quest begins

::: "i'd rather be in hell with my father than in heaven with jesus"...

...i'll never forget those words, said passionately by my father -- an unbeliever at the time -- at the conclusion of one of our many "discussions" about biblical salvation...i never knew my grandfather on my dad's side...he passed away from cancer before my brother and i were born...since those words uttered by my dad, claire and i continue to rejoice and marvel at how far God has brought him as a follower of christ...but his words about my grandfather remain very much fresh in my mind, pointing to unresolved questions that i've carried around for years:

• if, as my dad says, my grandfather never heard about jesus, what is his fate?
• what does the bible actually say about unbelieving and/or unreached ancestors?
• are there ways, if any, to reconcile the worship of God with the veneration of ancestors?
• do our responses to the questions above affect, if at all, the ways in which we convey the gospel to someone whose worldview is influenced significantly by his or her ancestors?

...not only me, but i'm discovering that many christians (and seekers) in japan face the twin struggles of (i) worshiping God without disgracing their ancestors and (ii) affirming the centrality and exclusivity of jesus christ while anguishing over the fate of unreached ancestors...

...so today, after an extended session of prayer, i committed to studying the bible systematically --beginning in the psalms -- to discover what the bible actually says about how we are to approach and appreciate our ancestors...this quest to "find" my grandfather will undoubtedly mean so much to me...