Soil Temps

This time of year trees begin to bud and the grass begins to turn green and grow. The difference is noticeable but it’s far from magic. The changes in appearance and substance is solely attributable to the change in soil temperatures.

Nature is a stark reminder growth and change is based on warmer soil temps. The same is true in our lives. If you aren’t changing and growing, odds favor you’re stuck in the winter of your life.

Farmers and fishermen are usually the first to recognize it takes warmer temps for ANYTHING to move around, grow and produce. Life jumps into a higher gear when soil temps rise in plants, animals…and people.

One of the best known parables in the Bible is found in Matthew 13. This parable draws the analogy between our lives and the soil of the earth. Jesus said the fruit derived from the soil in our lives varies depending on the condition of our hearts, our soil temps. Elementary schools teach (or they used to and still should) the heart is responsible for pumping blood to regulate and maintain heat/temps in our bodies. The question is, ‘What’s YOUR soil temp?’

Your soil temp is measured and SEEN by the passion you exhibit for any given person, activity or thing. Do you get jacked up for the Masters golf tournament next month, the start of Major League Baseball, fish starting to bite, college and high school spring football practice? Weigh your intensity for any activity to determine the temperature of your soil and life.

A lot of things can make the soil temp of your life rise and fall. When this happens, the soil you are made of is also revealed. Jesus uses soil quality and temps to reveal your heart and show what you’re made of…and what you serve. The Bible speaks directly to the issues of the day it was written AND the issues in 2026.

Now, I’m going to make it more personal, relevant and pertinent to our lives. Does your soil temp rise when you’re given the chance to share what God HAS done or IS doing in your life? Do 65 million aborted babies get a rise in your blood/soil temp? How about the high school or college you attended teaching your children there are 7 genders in addition to a man and a woman? What about being made to attend DEI training to keep a job and provide for your family? Does the temp of your life’s soil rise at all with these questions?

Take the few examples I used to discover what your soil type and temp is today. Are you apathetic about any of the topics I mentioned. Are you concerned about losing your job or being cancelled? Are you are anxious about discussing such things and think it’s political, not fundamental to your daily life AND eternity. Maybe such things concerned you at one time but not now. The Bible calls this rocky and shallow soil. The soil you are can vary day to day, week to week and year to year. Your soil TEMPERATURE is the key to allowing God to grow and mature whatever soil condition you have right now.

If you claim to be a Christian it is essential to live and love with a high soil temp. When quizzed about the greatest commandment, ‘Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”‘ This kind of zeal and passion doesn’t grow in soil that is lukewarm or apathetic about your faith. In the Message translation, more words in red speak directly to the soil temps of our lives. “‘You’re not cold, you’re not hot-far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit.'”

God can use all types of soil to plant His seed but it’s incumbent on each of us to determine the temperature of our soil in order for it to grow. In addition, it’s on us to have friends and a fellowship that will continue to plant the seed so we can hear and understand the message about God. Regretfully, too often the seed gets planted when we are poor soil with low temps and nothing takes root. Maybe we were living one lifestyle when we were young and although that is in the past, we haven’t had the seed planted in us again.

If you care about someone, BE a person who sows the seed in every conversation and each relationship. Speak and act with a high enough soil temp that it warms the ground all around your life. You never know when a friend (or a stranger) has perfect conditions for growth and “‘…the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.'”

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to have low soil temps. Low soil temps don’t grow anything. Christ reminded us to be alert and awake for His return. Nothing and no one is alert and awake when the soil temps are low. Nothing grows.

Zeal is defined as intense, passionate, eager devotion in pursuit of an objective. In other words, a high soil temp. God wants us to be zealous for Him. ‘…Hate what is evil: cling to what is good…Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.’ Romans 12 9-11.

Keep your passion and zeal for the Kingdom high. Maintain a high soil temp in your life