"Have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye
received his image in your countenances? Have ye
experienced his might change in your hearts? Do ye
exercise faith in the redemption of him who created
you?"
These questions from Alma in his epistle to the people in their cities and villages throughout the land as recorded in Alma 3:27-30 have been shared many times over the years since.
I've always thought of them as being personal questions for reflection in one own's life. Is the Spirit such a part of our life that others can see Jesus just by looking at our faces? To do that, certainly our every action would have to indicate that there is something different about us. Have our hearts changed like that of Enoch in his experience when he finally understood the love of God for every person? Are we certain enough of our redemption through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we can put behind the guilt and suffering of sin and see ourselves and our lives through new eyes? All of those are good questions.
Recently, however, I've been wondering if we shouldn't be trying to answer this on a corporate basis as well. If the reason for the existence of the church is to bring forth the kingdom of God, as I believe the scriptures indicate, should we be asking ourselves how we as a branch could answer these questions together as well?
Can someone coming to our branch for the first time see Christ's image in our countenances in how we treat one another and how we worship together? Have our collective hearts been changed so that we rejoice when one of us rejoices and mourn when one of us mourns? Do we have a view of where we are headed that isn't clouded by past mistakes? I wonder.