Persecuted — Leonard Ravenhill

Prayer for Spiritual Awakening and Holiness

To the abyss to bring thee up, where we seek thee thou art found, and every place is hallowed ground. We have sung an expression of our own hearts, we lift our cups to thee, they may be large or small but you will not deny us, you said blessed are those hunger and thirst, and how great our thirst is, will we know how much we get filled this afternoon, what areas we open to thee, we are sure that you will fill them, and the areas we close we are sure that you will break your way in as it were, we come to thee and ask you to cast over us the mantle of thy peace as we are still in thy presence, we ask thee to extend the light of divine revelation on any dark areas in our thinking, on our hearts, on our understanding, we are glad that with thee there is no darkness, whether somewhere your word says darkness and light are both alike to thee, and again you said that he that dwelleth in God dwelleth in light, for in God there is no darkness, and though we want to be in the light, we walk in the dark too long, and in the shade too long, and in misunderstanding too long, and in spiritual infancy too long, as we were singing there are millions, and this word nearly chokes on us as we sing it, there are millions this afternoon who have never heard the name that is, as we sang earlier, that beautiful name, that wonderful name, and most likely they will hear the name of communism before they hear the name of Christ, these days of evil propaganda and evil men, the name that is so dear to us is so strange to others, but again if we draw nigh to thee we have needs that only you are able to supply, maybe some of us have wounded hearts and you have the balm that can heal and there is no chemistry in the world that can heal them except your marvellous healing touch, there are deficiencies in us that can only be adjusted by thee, no psychiatrist or psychologist or any other person could do it, but Lord we pray that we do at least come with sincerity and say we believe the supreme thing in this life is that we are spiritually right with thee, in a right relationship with thee, if we are right with thee vertically we shall have as much as life in us, be right with others horizontally, because you said as much as life in you live peaceably with all men, we come to thank you again for the light that you have given us, we thank you for your patience during another week, only each of us knows in our secret hearts whether we have obeyed the light you have given us and whether we have been consistently pressing on, giving priority to things eternal, very conscious we are in a commercial world, a materialistic world, in a world that believes only what it can see or thinks it does anyhow, in a world that is more confused this afternoon than it was last sunday afternoon, it can't find its way out because there is no way out except through the way of the cross, we thank you for that happy day that fixed our choice on thee our savior and our god, it still fix this afternoon, we have no desire to go to another master, we have no desire to go to another teacher, we have no interest in finding another book, we would explore it by the aid of your spirit and again we would remember those who sit in darkness in the shadow of death, how strange, how strange that two thousand years after jesus came, there must be more unsafe people in the world at this moment than any period in history, and the church slumbers on, doesn't disturb us too much, doesn't disturb the preachers too much it seems, there is contactment with nice buildings and good incomes, good social gatherings, nothing about him we've sung from childhood on the christian soldiers that says hell's foundations quiver at the shout of praise and yet lord there is very little real shout of praise, i'm sure the saint doesn't fear too many of us, i'm not sure if we want to be on his danger list, i'm sure he hadn't one, because there was a day when the demons said jesus i know, surely demons knew jesus they had to, he was forever trampling on them, he was forever chasing them out of people's lives, he was ever ending their dominion and showing that he was lord over all, but the demons also said jesus i know and paul i know, i'm sometimes worried if hell didn't have a half day holiday when paul died, he troubled everything, everybody, he marched into nations that were solidly opposed to everything that was righteous, he took freedom where there was slavery, he took light where there was darkness, he took truth where there was gross error, he took the gospel where the intellectuals strutted around in their diplomas and gowns there on mars hill and showed them the answers, nor do we long for the day when from the white house to every house people will fear the name of god and fear the name of some man who might stand majestic in god, the great prophet for the last day in which we live and god's superman, we long to see them arise, we can't decay much further, we can't walk much longer in rebellion, we can't blaspheme your name and break your sabbath and smash up your ten commandments, this is where your other laws, nobody's ever done it in history and we won't get away with it, and supremely we desire that jesus shall reign as isaac watt said two hundred years ago, jesus shall reign where e 'er the sun doth its successive journeys run, and his kingdom stretch from shore to shore