Oh please!! C'mon, you are not going to go there are you? Jesus CLEARLY, UNEQUIVOCALLY states HE is I Am. Even answers in the affirmative when questioned. Jesus could not get more genuinely contradictory if he wanted too. Jesus claims to be God, and Muslims claim he is just a prophet, a teacher! Who do you think Jewish Rabbi's think Jesus is? Certainly NOT the Messiah. One thing God CAN NOT do is lie!
Of course we can not comprehend everything God does, but he does tell us "to search the scriptures" so we can understand what he intends for mankind to understand. He gives us free will for a purpose...
I’m sure you believe that, myself and millions of others throughout history haven’t/don’t though. True, Jesus may have and probably did say everything you mentioned and more, but that doesn’t make it valid for everyone. Remember when you said...’just because you believe something, doesn’t make it true’... I guess that applies here also. I’ve never said God lies and I don’t think He does. Who could be worthy of His lie anyway? I’ve said I believe that He gives different information to different people.
Again, as I implied before, you have taken a leap of faith or you were born that way, or for whatever reason, that allows you to believe as you do and you need or use some form of reference for that. Unfortunately, your form of reference also requires a leap of faith to believe that it is sufficient as a reference for everyone. Obviously, it isn’t sufficient for everyone, because mankind is old, and we still don’t agree.