222. The Bryson Davis Interview with James

Welcome back to the For Freedom Podcast. This is a special episode that a friend of mine, Bryson Davis at WAME Radio here in Statesville, North Carolina, he's one of the news anchors there and radio hosts there. Me and him actually started a podcast years and years ago during COVID. It was before COVID, actually, I think it was. And before the For Freedom Podcast, it was a little podcast called the Christian Politics Podcast. And we interviewed lots of different people and we went our own ways. He was one of my teenagers and I came here to Ronda and he began then that work and done some internships at JR Motorsports, Dale Jr.'s Motorsports and done a lot of coverage of races. NASCAR races, not races of people, but NASCAR races. And he came across my book and said, hey, man, how about you come on and do a 30 minute segment, 25 minute segment on air live and talk about your book and all that good things. And so I went in, I sat down with him and had a wonderful conversation with him. And so this is going to be that that airing of that. He sent me the recording of it. And I hope you enjoy this. But we talked through a variety of topics from the book, the podcast, me and him and going to up to Washington for the inauguration, me and Brett going to Israel and what that was like. And so we just had just a wonderful time of talking and just hanging out. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed recording it with him live in the studio there. And so this is a release of that. And I hope you enjoy the day's content, just talking through and catching up with an old friend, talking through the podcast and the future of the podcast and what the Lord's been doing through it. And so we hope you enjoy this today. And I want to always remind you and encourage you. We are running a special right now in the month of May, 15 percent off all of our cigars at our 1689 cigar page, 1689.com backslash for freedom. And you can go there and anything you put in May for freedom is the podcast is the promo code there for 15 percent off. And that's going to be running for the entire month of May. And so we hope you go by stock up, check out what we've got going on. It's a great way to support the podcast and support what we're doing. And our experience box, we're almost out of that. I think we've got one or two left. So now would be a great time to get a good set of coffee and soap and the sampler set of the of the cigars. And and if you really want to stock up right now, our boxes, 15 percent off those boxes. It's a deal that's a fantastic deal. So go by and check that out. And hopefully that'll help you out a little bit. But without further ado, here is our intro. And the interview that me and Bryson Davis had just a couple of weeks ago. Welcome to the For Freedom podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. I'm covered in the righteousness, washed from head to feet. No tally of tradition. No man made code. Blood bought my freedom. Now I ride that road. They clutch pearls when they see smoke rings rise. But my praise still ascends past the legalist cries. Christ plus nothing. That's the real math. So miss me with your fence laws and your extra path. He sat with sinners. I'm sitting with saints. Sipping grace from the bottle. No room for fakes. I light one for liberty. Toast to the king. Every ash a sermon. Death has lost its sting. For freedom. He set me free. Not for chains. Not for guilt. Not for pharisee. Grace lit the flame. Now I'm puffing peace. Cigars and victory justified. Released. For freedom. He set me free. Not for chains. Not for guilt. Not for pharisee. Grace lit the flame. Now I'm puffing peace. Cigars and victory justified. Released. Let grace begin. For freedom. He set me free. Not for chains. Not for guilt. Not for pharisee. Grace lit the flame. Now I'm puffing peace. Cigars and victory justified. Released. Now here are your hosts. James Seyfried and Brett Martin. It is Real Country 92.9 and 550 WAME here on a beautiful afternoon. A couple of minutes after 3 o'clock. Today is Tuesday, March 31st. And today we are joined by a living legend. James Seyfried is in the studio. James, how are you, man? I'm living, but I don't know about a legend. No, you're on the way. I'm doing well, man. Glad to be here. Thanks for letting me come on WAMI and talk a little bit today. But man, excited to be here with you. Back in the saddle, me and Bryson Davis. We go back a long time. We do. Yes, we do. Yeah. That's exciting. We were just talking about this just a little bit ago. We were the first, I guess, radio style thing that I ever did. We had a podcast back in the day a couple of years ago. And I couldn't even drive. That's right. That's right. That was during the time where we were masked up and COVID and school wasn't in session. And you would come up and hang out at the church with me and we would record a podcast together. And man, what a great time that was. Dude, it was awesome because I didn't want to do my schoolwork, which actually there for a little while, I didn't have any. We left school and got out of that. And so we kind of had this idea to say, hey, let's start a podcast. There's a lot of crazy things happening in the world. So let's see what we can say about it. And surprisingly, people actually cared what we had to say. So we had some really good guests over the years. Man, we had some big, we had Virginia Fox. Yeah, she came on. We had. Mark Robinson came on. Donald Trump was supposed to be on, but he never did come. No, we never could get our schedules to align with his. It just