till moon shall wax and wane no more, it's more than poetic license to say that blessings abound where e 'er he reigns, the prisoner leaps to lose his chains and the weary find eternal rest and all the sons of wands are blessed, we think of this appalling need even physically, we are told again of the millions on the verge of dying, mothers watching their withered bodies unable to feed their offspring and laying them in the dust, not strength even to drive the birds off or the animals that come to steal them and eat them, we live in our comfort, we live in our ease, maybe lord if we look back we might be a little embarrassed and blushed if you open the book and read it out publicly to us as you will do one day that maybe we didn't stop one day this week and really sincerely thank you for our lovely homes and our well stocked refrigerators and clothes to wear which fidget around some days don't know which to put on and what to put on and others who can't cover their nakedness, it's all absurd it's all unreasonable that these human beings would suffer and no disease and the inward biting pain and hunger as though they had something in them that was alive and eating them up, lord god we know that at least i don't have any way out, i don't believe there is any way out except a great manifestation, a super revival for our day, one great sweeping stroke of your majesty, just like they put the dragnet in the ocean and pulling everything with it, we know they got everything, unclean things as well as clean but anyhow they got more stuff that way, we're looking for you to send the dragnet through again, you said i'll make you fishes and men and again we don't know just how or where or through whom, might be some little widow praying in the back room, might be some young student, we don't know but lord somewhere there are hearts pure and passionate and fervent and longing to see hell's foundations quiver, to see the devil push back, think again of the dear christians in russia this afternoon and china, dear lord we perhaps hardly remember to pray for them, oh what misery, what hellishness, yet as a nation we blindly go on and shake hands with these wicked brutes who put them there, seek trade with other countries and are so totally godless, lord god we ask thee give us, save us, save us, save us from being just like others that have eyes but they don't see and hear and don't hear and live only to eat and to get and to sleep and the other things, lord if we bear your name we should bear your nature, we should bear responsibility for we are responsible for this generation of heathen, so do help us may we again have understanding hearts, we come to your word we would open it with reverence, we would open it tenderly, we would open it remembering we are handling a book that is so easy for us to handle but it costs not only the blood of martyrs in the prophets but the blood of martyrs too in fairly recent years, it couldn't be bought for a dollar, it couldn't be bought for a hundred at one time, it was inaccessible, we thank you for its propagation, we thank you for its translation, we thank you for all who seek to put it in the hands of those who are without god and without hope, we thank you for blessing all our lives this week, bringing us together as a family in Christ, thank you for sparing Kay, he might have been killed apparently in that car, he would have been hit a bit harder, disfigured and rotten for life, others of us on the road or maybe flying in the air or somewhere, we thank you for physical preservation, spiritual and moral preservation, tell you again we have one supreme desire, that is there may be less of us and more of thee, and then none of us and all of thee, totally abandoned yielded to thee, you may find in the travel of your soul in us and whisper your secrets to us that you can't share with others, after all you do do this now and again, your word says the secret of the lord is with them that fear him, we don't shout our secrets from the housetop and you don't shout yours, we've got to get very near to you to hear you whisper, may we live so near and as an old saint said may we see thee more clearly and love thee more dearly and follow thee more nearly, we think of davos as he goes off to school and pray you'll go before him, we ask you'll strengthen him, it will be a different world, be a thousand things to see and a hundred temptations to pull one way and the other and we pray that you'll strengthen him in his spirit, give him a strong relationship with thee, that he won't be a fowler, he'll be a leader in truth and righteousness, there'll be lots of corruption, we pray you'll keep him pure, there'll be lots of error, keep him in truth, give him strength and body and mind and spirit, pray for the youngsters at school, the schoolyard leaving the family will become unclean by what we read and there's every evil association, the parents job is a big job these days but we thank you that there are resources in thee for these situations, we don't look to the enemy we have to recognize them there but we look to jesus the author and finisher of our faith, we look to the one who said greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world so if all hell is against us it doesn't matter too much when you're for us, lord in this confidence we go forth in thy name and we give thee thanks, in that name, that beautiful name of which we've sung, the name of jesus.

