Show Me The Toes

Show open and episode roadmap

The show opens live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston Proper with the usual crosstalk — a joke about a logging company and about a host 'covering his feet' — before the lead host lays out the night: a Christian Post story about a megachurch pastor claiming prayer regrew a woman's amputated toes, a beliefnet list of five ways to distinguish God's voice from Satan's voice, some Dear LFTP advice letters, and the 'pope style' advice premise teed up for Dan.

Has anyone been demonically misled? Framing the discernment question

• Have you ever been demonically misled or spoken to by Satan?
• How can you distinguish God's voice from Satan's voice?

Before reading the list, the hosts ask whether anyone has felt demonically misled: one argues Satan is subtle, taking things God would use and putting a small twist on them; another shares a Bible-college professor's spiritual-warfare example — a 2 AM hankering for a baloney sandwich — which the room mocks as why nobody takes spiritual warfare seriously; the group lands on James' point that temptation usually comes from the evil within, and that demons are finite rather than omnipresent, so they get you started down a road and let you spin on your own.

Point one: 'it causes panic, not calm' — pushed back

• What verse comes to mind after that opener?

The article's first claim — Satan's voice causes panic while God's brings calm — gets rejected: Moses panicked, Jesus sweated blood in Gethsemane, and in the temptation of Jesus the obedient path was the anxious one. Peace is affirmed as a fruit of the Spirit and as one host's personal bellwether in prayer, but the room agrees God routinely calls people out of their comfort zone, and His promise is peace in Him, not calm circumstances. The reader anchors the opener with 'my sheep will hear my voice' (John 10) and quotes the article's 2 Thessalonians 3:16 and Psalm 29:11.

Point two: 'it goes against God's word' — Satan is subtler than that

The group agrees in principle that a voice contradicting God's word isn't from God, but calls the article's version too black-and-white: Satan rarely says 'it's okay to sin' outright. Instead, like with Adam and Eve — 'did God really say that?' — he minimizes and reframes, one step removed: 'it's okay to do what makes you feel good; God wants you to be happy.'

Point three: 'it weakens your prayer life' — probably your own brokenness

On the claim that trouble praying signals Satan's voice, the hosts push back: it's usually one's own pride and brokenness, not the capital-S Satan personally targeting you — believing you're important enough to merit a dedicated demon is itself pride. They correct the article's 'called to pray daily' to 'pray without ceasing' (1 Thessalonians 5:17) and read Philippians 4:6.

Point four: 'it feels like commotion'

The article's chaos-as-evidence test prompts jokes about 'the locomotion,' then a substantive rebuttal: feelings are an untrustworthy bellwether, and God's offer is to go through the commotion with you, not to stop it — a complete misunderstanding of the Christian life is expecting Him to end the chaos. The article quotes Jeremiah 33:3 ('call to me and I will answer you').

Point five: 'it makes you feel worthless' — shame versus guilt

The final article point lands best: God does not use shame — He will use guilt to turn you around, but shame that defines you is not His tool — and a shame-filled culture backed into a corner explains today's defensiveness and sin-justification. One host questions the modern need to feel important, invoking the unnamed soldier in the David-and-Goliath story and Fox's Book of Martyrs; another confesses his post-college ambition to be 'the next Billy Graham' and argues for measuring success in daily faithfulness, citing a Philip Ramsey podcast on the day-to-day grind, warning that church metrics like baptisms can become the measure of a life.

Article: megachurch pastor claims prayer regrew amputated toes

A host reads the Christian Post story: John Lindell of James River Church (Springfield/Joplin, Missouri) claimed a woman's amputated toes regrew during a week of prayer led with guest pastors Bill Johnson and Randy Clark. The woman, Christina Dine, lost three toes after being shot by her ex-husband in 2015 — an attack that killed her best friend and put him in prison for murder. Skeptics demand proof, a fellow Christian launched showmethetoes.com, and Lindell says he's protecting Dine rather than answering skeptics.

Should a miracle be shown? The case for evidence

• If you witnessed a miracle and skeptics demanded proof, would you show it?

The hosts land on 'show the toes': Jesus' healings were public and verifiable — the beggar at the beautiful gate jumping, 'go show yourselves to the priests' (Luke 17:14, quoted by the site's founder) — and the resurrected Jesus said 'look at me.' A verified miracle would validate the gospel being preached alongside it. They reject the pastor's 'protecting the sheep' rationale since he already broadcast the claim church-wide and online, and note her medical records and trial X-rays must exist.