didn't work. He wanted to be on. He actually called us. Yeah, he was trying to get on with us and we just couldn't get our schedule to align up with his. That's right. So you've, so you're doing a lot now. You're the pastor, senior pastor at Pleasant Grove. Yeah, Pleasant Grove in Ronda, North Carolina. Yeah. Yep. And a lot of history at that church. We were talking about Junior Johnson. Yeah, big time Junior. Is buried up there. Yeah. Was a member of the church, right? Member of the church. His wife, Flossie, was a long time member of the church, big time giver to our women's ministry, did a lot, a lot of stuff. Many of her cookbooks and items that she made was in different cookbooks there. But yeah, he's buried just right by my office there. If you go on YouTube, some guy took a video of how to find it and where it's at. And so people come in almost daily. This past Sunday, we had a guy come in from like Walker Town, North Carolina, an hour away. And he's like, I'm looking for Junior's grave. And I said, right out here, come. So we talked for like 20 minutes. Yeah, that's cool. And that's a good way to get people into the church. Oh, yeah. You're like, hey, man. Yeah. That's awesome. So you're doing that, obviously. And I see your videos on Facebook all the time. So you guys, and we actually got to play Bluegrass up there last year, which was really cool. Took a trip to Washington with you and some folks from your church. So you're in a great spot. Absolutely. Yeah, it's been good. Yeah, man. So tell me about you. You're still in the podcast world and still doing some things with that. But you've also written this book. And that's what I want to talk about. You've got this book is called From Brokenness to Freedom, A Journey of Healing and Renewal. You've written this with John, your friend, who I've gotten to know through the years a little bit through our podcast and things that we've done. So tell me, like, where did this idea, where did you get the idea of, hey, we need to, we've got this podcast. It's kind of in a similar genre, I guess, or idea space as your podcast. But where did the idea for the book come about? Yeah. So about six years ago, John started the podcast called For Freedom Podcast. And it deals with church hurt, people that have been hurt in specifically the independent fundamental Baptist world of ministry. And as we got to going through that, we began just developing some thoughts and this idea of stages of leaving legalism, but stages of that you go through hurt, anger, resentment, when those things come out, what happens when bitterness begins to come into your life. And this can happen with the death of someone. This doesn't just have to be in church hurt. And so a couple of years ago, John came up with these eight stages of leaving legalism. Yeah. And so I took them and was like, man, I really like this. The Lord really began laying on my heart to write this book. And I said, John, can I take your idea of eight stages and write a book with it? Yeah. He said, sure. I'm not a writer. If you want to do that. So I spent six, eight months writing, putting some stuff together. And I sent it to him and he was like, well, now there's some edits that I need to make. So he went in and added like 20 more pages. Really? That's cool. So it's like 80 pages. It's just a really short, easy read. Each chapter can be a standoff chapter just to help with a specific thing. If you're dealing with anger, bitterness, hurt, how to help others, how to get through bitterness. And so we began walking through that. So last year I published the book and we sold several hundred copies and it's on Amazon. You can go there and type it in from brokenness to freedom. My name, James Safer, one of the ways it'll come up and purchase that. And it's just been a blessing to help out and to give these books away and help out and sell them. So yeah. Yeah, for sure. What's your process been? You said it took six to eight months to write this. I'm not somebody, you can ask my former English teachers, I'm not the best when it comes to writing something together. ChatGPT is a very good friend of mine when it comes to that. So what's that process like? Because I imagine like if I sat down and tried to put a book together, like you mentioned, this is not a super long book. It's not a huge read. It's not Harry Potter series and it's like 4 million pages. And that's a good thing because for me, when it comes to reading, I don't want a book that's going to take me 10 years to read it. I'm a slow reader and I can't write anything. So explain that. What's the process like? For me, I imagine it's difficult to just start. Like starting for me seems like it would be the hardest part. Yeah. So for us, the starting part was easy because me and John had actually done two or three episodes on these actual topics. We had expanded them out with the podcast. With the podcast. Yeah. And so I took the transcripts from the podcast and began taking that and formatted it into a book. My wife, she's a grammar major. She went to school. She knows all the grammar stuff. So I put it all together in a cohesive format, added some things, took some things away because when you go from speaking to writing, it's completely different. And so we began walking through all of that, gave it to her, allowed other people to edit it, walked through that. And then of course, John, he took it and had to add more to his flair of edit as well. So, but yeah, as far as getting going and getting started, I already had the framework. I already had the eight chapters that we walked through, the eight