By Jason Cocomise

Actor James Dean once said, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.” For 18-year-old John Challis, this has become a stark reality. Two years ago, John was diagnosed with liver cancer. Just a few weeks ago, he was told that the cancer was winning and that he is nearing the end of his young life. Doctors tell John he may only live two more months. He thinks he can make it two more years.

John has always been an athlete. He is an avid hunter and has played baseball and football for as long as he can remember. He is now in the midst of his senior year at Freedom High school in Beaver County, Penn., and will graduate with a 3.7 GPA, even though he is now too sick to go to school. Because of his deteriorating frame, now down to 93 pounds, John is no longer able to play sports the way he used to. John’s hometown of Freedom and neighboring communities have rallied around John and his family in this most difficult of times, finding inspiration in his never-quit attitude.

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Get ready to soar through eternity!

By Joel Hilliker

I took a tour of the universe yesterday. It was breathtaking times jaw-dropping times awesome!

I grew up in Washington State in a place where the night sky was largely hemmed in by towering pines. But I’d still scramble up onto the roof of our house to open up the view just a little bit more. We used to take trips to the coast, where the canopy of stars stretches clear down to the flat, inky horizon. When I was a teenager, I visited the Wisconsin farmlands and laid on my back in a field one crystal-clear night. That was when, for the first time, I saw—no, I felt—the entire three-dimensional dome of the heavens all at once. I was in an incomprehensibly enormous fishbowl of shimmering limitlessness.

As I drank in that tremendous view, I was probably seeing fewer than 5,000 stars.

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By Stephen Flurry

I hired my first employee when I was 12. No, I wasn’t an adolescent genius. I needed a sub for my paper route. So Kenny filled in when I was sick or out of town. He lived across the street.

A lady from my church, who worked for the paper, had gotten me the job, even though their policy was to hire kids who were at least 13. After pulling some strings, she told me her reputation was on the line. I had to prove that a 12-year-old could handle a paper route!

Every day after school, I delivered the Tri-City Herald to 50 subscribers. It took me an hour and a half on my bike, not counting the time needed to collect subscription fees.

I made about $180 per month throwing papers for a few hours each week. It was the first time in my life I was able to tithe on my own earnings: Ten percent of my income went to my church; another 10 percent went into a jar in my closet for the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall. Another sizable chunk went into a savings account (also a first). With that I was able to buy a new bike and a good baseball glove.

One night Kenny came over for a visit. He had done that many times before, but this time he seemed nervous. He didn’t stay long either, which I didn’t mind because I had homework to do.

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By Adar Kielczewski

Herbert Armstrong was hard working. Starting from the time he was about 8 years old, he gained experience in many jobs ranging from simple, menial tasks like being an errand and delivery boy to the trade of drafting for a furnace company.

Throughout those early adolescent years, he performed many odd jobs, but it was one summer job at age 16 that changed his life forever. It lit the spark of ambition.

Before taking this job waiting tables at a hotel, he wasn’t much of a leader. Although not lazy, he contentedly gave the lead to the older boys. He gave little thought to what abilities he himself possessed. But this job caused him to believe in himself.

“This was the turning point in my life,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in his autobiography.

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By Ryan Malone

So, we’ve recommended the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible to you. But perhaps that is one of the hardest to understand—purely because of the ancient wording that it uses. Here is a simple guide that should help you in making sense of some of those old words.

You:

In modern English, we use “you” when speaking to one person (singular; like the word “I”) and when talking to many people (plural; like the word “we”)—although some use the expression “ya’ll” and “you guys” for that. Also, modern English doesn’t differentiate between “you” when it is the subject of the sentence (Ex.:”You are smart”) and when it is the direct object of the sentence (”I know you“).

The English used in the KJV has different words for each type of “you.”

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By Robert Morley

Two battles. One day. Similar men. Similar enemies. Similar odds. Opposite outcomes. You may not know about the Battle of Isandlwana. You probably have never heard of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift. But one of these is the story of one of the most amazing victories in history.

