By Claudia Koenig
The hotel in which we were staying in Jerusalem had a friendly greeter. He was very kind and made sure that he made eye contact with you and that you felt welcomed. This greeter would ask if you needed water and, then, rush across the street and run back with his hands full of bottled water to hand them to you with a big smile. All he did was personal to him. We weren’t just hotel guests. He, wholeheartedly, cared about the people.
After a while, I thought that I should, perhaps, share salvation in Jesus Christ with him. To start a conversation, I asked him if he was Jewish. He looked into my eyes and said, “I am Catholic.” I said, “That is not what I asked. Are you Jewish?” Again he responded, “I am Catholic.” I took a bolder stand and asked him, “Where are you going when your time comes?” He did not answer. I then looked into his eyes and asked him, “Would you like to be sure of where you will be going?” He said, “Yes.”
I told him who Jesus was and what He had done for us on the cross. I said, “You have to invite Him to be your personal Savior. Would you like to pray and invite Him so that you will be with Him in heaven?” He said that he would. So in the midst of the people coming and going at the entrance of the hotel, this man invited Jesus into his heart to be his personal Savior.
I went to get my husband to meet him. I told my husband that this man had just believed in Jesus. The man wanted to pray again. So, then the two of us prayed with him. Afterwards, he thanked me several times. Throughout the evening, I noticed that he kept his eyes on us. The look on his face was sober. We looked at each other, and he gave a thumbs up! We both smiled.
Now he had a personal Savior who cared about him, just as he cared about the people going into the hotel. He will now enter the doors, not of a hotel, but of heaven, and Jesus will be his greeter!
“Abba, Father, I could hardly make the trip to Israel. But I had to get there to tell about You. In Jerusalem the harvest of Jew and Gentile is white!”
“Messiah, thank You for the greeter at the hotel. You chose him before he was born to know You. You prepared his heart to know you personally in Jerusalem, where Your name is on this city! Salvation belongs to You!”
“Holy Spirit, thank You for helping me with the boldness needed to make sure that this Catholic man knew Jesus personally.”
But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: Romans 2:10
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13
Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Matthew 5:35
To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; Psalms 102:21
As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. Psalm 125:2
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Psalm 137:6
All scripture is from KJV.