{"id":42077,"date":"2014-07-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/doctor-killed-in-afghanistan-had-already-died-in-christ\/"},"modified":"2014-07-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T00:00:00","slug":"doctor-killed-in-afghanistan-had-already-died-in-christ","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/doctor-killed-in-afghanistan-had-already-died-in-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Killed in Afghanistan Had Already Died in Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1967, a student named Libby attended with her boyfriend, Tom. During the final commitment evening, both submitted their lives to the Lord. For 30 years, Tom and Libby Little served in Afghanistan, providing vision care to the people of Kabul throughout seemingly endless wars and conflict.<\/p>\n\n<p>In August 2010, shortly after conducting a two-week medical camp in a remote valley of northwestern Afghanistan, Tom and his medical team were ambushed and killed. Upon receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her husband, Libby said, &quot;Although Tom was killed in 2010, he had already surrendered his life to God&#39;s good purposes way back in 1967.&quot; For four decades, Tom had submitted himself to his divine master. So in one sense, Tom Little had already died in Christ prior to 1967, and he would always live through Christ even though he was ambushed and killed in Afghanistan.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3701,3739,3833,3834,3942,4060,4396,4430,4476,4480,4914,4931],"tax_ctp_topics":[388],"class_list":["post-42077","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-courage","tax_ctp_tags-death-to-sin","tax_ctp_tags-dying-to-self","tax_ctp_tags-dying-to-sin","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness","tax_ctp_tags-global-missions","tax_ctp_tags-love-for-christ","tax_ctp_tags-martyrdom","tax_ctp_tags-mission","tax_ctp_tags-missionary","tax_ctp_tags-self-denial","tax_ctp_tags-self-sacrifice"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Doctor Killed in Afghanistan Had Already Died in Christ - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/doctor-killed-in-afghanistan-had-already-died-in-christ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doctor Killed in Afghanistan Had Already Died in Christ - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1967, a student named Libby attended with her boyfriend, Tom. 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