How do you live your life, do you have set boundries by which you operate? Are you sure of what God has called you to do. Read and found out what Samsons father thought was importantSamson, Samson is a very interesting story what with superhuman strength and a lifestyle that was far from Godly or holy.

I want to start off this morning not looking at Samson as much as looking at his parents. Let?s go to Judges 13 and read about the events that led to his birth.

I want to look at in-depth Manoah?s question to the Angle of the Lord in verse 12 ?What will be the boy?s rule of life, and his work??

As I was reading this portion of scripture the other day looking for something else this question jumped out and attacked me. What will be the boy?s rule of life and his work?

My question to you this morning is ?what is your rule of life and your work?? This can sound very philosophical, but it is a straight forward question.

What did the Angle of the Lord tell Samson?s mother? That he would be a Nazarite from birth and he will begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines. What choice did Samson have, everywhere he went he landed up killing Philistines.

I want to look at some other people from the same point of view. Next on the list is Jeremiah 1:1-8. I was ordained when I was 37 he was ordained at 0 or even minus something he was pre-ordained. The famous words from Jeremiah ?before I formed you in the womb I knew you.? Jeremiah had no choice in the matter before he was matter he was ordained as a prophet.

Luke 1:5-17 is the story of the visit of the Angle to Zacharias a very similar story to the visit to Samson?s mothers visit.

?For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother?s womb. 16?And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17?He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ?to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,? and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.?

Again what chance did John have he was predestined or preordained into these things. From the reference to wine and strong drink they deduce that he was also a Nazarite.

So here we have 3 people who for all intensive purposes had no choice in what they where going to do with there lives. What bearing does this have on our lives and the question that we are search for an answer to?

Firstly they all did have a choice Samson as I said did not live a very godly life. One of the laws of a Nazarite was that they where not allowed near a dead body.

Numbers 6
6?All the days that he separates himself to the LORD he shall not go near a dead body. 7?He shall not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. 8?All the days of his separation he shall be holy to the LORD.
9?And if anyone dies very suddenly beside him, and he defiles his consecrated head, then he shall shave his head on the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day he shall shave it.

So just be killing the Philistines he defiles himself. When he returns to the carcass of the lion he had killed to take of the honey he defiles himself again. Wanting to marry a Philistine woman was also again the laws set down for Israel. So he was no saint, he definitely took up on the freedom of choice to sin. Even then God worked it to His advantage.

Jeremiah did his best out of the prophesying business. God had to keep sending him back again and again.

Have you ever wondered why some people can get away with things you cannot, and how some people seem to be natural at what they are doing?

John seemed to have stuck to the plan in the beginning.

To take a step back and ask what is a rule of life. Well as we have read about the Nazarites God expected a certain way of life for them which was different to others. He had an expectation for Levis and one for kings.

If we recall the incident between Samuel and Saul in 1 Sam 13 where Saul was waiting for Samuel and Samuel delay his coming then Saul offered a sacrifice which he was not allowed to do for it was only the Priest that could do that. As a king he had not right to offer sacrifices.

Yet we see a number of times David offering sacrifices are there different rules for different people. The answer is yes there are different rules for different people. Which really confuses the whole matter for does it?

The very reason why David could tackle Goliath and eat of the show bread where the same reasons why he could offer sacrifices. For God had made him both king and priest why? Because Christ is both Priest and King.

David knew the ?rule? over his life. He knew what was expected of him by God. God has given me a set of rules that He requires that I live by. If I stay within those boundaries I stay within he anointing and blessing. Let us remind ourselves again of the soldier, sportsman and farmer in 2 Tim 2:1-6.

At my pervious church I wanted at one stage to be a steward and get involved that way yet God through this verse or a similar one that my rule was not to get involved in that manner in the church. So I do not even go down that route anymore I know the answer. Some of my colleagues have things going on the side to bring in some extra bucks. I know that God does not want me to do that. I know He will provide in other ways. Another thing is computer games I know that it is not acceptable for me to play computer games. I am not talking about solitaire or mind sweeper, but rather games like Unreal Tournament or Quake the fighting and strategy games.

Now God will have called others to do the things He is not allowing me to do so that the church can function correctly. You see he does not want me to get side tracked for what He has planned for my life. Now as an ordained Teacher what was acceptable before the ordination is not acceptable now. The rules have changed.

I cannot tell you the boundaries or ?rule? for your life outside of that which is laid down in the word. That is between you and God to work out. Many people frustrate themselves and God by constantly doing things outside of that rule. We do not know what great victories Samson might have had if he lived the life a Nazarite correctly! I know someone in this church who was helping with sound and was told by Nola that sound was not where he should be.

Now I am not loading you with condemnation or placing you back under law. That is not the point. The point is now I cannot judge the way someone else lives because I do not know the ?rule? of their life. When you know your rule you know where you stand on issues of life and it lifts the condemnation from you.

The second part of the question was what was ?his work??

I believe that the happiest people are the people who can enjoy their work. People who have the opportunity to do what they enjoy doing. To me you enjoy doing what you are designed to do.

Each dog breed is designed for a specific function. That function comes naturally to them herding sheep comes naturally to a shepherd especially the collies. Attacking things is natural for terriers and hunters. A golden retriever has a very soft mouth so that it will not damage the bird it is carrying and is not scared of gun shots. A GSD is very weary of strangers and is naturally easy to train that is why they are used for police work. The husky and malamute are pathetic watch dogs because they are