Signs of the Lord’s Return and the Need for Revival

I don't know how much information you've picked up this week but I always try to see something in the affairs of the week that kind of points to the coming of the lord and it seemed that there was at least in my thinking quite an acceleration this week usually when we talk about or at least when these prophets or attempted prophets on the tv talk about the coming of the lord and then they're always associated of course with israel which is not illegal it's a good point.

Mr. Kissinger is trying to get the nations together and I see the adams are divided because they're not all going to fall for his agreement with egypt. And again the scripture came to my mind when you see jerusalem surrounded with armies the lord says look up and I know that that was partly fulfilled when titus sacked jerusalem in a .d. 70.

You know it's a horrible thing when the lord quits on the nation. There's a scripture that says it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living god. Robert louis stephenson said it's only the one thing more awful that when you fall out of the hands of a living god when he's quit when he won't bother with you.

And when the jews thought that they had got jesus where they wanted him. Actually of course there were a lot of folk involved there but remember jesus turned and said in essence he said you're not rejecting me.

I'm rejecting you. Your house is left unto a desolate empty. And in 70 a .d. 70 40 years after titus came and sacked as we say burned jerusalem blood flowed up to the knees of the horses and it was one of the greatest most devastating massacres in history.

But it's still going to be fulfilled again. I don't think we've yet come into that period. The scripture calls the time of jacob's trouble. It's the greatest unpaid bill in history. The jews refused to have anything to do with the messiah when they've suffered and they still suffer and they will suffer because of it.

Increasing Knowledge and the Confusion of Modern Progress

But that's not the only indication of the near return of christ. Daniel talks about the days when people run to and fro in the earth and surely they're getting faster and faster even though the speed limit's gone down.

This week they shot a piece of scrap metal up in the sky. That's going 500 million miles. If you told your grandfather that he would have your head examined it's gone up. It's going to settle on mars or somewhere.

Send us a report of soil which we're all so feverishly anxious to hear about whether you can grow mushrooms there or not. Or if there's any cows to milk. It's fantastic. I hope you'll sleep before the news will be back because it won't be back till next july.

But we're rushing to and fro. It's a sign of the last days. When I was a kid I remember in england they would write up the news column in the manchester and guardian or the london times saying that duke and duchess of so and so have gone to the bahamas or gone to america.

And we thought wow that's fabulous. Only the wealthy people there. Now you can go on credit and thousands of people do you don't know who they are. I remember one night on the queen elizabeth we got dinner and I was walking for a breath of fresh air and I noticed these ladies all in gorgeous mink coats and all these things wraps and things they had.

And a fellow talking to me he said these are all yankees. You know. I said yeah obviously it's not only a land flowing with milk and honey but flowing with mink and money. And he said yes. But he said you don't think they're paid for do you.

I said well why not. I never. No he said they rent them in new york just before they leave on the boat. They rent a mink cape for two months and live like you know queen of sheba. And when they get back they're broke.

You know go now and pay later pay later. But everybody is rushing to and fro in the earth. That's another indication. Another sign is again in daniel that knowledge should increase. And you know really it is fantastic when you think that you can shoot something from cape canada and guide it through space.

All those half what 500 million miles. And it's going to hit the target. And you know the date it's going to land. It's it's marvelous what man's mind can work out. It's it's greater of course really than any computer.

And then another thing was that came to my mind the great falling away the lord speaks of before jesus comes. And it's an awful falling away. And if you're shopping for religion well the supermarket full was talking with henry this week about this this fact again of this man moon this this fellow from north korea or from korea that says christianity is his greatest enemy.

And those who follow him have to go knocking on doors for i think what three months and and know what rejection really is because this is part of his discipleship program. Uh but he's become a multi-millionaire and in this about a year has built this fabulous place.

He's bought a used mansion over there. And this is another sign. The man in the street is totally bewildered that somebody knocks on his door. Um well it's a jehovah's witness. The next door is a next knock is a a mormon.

The next knock is mr moon's group. And he wonder who in the world's coming next. Well five men in the spirit fill people that at all at banquets but uh usually they're they're all people trading heresy.

And uh again i say you don't wonder that the man is confused. And they showed the thing that i was very interested in but if you saw it a a dial a language did you see that you speak into a machine and you set the dial of what you want to come out.

If you speak and you speak to a japanese friend well it's japanese and if it's french french you set the dial you speak in english and it immediately translates your voice and speaks your message in japanese to the person who's listening there.

