Dear Intercessors,

"Except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes but in vain".  Psalm 127:1b The Message says, “If God doesn't guard the city, the night watchman might as well nap." In David Kubal's June article (David is the President of Intercessors for America) he brings insight as to why the disciples were found sleeping when Jesus returned after praying at the Mount of Olives.  The scriptures say that they were "exhausted from sorrow" Luke 22:45.  The article goes on to say that "this is a lesson, fellow intercessors, which we need to learn: We must not let sorrow stop us from interceding." We realize that America has become a secularized nation.  We see the scripture being fulfilled before our eyes that the time will come when people will call wrong right and right wrong.  But we must remind and encourage one another daily that the Lord has set our boundaries in NE Ohio and we do have a future and a hope here! We are caretakers, with the Lord, of the city where he has placed us. 

As the families in Nehemiah's time built and strengthened the city wall where it was weak, we see the obvious weak and needy places in Cleveland NE Ohio's "walls"....the schools and the children.  There is such a tremendous battle going on to destroy the "righteous seed" even before it comes to birth...with the heinous sin of abortion.  We see the enemy's plan to discredit biblical marriage and the family as the sin of deviant lifestyles permeate the airwaves, the schools, media, sports and even the church.  Please continue to pray for the Parma Schools where there is a battle to keep Abstinence Education in the schools and to keep Planned Parenthood from trying to take its place!

We are to be caretakers like Adam in the garden and to "shamar" (the Hebrew word for tend and keep) the place where we live and where He has given us authority and responsibility.  More and more we see His plan to place families in neighborhoods or households or house churches or home groups or prayer houses to build something He can inhabit.  We can't build or tend by ourselves, but in partnership with the LORD, we can WATCH and we can KEEP.  It is time that we recognize our need for one another and that the Lord's design is not complete until we are in relationship with one another, working to BUILD HIS KINGDOM, NOT OUR OWN.

The book of Hebrews encourages us not to "fling away our fearless confidence as it carries a great and glorious compensation or reward, but we have need of steadfast patience and endurance so that we may perform and fully accomplish the will of God and receive and carry away and enjoy to the full what is promised."  (Hebrews 10:35,36 Amplified)  So as we pray for safety for our children, families, leaders and those in authority over us in our cities and towns and municipalities this summer, remember to encourage one another "that we must not let sorrow keep us from interceding."