One80: Testimonies of Transformation
Be inspired by stories of Christian transformation from around the world--and next door! Hear miraculous coming-to-Jesus stories from all walks of life and be amazed at how God writes a story in all of us. One80 is a production of OneWay Ministries.
One80: Testimonies of Transformation
115: Christ, Cancer, and Collateral Blessings, Marco David
Marco David is both a Chicago cop and pastor who finds himself leading Bert Berrios to faith in Jesus in prison–after he was one of the men who put him there. Learn how he came into that dual career and how God’s true calling on his life was neither of these.
Hear how Marco came to faith after overhearing another conversation where the gospel was preached. You never know who’s listening as you are witnessing to others!
Marco shares about what he calls collateral blessings, things that the enemy meant for evil and God uses for good, like his own multiple cancer diagnoses and the collateral blessings he finds in others’ circumstances. He guides us in reading the Bible, hearing what God has to say, and prayer.
Helpful links:
Collateral Blessings, Marco’s book
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OneWay Ministries
Marco David was a Chicago copy pastor whose two worlds collided with the story of Bert Barios last week's 180. Check it out. Hear how that unfolded in his life and what his first calling was, which was neither of those jobs. Welcome to Marco's 180.
Marco David :I I grew up in in the Homer Park area in a two-parent home. We were raised Catholic, but we probably only went to church on Easter Sunday. Around 17 years old, I was kind of going down the wrong road, dabbling with drugs, and just didn't really have direction in my life. I have a brother who I who I idolized. He was 25 years old at this time. And he was very successful in high school and in college and had a promising career in film and television. And then he had some major setbacks that kind of plunged him into depression.
Marco David :And right around that time, my sister-in-law came to know Christ. And she was at a party and and her pastor showed up, and my brother was there. And he began to talk to my brother about the Lord during that time in his life. I was relentless trying to contact my brother. And just wouldn't give up. One day, I happened to be at my brother's place. I think we were smoking weed at the time. There was a knock on a door, and it was that pastor. And he began to talk to my brother about Christ, about how he could find redemption, forgiveness, and a new life in Christ, and hope, and meaning, and purpose.
Marco David :And he shared the gospel with them. He shared that Jesus Christ came into this world to live the life that we can live, to die, the death that he deserved to die, and that there was redemption, forgiveness, following him, that Jesus rose again, demonstrating that he could do what he promised to do, which was to give us eternal life, which, by the way, is more than knowing that you're going to heaven, but having a real relationship with Jesus that meets the deepest needs of your heart. That's what he shared with my brother. And my brother put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. What he didn't know was that I was doing the same thing. And he and I both uh surrendered to the Lord.
Marco David :And our lives have never been the same. Our lives have never been the same. And we began to grow uh in the Lord together, attending the same church together. And I went on to become a pastor. When I came to know the Lord, I I developed, I developed a hunger for the word of God. The church that I was attending faithfully preached the word of God. And the pastor was an espousatory preacher. And I fell in love with the word of God and just devoured it. You had to grow in the Lord. And God began to use me to reach others for Christ. I had an evangelistic zeal, mainly in my circle of influence. Family, friends. Just had a burden to see them know the joy of salvation. God was using me in that way.
Margaret Ereneta:Marco became a Chicago cop, but he also became a bi-vocational pastor. And so he explains how he was called into the pastorate.
Marco David :God gave me opportunities to witness again to family, friends, co-workers. And then I also had a burden once uh I saw someone come to Christ, and God used me to breathe Christ. I had a burden to also disciple them, encourage them to come to church. And I would do Bible studies at home. I didn't do that because I felt like I was called to be a pastor. It just it was just uh the passion that I had. And and uh and before I even realized that God would call me to be a pastor, other others were kind of identifying that in me before I kind of surrendered to that call of God. Something early on that that I believe impacted my walk with the Lord is my understanding of what salvation is, what eternal life is.
