Muslims
I had a Muslim roomate for about three years 25 years ago. His name was Sayed Ali and was from Pakistan. He became a very good friend. I was a very committed Christian and he was a very committed Muslim. We had 100s of hours of discussion between us about our respective beliefs. Being an evangelical pentecostal back then, I really really tried to bring him to a Christ. he did not mind discussing religion at all, but he sure had major indoctrinations against the Bible. I do not know if any real progress was made inside his heart towards the scriptures through all that time, now, years later. but I gave him and presented to him many many arguements that bolstered the reliability and trustworthiness of the scriptures. Maybe he humored me out of respect for our friendship, but a few times, I KNOW AND FELT the Spirit of God deeply calling him and he showed deep emotion and struggle in his heart to me and I believe he had considered the CONSIDERABLE cost(for him) of following Christ. I trust he did gain something from all these discussion, besides the fact that two people with totally different world views became close friends and shared a lot of things. I do believe that Christ in me was a witness to him. I DO WISH I UNDERSTOOD AS I DO NOW, but alas, I did not. But I am also very grateful to him, for he taught me critical thinking in ways I had never learned before. He was very talented in mathematics and science, and strongly believed in evolution...and he was instrumental in me changing from a young earth creationist to an old earth creationist, and I do believe his belief in God (Allah-for him) centered evolution was something I learned to respect and for the most part I now embrace, because He did believe God was the director and causer of all things, just as I do now. His evolution was God centric. So our friendship was orchestrated by God (as all things are as we know, but here I really feel like saying it) and as much as I HATE the muslim religion because it is spirit that in NOT of Christ, I can and have loved Muslim people. I am SO very pleased and happy that they too, someday, will bow the knee and call Jesus Lord, and Sayed Ali WILL BE MY BROTHER, and we will worship together.