Everyday Reformation

Food is a gift from God. Scripture gives a place to feasting, hospitality, and celebration. So when does enjoying food become the sin of gluttony?

The question reaches beyond how much is on your plate or what you weigh. Are you receiving God’s gifts with gratitude and self-control—or allowing your appetites to rule you? Christians can excuse habits that need repentance, but we can also judge someone’s spiritual condition by appearance without knowing his circumstances. Scripture calls us to examine ourselves honestly and glorify God in our bodies.

In this opening episode of our Strength of Service series, Nick Carter and Pastor Brandon Scroggins address the debate over gluttony, fitness, and Christian responsibility—including the discussion surrounding Doug Wilson and Brian Sauvé—and bring the questions back to our own homes, tables, and daily decisions.

Drawing from 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, 1 Timothy 4:7–8, Proverbs 23:20–21, and Galatians 5:22–23, we discuss:

• What gluttony is and why appearance alone cannot establish someone’s guilt.

Bodily training has value. Godliness has eternal value. Christian stewardship keeps those priorities in order while taking both seriously.

Next in the series: putting these principles into practice when money is tight, time is short, and you’re already tired—with a conversation about food, sleep, exercise, rest, and starting again after setbacks.

If this episode helps you, share it with someone who would benefit. Subscribe on YouTube or follow Everyday Reformation wherever you listen to podcasts.

Everyday Reformation — the whole counsel of Scripture for the whole course of life, in and through the local church, to the glory of our Triune God.

Website: https://everydayreformation.com

EPISODE CHAPTERS

John Knox was not simply a fiery Scottish Reformer. He was a man whose convictions forced him to answer a question Christians still face today:

What happens when obedience to God puts you in conflict with powerful people, institutions, or cultural expectations?

In this episode of Everyday Reformation, Nick Carter and Pastor Brandon Scroggins look beyond the basic history of John Knox to consider what his life can teach Christians today about biblical authority, courage, wisdom, responsibility, and generational faithfulness.

Knox understood that human authority is real—but never ultimate. His life raises difficult questions about when Christians should submit, when they must stand, and how to distinguish genuine courage from mere argumentativeness or reckless speech.

But the conversation does not end with resistance.

The Scottish Reformers eventually had to answer a harder question: What do we build once we have identified what is broken?

That takes the discussion into the home, the local church, education, Christian vocation, community institutions, and the responsibility to prepare future generations.

In this episode:

• When submission to authority becomes compromise

John Knox was not a perfect man, and Christians do not need to defend every decision he made. But his life still forces us to ask:

What do we actually believe?

Conviction. Courage. Construction.

Know what is true. Stand when faithfulness becomes costly. Build something worthy of handing to the next generation.

— Everyday Reformation

The Reformation put three questions before the church: Who has the final word? How is a sinner saved? Who receives the glory? The Five Solas give a clear answer—and those questions still confront us.

Nick Carter and Pastor Brandon Scroggins walk through Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and to God alone be the glory. They also explore TULIP and the sovereignty of God in salvation.

These doctrines reach beyond theological debate. They shape our assurance, obedience, families, churches, work, and public lives.

The question is not only what the Reformers believed. Are we living as though these truths are true?

Chapters

00:00 The Five Solas and the Reformation

Keywords

Every household is being built—or quietly dismantled.

Proverbs 14:1 says that the wisest of women builds her house, while folly tears it down with her own hands. A woman’s influence can steady a man, nurture children, establish a home, and strengthen generations. But when corrupted by sin, that same influence can become discontentment, manipulation, contentiousness, gossip, seduction, and control.

In this companion episode to “Sins of Men,” Nick Carter and Pastor Brandon Scroggins examine several temptations that Scripture addresses particularly in women. They discuss how comparison breeds discontentment, how counsel crosses the line into manipulation, how destructive speech creates disorder, and how beauty, emotion, affection, and sexuality can be misused as leverage.

The answer is not to deny feminine strength or influence. It is to bring every God-given gift under the authority of Jesus Christ.

Women: this conversation is an invitation to honest self-examination, confession, and faithful obedience—not an accusation that every woman struggles with every sin discussed.

