"Everything happens for a reason..." (speaking for myself), and sometimes it's because I made a dumb decision." Passing off the consequences of bad decision-making is rarely God's will. My failure and unnecessary consequence stemmed from my lack of consulting my Heavenly Father first.
Scott and I heard this guy speak on Sunday. The message is about how to study Scripture, including an example of dismantling a poor example of exegesis that freely misquotes and misinterprets a passage due to ignorance, ill intent, or misuse of Scripture.
Probably the best five-step process—succinct and specific— for the novice or the pro Bible study guy. Frankly, it's the best I've heard.
Here are the five points. Listen to the whole message. Again, excellent.
By the way, Eric's message from the C2G Monthly Meetup complemented this idea wonderfully. Eric's work is the second PDF below.
Hope this is helpful. Let me know.
barry/fs