Context is king. It's good to read verses themselves, but always read the entire chapter that a verse comes from to get the full intention of the author. A lot of verses are used to encourage people like jer 29:11 or Romans 8:28, but the encouragement is foreign to the text and does not convey what the authors are trying to tell us. I try to ignore verse numbers because they can separate the flow of thought from the greater narrative, giving different meanings when taken by themselves.
I agree with previous suggestions, the gospels, Romans are great. I really enjoy the beginning too!
This post was edited by uptoolayte on Oct 14 2015 02:45pm