stages there at the beginning. And so for me, it's just simply, it was adding the context to all of what we were doing. Yeah. How do you find a, a, a, someone to print this, someone to publish it? What is that process? Look, I'm not an author, so I don't know how this process looks like it. Is this a pretty simple deal? Like how has that been? Amazon makes it really easy. So Amazon's my publisher. And so I self-published through them, through their website. And so I submitted the book, I created the graphics and my graphics design stuff, put it all through their sellings, their, their portal that they have. And so it's on Kindle, it's on hardback and paperback. You got the paperback copy there. And so you can go on there, the Kindle's $5, the paperback's $10 and the hardback's $15. They handle all the printing. And so they handle, if you click it, it'll be at your door in three days. And it prints from here, from South Carolina at a printer and ships right to your house. I think on the very back of the last page there, it says on the very back, back page, it shows where it's printed from the bottom. Columbia, South Carolina. Yeah, South Carolina. So they've got a printer there in South Carolina. They print it immediately, glue it together, ship it here. It's crazy how well Amazon has made this process of publishing things really easy. I do have another publisher, Bonafice Media, that is looking at picking up the book and publishing as well, putting it on their catalog. And so I've been talking to a couple of different organizations like that. So I've got about a minute or two here. Do you, when you finish this after the process, does Allison, your wife, do you give this to her and say, Hey, read this and make sure there's no mistakes or she's an expert with that, right? So how do you do that? Cause again, I'm thinking through myself and what I would experience this. Like, do you, like I would be handing it off to several people and saying, Hey, please proofread this before I send it out to the world. Did you do that? Did that? She read it. I've been asked to write a second book called freedom from depression. A lot of people deal with depression and what that looks like. And so I've been working through that. So I just ordered the publisher copy. I can order my own publisher copy. And so she's been editing through that. And then that helps me see the spacing, the lining that I get this part wrong when it's actually printed to be able to go back in and fix that. That's awesome. All right. We're going to talk a little more about this coming up. Uh, we'll switch to a little bit of music coming up here with one from Glenn Campbell called Galveston. James Saifert, author of brokenness to freedom in the studio up here on the hill. WAME. It is real country 92.9 and 550 WAME hanging out with James Saifert in the studio. James, this is, uh, this is kind of fun, man. We're having a good time in here. I've missed hanging out with you, man. It's been great. I felt like I hadn't seen you in a while. Uh, we did take a trip back when the president was, uh, inaugurated. We went up to Washington. That was fun. Yeah. Uh, great time there. I'm, I'm a big history, uh, person. I love history. We were just talking about some things we've watched, uh, on, uh, Netflix and things like that, uh, about historical documentaries. I love that stuff, but it was cool. Cause, um, anytime, no matter who the president is, you get to see a president inaugurated, get to see what that process is like. And that was a little unique. We got to be closer than most people because, um, the parade and everything like that was all indoors. Uh, and so it was just a little bit different, very historical. So that was a lot of fun. Uh, I'm glad that we got to do that. Yeah. You know, one of the things is I was just not thinking about that. And you said that, um, you know, there were some things that happened at the inauguration. One, we didn't think we're going to get in cause it moved to the indoor. So we had to get in line. I was worried. It's cold. I remember my son, he's bundled up with all the different things and, uh, the hand warmers and, uh, but, but when we got to the inauguration hall and we got to see it, Trump comes in with the family, the fanfare, all that fun stuff. Um, as we were leaving, I don't even know if you know this or not, but as we were leaving, I got a friend, a text from a friend of mine who, um, I'm a cigar guy. I have him on cigar company as well. I think you know that Bryson, but, uh, it's called the four freedom cigar company. Um, and so, uh, he messaged me and said, Hey, uh, I just got an invite and a plus one. If you can make it, Charlie Kirk is going to be at this cigar lounge and he wants to have a cigar with us to talk through some things. Yeah. I'm like, man, I wish I could go. We all rode together and I wasn't going to, we had to be back the next day. We didn't have a tail room or anything. So I just said, man, I can't make it whatever. But that would have been, I mean, that was like three, six months before he was assassinated. So, um, I had that opportunity and, and passed up on it, but yeah, lots of historical moments that day. That was, uh, it was just unique to see the process. Uh, and as I said, you know, uh, anytime, if you've got a chance, you know, you don't even have to support the guy, like to see a presidential inauguration is a historic thing for sure. If I get to go back, I'll go back for another one. Absolutely. Uh, and, and I would too. It was, it was a cool experience. Maybe Whammy can send us. Yeah. Hey, there you go. Hey, give a plug