Silverleaf Baptist Church

06/02/2026

06/01/2026

May 31, 2026
Today's Verse

God made us free from the power of darkness. And he brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

Colossians 1:13 ERV

Devotion

We lost power in a terrible windstorm recently. The lights—and heat—were off for nearly 24 hours. It was a very long, dark, and chilly night in our house. When I woke up the next morning, it was a brisk 51 degrees in our house. When I said good morning to my wife, I could see my breath! The worst part of the whole thing was that I had to sleep without my fan! I’ve slept with a fan nearly every night of my life since I was just a little guy. The silence of the darkness was deafening!

There is something terribly frightening about darkness, isn’t there? Have you ever lost power at night and you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face? Or have you ever visited a cave and they turned out the lights? You experienced real darkness, didn’t you? Have you ever ridden “Space Mountain” at Disney World? There are parts of that ride that are very dark and you just cannot see what’s going on around you. Darkness can be so scary! This is especially true of spiritual darkness.

We were all prisoners of darkness at some point in our lives. We were living in the kingdom of darkness because of our spiritual blindness. But God has rescued us from the darkness by His grace through faith in Jesus. God has brought us out of the darkness and into the Kingdom of His Son. Jesus has opened our eyes and removed our blindness. We no longer walk in darkness, groping about and searching for hope. We can see clearly—not because of the sun—but because of the Son.

Friends, there are many who still live in darkness. They actively rebel against the Lord Jesus. They are darkened in their understanding of the life God desires for them (Ephesians 4:18). They need the light of the Son to shine into their hearts so that they will be released from darkness. We have the flashlight! We walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7) and now we must show others the way.

In my house the lights eventually came back on. For many, many people—people whom we know and love—the spiritual lights have yet to come on and they’re still living in darkness. Let us shine the light of the Son of God into the darkness that they might be rescued and brought into the Kingdom of the Son.

By Shawn Cornett, Bible League International staff, Indiana, U.S.

05/29/2026

They bombed his house on Christmas night.
16 sticks of dynamite. His wife and children were inside.

Meet Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. The man Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called "the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South."

He walked out of the rubble, turned to the police officer who told him to leave Birmingham for his own safety, and said:
"Tell Bull Connor that the Lord saved me, and I'm not leaving Birmingham."
In 1956, Alabama effectively banned the NAACP.
The goal wasn’t just to stop protests.

The goal was to destroy the infrastructure behind Black resistance:
communication
organizing
fundraising
leadership
community protection

So Shuttlesworth changed the board.

When one system was attacked, he organized through Black churches.
When intimidation increased, he increased visibility.
When Birmingham became violent, he forced the violence into national headlines.

That was the strategy.

They bombed his house.
They bombed his church.
They beat him with chains.
They hit his wife with brass knuckles.

He stayed in Birmingham.

No Shuttlesworth. No Birmingham Campaign.
No Birmingham Campaign. No Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In 2008, they renamed the city's airport after him.

Every single person who lands in Birmingham lands in Shuttlesworth International Airport

The fire they couldn't put out? It became the welcome sign. 🔥

05/29/2026

“Nearly all of the ancient gods of the Old and New World were black and had woolly hair. T.A Buckley in Great Cities of the Ancient World says, ‘From the woolly texture of the hair I am inclined to assign to the Buddha of India; the Fuhi of China; the Xaha of the Japanese; and the Quetzalcoatl of the Mexicans, the same and indeed an African, or rather, a Nubian origin.’
In the Bible, God, or the Ancient of Days, is described as having ‘hair like the pure wool.’ The earliest statues of the Virgin Mary and Christ in Europe as far north as Russia, were black and Negroid.”

— T. A. Buckley

05/29/2026

Memphis high school senior Tupac Mosley transformed unimaginable hardships into extraordinary achievement. After losing his father and experiencing homelessness that led to living in a tent, Mosley refused to let circumstances define his future. Instead of allowing adversity to derail his education, he channeled his struggles into relentless determination that would ultimately change his life forever. With a remarkable 4.3 GPA and an impressive 31 ACT score, Mosley earned the title of valedictorian at his high school. His academic excellence opened doors he never imagined possible, resulting in over three million dollars in college scholarships. When speaking to CNN about his achievements, Mosley humbly stated it was honestly an honor and a blessing, demonstrating the grace and humility that carried him through his darkest moments. Principal Shari Meeks witnessed Mosley's journey firsthand, praising his unwavering positivity and noting that hardships never held him back from pursuing his dreams. Mosley credits his success to the support of his family, friends, and school community who believed in him when circumstances seemed insurmountable. Today, he studies Electrical Engineering at Tennessee State University, proving that with determination, support, and unwavering focus, even the most challenging beginnings can lead to extraordinary outcomes.

05/29/2026

Black women are America's most educated group — and still earn $166 less per week than white women for the same work. The data is specific: full-time Black women workers earn $942 per week on average. Full-time white women workers doing the same jobs earn $1,108. The difference is $166 every week — $8,632 every year — compounding across a career into a retirement savings gap, a home equity gap, and a generational wealth gap that accumulates the same way interest accumulates, quietly and continuously. This is happening to the most educated demographic group in the United States. Black women have outpaced every other group in educational attainment growth. The degrees are there. The credentials are earned. The early arrivals and late departures are real. The performance records exist. The gap persists anyway. The framing that wages reflect individual merit and market forces struggles to explain why education and performance don't close a gap that tracks with race rather than with qualifications. When a group systematically earns less despite higher average education levels than the groups earning more, the explanation is not performance. It is structure. ""That's not a gap. That's a choice"" — the choice embedded in hiring decisions, salary offer starting points, negotiation dynamics, and the accumulated weight of bias operating across thousands of individual employment decisions that produce a consistent pattern when aggregated. She has the degree. She shows up early. She stays late. She outperforms. The check still comes up short. That's the conversation that needs to stay open.

05/29/2026

Employees in the judge’s office told investigators they could hear sounds through the walls, according to the report. Story link in comments 🔽