Men: this episode is not ammunition to use against your wife. Lead sacrificially, honor women as co-heirs of grace, and examine the ways your own tyranny or passivity may have made faithfulness within the household more difficult.

The question is not whether a woman possesses influence. The question is: What is she building with it?

Scriptures discussed include Proverbs 14:1, Proverbs 21:9, Proverbs 31, Genesis 3, Genesis 27, Genesis 39, 1 Timothy 2, 1 Timothy 5, Matthew 14, and 1 Peter 3.

Everyday Reformation exists to build men, order homes, and honor Christ.

#BiblicalWomanhood #ChristianMarriage #EverydayReformation

A tyrannical man abuses responsibility. A passive man abandons it. Both failures leave a household carrying the consequences.

In this episode of Everyday Reformation, Nick Carter and Pastor Brandon Scroggins confront several sins to which men are especially vulnerable: tyranny, passivity, blame-shifting, and the failure to govern their own appetites.

Beginning with Adam’s failure in Genesis, they examine the difference between firm biblical leadership and harsh domination, why passivity is often mistaken for gentleness, and how a man can accept responsibility without assuming personal guilt for every sin committed under his care.

The conversation also turns inward. A man cannot credibly call his household to order while refusing to govern himself. Sexual immorality, pornography, anger, selfish ambition, food, drink, sports, hunting, and recreation can all become masters of the man who was called to live under the lordship of Christ.

The Christian alternative is neither domination nor retreat. It is the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility.

If you recognize tyranny, passivity, or undisciplined appetite in yourself, begin with one thing: confess it, repent before those affected, establish accountability, and resume the duty God has placed before you.

The question is not whether your household feels your weight. It will. The question is whether it feels the weight of sacrificial responsibility under Christ.

Build men. Order homes. Honor Christ.

Can Christians love their enemies and still sing, “O LORD, God of vengeance, shine forth”?

The imprecatory Psalms contain some of the strongest language in Scripture—prayers for God to judge evil, defeat wickedness, protect His people, and vindicate His name. Yet many Christians are uncomfortable singing them at all.

In this episode of Everyday Reformation, Nick Carter is joined by Pastor Brandon Scroggins and RBC music leader Matt Shaeffer to ask why God placed these words in the hymnbook of His people—and what they teach Christians about righteous anger, justice, mercy, personal vengeance, and the character of God.

We also respond to a question raised after our previous worship episode: when Psalm 98 says to “sing a new song,” does that mean the church should move beyond singing the Psalms? We are not arguing for exclusive Psalmody. We are asking why the inspired Psalter has become almost completely absent from many churches.

Can we pray for God to save His enemies and judge them? Who actually qualifies as an enemy in the imprecatory Psalms? What do we do with the difficult language of Psalm 137? And how can these Psalms teach Christians to hate evil without becoming consumed by hatred themselves?

Beginning in October, Reformation Baptist Church will begin singing imprecatory Psalms together. This conversation explains why.

The goal is not a more angry church, but a more biblical church—one that can love enemies without making peace with evil, seek justice without taking vengeance into its own hands, and trust Jesus Christ as both merciful Savior and righteous King.

Build men. Order homes. Honor Christ.

#ImprecatoryPsalms #Psalm94 #ChristianWorship #ReformedTheology #BiblicalWorship #EverydayReformation

Are young men returning to church—and are churches prepared to disciple them? Nick Carter and Pastor Brandon Scroggins examine church attendance, biblical masculinity, and the responsibility to form men into faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

Returning to their earlier episode, “Why Men Are Leaving the Church—and What Our Worship Is Teaching Them,” Nick and Brandon address listeners who reported men coming back. They discuss findings from Gallup, Barna, Pew Research Center, and PRRI, explaining why signs of religious interest do not establish a nationwide Christian revival.

The central question is what happens after a man walks through the church doors. What distinguishes cultural reaction from repentance and faith? How should churches respond to men seeking meaning, reverence, doctrine, and responsibility?

In this episode:

For younger men seeking direction and older men with wisdom to share, the charge is concrete: become known in a faithful local church, take responsibility, and help another man grow.

Everyday Reformation is a Christian podcast bringing Reformed Baptist convictions to discipleship, fatherhood, worship, work, and everyday faithfulness.

