In WWII when the Marines captured the island of Saipan, the Japanese ordered the inhabitants to kill themselves by jumping off a cliff. I was in Saipan in 1984, and I was at this very hill where the Japanese ordered their own people to jump off and kill themselves. Hundreds of feet below are the rocks and waters of the beach. It’s a very steep drop-off. American translators yelled through bullhorns that if those on the cliff would come to the U. S. side, they would be spared. They yelled three words over and over, "Come and live." And a few did. Most jumped.
Many respond in the same way to the Gospel today. You see, at the cross God yells through a bullhorn, "Come to Jesus and live. Come and I’ll never send you away."
(Source: from a sermon by Mike Cleveland, "Believing Means Coming to Jesus" 8/10/08)