Blurring the Lines

by Wayne Cordeiro on September 15, 2025

Today is Monday, September 15, 2025. I’m in Hawaii this week celebrating milestones with our New Hope family—30 years of New Hope Oahu and 25 years of New Hope Windward. We just wrapped up an amazing Leadership Conference with more than 100 churches gathered together. Today, our devotion lands in Revelation 20, reminding us about the greatest deceiver of all time—the one Jesus calls “the father of lies.”

Today's Reading:
Ezekiel 38,39; Psalms 145; Revelation 20

Scripture

“He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil … and threw him into the Abyss to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore…” (Revelation 20:2-3)

Observation

Satan is called “the deceiver of nations.” His strategy has always been the same: to blur the lines between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, light and darkness.

In Genesis 1, creation was in chaos. To bring order and clarity, God made distinctions—He separated light from darkness, land from water, male from female, good from evil. Those distinctions brought order, and chaos was dispelled. Distinction is the foundation of order and clarity. But when distinctions vanish, chaos returns.

Paul warns in 2 Thessalonians 2:11: “They perish because they refused to love the truth … For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.”

When truth is rejected, deception rushes in. And when deception enters, the lines once defined by distinction become blurred.

Application

We are seeing this unfold in real time. Satan’s goal is to blur the boundaries and erase the distinctions between male and female, good and evil. When that happens, chaos returns—families collapse, justice is twisted, and even churches stumble.

I must stay anchored to God’s truth—loving it, holding it, and letting it form the foundation of my choices. Without the truths of God’s Word, my thinking can blur as well. But when I cling to His truth, I can walk in clarity and strength, even in a world that has gone blurry.

Prayer

Father, thank You for the gift of truth in Your Word. Guard my heart from deception, and help me to love Your truth above my own desires. Keep me clear-eyed in a foggy world. Lord, please deliver our families, our communities, and our nation from the spirit of delusion. For Yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.

-Wayne Cordeiro

click here

About the Author

Wayne Cordeiro

Dr. Wayne Cordeiro is the founding pastor of the New Hope International Ministry beginning in 1984 in Hilo, Hawaii. In 1995, he relocated to Honolulu and pioneered New Hope Oahu. Within 10 years, NHO was listed among the ten most innovative churches in America. Outreach Magazine listed them as one of the “top five churches to learn from.” New Hope has seen over 110,000 first time decisions since its inception and has planted 153 churches on the West Coast and in Okinawa, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Myanmar and Australia.

Wayne is an author of over 14 books and speaks globally on ministry and leadership. He also designed the Life Journal and the SOAP method for daily devotions used by thousands of churches. He is also the general editor of the LifeConnect Study Bible. In 2017, he passed the leadership baton in Hawaii and relocated to Eugene, Oregon to be president of New Hope Christian College (formerly Eugene Bible College, his alma mater). New Hope Christian College highlights the development of both the message and the messenger. (For more information, go to Newhope.edu).

In 2020, he pioneered New Hope West which partners with New Hope Christian College. It has become a “lab church” for ministry and leadership development. Wayne’s life themes are emphasizing the Word of God, a daily devotion to Jesus, evangelism, church planting, leadership development, communication and redeeming the arts and technology for Christ.

Wayne and his wife, Anna have been married for over 49 years. They have three married children (Amy Hisaoka, Aaron Cordeiro, and Abigail Rivest) and nine grandchildren. His hobbies include music, reading, golf, pickleball, and riding his horse.