Subscribe or follow Everyday Reformation for more conversations rooted in Scripture and centered on Christ.

Were the Crusades really a sudden, unprovoked act of Christian aggression—or does that version of history begin the story centuries too late?

In this follow-up to our 9/11 episode, Nick Carter and Pastor Brandon Scroggins go back before 1095 to examine the Christian world that existed before Islam and the centuries of conflict, conquest, and cultural change that preceded the First Crusade.

Nicaea. Constantinople. Ephesus. Chalcedon. Antioch. Jerusalem. Alexandria. North Africa.

These were not obscure territories on the edge of Christian history. They were some of the great centers of the early church—the places where Christians worshiped, theologians wrote, church councils met, and foundational doctrines concerning Jesus Christ were defended and articulated.

Then the map changed.

Following the rise of Islam in the seventh century, large portions of the historic Christian world came under Islamic political rule. By the time Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade in 1095, Christians and Muslims had already been encountering one another for more than four centuries.

That history matters.

In this episode, we examine what happened before the Crusades, why modern Christians often begin the story too late, and how to acknowledge the sins and atrocities committed by Crusaders without pretending the Crusades appeared from nowhere.

We also ask a larger question: What happens when a civilization assumes its Christian inheritance will preserve itself?

The ancient churches of the Middle East and North Africa remind us that possessing churches, creeds, theologians, and centuries of Christian history does not guarantee a Christian future. Faith must be believed, taught, practiced, defended, built upon, and faithfully handed to the next generation.

This episode is not an exercise in medieval nostalgia. It is a conversation about history, Christian responsibility, cultural inheritance, and the duty of Christians today to preserve the good deposit entrusted to them.

Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, an entire generation remembers exactly where they were when America changed. Another generation knows 9/11 only as history.

But did we ever really understand what we were watching?

In this episode of Everyday Reformation, Nick Carter and Pastor Brandon Scroggins look beyond the memories of 9/11 to the deeper questions surrounding Islam, Sharia, public life, assimilation, Christian civilization, and the future of America.

The conversation explores why Islam is once again part of the American political and cultural discussion, why there is no truly neutral public square, and what Christians should understand about the relationship between religious belief and social order.

Nick and Brandon also examine the responsibility Christians bear for preserving and rebuilding a civilization shaped by biblical truth, faithful households, strong churches, Christian institutions, and public responsibility.

The episode closes by looking back beyond 9/11 itself to the much older history between Christianity and Islam—and sets up the next episode on the Crusades and the centuries of history that came before 1095.

This is not simply a retrospective on September 11.

It is a conversation about why it still matters now.

Christians often fall into one of two ditches.

On one side is legalism—using the law, rules, or outward performance in ways God never intended. On the other side is licentiousness—turning Christian freedom into an excuse for self-indulgence and lawlessness.

But Galatians presents another way: Christian liberty through a life led by the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Brent Madding returns to Everyday Reformation to join Nick Carter and Pastor Brandon Scroggins for a wide-ranging conversation about the book of Galatians, the proper purpose of God’s law, sanctification, Christian freedom, and what it actually means to walk by the Spirit.

Along the way, they wrestle with important questions:

What is legalism—and what is it not?

What does licentiousness look like in the life of a Christian?

Can the law produce holiness, or does the power for sanctification come through the Holy Spirit?

What role should God’s law play in the believer’s life?

How can Christians exercise freedom without being mastered by it?

And how should husbands and fathers teach their families to live with biblical conviction without creating either Pharisees or rebels?

The conversation eventually moves from theological categories into practical decision-making: Is this liberty spiritually helpful? Could it master me? Will it hinder my Christian race? Could it cause a weaker brother to stumble? Does it violate my conscience?

The answer to legalism is not lawlessness. And the answer to lawlessness is not another pile of man-made rules.

The Christian is called to know Christ, walk by the Spirit, live in love, and learn to use the freedom Christ has given responsibly.

Guest: Pastor Brent Madding, pastor of Solid Rock Baptist Church in Kentucky and deputy sheriff.

If this conversation is helpful, share it with another man who is seeking to lead his household faithfully under Christ.

Everyday Reformation exists to take the many truths of God’s Word and apply them to all of God’s world—from the family and the church to the public square. Jesus Christ is Lord over all.