That's as lazy as you can get. But i'd like one anyhow i encourage laziness but it's fabulous. Now they're talking about another one that you speak into a machine and it types whatever you whenever you speak you know it's not incredible because after all you have a little bit of metal like that you're talking to it.

Some people around our area talk too long but they talk. They talk in it and uh it vibrates at your town or a house or in australia. If you like that little impulse your voice comes out at the other end.

How are you going on. You know. Well why shouldn't it work on a on a typing machine just the same. Why shouldn't it work on a machine to translate. These again are to me just amazing signs. And a man's brilliance.

You see he is the crowning creation of god and women came second. But man is the crowning creation of god. And god said well done when he made him he was just what god wanted. And it's fantastic what the human brain is capable of.

Last year when paul was home it's almost a year since he was here here and went and somebody gave him one of these what were fairly new then these quartz watches. Now they said dad have you seen this watch.

No i've heard about it. A man gave me it the other day showed me lovely. They were about 400 the 55 this week. And i wondered why. Because the new watch isn't a quartz watch. The new watch is you just do this in the sun and it's charged.

It's it's solar rays operate your watch. I'm old enough to remember when you used to wind them up 18. Uh anyhow you used to have to wind your watch up and and if you wound it tighter obviously when that spring went down it wasn't as accurate as when it was really tight.

That's why there was such a modulation. But we went from the spring watch to the uh to the battery watch the battery watch the quartz watch the quartz watch now to a watch that just works under the rays of the sun.

And these things to me are all signs again that knowledge shall increase. Men are rushing to and fro in the world and so forth kissing it up a tree. He doesn't know which way he's going tries to fool us.

And he does. Last night of all things russia said the new danger in the world is china. She's scared stiff of china. Old mao zi teng is what. 81 years of age. Chou enlai 77 uh mrs mousy. Mousy is uh 16 very brilliant woman.

Maybe she'll control the government and it's gonna work go one way. The other i thought it totally anti-american or an alliance with america because they need so much of the know-how that we have. After all we give it to russia so why not give it to them.

But she but i think uh these again are things that uh i find tremendously tremendously challenging. Science leaping on this as fast as ever. Nobel you know gave us a prize because he what did he do. He put glycerine and something together made an explosive and found he could blast the world.

And so he left his fortune as a piece of his conscience. The nobel peace prize i think is just an outlet for his guilty conscience. But look how far we've gone since then. We split the atom and then from the atom we've gone to other bombs and i don't know where we're going to stop but it's all in this little brain box that man has.

And you think that if that was that was adjusted to a to a right principle you could have the millennium on earth. You could have a place on earth where there will be no poverty at all if we spend all we spend on the last war last world war world war two let's put it that way the korean war and the vietnam war.

You could give everybody a cadillac or better still if you like or worse still if you give them a lincoln continental and a house and a pension and nobody do a stroke and work all their lives don't have to.

But we'd rather put it in the gutter. We'd rather destroy and kill and name and do all the devilish things that we do. And so it's. It's a pretty insane world when you come to look at it and there's only one hope of it getting straightened again.

Prayer as Transformation Rather Than Escape

And that is that through the the true revival of christianity because there's nothing else that can change the the the disease spot in human personality which of course is the heart which is sin. I read an interesting thing the other day that somewhere there had been a kind of poll a gallup a harris poll or something on on among religious people if not church people.

But what what is the most popular heaven. And i don't know whether you guess it. Maybe you guess one of two or three. But anyhow the most popular they said was sweet hour of prayer. Uh i began to think about that sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care.

But you know when you're very often when you've had your hour of prayer it hasn't changed the world. That world of care is still there. Sometimes your prayer will move the mountain and sometimes it won't.

All it will do is give you strength to climb the mountain. One of the psalms that the psalmist wrote said um when i am overwhelmed lead me to a rock that is higher than i. But the hebrew doesn't say that.

The hebrew says when i'm overcome lord give me a good stiff climb. I want to challenge. I don't want somebody's shoulder to weep on. Don't want somebody put their arm around me saying poor thing oh life's going hard for you.

There's no come on. You can injure me. Perhaps doing that lord give me a good stiff climb. In plain voice it was schoolboy language. Give me guts to do the job. And i was i was quite blessed as i meditated yesterday on that fact.

