Can We Know When?

I Thessalonians 5: 3-5

While they are saying, "Peace and safety," then destruction will come upon them suddenly, like birth pangs upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
But you, Brothers, are not in darkness that the Day should overtake you like a thief; 
For you are all sons of Light and sons of Day. We are not of night, nor of darkness.

We are told that the Lord's coming will be as a thief in the night, that we cannot have any idea when He may make His appearance. 

But this passage tells us that we may be able to know more than we've been told we could know. We are not in the dark as the rest of the World is. So we may be able to discern a little more about God's timing, to expect Him at an approximate time. 

We won't know the hour or the day, but we may be able to bring it down to the year, and maybe even the season of the year. 

We need to pay careful attention to what God has told us to look for before the Coming of the Lord, and if we're paying attention to what is going on around us in the World, connecting it with God's Word, then we just may be able to know more specifically when to expect His arrival. 

We are children of Light, not darkness; sons and daughters of the Day, not the night. We should be able to see what others do not see. 

We should be able to see in the Light of God's Word what the World is blind to, being in darkness. 

O my Father, You have laid out Your whole Plan of the Ages in the written Word You have given us. Please help us understand what You have told us, so we can be prepared and ready for what You have for us. Let Your Holy Spirit living in us open our eyes and minds and hearts to understand Your time-table, and be at work doing the works You planned before Time for us to accomplish. 

Send more workers into Your missionary fields to find Your little lambs that have lost their way, to lead them back into the safety of your One Fold with One Shepherd. 

Jesus said:

And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the World for a witness unto all Nations; and then shall the end come. (Matthew 24:15)

This tells me that every person alive will get the chance to come to the Father through the Sacrifice of the Son, or reject Him. Then The End will come. 

Father, You have told us everything we need to know; both for living here on this Earth in this World among our neighbors; and for being made fit to live with You where You live, forever. 

Send me, Father; let my words reach Your lost sheep, and strengthen Your children to trust You implicitly, even in the depths of persecution. Let them not despair, but know that their brothers and sisters are praying for them and working on their behalf. Let them know that their families are being cared for, and that they will be rewarded with a crown heavily laden with the precious jewels of their sufferings, to lay at the feet of our Lord. 

And may Your House be full and every place at Your banquet table be filled with all Your children, on that Day when we will rejoice together in all You have done, Father!  

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!