Marco David :And it's more than fire insurance, it's more than uh a ticket to heaven. But when you're saved, you're reconciled to God, you're brought back into a right relationship with God. And uh understanding that through scriptures, like John chapter 17, verse 3, where it says that eternal life is knowing Christ. As we eternal life is it's not just a place you go to, it's a it's a person that you can know intimately. In fact, that's what we were created for, is to come back into a right relationship with our creator, and only he can meet uh the deepest uh need of your heart. It's knowing him gives you uh a satisfaction and a joy and contentment. That became my greatest passion is to know Jesus and to make him known.
Margaret Ereneta:It's hard to imagine the prayer that's involved in being a cop and a pastor. So listen in as Marco shares some things about prayer that are super helpful.
Marco David :And even my prayer life was affected by that, by that understanding. So even my prayer life became more than just seeking God's hand, but seeking his face and cultivating intimacy with Christ. I came to realize that my first calling really is not to ministry, my first calling is to intimacy with Christ. And ministry is the outflow of intimacy. I didn't originate that, but I learned that uh along the way. And and I try to maintain that that as a priority of my life. I love being a pastor, I love ministering to people, but I love Jesus more, and pursuing him is my greatest passion. When I surrendered to the call of the Lord to preach and to be a pastor, God began to guide me in that call. And something instrumental that happened in my ministry is becoming acquainted with uh the Six Four Fellowship.
Marco David :Six War Fellowship is a ministry uh that supports pastors, encourages pastors, provide resources for pastors. The founder of that ministry, his name is Daniel Henderson, who became a tremendous mentor to me. That's called the Sixth Four Fellowship from Acts 6.4, where the apostles decided that they needed to prioritize prayer and the ministry of the word in order to be effective ministers.
Marco David :There's a lot of good things that we could be doing. The greatest priority is prayer and the ministry of the word. And I need to make sure that I am going hard after the Lord, pursuing him first before anything else. Ministry secondary. That ministry pounded that into me, helped me with resources and how to have a dynamic prayer life. Prayer is not just about seeking God's hand, but it's about seeking his face. And what that means, seeking God's face, is cultivating intimacy with Christ that leads to the accomplishment of his purposes.
Marco David :The best way to pray is to let God start the conversation. And so there's these three things that he teaches and that I embrace and I teach it to our church. That we practice scripture-fed, spirit-led worship. It's prayer. The best way to pray is in response to who God is, to who he is, to the revelation of his word, to his will, to his purposes. Open up the Bible, let God speak to you. And prayer God should be leading the conversation. We can encounter God through his word. Prayer.
Margaret Ereneta:We've linked six, four fellowship in the show notes, as well as Daniel Henderson's book. But Marco wrote his own book, and it's called Collateral Blessings, and he explains what that title means. It's really cool.
Marco David :And uh there's a collateral blessing. I wrote a book uh titled Collateral Blessing that uh that came out of this redemption story, and that is that because of my connection to Byrd, I got involved in prison ministry and ended up on Manny Mills' board, his prison ministry board, when there was a man that I met on his board named Scott Filee. And he early on when he met me, he felt like uh God had assigned him to pray for me. And fast forward, I was diagnosed uh with terminal cancer. Scott was a tremendous instrument of God to connect me to a renowned transplant surgeon who took out my case.
Marco David :When I was diagnosed with terminal cancer, the doctor, first surgeon that operated on me, said nothing can be done. Uh I had I had colon cancer a few years before, and then it came back. And uh when it came back, it came back with vengeance and had metastasized to my liver, to my stomach, my duodenum, I had a tumor in my duodetum, and also on the head of my pancreas. Again, when the first surgeon opened, the first surgeon operated on me and opened me up and saw all that, closed me back up, told my family in the waiting room that nothing could be done. Uh, but our church began to pray, others began to praise, God began to pray. And and God, again, God used it in a particular way to be an encouragement to me. And then this fervent prayer warrior, I became the faithful instrument that God used uh to connect me to uh a renowned transplant surgeon.
Marco David :And I did. Three days later, I was in his office and he looked at my scan, two major surgeries uh later. That was seven years ago. Uh I'm cancer free today. There's uh just so many amazing redemptive stories that I've had the privilege of having a front row seat to.
Margaret Ereneta:Pastor Marco goes on to share about some other collateral blessings, and you can find these stories in the book. They're very encouraging.
