole heartedly steal the whole infected with evil thing but their will is stronger that everyone loves to hear about making it a perfect scape goat reason to have that feat. Unless their sick of Bleach, Naruto, Inuyaksa, Kinshen, or hell pretty much 90% of mangas and 7/10ths of the video games designed in japan but meh. Who is original these days?