Jim Handyside

A very special man that had a huge impact on my life for the past forty nine years was Jim Handyside. Jim was the founder and pastor of Reformed Baptist Church in Anniesland, Scotland, U.K. In God’s amazing providence he directed Jim to meet with us in a church meeting shortly after Terrie and I became Christians and were married in the Spring of 1974. That first meeting began a long and very remarkable relationship with Jim and his dear wife, Chrissie, and their family and friends. For forty five years or more Jim visited us annually. Once their children were grown Chrissie accompanied him and we enjoyed precious times of fellowship together and hosted them in our home. They graciously hosted us on at least eleven visits we made beginning in 1983. Our church has been enormously blessed by the ministry and fellowship, and especially prayer support over these many years. Jim became one of our best friends, and introduced us to numerous other people who became our friends. 

This unique man was God’s instrument to minister in many vital ways to me and so many others. It was my peculiar privilege to minister his funeral sermon after his homegoing in October 2021 in Clydebank, Glasgow. Terrie and I were able to travel and were hosted by Grace Curry. I enjoyed a valued sense of God’s blessed presence and enabling in ministering the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ to many family and friends who gathered at the funeral home in Clydebank. Jim’s brother, Bob, accompanied us on organ as we sang two gospel hymns. Later we met at his graveside at Langfaulds Cemetery, Bearsden overlooking the Clyde valley and Glasgow. Pastor Mervin Darragh of Larne Evangelical Church in N. Ireland spoke and Jim’s brother, Bob Handyside, played the 23rd Psalm and Amazing Grace on his accordion as we sang God’s praise. God gave us a beautiful, crisp, clear day on that hillside. Afterwards there was a nice gathering at Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel in Clydebank.

I bless God for the special man God made and brought across our path so many years ago. Our lives have been weaved together and I will always be thankful for my dear brother in Christ, Jim Handyside. Below is the text of the funeral message I preached.

James Watt ‘Jim’ Handyside

April 3, 1930 – Oct. 20, 2021

[Sing: Only A Sinner; Near the Cross] Read 2 Corin. 5 – ‘Ambassador for Christ’

In God’s providence our lives intersected at many points. Jim was a competitor in cycling as a young man and stuck to his regimen of working out on his exercise bike in later years in his hallway. I’ve been a commuter cyclist for over forty five years. Jim’s photography interest turned out some very impressive samples of his artistic creativity. In my office in the courthouse is a photo he took at Bowling harbor he loved so much. I’ve been dabbling at being a shutterbug since I was a boy. Jim’s musical talents and fascination with hi-fi equipment and American traditional jazz is also shared by yours truly. 

But the most essential shared interest and connection between us is the Lord Jesus Christ. We first met when our little church was just forming in the living room of my mother’s home. It was in 1974 during a very turbulent meeting when we were brand new Christians. Although he did not preach he prayed before we ate together. I had never heard such praying before. There was a sense of God’s majesty and holiness I was unfamiliar with that deeply impressed me. He had a profound reverence for God. Praying in God’s presence was the first impression he made on me. The second impact that first visit had was his persuasive suggestion that we study the book of Romans. During the next eighteen months we had an in-depth study and were completely transformed from our charismatic ways to the doctrines of grace. Jim and Chrissie traversed a similar spiritual path. God led me to the Savior through the first three chapters of Romans, so that book particularly holds a deep attraction for me and my memory of our dear friend and brother in Christ.

Jim was a leader and a follower. He had strong convictions and was unashamed to voice them very persuasively. He knew God and followed Jesus Christ as a biblical disciple and set a pattern to live by before us. He was a mentor to others. Christ led him around the world to India, Poland, Czechoslovakia, U.S.A. and all over his beloved homeland Scotland in Christ’s service. His prayer life was both my first impression and the last. One of the last times we saw each other virtually he prayed. He was in the very presence of God, and passionately and with all the intensity that was Jim he sought and knew the presence of the Lord. It meant everything to him to know God’s presence. (John 17:3) He made his requests known to God with thanksgiving. He deeply appreciated what God did for him and returned his thanks regularly.