Marco David :Uh, we heard one of them, the story of Bert. And the amazing thing about that story is God used me to lead him to Christ as a pastor, but ten years before that, I was the police officer that contributed to him going to jail. So that's an amazing story of God's providence. Sometimes we don't always see what God is doing. I say in the book that providence often hides in hardship. Uh, look for God's blessings there. And I've been through some of some difficult things like being diagnosed with cancer twice. I worked through that trial to refine me, to bring me into greater intimacy with him. And also, I saw God bring redemption to other people while I was battling cancer.
Marco David :For example, there was a man named Henry Rodriguez who contacted me because he knew I had previously had cancer. He was just diagnosed with terminal cancer. So God connected us because of our cancer diagnosis. And I was able to lead him to Christ. He lived for 11 months after coming to Christ. He didn't get healed this out of heaven. He got healed when he came into the presence of the Lord or when he went to be with the Lord. When he got baptized, his testimony was, I'm in a win-win situation. And God used him to touch other people's lives. They saw the hope and the assurance that he had of salvation, even though he had terminal cancer, it just drew many people to Christ. His wife got saved, his son got saved. He had a brother-in-law who was divorced at the time that he witnessed to, that comes to Christ as his Lord and Savior, begins to pray for his ex-wife.
Marco David :Three weeks later, she comes to church, she gets saved. I end up baptizing both of them. Remarried them. Their uh daughter and son-in-law got saved. I baptized them. And so these are collateral blessings. And by the way, I define a collateral blessing as the unexpected ripples of redemption that flow from trusting him to even when the road looks dark and the odds feel impossible. Or a simpler way of saying that is a collateral blessing is God's redemptive surprises that come through faith and trials. And sometimes, you know, we're waiting on God to deliver us from something.
Marco David :And he can, because, and I'm a I'm a testimony of that. God delivered me from terminal cancer. But oftentimes the greatest blessing is in the waiting. Uh, in the waiting, and not just what's what we're looking for God to do after the waiting is over. But in the waiting, God is working to refine us, and he's working around us. Uh, and he could be a blessing to us in the midst of a trial, and he could use us to be a blessing to others in the midst of a trial. And that's that's what Eddie was for me. I ended up leading Eddie to the Lord, the brother who had terminal cancer, who went to be with the Lord 11 months later. Uh, I got diagnosed with terminal cancer as I was ministering to him, and then the script was flipped, and God began to use him to be a tremendous encouragement to me.
Marco David :You know, I was at um the side of his bed when he was in hospice, uh, just shortly before he went to be with the Lord, and he tells me this. He said, He said, He says, Marco, I know I look bad on the outside, but I want you, I want you to know me as well with my soul on the inside. And he went to be with the Lord uh two weeks later, and I preached this funeral. I listened to this, the night before my first major surgery.
Marco David :And I went in, I went into that surgery, and my surgeon asked me this question, he says, you know, if I run into some complications, would you like me to stop and go to the waiting room and ask your family if I should continue? And I said to my surgeon, I said, uh, doc, I'm in a win-win situation. Of course, I said that being inspired by Betty, because if God's gonna keep her around, he's gonna use you, and if I die, I'm gonna go be with him. But God chose to have me stick around for a little while longer. And that's why I wrote the book.
Margaret Ereneta:Marco closes with sharing his thoughts how God works collateral blessings into all of our lives as believers and how to find them.
Marco David :God is working in our lives, he's on the throne, he's in control of not only the good things that happen, but even the the challenges that have that that happened in our lives. God is in control and he could turn things around. Uh He can reverse and redeem, which is what the show is all about, right? God's power to redeem.
Marco David :And you know what? That's what really what the what the with the cross and the resurrection screen. Uh the cross looked to the disciples like the worst thing that could ever happen. But uh the wreck, the resurrection uh is demonstration of what what may look like the worst thing, God could turn it into the best thing that could ever happen. God reverses and redeems, redeems to his providential and reductive grace.
Margaret Ereneta:It's neat how the book, Collateral Blessings, is having its own ripple effect. It's now going to prisons with even a study guide for the inmates. You can check out our show notes for information on the book, our guests today, and the things we mentioned in the show. And make sure that you share our show with your people. It might be the best news they hear today.