My lord if if a sweet hour of prayer does not change the mountain it will change me. I say so often i'd like to make some signs. Prayer changes things. No no no no. Prayer changes people. And people change things.

You go into the place of prayer discouraged and bruised and and confused. And if you stay long enough you come out washed. It has a detergent effect. You've lost your your fear. You've lost your doubt.

You've lost your discouragement. You say lord god you. You've put something in me like putting an iron girder in me. And i'm able to go out and tackle the job that i couldn't do otherwise. So a prayer again doesn't move your mountain.

Stay there till you get enough strength to come out and climb it. And when you climb it you'll get a better view of life than you had before you set off. Well that's the introduction. You want the text.

Persecution for Righteousness in the Beatitudes

Now uh back into Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5 and verse. We finished at 9. So we go to 10. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now there are those who say that the beatitudes end there.

And this is. This is really an extension when you go past this. But remember that this is where jesus started. Isn't it. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Verse 3. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So he begins with the kingdom of heaven and he finishes here with the kingdom of heaven.

You see in the first three beatitudes you find man is turning from his sin to god in the first three beatitudes. In the fourth beatitude you find that god is turning to man and clothing him with the righteousness of christ.

Then the next three beatitudes show man working out that righteousness that god has worked in him. Remember the scripture that says it is god that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.

And then what he's worked in he puts you on exhibition that you may work it out. And then this is the last the fourth. The second fourth is. Well you see how men react to you. Now you can read this. I think you can read.

Let me say this first. I think as i've said that the beatitudes should be attitudes. Are attitudes to the world. All right. The beatitudes are our checklist. If you want to know how you're getting on you stand on the stairs physically.

You weigh on the stairs or check with the doctor. If you want to know how you're getting on spiritually read the beatitudes. Now you can read this two ways. You might say well i don't get much persecution.

Blessed are they which are persecuted. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. That isn't what it says. It says. Blessed are they which are persecuted for for my sake. You can get persecuted because you're pretty unbearable to live with.

You can get persecuted because you're too zealous even in giving out tracts or trying to stuff them in people's ears or interrupting folk when they're working. Because you're over zealous. Because you're too dogmatic.

Because you're taking a course of action which is out of line with with the standard accepted standard of what christ teaches. Now you may say well i don't get much persecution. Well let me put it this way is that because your salt has lost its savor.

Because that's in the context. You know we're living again now. I don't know what we're going to do. We're staying bed all day before long. You don't have to make your own bread. You don't even have to slice it.

I'm trying to find a way to butter it and put it in the places. Then i'll make a fortune. You don't have to defrost your refrigerator. You lazy people it defrosts itself. Marvelous. What things are doing for us now everything is getting easier and easier so it seems.

Except the christian life that doesn't get easy. But in the old days they had no refrigerators like we have. Oh you say well i remember the icebox. Well your grandfather remembers with no iceboxes. So what did you do if you're going to shift a barrel of something over from new york to los angeles.

What did you do. You packed it in salt. These people knew what jesus was talking about the salt. Because if you're going to take anything from jerusalem say to the coast the only thing you do you put it in layers and layers and layers and layers of salt.

They used to hold a salt market only once a year and people would get a stock of salt like you you know get a stock of some some other commodity. And they know what they knew how effective salt really was.

Now now salt has a healing power and salt has a very disturbing power. I can remember first as a little boy when i cut my finger once and i got it in some salt. Oh i howled more with the salt than i did with a cup.

What's wrong. I've got some salt in it. Well run it under the water. Water was nearly as bad but anyhow uh i got it out. Now if you're going to live the true christian life you're going to be a salt in somebody's womb and you better face it.

You see when people get saved and i'm glad for everybody gets saved. But i sometimes wish somebody would take the name and address. In fact when i operated a church i used to say to the deacons now look you guys come here.

If anybody comes to the altar i get the name and address. I give you a paper and this week don't dare put your hand in this church you'll have been to visit them. I remember once going into a salvation army hall we were going to rent it for a convention place held about a couple of thousand people.

When it was an old man pushing a broom and i told him what i wanted a he says hey lad that's great. I said are you a salvationist. Oh yes i came in this place. And he mentioned how many years. 50 years or so before any new yorkshire man they always say lad a lot.