to the big guy in there. Live remote from the, uh, inauguration. There you go. So, um, yeah, that, that was, that was a lot of fun. So we've, we've got to do a lot of cool stuff. We really have over the last, uh, eight or nine years or so. So, um, we were talking off the air a little bit about what's next for you. And since you're now an author, which is really cool, you've got some, some other ideas and some things that have affected your area and you have a personal connection to, to certain things and recent things that have happened in your next idea, uh, for a book, you've mentioned freedom from depression. So this is kind of a part two or, or, uh, in connection with the first book, or is this a completely separate project? Completely separate project. Uh, again, with the name of the for freedom podcast, we want to do things in the idea of freedom. So the for freedom cigar company, freedom from brokenness, uh, from brokenness to freedom, what that looks like, but then freedom from the pressure. Depression is one of those things that people, uh, deal with, they struggle with on a daily basis. Some, some people never get over that. Yeah. So how can we work through from a biblical worldview as a biblical counselor and a pastor, how do we work through how to set ourselves free from that depression, that state of depression? Depression, uh, is talked about all the time throughout scripture. There's antidotes about scripture. There's helps that can be done. Uh, we know that the disciples suffered with some form of depression and anxiety when they went and hid after Jesus was crucified and, uh, was buried. I mean, they thought that they were going to be next. And so you can see the angst and the depression that happened there. You can imagine what they would have went through. Um, and so having them, uh, use some of those examples and, and walk through some scriptural things there is what we want to use to look at, to give help and hope through scripture, through the gospel. Um, so that's sort of where our, our mindset is looking through that. Yeah. We discussed the forms of depression, what that looks like. Some depression is self-serve, right? You, you put yourself in that depression. Some are brought upon by other things, by the outside world. Um, and so we want to walk through that in that project. So yeah. Yeah. I like the idea. And, uh, you know, I think that's something that, uh, more people go through than, than you think, because, you know, not everybody's openly talking about it, but I think everybody at some point in their life goes through a time that could, could lead to some depression. Maybe it's not severe. Some, you know, every, everybody's, uh, deal is different, but I think having a, um, a unique way or a, or a straightforward biblical way to look at that is, uh, something very important. So that's an interesting, uh, interesting project, uh, that you've got in mind. So when you're, uh, writing these books, um, you know, you talked a little bit about the idea of the first one, but do you feel, uh, after writing the first one and seeing it have a little bit of success, do you feel like this is something you're outside of this next thing that you have in mind? Is this something you want to do moving forward? Did you enjoy this? Do you, do you like to, to write now? Uh, I wouldn't say I enjoy writing, but I enjoy helping people. Yeah. And that's where the drive is. How can I help more people? Uh, you know, with the podcast platform that helps people, but, uh, you know, being able to sit down and sometimes put that thing together. Uh, I think we're going to talk about going to Israel. Uh, when I, on my way back from Israel, I had a 14 hour flight. And so part of that writing was, I had 14 hours. Do I write a little bit? Do I watch a movie? So part of that was done on a plane. And so using some of that time wisely with what we've got, um, instead of just doom scrolling on my phone or watching a movie in front of me, you know, I'm trying to be good stewards of what I've got there. Um, so had some of that framework there, had some of the things taken care of and was able to really begin to that writing process and pretty much finished it up on that plane ride on the way back, uh, with my computer and pen and paper out and just working through that. So, you know, if, if the ideas come, the Lord lays it on my heart to continue another book by all means will happen. This one again, came out of some circumstances that happened in Wilkes County. Um, and so I began working through that, uh, in a good worldview mindset. So, yeah. Yeah. I love that. And you, you mentioned, uh, your trip to Israel. You've been there twice now. Uh, and I really want to go back with you the third time cause I know you're going to go back cause I know you love it. Uh, talk a little bit about, uh, that experience. Uh, and obviously there's a ton going on over there right now at the moment as you and I are speaking. Um, but, but you went, this was a couple of months ago. When did you go? This was back when? Yeah. I went in the end of January, beginning of February. Um, so 30, 60 days ago is when we went. Um, I went in 20, 2013, 2023, um, and then had the opportunity to lead a group this time in 2026, um, 2025, 2026. And so we are looking at the end of 2027, uh, into 2028 over the new year, celebrating the new year in Israel. Um, so about 20 months away to maybe take another group back. I've got maybe 10 or 12 signed up at the church already right now. Yeah. But man, the, the experience was fantastic. Fly into, um, Jerusalem there in Tel Aviv. Uh, we spent the