Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say:
Lamentations Chapter 3: Verse 41
I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
Ecclesiastes Chapter 3: Verse 14
Many curry favor with a ruler, and everyone is the friend of a man who gives gifts.
Proverbs Chapter 19: Verse 6
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them.
Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids.
The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins.' "
Jeremiah Chapter 9: Verses 17 - 19
" 'Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known,
and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"-safe to do all these detestable things?
Jeremiah Chapter 7: Verses 9 - 10
The dying robber raised his aching brow
To claim the dying Lord for company;
And heard, in answer to his trembling bow,
The promise of the King: Thou-even thou-
Today shalt be in Paradise with me.
We, too, the measure of our guilt confess,
Knowing Thy mercy, Lord, our only plea;
That we, like him, through judgment and distress,
For all the weight of our unworthiness
May win our way to Paradise with Thee.
But so bewildered is our failing heart,
So dim the luster of Thy royalty,
We hardly know Thee, Lord, for what Thou art,
Till we begin to take the better part
And lose ourselves in Paradise with Thee.
Then lift our eyes, dear Lord, from this poor dross,
To see Thee reigning in humility,
The King of love; that, wresting gain from loss,
We, too, may climb the ladder of the cross,
To find our home in Paradise with Thee.