The slow-toe problem: instant healings versus twelve-hour regrowth

The absurdity of a gradual twelve-hour toe regrowth gets the comedy treatment — Wolverine claws, how you'd know when a toe is 'done,' whether regrown nails need trimming. A host contrasts it with Jesus' instantaneous healings ('get up, grab your mat') and wonders aloud about Luke 14's dropsy healing — did the bloated man instantly deflate? — joking that he himself has 'a twenty-five year case of dropsy,' addressed as 'Bubba' by another host.

God doesn't do back-alley bounty: public miracles and creation's pace

• Are there miracles where God stepped in but did not want people to know, after Jesus?

A host shares a painful story of faith healers who prayed over a friend with MS and then shamed him for lacking faith, and the room agrees this kind of story 'doesn't smell like God's glory.' The group asks whether any post-Jesus miracle was meant to stay private and concludes God shows up noticeably — pillars of fire, not back-alley bounty — while granting He could take thirty minutes 'just because He wanted to,' pointing to the six-day creation as a pattern that isn't about efficiency. They agree they'd rather hear the woman's testimony of rescue from sin than the toe story.

Virginia, the tattoo waiter, and the pope in Johnston

A host tells a long story from a business-architecture conference near Washington, DC: dinner at Not Your Average Joe's with a tattooed waiter who spent fifty minutes describing his tattoos — including 'this tattoo effing means something — mom' on his thigh — and surprised them with a molten lava cake after 'do you trust me?' On learning they're from Iowa, the waiter claims the pope lives in Johnston — 'the pope is definitely John Steinway' — and gives an address that turns out to be Dan's house, setting up the pope-style advice bit.

Pope Dan's advice: let God direct His work

Addressed as 'Pope Dan' and asked what he told the gathered crowd, Dan Hudson gives pope-style advice drawn from his own week: a donor handed him $9,100 cash for an African orphanage; the same day he delivered groceries to an Afghan refugee family; driving down Merle Hay Road with the truck full of help, he passed a homeless man with a sign and felt guilty — until he sensed the Holy Spirit saying 'you're doing enough... I haven't called you for that guy.' His counsel: whether shame or overzeal motivates you, pause and let the Holy Spirit speak, because God is alive, active, and has a plan you can be part of — Jesus Himself didn't heal everybody.

We're not called to do everything: praise, criticism, and the Holy Spirit as constraint

The hosts build on the pope advice: per Matthew 6, don't posture your almsgiving, fasting, or prayer for humans — and likewise don't invest in human criticism; the Holy Spirit should be treated as the constraint on action, not the starter, since Scripture already says to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. One host says 'I think Ben's right' of the previous speaker's point about the arrogance of assuming every good work is yours to do. Another shares that his family — 'the Foos' — had to let a concession-stand need go unmet so the pep band could play, and had peace about it.

Dear LFTP: how to tell an adult son he smells

• How do you tell a loved one they have bad hygiene — tell them or let them stink?

A host reads a Dear LFTP letter from a mother whose adult son has bad body odor — not medical, not from exercise — asking whether to tell him or let him stink; the verdict is tell him. One host shares a serious story of a boss who compassionately confronted him during a rough season when he'd 'stopped caring about living' and his hygiene collapsed — 'you matter... tomorrow matters' — and a comic story of a 13-hour Minneapolis-to-Tokyo flight he never stood up from, ending with a French woman visibly recoiling from his odor in the airport food court. They riff on raising 'soft people' with no grit, read the Secular answer (a pamphlet-toned suggestion of dental checkups), and close by joking about scheduling a daily 'scrub them yellows, dirty fella' text.

Dear LFTP: should meteorologists stop saying 'gloomy'?

• Should TV meteorologists stop calling rainy weather miserable, gloomy, or dreary?

A host reads a letter complaining that TV meteorologists calling rain 'miserable,' clouds 'gloomy,' and gray days 'dreary' is irresponsible toward emotionally vulnerable viewers. The hosts push back: a weatherman's adjective can't play you like a fiddle, the root problem is outsourcing your emotional state to people who don't even want the job, and humility means considering 'maybe it's me who's wrong' — one jokes 'Mike says to himself, I think we're raising people without any grit.' The Secular answer advises directing the complaint to the local station manager.

Outro: hostage news versus the weather, and internet tips from Mike

A host recounts a cafeteria news story about a man held hostage for six years, immediately followed by a cheery weather transition — the same tonal whiplash as the letter. The show closes with the complaint line (515) 517-0085, a nudge to shorts and reels, a bit where 'uncle Mike' gives internet tips from the digital media desk (download CCleaner, always upgrade), and the sign-off: 'be faithful in the means; God will handle the ends.'