You know. And he says you know what lad i came in this place drunk and wicked and so forth. And he said i went down to salvation. Salvation army used to call it the mourners bench and i got saved. And they told me everything about it.

You know i got a new heart. I got a new name in heaven. I'm going to have a new mansion and all the other stuff. It was great. And he said it happened. I got saved. I got rid of my sins i got rid of my habits.

The lord saved me. And then he said but you know what really got me going. I said no he said the next morning it was a typical english morning five o 'clock dark raining. And he said i was just mixing a cup of chocolate and frying a little strip of bacon and a piece of bread.

When i looked there he said there's a salvation army officer had his coat up like this and his big hat. And the rain was dripping off. And he said well you know do you know what time it is. Yes. Yes. But john can i come in.

I'm drowning. Come in baptised him right on the spot. And he said but sir he said i didn't know. Preachers were up at five o 'clock at five o 'clock in the morning. And he said i'll never forget it. Look to me he said john this is the most important day in your life.

If you get through today it's going to be the greatest day. And i'm going to see you get through if i can. He said we're going to read the bible together. And i'm going to pray. And he said you know it kept me warm all day.

When i went back to the fells it used to sweat. You didn't curse when you hit your finger. No jesus saved me. Oh jesus saved. Oh we've got another one of those around. Haven't we. And before long he said if the lord hadn't just helped me that morning i'd have knocked more heads off that day.

I knocked off for a long while. But he said every time that man gets it now remember you're a new creature. All things are passed away. You're not going to react like you used to react. You're not going to do what you used to do.

And he said that really established me in in the things of god. I never forgot it. Well it's good to remember that. And it's good to do a bit of close reading. Because you know one of the scriptures promised as a believer is this that in the world you shall have tribulation.

And don't forget it. Now i say one reason maybe you don't get persecution is you're weakened on your testimony. And if you're a bit stronger you'll get hit back a bit more. On the other hand you can read the verses the other way.

Blessed are what. Blessed are what. Well you say i don't have much blessing in my life. Well have you forgotten to be poor in spirit. Have you forgotten to be me. Where have you slipped up. Where have i slipped up.

That i'm not getting more blessing. Grace is is something which is given gratuitous. God pours his grace upon you. I don't believe he pours his blessing on you. You earn your blessing. You earn your blessing through obedience.

If you're poor in spirit well automatically that there's going to be blessing. It says all right. Well blessed are the uh are the. What are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Which is very wonderful.

But for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I say again jesus begins a sermon on the mount talking about the kingdom of heaven. And and and here he closes it. And he says this is all that comes in between.

Now if you want to know where you're going to roam around what you're going to find explore between the gateway where you came in. Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And uh it says rejoice and be exceeding glad. For great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets were before you. Now if you're getting a persecution i would suggest that other things being equal you're in the right category.

Because there are three persons persecuted. One was jesus. He was persecuted. You'll be persecuted. The prophets were persecuted. You'll be persecuted. If you're being persecuted you're in between the prophets and the lord jesus christ.

It's the normal way of christian living. Blessed are they who persecuted for righteousness sake. Now i think if you go on and read this you know before long i think when you get to the further down into this very chapter you're going to say well well this is really unbearable.

You know this. This chapter is a great giveaway. It's not possible. It's not by no stretch of imagination. Can a man live with someone on the mount outside of the grace of god. Uh listen to these words of jesus again.

Verse 39. I say unto you that you resist not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek call him back and say hey brother you forgot. I got another cheek. Want to bang that one. He gives you a black eye.

Say i got two eyes. Want to beat me up again. No you don't invite him like that. But you stand there. And if need be if you have to suffer like that you suffer it for his name's sake. All right. What does the next verse say.

If a man shall compel thee to go a mile go with him train. Give to him that asketh of thee and from him that would borrow thee. Turn thou not away. You've heard it said that you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But i say unto you love your enemy. Bless them. That curse. You do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully you shall persecute. Now that's enough to keep you going for the week.

Isn't it. Turn one cheek. If a guy hits you on one cheek turn the other one to him. If a man curses you bless him. Don't don't curse him back you. You give him blessing in turn for the cursing he gives to you he does wrong to you.