first day just, uh, as we landed, we did a site there in Joppa and then went down to, uh, the Sea of Galilee, spent three days in the Sea of Galilee, and then three days in Jerusalem in the old city. Um, and got to experience, uh, I think 40 or 45 different sites that are mentioned in the Bible. Um, some of those sites are overlap a little bit and, and old Testament, new Testament. Uh, but man, what an experience it was the second time for me, because I, you know, I'd been the first time and my mind was just overwhelmed. But I told people, I said, the first time I went, I sort of lived behind three different screens. Yeah. I had my phone out. I had a GoPro from Joseph Smithy. I had the, the Nikon camera that I had. So I'm like, got three different phone cameras are going. I'm trying to record everything. I didn't want to miss anything. Yeah. I had an audio recorder out. So I lived every experience behind some form of screen. Yeah. You were there, but you, you were also not, I wanted to bring all that stuff back to, to share with people. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So this time I said, you know, I'm going to go take the pictures, but then just sort of with my mind's eye, see it all in person. And man, I just, I got to see so much more experience, so much more, see things that I missed that I thought I would not miss. And so, uh, but then also seeing the people that went with us their first time, their eyes light up when they see all this is where Jesus made that statement. This is where this happened. These are the things that, yeah. So man, it's a great time to go. Uh, not right now, right now the, uh, the, the war's going on. Um, most of the area is, is contained North and South. Now, uh, every once in a while, they're getting bombs in the old city that are just, you know, deflected bombs. Nothing's going off. I've got a couple of guys that are there that I've talked to regularly. One of our guides, he, she lives in the sea of Galilee, nothing that's going on there. So, uh, just different portions, uh, are happening as, as always. So I have heard, uh, there, there was a teacher that said, uh, you made me think of this when you talked about living through a phone screen. He's, he told us, he was like, I challenge you next time you go to a concert or a ball game or something, uh, just don't get your phone out. So I have started this habit of, uh, you know, I'm a big Carolina fan, went to a couple of Carolina basketball games this year, which probably wasted some of my money, but we still, still went and had a great time. Um, but I look back and I'm, you know, I'm like, man, I kind of wish I had a few more pictures, but at the same time I can relive the experience better in my head. So I imagine that's the same effect that you had on the second time around. And I've always heard that, um, being able to, to put, uh, things you, these, uh, biblical stories that you hear about when you're a kid and all of these things into a firsthand, first person perspective where you're seeing it and you're touching it and you're there standing on the ground. Uh, I've always heard that as an incredible experience. Yeah. It very much is a great experience. Uh, it's eyeopening to say the least when you get to do that. Um, and it really, it's, it's a cliche, but cliches are true because it's real. Um, but the Bible goes from black and white to full color. Uh, when you begin to see that, and there's not a day I read my Bible or preach that I'm not giving some illustration from the Holy lands. Cause you know, I've been there, I've been able to see this is what it looks like. Uh, even this past Sunday, I talked about we are the vine or we are the branches. Jesus is the vine and how Jesus would have gave that illustration as he was teaching. Yeah. Well, I love it. All right. So, uh, that's James Safer. James, thanks for coming in and hanging out. Uh, this has been really cool. It's good. It feels like the old days when we had the podcast and, uh, we were, uh, I had not one clue what I was doing, but, uh, but we learned a lot. So thanks for that. Thanks for my career. Uh, you sparked that. So, uh, that's great from brokenness to freedom, a journey of healing and renewal. You can find this on Amazon. Uh, I did a Google search myself yesterday just to figure out, uh, how to access this. And it's literally so easy. You just search the title, search James Safer, uh, and, and you can find it and it's available on, on Amazon, all different kinds of copies, hardback, uh, paperback, however you want to get it. And, uh, I'm sure you can buy that as like a Kindle version as well. Did you mention that? Yeah. Yeah. There you go. So, uh, that's it from brokenness to freedom. Go on to Amazon, search it up. James Safer and John Hollifield. James, it's been a pleasure, man. Thanks for having me on, man. All right. There he is. James Safer. Go check his book out. It's on Amazon. I can't tell you enough. It's a great read. I've, uh, personally got a signed copy now. So, uh, I'm going to, uh, go home and do some reading. Found my new name. Found that good grace. Found that healing. And the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning that has no ending. Found that second chance. Found my best friend. Found my forgiveness. Found my happiness. I've been singing ever since. I found my freedom in you. Thanks for listening to the for freedom podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our podcast on whichever podcast platform you use. Be sure to join us next time for the for freedom podcast.

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