In my reflections about Jim I wrote down some words that describe him: exhorter, pastor, prayer warrior, evangelist, friend, husband, independent, unconventional, authentic, consistent, earnest, honest, uncompromising, driven, steadfast, immoveable, abounding in God’s work, focused, tenacious, bargain hunter, observant, sensitive, loyal, witty and humorous. He pushed himself and strove for excellence. This captures some of the unique man God made Jim to be. He was a faithful witness in season and out of season. Like John, the greatest of the prophets, I can say of Jim, ‘he was a burning and shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.’ Our last conversation I was able to tell him and Chrissie, ‘We love you guys.’ Jim had his weaknesses. He made little or no effort to hide them. God employed his weakness to display His glory and strength – 2 Corin. 12:9.

We have spent a great deal of time together in each other’s homes and churches. He cared enough to come and minister when our lives were rocked years ago by the departure of our previous pastor. He made a special trip to be with us in that time of special need. He really cared about people. He was a faithful servant of Christ who gave of himself to serve God’s people. His heart for prayer and the kingdom of God were obvious. He wrote a book about prayer meetings he was so concerned. 

God was refining Jim throughout his Christian life. He began a good work of grace in him over sixty years ago as a young man. God brought him under conviction of his need of Christ and he sought God’s forgiveness in the seclusion of his room many years ago. On October 20th God called Jim home. God’s Word says, ‘…he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.’ (Phil. 1:6) Later in that chapter Paul the Apostle stated, ‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’ (21) This is the testimony of Jim Handyside. God gave Jim the gift of faith and repentance. He pursued Jim as a young man who was proud and self-sufficient. That day so long ago changed everything. Old things passed away, all things became new. 2 Corin. 5:17 He was a new creature in Christ. He turned from his dance band associations and announced to his co-workers he had been converted and become a Christian. He joined a group of evangelistic folk down in the Barrows and joined with earnest old believers in all night prayer meetings. He was a faithful witness to all of us of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He told us what the Bible says for years and years over and over again. 2 Peter 1:12-15 He believed God who said, ‘Ask and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’ Mt. 7:7 He knew God’s Word will not return void.

Today Jim is with Jesus Christ. The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD. 2 Corin. 5:8 We mourn Jim’s death, but not like the world does because we have hope in Christ. Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins. When he laid down his life he said, ‘It is finished.’ He finished the work of paying the just and holy punishment for our sins by dying in our place to give us his spotless, pure righteousness. Jim was saved from his guilt and sin by grace alone through faith alone to the glory of God alone. This is the only way to prepare for death. It is a free gift of grace. God said, ‘all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ Romans 3:23-24 To be right with God is only by believing the good news that God gives us in the Bible, ‘Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose the third day.’ ‘Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.’ Romans 3:28 

Jim was called by grace from his life of sinful pride and self-sufficiency. He sought God for forgiveness and mercy and was given it. He walked in the Spirit pursuing God’s purpose and plan for his life and lived a very fruitful and unique life that reflected God’s wisdom, grace and glory. We give God all the praise and glory for the years He gave our brother Jim, the special blessing it has been to know him and be with him all these years, and the certainty that he is now with his dear Savior Jesus Christ with no more tears, sorrow, or pain. Jim is now present with the Lord. D.L. Moody wrote in his autobiography, ‘Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East Northfield is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now. I shall have gone up higher, that is all; out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal – a body that death cannot touch; that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body.’ 

Jim’s autobiography began with the shocking death of his four year old sister when he was only five when they lived here in Clydebank. The reality of her death made an impression on him he never forgot. Toward the end of his life Jim’s self-assessment was the title, ‘An Unprofitable Servant’. We know that God has a different one in store, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; enter in to the joy of thy Lord.’ God began and finished his faith. Jim ended his life story by thanking God for His faithful goodness and mercy to him based on Psalm 116:12-14. He took the cup of salvation and called upon the name of the LORD. What about you? He concluded with the words of a poem from ‘Fair Sunshine’ (‘Yes, there remaineth a rest’, Katherine Winkworth):

Yonder in joy the sheaves we bring,

Whose seed was sown in earth with tears;

There in our Father’s house we sing

The song too sweet for mortal ears.

Sorrow and sighing all are past

And pain and death are fled at last,

There with the Lamb of God we dwell,

He leads us to the crystal river,

He wipes away all tears forever;

What there is ours no tongue can tell.

Closing Prayer.

Langfaulds Cemetery Graveside, Bearsden: 

John 11:25-26

Mervyn Darragh, N. Ireland

For Further Information about Jim Handyside:

Some of Jim’s sermons are available on Youtube here: Scottish Reformed Archive

His autobiography ‘An Unprofitable Servant’, is available on Amazon.com Jim's Autobiography, 'An Unprofitable Servant'