Making Sense of Scripture

It has been said that if one hundred people read a certain verse of Scripture, they would undoubtedly offer one hundred different interpretations. Is this what God intended when He delivered His Word to mankind? Should the Bible mean anything anyone wants it to mean? Is its message that arbitrary? If not, then what does a given text mean, and how should one go about discovering its meaning? Moreover, how do you go about reading, studying, and interpreting the Bible? Have you ever thought about your own process of interpretation?