life is about choices

i just got through studying jeremiah 28, reading about the lying prophet hananiah. a lying prophet always, like any other good con artist, will always tell you what you WANT to hear.
a true prophet sent by God will tell you what GOD has told them to tell you, which, even though
it may make you very angry, is what you NEED to hear. hananiah basically had tried to convince the nation of israel that they werent in as much trouble as jeremiah tried to make it sound like they were, and, basically, theyd be out of the woods in two years. a big difference from what jeremiah later reinforced to them about them fixing to go into babylonian captivity for SEVENTY years.

thisis what a con artist always does. they always promise a quick easy solution to ones problems. one see this all the time in cons who promise get rich quick scams, such as nonexistant lotteries. quick solutions period. this is the type who promises those desperate for love an attention, instant relationships, "love at first sight" cons of any type promise you things, that you dont have to work for, and a false prophet, especially a lying false prophet, are masters
at giving you an incomplete picture of what God is all about. they promise a God of grace, of prosperity, of mercy, but they leave out the part of God also being a God of judgement, and, more importantly, a God of consequences. is God a God who loves us regardless of what we do?
absolutely. of infinite mercy? without a doubt. but jeremiah was also giving the flip side of the coin of what happens to a nation who had been given more than ample time to repent, and refused to do so, who steadfastly continued in their rebellion. there was fixing to be consequences. 70 years worth of them. hananiah, being the good lying prophet that he was,
promised a shortcut to all that. instant solutions, the easier softer way. shortcuts. thats the standard M.O of the false prophet, or any other con. even Jesus, after His humanity got annointed in preparation for His earthly ministry, understood He ha to go thru the wilderness to become ready. those forty days and nights were NOT made any shorter.

reading jeremiah has given me a fresh revelation of how, contrary to what many teachers do
as a grave injustice at stating otherwise, that this is NOT an easy path to take. doing the right thing is rarely the popular thing to do. and it also drove home a very harsh truth. there are very few people, at any time, who get victimized by the lies and deceptions of others, or who become victims of anything, who have not ever had a part in their own victimization. for example, my
renewed walk with God thru my beloved Savior, has given me a whole new respect and admiration for the work my sister does in her work of counseling troubled individuals. one daunting task she faces, which may not make her popular with many of her clients is to make them examine their own choices and how their choices played a part in what happened to them. imagine telling a girl who recently got raped who wants to go right back out to party in the same setting that put her in that situation to start with, that maybe she needs to look at her life and think about how her choices caused what happened to her to take place, and knowing that her client became very angry. to cut to the chase here, what im trying to say here is...yes, it takes a very reprobate,amoral mentality to lie to others for ones own gain. HOWEVER, it also takes a ceertain type of person to BE conned, especially once theyve already heard the truth. once ive heard the truth, as God tells it, i can no longer plead ignorance. i remember, in order for me to break free of the grips of false teaching, and the deep inforgiveness i felt towards others who
had victimized me thru lies and deceptions, the first thing i had to do was to REPENT. that meant seeing life is all about choices. i had to see that if my life had been right with God, i never would have been decieved to begin with.

the book of jeremiah is all about being accountable before God, and the high price that can come
thru repeated, continued disobedience, and the deliberate persistant pursuit of a lie once youve heard the truth, and recognize it as the truth. it takes a certain person to con others, but it alsotakes a certain person to be conned. there is an easier softer way. the simple ABCS. I CANT. HE CAN. I THINK ILL LET HIM. and dont quit five minutes before the miracle happens doesnt mean the miracle is going to happen in five minutes. you cant cut 70 years back into 2. in Gods time, never ours