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How can you get a good summer job? How can you keep that job all summer and then be welcomed back to work the next summer? Here’s how you can develop a good work ethic and get on the fast track to a life of success!

By J. Tim Thompson

“Summer Help Wanted,” said the sign in the shop window. Sixteen-year-old Tom got off his bike and looked curiously through the window into the store packed with busy shoppers. He wanted a pair of expensive Nike high tops which his parents couldn’t afford, and he wondered if a summer job would give him the necessary money.

I wonder how much they pay? Tom thought. Then he remembered that he didn’t have any work experience and didn’t even know how to ask for a job. Nah, I don’t want a job, he said to himself. I won’t be able to shoot hoops with the guys if I have to work all summer. Mom and Dad will just have to work overtime to buy me some Nikes.

Tom’s dilemma is a common one for teenagers. He wants “things” but he doesn’t have any money, and it seems like there’s no way to get it short of doing something illegal—like some kids who steal and pawn things or sell drugs. Working all summer and missing the fun of hanging out isn’t a good alternative to him either. Why can’t someone simply give him the money or the things he wants? Life just isn’t fair, Tom thought.

What’s a fella to do?

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By Darren Verbout

Ah, spring is in the air … and so is baseball! Only a few of my childhood memories can compete with the many hours, days, months and seasons spent playing America’s favorite pastime! The smell of a leather glove, the feel of a brand new genuine cowhide baseball, the scent of freshly cut grass and the crack of a squarely hit ball generates a boyhood youthfulness that’s difficult to match.

In sorting through these fond memories, I ask myself, What value has sports given my life? I can say now that the score at the end of the game or in what place we finished at the end of the year has had no significant impact on where I am in life today. But what has influenced me are the timeless lessons, the tests and the sacrifices that baseball provided.

A Test of Priorities

My 11-year baseball career began when I was 8 years old. Even though I had a glove, cleats and a hat like everyone else, I was different from day one! A difference that translated into missing 10 out of 20 games each season. No, it wasn’t a reoccurring injury. Nor could it be called a half-hearted approach to the game.

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By Gerald Flurry

When God made all the animals, the Bible says they were each made “after their kind” (Genesis 1:24-25). But there’s a great difference between animals and man. Man was different: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (verse 26).

We weren’t made after the animal kind. We were made after the God kind! God has shape and form, like you. We look like God! And yet scientists say we’re an animal. How diabolically wrong they are! You came from God, not an animal—not from evolution. “Let us make man in our image”! How much clearer could that be? Evolution is a satanic view of life. Satan loves to destroy our incredible human potential, and what a masterful job he has done in doing just that. How ridiculous is the theory of evolution! It has never been proven because there’s no evidence. But scholars have many people believing it—often by intellectual intimidation. But they don’t intimidate God. And they shouldn’t intimidate you.

God created you in His likeness, and now He wants to create you in His image, or put His character in you. Why? So you can renew the whole universe. You can’t do that without character. The desolation and decay that has been wreaked upon this universe came because of a lack of character. You must be building God’s character in your life if you’re to fulfill God’s potential for you.

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By Gareth Fraser

What is emotional maturity? Few know the answer. However, it is one of the secrets to abundant, lasting happiness.

Does your school offer a course in “emotional maturity?” It does not. So who teaches it? Where can the keys to emotional maturity be found?

STOP: First, let’s check your emotional responses, to know whether you have emotional maturity and stability. There are three general categories that people thoughtlessly fall into:

1. The Loose Cannon

Emotionally extreme. These people act much like a baby emotionally. The thought never occurs to them to place any control over their emotions. They become highly emotional over petty things. They wear their feelings on their shirt sleeves. Their tempers fly uncontrolled. They gossip. They slander. They exaggerate their compliments and their praise of others.

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